Professor Zephyrflame
May 23, 2005 3:25 AM
Lesson 1 for First Years by Professor Zephyrflame
Professor Zephyrflame sat at his desk, smiling as the students flowed into the classroom.Waiting till all of the students have settled down, the new professor stood up, walked to the front of the class and began to introduce himself and today's lesson.
"Good morning students. I am Professor Alexander Zephyrflame and I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for this term.
Today’s lesson will focus on the Knockback Jinx. As first years, I am sure not many of you will have developed accurate aim for directing spells. This lesson will allow you to do that. Saying the word "Flipendo" easily performs the Knockback Jinx. Now, that is the advanced way to do it. Starting out, you may wish to direct your spell specifically at a person. Thus, you must say "Flipendo" along with the thing or person you wish to Knockback. I suppose the force of this spell is correspondent to being tackled by Muggle football players. In any case, you may pair up to perform this spell, or you may use the dummies."
Professor Zephyrflame pointed his wand and pointed it at the wall. There, a vast number of dummies that had twigs for wands were laid on the wall. "These dummies are bewitched to use certain basic offensive and defensive spells to face you in combat. If you are able to use the Knockback Jinx to sucessfully defeat the dummy, points will be awarded. You may begin."
After delivering this long speech,Professor Zephyrflame walked back to his desk and settled down, conjuring himself a glass of water, watching the class.
(OOC:30 points for the most creative post. 30 points for the next best creative post. 15 points the first to respond. 10 points to everyone else. Be sure to make it realistic. You are first years... they spell should NOT be easy as you've not experienced performing many spells yet. Those whose posts are completely illogical will have points deducted. Have fun!)
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Subthreads: amendments by Professor Zephyrflame
Should be intereseting... by Earl Valentine
Re: Lesson 1 for First Years by Nicoletta Dupree
Dumb Dummy by Dalila Bastet with Christobel Dupree, Dalila
If one way doesn't work... by Catherine Raines with Gwenhwyfar Carey
Incomplete my foot...and other bits. by Asher Tallow
The Knockback Jinx by Izabella Santoro (Aladren)
A Duel With Bob the Dummy.., by Anne Wright with Connor Pierce
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Professor Zephyrflame
Lesson 1 for First Years
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Professor Zephyrflame
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Anne Wright
June 14, 2005 12:24 PM
A Duel With Bob the Dummy.., by Anne Wright
In spite of her ever-present worries about wrecking her GPA if she had no aptitude for spellcasting(assuming that Sonora even did GPAs), Anne approached Defense Against the Dark Arts eagerly. A class where she could do something was a chance she was ready to leap on. She was a book learner by nature, like her mother, but she had gotten a trace of her father's preference for actually putting what she read into practice.She propped her hand on her chin as Professor Zephyrflame talked. So he was throwing them straight in and giving them the option of sinking or swimming, eh? Good. Anne had always liked swimming. The most logical part of her brain told her that she was going to become insanely overconfident if she wasn't careful and be disappointed in the end. The competitive streak, another double-edged sword of a gift from her father, couldn't argue with cold, hard logic. She reminded herself that spells usually sounded easier than they were and that magic was nothing to get complacent about.
She was relived that they didn't have to work in partners. For one thing, she didn't relish the idea of feeling like she had been tackled by a football player, and for another, she was a cheerful loner and always had been. She possessed a gift for hanging in the margins of several groups, sharing a few laughs with each, but in the end keeping to herself. Since arriving at Sonora, she had become a real loner. The only group she had found so far to be on the edges of had been Laura's, and it had Gwenhwyfar in it, meaning the whole group was on probation. The only person she had met who was close to counting as a friend was Robbie, and she had never been in possession of that unfathomable self-confidence that some girls had that enabled them to make friends at the drop of a hat. So any class where she didn't have to beg on her knees for someone to work with was a good class.
She pulled her hair back before she went to face one of the dummies. There had been times she was sorely tempted to hack it off to her ears with kitchen scissors, but even she,fashion enemy number one, had more pride about her appearance than that. "All right, Bob," she said to her dummy, bowing as if this were a real duel and feeling slightly silly for doing it, "This is just between you and me. Let's see who can fire 'em off the fastest. Flipendo dummy!" There were a few sparks from her wand and a real spell from Bob the Dummy. It hit her head-on, knocking her backwards. She caught her balance on the nearest desk and smiled at the dummy.
"Oh, so you want to play dirty, then," she said, beginning to get caught up in her little fantasy where she and Bob were dueling over a matter of honor and ducking an offensive spell from him at the same time. "That's good. I can play dirty too." She made practical use of all her childhood ballet lessons as she twirled to the side outside the dummy's line of "vision" and tried the spell again. A little better, but she had to drop quickly as it fired back. She noticed that other people seemed to have gotten the same idea and wondered how many people had gotten hit by someone else's dummy's stray spell. She was suddenly flat on her face and knew that the count was up to at least one, though she had no idea whose dummy had cast the spell.
Beginning to feel a little bruised and a little annoyed, she got back up and continued her duel with Bob, talking less and less as it went on. She became really angry when she managed to get the spell down but couldn't aim at the dummy while ducking. If she wasn't careful, she was going to start blowing things up. Deciding that the pain was worth the gain, she quit ducking and managed to topple her dummy, causing its last spell to bounce off the ceiling instead of off her.
"A pleasure defeating you, Bob," she said, thoroughly worn out and even more thoroughly pleased with the accomplishment. \n\n
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Anne Wright
A Duel With Bob the Dummy..,
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Anne Wright
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Connor Pierce
June 15, 2005 9:21 PM
As long as it's not Connor the Dummy... by Connor Pierce
Connor was still trying to get his head around the idea of actually learning magic spells and stuff when Defense Against the Dark Arts rolled around. He had accepted the reality of magic-sort of-but not his own ability to do it. It became obvious inside the first five minutes of class that he was going to have to hurry up the process, because, as with all the other classes, they were doing something straight off the bat. Something called a Knockback Jinx.Most people seemed to favor the dummies over actual opponents. Not surprising, really. He had taken the same route as the majority, thinking that the dummies wouldn't be that difficult to deal with since they were school-issued. In his experience, 'school-issued' was the equivalent of 'from the dollar store'. It wasn't long until he figured out that he had stumbled on another universal rule that didn't apply in the magical world. His dummy went on the offensive inside the first minute and stayed there until the end.
It was tiring work, spellcasting. Connor couldn't help but get the wierdest feeling that spells drew their strength or whatever it was from the witch or wizard who was casting them. He had an odd feeling that he wasn't saying the spell right, either. He tried to watch the dummy and listen for other people saying the spell at the same time.
If he hadn't been listening for someone, he probably wouldn't have noticed the black-haired girl talking to her dummy like they were old fencing partners. Oh, great, he thought. We have a nutcase in first year. It wasn't until she said the spell again, confirming his belief that he hadn't said it right, that he recognized her voice. It was the girl he had mentally dubbed 'Anne the Amazon', the aggressive Aladren who had caused a stir at the Quidditch pitch. If she was tougher than nails and nutty, then he needed to steer clear of her. Very clear of her.
Now that he knew how to pronounce the spell, things seemed to go considerably smoother. It seemed he had a knack for this. It took four tries saying the right word before the stupid dummy, still firing off offensive spells, went over. Its last spell hit Anne and knocked her flat. Good thing it wasn't very far to the floor from her original position and that there was almost no way she would be able to figure out that it was his dumb dummy that floored her.
Once she had defeated her own dummy, he considered going over and apologizing for the wayward spell, but he saw her talking to her dummy again. He decided he'd just stay where he was and let her continue her conversation with Bob. It was none of his business.\n\n
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Connor Pierce
As long as it's not Connor the Dummy...
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Connor Pierce
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Anne
June 15, 2005 9:41 PM
I only beat up boys if they annoy me. by Anne
Once she was satisfied that Bob knew who was the victor in their little battle, Anne pulled her hairbow out, letting her curtain of black hair swing loose. She immediately regretted it-it was so hot!-but it seemed like the right gesture. Now that she had completed her work like a good little Aladren, she could follow her spy instincts and take stock of things.The first thing she noticed was that Gwenhwyfar was keeping to herself, minding her own business for a welcome change. Anne got tired of constantly watching her. Gwen might be interesting to a pureblood looking for a wife but, as Anne's function was to make sure she behaved herself and didn't lapse back into Prepdom, she got a little dull for Anne. She saw a few people she recognized and/or vaguely knew, including Gwen's mumbling friend who had played hero when Whatever-her-name-was fell off her broom. She hadn't come across as very nice that day, if she remembered rightly, and, since he was close enough to have heard her conversation with Bob, he probably thought she was crazy. Making a tremendous effort, she went over.
"Hey," she said. "I'm Anne,guess you already knew that. You're Gwen's friend, sorry that I can't remember your name." It occured to her that she still sounded sort of jerky. Time to start over. "Listen, sorry I was such a jerk that day at the Quidditch Pitch," she said. Bluntness had always been one of her faults. She couldn't dissemble for the life of her. She had a feeling that this guy was going to be one of the people she was on terms of general sort-of-know-you hostility with. Oh, well. \n\n
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Anne
I only beat up boys if they annoy me.
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Anne
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Connor
June 15, 2005 9:52 PM
Remind me not to get on your bad side. by Connor
Connor could have said he was thrilled when Anne the Amazon came walking over to talk to him, but he would have been lying and he had never seen a point in lying. The truth always came out in the end. Expecting to have his head bitten off about the stray spell, he was surprised when Anne seemed to be making some kind of effort to be diplomatic."S'all right," he mumbled, not sure of what she was up to or why. "M'name's Connor." He vaguely remembered resolving not to mumble so much and made himself look directly at her.She looked like the Italian version of Gwen or something. The features were strikingly similar, but the coloring was the exact opposite. He found it a bit alarming that he was referred to as Gwen's friend. Back home in Austin, that would have been turned into 'Gwen's boyfriend' inside two weeks by the rumor mill.
"Don't worry about it," he said clearly. "We all have our off days." He silently thanked Heaven when the bell rang. Though he would never have admitted it, Anne scared him a little. Somewhere between her way of acting, her way of talking, and her habit of talking to inanimate objects, he thought he had a pretty good excuse. "Yeah, it's cool. See you." He didn't think he had ever left a room faster. He was on another floor before it occured to him that he had probably made her mad.\n\n
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Connor
Remind me not to get on your bad side.
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Connor
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Anne
June 15, 2005 10:03 PM
I will. by Anne
It took Anne some effort to work out what the first four words the Pecari guy said. She nodded when she figured out that the second part of it was his name. "That's good," she said. "Now I can stop referring to you as 'you', 'Gwen's friend', and 'Pecari guy'." She smiled, trying her very best to be polite if not quite friendly. She stopped that the second he looked at her. She looked like Gwen, and she was gradually coming to realize that other people probably thought she was beautiful like Gwen was. She had spent eleven years intentionally looking as dowdy and scholarish as possible, and now her face had to go and ruin it."Later," she said when the bell rang and Connor made for the door. She hated extending conversations, so she wasn't annoyed. As she made her own way towards the door, she noticed that there seemed to be some sort of disturbance was going on further up. Gwenhwyfar seemed to be having a run-in with Catherine Raines. After the scene ended, Anne decided that she wouldn't hold the incident against Gwen. Raines was one of those girls who could make anyone act a little snotty.
OOC: We're done.\n\n
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Anne
I will.
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Anne
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