Advanced Class - Emergency on Transfiguration

Selina Skies

January 04, 2020 12:57 AM

Advanced Class - Emergency by Selina Skies

“Good afternoon,” Selina greeted the advanced class. “We are going to be continuing our work on conjuration today,” she stated. They were a few weeks into the term, and had been making steady progress with calling forth a variety of basic objects from the Wherever. Where that place was and how it worked was currently forming their homework readings, although the main answer was ‘we are not totally sure, but at least two rival camps have really strong opinions about it.’

“I presume you all know our guest today, though hopefully, for your sakes, not too well,” she gestured with a smile to the school’s resident Healer who was standing at the front of the room with her. “I have asked Ms. Kapoor to join us to cover a very practical application of conjuration, that of first aid. She is going to take you through several specific spells which you will then have a chance to practise. As usual, ‘elicio’ which you’ve been using in your other conjurations, applies here in the same way.” That was to say, it was useful and could be added to almost any conjuration spell to help give more focus, though – as with all verbal elements of spells – it was a conduit rather than an essential.

“Thank you, Professor Skies,” the young healer smiled, taking the floor, “Today is going to start out with a lot of talking. Don’t worry too much about trying to take down everything I say – there are going to be handouts at each work station that cover the main points,” she stated. She would rather give them the information and know for sure they had it right. “The spells we’re going to look at today are indeed very practical. You will not be fully qualified first aiders after this lesson but if you were the person on hand in a real emergency, there would be no reason why you shouldn’t use these spells. They are not to be messed around with, and should of course only be used a temporary measure to get someone to a real healer. The ground rules for administering first aid are that you first check the situation for danger – if something’s hurt one person, there might well be something in the environment that could hurt you too. And second, call for help, unless you are able to singlehandedly move the person to a medical facility – that is not advised if they’ve sustained any kind of trauma, as that might be made worse by apparating.

“We are going to look at five conjuration spells today, and the situations you would use them for; conjuring cotton wads, bandages, splints, stretchers and oxygen,” it was a little odd standing at the front of the classroom, and hearing the chalk behind her scratching away on the blackboard, marking out the key points as she spoke, but at least it was all material that was thoroughly familiar to her.

“Firstly, cotton wads and bandages will be useful in any situation where the victim is bleeding. Whilst some small cuts can be repaired by healing charms, larger cuts and those inflicted by magic are best addressed by healers to reduce the risk of scarring. There is also a risk that a deep cut can be mended superficially but the deeper damage is not addressed, leading to bleeding under the skin. Where someone is bleeding seriously, you will want to conjure a clean cotton pad, press it firmly to the site of the injury, and if possible elevate it above the height of their heart, as this will reduce blood flow to the affected area. If the blood soaks through to the back of the cotton pad, conjure another one and, without removing the first one, press it on top. Continue doing this until the blood does not come through any more. Again, this should all be whilst attempting to bring proper help to them or get them to proper help. The best cover-all spell for this is gossypium - this derives pretty simply from the Latin name for the cotton plant, and can also be used to conjure plants or fabric. For homework, Professor Skies would like you to look up distinctive spells for each use and write some short notes about the pros and cons of the generic versus specific spells.

“Only once an injury has stopped bleeding freely will you will be able to apply a bandage or a splint. A bandage can be used to hold the cotton pad you’ve applied in place whilst moving a person. Many healers also use specialised bandages soaked in different potions or with herb extracts in them, but it’s not possible to conjure a potion, so this limits the uses of any bandages you will able to bring forth from thin air. The spell for this is linteolum and will require a ribbon-like wand movement – the longer it is, the longer your bandage. Take care to avoid trailing them on the ground as you conjure them – admittedly, emergencies don’t always happen in clean and pretty places, and it’s better to get something on there than to let someone bleed, but we do want to try to keep things hygienic,” she emphasised, demonstrating each spell as she named it.

“Splints are a good way to stabilise an injury such as a broken bone whilst transferring someone. They aren’t going to do anything to stop it hurting, mind. Anyone here broken a bone?” she asked, noting the hands that went up. “Hurts, right? Guessing you wouldn’t want anyone pushing that part of you around. And so, the thing I must emphasise regarding a split is it is not the same as a cast. It is a medical professional’s job to realign the bones. A splint is just to stop them moving any further and causing any more damage. You splint something in the position you find it, not the position is should be in. It is a rigid support between the two joints were the injury has occurred – for example, for a lower leg, that’s going to be knee to ankle. The spell is canaliculus with a spiralling wand motion from joint to joint,” she got Professor Skies to hold out her arm and demonstrated wrist to elbow. “If possible, for example if you victim is sitting up with a broken arm, pass your wand around it as you cast. If you cannot do that without moving them, cast above the injured limb only, and really visualise as strongly as possible. This spell is a lot harder in that situation. I’d like you to practise both versions.

“The best way to move a whole person is by lifting them on a stretcher. Especially if their leg is injured, a split is not going to be enough for them to bear weight. This is another tricky one – by definition, you are dealing someone who cannot move. But you want to conjure something underneath them. It’s tricky. We’ll practise it today, but it can be a challenge, so we will also look at safe movement techniques for getting someone onto a stretcher that you’ve conjured next to them. The spell for this one is fercuium and you will need to make draw a rectangle around the person or the area where you are trying to conjure the stretcher.

“Finally, oxygen. To know whether or not oxygen is needed requires some more observation. If someone is not breathing, oxygen does not help. Their lungs have ceased to draw in air and putting more air in front of them is not going to make them work again. Equally, if someone has just fainted, the recovery position is more appropriate. Oxygen is pretty useful and rarely harmful, and if you’re not sure what’s wrong but someone’s collapsed, it’s not a bad thing to try. If someone is unconscious or minimally conscious – not very responsive – and especially if you notice a blueish tinge around their lips, these are signs they need oxygen. Happily, the spell for this one is a pretty straight forward oxygenium. Look closely,” she advised, as she cast it, and a small bubble of barely shimmering difference appeared in the air. “In reality, you would cast that over the victim’s mouth and nose. They’re kind of hard to move, so aim well. With a little bit of charm work, you can cast something that will monitor whether the air is being breathed and whether it’s running out, but that’s something to look at on another day.

“I’m aware that’s been a lot of information. We’re going to break up into four groups, one to try each of those spells, and rotate round so everyone can try them all by the end of the lesson. Pair up and be victims and first aiders. Each workstation has handouts with all the relevant information. I’ll be coming around to check you’re treating your patients appropriately, and to answer any questions. Does anyone have any before we begin?”

OOC – welcome to Transfiguration. Most of the information in this post is taken from my own knowledge from first aid courses or web results. I think it’s mostly accurate, apart from the bits that are obviously magical such as conjuring stretchers underneath people. That said, don’t take any of it as gospel for real emergencies. Please write a 200 word minimum response, which will be marked based on length, relevance, creativity and realism. You may god-mod Healer Kapoor or tag her and/or Professor Skies as needed.

Subthreads:

Let's keep things semi-stable. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Thankfully, not a real one by Ruby Brockert

13 Selina Skies Advanced Class - Emergency 26 1 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

January 17, 2020 1:07 PM

Let's keep things semi-stable. by Tatiana Vorontsova

"Of course we are very proud of you, Tanusha," Mama had said when Tatiana had discussed her plans for the next two years with her parents, "but it seems like so much to take up. This sounds almost like what Grisha took for his advanced exams."

Tatiana was not sure what the implication there had been - that she was not as smart as Grisha, or simply that a girl had no need for such a thorough program - but it had merely put her feet even more firmly on the course she had intended to take in the first place. At first, it had just been to prove to herself that she could. After Mama had said that - and after the amount of work it had taken Tatiana to even qualify for these courses - she had become set on doing it even before because she was so endlessly tired of people trying to stop her from doing anything she wanted to do. She had behaved herself, for the most part, all summer, done just as everyone had wanted her to do. School was the one place where she could do what she wanted, and so she was going to do that.

This was not exactly how she had ended up in Advanced Transfiguration. Her parents agreed that being able to Conjure a little was useful, so they had been on board with her studying at least practical Transfiguration, and at least for a year. The subject Mama had disapproved of had been Defense Against the Dark Arts, which she thought was superfluous for a young lady. Tatiana would, after all, spend most of her life on estates of her family members or friends, surrounded by security, both magical and in the form of people whose jobs were to protect her from anyone trying to intrude on those estates. Irritation over that, however, had driven Tatiana to resolve that she was going to complete both years of Advanced Transfiguration, both magic and theory, and so here she was, sitting in Advanced Transfiguration, wondering why it was she felt the need to react to everything thrown at her.

The work was not the problem. Tatiana actually found conjuration surprisingly easy to work with, relatively speaking. Nothing was really easy in Advanced classes, but it made a degree of sense to her. However, the book work was another tale altogether. She had books in Russian, of course, as always, but even those only did so much to make the theory comprehensible. The thing she understood best was that a lot of people apparently had strong feelings about this, which in its way was as baffling as the technical stuff about spaces and particles and whatnot. Why would anyone have strong feelings about all this? Why would anyone care? It didn't seem to impact the ability to do the magic, so why would anyone dedicate so much time to thinking about these things at all, never mind writing whole books about it in any language?

On one level, Tatiana knew she was not being entirely fair. People liked different things. She had never understood why Dorian and Jehan so enjoyed philosophy, for instance, but they enjoyed it and that was good enough. On another level, though, Tatiana knew she was going to end up essentially writing a book on this topic before the end of the year, translating back and forth to help herself understand and study, and so she could not help resenting the people who had written the original versions. If they had not done this, then she would not have to do this, and she really was not looking forward to writing a book on this topic.

She was, however, curious about why the Healer was in the room. Tatiana rarely got ill, so she rarely saw the Healer. She thought her class was, on the whole, reasonably healthy, and Professor Skies did not look concerned about the woman's presence.

The reason became clear quickly enough. They were going to learn about conjuring in...first aid? Aid. She had study aides...she had a feeling, from the Healer being here, that this was supposed to be some other kind of aid. Maybe? Her expression brightened considerably when she pieced together that there would be handouts at the different stations around the room. Handouts were wonderful. Handouts were her friends. Words on paper didn't move along, she could digest them at her own pace and figure out what was going on. It was, however, important to try to work with her ears, so she tried.

The speech was hard going, though. There were a lot of words she did not understand because she rarely had to use them on a day to day basis, if she ever encountered them at all, and they were coming at speed and in quantity. She pieced together, though, that they were doing something about how to help people who were hurt, which was an intriguingly practical measure.

Tatiana turned a quill between her fingers, her mind wandering away from the medic's voice as she contemplated the subject more generally. She had one cousin - admittedly, always something of an odd duck - on her father's side who had, despite being a woman, become a Healer. Tatiana couldn't imagine she was anything like smart enough for that, of course, but - well, she was smart enough to learn this apparently. Of course, it was meant to be used in the event one of her children was, someday, like her, the sort of child who fell out of trees and occasionally angered bees, but...there was precedent for someone in her family, a woman, doing something with her education, and not getting married. Nobody actually thought very well of Vera - they thought she was odd, unnatural even - but....

Since she had learned Dorian's secret, Tatiana had found it hard to keep her mind off the subjects of what adults did together. She spent, truth to be told, entirely too much time thinking about it - imagining people, herself among them, in different scenarios. It was not unpleasant, even though it felt all wrong when she thought about it from the outside - thought about thinking of it, instead of actually thinking of it. The problem was, though, that she was expected to allow that to follow into marriage and a slew of infants, and the thought of that revolted her. She had been just big enough to remember when Mama had been pregnant with Alexei, and though she loved Alexei and was glad they had him, she could only remember the changes in Mama with horror - the distending figure, the swollen pale face, the retching, the bed rest. She had cried herself to sleep many a night then, both angry that Mama could no longer come and stroke her hair and sing to her before she went to bed and terrified that Mama was dying. Near the end, she had not even been able to hug her mother, terrified that this would somehow make Alexei come out, though they hadn't known he was Alexei then. Everyone had been very cross with her about all of that, but she hadn't done it to be difficult. She hadn't been able to help it, just as she couldn't help feeling almost ill at the thought of doing that herself.

Perhaps it was not always as bad as it had been with Mama and Alexei. Alexei was, after all, Mama's sixth child; she had been really too old to have another baby, and a bit worn out from having had Katya and Tatya and Grisha and Sonia and Anya all in the space of twelve years. Even if it was a little better as a rule, though, Tatiana could not see how it could avoid being a horror show. She just wanted nothing to do with it.

At the same time, however, she knew she didn't really want to be a Healer any more than she wanted to have a baby. She looked at her hands, and at the diamonds and sapphires and one big opal which glittered up at her today. She imagined blood seeping into the tiny gaps between the settings and the stones and shuddered. No, she definitely did not want that to happen. She also didn't want the life she knew she was supposed to have to happen. She didn't know what she wanted, and that was, in its way, worse than anything else at all. Except, of course, possibly childbearing.

When people around her started to move, she moved too, going to a station and picking up a handout to read those essentials Ms. Kapoor had told them about so she could figure out what it was she was supposed to do. Apparently she was going to try to make a splint for a damaged bone. That sounded difficult enough to fill the time and her mind with. She looked up when someone else came over. "I broke arm once," she informed her companion. "I do not remember if I had - this though," she added. "Was a long time ago. You ever break bones?"

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Let's keep things semi-stable. 1396 0 5

Ruby Brockert

February 07, 2020 1:32 PM

Thankfully, not a real one by Ruby Brockert

Ruby had had a miserable summer. She couldn't even put a good spin on it, even though there were positives. Her team had beaten Topaz's during the Challenges and as both Allegra and Emerald had warned her would happen, the fourth year had not taken it well and sought revenge. The Teppenpaw had not wanted to believe her older sister and her cousin. She wanted to see the best in people, including Topaz.

She wasn't sure she could anymore, not about Topaz anyway. The Aladren had never targeted her before, not really. Topaz had gone for the younger ones and Allegra, the seemingly easier targets. The ones she saw as weaker than herself. However, Ruby had also never really had to compete with the younger girl before, not even for their parents' attention (because, if the sixth year was honest with herself, Mother emotionally neglected them all equally and Father tried his best when not working). The Challenges had made the four of them and Allegra have to.

And, honestly, Ruby had been proud of herself and of the other girls. Topaz had done her best to ruin that. Taint it. Make her feel, as Allegra apparently had for a long time, like it wasn't worth it to do well up against someone who was, admittedly, a sore loser. Even though Ruby felt Topaz should have been pleased with how well she had done too.

It was not,however, enough to destroy her outlook on life entirely. She still was optimistic about everyone and everything other than Topaz. For instance, there was a ball this year and while it was unlikely that Ruby would have a date and the person she would want to go with wouldn't even be there, she still would get to dress up in a beautiful gown.

And before long, she would graduate, she would get married and have children and never have to live with Topaz and be in her line of fire again. And Ruby was never going to so much as play a board game against the Aladren from now on. Besides, Topaz was known to cheat at games anyway.

At least for her, the fourth year was fairly easy to avoid at school. They didn't share a house or classes. Besides, though Ruby felt awful about this, because nobody should be victimized by Topaz or anyone else, at school the Aladren would be more focused on torturing her roommate than she would the sixth year.

Besides, now it was time for Transfiguration and the school healer was standing at the front of the room with Professor Skies. It turned out they were going to be learning first aid. Ruby thought this was a valuable lesson even for those who weren't going into the healing profession. Who knew when her future children or younger siblings or cousins would need first aid? Even though so far-it was too soon to tell with the younger ones-none of them were exactly the sort to like doing dangerous things for the most part, who knew when Topaz might decide to strike. Not to mention Uncle Eustace's desire to turn her male cousins-Jasper was old enough to say he wanted no part of it- into Quidditch players. Quidditch was a dangerous game in general and his methods were brutal.

As it turned out, Ruby was to start off in the group conjuring bandages and cotton wads. Those sounded...fairly simple, even though she really wasn't looking forward to having to use them as she'd never been crazy about the sight of blood. "Gossypium" A whispy, insubstantial bit of fluff, the sort of thing Topaz would say she was, came forth and Ruby continued to try until she got something that would work to clean up blood. She turned to the person next to her "How are you coming along?"

11 Ruby Brockert Thankfully, not a real one 1405 0 5