Grayson Wright
April 17, 2021 6:29 PM
Let's multitask, Advanced students. by Grayson Wright
The first weeks were past, and no-one was dead. As far as Gray Wright was concerned – even after nearly nine years as a teacher – this was a bit of a pleasant surprise and an indicator that things were, on the whole, off to a good start.It was, however, no time to relax in the Advanced Charms class, not least because there never was really a time to relax in the Advanced Charms class. In many ways it was his favorite class to teach – the magic and theory were more complex, and the students, aside from all being in his class of their own free wills, were old enough and steady enough that they could have somewhat interesting conversations on a reasonably consistent basis – but Advanced classes were a bit dangerous by default, as well as just plain fast-paced. Students who’d thought they had worked hard in the run-up to their CATS tended to seem slightly dazed by the end of the first week of sixth year, though to their credit most of them did adapt fast enough in the end.
“Hello, everyone,” he greeted them. “So – one problem with spellcasting – and it’s one you’ve probably all noticed before, especially if Professor Brooding-Hawthorne has had you do any practice duels in class. It’s usually only possible to cast one spell at a time, which even with non-verbal magic, slows you down as you work through incantations and wand movements and such. However, some of you may have noticed, if you’ve thought about it a little more, that some of your spells ‘last’ longer than others, and that some spells will continue to function long after the person who cast them stopped paying attention to them – our weather charms, for instance, don’t require Mr. Alamilla to spend all day every day with his wand pointed to the sky, even though one of the first things you learn here is that spellcasting takes your full concentration. That looks like a contradiction, but today we’ll look at why it isn’t necessarily one.
“Some spells, of course, are designed to be more stable and have a longer effect than others – a well-cast body-bind, for instance, may last for hours if the caster is still alive and the victim can’t find anyone to perform a counter-charm. There’s also the issue of differences in magical ability between individuals. There is, however, also a charm which can help you keep multiple charms active at once - fianto duri Which should not be confused with duro, the Hardening Charm – that might be a bad thing to do. Duro fianto duri could be a legitimate incantation, using the principle of adding the object of a spell onto an incantation to increase its effectiveness when you need the boost, but fianto duro, not so much.” He suspected it might actually do something, but he didn’t want them experimenting.
“Today, the cabinets are open – each of you pick out at least two objects. Cast a charm of your choice on one of those objects, combined with fianto duri, and then cast a charm of your choice on the second object. See how well the first charm continues to work. Seventh years, attempt the charms nonverbally – nonverbal spells, alas, are not going anywhere this year. Feel free to discuss ideas and compare results between yourselves. You may begin.”
OOC: The spell (at least according to "The Unofficial Ultimate Harry Potter Spellbook: A Complete Guide To Every Spell In the Wizarding World") is from one of the Deathly Hallows films.. All the usual rules apply, if you need assistance then poke me in Chatzy until I remember, etc. etc. Have fun!
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Grayson Wright
Let's multitask, Advanced students.
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
April 18, 2021 1:13 PM
*pats head and rubs belly* by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Everything was hard. The fact that she was almost graduated and hadn't managed to find anyone to marry her was very discouraging. Heinrich had been her first choice, but he'd seemed disinterested at best and had a girlfriend now anyway. She also understood that the Hexenmeister children didn't exactly seem likely to go back to Germany, which would have been her preference. She would have liked to see something happen with Malikhi, but so far that hadn't panned out either. It wasn't like there was a booming population of boys at school that she could see a future with (she could hardly see her own future, let alone a future with most of them) and she wasn't sure what that meant for her. Malikhi was going to graduate after the end of this year and then she'd be really alone, with just her friends to make her life brighter. Arguably, they did a good job at that. Hilda had been her best friend since day one and it was a massive stroke of good fortune for Johana Leonie to have found someone so steadfast. At the same time, Johana Leonie did not wish to marry Hilda, so there was something inherently lacking in that friendship.She set about classwork today trying not to think about it. It was an activity that would require more brainwork of her than would leave room for dwelling, even without Hilda here, and that was just as well. If Johana Leonie wasn't going to have a husband and fancy dresses in her future, at least she could have a career of some sort. Healing was still her first choice and she'd been working with Fraulein Willow to improve her understanding of medical terminology, even though she hadn't been allowed to treat any of her classmates. She was pretty sure she didn't want to know enough about them to treat them anyway, so she didn't mind.
Getting up from her seat - she'd been sitting alone since there weren't actually that many students in here and it was easy enough to do that now - Johana Leonie made her way to the cabinet and withdrew two items: a cup and a wooden bracelet. As she backed up, she bumped into another classmate.
"Sorry," she said, the English apology coming naturally now.
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
*pats head and rubs belly*
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Allegra Brockert
May 02, 2021 11:36 AM
*listens to Charms lecture and worries* by Allegra Brockert
Allegra was extremely relieved that she had not gotten Head Girl. It meant she would make it through the year with only the normal amount of psychological abuse instead of the extra helpings that she'd gotten two years ago.Plus, she was really happy for Katerina, who was the best option out of all those available. Or, to be honest, the only good one. Allegra had had to vote for herself for the second slot because in the end, she couldn't bring herself to vote for any of the other choices. It would have been voting against her own best interests. Of course, voting for herself hadn't been in her best interests either, but had she won....well, it wouldn't have mattered whether Allegra had voted for herself or not, because her well-being would have been at stake anyway. It would have been so much easier to vote for Julius or even Malikhi.
Of course, she had lied to Topaz and said that she'd voted for the Aladren. Because she liked breathing. It was a sad fact of Allegra's life that so much of it had become about survival. She hated it. She wished she could just relax and enjoy life rather than having to be on her guard all the time.
And she wished that the cousin her own age could have been someone who could have been her friend. Allegra was close to Emerald, on the grounds of both being the oldest in a large family-though the Crotalus had actually only been the oldest of five children for about four and a half years, Uriah had always sort of been a presence, based on the fact that her dad had always wanted exactly five children so he could do a vowel theme and therefore, though he wasn't born yet, Allegra still felt like she'd been the oldest of a big family-and the seventh year being a cousin rather than a sister as Emerald had always been fed up with her younger siblings, however, the Crotalus just saw how her siblings and some of her cousins who were close in age bonded and wished it could have been the same. Like Uriah, for example was about five months older than their cousin Miles, which was just a little bit more than the age difference between herself and Topaz-although, with the cut-off date for school falling just before Miles' birthday on September 6th, they wouldn't be in the same year at Sonora-and Miles was Uriah's best friend. Not that he had a lot of options for that being four and a half and not knowing a lot of other kids, but Allegra and Topaz had never been best friends, even back when they only knew each other.
Of course, neither Uriah nor Miles was a psychopath. They were both sweet, kind, gentle little boys. Which, of course, Uncle Eustace mocked at them for at every turn, either to their faces or to Dad and Uncle Elmer, but still, Allegra was glad they were like that because the world needed more people who were-as opposed to more like Uncle Eustace or Topaz-and that they had a friendship that she could never have with her fellow seventh year.
Allegra winced as Professor Wright mentioned that a full body bind could last a long time without someone coming along to cast the countercharm. Topaz was in this class. Being that the other seventh year was both genuinely intellectually curious and liked to show off how brilliant she was, she was taking everything but Care of Magical Creatures. Which, of course, Allegra was taking because Topaz wasn't.
And now the professor was giving the Aladren ideas . Thanks a lot, Professor Wright. Granted this was likely something that Topaz knew already but he'd reminded her of it. Allegra could only hope that if her cousin decided to use this at some point, it wouldn't be on her . She felt bad about it, but she was at a point where it was better someone else than her. Well, at least as long as it wasn't someone else she cared about like her sisters. Poor Isla was in Aladren and therefore, easily accessible to Topaz. And Allegra knew that was enough for the other seventh year.
This was the problem though, Allegra was so focused on her own well-being that she was hoping that if Topaz had to take it out on someone, that it would be Ness,whom her cousin utterly despised, or Evelyn, who'd actually gotten Head Girl. (Allegra didn't think Topaz would to anything to Katerina on the grounds of her being from the kind of family where it could become a Big Problem, if anything happened to her at the Aladren's hands. Evelyn, however, was not and she was aligned with someone Topaz honestly loathed and whose views that the Pecari seemed to have taken on board and she had something that Topaz wanted. If she got off with only a full body bind for a couple of hours, she could consider herself lucky.)
The other thing though was that this was Allegra's thought pattern at all. A professor could innocently say something in passing, like right now and the Crotalus immediately began worrying about how Topaz was going to use that information to harm someone and that someone possibly being Allegra herself. She just wanted to be able not to live in a constant state of anxiety, worrying about what was going to happen next.
She sighed inwardly and went to get her items, waiting for Johana Leonie to finish. The Teppenpaw backed into her. "It's okay." Allegra replied.
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Allegra Brockert
*listens to Charms lecture and worries*
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