i don't think they'd understand [anna]

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Imogen was dreading this meeting. Anna Weasley had asked her to help practice Charms after the First Task, and as per her promise to Ophelia (and her own personal morals, of course), Imogen had agreed to see the Gryffindor girl. That was what she was dreading about the meeting: the fact that Anna was a Gryffindor. So far none of the students had done anything to disabuse Imogen of the notion that Gryffindors were spoiled, stubborn brats, and the Champion had more reason than most to act that way. Imogen had kept her hair its normal brunette in preparation for the meeting, even though she was feeling like it was a lilac sort of day. She would survive until she could go back to her room and be alone and have whatever color hair she wished. Im sighed, and looked at her watch, then the door, waiting for Anna to appear.

@annelise

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Anna didn't know what to expect. She'd never actually met with professor Zhu on her own and heard (like everyone had) that the professor didn't like Gryffindors. Granted, Anna had never seen any evidence of this herself, so she didn't put any stock in the rumors, but that didn't help calm her nerves. Hopefully things would go well. She'd made it through the First Task, but wanted to make sure she was prepared for the second. Hopefully this practice session would help her. Anna walked in the room and smiled when she realized her professor was already there. "Hello," she greeted cheerfully. "Umm ... I guess I was wondering if there are any charms you think I should know or practice to be ready for the next task," she asked after a few seconds. After all, Anna was the one that asked for help, so she should be the first one to talk, right?

@imogen

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Imogen had to take several deep breaths when Anna finally came through the door, calming herself down as much as she possibly could. The girl seemed nice enough, greeting her cheerfully before getting right down to business. As was typical when Imogen was meeting with students, she started by asking a question instead of answering the one she had originally been posed. “What have you practiced so far?” Imogen desperately hoped that the girl had at least practiced something before the first task, but Imogen never could tell when it came to Gryffindors. Hopefully Anna would give her a firm foundation to build off of, and then they could progress to more complicated spells not necessarily covered in the curriculum, or covered later in the year. “I don’t suppose it’s worth asking if you know anything about the second task.” Imogen added. She knew quite a few specialized spells, and if she had an inkling of what was happening next, that could hope both student and teacher immensely.

@annelise

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Anna thought for a moment before answering, trying to remember her practice with Finn, since it was more of a practice than her pillow fight with Oscar. "I practiced shield charms, a few defensive spells as well ..." she trailed off, thinking. Of course, she'd practiced everything she could think of on her own, but she couldn't very well tell Professor Zhu that. It would be pointless. "I think those were what I focused on the most before the first task," she admitted. "But no, they haven't told us anything about the second task yet." Anna wished they would. She hated trying to prepare for a mystery. How was she supposed to know what to study? Anna stood there, waiting for her professor's analysis/judgment on what they should study next. She didn't seem too enthusiastic to be there with Anna, but Anna ignored that. She needed as much help as she could get.

@imogen

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Imogen nodded when Anna listed the spells she had practiced, and then again when the girl said that she didn’t know anything about the second task. “Well, from what I’ve seen, the three tasks are meant to test your heart, your mind, and your body, one task for each.” That was what Imogen thought, at least, and her guess was as good as anyone else’s. Every task had elements of all three facets, but from what she had studied, Imogen believed her hunch to be correct. “The first task, I would guess, tested your body.” It was a task of endurance and of physical ability, since not just anyone could hike through a maze on a mountainside like that one. “So I would guess you should look at charms that protect your mind and heart, or allow you to manipulate others’.” Illusionment charms would be a good place to start, but Imogen was hoping Anna would reach that conclusion on her own. Otherwise there probably was no use in trying to sharpen the Gryffindor’s mind.

@annelise

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Anna liked what her professor said. Honestly, she'd never thought of the tasks in that way, but it made sense that it tested your mind, heart and body. "That makes sense to me," she said, "And out of the three, the first task definitely was a task to test the body." That was for sure. It didn't test her heart (other than her determination) or her mind (other than remembering spells in stressful situations). Alright, so maybe it did test all of them. Still, this was the best explanation she'd heard of it so far so she was going to go with it.

Something to protect her mind and heart, or to manipulate? That was something to think over. Anna's thoughts went immediately to legilimency, but that was a very advanced skill and she didn't think she would have the time to master that before she got to the second task. "Well," she started, still thinking, "Is there some sort of charm that can help me change someone's perspective on something, like the way they view it?" Honestly, Anna felt like an idiot asking that, but nothing else was coming to her mind. She really didn't want to seem incompetent right now, but she couldn't think of anything else to suggest.

@imogen

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Imogen nodded when Anna – correctly, in her opinion – reached the conclusion that the First Task had been the task to challenge the body. “I think that it might be hard to predict what either of the next tasks will be, since both mind and heart are more…ephemeral, shall we say, than body.” The things that different people considered mentally or emotionally challenging varied widely from person to person, so Imogen wasn’t sure if her hunch would be any good in helping predict the next task.

“For someone at your skill level, it would be easier to simply make the thing you wish to appear actually appear.” Imogen said. “The human mind is a dangerous and complex thing, and ethically, I don’t believe the Triwizard judges would look favorably on you manipulating the actual fabric of your competitor’s minds.” Besides, Imogen didn’t think there was a way to do that besides Legilimency, and she wasn’t in a position to be able to teach Anna that, even if she believed the girl had enough time to learn. “Part of how effective you can be in tricking your opponent’s hearts and minds is how far you’re willing to go.” Some would say that the Triwizard Tournament was no holds barred, but Imogen was hoping that there was room for at least some decency in it.

@annelise

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Anna nodded in agreement when professor Zhu said it would be hard to tey and figure out what the ministry had figured out for the next task in the tournament. She was nervous for it, which was one of the reasons why she was here. Really she didn't like the buildup. While the maze was hard, when she was in it she didn't really have a lot of time to worry. The adrenaline kicked in and she just did her best. She just hates how nervous she was before it actually happened. 

Anna shook her head, "I wouldn't want to mess with anyone's mind, even if I could. I do like the idea of being able to make things actually appear. Do you have any suggestions for that?" Anna had no desire to hurt her opponents in any way. Besides, if she did it would defeat the entire purpose of the tournament, wouldn't it? "If it doesn't hurt them, I'd be willing to do it though," wanting to make sure the professor knew what she was going for. Hopefully sh did because Anna didn't really. She just wanted to learn something new that might help her, but she had no idea what that should be. 

@imogen

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Anna said that she was willing to do any Charms that didn’t hurt people, and Imogen bit her lip. “Once some Charms are cast, they can be difficult to control.” Imogen said honestly. “So while none of these Charms are intended to harm people, it’s possible that if you use them incorrectly, or if someone is in the way when you cast them, they’ll be hurt.” Headmaster Longbottom wouldn’t have approved of Imogen teaching Anna anything lethal on purpose, that was for sure. The Triwizard Tournament was meant, after all, to test how well the Champions completed the tasks, not how well they could maim or injure their fellow Champions.

“An easy one to start with would probably be canis.” Imogen said. “People are distracted fairly easily by dogs, believe it or not.” Even if they weren’t dog lovers, it would be sure to confuse the other Champions if they saw a dog wandering around the task site. “It produces a dog that’s solid at first, but begins to fade after a few minutes, until it looks similar to a Patronus. Once it reaches that point, it sticks around for about thirty seconds, and then disappears.” Imogen paused for a moment, trying to think if there was anything else she needed to mention. “The dog is based on your personality, by the way, so don’t be alarmed if yours doesn’t look like mine.” Imogen then proceeded to demonstrate the spell, watching as an Irish Wolfhound sprouted from her wand. “Once the dog has been cast, you have little control over it, except for whether or not it’s hostile.” She said, gesturing to the dog, which was wagging its tail. “Since they’re not corporeal anyways, it doesn’t much matter if you make the dog angry, unless you don’t want to scare your competitors.”

@annelise

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Professor Zhu explained that charms could be hard to control once cast and Anna listened carefully. "Then I'll just have to practice to make sure I can use them correctly," she replied, determined to do her best. She wanted to be ready to use the charms her professor suggested if she could, but she didn't want to hurt someone because she didn't want to hurt anyone, even by accident.

Anna smiled at the first suggestion. She didn't know this charm, but it did sound like a useful one and she was ready to learn how to do it. Even if she didn't end up using it in the tournament, it sounded like a good charm to know. She nodded, watching carefully as Professor Zhu summoned her own dog. Anna couldn't help but smile when she saw the dog wagging its tail in front of her. It was so cute! She listened carefully as her professor explained that once the charm was cast, she could only control the mood of the dog. Anna lifted her wand to try to conjure one herself before pausing, turning her attention back to her professor. "Is there anything specific I need to know before casting this professor?" She asked quickly. She knew that sometimes if you didn't do a particular wand movement or something you would mess up the charm and she didn't want to do that this time.

@imogen

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Imogen nodded. Anna seemed resolved not to hurt anyone, and Imogen wanted to stress that sometimes it wasn’t even the caster’s fault if someone got hurt, but decided just to stay quiet. If Anna wanted to feel guilty for something, she was going to feel guilty about it no matter what Imogen said or did. She’d probably add that disclaimer again at the end of the lesson, but saying it after every Charm would just be redundant.

“Other than what I told you, nothing comes to mind.” Imogen said. It was a difficult spell to mess up, since the wand movement was so simple, as was in the incantation. “Just remember that the dog picks up on your emotions, and if you’re nervous, it will be, too.” Nervous dogs could behave in a variety of different ways, so Imogen wanted to make sure that Anna was as prepared as possible so her charmed animal didn’t do anything silly. Even if it couldn’t do any harm, if Anna saw that the animal was nervous, she could get even more nervous, and the cycle would continue until her confidence was completely wrecked and she never wanted to cast the spell again.

@annelise

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Professor Zhu didn't have any special instructions, so Anna nodded her head and decided to focus on what she was about to do. She waved her wand and repeated the charm, trying to not feel nervous. After all, she didn't want to have an anxious dog in front of her, she wanted a happy one! A grin took over her face when she saw a husky come out of the end of her wand. It bounded around the room and Anna couldn't help but giggle. Apparently she focused enough on being happy that the dog didn't pick up on her nervousness. It looked like she did it right, but she looked to her professor. "How's that?" she asked, the smile twitching on the corner of her mouth when she saw her husky still leaping around the room happily.

@imogen

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Anna seemed focused on what she was doing, and Imogen wasn’t at all surprised to see a dog blossom out of the end of the girl’s wand. By that time, her Irish Wolfhound had already disappeared, so Imogen didn’t get to see how the two dogs would interact with each other. She was oddly disappointed by that, but brushed the feeling away. “It’s perfect, Anna.” Imogen said, watching as the dog began to bound around the room. “I’d say that you mastered this spell handily.” It wasn’t a difficult spell, but even when spells weren’t difficult, Imogen tried to praise her students. “That doesn’t mean that you can’t not practice, though.” Imogen warned, though Anna didn’t seem to be that kind of Gryffindor. “There’s a similar spell for a cat, but since they’re in the same category, perhaps we can just move to a different kind of illusion?” Imogen asked.

@annelise

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Anna beamed when Professor Zhu told her that she'd done it correctly. She watched her dog as it moved around the room, glad that she'd done it on her first try. "Thank you," she said, nodding seriously when she was instructed that she needed to continue to practice. "I will," Anna promised. Honestly, this was a handy spell and she wanted to be able to do it whenever she wanted. "Yes, I'm ready." Anna turned away from her dog, focusing all of her attention on her professor. Her first suggestion was great so she had high hopes for the rest of the meeting. Anna wanted to learn whatever Professor Zhu thought might help her.

@imogen

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“A brief diversion from spells that will help you in tasks, if you will.” Imogen said, biting her lip. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, but then again, maybe it was. “I don’t know whether or not you’ve learned this spell before, but with the way the world is shaping out to be, and your current vulnerable position as Champion…” She trailed off. Imogen knew that she needed to spit out what she was going to say, especially since she had just spent so much time and so many words hyping it, but it was hard to admit that they lived in a world where this spell was needed. “Protego horribilis.” Imogen finally sighed. “It’s a Shielding Charm that’s more effective against dark magic than the others you may already know.” Imogen sighed again. “Obviously, we’re in no position to be able to test the efficacy of your shield, but please. Practice it.”

@annelise