Humph on Charms

Grayson Wright

February 11, 2022 7:23 PM

Beginner Charms - Cardinatus. by Grayson Wright

"Good morning, everyone. First thing - did anyone have any problems with your homework over the weekend?"

So began another meeting of Beginner's Charms. Professor Wright did his best to look as mild-natured and non-judgmental as possible as he asked the question. He'd just assigned them their first proper short essay of the year, which was quite possibly the first proper essay of any kind that some of the first years had ever tackled. It was only an opinion piece about the chapter of the textbook they had just finished, but he had asked for about four hundred words, and for them to include quotes from their textbook to support their opinions. He'd held off on making them acknowledge and answer counter-arguments for now, but hoped some of them had tried it anyway; having done so was not only a path to being a student after his own heart, but also carried with it a decent chance of bonus points, assuming the effort wasn't unspeakably bizarrely poorly done.

"Now that we're done with that, I'm sure some of you, at least, will be glad to hear that today you're in for a mostly practical lesson," he continued, once the subject of the homework had exhausted itself. "Since we've pretty well gotten the hang of Hover Charms now, we're going to look at another charm of motion today. This one makes two objects behave as though they were connected by a hinge, even though no physical hinge exists. The incantation is cardinatus, and the wand movement is the combination of swish and circle. You know the drill by now, wands out, let's all practice that one together again before anyone makes an attempt...."

He went through the wand motion practice with the students, ensuring that everyone at least had a clear point of reference for what it looked like. Besides, practice in general never hurt anyone; going back to basics was often a good way, he'd discovered, to problem-solve, either because it reminded him of the simple things he could overlook too easily, or perhaps just because it kept his conscious mind busy and allowed the rest of his brain to work on the problem uninterrupted, though he hadn't mentioned that sort of thing to the Beginners. The Beginners heard, at least twice a week, about how a firm foundation was the only kind they should build on, and that to have a firm foundation, they had to work on its construction as attentively as they did the more visually impressive parts of the 'building' made up of their magical skills.

"Very good," he said, when reasonably confident nobody was going to blow things up from a wrong wand movement. "Now - your materials. You'll put together trinket boxes for this exercise." He had brought a variety of boxes in different styles, decorations, and materials for them to pick from. "Each of these needs its lid attached, and you're going to use this charm to attach the lid of the box you pick. The most successful version of this spell would let me pick the box up by the lid, and not have the rest of the box fall down to your desk; the expectation for today is that the lid can be raised and lowered without coming apart. As always, be patient with yourselves and each other, and focus on performing each movement and incantation as well as you can. Take your time, and let me know if you have questions or if something seems to be going wrong. Everyone understand? Good. You may begin."

OOC: Welcome to Beginner's Charms! This is a class for first and second year students. All standard site rules apply, so all replies should be at least two hundred words and should only control the actions of your own character. Be realistic - a detailed post where your character, who has been using magic for a month or two at this point if they're a first year, fails realistically is better than one where they're unrealistically perfect.

As for the spell, I made this one up myself.

Subthreads:

Magic time! by Fortune Ardovini with Yaniel Ayala Velez

How charming by Verdillia Scurlock with Christopher Brockert

Making boxes/friends by Leviosa Scurlock with Eris Ryan

Cardinatus? More like falling-offus... by Xander Faro with Gwendolyn Brockert

Humph by Freya Curtis

16 Grayson Wright Beginner Charms - Cardinatus. 113 1 5

Fortune Ardovini

February 12, 2022 5:29 PM

Magic time! by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune was enjoying school so far. He was finally allowed to use magic, well purposefully use magic. His accidental use hadn't been anything to bad at home, but it had happened and had always been kinda cool. Now though, he was learning to do it on command and that was a hundred times better. As such, Charms was one of his favorite classes at the moment, it was one where he got to feel like a real wizard. He was casting spells and doing all the things Mom and Dad did without a second thought. Well.. mostly casting spells and such. He'd gotten the hovering thing figured out eventually. He hadn't been the first, but he wasn't the last either.

He found a seat in the classroom and listened to the professor's opening lecture. He cringed just slightly as the man had opened with asking about the homework. It had gone fine, he'd written up the paper as assigned. It'd been a bit of a pain, but he knew that was probably nothing compared to assignments they would probably get later. The news that this was a practical lesson made him much happier.

As directed, Fortune pulled out his wand went through the motions that the professor was making. He got the hang of the motion fairly quickly, he knew this was important. One had to get the motions and the words just right to make the spell work properly. He selected a rather plain looking wooden box and lid, he didn't think that the more complicated the box was the harder the spell would be, but you never knew. If he got this one figured out, maybe he could try a more complicated looking box to see if there was actually any difference.

He put the lid in it's position on top of the box, swirled his wand at it in the prescribed manner and spoke out "Cardinatus!" The lid popped off the box a few inches and skidded into his neighbor's workspace. "Oops!" he grinned apologetically to them, "Sorry about that. I don't think it's supposed to do that. How is yours going?"

2 Fortune Ardovini Magic time! 1549 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

February 14, 2022 2:48 PM

How charming by Verdillia Scurlock

Verdillia took a seat, feeling excited as usual about being in charms. She was semi-glad to have Leviosa in class with her, in that it meant she was able to keep an eye on her, and check she was getting on well and doing everything properly. There was only the slight sting of irritation at being made to share a class with her younger sibling, as if she hadn't been casting practical magic for a year already. Luckily, a lot of the teachers differentiated, so she wouldn't be doing the same work as her little first year sister very often.

She had not had any trouble with the homework (and without letting her copy, she had ensured Leviosa hadn't either).

Today was a very cute little charm, and one that Verdillia could easily see many uses for. Well, mostly putting lids on boxes, but there were so many pretty little boxes that it was nice to have all over one's desk and dressing table. This seemed like the kind of thing that would be very useful in craft projects. Much better than glues or jabbing in sharp bits.

She selected a pretty box made of some kind of dark wood interlaid with shiny sections which could have been mother-of-pearl - or were certainly something that glistened like it. It reminded her of the ornate trinkets they saw in historic houses, and she expected a lady of note would keep something important in it. Perhaps her stamps and sealing waxes?

She felt reasonably confident of both her pronunciation and wandwork after the whole class drills. She needed to lean into the Welsh side of her accent more to get that central 'r' but that was easy enough to do. She positioned the lid where it would need to join on, and swished her wand, saying the spell.

She opened the lid very carefully, starting to hope even when her own fingers were still doing enough to support it. Very gently, as if the speed at which she relinquished her touch might make a difference, she let go. It held. Very, very delicately she pinched a corner, tugging it up from the desk. It lifted the box enough to let her know it was very definitely joined on, before it very suddenly wasn't any more. She had not lifted the box high enough for there to be an abrupt clatter, the lid merely came away in her hand.

"It worked," she informed her neighbour, in case they had missed that part. "For a moment, anyway."

13 Verdillia Scurlock How charming 1541 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

February 18, 2022 11:25 PM

Making boxes/friends by Leviosa Scurlock

Levi made her way to Charms. She was definitely leaning towards shortening her name after hearing a whole class of people chanting it for nearly a week—that had been a weird feeling, both emotionally, and because she could swear she’d started to feel a bit floaty by the end of class, though that might have been purely psychological. She was still fluctuating between lee-vee or leh-vi for the abbreviation’s pronunciation though.

Her main priority in choosing a seat was as far away from her sister as possible. Verdillia was being so overbearing. It was like she expected Levi to get everything perfect—every spell, every homework assignment, every friendship, every hairstyle. Other people probably thought Verdillia was being a sweet big sister, trying to take care of her, but Levi was convinced she just wanted to make her live up to expectations—Verdillia and mother’s, which tended to dominate opinions.

The charm they were doing today was sort of weird. Most things that needed a hinged lid already had one. People tended to think that sort of thing through when making things. And there were physical hinges to do that job. Okay, you could also do it with magic but it didn’t feel like something she’d ever really need. She thought about little trinket boxes, sold in souvenir shops, and wondered whether this was someone’s job, just constantly sticking lids to things. That sounded sad. Though maybe if you got to work in the shop and just do it in between serving customers it wouldn’t be so bad. You could spend half your life socialising and half making pretty things… That sounded nice. Still, whether or not she had a future career in a quaint little souvenir shop (she almost definitely did not, mother would absolutely not approve), she had to work on the spell today. The fact that Professor Wright was the teacher and he had said so was enough reason to find it necessary. She had only ever been in trouble with her tutors by accident, for asking awkward questions or being a bit daydreamy. She had never openly rebelled against completing a task.

She took a brightly painted wooden box, a purple one with sparkly stars, and placed the lid carefully on top. She felt like she should make some other preparation, and nudged the lid about a bit under the pretext of checking it was straight, but it almost definitely was, because of the little lip that held it in place on top of the box.

“Cardinatus?” she cast, then realised she’d accidentally made it a question. She kept doing that on her first tries. It wasn’t at all a surprise when she lifted the lid and it came away fully. She settled it back on, trying to iron the doubt out of her voice. “Cardinatus,” she cast more decisively, though when she lifted the lid, it didn’t seem to do more than catch slightly, in a way that could have been it snagging as she lifted it.

“How’s it going?” she asked her neighbour, deciding that making a friend was just as worthy a goal as making a hinged box. “Mine’s still very much a work in progress,” she added, just in case they thought she was breaking off because she was doing well and then felt bad if they weren’t.

13 Leviosa Scurlock Making boxes/friends 1545 0 5

Eris Ryan

February 19, 2022 1:10 AM

Boxes could be friends? by Eris Ryan

Eris was trying really hard to pay attention to the feedback that Professor Wright was giving on their first homework assignment. She had begrudgingly realized that she did consider them professors despite their apparent like of completion of a doctoral program, simply in that they were so much more educated on a billion different things that she had never even considered before. For example, the need to attach a lid to a box by magic. Was this easier than carpentry? Just as complicated? Take less time to master? Who knew. But she did know that her essay was probably one of the better ones in the class. Without any magic in muggle-school, she was well versed in how to argue with authority figures, even in writing.

She may not like to admit to paying attention to teachers, hoping that her disinterested expression and vague responses would lead them to leave her alone and not draw attention to her during class. Though she did want to be accepted and better here. She was trying really really hard to pay attention without looking like she was paying attention. Professor Wright was going over the proper wand movements for the lid fastening spell and she made careful note of his gestures. Outwardly, she swung her wand with a reckless abandon—careful not to do that at the same time that she said anything. The pronunciation of the incantation “cardinatus” was probably the most difficult part. Tongue-tied on the best of occasions, to speak with authority and conviction had proved challenging. It had taken her longer than the other students to master the hover charm…. Maybe she should actually pay attention rather than paying attention while focusing on appearing like she wasn’t paying attention when she was in fact… paying attention. It only resulted in a divided attention.

Things to consider for another time apparently, as it was time to select her trinket box. Like so many instances at this school, there were so many choices to be had. Did she want a plain wooden one? A round silver filigree box? A square tortoise shell incrusted container?

Settling on a small, red-wood box with Celtic inspired engravings of knots and twists, Eris returned to her seat and prepared to attempt the charm when she heard her desk mate ask her a question.

“Oh, I haven’t actually started. I have only managed to pick out my box. Do you think it matters which type we choose? Does it make a difference?”

60 Eris Ryan Boxes could be friends? 1552 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

February 24, 2022 5:20 AM

Absolutely! by Leviosa Scurlock

The witch with purple hair was sitting next to her. Levi had definitely noticed her, because it was hard not to. She wondered whether she had coloured it, or was a metamorphmagus, though either way purple was an…unusual choice. But then, her year group seemed to be full of unusual people. There was Lenny, was wore sparkly hairclips but was still a boy, and now this person who seemed to be deliberately purple. Whereas Levi was, so far, very much just Levi. Perhaps she should have kept her name long… Maybe it was the only interesting thing about her. She certainly didn’t feel very bright or bold next to the people she’d met so far. Though her goal had been to meet all kinds of interesting people, so she could hardly complain. Sonora was definitely living up to that so far; everyone was very different to how she was.

“It was hard to choose. There were a lot of pretty ones,” she agreed, when the girl commented about only just getting a box. “Uh… Probably?” she ventured a guess about whether it made a difference. “I mean, if it’s something really heavy, it’s going to have to be charmed more strongly for Professor Wright to be able to hold it up, right? Though if it was really fragile, I wonder if you could charm it so hard you broke it… Also, how much you like it might affect how good you are at casting the spell.” Those were just off the top of her head, based off what she knew of magic, but they sounded about right.

13 Leviosa Scurlock Absolutely! 1545 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

February 25, 2022 5:48 PM

And chatting time by Yaniel Ayala Velez

So far, school was… okay. Yarielis did not like making snap decisions, and was still somewhat homesick and didn’t have a solid group of friends yet. That wasn’t totally unexpected. It seemed like the kind of thing that should take time, because easing into being around other people always felt like facing an unfamiliar body of water—you had to dip your toe in, test the temperature, and psych yourself up to going further if it didn’t seem like it was going to be totally comfortable. The only real fear Yarielis had was whether everyone else was already doing better. Was everyone else happy and comfortable in their own skins, the way that other people often seemed to be, and just diving in, splashing off towards the far end, leaving Yarielis behind?

Maybe Quidditch would change that. There was a sense of automatic camaraderie that came with playing sports, and it gave an instant starting point and common ground. Yarielis had carefully matched the names from the Quidditch sign up to roll call, and made a point to sit next to one of the other hopefuls during charms.

The lesson itself sounded fine. So far, Charms was fine. Yarielis wasn’t like some super overpowered magic genius who got everything on the first try, but seeing as that was literally no one’s expectation, it was a comfortable level of struggle to be dealing with. The spells they’d done so far had clicked eventually, not really slower or faster than they seemed to for everyone else.

Yarielis eschewed anything remotely sparkly, or even overly design-laden when picking out a box, opting instead for one that was just… practical and solid. Tiny fancy boxes were, apparently, a thing that was supposed to spark joy and squealing. Yarielis had no idea why. What did people even put in them? It was weird. Boxes were best when they were useful.

The Crotalus was just getting ready to cast, when the lid from Fortune Ardovini (who was willing to play any position but preferred Chaser)’s box slid over. Perfect. It had broken down that invisible wall that existed, where Yarielis knew they were allowed to both work and talk, but you always had to think of something to say. And now it was just a case of saying ‘Oh, hey, no problem—you’re Fortune right? You’ve signed up for Quidditch?’ and then they could get chatting.

“No problem,” said Yarielis, sliding the box lid back over.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez And chatting time 1554 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

February 25, 2022 6:30 PM

Hopefully I'll do alright at one of those things at least by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune smiled as Yarielis slid the box lid back in his direction. He'd heard her named called in class a few times, but he thought it was a little bit of an odd one and didn't at all trust himself to pronouncing it himself. "Thanks!" he said as he caught the lid and then inspected his lid for hidden springs or anything along those lines. He didn't see any.

"I'm going to try this again," he warned Yarielis with a friendly grin, "If it goes your way again, just pretend it's a Quaffle and try and catch it." He was pretty sure Yarielis' name was one on the Quidditch try out sheet. It looked something like how the professors said it. If he remembered correctly, the name in question had written down a preference for the beater position. With the appropriate warnings given he turned back to his simple box and placed the lid gingerly back into position. Step two was to roll up his sleeves, because that is what one did when they were getting serious about accomplishing a task.

"Here we go," he announced, then promptly waved his wand with a somewhat commanding "Cardinatus!" again. Thankfully the lid stayed in place this time. He cast a glance in Yarielis' direction, "What do you think, did it work this time?"

2 Fortune Ardovini Hopefully I'll do alright at one of those things at least 1549 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

February 25, 2022 7:39 PM

Same.... by Yaniel Ayala Velez

"Sure," Yarielis nodded, cracking a hint of a smile as Fortune referenced Quidditch. The sign up had been clear enough then. Yarielis wasn't totally sure, but leant towards Beater. But it made sense to hedge bets as a first year, especially having never had real chances to try out a lot of the positions. The one thing off the cards though was Seeker. Besides the levels of pressure and attention, Seekers were supposed to be small and skinny - two adjectives which didn't apply to Yarielis, and which meant there would probably be a lot of snickering if the first year tried out for it. It was a risk that trying for Beater would also invite remarks, more along the lines of having a 'suitable build,' which - whilst true - was basically still everyone pointing out your size. Though then, not trying out for Beater could equally invite remarks about 'Hey, why aren't you...?' Ultimately though, Yarielis did kind of want to (probably) because beating was kind of like baseball. Anyway, trying to process all that down to something that would fit on a sign up sheet had ended up being realised as 'Not Seeker/Preferably Beater' because that felt like it took up marginally less space than 'Beater/Chaser/Keeper (Beater preferred).' And Fortune had got the message that that meant 'maybe chaser' so that was good.

Yarielis wasn't sure how seriously to actually wait for a potential catch, though kept half an eye on Fortune's work whilst making an attempt at the spell too.

"It's progress," Yarielis said, when asked an opinion on whether it had worked. There was no way of knowing, short of Fortune testing it. The most likely outcome was 'no,' given that it was pretty improbable that he had gone from slinging his lid across the desk by accident to executing the spell perfectly, but that didn't seem like a polite thing to say. "Mine didn't," Yarielis confirmed, testing it out and finding the lid still lifted all the way off.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Same.... 1554 0 5

Xander Faro

February 27, 2022 12:41 PM

Cardinatus? More like falling-offus... by Xander Faro

Professor Wright began the Charms lesson by asking about their homework, and Xander groaned internally. Sure, he'd done the homework - well, attempted the homework - but reading a textbook and then writing about what he'd read was not Xander's idea of a fun time, or even an easy one. He was most definitely a kinaesthetic learner, and when faced with a wall of text or the expectation of writing words on a blank parchment, his eyes glazed over and his brain immediately left the building to consider more enjoyable pursuits.

Still, he'd made it to 350 words, and a quick read-through assured him that, while far from genius, it was at least comprehensible, so that would do for him. Xander was trying to ignore the fact that essays would only get harder.

Xander cheered up upon hearing that today's lesson would be largely practical. This was more up his street! He'd had great fun with the Hover Charm, and was looking forward to continuing with more charms of motion.

Today's charm sounded a bit complex, and not really like it was one you could fudge, so Xander tried his best to pay attention when practising the wand motion with his classmates. It was so easy to get carried away with swooshing his wand around, instead of concentrating on more precise movement.

Let loose on the selection of boxes, Xander made sure not to pick anything too plain. His form of logic had reasoned that it would be easier to focus on a more interesting and ornate box, so he followed this directive in an attempt not to get distracted while practising the charm.

Suitably equipped with his box and lid, he returned to his work station, placed both upon his desk, and glared sternly at the two.

"Cardinatus!" he proclaimed, then held his breath in expectation. The box promptly fell off the edge of the desk, lid remaining completely still and unaffected by the spell.

Not one to be fazed by initial disappointment, Xander shrugged and ducked under the desk to retrieve his box.

"Hey, how's yours going?" he asked his neighbour as he emerged from under the desk. "My box went rogue."

He waved the box around, presumably to indicate the general untrustworthiness of the object.

9 Xander Faro Cardinatus? More like falling-offus... 1550 0 5

Freya Curtis

February 27, 2022 2:14 PM

Humph by Freya Curtis

Freya had always been a bright witch and she’d been top of her classes growing up in Tennessee, but she understood that this wasn’t necessarily going to be the case at Sonora, where the level of education was higher and the pool of intellect was greater. Although it of course would’ve been nice to be something of a genius who just got it, Freya wasn’t going to beat herself up for not being top of the class and she was generally quite content with her level intelligence and abilities. That being said, she wasn’t complacent, and would work hard to do the very best she could, for herself and for her family name. She knew she had a reputation to uphold and it was important to her that she be known as an intelligent, well-rounded young lady.

Freya was quite keen about most things when it came to her new school, and that included her classes. She couldn’t wait to start applying everything she learnt in class to her life outside of class. She’d always envied the adults in her life for their magical abilities.

It became quickly apparent that the young Crotalus student had more of an affinity for Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions out of her new subjects (and flying lessons obviously but she didn’t count that). It was not by any means that she lacked enthusiasm for the arguably more wand heavy subjects, in fact quite the opposite, but she did find them more difficult. It wasn’t altogether surprising, considering her favoured subjects were more similar to the sort of things she might get up to on the farm back home, whereas wand work was obviously something that she was completely new to. Freya wasn’t worried by it at all, as she didn’t see herself falling behind her peers, but she rather hoped that it would all start to click into place soon.

Freya enjoyed her Charms classes and she really liked Professor Wright, which definitely helped. He seemed nice and approachable so she didn’t worry about asking questions or getting things wrong. It was a bit intimidating sharing classes with the second years, but Freya tried not to let it bother her too much.

Freya was quite self-disciplined and organised when it came to her homework. It was important to her that she make a good impression on her professors and classmates alike and also make the most of the learning opportunities she was given. Freya had some experience of writing essay-type assignments but Sonora required her to step up her game. Freya knew a lot of people considered essay-writing to be boring, but she didn’t mind it so much, if nothing else it was good practice for improving her handwriting. This particular piece of homework was opinion-based, which Freya definitely found more challenging, rather than a more simple regurgitation of research, but she believed she’d done a reasonable job, nothing outside the box but a sedulous effort nonetheless.

Paying close attention to Professor Wright’s direction, Freya followed along with the wand motion for the Cardinatus Charm. The concept seemed a little more complicated than that of the Hover Charms they had previously been working on and Freya knew better than to expect instant results but she tried to think positively as she went up and selected her trinket box.

“Cardinatus,” Freya said firmly, accompanied by the instructed wand movement, when she had returned to her desk with the little box. The box jumped no more than a centimetre to the left and she was momentarily excited by the response, only to find that no the lid was still very much unattached.

Freya humphed and eyed the box with frustration. After several more failed attempts, she sighed and turned to the person next to her, hopeful for some advice. “You having better luck?”

8 Freya Curtis Humph 1551 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

February 27, 2022 5:28 PM

I wonder which one by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune watched at Yarielis lifted the lid with no noticeable result. He shrugged, "Well, looks like your first attempt was still better than mine." He examined his box without touching it, but there was really no way of knowing whether or not it worked until he actually tried lifting the lid. The hover charms had been a little nicer on that front, you could tell immediately whether or not you had succeeded at the task. Was the thing no longer touching the desk? Great, you did it! This you had to actually test, and unless the lid went jumping across the room you didn't know until you did. He thought he might prefer it when you could tell immediately, there wasn't nearly as much suspense.

Finally he took a hold of the lid and gently lifted it. The backside of the box, very briefly, lifted off the desk before the two disconnected! He'd technically done it! The grin on his face was wide as he turned back to Yarielis and gave her a thumbs-up. "Progress!"

Magic and all was fun, but it was time to get back to more important topics. "Are you excited for Quiddtich try-outs?" He assumed that since Yarielis had signed up for try-outs she had played before, but you never knew. If he and Xander were going to get enough people playing to make two teams this year, he'd better get working on it. "I played with some of the other kids in the neighborhood back home and we never quite had enough people for a proper game. This is going to be great!" He really hoped Yarielis was just as excited.

2 Fortune Ardovini I wonder which one 1549 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

March 01, 2022 12:19 AM

Not managing either so far... by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Yarielis gave a nod to acknowledge Fortune's progress, mostly feeling that meant it was time to knuckle down and make sure the next attempt was a good one - Fortune was an attempt ahead, which meant Yarielis had to equal that next time to be making equal progress. Given that nothing had backfired on the Crotalus' first go, it seemed hopeful. Or did that mean Fortune got more results, just with bigger highs and lows, whilst Yarielis had no effect whatsoever?

The moment of finding out was delayed by him asking about Quidditch. The strong implication of him having a fully magical background did not escape Yarielis' notice. Not that that meant anything much. It was just interesting how those little details about people leaked out, probably without them even noticing or worrying about it.

"Yes," Yarielis agreed to the part about being excited first because that was easiest. "I'm really looking forward to it." The usual trick of just repeating the same surface level information, just with more or different words, didn't seem to be doing its job of filling in the silence as much as usual. Yarielis was conscious of needing to get back to work, but now having got a toe in the door of socialising, it would be sad to let it snap shut again - it was so difficult to get that foothold, and would probably be even more so if there was the weight of having let this conversation die pushing against it. "My mom would take me to the park to fly sometimes." It was, presumably, obvious enough that this was a magical park, otherwise they would have been breaking the law. Yarielis wasn't sure how obvious it was that that was out of the way, and not in the neighbourhood where they lived.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Not managing either so far... 1554 0 5

Gwendolyn Brockert

March 13, 2022 3:30 AM

Tell me about it. by Gwendolyn Brockert

So far, Gwendolyn hadn’t made any friends at Sonora, but she was really loving her classes, and was doing well in them so that was something . To be honest, the academics, the learning to use her magic, was something that she’d been looking forward to. Of course, she wanted friends too, but who could grow up knowing about magic,knowing they had those abilities, and wasn’t super excited to learn how to use them?

Gwendolyn was especially enthused about the wand based subjects. Her dad was a wandmaker so she’d grown up with a healthy interest and respect for anything related whether it be subjects that used them such as Charms and Transfiguration or wandlore itself. Her own was ten inches, walnut with a raven feather core and of course, made by her dad.

It was a fine moment indeed for both of them when Gwendolyn received her wand. Dad had been so proud and, obviously had helped her himself, rather than getting Cory to do it. Her dad was generally not very social and found dealing with people to be extremely stressful so he had gotten some distant cousin of theirs to do the actual selling while he just made them. This was a way that worked out best for everyone. People should not be forced into things that made them miserable and for Dad, that was socializing.

Of course, he still had to do it somewhat. It wasn’t a thing anyone could completely avoid, especially not if one was the heir to a huge prominent pureblood family. Gwendolyn might not be a Teppenpaw but she hated to see anyone she cared about suffer. Plus, it kind of completely annoyed her when people looked down on those who were shy, introverted or both, like her dad was. If you thought people were not going to be nice to you or that you were going to screw up and say something wrong, why would you want to put yourself in that situation? Therefore, Dad minimized his interactions with people who weren’t herself, Mom, her little sister Misty, his siblings-though he didn’t talk to Aunt Chelsea much- Grandma and Grandpa Brockert, Cory, etc.

Not that the fact that introverts weren’t bad made extroverts so. Things were not that black and white. One thing being good didn’t make the opposite bad, when it came to things that people couldn’t help. Gwendolyn’s cousin, Sophia had mentioned that there were people like that at Sonora, or at least, there had been so she might have meant people who graduated already or at least people who were closer to her age than the first year’s.

At least, Gwendolyn sincerely hoped so. She didn’t really like getting into conflicts with people, but she didn’t suffer fools, and would shut that crap down if necessary. Fortunately, neither Lydia nor Cory’s niece Liesl, whom the Aladren had met over the summer, had said anything about people to watch out for. Though, the latter….seemed to have a positive view of just about everyone and the former seemed a bit afraid of most people. Lydia was a bit like Gwendolyn’s father that way and even though the Teppenpaw was two years older than her, the younger girl felt as protective of her as she did Misty.

She turned her essay in to Professor Wright and took a seat. Class began and she was pleased to hear that today they would be having a practical lesson. She didn’t mind the theoretical ones and doing essays and whatnot, but of course, Gwendolyn was always totally thrilled to be using her wand.

The Aladren selected a box and went about the lesson. “ Cardinatus ” She said, doing the appropriate wand motion. Then she picked up her box by the lid to see how she fared. It opened up, hanging the way a hinged trinket box would if one did that. It held for a few moments before coming undone and crashing to her desk, making her grumble under breath.

Before Gwendolyn could try again, her neighbor spoke to her. “Um, I could definitely do better.” She replied. “Then I did, I mean.” She added, in order to clarify, so he didn’t think she meant she could do better than him. Which could be true, but it would be a rude and mean thing to say. Plus, she didn’t know that for sure anyway as they were both seemed to be unsuccessful and politeness, humility and accuracy were all good things to demonstrate.

11 Gwendolyn Brockert Tell me about it. 1555 0 5

Christopher Brockert

March 17, 2022 8:09 AM

Probably more so than me. by Christopher Brockert

OOC: CW-Wishes for someone to die a violent death. BIC:

If Chris had been glad to be back at Sonora after midterm, he was ten times as glad to be back after summer. Not that he’d had to put up with Uncle Eustace every day. In fact, he’d spent most of his time off from school down on St. Berylla’s with his mother, sister, aunts and cousins of varying degrees. The adult men, save for Grandfather, had had to work so they were only down there sometimes. Christopher liked when his dad came down and he spent time with just his parents and Alma, but the times when Uncle Eustace came around were as miserable and terror inducing as usual. Plus, the second year.had a fair amount of anxiety worrying about when that was going to happen.

And if it was that bad for him, he couldn’t imagine how horrible it was for Aunt Helena. Or how it would be for Honora when she got older. Chris knew it was a horrible thing to think but it might be best for them all if Uncle Eustace fell off a boat and was eaten by a shark. Of course, anyone who’d ever met the man would assume he was pushed and that would be scandalous. Although maybe anyone who’d ever met the man would understand why someone would push him off a boat into shark infested waters. Or maybe they’d all get lucky and someone would assume it was Topaz that pushed him off the boat. Even though others, himself and his father included, had far better motives than his cousin did, and would be suspected first.

Honestly though, Christopher actually had mostly had a nice break, hanging out with the rest of his family, playing in the ocean, making fairly impressive sand castles and whatnot. He’d especially enjoyed making sand castles and drawing with his little sister and cousins. It was always nice to bond with Alma and Miles, in particular, really seemed to love to draw and honestly, actually had talent. While the main talent people always associated with Brockerts was in Transfiguration, a fair amount of them actually had artistic talent too. It seemed Miles had inherited it-and Chris wanted to believe he had as well though his interests were more focused towards architecture.

Anyway, he just overall felt safer at school. Here, the Crotalus didn’t have to worry about the lurking threat that was his uncle. Sonora was a nice Uncle Eustace free zone. He could do things, like draw, without worrying that his uncle was going to give him a hard time.

Although school was far from perfect. After all, there were a whole new bunch of first years that Chris didn’t know and that was terrifying . New people were a complete land mine. They could be like Uncle Eustace or Topaz, though the former was more likely. Obnoxious, arrogant jocks who thought there was something wrong with boys-or people in general-who didn’t play Quidditch. Those people were ones who he needed to avoid at all costs, so Chris generally gave a wide berth to anyone who played Quidditch, except maybe the Teppenpaws. It was reasonable to assume even those in Teppenpaw who were gung ho about Quidditch were not like Uncle Eustace or they wouldn’t be in Teppenpaw.Although they probably wouldn’t have much in common.

Logically, he knew that thinking non-Tepps who played Quidditch would be like his uncle wasn’t fair. That they weren’t necessarily horrible people who were going to bully him relentlessly for being a non-athlete or at least think they were better than him. However, on an emotional level…Chris wasn’t about to take his chances, at least until he could assess them better.

Most of his own year mates were okay though. He wasn’t really close to any of them-his uncle’s fault for making him paranoid and wary of others-but they didn’t set off any real red flags.

Which was why Chris was sitting by Verdillia today. Even though his housemate could be a little much, she wasn’t like Uncle Eustace, Topaz or one of those people who basically thought he was horrible simply because he was a pureblood. Those were the most important things.

Professor Wright began the lesson and Chris listened attentively. It was important to both treat others-most others-with respect when they were speaking and to know precisely what to do. He received his box and began to work. “Cardinatus” He picked his box up the way he did most things, carefully. It worked! It actually worked! Christopher didn’t generally expect to do poorly with practical work-and made absolutely sure that he wouldn’t in theory or essays or anything-but since people rarely got things perfect the first time, when it seemed to work, it was nice.

"It worked. For a moment, anyway."

Chris turned to Verdillia. “Mine’s working so far, but I expect it to fall apart any moment.” He admitted. After all, he didn’t want to seem smug or make her feel bad by showing that he was doing better than her. Besides, being the pessimistic-and in this case, probably fairly realistic-person that he was, he really did expect it to stop working soon.

11 Christopher Brockert Probably more so than me. 1539 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

April 05, 2022 9:48 PM

I don't know about that by Verdillia Scurlock

“Oh, that’s great,” Verdillia smiled, with both enthusiasm and sincerity, when Chris showed off his handiwork. She was not surprised (and therefore neither jealous nor embarrassed) that his work outstripped hers, as she naturally assumed that as a boy and a Pureblood he would be stronger than her (regardless of how little evidence there was to support such a worldview).
She cast the charm again, making sure to do her best to switch her focus as fully as possible from Chris to the box. This was no easy task, as she desperately wanted to socialise with him. Chris was one of the people she felt she knew best here, but she definitely didn’t know him very well. But it would be no good to be a slacker when it came to classwork. She lined up the pieces carefully, took a deep breath, and cast again, taking care to include her ‘r’ sounds.

She picked up her box again, finding that it held beyond the initial pick up, and smiled to herself.

“Shall we see whose holds longer?” she said, dangling it next to Chris’s. “Not exactly a fair competition, I know,” she acknowledged, seeing as she’d started hers later and was on her second try. “But just for fun.”

13 Verdillia Scurlock I don't know about that 1541 0 5