Like a Christmas Tree on Charms

Grayson Wright

November 17, 2021 9:57 PM

Lighten up, Intermediates. by Grayson Wright

If some of the Intermediate students thought, for one split second, that they had walked into the Potions room instead of the Charms room, they could have all been forgiven the thought. In most ways, the room was as distinct as ever from the Potions room, but there were, among other things, cauldrons on a table at the front, desks had been pushed together, and each pair of desks had one set of scales on top of it.

"Hello, hello, welcome back, everyone," came the greeting, and it definitely was the Charms teacher who issued it to them. Other than both having dark hair and dark eyes - in other words, two of the most common physical traits there were - Professor Wright and Professor Brooding-Hawthorne-Potions bore no resemblance to each other whatsoever. He was as tall and drab as she was small and colorful. "Hope you all had good holidays." Even though he knew some of them had not. "But now it's back to work, starting with something you might have wished you could have used recently - spells for modifying the weight of objects, to make them easier to transport.

"Today we'll start with the Featherlight Charm," he continued. "While this name isn't strictly literal - not least because different feathers have different weights - it can get very heavy objects to become much lighter. This is where the cauldrons come in - fifth years, you'll be charming the size sixes, fourth years, the size fours, and third years, the size twos. Third years and fourth years, if you find you're particularly good with this charm, then you can move on to the next year's size, there's several extras up here. Use the scales to figure out how much you've reduced the weight, aiming to get down to at least ten percent of its original weight - if you're particularly ambitious, you can compare to an actual quill and see how close you can get, though that's extra credit. The incantation is minponderis, with our old friend the swish and flick for a wand motion. You're all familiar with the rest, carry on."

OOC: Welcome to class! Usual posting rules apply, be creative, and tag me IC if your character has a question. OOC questions, leaving a message in Chatzy or replying to the 'class is up' announcement on the OOC are good ways. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Like a Christmas Tree by Rosalynn Tellerman with Winston Randall

Lumos! by Valentine Duell with Oz Spellman

Do I have to? by Mab with Billy Cobb

16 Grayson Wright Lighten up, Intermediates. 113 1 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

November 18, 2021 6:38 PM

Like a Christmas Tree by Rosalynn Tellerman

Rosalynn was glad to be back at Sonora, like she always was. It wasn't that she didn't like home, she did. It was just that midterm break was always so chaotic with their comings and goings and visitors that it was a relief to just collapse back in her bunk at Sonora and settle into a steady predictable routine again. Summer break was definitely much preferable to winter break; the madness was not nearly so concentrated.

Still, she had enjoyed time with her family and celebrating the holidays, and she had a brand new color of nail polish on her fingers today that shimmered between blue and purple depending on the angle and lighting. She thought maybe she'd change it to something else for class tomorrow though because it was maybe just a little too distracting as she kept finding herself staring at her own hands instead of watching the teacher.

It wasn't so distracting though that she hadn't missed that there were cauldrons and scales in the Charms classroom, and she gave those odd looks upon her arrival. She might be one of the youngest of the intermediate students and not quite on her A game today, but she'd been here long enough that she was sure she hadn't accidently walked into the wrong room. They were the things out of place, not her.

Their presence was explained, however, when Professor Wright began to explain the day's lesson. Ah, featherlight charms. Which meant they needed something heavy to make light. Anyone who had drug around a cauldron on Potions day would readily volunteer that cauldrons were heavy.

She collected her size two cauldron from the front, made her initial weigh in on the scale shared between her and her neighbor, then set the thing down in front of her. She noted down the original weight, calculated her target weight, and wrote that down, too. She rustled through the front pocket of her backpack to find the largest quill she owned, then weighed that, too. It was close to her target, only slightly lighter, and she saw no harm in aiming for that as a secondary goal to earn the bonus points. She wrote that down in parentheses beside her ten percent goal.

Feeling satisfied that she knew what she needed to achieve, she drew her wand and gave the cauldron a good hard stare. "You are much too heavy," she told it. "We are going to work on slimming you down with a serious weight loss regime. Let's start with some swish and flicks, shall we?"

She swished and flicked with a large dramatic wand motion and declared, "Minponderis!" She felt like she'd harnessed and released magic in a controlled fashion, though nothing had visibly changed. It wasn't supposed to have, though, so the scales would be what determined how well it had worked.

Her neighbor was weighing their cauldron at the moment though, so she was going to have to wait. "Is that your first weigh-in, or did you give it a try already?" she asked conversationally. She hoisted hers experimentally, and it was way lighter than she was used to a cauldron being and she nearly flung it across the room in her surprise (she managed to hold onto it though, thankfully). She wasn't sure if she'd hit the target 10%, but she'd easily gotten 50% or less. "Woo! That's definitely lighter than it was!"

1 Rosalynn Tellerman Like a Christmas Tree 1520 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 18, 2021 6:41 PM

Lumos! by Valentine Duell

Val thought for a moment she'd walked into the potions room instead of charms. She hadn't gotten turned around in the hallway though, Professor Wright was here, not Professor Brooding-Hawthorne. She took a seat and as ever, worked in her gaming notebook until class began. She did wonder what they were doing with potions equipment today and whether they'd be doing something charm related in potions class.

Once Professor Wright began class, she quickly shifted gears to class things. The mystery of the potion implements was quickly explained and she took notes on the incantation and wand motion. Her charms weren't great, but she was pretty sure she could accomplish the goal of the class. Whether or not she could pull off the extra credit... well, time would tell. The extra credit certainly wouldn't be a bad thing to have. She'd go for that before picking up the bigger cauldron to try.

With the rest of the fourth years, Valentine picked up one of the size four cauldrons and brought it back to her seat. Along the way she took notice that it did happen to be considerably heavier than her quill. "Okay cauldron," she spoke to it as she picked up her wand, "Let's see if we can make you a little bit lighter, shall we?" She tapped it gently with her wand like a conductor in front of an orchestra. "This shouldn't hurt a bit." Val quickly went though her mental focusing exercises that she'd been practicing, then with a swish and a flick of her wand and a "Minponderis!" she cast the spell. The caldron didn't look any different, which was good, because it wasn't supposed to. Experimentally she lifted it up, it did feel lighter! She smiled wide.

"I made mine lighter!" She cheered to her neighbor, "How are you doing?" It then suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't weighed the cauldron first. Valentine's face twisted into comic consternation, "Oh shucks. I forgot to weight it first. I've got to start all over again."

2 Valentine Duell Lumos! 1490 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 20, 2021 2:22 AM

Not that kind by Oz Spellman

Oz was on a mission. He was supposed to ask Lorena Abernathy to go to the ball with him. As such, he was sitting absolutely as far from her as possible. Class probably wasn't the best place to ask anyway. He supposed he could spend some time getting to know her, seeing as he'd spent literally zero time with her ever, but he kind of wanted to minimise the time he had to spend in her company. He wasn't sure if he was really sold on the idea of going with her. But he did want someone to make out with him. But he doubted she would even if they went to the ball together. He was beginning to question Henry's status as plan-maker. This was a terrible idea.

His quest of avoidance led him towards Valentine. She was someone he felt he should keep an eye on, given that she ran the nerd ring that had recruited Henry. For someone who did that, she seemed weirdly popular. Maybe it was the way that social rules didn't always seem to work the same way here. Maybe it was her face. Either way, if she wanted to have Henry in her club, he needed to check her out.

He took the seat next to her. Featherlight charms were interesting. They were one of the things he could definitely see being useful. He remembered seeing luggage with them built in when they'd gone shopping, but there hadn't been spare money for frivolities, even with the equipment fund from the school. He remembered lugging a suitcase of all his school equipment on and off several buses in Phoenix to get to the transport centre. It had been a hot, sweaty process, and had not been how he really wanted to start his first day of his new school. If featherlight charms were easy enough that kids his age could do them, he wasn't sure why they weren't standard on more things. Heavy stuff was a pain in the butt.

He swished and flicked at his cauldron, noticing that Valentine was talking to hers, and wondering whether she was actually well-liked or whether everyone was too scared to pick on her cos she was actually crazy. Though it seemed more like she was being cutesy than actually creepy, though it turned out that was a weirdly fine line.

She asked how his was going. He'd made a couple of attempts, and he picked his cauldron up to test it, just as Val realised her mistake. Which made him realise he'd made the same one.

"Urgh, I forgot too," he admitted. "I don't think mine's loads lighter? I'm just gonna weigh it now and add a few pounds," he shrugged.

13 Oz Spellman Not that kind 1514 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 20, 2021 8:55 AM

Oh, my mistake. by Valentine Duell

Valentine was mildly surprised that Oz had sat with her. Somewhere along the line she'd gotten the impression that Oz was one of those people that just didn't like other people very much. She didn't understand those people, but everyone had their own preferences. That meant that either she'd gotten the wrong impression about Oz, or perhaps he had decided people weren't so bad. Either way, it was good.

"We can fix that," she replied in a friendly tone. If there was anything Bonabelle had drilled into her during study sessions, it was being accurate about things. She began to move her wand, then stopped suddenly. Getting good information was another thing she'd learned. "Better idea!" She cheered as she put her lightened cauldron onto the scale.

Once it was in position she took note of its weight. Then with a swift movement of her wand and a "Finite Incantatem!", the weight in the scale increased and she made note of the new number. Val cringed a bit internally, it wasn't quite as big of a difference as she'd been hoping. Still, it was better than nothing.

"Okay," she addressed Oz with a smile, still trying to show him that interacting with other people wasn't a bad thing. "It's your turn." She really wanted to encourage him to talk, but thought going slow would probably be the best. So to be safe, she kept to classroom topics. "Are you going to try for that extra credit?" She asked indicating her quill. "I've got a little way to go." She sighed as she looked again at the numbers she had written down.

2 Valentine Duell Oh, my mistake. 1490 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 21, 2021 5:49 PM

I make lots of those by Oz Spellman

Valentine was very smiley, so Oz smiled back. Smiling was easy, laughing and joking about were easy. It was everything else that was hard. Telling people how you felt about stuff was hard. Knowing where the line was was hard. Even when you knew, not crossing it by accident was hard. Knowing what other people actually wanted, when half laughed at your antics and half rolles their eyes, that was hard. But being a happy, chirpy person, even if it was just on the outside, that was easy.

He watched Valentine weigh her cauldron and then cancel out her spell. It was a shame he couldn't just copy the weight she had but they were using different sizes. It was tempting to accio Henry's paper for a second. Part of him figured cauldron weight was pretty standard, so it wouldn't matter, but there was the long held chip on his shoulder about the possibility of being accused of copying from his twin.

He put his own cauldron on the scales, added a bit for good measure, and jotted the number down.

"I dunno," he shrugged to Val's question about extra credit. The literal weight of a feather sounded pretty extreme. "I'll probably just keep doing it until it won't go any further. It'll be worth whatever it's worth. If you push it too far do they crack or start vanishing or something?" he asked, wondering what the point at which you couldn't push any more actually looked like.

13 Oz Spellman I make lots of those 1514 0 5

Mab

November 22, 2021 7:41 PM

Do I have to? by Mab

Mab was careful of her seating, though of course she couldn't account for people who arrived after she did. The best she could do was try not to arrive too early, and avoid those she could who she didn't want to interact with. They were too numerous to avoid all of them in every class, but hopefully her choice of a seat in the back corner would help.

She wasn't sure what to make of the cauldrons and scales, but Professor Wright soon explained their purpose as it related to Charms instead of Potions. This was a spell she was sure she could use her fairies for, which meant it was a spell she could use to work on trying to bridge the gap between what she could do without a wand and what she couldn't do with a wand.

Collecting her large size six cauldron, she hefted it back to the far corner and almost regretted not sitting closer to the front. She was also half-tempted to attempt the spell before returning to her seat, but she wanted to get away from the main crowd first before drawing her wand. The problem wasn't so much the weight as the awkwardness of a large size six cauldron, but the weight certainly didn't help matters either. She grunted and staggered and it looked like miles back to her desk, trying to weave between her classmates filling the space between here and there.

I wish you were easier to carry, she thought at the cauldron, and the fairies dutifully eased the burden. It wasn't exactly the same as a featherlight charm, she was pretty sure, but the effects were similar, and she got the cauldron back to her desk without straining herself or braining anybody else.

The thunk as it settled onto her desk surface beside the scale was not as loud and jolting as it should be. Your help has been appreciated, she thought, phrasing her gratitude carefully to avoid incurring debt, because politeness to fairies was essential, but not owing them favors was even more critical, and it hardly mattered that these particular fairies weren't even real. Imaginary fairies that were her own magical constructs were likely even more deeply bound to the rules of fey as she understood them than the actual fey creatures they learned about in Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed to be.

The desk sagged a little more under the restored weight of the cauldron. It belatedly occurred to her she should have released the spell after it was on the scale instead of beside it because now she needed to wrestle it onto there for the initial weigh in.

She noted down how much it weighed, then wrestled it back off and onto the desk. Then she drew her wand and took a deep breath in preparation.

When the fairies had helped carry it back to the desk, it was like she'd had a few other people (or small folk) helping her lift it, so she tried to imagine the same effect now. Her wand swished and flicked and she cast, "Minponderis!" and she tried to will her magic to go through the wand and lighten the cauldron's weight.

There were no outward signs of it working, so she nudged it to see how much resistance to moving it still had. She grimaced. It still had a lot of resistance to moving. She wouldn't swear her first attempt had no effect at all, but it was definitely closer to 90% of its original weight than down to 10%. She noted down *1st Attempt: Minimal effect.*

Less focus on the wand next time. Just do the spell. Let the wand focus the power or not; just try to do it. The wand is supposed to be a help, not a barrier. Just let the magic flow the course of least resistance because that should be through the wand. "Minponderis!" she tried again, with a swish and flick.

This time when she tipped the cauldron, it tilted far more easily. *2nd Attempt:* she added beneath her previous note. When the scale was free, she put the cauldron on it and noted the new weight on her paper beside the new label, and calculated the difference. She was at about 40% of the original weight now, which was much better than the first try, but still not where she needed it to be for the assignment.

At least it was easier to move it off the scale and put it back on her desk now. She glanced surreptitiously over to her neighbor to see how well they were proceeding.

1 Mab Do I have to? 1473 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 22, 2021 8:36 PM

Most people do, it's okay. by Valentine Duell

Oz had a nice smile. Valentine also noticed that he didn't have the same antics that had made her a bit wary to hang out with him on a regular basis from the last time they'd had classes together two years ago. Still, she wasn't sure what to make of his choice to weigh his pre-lightened cauldron and add a bit. The part of her that had been training to do school-work well objected to the practice, but the rest of her thought that it wasn't a big deal and it was Oz's choice, and it would either work for him or it wouldn't. It really wasn't any of her concern, so she let the brief thought go.

Instead she nodded at his response to her question, but then had to stop and consider his question in return. "I'm not sure," she answered, then added with a grin, "I don't think so, but we can find out if we get that far. In truth though, you're right. Casting the spell until the cauldron doesn't get any lighter is about all we can do." She looked at her own cauldron again and gave a small sigh. "It'd be nice to master this spell though, lugging these books around would be so much easier." She considered for a moment, "I wonder how long the spell usually lasts... maybe casting it again once it has reached the limit of weight loss just makes the spell last longer?"

Once he was done with the scale, she dropped her quill on it, "Let's see what we'd be aiming for anyway." When the scale stabilized, a number much lower than she'd like to see was shown. "Oh... that's not very much." Well, all she could do was to follow Oz's approach and keep throwing magic at the cauldron until it was light enough, stopped getting lighter, or broke. Well, there was one other option. She turned back to her companion, "I don't suppose you have a heavier quill than this one, do you?"

2 Valentine Duell Most people do, it's okay. 1490 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 27, 2021 8:05 AM

Not really by Oz Spellman

Oz had a great solution to lugging books around which was... don't. Even when they were learning spells which were in the books, the teacher would say it and show it and write it on thr board. Sometimes they told you to refer to the book if you wanted extra info but Oz always felt quite comfortable with the amount of info he was given. Sure, there was an occasional theory class where this habit bit him in the butt, or where he could have started his homework early if he'd brought his book, but in those situations he could either share with a neighbour or just do more practical practise, which was usually more fun anyway. It meant he had more homework to do outside of class, but he somehow kept deciding that was a problem for Future Oz, however often Future Oz was grumpy once he became Present Oz with a full on essay to do. Still, Valentine ran nerd games in the library and attracted people like Henry. She probably wouldn't approve of his strategy, so he kept it to himself.

As she answered, she seemed much less like a solid nerd. He understood her answer, which was basically that she didn't know, and that they could try and find out.

"Not one for swallowing the textbook before doing the spell?" he grinned, deciding to check those waters a little. "Me neither." He swished and flicked his wand, reciting the incantation. He picked up his cauldron after to check it. It was still what he'd describe as 'fricking heavy' even if it was maybe slightly less so than before.

"Not sure if that's any better," he admitted "Hey, think fast," he joked, making like he was going to throw it at Val, though stopping short of actually doing so.

13 Oz Spellman Not really 1514 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 27, 2021 9:25 AM

I've heard it's the most effective way to learn by Valentine Duell

"No," Valentine sighed. She tried reading the books like she was supposed to, and she managed to force her way through what she needed to, but she didn't enjoy it quite as much as Bonabelle seemed to. Reading over the material was much more enjoyable when it was done with someone and they could discuss what in the world the book was trying to explain, rather than just sitting down and reading it. Oz's reassurance that he wasn't one to read wasn't actually all that reassuring, but she certainly understood why one might feel that way. Still she smiled back at his grin, "Textbooks aren't exactly the most exciting reading in the world."

Oz recast the spell on his cauldron, so she did likewise. She wondered if she should weight her cauldron after each attempt and try to track her progress. Would that show if her spell was becoming less and less effective each time? Would that show the point at which it wasn't worth it to keep casting? She nodded a bit absently at Oz's comment about his not making it much better and was about to suggest he try weighing it just to see when her attention was torn from that train of thought.

He was heaving her cauldron in her direction for no reason that she could adequately figure, she let out a small shriek followed reflexively by wand movements honed a bit by her time in the dueling club and the words "Wingardiumleviosa! tumbled from her mouth all aimed at the object he seemed to be hurtling her direction.

2 Valentine Duell I've heard it's the most effective way to learn 1490 0 5

Billy Cobb

November 27, 2021 9:57 AM

Ooo... same question! by Billy Cobb

As usual, Billy slid into class at the last possible moment. He found himself an empty seat as Professor Wright started talking. He did his best to glower at the professor when he said he hoped they'd had a good one. His had been dumb, stuck here at the school with Iris. Xavier had been here as well, but he hadn't seen a lot of him. It was tough though from his seat near the back corner of the classroom.

He did have to admit that the Professor's charm this time could be awful useful. Moving big stuff out of the way while he was out exploring the wilds of the world, or just carrying piles of gear through the wilderness. This might actually be one of them rare, useful, fun classes. When instructed he hopped up to go collected his cauldron. The size two cauldron was still heavy to lug back to his spot at the back of the room, so he flipped it up over his head to rest it there like a helmet on his head and shoulders. That made it a bit easier to handle than just carrying it.

Billy dumped his cauldron on the desk and breathed a sigh of relief. Whew, that'd been heavy. He'd been getting his arms worked out from beater practice, but he might have to work on making himself stronger overall. These wizard-folk did everything with their wands and that didn't help to make 'em good and strong. Anyway, he cast the spell at his cauldron and lifted it, not noticing much of a change, then he tried it again and again.

He looked over at whoever was sitting next to him and was mildly surprised to see one of the fifth year girls there. The scary one. That explained why the seat had been empty. Oh well. He saw her look his way and he grinned at her, "My pot's bein' stubborn. Is your's cooperatin'?" Just for good measure he demonstrated again, Minpond'is!"

2 Billy Cobb Ooo... same question! 1519 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 28, 2021 6:08 PM

Doesn't seem to work on me by Oz Spellman

"Not a bad thing to be," Oz assured her, when Valentine agreed that she did not eat textbooks for breakfast, but sounded sad about it. Of course, if she hung out with a nerd squad all the time, it probably was viewed as some kind of moral failing. Which begged the question... why do that if she wasn't like that? He would ask as soon as they'd got a few more attempts in. He didn't exactly want to disuade her from being A Friend to All Nerds given that that included his brother but he was sort of curious.

Unfortunately, before they could get back there, Valentine had flung his cauldron in the air with her wand. His grip had been tight enough that he hadn't been in danger of losing it when pretending to heft it at Val, but that motion had been minimal because this thing was fricking heavy and that had been a joke. The cauldron suddenly jerking away from him in an unexpected direction with the force of a spell was something entirely different.

"What the-" was all he managed, along with a reflexive step backwards, before it came crashing back to the table with an abrupt THUNK.

"I was joking," he hissed at Val, fairly sure every pair of eyes had to be turning to them right now, probably including Professor Wright's. As far as he was concerned, her massive over reaction was her problem. He wasn't going to tattle but he wasn't about to help her explain either. The genuinely startled look he was giving her would probably also answer any as yet unspoken questions about who had cast the spell.

OOC: Effects of the spell confirmed with Val's author

13 Oz Spellman Doesn't seem to work on me 1514 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 28, 2021 8:23 PM

Do you want it to? by Valentine Duell

Valentine winced as the cauldron struck the table. That hadn't been the plan, not that there had been much of a plan. Step one when someone throws something big and heavy at you was to change it's direction in a non-damaging direction, so reflexes and instinct had sent it up. She supposed step two would have been to catch it with another spell to ease it back down gently after she'd had a moment to process what was going on. However, since Oz hadn't actually let go of it, and she didn't know how heavy it was at that point, and her magic wasn't super-fantastic to start with... plans fell apart.

"Joking?" she asked in mildly stunned response, "You throw cauldrons around as a joke?" It seemed to her like such an odd and random thing to do. She wasn't sure what to do next, her first instinct was to apologize but she wasn't quite sure what she was apologizing for. Val thought Oz looked uneasy and some small, vicious corner of her soul was calling out for her to.. no! That was bad and mean. She was a good girl, like Mama wanted her to be. So she smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry, you caught be off guard with your... joke."

Having dealt with the situation, she turned her attention back to her own cauldron again, which was still sitting in it's spot like it was supposed to be. "Minponderis" she spoke again with the appropriate swish and flick of her wand. Her heart wasn't quite in the lesson anymore, and she had the feeling that the spell hadn't had much effect. She stared at her cauldron for a moment or so, debating if it was worth putting back on the scale. Then she sighed and turned back to Oz again. "Why?" The question came out almost mournful. "Why did you pretend to throw your cauldron?" The question bothered her, and she wanted to understand. She knew Oz was... well, he was a Pecarai, but still... why?

2 Valentine Duell Do you want it to? 1490 0 5

Oz Spellman

December 02, 2021 6:19 PM

No, I wanna be a screw up forever by Oz Spellman

"No," Oz replied flatly, when Valentine asked if he threw cauldrons around as a joke. As he'd said, he had only pretended he was going to. What did she think of him that she thought he would actually throw it? He really wished his mind had not posed that question, and did not insist on answering it. You would have to be a particular level of stupid and reckless to throw a cauldron at someone. And apaprently, Val thought he was.

He was spared having to react any further to what she said by a soft 'Everything all right here? from Professor Wright. For a second, Oz wanted to drop Val in it. Surely, what she had done was way worse than what he had, which made a pleasant change. But then, he was the idiot and the screw up that the teachers already hated, and she was the golden girl. Plus, it was Professor Wright. He thought Muggle culture was " weird" and judging by everything Xav said, being surprised by magic wasn't allowed in most people's eyes.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," he intoned with the dull rhythm of one who was used to uttering those words with some regularity. He glared at Val as Professor Wright went on his way, and then turned his attention back to his cauldron.

She wasn't done though. And after a few minutes of working (in which he tested his cauldron by just rocking it back with his hand), she piped up again.

He shrugged moodily. The question was one of his least favourites. 'Why did you do that?' It was always to things that had seemed like a good idea at the time (or at least...an idea, he didn't always stop to evaluate), and then turned out to really not be. Why did anyone do anything? People just did stuff, and when you screwed up, people asked you to explain those ones. He felt the familiar creeping sensation of shame, sure he must be an idiot.

"I already told you why," he said. He had given her as much explanation as he had. "Why did you use magic against me, outside of a class assignment?" he challenged, really not sure she had any right to the moral high-ground here, even if the teacher probably wouldn't see it the same way.

OOC: God modding of Professor Wright offered by his author. Please remember to offer teachers a choice on intervening when there are noticeable disruptions in their classes.

13 Oz Spellman No, I wanna be a screw up forever 1514 0 5

Mab

December 03, 2021 9:52 AM

This concerns me. by Mab

It somehow did not reassure her at all that Billy Cobb was not having any better luck than she was with his size two cauldron, though she supposed she was glad he wasn't doing better than her, because that would just be embarrassing. Worse, he noticed she was looking and took that to mean that she was willing to talk to him.

I'm a prefect, so I need to help the third years, especially the ones in my House, she reminded herself, and took a deep fortifying breath to prepare herself for this ordeal.

"I made some progress," she admitted, her Boston accent clashing with his Appalachian one. These were urban and rural sounds that were not supposed to mix. "You have an accent," she pointed out, somewhat hypocritically, but it was an issue she had to work against as well, so she understood the difficulty. "The Latin pronunciation will be harder for you, but you need to get all of those sounds it for it to work correctly. The 'r' is hard," she grimaced slightly as that 'ahd' came out without its 'r' (or its 'h') sound as well, proving the point, "but you need to hit it for the spell to work. Min-pon-der-is," she repeated the incantation with careful enunciation.

1 Mab This concerns me. 1473 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 03, 2021 9:54 AM

Do I detect some sarcasm? by Valentine Duell

Valentine gave a slightly flustered smile and nod that everything was fine to Professor Wright. She thought Oz seemed on the edge of something before he responded to Professor Wright as well. It sounded very rehearsed, but from what she knew of Oz (which wasn't actually all that much), the response might have been. She briefly considered telling Professor Wright that they tried to do some sort of experiment with levitating versus the weight reduction charm, but decided to let well enough alone as it seemed the professor was content and continued on his way.

Her brow furrowed at Oz's claim that he'd already told her why. "You said it was a joke." She pointed out gently. He still seemed upset, and she wasn't exactly thrilled about how this whole ridiculous situation was going either. His accusation cut into her though. Used magic against him!? Her voice turned sharp as she felt the need to defend herself from yet another one of his attacks. "You said 'think fast' and moved to hurl your cauldron at me. At that range the options were react or get smashed in the face with a cauldron!" She was doing her best to keep her volume at a normal classroom level, so she paused a moment to recollect herself. "You'll just have to forgive me if my reflexes decided to play it safe instead of counting on you not letting go of that handle." She let out a little huff. "Even I knew you'd meant it as a 'joke', your hand still could have slipped, or the handle could have broken."

OOC: My apologies to Professor Wright.

2 Valentine Duell Do I detect some sarcasm? 1490 0 5

Billy Cobb

December 03, 2021 11:34 AM

Why's that? by Billy Cobb

The scary prefect girl talked kinda funny. Billy couldn't say he really had heard her talk much before. To be honest, everyone 'round here 'cept Iris talked kinda funny, but Mab talked a different kinda funny than most of the rest. As Mab pointed out though, he needed to talk the right kinda funny as well to get this magic stuff to work right. It seemed awful silly to him. He stifled a chuckle at the scary prefect's grimace at trying to make her funny sounding r sound like the professor's funny sounding r.

"If I'm makin' the spell happen, it should know what I want it t' do, even if'n I don't make all the sounds like the Professors seem t' think it should." Still, that wasn't apparently the case, 'cause these spells were dumb. So he sighed and decided he should probably do what the scary prefect suggested. "Min-pon-dar-iss," he repeated after her trying to make the weird sounds come out right. Iris was better at this than he was, It still didn't sound right. "How do folk in other countries cast spells?" He asked his partner with a mild bit of frustration. "They all gotta make these sounds to?"

2 Billy Cobb Why's that? 1519 0 5

Winston Randall

December 04, 2021 8:37 AM

Except actually not like that at all. by Winston Randall

Winston found Professor Wright and Professor Wright's class to be simultaneously his favorite and least favorite class. While charms were utterly boring for those who, like him, had grown up without any other way of life to compare it to, boring was still better than the rest of this disaster school, which seemed intent on killing them all either physically or socially. Winston was pretty sure he was doing a good enough job of wrecking his own social life that he didn't need stupid things like fancy balls, and he thought they only served to further separate the classes. Which was all well and good in some ways, he wouldn't have had a problem if he could've skipped the introductory material his Muggle-born classmates needed to take, but those who had attended balls all their lives didn't seem like a relevant demographic at school.

Today's lesson was especially boring because of course they should know about this spell. How the heck else did they think they could tote around some of the more giant library tomes? The little firsties wouldn't be able to get anything done if there weren't some things charmed about the place. His mother always charmed his suitcase for him too, although he supposed some folks wouldn't have had that luxury. How did muggles ever do anything?

He was thinking such dreadful thoughts for such a dreadfully long time that he fell behind in class and was one of the last to grab his cauldron. His eyes had been on his page where he was doodling idly. He was always doodling and usually did things idly, but especially when he was bored. He had heard that was true of his 'big brother' too. Ugh. He snapped his textbook shut over his notes, hoping to snap himself away from thoughts about the older boy, and made his way up to grab a cauldron and get back to the table he was sharing with some girl. He didn't really pay that much attention to his peers; it was really no wonder he didn't have a social life.

She had already begun working on her spell, so Winston took advantage of the now empty scales to get his own cauldron measured. Having only paid half attention to class today, he tried to glance up at the board to see if there were directions there and was scouring his own notes to see what he needed to be writing down when his classmate spoke up and he realized his cauldron was in her way.

"Sorry," he mumbled, moving it to the desk in front of him. "First time," he added to answer her question. "How much is it-- what do I write-- what am I doing?" he finally got out with a huff, hating to admit such a weakness. It didn't help that his classmate was not only ahead but also had succeeded already apparently.

He cocked his head at his classmate when he realized he recognized her but didn't actually really know who she was much. That was weird. School was small and . . . wait, had Professor Wright said that third, fourth, and fifth years had different tasks? But he was . . . oh no. His eyes were round with horror as he realized his mistake and he wasn't sure whether he wanted to pack up his things and run, just hide under the desk, or possibly just curl up in a ball and die on the spot.

"I'm in the wrong class," he realized aloud.

OOC: Winston is being a little snot about everything and I'm sorry about it.

22 Winston Randall Except actually not like that at all. 1527 0 5

Oz Spellman

December 05, 2021 6:06 PM

Well done by Oz Spellman

"Normal peole duck," Oz mutteted. Or realised it was a joke. But no, here the solution was to just zap things. It reminded him of what Henry had said about how he needed to watch his mouth or the teachers would turn him into a matchbox. Professor Carter-X had said they definitely wouldn't, and he was pretty sure that she must be right because he was definitely annoying enough that, if they could've, they would've by now. Still, Valentine wasn't a teacher. It surprised him that kids didn't get into trouble more often for messing about with spells on each other. Maybe it was because it wasn't seen as an issue - maybe it was part of normal wizard playfulness, just like being chased by big rocks, and if he annoyed Valentine enough she could turn him into a toad. It wasn't like he'd never messed about with magic in his room. It was just having it all suddenly in his face that was weird. For him.

So far, his plan to have different friends to Henry was going really, really well; Henry didn't want to even try hanging out with Xav again ever, and now Henry's friend was going to think he was a psychopath, and he pretty much had the same worry about her. He wondered why he couldn't have managed to screw it up this smoothly when he'd actually wanted to keep Henry out.

He glanced over at Henry, but though he had probably stared along with everyone else, his head was turned back to his own work, like a good little student. Oz tried in vain to get some twin telepathy going but it was much harder with the back of Henry's head. And what was Henry going to say or do anyway? Oz was pretty sure he would side with him that having magic in your face was still kinda alarming when you weren't expecting it. But they weren't supposed to be saying stuff like that. That was the kind of thing Xav's family had said, and they'd taken him away for it. Obviously, Oz knew his mom was the bestest in the world, but he also knew that, on paper, and especially the kinds of papers looked at by officials, she probably didn't stack up next to Xavier's comfortable, middle class, two parent family. He wasn't sure how wizards viewed being a latchkey kid and getting your gas cut off sometimes, especially cos they didn't know what that was, but they seemed trigger happy when it came to pulling kids like them away from their families.

He wanted to tell Valentine she sucked, and it wasn't fair to spring magic on people when they weren't expecting it. He wanted to tell her that if she ever used her wand on Henry without his permission, all the rules about not hitting girls would be off. But that showed his weak spots. And it showed he hadn't 'adjusted' to this world.

"Fine. You're right, I'm an idiot," he glared, his tone both hostile and insincere, before turning back to his work.

13 Oz Spellman Well done 1514 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 08, 2021 7:19 PM

That sounds like a bit more. by Valentine Duell

'Normal people duck'. Valentine really wasn't sure what to make of that statement. The cauldron was heavy, if she had ducked, it would have dropped while moving in her direction and most likely still have hit her. What was the problem with moving it away from her? She really wasn't sure entirely what was going on here. Oz was clearly mad at something, and she didn't think it was because she'd 'ruined' his 'joke'. She turned back to her own work a moment after he did, only half paying any attention to it. The other half was trying to figure things out.

Normal people duck.

So... she was not normal? Why? Instead of ducking, she'd used magic. That was normal, she was a witch, he was a wizard, that was normal. Except... she'd heard somewhere, sometime, maybe that Oz and Henry were muggleborn. Did that make a difference? Normal people duck, a muggle would duck. Or perhaps realize that throwing... pretending to throw a heavy object at someone was a 'joke'? This was Oz's third year of going to magical wizard school though. He can cast magic, some of it probably better than she could. In the end, she concluded that there wasn't really much she could do, if he didn't want anything from her. By this point she'd cast the spell a few more times, a bit listlessly, on her cauldron and moved to weigh it again. It'd gone down a little bit more, but not much.

Val noted down the new number. As she pulled the cauldron from the scale, she stated softly to Oz, "You are not an idiot."

2 Valentine Duell That sounds like a bit more. 1490 0 5

Mab

January 01, 2022 5:01 PM

Because we shouldn't have anything in common by Mab

She wasn't sure that Billy Cobb actually wanted to know all the theory behind how incantations and wands were supposed to work, and she only kind of understood them herself. She'd been reading up on the subject in hopes of improving her own practical wand casting skills, and still thought it was all much more complicated than it had to be, so she skipped over trying to explain why pronunciation mattered, and answered the question he had actually asked. "Other countries have other styles of using magic, many of which don't even use wands. They don't need to say Latin words, but they do need to follow whatever their rituals and conventions are to create the effects that they can pass from teacher to student."

She gave a frown to her own wand. "Personally, I think such a style would suit me better as well." She had, in fact, self-taught herself such a style, though it was by no means nearly as well suited to doing the wide range of different things that wands could manage. What it could do, though, it did very well, if she did say so herself.

Mab picked up her wand again and confronted the cauldron in front of her. "Minponderis!" she tried again, trying again to just let the magic flow and not attempting to direct it through her wand. That should just happen without her telling it to do that.

She thought it worked. Probably. Some of it went through the wand anyway, she was pretty sure. She shifted the cauldron on her desk and it did seem to be moving more easily now. She lifted it with much less effort and put it onto the scale. She made a note onto her parchment:

3rd Attempt: 25% of original weight

"Not quite there yet," she gritted out loud, and returned the cauldron to the desk in front of her.

1 Mab Because we shouldn't have anything in common 1473 0 5