Smoke and mirrors. on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor Levy

December 07, 2011 4:24 PM

Intermediate Lesson I: Third, Fourth, and Fifth Years by Professor Levy

“Good afternoon, class!” Erika called out, as the students entered the room. A large smile was plastered on her face. She was in an unusually good mood. It must have been the mood swings taking place. “Today, we’re going to do a magic show!” There was no doubt that many would have thought there kick butt and take no prisoners defense against the dark arts professor had lost her mind. Maybe. Though, it might have just been the pregnancy that had gotten her back in touch with her creative side. She was already thinking of what it was going to be like with the baby, the things she wanted to do, how they might decorate the baby room. She was a big fan of yellow for it, because it was a nice color for a boy or a girl. She was really hoping for one of each for their little family, but there was no doubt that she wanted the baby Torra was carrying to have her eyes.

Pushing the baby thoughts aside, she concentrated on her class. “We are going to be using Disillusionment Charms for our magic show today. The spells are as follows.” With a wave of her wand, the charm spells appeared on the board.

Disillusionment Charms

Acclaro Prastigiae – reveal an illusion

Creo Prastigiae – create an illusion

“As the name obviously suggests, they are used to create and reveal illusions. We will be working with objects, but if the magic is advanced enough, they can be used on a person as well. Sometimes, they are used to allow the person to blend into the environment, and sometimes, derivatives can be used like glamour. The spells aren’t the best to use given other options like polyjuice potion, but can be used in a pinch. All of this, you will learn in more detail if you choose to go into a Defense Against the Dark Arts field such as Auror or Investigations.” She hoped that anyone that was interested would look for an university with a strong program, such as she had done. She felt she had learned more than she would have attending anywhere that wasn’t known for such.

“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,” she said, as she flourished her wand towards her desk, “and state firmly Creo Prastigiae. With this, her desk seemingly seemed disappeared. “Now a limitation to the spell is that the object is obviously still there so even though it can’t be seen, it can still be found.” As an example, she took a book from one of her shelves and placed it on her desk. It seemed as though it were just floating in air.

“To reverse the effects, wave your wand like so,” she did another complicated wand movement, “and state firmly Acclaro Prastigiae.” With this, the desk reappeared, the book still on top. “Ta-da!” She smiled at the class. “All right, then, I want everyone to divide up into groups of two or three. You will practice working with the spells. Once you feel comfortable with the spells, I want you to use the spells to create a magic act that each group will perform. You may use other spells that you have learned so long as you both of the disillusionment charms somewhere in your act. Also, there are props in this trunk,” she pointed to one near to her desk,” that you may use. Please begin.”

OOC: Please remember standard posting rules apply. The more detailed and creative the post, the more points earned. Have fun!

Subthreads:

What is a magic show? by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) with Sara Raines, Pecari, Fae

A lesson not expected. by Dmitri Petrovskii, Teppenpaw with Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw, Dmitri

Now you see me, now you don't by Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus with James Owen

Lights, camera.... by Arnold Carey

Smoke and mirrors. by David Wilkes, Aladren

Fun times. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

Lights and magic. by Russell Layne, Aladren

0 Professor Levy Intermediate Lesson I: Third, Fourth, and Fifth Years 0 Professor Levy 1 5

Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

December 10, 2011 5:12 PM

What is a magic show? by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

There were few classes that Fae could say that she actually enjoyed. Defense Against the Dark Arts was not one of them. After their lesson last year where Fae was repeatedly hit with the Stupefy spell and had to run around the class room, Fae felt differently for this subject. She disliked it very much. She was not at all athletic. In fact, physical activity for a girl was unbecoming. She was to stay in shape by other means, but definitely not from running around and getting all sweaty. It was disgusting and not at all very pretty. She must have looked like a mess when the lesson had ended.

A small part of her wondered why she cared so much about how others saw her. It wasn’t like she had any true say in her future. She was to make connections, which she had, but it would be her parents who decided which connections really mattered. Shelby was sending her letters to have her start hinting at who she would like to see or to have their parents get invited to certain parties so that Fae can make appearances. Fae thought her sister was crazy. Fae was only thirteen, she didn’t want to think about who she was (or wanted) to marry and she thought those parties were boring. She just stood around all evening wearing something uncomfortable and talking to complete strangers with a smile on her face that hurt her cheeks. Her sister was living in La La Land and she wanted Fae to follow her through the gates.
Fae locked her blue eyes onto the professor as the lesson began and then thought she misunderstood when the professor said they were going to have a magic show. Was she insane? This wasn’t charms. How was a magic show going to help them in Defense?

Taking out a parchment, Fae wrote down the spells on the board and what each of them were for. She had never seen a magic show (that was for Muggles) so she had no idea how she was supposed to do something she had never been apart of. Having watched the professor perform the spells, she could understand how it was used in defense, but she still didn’t understand the need to put on a show. That was the part that was completely throwing her off. On top of that, she had to do this show in front of her classmates! What if she did something wrong? What if she flubbed up the spell? What if they all laughed at her? She would be humiliated!

Fae looked around until she spotted someone she was comfortable with (she didn’t want to make a fool out of herself with someone who didn’t know her because that made it worse) and wandered over to them. “I’ve never seen a magic show before. So I’m not exactly sure how to make this lesson work for me. Can you help me, please?” She asked, looking hopefully and giving a smile.

0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) What is a magic show? 0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) 0 5

Dmitri Petrovskii, Teppenpaw

December 10, 2011 8:56 PM

A lesson not expected. by Dmitri Petrovskii, Teppenpaw

School contained a pleasure that Dmitri was not often afforded. Being the son of a Russian diplomat, when he was away from Sonora, he was surrounded by security. His only moments away from them were when he was forced into the public eye to which every move he made was under scrutiny. He always had to be careful with what he did, because even the littlest thing like picking his nose could turn into some big ordeal and what he didn’t do was sometimes made up to put into tabloids. Sometimes he couldn’t help laughing at what was published. The story his family told the press for his absence when he went away to school was close to the truth. They said he went away to an exclusive, private boarding school, however, since some of the trashy press couldn’t confirm this, they decided to write that he was actually in rehab. They did enjoy their scandal.

Given this, one could only imagine how difficult it was for him to know anyone. The only people that he ever interacted with were those of similar background. Unfortunately, he was never around long enough to cement any of the friendships, especially now that they were getting older. It seemed that they all now had secret lives – lives that were not always kept out of the press. He was not sure whether or not to feel sorry for them or to feel sorry for himself. They seemed so young, so immature in comparison. He wasn’t any older than they were, but he felt like it. Perhaps, it was that he had more responsibility. In a couple of years, he would be graduating and then, he might be starting a life of his own. They would probably be going to college and still doing all the stupid stuff they did now.

Of course, Dmitri had the option of going on to college. It was a choice, one given to him for not having to follow some of the societal demands that seemed to occur in the magical world. Though, if he did take this option, should he choose the magical or muggle world? If he went to a magical university, his life would probably be very different than if he opted for the muggle equivalent. However, if he went to a muggle university than there was the possibility that he would end up being like his ‘friends.’ He didn’t really see that happening though since he would be terribly bored. Plus, back in the muggle world, he would always have to deal with security. Here, he didn’t have to. It was the one place that he could just be himself without having to be a diplomat’s son. If he opted not to go to college at all, he might just get a job in the magical world and never have to deal with all of that again. It would certainly be a hard choice when the time came.

Until then, he would enjoy the fact that for now, he was nothing more than Dmitri Petrovskii and that he was known only for that. As such, he cherished every single minute, every single class, and for this moment, the class was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He opted for a seat in the front of the room rather than the back and took out his notebook to begin. He was not particularly amazing in school, but he did try his best and his grades were decent as a result. Though, he did have to work a little extra in this class since Professor Levy was a tough professor. So when she said that they were to put on a magic show, he was a little skeptical that she was quite in her right mind, but he supposed it could be fun. He had seen a couple of magic shows with his father when he had been small. It had been magnificent! He couldn’t imagine how it would play into dada however.

After seeing the spells on the board and seeing them demonstrated, it made more sense. He wasn’t sure that he would necessarily have used a magic show to illustrate how significant the spells were, but he guessed whatever got it through their heads was all that could be asked. He also guessed that it was probably easier for some of the younger students to handle. Shrugging, he wrote down what he needed and then looked around for someone to work with. “Would you like to work with me on this?” Dmitri asked someone who he thought looked open to the idea.

0 Dmitri Petrovskii, Teppenpaw A lesson not expected. 0 Dmitri Petrovskii, Teppenpaw 0 5

Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

December 13, 2011 12:34 AM

No one ever expects the amazing vanishing desks. by Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

Professor Levy was being, Kate felt fully qualified to think even if she would never have the nerve to say, weird today. She seemed really, really…happy.

And there was absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. Anyone could be happy, Kate guessed, if the circumstances around them were right. Sometimes, it might take something extreme to make those kinds of circumstances happen – she couldn’t remember her mother and stepfather ever being pleased with anything for long, not being able to find fault with whatever was in front of them – but theoretically, it could happen. Professor Levy could just be in a really good mood. It didn’t have to mean she was planning to do something horrific to them all.

Kate doubted the validity of that theory even as she thought it and defended it to herself, but then it seemed to come true. They were putting on a magic show. She looked for the catch – something about laws against using magic in front of Muggles, false concepts of magic, things being secretly cursed, something – but none became apparent. Nope, they were just using illusion and apparently whatever else occurred to them to try to make a spectacle. She found herself smiling at the thought as she made notes, trying to think of things that she could use in this. Sparkles, there had to be sparkles. Would they be able to turn the lights down? Of course, that would be to hide things in a normal magic show, and here the illusion was doing that, so it might look like there was something going to hide bad spellwork (which was possible, too; Kate tried her best, most of the time, but she inevitably didn’t quite catch on to a few things a year), so maybe not that.

Oh, well. She didn’t have to do all the creative work on her own. They were working in groups, the usual, but even more helpful than usual here, because Kate freely acknowledged that she wasn’t that creative and wasn’t likely to get too far past ‘must have sparkles’ in any meaningful way without someone to help out. It would, she guessed, have been cool to be able to do it all on her own and still be impressive, but it didn’t bother her that this was most likely to go well with some assistance from someone else. Looking around for someone to work with, she caught the eye of one of the fifth years from her House – Dmitri, she was pretty sure – and smiled when he asked if she’d like to work with him.

“Sure,” she said cheerfully. “Do you have many ideas for what to do besides the illusion spells? Or with those.” Since she hadn’t figured out how to integrate them into her vague idea of what a magic show was, either, now that she thought of it. “Though I guess we should get those down first, huh? See what we can do with them before we start to plan too much.” Prior experience with spells did, after all, suggest to her that just because the professor could hide a whole desk didn't mean she'd be able to.

16 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw No one ever expects the amazing vanishing desks. 170 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw 0 5

Dmitri

December 14, 2011 9:29 PM

It is rather impressive. by Dmitri

Dmitri’s smile got wider when he realized whom he had asked to work with him. Cailtlin Bauer was a year younger than him, but she was in his House and she seemed well liked by people. And up close, he also noted that she was a nice looking girl. He had very little opportunity to really admire any girls that he was around during the summers, as they were usually stuck together through one unfortunate circumstance or another. Though, he did have to take the one out. It was more of a setup than anything else. They were a prestigious Russian family that was visiting and since they had a daughter around his age, it was his job to entertain her. It had been all right, but she had turned out to be a very uninteresting person. All she had talked about was some musical group that he had never heard of and giggled quite a bit. He had smiled politely, but the whole thing had been uncomfortable.

He didn’t think that working with Kate would be bad though in the least, especially since they were going to be doing a magic show that sounded like fun. “We could do a magician and assistant sort of thing. I’m not sure how familiar you are with magic shows, but usually a man dresses up in a suit and cape and he’s called the magician cause he mostly does all the magic. Then, he had an assistant, a female, and she helps with all the tricks. We could do something like that, but you can be the magician if you want to be.” He didn’t mind in the slightest if she wanted to take the lead. He could take it or leave it. He wasn’t the kind that thrived on being the boss, but he didn’t shy away from it either. So, he would take whichever part she didn’t want.

“For the illusions, we could use an object in front of a person to show the magic of making an object appear and disappear. We could also make water seem to stay in a shape without any help by making the container disappear.” He wasn’t sure if what he was saying was any good or not, but he had seen similar things in magic acts so he thought it was at least doable. “What do you think? Any ideas? We should also try to make a flashy production out of it all. They usually do that in real acts.” He wrote all of this down on a sheet of paper just to keep track of anything they talked about. He chewed on the side of his mouth as he looked at what he had written down. “I think anything we pick can be adjusted to based on how well we can manage the spells.”

0 Dmitri It is rather impressive. 0 Dmitri 0 5

Sara Raines, Pecari

December 16, 2011 1:22 AM

We'll figure it out together. by Sara Raines, Pecari

The smile on Professor Levy’s face took Sara by surprise, coming as it did from the normally severe, dark-looking Defense teacher, but she smiled back anyway, glad of the older witch’s good mood. For one thing, Sara had never really been one to resent someone else’s happiness, and for another, Professor Levy smiling meant the rest of them had a much better chance of smiling at the end of the lesson than they might have otherwise. Sometimes, this class could be absolutely brutal, and scary in the sense that she knew Catherine had taken her RATS in it and made the highest score in Defense than she’d made in anything. Everyone knew that Catherine didn’t make her own decisions about anything more important than which dress to wear, and when she sometimes didn’t even get to make up her own mind about that, it meant someone had definitely told her she needed to study this subject.

Sara, though, wasn’t even the heir to a full half of her father’s comparatively modest fortune since she had a little brother, and she didn’t think her parents would marry her into the media the way Catherine’s had been forced to, so she thought she was much safer than her dimmer but richer second cousin. Some knowledge of Defense was necessary, just as a precaution, but Sara would probably live and die without ever having to fight for something, not in that way. So a class held when the professor felt the world was a good place, or at least a better one than usual, and didn’t feel the need to have them go at each other at full tilt was an appealing prospect.

She noted down the spells, thinking of how they could be used practically in the kind of life she was likely to have. It would have to be more elaborate kind of party to have the kind of use it sounded like they were using it for in this class, the kind Catherine sometimes had that Father didn’t feel were in the best of taste, but…she could hide some unflattering architectural thing, or something that wasn’t supposed to be there, but then what if someone bumped into it? She’d have to think more about this.

Later, though, after the lesson. She wasn’t completely sure what was expected of her for this lesson, but she was sure she and a partner would be able to figure out something between them. She smiled at Fae as the younger girl explained her predicament.

“I think I’ve seen…well, I’ve read about some spectacles at some of my second cousin’s parties,” she said. Mother and Father still didn’t let her go to many parties, though this year was supposed to be the end of that. At Christmas, she was supposed to start her first proper ‘season;’ part of it, of course, would happen before she was home for school, but she’d get in most of the best parties between when she came home and when she went back to school. For now, though, she had just what she’d been able to see in her mother’s magazines and correspondence. “I’m not completely sure if that’s what Professor Levy wants, though. Maybe we should go look at the other props and see if we can get any ideas from those.”

0 Sara Raines, Pecari We'll figure it out together. 0 Sara Raines, Pecari 0 5

Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

December 19, 2011 8:37 PM

Now you see me, now you don't by Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

It was completely illusory, she knew, the product of one social misfit instinctively drawing parallels between herself and another when really they were misfits because they were each freaks in their own way, but Daisy had always felt some sense of kinship with the distinctly grim Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. She was more dour than grim herself – at least that was the word her mother liked to apply to her, with a tone that implied Adelle would like to slap it out of her but didn’t quite dare annoy Father that much – but the two were close cousins at least, and it was oddly comforting to see that someone with such a socially undesirable quality had nevertheless managed to be successful, even if it was in something that would get Daisy disowned.

Today, though, the professor was not grim. She was not even dour. She was, unless Daisy’s eyes and ears both completely deceived her, happy. It was an effort to remind herself not to take this with a sense remarkably similar to that of personal betrayal.

She was comforted, though, by the spells. Even if Professor Levy had gone mad, at least she was still teaching them something that Daisy could immediately find useful. It wasn’t quite as satisfying as getting to fight someone for most of the class would have been, but it was immediately useful, which was enough to catch her interest and get her writing quickly in her notes. She had no real secrets here, or even at home – she was, as Addie One liked to point out more and more these days, as her bright hair faded and she developed long lines arching down around her mouth and began to look more and more like her own mother, a nonentity socially – but living in the room she lived in here, she couldn’t help but think that she’d like to be more secure against the other girls in any way she could be, and living at home, she’d like to hide things just for the sheer thrill of knowing she’d outwitted her stupid mother.

The assignment seemed a little frivolous on the surface, but Daisy supposed it would let her stretch her mind about the possibilities now at her fingertips, show her more of them than she might have figured out on her own, so she forgave the professor that, too. Plus, she would guess it was a dull job, teaching students, always repeating what she already knew; she’d enjoy making the students do something entertaining in that position, too. It occurred to her as a possibility that she might be making some excuses for Professor Levy, but she thought her logic was sound and so ignored it once she felt she’d given it a cursory examination.

A partner should have required more than that, but Daisy didn’t have too high of an opinion of most of the Intermediate class, so she didn’t give the person nearest to her much more before she decided to broach the subject of working together. She would have happily done this on her own and stood out, for once, as the Crotalus girl who had more going for her in life than a petty vendetta or a pretty face or a fast broom, but that hadn’t been presented to them as an option, so she would have to have someone.

“Do you want to work together?” she offered, civilly enough she thought. She could be polite even if she’d given up on ever working out how to be really friendly, at least in a way that anyone else got.

0 Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus Now you see me, now you don't 0 Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus 0 5

Arnold Carey

December 23, 2011 1:54 PM

Lights, camera.... by Arnold Carey

When Professor Levy began talking, Arnold found himself confused by more than her unusually cheery mood. Magic show? Didn’t they always show they could do magic during class? Unless they weren’t paying attention, or weren’t quite at the level of that spell right away, or otherwise messed the magic they were supposed to be doing up – but even then, they were showing magic, they weren’t showing it properly.

When the spells they were learning today came up on the board, though, and she went on about props, he thought he began to understand a little better. They were creating illusions – using magic, and settings, to make things seem to be what they were not. He guessed a big part of it was supposed to be something appearing suddenly where someone wouldn’t expect it to be, out of nowhere, because of the spells, but he wondered what they could do with the other things, too. Levitation charms with the illusion charms would be cool – something appearing out of the air definitely wouldn’t be expected. He wouldn’t expect it, anyway, if he weren’t thinking it up.

What other people would expect was a different matter. He didn’t know what to think about that. Sometimes, it would occur to him that the only person he knew really well, in all the world, was Arthur, and he damn sure didn’t know what Arthur would and would not be prepared to concede as unexpected. Sometimes, he thought his brother’s mind might be as different from his as a girl’s was, something he couldn’t understand and wouldn’t ever really be able to. But that wasn’t a cheerful thought, so he generally pushed it aside as quickly as he could and moved on to something more palatable for him.

Like finding a partner. He turned to the first person he saw, grinning, and said, “Hey, want to work on this?” the way he had heard other people do and had started to mimic without thinking about it. Arthur scolded him sometimes for ‘talking like someone from school,’ but he didn’t see what was so wrong with it, at least at school, anyway. At school, he was someone from school, and even at home, he didn’t see why he had to be as formal as all that just talking to Arthur. It was not like his twin brother was really someone he needed to worry about impressing much.

0 Arnold Carey Lights, camera.... 181 Arnold Carey 0 5

James Owen

December 27, 2011 12:22 PM

I still see you by James Owen

Professor Levy was being chipper. James didn't like it. He functioned most effectively when everything fit to its expected routine. If he had Care of Magical creatures class in the evening, or his Defense Professor seemed to have had a personality alteration, then he was thrown off balance. He still functioned at a level well above average intelligence, but often his mood suffered for it. James didn't like it when things didn't go as expected. Therefore he was potentially more disgusted with the class assignment than he might otherwise have been. Disillusionment charms were all well and good in their own right, but why did he have to suffer the humility of teaming up and performing with another student in a magic show?

Partner work was rarely a tolerable experience for James. There were some people's company he preferred to others. Ryan, for example, was probably the closest acquaintance James had to being a friend, and his roomate David was sufficiently competent. He found an unlikely companion of sorts in Eliza Bennett, united in their dislike of Niffler Girl, and there were a few other people with whom he would happily engage in friendly competition. By and large, however, the students in the Intermediate group left him with an empty feeling of despair when he contemplated spending any great amount of time with them. On this occasion, however, he thought it might be prudent to opt for someone who liked to show off, and then they could orchestrate the most objectionable part of the assignment: performing the magic show in front of the rest of the class. On the other hand, James would still have to work with them for the duration of the class. It was a conundrum.

While he was still contemplating his options, James was saved the trouble of having to make a decision when Daisy Thorpe at the desk next to him asked if he wanted to work together. James considered that while she definitely wasn't the show-off sort he'd been considering, she was the other styudent he could happily work with. In fact, he had occasionally wondered why Daisy had been sorted in Crotalus rather than Aladren. He pitied her for her roomates alone.

"Yes, I'd like to work with you," James answered after a short pause. At least they could complete the mastering of the spells with relative ease. he just hoped that between the two of them they could come up with something suitably creative and not at all embarrassing to do for the second part of the assignment. He didn't need to think about that yet.

0 James Owen I still see you 168 James Owen 0 5

Kate

December 27, 2011 6:14 PM

I agree. by Kate

Kate frowned to herself as Dmitri described magic shows, trying to think back through…stuff. Being around Dad, who seemed to have embraced his Muggle heritage all the more since he and Momma split up and Momma went to trying to embellish her pureblood credentials, meant she had picked up a lot of Muggle knowledge over the years (being not at all against that side of her heritage, and liking it, in fact, a lot more than she did her mother’s family, most of which was certifiable), but it wasn’t all ordered neatly and coherently, the way her knowledge of the magical world was. It was more like she’d read an encyclopedia and some bits had stuck in her head, in no coherent order because she’d absorbed some of them alphabetically and others only later, after she read about a few things which were associated with them.

The image, though, did sound familiar. “And somehow he chops her in half and then puts her back together again!” she said, the magician and the pretty magician’s assistant clicking at last in her head. “Yeah, I’ve heard of that – sort of.” She smiled, hoping it was something like how her sisters would, sort of so it made it okay if she didn’t know something. She had never really figured out how they did that stuff. “I think I saw something once when I was with my dad,” she explained.

A commercial on a TV, to be precise. She hated not being able to just say she was a half-blood and so had some knowledge from both sides; that right there was as close as she’d ever get to confirming it, and she guessed to anyone who thought for two seconds that would confirm it, but it wasn’t to one of Rachel’s friends or Alicia’s classmates, so she didn’t guess it really mattered. Anyway, she knew she couldn’t lie about it; she’d slip up or something, somehow, contradict herself, and that would be worse than just sort of brushing it aside. She wasn’t like her sisters, she couldn’t lie very well, and this date seemed like kind of a late one to start trying to learn to be a professional cheat.

“You can have the lead,” she said. It might have been a little more innovative to switch roles, and she wasn’t really pretty enough for the traditional girl’s role, but she was pretty sure she would completely screw up the lead, and somehow, she did not see this increasing her popularity with either the professor or her classmates. It might, however, just draw the ire of her relatives.

She bit on the inside of her mouth as she considered the options. “For the water thing, we’d probably better use a pot that isn’t see-through,” she said, then blushed, realizing she had just probably stated the incredibly obvious. “And – er – color the water, somehow, so it’s easy to see.” That was a little better. “Maybe move it between some invisible pots, so it looks like we’re changing its shape? Though I guess we should see what we’ve got to work with for that.” She tilted her head toward the professor’s stash of props. She was kind of starting to like that idea, but if there weren’t a few differently-shaped things they could use as containers, then it wouldn’t work out very well at all. Unless maybe they could transfigure oddments they had on hand into containers, but then what if the magic didn’t hold through the performance? That would be…awkward, though she’d mention it, maybe, if they couldn’t find much. At least three pots sounded best.

16 Kate I agree. 170 Kate 0 5

Fae

December 28, 2011 9:13 PM

I sure hope so! by Fae

Fae felt that for lessons like this, there needed to be better directions. She lived in magic her whole life, how exactly was she supposed to put on a magic show when it was just an every day thing? This lesson was designed for those who lived within the Muggle world. It meant an advantage for some of the students and horrid grades for the others. The only thing that Fae could understand about the lesson, was that they were supposed to make objects look as though they disappeared and then have them reappear later. How that translated into a Magic Show was beyond her.

Thankfully Sara agreed to help her. She didn’t seem to confident with the point of the lesson anymore than Fae did, but at least Fae had someone to work on it with. If nothing else, Fae hoped that Professor Levy gave them credit at attempting the lesson even if they weren’t able to execute it completely. Participation was a large portion of the grade, right? She could only hope that her presentation was equally acceptable for a grade as well, but considering Fae didn’t really enjoy being the center of attention, she wasn’t sure how well she would do in that aspect either.

There were quite a few things that made Fae rather nervous. Nature was one of them, creatures were another. But people were another thing that made her nervous. She didn’t know how they felt about her or what they thought of her. She always tried to be her best and to do her best, but she constantly thought that she fell flat from where she intended to be when it came to others expectations. Jaiden had a habit of telling her that she needed to relax and remind herself that she was only thirteen, but Jaiden was in college, an Heir, and handsome, her brother had no idea what it was like to be her.

“So...” Fae started as she walked over to review some of the other props. “From what I can understand with this lesson, we are supposed to stand in front of everyone and make things appear to disappear and then reappear before their eyes?” Fae just wanted to confirm that was the whole point of the lesson. “How exactly do we make that into a show? If all we’re doing is the same two spells on every object, wouldn’t that become redundant and rather dull for the audience?”

0 Fae I sure hope so! 0 Fae 0 5

David Wilkes, Aladren

December 29, 2011 6:23 PM

Smoke and mirrors. by David Wilkes, Aladren

Since coming to Sonora, David had kind of gotten a new perspective on the world. He had always been one of the smart kids, but finding out there wasn’t so much another culture he’d never even heard of in passing as there was a completely separate universe behind some weird energy barriers (he had largely accepted, once both the coolness and the shock had worn off, that he lived in a fantasy world gone real, but sometimes, his brain still tried to think in terms of sci-fi, since that, in the absence of aliens, felt a little easier to accept as real somehow) was the kind of thing which could forcibly impose humility. There was a whole lot of it he still knew nothing about, and parts of it he probably never would.

Now, hearing that Professor Levy’s smile meant that they were to have a magic show instead of a brutal pop quiz, he wondered if a lot of the rest of the class might not have that feeling of dislocation and not knowing what was going on, and, if so, how they were dealing with that. He was pretty much used to it and okay with it, but then, he’d had four years to get used to it, and for all he knew, getting hit with a whole lot of things at once might be easier than just having one. He was pretty sure, between shopping trips and maybe the books he filled a lot of his free time with in an attempt to be less clueless, that magic tricks were considered the province of weird wizards with a fascination for Muggles, not something the average Joe would really know much about.

Of course, he wasn’t far from being the average Joe in the Muggle world, and he didn’t actually know the details of magic tricks, either. He had thought before that it sounded like the kind of thing which might be fun to take up as a hobby, but he had never gotten around to it. He guessed he would sort of see something about it today.

Sort of. Using magic for real obviously wasn’t the same thing; in a way, it felt kind of like cheating. Of course, here it was for a good cause; in the world, it would just be cheating, and would also, to the best of his understanding, be illegal, too. But that was a whole different issue. He turned to look for a partner.

“Hey, want to work together?” he asked, finding a likely-looking candidate. “And know anything about magic tricks?” That would be helpful, for sure, in planning something.

16 David Wilkes, Aladren Smoke and mirrors. 169 David Wilkes, Aladren 0 5

Sam Bauer, Crotalus

December 29, 2011 7:34 PM

Fun times. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

If there was one thing that could be said for Professor Levy, it was that she was intense. Sam did not know what she had been through, only that it was probably responsible for that limp, but she could convey a sense of Big, Spooky, Dangerous World like nobody’s business. How much this had succeeded in making students be cautious instead of putting dreams of glory into a lot of heads was, of course, anyone’s guess, but it was good, anyway. And it couldn’t be denied, Sam, at least, had learned.

In some ways, he wasn’t emblematic of his House. The major one was that he by no means thought of himself as a respectable member of society, it would be a very weird day indeed where he would be referred to as such in the wizarding world. Not that he really wanted to be, by the standards of some Crotali and seemingly about half of Aladren, and even the more sedate definition of respectability involved way too much boredom and worrying about what the neighbors thought of his sweater-vest for his taste, but there it was. He was, however, still Crotalus enough to feel a certain affinity for certainties, and something like Professor Levy smiling and seeming genuinely, in a normal way, happy was a little disconcerting. He just hoped it didn’t mess with his ability to learn, since the day’s spells sounded interesting and useful, even if he didn’t see a real reason why Nic would be going through his stuff and didn’t anticipate having roommates again after school.

The weirdness continued into the lesson. Magic show. He could see Professor McKindy going in for that, or Professor Crosby, or maybe even Professor Fawcett, in a weird kind of way, but…Professor Levy? It was kind of hurting his brain. He wasn’t sure what to think of that.

Since his opinion had not been asked for and it was probably, therefore, safe to assume that it wasn’t desired, though, he didn’t comment on it and instead went to looking for a partner. Which turned out to be not the smartest thing to do, since, in looking for someone, he nearly walked into someone else. “Whoa – sorry about that,” he said, nearly tripping before taking a step back. “Wasn’t paying attention. It happens to the best of us, right?” At least, that was one of his foundational assumptions about life.

16 Sam Bauer, Crotalus Fun times. 163 Sam Bauer, Crotalus 0 5

Russell Layne, Aladren

December 29, 2011 9:39 PM

Lights and magic. by Russell Layne, Aladren

Russell was a little distracted as Defense began, his mind half on the Potions paper he’d just handed in and being sure that he hadn’t done the best job he could have done on it, and so he didn’t immediately notice Professor Levy’s unusually good mood. When he did, though, it somehow didn’t surprise him as much as it seemed to surprise some of the class. He just smiled back and tried to forget about the Potions thing, to mixed success, in case she caught him looking like he was thinking of something else and therefore assumed he wasn’t paying attention and had her good mood broken by that. One of the great things about living around his roommates, who were a pretty unreadable lot at times, was that it gradually led to a relaxation of interest in other people’s inner workings, so long as they were friendly and he was friendly and it was all good between them, and it wasn’t hard to extend that attitude to teachers, too.

It was harder, though, to be relaxed about his academics. His parents assured him that as long as he was passing by a reasonable margin, they weren’t too worked up about his grades, but he would have wanted to do well anyway, and being surrounded by the people he was, with their formal tutors and libraries which made the one he’d put together in a spare room look pathetic, made it feel all the more important to keep up. So he was thinking that he was going to have to come up with some very complicated ways to use the charms.

And other charms. He guessed that was inevitable, to make it more than something just appearing and then disappearing and reappearing; that would just be a use of the spells, and the use of the word ‘show’ meant, to him, that it had to be better than just that – that it was supposed to be entertaining as well as show that they knew the material. He pulled out a separate sheet from his notebook on which to note down other things that sounded useful.

Before he went any further, though, he knew that he needed to find a partner, so he scribbled down the first two things to occur to him, immediately upon thinking, and then put his quill down to look around for someone to work with. Before he decided on someone to speak to, though, he heard someone speak to him and turned to see who it was, looking slightly surprised for a moment before he smiled. “Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t catch that. What did you say?”

Hopefully, it had been something like ‘do you want to work together’ and his reply had not made them want to retract the offer. Because that could be awkward, as well as pretty bad. He tried really hard to avoid offending people, or getting on anyone’s wrong side. This would be a stupid thing to do either of those over.

16 Russell Layne, Aladren Lights and magic. 183 Russell Layne, Aladren 0 5