Grayson Wright

October 31, 2020 9:27 PM
“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:
16 Grayson Wright The Light of Knowledge (Beginner's, First and Second Years) 113 1 5

Bonabelle Row

November 03, 2020 3:52 PM
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
"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

Bonabelle Row

November 07, 2020 1:22 PM
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