Charms is possibly the most versatile and adaptable subject you will learn at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this class you may learn to make a bottle dance, to make a cat whistle, to put an egg back together again, to create fire or water from thin air. (Of course, the origins of any magically conjured substance are hotly contested by scholars and students of Charms worldwide, as you will read in Quintessence, a Quest if you pursue Charms to NEWTs level, but for our purposes, we will assume they were created from thin air.)
In this class, due to the variety of material covered, it is imperative that students are respectful and attentive during lessons. Careless students will not be allowed to endanger themselves or their classmates. Homework should be completed diligently. Completion and thoroughness is more important than timeliness; if you need an extension, you need only ask -- but if you find yourself doing so often, please seek assistance from any of the resources offered at Hogwarts: my office hours, private tutoring, or the Charms club.
Welcome to Charms, and remember: never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said "s" instead of "f" and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
➢ Wand movements and incantations used in common charms
➢ Components of a spell and development of countercharms
➢ Identification and correction of a poorly performed spell
REQUIRED MATERIALS
➢ The Standard Book of Spells vol. I - VII, Miranda Goshawk
➢ Magical Theory, Adalbert Waffling
➢ Quintessence, a Quest, Levina Monkstanley (for NEWTs students)
➢ Extreme Incantations, Violeta Stitch (for NEWTs students)
➢ A good attitude and a lot of parchment
CLASS RULES
1. Be careful where you point your wand.
2. When working with live animals, use your head.
3. Be on time (or if you must be tardy, be tardy unobtrusively.)
4. Treat each other and your teacher respectfully.
5. Clean up after yourself.
OOC INFORMATION
For my own ease, Charms classes will just be all years; Professor Flitwick will demonstrate a spell and then set his students loose on each other, on Conjured animals, or on inanimate objects he provides, wandering the room to offer help or advice. He may ask questions, but not often. You are free to have side conversations in this class (in fact, I encourage it, if you don't mind being interrupted at potentially inopportune moments.)
For class mentions in other posts: Professor Flitwick does assign a fairly heavy workload, asking his students to read supplemental texts and to know material ahead of time, but he rarely enforces this, so it's easy to slack off. Other homework assignments he may have tasked your characters with are:
➢ Extra practice (especially if your student is not particularly skilled at Charms)
➢ Rudimentary Charm Development (typically for NEWTs level students)
➢ Papers on Charm Theory (usually no longer than a foot of parchment)
➢ Development of Countercharms given a Charm (third years and up)
