aparecium [fourth years]

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Imogen was excited for her first practical class with the fourth years; they had only been reviewing third year curriculum up until that point, and then they’d had to take notes for a day before Imogen felt like they were ready to start practicing the spells. Now that they were ready, though, Imogen was practically jumping for joy. She had written the name of the spell they had been studying, Aparecium, on the board, but they weren’t going to be just monotonously saying the spell while waving their wands over pieces of parchment, no sir! The spell was supposed to make hidden writing appear, but Imogen had decided to make it into a game. All of the desks in the classroom were pushed to the sides of the room, out of the way, and in the open space in the middle of the classroom, there was a pile of parchment slips. There were over three hundred parchment slips in total. Imogen knew because she had counted every one of them. Only fifty of the slips actually had anything written on them, just to make things harder – if students knew for sure they were going to find a word on every slip, then they would know as soon as they had failed at the spell, and that wasn’t as fun as making them try multiple times to make sure they had gotten it right. There were five copies of the same phrase, with each word getting its own slip of parchment. ‘Congratulations, you have won the first Charms game! Nice work!'

The class size was smaller, so Imogen was fairly certain that at least one student would be able to assemble the entire phrase on their own; the question just was who could do it the quickest. She was also hopeful that the kids would see this as the game it was and not get overly violent with one another, though she did have a contingency plan in place if that were to happen, as well. The prize that she had to offer was an interesting one – nothing physical, but rather, the chance for the student to decide what their professor looked like for an entire day. Imogen was certain that this class was going to be fun.

@axel
penelope raisa bainbridge
@seph
@jude

(Five posts each: basically, just go wild finding parchment slips. Imogen will be burning random blank ones, so your chances of finding one with a word on it will increase as the posts go on.)

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As Axel entered the classroom, his eyes widened and a grin covered his face. Whatever his professor had planned, it was definitely going to be fun. All the desks were pushed to the side of the room and a bunch of parchment was in the middle of the room. Aparecium was written on the board and it took Axel a few seconds to remember what that spell did. He looked at the parchment with renewed interest. This was definitely going to be a blast, even though he wasn't completely sure what the point of all of it was.

He rubbed his hands with excitement and turned to face Professor Zhu. "So, do I really have to wait for the others, or can I just start now?" He asked in a teasing voice. Surely she was used to him enough by now to not expect him to be serious in this kind of a situation. Axel couldn't help himself, he was ready to have some fun.

(SUZIE EDIT: penelope raisa bainbridge skipped, @seph due 29th)

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Seph LOVED CHARMS CLASS. She loved all of her classes, really, except that darned arithmacy. She burst into the room with that giant smile on her face and immediately froze, assessing the set up. As it started to dawn on her that they had to be doing something rather cool today her energy started to build until she was bouncing on her toes. She looked up at the board, 'Aparecium' was written there. The revealing spell! She squealed with glee and surged forward, dropping her bag on the ground on the way, wand in hand. "Professor, hi! Oooh, is there a crazy gigantic poem in there we have to reveal? Or a short story...?" her second question came as her eyes widened upon seeing the sheer size of the pile.

She turned to Axel next, moving toward, she grabbed his arm when she got to him. She started to shake , "Axelllllll isn't this awesome!?"

@jude you are next, due the 29th!

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The first student into the room was a Gryffindor, and that surprised Imogen; they were not known for their punctuality. Her face was carved into careful neutrality, but she arched an eyebrow when the fourth year asked if he really had to wait for the others to begin. “Well, if you’d like to win by cheating, but all means, go ahead.” Imogen said, unsure if she sounded like she was challenging the boy or not. It was true that she had never actually said they couldn’t start, but it was common courtesy to wait for the entire class. Evidently the entire class didn’t see it fit to show up, however; only two of the students were actually there.

“If you see your classmates, inform them that they have detention for not attending class unless they produce a valid note from the hospital wing.” Imogen said crisply. With a wave of her wand, the amount of slips in the pile decreased dramatically to reflect the smaller student population. “The name of game is efficiency.” Imogen explained. “Some of these papers have words written on them in invisible ink. Others don’t. Use the Aparecium spell to find out which is which. Find enough words, and you’ll find the secret code phrase, and win a special prize.” She would get to the prize when someone had actually won. “You may begin.”

@axel  due the 6th

(penelope raisa bainbridge and @jude can PM me about whether or not you'd like to play out an IC detention with Imogen.)

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Axel grinned when his teacher answered, seeming annoyed. He wasn't surprised. Most people got annoyed by his attitude. He didn't really mean it anyway. "I'll wait for them," he said, even though he moved forward to look at the pile of papers, craning his head a little to see them better as he focused. 

The Persephone walked into the room and let out her excitement, which made Axel smile again. Then she grabbed his arm. "Of course it is!" He listened as their professor explained the rules and then he turned to his friend with a smile. "I'm going to crush you at this," he told her confidently

@seph you are due on the 6th!

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OOoh invisible ink! What a good idea! Seph squealed with delight when they were told to get moving and she burst forward, glaring at Axel as she landed near the pile on her knees. "Oh, I'd like to see you try! Come on," she waved him over with a giggle, giving the Professor one last big smile before diving in. "Aparecium," she muttered at the first paper. Nothing. Over and over again she went through the papers, madly glaring at Axel with a little smirk whenever he got close to her with his papers. "Youuuu stay on you're side of the pile, Mister!" she said with another giggle.

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Imogen was beginning to doubt why she had done this in the first place; competition wasn't her strongest suit, and it tended to make her nervous. Still, it was the best way for her students to get the practice she needed, even if it did make Im uncomfortable. "Remember that this is for practice," She reprimanded Axel. It was well and good to want to win, but the classroom was not supposed to be a hostile environment. Maybe next time she'd have to find something a little less competitive; the smaller class size only exacerbated the rivalries, and Imogen didn't want Charms class to ruin any friendships or make any enemies. When the children had been searching for a little over two minutes, Imogen waved her wand, causing some of the paper slips to fly away from the pile and onto Imogen's desk. With another flick of her wand, Imogen sent the stack of papers up into flames. Hopefully that would help them find their words a little faster.

@axel  due the 12th

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Axel grinned at his friend as he continued to mutter "Aparecium" under his breath as he searched for the right papers. He grimaced good-naturedly at Persephone when she told him to stay on his side of the line. Then he couldn't hold it in any longer and he laughed, "I don't see a line anywhere. How am I supposed to know which side is mine," he teased. Even though he was teasing, he was focused on what he was doing. Axel wasn't overly competitive, but he liked to have fun and letting her win wouldn't be fun at all. Then some of the papers flew away and the stacked papers burst into flames. "Well this escalated quickly," Axel said with a smile as he continued to search through the papers.

@seph due the 13

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Seph snickered as the professor reminded it was just for practice, though she was mostly looking at Axel. She stuck her tongue out at him when he mentioned that he didn't see a line anywhere, "I don't knoooowww, Ax, just... whatever," she laughed, then lifted a handful of papers and gently tossed them at him.

She laughed as he talked about the quick escalation, "if they don't get burned then how will we know which we saw already!" Seph then turned to give the Professor a grin, glad she was taking care of that as they went on.

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Imogen watched as the children continued to dig through the pile of papers; even with a smaller pile, they didn't seem to be having much luck. The Gryffindor made a comment about the smoldering papers, something about escalation, and Imogen pressed her lips into a thin line, not responding to that. When the Hufflepuff girl asked how they were to know which papers they had seen already, Imogen forced herself to smile. "I only Summoned the blank ones. So even if you've already seen them, they're of no use to you." Imogen paused, and then decided to give her class some further instruction. "Make sure you're double checking your work. Don't assume that because the spell didn't work the first time, the paper must be blank." Maybe that was why they were having so much trouble with finding anything.

@axel due the 28th
@seph please remember to tag me. c:

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Axel laughed when Seph threw a bunch of papers at him. "Don't get so offended," he teased as he waved his wand over them one at a time. He laughed once more when one of the papers she through at him had the word "won" on it. "Hey I found one!" He told Seph, waving the paper at her. "Thanks for giving it to me," he teased. He noticed that the professor didn't seem particularly pleased with him, but what else was new? People either liked Axel's enthusiasm and energy and lack to filter his words or they didn't. He didn't worry about it. 

He was rapidly picking up other papers, trying to find more that had words on them. Honestly, he didn't care who won, but he was having fun with this and it would be fun to tease Seph about later if he did happen to win. He soon found two more papers, which read "you" and "nice." He was constantly looking over at Persephone to see if she found any, and showing off when he did find one. It made the game more fun, he thought.

@seph (due 10/1)
@imogen

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Seph nodded at the Professors words and then immediately went to double checking! She was happy to laugh and tease back at Axel as he told her to not get offended with that little grin. Then he found one and Seph's eyes narrowed and she went to work even more rapidly. Soon, she was rejoicing as well, "HAH! 'Congratulations' and 'Charms!' Best words ever!" she grinned evilly and Axel and then laughed and kept looking!

@imogen
(@axel you can win this one :>)

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Imogen continued to watch as the students picked their way through the pile of paper. Her tip about repeating the spell, as well as the removal of quite a few of the blank slips, seemed to have helped, considering they were now actually finding words. She suspected that now that they’d gotten the hang of it, they’d be finding words more and more quickly. Imogen Summoned a few more of the blank slips, igniting them when they reached their desks. “Keep going, guys!” She encouraged in her best happy teacher voice. Imogen was more excited than she thought she would be about getting to reveal the prize to whomever won, even if that winner happened to be the Gryffindor boy.

@axel  due the 3rd

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Axel didn't respond to Seph, he was too busy trying to win. He felt like he was getting the hang of this spell, which was a good thing. It was getting easier and easier for him to find real words. Granted, that might be because the professor kept on summoning them and burning them, but still. One in three papers had a word on it and before long, he was trying to make the string of words into a real phrase. "Congratulations, you have won _____ first Charms game! Nice work!" Obviously the last word was "the" and Axel was furiously searching for it. Sure, he wouldn't care if Seph won, but the fun of the game was all in trying to win yourself.

He jumped up when he finally found it. "I've got it, Professor!" He called, a grin covering his face. He looked over at Seph and winked at her, hoping she didn't care too much about the outcome either. Really, if the prize could be shared, he was going to share it with her for sure. 

@seph (due 10/3)

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"Ah-yi-yi, Captain!" Seph called out to the Professor with a big ol' smile. Soon, Axel called out that he had the sentence and he winked at her. Seph giggled and then stood, brushing an excess papers off of her in order to reach a hand over and rustle Axel's hair. "Look at you! What a hero," she joked, looking over at the Professor with a grin, excited to see what the prize was. She was competitive but she wasn't, by any means, a sore loser. In fact, she was happy to rejoice in her friends accomplishments!

@imogen