Charms Class - Group Two

Amelia was sat in her charms classroom at the desk. Unlike her Professor, Filius Flitwick, she didn't need to stand on a pile books. Amelia chuckled slightly thinking about her old head of house. Twenty four years. Twenty four years since she'd last been in a classroom and here she was, back there teaching.

Of course in those twenty four years dark things had happened to her: her parents had died, husband had been murdered and she now believed her son Toby to also be dead. The only ray of light left had been Hallie but now her daughter was all grown up, she didn't need Amelia as much anymore, which was both beautiful and sad to see your daughter grown into a beautiful character who no longer needed you. 

When Amelia had saw the advertisement in the Daily Prophet for a charms professor she didn't need to think twice. It made perfect sense. She had loved Hogwarts, it was where she found who she was, where she had found Robert Cooper. The love of her life. And now she had return to inspire, educate and hopefully find herself once more.

The booming bell sounded around the castle and the scrapping of chair legs in the classroom above sounded along with the sudden chattering of student voices travelling the hallways. Her lesson would begin shortly.

Walking to the back of the classroom she checked that each table contained a wooden box. Amelia was aware each already did but was too anxious to start her class. Hopefully it would go well. If the students learnt something and had fun then she knew she'd ticked the boxes.

Trisha woke early the day of class ready to go. Charms was her first class that morning and it was most definitely Tris's favorite of all of her classes. The new professor was said to be lovely, if not a bit sad, though Trisha wasn't the type to go about asking what had made someone a certain way.

Ravenclaw that she was, Trisha was ridiculously excited to formally meet her Head of House. It wasn't often that she got excited about things, because she was so very left out around school until lately. Since she had made friends with what they called a number of things - the 'Totally Awesome Ten' or the 'Tremendous Ten' - life had become a bit more interesting. That wasn't to say that she was exactly out and about at all hours. She was one of the loners in the group, along with Daemon Zograf, though they weren't going to end up being close friends because they were both left out. They couldn't stand each other.

Sticking her head inside the classroom, she saw that the professor was checking something on the desks. Boxes? Trisha smiled to herself and moved farther into the classroom.

"Morning, Professor Cooper." She said quietly, hoping she wouldn't surprise the woman. Tris didn't want to frighten a professor she hoped to have like her.

At the sound of a voice Amelia looked up. A blonde girl who must have been about fifteen or sixteen was the first to enter the classroom and to Professor Cooper's delight, the girl was a Ravenclaw. Not that Amelia was biased to her own house, the love of her life and daughter had been in Gryffindor, but it hopefully mean't that she would be able to award Ravenclaw some house points.

Of course every head of house wanted to see their house perform the best in both the Quidditch and Inter House Cup although Amelia, like the others, had vowed to not show favouristism and add points for silly reasons - in fact Amelia was going to award points at any chance she got. Something she had always wanted to do.

'Good morning dear.' Amelia replied with a faint smile. That's all Amelia ever did nowadays: a faint smile. 'I hope you've been refreshing your previous charms work over the Summer' The Professor added as she made her way to the front desk. 'Although if you haven't that wont be a problem.'

Amelia turned her head and watched as a few more students walked in, keeping themselves to themselves, and sat at the back of the class.

(OOC: I just threw in imaginary/NPC students in just in case there is only two students so that way it's as though the class was a bit full. We can just ignore them though )

'Dammit' Jamie thought to herself.She was late to her charms class.She ran to the class and when she arrived she was breathless she had run from the forest to the second floor.She of course couldn't excuse herself since she shouldn't have been in the forest but she liked watching the threstrals. Her watch told her she was at least five minutes late and she didn't want to give a bad impression to her head of house.She hoped Logan or Lucca was in her class.She had been so bored in her last class.

"Sorry,I'm late professor."She was kind of ashamed for being late.She sat three rows behind the first one.That was her claimed sit in this class.Thankfully it was empty and she wondered what would be inside the box placed on the desk.Would they have to make something appear inside the box? or Would they enchant it to make anything fit in it?

Daemon wasn't too very worried about missing a class now and then, but he wasn't very well going to start with Charms. It was something he was rather good at.  Not his forte, per se, but something he had put enough effort into to become relatively skilled in the subject.

Strolling up from the dungeons where his common room was so quaintly (and ironically, he thought, considering where the Basilisk had lived in its life at Hogwarts and his house animal) located. He passed through the halls, vaguely wondering who he would be either cursed, or fairly amused to be stuck in class with.

As he walked in, however, Daemon found himself looking at two Ravenclaws - one he didn't know, and one he couldn't stand. Forcing himself not to smirk, nor frown, he gave a polite nod to the Professor and moved to sit down right next to where Trisha had seated herself.

"Morning." He greeted her, drawing out the word and giving her a dramatic smile. When she looked up and gaped at him in surprise, he nearly laughed. Oh, the irony was just everywhere today, wasn't it?

Jonathan entered the classroom silently then felt cold chills against his back. He wasn't the first student to class for once; in fact he was probably one of the last to arrive. He had just came from Transfigurations so surely it couldn't have taken too long to get here. It was such an odd feeling, considering he always tried to be the first to arrive so he could avoid all the other students. With a pity frown, he made his way towards the far back corner of the room, holding his head down in order to not make any eye contact with anyone.

As he walked passed however, he caught a glimpse of two other Ravenclaw girls and a Slytherin boy. He didn't dare bother to communicate. The nervous boy took his seat and got out his materials, getting ready for the lesson. He wondered what they would learn this year. Something interesting perhaps? Professor Cooper was a brilliant head for Ravenclaw so he expected nothing less from her lessons.

Amelia smiled to the new students that had walked in, slightly late but not late enough to discipline. 'That's quiet alright, the lesson has only really just begun.' Amelia replied to a Ravenclaw girl who had entered her classroom.

Once they were all seated at a desk with a box before them Professor Cooper walked over to the door, closed it, then returned to sit behind her desk. Opening the bottom draw Amelia withdrew the class register and began calling out the names.

'Trisha Bates?'

'Jamie Griggory?' 

'Jonathan Rutger?'

'And last but not least, Daemon Zograf?'

Placing the final tick by Daemon's name  Amelia placed the register back into the draw and stood up, making her way around the desk. The class before her seemed bright, eager (hopefully). It was a wonderful feeling seeing all their faces look back at her and in a year they would all be doing the same again, although with a lot more knowledge. 

'Today, seeing as it is your first charms class this year I thought we would start with something fun. A chance to refresh the knowledge you have learnt in your time at Hogwarts already but, in the form of a challenge.' Amelia smiled at her class as she made her way to stand behind Daemon Zograf's desk.

'Before you is a wooden box. Locked. Your task will be to open.' Amelia reached over and tapped the box with the wand. 

'Levitate.' With a swish and flick the ball inside the now-open box Rose into the air. 

'Then you will try and get the ball to land in the box on my desk using depulso.' The ball zoomed towards the box and landed inside. 'Then lock the box.' With a tap of her wand the silver lock on the box clicked shut.

It seemed easy and Amelia was sure the class would find it easy after her flawless demonstration but using a brandishing charm as opposed to locomotor charm to move an object into a specific location was more difficult. 

Now returning to her desk Amelia continued to speak. 'It may seem easy, although it will require the right amount of power and good accuracy when using the brandishing charm as it is more, what's the word, wild than a simple locomotor charm. If you don't get the ball in with depulso you must then use accio for it to return to you then attempt to use depulso again.' 

Although it was not an extremely difficult task it could take up to a third, possibly half of the lesson, which meant Amelia had another activity to refresh them. The reason why she was revising their knowledge with them would become clear at the end of the lesson. 

'The first to lock their box will receive fifteen house points. You may begin!' And with that the room was full of the sound of swishing wands and ruffling of pages as students withdrew their wands and turned the pages in their books for tips. 'Any questions feel free to ask.' She called. 

(OOC: I know the charms aren't all taxing but the ball bit is like trying to throw a ball into a box from across the room so not everyone would get it first time.) 

Trisha's hand rose tentatively when her name was called, giving the professor a light smile as well. It was always interesting to have a new professor in and around the castle, and Ms Cooper seemed like one of those teachers that the students would love.

The sound of Daemon's name made her frown, and he raised a hand with an easy smile in the Professor's direction.

Her eyes followed Ms Cooper as she walked around behind Daemon's desk - she gave him a dark look when their eyes met and he openly returned it. They turned to watch her example of the assignment and Tris nearly grinned. Charms was her favorite for things like this.

The only thing she knew she had to worry about was not letting Daemon beat her to the finish. He was a Chaser for the Slytherin team and had been for years - she was only now trying to go out for Chaser for Ravenclaw. It was sort of a mess, in her mind.

Tris retrieved her wand and made to open the box she had been given. Her mind felt so distracted that the first time, nothing happened. Huffing, she spared a momentary glance at Daemon to find him regarding her with a smirk. Charms was definitely not his favorite class. He preferred Transfiguration or Potions - the latter more so.

He clearly wasn't trying very hard, but it didn't appease her nerves. Tris took a steely breath and tried again, tapping the wand on the top and watching it unlock. She lifted the lid and observed the ball inside. Smiling to herself, she cast a light Wingardium Leviosa on the object and watched it lift.

She focused her eyes on the box and flicked her wand to allow it to to toss the ball in the direction of Professor Cooper's desk. When the ball hit the edge and bounced off, Trisha grumbled to herself.

"Accio." She said testily to call the object back to her. More determined than before, she levitated the ball once more and tossed it back in that direction. The ball fell into the box and she practically grinned.

Flipping the pages in her book, she looked for the locking charm that the professor had used. Finding the required charm, Tris cast it in the direction of her box, and listened with all her might to hear the sound of it locking.

The click resounded and she could feel her pulse slowing out of relief. Glancing around, she saw Daemon toss his ball into his box easily. Frowning, Trisha decided she would need to put more effort into her Quidditch training before tryouts.

Amelia walked up and down the tables observing her students. As well as being a fun refresher challenge to awaken their brains that had hibernated for the Summer it would give her a chance to see everyone's abilities first hand - sometimes previous student records weren't always that helpful.

Her eyebrows rose as Daemon got the ball in first attempt. His accuracy was good and no doubt there would be a hidden talent for dueling underneath those Slytherin robes, something that was a common case in the Slytherin house. Perhaps it was the rivalry with Gryffindor that gave them the practice? 'Excellent Daemon.' Amelia smiled, expecting to give him the fifteen points but. CLICK.

The box in front of Trisha Bates had locked and sure enough the ball was in the box. 'It appears we have a winner!' Professor Cooper called out so all the class could here her as she paced between a pair of tables to where Trisha was sat.

Tapping the box with her own wand the box clicked open and the lid sprang bag, displaying the empty box. 'Fifteen points to Ravenclaw!' Amelia announced with a soft smile. It was rewarding to see her own house gain points, although it was almost certain they would that listen give to the fact over half the class were Ravenclaw's.

With a wave of her wand the balls that had landed in the box returned to their owners, sitting neatly besides the box.

Amelia made her way to the front of the class. 'Now. The second challenge.' Giving another wave the balls all grew in size, so big they wouldn't fit in the box with it's lid closed. 'It's time to return your balls back where they belong.' She said, chuckling lightly at what her daughter Hallie would have said if she'd heard her say the sentence. No doubt something 'humourous' in Hallie's eyes.

Amelia felt lazy, not telling the students what spells to use. She'd demonstrated alohomora, colloportus, wingardium leviosa then the summoning and brandishing charm but not ever telling them whether to use engorgio or reducio, she felt lazy. But that was all about the challenge. To test them.

It was all good fun though - or so she hoped. 'You'll have to think outside the box for this one.' Amelia called as she walked past Jonathan Rutger's desk.

(OOC: To the students who didnt do challenge one you can still rp doing it then move onto the next challenge)

Jonathan spirits lifted as he heard his house gain fifteenth points. Surely it couldn't be too hard, right? The other students seemed to have caught onto it rather quickly. The boy studied the box before him, peering over every angle and corner of it.

He took out his wand and thought for a moment just exactly how he would do the task, then it hit him. He tapped his wand carefully onto the box, popping it open then closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He need to think, think beyond the normal measures. The ball shouldn't be just flung across the room carelessly, it should be careful and controlled.

Jonathan raised his wand, reopening his eyes, and muttered the spell "Wingardium Leviosa" from his lips. Slowly, the ball began to levitate across the room. It would probably be more easier if he wasn't over thinking; sadly over thinking was his nasty habit. He watched the ball float slowly over the heads of students, turning sharply around anything that stood in it's way then finally, just when he thought the ball would land in the box, it fell straight to the ground just a couple feet short.

Jonathan frowned, feeling discouraged before muttering "Accio" and returning the ball to him. It was good for his first try he suppose. He sighed and decided to try again. This time he'd get it right, he must get it right. He repeated the process again, this time focusing more on where the ball was going than levitating the ball it's self. He got up to his feet, wand pointed forward, and watch intently as the ball inched ever so closely to the lock box on Professor Coopers desk. He began to sweat nervously, but kept control and to his surprised, the ball plopped right into the box. Jonathan released a sigh of relief then sat back down into his chair.

Just when all seemed to be fine, Jonathan was hit with yet another challenge. This one was more difficult than before. How was he to return the ball at it's current state?! He feel the old feeling of discourage but shoved it aside nevertheless. He could do it. He could do anything and solve any challenge as long as he put his mind to it. He began thinking of a spell that could work, a shrinking spell perhaps? He narrowed his eyes at the ball as he ran through a list of all the spells he knew through memory that could fix this. There were so many ways to preform this that he was even more sure he was capable of doing this.