Where should I hide? on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor O'Leary

August 10, 2008 4:10 PM

Lesson II: Third through Fifth Years by Professor O'Leary

Before class began, Drake walked around the room, whistling, yes, whistling, as he placed a random item on each student’s desk for the lesson he had planned. Every year, immediately following midterm, found Drake to be in the unusual mood of being chipper, which lasted only for about the span of a week. It was mostly due to the fact that during the midterms, he was able to go back to his roots, to his passion for ice-skating, but it was a passion that he gave up long ago, reserved only for certain times.

However, despite his good mood, he was still dressed in his obligatory black robes. He had a set for every single day, preferring them to any other color or style. The ones that he owned were long and flowing, giving his gaunt frame a bit more to it than if he wore something more form fitting. The other positive, at least, a positive to him, about the robes were that they gave him a somewhat menacing appearance. Unfortunately, this seemed to work best on the younger students, as the older ones tended not to be so impressed.

Of course, it made sense that they wouldn’t be, giving their age range. Adolescents tended not to be impressed by anything that an adult did. It was more important to be impressed by their peers and to impress their peers, which made it even more difficult to get through to them the importance of learning defense on top of the fact that many of the students thought they would never need it. When he had been their age, he had been just like them. He had been just like them for years after that until just how far someone would go to win had come into play.

Regardless of whether or not they realized just how valuable what they learned (not just in this class, but in every class) was, he would do his best to provide them with the quality of education they deserved, which meant this class would be more than just idle time to catch up on other classwork or to gossip with friends. As he placed the last item on the last desk, students began to trickle in signaling that class was about to start. Moving to the front of the room, he used his wand to place the following on the board:

Disillusionment Charms

Acclaro Prastigiae – reveal an illusion

Creo Prastigiae – create an illusion

Once this was finished, it appeared that everyone was seated and ready to begin. “Welcome back. I trust you all had a good break and are ready to begin learning once more. Today’s lesson is going to focus on Disillusionment Charms. As the name suggests, these charms are used to create or reveal an illusion. These charms are useful for keeping an object, or if the magic is advanced enough, a person, hidden or to reveal what has been hidden. This differs from what you learned previously with Specialis Revelio, because Specialis Revelio reveals magic hidden within the object whereas Acclaro Prastigiae reveals the object itself. These charms are especially useful for anyone considering being an Auror or a similar career path.” The charms were also useful for any teenager wishing to keep something hidden from roommates, parents, or the obnoxious sibling, but he wasn’t about to state such, even though, it was one of the things he had used the charms for when he was growing up.

“Creo Prastigiae works by casting an illusion over the object, which makes it blend in with its surroundings. To perform the charm, wave your wand, as so,” he said, as he flourished his wand towards his desk,” and state firmly Creo Prastigiae.” With this, his desk seemingly disappeared. After doing so, he did the same thing to demonstrate how to reveal the object using Acclaro Prastigiae. “To practice these charms, I want everyone to divide into groups of two. Each person will cast Creo Prastigiae on the given item. Once both people have successfully accomplished this, I want you to switch items with your partner and attempt to reveal the object using Acclaro Prastigiae. If you have questions, raise your hand and I’ll be around. Otherwise, you may begin.”

OOC: Please remember that posts should be a minimum of ten well-written sentences. Points will be rewarded based on length, detail, etc. Most importantly, be creative and have fun!

Subthreads:

Where should I hide? by Paul Tarwater with Echo Elms, Paul

Da-da-da, I feel pretty (WotW) by Cissy Tarwater with Josh Santoro, Cissy

Pink Bunnies? by Danae Dupree with Elly Eriksson, Danae

Hopefully finding a partner by Hannah Laurent with Oliver Abbott, Hannah

Partners? (Tag-Talitha) by Adam Brockert with Talitha Cumni, Talitha

Making an excuse for conversation (tag: Eavan) by Matt Santoro with Eavan Valentine, Matt

Just in the nick of time. by Amber Carey with Saul Pierce, Amber

Showing up by Devian Dupree with Rosalind Rabindra, Devian, Rosie

Ready and focused. Or rather trying to focus. by Meredith Lail

0 Professor O'Leary Lesson II: Third through Fifth Years 0 Professor O'Leary 1 5

Paul Tarwater

August 10, 2008 5:25 PM

Where should I hide? by Paul Tarwater

Paul was back for Midterm (finally), and feeling physically better at the distance he was now allowed to place between him and Cissy (along with Horace, Jane, and his parents), but waking up got no better. He still had nightmares he couldn’t remember, and he still woke up with some kind of discomforting response to said nightmares. This morning it had been the feeling of bile in his throat (not that he had thrown up, it was more of a lump he’d forced down). Paul also still had a problem with his nerves, having to have one part of his body in constant motion at every second of every day. This made it hard to sleep, as he tossed consistently, and he wouldn’t know if he’d woken those around him up as well.

But other things had gotten better. Paul didn’t have to look around all the time, as if searching for an unknown villain. He had gone back to slumping his shoulders and staring at the ground. Over Midterm, he’d spoken a little more to his parents, to which his mother took gleefully. She’d offered to cut his hair (he refused, telling her he liked his hair long, which was a lie, he hated it, he was just afraid of… change now for some reason). She’d offered to take him shopping for a new outfit for school, instead of old hand-me-downs (again he refused, his old clothes were perfectly fine, they didn’t need to waste money on fancy things). He went back to voicing his opinions on money (though less than he used to), telling his mother the doctor they’d hired for them was a quack and told her to fire the woman.

This was all fine and good, but now he had to report to Professor Yuma at school, and actually try to open up. Paul had promised mommy, and Paul didn’t let mommy down.

He had been walking the halls, and happening to glance at Yuma’s office down one. His jaw set into a nervous clench, and he held tighter to himself under the guise of folded arms. Paul was barely paying attention when he made it to the class he was actually trying to get to, that he nearly tripped over the hem of his oversized black robe. He caught himself, mainly because Paul didn’t want to be seen now as clumsy along with jerk and paranoid and antisocial. If he was alone, Paul would have let himself fall, almost on purpose, then just lay there and slept or something. Sleep didn’t come easy anymore, and if he could just stay still in one spot he was sure he’d feel refreshed and possibly even happier.

Paul picked a seat in the back, clasping his hands together and leaned his head on them, trying to look a little interested. Professor O’Leary did scare the boy like some others, and Paul had taken to trying to make himself invisible to people that scared him. And looking like a normal student and not some rebel should do that, so he hoped. Had this been like his first few years here, Paul would have probably skipped this class, but once again, Mommy Says: “Good grades, please, Paulie.” So Paulie would get good grades, please. Which didn’t mean attention calling.

Lucky for Paul, this lesson seemed fairly interesting. Hiding objects and people with magic, illusions. For a second, Paul smiled, imagining the spell placed on him. No one could see him! He could walk around and be what he wanted, totally invisible. Not even Cissy could find him (he had taken the counterspell completely from his mind).
But there was bad luck with the good lesson, and Paul’s smile disappeared as fast as it had come to him. There was that dreaded word. Partners. Working on an illusion creating (invisibility in Paul’s mind) spell with partners. Once again Paul tensed up and looked down then around, why were so many people overjoyed to do this!? It was pure torture for him (and probably the person he would be working with). Sure he had to get good grades now, but did that really mean he had to actually work with someone?

0 Paul Tarwater Where should I hide? 0 Paul Tarwater 0 5

Cissy Tarwater

August 10, 2008 5:56 PM

Da-da-da, I feel pretty (WotW) by Cissy Tarwater

After he’d covered for her for Paul’s accident, Cissy had decided to play around with Horace. And over Midterm, she had. He was now, obviously, frightened by her after the little show last summer, and when she told him to do something he did it. She confused him, played with him, acted sweet sometimes and cold others. He now followed her like a little duckling, and the adults took it to be young infatuation and perhaps even regret for Paul’s injuries. It was neither though, as Cissy was the one to cause the injuries (to which she felt no regret) and she knew Horace did not have any sort of “crush” on her anymore. Cissy was growing increasingly excited about their engagement, knowing now that she would not be a lay-down wife, and the “marriage” would more be a play of master-minion. She, of course, would be playing the master.

Back at school, Cissy was upset after losing her mousey Horace and having to wait until summer to have her pawn back. But she definitely looked much different than she had in previous years. Cissy wasn’t glaring, she wasn’t pouting, and she wasn’t lifeless. It was like her first year all over again, minus the false sweetness no one bought. Her face was set in a smile that made her look scheming, and she looked at every person around her as if she was sizing them up for army. She sat up straighter, she walked with more of a flounce. She’d even taking to dressing up a little.

Horace had bought her some clothes that fit her, unlike her mother’s things, and she wore them like a badge or power. They were classy, and sophisticated and mainly dark colors (of course). Her long black hair was loosely braided and set to rest on her shoulder and she’d even put on a small amount of make-up to make her face brighter. More noticeable. So everyone would glance and see who had the power, who wore the “pants” in the relationship, and who was “queen” in her mental chess game. The Pecari third year still would not bring herself so low as to be nice or respectful to anyone. She had ignored even Horace’s petty palaver when she didn’t care what he was saying.

Cissy sat in one of the middle rows of desks, ignoring her freaking-out brother in the back (he wasn’t a game anymore, and test subjects now ended up being birds in the Gardens). She barely listened to Professor O’Leary, choosing to twirl her wand in her fingers and making pink sparks fall to her desk. He probably wasn’t liking that, but he’d yet to say anything and she hadn’t bothered to even look up to see if he’d seen. Cissy got the spell though, and understood (with a bitterness) that she had to find a partner. But the girl chuckled lowly under her breath at the anxiety her older brother must be feeling now, he hated people and partner lessons more than she did. Cissy glanced around, wondering if she should find someone or just lounge around and play with the spell herself, despite O’Leary’s instructions.

0 Cissy Tarwater Da-da-da, I feel pretty (WotW) 0 Cissy Tarwater 0 5

Echo Elms

August 11, 2008 10:15 PM

Try under the desk. by Echo Elms

It was just last year, Echo reflected as he took the desk next to the perpetually nervous Paul Tarwater, that he would have sat here because he couldn't handle the physical proximity of sitting in the middle of the room. There were too many people. It was too crowded. He'd felt claustrophobic and panicked, and that was no way to learn. Now, he sat back here because he'd found he liked being able to see everyone. When the lecture got slow, he wondered what his classmates secrets were.

Everyone had secrets.

Take Paul for instance. Something made him twitchy and it wasn't Caedance Redoak (Caede made Echo twitchy sometimes). He didn't like people and had trouble talking to people. Echo wondered what his deal was. Last year, when Echo had emotionally bottomed out, Paul had been there. Well, Paul had stumbled upon him in the library and they had run to class together and missed breakfast, but Echo felt they had a bond. Paul had seen him, just for a second, crazed and weak, laughing a choked laugh at the glimmer of hope he'd found for his future. Paul was twitchy. Echo was twitchy. Paul exiled himself to the back of the classroom and avoided people. Echo had done the same thing last year. Paul didn't look entirely healthy and Echo skipped lots of meals last year had been plagued by nightmares.

Paul was a weird kid, but no weirder than Echo sometimes was. The main difference between Echo and Paul, as far as Echo knew, was that Echo had been fortunate enough to have had juice spilled on him at the opening feast by a red haired girl. That one event had determined his entire Sonora experience.

Back to the lesson.

It was to be groups then. Predictable. It was always groups. Echo congratulated himself on sitting in the back where he wouldn't be rubbing too many elbows--there still was a difference between not panicking and being relaxed--and turned to Paul, who seemed to be sinking into his seat the way he usually did when group work was announced.

"Hey Paul," Echo said, grinning and angling his desk until the top corner almost touched Paul's, so they were facing each other in the vaguest way possible. "Ready to make stuff disappear?"

21 Echo Elms Try under the desk. 93 Echo Elms 0 5

Josh Santoro

August 12, 2008 7:41 PM

Oh so pretty? by Josh Santoro

Josh entered the classroom just as he saw Professor Dreary make his way back to the front. Josh didn’t actually dislike this class as some people seemed to. The lessons were actually pretty useful if one thought about. Sure, the likelihood of Josh ever running into a Dementor so that the Patronus charm would be in need was slim, but Josh liked knowing how to do the charm as well as what his animal protector (or whatever people’s patronuses happened to be) was.

He took a seat in the middle, towards the front, and away from his twin brother. Matt and Josh were fine together, but they were very different with how they handled things. Matt liked to have fun first while Josh liked to get things done. It was how they had always been. And, for awhile, that had been alright. But now that they were growing up, Matt’s short mind-span and Josh’s ability to focus on one thing for hours became an issue between the two of them. So, as the lessons grew more towards the exams for next year, the more the two kept away from each other during class and study hours. It was the best option for the both of them. It was a good thing that the boys didn’t share a dormitory too.

Josh looked at the object in front of him with a youthful curiosity that he took with anything new. He examined it for the moment while waiting for the lesson to begin. Glancing up at the board, Josh discovered what their lesson would be about. Well, this could be very useful in the long run. Although, it could be troubling too.

He could understand the need for these charms when one was working in the Auror program (he ought to ask Julia about this when he saw her next over the summer) because they could disillusion themselves for stealth or whatnot. But, if someone like himself merely made something invisible, how would he remember where it was to bring it back? Or was that an entirely different sort of charm he would want to use? Ah well, he didn’t think it mattered.

Josh sat quietly while his hand swirled across the parchment as he took notes on the lecture portion of the lesson. The best part of reading ahead in the lectures was that he already had the theory down by the time the lesson came around. Maybe that was a sign that he needed to get out more? Josh shrugged to himself. He enjoyed reading and figuring things out. A map in his own mind of sorts.

Sitting in his chair, Josh slumped slightly at the mention of partners. It wasn’t the fact that he disliked working with others, as usually it ended up being with his twin and they would finish their project as best they could, but Josh was a solitary person in nature and preferred to just figure things out on his own. Working on the map with Danae was different. That was for extracurricular fun. Class-work was something entirely else merely because Josh wasn’t the best when it came to his wandwork and often became frustrated when he couldn’t seem to do it right.

Mumbling to himself, Josh looked around for a partner. He could have just asked Matt, but knew better, so, instead, he glanced to the person directly next to him. “Hey, you want to work together?” Turned out, the person was a girl. If he remembered correctly, Paul’s little sister.

0 Josh Santoro Oh so pretty? 0 Josh Santoro 0 5

Danae Dupree

August 12, 2008 7:46 PM

Pink Bunnies? by Danae Dupree

Entering into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Danae chose an empty seat in the middle, but more off to the side. This was one of the best spots in the class, because it meant some degree of invisibility unlike the other seats. The front seats were right in front of the, admittedly, frightening professor while the back seats just begged for him to notice someone doing something wrong, which meant being in the vicinity gave way to the possibility of the adage of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had no desire to end up in detention for such. Then, there were the middle seats, which serving as the in-between for the front and back gave the perfect place for O’Leary to look. Yes, none of those would do and she felt fairly confident of her choice, as she took her seat and put her bag on the floor.

While Danae waited for the class to begin, she took the opportunity to examine the mug on her desk. It was completely covered with pink bunnies. She raised an eyebrow. It was certainly not what one expected to see in this classroom of all classrooms, although, perhaps, it was less expected in the History of Magic classroom, merely for who the professor was. At any rate, she hesitated to touching it since some of their lessons had involved items with magic hidden in them, but curiosity got the better of her and she gingerly touched it with her finger. When nothing happened, she got a little bolder and wrapped her hand around the handle in order to examine it a bit further.

She had just lifted it slightly into the air when class was called to order. A bit startled, the mug slipped down with a clank onto the desk. Even though it wasn’t loud at all, her face heated up and she looked around nervously to see if anyone had noticed. It didn’t appear that anyone had and she breathed a little easier, especially since the mug hadn’t even chipped. Deciding not to mess with the cup anymore, she pushed it off to the side so that she had room for her parchment and ink. She had just jotted down the spells from the board when she heard the dreaded word of partners. She really didn’t understand why professors found it necessary to force them to work with others. Granted, she usually didn’t end up with anyone awful, but there was always the chance.

Danae looked around the room, hoping to catch someone’s eye that wasn’t already taken. She really hated to approach people. Finally, meeting someone’s eyes, she mouthed, “Partners?”

0 Danae Dupree Pink Bunnies? 91 Danae Dupree 0 5

Paul

August 13, 2008 3:22 PM

Cupboards seem better by Paul

At the thought of partners, Paul’s eyes slid immediately to one of his only friends in the school, that being Danae Dupree. He bit his lip when she dropped her own object and wondered if he should go over there or something. But when he started to straighten up a little bit, he noticed that Echo was already lining with him. Paul’s lips clamped together and his neck grew hot. He’d just started talking to Echo last year, and he supposed he could consider the boy a friend as well. And it seemed rather odd to Paul that the two people he was more comfortable around were both in the house he ranted against most.

Paul gave the boy the best smile he could, still pushing hair from his face so he could see the object before it disappeared (as well as Echo’s face). Paul’s voice was quieter than usual, he still hadn’t been using it much, and so when he spoke to Echo, even though it was just one word, it came out slightly louder than a shaky whisper. “Ready,” he told the boy, and even with the supposed light-hearted-chuckle Paul sounded perpetually nervous.

He pulled his object, an old time camera with no film, close to him and counted it’s blessings lucky. You get to be invisible, he told the camera mentally, then pulled his wand into his hand. His blue eyes flicked up to Echo quickly, wondering why the boy was working with him instead of his closer Pecari friends. He and Paul had worked together before, talked to each other, and Paul guessed he’d actually helped the boy once, but he wasn’t Echo’s closest friend. And Paul didn’t believe he would be candidate for first-pick-partner.

Back to the camera. “Creo Prastigiae,” he commanded the camera’s outer features to disappear with his wand. But his commands were weak, and his camera flickered for a moment like a candle’s flame but it didn’t disappear. Paul’s mouth thinned to grimness. He’d barely ever failed at a spell, and this was a dead first. He placed his wand hand back on the table and used his other to hold up his forehead. But remembering Echo was there, watching, Paul immediately set his hand down and tried to look as if this wasn’t a giant disappointment.

“Oh,” he said, forcing a smile. “Whoops.” Paul felt stupid, more than that he felt hopeless. He had to make this thing go away. “Creo Prastigiae,” he said again more forcefully, sliding his wand down and trying to add more volume to his voice. The flicker lasted longer, and the camera ended up translucent, but it wasn’t completely invisible. His head felt ready to explode when he tried smiling at Echo again. “Erm, how are you doing?” he asked, his face tightening.

0 Paul Cupboards seem better 0 Paul 0 5

Elly Eriksson

August 13, 2008 4:57 PM

Singin' the Blues by Elly Eriksson

Not for the first time, Elly wondered why she had to take Defense. Not for the same reasons that those prissy pureblood girls liked to give, about never being cursed, what was the point of learning defense, yada yada. No; Elly was simply awful at the subject. She liked the classes enough, and she even liked the professor (yes, in first year she'd been terrified, but she'd since made friends with Briony, and somehow Professor O'Leary wasn't scary anymore). Yet somehow her magical abilities always seemed to desert her once she got inside the classroom.

Today was an especially bad day for it. Not quite back into the swing of things after midterm, Elly had packed her transfiguration textbook instead of her Defense, and didn't even realise until it was too late to go back for it. Hoping desperately that they wouldn't need their books this class, Elly took an inconspicuous seat off to one side, and, rather unusually, tried to keep her head down. A detention was the last thing she needed.

It seemed fate was on her side, because O'Leary didn't ask them to use their textbooks at all. Breathing a sigh of relief, Elly sat more cheerfully as she listened to the instructions. Externally she probably looked the vision of a content student, though internally her mind was already planning the most excellent pranks using this charm!

Of course they had to work in partners this class. Vicky had said it was something to do with competetive nature making you work harder and different view points making a more interesting outcome, but Elly still thought teachers at Sonora were more into this paired thing than was natural. She didn't mind though - as a social being, Elly was perfectly happy to work with someone else.

Looking around for Echo, Elly rummaged in her bag to find her wand; she wouldn't get very far without it. Yet it wasn't where she usually kept it. Rummaging further, Elly's fingers closed around the rather tattered old wand pouch. "Aha!" she exclaimed as she retrieved it. On a second search for Echo, she found him at the back of the class wroking with - ugh - Paul Tarwater. With a sigh, Elly looked to the rest of the class, instead. Within a moment, she'd caught Danae's eye.

Elly nodded to the mouthed question. She gathered up her bag and the item on her desk - she'd not paid any attention to it until now, and realised with some surprise that it was a carved wooden spoon, a bit like Welsh Love spoons, but less, well, Celtic - and rearranged herself at the recently vacated seat next to Danae.

"Hi," she said, the tone of her voice inadvertedly summing up her day so far. Elly corrected it with a smile, but even that was less than her usual manic grin. She had to shake these blues. "How's things?"\r\n\r\n

0 Elly Eriksson Singin' the Blues 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Hannah Laurent

August 13, 2008 6:39 PM

Hopefully finding a partner by Hannah Laurent

Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of the classes that Hannah felt indifferent towards. She didn’t like it, but she didn’t hate it either. Sometimes it was interesting. Sometimes it wasn’t. Today, it appeared that it might actually be the former. Pulling out her notebook and pen, she jotted down the spells, not feeling a need to write down anything else that was said. It was all fairly straightforward and she wasn’t planning on having a career where she would need to know the ins and outs of the charm. She merely needed to know what the charm did for class, for tests, and for personal reasons.

While she waited for Professor O’Leary to finish, she twirled the pen between her fingers like a baton, thinking of the things that she could use the charm for. Since her cousin, Nicoletta, had moved in with them, she was now sharing a room with her little sister. It wasn’t that she minded sharing a room so much since it was only for midterm and summer, and though, she shared most things with Addie, there were some things that were private, like her journal. She didn’t think that Addie would bother it, but she didn’t want to take the chance since there were some rather private entries in it, especially now that she was beginning to notice the other gender. As such, she was also more aware of herself, which was rather awkward.

Testament to this awkwardness had occurred over midterm. Nic had brought her boyfriend, Adam, home with her. It was really weird to have a sixteen-year-old strange boy in her home. She had no idea how to act around him and it just made her all the more focused on her behavior. She had ended up talking incessantly, especially about Quidditch, whenever she was around him, as a need to fill the uncomfortable silence, and was thankful that she hadn’t actually been around the couple all that often.

Oops. She had been daydreaming and missed the rest of the instructions, but it didn’t seem too hard to figure out, as people were starting to pair off. Group work. They had to work with other people in every class. It seemed to be the favorite torment of professors. At any rate, she thought so. She didn’t have a lot of friends, so she didn’t have many people that she could work with. With a sigh, she turned to the person next to her and asked, “Want to be my partner?”

0 Hannah Laurent Hopefully finding a partner 98 Hannah Laurent 0 5

Oliver Abbott

August 14, 2008 12:39 PM

Am I up to scratch? by Oliver Abbott

Old Eerie was still creepy, and always would be, but Oliver was starting to get used to him now. Besides which, he didn't seem half so creepy round the start of term than at the end. Maybe he got cranky with too much teaching?

The class sounded okay - not really cool like disarming or a patronus or anything, but illusion charms would have their uses. Pair work was, of course, the norm, and Oliver seemed to find a partner quite quickly. "Want to be my partner?” came a voice from next to him. Oliver turned to see Hannah next to him, and thought his stomach might have melted.

He usually worked with Talitha in DADA, but there was no way he was going to let Hannah down. He hadn't managed to speak to her much this year. Not that he usually prattled on for hours, but he couldn't see Hannah without thinking of her in that ball gown. And that often reminded him that she had been the only girl in the lower years voted most good looking in the yearbook, and that was sure proof that no way would she ever want to talk to him. Then he sternly reminded himself that no way was Hannah that shallow, and she might even want to talk to him, but by this time his thoughts were too confused to form coherent sentences, and he was in very real danger of blushing. So it came that Oliver had tended to not say anything past 'hi' if they ever met in corridors.

"Yes, I'll be your partner," Oliver replied, managing to keep his voice within one octave, but it definitely wasn't as cool and refined as he'd have liked it. Plus his insides felt as though they'd been removed, and his face was rather warmer than usual.

And then, for some as yet unknown reason, his mouth added, "Did you have a good midterm?" before his brain could stop him. If he could get through this class without feeling like a total idiot it would be a miracle.

0 Oliver Abbott Am I up to scratch? 99 Oliver Abbott 0 5

Cissy

August 14, 2008 1:26 PM

Pretty and witty by Cissy

Cissy’ hands traced their way around the fancy pencil case absentmindedly when her new “partner” chose her. The boy was in Paul’s year, and one of twins, though Cissy didn’t care enough to figure out which twin he was. She raised one of her black brows with a wry smile and shrugged along with it. “Sure,” she told him, a raise in her voice to go along with her eyebrows and shoulders. What could she say, “no”? Though she wondered, Horace only followed her because he was scared of her. She offered her hand lightly, like some sort of debutante that she would never be. “Cissy Tarwater,” she introduced.

Could she get someone to do what she wanted without him or her knowing what she could do when she was angry? So far she had two people under her, Paul and Horace. She’d always figured that she would also get Red to be afraid of her, but she’d lost interest in everything after Horace had come along. Cissy was glad it was coming back, for some reason after seeing this guy, she really wanted to start up and making people flip over her again. Paul was working with Red’s little boyfriend; maybe she could make Paul weasel out a few things about her.

“The spell doesn’t seem to hard, right?” she told him, making her statement end like a question. Cissy hoped to prove an obvious superiority in the spell over all. A few strands of black hair slid off her shoulder and to her back when she leaned forward to investigate her pencil case. It was hollow inside, therefore probably easier than anything solid since it didn’t have unseeables to also make invisible. Cissy grinned a little when she lifted her wand, she felt very close to that stick of wood, and she made a small motion with it.

“Hem,” she coughed, clearing her throat as she heard her brother do constantly. Just so she could say the spell clearly, and impress and dazzle. “Creo Prastigiae,” she demanded of the pencil case, which winked out in a second. Her grin turned finer, as she looked up at Josh with her dark eyebrow raised again. “Well, I got it,” she stated as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Really, it normally took her a few tries with spells; Paul was the one who got them right away.

Cissy felt lucky that they had switched just as her confidence rose. “Are you finished?” she asked, pretending curiosity as she leaned her chin on her hands with a smile. For something to do, Cissy flipped her wand over in her fingers a few times staring at where the pencil case should be. “Its sort of odd,” she said, more to herself than Josh. “It seems like there’s nothing there. That’d be such a useful ability, I guess. Invisibility.” No one would know you were watching him or her. It would be empty where you were; you could know anything you wanted at any time. She could make good from that.

0 Cissy Pretty and witty 0 Cissy 0 5

Adam Brockert

August 14, 2008 4:18 PM

Partners? (Tag-Talitha) by Adam Brockert

Normally, the mention of the word partners struck fear into Adam's heart. However, this was no longer the case in Defense...as long as the third years were in there. That meant he could work with Talitha. His face instantly flushed. Adam really liked her. He'd realized it over break, when he'd spent many hours meticulously carving her a present. He certainly never put that much effort into gifts for anyone else.

But, what if she didn't want to work with him now? What if Talitha was already working with Oliver? (This particular worry was quickly put to rest, however, when Adam noticed Oliver was working with Hannah Laurent.) Still, that didn't mean she would want to work with him . Or worse, what if they working together and Adam did something incredibly stupid to scare her off? Or what if she figured out how he felt? And said she really didn't like him? And that she liked Oliver?

On the other hand, Talitha had agreed to go to the ball with him last year. That was seriously a bigger deal than working together in class. Granted, there was a difference between being seen with someone at a social event and depending on them for a grade, but Adam was a bit more confident in his scholastic abilities than in social matters.

Adam turned towards his friend. "Talitha, w-will you work with me?" He seriously hoped his face wasn't too red. He sincerly hoped she'd say yes. Not just for the obvious reasons-which was the important part- but also because, well, he didn't think anyone else would want to work with him anyway.

11 Adam Brockert Partners? (Tag-Talitha) 78 Adam Brockert 0 5

Matt Santoro

August 14, 2008 7:08 PM

Making an excuse for conversation (tag: Eavan) by Matt Santoro

Matt left Josh’s side the minute the two of them entered the classroom. Josh headed up the middle row of desks while Matt hung back in the last row. He found it odd that Echo was sitting back here considering the boy seemed the sort to want to get involved in lessons, but he merely shrugged off the thought. Maybe he was getting tired of the touch-happy Elly? Matt doubted it though.

Focusing on the item in front of him, Matt found himself staring down at a hairbrush. Confusion entered his face for a moment while he looked it over, but the Professor cleared that up relatively quickly once the lesson began. They would be learning how to make objects disappear and then reappear. Sounded interesting. Sounded fun. Sounded like something that he could use to his advantage once he had whatever it was worked out. Although, Josh would probably tell him no. He spent more time working on that stupid map than wanting to actually have fun.

Matt twirled his wand in his hand while the professor explained how to do the spell properly. Magic, through his wand, had always been the easiest thing for Matt to do. He wasn’t really sure why. But it just seemed to come to him naturally. He never questioned it, just took it for granted. Perhaps it was because he didn’t think too deeply about it the way he knew some of his classmates did? Who knew. It wasn’t really the issue so long as Matt continued to do well with his wand work. Now, if only he could apply that to his essays.

Standing up when the announcements for partners were made, Matt looked around for a moment. Josh was his natural first choice, but apparently Josh had other ideas as he seemed to be talking to some girl Matt couldn’t recognize from behind. Wasn’t Danae though as she was sitting a little bit away from him. But the sight of Danae brought Eavan to Matt’s mind. Glancing around, he spotted Eavan and made his way over to her with his object in his hands. “Hey Eavan, think you can handle trying this out with me?” He asked, joking as he grinned at her.

0 Matt Santoro Making an excuse for conversation (tag: Eavan) 0 Matt Santoro 0 5

Hannah

August 14, 2008 9:35 PM

Of course! by Hannah

A grin of relief spread across Hannah’s face when Oliver said he would be her partner. She had been worried for a moment when she had asked him. There were few people that she knew for a fact that she got along well with. At the dance, she had ended up having a great time and she thought that Oliver could be one of those people, but after the dance, he had said nothing more than simple greeting to her. This made her think that maybe he hadn’t had as good of a time as she did, but logically speaking, if he did dislike her, then he wouldn’t have agreed to be her partner nor would he have just asked about her midterm.

“Yeah, mostly. It was a bit weird. My cousin’s living with us now. She’s sixteen and brought her boyfriend with her,” Hannah explained, as she began examining the object that she was supposed to make disappear. It was a compact. Opening it up, she discovered it had a mirror on either side. Lovely. Making a mirror invisible meant the possibility of accidentally knocking it on the floor, which meant seven years of bad luck. Hannah wasn’t an overly superstitious person, but at the same time, when one lived in a world of magic, not taking the chance was better, especially given within that seven years, she wanted to try out professionally for Quidditch.

Glancing over at Oliver, she continued on the line of Quidditch. “Christmas was good, though. I got a new pair of Quidditch gloves since I outgrew my other ones. And my dad was talking about how maybe he would be able to take some time off this summer, so we could all go to a game.” Realizing that she was beginning to talk a bit much, she stopped, biting her lip, knowing that if she didn’t, she could have just continued on and on, especially about Quidditch. “Sorry,” she apologized with a sheepish smile. “So, um, how was your midterm? Did you stay here or go home?” She always wondered if one stayed what they would do at the school. She imagined it might have been fairly boring with everyone else gone.

0 Hannah Of course! 0 Hannah 0 5

Eavan Valentine

August 14, 2008 10:38 PM

You needed an excuse? by Eavan Valentine

Upon entering the classroom, Eavan glanced around, looking for Danae. She spotted her best friends almost immediately, but a frown formed when she realized that there weren't any seats near her. She shrugged and took the seat closest to Danae she could manage, which happened to be diagonally behind her. Eavan reached into her bag, pulling out her pen, ink and parchment, as well as a shoe box wrapped in shiny blue paper with a big silver bow on top that had been crushed accidentally in her bag. Eavan quickly tried to smooth out the bow before giving the gift to Danae, but while she was trying to make the bow stand up again, O'Leary started the lecture and Eavan put the box back in her bag. She'd give Danae her present later.

Once the box was removed from her desk, something else was in Eavan's view: an hourglass the size of her hand. Eavan stared at it for a second wondering what dark powers an hourglass could have before the lecture caught her attention. She began furiously taking notes having missed the first minute of lecture due to staring at inanimate objects. Luckily, the day's spell was on the board, so she didn't miss much.

O'Leary finished the lecture by stating that they were to divide into pairs to work on the spells. Eavan really wasn't that big on group work, but it was a lot better now, having a built-in partner in her best friend. She looked over to tap Danae on the back, but stopped short. Danae was already partnered up; with Elly nonetheless. Of course they could be friendly and Eavan not know it. They were in the same house, it was only natural. Eavan sighed. Sometimes she wished she and Danae were in the same house. It was annoying to have to go to the library or Cascade Hall or the Gardens in order to meet up. It was so easy to talk into the night about everything when Eavan had gone to visit over the summer.

“Hey Eavan, think you can handle trying this out with me?”

Eavan looked up from the hourglass she was staring at as she pondered to see a familiar face. Unlike Danae, Eavan could rarely tell Josh and Matt apart, though Danae had informed her of some tells. Matt was the more outgoing of the two, which made her almost immediately assume that this was Matt. Eavan smiled back at him and gestured to the seat next to her which had recently been vacated.

"Take a seat...if you think you can handle it," Eavan said, continuing the joke.

0 Eavan Valentine You needed an excuse? 86 Eavan Valentine 0 5

Oliver

August 15, 2008 11:17 AM

Excellent. by Oliver

Well, hey. She smiled. Oliver decided to take that as an indication that Hannah did actually want to talk to him, and he returned the gesture. Also, she didn't seem to think his question about midterm had been stupid. Bonus.

"Oh right," Oliver said, when Hannah mentioned her cousin living with them. He didn't know if he even had any cousins; aside from his Uncle Raymond, his parents had severed ties with the rest of their families when they'd destroyed their wands. Or, perhaps more acurately, the family had severed ties with them.

The comments about Quidditch were more on a level that Oliver could process. Quidditch gloves were a cool present to get, and going to a game would be awesome. "Awesome," he said. Then Hannah said sorry, and Oliver wasn't sure why, but then she asked about his own midterm.

"Yeah, it was okay," he replied. "I went home, caught up with the family, you know." For some reason he didn't want to mention that Talitha had been over during the holiday. Yet not mentioning it almost felt like lying, and Oliver found himself momentarily avoiding Hannah's gaze. He focused instead on his object. It was a rather ugly small pewter bowl, with a bit of a dent in one side. "Think I might have convinced my sister to come to Sonora next year," he said with a grin. He was fairly sure he'd told Hannah at the ball about how his brother went to Muggle school, and his sister was still undecided where she would attend.

"But yeah, going to a Quidditch game, that must be amazing," he repeated his sentiments. Then, because he didn't really know what else to say, he went back to looking at the bowl again. It was more like a dish really. Why didn't his brain work properly when he was talking to Hannah?

0 Oliver Excellent. 0 Oliver 0 5

Josh

August 15, 2008 10:41 PM

And Bright. And I pity. by Josh

Taking a better moment to actually take in the girl beside him, Josh felt his stomach drop slightly. Maybe it was a bad idea having asked her to be his partner. She didn’t seem at all interested in either him or the assignment. Maybe she was the sort who preferred to work alone? As she introduced herself, confirming his suspicions of being Paul’s sister, the girl held out her hand to him. Josh wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to kiss it as the position of the hand indicated or shake it.

He opted to just squeeze it quickly before letting it go, “Jose Santoro.” Josh introduced himself, flinching slightly when he realized he introduced his Spanish name. He had a habit of doing that when he was returning from seeing his family. His accent was always thicker and his wording was a mixture of Spanish and English. He wasn’t sure why switching between the two languages seemed so much easier for his siblings than it did him, but it was something that Josh was self-conscious about.

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” Josh said after a moment of staring at his empty inkwell that sat in the center of his desk. Truth was, he knew this spell would be just as difficult as all spells inevitably ended up being for him. He could get the logic down, the theory he knew perfectly, it was the execution of the spell that always seemed to be his greatest flaw when it came to magic.

Josh repeated the spell in his head a few times, making sure to do the wand movement as he practiced. He could hear Cissy clear her throat, but was too concentrated on his task at hand to pay her much attention. His first cast of the spell had the item losing much of the color but was still visible. Josh frowned but took a deep breath. Bella had told him while they had done their homework over break that his emotions got the better of him, which was why his spell work was poor. Josh closed his eyes for a moment trying to take away his frustrations and worry for the spell. Having already gotten this far with his item was a good thing.

“Well, I got it.”

His left hand tightened around his wand at her announcement. She was able to do the spell without any trouble. Deep breath. And another. It’d be okay. He could still do this. He tried the spell again once he knew he was under control. His item was transparent but not completely invisible.

“Are you finished?”

“Just about.” Josh said through clenched teeth. This was why he disliked partners. Everyone’s skill level with a wand was different and one could finish well before the other. It was terrible having to rely on another person when it came to such things like grades. Focus. Just get this done. Deep breath. Cissy was still talking and Josh took this opportunity to complete his job with the spell. His item disappeared completely, much to his relief.

“I don’t know if I would enjoy being invisible.” Josh commented, finally looking at her. “You may hear things that you might not enjoy or feel completely alone in a room full of people. I mean, you have to feel slightly disconnected from the rest of the world when you’re invisible. There but not there. Anyway, great job on your spell. I guess we change now.”\r\n\r\n

0 Josh And Bright. And I pity. 0 Josh 0 5

Hannah

August 16, 2008 7:25 PM

Most excellent. by Hannah

“That’s great!” Hannah exclaimed at the mention of his sister. She remembered how excited they had been when Addie had gotten her letter of acceptance. They had celebrated by going to the local ice cream shop to get sundaes. Unfortunately, that excitement was short-lived once school had started. Addie had wanted to go home within the first two weeks, and over the summer, her little sister had seriously entertained the possibility of not coming back. She wanted to be home-schooled like some of the other young wizards and witches in their community.

For the better part of the summer, she had tried to convince Addie to give Sonora another chance. She pointed out that she had made a couple of friends. They just weren’t in her dorm and there was no rule that said you had to be friends with people in the same House, but if she did want to be friends with them, Hannah had suggested trying out for Quidditch. She knew her sister wasn’t horrible at it. She was just unconfident, but still it went in one ear and out the other until Nicoletta suggested going back to school and supported Addie when she mentioned trying out for Quidditch. It had annoyed Hannah to no end that her sister had listened to their cousin before her.

Of course, Hannah was sure that Oliver’s sister would have nothing to worry about, especially if she were anything like her big brother. She always thought of Oliver as a fairly social person. She sometimes saw him hanging around a couple of the girls from his House, so she figured he was a nice person, which was one of the reasons that she wanted to get to know him. Though, unfortunately, conversation didn’t seem to be a forte, as he mentioned Quidditch again. Or maybe he just really liked Quidditch? He was on the team after all.

Figuring that it was a good starter for conversation, Hannah rolled with it. “Yeah. I went to one like three years ago and it was amazing, but we haven’t gotten to go again since things are normally crazy at the restaurant in the summer. Tourist season and all.” It kept her dad busy on the boats catching fish and the like and her mom busy helping out in the actual restaurant. “But if we do get to go, I really want to go see the Fitchburg Finches. Even if we don’t, it’ll be great just to see any new moves from the Seekers.” It was the position Hannah currently played and the one that she hoped to play professionally one day, providing she was good enough. “Who’s your favorite team?”

Not wanting to get into trouble for not doing her work, Hannah focused some of her attention on her object, figuring she should try the spell given that she actually wanted to be able to use it later. Pulling out her wand, a beautiful willow, she pointed it towards the object, “Creo Prastigiae!” And the object just sat there. She tried it again and again nothing happened. She frowned a bit. What was she doing wrong? Maybe it was her wand movement? Well, that would teach her not to pay attention during a lesson. Turning once more to Oliver, she asked, “Having any luck with your object? I think I’m doing something wrong. I think I have the words right, but I keep moving my wand like this,” she repeated the movement, “and nothing happens.”

0 Hannah Most excellent. 0 Hannah 0 5

Danae

August 16, 2008 7:26 PM

When skies are gray by Danae

Danae gave Elly a friendly smile when the other girl joined her, but it quickly turned to a concerned frown at the tone of the uttered greeting. When she had first met Elly, she hadn’t liked her, however, that had been mostly due to perceived notions. Now, after three and a half years of sharing a room, she had gotten to know the other girl better and had formed a friendship of sorts with her. They weren’t the best of friends, of course, and she still felt like the odd one out in the dorm room most of the time, but a friendship was still a friendship.

“Things are all right,” Danae replied easily. Midterm had been interesting to say the least. They had gone to her cousin’s house on Christmas Eve for one of the normal formal parties, which were among one of Danae’s least favorite things to do. Admittedly, in some ways it had been better than in years past, because she had been able to choose her dress, which meant not frilly skirts or puffy sleeves.

The other plus was that Emeric had come with his parents. This meant that she didn’t have to suffer the torment of standing around alone, pretending to be interested in all the politics that got discussed. Unfortunately, she had left him to the winds of such matters when they suddenly had to leave early. From that moment on, her father had been in a foul mood. He had even snapped at Lucie when she had asked why they had left. It had made Christmas day a rather unpleasant event.

With the obvious mood that Elly seemed to be in, Danae wondered if her midterm had been just as bad if not worse than hers. Perhaps, her midterm was great and she was just suffering from a case of the back to school blues. “How are things with you? You seem not so…happy,” she said tentatively.

She had never really talked to Elly in a less than cheerful mood. She just assumed that if Elly was down that Meredith or Caedence got her spirits up, but then Meredith was less than peppy these days and, honestly, even though, she had called a truce with Caedence, she really couldn’t picture her making someone else happy. But then what about Echo? She glanced briefly around the classroom and spotted him with Paul. That seemed rather odd to her, like the odd couple in a way. She always pegged Echo as being a popular person and Paul not so much, but then who was she to judge? Look at her. She was working with the most popular girl in their class (according to the yearbook) and she was far from being part of the in crowd.

0 Danae When skies are gray 0 Danae 0 5

Matt

August 16, 2008 7:50 PM

Nah, not really by Matt

Matt tilted his head at her when she replied to him. “Handle the seat?” Matt looked at the chair and then back at Eavan. “I’m the master of sitting. I think I can handle this la silla.” He was still grinning, of course, always have to smile for the ladies. Taking the seat, Matt set the hairbrush down onto the desk and glanced over at Eavan with some sort of expectation.

Ever since Josh and Danae had become friends, Matt and Eavan were the ‘other’ friends. But they were never together as a group. It really never made much sense if one were to really think about it. But, Matt hadn’t really paid it any mind because for the last year or so, he had been preoccupied with the blondes of the school. One in particular. But, as that never panned out, Matt realized that although he got along just fine with his Pecari housemates, they had their own clique that had established long ago. There was no point in him trying to tag along with them. So, instead, he wanted to have another group in which he knew he did belong in.

With that in mind, he had made his brother’s life a living hell with wanting them to all hang out together. Matt figured, when the group of them could hang out and be comfortable, none of them would have to feel awkward around the ‘other’ group of year mates. They could even include Eavan’s roommate and the other brunette of their class, Helena. And, Paul if he ever wanted to talk to people. But Josh didn’t want Matt bothering the girls, so Matt had to take things into his own hands and this was the perfect opportunity.

“So, you’re my sister in law’s best friend, right?” Matt asked, using his pet name for Danae merely out of habit. Taking the moment to remember they actually had a lesson, Matt looked at the hairbrush again and away from the girl beside him. Speaking as clearly (and lazily) as he moved his wand over the object, Matt managed to vanish his object with an ease that should never be allowed for anyone. Smiling at his accomplishment, his attention returned to Eavan. “How come we’ve never hung out?”

0 Matt Nah, not really 0 Matt 0 5

Eavan

August 17, 2008 2:25 AM

Good. Remember you never need a reason to talk by Eavan

Eavan smiled back at Matt. His smile was contagious and he smiled a lot. It was something else she had noticed when trying to tell him apart from Josh. She suddenly wondered indeed, they hadn't hung out more. Eavan knew that she kept her distance from Josh and Danae sometimes because she always hoped that Danae would come back one day and with the news that they were finally a couple. But she saw no reason why she could be friends. When Josh and Danae were hanging out together, Matt was just as like as she was to be lonely.

Eavan rolled her eyes at his nickname for Danae. Danae had told her previously about it, and while she agreed wholeheartedly that it was annoying and not at all funny at the time, Eavan secretly thought it fantastic. She was their clandestine cheerleader...sans pompoms.

"I guess I am," Eavan retorted, after her eye-rolling. "I hope that's okay with you." For some reason, she was feeling rather playful. She was usually only this way when she was annoying her brothers. She mentally shrugged it off and instead, followed Matt's lead and stared at the hour glass she was supposed to be vanishing.

Waving her wand theatrically over it, Eavan repeated the incantation and watched the entire hourglass turn to glass. It was completely right, but it was close. She may have been distracted by the fact that Matt seemed to have gotten the spell so easily. She idly wondered if had known about the spell beforehand before giving the spell another go.

This time, the hourglass morphed into the same exact shade and texture of the table beneath it. She stared at it for a moment in awe, but looked up at Matt's question.

"I honestly don't know," Eavan replied, going through her mind of what could have caused her to continually forget that Danae wasn't the only one who was allowed her very own twin. "I think we should hang out more," Eavan added, sliding her hourglass across the table so he could try his hand at returning it to its former splendor.

"I mean, you seem like a really nice person," she said, grabbing at the table in front of Matt, trying to locate the brush so she could practice. Her fingers brushed the handle and she swept the tabletop, sending the brush spinning into Matt's lap.

"Oops, sorry. I guess you just did way too good a job at the spell. Are you just naturally good at wandwork or did you practice beforehand?"

0 Eavan Good. Remember you never need a reason to talk 0 Eavan 0 5

Cissy

August 17, 2008 10:50 AM

That you aren't me? by Cissy

Cissy smiled, inclining her head towards Josh slightly. She nodded at the mention of his name, Jose Santoro, in that foreign sounding voice. Her mind became bitter. Cissy had heard the name before, somewhere, oh Merlin she’d forgotten. Jane may have been talking? Or someone else? Either way, she’d pushed it away until he’d brought it back up. Was he rich? A pit formed in her heart, as she disliked it when it was obvious people weren’t as poor as her family. And knowing the name was fairly obvious to her. She’d even hated Jane and Horace at first, simply from seeing their house and all the nice things Jane could afford.

But then again, smile, she had to do that. Don’t be so stiff, she had to do that too. He didn’t seem too confident about the spell, and that was a plus for Cissy. She was purely ready for the spell, and she loved it. Though, really, the black haired girl was surprised to see it come so easily. She wondered if it really was just that easy, and made a quick check. Her partner hadn’t gotten it so fast, and a quick breeze through made her see that Paul hadn’t gotten it yet. What was that? Paul hadn’t gotten it yet? And she had. Cissy grinned from ear to ear at the inkwell her partner set on turning invisible.

She felt utterly superior. And when she asked him so nonchalantly if he’d gotten it, he’d replied rather impatiently. Or so it sounded like to Cissy’s ears. Sounded like, milk and honey she decided, sweet and perfect. She wasn’t used to getting a spell, or really anything so fast. Her normal way was to intimidate until she got her way, even with spells. She’d start off bored, and then get angrier and angrier until she finally blew up. And then the spell would work.

But right away! Outside Cissy had to act like this happened all the time, but inside she had swelled with joy. Was this a new turn? Would everything come so easily to her now? She felt as though Paul was gaping at her with jealousy. A quick check though proved that… he wasn’t. He wasn’t even paying attention to her; he was just trying to make his own camera disappear. Darn. Stupid. She’d have to make sure he knew later.

“You may hear things that you might not enjoy or feel completely alone in a room full of people. I mean, you have to feel slightly disconnected from the rest of the world when you’re invisible…”

Cissy looked up and raised an eyebrow. Hearing things you may not enjoy? Feeling completely alone? She took that a different way. Anything about her, anything that may prove useful to her, she would enjoy it. What wouldn’t she enjoy? People calling her names, calling her cruel? She didn’t really mind what people thought of her, in fact she would like to intensify the thoughts of her being cruel or superior or scary. If she heard she didn’t frighten people, she knew she’d do what she could to bend them. And alone…

She shrugged her shoulders loosely, “I don’t think I’d mind that,” she admitted in a dreamy tone. Merlin, that seemed like a small price, if it even was a price, to pay for the power you received from invisibility! Without really thinking, she brushed the air for his inkwell, stopping when her hand hit something and she pulled it closer. “Thanks,” she said a little lately, then stared at what seemed to be nothing. This next spell should be a piece of cake, why was she so nervous?

0 Cissy That you aren't me? 0 Cissy 0 5

Josh

August 17, 2008 9:55 PM

Nah, I'm quite okay with being myself. by Josh

Josh felt a bit uneasy around this girl. Not in the same uneasiness that overcame him when he thought about Paul. Paul made Josh nervous for the fact that Paul didn’t seem to like people. He seemed to purposefully isolate himself from everyone. It was unnatural to not want to be around people on occasion. Plus, he was always so fidgety. What was he hiding that always made him so jumpy? No, Cissy didn’t bring on this sort of nervousness that her brother did. Instead, the smile she wore and that little bit of superiority that shown through from time to time made Josh very uncomfortable.

Josh liked his privacy. Having grown up with 7 older siblings and a twin, Josh rarely had time to himself when he was home. But here, here he could do whatever he wanted by himself. He no longer shared a room. None of his siblings were in his house. He was able to spend his free time working on the map that he had originally started to help Matt with his pranks, but now did it just because he found that he truly enjoyed accomplishing something. But, even during the times that Josh wanted to be alone, he felt himself craving companionship. The silence always got to him.

He didn’t know anything about Cissy. She could be the very opposite of her brother. Thus far, aside from her endless smiling and somewhat smugness, she didn’t act as though people were out to get her all the time and didn’t seem to be shying away from communicating with Josh either. He supposed that everyone was a little bit different from family. Josh certainly wasn’t like Matt and neither of them were like Paco, but siblings were supposed to have similarities too, right? If Cissy and Paul didn’t share the same surname, Josh wouldn’t have ever guessed they were related just on their mannerisms alone.

Life was odd like that, he supposed.

He openly frowned at her for a moment when she answered him. Maybe she was more like her brother than Josh had originally thought. “Being invisible means there’s a better chance that people will forget about you.” Josh said quietly. Maybe that was why Josh never liked the silence after awhile. It was deafening and made him feel like he was the only one still there. At least with people, the noise meant that you weren’t alone and if he wanted someone to pay attention to him, all he had to do was talk.

Josh watched her hand for a moment while she moved around his desk looking for what he presumed to be his inkwell. “You’re welcome.” He said, doing the same to her desk until he located her item and pulled it to him. He sat staring at, well, nothing. Looking at his notes, Josh quietly practice the spell first before finally trying it out on the item. And, of course, nothing. Okay, deep breath. Trying the spell again, he was rewarded by the faintest hint of the pencil case. Awesome. He could totally do this.

0 Josh Nah, I'm quite okay with being myself. 0 Josh 0 5

Matt

August 17, 2008 9:57 PM

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's my motto by Matt

Hm… she rolled her eyes at him, what for? That didn't seem at all necessary. He got the eye roll a lot from Sofia whenever she felt Matt was being immature and he was sure that he hadn't been immature during the brief conversation he was having with Eavan. And, he didn't think he had said anything that was deserving of such a reaction.

Her words weren't that much better and Matt wondered for a moment if he had somehow offended her without even meaning to. Maybe Danae didn't like Matt and that had rubbed off on Eavan? Except, Eavan was smiling at him which indicated that she was, at the very least, being friendly with him. "It's perfectly okay. If you weren't her friend, I'd be a third wheel and that's just a terrible position to be in."

Eavan seemed to have a bit more difficulty with the spell than Matt had, so he sat back and waited for her hourglass to vanish. He was used to waiting. Josh usually took a couple of tries before he got a spell down, unless his frustrations got the better of him and then it took him even longer, which only made things worse. Thankfully, Eavan only took two tries on the spell before the item vanished from both their eyes.

He grinned in approval of her spell skills. His grin widened when she suggested that they should hang out more. "I agree, which was the exact purpose of why I decided to come over here under the pretext of only wanting to be your Defense partner." Matt informed her, still grinning. "Why should Jose and Danae get all the fun?" Matt said and then almost jumped when he felt something land precariously into his lap. It took him a moment to realize that it was the brush that Eavan had moments before tried locating.

Picking it up, he set it on her desk before carefully locating her hourglass and setting it onto his own desk. "I'm just good at it." Matt replied honestly, this reverse spell was going to be a bit harder to do since he couldn't see the object. "Jose likes to read up on things first and then he can't get it. I figure, if I don't think too hard about it, it'll happen."

0 Matt Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's my motto 0 Matt 0 5

Amber Carey

August 17, 2008 10:59 PM

Just in the nick of time. by Amber Carey

Amber rushed into Defense Against the Dark Arts at the last possible moment before the late bell rang, flushing pink as she gave the student in the desk next to the one that ended up hers by default a guilty smile. Sliding her bookbag down her left arm to the floor, she took her lime-green ponytail holder off her wrist and quickly twisted her blonde hair up before O'Leary started talking. If her luck was with her at all, he wouldn't erase the board before she could get out a piece of paper to scrawl the spells down on.

Her luck held. As O'Leary was still talking, she even dared to take the time to make her handwriting legible. Amber had deciphered enough fast notes to be good at it, but it was a lot easier to just write neatly in the first place. The two incantations down, she caught enough of the lecture to hear what the spell was for and what it might be useful for. The sudden disappearance of the professor's desk was just a bit disconcerting, but while Disillusioning that seemed kind of pointless, it was just a demonstration, and there were lots of things it wouldn't be pointless to cover up...

Suddenly, most of her relatives not being in high-security prisons made a lot more sense.

She sneaked a look at Morgaine, but her cousin's tiny face might have been a doll's for all the expression it showed. Amber immediately chastised herself for what she'd thought for a second there. She didn't like Morgaine, but that was hardly reason to suspect she was neck-deep in the criminal underworld with her wacko dad. Besides, everything she had heard over midterm suggested that Morgaine had other stuff on her mind right now. She'd never gotten details, but any kid the family talked about at all had worse problems than staying out of jail to deal with.

Amber jerked her attention back to the teacher just in time to get the assignment. She really was going to get into the soup one day letting her attention wander. Deciding that it was unlikely that this assignment would be dangerous or too likely to cause fires, she slid the elastic back out of her hair. It looked awful up, especially when, like back at the start of class, she just slapped it into a holder, but that was preferable to burning it off in here or during Potions. Slipping the holder back onto her wrist like a strange sort of fashion bracelet, she twisted around in her seat to face the desk next door.

"Hey," she said, smiling without the guilt this time. "Want to work together?"

0 Amber Carey Just in the nick of time. 84 Amber Carey 0 5

Talitha Cumni

August 18, 2008 7:10 AM

I'm here (pant. gasp, wheeze) finally by Talitha Cumni

Talitha grinned up at her favorite professor as he passed by and dropped a tiny stuffed unicorn on her desk. She never bought the old act of being all mean and evil. But to see him in one of his particularly good moods was a treat. She never really undersood why he creeped so many of her friends out. He was dark (not in the bad way) and mysterious and smart and brave and just plain…well just plain handsome. Handsome bordering on hot in a middle aged sort of way.

She got out her quill, parchment and text. Pushing the unicorn to the side, she took notes as she carefully listened to the lecture. She wasn’t going to mess up like she did last term. At least the lesson didn’t seem as difficult. Try as she might, even in her happiest moments, she’d failed to be able to produce a patronis. Maybe someday she’d get it right and hopefully they wouldn’t test her on it this spring.

"Talitha, w-will you work with me?"

Whenever Adam greeted her, he blushed. Talitha found this simultaneously endearing and frustrating at the same time. They had been friends for how long now? After all that time, Adam still acted as though he expected to have to apologize for breathing the same air she did. On the other hand, he was really kind of cute when he blushed so it was okay. Actually Talitha was very glad to work with her friend. They’d hardly had a chance to say hi to each other this year. Either their schedules didn’t meld or they were on opposite sides of the room and had to work with other people. Talitha hadn’t even been able to catch Adam to give him his Christmas present even though they lived in the same House. It seemed a bit rude to just send it to him via Owl and she really wanted to see his face when he opened it. It wasn’t much. Nothing really special. But Talitha hoped he really liked it.

She glanced over to see if Oliver was headed her way. They usually worked together in DADA and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings if he expected to pair up with her again. She grinned when she saw him with Hannah. He looked like his was in heaven. Good for him. It was about time he got up the nerve.

“Sure,” Talitha gave Adam her full attention now. Her insides did the usual little flip flop they did whenever she began a conversation with him. Was this happy, nervous feeling a crush? Maybe not full blown, but Talitha suspected it wouldn’t take much to make it so. If only Adam would gain a little confidence and say or do just the right thing. Then again, it would be okay if he just thought of her as a friend too. “Did you have a good holiday?”
\n

0 Talitha Cumni I'm here (pant. gasp, wheeze) finally 102 Talitha Cumni 0 5

Saul Pierce

August 18, 2008 10:43 AM

Why's it always Nick? Why can't you be in the saul of time? by Saul Pierce

Saul had barely sat down himself when Amber Carey took the last seat in their row and gave him a kind of rushed 'I made in time - barely' sort of smile. This was likely a result of proximity as Saul couldn't recall any previous incidences of her specifically addressing him - he had probably told stories in her general direction before: he talked to everyone and wasn't particular about who was listening - but no previous conversations came to mind.

Still, he grinned back at her and shrugged, absolving her of any wrong doing in her near-lateness. He would have said something more, but then Professor O'Leary proved just how close she'd come to being late.

Saul made a major effort to try to pay attention. He knew Professor O'Leary wasn't nearly as scary as he tried to make firsties believe, but staring at the guy's daughter for the man's entire class probably wasn't the best way to make a good impression on the father of the girl he was kinda-maybe going out with. He was pretty sure they'd had two dates - first the walk in the garden after he'd asked her to the ball, and then the ball itself - but he wasn't 100% sure if Briony saw them the same way or if it counted as being girlfriend/boyfriend. He'd have to ask Simon later. Or maybe Briony herself.

But right now he was listening to Professor O'Leary talk about disillusionment spells and their counterspells. Really, he was. But Briony looked . . . no. Disillusionment spells. Right. Look at the tall O'Leary, not the pretty one. The guy could turn Saul into a toad. This must be remembered at all times.

It might be kinda cool to be a toad.

No, but Briony probably wouldn't find him as interesting if he were a toad.

Hey! The professor's desk was invisible! How cool was that? Right. The teacher was talking about disillusionment spells still, and, oh, the desk is back. That was really awesome. Simon probably used that spell in his magic act. It had huge dramatic appeal. Oh, something about objects on the desks, Saul was paying attention still, honest. "Hey, want to work together?"

Saul looked over at Amber, kind of surprised. Okay, yeah, he was the guy sitting right next to her, and they'd already acknowledged each other's existence once this class. It wasn't that unexpected. But he usually partnered with Briony . . . who was quite a few seats away and not obviously affiliated with him today due to his own near lateness and all the chairs next to her already being taken. And it looked like a number of other people were already rushing for the opportunity to partner the teacher's daughter, so he shrugged to himself and nodded to Amber. "Sure." He'd catch up with Briony later, he promised himself.

"So. Disillusionment spells, right?" he asked, the need to double-check the assignment a habit that had developed out of academic self-defense. He picked up what appeared to be a hockey puck from the middle of his desk, gave it a doubtful look as he generated a whole backstory in his mind for how it had come into Professor O'Leary's possession and then got sidelined into being a classroom prop, then shook his head and refocussed back on Amber. "We turn these invisible, and then we trade and try to uninvisible them." Unlike most of his previous lessons, he wasn't even guessing (for the most part) what the assignment was supposed to be.

1 Saul Pierce Why's it always Nick? Why can't you be in the saul of time? 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Elly

August 18, 2008 10:48 AM

And it was all yellow by Elly

Though she was pleased to see that Danae didn't seem to have any troubles, having described things as 'all right', Elly couldn't help but grimace when Danae noticed her own less-than-cheerful mood.

"I'm okay," she assured her friend with a sigh and a smile. "Wished that holiday could have gone on longer," she said, and even as she spoke she felt guilty for expressing such a wish. More accurately, she wished her brain would switch itself off from everything except schoolwork, and then she could concentrate. Her midterm hadn't been that great, either: time was spent being ignored by her mother or trying to calm down Caedence. Not exactly a picnic. "Or that it hadn't happened," Elly added.

It wasn't fair for her to be moody, though; it was almost ungratful for her to be anything but delightedly cheerful when considering her lot to most other people's. Elly was lucky and she knew it. Shaking her shoulders as it trying to rid herself of a physical blanket, rather that the metaphorical blanket of gloom that had settled over her, Elly looked to danae. "Sorry," she said, her smile wider this time, if perhaps a touch apologetic, "just a lot going on at the moment. Don't worry about me." Elly was so tired out worrying about other people, she really didn't want to add burden to anyone else for having to worry about her. With another firm smile, Elly turned her attention back to the lesson.

"Nice cup," she grinned at Danae's object, feeling more like herself. "Think it's Professor O'Leary's favourite?"

0 Elly And it was all yellow 0 Elly 0 5

Oliver

August 18, 2008 11:13 AM

Spectacular by Oliver

Hannah kept talking about Quidditch, which was great, because that was something Oliver could at least relate to. The problem was, he didn't seem to be having very much luck focusing on her words. He was watching her mouth, the way it moved when she talked. Then every time he caught himself doing it, which was about every other second, he immediately looked to her eyes instead; her bright blue eyes. Then, before he knew how it had happened, he was looking at her mouth again. Was this normal? It certainly didn't feel normal. Plus Oliver only caught bits of what she was saying, but he managed to keep the general gist of it. As such, he only realized he'd been asked a question because the silence stretched out a tiny bit too long.

"Um, Chicago Chimeras," he hurriedly replied. This time his voice did do that cool, refined thing he'd been hoping for (in his own mind, at least). Excellent. "Home team," he added clarification, because so many Chimera supporters just affiliated themselves with the team because of their recent rise in the league over the past couple of years.

Well, conversation seemed like a lost cause for Oliver. Firstly because he couldn't concentrate on anything Hannah was saying, which was not only rude but probably made him out to look stupid. Secondly because he couldn't think of anything interesting to say. Or anything at all, really.

Following Hannah's example, Oliver turned back to his object. He picked his wand up in preparation for the spell, and discovered that his palms were warm and sweaty. Nice. "Creo Prastigiae! Oliver cast the spell and was pleased to note that the bowl had at least made some effort to disappear. There was still a metallic outline, betraying its shape, but it was not so solid as it had been. A second attempt at the spell worked nicely, rendering the object completely invisible. With a grin, Oliver turned to see whether Hannah was succeeding, too, only to see her object was still there.

"I think I’m doing something wrong," she said, and Oliver was tempted to agree. It had been Jordanna Howard who had really taught Oliver to use his wand, back in first year. He'd been forever thankful, perhaps now more than ever.

"You might be holding your wand too rigid," Oliver said, adopting what he hoped was a helpful, rather than instructive, tone. "Here." Having made sure his hands were no longer damp by rubbing them firmly on his robes, Oliver reached over and placed his hand over Hannah's around her wand. As he touched her he felt his breath catch in his throat, and he tried to ignore how warm he suddenly felt. "Just loosen your grip a little," he said, "and your wrist." He moved his own hand this way and that until Hannah's hand felt looser below his.

"Okay," Oliver said, releasing her and sitting back. "See if that helped any." Even if it didn't help, Oliver wouldn't mind trying that again.

0 Oliver Spectacular 0 Oliver 0 5

Eavan

August 18, 2008 5:37 PM

It's a good motto. i should get one myself by Eavan

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Eavan said at the mention of a third wheel. "It's part of the reason I don't hang out with Danae when they're together. I think maybe Josh thinks I don't like him or something, but in reality I just feel left out. Plus," Eavan added with a grin. "How are they ever going to realize their love for each other if I'm always hovering around?"

Eavan watched him find the brush and set it down in front of her. He was just good at it. That's what Earl used to say when she asked him how he drew so well. It didn't explain things at all. Eavan wasn't 'just good' at anything that she knew of. She just surrounded herself with people that were. Maybe that was her 'good' thing: making friends with interesting people.

This time, Eavan was more careful in locating the hairbrush and held it in her hand, so it wouldn't go flying off if she got the spell wrong. She positioned her wand over the brush, but paused to listen to Matt.

"Hmm, I would've thought reading up on it would help more, not less. Let me try that not thinking thing," she said, trying to think of other things besides the spell in front of her. Acclaro Prastigiae!

She turned to stare at where the brush should've appeared in her hand. Nothing. "Well, that didn't work at all," she said, slightly put off. "Maybe it's just easier for you to not think." It took Eavan a second to realize what she just said, and then started laughing softly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she said in between giggles.

0 Eavan It's a good motto. i should get one myself 0 Eavan 0 5

Cissy

August 21, 2008 8:42 PM

Well now you just ruined the song! by Cissy

A better chance one would forget about you. Cissy had a long think about that; she would never want to be forgotten. In fact, Cissy would have liked to be idolized, put up on the pedestal and carved in stone. In fact, Cissy wouldn’t mind it if she had a whole religion, Sierraism or Sierranity or something cheesy like that, with a whole world of people bowing down to her godliness and ideas. Even throw in a few epic stories about her power and some songs or ballads, even a dance, and the girl would be extremely pleased. A world where she was forgotten was the complete opposite, and therefore not a pleasant idea at all.

But it stuck with her, the invisibility, and Cissy’s face became determined as she looked at Josh long and hard, wondering if he was trying to offset her line of future power with statements like that. No, he wasn’t, she was being paranoid, but that also stuck. Her voice dropped an octave next time she spoke, and her face practically blanked on all emotion so she resembled her brother when he was angry. A void. “I would make sure that never happened,” she told him simply, and believed it to be true. No, no matter how long she stayed invisible, she would still be there. And Cissy would make sure that was known.

Even if she had to establish herself before gaining that amazing power.

Cissy’s mind and whole attention then was placed specifically on that air in front of her, the inkwell that Josh had turned invisible. That wasn’t forgotten, and neither was the slowly appearing pencil case. Cissy just had to get on that spell to turn it right again, so she wouldn’t be able to envy it anymore. “Acclaro Prastigiae,” she told the empty air with the same (she thought) amount of force as before. A bit of glee rose in her chest as the inkwell flickered into being, but it fell like lead as the inkwell kept its invisibility. No that was not allowed, she had done so well last time.

Her pencil case kept flickering, and Cissy tried harder on the inkwell. Accl-accl-accl, come on already! She felt as pathetic as… well… as pathetic as Paul probably did right now. Which wasn’t good, since her brother had to be, in her mind, the most pathetic human being on the face of the planet. And again, the inkwell turned completely translucent, and Cissy pouted angrily, poking it. “This inkwell is faulty,” she complained under her breath, and then checked up on Josh. “How are you doing?” she asked, hoping it was even harder for him, despite the pencil case’s simplicity for her before.

0 Cissy Well now you just ruined the song! 0 Cissy 0 5

Matt

August 22, 2008 6:29 PM

Everyone should have a motto. by Matt

Matt was highly amused over the idea that Eavan thought that Josh believed that she didn‘t like him. As far as Matt could remember, Josh had never really said a negative of anyone, let alone Eavan and that included believing the girl didn‘t like him. And why would he have thought such a thing of her or why would Josh dislike the girl next to him? Eavan was friendly. And she was always smiling. What could someone possible not like about her? Josh may have just been his usual quiet demeanor whenever Eavan was around.

“Realize?” Matt questioned. “What makes you think they haven’t already? It’s all about getting them to actually admit it…which I doubt is likely to happen.” Matt explained. Glancing at his brother and then at Danae. “They’re too proper for such things. Anyway, Josh doesn’t think you don’t like him. He just doesn’t see the point in being around both you and Danae when he figures you all just want to talk about stuff that doesn’t pertain to him in any way.” Matt tried to explain, although he knew eventually it would all play itself out.

“For most people, I’m sure it does. But, Josh has a habit of thinking too about it because of all the stuff he read on it.” He couldn’t really be sure if that was the case, but that was the best reasoning he could come up with for the time being.

He concentrated on the task at hand, his wand was lightly touching the hourglass to be sure that he was going to be hitting the right spot. He cleared his throat and spoke the spell. Much like it usually happened, the hourglass appeared, granted not in its usually solid form, but it was hinting at becoming visible. So, the return of the object was going to be more difficult than the vanishing, but he at least had the basis of it and that’s what really mattered.

Matt looked over at Eavan and grinned to let her know that he hadn’t taken it offensively or anything. He had been called worse. “Maybe you aren’t doing the wand movements right or something.” Mat suggested. “Try picturing the brush, maybe that’ll help?”

0 Matt Everyone should have a motto. 0 Matt 0 5

Danae

August 22, 2008 6:39 PM

It wasn't blue? by Danae

Elly’s statements seemed like a contradiction. She wanted the holiday to be longer, yet wished it didn’t happen? Why would anyone want a holiday that they didn’t wish happen be longer? But the more she thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make. At least, it did for her. In a way, she wished it could have been longer. There had been good moments, like spending time with Emeric. It made her feel a little better about having to marry him and given any other possible option, he was clearly the best choice. After all, she could have ended up with one of the ungentlemanly ones.

Though, in another way, she wished it hadn’t happened. She didn’t like going home for midterm. Sure, their home was decorated festively, but they didn’t get to do some of the things that other children got to do. Danae and Lucie weren’t allowed to have holiday treats, like candy canes or gingerbread men. They weren’t allowed to get up early to open presents. Everything was done with restraint. On top of this, her mother had begun to prepare her for what would be expected of her when she was married – how to run the household, take care of her husband, and the like. It was rather tedious.

“No need to be sorry,” Danae responded with a slight shrug. She gave a sidelong glance at Elly. “If you ever want to talk, I’m willing to listen. I doubt I’d be of much help, though.” What she said was true. She was good at listening since she did it so often, and often preferred it to voicing her opinions. She listened to her professors at school. She listened to her parents at home. She even listened to Lucie now, who seemed to have a penchant for voicing her opinion. Between Lucie and Devian, she sometimes wondered if she hadn’t been born to the wrong family, or perhaps, if her mother hadn’t had an affair. Of course, the latter didn’t seem likely since she had inherited quite a few of her father’s traits. She just hoped that those traits were purely physical. She was sure he would argue that intelligence certainly hadn’t translated.

And he would probably be proven correct if she didn’t do well on her assignments. She knew that she had to concentrate, but it seemed rather difficult given current thought regarding the mug. “Yes, but I’m sure he only uses it when wearing the matching slippers.” The thought of Professor Dreary (as Josh was so apt to call him) wearing his flowing black robes with a pair of pink bunny slippers was enough to nearly cause a wave of the giggles. She shook her head slightly to clear it of such impeding thoughts, but a smile still lingered. It was funny to imagine after all.

Okay, it really was time to get to work. Holding her wand, as the professor had, she stated the spell. She was rather tinkled pink when the object took on an iridescent appearance. Her wand work had always been decent just not in the top percentage of the class, and as such, always felt she was inferior, so when she did anything even just a little well, it always had a rather positive effect. Another attempt with the wand and the mug faded a bit more. A third time and it had completely disappeared. Looking over to her partner, she asked, “How are you doing with the spell?”

0 Danae It wasn't blue? 0 Danae 0 5

Adam B.

August 22, 2008 7:04 PM

Good! by Adam B.

Relief filled Adam when Talitha agreed to work with him. He logically didn't know why he though she would reject him other than Adam constantly worried that he had done something wrong and that she would somehow not want anything to do with him. It wasn't that he had little faith in Talitha, it was that he had little faith in himself . Talitha was...wonderful.

“Did you have a good holiday?”

Adam nodded. "Yeah, it as alright. We went to Lily's." He was pretty sure Talitha would know who Lily was even though he doubted they associated with each other. The seventh year was a beater on their house's team with a reputation for being aggressive and violent on the field."It was a bit crowded and then they had a Christmas party, so I wasn't overly thrilled about that." He instantly wondered if that was all right to say. People had a tendency to make Adam anxious, which nobody seemed to understand and lots of people seemed to think he was weird because of...which in turn made Adam more anxious. It was one of those vicious cycles.

"At least Kaylie seemed to have a good time." He went on. Adam had worried a lot about his older sister over the last few years. She just didn't seem to be herself anymore. "She made a new friend." He added. One of the party guests, Ian something, had spent some time talking to Kaylie and afterwords, she seemed to be a bit happier. Granted, Adam was a bit worried about that too. He didn't want her to get hurt again. "So, how was yours?"

11 Adam B. Good! 78 Adam B. 0 5

Elly

August 24, 2008 1:00 PM

I was in a yellow submarine by Elly

It was incredibly sweet of Danae to offer to listen. Despite being closer with her other roommates, Elly liked Danae a lot, and relished every expression of freindship exchanged between them. Obviously Elly would return the favour if ever it was needed, though she had come to the conclusion that she really was dreadful at comforting people. "Thanks," she replied with a smile, "I appreciate it, but I'm really okay." Besides, several of the things troubling her weren't really hers to share.

Elly was feeling much better already, and her good mood only improved with Danae's comment about O'Leary's matching slippers. Elly laughed a little too loudly, and hurriedly quietened to a soft giggle, to not risk getting them both into trouble. After all, she could hardly explain to her professor why she was chuckling without a bout of hysterical laughter and at least one detention. "That's too funny," she said as she calmed down, and she noticed that Danae was smiling, too.

If she really wanted to get through this class, though, Elly knew she had to get on with some work. Following Danae's lead, she turned back to her object - the wooden spoon - and reminded herself of the spell. She incanted with faux confidence, and was not at all surprised to see her spell had no effect whatsoever. A second and even a third attempt rendered no visible results. Though when Danae inquired of her progress, Elly didn't sound too disheartened.

"Awful, as usual," she replied, nodding at her very visible spoon. "I'm absolutely useless at learning new spells," she said, though Danae was probably already aware of that - after all, she had been sharing a dorm with Elly for three and a half years, and must have witnessed a great many failed attempts. "I'll pick it up eventually," Elly said twirling her wand idly between her fingers, "I always do." She looked over at Danae's work for comparison, and her face split into a smile. "I can see you've had no problems though," she said in a congratulatory tone. "Bear with me, I'll get there soon."

After a couple more tries though, Elly's object still remained unchanged. "Or not," she said with a slight frown. "Sorry, I've always had this problem."

0 Elly I was in a yellow submarine 0 Elly 0 5

Eavan

August 24, 2008 4:50 PM

I was thinking of "Let your smile be your umbrella" by Eavan

Eavan followed Matt's gaze, first to his brother, then to Danae. "The only reason I think they don't know is because Danae would've told me if she liked Josh. She tells me everything." Eavan's thoughts wandered back to when Danae told her about their kiss and wondered if Matt knew about it. "Maybe we could just lock them in a broom closet together, speed things up a bit," Eavan added on with an impish grin. She usually wasn't for forced coercion, but she'd been best friends with Danae long enough to know that she had feelings for Josh. And she was very comfortable in letting things take their natural course until Danae confessed to the kiss. Experimental or not, they kissed, and for some strange reason, Danae sees no significance to it! Sometimes, people need to be nudged.

"I felt the same way," Eavan said when Matt gave a reason for Josh to be distant from her. "I always just felt like I was getting in the way of everything." She shrugged and went back to the brush and Matt's advice.

"Picture the brush, but don't think about it too hard. Geez..." She tried picturing the brush, but had trouble remembering the color. Still, she tried and then she had to think about the wand movement. Luckily, holding the brush made her not have to think about where it was. And feeling the shape helped her picture it. Eavan took a deep breath and said the spell.

The brush seemed to gain some stability. Instead of pure invisibility, there was a vague outline, as though the brush were made from bubble. "Oh, much better!" Eavan declared. "You're a pretty good teacher, Matt."

0 Eavan I was thinking of "Let your smile be your umbrella" 0 Eavan 0 5

Talitha

August 25, 2008 12:40 AM

Very Good by Talitha

“It was good.” Talitha answered, her dimples deepening as she grinned at the memory of snowball fights and long giggly conversations with Charlie late into the night over huge bowls of popcorn. “I did the usual family stuff and then spent a week in Chicago with the Abbots.” Talitha glanced across the room at her obviously smitten friend. “Between you and me, I think I was an experiment. To see how his family dealt with someone from Sonora visiting. Kinda smoothing out the way for a future visit with a certain Miss Hannah Laurent.

“I’m glad you and your sister had a good holiday.” Talitha said truthfully but wondered how anyone could enjoy a holiday with Lily as a hostess. “It’s always fun to make new friends.”

Talitha snuggled the unicorn against her cheek. She was not a little girl anymore, but stuffed animals still held their irresistible charm over her. She didn’t see herself outgrowing her affinity for them any time soon. Idly, she wondered if this particular little fellow belonged to Briony. Reluctantly, she set the toy on her desk and pulled out her wand.

“I suppose we’d better get busy.” Talitha winked at Adam. “Don’t want to get into trouble with the professor for too much talk and not enough action.”\n

0 Talitha Very Good 0 Talitha 0 5

Amber

August 28, 2008 2:15 PM

Because I adhere to conventional cliche-ism. by Amber

For a second, Amber was convinced she had made a very bad mistake in offering partnership. No one ever came out and said it, but she thought it was kind of understood that nonentities like her did not just speak to people of any reputation - to the high school celebrities - without being acknowledged first. Besides, this poor guy shared a House with Morgaine, and was, as her year's Prefect, sort of under an obligation to protect the rest of the Academy from her. It was no wonder that Saul looked confused that she'd addressed him.

After a moment, however, he agreed amicably enough. Amber felt, as she always did in classes with the year above, a wave of relief. "Great," she said brightly, picking up an old pot holder that had been on the edge of her desk when she'd gotten into it. Change the color of the fabric from bright red to light blue and it might've been the one her mother had had since forever and kept on top of the paper plates by the stove.

"Sounds right," she agreed when Saul recited the assignment back to her, reaching down into her bag for her wand. She'd never gotten comfortable carrying it directly on her person like some people did, but she didn't think that was all too unusual. She looked down at her pot holder, telling herself that she could make this work the way all of the big self-help books she'd read insisted she should. "Well, here goes nothing. Creo Prastigiae!"

The pot holder wavered for a moment, as if unsure what it wanted to do, and turned blue.

Amber couldn't decide if she should laugh or blush, so she did both. Thinking about anything except the assignment at hand was bad, and this was not the first time she had seen up-close and personal just how true that was. "Trying that again," she said under her breath, more to herself than to Saul. "Creo Prastigiae!." This time, the small loop on the end for hanging it on a peg disappeared.

"Twenty more tries and I might get this," she joked. "Had any luck?"

0 Amber Because I adhere to conventional cliche-ism. 0 Amber 0 5

Saul

August 29, 2008 10:08 AM

You ought to do something about that by Saul

Saul nodded in proud self-accomplishment as Amber confirmed that he did indeed know what was going on without being re-told. Awesome. He put the puck back down on his desk and then set to the difficult task of figuring out where he'd stashed his wand. Amber had pulled hers out of her bag, so Saul started to look there first for his, but he felt something stick into his side as he bent over. He fished the pokey thing out of his pocket and was pleased to find that it was, in fact, his wand and not (a) Echo's wand, (b) a pencil, or (c) that missing vial of frogs' eggs that disappeared in the middle of his last potions lesson.

Okay. He had his wand. What was he doing again? He looked over at Amber as she turned her potholder blue. That . . . wasn't what they were supposed to be doing, was it? He went for a second opinion and looked at the people behind them. Ah, right. Disappearing disillusionment. Got it.

He pointed his wand at his puck and turned his focus on the little black disc. "Creo Prastigiae," he cast with expectant confidence and a flourish that might have been a little over the top. The edges of the puck wavered and shimmered uncertainly, like they were trying out for the part of a semi-solid mirage in a desert movie.

Amber's voice interrupted his train of though before the metaphor could get away from him. "Twenty more tries and I might get this. Had any luck?" Saul turned to look over at her potholder but didn't see any difference. If she said she was 1/21st of the way there, though, Saul was willing to believe her. He hadn't taken that good of a look at it before.

He waved at his own partial success. "It kind of hurts my eyes to look at it right now, but you can still see it. I'll be needing a few more tries, too." He wasn't too surprised by that though. He'd never done the spell before and it always took a few tries to work out the kinks. This was just the first run through, sort of like a dress rehearsal, but not even that practiced yet. He was confident he'd have it down by the end of the class though. His talent for practical applications of spells was the one thing he was actually good at in class.

1 Saul You ought to do something about that 82 Saul 0 5

Adam

August 29, 2008 4:14 PM

Very very good? by Adam

Adam felt his stomach drop when Talitha mentioned spending the week at Oliver's. He wondered if they were together or at the very least, Talitha was interested in Oliver that way. He would feel terrible if she was. Adam really liked Talitha.

He nearly breathed a sigh of relief when Talitha pretty much told him that Oliver had a thing for Hannah. Of course, that didn't mean that Talitha didn't have a crush on Oliver, or that she had one on Adam but it still made him feel a bit better. "Don't worry," He reassured Talitha, "I won't tell anyone." Actually, it made him feel sort of good that she would confide in him about anything.

Adam nodded. "And Kaylie really needs a friend. Possibly even more than I do. I don't know of anyone she's close to except me and Marshall. He's our cousin. He, Kaylie and I were always close growing up. I...at least have you." Even though Adam meant as a friend he still blushed. Was that the wrong thing to say? Was she going to figure out he liked her? Adam hoped not. If she didn't like him back, it would crush him. "And a few others," He quickly added. Very few, he thought. Most of the students didn't like him much at all.

A soft smile came to Adam's face as Talitha snuggled with the unicorn. He didn't think it was babyish at all. In fact he thought it was adorable.

"I suppose." He replied, looking at his object for the first time. It was a tiny round sphere that was clear and had an orange thing in it. "Do you want to try it first?" Adam asked.

11 Adam Very very good? 78 Adam 0 5

Hannah

August 29, 2008 11:41 PM

Fabulous by Hannah

’You might be holding your wand too rigid.’

Hannah looked down at her hand holding the wand. Her knuckles did look a little white. She never would have entertained the idea that she held her wand too tightly. She had always thought one was supposed to in order to prevent it from flying off and hitting someone or doing some other dumb thing. But it made sense. Whenever a professor demonstrated spells, their movements always seemed fluid, like their wand was just floating through the air, merely guided by their hand.

Before she could loosen her grip to attempt the spell again, she felt a warm hand on hers. Initially, she tensed at the contact. A funny, nervous feeling formed in the pit of her stomach. She had gotten them often over midterm, sometimes around Adam and sometimes around one of her guy friends. Now, here it was happening again. Hannah wondered if she should go to see the medic, because it couldn’t be normal to keep feeling this way, but she was worried that if she did, she wouldn’t be taken any more seriously than when she had told her mother. All that had earned her was a repeat talk about her changing body. Ew gross.

She really didn’t see how telling her what she already knew was going to help any. She was genuinely scared that something was really wrong with her. Why else would she have been feeling like this? She had written in her journal about it and she had told Addie, who claimed it was because she was beginning to like boys, but Hannah had dismissed that notion as not possibly being true. Boys were just friends, weren’t they? If she started to like them as more, then wouldn’t that mean she couldn’t be their friend anymore? It was all terribly confusing and she didn’t like to think about it much, other than when writing in her journal, but it was hard not to when Oliver was moving her hand this way and that with his.

That’s right, she really needed to concentrate on what she was doing and not what Oliver was doing. Trying to relax, she loosened her grip on the wand. She had to admit it did feel better. Maybe, it really would help when she tried out the spell once her hand was released, which came soon enough. And when it did, Hannah couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. Why would she feel that way? She hadn’t felt like this when one of her friends had helped her with her grip on her softball bat, but then that had been over summer. She dared to sneak a glance at her partner before turning her attention back to her object. She would have to figure it all out later.

Right now, Hannah stared hard at the stuffed kitten. Professor O’Leary certainly handed out odd objects sometimes, but she supposed that this one might have come from his daughter. “You will disappear,” she whispered right before casting the spell. It didn’t disappear, but it seemed a little lighter. Five more times and the kitten disappeared completely. She did it! In her excitement, she turned to Oliver with a wide grin and touched his arm. “I did it! We did it!” She said elatedly. Taking a breath, she slowed down. “Thanks, Oliver. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help. Maybe, I’ll even be able to do the next part. Ready to trade?”

0 Hannah Fabulous 0 Hannah 0 5

Oliver

September 01, 2008 2:19 PM

Wonderful by Oliver

Watching Hannah quietly instruct her stuffed kitten to disappear brought a smile to Oliver's lips. He couldn't help it, anymore than he could help thinking how unbelievably cute that was. He registered that thought with no small amount of surprise; he thought Hannah was cute. Not only that, but she was incredibly pretty, and smart, too: After just a few more tries the stuffed toy did as it was bade and disappeared.

Oliver felt somewhat dizzy as Hannah touched his arm, and he did his very best not to look to vacant, but his ever-present smile was undoubtedly giving him a geeky quality. "Yeah, that was great," he said, not convinced his brain and mouth were really communicating all that well. "You've got that one down alright." What in Merlin's name was he talking about?

Trying to regain some control over, well, anything, Oliver groped for the invisible bowl and managed to located it without too much trouble. "Yes," he said, hopefully sounding normal. "Let's trade. We'll crack this one together," he said, with a far more relaxed smile. Finally, his senses seemed to be returning to him. It was absolutely no good his liking Hannah if he turned into this gibbering idiot whenever he was around her.

Passing the bowl to Hannah, Oliver made sure his fingers brushed against hers, and he fought down another grin. Julian made having a girlfriend look so easy; Oliver wasn't sure he'd ever be able to spend time with Hannah ever again after this class without dying of shame.

0 Oliver Wonderful 0 Oliver 0 5

Danae

September 01, 2008 3:49 PM

In a sea of green by Danae

At Elly’s comment of appreciation, Danae opted to not pressure her to talk further about what was bothering her. Part of it was because Danae wasn’t the prying type. She never had been. Her mother was meddlesome enough for the both of them without Danae feeling the need to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. Part of it was because she understood the want of not wanting to talk about it. She nearly never wanted to discuss what was bothering her and there were only a couple of people that she seemed unable to keep her emotions from. Still, part of it was that she hoped Elly knew that if she ever really did need to talk, Danae would do her best to be there for her simply for the fact that Elly had always been nice to her, even with all the rough spots in the dorm.

Being more comfortable around Elly had also allowed Danae to be able to joke every once in awhile like the bit she had just said, which had gotten an excellent reaction in the form of a laugh. The cause was for Danae to just smile all the more, glad that she could have gotten her roommate into an obviously better mood. Not to mention, it made her feel more at ease. Elly in a bad mood was as unnatural to her as Lucie being quiet. She loved her sister, but it didn’t change the fact that the girl was a talker. Over midterm, Lucie had been in her room ever day, talking asking incessant questions about boys (like she had some clue) and talking about this, that, and the other. Danae had no idea how she could find so much to talk about and it made her ponder if there was something wrong with her quiet nature, especially since her parents seemed to think so.

Danae was glad that her object had disappeared after three tries. She would have felt her parents were right if it hadn’t, though, she often believed them to be right about everything. She wondered what Elly’s home life was like. She doubted it was anything like hers. Of course, one never knew for certain, but Elly seemed to take not being able to learn spells right away with a grain of salt. She returned Elly’s grin. “No rush,” she said with a wave of her hand. She was a rather patient person, whether this was by nature or nurturer or a bit of both she didn’t know, but either way, she was content spending hours in the corridors with Josh while he worked on his map or with dealing with her mother’s instruction.

While she waited, Danae watched Elly try the spell a few more times, but the spoon remained just as visible as it was before. She tilted her head slightly. It seemed like Elly was doing everything right, but she could be wrong. Yet, if she was, then shouldn’t the object have disappeared by now? She frowned slightly in thought. “Maybe if you try making the mug reappear first, it would help with making the spoon disappear?” It was odd form of logic, but it made sense to her. Sometimes, it took doing things in reverse to make it click.

0 Danae In a sea of green 0 Danae 0 5

Hannah

September 01, 2008 11:03 PM

Marvelous by Hannah

Hannah took the invisible bowl that was passed to her. If it hadn’t been for Oliver’s fingers brushing against her own causing a faded blush and a more intense nervous feeling, she might have considered just how odd it was to be holding her hand around the rim of the bowl, yet not seeing the bowl. Instead, she accidentally dropped the bowl. Thankfully, it hadn’t been sitting too far above the desk and, though, it made a slight clank against the desk, it didn’t sound as if it had broken at all. She just hoped that when she managed to make it visible again that proved true.

Before she attempted the second spell, she fumbled around on her desk a bit to locate the stuffed kitten. If she ended up making both visible, it would defeat the purpose of working with a partner. Once located, she set it on Oliver’s desk rather than handing it to him in an effort to avoid brushing against his fingers again. If she did, she was worried that the warmth that she felt would become more apparent and would then turn into one more of embarrassment for having blushed at all. She just hoped that he hadn’t noticed any of it, because she was just horribly awkward and weird. At least, that’s how it felt.

After doing so, Hannah quickly turned her attention back to the invisible object that was somewhere on her desk. Well, this would be interesting. She was supposed to point her wand somewhere, which the question was where was the somewhere that she was to be pointing? Using her left hand, she felt around on the desk until she felt the bowl. She kept it there for a moment, moving it only when she cast the spell. Unfortunately, by being concentrated on this, she ended up holding her wand too tightly again, so as would be expected, the spell failed. And she repeated this for a couple tries.

A sigh of frustration came from Hannah, as she propped her elbow up on the desk and leaned her head on her hand. What was she doing wrong? She glanced over at Oliver and a small ‘oh’ formed on her lips. Her wand. Trying again, she made sure to relax her grip and attempted the spell again. It took another few tries, but the bowl came into being, but she was sure it was a lighter color than it was originally. Oh well. It was visible and that’s all that mattered. All smiles, she turned once more to Oliver, more than pleased with her accomplishment, which was all thanks to him. “You’re a really good teacher. I never thought about the way I used my wand before. Maybe that’s why I have trouble with all my spells. Do you think you could help me? You know, if you aren’t too busy?”

0 Hannah Marvelous 0 Hannah 0 5

Devian Dupree

September 03, 2008 12:49 PM

Showing up by Devian Dupree

In classes, Devian preferred to sit in the back of classes when he had the opportunity to do so fro two reasons. One reason was that it was easier to work on things other than classwork, such as other homework or reading a good book. The other reason was that it meant that everyone else’s backs were to him. This gave him the chance to view other people while they couldn’t view him as easily. Finding his preferred seating, Devian settled in. He pulled out all of the necessary tools – parchment, ink, a quill, and the textbook, and then he pulled out the book he had been reading and placed it behind his textbook. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t paying attention to the class, but he just really wanted to finish the book and the professor had a tendency to go on and on about the importance of spells.

When the lecture was finally over, Devian glanced up from his book to the charms written on the board. It seemed simple enough and judging by the way that people were moving around, they were working in partners. Not wanting to really move from his seat, he asked the person next to him, not really looking at them, “Do you want to work with me?” A bored sort of tone was in his voice. He didn’t really care for group work, merely because he thought he could finish faster on his own. Maybe it was a bit conceited of him to think, but then he was a bit of a conceited person. Yet, it was true for the most part. If the other person were having trouble with the spell, it meant he had to wait until they were able to get it in order to start the next part of the assignment.

While waiting for an answer, Devian took to exploring the object he ended up with. He had no idea what it was. It was a flat, rounded object with a whole in the center. On the object, it read ‘AOL Free Trail’ and was rather shiny. He raised an eyebrow. What a strange thing. He turned it around in his fingers, as he pondered what it could have possibly been used for. It was obviously muggle, but that didn’t explain what it was. Maybe it was thrown back and forth? Oh, well. He supposed it really didn’t matter, as long as he accomplished the task at hand. Pulling out his wand, he practiced the motion. He tried a few more times until it felt fluid. Once this happened, he pointed the wand at the object. ” Creo Prastigiae,” he cast, expecting the object to fully disappear, but was sorely disappointed when it still showed an outline. He glanced over to his partner to see how much they had progressed.

0 Devian Dupree Showing up 70 Devian Dupree 0 5

Matt
September 03, 2008 10:26 PM

Matt
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That seems to be a chipper motto. by Matt
Matt nodded as though he knew exactly what Eavan was talking about. To him, it didn't seem possible for one person to completely confide in another person. Especially with something that they felt was very private. Josh was a good example of that. If Matt hadn't walked into the secret passageway last year looking for Josh and having spotted Danae and him together, Matt would never have known the two of them were socializing together. Matt liked to think that he would tell his brother everything, or whomever he considered to be a good friend, but he knew that there would eventually be some things that he wouldn't feel comfortable with talking about.

But, Matt left this all to himself. He didn't think it was his place to tell Eavan that there was a chance her best friend was actually keeping something from her. Besides, he could be wrong. They both could be wrong and Josh and Danae merely considered themselves friends and nothing more.

He chuckled at Eavan's suggestion, but shook his head. "Knowing Josh, he'll just sketch out the closet onto his map and mark it off as one less thing to worry about." Matt joked. As much as Matt believed the two of them were heading in that direction much like most people believed Echo and Elly were heading, Matt wasn't going to hold his breath with it anytime soon. Plus, he knew Josh well enough to know that instead of being grateful for being shoved into a small locked closet with Danae, Josh would only be angry with them for pushing them into something they didn't necessarily want.

So, there would be no pushing from Matt's end. Just constant teasing.

The hourglass was once again restored to all it's glory after Matt's second attempt at the spell. He looked rather satisfied with his work even though it had to have taken more than just the first try. Matt never became frustrated when it came to his wand work because he knew eventually it would come to him. Magic was who he was, why worry?

"Gracias." Matt stated after Eavan had complimented his skills. "You're getting better already. Awesome job."

0 Matt That seems to be a chipper motto. 0 Matt 0 5

Josh
September 03, 2008 10:28 PM

Josh
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Didn't want people thinking odd things of me. by Josh
Josh was a bit daunted by the look that Cissy was shooting at him after he finished talking. Okay, maybe he had said something that she didn't completely agree with. That was fine. Josh said plenty of things in his life time that other people didn't agree with, usually Matt, but he didn't think he deserved the sort of look that Cissy was currently giving him.

What he had said was partly true. People aren't visible to those around them are often forgotten. He figured that was something obvious to everyone. Sure, if a person was invisible they could get away with whatever they wanted. That could be extremely fun, but also extremely dangerous depending on the person whom was invisible. But, eventually, if the person remained out of the eye of everyone else, they would soon be forgotten. It just seemed to be the most natural course of things. Of course, Josh tended to see things from perspectives that other people may not necessarily go to.

"Uh, okay." Josh said, uncertainly as to what else she was supposed to say. Besides, it wasn't like they were likely to make themselves invisible anytime soon. What reason would they have to do something like that? Although, Josh chanced a glance at his twin, Matt was likely to want to be become invisible and do deplorable things while no one was able to see him. That was no a good thought to have.

Josh's spell work wasn't the best, but he was definitely making progress with the pencil case each and every time he said the spell, a bit more of the case came back into the picture. Although Josh often times became frustrated when the spell didn't work the first few times, he also knew to feel good when the spell did work, even if it was a slow progress.

He glanced at Cissy when she muttered something about the inkwell, "I'm doing pretty good. I think a couple more tries and I'll have the case all back to it's original visibility. Inkwell giving you trouble?" He asked her, feeling a bit relieved that she didn't get it on her first try for reasons he didn't quite understand. He never wished for someone else's misfortune.

0 Josh Didn't want people thinking odd things of me. 0 Josh 0 5

Elly
September 05, 2008 11:18 AM

Elly
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Under the silver stars by Elly
Seeing as it had always taken her a rather long time to get the hang of new spells, Elly wasn't really troubled be it. owever, it was somewhat tiresome to contiously make others in the class wait for her. Danae had finished making her object disappear ages ago, and now all she had to do was wait until Elly could do the same, but that didn't seem to be happening. She made an inarticulate grunt of frustration before laughing at the odd noise she'd just made.

"Maybe if you try making the mug reappear first, it would help with making the spoon disappear?” Danae suggested.

"I'm up for bizarre logic," Elly replied, laughing some more. She only hoped Danae wasn't getting too bored. "I'm willing to give anything a go once," she said. With that, Elly reached a hand over to Danae's desk and found the invisible mug with her fingers. The thought crossed her mind that it must be excpetionally odd to drink visible liquid out of an invisible mug, and it was definitely something she would try if she ever got this illusion charm down. "Thought I'd better find it first," she explained to Danae, retracting her arm and aiming her wand at where she was sure the cup rested.

"What was the spell again? Oh, Acclaro Prastigiae!" Elly cast the spell and, to nobody's surprise, nothing happened. "See I just have to get this right, otherwise I might get in trouble for ruining his favourite cup," she teased. One more try later and she may as well have been speaking backwards for all the good it did her. Sighing, Elly leant back again in her own chair.

"I can do every spell once I've got it right once," she told Danae. "It's just getting it done just that first time that causes me the trouble. I've tried everything - well, everything acceptable, anyway. I considered learning enhancers but I've heard they can be a bit dodgy, so i doubt its worth the risk." She smiled vaguely. "Sorry I'm not a very good partner," she apologised to Danae, though a mischeivous smile was creeping onto her face. "Magic-wise, I mean. Because obviously I'm a superb partner in every other criterion."

0 Elly Under the silver stars 0 Elly 0 5

Eavan
September 06, 2008 4:40 PM

Eavan
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Well, I'm a chipper person. by Eavan
Eavan stared at her mainly invisible brush, thinking. She sighed after a bit and looked back up at Matt with a small smile. Danae had told Eavan about Josh's map, or rather that she helped him with it. She didn't know too many specifics about the actual map. "I guess Danae probably wouldn't be too thrilled about being locked in a closet. Even with the best of intentions." She widened her grin. "I guess we'll just have to wait it out."

Eavan's frown at how quickly Matt got the spell to work properly for him was replaced by a shy smile. "Thanks," she replied to his compliment. She went back to staring at her brush, still gripped in her hand, though it looked like she was grasping at something made of glass and air. She brandished her wand a tried again. This time the brush looked like glass with a sheer layer of color over the top. Like someone had carefully applied a layer of water color over it. Better, but not great.

"I think this is going to take a while." She looked over at Matt, apologetically. "Sorry, I'm holding you up."

0 Eavan Well, I'm a chipper person. 0 Eavan 0 5

Rosalind Rabindra
September 06, 2008 10:38 PM

Rosalind Rabindra
Alumnus
House: Aladren
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Age in Post: 15

I wish you hadn't by Rosalind Rabindra
Rosalind had never liked Defense Against the Dark Arts. It involved massive amounts of wandwork, learned in a short period of time and was more often than not, very confrontational. She blushed, thinking about all those times she'd had to try and defend herself from "attackers" in front of her classmates. It wasn't a pretty picture, unless the person watching liked to laugh at people.

Plus, there was the added horror of being brand new. She knew no one, really. Everything she did would be harshly judged and that would just cause Rosie to be even more nervous than she should be. She entered the classroom, trying to keep her eyes to the floor and using her long brown hair to keep her face covered. She found an empty seat in the back and quietly settled into it, flipping open her book and glancing up from beneath her hair to look at what the professor was writing on the board.

Her first impression of Professor O'Leary was that he was no nonsense and strict. She severely hoped that this translated to a lot of serious work and very little in the way of mock battles with Stunning spells. Her grey eyes raced across the blackboard, reading the neat words on the board. Spells. Just sitting there working on a spell? That wasn't too bad, considering this was 5th year Defense. It was the Disillusionment Charm. She had seen it done a million times by her nanny as well as her parents, when they were trying to hide things from herself of her sister. She had never tried the spell herself, but Rosie felt her confidence increase slightly knowing exactly what's to be expected of her.

She glanced down at the desk for her object, originally bypassing it because it looked like an ordinary bottle of ink, perhaps something left by the previous class. Upon closer inspection she read the small label on the front and let a small chuckle out. She knew exactly what this was and wondered how it had gotten into her severe teacher's possession. The liquid in the bottle was a deep purple, rather the the black she thought it was and in lacy white letters, the words Madame Christine's Nail Lacquer blazed from the side of the small bottle. Audrey had a million of the little bottles at home, occasionally forcing Rosie to sit still while she painted her nails various shades of pink and sparkly blue.

A voice cut through Rosie's memories of her sister. A voice hauntingly familiar. Without turning, she tried to think of where she had heard it before. Something in her head told her that she should recognize this voice. It only took her a second to realize she couldn't place it and shifted the veil of dark waves that had been shielding her face thus far. She stopped, her breath caught in her throat, as she realized where she knew the voice from. Devian Dupree. She felt the blush rising to her face in remembrance of their last meeting.

She had refused to look at him, instead intently staring at his immaculate robes. Her cheeks had burned so red that it hurt as she was introduced. She barely trusted herself to speak, leaving the adults to take care of everything. But she remembered the voice and she remembered the face from one of the few instances she dared glance up. Even from that little bit, his image had been burned into her brain.

Coming back to reality, she tried to slow down her furiously beating heart and answer at the sane time. "Y-Y-Yes," she managed to squeak out. This was going to be difficult. It wasn't that she didn't like Devian, it was just that the very thought him - or more accurately what he represented - made her mind-numbingly nervous.

She realized after a second that he didn't want or need a partner. Without acknowledging her answer, he had begun the spell. She turned away to stare at the nail polish. It looked like it could be muggle, but Rosie already knew that there were spell on the lacquer to keep it from chipping until the wearer wanted it off. She picked up her wand carefully, shooting a furtive glance at her partner just in time to see his fairly successful attempt at camouflaging the strange circle thing he held. She sighed. Rosie always had to take some time to get wand work right. It was the reason she preferred Potions and History of Magic.

Suddenly, his gaze shifted from his object to her and Rosie's eyes widened, her wand frozen over the small bottle she still clutched in her pale fingers. A deer caught in the headlights. Her eyes locked with his and a slight blush crept to her face. What now?

0 Rosalind Rabindra I wish you hadn't 73 Rosalind Rabindra 0 5

Oliver
September 07, 2008 3:24 PM

Oliver
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Amazing by Oliver
Oliver wished he could read girl. Hannah wasn't looking at him much, whereas he could hardly take his eyes off her. Did that mean she didn't like him? Well, not beyond friends, anyway. Maybe this was just one of a huge number fo things that girls did differently. Maybe Oliver was just kidding himself. Especially seeing as Hannah didn't even pass her object over; she just put it on Oliver's desk in front of him. Maybe she hadn't appreciated the brief touching of fingers. There was only one thing Oliver knew for certain: there were far too many 'maybe's.

As Hannah set to work, Oliver mentally smacked himself and refused to look over at her, even though his eyes were drawn in that direction more often than any other. If nothing else he could always try and impress her with his magical finesse. Focaussing more intently on getting a spell right than he ever had done, Oliver cast the revealling spell at the object. He couldn't hide the slightly smug smile of satisfaction as the kitten reappeared. Not entirely, it was still quite hazy, but another couple of goes later and Oliver knew he had the spell down to an art. Finally he allowed himself to look at Hannah, and, to his delight, she was smiling at him.

"You’re a really good teacher," Hannah said, and her voice was so floaty and her face so glowy when she smiled. oliver knew his ears were red as beetroots. "Do you think you could help me? You know, if you aren’t too busy?”

Oliver swallowed hard and even blinked a couple of times. Was this an invite to spend lots more time with Hannah? Maybe even one-on-one time with Hannah? Oliver's surprised smile split into as relaxed grin as he could manage (though he doubted it looked relaxed - probably closer to crazed until he got some control over it). "Yeah -" he cleared his throat, "I mean, yes, I'm sure I could manage that." He looked at her again, and right into her eyes, and he couldn't feel most part of his body anymore (excpet his tongue, which for some reason felt far too big for his mouth). "You're a very fast learner," he told her. And beautiful and smart and I need to stop looking at you, his inner monologue continued inanely.

0 Oliver Amazing 0 Oliver 0 5

Matt
September 08, 2008 10:19 PM

Matt
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That you are. by Matt
“Yeah, she probably wouldn’t.” Matt agreed. He only knew the minimum information about Danae. Josh kept his mouth unusually quiet when it came to his female friend. Probably thought Matt would tell anyone and everyone the secrets between the two of them. Well, who was Matt kidding? He totally would without hesitation. “She’s the nervous type, Danae. I don’t think she’d have a clue about what to do locked in a small space with him. Poor kids.” Matt said, shaking his had sadly at his twin and sister-in-law.

“Anyway, I know that Josh invited Danae to hang out with us over the summer. Should be fun. I don’t know when she’s coming though. Or if she’s coming.” Matt added as an afterthought. Josh had talked to their parents over midterm and they were both willing (and their mother equally excited) to have Danae stay with them for a couple of weeks. “If Danae comes around, you should hang out for a bit with us too. Could be our own little summer reunion.” Matt suggested to her lightly.

He watched Eavan as she tried the spell again. Her progress was slow, but it wasn’t terrible. Really, Matt thought she was doing a great job with it. Better than some of the other students in the class were. He knew that how quickly things came to him made some people frustrated, so he hoped that she wasn’t at all put out by his ability. It was one of the few things he was capable of doing on his own. He grinned openly at Eavan, “I’m in no rush. I don’t mind watching you.”

0 Matt That you are. 0 Matt 0 5

Eavan
September 10, 2008 2:49 AM

Eavan
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*smiles* by Eavan
"Poor kids," Eavan repeated in a small voice. Of course, she wouldn't have any idea what to do in a locked closet with a boy either. Perhaps even less so. She glanced at Matt and wondered if he had any idea. She hadn't heard about him with any girl at Sonora, but that didn't mean that he didn't have a girlfriend. Or that he didn't have someone at home.

Danae had mentioned Josh asking her to spend some time at his place, and Eavan had obviously been very happy for her. The idea of a little summer reunion sounded even better. Eavan grinned. "I'd love that! You live in LA right? We ride the same Wagon. My dad would totally be okay with that if Danae were there." Good. That was so much better than what she was originally planning on doing this summer: nothing.

Eavan knew that Matt just meant that he didn't mind watching her failed attempts at restoring the brush, but she still couldn't help the flush that crept into her cheeks. She quickly turned away from his smiling face and stared down at her brush, trying to make it look like she was just concentrating. After a few seconds with her wand poised over the semi-visible brush, her blush faded and she tried her hand at the spell again.

It must have been the immense concentration, because it only took another few minutes to make the brush flicker a few times like an old tv in a storm and become fully visible.

"Finally!" She grinned widely and waved the brush to show Matt, her previous flustering forgotten. "That was awful. I wonder why it took so much longer than the other spell. Do you want to try the spells again or should we consider that a full day's work?"

0 Eavan *smiles* 0 Eavan 0 5

Hannah
September 16, 2008 12:39 AM

Hannah
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Unbelievable by Hannah
Hannah was so thrilled over the compliment in regards to her learning that she didn’t turn away when she blushed over it and instead just stayed smiling at Oliver. She probably looked like an imbecile just sitting there and grinning, but she honestly didn’t care since she was so happy. Plus, Oliver had agreed to spend time with her, which meant that she was going to be able to practice all her other spells with a bit of help. Oh. Her smile faltered a little. She was going to be spending more time with Oliver, which was good, right? She would get to spend time with him and work on spells, but it made her a little nervous.

Why was she so nervous, but really happy too? Oliver was just a boy, just like the ones back home, the ones that she played sports with, the ones that she was just like one of the boys with. And none of that explained the actual reason behind her feelings just why she shouldn’t be feeling that way. She turned her head, her blonde hair covering her face, as she tried to shoo away her jumbled up thoughts, which she could examine later. She should be concentrating on what was occurring at this moment. They had just finished the assignment and had done well on it. Of course, she had done well, because of Oliver’s help.

And if Hannah did this well with just a little bit of help, she could only imagine how well she would do with even more help from Oliver since he had agreed to help her. Now, she just had to find out when they were both available. She pulled out her planner (she would be lost without it) and flipped to the week they were currently in. Leaning over to Oliver, she showed him her schedule. Marked in the calendar was her school schedule and Quidditch practice. “I have these days free,” she said, pointing to them. “Are you available then?” She hoped that one of their free days mixed since he had practice too.

0 Hannah Unbelievable 0 Hannah 0 5

Danae
September 16, 2008 12:40 AM

Danae
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And the blue moon by Danae
When Elly attempted the reappearing spell, Danae tried to send good vibrations her way since she seemed to be having so much trouble. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to help any, because the object failed to reappear when Elly cast the spell. At least, regardless, of her bad luck in casting, her humor seemed to be in tact. Danae gave a grin and joked back, “It would be the most vicious detention ever, because you made his slippers lonely.”

Okay, perhaps, it was a little mean to be joking about the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but the man seemed to enjoy inspiring fear in others when sometimes this was the quickest course to disaster. She understood the importance of being able to protect oneself. Maybe she knew it better than most given what her family was into, but she also knew from experience that it wasn’t always the best course. If a person never was able to learn the spell, how would they ever be able to cast it when it mattered?

Danae knew from firsthand experience how much fear or criticism could cause more damage than actually taking the time to allow one to learn at their own pace. Her mother was constantly on her to learn at a faster pace in lessons. Though, the newest lessons weren’t so bad, but it might have been because there was no one to compare her to. At least, there wouldn’t be for another year and a half, not until Lucie was fourteen, but then she would be almost free of her family and she really didn’t think Emeric was that all that bad.

Of course, being free of her family didn’t equal total freedom since there was Emeric and she wondered what it would be like not to be betrothed. She dared to sneak a glance at Josh. He didn’t look all that happy. She hoped he wasn’t having too much trouble with the spell, but she had faith that he would get it eventually. He always did just like he always got everything perfect on his map. It was cute, really, like the way his face would take on a certain look when he was concentrating.

Hearing Elly continue talking, Danae realized that she had been staring at Josh and quickly turned her attention back to her partner. Her face felt a bit warm and she really hoped Elly hadn’t noticed or anyone else for that matter. “Um, yeah, learning enhancers are a bit dangerous,” she managed, trying to regain focus. She paused for a moment, seemingly slightly speech impaired, before she was able to continue with more of a grin, “It’s really all right. I don’t mind.” At the mischievous smile and comment, Danae raised an eyebrow in question, wondering if Elly had an idea or not. She was known for being a bit of a prankster after all.

0 Danae And the blue moon 0 Danae 0 5

Devian
September 16, 2008 12:42 AM

Devian
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Me too by Devian
This was the first time that Devian took the opportunity to study his partner. She was a pretty girl and he had the nagging suspicion that she was familiar somehow. He ignored it in favor of assuming that he knew her from classes and that she must just not be a noticeable girl, but somehow that didn’t seem right. He continued his study of her, the way she acted. Then, it dawned on him, exactly how he knew her. His blue eyes narrowed, as his mouth formed a silent oh. He didn’t know her from school. Oh, no, but he knew her and was going to end up knowing her well enough even though he didn’t want to.

With that knowledge, Devian made a couple other connections. The first being her name, which he had momentarily forgotten in the effect of seeing her. Rosalind Rabindra. The Rabindra family was well known throughout their community. The second connection he made was why she was here. He didn’t know it for certain, but he could make the guess that it was because of him. After all, why would someone attend one school for a good bit and then come to another school? And it was conveniently the one he attended. He nearly sighed, but bit it back. It would do absolutely no good to be frustrated with the turn of events at the moment.

His eyes traveled down to the object that she was holding, obviously still very visible. Had she tried the spell at all? If she did, she hadn’t done a very good job. Did she often do poorly with spell work? He frowned a bit in thought. He supposed he hadn’t done that well either since his item was vaguely visible. Of course, he really wasn’t worried that he would master the spell. He always did even if it took countless hours. He was determined to always have the upper hand. Given their future, Devian supposed that she should have it as well, just not as well as him. “Do you need any help, Rosalind?” He painfully asked in his nicest tone of voice since it really wouldn’t accomplish anything to have her scared of him.

Well, perhaps, it would accomplish something. She might be persuaded to leave the school, which would mean that she wouldn’t be so close to his business. Of course, he didn’t really have much business any more to speak of. Before returning to school after midterm, his father had ordered him not to go near Chris. It wasn’t like he normally hung around his cousin, but occasionally it served a purpose. However, the sudden command made him curious, especially after what had happened over the holiday. He wondered if he shouldn’t persist in finding out more about what had happened, which would involve hanging around Chris. Though, how to do so without raising suspicion? He tapped his fingers against his desk pondering. His object lay forgotten.

0 Devian Me too 0 Devian 0 5

Oliver
September 20, 2008 5:53 PM

Oliver
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Astounding by Oliver
There was a moment of confusion while Hannah reached into her bag, but soon she produced a school schedule, and Oliver understood. He wasn't so organised as to have an actual written timetable himself, but he did know where he was supposed to be most of the time. Oliver leant over the schedule to get a better view, and he did his utmost to ignore how close he was to Hannah while he tried to find some spare time they had in common. "Here," he said, tapping the timetable with his finger. "Wednesday next week, after classes." He looked up at Hannah and he was really close to her now, but it had stopped feeling weird. Well that was a good start - jibbering idiot was probably not an attractive look. Thankfully it seemed to wear off after a while. "We could meet in the library next week, if that suits you?"

On the one hand, Oliver was really looking forward to meeting up again with Hannah. They were a lot closer now than they had been at the ball last year, and Oliver was still thoroughly pleased he'd invited her. Yet on the other hand, he didn't know how Hannah felt about him, and that was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Still, the last time Oliver had plucked up the courage to ask hannah something, they'd had a good time at the ball and now they were going to be meeting for extra tuition. Ah, that. Oliver wasn't truly convinced he could teach her anything. After all, it could just have been fluke she got the spells down after he readjusted her wand. but even so, they could always use the time to study together, and that would benefit them both. Then, maybe, if Oliver felt things were going well, he could ask Hannah to.. what? Be his girlfriend? Oliver thought he would need to work on the phrasing, but the concept itself was thrilling.

(OOC: If you want to start a library thread I'll join you there)

0 Oliver Astounding 0 Oliver 0 5

Elly
September 20, 2008 6:20 PM

Elly
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With red roses by Elly
There were many things that passed by Elly. It had taken her at least a month to notice something was seriously up with Meredith, and she hadn't known about Echo's touching phobia until he'd specifically spoken about it. Some might even call her unobservant. Yet when Danae turned back round to the desk with a blush on her face the shade of a lobster, Elly had to raise an eyebrow. She turned to follow Danae's gaze of moments ago, and was not entirely surprised to find Josh Santoro sitting there. Well, he was working with Cissy, and that might have turned her red from anger or irritation, but Elly didn't think most other people had a problem with the tarwaters beside herself (and she still didn't truly understand why they didn't get on so well).

"Yeah," Elly replied vaguely to Danae. Should she say something? The temptation was almost overwhelming, but then she wasn't sure she'd want people asking questions any time she were to blush. She twirled her wand idly in her hand, her eyebrow still raised mischievously - it was almost a neutral expression for Elly. "So are you doing anything for the Fair?" she asked, in a would-be casual voice. "Caede and Mere are helping me out and I think Echo is going round finding stuff for the paper. I thought maybe you might be doing something with Matt and Josh?" Elly somewhat less than subtly looked to Danae to gauge her reaction.

See, she could be sneaky when she wanted. It came in useful when she was planning an executing pranks. She would dearly have loved to make things disappear, but if she couldn't get this spell to work there was no chance of that ever happening. Elly sighed. "If only I could get this Creo Prastigiae to work," she said. To her immense surprise, her wand had accidentally been pointing towards the wooden spoon just as she uttered the incantation, and the object flickered a bit before almost disappearing entirely.

"Woah," Elly exclaimed loudly, almost falling off her chair in shock. "Here I was trying my hardest, and it seems what I really needed was to not try at all," she said laughing.

0 Elly With red roses 0 Elly 0 5

Danae
September 20, 2008 8:30 PM

Danae
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And yellow tulips by Danae
At the mention of the fair, Danae grinned widely. It was promising to be fun, though, she felt a little guilty for not participating in creating a booth. “Uh, not really. I didn’t have any ideas and I think Matt and Josh are doing something with their family, so Eavan and I are planning on just hanging out and checking out the different booths. We’ll stop by yours,” Danae replied. She wished that she could have done one, but she didn’t think it really would have worked with only one person running it.

She supposed she could have asked Eavan or Paul, but Paul seemed to have a hard time dealing with people and she really wasn’t sure why she hadn’t asked Eavan, except that she hadn’t. Oh, well, the reasoning hardly mattered. Besides, Danae figured that she could use the time to support her friends’ booths instead of worrying about her own, which she fully intended to do. She had a very vague idea about Elly’s booth, but she really didn’t know what the other girl was planning on and wondered if it was top secret. “Do you have yours all figured out then?”

When Elly’s object disappeared without her putting forth any real effort, Danae glanced over in surprise, her eyes slightly wide. She never would have guessed that the most effective method would be not to try since she always had to put a bit of effort forth into her spells in order to get them to work. She supposed that it was probably different for everyone since so many things factored into the equation, such as personality, the magic, the wand, etc. The more she thought about it though maybe it really wasn’t all that surprising. Elly always struck her as more of an instinctual person.

“Good job,” Danae congratulated Elly. Then, joked, “Maybe you should not try to make it reappear either.” The effortless magic reminded her of when she and her siblings were younger. Magic happened all the time around the house without trying. It just came, but now when trying to make it happen, it seemed so much harder sometimes. Of course, after awhile spells did become easier to cast, but she wasn’t sure if this would be on that list, merely because she didn’t think she would be using it all that much. Well, maybe she would. It would be good at home to keep things away from prying eyes.

The corners of Danae’s mouth turned downwards. Knowing the one spell would be completely useless without knowing the other half of the spell. “It would be really awful to make something disappear and not be able to make it reappear,” she mused. With her luck, it could quite possibly occur. Maybe it would be better if she didn’t use the spell after all. She wouldn’t want to accidentally make her stuffed turtle from Eavan or the barrette from Josh disappear and not be able to bring it back.

0 Danae And yellow tulips 0 Danae 0 5

Matt
September 21, 2008 1:17 AM

Matt
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Do you ever have a bad moment? by Matt
"It's a shame, though." Matt began, "that Danae's already got a boyfriend or whatever the guy back home is considered." He was refering to Danae's betrothal, Emeric. Josh made mention of him at one point while they were discussing the girls of Sonora. Matt was rather surprised that people were chosen for other people as that had never occurred in his family before. Or, at least, not while he was alive. Bella had told them that practices like those had gone off with the wind when the new millenium had hit, but that not everyone had received the news. Apparently, she wasn't impressed by them and neither was Josh. But, although Matt kept telling him to make a move on Danae since Emeric wasn't around to stop him, but Josh simply told him to just leave it alone. "I think if she didn't, it might make things a whole lot easier on the two of them."

Matt blinked for a moment after Eavan agreed to hang out with them over the summer. She seemed to assume that they actually spent their summers at their home. Well, he supposed most people actually did spend their summers at home, but that wasn't what the Santoros did at all. In fact, Matt rarely ever saw his home since leaving it to come to Sonora. They were lucky enough to be able to have Christmas there, but sometimes that didn't even happen. At least, not the last couple of years since Abuelo seemed to keep getting sick. So, they spent their Christmases in Mexico. "Well, technically, we do live in Los Angeles, but we don't spend our summers there." Matt corrected her.

"We spend the first half en la casa de la familia del Papá en México y the second half en la casa de la familia de la Madre en España." It took a moment for Matt to even realize that he had slipped into his natural language when he spoke of his family homes. "Er… we spend it in Mexico and Spain." He corrected, unsure if Eavan had been able to understand what he had said. "I don't know when Danae is coming, so it could be either. Would your parents even let you stay with us if we aren't in America?"

While Eavan was busy trying to bring her brush back to life, Matt's mind wandered slightly on to other things. Some thoughts were about the class projects. Some on the summer. Some where even on their C.A.T.S. examinations the following year. But most were on his classmates. More specifically, the girls in his year and the year below him. He had recently heard Jake and Bella discussing school couples and how they would have never believed so and so would have ended up with so and so. Would their class be like that too? Or would it be rather obvious with who dated?

"Finally!"

Eavan's voice startled Matt out of his thoughts and he refocused on her to see that the brush was back to its original beauty. "Good job, Eavan. Totally had faith in you." Matt said with a slight nod. He wasn't really sure how to answer her next question. He didn't really think he needed to keep practicing, but Eavan seemed to need some more help just so that she didn't forget what she was doing. "We can still practice if you want to."

0 Matt Do you ever have a bad moment? 0 Matt 0 5

Meredith Lail
September 26, 2008 8:06 PM

Meredith Lail
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Ready and focused. Or rather trying to focus. by Meredith Lail
During midterm, Meredith found a lot of time by herself. Where once that would have been unnerving, she found it sort of nice when her mind wasn't constantly reeling with awful thoughts. They seemed to slowly slip away to the farther recesses of her mind, saved only for dreams and even then it wasn't so bad. So when classes began again and she saw her friends, she was much more chipper than she had been, though still a little more reserved. She couldn't ignite that usual spark that made her unable to sit still for extended periods of time and grin widely at everyone she passed.

Mere entered the Defense classroom taking an available seat nearby since many were already taken when she arrived. She felt differently towards the class with the perpetually brood-worthy professor. It had a set significance to her now after seeing defense spells used in a real and terrifying situation. The significance came now that she could think a little clearer. Her mind was typically used to wandering during class, but she forced herself to pay attention now, easier said than done since she was trying to simultaneously recall the spells she learned the first half of the year and in previous years just to see if she could. Who knew when she might need them?

With a small shake of her head, she brought her full focus back to Professor O'Leary and only missed the first small section of his speech. Thankfully he wrote the spells on the board and she copied them down with her quill for her own reference.

While trying to remain focused, Mere unconsciously began rolling the object from her desk, a small gilded pocket mirror, between her palms as the professor explained the uses of the Disillusionment Charms. To hide things or even people. Why hadn't her father thought of using that spell when Deborah appeared? Then she'd never find her mother...except her mother volunteered to appear so it would've been useless anyway.

Meredith had to shake her head again to bring her focus back just in time to see the motion of the incantation and to watch Professor O'Leary's desk vanish. And all she had to do was vanish a little mirror. She could handle that. Now she just needed a partner to make it reappear once she managed to make it disappear. She looked to the nearest desks for a partner and chose a free candidate beside her.

"Wanna partner up?" She grinned as was typical of the usually bubbly girl. She happily noted that it no longer felt like the strain would make her face crack. No, it was a perfectly natural smile from a nearly perfectly content Meredith.

0 Meredith Lail Ready and focused. Or rather trying to focus. 0 Meredith Lail 0 5

Eavan
September 30, 2008 4:34 PM

Eavan
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They're few and far between by Eavan
Eavan sighed. She remembered very well when Danae had confessed to being betrothed. She had even met Emeric when she was staying with Danae over the summer, but it didn't make Eava n like or understand the situation any better. And after pestering Danae with queries and making suggestions on how to escape, she gave up. And knowing the fate of her cousin, made Eavan very reluctant to breech the subject again. She now chose to ignore the tiny fact that Danae had her future already written out.

"Whoever said the easy way was the right way?" Eavan replied in way that was hopefully obvious that she didn't want to continue on this subject anymore. Luckily Matt changed the subject as abruptly as she had hoped and listened with interest when Matt said that he didn't spend his summers at home. She was trying to decipher his speedy Spanish, knowing only a few words herself (most of the being cuss words) when he interupted her cognition and translated for her. She smiled.

"Oh wow. I didn't know. That must be amazing," Eavan gushed, but she slowly turned thoughtful at Matt's question.

"I don't know. My dad let me go to Danae's house for a while and that's not in America, but Spain is a lot farther away. Plus, you're a boy. That might be held aganist you." She gave Matt a shy smile and shrugged. "I'll borrow my brother's owl and ask him after class. Can't hurt to ask.

"I can practice later, I guess. Now that I've got it, I can probably perfect this thing on my own. I'd rather do other things, like talk to you. This brush isn't much of a conversationalist."

0 Eavan They're few and far between 0 Eavan 0 5

Rosie
October 06, 2008 5:50 PM

Rosie
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We agree on something already! by Rosie
Rosie felt his eyes on her, knowing the instant he recognized her by the prickling of the hairs on the back of her neck. Still frozen in horror she waited for him to either acknowledge her existence further or choose to ignore her. She half hoped he just turned away; it would enable to her ignore him back and try to get this spell right. Of course, the other half- willed Devian to somehow begin some sort of small-talk. She didn't know much about him except for what her parents told her before she left for school. And most of that was about his family connections, the amount of money he was set to inherit, and squeezed in at the end, an age.

Still, she was almost pleasantly surprised when he offered to help. Did that mean he was genuinely nice, or was he just being cordial? Either way, Rosie told herself, it was positive. She took a deep breath and unfroze, a small smile forming. One more deep breath and words came out.

"Oh, n-n-no thank you. It-It just t-takes me s-s-some t-time to get it." She let out the breath of air she had taken. She had been afraid that it would've been like that last time they had met. Her looking at her shoes and not speaking the whole time. This was going to get better. It was going to be okay.

Rosie gathered up her courage to try and speak again, but Devian looked to be far away in thought, his half-invisible object laying forgotten on the desk. So, she turned back to the bottle and silently began practicing the spell.

Twenty minutes later she had managed to turned the liquid in the bottle from purple to an almost translucent silver. It really rather pretty and Rosie had stopped to think about just pocketing the bottle and trying to make something else disappear. A quill would work nicely. At this time she glanced back over to Devian. Maybe she should accept his offer of help. Rosie knew that she'd be able to get it eventually on her own, but should she just ruin a chance to get to know a large piece of her future? She could ask for help just to find out more about him. She just had to come up with the nerve to ask.

She raised her hand towards Devian's shoulder, to get his attention, but hesitated. She hated how much of a coward she was. Rosie took a deep, calming breath and rushed a tap on his shoulder and retracted her hand before he even had the chance to turned around. When he was looking at her, she blushed, stuttered a few times and finally got out a quickly asked, "How are you getting on?"

It wasn't what she wanted to ask, but it would have to do. She was getting braver by the minute and she took great comfort in that fact.

0 Rosie We agree on something already! 0 Rosie 0 5

Elly
October 17, 2008 1:59 PM

Elly
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And white snowdrops by Elly
"Not in fine detail," Elly replied to Danae's question about her booth for the fair. "Caede and Merry are helping out. I tried to get some first years interested but they didn't want to know," she said, shrugging. "Maybe they were shy." Elly didn't really understand being shy, but she knew sometimes it stopped people who suffered from such a serious affliction from joining in or speaking out.

In truth, Elly was quite disappointed that no students had signed up to help her out with her booth. Sure, she was happy to be spending the day with her friends instead, but she'd been hoping to spread a little bit of British culture through the school. It wasn't the same having Americans do it, but no matter; it would all work out fine. Just like Elly's spellwork - who'd have thought that she could improve herself by not paying attention?

"Maybe you should not try to make it reappear either," Danae joked. Elly laughed.

"Wouldn't it be awesome if all I had to do was not to try?" she chuckled. Of course that seemed somewhat of a paradox; she could hardly produce any sort of spell without some consciouss effort, such as the incantation and wand movements. "Let me try the reappearing spell again," she said, aiming at Danae's invisible mug - or, where she believed it to be, anyway. "Acclaro Prastigiae!"

Elly thought she saw the outline of a mug flicker, but it might have been her imagination; the item was still invisible. "Ah well," she said with a good-natured grin. "You try - here," Elly fumbled on her desk until she'd located her own object. "Aim about here," she indicated with her hands. Then she moved back again so Danae had room to try the spell.

0 Elly And white snowdrops 0 Elly 0 5

Professor O'Leary

Lesson II: Third through Fifth Years by Professor O'Leary

Paul Tarwater

Where should I hide? by Paul Tarwater

Cissy Tarwater

Da-da-da, I feel <i>pretty</i> (WotW) by Cissy Tarwater

Echo Elms

Try under the desk. by Echo Elms

Josh Santoro

Oh so pretty? by Josh Santoro

Danae Dupree

Pink Bunnies? by Danae Dupree

Paul

Cupboards seem better by Paul

Elly Eriksson

Singin' the Blues by Elly Eriksson

Hannah Laurent

Hopefully finding a partner by Hannah Laurent

Oliver Abbott

Am I up to scratch? by Oliver Abbott

Cissy

Pretty <i>and</i> witty by Cissy

Adam Brockert

Partners? (Tag-Talitha) by Adam Brockert

Matt Santoro

Making an excuse for conversation (tag: Eavan) by Matt Santoro

Hannah

Of course! by Hannah

Eavan Valentine

You needed an excuse? by Eavan Valentine

Oliver

Excellent. by Oliver

Josh

And Bright. And I pity. by Josh

Hannah

Most excellent. by Hannah

Danae

When skies are gray by Danae

Matt

Nah, not really by Matt

Eavan

Good. Remember you never need a reason to talk by Eavan

Cissy

That you aren't me? by Cissy

Josh

Nah, I'm quite okay with being myself. by Josh

Matt

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's my motto by Matt

Amber Carey

Just in the nick of time. by Amber Carey

Talitha Cumni

I'm here (pant. gasp, wheeze) finally by Talitha Cumni

Saul Pierce

Why's it always Nick? Why can't you be in the saul of time? by Saul Pierce

Elly

And it was all yellow by Elly

Oliver

Spectacular by Oliver

Eavan

It's a good motto. i should get one myself by Eavan

Cissy

Well now you just ruined the song! by Cissy

Matt

Everyone should have a motto. by Matt

Danae

It wasn't blue? by Danae

Adam B.

Good! by Adam B.

Elly

I was in a yellow submarine by Elly

Eavan

I was thinking of "Let your smile be your umbrella" by Eavan

Talitha

Very Good by Talitha

Amber

Because I adhere to conventional cliche-ism. by Amber

Saul

You ought to do something about that by Saul

Adam

Very very good? by Adam