come on let your colors burst [cordelia]

[Deleted]

Imogen was, as always, spending her free time grading papers. It was interesting to see what her students had to say about different charms, especially since Imogen encouraged them to interweave their own opinions of each charm with their research on its functionality and importance to their society. It was much easier to figure out what they needed to practice that way, even though her students probably didn't realize they were giving her that sort of information when they went off on tirades about how one charm was horrible and needed to go die in a hole. As always, she had left her door open, but it had been a long time since someone had sought her out, and Imogen had all but given up on any of her students actually wanting to come and talk to her. She left the door open anyways in case anyone decided to be brave. Even if no one did, the open door improved airflow, so Imogen could pretend she wasn't pathetic for being lonely.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

Cordelia had debated doing this for an extremely long time, and somehow it ended up beating her up and dragging her all the way to Professor Zhu’s office. The reason? She wanted to ask about where to go from here forward with Charms if she wanted to be a healer. She already had a decent array of spells and charms, even using some in and out of class to help others. That was it though. Obviously things were going well enough that she planned on taking the NEWT level course for her seventh year, but she wanted to know if there was anything extra she could do before next year. Not that she wanted to add too much extra work; more that she knew she was capable of pushing herself to learn even more about the subject. Everyone else in her class seemed like they got the hang of things yet they never really finished the tasks on time. She always finished with time to kill at the end of class. Professor Zhu always spent an ungodly amount of time hovering around her too, watching and helping out.

And that was why she was walking to the professor’s office to ask about all of that. Getting a little guidance once in a while wouldn’t hurt her. The push to do so had been a tough one to reach, but she knew it would only benefit her to talk about her plans. Approaching the office door, Cordelia peeked in to see the professor sitting there. No one else was inside. Pulling back a little, she took a deep sigh and stepped into the doorway, hand reaching for the door to knock. “P-Professor Zhu…I have a c-couple of questions I’d like to ask you.” She was positive that her voice was tiny while saying all that. It was quiet enough though that if she didn’t hear Cordelia talk, she would have heard the knock on the door.

[Deleted]

Something must be wrong. That was the first thought that Imogen had when she looked up and there was actually someone in her door. The student, Cordelia Smith, was a quiet type, and a Hufflepuff, so of course Imogen had taken a shining to her instantly. She took a deep breath, fully anticipating to have to leave her grading behind and go avert some crisis or other, when Cordelia spoke. She had some questions? That was all? Imogen relaxed, and nodded at Cordelia. “Come on in, then.” Imogen said warmly. She had to put aside her grading anyways, but the Charms teacher was pleased that it was for a worthy reason, instead of some student or other getting himself into trouble that only a professor could help him get out of. “You can pull up a chair, if you’d like.” Imogen said, gesturing to the chairs at all the desks. Since no one was there, obviously no other chair was going to be in use. The professor was busy wracking her brain to figure out what, exactly, Cordelia might have questions about, but she was left drawing a blank. The girl succeeded in class, at least as far as Imogen could tell, which meant that she wasn’t going to be looking for any outside help, and while Imogen was fond of Cordelia, she couldn’t claim to be closer to her than any other teacher, so it was unlikely that this was a person trouble, either. There was nothing left to do but let Cordelia ask her questions. “I’m ready when you are.” Imogen said pleasantly.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

Hovering around the doorway for a few more seconds as the professor looked up and noticed her, it took Cordelia a few seconds to adjust to her warm demeanor. That’s how she was in class too, but everyone always said she was really mean. Or was that only to Gryffindors? She had both rumors and had instantly tried to keep away and out of sight in class as much as possible. It never worked, of course. She didn’t like sounding proud of her abilities, but being slightly better than most at Charms was like having a target on her back.

Stepping all the way into the room, she followed Professor Zhu’s offer and pulled a chair from a nearby desk. Holding it awkwardly in front of her as she slowly hobbled it over to the desk at the front of the room, she had a hard time not noticing how quiet it was without a full class there. Even during exams it was louder than it was right now. Obviously stopping by to see professors in her spare time didn’t happen too often, so it was strange to see the room in this state. Setting the chair a few feet away from the professor’s desk, she dropped her bag gently onto the ground before taking a seat. Fiddling with her hands for a little bit, she finally looked up to make eye contact with Professor Zhu. All she had to do was repeat what she had been thinking earlier. The hardest part, actually stepping into the room, was already done. Now she just had to find a way to get the words out. Sitting in silence a little longer, absorbed in her thoughts, she finally spoke up. “I w-was wondering if there was anything extra I c-could do to learn more…” She trailed off, realizing that she hadn’t really provided any backdrop to wanting to do more work. “I want to be a healer after n-next year.”

[Deleted]

Cordelia didn’t seem comfortable with this whole situation, and Imogen couldn’t fault her for that. In fifth year, when she had had to go from professor to professor and tell them her name (and that she was a she), Imogen had been a nervous wreck. The circumstances had been different, of course, but the point remained that going up to an authority figure – any authority figure – even if only to ask for help, was a daunting task. Cordelia stuttered out that she wanted to know if there was anything extra she could learn, and then added that she wanted to be a healer. Healing spells weren’t covered as well in the Charms curriculum, in favor of other spells that might be applicable to the population at large, but Imogen knew there were several books at the library that could be a starting place, if Cordelia hadn’t read them already. Scribbling a couple of titles on a piece of parchment, Imogen handed it to Cordelia. “If you haven’t read these already, they’re a nice foundation for healing spells.” She told the student. Imogen paused for a moment, and then clarified what she meant. “I’ve found that the reason a lot of students go awry in healing is because they memorize only the spells, without knowing the mechanisms behind them. You don’t have to study them as hard as you would study the reasoning behind on of the spells you need to write an essay on or use on an exam, but I’ve found that background knowledge leads to higher success rates.” There were more things that Imogen could suggest, of course, but she didn’t want to overwhelm Cordelia with information. If she was really serious, maybe Imogen could see if she could ask Ophelia to get a Healer to talk to her about the future.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

That hadn’t been nearly as hard as she thought it would have been. As she had expected, the hardest part about the entire ordeal was actually stepping into the room and sitting down. Now that she had done that, and explained why she was there in the first place, everything seemed a lot simpler. Within seconds of detailing what she wanted to do to improve her charms abilities, Professor Zhu was already scribbling down on a scrap of paper. Cordelia fiddled with her hands, watching, or rather leaning towards the professor’s desk, to try and figure out what she was doing. The parchment was eventually handed in her direction, and Cordelia carefully plucked it out of the professor’s hands. On it was a list of book titles, Professor Zhu explained the reasoning behind it as Cordelia silently scanned over the list. Some of them looked familiar; she had definitely cracked at least one or two of them open already either in the library or at home. Her mum had a rather vast collection of medical books, obviously those were the kinds that she needed to be paying attention to while home on breaks from now on.

Raising her eyes from the scrap and nodding her head to show that she understood what Professor Zhu was saying, everything started to click more. Understanding the basic fundamentals of the spells meant she would be able to do much more with them than what was taught. She had thought she had been rather serious about it already, but having another year of school left had made her rather complacent when it came to actively researching and practicing the spells. That was the other major flaw in it; practicing healing spells meant needing test subjects. Cordelia wasn’t going to actively seek out people willing to break bones for her to test a spell that might work, and she definitely wasn’t going to hurt herself either. “That m-makes sense.” She managed out, looking back down at the list again. There was a good chance she was going to go straight from here to the library and check out a few of them. It wouldn’t hurt at all. “Are there any clubs that c-cover this? Or charms in general?”

[Deleted]

Cordelia read the paper over in earnest, and Imogen tried her best not to stare at the girl while she did so; she didn’t want this meeting to become uncomfortable. She paused a moment before answering Cordelia’s question about clubs that might deal with medicinal charms. “I believe that the nursing staff at Hogwarts is looking into beginning a first aid seminar.” At least, Imogen had heard something about a first aid class. “I’m not sure whether or not you’ve heard anything about that, but it could be useful. I doubt they’ll teach you much beyond the basics, but it would allow you to strengthen your basic skills. You’d have to ask Nurse Blacksmith if you wanted more details about that – or I could ask her for you, if you don’t have a reason to be in the hospital wing.” Imogen wouldn’t mind talking to the nurse for Cordelia, though she did have mixed feelings about it. For one thing, it encouraged Cordelia to be dependent on other people for communication. On the other hand, though, it was a lot more likely that Cordelia would actually get the information with Imogen as the middle man, and the Charms professor didn’t want her student to miss out on an opportunity like that because she was too shy to seek the information herself. Imogen certainly would have done the same thing if she was in Cordelia’s position. Then again, if Cordelia really was serious about medicine, then she’d be willing to put in the extra work and social interaction for it…Imogen was just running herself in circles with this logic.

“We also have a Charms clubs at Hogwarts, which I’m sure you’ve heard about.” Imogen said, changing the subject. She had inherited the position as Charms club mentor by virtue of the fact that she taught Charms, and Imogen wasn’t above promoting the organization. “I’m sure that we could have a meeting devoted to healing charms, if you requested it.” It was a hard club to plan for sometimes, since the scope of Charms available was so wide. Imogen was sure that Rose Weasley wouldn’t mind having a little bit of a break in thinking of what to do when it came to the Charms club.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

This is what she needed. Talking to Professor Zhu wasn’t so much a confidence booster, but more of the push in the right direction that she so desperately needed. Most of this could have been brought up with her mother during break, at least in terms of what she should be looking for to study over the next year and a half. Cordelia had assumed that becoming a healer wasn’t an automatic gig. They surely had to do years of training, much like muggle doctors did. If she could get a leg-up on that though, it would definitely help her out in the long run.

The best part about their conversation though was that most of what the professor was telling her about had either already been attempted or was in the process, such as the first aid seminar. She had signed up immediately upon hearing about it, but nothing more had been said since. If it hadn’t been brought up now, she probably would have forgotten about it. “I’ve t-t-talked to her in p-passing before.” Cordelia looked back down at the scrap of paper, folding it in half and stuffing it in her pocket. “B-But I can find time to go back.” The nurses were probably her best shot at actually learning anything, as weird as it sounded. They were all exceptionally trained, having always been there to help her with every bump, bruise, scratch, and sickness. It was almost like being at home, since her mum was the exact same way.

And then there was the Charms club. Cordelia had thought about joining before, but she had become absorbed with the small group that the art club comprised of and wasn’t willing to lose her time there to another group of people she barely knew. The compromise here was that the Charms club would also increase her knowledge and abilities in the whole area, not just with healing spells. Finding a balance between the two would easily be the best outcome in the end. “I’d have t-to think about joining…b-but it sounds interesting.” More than interesting, and closer to enticing her the more she thought about it. “I don’t want to l-lose time with the art club though…”

[Deleted]

Imogen was pleased to hear that Cordelia had talked to Nurse Blacksmith in passing. As far as she knew, most students were familiar with the nurse at least in passing. It was difficult to go through magical schooling without at least one incident, and even if the children hadn’t yet been hurt themselves, chances were they knew someone in that situation. “She’s really very nice.” Imogen assured Cordelia, in case the Hufflepuff girl had forgotten that. Imogen hadn’t spoken much to the woman herself, but she was a Hufflepuff alumna and what conversation the two had shared had been pleasant niceties, which was better than Imogen could say of some of the other teachers. “I’m sure she’ll be just as willing to talk to you if you need to wait a couple weeks due to time constraints.” Imogen added. The term was beginning to wind down, which meant that a lot of students were busy studying for their exams or getting in homework assignments that were missing. Imogen was beginning to feel the effects of that last-minute rush, too, not that it was all that important since she didn’t have much a life outside of Hogwarts.

Cordelia said that joining Charms club sounded interesting, and Imogen beamed at her. “I’m sure that something can be worked out so you can do both!” Imogen chirped. “If worse comes to worse, I wouldn’t be averse to setting you the Charms we learn in the club as extra homework.” Offering private tutoring seemed a little excessive at the time, but if Cordelia was serious about getting where she wanted to go as a healer, then surely the extra work would be welcome? Since it wasn’t an official assignment, the timeline could be a lot more flexible, too. Imogen tried not to run away with that thought, choosing instead to offer Cordelia another soft smile.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

Nice. That’s right, the nurses were always nice. Cordelia had never been afraid of them, or injuries for that matter. It probably had something to do with reminding her of her mother, and how being hurt or sick was always fixed immediately. From what she could tell, the Hogwarts nurses were exactly the same way. She assumed it had something to do with making the younger students feel more at ease and comfortable around them. They always tended to get in more trouble than seemed possible. Then again, they were new to magic and whatnot. She could recall being terrified of everything they learned at first. Backfiring spells were all too common. Cordelia could count quite a few little scars here and there on her hands from ones she managed to do. “Th-that might work.” She nodded her head and looked down again. At least she was doing well in Charms and her other classes. Exams weren’t going to be extremely difficult this time around.

Cordelia shifted slightly in her chair as the professor mentioned doing both the Charms club and art club. Hopefully it didn’t look she didn’t want to do both, because she did. The issue was committing equal time to them on top of classes and photography. Having spent the last few years doing just those few things, she had grown comfortable with them, the thought of adding something else on top was, well, scary. There was the possibility that she wouldn’t know anyone in the Charms club, aside from the professor, and that only made her more hesitant about the whole thing. Then again, making new friends wouldn’t hurt either. Her mum told her that all the time when she was home. “Is there a t-trial m-meeting? So I could see if I l-like it or not?”

[Deleted]

Cordelia agreed that waiting to contact Nurse Blacksmith might work, and Imogen just nodded. “If you ever need any questions answered or anything, you know I’m here.” Obviously Cordelia knew Imogen was there, since she had come there in the first place, but it felt necessary to reiterate.

“We generally use the first meeting of September as a trial meeting slash orientation.” Imogen said apologetically. Obviously, that had long since passed. “But normally the attendance is variable, anyways. Not everyone always has time to make it to every meeting.” If students had a lot of homework or had a different club meeting to attend, it wasn’t unusual for them to excuse themselves from a meeting. It was generally only after three or four meetings missed that Imogen began to consider them no longer a part of the club, and even then, if they returned, they were going to be welcomed with open arms. Clubs were supposed to be something fun, not another thing on a long list of obligations that students had. “So really, if you just want to drop in once, it would be fine.” In case Cordelia hadn’t ascertained that herself, Imogen decided to make the lack of commitment apparent. Imogen would love to have another Charms Club member, of course, but if Cordelia really only wanted to learn about healing charms, she could just drop in for the meetings where they covered those charms, and then disappear back into the woodwork.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

Cordelia nodded at the professor’s offer to stop by whenever she wanted to. She honestly needed that, because if something else were to come up and she needed to inquire about Charms or healing spells, then having a quick go to source was better than flipping through books for days on end. That’s pretty much how it had gone the past few years for her anyways. Now she didn’t have to do that. It was rather nice knowing that she was welcome to come back at any point if she had questions; that had been the toughest part about getting here today. Hopefully that meant the next time wouldn’t be nearly as difficult.

She could feel her good mood drop slightly at the mention of the trial meeting being at the beginning of the term. Cordelia had a feeling that was how it went. Art club was pretty much the same. Usually there was a little leniency here and there for the couple of meetings that followed, but this term as almost up. She was hesitant to waltz right into a meeting out of the blue this late in the game. The start of the next term wasn’t too far off, so she could always try and pop in for one of those ones. Surely they wouldn’t be continuing the same lessons or projects, or whatever it was Charms club did. She assumed it was studying higher level charms than what was taught in class and how to use them to their full potential. The one thing that did bug her was that attendance wasn’t mandatory. Art club was the same way, and even the most devoted members seemed to skip out every now and then. She was still worried that this new club could conflict with her current one, and that was something she couldn’t skip. “Th-That c-c-could work. As l-long as it d-doesn’t conflict w-with art c-club.”

[Deleted]

Cordelia really was interested in making sure she could still go to Art Club, Imogen noted with a small smile. She must have enjoyed art – no, it was photography, wasn’t it? – more than Imogen had previously realized. “I can’t promise total lack of conflicts, but if you tell me your supervisor or your club captain for Art Club, I can speak with them and try to schedule our meetings so they don’t conflict.” Imogen said. That was really the best that she could do, especially since she also had to work with Rose Weasley, who was captain of the Charms club, to make sure that any dates chosen worked for her, too. “If you want those books,” Imogen said, gesturing to the piece of parchment Cordelia was holding, “You’d best go now rather than later. Most of them only have a single copy in the library, if I’m not mistaken.” Imogen hadn’t been at the school for long, but the library did tend only to have one copy of the rarer or less in-demand works.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@imogen

Now that the professor mentioned it, who was the Art club supervisor? Cordelia couldn’t recall another professor ever stopping by, and if they had, they were rather subtle about it. The captain, on the other hand, was relatively easy. “D-Daryl Thomas is the c-captain.” She responded. Hopefully Daryl didn’t think Professor Zhu was going to yell at him about something. Cordelia had heard somewhere that Gryffindors weren’t exactly the professor’s favorite students in the world. But Daryl was a nice person, so surely he wasn’t on her bad side.

Cordelia looked down at the parchment with the books listed on it as the professor continued talking, explaining that there was probably only a copy of each one. That made sense. She couldn’t recall hearing about too many other students that were this interested in charms or healing spells, except for the Charms club maybe. Plus she had free time still to go right now. Nodding her head a few times, Cordelia stood up, folding the parchment up and carefully sticking it in her pocket. That was a useful piece of paper. It held the keys to her future. Potentially. “Th-Thank you P-Professor. I’ll s-stop b-by again if I have any other questions.” Giving the professor a smile, Cordelia turned to leave. She patted her pocket to make sure she still had the list of books, and immediately turned in the direction of the library upon making it into the corridor.

[Cord Out~]