Charms Class - Group One

Amelia noticed that Amelia still didn't seem interested and was flicking through an old textbook. Well at least she was reading. No doubt, being a sixth year, Amelia would have already done the spell. In fact, Professor Cooper had no idea why she had even been put into the class full of younger students... It didn't make sense? Was it to give her an easy road given what had happened? No. An easy road wasn't going to help the girl with her NEWT's. 

'The cheering charm is relatively old and was created in the fourteen hundreds by a wizard called Felix summerbee.' Hallie began to inform, giving the class a bit of background knowledge. 'Despite that it's a relatively simple spell, which can be overdone if you don't concentrate properly. Does anybody know what could happen if the spell is overdone?'

Amelia addressed the class. She was unsure whether students at Hogwarts still raised their hands like in her day, or if they simply called out. She could work with at the start but as the lesson progressed she would need to ask specific students, just to make sure they were following.

Amelia sighed. She supposed she would have to show some effort. It may have not seemed like she cared or even felt like doing anything. She could easily could get a ton of points if she wanted. She didn’t apply herself. Could she? Of course. But she didn’t.

“You can cause a person to have fits of hysterical laughing,” yawned Amelia before going back to reading. If the younger students weren’t bright enough to answer first then they were really going to struggle at Hogwarts. Well, if they didn’t want her to answer they shouldn’t have put her in this class.

'Excellent, five points to Hufflepuff.' Amelia smiled towards Amelia who seemed to have put in a bit of effort to reply. The rumours floating around the staff room and old student records must have been a mistake. One charms class last year, taught by an old witch, had left a note on Amelia's records saying she was trouble. Amelia Cooper so not such thing.

'Amelia is absolutely right. Back when I was a student one student cast the charm on me and I was in hysterics for the rest of the afternoon - I had to go to the hospital wing for a calming draught in the end.' Amelia chuckled. The student who had castes such a charm on her in the third year was a Gryffindor by the name of Robert Cooper. Although back then they weren't a couple, they barely knew each other. To Amelia Robert was an overly-outgoing Gryffindor and he thought she was a bookwormish, study-obsessed Ravenclaw. 

'Now. The if done correctly the cheering charm will, quiet obviously, cheer somebody up. It will put them in a mild state of euphoria and you will feel refreshed - skilled wizards have been known to change the persons perspectives to be more optimistic for days on end. I don't think we are quiet there yet but maybe in the future one of you could be the next Felix Summerbee.' Amelia continued, giving a more in depth description of the cheering charms effects.

Interlocking her fingers and resting them neatly in front of her Amelia smiled. 'Now I bet you're all fed up me talking so I think it's about time that we get on and start the spell ourselves!' 

Waving her wand again the piece of chalk began to write the word Fortuno. 'Fortuno.' Amelia pronounced. 'Pronounced like fortune although with the addition of the o. Now, before you starting casting and waving your wands in merry directions I want you to repeat after me: For-tune-o. Fortuno'

(OOC: assuming you will all put your character replying to her...)

Amelia listened carefully as the students replied and smiled. It was difficult to hear mistakes in their pronunciation, which gave her hope. 'Now, the wand movement.'

Pointing her wand ahead of her Amelia drew what looked like a banana on it's side. 'You want to do a swish, with a bit of a flourish - almost as though you are drawing a smile in the air.'

Walking towards one of the students (An NPC just for easiness) Amelia pointed her wand at the student, who looked rather nervous and spoke the word 'Fortuno' with a swish of her wand. The student immediately gave a giggle and was soon finding it hard to hide a smile.

'Now. Split into pairs and practice. If you need any help I will be walking around helping you with your wand movements.' Amelia said 'Remember to think positive thoughts and don't over do it!' She added, calling loudly over the room before walking towards Amelia Macmillen.

Crouching down besides her desk and tried to look the girl in the eye. 'I know you're far beyond this but it is always good to recap. Plus it will give you chance to practice casting non-verbally. Something that you'll need to know how to do for your NEWT's. Do you know what a non-verbal spell is?' 

Amelia spoke in a soft, low voice. Hopefully she wouldn't insult the girls intelligence with her question but Professor Cooper felt it necessary to check and if needs be quickly go through non-verbal spells with her. 

Amelia rolled her eyes. Did this teacher think she was stupid? She may have not paid much attention or half of the time skipped last year but that was beside the point. She still got Exceed Expectations. She supposed having her dad breathing down her neck to practice Charms and her mum making her study during the summer she would have failed.

“Yes I know what it is,” grumbled Amelia. She had watched her godfather ‘uncle’ use it sometimes. She had learned a lot from him. He had explained to her what a non-verbal spell was when she was a first year.

Amelia swished her wand in the air in the banana shape. It didn’t really work nor fail. It glowed faintly but didn’t have a desired effect. It was close as she had ever gotten for a non-verbal spell working.

Leah stretched idly, more interested in actually getting some of the content down that the other students provided in a side panel he had ruled up on his page simply called 'anecdotes'. Yes, good and proper research into a spell was good. Yes, knowing the details about the angle of elevation for the wand gestures were also quite good. But sometimes there would be a gem in the casual stories told by classmates. Those weren't generally recorded on paper, and Leah had quickly made it a habit to try and look at the subtle influences that people didn't normally account for. In one instance, there had been a particular stance you could take with one gesture that didn't involve grinding your wrist in an odd way that was frankly painful.
These little stories probably came from a wide range of sources, as some of them definitely had a ring of experience to them that belied the age of the mixed class members.

In truth, Leah felt somewhat ambiguous about the spell. It was sketchy, and definitely earned itself the sub-section of bewitchment. Forcing an emotion on another...it wasn't technically all that bad. Leah could see the uses for it, but he also knew that getting 'drunk' or overwhelmed by anything could lead to behaviour they might not typically perform or consent to with their inhibitions in place. A momentary flash of his father's drunken stagger played in his ears- blanking out the low key murmur of the classroom.

Obviously, you did tend to ask yourself as to the intentions of this Summerbee fellow when he'd made the spell. Of course, perhaps Leah was simply overreacting. Not everyone had seen the impacts abnormal behaviour could have on people. Drugs, it wasn't that far removed was it? A feeling of euphoria? An overdose leading to hysteria?
At the bottom of his page of notes, Leah scrawled out a note to himself and underlined it for emphasis. Use with caution.
Looking down at the small note, he wondered again if he was just jumping at shadows playing on the wall. One of the first things he'd learned in Transfiguration was that you never transfigured anything into something that could be eaten, or drunk. Liquids evaporated, transfigurations didn't last forever. It didn't take a genius to figure out that if you turned a stone into some water and drank it, you were going to die. So Leah had taken a more fundamental, generalised lesson on board that he approached all magic with. "Look for unintended consequences," was how he typically summed it up for himself.

Chiming in with the rest of the class, Leah wasn't too concerned about that. One of the benefits of acting was you became very accustomed to your own voice and he generally didn't have issues with that portion of spell-casting. It was generally the movements he screwed up with. He could mentally juggle all the prompts and cues he liked for the spell, but right now if he couldn't move his wand in the positive parabolic arc- the spell wouldn't trigger. Simple as that.
He ran it around his mouth, saying it fast, slow, loud, softly and so on as he played with it to get the optimal intonation. It needed to fall a bit at the beginning, but pick up in two places as it was said. For the vowels? Leah ran it through again, nodding in satisfaction as he did so.

As the Professor walked over to demonstrate the charm, Leah looked away- the giggle slashing toxic miasma through the air. Seeing it demonstrated wasn't hugely disconcerting, but seeing the plain nervousness on the students face vanish had been a little jarring.
Perhaps he would simply skip on this charm, his wand lay on the desk- the appetite for spell casting he normally had wasn't feeling like eating today. As Professor Cooper instructed the class to go and pair up, he complied, briefly pausing as he remembered to grab his wand as rose to his feet. Wandering off into the milling body of students, Leah found some random fifth year who seemed to be have been left out of the matching making process.

Catching his eye, Leah asked with his eyebrows (a slight raise and downwards inclination) if the boy was free. A nod was the response, so Leah ambled over, flicking his wand idly at his side as he approached. Settling a few feet away from the Hufflepuff, Leah indicated with his wand tip that he would take the first attempt, a proposal which merited no resistance.
Despite his initial distaste, Leah found himself slowly warming to the idea- but not fast enough to scourge up any emotional triggers that the spell apparently needed. Emotions were a big part of spell casting, and without the intention to share the warm fuzzy feeling, there really wasn't a huge amount he could do. His counterparts spell was a good deal more effective, but any love Leah had for the spell immediately dissipated as it's effects caused his shoulders to relax, left hand to unclench at his side, settle more firmly on his feet and lower his centre of gravity in general.

The pair exchanged the spell a few times, taking the opportunity to allow it to wear off Leah each time so he wasn't overdosed which wasn't bad in of itself- plenty of other people were having more success then either of them- and as Leah had yet to get anything more then an amused snort at his infantile attempts from the boy, there were really on waiting on him at any one time. And they progressed like so 'til the Professor signalled the end of the exercise.

(Long ass post...)

'That's it dear.' Amelia replied, sensing the tone in Amelia's voice that suggested she didn't want to be bothered. As Amelia raised herself up and began to make her way through the desks she noticed there was an of number and, no surprises there, Amelia was alone. 

Now we couldn't be having that. She had just lost her Mother, no doubt she was confused about her feelings. When Professor Cooper's Mother had died the only thought that ran through her head was: How can I exist in a world that my Mother doesn't. Of course, the feeling never truly goes away. It remains there, locked in the deepest part of your chest. 

'Amelia, why don't you join Leah Valentai and his partner?' The Professor called, thinking it'd be best to partner her with a fourth year rather than a first or second. Amelia mused for a moment. She supposed that was one advantage of mixed classes, the older students could help the younger ones, serve as mentors. But... Wasn't that her job? To teach? 

'You don't mind do you?' She asked Leah and his partner, to which the Hufflepuff shook his head to signal that he didn't mind. 

(OOC: your post was a long ass post haha) 

Amelia glowered she didn’t want to be any group. She couldn’t just be left alone. She just wanted to do her own thing. She supposed she could just sit there and do nothing. She had herself confused now. She was ready to work one moment then a second later didn’t give a rip. She cursed this whole grieving thing. She just wanted it to be over.

“What if I don’t want a group,” mumbled Amelia under her breath. She would rather have worked alone. She didn’t want to deal with people. She hated people right now. Stupid condolences. She hated them. Whenever she got one she got a condolence it reminded her that her mum was gone forever.

Leah turned as Professor Cooper addressed him and his partner, eyebrows rising in curiosity. A three way wasn't entirely planned, but it might give one person the chance to rest and let the euphoria (or lack thereof) wear off, allowing there to be a constant flow of action in the group. Possibly a better idea then the original pairing off structure, although Leah had the sneaking suspicion that not as many of the pairs were being as cautions as he had been with his own partner. Just a slight one, he noted as the casting times became more and more obvious to him. Poor 'Puff, he probably had thought he'd be getting a good participation mark by joining up with a 'Claw.

"I have no objections Professor Cooper," said Leah clearly, although his eyes held a curious, questioning glint. Why him specifically? If this was a play, well, he probably didn't want to touch that can of worms. The possibilities went on for a good mile or two, so he probably needed to look in a more rational direction.
If he had seen a reluctant student, and apparently reluctant for some reason other then ability (he hadn't done /badly/ on his tests) then why not pair him up with the person who was most likely to be drawn out of her shell by his ineffecient attempts. Or perhaps it was the reason that his spells were so inefficient that game his license here. But then again, he had that sneaking feeling he was reading too much into the motives of people and wandering down the path of making his life into a play. Something to avoid by any stretch of the imagination.

Turning towards the seventh year (judging by physical maturity) Leah narrowed his vision down. Yes, by her body language Leah could tell she probably wasn't feeling at her best but he still wasn't entirely sure he could really do sympathy right now.
"Any time you want Miss Puff, we'd be much obliged." Just because he said 'yes,' didn't mean he was absolutely okay with it. Being singled out by the Instructor specifically was giving him some concerns about what exactly he needed to do. Probably wasn't fair to kick someone while they were down, so he needed to try and keep his cheek to a minimum. Which, of course had such a great start as he mentally cringed at himself.

(Post felt odd, perhaps it was the state of the writer. Meh, hopefully you guys can find something in there to make interesting. Spell casting by itself is okay, but development trumps all for me.)

Amelia didn’t like praying eyes on her. She glared. She didn’t want to do this. She wanted to be left alone. But no that wasn’t an option. She knew how childish it was but didn’t care. She wasn’t in the mood for this. She supposed no one was ever really in a mood for a class unless the first year in the first month. After the excitement of something new it simply sucked. There was nothing fun about it.

She stood there with her arms crossed. What would happen if she refused? She wasn’t one to test limits usually but heck since was anything usual anymore. She thought about pushing it was debating if it was worth it. Wasn’t leading a teenage army enough rebellion?