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
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
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
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
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
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