Charms Class Review

Without looking up from the curriculums of the two former professors of this subject, Melinda waved a wand toward the door of the classroom, slamming it behind the last student straggling into the room.

She'd thought Hogwarts would be a nice, leisurely retirement plan after Greenman's but as it turned out, the students here were far worse than those she'd dealt with at the reform school. Oh, Greenman's students were vile, devious little villains but at least they attended a strict institution where consistency was prized above all else. In Melinda's opinion, Hogwarts allowed their students an appalling level of freedom and made no effort to discipline any but the most unruly.

"All right."

Melinda's words were punctuated by the slap of the file on her desk.

"You there," she pointed out a random student, "what have you learnt in Charms this year?"

Amelia jumped out of her skin. She panicked. The truth was she hadn’t learned a thing in class. She was basing her OWLs on textbooks she did on her freetime and her father. Thank goodness her father was great at Charms. She had to come up with something.

“To be honest, I’ve learned nothing. I’m trying to pass my OWLs on textbooks with no instruction and my parents helping me when I’m at home. We’ve already switched Professors twice, I can’t honestly learn that way,” said Amelia. She saw no need to lie. Lying would only get her in trouble. Maybe for once she could have a real lesson.

She understood why her mother was so unhappy with Hogwarts. She was no way ready for her OWLs. She hadn’t had a proper class all year in any class. She dropped Potions because she wouldn’t be insulted in class. Her mother was doing her best to teach her Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark Arts and Potions. Her father was trying to teach her Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts. If it wasn’t for her parents she was sure she would fail her OWLs and be unable to defend herself at all.

Melinda looked down her nose at the girl with the yellow badge. Amelia Macmillan, Hufflepuff prefect, was well known among the staff for being more preoccupied with her parents supposed victories than her own school work.

"Nothing, you say?" Melinda's tone made it plain that this was not the correct answer.

"I suppose I must congratulate you on your initiative, Miss Macmillan, but I fail to see how you can not have learnt anything at all. If nothing else, you ought to have taught yourself to sleep sitting up by now. Very important skill for Aurors, that."

Melinda's gaze shifted to take in the rest of the class.

"Has anyone done better than Miss Macmillan in obtaining an education this year?" she asked them.

“For your information I never planned on being an Auror. Why would I want to work for the Ministry?” said Amelia before she could stop herself. Why did she do that? What did it matter Hufflepuff wouldn’t win the House Cup nor did detentions mean anything to her? “I have never slept in class. I sent a good portion of the year in the Hospital Wing,” she added. She would not be insulted even at the risk of detention. Sometimes she wished she knew when to shut her mouth.

Amelia was currently wishing her mother had sent her to that new school before the year ended. If she didn’t get a teacher that she could really learn from she’d fail her OWLs anyways. She was starting to wish she had taken that Calming Drought now. Oh well, she supposed she was already either getting detention, being told to leave the classroom or both.

Nick began to laugh quietly, he found what was going on between Amelia and the new professor silly. When the teacher asked if anybody else knew anything about charms he debated on saying something. "A charm changes the objects....." he paused here looking for the right word. "Traits" he finished. It was hard for Nick to explain Charms. They were too much like Transfiguration in the sense that they both changed an object.

Amelia Macmillan was always so quick to put herself in the position of the repressed hero-daughter of hero-parents, who had nobility running through her veins which somehow entitled her to always be right in her opinions. As she began to prattle on and on at the only professor who looked like she believed in detentions, Wally rolled her eyes. She looked over at the Hufflepuff and said, "Put the claws away, Lady Mac. The hero act doesn't earn house points."

Wally hadn't been back at Hogwarts long enough to actually have been taught anything in a Charms class. She had arrived after the supposedly sexy Professor d'Eath just in time for a string of substitute that had simply allowed review. However, Wally didn't mind lying just to shut up the other imbeciles. She added to Nick's statement, "We've done Summoning Charms and basic color changing charms." It seemed they did both every year, so it seemed like a safe bet.

Penelope had settled comfortably and had placed her Charms book gently before her, her hands folded patiently atop the binding. Yet another new face greeted her from the front of the room, causing a small sigh to slip from her lips. When would Hogwarts actually fill the position? Professor d'Eath had been there awhile, but he had sort of... embarrassed her. He was just so forward. And the other substitutes had not seemed to actually know the subject. Perhaps it was the stigmas that accompanied old age, but Penny was hoping this new woman would be a bit wiser.

Penny did not like to talk out of turn, but she really was hoping to give the new professor some hope in the class, and she couldn't trust that the Macmillan girl, the Potter kid, or the Australian transfer to do that. She slowly raised her hand and said, "We've also learned the patronus charm and practiced basic growth and other property-changing charms."

An eyebrow cocked at the Macmillan girl's outburst.

"Five points from Hufflepuff for appalling behaviour," she said.

As the other children began to chime in, her expression grew ever more grave. It was clear they had been saddled with inferior teachers indeed.

"So what you're all telling me is that you have been instructed in spell-casting only," she surmised.

She walked between the desks as she spoke.

"We shall start at the very beginning, in that case. Charms, as Mr Potter very nearly suggested, is a study of magic that changes the properties of matter."

An equation appeared on the blackboard at the front of the room.

Weight = Mass x Acceleration due to gravity

"I'm sure you are all familiar with the spell for levitation," Melinda began. "Are any of you also familiar with this equation?"

Penny deflated a bit as the professor seemed disappointed. Penny had never been in a theoretical Charms class. It was one of those classes where the students always knew to take out their wands, rather than their books. Penny liked to have her books out to be prepared, but they were rarely used for anything more than a target for the spells they were required to practice.

The equation was something Penny was familiar with. Though it was more commonly used by muggles, her parents had not seemed to take note of that. So long as Penny was utilizing scientific knowledge to appear more intelligent, it was all an asset to them. Penny slowly slipped her hand into the air again. "Mass is amount of a substance in constant terms. Weight is mass while affected by gravity. So, to calculate weight, you multiply an object's mass by the acceleration caused by gravity."

Amelia glared at the Ravenclaw girl. She didn’t really care what she thought. She wasn’t in her house and she was a year younger. She holds rank over the girl though she’d never pull rank. She tried not to find a creative way to show the girl who is the upperclassmen. She wanted out of the classroom.

Edgar was right it was senseless to active like a goody-two-shoes. Hufflepuff was losing the House Cup and she probably wouldn’t be here next year. She didn’t care anymore. Why had she even come? She could have just skipped again.

Amelia pulled out a notebook and started to doodle. She wasn’t the best drawer ever but she knew some advanced stuff. The worst that could happen is the teacher showed her them her drawings, giver her detention or send an OWL to her parents. None of those things bothered Amelia.