There’s always room for growth, Advanced grasshoppers. on Charms

Professor Wright

December 15, 2017 11:50 PM

There’s always room for growth, Advanced grasshoppers. by Professor Wright

Gray was happy to see the end of the year approaching – the end of the year meant the beginning of summer and therefore time to improve his lessons for next year and to work on his writing and hopefully make a little extra money that way – but as it ceased to be near and became near-imminent, he also felt a little sorry, too. The seventh years were pretty good eggs, and this year, he had been around them long enough to form more ideas about them than just associating names and faces. He was sure he’d miss some of the faces and associated ideas next year.

Sentiment, however, was – as Anne would put it – what one indulged in after a game. Until the game was played, it was not helpful and was therefore to be avoided. Therefore, he handed back the practice RATS he had had the Advanced class take in their last meeting with a straight face.

“Hello, everyone, and welcome to another reminder of your impending exams,” he deadpanned. He felt slightly more comfortable expressing traces of humor with the older students than the younger. “Overall, I’m pretty pleased with your results on these practice tests, so pat yourselves on the back – just not with your wands in your hands, because that could end painfully.

“Everyone, though, has room for improvement. Everyone’s going to get ten minutes to review their exams, and them I’m going to start calling you up and examining you on the three charms you had the most trouble with in the written portion. That might mean verbal examination, might mean asking you to perform some Charms, or it might mean both - it’ll be a little different for each person, and give you a clearer sense of what your RATS practicals will be like.” Because neither he nor even the RATS examiners were altogether lacking in compassion, he had broken out a folding screen and put it up over an area with an end table, a chair, and a box of props in it. He could see the room, as his desk was not behind the screen, but the students wouldn’t have to perform for the whole class and bear the consequences of a flub before their peers. He expected this would still be stressful for some, but, well - so were the RATS, not to mention life as an adult witch or wizard.

For ten minutes, he reviewed his planned order of students while the students reviewed. Then he called up the first ~~victim~~ examinee.

OOC: So, here’s how this works: you all have permission to do some limited godmodding of Gray. If you write about your character’s experience being called up instead of just a studying together thread with a classmate, you may say things along the lines of “Professor Wright asked Joe to explain the origins of the Fidelius Charm and then to levitate three weights and try to juggle them and then put out the fire when Joe’s next trick went terribly wrong.” You may not, however, godmod Gray to the point where “to Joe’s surprise, Professor Wright leapt up and ran from the room to elope with Professor Skies.” Use any three Charms or theory questions you want, just give me creative, detailed, and realistic answers (or mishaps); if you’re stuck for ideas, HP wiki has lists of Charms, but if you are highly desirous of extra points and/or just want to give me a Christmas present, you can do research and make well-reasoned stuff up. Feel free to ask me to discuss a theory idea in Chatzy before you post it if you like, and have fun!

16 Professor Wright There’s always room for growth, Advanced grasshoppers. 113 Professor Wright 1 5

Ginger

January 03, 2018 12:04 PM

RATS fatigue by Ginger

Ginger looked over the practice exam she’d gotten back during the ten minutes allotted to doing so. She had laughed briefly at Professor Wright’s joke about another reminder of the swiftly approaching RATS, but as she looked over her wrong answers - not too many really, she’d scored a low E, which she would be happy to take home with her in a few weeks, and she expected her practical would only bump that score higher - she did kind of wish they could just get it over with already. All this endless preparation was even starting to make her nervous about them and she had no use at all for any kind of RATS scores.

She had no plans of going to college or getting a job outside the California Pierce acting troupe, so whether she got As or an Es or even graduated was just window dressing on a piece of paper that would probably never leave her mom’s RV.

Still, she did want to pass, because even Saul managed to pass, and she was a much better student than he had been. She didn’t really think that was going to be a problem though. She was smart and diligent enough that she coasted through most of her classes pulling low Es, and she didn’t think the RATS would score much worse even if she wasn’t spending every waking moment in the library revising. And even if she did fall into the A range, that would not hurt her future one whit.

So while she reviewed her wrong answers on the practice exam, and tried to commit those weaker points to memory, she felt no compelling drive to improve her score above where it was now.

When Professor Wright called her name, he quizzed her on some of the theory she was having trouble on, which she continued to have trouble with. He offered a few explanations that did help her understand it a little better, though honestly, as long as she could do the charms - which she could; she was far better at practical wand work than she was about explaining magical theory, and Professor Wright’s decision not to ask her to cast anything probably reflected that he understood that - she didn’t really see the point in understanding why it worked.

She returned to her seat and slumped down with an exhausted sigh. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to miss you all a lot,” she told the person sitting beside her with a wave to encompass the whole class of advanced students, “But I am so ready to stop hearing about the RATS everyday.”

1 Ginger RATS fatigue 302 Ginger 0 5

Owen Brockert,Teppenpaw

January 03, 2018 7:03 PM

Loss by Owen Brockert,Teppenpaw

The year was running out and it seemed to be running quite fast. Much faster than Owen could run with his asthma. Soon he'd be graduated and gone and a new chapter of his life would start. A new story so to speak.

Despite the fact that he had a lot to look forward to in life, Owen couldn't help but feel a little nervous. He'd always been a bit wary of big changes and sometimes he felt like he couldn't breathe thinking about it. Yes, he'd marry Jemima and yes, he'd be a writer but it still felt rather overwhelming at times.

And to make matters worse, RATS were looming over him. Not that they had a lot to do with what Owen would be doing in his future career but his natural instincts were to want to do well. Not only did he not want the shame of failure, he was worried that if he didn't do well on them, he wouldn't be considered good enough for Jemima.

That was not something he could even bear thinking about. The future was scary enough as it was, the thought of facing it without the love of his life was beyond painful.

Fortunately, Owen was a fairly good student. Professor Wright handed back his practice test and he had scored a high E. He breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he hadn't found it that difficult, there was always that moment of worry that he had-somehow-screwed up. The worries about being judged. Like when he wrote something , he worried that whomever he'd show it to wouldn't like it though Owen usually got positive feedback.

What if publishers didn't like his stuff though? He'd be devastated. It was all that the Teppenpaw had ever wanted to be. There wasn't another thing he would ever want to do, career-wise. Anything else seemed dreary and intolerable.

Professor Wright called him up and reviewed him on the theory stuff that he had gotten wrong. Most of it was stuff Owen hadn't been able to incorporate into his writing.

He settled back into his seat and began to review things that he'd still been having trouble with. However, his attention was quickly diverted when Ginger spoke up next to him.

"Agreed." Owen replied. He would miss the other Teppenpaws, at least and suddenly, it hit him. Would he even be seeing Ginger again? They didn't exactly travel in the same circles. He couldn't help but feel a sense of loss.

This was what he didn't like. Didn't want to feel. It hurt to think that the people he'd spent the past seven years with would probably no longer be in his life.

11 Owen Brockert,Teppenpaw Loss 300 Owen Brockert,Teppenpaw 0 5