Professor O'Leary

April 24, 2008 9:40 PM
After spending his second summer in Montana, Drake felt a renewed sense of vigor. The first had been spent doing all the home improvements and upgrades that had needed to be done on the cabin. Granted, having magic helped, but as he had learned early in life, performing magic for everything was not the answer. Often, magic could be quite dangerous when used either improperly or with ill intent. That ill intent was the very reason he had opted to become a professor. It was a reason that he had nearly forgotten. He shook his head. How could he have ever forgotten?

He supposed that part of the reason came from the fact that he had been shaping young minds for a half decade. It was a relatively short amount of time, but seemed so much longer. He had become lax in his teaching methods, something that would just not do. He had a duty to fulfill, a purpose to ensure that they reached their full potential and would have the tools to which to protect themselves if the need ever arose, not that it always did much good, but at least, he would have taught them to the best of his ability.

With this thought in mind, he placed a sheet of paper on each student’s desk. On each paper was one of four colors – red, blue, yellow, and green. Once all the papers were handed out, he brandished his wands, causing the word to vanish from each paper. As the students began to trickle into the class, Drake announced, “Do not touch the parchment on your desk, as it is part of today’s lesson.” With this, he strode to the front of the room, his black robes flowing out causing his form to look more impressive than it actually was. Underneath, he was a rather thin man.

Once at the front, he turned suddenly to face the students, his robes whipping around him, his expression intent. “Before we begin the lesson, allow me to introduce myself to those who have not met me yet. I am Professor O’Leary and this class is Defense Against the Dark Arts. To start with, we will go over the rules. For the second years, this will be a good review for you. Rule one, there will be absolutely no talking when I am talking, especially when I am giving instructions. Rule two, there will be no fooling around in this classroom. These rules are to ensure that none of you become injured. Am I clear?”

After a few students nodded in agreement, Drake clapped his hands together. “Excellent. Now, the lesson. This is actually a two-part lesson. You must finish the first part in order to move onto the second part. On each of your desks, you should have a blank piece of parchment, which I stated not to touch earlier. On this paper, there is a word, which states a color. To reveal the ink, we use the spell Aparecium. To perform this spell, flick your wand, like so,” Drake lectured with a flick of the wrist,” while stating firmly Aparecio. When performed correctly, one of four colors will appear on the parchment. Once you have done this, please find the other students who have the same color. This will be your group for the next part of the lesson.”

He waited for students to finish taking notes, before continuing, “Now, the Aparecium spell serves as the basis for the next spell you will learn, because it gives you an idea of how to make something appear from an item. The next spell that you will be learning is the Specialis Revelio spell, which is a bit more advanced. If an item contains anything hidden by magical means, this spell will cause it to be revealed. This is important, as magic hidden within items can be that of dark magic, which is very dangerous and can lead to injury, or worse, death.” Drake allowed his dark eyes to drift around the room to make sure the students were paying attention. “Now, for those of you with some semblance of intelligence may wonder, why not just use Finite Incantatem? Finite Incantatem removes the effects of any spells currently cast, however, this is not always the best option. For example, if you do not want to end the spell, but rather determine which spell was used. Another example is if you receive an item that is supposed to be charmed, however, you do not wish to remove this charm, but rather reveal any harmful spells and remove those. To end one spell, however, you can use the Finite spell, instead of Finite Incantatem, which ends all spells.”

Allowing the students to catch up once more, Drake paused. After a moment, his deep baritone sounded with the rest of the lesson. “Now, once you reach this spell, I have a couple boxes of items on my desk,” he gestured to two large boxes on his massive oak desk. “All of the items are charmed and a few contain multiple charms. I would like each group to identify what charms were used on each object. This is where your group and book will be particularly useful. However, if you need help, do not hesitate to raise your hand and I will be right over.”

With this said, he brought out his wand once more, allowing it to slide out of his sleeve and into his hand, as though by magic. “To perform the Specialis Revelio spell, “ Drake waved his wand with flourish, “move your wand like so, and state firmly Specialis Revelio!” Finished, his eyes drifting over the students, he said, “You may begin. The spells are on the board for your reference.”

OOC: The items and spells reveals are your choice, as long as neither would be considered harmful and obviously, the item would fit in a box. Remember, posts should be a minimum of ten sentences. Have fun and be creative!
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0 Professor O'Leary Lesson I: First and Second Years 0 Professor O'Leary 1 5

Holly Greer

April 30, 2008 10:51 AM
Holly had made careful preparations for the year's first lesson of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Twenty minutes before class, she had taken her anti-anxiety pills. Ten minutes before class, she had sat down and taken deep breaths. Five minutes before class, she briefly contemplated dropping in on Ms. Yuma instead, but decided to save that for a class when she knew they were going to be doing something terrible.

So, two minutes before class, Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles poked her head into the classroom, saw nothing more dangerous than pieces of paper, and decided today would be the day she did not come out of this class with fresh fodder for her nightmares. She stepped inside, and selected a chair near the back (so she could make an escape if Professor O'Leary did pull out something terrifying at the last second).

She was pleased to see that her hands weren't even shaking as she took out her notebook and quill and carefully avoided touching the piece of paper. Her pills were doing a good enough job that she was even able to smile at her friends when they arrived despite the fact that there was an object that the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher was expressly forbidding them from touching on her desk. Its proximity and its unknown potential for untold disaster would have normally had her on the verge of a panic attack, but she was feeling pretty mellow about it today. Still, nothing short of Armageddon would make her touch that page now that she knew there was something more to it than met the eye. She didn't even let her notebook touch it, opting to keep that in her lap instead of on the desk just to be safe.

She listened carefully to the introduction and rules, because this class terrified her out of her mind, and she didn't want to miss anything that might be construed as a warning. In spite of the anti-anxiety pills, she still let out a small breath of relief and sagged down a little in her chair when he explained that the only thing the parchments hid were the names of a color.

Holly straightened up again almost immediately (it wouldn't do to be seen displaying bad posture) and continued listening intently. The first part of the lesson seemed harmless enough, but the second part left her wary and distrustful of those boxes on Professor O'Leary's desk. He went on for much too long beforehand about hidden Dark magics and potential fatalities for her to be at all comfortable with the idea of finding out what hidden spells those items contained.

Once he finished talking, though, she wasted no time. She took out her wand made of Holly and pointed it at the blank parchment on her desk (which she was still careful not to touch). She flicked her wrist and cast, "Aparecio."

She waited a moment, and a slight discoloration began to show in the center of the page. Trying again, she flicked her wrist once more and said again, more firmly than before, "Aparecio!"

It was faint, but legible. The word Yellow was written across the middle of the parchment.

Holly stood up, bringing her wand with her, and began looking around the room for the other people in her group. "Did you get yellow?" she asked the first other person she saw who also appeared to be doing the same thing she was.
1 Holly Greer Mellow Yellow 123 Holly Greer 0 5


Cecily Smythe

May 01, 2008 2:08 PM
Despite the fact that she was barely speaking to anybody, Cecily had somehow managed to get to all of her classes, even the dull ones. She’d shied away from pair work as best as she could, and was having the most wretched time of her entire life. Why everyone was being so disgustingly disagreeable was beyond her comprehension, and, if she were being entirely truthful, it was starting to upset her a little. All she wanted was someone to comfort her and tell her just how unfair it all was, but it seemed that just about everyone was against her right now.

Having made it to the classroom, Cecily took the seat next to Holly, one of her real friends, and kept her head down, so as not to catch anyone else’s eye. She listened with a frown to the instructions, and vaguely wondered what would happen if she just refused to do the assignments. Sighing, she decided that her parents would undoubtedly find out, and she didn’t really want to be in trouble at home. So, with very little effort, Cecily attempted the first spell. Unsurprisingly, nothing at all happened to her paper.

Before her third attempt, Cecily was hailed by Holly, who was asking about her paper. “I don’t know,” she replied, glancing distastefully at the stubbornly blank piece of paper. Then in that instant, Cecily was again struck by a sudden need for comfort, and said, “But work with me anyway, Holly. I simply can’t stand anybody else today.” It was almost true; Anabel would have been fine, and either Amelia or Chelsea would have been acceptable partners, but absolutely nobody else. It was far safer to work with Holly and hope the professor didn’t notice than to work with some other people who might spend the rest of the class being mean to her for no apparent reason.
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0 Cecily Smythe Misery loves company 122 Cecily Smythe 0 5

Holly Greer

May 02, 2008 12:36 PM
Holly, too, looked at the blank piece of paper in front of Cecily, but having two pairs of eyes on it did not make it give up its secret. She was a bit taken aback by the idea of working together ever though they didn't know what Cecily's paper said. That, after all, was not the instruction Professor O'Leary gave. Not given to disobeying authority figures, the idea simply would never have occurred to Holly.

"Oh, well, I guess we could do that," she agreed, with a glance toward Professor O'Leary. She knew it was probably a bad idea, but with her anxiety levels impeded by the medication she'd taken earlier, she couldn't bring herself to get too concerned over getting in trouble. Besides, Cecily clearly needed her and Holly smiled at her friend to hopefully raise her spirits. Cecily seemed kind of down, in addition to her already stated case of anti-sociality.

So Holly took out one of her colored pencils and wrote on Cecily's sheet of paper, "Yellow." Satisfied with her cleverness, Holly gave Cecily another smile. "There, now you're in my group." It didn't even occur to her to be frightened of Cecily's charmed paper.

Looking up toward the front of the room, some of her muted nervousness returned. "I suppose we ought to get some of those things to do the second part of the assignment on."
1 Holly Greer Just so long as the company doesn't love misery 123 Holly Greer 0 5


Cecily

May 04, 2008 7:57 AM
Cecily was pleased that Holly agreed to work with her, and her pleasure only turned to delight when her friend wrote the word 'yellow' on her parchment. "Thank you Holly, you're the best," Cecily told her earnestly. Holly was such a lovely girl; Cecily was so very glad to have met her. Plus the two of them had so much in common.

Holly didn't seem to comfortable with the next part of the lesson. Cecily didn't mind - she was happy to do all the work, as long as she didn't have to talk to anyone except Holly. "I'll go and fins something," she said, rising from her seat. "I'll be back in a moment."

Heading to the front of the class, Cecily peered at the two boxes full of items on the professor's desk. It was impossible to tell just by looking at them which would be least work. Assuming they were all safe to handle, Cecily picked the nearest item out of each box - a silver letter opener and knitted scarf, and took them back to Holly. "We can try one each or just work together," she said as she reclaimed her seat. "Whatever you want to do."
0 Cecily Misery is rapidly giving way to happiness 0 Cecily 0 5

Holly Greer

May 10, 2008 11:09 AM
"Thank you," Holly said with a smile when Cecily returned with a silver letter opener and a knitted scarf, neither of which seemed to have harmed Cecily at all for having held them. Cecily was a very brave girl and Holly was proud to know her. Cecily's bravery also proved to Holly that it was probably safe to continue with the next part of the lesson without taking any extremes of caution.

Just the same, she used her quill (Holly always used a quill because it was just so much more impressive looking than a normal old pen) to guide the scarf over closer to her. "I suppose we'll each take one," she told Cecily. "But we can take turns to make sure we're both doing it correctly." That was, after all, the point of group work.

She gave the scarf a wary look, suddenly uncertain of its hidden magics. "I don't suppose you want to go first, do you?"
1 Holly Greer Misery should give way to happiness 123 Holly Greer 0 5


Cecily

May 18, 2008 2:43 PM
Holly took the scarf, so Cecily happily took up the silver letter opener. It wasn't very sharp, but it was inlaid with a couple of jewels in the handle. It was quite pretty, but in need of some serious cleaning. Erin, the Smythe family house elf, would probably be offended by the tarnish.

"Yes, we can take turns," Cecily agreed. "Though I'm sure we'll both do it right - we're intelligent ladies, after all." With a short sniff of self pride, Cecily placd the letter opened back on her desk and turned to Holly, waiting for her to try the spell. Of course, after a moment Holly suggested that Cecily tried the spell first.

"If you like," Cecily replied. She was beginning to get the impression that Holly didn't much enjoy Defense classes - she already knew she didn't like History of Magic. Cecily wasn't especially fond of either, but it wasn't as though she had a choice whether or not to attend, and so doing the work was more of a routine than a consideration. Raising her wand, Cecily aimed at the letter opener and cast the spell. It appeared to turn orange. Cecily forwned at it, then turned to Holly. "Do you think that was supposed to happen?" she asked.
0 Cecily Then all is right with the world 0 Cecily 0 5