Let's be productive, Intermediates (III-V years) on Charms

Grayson Wright

July 31, 2020 10:35 PM

Let's be productive, Intermediates (III-V years) by Grayson Wright

When Grayson Wright had arrived at Sonora, it never would have crossed his mind that he might find teaching his lessons a soothing escape from reality. He had, as best he could recall, been highly anxious about his first lessons – the prospect of performing something he had written, without even the degree of separation that voice actors got. He had memorized scripts, fumbled when interacting with real people proved too complicated to rely on a script with…It had been an interesting year.

Now, almost seven years later, the classroom had become an uncomplicated place again, the way it had generally been when he was a student in this very classroom, scribbling stories in his notebooks instead of notes, or instead of practicing spells. He thought it had been this way for a while now, really, but this term, with multiple students in distress of various kinds, one of them a kid he was specifically attached to…it was hard to deny the appeal of simply focusing on pure subject matter, without dealing with everything else going on.

He hoped, as he put his case on the desk as usual and said, “Good morning, class” – again as usual – that this was true for the students as well. There was pressure that went with learning, but on the whole, he thought the worst of the issues he’d observed among students often had outside factors contributing to them: Nathaniel Mordue’s breakdown, a few years ago, seemed to have corresponded with a family quarrel, Evelyn’s difficulty with controlling her powers was clearly linked to her scumbag father, who apparently, in a conclusion which made Gray want to go curse every member of the ‘justice’ system in Oregon which he could find, would be getting out of prison any time now….

New project, he thought. Upend society. Start it over again from scratch.

“Magic, as you all know,” he began his lesson, “is a broad term for some of the natural forces which can be applied to objects to change their state in some way. When we cast spells, we change the relationship between objects, one way or another – redirecting the flow of energy inside the field of influence in ways that produce specific results. Two of the great debates, of course, are whether the major fields of magic as force – Charms, Transfiguration, and the Dark Arts – are distinct entities, or manifestations of an underlying force – and, if they are manifestations of a unifying force, whether this is the same unifying force that the four natural forces the Muggles know of are believed to emanate from.

“I’m not going to make you get into the second debate today,” he added with the ghost of a smile for the class. “We are, however, going to look at the first one in a practical context, one where we start examining the question of whether the major branches of magic are different things or all aspects of the same thing.

“If my memories of our last class are accurate, I assigned you some reading for homework,” he continued. “So – can anyone tell me about the relationship between Charms and Potions?”

He looked around for raised hands, cajoling as necessary, until he got some answers to write up on the blackboard: that almost all potions required charms to fully activate them at some point in the brewing process, and that in ancient magic, the difference between charms and potions had often been considered negligible, and anything else the students could remember (or at least convincingly postulate) from their reading.

“Very good,” he said once they were done. “Now, my understanding from Professor Brooding-Hawthorne – Potions department – is that this class has worked a lot with the idea of harvesting ingredients this year. Today, in this class, we’re going to look at an aspect of preparing them for use.”

He adjusted his glasses absent-mindedly. “A common saying in theory is that Transfiguration changes what a thing is, while a charm changes what a thing does. This project finds itself in an awkward position where the philosophers have more room for argument than the scholars – how do we define being? With people, we often feel we can know what sort of person a person is, through observing what that person does. So how shall we consider objects which are charmed to do a particular thing, without any of the pseudo-intelligence which would usually get a spell classified as an animate Transfiguration instead of a charm?”

He picked up a sort of picture frame, inside which, dried nettles were displayed against a plain backdrop. “Common nettles,” he informed them. “An extremely common potions ingredient – and also a plant which can be used to make teas, soup, and paper. However, you wouldn’t want to make foods from nettles which have been prepared for use in potions.

“So. Anyone know why you might want to collect nettle leaf at sunrise, from the eastern side of the plants?” he asked, and got more answers. “Very good, very good. It’s generally believed the return of the sun lends strength to herbs, and one of the goals, when selecting objects to perform magic on, is to, essentially, find objects which are already suitable, to reduce the amount of effort it takes you to perform the spell. Therefore, for a bit of an experiment, you’ll each receive some nettles collected at sunrise, some from sunset, and some from midnight.” Collecting those had not done him much good, personally, he was getting too old for that kind of thing, but sacrifices had to be made sometimes he supposed. “You’ll attempt to activate each of them with a charm, and make notes on your process. If you look on page 227 of your textbook, you’ll see the precise shade of green your nettles should – though they are dried – appear when they are properly activated for use in magical preparations, along with other instructions for today.

“Homework is to read the first three chapters of this,” he added, picking up the book on top of a stack of identical supplementary texts in a box beside his desk. “Third and fourth years, write me a summary of each chapter by next lesson – fifth years, my apologies, but I’m going to need you to write those summaries and a concluding statement saying which arguments you find most convincing.” The really interesting thing, he thought, would be seeing which third and fourth years also did that; you could spot the ambitious ones that way, along with any so bright they might need a little more enrichment to keep them on track. “Please be careful with the supplementary books because I do not want to explain their destruction to the budgeting committee. Thank you. As usual, talk to each other about your work – compare your observations to your neighbors, theorize together, and come grab a book and start your assignment if you finish the spells.”

The spell was a curious little thing, really. Gray did not read the older forms of English at all, really – he’d had one class in school, which was hardly enough to count, but had satisfied a program requirement – but he had read several translations of ancient British charms on which the Romans had later based their adaptations. Interestingly, there seemed to be no real escaping the musical nature of the charm. While most Latinate incantations did have an element of rhythm or rhyme to them – not for nothing was the word song and its close cousins a synonym for the magical act in many languages – this one would not work properly unless it was stressed in very specific ways, as the students would know if they read the brief history and description of the spell which accompanied the pictures of nettle leaves on page 227….

Contravenenum saputicarum. The last word had likely originally been two words, mangled together so that the incantation reached the fairly ideal – in the Anglo-Saxon magic from which it was derived – number of nine syllables; had that not happened, it was theorized that it would have meant Be against poison, (you) wise nettles!. Which, much like the similar spell which seemed to urge dried mugwort to remember what it had once known, would make the spell seem rather silly to a non-animist who understood all the words. Whether the progress of deliberately introducing elements of nonsense to incantations had been because of that or because of considerations like matching wand movements to syllables – that was a subject of intense debate in certain parts of the community. Gray was something of an agnostic on that debate, but had to admit that the reduction of that incantation to nine syllables, each of which was best chanted while making a specific part of the rather difficult wand movement, was a decent enough argument for the syllabytarians, or whatever they were.

With any luck, he thought, a few of the fifth years might produce usable products he could offer to Mary and Katey for their supplies later, and thus give him a legitimate excuse to seek human interaction. On the whole, though, he thought the wand movements were going to defeat more students than not, especially with the more difficult bundles of nettle. It was too soon to be sure, though; there was, after all, no telling when students would surprise you.

OOC: So, I did…stuff. My main source was a book (Anglo-Saxon Magic, by one Dr. Godfrid Storms) from 1948, as the 20s-40s seem to have been the heyday of history of magic as a subject of academic inquiry. Much of the theory is based on Chapter III, On Magic and Magical Practices. Also relevant is the “Nine Herbs Charm,” a version of which appears in Part II of the same book; I got the idea to use nettles from there and loosely based the stuff I translated into Latin for incantations on the wording of the nettle stanza of the NHC. This all was sort of unnaturally fused with a bare sprinkling of basic physical science (the four forces, the idea of a unified theory, etc.). Information about mundane uses of nettle and the notion of collecting it at sunrise (apparently against the advice of the Royal Horticultural Society) for magic came from Wikipedia, the latter attributed to Scottish folklore.

In other news, welcome back to Charms! You know the drill – follow rules, be creative, tag if you need anything IC or OOC. Have fun!

16 Grayson Wright Let's be productive, Intermediates (III-V years) 113 1 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

August 17, 2020 5:03 PM

Happy to help. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie was being good and being kind and totally fine with all of it. She was not sure still what she thought of Friederike Albert's lifestyle choices, but at least they were getting along reasonably well now, even if he did look ridiculous most of the time. He hadn't taken to wearing a full face of makeup out yet, thank Merlin, but his hair . . . He had worn bowties a few times to class, which Johana Leonie took as a sign of peace between them. Bowties were fun because they showed even whilst wearing his robes. Unlike skirts . . . Johana Leonie couldn't help wondering what her brother was wearing under his robes.

She put those thoughts aside to focus on the lesson at hand. She wasn't totally sure she understood it, but she knew it was related to potions and potion ingredients, and she liked that class. She also watched her parents prepare ingredients for potions and foods and things all the time at home, so she was relatively familiar with some of the spells the textbook had discussed so far already. That didn't, of course, mean that she was very good at them, as she'd never had the chance to try before, except if it was in the Sonora curriculum. That put her on the same playing field as her classmates, which wasn't her favorite place to be.

When the class broke from lecture, Johana Leonie took a moment to write some simple notes on her paper. Although she mostly took notes in German, she did take extra notes in English when she didn't understand a concept. One such concept was "activate."

Turning to the student beside her, Johana Leonie pointed to where she'd written the word - or close to the word, as 'aktivate' was as close as she thought she could get with her basic grasp of English spelling conventions and her ability to write things phonetically. "That means . . . like to make it do? To start?" she confirmed. "Or...?"

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Happy to help. 1432 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

September 01, 2020 6:28 PM

Gut. Das ist nett. by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda was trying to be good about learning English properly. She was trying to pay attention to the teachers and follow the lectures. But Professor Wright was the worst. He used such big words all the time. It was the one class she mostly tuned out the professor and just listened to her small portrait of Professor Schmidt who sat in a little frame on her desk.

Even his German translations of the Charms lesson was a bit higher level than her own German which hadn't advanced much since she'd stopped learning more of it when she was nine. She'd had to ask for clarification more than once, but she thought she was pretty clear now on both the lesson and assignment. It was a nice change from Beginners, and even if she still needed extra help, she felt more independent than she had when she relied solely on Heinrich. Being a trained teacher, Professor Schmidt was also better at explaining things she didn't catch onto the first time, and making sure she learned the important vocabulary words in both German and English. She was actually getting better grades this year than she had last year, which was something she had never thought could happen when she'd mourned Heinrich's promotion to Advanced classes. There were still more As than Es, but the Es were coming more regularly and the number of questions for which she had to wildly guess and hope for partial credit were becoming fewer. Explaining herself clearly and answering the question that was actually on the paper rather than the one she thought was on the paper were still her worst weaknesses, but she was confident that her academic grasp of English was finally starting to pick up.

She still did not participate much in class discussions. Between her own improving comprehension and Professor Schmidt's help, she could follow them, but she didn't yet have the confidence to be a part of them, and for classwork, she still preferred to sit beside one of the Zauberhexens or one of the German Tent Girls. Or Evelyn, now that Heinrich wasn't hogging her during class.

Today, she had Johana Leonie, who would probably always be Hilda's first choice, as she'd been her first lifeline here in the school. She couldn't help smiling at the reversal when her friend asked her about a word's translation. Of course, Johana Leonie was going at this lecture without a Professor Schmidt to aid her, so Hilda had nothing but the greatest respect for her friend.

"Yes. This is what Professor Schmidt says," Hilda responded, practicing her English. Somewhere around Thanksgiving, also during one of Professor Wrights' lessons, she'd come to realize her German was lacking important vocabulary, and since then she'd begun working harder at using English, even with those who knew German, especially for school related topics, in case the professor was listening and awarding points.

It was humbling, but also strangely encouraging, to realize her German could fail her. It meant that if there were German words she didn't know, but she could still speak German fluently, she didn't need to know every English word to speak English fluently. That was an enormous burden off her shoulders.

On her desk, the professor's portrait made that kind of half-grimace that meant she'd said something not entirely right but not wrong enough to warrant a correction. It was a common enough look that she'd stopped worrying about it. She trusted that if she said something too wrong, he'd fix it. That happened pretty often, too.

"Activate makes the nettles work in potions." That was a longer sentence than she normally used, so she looked over at the professor to check she hadn't mixed it up, and he gave her an approving nod.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Gut. Das ist nett. 1433 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

September 03, 2020 7:47 PM

Du bist nett!! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie nodded, jotting down the correct information on her notes so as not to forget later. "Danke," she added lightly. She considered the next part of what Hilda said to make sure she understood it. Hilda's English had improved dramatically and Johana Leonie's seemed not to . . . it had improved sooner than Hilda's, but she felt like she'd stalled out and now she was stuck with always imperfect grammar. Hilda's English sounded a lot more like their classmates' than her own did, although both were heavily accented of course.

"When not activate, not work in potion?" she confirmed, ready to write down further information. That was odd to think about. She didn't remember seeing her parents activate any ingredients they'd grown themselves, and they hadn't really activated ingredients in potions class, but she supposed the ingredients in class were already activated, and her parents probably didn't even think about it when they did it, so Johana Leonie didn't notice.

She rubbed her temples, urging a growing headache to stop where it was. "I want that something make my brain activate," she groaned, closing her eyes for a moment before peering at her friend with unreserved jealousy. "Your English is much good," she pointed out. "What if you do the assignment and I just observe?" she offered with a playful smile, switching to German for a moment.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Du bist nett!! 1432 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

September 16, 2020 6:52 PM

Danke by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda shrugged in a mildly mystified manner to indicate her lack of knowledge in how well non-activated ingredients worked, or didn't. It wasn't usually mentioned much in potions class, and she'd been under the impression that any old nettles could be thrown in there and they'd work. She still figured they probably would, just not at top potency? But she wasn't sure enough of that answer to share it with Johana Leonie.

"There is clarity potion?" she suggested wryly in German when her friend groaned about wanting to activate her brain. She was not sure that Professor Wright would appreciate the joke that might skate over a few ethical lines if it was taken too seriously, so her choice of language had as much to do with privacy as comfort.

"Thank you," she said, switching back to English after the compliment to her use of it, as that seemed appropriate.

"I don't think that is how it works," Hilda returned sympathetically, also in German, to Johana Leonie's offer to just watch Hilda work instead of doing any herself. It was a tactic she would have liked to employ any number of times last year when it had been Heinrich who could English good while she couldn't. It was a little strange to be on this side of that desire, though. She wondered if Heinrich ever felt like some kind of imposter who posed as someone who knew what he was doing when he really only knew a little more than those around him.

Nah. It was Heinrich. Heinrich really did know everything.

"We cast Contravenenum saputicarum," she stumbled badly over the long Latin incantation, "at nettles. This easiest." She indicated the ones Professor Wright had denoted as being collected at sunrise. "Start here."

She tried it, but saw no change in her sunrise nettles, which was fairly normal for her first attempts at spellcasting. Her accent got in her way quite a bit until she got in more practice getting the right sounds out. She could have just worked on saying the incantation, and sometimes she did, but the wand motions were difficult and complex, too, so if she was going to have to work on both a lot, she figured she may as well work on both of them together and see if she got lucky.

So far, not so much.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Danke 1433 0 5