Ooh! on Charms

Grayson Wright

September 21, 2023 4:14 PM

Beginner Charms - Sparkly! by Grayson Wright

The Beginners had all survived anywhere from three and a half to one and a half terms of Charms lessons, and the ratio of days in the week where fires needed extinguishing to days in the week where they did not had, more or less, tipped in the more desirable direction. Between this and how he’d somehow both cleared his in-box of annoying letters and almost caught up on grading over the weekend, Professor Wright was in a good mood as he started his class.

“Welcome, everyone! I hope everyone’s ready to start a new unit.” They had taken their unit exams for the last one over the course of two days the previous week, and he’d decided to be merciful and not assign them any reading over the weekend. Hopefully, this would translate into them being slightly better-rested and more ready to learn new things than they might have been otherwise, and not to everything they’d ever learned about charms having leaked out of their heads over the course of forty-eight hours.

“Lumos, as you all know, is the light-creating spell – specifically, causing a small area of visible light to emanate from a focus point. It’s also only the first of a number of charms which involve light manipulation. We’re going to look at another one today – one which creates a small field of semi-random effects, so, more difficult. To demonstrate - “ he held up a plain sheet of paper and tapped it with his wand. “Scintillate!”

The paper began to sparkle brightly, as though it had been encrusted in sequins that threw back the light around it at angles. Examination, however, would reveal that the paper had not changed its appearance or texture; it behaved as thought it had features which should have included glittering as a property, but creating such features would have been a transfiguration. This paper retained all the qualities and properties of paper, but it nevertheless behaved as though it had additional ones, though in this case it was simply an illusion bending light waves near the paper.

“Finite incantatem,” he said after a moment, tapping the paper again to make the glittering stop. He could have performed the spell nonverbally just as easily, but liked to remind the students of that incantation before giving them new ones to attempt. It was his job to solve most of the problems that invariably arose with this age group, but it never hurt to nudge them toward doing it themselves where possible, especially with the second years. In just a few months, they would be in Intermediates and by the end of their third year, they would be casting charms on each other in class; they were, in other words, on the brink of being expected to take real responsibility for what they did with their magic. Finite incantatem was a good contender for the most useful spell taught between the first day of a student’s first year and the point in around fifth year where they started learning complex counter-charms.

“Of course, this spell...is only of limited practical value,” he admitted. “Not many applications outside of decorations. You never know when you might need something mildly decorative, though - “ he suspected there might be a brief fad among the Beginner girls for sparkly pencil cases and the like, and perhaps a few unnaturally shiny objects attached to an attendee or two at the Midsummer Ball – “and it’s a step toward more complex illusions. By the time you take your next set of tests, you should be able to make a surface into a temporary mirror without too much trouble, and by the end of the year, I hope some of you will be able to make a page full of text appear blank to anyone who doesn’t test it magically for enchantments.

“By the time you finish fifth year, you’ll be able to make it appear blank to everyone except yourself, or like it has text from a different piece of paper on it. Among other tricks. But for now – you’ll begin by doing what I just did, which is trying to make an entire sheet of paper appear to sparkle, so that I can’t really tell if there’s writing on it or not. It will probably take several tries to get more than one point of light going at once, especially for first years – experiment with it, see if tapping different areas on the paper gives you a better effect than others. Second years, if you want to challenge yourselves, you can attempt to create different-colored effects from the list of spell modifiers at the beginning of your textbook. Homework’s to read chapter eleven and write a paragraph summary in your own words. Begin.”

There was a chance this could cause fires, of course, but one of the small mercies of Beginner Charms was that students rarely had the skill to create light illusions that could act enough like mirrors for long enough to do that. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t finish grading their tests this class period, but would keep an eye on them for the most part instead. Just in case.

Subthreads:

Ooh! by Ursula Arcadius with Alma Brockert

Shiny? by Edu Alamilla with Cecily Welles

Future so bright, I gotta wear shades. by Violet Calhoun with Leo Lyons

Not feeling as such by Charlotte O'Malley with Quillan Arcadius

Twinkle twinkle piece of paper. by Mathias Melcher

16 Grayson Wright Beginner Charms - Sparkly! 113 1 5

Ursula Arcadius

September 22, 2023 11:14 PM

Ooh! by Ursula Arcadius

Ursula took a seat in Charms. Professor Wright went back and forth in her estimations, depending on how many unfairly long lectures he’d subjected them to and how many unreasonable nonsense words said lectures had contained. Last week, he had been her least favourite teacher because he had given them a protracted test that went on forever. Whilst Ursula generally enjoyed chances to win at something, she hadn’t enjoyed the last unit or the length of the assessment. But having had a weekend off, she was back to feeling optimistic about his class, especially as it often had the most interesting spells, buried under all the talking.

Today went a long way to proving that point, as he demonstrated a very interesting charm, and one that she was very much looking forward to practising. She couldn’t believe it when he called it of ‘limited practical use.’ She could already think of dozens of things she would use it on once she had perfected it! For a man who was very smart and could waffle on at length about all sorts of things that didn’t matter, that comment showed a serious lack of imagination.

She took her sheet of paper, deciding to start by tapping in the middle, as that seemed the easiest point from which to spread sparkles all over, which was not only the task assignment but what she wanted.

“Scintillate!” she cast, tapping the paper like she’d been told to, and doing her best to imagine sparkles spreading from her wand. Visualisation was more a transfiguration thing, but it couldn’t hurt here. She tilted her paper, trying to catch the light, but there was only a very small patch that glittered, right where her wand had touched. Ursula pouted slightly, though she knew it was normal for it to take a few tries. She cancelled the effect with a quick swish of her wand and tried again.

13 Ursula Arcadius Ooh! 1577 0 5

Alma Brockert

September 25, 2023 8:39 AM

Agree! by Alma Brockert

Alma’s day had started off on a good note. She had gotten a letter from her cousin Libby. She often received letters from the three cousins that she was closest to and that always made her happy regardless of the contents. For example, she obviously wasn’t happy to hear that Miles was being plagued by his seasonal allergies, since it was getting to be that time of year, but she still liked that Libby had written.

It helped make her feel less lonely as Alma generally missed her cousins a lot,.Even more than she thought that she would. Not that she wasn't trying to participate in classes and activities and make friends, and yes, this far into the year it had occurred to her that by the time she made a good friend, that she’d be going home for the summer and seeing her cousins again, and that Libby would be here with her. However, Alma felt like having an extra friend or two would be in addition to her cousins and not instead of. Like, she could have a friend and still have her cousins to hang out-when they got here-as well. Maybe she and Libby at least could hang out with the same group of friends.

The point was that they weren’t interchangeable to her. Even if Alma made a super close friend this year, she was still going to miss her cousins. Just like even with Libby here next year, she’d still miss Uriah and Miles. She was sure Libby would miss them too and be especially worried about the latter who was her brother. The younger girl was pretty protective of him.

So was Alma really. The three of them all were of the youngest of their quartet, but especially his sister. As it was, the Crotalus was currently worried about how hard it would be for him both when they were all at Sonora, except him, and when they had all graduated from Sonora aside from him. If Alma had missed the others this badly, Miles was going to have an even worse time. He was painfully shy and his allergies made him self-conscious.The first year knew that her cousin was worried that others would make fun of him for them like Uncle Eustace did and that he wouldn’t fit in with his classmates. Miles was a sensitive, creative boy and even without the allergies to most things, a class full of people like their uncle would not be good for him.

Of course, Alma couldn’t imagine that a class full of people like Uncle Eustace would be good for anyone who wasn’t like them. Her uncle took being intolerant to a level that would almost be impressive if it wasn’t so vile. Why, he even made Desmond, who at least didn’t look down on people for having disabilities, look accepting! Alma was lucky that her uncle pretty much ignored her, considering the effect he’d had on her brother, and male cousins. Well, maybe not Olaf so much as he didn’’t care, and Uriah mostly ignored him too-though being constantly fat-shamed could not have had a positive effect on his mental health, though for obvious reasons, Honora was the one she really worried about there, even though she wasn’t overweight at all-but definitely Chris and Jasper and while Uncle Elmer and Aunt Madeleine had protected Miles from the Quidditch…sessions that had so scarred the two older boys, he was still pretty anxious that others would bully him about his allergies the same way.

Anyway, answering Libby’s letter was unfortunately going to have to wait. RIght now, it was time for Charms. As Professor Wright introduced the lesson, Alma began to smile. How lovely, a charm that would make things sparkly! Although he seemed to think this lesson was not terribly practical, but, well, maybe it was because he was a middle-aged man who was into much more serious subjects. Alma was a twelve year old girl who liked and excelled at making things pretty. She could definitely use this when it came to decorating for the ball. And yes, maybe, it was only useful for decorating, but decorating was important. Who wanted to live in a place that was plain and boring?

Alma got her sheet of paper and her wand and imagined her paper being full of sparkles. “ Scintillate ” About a quarter of it turned sparkly. She was thrilled until upon closer examination, it appeared that her paper…really had changed to be glittery. She sighed. “I think I accidentally transfigured mine by mistake.” She told her neighbor. “How are you doing?”

11 Alma Brockert Agree! 1580 0 5

Edu Alamilla

September 29, 2023 10:42 PM

Shiny? by Edu Alamilla

Edu liked Charms. It was a fun class where he got to cast magic and make things happen. Granted he didn't always think the teacher was all that much fun, but that wasn't information he was likely to volunteer willingly. It would be rude and disrespectful. Today seemed like it was going to be a 'fun day' in charms. The professor didn't go off on any of his occasional tangents and for the most part got right to the point. Making paper sparkly. He could do that. Probably. With some practice.

He did what a good student would do and copied down the spell word into his notes along with pronunciation information. Along side of that, he noted down the wand movements. That was simple since it appeared to just be a tap of the wand against the object in question. After that went a few statements about what the spell did. In this case 'cause an object to create a small field of semi-random light effects'. That done, he set down his quill and picked up his wand. Time to give this a go.

"Scintillate!" He pronounced as he tapped the blank sheet of paper in front of him. Edu grinned as the paper sparkled to life at the point where his wand had touched it. It didn't go any farther across the paper then that, but that one point seemed to radiate a flickering light for a few moments before fading away. That was a good start, now could he expand it? Or maybe he should try other areas on his paper like the professor suggested.

They hadn't been forbidden from talking so Edu turned to his neighbor. "How is yours going so far? I had one point sparkling for a moment."

2 Edu Alamilla Shiny? 1579 0 5

Ursula Arcadius

September 29, 2023 10:54 PM

Excellent! by Ursula Arcadius

This Charms lesson kept getting better and better! Not only were they learning shiny things, but Ursula was seated next to Alma Brockert. In spite of the size of their year group, Ursula felt she hadn’t really gotten to know any one person particularly well. Or perhaps that was because of the size of the group… Had there been dozens of them, she would have had to prioritise, and might have sought out the small group of people most like herself. However, with only a handful of people in each year, it did feel like you could and should get to know everyone.What she was finding was that meant she had a superficial acquaintanceship with most people, but had yet to find someone she felt right in prioritising. Except for Quillan and by extension Charlotte… But whilst she wanted to give time to her brother, and be important to the people who were important to him, she also wanted her own social circle. Alma was a good candidate for that. She was in a similar position of having her own network already at school, which had probably absorbed some of her time, but might be looking for someone her own age who could be her own specific friend.

“Oh. That’s impressive,” she commented, when Alma mentioned transfiguring the paper. True, it wasn’t what they were supposed to be doing, but transfiguration was always touted as being a more challenging thing, and so to do it on purpose was hard enough, but by accident… The part of Ursula that liked to compete thought that Alma might be a rather interesting friend. The part of her that liked to win wondered if she would be biting off more than she could chew…

“I charmed it, but only in a very small area.” She tilted her paper for Alma to see. “I really hope I can get it working well by the end of the lesson. I think this charm would look great on quills and hair ribbons and just so many things!”

13 Ursula Arcadius Excellent! 1577 0 5

Cecily Welles

October 01, 2023 12:28 AM

And sparkling, and shimmering, and sheening, and... by Cecily Welles

Cecily, like many students in the Beginner's class, sometimes had trouble following Professor Wright, though she thought her reason might be a little different from those of some of her classmates. Her problem wasn't that she had never been around people who explicated things in excessive detail sometimes - it was that she had been around such people before, all her life, even before she could remember. Grandmama and John were the worst offenders, but even Mom sometimes just started talking, less because she really wanted Cecily or George or Kenneth to know what she was talking about (something, Cecily thought with the easy condescension of the eldest child, which was very fortunate for George and Kenneth, who both currently struck her as too little to understand much of anything) than just...because. Adults monologuing was a sound she was used to registering as comforting white noise, and it was easy to let it slip her mind that Professor Wright wasn't really telling them about the minutiae of Charms because he liked them and therefore felt comfortable just talking at them about whatever he happened to be interested in at the moment whether they were really listening or not.

Fortunately, today, he stopped talking before she stopped really listening. He didn't even give them a homework assignment to think up as many uses for the charm as possible, which - just this once - was almost a disappointment; she figured she could have asked Aunt Sammy for ideas and gotten lots, and that was besides probably being the only person here who had an uncle who was obsessed with birds and who therefore could list specific species, from both around here and two provinces in Canada, which were likely to be attracted by something shiny. It was, however, only almost a disappointment, since she was pretty sure they would have been told to write notes on the chapter anyway and she wasn't quite close enough to Aladren-like to ever actually want extra work to do. It was, therefore, with only a slight, Crotalus-ish suspicion of why Wright was going easy on them today that she took out her wand and started contemplating the surprisingly straightforward-seeming practical assignment.

He definitely said that about different areas on the paper for a reason, she thought, and she turned the paper around several times in front of her, examining it from different angles and trying to figure out what the secret was. It seemed at first like a corner would be too restrictive, but if she picked one near what she thought of as the top of the page, would that make the sparkles...sort of behave as though they were affected by gravity (in a metaphorical way, at least, considering the paper was functionally a 2D plane for the purposes of this exercise) and spread downward more easily? And if so, should she actually just start in the center of the top of the sheet, to create the absolute maximum amount of 'down' for the sparkles to travel....?

It felt sort of like cheating, trying to make the paper look sparklier than it was, but that remark about trying different areas had to have been made for a reason. Frowning slightly in concentration, Cecily got out a separate sheet and started jotting down places to try, in what she hoped would be the best order to try them, so she wouldn't get confused and forget which parts of the page she had already worked with. She was just drawing lines on her paper, dividing it into fourths before writing a large X from corner to corner vertically so that the new marks halved each quadrant, when her neighbor spoke to her.

"Ooh, nice job," she complimented him when he said he'd gotten the spell to work already. "I was still prepping." She pointed to her list to illustrate, then carefully took out her pen-wiper to get the excess ink off her quill before she put it down and took up her wand instead. "So, here goes..." She started with the top left corner. "Scintillate!" A few inches of the paper...sort of shimmered. The effect was visible, but weak. Cecily frowned at it again, this time with a hint of a pout. "I guess that's not the best spot to work from," she added, and glanced at his paper. "Are you going to try moving around different parts of the paper?"

16 Cecily Welles And sparkling, and shimmering, and sheening, and... 1578 0 5

Alma Brockert

October 01, 2023 5:35 AM

Indeed! by Alma Brockert

Alma was pleased to have sat next to Ursula Arcadius for this class period. Of all her classmates, the Teppenpaw seemed to be one of the people that she foresaw herself having the most in common with. Not that she wanted to be picky or a snob or discount those that were different from herself as having nothing to offer, which would be rather Uncle Eustace-like behavior, although her uncle would also bully the person relentlessly like he did her brother and male cousins, but most of the time people did gravitate towards those that they had more in common with because there was more to bond over..

So far, Alma hadn’t really had a chance to get to know many people. She had tried to do things like join activities but she still had yet to really bond with someone on a deep level, the way she did with her cousins.One might say it was because they were family and grew up together but…the first year could easily point out that so had her cousins Allegra and Topaz, and obviously, if there was any sort of bond there it was more like a dog had with its chew toy.

Alma was glad that she and Libby did not have that sort of relationship, but then, neither one of them was a complete and total psychopath, so that was likely a big part of it. Even though that didn’t necessarily mean they’d be close like they were. Plenty of people didn’t get along even if they were related, grew up together and none of them were psychopaths.She couldn’t think of an example off the top of her head, but she was sure that happened.

Still, the point was that Alma really did want to make close friends with someone outside her family and, while she was not going to judge people that weren’t like her harshly-and she certainly wasn’t going to bully anyone since she found that behavior as appalling and repugnant as dragon dung- it might be easier to connect with someone who was more like her. Her observations of her classmates had led her to the conclusion that the best candidates were her roommate and Urusla.

“Thanks.” Alma replied. “I mean, it wasn’t as if I was trying to do so since this is Charms and all but I was…visualizing, which is more of a Transfiguration thing and I’m a Brockert….” She trailed off. Aside from those obvious things that were rather gauche to mention, her family was known for two things, a super extensive complex family tree and being good at Transfiguration. “I don’t know if I just used the wrong tactic or what.”

She nodded. “That’s not a bad approach. I mean, it would be a bit difficult to do it all at once, you know?” Alma doubted that anyone ever got everything perfect on the first try as a first year, like making a whole paper sparkly regardless of whether they were using Charms or Transfiguration. Making small changes at a time had a better chance of being successful.Although she supposed that by the time you got to the end, what you did earlier might revert back to its original state

‘“I know!” Alma agreed. “I have no idea why Professor Wright thinks this has a limited use. Decoration is very important.” True, when it came to people, what was inside mattered more but she still preferred pretty clothing and accessories and nicely decorated rooms. “I think he has a very different view of what's useful than we do.”

11 Alma Brockert Indeed! 1580 0 5

Violet Calhoun

October 01, 2023 10:27 AM

Future so bright, I gotta wear shades. by Violet Calhoun

Violet had been glad to find upon beginning classes at Sonora that fortunately, her “book smart” intellect translated well into magical education. There was always the textbook reading and essay writing at which she knew she would excel, but practical application of magic was a beast of its own variety. However, from the very first few practical lessons, Violet had discovered that she was in fact quite natural with a wand. Potent magic did run in her father’s family - on both sides, from what she understood, although Dad didn’t like to talk about his paternal side. She knew that Aunt Desiree, for example, had the same father but a different mother, despite being in between Dad and Uncle Jake in age, and Violet also knew well enough not to ask any further clarification.

Whatever the source of her power, she was always just that much more pleased to see a lesson in which they actually got to cast something, even if a spell just to make something sparkly was pretty dumb. Even Professor Wright admitted it had “limited application” (i.e., it was useless), but at least it should be pretty easy.

He suggested they try pointing the wand at different spots on the paper, so Violet decided to try the bottom left corner, assuming most people would try the top or middle first. “Scintillate!” she incanted. The results were immediately fairly satisfactory - a good one inch by one inch area beginning to shimmer - but Violet lost her focus when someone else’s light refracted into her eye. “Ow!” she exclaimed as her paper returned to normal. “Damn…”

“Hey!” she called over to the source of the light. “Careful where you aim that thing!”

12 Violet Calhoun Future so bright, I gotta wear shades. 1575 0 5

Leo Lyons

October 01, 2023 12:32 PM

No shade intended! by Leo Lyons

Well, it looked like Donovan was going to go to the ball with Misty, and that left Leo...nowhere, really. He wasn't upset; on the contrary, he was glad ol' Don had finally worked up the courage to ask Misty and could stop talking about asking her nonstop. Leo was sure he wasn't the only one that was going stag, and if it really was that awkward at the Ball, he'd just leave and go study in the library or something. It's not like there wouldn't be other dances or chances for dates.

Leo focused on the task at hand, making his paper sparkle. This seemed sort of like a girly task, but he shrugged it off. His wand traced over the paper, planning out where he wanted to try first. The middle seemed too obvious, but it didn't feel right to start off-center. He compromised, tapping his wand in the center, then dragging it in a spiral to the edges of the paper as he said the incantation.

The results were... results, if nothing else. The paper glowed, dimly at first, before it flared into a bright flash.

"Argh!" Leo exclaimed, shielding his eyes. He flipped the paper to the dull side as it strobe-lighted the classroom like a rave, "No, no, no, no no!" He canceled the effect, rubbing his eyes grumpily.

Great. That was just what he needed, another classroom 'incident'. He was going to be single til his forties at this rate.

"Sorry," he replied to his neighbor, a first-year girl with messy hair, "That was not supposed to happen. Are you okay?"

64 Leo Lyons No shade intended! 1568 0 5

Violet Calhoun

October 01, 2023 9:19 PM

It's more for my own defense than anything. by Violet Calhoun

“Of course it wasn’t supposed to happen,” Violet snapped back. “You aren’t supposed to blind people.” A part of her was pleased that the second year boy who had blinded her had at least apologized for it, but unfortunately, it did not completely appease her anger. Violet was ultimately an angry person. This was simply a fact. And more often than not, she was not only aware but felt very justified in this. After all, she had lost her mom so young, and then her whole life had been uprooted to go move in with her dad she had never met before then. Violet did really love her dad, and his extended family - at least the ones she had met - had never been anything but kind and welcoming to her. But sometimes, she felt like an outsider anyway.

Who was this kid anyway? With her vision returning to normal, she looked him over. Leo something, a second year Teppenpaw. The school was small enough that someone with a memory like Violet’s tended to know most names by this time of year, especially for anybody in her classes. She could have probably known last names better too, if she cared enough. Last names were big for people like a lot of Dad’s family. It meant money or power or whatever. Big freaking whoop.

“I thought I was doing really well, too,” she complained, “but it went away when I suffered literal cornea damage. If I can’t get it to do it again, I’m going to be super mad.”

12 Violet Calhoun It's more for my own defense than anything. 1575 0 5

Leo Lyons

October 02, 2023 2:32 AM

It certainly seems...defensive. by Leo Lyons

Wow. This chick was seriously grouchy. Leo listened to her rant with a blank expression on his face. What did she want him to do? Go back in time and not turn the classroom into a laser show? He'd like that, too, but there was no way he was getting his hands on a time-turner, and there wasn't any guarantee he'd be able to stop himself from making the same mistake, anyway. It wasn't like she had even got the worst of it, he'd been staring right at his paper before it blinded him.

If Violet had been standing up, Leo would have thought she'd stamp her foot. She vaguely reminded Leo of Tinkerbell, with her tiny scowl and pixie-like hair. She did not look impressed with him.

"Look, I am sorry about your...corneas," Leo started, trying a diplomatic route, "And I'm sure if you've managed to make progress already, you can do it again. You're in Aladren, after all. I'm the one that needs practice." He looked down at his paper. "...obviously."

His eyes flicked back up to Violet, but he could see the storm had not quite blown over yet. Almost of its own volition, the corner of his mouth twitched, the barest hint of a smirk.

"You can yell at me some more after class, if you want."

That was probably not the most useful thing to ever come out of his mouth, and it was likely to get him yelled at, whether now or later, but it had come out nonetheless, and now he just had to wait and see how the chips fell.

64 Leo Lyons It certainly seems...defensive. 1568 0 5

Ursula Arcadius

October 10, 2023 5:31 AM

So very many plans by Ursula Arcadius

“It’s still an achievement, even if it’s not the one you were aiming for. Some people can’t get spells started at all, at least not at first. I don’t know,” she added regarding visualising. “I mean, we’ve never been told to only use it for Transfiguration. And a lot of Charms is quite visual too—at least, the effects of the ones we’re learning are.

“Thanks, but that also wasn’t on purpose,” Ursula admitted, as Alma credited her approach with more intention than she’d had. It only seemed fair to admit it, seeing as Alma had owned up to doing things unintentionally. Ursula liked to win, but only in fair fights, so accepting a compliment for something she hadn’t really done didn’t feel right. “Maybe I could try it more intentionally going forward though.

She mentally divided her paper into quarters, trying to focus on the top one. She wondered whether it was a good idea to limit her intended reach in this way, but once she got confident with a quarter, she could move up to a half. She tapped her wand at the centre of her imagined quarter, pleased with the sparkles that radiated a substantial way across it when she cast the spell.

“What things do you want to use it on once you’re good at it?” she asked Alma.

13 Ursula Arcadius So very many plans 1577 0 5

Alma Brockert

October 10, 2023 11:53 AM

Those are good ones by Alma Brockert

“Thank you.” Alma replied. “And that’s a good point.” It had never been an issue for her. Maybe it didn’t do exactly what she wanted or was supposed to but she was pretty sure it was rare for things to work perfectly on the first try for all but the most talented magical users. Even then, not all eleven year olds had necessarily had control and precision. In fact, if you were super powerful magically, it might even be harder to control the amount of power used.

Though Alma still would have preferred to be super talented and make a mess by being too powerful or- as she had done just now-do the wrong kind of magic than to not be at all good at magic and not having any result at all.This was taking into consideration that she would rather be precise than over the top. It was more elegant, less flashy.

The irony of that thought was not lost on her when talking about making things sparkly. Still that was about things being pretty . Maybe sparkly things were a bit more…obtrusive than things that were not. However, it was not as if they were out of the realm of good taste, at least not given Alma’s age. Of course, that was part of why using this spell with precision was more important. A touch of sparkle was an improvement. Sometimes a little went a long way.

Still, while the Crotalus would hate to make a spectacle of herself in any form, being good at magic was preferable to lacking any talent in it at all. Not producing any result at all would be far more shameful than making a mess or drawing attention to oneself. While not everyone in her family was a prodigy, not even in Transfiguration, nor were any of them magically weak. Nobody in her mother’s family was either. There were no Squibs anywhere on either side of the family. Although, obviously, if Alma were one, she wouldn’t be here. Still, if she struggled that way, she would feel bad about it, so she was really glad that it had never been an issue.

And she wasn’t worried that any of the cousins that she was close to were Squibs either, all three of them had displayed accidental magic. Not only would it have been awful for any of them not to be able to come to Sonora but it would have been awful for Alma too. Even if she made other friends.

“You’re right about that too.” She added. “I guess it works for a lot of things that involve appearances. I mean like if you’re doing some sort of artwork or designing anything you’d also want to visualize how you would want to look. And being intentional does also help with making magic do what you want it to do. Although I guess at this point it doesn’t always as both of our results suggest, but someday we’ll have more control over it. Like, once we have more experience with magic.”

Alma thought for a moment. “Hair ribbons and quills are both good ideas. I would like to use it to accessorize and embellish. And in artwork.”

11 Alma Brockert Those are good ones 1580 0 5

Charlotte O'Malley

October 12, 2023 6:26 AM

Not feeling as such by Charlotte O'Malley

Charlotte was the only second year girl without a date to the Ball-and while she wasn’t devastated, she had to admit that she was pretty disappointed. Although she understood that sometimes boys her age weren’t interested in girls yet and had not expected to have a date to the Ball this time, it still was not an especially nice feeling to be different in this way.

She wondered what was wrong with her. Why hadn’t Quillan asked her? Didn’t he like her? Like, at all? Was it just that he was shy? After all, not every twelve year old boy or boy of any age had that sort of confidence. Her dad hadn’t and her parents hadn’t become a couple until they were graduating. However, Mom hadn’t been the only girl in her year without a Ball date either.

Maybe Quillan didn’t want to desert his friends. Which Charlotte would have respected, as nobody should be left without anyone to hang out with and she was sure there were even others that she could talk to if the other second year didn’t ask her to the Ball. Except in the case of Quillan’s friends, Desmond and Nicholas could still hang out with each other or ask someone themselves. There were at least three respectable first year girls. (Although, she realized with some horror, that the three Aladren boys could ask those first year girls and she’d still end up alone. She really hoped that didn’t happen.)

The thing was, not only had Quillan not asked her…nobody else had either. And it was decidedly shaking Charlotte’s confidence. Like she really wondered what was so awful and unappealing about her? What did Misty and Ida have about them that made someone want to ask them to the Ball that Charlotte didn’t have? She had thought that she and Quillan were as good of friends as Misty was with Donovan or Ida was with Alexander even if nobody was seriously thinking about romance at this point. As for other boys, well the Teppenpaw supposed that she wasn’t that close to any of them, but she still couldn’t help wondering if she had some glaring flaw that she had somehow missed for the last thirteen years, something that everyone saw besides her.

It could have been worse though. At least Quillan hadn’t asked anyone else . Then Charlotte probably would have been really upset. Still, she probably would not have been upset at all if she wasn’t the only girl in the second year without a date. It had never happened to her before, but being the odd one out really was a terrible feeling. The Teppenpaw would still want to go with him but she might not have felt quite so bad if that wasn’t the case.

Professor Wright started the class and she forced herself to pay attention. Okay, making things sparkly. This could be fun. Charlotte could definitely use it as an element when crafting, which she guessed by his comment about this being limited in use, her professor did not do much. Of course, everyone had different hobbies. She liked to make things, Professor Wright seemed to like looking up obscure information and sharing that with the students, not unlike Gabriel actually.

Charlotte took out a piece of paper and grabbed her wand. “Scintillate “ ” She cast the spell, leaving sparkes scattered over half the paper. She sighed. She supposed it was pretty good, but she might have done even better had she been a bit more on. Making things sparkle seemed to be a spell one would do better when they were in a good mood.

She was just about to try again when she heard the person next to her address her.

11 Charlotte O'Malley Not feeling as such 1573 0 5

Mathias Melcher

October 18, 2023 1:11 PM

Twinkle twinkle piece of paper. by Mathias Melcher

Charms had to be Mathias’ favorite class. Well, one of them. Honestly, every class aside from Flying was his favorite class. Flying was largely pointless, not being an especially academic class. While the Aladren wasn’t solely focused on intellectual and practical magic matters-he also liked to be creative and appreciated the creativity of others-a class that focused on something that was mostly used in athletics was not especially useful or interesting to him. Especially when Mathias knew how to do the basics of flying prior to coming to Sonora.

Not that he thought athletes and people who enjoyed flying and sports were less than him. He generally didn’t think of most people as being below him and it also would be really hypocritical to think someone was below him for being an athlete when he found it obnoxious for athletes to look down on the unathletic and nerdy people, like himself. Mathias thought they were terrible for that attitude not because they liked and/or were good at sports. Nor did all athletes look down on people like him.

Anyway, it was fine if they enjoyed Flying Lessons but it wasn’t for him. He never quite got why people enjoyed that kind of thing. Why people liked doing physical activities, since they just weren’t that interesting but still, to each their own.

However, the rest of his classes were all so interesting and informative and being able to actually learn how to use magic was really cool. Even if he never used a particular spell or potion or needed to know a particular fact for exams, he still enjoyed knowing them. With spells and potions and practical components of lessons, they were all a step towards making him into a better, more skilled wizard and might even be steps towards learning a spell that Mathias would use at some point.

As for the theoretical sides of his subjects, like how and why something worked or the history of a spell or potion, which unless he went into a career field that used them, he probably wouldn’t need them after his exams, Mathias just plain found all of that interesting.

So, he supposed that it would be most accurate-and with a dad like his, he understood the importance of accuracy when it came to language and how one spoke and phrased things-to say that the first year did not have a favorite class when he liked all but one of them pretty much the same. However, Mathias definitely thought Professor Wright was his favorite professor.

Part of it was definitely that Connie had talked him up so much. Which actually should have made the first year’s own expectations so high that they were unattainable, but the professor really didn’t disappoint. First of all, he really was one of the most intellectually stimulating people around, not that the rest of his professors weren’t. However, it probably made sense that a middle-aged professor was more stimulating intellectually than the average person of Mathias’ age since he had years of studying and knowledge under his belt than an eleven or twelve year old. Especially as Professor Wright was an Aladren alum who obviously liked to look up obscure facts that they probably would never need and share that knowledge with his students. Which was something that Mathias both enjoyed and appreciated.

As he waited for his favorite professor to start class that day, he scribbled down his latest poem.

Moon spike slack slick
Open fox cheese chess
Seize cease
Crabby organ
Potato

That was a good one! He would have to share that with someone later but right now class was starting and Professor Wright deserved his full attention. Also, Mathias did not want to miss anything.

Okay, they were making papers sparkle. The Aladren had to agree that this particular spell might not be of much practical use but one never knew might come in handy. Maybe in the future, he would have to use it to temporarily blind someone so he could sneak past them and find out what they were hiding. Not that he would want to cause someone pain but if he needed it to expose government secrets, then so be it.

At the very least, it sounded like one of those building block things. Mathias got his paper and did the appropriate wand movements over it. “ Scintillate ” The paper turned sparkly in patches. He turned to his neighbor. “So, how are you doing on this?”

11 Mathias Melcher Twinkle twinkle piece of paper. 1581 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

October 19, 2023 7:56 AM

Oh but you are by Quillan Arcadius

According to the agreement he’d set with his roommates, Quillan had five days left to inform them whether or not he was going to the dance with Charlotte O’Malley. And he had no idea. He wanted to. Allegedly, according to Desmond, she had no reason to object to him. But whilst Desmond was an authority in a great many errors, ‘what pretty girls think about Quillan’ wasn’t really something you could read a book on, so Quillan was a little hesitant about the credibility of Desmond’s claims. He had stated that they hadn’t come from Charlotte herself, so how was he actually supposed to know whether or not she liked him?

That was one barrier to asking. Another was how to actually do it, assuming that he was brave enough. He knew the etiquette of asking someone to dance at a party (make eye contact, slight bow, ask politely then lead your lady to the dance floor if she says ‘yes,’ be gracious if she says ‘no’). He knew how to invite someone else to a party he was hosting (get someone with competent spelling to write fancy invitations and pretend they were from him). This fell in a weird sort of middle ground. He wasn’t just asking her to dance, he was asking her to the whole entire ball but it wasn’t his ball.

Moreover he was, according to the infinite wisdoms of both Desmond and Nicholas, not asking her to be his girlfriend nor marry him, both of which he was pretty sure he could at least have found advice on in an etiquette book.

He wanted to do it nicely, which might mean a flower or a small gift.

The universe decided that the mental torture he was going through in trying to work out how to ask her was insufficient, and that he must also suffer some humiliation, as when he arrived to charms, the only free seats were next to her or Leo.

He almost picked Leo.

But he couldn’t quite bring himself to, and slid instead into the seat next to Charlotte, hoping that perhaps chatting with her for the lesson gave him some clue as to how to ask her out. He definitely needed a focus besides the spell which, as Professor Wright pointed out, was mostly useless.

Though maybe he could make something sparkly for her? Girls liked sparkly things, right?

He tried to think sparkly, pretty, Charlotte-related thoughts as he tapped his paper.

“That’s odd,” he said, more to himself than anyone as a slim, looping curve appeared on his paper. Which attracted Charlotte’s attention. Just as realised what most people would have realised much more immediately, which was that it was a large, cursive letter ‘C’ which was what Charlotte’s name began with however much it sounded like it didn’t.

“Nothing,” he said, flipping the paper over quickly. “Just… messy. Yours is good though.”

13 Quillan Arcadius Oh but you are 1570 0 5

Charlotte O'Malley

October 19, 2023 12:50 PM

Aw, thanks by Charlotte O'Malley

Charlotte turned her head when she heard Quillan say something. She had been very aware of his presence ever since he had sat down given how she’d been wanting him to ask her to the ball and how that had been on her mind an awful lot.. She hoped that he was sitting there because he wanted to and not because it had been one of the only seats left when he’d shown up.

Of course, she’d greeted him when he sat down, because it would have been rude not to. Which would not have been the case with everyone although Charlotte did usually say hi to most people. She wanted to be friendly and helpful, especially with the first years. However, as Quillan was her friend, she certainly was not going to ignore him.

For one thing, she didn’t want him to think she was mad at him. She really wasn’t. There were logical reasons why he might not have asked her such as being shy. Although he was in activities, mainly Quidditch and Speech and Debate Club that she didn’t really associate with shyness, being that her dad and Wally were both shy and Charlotte couldn’t see them joining either, Dad being unable to get a broomstick to actually come up being beside the point.

Of course, one of Piper’s tent mates at the Bonfire, Yarielis used to play Quidditch and she wasn’t exactly the most outgoing person, so the Teppenpaw just thought it was some weird pattern in her brain that associate athletic people with being outgoing even though arguably it didn’t necessarily seem to be something that would go hand in hand with each other.

However, Speech and Debate on the other hand…well, someone had to be confident in their opinions and not be worried others were going to make fun of them for what they thought. Which was not really how her dad was. He only ever felt safe to express himself with those he was comfortable with, thanks tpuusho Biological Grandma Who Shall Not Be Mentioned. Even though Charlotte had picked up enough-mainly because some of her relatives would occasionally spill the beans when they’d been drinking.

Then again, she supposed that sharing your opinions in a club was not quite the same as interpersonal relationships. Or in certain areas or certain subjects. Her dad was quite passionate when rescuing children from bad homes and was willing to share those opinions and findings with his bosses but would probably not be comfortable discussing other controversial subjects. Or meeting new people.

The point was, Charlotte could see how someone could be involved in certain activities-or for that matter, activities in general-but still be afraid to ask someone out. It could even mean that you cared more about that person’s opinions and whether or not they’d reject you. Quillan could also be just not…at an age where he was interested in girls yet. Or he could not be interested in girls at all, that was a possibility too. Which would be fine with her albeit a bit disappointing. Or maybe he and his roommates had agreed to just hang out with each other, Though why they hadn’t included Alexander in such a pact was beyond her, unless they made it after he asked Ida.

Or Quillan could just not like her. That was also a possibility, but a very depressing one.

“Oh, that’s really not bad.” Charlotte replied. Clearly he had said something else but she wasn’t going to push the issue and embarrass him. “I mean, messy isn’t anything to worry about right now, I mean, nobody’s going to do this perfectly.” Okay,Kira might have been able to, but most people weren’t Kira. “Thank you though.” She replied, blushing a little at the compliment.

11 Charlotte O'Malley Aw, thanks 1573 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

October 20, 2023 9:55 PM

You're welcome by Quillan Arcadius

“Thanks,” he said, as she said ‘messy’ wasn’t anything to worry about. She hadn’t seen. Or, if she had, she was pretending not to have and was politely not saying anything. Quillan would take that. He would have loved to know which it was, but as there was no way of finding out without drawing further attention to it, he would just have to take it at face value.

“You’re welcome,” he said. She was blushing a little. He cast a quick glance over her own paper to try and work out whether she had anything to be embarrassed about, but he didn’t see anything wrong. Her own sparkles weren’t spelling out his name or anything.

He ought to make another attempt at the spell. But he would need to banish all ball-related, Charlotte-related thoughts from his head before he risked it. Which was much harder to do when she was right there. How was he supposed to not think about how pretty she was, or how he was running out of time to ask her, when she was right next to him?

“Do you have plans for the weekend?” he asked, desperately stalling on returning to the task, lest his magic betrayed him again.

13 Quillan Arcadius You're welcome 1570 0 5

Charlotte O'Malley

October 21, 2023 5:18 PM

Good, that's good. by Charlotte O'Malley

Maybe it was a fairly minor compliment that Quillan paid her, saying her spellwork was good-at least that seemed to be what he’d complimented her on-but at the moment, it wasn’t as if Charlotte was feeling really great about herself so even that meant a lot. Actually it was a pretty nice compliment since being a good witch, being good at magic was important, generally speaking. She wasn’t sure it was exactly what she wanted right now, but she would take it.

Especially from Quillan. Charlotte was…decidedly craving validation from him. Well, okay, she was craving a ball invite and admittedly, it wasn’t all because she wanted to go with him. Well, she did, obviously there were other boys who could have asked her, but the Aladren was definitely the person she’d prefer. Still, part of the issue was that she was still the only girl in her year without a date to the Ball and it was just not a pleasant feeling at all. She felt like she was inferior to Ida and Misty somehow and so, any compliment on anything right now, especially from Quillan, the boy she actually wanted to go to the Ball with was appreciated.

“You’re welcome too.” Charlotte replied. Honestly, arguably, she had given less of a compliment than he’d given her since basically what she’d done was just reassured him. Still, she didn’t want him to feel bad if he hadn’t done a perfect job at his spell. The Teppenpaw didn’t like for anyone to feel bad, let alone someone she considered her closest friend regardless of whether or not he felt the same way.

Not that Charlotte thought there was a correlation between that and anything having to do with the Ball, just that Quillan also was friends with his roommates and Alexander so he might have considered them closer friends than her generally speaking. Like, Desmond and Nicholas were his roommates, that tended to be a chance for more bonding than he had with her. One that Charlotte didn’t have with anyone being that she didn’t have a roommate.

Of course, it wasn’t always the case, since while Aunt Peyton and her roommate at Sonora, Jasmine were best friends, Mom hadn’t been close to hers at all and Wally’s had bonded more with Lavender than him. So, yes,roommates weren’t the be all and end all, but still Quillan was friends with his and therefore, might be closer to them than her.

Anyway, it was possible that Quillan was just appreciating that she had reassured him.And that was nice too. Charlotte was glad to have made someone feel better and she’d also really meant what she had said. She assumed that his paper was like an explosion of scattered sparkles and not as neat and tidy as he probably would have preferred since he did seem to be a neat and tidy sort of person. His other friends seemed to be the neat and tidy sorts too and maybe he was worried that they’d judge him and that Charlotte would too? Which she wouldn’t, of course.

Then Quillan asked if she had plans for the weekend. Was he hoping to do something with her? Maybe it wasn’t the Ball invite that she was hoping for but…still it would make her plenty happy if he did want to spend time with her this weekend. “Nope! No plans at all!” Charlotte hurriedly replied. Even if he wasn’t going to ask her to do something, at least he was taking interest in what she was doing and that was good, right?

11 Charlotte O'Malley Good, that's good. 1573 0 5