Professor Levy
May 11, 2010 11:22 AM
DADA Beginner Level (First and Second Years): Lesson I by Professor Levy
Erika was thankful that the last Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had left his notes for her to use since it had given her some ideas for this new career. Yes, it still felt new even though it was only her second year, but then she had thought by now she would have moved on instead of finding that she had begun to enjoy the routine her life was settling into. The only thing that could have made it better would have been able to see Torra everyday, but that would have been in a perfect world and life was anything but perfect.The Defense Against the Dark Arts class had met in its normal classroom. She figured this would have been easiest since some students may not have ventured out to the Gardens yet, or worse, try to use it as an opportunity to try and ditch class. Of course, it was worse for them than her since they would be serving detention while she did the normal grading of papers that she always did in the evening. Once she had taken the usual role call, she picked up a box on her desk and led the group of first and second years outside to where she would be conducting the lesson.
Standing in front of the entrance to the maze, Erika called out, “All right, everyone, listen up! Today, we’re going to be focusing on three spells. Point-Me, Expelliarmus, and Protego. Point-Me is a directional spell. Okay, wands out. Place them in your hand like so,” she lectured as she placed her wand on her flat palm. “Then, say Point-Me.” Her wand shifted to point North. “If done correctly, your wand should be pointing North.” She waited while everyone got the spell down.
“Now, then, let’s move on. Most magic is neutral and it’s the intent of the person that uses it that makes it good or bad. Honestly, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. There are some wicked people out there who love using magic for evil purposes, but that doesn’t mean you should live in fear,” Erika paused looking at her students intently before continuing. “You may go your entire life without ever meeting someone that means you harm. However small the chance, there is still a chance and that’s what we’re here to learn. How to defend ourselves.”
She didn’t mean to scare anyone, but Erika didn’t believe in lying to them about why they were taking the class. “It’s best, if you can, to get out of a dangerous situation, but if you can’t, the other two spells I mentioned before come in handy. Expelliarmus is probably the most simple and most useful spell that you could ever know. It’s used to disarm your opponent and if you can do that, then you take away anything they can do with a wand.” She didn’t mention anything in regards to wandless magic as that would be a lesson for when they were older.
“However, the spell can also be used to disarm you. Protego is a good counter move. It’s a defensive spell intended to deflect minor spells. Now, then, I need a volunteer.” She chose one of the second year raised hands. She figured it would be better if they had already had a little experience with the class to give a proper demonstration. “All right. First, I’m going to show everyone Expelliarmus. Watch me. Expelliarmus!” The wand movement was smooth until the ending jab when her spell was sent towards the student.
She showed them once more before continuing to the next spell. “Watch me again, but this time I’m going to do Protego.” She instructed her opponent to do Expelliarmus and once they sent the spell her way, she easily deflected it with the proper wand movement. “Protego!” She demonstrated the spell once more. “I think everyone has the basic idea, but practicing will help more than me just showing you. Don’t worry, though, we won’t just be dueling today.”
Opening the large box she had brought out earlier, Erika pulled out one of the vests inside. “There are four different color vests inside this box. Blue, yellow, purple, and orange. The color you get will make up what team you are on. Each team should come up with a name and come get a map from me, because you’ll need it when going into the Labyrinth.” She gave a grin. “So, you’re probably wondering what the spells, vests, and maze have to do with one another. Your goal is to protect yourself and your team members from other teams while trying to make it out of the maze. The first team with all of its surviving members out of the maze wins whatever is in this bag.”
She paused for a moment allowing each of them a good look at the colorfully decorated paper bag. “Whenever someone disarms you using Expelliarmus, your vest will change from its current color to black. When this happens, it’ll be like you are no longer there. You may continue to move along with your team, but you may not help them or talk to them. You can, however, talk to others with black vests. Before everyone goes running off the maze, one more thing, if anything happens in the maze and you need help, point your wand up in the air and use the Spark Charm,” Erika said with a quick demo, “and I’ll come find you. Once you have a map and a group, you may begin.”
OOC: Please remember that posts should be a minimum of two paragraphs (ten sentences). Points will be awarded on post length, grammar, creativity, etc. You may be in any group you like, just make sure to put the color of your vest (blue, purple, yellow, orange, or black.) Have fun!
Subthreads: This... is.... SONORAAAA! (Orange) by Neal Padrig, Pecari with Ellie McGill, Neal, Orange, Dani Adair (Orange), Kirstenna Melcher (Orange)
My application said this would be my favorite class... by Nicodemus Sawyer (Blue) with Dmitri Petrovskii (Blue), Brian Moore, Blue, Alessa Hinckley
And I was so sure it was going to be a boring lesson! by Mariana Ravenmore (purple) with Autumn Collins, Purple, Cosette Miller, Purple, Veronica Kerrigan, Purple, Rachel Bauer, Purple
Is it cheating to fly over the maze-thing or strategizing? by Tristan Volkmann, Yellow with Tobar Brishen, Brad Hayman (Aladren, Yellow), Caleb Nichols (Aladren)
Class is Closed! (nm) by Professor Levy
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Professor Levy
DADA Beginner Level (First and Second Years): Lesson I
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Professor Levy
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Nicodemus Sawyer (Blue)
May 12, 2010 3:02 PM
My application said this would be my favorite class... by Nicodemus Sawyer (Blue)
Since he began school at Sonora, Nic Sawyer had gone from an all-encompassing dread that people would find out what his full first name was to a slow acceptance that, in the magic world, 'Nicodemus' was perhaps not the worst name a person could be saddled with (so far, he'd probably give that dubious honor to 'Starbuck' - and he was pretty sure her parents were both muggles, which made it even worse). To his surprise, he found that while 'Nicodemus' certainly wasn't common, wizards seemed to like strange and unusual names, so it wasn't particularly notable, either.As such, he was slowly beginning to forgive the teachers that forced him to raise his hand and and say 'Here' when they called out 'Nicodemus Sawyer' for all and sundry to hear. Professor Erika Levy of Defense Against the Dark Arts was among that number. The first week or so, this had caused him to dislike both the woman and her class, but he was getting over that, until he was almost starting to like DADA.
But, obviously, not in a nerdy and Aladren way, because Nic was way too cool to be such a dork.
Of course, keeping to his target 80% grade average was proving oddly difficult. Tests and homework were, of course, helpful in letting him manipulate his grade down to where he needed it to be to avoid notice as an overachiever, but the practical class assignments tended toward things that were either all-or-nothing (in which case 100% was much closer to 80% than 0% was) or else they were the kind of things the sort of person Nic was trying to pass himself off as would be good at.
DADA was, in large part, a class about fighting, after all.
And Nic spent the first ten years of his life proving he could defend himself against any and all comers. He didn't have a particularly impressive amount of muscle, but he was tall and he could hold his own against most playground bullies and he could run like the wind if he really had to. The last two hadn't been as important during his last year at his muggle elementary school, and it wasn't just because he'd graduated to the fifth grade and the older bullies had moved up to the middle school. His own grade had its share of tough guys, but Nic had made sure everyone counted him among that number.
Three things cemented that reputation. First, he used his height to loom. In spite of the truly ridiculous robes he was forced to wear in class, this wasn't too difficult to continue in the First and Second Year classes at Sonora. He didn't even have to try very hard. The school had some third years who were shorter than him. And, well, he was starting to figure out a way to walk that kind of made the robes billow a bit, which was an effect he was quite impressed by, and almost made up for the fact that he had to wear something he associated with pajamas in public. Almost.
Second, he didn't talk much. The 'strong and silent type' was a standard in literature for a reason; 'dark and mysterious' was also a highly impressive classic figure, which may have worked better if Nic's coloring was more striking, but at least he was tanned and brunette. Nic was not above taking advantage of these stereotypes.
Plus, not talking helped him with the third thing, too. The last thing Nic did to make everyone think he was a heavy was that he never let anyone find out how smart he was. Mark Twain said 'It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.' Nic worked on the corollary 'It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and let people figure out you're not.'
This last was important for several reasons - not least of which was the other stereotype that people with brawn didn't have brains (though actually the real problem was the belief that people with brains didn't have brawn, and if people had to think Nic had one but not the other, he wanted it widely known he had the brawn). Another serious problem with letting people find out he was intelligent was that smart people were usually nerds; nerds carried their own set of stereotypes that Nic wanted nothing to do with. Plus the smart kids always got the teachers' attention in class, and Nic would much rather fade into the middle. He didn't want the pressure of expectation on him.
His own expectations were enough of a challenge to meet, and harder than anything anyone else could put on him. But if he messed up, nobody would really notice. If he had to fail - which Nic hated to do - he rather not let anyone realize it happened.
And, of course, it was always fun to get that perfect 80% and see how many tests it took the teacher to realize he got exactly every fifth question wrong and that the statistical likelihood of that happening by chance was astronomical. Some never did. Nic always felt like he got away with pulling off some kind of brilliant crime when that happened: a little bit of guilt but mostly smug victory and a sense of secret accomplishment.
Unfortunately, DADA was proving to be a real dilemma. He was sorely tempted to excel in the class, to rise up out of the depths of mediocrity so people could see that he was good at this kind of thing. Like gym, it was one of those kinds of subjects where it was almost accepted that the brawny kids without real brains could do reasonably well, except not as much because there were still tests and homework.
So Nic slacked on the homework, barely stringing coherent sentences together on topics only peripherally related to the questions being asked, when he did the homework at all, and hoped that an utterly abysmal showing there would be enough to counter any thoughts that he might be a good student. He eighty percented the tests, so the teacher wouldn't think he was a moron with an idiot savant's practical talent - he wanted to come across as academically mediocre, not an utterly brainless thug. Which left him, he hoped, in a position where he could actually do well in class.
Which was just as well, because Professor Levy's lesson out in the Gardens today, was looking to be particularly difficult. She introduced four different spells, put all of the students in what Nic could only assume were bullet proof vests, and told them to have at each other in the labyrinth with a primary goal of survival.
With that in mind, when he went to pick a vest, he immediately discarded the orange and yellow ones as far too bright and visible. That left purple and blue, and as a guy, purple was not an option, so he quickly grabbed a blue one before they disappeared.
Putting it on, he stood off to the side a little and waited for more blue vested people to join him. Once they seemed to have a full group, he couldn't quite put names to all of them, so he jabbed his chest with his thumb and said, "Nic," by way of introduction to those who didn't know him yet.
Figuring they ought to get the cheesy part over with quickly so they could get on to the important issue of winning the survival game, he asked, "Does anyone have a cutesy group name, or are we just going to stick with 'The Blue Team'?" He let his tone suggest that he saw nothing at all wrong with being 'The Blue Team' and that he would, in fact, prefer it to anything cutesy.
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Nicodemus Sawyer (Blue)
My application said this would be my favorite class...
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Nicodemus Sawyer (Blue)
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Dmitri Petrovskii (Blue)
May 15, 2010 10:35 PM
Mine didn't. by Dmitri Petrovskii (Blue)
Defense Against the Dark Arts was a class that Dmitri had mixed feelings on. At home, he was expected to excel in his studies without worry about having to defend himself for there were those who were trained to do that, who would give their lives in place of his. Here, it seemed expected, because just living in the magical world was dangerous for anyone. It seemed strange that he would learn to defend himself in a more powerful way than those who were currently protecting him would be, but then he supposed that not all wizards would be familiar with what muggles were capable of. Still, he felt it was nearly a betrayal to his bodyguards to defend himself moreso than they could.At the same time, he couldn't help feeling somewhat excited over the prospect. If he chose to go into a field similar to his father, he would certainly have protection, but if anything ever happened, he would be capable of protecting himself. Or even soon, maybe he would be capable of protecting his parents. That would be great! Then, he would never have to fear something happening. Oh, it wasn't that it was always on his mind, but it popped in there every once in a while. It was hard to ignore when there were so many violent things going on in the world, but he tried to think of the good his father was doing instead. Perhaps, that was what this class was really about. Doing good.
He listened closely to the professor explain what they would be doing in the lesson. There was certainly a lot to learn at once, but he couldn't deny that it sounded interesting. He wondered if Professor Levy had a thing for Darwin since they would be playing Survival of the Fittest. Before he could test his luck at being one of the lucky few, he needed to find a group. Going to the box, he quickly picked out blue. Sure, yellow was one of his house colors, but he wasn't really that fond of it whereas he loved blue. Yes, he thought blue would do quite nicely. Now, to find who else was blue. Glancing up, he noticed a boy, Nicodemus he believed, standing a little ways away with a blue vest.
Heading over, he joined the other boy while others rapidly approached. Awesome. Okay, so introductions were first. So, the boy, who to him, already seemed to be the leader, called himself Nic. That was cool. He would have to keep that in mind. He didn't want to accidentally call someone something they didn't want to be called. After all, it wasn't like he wanted people to call him what his mother called him. That would just be totally embarrassing if people went around calling him Dimka. He added his part to the round of introductions, smiling pleasantly at everyone. He just didn't have it in him to be moody or bossy. And as for the group name, the Blue Team wasn't exactly original, but he guessed it was better than everyone disagreeing, though, he did have one suggestion. "How about the Blue Man Group?" A reference to a favorite.
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Dmitri Petrovskii (Blue)
Mine didn't.
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Dmitri Petrovskii (Blue)
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Brian Moore, Blue
May 16, 2010 3:09 PM
Mine said I did, but that depends on how this class goes by Brian Moore, Blue
Brian had thought Defense Against the Dark Arts had sounded like it’d be really cool. He’d always wanted to be a superhero, like Superman or someone like that. He wanted to save people. What better way to save people than to take a defense class? Sure he didn’t know much about it beyond the name of the course and some lessons and pictures he’d seen in his text book, but he had all the hope in the world that this class would be amazing.Professor Levy made him not as hyped up as he had been earlier that day. The thought of hurting someone else was, to him, awful. He was already upset he had been made his team’s Beater, which was his least favorite position he tried out for since that meant he was out to hurt other people and it only made things worse that now this class was, as Professor Levy said, preparing them to fight, which meant preparing them to hurt. At least this lesson wasn’t so bad since it was just disarming. No one would get hurt, right?
He went to go look for a vest color, careful to not bump into anyone who was also trying to get a vest, and he happened to get a blue one. He smiled and put it on. Blue was one of his favorite colors! He looked around to find his group, glad to notice his roommate Dmitri was in the group also. So was some guy who looked like one of those cool kids his mom told him not to talk to in school, but he seemed polite enough to at least introduce himself. “Hi, I’m Brian,” he also introduced for anyone who didn’t already know him.
The team names that were suggested around weren’t as exciting as Brian would’ve liked (he was thinking something more along the lines of ‘The Ultimate Superhuman Magically Blue Dragon Squad') but he didn’t want to offend anyone by saying he didn’t like their ideas and he didn’t want to look like the odd-man out. Besides, they weren’t really that bad, it was the spirit behind the name that’d make their team cool. “Either team name works fine by me,” he said with a happy-go-lucky grin.
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Brian Moore, Blue
Mine said I did, but that depends on how this class goes
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Brian Moore, Blue
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Alessa Hinckley
May 18, 2010 7:19 PM
It's certainly not mine by Alessa Hinckley
As soon as Alessa heard the lesson she groaned inwardly. She was already not too thrilled about being outside, as Alessa wasn't a terribly outdoorsy person but she hated lessons like this, lessons that involved something like athletic competition.She was terrible at those kinds of things. It would have been one thing to pair up and disarm each other but this would actively involve others trying to take her out of competition while looking for her way out of a maze. This seemed like an awful lot to worry about and be aware of and Alessa did not care for things were she had to worry about others being out to get her. She was sure she could cast the spells, but she wasn't sure she could take others out and navigate a maze while trying to make sure she wasn't taken out.
Actually, it seemed like a lot of the Defense lessons were like this. Last year they'd played that dreadful muggle game where balls had been thrown at them and they'd had to deflect them. Alessa supposed this lesson was a bit better than that one had been. The Aladren had hated every second of that one, not because it was a muggle game, but because Alessa really didn't like doing anything remotely physical.
Still, if it kept up that way, she was dropping this class after CATS.
Sighing to herself, Alessa went over and pulled out a blue vest. She walked over to the rest of the blue team to find three boys there. Alessa assumed they were first years because she was unfamiliar with them and she knew the names of everyone in her own class.
That didn't bother her, Alessa didn't really mind being with guys. Two of the people in her own class she liked best were Theo and Tobar. On the other hand, some of the girls in her year got on her nerves, especially the Pecaris.
She listened to the boys introduce themselves, taking note of each of their names. After Brian spoke, Alessa introduced herself as well. "I don't really care about the team name either." She had no real good ideas, and really, she just wanted the class to be over.
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Alessa Hinckley
It's certainly not mine
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Alessa Hinckley
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Nic; Blue
May 24, 2010 11:06 AM
Splendid by Nic; Blue
Nic tried not react to Dmitri's suggestion for their group name. He wasn't violently opposed to The Blue Man Group's continued existence in world, but he preferred to keep his awareness of such limited to Intel commercials. He certainly did not have any wish to be mistaken for the sort of person who painted his skin blue. He looked hopefully at Alessa, silently pleading with her to take feminist affront to being a part of the Blue Man Group, but she remained as non-committal as Brian did.He decided to use her as an excuse anyway. "In deference to our lady group members," he nodded to Alessa and the other girls who hadn't yet ventured an opinion on the team name, "I think maybe we shouldn't go with Blue Man Group," he shrugged, as if apologetic for this choice - which he wasn't and he didn't entirely care if the others saw through the pretense - "Equal opportunity and all that."
He'd also gathered that 'The Blue Team' also wasn't winning any popularity awards, so he tried to come up with something less objectionable and less boring. "What about the Sonora Blues?" Some school spirit, the group color, and a little bit of irony for those who wanted something clever. Plus, it didn't imply anyone was painting themselves blue, which Nic could only see as a positive thing.
"Also, do we have anyone good at reading maps, who can be our navigator?"
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Nic; Blue
Splendid
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Nic; Blue
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