Back to the Intermediate Lessons on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor Levy

April 26, 2011 4:35 PM

Intermediate Lesson (Years 3-5) by Professor Levy

Erika was sure that when the students walked into the room, they would find it rather odd. Small tents that would probably only fit a person or two had replaced the desks and chairs in her class. “Good afternoon, class!” She called out, as the students began entering. She was sure that quite a few of them were surprised by the change. Oh, it wasn’t that the desks and chairs didn’t go missing every now and then. It was necessary to allow for some of the spell work that they did, but tents were definitely not a normal part of a lesson. “Everyone, please pick a partner and then come stand in a circle in the middle of the room.”

Once all her students were gathered, she began speaking once more, “Okay, everyone has a partner? Good. Now, look to the person on your opposite side and meet your new partner.” Undoubtedly, a few grumbles preceded her announcement, but it would be a good lesson for them. “In real life, we don’t always get to pick our partners and sometimes, especially in the field of Defense, being able to work with other people can mean the difference in whether or not someone gets hurt or worse.”

She knew this better than anyone. “Maybe to give you an idea of how important it is, I’ll tell you a story. There once was a young Auror. She was the best in her class. She thought she had a brilliant future. But it was cut too short when her partner, too new and eager, out only for himself, wasn’t there when it counted. Now, she has a different career, one she enjoys all the same, but will forever have a knee that is quite lame.” It was rather personal to share, but she felt it was important to signify the necessity of being able to work together. If they had been able to work together, then she might not have lost her career.

“Hopefully, you all learned a valuable lesson in cooperation. Now, to what we will be doing today. We will be having an exam,” Erika smiled at them. She knew that not everyone liked being tested, but she figured this one wasn’t horrific. “So far this term, we’ve been covering protection spells. You will work with your partner to hide a small area containing the tent and one of you from view. The other should stay outside the area so I know where your tent is. You will be graded based on how many ways I could figure out there is something there. Here’s a hint, just because the area is hidden from sight, it doesn’t mean it is hidden completely.”

She wasn’t sure if they would all pick up on her subtle meaning or not, but she couldn’t give them a detailed list. It was a test after all. Besides, it wasn’t like they would have a guiding hand in the real world should they ever find themselves in such a dire situation and she really hoped they never would. “Unless anyone has any questions, you may begin.”

OOC: Remember standard posting rules apply. The longer and more creative the post, the more points earned.

Subthreads:

Seriously? by Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus with Andrew Duell

Back to the Intermediate Lessons by Jose Hernandez, Pecari with Jane Carey, Teppenpaw, Jose Hernandez

That's just mean by Jethro Smythe with Edmond Carey, Jethro

All change! by Samantha Hamilton with Demelza Eagle, Samantha

So, who's very unlucky today? by Raines Bradley, Crotalus with Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw), Raines Bradley

*sighs* by Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

0 Professor Levy Intermediate Lesson (Years 3-5) 0 Professor Levy 1 5

Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

April 26, 2011 8:02 PM

Seriously? by Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

The most surprising thing about walking into DADA and seeing the desks and chairs replaced by tents was how surprising it wasn't. Nic attributed this lack of surprise to Professor Crosby. Even if she taught them nothing else, the Transfiguration teacher was certainly making sure the students of Sonora learned to expect the unexpected. Which, in all honestly, Nic supposed was a good trait to have for DADA.

With some difficulty, he found a partner and moved into the circle, hoping desperately that there would be no campfire singing this class or he was going to have to revoke Professor Levy's designation as his favorite professor. Fortunately, there was no singing. Less pleasingly, his effort in finding a partner was wasted. It wasn't that he'd been looking forward to working together with that particular person, but he'd forsaken his normal silence to ask 'do you want to be partners?' and now he wouldn't even reap the benefits of that social interaction.

At least this hadn't been the one time he worked up the nerve to ask Rachel Bauer to partner with him. If that had happened today and then he was told to work with someone else, he wasn't sure he could have ever forgiven Professor Levy.

He shrugged at his former would-have-been partner, and then turned to the new one he was assigned randomly. He didn't mind random partner assignments at all, in fact he normally preferred that, but seriously? He'd like to have it happen before he went through the trouble of speaking to somebody else. Doing it afterwards completely negated all of its advantages.

Looking from his new partner to their nearest tent, he said, "Sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. I doubt Professor Levy is going to try licking the air near us, so we probably don't need to make the tent tasteless, but do we know spells for hiding it from the other four senses? I think I know an illusion spell that will cover it up visually." As a third year, making things insubstantial to touch was a bit beyond his skill level, but he thought he could handle sight and possibly sound. "I know a muting charm, too."

Then, belatedly remembering the social niceties he'd already expended on his first partner, he added, "Oh, and hello. I'm Nic," he added, in case that hadn't already been obvious after two and half years of attending the school.

1 Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus Seriously? 165 Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus 0 5

Andrew Duell

April 26, 2011 9:25 PM

Yup, seriously by Andrew Duell

Okay, time for Defense against the Dark Arts, this was good. DADA would be good. It had to be good, everything else had been not so good. He entered the classroom and noticed the tents. Were they camping? Maybe he should team up with Jose again, his patronus might come in handy. It didn't take to long to partner up and find his way to the circle. Once there, the professor switched things up a bit. She made a good point though, and he got the feeling that her story was a little more than just a story. Anyway, he found himself now partnered up with Nicodemus. He hadn't worked with Nic before, so this should be an interesting experience.

Nic started working out the problem right away, that was a good sign. "Hi Nic, sounds like you've got a good start on a plan. I'm Andrew by the way. I guess the other thing we need to figure out is who is going to be inside, and who is going to stay outside." He looked over their tent area, "I'm not an expert at charms, but I think I've got an idea for scent and maybe touch." He pondered a bit more, he was relatively sure he could use some transfigurations. They just worked better for him than Charms. The idea with scent was camouflage, he would just need to change the hidden area to emit the same smell as the rest of the room. Insubstantialabilty would be the more interesting challenge. He was pretty sure he could pull it off, but would that interfere with the dispersing the other charms? And if those were still active, could he break the insubstantialness without the visual or auditory aspect? Maybe it would be safest if he was the one inside the zone.

2 Andrew Duell Yup, seriously 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Jose Hernandez, Pecari

April 26, 2011 10:20 PM

Back to the Intermediate Lessons by Jose Hernandez, Pecari

He couldn't remember exactly, but somewhere in his dorm room, there was a countdown that told him how many days there remaining until the CATS exam. It wasn't that he was keeping track of how many study days he had left, but how long before he could drop some of his class load. While not the class that had prompted him to make the count-down (actually, he didn't dislike any of his classes enough to make it for any of them; he was just generally looking forward to culling his lessons to his favorites), DADA was one of the ones that was going.

He was glad he'd gotten a brief glance at the Advanced level during the first half of the year, but it only really confirmed that - aside from the Patronus which had other unconvential uses that were nothing like what it was designed for - he was unlikely to ever use any of DADA material after Sonora. This thought was only one of the reasons why he was somewhat shocked when he walked into the classroom and found a scene right out of home (only with less sun and more walls and a ceiling). Depending on what they were doing with the tents, maybe DADA wasn't quite as unrelated to his future as he'd thought.

He partnered up with Andrew when they were instructed to do so, and they moved into the circle. Once there, he found out he wasn't partnering with Andrew and that the tents were there today to hide them. He wasn't entirely sure if that would be of any help in his post-Sonora life beyond a prank to pull on Jason or Karen, but it would be a fun lesson anyway.

Turning to his new, unexpected partner, he grinned in greeting. "Heya. Interesting twist, huh? Well, don't worry, I'm doing pretty good in the protection unit, so we should be able to do the lesson pretty well."

0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari Back to the Intermediate Lessons 0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari 0 5

Jethro Smythe

April 27, 2011 7:10 AM

That's just mean by Jethro Smythe

Defense was definitely not one of the classes Jethro would be passing in the up-coming examinations. With the notable exception of the patronus that Head Boy Daniel Nash had helped him to produce, Jethro hadn't been successful in casting any of the assigned spells so far this year. His sister had tried to offer him some support and tuition over the midterm holiday but Jethro hadn't shown any noticeable improvement. He was looking forward to the exams simply so he didn't have to worry about DADA classes any more.

One of the worst parts in all his classes wasn't failing abysmally at the assignments, because Jethro didn't actually mind failing all that much - he guessed it was easier when nobody expected you to succeed, anyway. No, the worst part for Jethro always came right at the beginning on the class, and it involved the word 'partners.' Jethro liked working with Jose and with Andrew, because they didn't seem to mind working with him, but he knew he couldn't work with them all the time because it was unfair to jeopardise their potentially good marks with his own sub-standard contributions. Besides they seemed to have partnered each other for this class. Instead Jethro offered a polite suggestion of partnership to another student, was relieved to have it accepted (though he doubted it came with any cheer on the other person's behalf) and then did as he was instructed and joined his partner in the circle. Whereupon he discovered that his had now been atrributed a different partner. Why make them go through the agony of finding a partner if one was going to be attributed anyway? Jethro thought his original partner might have been relieved, but his new partner certainly couldn't be.

"Sorry," Jethro apologized in advance to his new partner. They hadn't even had the option of working with him - no potential to turn him down and choose someone else, instead. It was almost cruel.

0 Jethro Smythe That's just mean 146 Jethro Smythe 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

April 27, 2011 7:19 AM

All change! by Samantha Hamilton

Samantha hadn't realized at which point she'd idolized Professor Levy into a hero of sorts, but she was becoming aware that it had happened. She was one of the coolest professors, and had used to be an Auror (which Samantha had found out, along with what an Auror actually meant, from an older student) and she still sort of looked nice, something that Samantha was beginning to appreciate more and more in other people. It helped that she'd learned charms from Rachel that meant looking nice and being comfrotable could actually coincide in the magic world. The third year Aladren could still usually be found in jeans and t-shirts, but just occasionally she'd don a skirt and some heels under her robes, just for a change. She'd also spent some of her Christmas money on some sleeking serum, so at weekends her hair was super shiny now, but that really wasn't the point when she was sitting in a DADA class. The point was the Professor Levy (who was awesome) got them to find a partner, then stand in a circle, then... swap partners. Samantha understood the logic there, and she eyed her new partner critically. "Hey there," she said with a friendly smile.

As for the assignment itself, she knew a little bit about disillusionment charms, but wasn't sure how to go about properly hiding the tent. She might have to rely on her texbook and her partner for further inspiration. She was getting better at actually casting spells, but her real strength still lay in theory and history. She was sorry that Sonora didn't currently offer history of magic as a class, because an entirely theoretical subject would boost Samantha's grade average to something she could really b proud of. he grades weren't that bad, but she was an Aladren, and that sort of thing held responsibilities. Like getting good grades.

"Any of these tents take your fancy?" she asked her new partner. She thought that a smaller one would be better, for ease of concealing it, but as there wasn't a huge difference in size between the selection she didn't think it mattered enough for her to be picky.

0 Samantha Hamilton All change! 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5

Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

April 27, 2011 3:18 PM

We're so glad you came by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

Defense and Potions had never been great passions of Jane’s, or especially bright spots on her schedule, but she had never minded the classes. Since her return to school, thought, she had slowly grown to dread them. This had nothing to do with the work they were doing or the professors they were doing it with, and everything to do with her brother. Defense and Potions were not only the two classes he would have to be in a coma for there to be the slightest chance of him missing, they were also the two classes he always attended fully alert.

Most of the time, seeing him wasn’t so bad, because while she supposed his friends and teammates would have noticed he was quieter now and sometimes jumpier but still him, she thought he seemed like a completely different person now. She could barely equate him with her brother, which helped a lot. But in Defense and Potions, he was almost like himself again, and not only was she afraid he’d try to talk to her, it just hurt for things to seem so normal at first, and then she would remember….

It had occurred to her that it might bother him to see her being so normal, too, but she couldn’t do anything about that. Her entire future depended on the biggest sign of her problems being that she’d worn a black dress her first day back at school and still wore more shades of gray with her robes than colors. Not only did she need to appear resilient, but she also had to think that the only thing worse than seeming indifferent to her family was seeming too attached to it. The prospect of getting one fussy, overattentive in-law in with a dowry was not, she thought, really that much more attractive than the idea of a pair of them, and Father was already getting a little pushier than he’d been when Mother had been around to be the primary caregiver, always trying to catch her out in telling him what he wanted to hear about how she and Edmond were really doing.

Still, she went to every session, greeted Professor Levy and any nearby classmates with a smile, and got on with it, and today was no exception. If she couldn’t concentrate enough to ignore Edmond’s presence in a room when she needed to, there was no way she was going to be able to concentrate enough on her studies make perfect Os on her CATS in two years, never mind her RATS in seventh.

Getting a partner wasn’t difficult, nor was getting into a circle, nor was wincing in the appropriate places when Professor Levy told them about her unfortunate experience. Father and Morgaine had both been hurt, but one thing Jane could say was that no one who’d survived certain events that never happened had been crippled by them. Gwenhwyfar said that was her doing, though Jane didn’t know what to think. The girl had been on their side, but….

She blinked, surprised, when they were suddenly told they were switching partners, but shrugged and smiled at her original one. “Sorry,” she said. “It would have been fun. Good luck!” Then she turned to her new partner.

It was Jose Hernandez. He had so much in common with Edmond that it was a bit unsettling – they were both fifth years, both prefects, both likely to be on the Head Boy ballot next year, one a Quidditch captain while the other was an Assistant Captain, neither was a slouch in academics as far as she could tell – but at the same time, they were absolutely nothing alike. A good combination for what they were doing today.

As long as he didn’t think she was a stupid third year who couldn’t carry her own weight. Not for the first time, Jane blessed her height, even thought it now made her feel slightly guilty because Mother had always slightly despaired over it. It sometimes made people forget about her real age, which was helpful in these classes. She disliked being one of the youngest students in the class, maybe just seen as holding back everyone else there. “Never a dull day here,” she agreed, smiling. “I think I’m competent as well. Would you like to select a tent for us to work on?” She realized, because of the way fifth year had bounced a bit between Advanced and Intermediate this year and she was only in Intermediate since September, that he might not have connected her with a name, despite her unflattering habit of insisting on stating an opinion during discussions so she could be sure of her participation points and prove she was good enough to not be with the Beginners anyway. “I’m sorry, I’m Jane Carey, of the Virginia Careys. It’s nice to officially meet you.”

0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw We're so glad you came 0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw 0 5

Edmond Carey

April 27, 2011 9:00 PM

I'll second that by Edmond Carey

Concentration aids, as it turned out, were legitimately hard to brew, at least in a dorm room and without drawing attention. Edmond, who’d always been able to do his own work without help or even the desire for help, now understood those stories of black markets in them cropping up in some schools around exam time. Before midterm, this would have been about the same for him as chugging Felix Felicis before the Quidditch finals.

As it was, though, he was counting on being able to get through the Defense class completely alert, and maybe work for an hour or two on all his work uninterrupted after it. Taking any chance he got to do that was very important now. Robert had already written him once to ask why a grade on one of his exams wasn’t up to his usual standards, and he was very convinced that his explanation that his sinuses had been bothering him that morning had not passed muster. If it had been that, he could have just gone to the medic and gotten some Pepper-Up, and even if he hadn’t wanted to do that, he’d been taught to ignore the circumstances of his life and comfort when it came time to work.

He was neither surprised nor unsurprised to find the classroom full of tents. The furniture being changed or moved around or otherwise not rows of neat desks was common enough for him to assume there was a good reason, one that was going to mean a practical lesson. That was a good thing. Knowing all the magical theory in the world wouldn’t help if he had no experience using it and froze when he needed a spell. Bad people weren’t going to stand around and wait for him to think about what to do, they’d be so amused by his needing to think that they’d hurt his sisters first, just to see his reaction. And while he could honestly admit to himself that he didn’t really care one way or the other about Gwenhwyfar, he didn’t even know the girl and she was married anyway, Morgaine and Jane were different stories. They had both made him angry, and had both made things generally not better, but he loved them, and even if he didn’t, they were his responsibility.

There was a small group of people in the intermediate group, led by Cassie but including a few others, he felt reasonably comfortable with, so when they were told to pair off, he approached one of them right away. Though he could more than understand the purpose behind it – he had, he thought wryly, some experience with hastily-formed groups now, groups which included people who really didn’t like each other but didn’t have much of a choice about cooperating – Edmond was still not happy with the order to switch it up with random people next to them. Jethro Smythe was relatively safe, but – well – he might not have been.

Edmond frowned when Jethro said he was sorry, reminding himself that he already had his wand out. There had been a scene in one of Jane’s novels where someone said he was sorry right before attacking someone else, and while he certainly had never considered those stupid things much of a guide to life, Jane had, at least before coming to school had introduced her to the wider world and she’d adjusted to it. Maybe other people did as well. He hadn’t known what the world was, just had a feeling that was what it wasn’t. “For what?” he asked. “You haven’t done anything to me.”

0 Edmond Carey I'll second that 143 Edmond Carey 0 5

Nic

April 29, 2011 2:11 PM

Fine then by Nic

Andrew. Nic was glad the older student offered his name because he hadn't been entirely certain of it. He'd known the guy was a prefect and Quidditch player, but Nic probably wouldn't have been able to come up with his name. As a third year, he hadn't shared any classes with the current fifth years until this year, and even then only sometimes.

But he was glad to be working with a fifth year, however unexpectedly, especially since Andrew seemed to have ideas for the senses Nic couldn't even begin to affect.

"No preference," Nic said, when asked who was going to be in the tent and who outside of it. Andrew had two years on him, so even with being obscenely tall, Nic wasn't a lot taller than him. They'd both fit into the tent about equally uncomfortably. "If I had to pick, I'd say outside," he added, because he really didn't want to crouch down into one of those things if he could avoid it.

"So do you want to do the smell camoflauge and attempt touch, and I'll do sight and sound? I only know a muting spell though, so whoever goes in the tent will still have to try to be quiet. I don't think actual silence is what we're looking for anyway. That might be as noticeable as no sound suppression at all."

1 Nic Fine then 165 Nic 0 5

Andrew

April 29, 2011 6:28 PM

Indeed by Andrew

"I have no problem with being inside, some of mine might work better from within the zone rather than outside of it." Nic probed to have a good head on his shoulders, he would be good at this. "You're probably right with the sound suppression. The thing we may have to be careful of though is everyone else." He indicated their fellow classmates working on doing the same thing that they were. "If they start tossing around complete silence, this room is going to get really quiet, really fast. I wonder if misdirection counts?" He got a bit of a sly grin, "How are you at ventriloquism?"

With that Andrew opened up the small tent and sat down cross-legged inside of it. He began by touching the material of the tent, and breathing deeply through his nose. In order to fool the senses, he had to know what to edit out. The tent fabric was cool and smooth, he could smell it wafting through the air. The tent had to go, and so did he. This would be interesting. He started with scent, that would defiantly be the easier of the two. His first attempt with rather unsuccessful, his second made everything smell like smoke, but his third came reasonably close to what he was aiming for.

2 Andrew Indeed 145 Andrew 0 5

Demelza Eagle

April 30, 2011 9:24 AM

Oh Hai by Demelza Eagle

Nothing could spoil Demelza's incredible mood. First, there was Defense Against the Dark Arts today, Mel's favorite subject. She rocked at it! She tended to suck badly at her other subjects (like Charms and Divinations), so to actually do decent at one subject was an accomplishment for her. Of course, her schooling honestly didn't matter when she was going to play Quidditch at a national level, but her parents insisted that she at least try and get decent grades. Thankfully they did go all command-o when Mel told them that she planned on not trying very hard, they just merely told her those bad grades could possibly ruin her chances of being successful in life. However, she didn't really believe them because her older brother Jamie didn't have top-notch grades, and he was the richest of all her siblings!

Wearing a fitted Bulgarian Quidditch tee-shirt (she didn't support them, she just liked collecting all kinds of Quidditch tee-shirts) and a pair of dark skinny jeans under her boring robes, she began putting her shoulder-length chocolate brown hair into a high side-pony. She was just now getting used to her hair being much shorter than it used to be, thanks to Starbuck, who helped her cut it. Mel felt that she did a really good job (and she even used magic) so she didn't bother to get it fixed or anything. It worked for her, and anyway Mel's appearance wasn't her top priority. There were other more important things than that, she decided. She had a somewhat pretty face, but she was exceptionally tall (5'10") and very skinny with a small chest. She couldn't imagine any boys liking her (not that she cared about that, either).

Bouncing with excitement, she was thrilled to see tents scattered on the ground and not desks. Yes! Mel was much better at hands-on stuff than the stupid brain working logic nonsense. She whipped out her wand from her pocket, ready for action. She looked for someone who she knew when instructed to find a partner, but when she did so she was told to turn around. Poo. She did so, and found herself face-to-face with someone she hadn't worked with before. Yay! And Mel was pretty sure she was one of the really smart straight-A students! No failing for meeee!

"Hi!" She said excitedly to her partner's hey. Not exactly sure what her name was (her amnesia she suffered a couple years ago still caused her to have a hard time with other people's names), she introduced herself. "I'm Mel. And I don't remember your name, so you should tell me it." After she did so, she asked Mel about what tent she wanted. She glanced over at them, and then pointed to a yellow one. "I want the bright and happy yellow one."

She walked over to it, and then turned to her partner and asked, "So, what should we try first? I was thinking we should try and make it camouflage and then put on some Muggle-repelling spells. I'm pretty sure they can also work on wizards, if they aren't intentionally looking for the tent." She looked back at her partner, and then asked, "Any other suggestions?" They were totally going to pass this, no question about it.

0 Demelza Eagle Oh Hai 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Raines Bradley, Crotalus

April 30, 2011 10:59 PM

So, who's very unlucky today? by Raines Bradley, Crotalus

After he took his CATS, Raines was planning to start taking a good number of independent studies for several reasons. Some were about his future and goals, some were about professors, and the main one was about other people. In an independent study, he wouldn’t have to bother all the time with partners.

Oh, he’d still take some classes in the main curriculum, namely, unless things went very wrong next year, whichever ones Miss Veronica took. Only Aladrens could get away with completely ceasing to interact with their environment outside of mealtimes after fifth year, and only a very specific type of Aladren within that, and how he was supposed to sort of, maybe, court a girl without ever seeing her because of the stupid common room rules, he had no idea. But since he did have enough pride to not attempt to partner up with her in every single class, he would still consider spending much of his time outside the partner system a good thing.

He didn’t work well with partners. Too much of his year and the years surrounding it was composed of disreputable people, people with whom Raines had nothing in common and no desire to develop things in common with. The best the intermediate class now had to offer – after, of course, Miss Veronica – were the Careys, and they were a little…peculiar. Raines attributed this to reading too much, especially for the girl Carey, but having an explanation didn’t make it better.

So, once he’d gone to the effort to find a partner he thought he could tolerate, Raines was not remotely pleased to hear that he was being randomly assigned a new one. He frowned, too, at Professor Levy’s explanation. Well enough, yes, but he had no intention of going into law enforcement for, in addition to a healthy regard for his physical appearance, reasons that included ‘having to work with people at random.’ Nor did he have any reason to think that he would ever be in any situation where the house he was using protection spells on did not contain his family, who he knew and could work with – well, usually work with, and he was sure work with if things got dangerous. But he couldn’t exactly explain all of that to a professor, so he put on a smile and turned to his new partner.

“Shall we begin?” he asked pleasantly.

0 Raines Bradley, Crotalus So, who's very unlucky today? 0 Raines Bradley, Crotalus 0 5

Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

May 01, 2011 9:51 PM

Apparently I am. by Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

There were few professors at this school with whom Dulce could respect or tolerate. Levy happened to be one of the good ones. Each lesson had meaning and the professor kept to their skill level instead of giving them the hardest lessons before they had even accomplished the easiest ones. Although she dressed differently than what was considered ‘normal’, at least she had the decency to dress fully and to make herself look as though she actually cared to obtain respect from her students.

Walking into the classroom, there wasn’t any denying of the fact that today would be a practical day. Which means, Dulce only had to worry about being a good student for only part of the class. As soon as she was able to perform the spell, she didn’t have to bother with being attentive the second half of the lesson. She was often bored in lessons, so she brought books to study or music sheets to create a melody that came to mind.

Today they would be doing partner work. Fantastic. Dulce hated partner work. She always worried that her partner would bring down their grade. So, having picked a partner, Dulce was ready to listen but then she switched things up by separating them. Dulce looked to her other side and discovered Raines was standing beside her. Dulce had to stop herself from rolling her eyes in frustration. He was incorrigible. She said nothing though because the Professor was still talking.

She was a little surprised by the openness of Professor Levy’s story. If anyone really paid attention to the woman, they would have known about the leg injury and put two and two together. They might also know that their Professor married a woman over the summer, but Dulce only knew that because her mother had seen it in the paper. Dulce didn’t pay enough attention to the photos on the desk to take into account anything else.

When she was finished explaining what they were doing, Dulce returned her attention to Raines, “Making things invisible to the eye should be easy enough. I think the most difficult one would be not being able to feel the objects. That spell might be draining if we do not do it correctly.” Dulce said to him when he asked to begin. She ran though a list of spells that she knew, “Disillusionment charm would be our best bet to start it, but we’ll have to add on other charms to prevent the other senses from over-riding the disillusionment charm.” Dulce said after some thought.

0 Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) Apparently I am. 0 Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) 0 5

Nic

May 02, 2011 10:37 PM

All right. by Nic

Nic nodded, quietly relieved that he wouldn't have to be the one in the tent. And while it hadn't even occurred to him that other cones of silence might exist in the room, he shrugged a little, not sure what they could do about it. "I can't do ventriloquism," he admitted without difficulty because even if he could, it wasn't something he would advertise, "but I'm not sure how much it matters. Their empty spots will just make our tent stand out even less, right?"

Normally, it would bother him, doing too well in a class, but this was DADA, and he'd decided DADA was cool enough to excel. So he wasn't going to hold back too much on their concealment of the tent.

Of course, the visual concealment was going to be tough regardless of how hard he tried. The muting spell was relatively simple and well practiced so he didn't bother Sam when he stayed up later than his roommate. There was less cause to go around hiding things from sight.

"So I guess get started now? What should we start with?"

1 Nic All right. 165 Nic 0 5

Raines Bradley

May 03, 2011 4:11 PM

So we meet again by Raines Bradley

Dulce Garcia didn’t like Raines, which was perfectly fine with him, because he didn’t like her, either. They hadn’t hit it off on their first meeting, during that awful Charms game of Professor McKindy’s where he had ended up suspended upside down, and three more years of each other’s company had done nothing to make Raines regret that they had not become friends before he realized she was unladylike in every way. He did not look forward to the possibility of having to work with her next year when he was the Crotalus prefect.

Not that he was really looking forward to working with much of anyone next year when he was the new Crotalus prefect, including the other Crotalus prefects. Miss Abbott and Miss Stephenson were both female Quidditch players (and so suspect) and Miss Stephenson was a Muggleborn who barely seemed to even be that (and so going to become a paradox, since she would have seniority while still being his inferior). The Pecaris, too, were utterly repellant. He had to do it, so he would, but still. The only good thing about fifth year was going to be having more time, once they were both prefects, with Miss Veronica in a year when they might have had none, since they had CATS at the end of the year. Those shouldn’t bother her too much, of course, but he was going to actually have to work next year.

To his great pleasure, though, Dulce seemed as interested in getting this over with as he was, and he dropped the fake smile. He was a reasonable person, he thought. If she was willing to just work without either pretending they liked each other or attacking each other, then he was prepared to do so as well.

“Of course,” he said. “Is there a variant on the Muggle-Repelling Charm that applies to wizards as well?” Though that could get confusing in the classroom, which was full of wizards, and included them, who were both magically inclined, as well, but he’d already said it, which meant he now had to stand by it.

0 Raines Bradley So we meet again 155 Raines Bradley 0 5

Dulce

May 03, 2011 8:28 PM

Indeed we do. by Dulce

It was Raines insufferable and completely in his own head superiority that seriously irked Dulce in ways that no one else could. He truly believed he was better than everyone simply because he happened to be somehow connected with the Raines family who were full of scandals almost as much as the Carey family was. Eventually, no one will want to be connected to either family if they continue down that line of path. Crazy did not make the money worth it. Not if it meant bringing their own family down with them. Although the Garcia name isn’t much, the Santoro/Chavez names was. They were growing in America, but raged in status in Mexico and Spain. Her family was just as important as Raines, if not more so considering it was her family that would either bring down his family or keep them afloat should they ever be in the legal system.

On top of that, Raines felt that females were beneath him in general. Dulce blamed that on his parenting. That was completely environmental. How many strong female characters had come through this magical world? Made a difference? Made it known that a man hadn’t accomplished what they had? There were books on them. It was clear that women were equals, but it was parents who taught their children about equality that made the difference. If his mother let his father walk all over her and treat her like the dirt under his nails, than it was his mother’s fault for how Raines treated women.

Although Dulce would never admit it to anyone, having worked with Raines once before had an affect on her. She remembered his face when he had looked her over. Disgust or something similar had been there. After that, Dulce took to taking care of herself and how she presented herself to others. She might not have any desire to interact with them, but she didn’t want to look horrible to other people. So, she made sure her long black hair was always looking clean and smooth. She tended to keep to wearing dresses (usually old-school dresses with a modern twist much to her mother’s amusement and her father confusion). When she was old enough to finally wear makeup, Dulce only lightly lined her eyes and wear tinted chapstick. Clean and simple, but it was enough for her to feel better. It was the same look she had worn for the last three years.

Dulce looked thoughtful for a moment while she digested his idea. Without a word, she knelt down and dug through her bag to pull out her book. She flipped through the pages in search of specific spells. “I’m not sure if there is an actual spell for that, but we could use some other spells and tweak them slightly to work in our favor.” Dulce advised, taking a free tent for them to use. She paused in mid flip and angled the book for Raines to see. “Cave Inimicum this is probably our most useful of spells we should use. And, instead of a repelling charm, maybe use the Confundo charm?” She suggested, looking to him to see if he was even interested in what she had to say. Women were inferior after all.

0 Dulce Indeed we do. 0 Dulce 0 5

Andrew

May 03, 2011 8:43 PM

Yup by Andrew

"Right." Andrew agreed at Nic's logic. "Where do we start?" He began ruminating to himself. Do any of the spells require some of the elements that they would be eliminating? Will we need to be able to see the tent to mute it? Will we need to be able to touch it to camouflage it's smell? "Which illusion charm were you thinking of using to turn it invisible? Will it effect me if I'm within the zone of the charm? I might need to be able to see it to work some of mine."

He thought for another moment, "Smell and sound are the least to cause problems to the other two, right? We should probably start with them. Once they've been canceled out then we can do touch and vision." Another thought struck him while he was talking, "Does the muting charm just set up a barrier or does it suppress sound everywhere within the zone? If I'm in the zone and can't speak, I may run into problems casting the spells as well." This may end up being more tricky than he initially thought. The senses were vital for targeting and casting the spells, once you start eliminating them... hmmm... "What do you think?"

2 Andrew Yup 145 Andrew 0 5

Jose Hernandez

May 03, 2011 9:48 PM

I like it over here by Jose Hernandez

Jose grinned as Jane introduced herself formally, partly because she wasn't holding being from the California Pierces against him, and partly because he genuinely was glad to meet her. "Jose Hernandez of the California Pierces," he returned, finding nothing strange in belonging to a family branch that had a different surname than his own. The Pierces in the California Pierces were, after all, a minority. "Good to meet you officially, too."

He could rarely keep track of what year he himself was in, so it wasn't much of a surprise that he was less than certain if Jane was a third or fourth year. He thought she was probably a third, since his first instinct was that she was younger than him and he often thought he was a fourth year himself, but he couldn't swear to it. If she'd been a Pecari, he could say with more certainty, but he didn't keep track of Teppenpaws as closely, especially if they weren't on the Quidditch team.

"No preference on the tent." Despite this claim, he pointed at one that nobody had claimed yet, and suggested, "How about that one?" There was nothing that made it stand out, which, given their assignment was as much as he could ask from a tent today.

"And I guess we've got to do a silencing spell on whoever's in the tent so Professor Levy can't hear us breathing or shifting around. You want to be in the tent or out?"

1 Jose Hernandez I like it over here 149 Jose Hernandez 0 5

Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

May 05, 2011 12:26 AM

sighs by Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

Sometimes Alessa really wondered why she had been sorted into Aladren. Sure, she loved learning, but only the subjects she had an interest in. Those she would obsess about. And it honestly wasn't a very big list.

Defense wasn't on it. Oh sure, she had some interest in the spellwork and even appreciated the point of the class. Not that Alessa would ever be in a situation where she needed defense. She could hire security if she was ever in danger, body guards and what not. Besides while Alessa was certainly no Seer, common sense told her that nobody was going to come after her. She was definitely not the type to go seeking dangerous situations either, that was not just improper, it was foolish .

She quickly partnered with Tawny, who often insisted on working with Alessa for some reason the fourth year did not understand. Still, it was good to feel liked, even if it was by someone like her cousin. Alessa was never quite sure if being liked by Tawny was an honor, given the fifth year's dislike of nearly everyone else, or there was some flaw in her character. Which Alessa doubted, she tried so hard to be a proper young lady.

Either way, partnering with the Pecari-the only one of those Alessa would voluntarily pair with other than possibly Delilah-got tiring at times, as Tawny was bossy and controlling. So the Aladren wasn't entirely disappointed when Professor Levy told them that they would be instead partnering with someone else.

Alessa looked across to the other side, hoping to Merlin that her new partner wasn't anyone too disagreeable. There were some people that really irritated her and it was bad enough to be in a class that she wasn't too fond of to begin with.

11 Alessa Hinckley, Aladren *sighs* 150 Alessa Hinckley, Aladren 0 5

Samantha

May 06, 2011 6:47 AM

Well hey there! by Samantha

The partner Samantha had ended up with was someone she hadn't worked with before. She knew the girl's name was Demelza Eagle, because she knew the Quidditch players, and this girl was a Beater on Pecari's team. Aladren hadn't played Pecari this yea, and Samantha hadn't been on the Quidditch team the year before that, so if she had played against Mel then she couldn't remember it. "I'm Samantha," she returned her own name at Mel's request. She decided not to add that she was a third year Aladren, because she hadn't been asked.

Mel selected a tent, and it was yellow, which definitely wasn't Samantha's first choice in favorite colors but she couldn't deny it looked cheerful - and hence decidedly out of place in the defense classroom. "So, what should we try first?" Mel asked. "I was thinking we should try and make it camouflage and then put on some Muggle-repelling spells. I'm pretty sure they can also work on wizards, if they aren't intentionally looking for the tent."

"The disillusionment charm works like camouflage," Samantha replied to the first part. "I don't know the spell, but I can look it up in our my textbook." As for the secon part, samantha hadn't heard of Muggle-repelling charms working on wizards, but she had heard about some spells that made you suddenly remember something important so you had to turn round and go and do whatever it was the spell had made you to remember, so maybe that's what Mel was talking about. "Do you know any repelling charms?" she asked. "If not we can look those up, too." Honestly the looking up part was what samantha was best at - maybe she could do that and mel could do all the spell casting. though actually that didn't really sound like a fair team effort; Samantha would probably have to chip in with the casting part, too.

"Oh, maybe we could use a protego charm or something, too," she suggested, "so in case someone tried to cast revelio or something then we'd still be hidden." At least she had an idea how to cast that spell.

0 Samantha Well hey there! 0 Samantha 0 5

Jethro

May 07, 2011 5:27 PM

So what now? by Jethro

"Not yet," Jethro corrected him. "I'm sorry because you have to work with me and I'm afraid I'm useless at this class."

Edmond Carey was one of the people that Jethro was supposed to avoid talking to. He was right at the top of the list, along with Raines Bradley and the Brockert girls, of people that Jethro shouldn't talk to. So far Jethro had succeeded in that, but now he didn't really have a choice in the matter. Anyway, just before he had come back to school after midterm, Cynthia had told him that Jane's mother had died, and that Edmond was like Jane's brother, even though he wasn't really. That part confused Jethro, so he didn't ask about it. He was sorry for Jane to lose her mother though; he liked Jane, and having her mother die must be very sad. Jethro thought he would be very sad if his mother died.

"I'm also sorry that your mother died," Jethro said, and it was a different sort of sorry, but the word was the same. "That Jane's mother died," he corrected himself clumsily. "Sorry for your loss," he amended one last time, furrowing his brows in concentration. He thought that was what he was supposed to say. Cynthia had told him but Jethro had forgotten, and she'd told him what to say to Jane, anyway, because he liked Jane and wanted to talk to her again; she hadn't told him what to say to Edmond, because he wasn't supposed to talk to Edmond. He didn't see how he could avoid it, though.

"So," Jethro said, trying to change the conversation because he was way out of his depth on that one, and even not knowing what he was doing with the class assignment was better than not knowing what he was doing when talking about death, "we need to pick a tent." He was guessing, but there were lots of tents and all the other pairs seemed to be choosing a tent so jethro assumed that's what he and Edmond had to do, too.

0 Jethro So what now? 0 Jethro 0 5

Edmond

May 07, 2011 10:46 PM

We smile politely and get on with it by Edmond

“I’m sure – “ that’s not true, Edmond started to say when Jethro claimed to be useless at Defense, but then thought the better of it. It was only a small lie, but he was tired of all sizes of them, and Jethro was perfectly representative of the reason why the bigger ones existed. In the first semester, when they had still been speaking, Jane had told him Julia had actually told her to go out of her way to speak to Jethro now that they were in some of the same classes, though she had apparently only ever met him by accident. Janey had never taken the family quite as seriously as they’d been taught to. “ – That we’ll manage,” he finished instead.

And then came the most fun part of interacting with other members of society, and one of the reasons Edmond would have already stopped going to any of his classes if he could have gotten away with it. Condolences. It didn’t seem right that people should offer him those, when it was his fault Julia was dead, but since he couldn’t tell them that….

And, sensitive to the subject, he immediately recognized the correction from ‘your mother’ to ‘Jane’s mother.’ Their relationship was, he supposed, something of a point of confusion for many people, especially those of the sort who would know about Julia’s “aneurysm” and feel obliged to say something. They’d even heard remarks about it from others in the family, at events. The Careys were particularly insistent that family was blood and blood was family, and his immediate family…bothered that. Around purebloods, he had to stop and think before he answered any questions about siblings, because his first instinct was to say he was the eldest of two, then the second of three, but most purebloods considered him the youngest of three, and if he insisted on Jane, then he should technically say that he had three sisters and was the third eldest. Despite Gwenhwyfar not seeming to really consider him and Morgaine siblings and neither of them claiming or being claimed by Jane, who they didn’t know. And his parents had considered him the eldest of two. And his biological father considering him the youngest of two, two children who weren’t Alasdair’s, since contextual clues had made him think “your sister” was Gwenhwyfar instead of Morgaine. God only knew about his biological mother....

A solution occurred to him. In future, he would merely say that he had no brothers.

He considered clarifying that he did consider Julia his mother, but then decided not to bother. It was of no consequence, he’d get that odd look again, and he preferred not to talk about Julia. “Thank you, Jethro,” he said, deciding that, if Jane and Jethro were apparently on first name terms, he and Jethro might as well be, too.

Maybe, anyway. The more he thought on it, the more he realized that he and Jane, contrary to the underlying assumption of his life, were not interchangeable. They were both intelligent, but she was more intelligent while he was more dedicated. They were both, he thought, pleasant to the people they interacted with, but Jane tried to fit in more, relatively speaking, than he did, and was more interested in people in general while he was content with his situation. And if he was questioning that now – well, he was, he didn’t see why he was doing half of it anymore, but part of him told him the rest was being stupid, and even the parts that wanted to throw his work out the window were aware that he wasn’t actually an overachiever, but was instead just someone doing the only thing, doing his assignments perfectly, he knew how to. His third year sister was of more use in a real world crisis.

Thankfully, Jethro seemed inclined to mention neither Julia nor Jane any further, and Edmond nodded, forcing himself to focus. And not glance toward the clock. They couldn’t be more than ten minutes into the class, and he could practically see the look Julia would give him for being that impolite. “Of course,” he said, then pointed to one at random. “That should suffice, if you don’t object,” he said, not taking the time to try to evaluate it in depth. It seemed contrary to the spirit of the exercise. “There’s a general hex repellant, Muggle-repelling charms, a – “ his memory jammed, leaving a blank where anything beyond the incantation for the spell to reveal if another living person was in a building. “I can’t remember if there’s a block for life detection,” he admitted wearily. “I’ll have to look that up. Is the scenario supposed to be –“ he fumbled a little with a mostly foreign concept – “camping, or protecting any structure in general?”

0 Edmond We smile politely and get on with it 0 Edmond 0 5

Jane

May 09, 2011 1:49 PM

We're much more fun than the sixth years by Jane

Jane did find it slightly strange to belong to a family with a surname different from yours, but was able to mentally shrug it off. Most other Careys found it bizarre that she had a brother who officially belonged to an entire different branch of the family. It was, it seemed, all right for Thomas and Anthony IV to do that, somewhere between them being blood brothers originally and identical twins beyond that and, most importantly, the heads of the family, but it was a bit different for someone as far removed from the Anthonies as she and Father were.

She nodded when he indicated a tent he thought should work well. “I have no objections,” she said.

Now that the surprise of being re-partnered and most likely hearing things about the professor’s personal life and all that was wearing off, Jane was beginning to feel nervous. It wasn’t in the most traditional format, since they were working together instead of being tested on their own knowledge, but this was an exam. She wasn’t prepared enough. She was going to mess something up, and it was going to be substandard, and Father would find out. Father had always, at least a little behind Mother’s and Edmond’s backs, told her to be good at Defense, because it was always possible that someone would want to use her against Edmond, and he was going to be even more adamant about it now that such a thing had actually happened, sort of.

She tried to think of a way to cheat. It was regrettable, but she had to make, if not a perfect score, at least a near-perfect score that was either, depending on how well Edmond did, either the highest or second-highest in the class. It wasn’t something she was going to do forever, just until she could do things right without having to. She thought the feelings of shame and desperation were going to be very good motivators.

Jane nodded again, pulling away from her thoughts, when Jose made a sensible suggestion. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, that’s very good. A spell of silence and…disillusionment charm? I can’t think of anything better for that, I’m sorry.” She compared their relative sizes. “I don’t think it will be much easier to hide one of us than the other,” she said. “But I’ll go in, unless you want to.”

She glanced around at their classmates as discreetly as possible. “I think a lot of the others are using defensive charms,” she added. “I’m not sure, though. It wasn’t strictly in the parameters of the assignment, and couldn’t – “ she remembered one of the last moments before things really hit the wall – “the failure of hexes actually be used to detect us? Um, me. But then, if we don’t use that, then someone could set the tent on fire, and that would still show something was there….”

0 Jane We're much more fun than the sixth years 0 Jane 0 5