[charms] stock and barrel [september]

She'd come in late to charms class. It wasn't her fault! Patty swore up and down that the moving staircases were to blame and her own lack of capable time management. While the stairs did make her late an extra five minutes, they weren't all to blame. She snuck in quietly and found the first seat she could near the back. Her first year had been rather different. She made an effort to sit in front and always asl questions and take notes. Coming back to school, as excited as she was to return and learn, she was slowly losing her excitement and willpower for classes. She tried what she felt wad her best, but even that didn't seem to be enough.

They'd continued on with the lesson and by the end of it, Patty's head was swirling with questions, confusion, and lot of pressure on the front of her head. She found herself getting easily distracted in the beginning that made it difficult to keep up with the lesson. To appear as if she was learning, she scribbled on her scrap parchment. They weren't notes, though she made attempts to listen, but rather small doodles od hearts, swirls, stars, horseshoes, and raindrops all over.

Someone beside her slammed their book shut as they packed their things away. Patty's attention was snatched for the first time away from her doodles. She looked up to find everyone filing out onto the next class. With a defeated sigh she looked down at her rough art and sighed. The realization and guilt that she missed the whole lesson began to settle on her. She felt sick to her stomach from it.

With a disappointed sigh in herself, she packed her things away anf shuffled out quietly hoping that her professor hadn't noticed her mental absence. Perhaps next time she'd learn more and have a greater attention span than that of a goldfish. She could only hope.

[[Out]]

Bren sighed with relief as his Yearmate nodded enthusiastically – thank Merlin for Trudy. He watched closely as she executed the spell on her padlock, brow furrowing slightly in thought.

“And now?” she asked, and he shrugged helplessly in reply.

She turned to her book, then, and Bren chewed on his lip. He didn’t want to disturb her further and ask to share her book… but he was so utterly lost already. He glanced up to see Professor Flitwick helping to sort out a bit of commotion at the opposite end of the classroom, and at least two others in close proximity to that already had their hands in the air for assistance.

He sighed deeply through his nose, lifted his wand, and tried to imitate Trudy’s Specialis Revelio as closely as possible.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Bren was relieved when Professor Flitwick finally called an end to the lesson; he’d been wildly unsuccessful, and had been growing more frustrated with each passing minute. To top it all off, his padlock gave a loud QUACK and proceeded to throw itself off of his desk just as the chatter died down, startling Bren so badly that he nearly dropped his wand. Ears burning at the chorus of giggles that erupted around him, he dove underneath his desk to retrieve the bloody quacking abomination before it could find a way to embarrass him further.

Part of him was glad that his homework would simply be to practice the charms; but after three-quarters of an hour of floundering, it was rather the last thing he felt like doing. He turned to ask Trudy if she wanted to practice together later – but the Ravenclaw was already packed up and out the door. Maybe he’d ask Patience instead; she was packing up her things, and if he was being honest she looked rather like he felt. Perhaps they could bumble through practicing together.

Bren slung his bag over his shoulder, returned his pesky padlock, bid Professor Flitwick good day, and hurried out the door to try to catch up with Patty.

[[ out! ]]

She nodded in agreement, tilting her head slightly and studying their now-motionless padlock.
“We’re O.W.L. students now… not a chance we get off so easily,” she sighed ruefully, though with a small smile. Aase scanned the appendix of her textbook for clues, and she and Freddie both tried a few more charms with limited-to-no success.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

By the time the lesson concluded, Aase was feeling just as perplexed as she’d been at the start. She’d honestly thought they’d been onto something for a minute, there… but their padlock seemed to think otherwise. It was frustrating, but also oddly motivating.

“Do you have a free period now too? We could start working on that homework together if you like.”

The Hufflepuff nodded emphatically.
“Yes and yes, please… I still can’t figure out what we’ve been missing,” she replied, frowning slightly as she tidied up their workstation and packed up her things. “Maybe coming back to it after a bit of a break will help. Want to go down to the lake to work?” The edge of the lake was one of Aase’s favorite places at Hogwarts; she and Freddie in particular had taken to hanging out there even more frequently.

“Have a good afternoon, Professor!” she chirped as she and Freddie left the classroom together.

[[ out! ]]

Horus stole our lock and won't give it back! -- Barbara turned a shocked look at Rowen, and then at Horus, who was holding their lock out as though he were afraid it would bite him. She took it hastily and set it back down between herself and her friend, pink under her freckles -- “What’d you say that for?” she said, appalled. “I thought you liked Horus?”

Or, at the very least, didn’t dislike him. Horus Heyward III was sort of a bore, but he was alright on the eyes. And he was in their house. Having started to hang around Gryffindors, Barbara had grown to appreciate the Ravenclaw boys she knew. They were by and large less personable and more tolerable -- Horus was no exception.

And he could speak French.

The professor came around behind her to ask Horus what was going on -- Barbara, trying not to eavesdrop too obviously, glanced sidelong at Rowen again, stabbing her wand at their padlock absentmindedly and forgetting that they’d planned to hex it to keep it in place -- it reappeared in front of Rowen, thankfully, and not on some other hapless yearmate’s desk.

Barbara's reaction to her theatrics made Rowen frown slightly, "Because I hoped he would get into trouble?" She replied as if it was the simplest idea in the world and she was disappointed that Barbara hadn't caught on. Being the brat that she was, Rowen felt no guilt for getting her classmate into trouble. And worse yet, had Horus been docked house points, Rowen would have taken it one step further and chastised him for it.

Her face scrunched up at Barbara's next question, and she shook her head, "No, my parents like Horus' parents." Being on the cusp of an arranged marriage had turned the already stubborn and cruel Rowen into a ticking time bomb. She would not marry Horus Heyward the Fourth, not if she had anything to do with it.

The dark-haired witch kept her cruel smile to a minimum as Professor Flitwick came around to investigate and mimicking Barbara's motions as they pretended not to be listening together. The padlock disapparated and then plopped back into existence on the table in front of Rowen, and the witch let out a soft but disgruntled sound. "What do you want to try next?" She asked Barbara, but it was more than apparent that Rowen was busy eave's dropping on the conversation between Horus and the professor and hoping for punishment.

Rowen answered her question as though she were stupid: she had wanted to get Horus into trouble. Barbara, her mouth open in a little oh of confused offense, decided to let it go with a little huff. At times like this she didn’t know how much she liked her oldest friend in the world, which was a confusing and unpleasant way to feel, so she waited a little bit until Rowen’s tone soured -- my parents like Horus’s parents and a little bit of sympathy bled back into her.

“Well,” she said, but she couldn’t think of anything nice to finish with. It baffled her to imagine someone her age having to worry about marriage already -- she thought that was sort of archaic. Her family was conservative but not insane.

Luckily, the professor seemed to understand what had happened; Barbara avoided his gaze as he told Horus it was quite fine, and he glanced rather sternly at Rowen as he passed their desk, but didn’t say anything. Barbara blew her breath out and gave Rowen a relieved look, before remembering that it had been Rowen’s fault.

“I can’t think of anything else,” she said. “Hold on -- I’ll see what the textbook says about object apparition.” Was that even what it was called, properly?

It wasn’t that important anyway, though -- the lesson wrapped up, and they were assigned only six inches of homework -- Barbara shot Horus a last apologetic look, and got a faintly beleaguered look in return, and then followed her friends out to lunch.

OUT

As Professor Flitwick described their task for the lesson, Jacqueline couldn’t help but sit forward slightly in her chair, eager to start working on this particular puzzle.

‘All harmless ways’, he’d said… that implied that no force need be employed, which quickly ruled-out Annihilare, Bombarda, Dunamis, and several others. Not that she was particularly keen on blowing things up indoors… but it was good information to have nonetheless, and she was rather keen on data collection.

As she waited for the padlocks to be distributed, Jacq withdrew her book from her bag and flipped to the recommended appendix. It had been some time since she’d last used Specialis Revelio; reminding herself of the interpretations would be prudent, too.

Jacq glanced up as someone approached a minute or two later, and beamed when she saw it was Éilís.
“Come sit!” she encouraged, scooting her chair sideways to make room for her friend.

“Would one of ye care to do the honors?” she joked, tilting her head in the direction of the padlock before them. As N.E.W.T. students, she was certain there would be multiple layers of enchantments on it. “In the meantime, I’ve had a think on some of the spells that might maybe work as alternates, and some that may no.” She’d jotted some ideas down on the scrap of parchment before her over the past few minutes.

 â€œRight, so – Finite incantatem willnae do to lift charms… only curses, jinxes, and hexes. Aberto was used before Alohomora was created… though I dinnae ken it’ll work without a door. Same with Liberare. Emancipare is for unbinding, so maybe a bit of a reach. Depulso is for magical switches and levers… though I suppose a charmed padlock does somewhat fit that description…”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

When Professor Flitwick finally called an end to the lesson, the Head Girl was equal parts frustrated and relieved. It had been more difficult than she’d anticipated; while she welcomed a challenge, the enchantments were rather tricky and stubborn ones. They’d identified and successfully lifted two (after several failed attempts), were fairly close (or so Jacq thought) to lifting a third… and who knew how many more were left.

“Shall we write our essays together after dinner?” she asked the pair of them as she packed up her things. Once all three were ready, Jacq thanked Professor Flitwick and bid him good day then left the classroom with her friends.

[[ out! ]]