Facing my fear a day early on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor Pye

September 03, 2015 6:17 AM

Intermediate Defense (Years III, IV, & V) by Professor Pye

The second Tuesday of the month, Alfie woke up with an incredibly horrible headache and a very bad cold. After raising a hand to massage his ringing temples he remembered the course of events that had lead him to be experiencing such pain. After a snippy conversation with his younger brother who’d had the nerve of coming to his office and demand him to stop stalking him and go back to England, Alfie had swore loudly and kicked his desk. The movement had caused a stack of books on his desk to fall off onto his other foot which in turn caused Alfie to hop around until he banged his head into one of his open filing cabinets. If it hadn’t been happening to him, Alfie was certain that he would have found watching the whole thing very amusing as it fell into the Muggle category of “slapstick humor” that an ex-girlfriend of his had once adored so much.

Luckily he only had a small cut, one that he had quickly fixed with a tiny white band aid. However, not wanting to have to deal with the smarting realization that his younger brother had bested him in an argument, he had stomped over to Tallec’s and dragged what was the closest thing he had to a friend at this Merlin forsaken institution to the bars. Only now was Alfie realizing it was probably not the brightest idea, but he’d had fun and he supposed that nowadays he really had to hold on to every last bit of fun he could get his hands on. As of late he was only finding out more and more depressing realizations about a family he had once held in a high-ish regard. Alfie groped his way to the bathroom, pouring himself a hangover potion and chasing it with a cup of water. Alfie sniffled and glared at his reflection in the mirror. Now that was taken care of, that still left the matter of this unsightly cold he had to deal with.

In a grump, he stalked down to Cascade Hall, angrily ate some soup and then headed back up to the Aladren commons to get his things ready for his Intermediate class which was at 8 am. By the time he was to start his class, Alfie’s head was ringing. He supposed he could have just taken a potion to cure him of the sickness (or at least the symptoms) but Alfie had always found that he had a bad reaction to cold potions. They made him nauseated and then at that point he was taking potions to cure the side effects of potions he was taken to cure something else utterly ridiculous and he didn’t really see the point of knocking back three or four potions in one morning. He’d rather just deal with it.

And so, the dealing with it reluctant professor slumped into the Defense room at 8 am on the dot, a hand reaching up to scratch his head, rumpling his brown hair. On it’s way up the hand scratched against the stubble that had formed on his jaw and he winced. “I have a headache,” he said bluntly once class had started. “As such we will hold off on the activity I had originally planned and the daily quiz is canceled.” Merlin, he felt like absolute...but he couldn’t think on that, he needed to get the introductory speech out of the way and then just try and get through the rest of the day without dying. “Instead I took out some books from the library and we will be doing class research. Since last class we covered dementors and the class before that, boggarts, I want you all to compile a list of other creatures that prey on emotions.”

Normally Alfie would have hated setting the kids to do busy work during class. He loved teaching them field work and had found a juvenile boggart for the third and fourth years to practice on. However he didn’t think he could handle any shrieking that could have arisen from young teenagers confronting their phobias in front of them. He had also found an adult boggart who he had already discovered had a penchant for transforming into a Dementor whenever Alfie got near it and staying a Dementor even when Alfie brought Tallec along to try and confuse it (Tallec had since confirmed that his boggart was not, in fact, a Dementor but rather something of a more juvenile nature). This adult boggart, he had decided, would be perfect for the fifth years to practice their patronus spells as they had likely already gone through a couple years of playing with boggarts.

He explained these exercises to the students so that they would have something to look forward to the next day when he would only have to deal with the head cold rather than a hangover and a stinging bump on top of it. “Tomorrow we will do the exercise I had originally planned so tonight you may want to brush up on your Riddikulus if you’re a third or fourth year and Expecto Patronum if you’re a fifth year. For today, however, there are a stack of books in the back and you may work in groups of however many you like to put these lists together, just keep the noise to a minimum.” He hoped the students wouldn’t talk too much, he really didn’t think he could handle it. Then again, he mused as he leaned back in his hair, closing his eyes briefly, wanting to shut out the light which pounded his temples, the low voices could be rather soothing in a certain unexpected way. He opened his eyes with a jolt. He really was getting too comfortable in this job, he thought grimly as he cursed his father for his meddling ways.

OOC: You know the drill by now but just in case, a small refresher: 200 word minimum, creativity & realism is rewarded with more points. Tag Pye if you need anything, site rules apply.

Mention of Tallec approved by his author.

Subthreads:

Facing my fear a day early by Brandon Carey, Pecari with Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw

Well, this is no fun by Diana Carey, Pecari with Jake Manger, Teppenpaw, Diana Carey

Booooo, Research. by Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw with Savannah Brockert,Teppenpaw

10 Professor Pye Intermediate Defense (Years III, IV, & V) 30 Professor Pye 1 5

Brandon Carey, Pecari

September 03, 2015 8:31 PM

Facing my fear a day early by Brandon Carey, Pecari

Defense class was both the best of times and the worst of times for Brandon. The best because they so often had practical lessons of a kind that demanded his attention, eliminating a lot of his problem with getting distracted in less interesting classes and either not powering a spell properly at all or else sometimes hitting the wrong thing. Defensive and offensive magic flying all around just gave him a focus that Charms and Transfiguration and Potions, however theoretically dangerous they really were too, couldn’t. The utter unpredictability of what could happen if he made a mistake in them should have done the job of engaging him but didn’t. The class was also the worst of times, though, because it began every day with writing, something which was still not one of his great strengths even after years of finally, belatedly, working on it. He would much rather draw a diagram than write a paragraph and was usually one of the last to finish, not because he didn’t know the material but because of the sheer effort it took him to write a legible, coherent, reasonably spelled page of information down, especially since he didn’t really see the point of it. Defense’s selling point was that it was simple: this does this, this counters it. As long as he could do it, why did he have to write about it? He never intended to write a book or become a teacher.

When Professor Pye announced the quiz was cancelled, Brandon was momentarily happy, if also confused about why the professor didn’t just take a potion. They tasted nasty, but a piece of hard candy afterward could fix that, and even the taste wasn’t as bad as having such a headache that made him unable to do what he planned to do. His speculation about whether or not his teacher was one of those weirdos who didn’t approve of medicine flew out the window, though, when he heard the words books from the library and he stared in poorly concealed horror as Professor Pye went on and brought compile a list into it.

Even hearing that it was a one-day thing didn’t help, since he knew perfectly well that he could not do expecto patronum. It required concentrating very hard on a memory, and none of Brandon’s seemed to work. The last time something had really gone his way had been when he and Diana set off a bunch of fireworks directly under a table holding their least-favorite cousin David’s birthday presents before he ever came to Sonora, and that had been more satisfying than joyously happy. He had been really happy when that reading tutor praised his progress for the first time, but there had been shame mixed in with that because everyone else could read without that kind of help, even his older brother Henry who was not all there in the head. If he had to face a dementor, he was in trouble.

The one mercy was that they didn’t have to compile individual lists. He grinned, trying to hide his fear of looking extremely stupid, at someone nearby. There were a hundred and one ways to distract someone from how slowly he worked his way through books, plus he could use stuff Diana had read aloud to him to supplement what he waded backward through in the books, and maybe just keep the other person from noticing he was leaning on them as a crutch. “Hello,” he said. “Want to work together?”

0 Brandon Carey, Pecari Facing my fear a day early 0 Brandon Carey, Pecari 0 5

Diana Carey, Pecari

September 03, 2015 9:26 PM

Well, this is no fun by Diana Carey, Pecari

Before Brandon had started school, Diana had done almost all his reading for him and let him dictate a lot of his written assignments from their tutors to her. The mismatch between what was expected of a boy and a girl two years younger than him meant Diana had been a little ahead and Brandon a little behind the tutors’s expectations, but they had managed just fine and she really didn’t think either of them had really thought anything about it. Reading and writing and thinking of where everyone would be were just the parts of their relationship that Diana did well, just as thinking up jokes to pull on their uptight siblings and mother and cousins and creating distractions to help them get away were the things Bran did well. There hadn’t been any implications back then.

Then, though, Brandon had gone to school and Professor Skies had told him that not being very good with the written word was some kind of mental disease or defect, and ever since, he had been embarrassed and angry when he needed her help, especially after she came to school. She had also grown up enough during the two years they were separated that she had not wanted to help him wreak havoc in Pecari the way they had on their siblings when they were younger. They just weren’t close now like they had been, something Diana still regretted sometimes. They, the most middle of the middle children, had never gotten any attention from their parents except when they were neck-deep in hot water and had only been noticed a little more by Jay, who scolded them even when there was no need to, and the rest of their siblings all had their own concerns, too. They really hadn’t had anyone but each other, and not being close anymore made it lonely at home.

Brandon was still her favorite brother, though, and if Diana had known their Defense class was going to be a research lesson, she would have met up with him before class, struck up a conversation, and then ‘just happened’ to sit in the desk beside his to continue it so they could work together after the bell. When Professor Pye changed his plans at the last minute, Diana’s eyes darted toward her brother for a second before she snapped them back toward the front, guilt turning her stomach for a moment as she felt a little relieved about not having to face a boggart today. They got them in the house occasionally, and the time she had walked up behind Henry right after he disturbed one had made her afraid of the things themselves, not to mention a little afraid of what went on in her second-eldest brother’s head for him to imagine something like that…thing she had seen emerging from his desk after one of his returns from school. It was enough to make her glad that Hen wasn’t much of a wizard, no matter how shaming it was to have someone magically weak in the family.

She smiled brightly at nothing in particular to suppress thoughts of how Henry’s magic problems were most likely no more shaming than Bran’s mental ones or how Theresa was worse than both of them put together. Her parents really had not done their one task on earth very well. Diana thought she was all right, and of course Jay was basically everyone else’s parent, but Peter and Ceci could still shame their line even more and she didn’t want to think about it. None of them would ever make good marriages if Peter and Cecilia were disgraces, after all, not after Theresa, and that didn’t bear thinking about.

She kept the smile as they were released to work. “Well, this is no fun, is it?” she said. “I can’t even remember any others besides pogrebins, and I don’t think any of those are even on this continent.” Maybe in Alaska, she had heard Russia could be seen from parts of Alaska, but that was so far north and had so much of another country between her and it that Diana didn’t really think it counted at all. Certainly she never expected to go there.

0 Diana Carey, Pecari Well, this is no fun 0 Diana Carey, Pecari 0 5

Jake Manger, Teppenpaw

September 04, 2015 2:24 PM

There's always fun to be had if you try hard enough! by Jake Manger, Teppenpaw

Defense Against the Dark Arts was, admittedly, one of Jake’s least favorite classes. Even his level of naivety could not dismiss the necessity of it, but nonetheless, he was not too fond. He just hated to think about people and creatures out there using dark magic to such an extent that a class was necessary for most of one’s schooling to protect oneself in adult life. Jake had no plans on using any of this stuff in his future, but then again, at only fourteen, who was to say his plans wouldn’t change?

He also disliked it as it was currently at Sonora for another reason: Professor Pye kinda scared him. And today, with his declared headache and related grumpiness, was definitely no exception. Jake felt conflicted in his reaction to the delayed activity. He had spent much of last night and this morning gearing himself up to discover and face his worst fear as it would be depicted by the boggart to such an extent that he was almost looking forward to it. Now he supposed he would have to do the same mental preparation all over again tonight. He felt both relief and irritation at the current situation.

As he returned to his seat after gathering a couple books to use, his neighbor spoke. “Well this is no fun, is it?” Jake hadn’t noticed in the beginning of class--maybe because of his mad boggart hype--that he was seated next to his friend Diana, but he sure was glad about it. Asking her to that ball had been such a good decision.

“It’s better than a quiz, at least,” he returned merrily. “I don’t think Professor Pye specified about locations of the creatures, so pogrebins are probably fine.” Jake paused as he briefly flipped through pages of one of the books before him. “Unfortunately, I’ve got nothing off hand, but these books should have something good in them, right?”

12 Jake Manger, Teppenpaw There's always fun to be had if you try hard enough! 280 Jake Manger, Teppenpaw 0 5

Diana Carey

September 10, 2015 9:39 PM

You have to admit this time is challenging, though by Diana Carey

Diana considered Jake’s perspective. “True,” she admitted finally. “It’s even more writing, but it is open-book.”

Teppenpaws were like that, she had noticed. Her somehow-cousin Lucille was less enthusiastic than Jake, but even Lucy always gently reminded Diana’s sister Theresa of the good side of things, or at least of how they could be worse. Diana thought she liked that about them, though she could see how it might get really annoying if she ever wanted to sulk or cry and someone just. Kept. Being. Optimistic at her. Throwing fits every now and then wasn’t ladylike – a lady was always supposed to be self-controlled – but it did feel wonderful sometimes, especially if she could get someone to fuss over her while she did it.

Not defining geographic range might or might not have been sensible on Professor Pye’s part; Diana couldn’t decide. On one hand, she thought she and her classmates were all pretty unlikely to ever go to Russia, but on the other, her cousin actually had spent a few months in Russia a couple of years ago, so it wasn’t completely impossible. Just unlikely. Arthur, though, had known he was going to do silly things like that a long time before he had, and was peculiar anyway, so sometimes Diana thought there should be two classes. One would be for those of them who were going to live here, going in-depth on things they would need to know about, like dueling and countercurses and maybe an extended crossover with Potions to discuss how to recognize and react to different poisons in their food, while a second, elective, course would be for Aladrens who needed to know everything and the few people who thought they might have time to go ramble abroad after school instead of getting on with marriage and the family business. Nobody had ever asked her opinion, though, so she opened a book and stared at it.

“I hope so. I can’t think of anything, either. I’m not even sure a pogrebin counts, now that I think about it,” she said. “They make you sad, yes, but so you’ll curl up in a ball so they can try to eat you. They don’t eat the sadness. Is that still preying on emotion?”

0 Diana Carey You have to admit this time is challenging, though 294 Diana Carey 0 5

Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw

September 11, 2015 10:31 AM

Glad not to have to face mine. by Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw

Like probably most of her classmates, Serena was dreading DADA. She usually did, but nothing was worse than boggarts. Ironically, they'd been an inital triumph for her the last time, but in the end, it backfired. Hers had turned into Carrie, her rotten cousin, and she'd done her best to make the vain girl look her ugliest. Serena had been pleased with her success but unfortunately, Carrie who'd still been here at the time found out and had been furious that anyone would see her looking like that, even if it was a boggart.

To make matters worse, exploiting people's weaknesses was basically Carrie's thing . Fears were often considered weaknesses, even if everyone did have them. So, Serena's fear of her was obviously an easy one to exploit. This had, of course, made her even more afraid of Carrie. It was likely that the Teppenpaw would never have to see her again but she couldn't help but not be convinced.

Of course, if she became Princess of Livilia-really, who cared about being prefect when you could be a princess-maybe she could have Carrie banned from the country? Serena wasn't usually that kind of person, who would exhile someone, but this would have been for her own health and safety as well as the good of the Livilian people.

And things were going very well with Oscar. She heard from him on a regular basis, even though she hadn't seen him again and with every letter, Serena became more enamored. She could tell he was really interested in her too. She really couldn't wait for summer break when they could be together in person. Oscar had expressed this too.

For the fifth year, a girl who'd always loved fairy tales, wanted to meet her Prince Charming, this was a dream come true. Serena had always assumed that she'd marry fairly well but had more than anything wanted someone who truly cherished her instead of the kind of betrothal Arabella was in where they weren't in love. She wanted love and it looked like she might actually have it. Truthfully, she'd never actually thought it would be with an actual prince, just someone from a good pureblood family.

It made things better though, made it easier to feel good when she had to deal with other things that weren't pleasant. Like her feelings of being inadequate in Transfig or how scared she was of things in DADA, and how embarrassing that could feel. It wasn't helping much today though.

Serena breathed a sigh of relief though, when she entered class only to find the Professor Pye had changed the lesson for today. Besides, she wasn't sure she could really make a patronous which had been the plan for fifth years. This was her worst subject and she was quite looking forward to dropping it after CATS. Unlike Transfiguration, which Serena felt pressured to keep even though she really didn't want to and was still trying to make up her mind about, she could definitely drop DADA.

“Hello,” he said. “Want to work together?”

Serena turned to Brandon, nodded and replied. "Certainly." She knew he wasn't one of the more academically inclined people in their class but at least he wouldn't make her feel stupid. Besides, the Pecari seemed to be relatively pleasant.

11 Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw Glad not to have to face mine. 272 Serena Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw

September 21, 2015 8:03 PM

Booooo, Research. by Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw

Aiden was finding his third year to be more and more enjoyable as time went on. Sure there were those weird saying on doors or walls or scribbled on chalk boards, but he wasn’t really involved in any of that (minus the one with his initial, but he was ruled out and really he had no idea who the ‘G’ would have been anyway for him to have been a part of it as it was) so he wasn’t really concerned with it. He knew the school staff members were in a tizzy about it and rightfully so, but until one of the things once again pointed his way, he was just going to mind his own business.

Anyway, his third year was going otherwise smoothly. He was still friends with his roommates and with Savannah and he was still hoping to become better friends with some other classmates because the more friends the better! His mother said she had a couple really great friends while she was at Sonora and that was what really made the whole experience for her. Aiden was hoping to have a gaggle of people as his friends by the time he graduated.

Sitting in the Defense classroom, Aiden pulled out his wand in anticipation of a practical lesson only to be caught off guard by Professor Pye’s announcement of having a headache and declaring the day a research day. The only real good thing about it was the fact that the quiz was cancelled (but even those weren’t so terrible now that he knew what to expect with them). Aiden wasn’t sure whether he should be disappointed or not about the change of plans. On the one hand, he didn’t really want to deal with Boggarts. But on the other, he actually wouldn’t mind testing out the spell and seeing how everyone else faired against what they feared the most.

Aiden really didn’t like the idea of seeing a Lethifold, but he knew it was a reasonable fear to have. He did have to think of ways in which to make it funny though, in order to beat the Boggart. He’d have to worry about that later though. For now, his current duty was to figure out other creatures that messed with human emotions. He picked up a couple of books that the Professor offered and returned to his seat. Aiden hated research. He always became bored too quickly and then forgot what it was that he had just read.

Rubbing his eyes, Aiden looked to the person next to him. “Do you think a Fwooper can be considered a creature that works on emotions? I mean, they drive people crazy with their singing…” Aiden commented. Flipping through books and reading about creatures just made him feel like he was suddenly in the wrong class. Were they being punished because Professor Pye had a headache? That didn’t seem all that fair to him.

“I feel like any creature that is violent should be considered the kind that preys on emotion.” Aiden added, frowning as he looked at a Nundu.

6 Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw Booooo, Research. 287 Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw 0 5

Savannah Brockert,Teppenpaw

September 28, 2015 2:32 PM

Is there a way we can make it fun? by Savannah Brockert,Teppenpaw

Savannah was not really looking forward DADA today. She could usually tolerate the class all right, something that wasn't really true of her immediate and semi-immediate family-semi-immediate family meaning aunts, uncles, grandparents and first cousins, with the Brockerts it was important to make that distinction-aside from Tristan who absolutely loved it and Fabian and Arabella didn't mind it, but really, who looked forward to boggarts? Maybe sadistic people like Carrie who liked to prey on people's worst fears. Except that she'd have to face her own.

She herself could felt she could handle her boggart, at least on an emotional level. What really bothered Savannah was she didn't know for sure that everyone else could. She didn't really want to see that, didn't want to see others being upset-which was probably why she was in Teppenpaw rather than Aladren. Especially her sister or cousins. Chaslyn especially seemed stressed out and a fragile right now.

Plus, her boggart was a pile of dead relatives. How could one possibly make that funny? Not to mention that Scarlett's was Savannah's dead body and she didn't particulary want to see her own corpse either. That would be totally unnerving.

The Teppenpaw almost breathed a sigh of relief when Professor Pye mentioned they would be doing research instead. Even though she knew a lot of people outside Aladren didn't like it-while her not really minding it, she rather liked learning things that were interesting or useful-Savannah couldn't imagine people wanting to fight boggarts. They were one of the worst creatures in her opinion. And with secrets being spilled, that kind of made things worse.

“Do you think a Fwooper can be considered a creature that works on emotions? I mean, they drive people crazy with their singing…”

She turned to her friend, who she liked to sit by, "I think you have a point." Savannah replied. "Especially if someone's nerves are already frayed. I don't know if Professor Pye will agree, but let's put it down anyway. I agree about the violent creatures too, because they induce fear." The third year thought for a second. "Which can be true of small creatures too, I suppose. Oh and how about Erklings? They like to entice children with laughter and eat them. He didn't say it had to be a negative emotion."

11 Savannah Brockert,Teppenpaw Is there a way we can make it fun? 286 Savannah Brockert,Teppenpaw 0 5