Do I look like Medusa? on Transfiguration

Professor Lilac Crosby

August 05, 2011 12:00 AM

Solid as a rock [First and second years!] by Professor Lilac Crosby

“Grab something from the bin,” instructed the professor as the trail of her youngest students streamed through her doorway. A yellow plastic bin sat to the left of the door, containing small knickknacks, silverware, plush animals, and the like, all things under the size of about eight inches. “Quickly, please, let’s not waste time.” In all honesty the lesson was probably easy enough that they had time to waste, but Lilac did not want to spend idle time today. Her lessons had been that way for a while now.

“Take your seats now,” she urged. Once everyone was seated--which, to her delight--didn’t take too terribly long, her grey eyes scanned across their faces as she began. “All right. Anyone not get a thing? No? Great.” She forced a smile. “Then we can officially get started.”

Producing a bottle of green nail polish from her pocket, Lilac glanced at the students. “This bottle is similar to the objects you all now possess. Small, simple, et cetera. It exhibits one trait that will change shortly.” She released her grip and let the bottle slip through her grasps, crashing into the floor and shattering, small bits of glass and the colored liquid resting on the ground. “It’s extremely fragile.”

Instead of cleaning it up--which she would do later--the brunette stepped around it, closer to the class, and revealed another bottle, this one the same shade of yellow as her nails. Wand aimed at the bottle, she incanted, “Duro.” The bottle in its entirety turned grey, and when she dropped it, it did not shatter. An edge chipped off, but it was mostly intact.

She bent down and picked it up, holding it up for the class to see. “Today’s spell, Duro, turns the object to stone. While at a larger scale the spell can be difficult, at the level we are, it should be simple enough to accomplish by a second or third attempt maximum.” Lilac tucked a stray curl behind her ear and tugged her the lacey end of the long sleeve attached to her ankle-length black dress. She had not felt like straightening her hair, but she had managed to brush it out a little better than it was naturally.

“Some of you may be thinking now, ‘But Professor, this sounds like more of a Charm.’ You’d be wrong,” she added on the end. “It is transfiguring the object before you to a stone. Sometimes the line between the two are rather thin.” The Russian glanced around at the class, just to make sure no one was asleep or too visibly confused.

“So! Feel free to get started, partner up, et cetera. Stuff we usually do.” With a final smile, Lilac said, “I’ll be, you know, around. Come get me if you need anything.” With that, she Summoned an eraser off of her desk, nonverbally transfigured it to a soapy sponge, knelt down, and scrubbed the green nail polish off of the floor by hand. It didn’t feel pleasant on her elbow, but it kept her busy.

OOC: Standard rules, lots of words, yadda yadda yadda. Tag if needed, IC feel free to either call Lilac’s name or go tap her on the shoulder. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Do I look like Medusa? by Michael Grosvenor with Russell Layne, Aladren

Soft on the outside, hard on the inside by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren with Jessica Applerose - Teppenpaw, Kitty

CLASS CLOSED (nm) by Professor C.

0 Professor Lilac Crosby Solid as a rock [First and second years!] 0 Professor Lilac Crosby 1 5

Michael Grosvenor

August 05, 2011 12:47 PM

Do I look like Medusa? by Michael Grosvenor

Other students might have fidgeted with the bouncy ball, had they been the one to pick it out of the box. However, Michael knew how irritating other people’s fiddling could be and besides that, he was really far too busy concentrating to think of doing anything other than holding it firmly in his hand. He double checked the spell in his book before beginning. It was a habit he’d got into, if the Professor didn’t write it on the board, as mishearing the spell even slightly could have dramatic consequences. He flicked back a couple of pages, to see whether it gave any additional advice, as he felt just pointing his wand and hoping wasn’t a good tactic, and he didn’t really understand how or why this was supposed to work.

’Elemental transfiguration is the oldest branch of the magic as it deals with natural materials, such as wood and stone. It was also essential for wizarding kind to master this kind of magic before they dared branch out into attempts at transfiguring living things. This means that such transfigurations are ideally suited to beginners. Transfigurations between natural materials are easiest, and objects should ideally be composed of just one material,’ Michael glanced at the small rubber ball in his hand, thinking initially that one out of two wasn’t bad, until he remembered that rubber came from trees. So, this should be pretty simple. He wasn’t sure whether that was encouraging or would just make failing feel worse. The rest of the notes seemed to talk about drawing comparisons and visualising change.

”Duro,” he cast, trying to visualise a small round rock. Looking back at the ball on his desk, it had turned from a lurid green to a natural, darker shade, though certainly not the colour of any rock he’d seen. Brushing his fingertips over it, it felt rough, like stone. Picking it up, he dropped it from a small height onto his desk. It bounced. Michael blinked in surprise.

“Strange…” he pondered, more to himself than anyone else. So, something could outwardly possess the features of the target but retain some of the properties of the starting object. He ran his fingers over the ball again to check he hadn’t been imagining the stony feeling. He couldn’t begin to get his head around how that could be possible, and he expected the official theoretical explanation would only make his head hurt more. He was just going to go with ’it’s magic.’

13 Michael Grosvenor Do I look like Medusa? 199 Michael Grosvenor 0 5

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

August 07, 2011 1:55 PM

Soft on the outside, hard on the inside by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Classes where Kitty got to use her wand were always some of her favorites. Even after so many months of using it Kitty still got a thrill when a few words and a wave of what amounted to a stick still managed to work. Bippity Boppity Boo Kitty thought with a grin as she entered the Transfiguration class room.

Before she could take her seat the teacher told the students to get an item out of the bin sitting at the front of the class. Rummaging though the knickknacks Kitty grabbed a small white seal plushy. Large liquid blue eyes made the tiny girl smile happily as she skipped to her desk. The sound of breaking glass jerked Kitty’s attention back to the front of the room where the teacher had been speaking, now there was shattered bottle of green stuff all over the floor. Then the teacher grabbed another bottle, which Kitty now saw was nail polish. “Duro” She said, suddenly the glass bottle changed to grey and when she dropped it, it didn’t shatter, just chipped a bit.

Ohhhh, turning things into stone! Kitty grinned at the thought. Without hesitation she set the little white plushy on her desk and mimicked the wand movement they’d been shown while saying “Duro”. A large pout formed on her pink lips as the stuffy remained pristine white. Sighing she reached out to pick it up only to find the plushy was now much heavier than it had been. Attempting to squish it Kitty realized that she’d somehow got the insides to turn to stone, but her little seal still had his white coat. “One more time” She whispered under her breath as she set the little stuffy down and cast the spell again. His fur turned into a stone grey, but the pretty blue eyes remained. “Awwww, that’s too cute.” Kitty cooed at the little stone blue eyed statue. She decided to keep the blue eyes, not wanting them to turn grey. She turned to look at the person next to her and showed them her new little blue eyed seal statue “Too cute right?”

0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren Soft on the outside, hard on the inside 0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren 0 5

Jessica Applerose - Teppenpaw

August 08, 2011 5:53 AM

I tend to be the other way around by Jessica Applerose - Teppenpaw

Transfiguration was similar enough to Charms that Jessica liked doing it. Sure it was harder magic but she enjoyed challenges. And she had poured through all of her textbooks most of her first year and halfway into her second. She hadn't been very, well, social. Not true to her nature. So Jess decided that she'd change that immediately. Her studying did, however, put her at an advantage for a second year.

Jess walked into the classroom and was suddenly rushed into picking something from a yellow bin by her professor. So she stuck her hand into the bin and rushed to grab the first thing she found (which turned out to be a rubber chicken which she threw back in and picked another) and went to sit down before the class started. As was her custom, she greeted the person next to her before pulling out her 10 1/4 willow wood wand and putting what looked to be a delicate crystal angel-shaped ornament in front of her.

She watched their professor perform a spell in front of them and listened attentively. She wondered privately if it should've broken, it being stone on a hard floor. But she didn't question it. She'd seen it not break after all. Jess remembered reading about this spell in one of her many textbooks and muttered the familiar incantation under her breath once. The girl sitting next to her sounded eager to try it and she watched as the girl attempted to transfigure the plushy. Smiling once when she realized that it was rock hard on the inside, she watched the girl transfigure it again.

Suddenly her partner turned to her and showed her the stone plushy with bright blue eyes, startling Jess a little. "Too cute, right?" the girl said, and Jess smiled.

"It's adorable! Good job." She smiled and then turned to her ornament. "It's so pretty that I don't want to turn it into stone," she told her seat-partner. "But I guess it's part of the lesson." She cleared her throat and then pointed her wand at the ornament. "Duro," she said clearly, and she watched the crystal angel turn into stone before her very eyes. She smiled a little. "I read a lot about Transfiguration spells last year." She paused. "Seems symbolic somehow, doesn't it? An angel turning to stone." She shrugged. "Did the professor tell us how to change it back?" she asked, suddenly wanting to save the angel from its fate of being sealed in stone. Literally. "I'm Jessica, by the way," she said with a smile at her partner. "Jessica Applerose."

0 Jessica Applerose - Teppenpaw I tend to be the other way around 0 Jessica Applerose - Teppenpaw 0 5

Kitty

August 09, 2011 10:38 PM

So, a soft fuzzy center? by Kitty

Kitty ran her fingers over the now rough stone fur and grinned at her accomplishment. She hoped they would be allowed to keep their new statues. A bright happy smile shined on Kitty’s heart shaped face at the other girl’s praise of her work. Like any true artist, Kitty lived for praise.

Bright blue eyes widened with excitement. “Ohhh! Do you think we can turn them back? And if we can do you think that it would work on things that are already stone? Like statues and stuff? Maybe that’s where gargoyles came from! It was probably a renegade wizard who didn’t care who saw what he was doing, and he made all the gargoyle statues come to life.” Kitty said a she thought out loud. It made sense. There were legends of dragons, and unicorns and gryphon. So, regular people probably saw all of these creatures at one point or another to have legends about them. Wait…if all those things were real, what if gargoyles were really a magical creature? “Are there really real gargoyles?” Kitty asked, anything was possible.

A nod of agreement was given as Kitty looked at the now sad looking stone angel, all her pretty colors dulled to stone grey. “Now she looks like one of the graveyard statues.” Kitty said, her voice quiet for once. Last year her parents took them to some of the older grave yards, and Kitty got to take charcoal rubbings of the old names and dates. It was really neat, but totally creepy too. “I’m Katrina McLevy, but you can call me Kitty.”

0 Kitty So, a soft fuzzy center? 0 Kitty 0 5

Jess

August 09, 2011 11:43 PM

Yeah, pretty much. by Jess

Jessica was excited by the girl's excitement. She liked excitable people. "Probably! I don't think it would work on something already stone, but I'm sure there's another spell to make stone things move!" She wasn't sure if gargoyles were real, but there were some crazy-looking magical creatures. "That would be really interesting. A real gargoyle! I'd be a little scared of them though. I wonder what they'd look like. I only think of them being grey all the time." Jess thought about it for a moment.

Jess didn't like to turn things into stone though. She liked expensive things like crystal and diamonds and lots and lots of colors. Stone turned everything...grey. "Yeah, she does," Jess agreed. "It's kind of sad. I don't like grey. It's a boring color."

The girl, Kitty, introduced herself and Jess realized she had forgotten to. "Oh, I'm Jessica Applerose," she said, laughing a little. "Sorry I forgot to introduce myself. It's nice to meet you, Kitty! You can call me Jess. Where are you from?" Jess didn't think it a strange question to ask here, it being so diverse and all.

0 Jess Yeah, pretty much. 0 Jess 0 5

Russell Layne, Aladren

August 10, 2011 6:53 PM

Not my idea of her, no. by Russell Layne, Aladren

Russell didn’t dive at the bin for an object, figuring that too much hurry would make things less efficient instead of more in the class with everyone in first and second year going for the same object, but neither did he dawdle once an opening cleared up near the bin. He hoped it didn’t matter what sort of thing they were working with, because he ended up with a silver fork – or at least a silvery one; he couldn’t tell one shiny grayish metal from another reliably, which was something he supposed he would have to rectify before he grew up; though there was a spell to do it, Dad claimed he could almost always get it right by eye now – just reaching in and taking something with no more attention than was needed to make sure he didn’t cut himself on something. In the professor’s current mood, he hadn’t figured she’d be pleased with someone needed to excuse himself to the hospital wing for healing.

He jumped when she dropped the bottle of nail polish, sending bits of glass here and there, not to mention the nail polish itself. His shoes were far enough away, though, not to be affected, which was good, since he was still getting the hang of the scouring charm. It was interesting to him, how some spells came more easily than others, but speculation about magic took a back seat when he was at school and therefore didn’t have many pairs of shoes to mess up. Plus, he really was partial to this particular pair of shoes.

The fork was slim, so he was guessing that would make it easier. At least, he hoped that would make it easier. Maybe believing it was going to make it easier would make it easier. He still didn’t know quite enough theory of transfiguration – or, more likely, not nearly enough theory of transfiguration – to be sure about that kind of thing.

Anyway. Nothing to do but try it. He took out his wand and said, “Duro.”

The fork shivered on the desk in front of him, then lost some of its sheen. He rapped it with his fingernails, and the sound wasn’t quite like metal. Not stone yet, but not metal yet. He wondered what it actually was. He didn’t think, routinely, of there being a state somewhere between metal and stone. They were, he had thought, just separate categories and that was all.

“Strange…” the boy in the next seat, a first year Teppenpaw with longer hair than his, said, looking at the ball he had.

“It’s not doing what you expected?” Russell asked. He wasn’t sure what help he could offer if it was needed, since second year wasn’t as impressive now that he was in it as it had been when he was a first year who felt not very different than he did now, but was prepared, in his position as the older and theoretically wiser second year, to do what he could.

16 Russell Layne, Aladren Not my idea of her, no. 183 Russell Layne, Aladren 0 5

Kitty

August 11, 2011 11:57 PM

What’s the outside then? by Kitty

“Mmhmm, I like green best.” Kitty replied when Jess said that grey was a boring color. “There’s just so many shades of green, it seems like there are way more greens out there than any other color you know?” Kitty said with a grin a she flipped though the text book, trying to see if there were any counter spells that could be used to reverse the stone spell.

“Oh, I’m from Reno, Nevada. Well not really Reno. We live in a small valley about fifteen miles outside of the city. It’s called Coldsprings, but no one ever knows where that is so it’s easier to just say Reno. All we have is a school and a 7-11, so that gets kinda boaring, but the mountains start right behind my house! Once my brother’s hiked all the way to California. We only live like twenty miles away from the boarder but still that’s a lot.” Kitty said with a grin, remembering how angry mom had been when she found out about that little adventure. “They totally woulda gotten away with it too but Zack asked mom to get the pictures developed for them.”

“How about you? I wish I was from somewhere far away, and tropical. We took a family vacation to Florida one year and I loved the beach, I still have about ten bags full of shells from that trip.” Kitty grinned.

0 Kitty What’s the outside then? 0 Kitty 0 5

Jess

August 12, 2011 1:51 AM

A happy-go-lucky demeanor that's a bit transparent by Jess

Green was indeed a wonderful color. It was Jess' favorite color too. "Me too," she agreed as she watched Kitty go through the textbook. Jess played with her little stone angel as Kitty talked to her. She was surprised that there was someone next to her, state-wise. She'd been to Nevada once or twice just because her parents had been fascinated with Las Vegas at one time. She hadn't been back in awhile, come to think of it.

Jess gasped at how far her brother had hiked. "Twenty miles?" she exclaimed. "That's far!" She couldn't imagine hiking that far. She wondered how long it had taken him, but perhaps she didn't want to know. Too long for her, that was for sure. She got tired just on a drive up to the mountains!

"Florida sounds like a lovely place," said Jess. "I'm from California. Just right next door to Nevada! Well, at least in Los Angeles which is more in the middle of Southern California." She nodded. "I'd love to live next to the mountains. Or have them as my backyard!" She smiled. "Living in the city is fun too, but it gets busy a lot. Pretty much all day! Coming to Arizona in the middle of nowhere was really weird for me at first. Now it just feels like a second home." She suddenly dropped her stone angel onto the table and it dropped with a thunk. "Good thing it's made of stone," she noted.

"I haven't traveled many places. I've never been across the country at all! My mom and dad are from England, though, but I came here when I was a baby so I don't remember it at all. My brother and sister have traveled a lot without me." She sighed. "Sometimes it's unfair, but I like home too." To be honest, Jess wasn't much of a traveler. She still would like to see other places, but she wasn't dying to see them like Darla and Tom had been. She felt her stomach knot at the thought of them and shoved the thought away.

0 Jess A happy-go-lucky demeanor that's a bit transparent 0 Jess 0 5

Kitty

August 12, 2011 1:00 PM

I think I’m just happy-go-lucky by Kitty

A grin curled Kitty’s lips when Jess agreed that green was the best color. She knew that most girls liked pink or purple, but Kitty still thought green was best. Jess gasped in surprise at her story and Kitty giggled. Even she couldn’t believe how silly her brothers tended to be, they didn’t even go any where, just to the border and jumped back and forth over it before heading back home.

“I know right? I don’t know what they were thinking, but it took them almost a whole day to get there and back. They’d told mom they were going to be at a friends house.” She said with a laugh. Her brothers were always doing stuff like that, and often Kitty got to join them. Going to California was one of the few times they didn’t let her go because it was way too far for her to be able to keep up with them.

“Oh! That must be awesome. Los Angeles always looks so pretty in the movies. We’ve never been to the ocean side of California but we use to go camping in the forest side. The trees there are just so big! Were you ever in any of the fires?” It seemed like California was always on fire to the small Aladren but she didn’t know if they ever got near any of the big cities. “Some times we have brush fires in the mountains, they never get too close and even though it’s bad it still looks really pretty at night.” Kitty added.

0 Kitty I think I’m just happy-go-lucky 0 Kitty 0 5

Jess

August 12, 2011 3:14 PM

We'll get along well then! by Jess

"Your brothers sound like fun," she said with a smile. She hardly knew her own brother and her sister was no fun. Well, she wasn't tied to them anyway, and her parents didn't really attempt contact with them anymore. That's just how life was for her. No use wallowing about it now.

Jess smiled. "Yeah! I've never seen them make movies in L.A., but it always looks awesome, I agree." She smiled brightly. "Sounds like you've been to Northern California! Or something like that." She wasn't aware of too many giant forests or trees in the south. She knew palm trees dotted the landscape like no other. Why? She didn't really know or question it often.

"No, but I hear a lot about it. There aren't many big trees in L.A. so it doesn't catch fire very often. It's more in the drier areas." Again, Jess couldn't say where. "In the hills," she said instead. That's where it seemed to happen most, anyway. "Oh, the ocean is so great!" she exclaimed. "You have to go there sometime. That's one awesome part of California. I love the beach. It's awesome. If you ever get to visit again, you should go to Corona Del Mar. That beach is beautiful!"

She wanted to have a beach house one day. Goodness knew she could afford it with the money her parents had. Unfortunately, there weren't many places where a witch could live without being surrounded by muggles at the beach. It would be more difficult to do magic and to keep herself from getting sunburned with magic as well when she tried to tan.

0 Jess We'll get along well then! 0 Jess 0 5

Kitty

August 14, 2011 1:38 AM

Perfect! by Kitty

“Yeah they’re pretty great. I wish they could have come here too. That would have made Sonora absolutely the best.” Kitty said as she looked down at her little seal statue. She was getting use to not having her brothers around, but it was hard sometimes not to be able to go to them and share every new thing she learned. Well, Christmas was coming up soon and Kitty had so much to tell them all!

“Yeah we went to the Red Wood Forest once and those trees were huge! There was this one that fell down and I guess some people carved out the middle. It was so big that you could drive a car though it. I’ve never seen trees so big before.” Kitty chirped as she closed her eyes to better remember the enormous forest with trees that seemed to pierce the very sky. It had been an amazing sight.

“Really? Corona Del Mar, that’s a pretty neat name. I’ll ask mom and dad and see if maybe we could go there this summer. That would be loads of fun! Are there a lot of sharks over there? I would hate to get eaten on vacation that would be awful!” Kitty exclaimed. Shark week was one of her favorite T.V events, but it had the tendency to make the ocean seem rather terrifying.

0 Kitty Perfect! 0 Kitty 0 5

Jess

August 14, 2011 2:05 PM

Perfect as perfect can get! by Jess

Jess nodded, trying not to think of her own older siblings. Tom had left home when he was eighteen and she'd only been ten at the time. Darla had left for university at 18 too. Both had been more than eager to get out of the house, something Jess didn't really understand. She'd mostly grown up as an only child. She wished she had a relationship that sounded as stable and wonderful as Kitty's relationship with her brothers.

Thinking about her siblings made her angry but she ignored it as she always did in public. "That's amazing," she said instead to Kitty's description of the forest. "My mum's been there and she's told me about it but I've never seen it. I'd love to see that!"

Jess laughed at Kitty's shark exclamation. "No, there aren't many sharks. And anyway, if there were they're waaaay out in the deep waters. Not where we swim. If you do go, owl me and I could meet you there! I don't live very far away." She smiled brightly at the prospect of having someone from school to hang out with during the summer.

0 Jess Perfect as perfect can get! 0 Jess 0 5

Kitty

August 15, 2011 7:43 AM

Can’t get better than that! by Kitty

“Yup! It was really cool, though not quite as cool as the Grand Canyon. I guess that’s pretty hard to top any way.” Kitty said with a grin as she chattered happily. Her family did a lot of road trip summer vacations and Kitty had been to quite a few places around the United States. They’d never traveled outside of the country though, and that was something Kitty really wanted to do. Mom said that taking six people out of the country was just way to expensive.

“Really!? Oh my gosh that would be so much fun.” Kitty said, excitement almost causing the tiny girl to bounce right out of her chair as she imagined going to the beach with Jess. Having someone actually want her to visit them was very pleasing to the young girl. Kitty did have friends back home, but it usually took people a while to become acclimated to her level of energy and not be annoyed by her. Most people didn’t really take to the bouncy girl right of the bat like Jess appeared to.

“So what classes do you like best so far? I love Care of Magical Creatures, and can’t wait until they let us see some of the bigger animals. Gryphons, dragons, unicorns. Now those are some magical creatures! That and Defense, I like learning about all the different sides of magic and its best to know how to protect ourselves from people and creatures who are dark instead of being completely helpless you know?” Kitty said as she fidgeted in her seat.

0 Kitty Can’t get better than that! 0 Kitty 0 5

Michael

August 15, 2011 12:12 PM

Good to know I don't look monstrous or like a woman by Michael

Michael had really just been talking to himself. He hadn’t even really identified that the boy next to him had spoken, as it had just been part of the general noise that he’d been trying to ignore. But as he glanced up from his work, he found the other boy staring at him in a way that suggested Michael was supposed to reply. As had happened so often this term, he found himself trying to perform a forensic analysis of the situation at high enough speed to reply. He thought back over what he’d said… He had said this was strange, so maybe the boy was asking what. Or he could have been asking for or offering help. As the boy was a second year Aladren, the latter was more likely. Or he could have just been introducing himself in order to strike up a conversation. Well, talking about his work would cover the possibility that he’d been offered help or asked what was strange, and he could throw an introduction in without seeming too odd. Hopefully that would cover enough possibilities that he’d hit the right one.

“Oh, hi. I’m Michael,” he smiled. “And look…” he picked up the ball, “It looks kind of like what we’re going for, but,” he bounced it, “still has the properties of what it was.” Hopefully that had covered all bases. And seeming slightly surprised might make it make sense that he’d introduced himself first, if the other boy hadn’t asked, and he’d talked about his work in such a way that, if he was introducing a new topic, it seemed perfectly natural.

He tried to keep an eye on Russel’s face to lipread his response but without looking like he was staring.

13 Michael Good to know I don't look monstrous or like a woman 199 Michael 0 5

Jess

August 16, 2011 1:42 AM

I love all of our exclamations! by Jess

Jess had never really seen the Grand Canyon. Actually, she hadn't seen much anything. She did go to the beach occasionally and sometimes took trips to muggle places, but other than that, she hadn't gone anywhere. She'd come from England, but it wasn't like she'd ever gone back. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to travel anyway, though it would be nice to have seen the places Kitty was talking about.

Jess was happy that Kitty was excited, or at least sounded excited, about hanging out with her sometime during the summer. It would be a lot of fun! She thoroughly enjoyed Kitty's enthusiasm. She definitely loved enthusiastic people because she had so few of them in her life. They made life interesting and, well, happy!

"Those creatures scare me a little," she said. "Care of Magical Creatures scares me. I don't really like taking care of creatures. Maybe the fluffy, harmless ones, but not dragons." She thought for a moment. "It would be cool to see a unicorn though! But aren't they kinda rare?

"My favorite class is Charms. It's so fun to make things like chairs walk around and stuff." She paused. "Not that we've had much of an opportunity to do cool stuff like that, but still. I studied a lot my first term, and now I wish I could move up to the third year class. I really like Defense too. I understand what you mean. It's nice to be able to know how to protect yourself."

She was a little interested in the Dark Arts as well, but she never let anyone know that deep secret of hers. She was just interested in how someone obtained that much power. It just seemed so...dangerous, and Jess was slightly curious. Not about the danger part, but about the power part. Jess sighed heavily. "When is this class over?" she groaned. "I'm getting kind of hungry." As if on cue, her stomach rumbled and she blushed. "Can you tell?" she joked.

"What year are you?" she asked.

0 Jess I love all of our exclamations! 0 Jess 0 5

Kitty

August 16, 2011 4:16 PM

Thrives on exclamations! by Kitty

“Uh, I dunno if unicorns are rare or not, I just read about them in the library the other day and thought that they’d be pretty cool to see. Dragons might be dangerous, but I’m sure if we’re careful they’ll be alright. It’s just like lions and tigers in the zoo, the zoo keepers don’t ever really get attacked unless they aren’t doing their job right. There was a mountain lion once that we were aloud to pet for a demonstration about conservation once, that was pretty awesome. Though I still think a dragon would be way cooler.” Kitty said as she curled one foot up under her. The longer the class went on the more fidgety the tiny girl became.

“Charms is fantastic too! There’s so much they can do, it’s really amazing. I can’t wait until we learn all the really complicated charms. The easy ones are fun but they get kinda boring after a few tries.” Kitty said with a nod as she turned the stone seal over in her hands again and again, enjoying the rough texture of the fur on her fingers.

“God I know! It feels like this class is taking forever.” Kitty groaned as she hopped slightly to get her foot out from under her, almost falling off her chair in the process. “Oh, I’m a first year. We couldn’t believe that I was magic, and coming to Sonora has been so much fun. There hasn’t been a class yet that sucks so I’m happy. Even though they can get a little boring, like right now, it isn’t ever boring all the time. Not like math class.” Kitty said as her small nose wrinkled at the thought of the mind numbingly boarding math classes she’d had to sit through in her life.

0 Kitty Thrives on exclamations! 0 Kitty 0 5

Jess

August 17, 2011 3:50 PM

Ha ha, we're having too much fun by Jess

Jess thought dragons were still frightening. Maybe if they were in a cage and far away from her, she'd be able to stand them. But if she knew anything about magical schools, it was that they liked to let the creatures loose for the learning experience. Hopefully they knew that dragons were too dangerous for students to deal with...hopefully. "Unicorns are really rare," Jess said. "Well, maybe not really rare, but it wouldn't be right to capture them. They're so pure they deserve to be free." She loved unicorns, sort of, because they were really cool. "I'd love to see a unicorn took," she agreed.

"Yeah! I agree with you. I wish we could move on to cooler charms. Cheering charms gets kinda boring and I mean, you can't really use it that often." She shrugged. "I wish I could ask to get moved into the third year Charms class. It would be way more fun, I think!" And more challenging. Jess had studied up on Charms quite a lot her first year and during the summer because it fascinated her. She loved using her wand.

Jess began bouncing her foot up and down in anticipation for the class to end. As much fun as she was having talking to Kitty, she was getting bored. Would they do anything else in class?

As Kitty talked about finding out that she was a witch, Jess smiled. There seemed to be a lot of muggle-borns at this school, or at least kids that had grown up as muggles. Reggie was one and then Maddie. And now Kitty, too! "Yeah, these classes are so fun! I'm a second year. I bet you could hardly believe it, coming here. Everything's really different from the muggle community, and they're not always so fond of witches and wizards."

She shrugged. "They're more afraid of magic, I think. I grew up in a muggle community so I know. My dilemma was more of deciding which secondary school to go to, and then Sonora sent me a letter." Living with pureblood parents didn't make her dislike muggles. Her parents had influenced her to love muggles and all wizarding folk alike, unlike her prejudiced siblings and family in England. She still didn't know why they didn't like them, but, well, whatever. If anything, most purebloods seemed more stuck-up than muggle-borns.

0 Jess Ha ha, we're having too much fun 0 Jess 0 5

Kitty

August 19, 2011 10:03 PM

True true by Kitty

“Hmm, well back in muggle school.” Kitty almost wrinkled her nose at the word, but in the end she knew it was a fight that couldn’t be won, and while it had been fun for a while, fighting about words got boring. So, Kitty gave in to the whole muggle silliness, just to avoid getting into any more debates about what normal was. “If you wanted to you could talk to the student councilor and test up to higher grade levels if you’re smart enough. My oldest brother skipped three grades when he was in school. But, he’s kind of a genius and all that. Doesn’t magical school have something similar?” Kitty wondered out loud. If Jess was as good as she said, Kitty figured there wasn’t any reason for her not to advance to a higher class.

Kitty nodded. “Well I don’t think most muggles even believe in magic. It took the councilor guy forever to convince my family that he wasn’t just some scam artist. My brother thought that his magic tricks were just mass hypnosis. That was until he turned our couch into a dog, and dad had a huge allergic reaction to the collie. I mean, you can’t really have an allergic reaction to a mirage right? So why did you grow up in a muggle community?” Kitty asked. The way Jess worded it made it sound like the older girl was from a magic family, so Kitty wondered what happened to make her grow up in the normal world instead of the magic one.

0 Kitty True true 0 Kitty 0 5

Jess

August 20, 2011 2:16 AM

So what now? by Jess

"I don't know if I can skip," she said slowly. "I've never heard of anyone doing that before." It wasn't really like she'd had much information about that either. And besides, being in a class with a bunch of older students would be a little intimidating. And she'd be the youngest. Not that she wasn't used to that, but still. She'd rather be learning with her peers. Besides, it was kind of nice knowing things her classmates didn't. About Charms, anyway.

When Kitty asked about Jess growing up with muggles, she hesitated. It was sort of a sob story, one that she wasn't quite interested in telling to just anyone. But then again, what did it matter? Daddy had said that if you kept fear within you, it would take over you. But if you let it out to those you trust, you would conquer the fear instead of it conquering you. So she decided to talk.

"Well, my parents are from England," she said, starting at the very beginning. "And they really liked muggle-borns. I'm from a really big European pureblood family, but they don't like muggles like my parents. So my grandfather disowned my dad and they moved to California when I was just a kid. It was me, my mom and dad, and my brother and sister. My parents wanted to learn all about muggles so they moved into a muggle neighborhood. That's all I know, really. My brother and sister didn't like it at all though. They don't like muggles like my grandparents. So my brother moved away when I was six, so I don't remember him that well, and my sister went to a university when I was ten. She was really mad at my mom and dad that they sent me to a muggle school."

She shrugged. "My parents are still upset about them leaving and never writing. They pretty much joined my grandparents' side." It was hard living with a broken family that she hardly knew, but she didn't blame anyone but her grandparents and her siblings. It was their fault for turning them away. Couldn't they just accept that Mom and Dad liked muggles? She didn't get it. They were still people. Talking about her family always brought her mood down, and she frowned a little to keep the tears at bay. It was almost two years ago that Darla had left anyway. Mommy was still hurt about that, but that couldn't be helped.

"Not a really happy family story," she continued with a deep breath, "but it's mine." Blood prejudice did that to a lot of pureblood families nowadays. "I like being here, though. I like being with other people that can do magic." She smiled. She did miss her muggle friends back home, though, even if they couldn't know that she could do magic.

0 Jess So what now? 0 Jess 0 5

Professor C.

August 20, 2011 11:45 PM

CLASS CLOSED (nm) by Professor C.

0 Professor C. CLASS CLOSED (nm) 0 Professor C. 0 5