This is why we can't have nice things. on Charms

Grayson Wright

October 31, 2020 9:27 PM

The Light of Knowledge (Beginner's, First and Second Years) by Grayson Wright

“So,” said Grayson Wright, crisply, once he had finished the roll call and the beginner class seemed mostly accounted for and settled. “What is’t we do?”

He paused a few seconds for dramatic effect, recalling fondly his first job as a reader on a wireless network, before he continued. “A famous Muggle playwright wrote a line close to that in the early seventeenth century,” he informed the class, “about eighty years before the signing of the International Statute of Secrecy. A very inaccurate portrayal of a real Muggle king asks three witches – who are also pretty inaccurately portrayed, enough that he confuses them with hags, but that’s, that’s beside the point - he asks them what it is they do.”

Of course, the resemblance to anything the Beginners would learn about ended there. If one tried to align Shakespeare with anything to do with real magic, the closest thing to his Weird Sisters’ ‘deed without a name’ would most likely be a form of Dark divination. This was a messy (in multiple senses of that term) topic which he would not have been keen to digress on with eleven-year-olds even had the new Divination teacher’s niece not been in this class. Not, of course, that he suspected his new colleague of doing such things, but it was best not to confuse children. They were often enough brutish enough to each other with no encouragement or information, and Valentine was likely enough as it was to get teased about her aunt being a quack. Implying that Professor Duell might be practicing the Dark Arts would not, he thought, improve that situation much….

“The Muggle playwright called the magical ritual the characters were doing ‘a deed without a name,’ and that reflects the trouble we as witches and wizards have always had with defining exactly what it is we do,” he continued. “We call it magic, but that’s just a matter of convenience, really – originally, mageia was just a word the Greeks and Romans applied to the work of ancient Persian wizards called magi, who had found a place in their society as priests in a religion that worshiped fire.” He couldn’t help but wonder what had come first – worship of fire as the son of a god, or wizards who used their ability to seemingly create fire from nothing, who had realized they could set up a pretty good con on the ancient Muggles? The Persians of that sort were, alas, far too dead to ask.

Fire was oddly common in religion generally, from what he knew of it, though. He was hardly an expert on the subject, but learning about charms and magical theory involved also learning some history, which led to other, briefer, tangents, if one let it…and he had a tendency to let it. How was he supposed to have anything to write about, after all, if he didn’t take opportunities to pick up interesting facts wherever they were lying about? In that tangent, anyway, everyone seemed to burn things in honor of their deities, sooner or later, be it fragrant resins or presumably rather less fragrant people. The subject of why any of this might be would quickly get a bit philosophical for first and second years, so he reluctantly abandoned that line of thought as well.

“The things we do here at Sonora, of course, are not part of any ancient religion – “ even if a handful of spells were literally the names of Roman deities – “and do not all involve fire, though fire can be a consequence.” He picked up his wand and pointed it at an unlit candle on his desk. The wick seemed to twist slightly, or perhaps the air around it merely shimmered, before it began to glow orangey-red and then bloomed out into a small flame. “The substances in the wick of this candle – probably some kind of plant fiber coated in a thin wax – they just combined with the air to put out heat and light,” he explained to the class. “A Muggle could strike stones against each other, or rub sticks together, to cause the same process - "

“Dude, are you serious? We have matches and lighters.”

He broke off, looking around for the source of the interruption and finding it in a small boy with spiky dark hair and features as bland as his own. Pecari...yes, that was one of the new names. He adjusted his glasses automatically, peering, half-curiously and half-disapprovingly, at the unruly student.

"Mr...Spellman, isn't it?" he said. "Matches. Yes. I've heard of those. For those of you who haven't," he added, projecting his voice and attention to the room again, "I believe they are a kind of Muggle technology made from sticks. A combination of sticks and some mineral, I think, which makes it easier to start fire than just using regular sticks." He had no idea what was meant by 'lighters' and so decided to just pretend that bit hadn't been said.

"So - as I was saying - Muggles require technology that involves creating friction to start fires, but I can do it just by pointing this.” He held up his wand. “This is because witches and wizards – for whatever reason – we are among a minority of the species of animal and plant in the world which can transfer energy to an object in a very controlled way – at least with a little help from our wands.

“Each of you, when you bought your wands, should have learned a few things about them,” he continued. “The two we’ll look at today are the wood your wand is made of, and the substance in the core of it. The combination makes each wand into a unique focus object, which allows most of us to direct magic far more precisely than we could without it – but also can affect what kinds of magic we find more or less difficult, or our spellcasting style. Some charms, for instance, call for flowing movements that can be difficult for witches or wizards with particularly rigid wands, while Transfiguration and defensive spells might require a degree of precision that someone with a whippy wand might struggle wi - Mr. Spellman, I'm glad you find class so entertaining, but please try to contain yourself," he added, deliberately as deadpan as possible. Show impatience or frustration and the students were instantly in control. "Your classmates won't appreciate it if they miss the show because they can't hear it over you," he added, appealing to something - social approval - he had gathered was a strong motivator for most students.

“So. As I was saying. The wand-lighting charm requires a reasonably fluid movement, but doesn’t fall on either extreme,” he informed the students. “It’s essentially the same as writing the letter o in cursive – you take the tip of your wand up to the right and over in a circle, extending outward in a small tail – “ he demonstrated this movement, and said, “lumos!,” causing the tip of his wand to light up. “The loop may be large or small, depending on your comfort level, though please, nobody wave your arms around so much that you endanger other students,” he added. “Remember that the loudest, flashiest wandwork is rarely either the best wandwork or a sign of a talented wizard. I want you each to partner up with another student – or a group of three may form if we don’t have an even number in class today – and compare your wands to each other. Note down everything you can remember learning about them, and look at the charts on pages seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen in your textbook for extra information about them,” he encouraged them. “Then attempt the lumos charm I just showed you a few times and compare results. Make sure that one of the things you check is the temperature of your wand – remember that light is produced from a reaction, like with the candle. You don’t want to set your hair, your textbook, or worst of all, your wand itself on fire,” he counselled them, a touch dryly at the end. There were some who might think they did (he was inclined to suspect Mr. Spellman in particular at this point), but they were mistaken on that point. “Your wand probably will begin to feel warm to the touch after a few tries, and especially if you succeed in lighting it, but if it becomes hot or begins making any strange noises, that is a good time to stop and inform me of what’s going on. Everyone clear? Any questions? You may begin.”

OOC: Intro: Welcome to Charms! All the roleplaying rules, which you may review at your leisure under the Resource tab, apply. In particular, creativity, realism (for our universe – remember that your character is a first or second year, maybe review the first couple Hogwarts chapters of books 1 and 2 if you need a refresher on the skill levels they might have at the beginning of those years) and depth will earn you more points than anything that goes on in-character; a student who spectacularly fails the task but does so in a creative and well-written way could earn more points than a character who simply states “Bob said the magic word and it worked perfectly.” Also remember that you only control your character, no-one else’s. For example, you may say that “[your character] heard the person at the next desk say something,” but you may not say “[your character] heard Graham say something from the next desk,” unless you had discussed that with Graham’s author ahead of time. If you did discuss doing something like that with another author before you posted, it’s usually best to put a note in the OOC box saying “[other character]’s author approved of them saying something” or similar so other readers don’t assume you’re god-modding.

Resources: Here is a link to a description of the Lumos charm which has a picture which shows the wand movement (warning: it's to the harrypotter.fandom wiki, and while I've not heard of anyone else having this problem, that thing *will* make my browser crash if I stay on it more than about two minutes; fortunately, the picture is right at the top of the article on the right-hand side). Here is a link to the official Wand Woods list and descriptors, and here is a link to the official Wand Cores list. If you are of a suitable age and disposition to gloss over a few non-PG words the article-writer unfortunately uses for emphasis, here is an article that posits a few wand woods Ollivander might not have used, but which could make interesting wands (though I must note that the author overlooks that there is one rosewood wand in canon – Fleur Delacour’s. The promised follow-up article doesn’t seem to have materialized, either, unfortunately).

Advice: All that said, the most important thing is to have fun, so everyone have at it! If you, as an author, have a question, you can either find me in Chatzy (I’m currently Morgan Garrett most of the time) or post the question on the OOC board. If your character has a question, please include “tag Professor Wright” in the title of your post and I will steer Gray your way. Happy posting everyone!

Subthreads:

Who wants to compare wands? by Oz Spellman with Philippe Delachene

This is why we can't have nice things. by Henry Spellman with Stanley O'Malley

Knowledge can be dark. by Bonabelle Row with Lorena Abernathy

Light is good [Wally] by Valentine Duell with Wally O'Malley

So... no lanterns? by Billy Cobb with Jasper Brockert

16 Grayson Wright The Light of Knowledge (Beginner's, First and Second Years) 113 1 5

Oz Spellman

November 01, 2020 3:19 AM

Who wants to compare wands? by Oz Spellman

‘Ist’ wasn’t a word, was it? Also, after taking a moment to remember that ‘Muggle’ meant people like him- well, no, not him, he was a wizard (he was a WIZARD! He suppressed a giggle cos even now, after lots of practise, even just saying that in his head sounded weird) but mom. Mom was a Muggle – and they were talking about play writing why?

Oz had learnt from orientation that Mr. Wright really liked to go on and on, but apparently that ability kicked up a notch when he was in the front of the class. Oz waited for a fart noise, or an exaggerated yawn or maybe even a ball of paper being chucked across the room, but none of them came. Even though Mr. Wright was now going on about Greeks and Romans and a bunch of stuff that would definitely have got you called names at his old school, even if you were a teacher. None of the teachers ever tried talking this long. They knew that was basically suicide. If they had this much to say, they tried presenting it as a video, and then it was still fifty-fifty as to whether people paid attention or just talked.

He was half listening, and it wasn’t like what Mr. Wright was saying didn’t kinda make sense (‘people worshipped fire’ – like, Oz got that. Ancient times people were all super weird and did human sacrifice and stuff so, like, he could get that as a fact as a thing that had happened, even if he didn’t know why they were talking about it right now). But he was also looking around. He was waiting to see who was going to kick off first, and whether anyone else had noticed that this was the longest lecture in the world and his foot kicked rhythmically against the desk without him really noticing, not because he was trying to disrupt Mr. Wright but because he just wasn’t used to such a thorough absence of noise, and because it was a habit that had been masked by the general ruckus of an inner city public school for most of his education. The teachers knew to pick their battles, and when kids were slapping each other with rulers, a little desk kicking usually went uncommented on.

The fire got his attention again, as did the assertion that Muggles banged sticks together.

“Dude, are you serious? We have matches and lighters,” he laughed. Also he was pretty sure remote controlled fires were a thing in fancy houses, but he just realised that he’d interrupted and he hadn’t really meant to, even though he still kind of couldn’t believe that no one else had so far, or at that. Mr. Wright responded by giving an explanation of what matches were and Oz wondered whether this was some kind of attempt at teacher humour. It wasn’t funny, but that was what made it a possibility that Mr. Wright was joking because it wasn’t like he was going to be any good at that.

Anyway, the moment it took Oz to ponder whether he was for real gave Mr. Wright time to carry on, and Oz tried to keep listening and be good, but then Mr. Wright said ‘rigid wands’ and he burst out laughing, unable to believe that not every single person was following suit. Rigid wands. Did they not get it? And whippy wands. That was less funny, but it still made him think of a wand pouring out a whole bunch of Coolwhip or something instead of magic spells. It was all pretty hilarious. Right until the point where Mr. Wright called him out. It was a familiar refrain ‘Other people are trying to learn.’ It never did much to shut up the worst offenders but Oz had never been a really bad kid. He wasn’t trying to pull Mr. Wright’s lesson off course or be a brat or any of the rest of it. And he was always acutely aware of one other person in the room who definitely did want to learn… He deliberately did not catch Henry’s eye, even though he was pretty sure his twin was trying to throw a Mom Look at him from where he was sitting.

He fought to get his giggles under control. It was an odd sensation, because something like that would have just been it – class over, possibly that teacher’s ability to remain in that school over – but a lot of the class still seemed to be listening. Even though this had been going on forever. And had mentioned rigid wands. He had just about managed to get a straight face again when Mr. Rigid went and said they would be pairing up and comparing their wands, and Oz just collapsed in a helpless fit of giggles onto the table in front of him, though he stuffed his sleeve into his mouth to try to mask it.

“Wanna bet?” he mumbled, having caught the statement that he did not want to set his textbook on fire. He didn’t, actually, because textbooks cost money, and Oz could respect anything that had cost money because that was a scarce enough resource. But that was just what you said when a teacher said you didn’t want to do something. And also, after trying to read a couple of chapters, he wasn’t sure he and his book were exactly friends. There was some weird cool gross stuff in some of them, and it was definitely way better than math – like you could make stuff fly and open doors without the keys and all that was definitely cool and in potions it looked like they got to slice and smush up bugs. But also it went on a lot about a bunch of real pain-in-the-butt details. Oz was broadly assuming those weren’t super important.

“So,” he said, turning to a classmate and managing to draw enough breath to speak, “Do you wanna compare wands?” he asked, collapsing again into giggles. “Honestly, teachers at my old school would have got eaten alive if they said stuff like that,” he laughed. Only he didn’t use the word ‘stuff.’

OOC: Attempted to keep how other people were reacting to Oz' reactions to a minimum in order not to god-mod. However if Professor Wright (or anyone else) would have had a bigger or more noticeable reaction to his antics, please let me know in chatzy and I will work out if I need to amend anything. [Edited to take account of Professor Wright's feedback/edit].

13 Oz Spellman Who wants to compare wands? 1514 0 5

Philippe Delachene

November 02, 2020 7:55 PM

Is that entirely appropriate? by Philippe Delachene

Philippe arrived in Charms more than a little bit early. It was still early enough in the year that he hadn't yet lost the advantage of moving one time zone to the East, so waking up in the morning was easier than it had been at home (plus Philippe was not one to sleep in late ordinarily anyway), and making it to breakfast as soon as it opened at 6:30 was a thing he was doing regularly. By October, he'd probably creep out to 6:45, and in November he'd reach equilibrium at 7:00, if last year was anything to go by. It was still September though, and he still had loads of time between breakfast and Charms at 8 am. So he arrived to class early and picked out his choice of seat.

He didn't really have a favorite spot, and tended to vary his seating based on the people present rather than the proximity (or lack thereof) to the front, but he was one of the first people here, so he didn't have that cue to lead him anywhere in particular, so he just plopped himself down right smack dab in the middle of the room. He was a good enough student that he didn't avoid the front row, but it wasn't his favorite, and he had trouble reading the board from the back, so he tended to not go to that extreme when given the choice either. The middle was nicely centrally located to everybody, and especially being this visible to the teacher as he selected his day's seating, he didn't want Professor Wright to think he was avoiding him.

So he sat - in his chair, which was important to note when he was aware that Professor Wright was one of the ones who didn't fight Anya on that point. Philippe liked chairs. They were designed for sitting in, unlike desks.

He talked with the people he knew as they arrived, some of them sitting close to him, other choosing spots farther away after a brief catch-up chat.

Philippe wasn't saving the spot right next to him for anyone in particular, so when a first year dropped into it, he just said "Hi, I'm Philippe." He had resolved to make some friends this year, and helping out a first year seemed to be a good way to do that.

He did start to doubt he had maybe the wrong first year when his neighbor interrupted the lesson to remind Professor Wright about matches and lighters, and his dismay increased as the kid burst out into laughter for no apparent reason at all.

Oh. Oh! Philippe flushed slightly as he got why the kid was laughing. And he laughed just a little, too, mostly out of discomfort.

Then the lecture wrapped up, and the kid turned to him, and made the assignment sound altogether different than it had when Professor Wright had said it. He flushed again but couldn't help chuckling himself some, because the giggles were contagious.

The first year recovered himself enough to remark on a culture change between Sonora teachers and whatever teachers he was used to. Frankly, Philippe was moderately shocked by the casual cursing. Mom was quite strict in not allowing anything higher than a PG rating into her house, and neither Mom or Dad swore (at least not in English, and the French curses only came out when there was literal horse dung involved).

"I wouldn't know," he admitted. "I was privately tutored before Sonora." And one of those tutors had been his uncle who then moved on to teach at Sonora, and had attended Sonora before that, so his teaching style had been very much like Professor Wright's. The other tutors also had more similarities than differences. Then, worried that made him sound snobby, he was quick to add, "I live in the middle of the desert on a flying horse ranch, so I didn't really have any elementary schools close by to attend."

"But for the wands," he placed his golden colored one out where Oz could see it, "Mine's made of pear wood, and has a unicorn hair as its core. Thirteen inches." He paused, then went for it, "Not too . . . rigid."

1 Philippe Delachene Is that entirely appropriate? 1489 0 5

Henry Spellman

November 02, 2020 9:37 PM

This is why we can't have nice things. by Henry Spellman

Henry was interested in Charms. He was interested in all of the classes Sonora offered but especially things like Charms, because they seemed the most like real magic. Potions mapped pretty neatly onto chemistry, Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology mapped onto biology pretty well, and the list went on. But classes like Transfiguration and Charms were just straight up magic. It was also basically the only place that Henry was sure he actually could make magic happen just by being magic. It was a big relief to find out that was true, especially when he didn't think he had any real examples of accidental magic pre-Sonora.

That being said, there were some pre-Sonora things that seemed to be really sticking it out, like Oz acting like an absolute mess. Henry wasn't sure why he did that. It wasn't like he was actually a dumb jock, but he acted like it a lot of times. Henry wouldn't have minded nearly as much if not for the fact that they were in the same class, but since they were, Henry just wanted Oz to stop drawing so much attention. He tried to catch his brother's eye, giving a very firm 'why are you acting like this' look, but Oz wouldn't look. Henry wished he could just stop looking. Or stop hearing.

Finally, it was time for them to work with people and not time for Oz to keep being Oz ish. It was literally the one thing Henry would change about his brother if he could, because this was the kind of stuff that always got him in trouble and stressed mom out and then they had problems if he had to stay late for detention and stuff. He supposed that wasn't really a problem now but still. It was irresponsible and inconsiderate. So he was in a bad mood when he turned to the nearest student.

"Want to work together?" he asked, enough used to group work that he could get into it without his natural reservedness causing too many problems for him. He wanted to get a good grade, after all. "My wand is fir, with a dragon heartstring core," he told them. Then he looked at his wand with a frown. "Same as my brother's." He resisted the urge to sigh. "What's yours?"

OOC: Details about Oz approved by Oz' author or mentioned in Oz' post in this class.

22 Henry Spellman This is why we can't have nice things. 1513 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 03, 2020 6:30 AM

He told us to by Oz Spellman

“Oz,” Oz replied, when - after sliding into a seat next to a kid he didn’t recognise - the boy introduced himself. Oz took his name to be ‘Philip’ cos he’d never heard of anyone being called ‘Philippe.’ That at least got class off to a good start before he varyingly got called ‘Oscar’ during roll-call and ‘Mr. Spellman’ for being in trouble.

Still, Philip giggled at some of the same points he did, proving that he was not wrong and that there were just objectively humorous things about what the teacher was saying, even if Philip didn’t laugh loudly enough to be told off. Overall, Oz was marking him down as ‘alright’ - at least not some humorless little robot or suck up dork who couldn’t crack a smile. Or Henry - Henry didn’t laugh at teachers but he got to be his own category that was less insulting than the other two even if he might have fitted into the second one just a bit. But then the Philip kid went and said something way not normal, and Oz jaw dropped for a second, before he remembered that he was supposed to be too cool to care about whatever. He’d been warned there were fancy kids here, and he wasn’t sure how he wanted to deal with them. They weren’t really a kind of person he’d come across much. He closed his mouth, trying to look unimpressed but mostly looking kinda scowly. Philip’s attempt to normalise the situation didn’t really do much given that it included the words ‘flying horse ranch.’

“For real?” Oz asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. He didn’t exactly want a reputation for being gullible and that sounded super made up, but then everything did here. How the heck was he gonna ever tell when someone was pulling his leg? Ugh, this was a nightmare.

Luckily, Phil moved onto wand stuff, so whatever other elements of the conversation Oz was flunking, they were apparently gonna be work buddies. Comparing wands. And Philip’s was only a little rigid.

“I’d hope so, given we’re in class,” Oz laughed. He thought unicorn tail hair was kind of girly for a wand core. He hadn’t even wanted to try those ones out. But he didn’t want to be outright mean. He sometimes blurted mean things by accident cos his mouth went faster than his brain, or did mean things to Henry because Henry just needed to leave him the heck alone. But whilst other people would have called Philip a… well, there were words but his mom said they weren’t nice, and just cos other people used them didn’t make it okay for him to. Anyway, he might have followed along in teasing, had it been going on, but he wasn’t about to start any.

“Uh, ours are dragon ones,” he stated. He had gotten far more used to using first person singular pronouns over the last two years, as there had become an increasing number of things that were just I not we, but it hadn’t fully broken nine years of habit. Or… well, like obviously not nine total cos when he’d been a baby he hadn’t referred to him and Henry as anything. He’d still been there though. However, wands were one thing where they’d come up identical again. It was kind of annoying, but also not something Oz had thought about too much, given that all their other school supplies had been identical too. And their wands weren’t identical identical. They looked different, even if they were made of the exact same stuff. Like how they’d both have pens that wrote in ink cos duh, that was what a pen did, only they could get different colours. “I don’t remember what wood they were,” he added. He was pretty sure it was the Christmas tree one, only that didn’t help because a) as far as he was concerned, Christmas trees were made of plastic or tinsel and b) saying his wand was made of Christmas trees sounded even stupider than having a girly unicorn hair in it.

“What does he mean ‘rigid’ anyway? They’re made of wood. All wood’s rigid, isn’t it?” he asked, giggling slightly as he said it. “There is literally no way to talk about these that doesn’t make them sound like something else,” he observed. Only he didn’t feel the need to be euphemistic, and said exactly what it was they sounded like.

13 Oz Spellman He told us to 1514 0 5

Philippe Delachene

November 03, 2020 12:03 PM

Well, I guess it's alright then. by Philippe Delachene

"For real," Philippe promised when Oz seemed to doubt his background. To be fair, 'I live in the middle of the desert on a horse ranch,' was a suspicious statement to people of non-magical backgrounds even before adding the word flying to the horses, so he didn't hold it against the new kid.

Philippe giggled again, and felt his face warm slightly, as Oz pointed out their location and the inappropriateness of being truly rigid in class.

Oz reminded him a lot of Anya. Not so much in the dirty jokes - Anya wasn't one to make those - but just in the potential they each had to drag him along into trouble. He'd definitely get in trouble if Mom could overhear this conversation. Professor Wright probably wouldn't be overly pleased by it either. Oz was probably already on Professors Wright's watch list, and if Philippe kept laughing with him, he'd probably end up on it, too. Assuming he wasn't already on it thanks to his sisters. Anya's presence on such lists was a given, and though Jasmine was a good rule-following Crotalus, Philippe was sure she'd been on several teachers' watch lists as well, if only because of her low grades. That wasn't a problem Philippe had, of course, but the badge on his robes was Teppenpaw, not Aladren, so they couldn't discount that he might read some of her old essays and suddenly become dangerously misinformed, too. They'd been exposed to Jasmine for seven years, and Anya for four, but had only one year of association with him to counter all of that. What headway he had made was probably slipping away for every moment he laughed with Oz.

And yet here he was. Laughing and blushing again as Oz did away with euphemism altogether.

"I think he means like," Philippe held his wand at the bottom of its shaft and pressed against its tip - there really wasn't any way to talk about this without it sounding like the thing Oz said - with his finger, gently enough to not risk breaking it, but with enough pressure to create a notable curve in the thin wood, "see, it bends a little bit, instead of snapping. Some bend more than others. Some don't bend at all. The ones that don't bend are more prone to breaking, but they're more precise, and that's what he means by rigid." He released the pressure and the wand restored itself to its normal straight shape. "Whippy ones are so bendy that they kind of flick around - like a whip - if you move them fast enough." He demonstrated a quick flick with his own. "Mine isn't that whippy, so it still looks pretty straight even when I do that, but it's got enough give to it that it's not totally rigid either. Does that make sense?"

He hadn't missed the 'our' or that there had been two Spellmans in the roll call, so he asked curiously, "You and your brother both got dragon cores? That's cool. Me and my sister Jasmine both got unicorn cores - horses kind of run in the family, I guess. Both of my parents have unicorn cores as well. My other sister got a phoenix feather, though. She likes our horses as much as anyone, but she likes them because they fly and not because they're horses, and unicorns don't fly."

1 Philippe Delachene Well, I guess it's alright then. 1489 0 5

Bonabelle Row

November 03, 2020 3:52 PM

Knowledge can be dark. by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle was horrified on behalf of the first year boy who spoke up. She was pretty disgusted that someone would do that and especially would do that in such an immature way. Also, calm down, it's class time. Maybe he just hadn't ever been in a school before? That was unusual for Muggles as she understood it but boohoo for him if that was the case. Why was he being such a punk anyway? Matches sounded very strange to Bonabelle and the kid could shove off if he was going to be problematic about some of the rest of the class. Charms was Bonabelle's favorite and she didn't appreciate anyone making a farce out of it.

She shot a glare over at 'Mr. Spellman' when Professor Wright had to call him out a second time, but didn't say anything. Because that's what you did in class and the professor was right; other students didn't appreciate their education being interrupted. After all, some of them were trying to cope with life's greater tragedies by gaining an education! But that was not a thought she wanted to have so she stopped it right there.

Bonabelle was confident she could do the wand lighting charm easily since she'd practiced it the year before and charms was her best class, but she knew that not everyone was so lucky, and they hadn't previously dived so much into the impact their wand would have on casting it, so she was a bit eager when she turned to a nearby student.

"Hello," she said, her British accent opening up the word in a way that was unique among most of her classmates. "Mine's elm, with unicorn hair for the core," she said, flipping open her book to find out what that said about her and stifling a proud smile at the description. Then she looked back up at the other student. "Want to work together? What's yours?"

22 Bonabelle Row Knowledge can be dark. 1488 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

November 03, 2020 4:16 PM

That's why we need the light by Lorena Abernathy

"Hi Bonabelle! I forgot you'd be in this class too. I'm not used to being in the same classes with all the same people. In my old school there would only be one or two of the same people in class with me." Lorena was happy to see the girl she had spoken to in the Common Room earlier. Always nice to have someone you knew to talk to. And, after being pen pals during the summer, she felt she knew the other girl a little bit.

"Elm and unicorn hair? What does that mean about you? Mine is eleven inch, mahogany with a dragon heartstring core. I know it's pliable but not whippy, but I'm not sure what else it means yet." She leaned over her book as well, looking up what attributes the wand saw in the owner. She was surprised, and not a little pleased, by what the book told her. She didn't want to sound like she was bragging, so she didn't mention it.

"Do you believe that kid just mouthing off to the professor in the middle of his lecture?! I couldn't imagine doing that!" Lorena had been appalled that someone would do that in class. You were supposed to be quiet and learn from school, not show your own stupidity.

"Oh, remind me to give you the hair clip I told you I would bring you. It's in the dorms. I think you'll like it; it will look nice with your hair color and skin tone." Ugh, her mother always talked about things going with skin tone. She cringed inwardly at the thought.

"You have such a lovely accent. British, right? I used to try to sound British when I was younger, but never got it right, of course. I came off sounding like Bert from Mary Poppins!" She laughed at the thought and then turned back to her book and the Lumos charm.

"You took this class last year as well, right? Can you tell me if I'm holding my wand right?" She held the wand tightly and gave it a little swish. Lorena tried the charm a couple of times, adjusting the way she held the wand. "Lumos," she said under her breath. Nothing. "LUMOS," she said again quietly. Still nothing. She looked at Bonabelle, hoping she would give her some input that would help her with this charm that seemed to be evading her.

48 Lorena Abernathy That's why we need the light 1510 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 04, 2020 3:54 AM

Let's get to it then by Oz Spellman

"Cool," Oz stated flatly. It was a carefully cultivated tone that was not cold enough to be unfriendly but equally not so enthusiastic that it suggested definite belief or being impressed. It was the tone of plausible deniability. Of 'I never said I didn't believe you' if Philip got all uppity and shoved a flying horse in his face, but equally allowed a 'Yeah, I know' if Philip now claimed to be pulling his leg.

The other boy was giggling again though, and he was from the nice house. Oz was still hella suspicious about this whole house system and thoroughly not prepared to take Stanley's word for it that stuff never went down, but even he had to admit that the yellow house sounded the least likely to make stuff go down. Oz thought Philip was probably okay, even if he was a posh boy who lived on a ranch, or a crud-spinner who just claimed to. There were worse things to be than either of those.

Oz' smirk remained fully in place as Philip talked him through bending, whipping and threw in a few more references to being rigid whilst he was at it. He was starting to be able to keep it on the inside a bit more but he suspected it would be a while before it stopped being funny watching another boy talk him through the features of his stick. He wasn't laughing at Philip though, and he thought he might actually remember what he'd just been told cos it made sense when he said it like that.

"Yeah, got it. Thanks," he grinned.

"Yeah, we do," he confirmed with a slight grimace about the wand cores. There was no real point denying it given how thoroughly he had just walked into that one. He needed to watch his language a bit more. Still, Philip had the same core as one of his sisters (Oz was right, it was a girly core) so he felt a little better. Maybe it was common for cores to run in the family or something. He didn't have to admit they had the same wood too.

"You got two sisters?" he confirmed. "Does it suck?" He didn't talk to or hang out with a lot of girls. They fell into two categories - the very girly kind who complained when you farted (like they didn't do it too), and the ones that he wouldn't admit scared him a bit. There were one or two girls who were alright but they were the ones who behaved more like boys. He couldn't imagine having to have any of them in the house forever though. That seemed excessive.

13 Oz Spellman Let's get to it then 1514 0 5

Philippe Delachene

November 04, 2020 10:44 AM

Right. Getting to it. by Philippe Delachene

"Anya's not too bad," Philippe admitted readily when asked if having two sisters sucked. "She gets me in trouble all the time, but we have fun doing it." He paused a moment, then added, because it seemed relevant (and potentially obvious, but it was probably better to spell it out in case he was later accused of keeping secrets or something) "She's in your House. Fourth year, though, so we're not going to share any classes with her this year." Next year he would, for the one year when intermediates spanned his third year and her fifth, and he was not really looking forward to that. Because he was probably going to get into trouble a lot that year. Because that's just what happened when he was in Anya's proximity. He didn't really even think it was her fault. Trouble just had this way of finding her. Especially if he was around. Maybe it was his fault, somehow. She seemed to be holding her own here at Sonora and somehow didn't have detentions booked out to seventh year already.

"Jasmine is mom's favorite, so that part sucks, but Jasmine herself is usually pretty nice to me, so it's not completely terrible having her around. She's eighteen though, and just graduated, so between the age difference and her being the girliest girly princess ever, we never really had any real mutual interests. Anya would at least play Hot Wheels with me sometimes, even if she did like playing outside better. She was totally into making tracks where the cars could do loop de loops and jump, so that was cool."

"Oh, my mom's a muggleborn," he added as an aside, by way of explaining what Hot Wheels were doing on a flying horse ranch in the middle of the desert. "So we're basically a best of both worlds family. We've got a refrigerator, and pumpkin juice with breakfast, and Hot Wheels, and horses that fly, and an extensive DVD library." He decided not to mention that most of those titles were produced by Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks, or that he was foiled from the reaching the small shelf that held Mom's handful of PG-13 discs by an age line he was still a year too young to cross. (Not that this had stopped him from watching them, of course; he'd just needed to get Uncle Daniel or Anya to get them down off the shelf for him when Mom and Dad were out. Not that any of the Rom-Coms would have been something he would have wanted to watch anyway if (a) Grandma Kathleen and/or Uncle Dan weren't in them, or (b) Mom hadn't said he wasn't allowed.)

"Anyway, I guess we should do the spell, right? Lumos." Philippe circled his wand in the cursive o motion and cast the spell he'd learned last year. The tip lit up readily. As he looked around, he saw his wand was maybe not the brightest of those already alight, but it was a steady consistent sort of light that could be depended on not to throw around flickering shadows.

1 Philippe Delachene Right. Getting to it. 1489 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 04, 2020 5:23 PM

It's supposed to do more than this by Oz Spellman

Dragging a sibling into trouble was a dynamic Oz could relate to, though he was on the other side of it to Philip. He also couldn't relate to the part where the other person enjoyed it. For a while, he had thought so. Fun had been this objective quality - everyone liked fun the way that everyone liked chocolate ice cream. For all that Henry worried and protested that they might get in trouble for swapping clothes and pretending to be each other or that climbing on that was a really bad idea, he would stop worrying and have fun once they did it. Because fun was fun, and he and Henry were the same. Only they weren't. Henry didn't have fun getting into trouble with him.

"Moms aren't supposed to have favourites," he commented, when Philip said Jasmine was the favourite in their home. He made the obligatory vomit noises at the mention of princesses. Anya, he had to admit, was sounding cooler by the minute. She sounded like she liked boy stuff, and hanging out and- and getting into trouble. It wasn't like he was likely to befriend a fourth year anyway, but he shouldn't go looking for trouble. Everyone thought he did that far too much anyway, and he really didn't. He just went looking for adventure or fun or whatever was over there, and those happened to just really frequently be trouble-adjacent so he ended up there too.

The mention of Hot Wheels had not struck him as odd (beyond the luxury of owning branded toys but he had already concluded that Philip's family was loaded). Philip's explanation was weirder in that he was talking about normal things like they were weird.

"Wait, do most people here not know what that stuff is?" he asked. He had picked up bits and pieces from Netflix Cop, like the fact that this place had no TV, but he had sort of assumed that was a school thing or because this many of them would blow it up (Netflix Cop had talked about explosions a lot and he didn't seem to think they were a cool idea. Oz had to admit that it would suck not to have a TV any more but he had also spent plenty of periods of his life without that luxury, and it might be sort of worth it to get to see an explosion and also now he'd be able to just magic it back together, right?). Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised at Philip's revelation given that their class teacher seemed unfamiliar with matches, but Oz wasn't thinking about that right now, and one of the features of being someone who didn't always join all the dots together was a near constant capacity to be surprised by things.

Then Philip reminded him again that they had a class assignment. Were they done with part one already? Wow, that had been quick. Oz didn't stop to dwell on whether 'it has dragon stuff' had really been a thorough enough analysis that met all Mr. Wright's requirements, especially as swishing his wand about was way cooler than talking about it.

"Lumos," he cast, flourishing enthusiastically but utterly imprecisely. He looked excitedly at the end of his wand, and then turned it around to really peer closely and double check that he hadn't somehow missed the light that was supposed to be shooting out of it but very definitely wasn't.

13 Oz Spellman It's supposed to do more than this 1514 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 04, 2020 5:34 PM

Light is good [Wally] by Valentine Duell

There was something strange going on, Bonabelle... well, Bonabelle hadn't actually been avoiding her, but she was still acting strange. She guessed it had something to do with the family stuff that Mr. Row had told her about when they had started discussing Bonabelle's birthday plans. She didn't like it and she wanted to fix it, but she didn't know how. She suspected that her friend needed to talk about it, but Bonabelle wasn't much for talking. She also couldn't force Bonabelle to talk about it, because that would be mean. She would just have to be there for Bonabelle when her friend decided she wanted to talk about it, until then.. she'd keep working on the party and make sure Bonabelle knew she was always available for her.

Unfortunately, she was running a little behind schedule today and didn't get to class early. That was fine really, she didn't have a game to work on yet. Ness hadn't called the first meeting of the gaming club yet, so she wasn't sure if she would be running any games this year. She had a few ideas that she could use if necessary, but there were other things to work on in the meantime unless they really needed a game. However, Bonabelle had already arrived and was sitting with Lorena. Val smiled. This was good, Bonabelle was making more friends, she had a head start with her penpal over the summer and wasn't about to get in the way of that. She was just going to need somewhere else to sit then... Ah! Wally looked like he needed a partner! Val hadn't spent much time last year getting to know Wally or his brother Stanley, and that needed to change.

Valentine slid into the seat next to Wally and gave him a big, friendly smile before getting her things ready for class. She didn't have much time for a quick "Hello!" before Professor Wright began roll call and his lecture. He rambled a bit about literature and history, it was good way to set the scene, but Val was never sure if any of it should go into her notes or not. Then one of the first year boys volunteered some muggle techniques and she nearly raised her hand to add that electricity could start fires as well for muggles. Papa did that on occasion, sometimes it was even on purpose. Professor Wright's reaction made her stay her hand though, apparently this wasn't a class participation section yet.

He then got to the actual lesson for the day. They were looking at their wands and working on lumos. She also hoped that first year, Mr. Spellman boy, was doing okay. Fortunately for her, she had all but mastered lumos last year, with some... a bunch of help from Bonabelle. Finally though he was done talking and now she could!

Val turned to Wally with an enthusiastic smile. "Hi Wally! What's your wand look like?"

2 Valentine Duell Light is good [Wally] 1490 0 5

Wally O'Malley

November 04, 2020 6:03 PM

Whatever you say, I agree. by Wally O'Malley

Class. Academics. Learning. Books. Normalcy. Fantastic.

Wally needed to get back to learning. Stanley would absolutely call him a nerd for it, but at least it gave Wally something to focus on again. Something to think about other than how pretty Valentine’s long blonde hair looked with the light reflecting on it. Something concrete and useful instead of just making him feel awkward and sad and some other ways he didn’t know how to describe.

He had always liked Charms, so it was a good class to return to the school swing of things with. Charms was a foundation he found applicable to most other things, but without the implied danger of Defense class or the specificity (and, yes, difficulty) of Transfigurations.

However, his ability to concentrate was destroyed immediately as Val slid into the chair beside him, flashing a great big smile. Wally’s mouth smiled back at her without giving him any say in the matter, leaving him to just hope it wasn’t too goopy or weird looking. Fortunately, roll call started very soon thereafter, so he didn’t have to try to sound smart for the length of a conversation.

But between stealing glances at her during the lecture and Henry’s brother’s occasional disruptions - Wally had no concept of what was so funny about any of this - it was just impossible to focus at all. He had almost no retention of even the topic, so when Val asked him about his initial response was a horribly intelligent sounding, “Whuh?”

“Oh, it’s, uh…” Wally fumbled around briefly in his robe pocket and pulled out his wand. Twelve and a half inches, it was made of grey alder. A bit bumpy, but not especially remarkable in any regard. “It’s pretty boring,” he admitted sheepishly. “What about yours?”

12 Wally O'Malley Whatever you say, I agree. 1492 0 5

Stanley O'Malley

November 04, 2020 7:05 PM

Explain yourself! by Stanley O'Malley

OOC: Important note: I did not have a chance to confirm the part about Theo with his author. But I had the whole post written otherwise and was afraid if I didn't post this before I go to bed, someone else might reply before I get a chance tomorrow evening. So to THEO's author, if you disagree with what I said here, please let me know and I will edit the first paragraph narrative! <3 BIC:

Whoever decided class should start at 8:00 in the freakin’ morning was stupid and terrible and deserved to be shot out of a cannon into the sun, probably. Stanley was four hundred percent not a morning person, and he probably would have overslept if it hadn’t been for Theo pounding on his door when he didn’t show up in the Common Room to head down to breakfast together. Times like this made Stanley wish he had a roommate, especially one like Wally who got up on time and would make him do the same.

He was a little short on time, though, so he kinda just threw his robes over his pajamas and hoped nobody would notice. At breakfast he scarfed down a pancake twice his own size, but it didn’t seem to wake him up much. Stanley was still pretty groggy when he got to his 8am Charms class, and he melted into the first available chair he could find. Glancing up, he realized he had sat by his new buddy Oz, although the younger boy had his hair weird today. “Hey Oz,” he greeted casually. “Trying a new look?” But then roll call started, and it didn’t really give Oz enough time to answer, anyway.

However, as the lesson began, an Oz-like voice made a loud comment. This confused Stanley, who glanced around to see Regular Hair Oz sitting in a completely different part of the classroom. Stanley whipped back around, throwing an accusatory look at Not Oz beside him.

When the lecture ended, Not Oz asked if he wanted to work together and then started talking about his wand, but Stanley was having none of that. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, imposter,” he said. “One step at a time. First things first: why do you have my buddy Oz’s face?” He didn’t process the whole “brother” bit of what Not Oz said, which might have given him a clue, but Stanley was too busy being aghast to be perceptive.

12 Stanley O'Malley Explain yourself! 1491 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 04, 2020 7:13 PM

About anything? by Valentine Duell

Valentine waved her hand dismissively, "It's not boring," she stated simply, "It has been matched up with you. What kind of wood is it made out of?" She was no expert on wood, and was not one that could identify different types by sight alone. Wally seemed a little distracted by something, perhaps Mr. Spellman's disruptions? So she gave him an encouraging smile, "We're looking into what the woods and cores of our wands mean while we practice lumos." This was actually quite fascinating, how much could a person's wand reveal about them? She may have to study up on her woods some more.

At his request, she showed him her own golden-toned wand. It was straight and smooth, about 13 inches long. "Mine is pear wood with a veela hair core." She looped it around in the prescribed manner, "Lumos". She quietly squealed in delight when the tip of her wand illuminated. She still had it! Sure, it flickered a bit and shifted about the color spectrum a little, but it worked! She flashed a brilliant smile at Wally. "Alright, with that out of the way, shall we see what our wand parts mean?"

Valentine began to flip through her book to the stated charts. She found the core section first. "Okay, I've got veela hair, what does this say about..." She found the spot. She stopped and looked at it, then looked at her wand, and then back at the book. Finally she looked over at Wally with a mild disgruntled look. "Apparently my core is temperamental." She stated flatly.

2 Valentine Duell About anything? 1490 0 5

Henry Spellman

November 05, 2020 4:17 PM

I already know who you are though. by Henry Spellman

Henry knew who the boy was that sat next to him, because Wally had told him at the Feast. He didn't expect that the boy didn't know who he was. Okay, he didn't expect that he DID know who he was, because most people probably didn't know who he was, but he didn't expect to be confused for Oz right off the bat. He didn't have a chance to correct the assumption before class started though, and then he was really irritated to be confused for Oz when Oz was being over the top, although the boy probably figured it out pretty fast. However, by that point, Henry had already forgotten the confusion and he jumped into the classwork. The boy's response reminded him though and he raised an eyebrow a little bit in disbelief. Of course, he didn't know enough about the wizarding world to know if imposters were a thing that could happen. Was that a real concern? He doubted it would happen in class even if it could happen.

"We're twins," he said, a bit irritated that Oz apparently already had a 'buddy' and wondering if Wally would have said the same thing about him. He tried not to think about that too much though because he didn't need to think about it and because he couldn't do anything about it anyway. He wasn't directly irritated with the boy though, so that wasn't a thing to worry about.
"I'm Henry," he added a little more kindly. He tried to take a breath and just chill because he'd been very uptight and short-tempered since arriving at Sonora and it was very unlike him. "If you don't mind working together," he said, pausing to glance at Oz, who was talking to another boy already. "What's your wand?"

22 Henry Spellman I already know who you are though. 1513 0 5

Bonabelle Row

November 07, 2020 1:22 PM

Levity? Or a different kind? by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle's summer assumption of Lorena was that the girl could talk. She'd sort of thought that was just partly the nature of letter writing, but it turned out when she'd met up with her in the Common Room that it was just Lorena. Bonabelle wasn't sure what to do with that. Sure, Valentine talked a lot too, but Lorena could just go on. She seemed genuinely nice though, and it wasn't her fault that Bonabelle wasn't usually into 'nice'.

She glanced over the description of elm again, deciding to reinterpret Lorena's question a bit so as not to have to say what it meant about her. "My wand tends not to have many accidents," she said, picking pieces out of the description. "And it's very capable, with enough training and practice." Best to be modest.

Bonabelle glanced back toward Oz a little at Lorena's next comment, agreeing wholeheartedly with the first year but not being one to make such bold comments herself. "I'm not one to talk much about other people," she said, nipping the issue in the bud. "I tend to be quiet in class," she added diplomatically.

Lorena was the first person to comment directly on Bonabelle's skin tone, and she raised an eyebrow a bit dangerously. She supposed Lorena had no way of knowing that her family - her known family - did not look like her in terms of skin tone, but it still seemed like an odd thing to say. Plus, Lorena knew Bonabelle had spent the summers in Ireland because she'd said so in her letter. It seemed like dangerous territory and Bonabelle wasn't sure she appreciated the reminder that she was different. "I think I look just fine in most colors, regardless of skin tone," she said a little stiffly.

She blinked, surprised when Lorena then proceeded to commented on her accent. People didn't usually say stuff about it here, something she mostly chocked up to the fact that there were so many international students and English second language users that half the school seemed to have an accent other than what one would expect from the area around Sonora itself. Perhaps that wasn't the case though, as Lorena found it interesting. Lorena seemed to find differences interesting as a whole. Perhaps she'd grown up even more sheltered than Bonabelle, although that seemed hard to believe. Bonabelle wasn't sheltered from people, though, and that made a difference.

"Thanks," she said awkwardly, suddenly very self-conscious of her accent. It was something she generally liked well enough about herself, but it did serve to remind her that she was the odd one out. She was the only one in her whole family with a British accent, except maybe her mum or something and she wouldn't know in that case. "I don't know who Bert or Mary Poppins are," she added, shaking her head at the reference. The phrasing seemed odd. Maybe Mary Poppins was a place, if Bert was from there? She wasn't sure she wanted to get too into that conversation if it was going to center around her accent and skin tone.

"You hold your wand the same for everything," Bonabelle pointed out when the subject turned to something more comfortable, demonstrating her own grip. "It's just how you move it that changes." She cocked her head, watching the movements Lorena was making but not entirely sure what it was that was eluding the girl. Perhaps it was about her magical background and familiarity with the spell? Perhaps it was just her initial grasp on magic as a whole. "Like this," Bonabelle said, showing the movement and stating the incantation firmly, the end of her wand lighting up. She ended the spell and looked at Lorena. "Try again," she suggested. "And try to relax a little."

OOC: When you include something that was agreed upon but didn't happen (like Bonabelle and Lorena meeting up in the Common Room) it's best practice to put a note in the OOC just so others know that it was approved with the other author and you didn't just decide that yourself. :) Something like this:

Bonabelle and Lorena talking in the Common Room/already having met approved by her author.

22 Bonabelle Row Levity? Or a different kind? 1488 0 5

Stanley O'Malley

November 08, 2020 4:43 PM

You're too powerful!! by Stanley O'Malley

Oh. Ohhhhh.

“Sweet!” Stanley exclaimed, his entire tone and demeanor shifting. “I’m a twin too! But we aren’t identical.” He didn’t think it through, but presumably that would give enough explanation as to why that wasn’t his first thought. He and Wally were something of a package deal for most of their lives, but they at least had a separation of identity. They had shared rooms, toys, and birthday parties all their life - most of which by choice - but they had always had their own faces. So like with a lot of things, Stanley just sort of intrinsically assumed other people had the same experiences as him.

“Nice to meet ya, Henry,” said Stanley cheerfully. “I’m Stanley.” He noticed the younger boy’s House badge, and he was about to comment on how it was the same as the one that Wally had pinned to his robes, but Henry was All Business and back to the lesson. Ah well, they could talk about that stuff later.

Stanley produced his wand from his pocket. Upon first glance, the wand and its owner appeared a bit mismatched. It was elegant and on the upper side of average for length, with flawless wood composition. No bumps or notches, and only the slightest, graceful curve of white wood. It almost looked like ivory. “Aspen wood,” he answered. “The core is a piece of a jackalope antler. Eleven inches, I think?” It wasn’t a detail he thought about often (other than to lament the fact that Wally’s was longer), so he wasn’t positive on that. “What about yours?”

12 Stanley O'Malley You're too powerful!! 1491 0 5

Wally O'Malley

November 08, 2020 4:52 PM

Pretty much, yeah. by Wally O'Malley

Wally appreciated Val’s sentiment, although he wasn’t sure if he necessarily agreed with her assessment. The fact that their wands were matched up to them didn’t mean his wasn’t boring - if anything, he thought it solidified the fact, because he was boring. But she asked for more details, and naturally, he provided them. “Alder,” he answered. “And it’s got a kelpie hair for the core.”

She gave a brief summary on the lesson, which he was grateful for, but also it meant she probably thought that he was dumb. So that was… less good. He noticed immediately how beautiful her wand was, a soft golden-brown, just like her hair. She cast her spell successfully, so Wally followed suit: “Lumos.” And as expected, the tip of his wand lit up with a warm, bright light.

As she turned through the pages of the book, Wally did the same. Val started talking about cores, so he found the section on the woods. He scanned the page for hers first: pear. “It says your wood type is best in the hands of people who are… generous, popular, and warm-hearted.” He felt his cheeks flush, just a little, and he grinned a little sheepishly. “That sounds pretty accurate to me.”

12 Wally O'Malley Pretty much, yeah. 1492 0 5

Billy Cobb

November 08, 2020 6:12 PM

So... no lanterns? by Billy Cobb

Billy thought Professor Wright like to talk a lot. He sat in class and tried to listen, he tried to do what he was supposed to do, but man it was hard. All this sittin' and listenin' with some writin' was just not what he was used to. Sure Ma 'n Pa had taught him is reading and his numbers, but that hadn't been nothing like this. Back home he was still free to run about the woods after chores was done. Here... here is was just more sittin' and listnin'. Flying class weren't so bad, that was pretty fun, Herbology was alright that was closer to outside. Why couldn't they do the rest of these classes outside?

He sighed again, bored until Oz called out. That got his attention. He grinned, Oz was right about matches and lighters. The word Muggle still confused him a bit, supposedly it meant people that couldn't do magic, but... either some of those Wizards 'round town weren't so good at keeping their magic secret, or the Muggles could do some magical stuff as well. Some of it hadn't looked all that different than the stuff he'd seen going on when they'd gone shopping for his school supplies.

Oz was laughing again and Billy couldn't help chuckling along with him. Quietly. He was definitely doing it quietly. Laughing out loud at an elder would be disrespectful. Oh, now they were doing the wavy talking part of class and was relieved to hear they could partner up for class. That always made things a little easier. Once Professor Wright had finally stopped talking, he turned to his neighbor and pulled out his wand. "I've got a maple wand, with..." What had the man said that sold it to them? Dragonsomething? "some sort of dragon core? What do ya got?"

2 Billy Cobb So... no lanterns? 1519 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 11, 2020 5:32 PM

Interesting.... by Valentine Duell

Valentine smiled when Wally cast the charm successfully. "Great job!" She cheered. "I had a bit of a rough time getting that one right last year. Bonabelle helped me out a lot to get it figured out. Do you and Stanley work together on your homework a lot? I really don't know where I would be if I didn't have some help." It suddenly occurred to her, after the words were out of her mouth, that that could sound like she thought he needed extra help. That wasn't the case, his lumos looked better than hers did. She gave him another smile, "Alexander was a big help as well last year, but now he's moved up to the intermediate classes, maybe you'll have to help me out instead?" She left it as a question, if he didn't want her slowing down his own studies that was okay. She figured Bonabelle would probably be well into intermediate material by now if left to her own devices.

She blushed as Wally read off the pear wood description and commented on it's accuracy. "Thanks," she said doing her best to try and hide the smile that wanted to force its way onto her face at his comment. Wally was nice. Was he...? No... maybe? She made a quiet, nervous giggle as a shiver ran down her spine, "Sorry," she said and looked back down at her book. Yes, focus on work now. That would be for the best. Yes. "So... now that we know all about me. Let's see what your wand says about you." She shot him a quick glance out of the side of her eyes before quickly returning them to the book. "You have kelpie hair as a core..." She scanned the list of cores and attributes and soon found it. "Here we go... while not as powerful as some cores, kelpie hair is adaptable and quick to shift between spells. The shapeshifting qualities of the kelpie make them great assets to transfigurations, but it's deceptive nature can make things difficult for a weak-willed owner."

Valentine grimaced as she finished reading. Then looked at Wally, "That sounds... nice? I could use some help with transfigurations. My veela hair is better at charms apparently... and likes to light things on fire." She gave him a smile, "It's a good thing your core won't make things difficult for you, right?" Then she indicated his book, "What does that say about Alder wood?"

2 Valentine Duell Interesting.... 1490 0 5

Wally O'Malley

November 13, 2020 1:52 PM

Yes, I agree by Wally O'Malley

“Mostly Stanley just wants me to do his homework,” Wally admitted. “But we worked with Theo a lot. It seemed like the only way to get those two to settle down enough to do their homework,” he added with a chuckle. Stanley was smart, but he was also lazy, and he never seemed to have the attention span to do much paperwork. Practical lessons, sure, he was great. But reading or writing essays, not really his jam. Maybe Theo was better - it was a bit hard to tell - but Stanley and Theo were so good at getting each other off track. It was Wally’s job to keep it together. Fortunately, they also had Tommy now.

She giggled, and it was super cute, but then she said she was sorry for some reason. Wally wanted to assure her (preferably in a way that was suave and cool) that there was nothing to apologize for, but he just wasn’t bold enough, and she moved on. Valentine described his wand core, and for a moment, he was disappointed, expecting it to make things difficult for him in the future. But she didn’t seem to think so - did she think he was strong willed?! - and even seemed to suggest that he should help her. “I can help you with Transfigurations!” Wally volunteered, a little too eagerly. After their grades began to come back last year, Stanley and Wally’s mom had been relieved that it seemed neither of them had inherited her utter lack of Transfigurations abilities. Instead, Wally at least definitely took after their father, an animagus.

“Oh, ummm…” he filled, turning pages and trying to get back on track. Wally wasn’t in the habit of complimenting himself, so he read verbatim to avoid sounding conceited if it was good. “It says, ‘Alder is an unyielding wood, yet its ideal owner is not stubborn or obstinate, but often helpful, considerate and most likeable. Whereas most wand woods seek similarity in the characters of those they will best serve, alder is unusual in that it seems to desire a nature that is, if not precisely opposite to its own, then certainly of a markedly different type. When an alder wand is happily placed, it becomes a magnificent, loyal helpmate. Of all wand types, alder is best suited to non-verbal spell work, whence comes its reputation for being suitable only for the most advanced witches and wizards.’”

12 Wally O'Malley Yes, I agree 1492 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 14, 2020 9:42 AM

You are a good person by Valentine Duell

"Working together is much better in my opinion, " Valentine agreed, "You can share ideas and double check your work." She sighed though at Wally's comment about Stanley. She knew that urge. Things would be much easier if she could get Bonabelle to do her homework, but that wouldn't be right. She also knew she wouldn't learn things right if someone else did her work. Plus Mama and Papa would be very disappointed if they learned about that. But, that made her a burden on Bonabelle.

She smiled wide when Wally said he could help her with transfiguations. "Thanks! That would be great!" She then looked a little sheepish, "I'd offer to help you with something in return," she hesitated, "but even my best classes aren't anything to write home about." She looked mildly embarrassed and apologetic. She was trying, potions was her best class at the moment, charms wasn't terrible... the rest were... okay... transfiguations was, well transfiguations.

"Helpful, considerate, and most likeable?" She repeated from his reading. "That sounds right to me." Her ever-present smile brightened a bit. If he was... she began to turn a little red again. Then tried to distract herself with another thought that struck her, "How similar is your wand to your brother's? Is his Alder as well?" Do wand similarities run in the family?

2 Valentine Duell You are a good person 1490 0 5

Wally O'Malley

November 14, 2020 12:40 PM

Ah! A compliment! by Wally O'Malley

Oh no! Wally didn’t have any means of knowing what Valentine’s report cards looked like - when the professors handed back essays, for example, he did his best to keep his eyes on his own desk and mind his own business - but he didn’t like how sad she looked when she mentioned it. “Th-that’s okay!” he insisted quickly. “Not everybody is, like, good at school. I’m sure you’re good at other things!”

And then - oh gosh - she commented on the accuracy of his wand type. She thought he was helpful? And likeable?! Wallace absolutely commanded his cheeks not to flush anymore. Although, was he just imagining it, or were hers glowing a bit red as well? No, it had to be a trick of the lighting or something. There was absolutely no way. Unless…

Right, good, she was talking about Stanley now. That was a good thing. Nothing killed a potential mood like talking about your siblings. “His is different,” Wally replied. “It’s a lot nicer looking. It’s a really cool white wood. Aspen, I think?” He found the description in the book for that particular wood and skimmed it quickly. “This says aspen wand owners are usually… strong-willed and determined.” Wally glanced briefly at his brother. “That sounds about right.”

12 Wally O'Malley Ah! A compliment! 1492 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 14, 2020 6:16 PM

So, you agree? by Valentine Duell

Wally had gotten a bit flustered and Val did her best to reassure him, "I know, Mama wasn't the best at her classes either. But she is great at lots of other things!" Just to be sure, she added, "I'm not doing bad at anything, well other than transfiguration, I'm just not really ahead of anyone else to help them out." She sighed it would be nice to be able to help someone else, instead of being the one that needed the help. Someday maybe.

She couldn't help but giggle again as Wally looked up Stanley's wand and offered his opinion on the subject. She glanced over toward Stanley as well when Wally did. "Strong-willed and determined?" She repeated. "I could see it, not that I've got to hang out with you or your brother much last year." There were far to many people on that list for her liking. She'd interacted with everyone a bit in class and such, but she hadn't gotten to know them. "We will need to change that." She stayed simply.

Before she could say more on the subject however she noticed Professor Wright looking their direction. "So according to the book," she started saying in her naturally very convincing 'I am totally working on classwork' tone of voice, "The Veela hair in my wand is naturally attuned to charm spells. Thus casting lumos", she waved her wand and it lit up once again. It was maybe a little more unstable looking than before. "Comes easier to it," She threw a conspiratorially wink at Wally "just as the kelpie hair in yours assists with transfiguation spells." Yes, they were still completely working on work stuff. Absolutely.

2 Valentine Duell So, you agree? 1490 0 5

Wally O'Malley

November 15, 2020 3:38 PM

...I think I'm trapped in a paradox by Wally O'Malley

“T-totally!” Wally volunteered a little too eagerly when Valentine suggested hanging out with them more. “I-I mean, uh, Stanley would probably like that. And Lavender,” he added. His immediate escape route was to blame his brother. This was not a move Wally had frequently done in his life, but it was a move to which he had often been on the receiving end, so turnabout was fair play. But then he added Lavender, because that made a little more sense. Lavender was friends with Val, and she was also Wally and Stanley’s cousin, so it would make sense for her to want to hang out with all of them at once. Lavender was a sweet girl, so obviously she would want everyone to get along.

Val switched back to be a bit more on topic, which he noticed was probably because they were currently under Professor Wright’s gaze. That was better, anyway. It kept him from saying something stupid, or at least, it would probably help. But then - Ah! - did she just wink at him? Oh, gosh, there was no amount of willpower that could keep the blush away now. He desperately hoped she couldn’t tell, but of course she could.

“That was a good Lumos!” He said, his voice coming to him but without full control, blasting out a bit too loud. “Should I transfigure something? What should I transfigure?”

12 Wally O'Malley ...I think I'm trapped in a paradox 1492 0 5

Jasper Brockert

November 23, 2020 4:55 PM

Nope, don't think so. by Jasper Brockert

OOC: CW-Emotional abuse/adult on child bullying, toxic masculinity, mention of miscarriages BIC:

Jasper was really happy to be back at school-and it wasn't because he loved school work or missed anyone in particular. It was the fact that here, Topaz had less access to him-and was busy targeting her roommate instead-and Uncle Eustace had none. He supposed the latter could technically write him harassing letters, but as petty and cruel as the man was, he didn't care quite enough to bully his nephew when he wasn't around him.

Unfortunately, that meant his male cousins-Uncle Eustace was not above bullying toddlers, especially one who was overweight and one who had a medical condition- had to take more of the brunt of the man's frustration and anger over....well, Jasper wasn't quite sure what. A failed Quidditch career and a lack of a son were what the Teppenpaw had figured. In the former case, Uncle Eustace was talented but he was a smaller fish in a bigger pond then he had been at Sonora despite his last name, and he was such a egotistical jerk that he'd done himself in regardless of his talent and social status because nobody wanted to deal with him. How he'd survived in his current job probably was all due to being a Brockert, Jasper was certain.

As for not having a son, Aunt Helena had been pregnant a few times over the years but had lost the baby each time. Nobody knew exactly why there were issues with them concieving or her carrying a baby to term but in all honesty, Uncle Eustace not having children was probably for the best. He was horrid enough to his nephews, so Jasper couldn't imagine how he'd treat a child, especially one that didn't fit in his narrow definition of typical masculinity. One who was unathletic or overweight or nerdy or had medical conditions or-Merlin forbid- female . Jasper could not imagine how badly it would go if Aunt Helena actually managed to give birth to a child and it turned out to be a girl .

Of course, he felt sorry for his aunt. Having so many miscarriages on top of being married to Uncle Eustace would definitely be awful.

Anyway, the Teppenpaw felt safer now even though he was concerened for others. Not just his male cousins or Aunt Helena but Isla too. The first year had been Sorted into Aladren which made her more vulnerable to Topaz than the rest of them. So yeah, he was a bit afraid for his cousin's safety and would be checking in with her on a regular basis to make sure she was okay.

Also, in addition to being back at school where he was considerably safer, this year there was now the added perk of no longer having to take Flying Lessons. Jasper didn't care if he ever got on a broom again.

He turned his attention to Professor Wright as the Charms professor began to speak. However, part of the way into the lesson, a voice interrupted and Jasper frowned. Regardless of whether or not the professor was talking about something that was essential to what they were learning and whether or not someone found it interesting, it was downright disrespectful. When someone was speaking, no matter who it was or what they were saying or whether or not you liked or agreed with it or them, they deserved courtesy of the courtesy of being listened to. Even Topaz listened to her professors, although that was because she was an Aladren who genuinely wanted to learn rather than because she cared about respecting people.

Not that he assumed this Mr. Spellman was a psychopath and worse than the Aladren though because the first year did a bad thing that Topaz wouldn't do, but still, it was rude and disrespectful both to Professor Wright and those who wanted to learn.

There was another thing too, even though Professor Wright's ideas of what Muggle technology was like might have been outdated, the first year was still being...obnoxious by just assuming everyone knew that. Jasper would not have expected a Muggleborn to automatically know everything about magical culture but Mr. Spellman expected to Professor Wright, who must have grown up totally in the magical world to know everything about Muggle things. And-while this was not necessarily true of the first year boy, but was of others-when wizards didn't know Muggle culture-or fully embrace it as superior- they were sometimes considered horrible culturally insensitive people. And while Mr. Spellman was not necessarily implying that about Professor Wright, his tone seemed derisive to Jasper as if everyone should know about these lighter things which the second year could only deduce based on context were some sort of...thing that made fire.

And his opinion didn't improve much when the first year began laughing when Professor Wright mentioned comparing wands either, although that was something Jasper could understand a bit more. Regardless of whether or not the Teppenpaw found it funny, he understood that sometimes laughter couldn't be controlled.

Professor Wright finished talking and the first year next to Jasper began. "Dragon heartstring, I believe is what you're getting at. Mine is poplar with unicorn hair." He smiled at the younger a boy as he flipped to the chart in his book. "It says mine is one that chooses people with distinct morals and principles. Both the wood and the core seem to suggest that." Jasper's moral code mostly boiled down to asking himself what Topaz would do in a situation and then doing the opposite.

He noted then that his roommate was working with Mr. Spellman. Poor Phillipe! Jasper turned back to his own partner. "I'm Jasper Brockert, of the Western Brockerts." He introduced himself. Hopefully if the younger boy wasn't a pureblood, he wouldn't be the type who got offended by the way the second year introduced himself.

11 Jasper Brockert Nope, don't think so. 1496 0 5

Billy Cobb

November 25, 2020 12:07 PM

What's your prefered method then? by Billy Cobb

Billy nodded at his partner, "Yeah, that sounds right." A bit of a muddle look crossed his face, "What part of the dragon is it's heartstring? Is it part of the heart? Somethin' that holds it' heart in place?" Suddenly another thought interrupted that thought process in his head. "Do they come from real dragons? How do you get 'em? Are there any dragons about here?" This was an exciting train of thought, how keen would it be to see a dragon? He grinned wide at the thought. Would it be harder to ride a dragon than a bull? He imagined himself in the rodeo they held at the state fair, attached to the back of some big lizard. Heh, that'd be fun!

The other boy had flipped through his book to find whatever it was that the professor had been talking about. Apparently this boy's wand like to be good. That was good, his Ma probably didn't have to worry about him to much. "The man said somethin' like that when I went to get my wand. How do you suppose they know what we're like to choose? Oh, what's it say about my maple wood?" He supposed he could open his book, but his partner's was already open.

Then Jasper introduced himself. That was good, and he shoulda done that already as well. 'Cept now Jasper had thrown another wrinkle into the introducing thing. 'Western Brockerts', were there other Cobbs that were on the north side of the mountain? Should he be from the Southern Cobbs? He just have to stick with what he was going with for the time being. If this was going to get really complicated, he may have to ask Pa to break out that ol' family lineage book he had sometime. At least Jasper wasn't as bad as Rosalynn had been.

Billy grinned back at Jasper Brockert, of the Western Brockerts. "I'm Billy Cobb, of the Kentucky Cobbs." he replied. Jasper hadn't offered his hand, but that was alright they were doing other stuff.

2 Billy Cobb What's your prefered method then? 1519 0 5