What about locking someone out? on Charms

Grayson Wright

February 21, 2020 6:58 PM

Lock it down, Beginners. by Grayson Wright

Grayson Wright had made an error.

A serious, serious error.

An error which he was not entirely sure there even was a way to fix, much less a way he could figure out.

He had assumed he knew how people would behave, and now it was backfiring on him.

He had known, of course, that some people would read the book. It was the purpose of publishing a book. If it had been likely that no-one at all would read the book, then nobody would have agreed to publish it for him, dooming him either to the knowledge that he had written an unreadable book or to the even grimmer prospect of self-publishing. He had not, however, expected very many people to read the book, and certainly not for anyone he knew to read the book, which was why it had come as a nasty shock when he had gone home over the winter to visit his parents and had found his mother halfway through a copy, looking up over her reading glasses to ask him if that was what going to boarding school was really like.

It was, of course, a fluke, that his mother had read the book. His mother was a Squib, with no magical talent to speak of and only so much contact with the magical world despite her husband and only child both being wizards of reasonable ability. What was not a fluke was no less than three separate people he knew to one degree or another turning out to have read the book.

Three. Separate. People.

Thankfully, they were all blissfully unaware that Gray had written the book, but still. If he did the math comparing how many people he knew to the percentage of those people he now knew had read the book and then extrapolated that into general consumption, even without factoring in that a lot of people had wider social circles than he, then that was a lot of people. Enough that he was apparently actually pretty close to earning money from the thing. This was getting entirely out of hand, and somehow, he was sure, something could possibly go wrong and then people would found out he’d written the book and then –

Well, he didn’t know what ‘then,’ but it seemed like a bad idea.

He tried not to think about this as he got ready to teach the first years, newly back from their midterm holiday. “Welcome back everyone,” he said. “Now that your parents are done hiding presents for the year, it seems like a good time to teach you how to lock and unlock doors.”

The comment about parents was mostly a joke, of course, as the parents would need to hide Christmas presents again next year, and surely the students wouldn’t forget a whole spell – especially such a useful one – in just one year. Surely. Of course. So it was a joke. Good joke.

“These two spells are easy to learn, but the locking charm is one you can build up strength in casting. Today, you might be able to lock a door for five minutes before the spell fades. By the time you leave Sonora, a first year’s unlocking charm shouldn’t work against a door you lock.”

He raised his wand and drew a shape, like a rectangle with the side pointing left still open. Instead of rising to meet his first line, the end dropped sharply downward. This same shape appeared on the blackboard. “This is Colloportus,” he said. “The locking charm. Everyone say that together with no wands in three – two – one. Col-lo-por-tus.” Inability to clearly articulate words had caused Gray more than his fair share of difficulties in class when he’d been a student. “Its counter-charm is alohomora. Three-two-one - alow – ho – more – ah. Good. This counter-charm has a very easy wand movement, easier than Colloportus - it’s just like you’re drawing a backwards ‘s’ in the air.” He demonstrated and a drawing of this appeared on the board, too.

“Which is good to know, but you need practice if you’re going to be able to use these spells for anything. Since it’s probably not good for the doors and windows for twenty people to charm them in one day, you’ll be working with these padlocks,” he said, holding up an example from a box of them which began to make its way around to the students, stopping long enough at each place for the students to select from among the nearly identical collection of cheap, poor-quality locks. “Each of you should try colloportus on the locks, then switch and see if you can successfully use alohomora on each other’s locks. Repeat at least three times and make notes on your observations. Those and a theory – at least one sentence – about why we teach you colloportus when it’s counter-charm is so widely known are your homework assignments for this class. If you finish them by the end of class, though, hold on to them until next class so you can study your notes. I think that’s it, so, raise your hands if you have any questions and I’ll come answer them, but otherwise, get started,” he invited them, already starting himself on worrying about the outside possibility of becoming famous again.

OOC: Welcome to Charms! All site rules (minimum word count 200 words, or about eight sentences, good spelling and grammar, no writing for each other’s characters without permission, keep it PG, and keep it realistic) need to be followed for points. Tag Professor Wright in your post title if you need to ask him something in character and ask on the OOC board or in Chatzy (I’m usually Tatiana Vorontsova these days) if you have any questions out of character. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Who are you trying to lock out? by Anya Delachene with Leonor De Matteo

But why? by Ellie Alperton with Alexander Pierce-Beales

What about locking someone out? by Josephine Clyde with Jezebel Reed-Fischer

16 Grayson Wright Lock it down, Beginners. 113 Grayson Wright 1 5

Anya Delachene

February 26, 2020 12:18 PM

Who are you trying to lock out? by Anya Delachene

Anya liked Charms. It was the most useful class at Sonora. She did not super love the homework, which she was still mediocre at best for remembering to do, but she turned in enough assignments that she wasn’t failing the class, and her test and practical grades were good enough to counterbalance the ones she missed entirely. But homework was a problem she had in all her classes, so she wasn’t going to hold it against Charms particularly.

She was pretty sure Professor Wright was one of those people who worried she’d accidentally off herself by jumping off a roof without realizing she couldn’t fly, but he wasn’t as obvious about it as Mom. And he was eventually going to her to fly, so she’d forgive it. Self levitation had to be on the curriculum soon or later, right? At minimum, slowing your own fall had to get taught sometime before graduation. What was the use of magic school if it couldn’t teach her how to do on purpose what she’d done as a six year old by accident? Leaping down into cushioning charms was fun and all, and it was a good stop-gap measure for now, but she really wanted the levitation and safe falling.

That wasn’t what they were getting today, but she hadn’t really expected it yet. Locking and unlocking were also good. The homework question confused her. Hadn’t he just said it got stronger with practice and it would be effective against first years before they graduated? So it might not do much good keeping out magically powerful people but most of the time, that’s not who a lock is intended to keep out.

He said too that parents might lock up Christmas presents. Parents to kids - especially kids pre-Sonora - would have effective magic locks. Trying to keep your little brother out of your diary (not that Anya kept one or that Philippe was disrespectful enough to try even if she did, but it was a common plot trope) would be effective because you’re older and he’s younger. Locking the stable keeps the horses safe from wild animals or wandering off and nobody is gonna try to magic that open until the next morning when somebody needs to go feed them so it’s good anyone can just unlock it again.

Really the only use that Anya could think of where everyone knowing the counter charm would be a problem is locking her room against Mom, but she’s not allowed to use magic at home until she’s seventeen anyway, so it’s a moot point.

Besides which, by the time she gets to be seventeen, she’s pretty sure her locking charm will be stronger than her mom’s unlocking charm. So, win.

She grabbed a random padlock out of the bin as it came around. She was in the back of the room where sitting on her desk wouldn’t block anyone’s view of the front, so she got it after most of her classmates and the lecture was already finished. She pulled her wand out of its arm holster (it was less prone to breaking or getting left behind if it was strapped to her arm) and got right to it.

“Colloportus,” she cast, hitting the syllables faster than in the class chant but no less accurately, and making the open cage wand motion. (Which seemed counter intuitive to her for a locking charm but who was she to judge?) The padlock snapped closed and Anya grinned in satisfied triumph at her quick success.

She offered her locked padlock down to the person seated next to her. “Ready to trade when you are.” Then, as soon as she finished making the assertion, the padlock popped back open. “Or not,” she admitted. “Let me try that again.”

She brought it back into her lap and raised her wand again. “Colloportus!” she cast with more oomph this time. It snapped shut for a second time. She eyed it doubtfully for a moment then gave it a good shake. It stayed closed. She offered it again to her neighbor. “Okay, now it’s ready.”

It kindly did not make a liar out of her again.

1 Anya Delachene Who are you trying to lock out? 1453 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

February 26, 2020 4:44 PM

Someone stupid probably. by Leonor De Matteo

Everything was still going by mostly in a haze for Leonor. She was pretty convinced that Theo and Mab were her favorite people in the world at this point, although the bar was low and proximity bias was high. Still, they were good people, easy to be around, and highly entertaining. Distracting.

Leonor had taken to doing her homework for half the night and then switching to the documents she was meant to be catching up on. War and Peace aside, she had several cases of notes and records and invoices to review, just to "get a sense" of the last few decades of De Matteo management. It all seemed like a bit much, as she couldn't see herself making it to the top and not just hiring an advisor or something, but she supposed it was meant to be her role. She was sure Man thought she was insane for reading them all, but her roommate didn't talk enough to be sure. Even if she did, Leonor probably would've taken platitudes with a grain of salt.

It was an older Pecari student that caught her attention today, though. The lesson was one that Leonor secretly hoped she could get half of it right. If she "accidentally" locked all the documents up in her chest with a charm so powerful she couldn't unlock it, then what? Was it even possible to only be able to do one of them strongly and the other weakly? Not that that would be an excuse. She'd probably just be told to work at it then and then have even more to catch up on.

There was also the issue of pride. Leonor's mother and father had made it quite clear that if Leonor didn't want this metaphorical (or not so metaphorical if a study of finances proved it was in the budget) crown, then she didn't have to accept it. But she did, didn't she? This was what she had always wanted. This was the adventure she'd never been allowed to have. In some ways, both her wanting this role and her getting it were at Felipe's expense. It seemed disrespectful to then turn it down, but it also seemed cowardly. It was her turn to eat her words and live up to her own wishes. She just had to figure out whether she was going to be able to have any fun whilst doing so.

Anya was a good person to turn to for fun. Even if Leonor hadn't already known who she was, she would know who she was. Whether or not the girl's reputation was for danger or not, she was well known. Chock it up to an aptitude for embodying House pride and give a lesson on that sometime.

First, though, Leonor had to try the spell. She whacked at her lock as she said the incantation, too tired to remember exactly what she was supposed to be doing with her movement. The word stuck but was this one a circle or a swish and flick? She tried to surreptitiously glance around at what others were doing but had no luck before Anya slid her own lock towards Leonor. Then she took it back and tried again.

Leonor offered an almost-sincere smile and held up her lock to show Anya. "You're having better luck than I am," she said, pausing as a massive yawn interrupted her. "Lo sie--" She cut off the Spanish apology, reminding herself that her English had to be perfect. "Sorry about that. I was going to say that I can't even get it locked."

22 Leonor De Matteo Someone stupid probably. 1471 0 5

Ellie Alperton

February 28, 2020 7:34 PM

But why? by Ellie Alperton

Ellie took a seat in Charms, feeling happy to be back. She got so used to seeing magic in every day life that it was odd when it wasn’t there any more. Except… now, when she went home, she thought of the things she missed at school as their own kind of magic. Sure, school had MARS, but it didn’t have Spotify – an infinite ability to access basically all the music ever, and definitely all Disney songs, in the palm of her hand. When her dad reached into his pocket, and her brain said he was reaching for a wand, but then he pulled out his zappy button car key instead… how different, really, were those two things? Both worlds were full of magic, and one of the nicest things about Sonora was that it made her see that, back in the non-magical world.

Today, they would be practising locking and unlocking, which were sort of familiar from last year, although Professor Wright also threw them one of those curve ball questions of making them work out what the point was. Ellie would have possibly accepted at face value that this was useful (open things needed locking, locked things needed unlocking) at least for a while but now she wasn’t so sure.

The spell would, presumably, keep out non-magical people, unless they were deft at lock-picking. But then, she thought, as she took a little pink padlock, and twirled the curly metal bit between her fingers, so would just locking it. They couldn’t use magic. That was the whole point. And, even amongst people who could, that didn’t make locking things pointless, more for the symbolism than anything else. Ellie had often questioned the integrity of the lock on her journal, for example, whose key was a practically paper thin cut out of brassy-gold metal with a single prong. It did not look complex. However, she had never questioned the integrity of her family members, who she trusted would not trespass into something she had clearly marked as private. She trusted Emily with that too. Even though Emily was learning these spells too, and would be able to easily break into Ellie’s diary didn’t mean that Ellie thought it was likely. Admittedly, she didn’t flaunt her diary in front of her roommate, but she didn’t think Emily would use it for homework practise or casual browsing. It was like bathroom doors. That little groove in the locking mechanism was so that you could open it from the outside with a quarter in case of an emergency. Outside of that though, people didn’t. Not that it had stopped her from having a bunch of horrifying dreams about people opening bathroom doors on her, but just because they could didn’t mean they would. It was just rude.

So then, what was the point? If she could clip a padlock shut the usual way and trust other people to respect the message of that, what was the point of the spell? In situations where you had to open something, for like… the police or customs, it wasn’t going to help if it was Magic Locked because you had to do it anyway. In fact, whipping a wand out was probably going to make it worse. That meant she couldn’t really think of any reason other than what Professor Wright had said about strengthening their muscles, and that was not a very satisfying answer, nor was it going to earn her a good grade.

You didn’t have to keep track of keys, she supposed. That was handy. Her dad was always misplacing his car keys. And you could lock or unlock something from further away. Again, the number of scenarios where you suddenly needed to lock a door from across a room rather than just saying ‘Don’t open that please!’ seemed minimal. Losing keys seemed the most sensible thing she’d come up with, though it sounded sort of lame, and anyway there was probably some kind of key finding spell… Right? Maybe. She didn’t know for sure. She often came across little limitations like that in her knowledge, and that made her wonder whether the problem was that she still didn’t think enough like a witch.

“I feel like I’m missing something,” she admitted to her neighbour, deciding that two heads might be better than one. “I’m struggling to come up with many reasons why this would be useful, beyond just… practising.”

13 Ellie Alperton But why? 1456 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

March 04, 2020 12:27 PM

It's a secret. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

It was nice to be back in classes. Nice to be in the swing of things again. Nice to have people around and things to talk about, even if they were basically forced together. Alexander had underestimated how much he really did enjoy talking with other people. Just because most of the people in his life had proven themselves to be basically useless didn't mean that everyone was like that, and he was pretty happy about getting back to it. Of course, that also meant getting back into the insanity of this entire school. Entire world, really.

He'd mostly accepted that this was reality now. If nothing else, it didn't do him any good to worry. He told himself this every class the first few weeks of school and now only once or twice a day. Progress.

The subject of locking and unlocking interested Alexander for a number of reasons. How nice would it have been to be able to lock his door at the orphanage, or his trunk. If he could just know for sure that no one could get in, then he would've been able to sleep that much better. He wondered whether the locking spell only worked on locks. Could it "lock" his book to the table so no one could take it when he wasn't looking? Could a non-magically unlocked lock be locked magically? That way people wouldn't be able to tell that it was locked, or figure out how to unlock it. That would be handy.

Ellie Alperton was in the year above him, which was probably good. He was pretty sure she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen in his life, and he'd seen a lot of girls. Between the orphanage and non-magical school, he had met hundreds of girls his age. He also knew that "his age" was way too young to be worrying about these things. That was how half the kids he met got to be there in the first place; when "babies have babies," those babies get put up for adoption. It was crappy.

But Ellie really was very pretty and now she was talking to him. She was asking him a question! Alexander was sure there was an answer to it, but his internal ramblings about locking locks so they didn't look locked and no one knew they needed to be unlocked suddenly seemed way too boring - or revealing - to be worth sharing with his classmate. But she was still looking at him and he had to say something. Since he wasn't going to be so good at coming up with anything new at this point, he just went for it.

"Because secrets," he blurted. His face turned red and he looked down at his own lock - a shiny silver one - before taking a breath and trying again. "Maybe you can lock stuff without anyone knowing that it's locked. Then they won't try to break in. Or you can set an alarm so it goes off if someone tries to unlock it with magic, and then you know if there are other magic people around?"

He felt very proud of himself for accomplishing three and a half sentences - okay, so they weren't really sentences, but close enough - without dying. "Maybe you can unlock a tongue-tie," he said a little more quietly, more to himself than Ellie.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales It's a secret. 1475 0 5

Ellie Alperton

March 04, 2020 6:32 PM

I'll keep it then by Ellie Alperton

"That's true, protecting secrets is important," Ellie said softly, when Alexander suggested this, and then seemed embarrassed or worried about what he had said. Mostly, she just wanted to reassure him that he hadn't said anything stupid, because she knew all too well the feeling of worrying about what came out of your mouth. But also, she really did understand that feeling.

"Those would be useful too," she nodded about his ideas. She was pretty sure he had just muttered something about a tongue-tie but, even if he had, she thought it wasn't really for her. And that the best way of unlocking that was going to be not to draw attention to it. "And, like Professor Wright said, we won't be able to do any of that unless we master basics." Maybe part of why the spell was useful was what built on it, rather than in and of itself. "I suppose I was thinking... Either I am around other magical people, who can undo it, or I am around non-magical people who I can just lock out with a lock," she explained her reasoning, "It does save keeping track of keys though, or risking losing them.

"I guess we should give it a go," she nodded to their locks. The theory was for homework, after all, but Ellie just found it so much easier when she could understand a bit about a spell before trying it. All that theory about needing will and a sense of purpose...

"Colloportus," she cast, watching the lock click almost into place. It took a couple if tries before tugging it with her finger did, indeed, reveal it to be fully locked.

13 Ellie Alperton I'll keep it then 1456 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

March 09, 2020 1:21 PM

Thank you very much. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander couldn't actually answer the question any better than Ellie had. He really wished he could, but that just wasn't in the cards for him. The idea of layering them up or something was an interesting to play with, but he just hoped he could do it at all first.

He followed Ellie's lead and attempted the spell on his own lock. It took him a few tries - a few more than it took Ellie, unfortunately - but he did manage to get his lock locked. He blinked at it, as surprised as he always was when he did something with his mind to shape the fabric of space and time.

"This is crazy, right?" he asked, relaxing some now that they'd been working next to each other for a minute. "We're just... Waving a stick and deciding we want this locked, so it happens? Does this feeling go away?" He added the last when he remembered she had been at Sonora over a year now, but was a bit worried to think that maybe she'd grown up with this. Was it rude to call that "crazy"? He hoped not.

His lock popped open again and he glared at it, feeling betrayed, and went about getting it locked again as he listened to Ellie's response, nodding to encourage her to go on while he did so.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Thank you very much. 1475 0 5

Josephine Clyde

March 10, 2020 5:09 AM

What about locking someone out? by Josephine Clyde

Josie liked having her Head of House as a teacher, but wished he was the Transfiguration teacher instead. She’d read her Transfiguration textbook cover to cover and even if she didn’t understand the majority of it that didn’t stop her from looking forward to the class. Charms was also exciting. They’d made things fly one lesson and the other ones had been just as interesting, but something about Transfiguration interested her more. As she listened to the professor’s explanation on the two spells Josie felt some of her excitement shift from Transfiguration to Charms. Locking doors? And it was a spell that would only grow stronger as she grew older and learned more? Count her in. That would keep her step-family out of her room forever. Only her father would be able to open the door and she’d never even seen his wand before.

Josie snapped up the closest lock when Professor Wright stopped near her and set it on the desk in front of her. Col-lo-por-tus. Collo-portus. Collo-por-tus. She ran the word through her head one more time and then practiced just the wand movement. Once she felt like she’d somewhat mastered both enough to start practicing she faced the lock again. Her wand came up, slashed an almost rectangle in the air and, “ Colloportus! ”

The lock made a clicking noise and, after tugging on it several times, she confirmed that it was indeed locked. Now she needed someone to practice unlocking it with, but her self-study time had eaten into her finding a partner time. They needed to practice it three times and if she didn’t find someone to do that with then Professor Wright might be a little upset. She didn’t know him well enough to say that he wouldn’t be. Josie looked around for the nearest unattached human and rushed to them with her lock outstretched in both hands.

“Hi! Do you want to work together?”

44 Josephine Clyde What about locking someone out? 1477 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

March 11, 2020 9:28 PM

Or feeling locked in? by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel had had a boring winter break, and that made her feel . . . feelings. Christmas was an important holiday to her family, and it had always been an important holiday to her as well. Christmas was one of the highest-ranking Holy Days and Mass was mandatory. It was also . . . different. Jezebel wasn't sure how to explain it, and she really wasn't sure she wanted to try. She'd spent a lot of time sitting at her family's dining table while they did whatever it was they were doing, staring at the little nativity scene center piece. She would have sworn she'd been having real conversations with baby Jesus. She was sure that her lack of interest in Mass wasn't because she wasn't interested in her faith anymore. It just seemed like her faith didn't have a place for her. There were lots of little things that made her think that was maybe the case and she was scared to start putting words on them.

So she didn't.

She buckled down and studied. She did everything she needed to do to look the part and play the role and do her best. She hadn't even talked to Dathan about any of this yet and she couldn't help wondering if he felt the same way at all. Without being sure how she was feeling, it was difficult to ask whether he felt the same way. Plus he was Dathan.

Today's lesson was not very interesting to Jezebel, but it was partly just because nothing was very interesting to her these days. She sort of preferred the classes that let her get a little more hands on. It was frustrating to spend all her time reading books and then do the thing and be done. She'd already read about this spell. She'd already done this a thousand times in her head, or traced through the air with her pencil. Now it was just a matter of checking a box. That made classes like potions and herbology - classes where there was a process - much more desirable for her.

She sat staring at her lock for a long time before attempting the spell. Despite all of her frustration and pent up feelings of boredom, she couldn't help the fear too. What if she really couldn't do it? What if all that was left was to check a box, and she couldn't pull it off? When she finally attempted the spell, she didn't have time to check how well it had worked before Josie came up to her.

Jezebel smiled at the familiar girl, happy to at least have a friendly face. She was especially happy because Josie, from what Jezebel had seen, was very adept at talking a lot, and Jezebel just wasn't up for it much. So she could listen, and nod, and comment in her own time. She could just be. That was easier.

"Sure," Jezebel said, turning so that she wasn't stooped over her own work and looked a little bit more welcoming. She had been growing a lot recently and still felt a little awkward trying to figure out what to do with all the arm and leg she seemed to take with her everywhere now. "You're ready to unlock?" she realized, looking down at the lock in Josie's hands. The first year had gotten it already and Jezebel still hadn't had a chance to see whether hers had worked. This was going to be possibly very embarrassing. "You'll have to try mine. I'm not sure if it's worked." That was it. Nonchalance. Just act like it didn't matter and eventually, maybe it wouldn't.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Or feeling locked in? 1454 0 5

Josephine Clyde

March 15, 2020 6:20 AM

Let's lock some feelings out while we're at it by Josephine Clyde

“Sure thing, but I’m sure yours worked! You’ve been doing this whole magic thing way longer than I have! Plus you’re better at it than me too!”

Josie handed Jezebel her lock and then picked up the other one. She yanked on it like she’d done with her own and found no problems with it. Now, they needed to focus on unlocking and then switch and do it again two more times. What was the unlocking spell again? Josie glanced up at the chalkboard. Backwards S. Alohomora. Seemed even easier than the locking spell!

Josie grinned at the other girl, “How was your vacation? Mine was terribly awkward. It’s only my…” She paused to think, tilting her head as she counted the years in her head, “Second? Yeah, my second year celebrating Christmas and stuff with my step-family. I told you about them last time. Daniel and Samuel, they’re my step-brothers, and Minnie. She’s my step-mother. I probably didn’t talk about her.”

She fell quiet after that. Although she always referred to Minnie as her step-mother it hadn’t been that long since she started saying it out loud and to other people. She’d just say step-family or step-brothers. Daniel and Samuel were easier to talk about. She didn’t like them and they didn’t like her, so their relationship was easy. Josie absentmindedly traced the backwards S in the air a few times. Then she murmured the spells name, trying to get the feel of the word in her mouth to be not awkward. Hopefully it just looked like intense concentration to Jezebel and not like she was ignoring her.

Backwards S. “ Alohomora! ”

The locked clicked open and she fiddled with the top half of it for a moment. Way to run her mouth again. But this time it just made her feel confused instead of embarrassed. Minnie was nice to her. Most of the time. Recently. Now. At first, she’d been as icy as the boys, but now she’d gotten, well, warmer. She actually asked about what Josie was learning and what Sonora was like. She was curious about her roommates and if she’d made any friends. Maybe it was the British accent, but it really seemed like Minnie kind of cared about her now.

Josie shook her head. Now was not the time to think about that. She’d been doing a lot of running away from talking about her family, but honestly? It was because she wasn’t sure what to feel about them. It would be better for everyone if she just kept quiet about how she felt until she figured it out.
“Well!” Josie waved away the funk, as her mother would have called it, “I’ve got it unlocked, how about you? Let’s go again! It feels a little silly to do this back and forth don’t you think? If we’ve got it once wouldn’t we just get it all the time?”

44 Josephine Clyde Let's lock some feelings out while we're at it 1477 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

March 18, 2020 1:53 PM

Yes, and some plans locked down. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel couldn't help smiling as Josie talked because she just seemed so happy about it all. She frowned a little at what she was saying though. "Don't sell yourself short," Jezebel told her, shaking her head. "I've only been doing this a little longer. And you're doing great!"

She smiled again when Josie tested her lock and found that it was holding tight. The sensation of relief in her chest made her realize just how wound up she'd been and she was grateful again for Josie taking the time to notice her in class. Jezebel wasn't exactly proud of the fact that failure scared her so much, but she would deal with it if it meant she generally didn't fail much.

But Josie was talking about the break from school - her choice of the word "vacation" stood out to Jezebel as odd but she wasn't going to judge her for it - and she seemed a little sad herself now. Jezebel wasn't sure whether she wanted to open up just yet . . . would it be rude to open up about her own holidays when Josie was clearly a bit agitated about her own? But she had asked . . . what would Jezebel even say, whatever she chose to do? But there were things she could relate to and she found herself nodding along.

"Mine was awkward, too," she admitted with another frown. She had Josie's lock in her hand and was running her fingers along it absentmindedly. "Does stuff at home seem more . . . complicated? Like, ever since I came to Sonora, everything just seems harder at home." That was another funny word. Home. What did home mean when she spent nine months out of the year away from the place she'd called home for the first ten plus years of her life? Could she call Sonora home if her parents and her siblings weren't here? Soon more of her family would be, but her big brother never would be. Nothing quite seemed like home. Or maybe nowhere did.

Josie started working on the unlocking charm, which Jezebel was happy/sad to find she performed on her first try again. Jezebel took twice but managed to unlock Josie's lock after a moment. Did that mean that her magic was weaker?

"Yeah, we can take turns. Maybe it's like working out? You can build up your muscles by doing the same thing over and over again."

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Yes, and some plans locked down. 1454 0 5

Ellie Alperton

March 21, 2020 8:22 PM

You're welcome by Ellie Alperton

“So far... Yes and no," Ellie answered, with a smile which acknowledged that this was not a particularly helpful answer. It was, however, the honest overview, and the Aladren thought it was important to make that clear up front. Especially when the question was 'Are these funny feelings gonna go away?' It was important to acknowledge that they would change but without lying that it would just... feel normal at some point. She wasn't sure whether Alexander was experiencing crazy-bad, crazy-good or just... this is over-whelmingly unsusual. Ellie tended to find magic to be the good kind of surprising but it wasn’t necessarily the same for everyone. "When I go home, and this kind of magic isn't around any more, I realise I must have gotten kind of used to it," she explained, "Because it seems funny that it’s not there anymore. And when I go home, I start thinking of cellphones and movies as a different kind of magic," she added. "There’s so many things that I grew up with that just… work with me having no idea how they do it. Sometimes it seems less strange that magic here works when I think like that,” she offered.

“But then... I still don't know all the things I can do. And when we learn new things in class, it's often like 'Whoa, we can do that?' And sometimes it still seems incredible or strange.

"It's new to you too then?" she asked, deciding that was a safe enough guess based on what Alexander had said. He seemed a little daunted by it all, which she thought was fair enough, but waited for him to give his own reaction before jumping in to put words in his mouth. Hopefully she could be a voice of reassurance. It definitely felt like it was an adjustment for Muggleborn students, and she figured they had to look out for each other. Not that other people were incapable of being kind or sympathetic, but they just wouldn’t necessarily understand what it was like - a good ally was always welcome, but they served a different role to someone who had been what you had been through.

"Swap?" she added, gesturing at their successfully locked locks whilst she waited for his answer.

13 Ellie Alperton You're welcome 1456 0 5

Josephine Clyde

March 23, 2020 1:38 AM

Too many locks and not enough keys by Josephine Clyde

Complicated? Josie chewed on the word for a bit. Things hadn’t ever not been complicated with her step-family. She liked to think things were better for her now because she wasn’t home. Home. That was a word that took a longer time to chew and an even longer time to swallow. Her home would always be sugar, stars and laughter. Right now, she had none of those at “home”. It had been nice to go visit, but the word ‘home’ kept bothering her. It had just started feeling less…complicated. She thought maybe it was because she wasn’t home as often as before, so for the short time she was home, maybe they decided to be nicer to her. Well, Minnie was definitely nicer. Still, it didn’t feel like what a home should feel like, what she knew it used to feel like.

“My step-brothers are non-magical and they were jealous that I wasn’t like them, so things at home have always been complicated.”

But as Josie talked about her dumb step-brothers again it reminded her of Jezebel’s family. She’d said that her family was on the bigger side. She wondered if something as uncomfortable as her family situation was happening with them. It might even be more complicated. The way the older girl had asked the question made Josie wonder if there was more to the problem. She had said that it was awkward. Maybe she’d ask about it after class. They could ‘do their homework’ together. Besides, Professor Grayson might be her head of house, but he probably wouldn’t like it if she spent the whole time talking instead of working.
Josie gave Jezebel a small smile and nodded along with the other girl’s idea that magic was like building muscle. That made a lot of sense actually. People went to the gym to work out, at least that’s what Daniel and Samuel said. But then they also said weird words like ‘get jacked’ or ‘leg day’ and she felt the obvious differences poke at her again.

“Yeah, let’s take turns. I’ll go first!”

Josie took the lock closer to her and performed the spell. Almost rectangle. Colloportus. She tried to open her lock with her hands again and smiled when it stayed locked. Charms wasn’t so bad! But she really couldn’t wait for Transfiguration. Maybe she could ask Jezebel about it? It was technically related to school. But then she thought she saw Professor Grayson nearby and decided against it.
As Josie handed her lock back to Jezebel she asked about doing their homework together.

“It was something about a theory and…notes. Oh my gosh! We were supposed to be taking notes this entire time! Oh no!”

Josie dug through her things for a fresh sheet of parchment paper and quickly wrote down what she felt from her latest locking spell. She turned to Jezebel with a grin.
“I guess we can just start now, but I hope it doesn’t affect out homework later.”

44 Josephine Clyde Too many locks and not enough keys 1477 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

March 25, 2020 3:52 PM

Looking through the keyhole. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel got the impression that she wasn't the only one leaving things out. It didn't seem at all malicious though, and the idea that perhaps she wasn't the only one playing her cards close to her chest just to keep from falling apart was sort of comforting. Validating. She felt a little less alone knowing that other people had stuff going on at the place they used to call home.

"My brother too!" Jezebel said, surprised that they had this in common. So far, Jezebel thought she'd only met people whose whole families were magical, or at least all the siblings were. Maybe they just didn't talk about it, but it certainly made for a lonely experience. "He's my older brother. We used to be really close, but now . . . we just. I don't know."

Jezebel stifled a sigh, and was grateful for the change of topic. Plus, Josie wanted to work on homework together, which was basically Jezebel's dream way to socialize. She often thought she should've been in Aladren, but really, it wasn't the information that she cared that much about. Jezebel wanted to look the part to the people who mattered. She wanted to get somewhere. And she didn't like people who would talk themselves in circles just to discover some new nugget of knowledge to argue over again. Sure, knowledge had a purpose, but that purpose was as often leverage as anything else. Which is why Jezebel pulled revealed her own notes with a smile. Finally, she had a real reason for anyone to like her.

"I can share. You can copy from mine after class or later on if you want to study together." She frowned at the lock she was still having a hard time with. "I could use all the help I can get," she admitted,

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Looking through the keyhole. 1454 0 5

Josephine Clyde

April 03, 2020 8:58 PM

Careful not to get your eye poked out by Josephine Clyde

An older, non-magical brother. Wow. Josie felt a strangely warm feeling float up inside of her. It was nice to know that there were other people who had a similar problem as her. Well, there were probably lots of people with the same problem as her, but she didn’t know them. To think that it was Jezebel of all people too! Josie lit up inside. It was like finding a friend, but even better! But then she processed the older girl’s words. They used to be close. How nice that must have been. She couldn’t imagine a nice and happy relationship with an older brother, but the fact that Jezebel had had that and now it was gone? It made that happy and warm feeling inside take itself to a timeout corner. Josie honestly couldn’t imagine being close to a sibling and then having that person become her step-brothers. It would have broken her heart if that had happened to them. Luckily for her, they never had that chance.
“That sucks. I’m really sorry. I wouldn’t know what to do if that happened to me.”

And that was all she could say really. Because what could she say? She didn’t have siblings growing up, though she was still growing. The person closest to her was gone, her father wasn’t the same, Minnie was still a stranger and her step-brothers were her step-brothers. Any friends she’d had were gone or harder to meet now after the move to Lake Mead. She’d never felt more alone than when she was at home. Sonora, at least so far, had never made her feel lonely.

Josie accepted the Crotalus’ notes with a smile and read it over. At least one of them had been doing their work! She really, really, really appreciated every class she’d had so far with Jezebel. The second year was smart, helpful, super nice and, now that Josie had found out they shared similar family problems, quickly becoming a close friend. One day, she’d feel comfortable enough to talk about Daniel, Samuel and Minnie with her. Ask for advice and offer her own after listening to Jezebel’s problems. That was definitely a future she could see, for now they’d have to build up to it. But it would definitely be worth it.

“Well!” Josie started, “I’m super lucky to have you as a classmate and, hopefully, a friend. I’d love to study together later. Because, honestly, for real, you’re awesome. I need way more help and I’m super happy that I have you.”

44 Josephine Clyde Careful not to get your eye poked out 1477 0 5