charming charms charm charm (zula)

[Deleted]

Todays lesson was one of Leslies favorites to teach. She liked to call it the Aphrodite Spell or the blessing of Aphrodite. It was a Beauty Spell, which is a charm that that can, presumably, be used to enhance the physical beauty of the caster. Now, Leslie didn't believe that outer beauty was anywhere near as important as inward beauty, and she often made that point when teaching this lesson, but she did think it was a handy and full spell to have.

It was taught in the sixth year because, unlike most charms which have the same affect every time, this charm could be manipulated for your specific needs. Maybe you just need your hair attended to, or maybe you need the bags under your eyes for a few hours. Either way, it was pretty darn handy when running late! It was tricky, though, and could be dangerous when done wrong. The class today was all about theory until the last few minutes they got to practice, safely, but they'd work on it more next time.

As class ended Leslie looked up, noticing Zula, one of her most diligent students, was hanging back a bit. "Zula! Hello darling," she said giving the girl a little wave and stepping around her desk, "anything I can assist you with?"

@zula

[Deleted]

Charms was her favorite class of the day, in fact, it was her favorite class of the week. Defense Against the Dark Arts frightened her, with the recent rash of murders and the kidnapping of some of her friends. Zula could not help, but worry that she would actually need to use those spells all too soon. Care of Magical Creatures was quite interesting, but magical animals did not seem to take too kindly to her, likely because she seemed to keep forgetting they were magical. Divination...well...the magical world was frequently confusing to her, but Divination was nothing more than a ridiculous joke. The muggle world also had crackpots that liked to claim to see the future, her people often ran those people out of the village. Charms was different than her other courses, it was fun, safe, and wonderfully applicable to everyday life. It helped that it was likely the one form of magic that Zula might be able to bring back to her family some day without them fearing her.

Today they had learned about a spell that could have an effect on one’s appearance and Zula have been tickled to see just how quickly she could straighten her hair in seconds flat - a feat that often took hours if she attempted to do it by hand. Of course, there was the annoying problem that she could not seem to make it last more than a moment. After a quick wave of her wand and only a few moments of pin straight hair, Zula was again surrounded by a mass of curly locks. Naturally, she was hovering around after class in the hopes that she could catch Professor Meagle’s attention in the hopes of picking her brain. She had so many questions.

“Actually, Professor, I did have a couple of questions about today’s lessons,” Zula started, moving to the front of the classroom. “I cannot seem to get the spell to last more than a few moments, what am I doing wrong? How does it work? Does it matter what you are trying to alter?” she asked in a flurry, her words blending together.

@leslie

[Deleted]

At the girls questions, Leslie nodded while maintaining a smile on her face. She was able to keep up with the muddled sentances, because she often talked the same way. She separated the questions in her mind, planning to address them one at a time.

When the girl was finished, she nodded once. "Well, first of all it's not common to be able to make it last during the first day of learning it," she explained.

"As for how it works, it's really more like an illusion than anything else. It's not like you can wipe the make up off, that's an entirely different spell," she continued, "I don't think you're doing anything wrong, but perhaps you aren't gathering the concept on a mental level. As for what you're trying to alter, the bigger the change the harder the charm and the less likely you can make it last. If you're trying to make yourself look thinner, for example, that's a lot of work. It affects everything about you and is incredibly hard to master. That's advanced level stuff. Simply just adding a little color to your face, you can make that last for days. I think what you need to think about the most, in order to prepare to get better at it, is to pick a specifc thing you want to alter and build that first. Did you have something in mind?"

@zula

[Deleted]

Zula had the inability to simply let things go, to trust that she would learn more later. She had a nagging need to find the answers to the questions that popped into her head on a regular basis. There was so much she did not know about the magical world, how could she simply wait? Zula had, in fact, had so many questions rushing about her head during the sorting ceremony that the Sorting Hat had debated placing her in the Ravenclaw house. It wasn’t until her concern that she was taking far too much time and her fear of magical corruption, that the Hat made the choice to send her to the Hufflepuff.

Of course, Professor Meagle would tell her to be patient. It was something that Zula heard most frequently. Practice and patience were the keys to successful magic...at least, that is was everyone seemed to tell her. Yet, she practiced frequently and every spell she learned seemed to be an uphill battle. She tried to hide her disappointment that her problem with the spell would not be a quick fix, just once she would like to master a spell on the first try.

She nodded at the professor’s words, resisting the urge to rush into her backpack for a piece of parchment and a quill. “An illusion, so it’s not like transfiguring at all,” Zula replied, partly to herself, a slight relief in her voice. Transfiguration was always so hard for her. “So we are not altering anything, just changing the outward perception?” she inferred, biting the corner of her lip. “Is it like the concealment charms that cause muggles to see run down buildings instead of the magical ones? I read that some can be so powerful that muggles can even walk through the buildings completely unaware.”

At her question, Zula blushed a bit, “It’s silly really, I was trying to straighten my hair, but it keeps bouncing back.”

@leslie

[Deleted]

Leslie nodded as Zula repeated back what she had said. "Exactly. It is more like an outward appearance illusion charm then actually altering it, as you would with transfiguration. It's similar to the concealment charms, but you have to simultaneously show them something that isn't there as well. It's one have concealment, one have revealing," she explained. "It's true there are concealment charms that strong, it's rather amazing," she agreed with a nod. Charms had always been her niche, and therefore she was actually rather gifted at charms like that as well. She hadn't really had a reason to do one that massive, though, but she had always wanted to try.

As the girl revealed what she was trying to change, Leslie smiled. "Awe! Well, with such a large contrast that will be a little hard to master. In a lot of ways you even have to convince, yourself that it's straight. There are some charms and transfiguring spells that actually will make it straight, but this is not one of them. The best way to practice is to conceal the hair first, then illusion the straight hair over the blank canvas... does that make sense?"

@zula
(I'm literally making all of this up just fyi)

[Deleted]

Zula felt slight disappointment as Professor Meagle confirmed her hypothesis; her Transfiguration skills would be no use to her in this case. Charms had always been one of Zula’s weakest courses (unless you ever dared to look at her Divination scores), but Transfiguration has always been where she excelled the most. She could not explain it, the skills required often seemed quite similar between the two subjects, but Zula was always left struggling profusely. Had the Charm had any origins in Transfiguration, she may have been able to crack it.

Nodding as Professor Meagle spoke, Zula could not resist the urge any longer and quickly scurried back to her desk for a bit of parchment and a quill. “Half concealment, half revealing,” she muttered to herself to ensure she did not forget, “Half concealment, half revealing.” Scribbling as she darted back to her original post, Zula smiled embarrassedly and chose not to say anything. This sort of thing, wasn’t exactly outside of her normal behavior. “It sounds much more complicated than I originally thought,” she muttered, mostly to herself as she skimmed her notes once more.

For a moment, she grabbed a lock of hair and looked at it curiously. “I have to convince myself first?” she asked with her brow furrowed, trying to picture it in her mind. She looked back up and nodded slowly, “I think I understand, first one and then the other may be easier to master. Like painting over blank canvas!” She smiled for a moment, thrilled that she could make the analogy; perhaps that would make it easier to do.

@leslie

[Deleted]

Zula had always been such an exuberant student. Her thirst for knowledge reminded her of Hermione, especially from her school years and her excitement and energy reminded her of herself. If Hermione and Lelsie were one person, Zula would be just that. She ran over to take notes and Leslie smiled at her, always glad when students were trying to better their skills and making notes as to how. Then Zula came back rather swiftly and Leslie smiled at her. "It is a bit complicated, hence why it's saved for the sixth year. I don't expect all of you to get it on the first day, though," she explained.

At Zulas next statement/question, Leslie nodded, "most spells have to come from the heart, yes, but the mind is also incredibly important in casting. She smiled and chuckled as Zula compared it to painting a canvas. "Exactly! One thing at a time. Most charms can be broken down into steps and as long as you focus on them one at a time you can eventually bring them all together," she agreed.

"Are there any other charms you are struggling with? We could break them down using the same method."

@zula

[Deleted]

Zula was continuously amazed at how much magic could accomplish, there did not seem to be a problem that it could not fix nor an imperfection that it could not change. Perhaps it was the reason that her people feared magic, there seemed to be no limitations. Now, she was not foolish enough to think there magic had no bounds, Zula has already studied the laws of magical and there were limitations, but not many considering all it could do. What would her family say if they could see her change her hair at will? Zula stopped thinking, she knew what they had thought before...she highly doubted it would change now. “I know I should be patient,” she admitted sheepishly, “I just do not like when I do not understand. I need to know how it works.”

For a moment, she frowned, magic would be so temperamental. She learned that when she was younger, most of her early instances of magic had been when she was emotional. Perhaps that was why there were evil wizards in the world, perhaps they could not handle the emotional control required. “Magic is quite finicky,” Zula replied with a slight grumble to her voice. It was hard to see herself with straight hair, her curls had been all she had ever known...it was something that people seemed to notice most about her. Was it possible that she could not convince herself that she could have straight hair? “Transfiguration is much more straightfoward,” she admitted, “I don’t have to convince myself of anything.”

Zula bit her lip, thinking of the last few charms had been been trying to master. “Well, I managed the Summoning Charm, but I still cannot make the silencing charm do anything stronger than create a ringing sound.”

@leslie

[Deleted]

------

Leslie chuckled and nodded again, ”I completely understand. A lot of students feel that way. Especially muggle borns, really,” she added. It made sense, though. They hadn’t grown up knowing magic and seeing what their parents could do. They were just thrown into it and even several years into school, like Zula was, it wasn’t easy to not get caught up in all the knowledge. It was a good and a dangerous trait to have.

”Magic is the most finicky thing on this earth,” Leslie agreed, smiling at the girls mumble. ”I agree, transfiguration is a little more black and white. I’m glad you do so well in it!” Leslie wasn’t bad at it, but she had often gotten bored with the lessons and ideas it posed, even if it was hard.

”Good for you! The Summoning Charm is one of the most useful we have. As for the silencing charm, it’s a difficult one to master. I’m sure it will come to you just as the others. Do you want to try showing me how it’s going?” she suggested.

@zula

[Deleted]

Zula’s goal in life was to know everything she could about the magical world, down to the theory behind it. She even wanted to research the connection between science and magic, though many seemed to think that they were mutually exclusive. Her dream, however, was to open her own magical school with special attention paid to students like her. If things kept going the way they were, they were going to need a safe place to go to be away from those that believed that they were not good enough to be at Hogwarts in the first place. Zula nodded, “There is already so much that I do not know, it’s hard being faced with it again. I assume others must feel the same.”

There was one advantage to science over magic, science was very unbiased and clear cut. It was hardly determined by someone’s beliefs or psychological mindset. Zula had the logical mind of a Ravenclaw, emotions had no place in academics; it was best to save that for personal relationships.

She smiled in response to the praise, there weren’t many that got as excited as she did about such things. Zula has practiced for weeks to get the spell correct, she had served as her own target practice for a fair number of textbooks and other objects. She nodded at Professor Meagle’s request and muttered, “Silencio,” with a jerky wave of her wand. The familiar pressure descended on her ears, but lifted quickly and a sharp ringing filled the room.

@leslie

[Deleted]

Leslie nodded, ”exactly,” she was glad Zula understood what she had meant. As she performed the charm Leslie was tempted to lift her hand at the ringing sound but didn’t. She lifted her own wand and nonverbally cast a counter charm to cause the ringing to stop. She nodded, chewing on her lip for a moment before speaking. ”Did you feel anything before the ringing started?” it seemed she was somehow doing the opposite of the charm on accident. Well, not exactly, the opposite would cause things in the room to get louder. The ringing meant that something different had to be happening.

”Sometimes there is a slight delay in the silence, but in your case I’m thinking it may have worked momentarily before… malfunctioning,” she nodded as she continued to assess the situation here. The silencing charm was often tricky for students when they first learned it, but she was always determined to help each of them prefect every charm.

@zula

[Deleted]

Zula frowned as the ringing started again, why couldn’t she get that spell right? The sounds came back into the room and her mood faltered. “The same thing that always seems to happen,” she put her hands over her ears, “There’s the pressure, but then all the sound comes back so quickly.” She left her hands like that for a moment, realizing that the ringing had stopped before she had even spoken. It felt like she heard that ringing so often lately, it was difficult to figure out when it was only in her head.

Her head tilted at Professor Meagle’s observation, before straightening, “That is exactly what it feels like!" For a moment, she excitement again, “It feels like it wants to work, but then someone takes the bubble off the room and all the noise comes back in again….with the added ringing.”

@leslie

[Deleted]

Leslie listened as Zula explained what had been happening, her hand stroking her chin slightly. Well, that was something she hadn't heard of much, but it had happened before. Leslie nodded, pacing slightly as she contemplated the best course of action from here. "I think you may need to take a step back and refocusing on envisioning the silence before practicing the charm again. With most magic it's best to believe in it and convince your self it's already working before even attempting at it," she stopped pacing, turning to face Zula square on.

"Let's try it again, but take the time to envision it first. It may not work right away, but it might be more successful in the future if you practice it that way. Once more, then we'll let you think on it for a while," she smiled, giving a nod to suggest Zula go ahead.

@zula