It's day one and I'm already stressed on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor Levy

January 26, 2013 12:46 AM

Advanced Lesson (Sixth and Seventh Years) by Professor Levy

The past few months had been an emotional nightmare when Erika’s world had come crashing down at the discovery that her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her mother had been her only family for a long time and being that she was close to her mother, it felt like a piece of her could slip away at any moment. Thankfully, the cancer was discovered early, something that didn’t happen often enough, and a reproduction specialist successfully removed the cancer through surgery. Unfortunately, chemotherapy had still been required. Watching her mother go through that and trying to be strong for her had taken its toll on Erika, leaving her to feel like she was failing her family (Torra was amazing through it all) and her work, so much so that she had missed quite a bit of both.

Returning now to work, the normally take-charge professor felt a bit nervous. She chewed on her thumbnail, a habit she hadn’t had since childhood, as she organized her paperwork. Since had had missed so much, she wasn’t sure if all of the material she had planned for last year had been gone over, so she had added in more review sessions than she normally did to the schedule. After all, the seventh years were going to be facing the R.A.T.S. this year. She wanted to make sure that they passed with flying colors.

“Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed their summers,” she said, as she took a seat on the edge of her mahogany desk. It was her favorite spot since it made the five-foot professor feel taller than her students and thus, a little more in charge. She brushed her fingers quickly through her short dark hair to ensure she was presentable. Feeling a bit more teacher-like, she asked the nearest student to pass out the papers. “Being handed to you is the syllabus for this class. Standard material going over the rules, which you should know by now, so I’ll leave that to you to read on your own, as well as what we will be covering this year along with approximate dates.”

“Since R.A.T.S. are coming up for the seventh years, I would like to turn your attention to the additional review sessions that have been added. Some will be during class, but I have also added optional reviews on Tuesdays and Thursdays for anyone interested. During the in-class reviews, sixth years, you will have written assignments.” This was the only time that she disliked having seventh years mixed with sixth years. They ended up having two years of hearing about the all-important R.A.T.S and she felt that for the sixth years, it distracted a bit from their learning. Unfortunately, there was little she could do about it other than give the sixth years busy work during reviews. Though, at least, it would give her an opportunity to see what material needed to be worked on.

“Now that’s all out of the way, let’s begin with today’s lesson, shall we? Before coming to Sonora, how many of you had something really odd and at the time maybe unexplainable happen to you?” Erika began. This was one of her favorite lessons for the advanced class. She saw a few nodding and asked if they were willing to share their stories. Once a couple did, she continued on, “As children we have no control of our magic, because it stems completely from our emotions. This is why it’s necessary to be taught to have control over our magic. Emotions always guide our magic. The more you feel a certain way, the more intense the spell can be. Have you ever noticed that when your passionate about a class, your spells are more powerful in that class? Or a classic example for our class lies in the Unforgivables. Only with intense emotion, usually hate, though there have been some insane wizards who have taken great pleasure in it, is it possible to cast Avada Kadevera.”

She allowed that to sink in a moment. “Most young wizards and witches come to school to learn to direct their magic through wands and incantations. If they didn’t, then their magic would be unguided and could end up causing a world of destruction. Think about it. As teenagers, everything probably seems like the end of the world. You get a zit right before some big date or the boy you’re crushing out asks out someone else. And there’s nothing you can do about how you feel, because your hormones are all over the place. It’s perfectly normal, but from the perspective of magic, it could be really dangerous. Here you are a teenager, you break up with your boyfriend, your emotions, and consequently your magic, are spinning out of control, and the next thing you know, the ex ends up permanently as a frog. Not a good thing.”

After a brief pause to allow the students to process their thoughts, she went on, ““So, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with defense. Obviously, we’re going to be learning to protect ourselves from exes so as not to turn up as frogs.” She smiled slightly at some of the reactions, but waved her hand to wash away any such thoughts. “No, we’re going to be concentrating on the very form of magic that we’re taught not to use. Nonverbal magic. When we’re very young, this, in conjuction with wandless magic, is the type that we use without conscious thought. Everyone is capable of performing this type of magic. It’s just a matter of getting in touch with one’s inner child.”

Pulling out her wand, a nice ebony piece, Erika produced Lumos with no words. Her wand tip became brighter and brighter as she cycled through each derivative of the charm. “This is just a simple demonstration of the Lumos spell, but it can be used with any spell. All right, then, I want you to break up into groups of two and practice silently casting hexes, jinxes, and their counters. This will be a good review for everyone and will most likely turn up on the R.A.T.S. Also, don’t forget to do your homework. The first assignment is listed in the syllabus. If you need anything, let me know, I’ll be around.”

OOC: Standard posting rules apply (grammar, 200 word minimum, etc.) The more detailed and creative the post, the more points earned. Happy posting!

Subthreads:

It's day one and I'm already stressed by Arnold Carey, Aladren with Arthur Carey, Aladren

Let's do a little dance. by Marcus Williams, Pecari with Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

0 Professor Levy Advanced Lesson (Sixth and Seventh Years) 0 Professor Levy 1 5

Arnold Carey, Aladren

January 27, 2013 7:19 PM

It's day one and I'm already stressed by Arnold Carey, Aladren

Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of the few classes where Arnold didn’t mind sitting in the first row. He didn’t always do it, but sometimes, he did, and he didn’t usually worry about making a fool of himself while he did. Today, starting the Advanced class, he was a little nervous, but still pretty sure that this was going to stay his personal best class. Maybe he wouldn’t be very good compared to some of the others, depending on how much harder it got, but he would be better at one thing than at another, which definitely counted for something in his book.

Even here, though, sitting up front had its dangers, and Arnold found himself passing out syllabi to his classmates as soon as Professor Levy had welcomed them to the class. He got back to his own chair just as she began to talk about extra review sessions for the seventh years, glancing at Arthur once he gathered the import of what she was saying. His twin nodded almost imperceptibly, and that was that: if they were allowed, they would go to those, too. Arnold knew he would most likely need the extra work badly, and Arthur would, he guessed, come just to keep him company, and see what the RATS might be like, and, of course, make sure he knew what was gone over so he could explain it again to Arnold later if the review sessions didn’t make it all click for him, either. Arnold knew some people would have resented that, but at the moment, he could feel little but gratitude for the fact that Arthur would do that for him. There was no way, he knew, that he would ever make it through the next two years without his brother.

He listened to the beginnings of the lecture with interest, but his face fell when Professor Levy mentioned them doing better in classes they felt strongly about. So that was it, then? He wasn’t okay at this because he was okay at it, but because he liked it? But in that case, how did he explain how he had gotten good enough in the first place –

Arnold decided not to think about that any further. That made his head hurt, and after surviving his first class of the year with Fawcett so narrowly not twenty minutes ago, he knew he didn’t need to risk it any more than he could help in this class anyway. Besides, Professor Levy was proposing the idea of people who liked to kill people just for the sake of killing people now, which couldn’t help but distract him from his own much smaller concerns.

As the lecture went back into lighter territory, Arnold thought he would like to think that they were a little less fragile than Professor Levy was suggesting, but made a mental note anyway to try to avoid upsetting Fae in future, if he could. He really didn’t want to spend the rest of his life as a frog.

He laughed when Professor Levy seemed to read his mind, except for the ‘ex’ part, since they didn’t really have the option of fully breaking up, and made himself relax a little. Classes could still have jokes in them, even at the Advanced level. He had done well enough to continue in everything he had taken the CATS in, which meant he was good enough to keep going along with them. Or at least, if he was wrong about that, it was too early to begin worrying about it now. He still had a while before he had to be sure what he thought about that, so he was going to take it and do the best he could with it.

Hearing the assignment, he did not feel too optimistic, but he looked at his brother after they were reminded about their homework assignment and set to work. "I think you'll get to win for once," he said. Usually, the more martially-oriented portions of their educations had been the only ones he ever even semi-often proved better than Arthur when they were placed head to head, or even could take his twin to a draw, but this silence thing seemed like it was going to be much more Arthur's style than his own.

0 Arnold Carey, Aladren It's day one and I'm already stressed 181 Arnold Carey, Aladren 0 5

Arthur Carey, Aladren

January 27, 2013 8:25 PM

I, on the other hand, am enthusiastic by Arthur Carey, Aladren

Arthur walked into Defense just behind his twin, offering Professor Levy a shallow bow before he went to claim the seat beside the one Arnold had selected already. In most classes, they sat in different areas of the room, but here, Arnold didn’t mind being in front and they sometimes even worked together. He did not tell his brother so, but that they were on something close to equal footing here was one of the things Arthur liked better about this class.

At the moment, though, he felt well-disposed toward all of his classes. He had gotten his schedule, marked out when he planned to study for each course, and thoroughly enjoyed his first one of the year, just before this. Now, after waking up with that, Arthur felt energized and almost cheerful as he got out his Defense textbook, a quill, and his wand, looking forward to seeing how Professor Levy planned to start them off for the year and how much different this would be from the intermediate classes he’d just left. He began to scan the syllabus as soon as Arnold handed him a copy, nodding to himself as he looked over the projected course of their semester in here. He thought it seemed demanding, but reasonably so, and he didn’t expect to have any trouble with it.

Arnold…He glanced at his brother, who was returning to his seat just then. In here, he thought, Arnold would be all right. He would have to work harder than he had been used to, but that was true with everything. The trouble was going to be getting him through Transfiguration and Potions. He had the intelligence to do it, but not as easily as Arthur did, both because he wasn’t as intelligent as Arthur and because he had even less of an attention span in classes than Arthur did with a headache sometimes. He didn’t spend too much time thinking about that, though, because the lesson began then, forcing him to force his attention to more important things.

He could not nod when Professor Levy asked about their pre-schooling magical experiences, since he hadn’t found them very mysterious. They had always known what was going on, and he remembered, in vivid enough detail that he almost grimaced now thinking of it, the fuss they had made over first Arnold and then him when they had first begun showing signs of magic. He knew they had meant well, but even at the time, he had just been embarrassed by the whole thing. He had always preferred to keep things quiet until he was completely sure he could do them in front of an audience, and magic had been no exception.

Spells being stronger, though, as he took an interest in them was something he had to nod to. He did better in Transfiguration and this class with his wand than elsewhere because in the first he got engaged in the theory and challenge and in here because he sometimes began to lose his focus and think too much about beating his opponent, whether it was another student or a cup of water. That wasn’t even counting the things he had learned outside of class, on his own or with Jane, and how they sometimes went. Yes, she had a point there; he noted it on his paper, including the part about the concept being, in this subject, associated with the Unforgivable Curses. He would not want to mention an association between himself, the idea, and the subject if that thought was in other people’s heads.

He chuckled along with others, including Arnold, when the professor made what he assumed, and was quickly relieved to hear, was a joke about defending themselves from former lovers who happened to have a knack for Transfiguration, or perhaps some kind of curse-Transfiguration hybrids and then nodded again when Professor Levy said what they were really studying. He did not make a note about the homework; he already knew he had to keep up with that.

“We’ll see,” he said mildly when his brother suggested he might win in this class while they were studying this subject. “Shall we?” he asked, standing and beginning to bow, his wand held before him.

0 Arthur Carey, Aladren I, on the other hand, am enthusiastic 0 Arthur Carey, Aladren 0 5

Marcus Williams, Pecari

January 28, 2013 10:05 PM

Let's do a little dance. by Marcus Williams, Pecari

Marcus wasn’t sure if Professor Levy had come back to the school this year or not. She hadn’t been at the opening feast, so he had thought either she had left or maybe something happened. She had been absent a lot over last term, so there were a number of things that could have happened or been happening. For one, he knew she was married to a woman and Marcus knew women were crazy, so something could have happened there. He also knew that she had kids and kids were quite disgusting and seemed to get sick a lot. So, that was another option. Of course, there was also the chance that she just didn’t care anymore about teaching and left.

But, she was there for her Advance Defense lesson, so any thoughts about her absence were put to rest and Marcus instead focused on what was being thrown at them. This was his RATS year and he knew that everything was going to be a little crazy in terms of his classes. Marcus didn’t mind it so much. He had already picked out schools that would help him in Criminal Justice, so DADA was important. He was also taking Charms and Transfiguration. He thought that he might have stuck with potions too, but the schools that he looked at had remedial potions that he could take to make up for the time he lost.

The lesson started and the Professor asked about any accidental magic they might have had. This seemed more geared towards Muggleborns because Marcus figured anyone who knew of magic would have known what was happening. “When I was upset, the lights were always flickering.” Marcus offered. It wasn’t much, but it was about all he could remember. It was a joke for him and his mom. Whenever the lights flickered now, she always blamed him, in a joking way.

He could completely agree that emotions play a factor in his spell casting abilities. He wasn’t the best at Transfiguration because he didn’t see why he would ever have the need to transfigure a bird into a cup rather than some rock into a cup, but he went with it because he had to. Defense and Charms were fairly good for him but that was because he could understand the value behind it. So, yeah, he could agree with emotions being a so integrated with their magical abilities.

Marcus tried not to laugh when the professor started talking about hormones and relationships. Marcus had dated a couple of girls, both at Sonora and at home. Valentina being his longest relationship, although his casual one with Jordan had brought along more. Valentina had broken up with him. He should have been upset about it and maybe at the time, he had been, but he couldn’t imagine her being upset at him enough to turn him into an amphibian or vice versa. And Jordan and him had kept it simple for the fun of just dating. But, it was a little scary to think of had his relationships not ended quite so easily how he would have to be dealing with a woman scorned.

Marcus sighed once the lesson was explained and they were asked to get into groups. He would have preferred learning how to cast the lumos spell nonverbally first, but that wasn’t really an option. Instead, he looked around until he found someone without a partner. “Hey, want to try this with me?” he asked with a grin.

6 Marcus Williams, Pecari Let's do a little dance. 180 Marcus Williams, Pecari 0 5

Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

January 30, 2013 7:33 PM

I'd rather go for a run. by Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

If she was being honest, Kate would have to admit that Advanced DADA did not really constitute one of the great joys of her life, but she didn’t consider it one of the great trials, either. In here, she performed, as she did in most subjects, right around the middle of the range seen among the sixth and seventh years who’d scraped the Es on their CATS they’d needed to get in here in the first place, and as such, she saw it as just another thing to do during the day, not really as something to get worked up about; this was the approach she took to most of her schoolwork, to the utter bafflement of her family.

It was beginning to bother her, too, this year, because she still had no clue what she was going to do with her life after school and the one time she had spoken to her little sister since they had returned to school, a chance encounter in the library, had involved Alicia babbling something about looking for summer programs to get involved in between her fourth and fifth years, but Kate still found it impossible to buckle down any further when she was thinking about it. Instead, when she thought about subjects she might like to work in and the future and all that, she usually found herself getting less done, because she felt anxious just thinking about it. However, she kept all this to herself. No one here cared, and talking to her family was impossible, since admitting she was unsure of herself would just reinforce everything they already thought. She was pretty sure none of them had ever been unsure about anything they were involved with in their boring, over-stressed lives.

She was glad to see Professor Levy back, even if she didn’t seem quite as with it as usual, fixing her hair while Arnold Carey handed out the class syllabus. Kate looked over it, but had no idea what most of what she was looking at was or how hard it was going to be, so she was mostly just doing that for show until the lesson began and she nodded along with some others about having weird magic experiences before school, even though she thought Rachel was really the one in their family who’d had the memorable experiences with accidental magic. Kate still flashed back to the week their mother formally left their father every time someone scorched a cauldron in Potions, as it brought back the meltdown of what, at the time, had seemed like half the kitchen utensils.

Kate’s own experiences had been more subdued, less dramatic – a few discolorations, a small fire, that kind of thing. She couldn’t remember, now that she thought about it, what Alicia had ever done accidentally.

She nodded, too, at the mention of interest in a subject affecting how she did with it, since she’d noticed that a lot in Charms, which was probably her best wand class. She could get spells to work a lot better when she thought they were interesting or useful as opposed to when they were ones she thought were just being used to illustrate a theory, or which generally she didn’t expect to use in her life, whatever that ended up being, very often.

After that, she guessed she shouldn’t have been surprised by the announcement that they were jumping into non-verbal magic, which caused her to non-verbally think about groaning. She knew it was super useful and all that, especially for the heroic types who usually kept taking DADA after their CATS, but everything she had gathered from references to it last year let her know that it was hard, and it was the beginning of the year, for crying out loud. They had just gotten back from summer vacation. Would a week or two to adjust have hurt anyone?

Evidently so. She sucked it up and looked for a partner, only to have one approach her first. Kate smiled at Marcus, who she didn't know well but had no reason to dislike or not want to work with from what she'd seen of him in the past six years. "Sure, why not?" she said. "Promise not to beat me up too badly if I can't get the shield to work right?"

16 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw I'd rather go for a run. 170 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw 0 5

Marcus

February 03, 2013 6:05 PM

Do you have two left feet? by Marcus

Marcus smiled at Kate. He didn’t really know her all that well, but he felt that she was probably pretty nice considering she was in Teppenpaw. The staff must have also thought highly of her since she had made the Head Girl ballot. Marcus had voted for Sara, but he had done so because he knew her personally and thought it was something she really needed. If he had been honest with anyone, he hadn’t chosen Eliza because he had been slightly worried about what she would do with the thought of power. He thought she might have gone into cardiac arrest with the badge in her hand. But there was a possibility that Kate might have made a pretty good Head Girl. She was the underdog, but she might have some Leadership skill since she was a Prefect and the Quidditch Captain. It might have been amusing to have seen her win over Sara and Eliza. The threat no one saw coming.

Oh well. It didn’t really matter now as it was and maybe Kate hadn’t even wanted the badge anyway. Over the summer, his mother had asked him if he had been put off about not being on the ballot. At first, Marcus thought he might have been, but after giving it some thought, he was glad for it. He didn’t think he would have won anyway, but he was glad anyway because otherwise it might have been too much eyes on him due to the badge. He figured, the advance class knew of him if only because he was one of the few African Americans within the school, but he didn’t need any attention on him from the younger years. That was weird to him. Besides, he only wanted to work on what was important to him, which was getting into college, and not have to do extra work that came along with the badge.

“Are you saying that I’m skilled enough to get off a nonverbal hex?” Marcus asked her with a sly grin. “That is a very kind compliment to me.” He was only teasing, but sometimes it was fun to mess with girls. “Besides, I don’t think it’s polite to harm a girl who may not be at her fullest to protect herself.” He meant that too. Even in seven years, Marcus never really felt right about throwing spells at girls that could be harmful. It was just the way he was raised. “How about, while you work on strengthening your shield, I work on throwing something that won’t harm your pretty face? Like the cheering charm or just try to disarm you? And then, work are way up to the bully stuff?”

6 Marcus Do you have two left feet? 180 Marcus 0 5