Charms: Lesson 1 (1st years)

Leah finally made it to the charms room, besides from the professor there was nobody in yet. So she took a seat right in the middle of the gathering of desks and waited for others to arrive.

Zoran walked over to the Charms classroom. He was excited for this subject. Charms was something that he considered as what: Magic was all about. When he reached the classroom, though, he found only the teacher -- at whom he nodded and smiled -- and another first year student. He nodded at her too, and sat down in the middle of the classroom. As he waited, he couldn't help wonder what was taking the other first years so long. Couldn't they just come already?

Spencer walked into Charms, and plopped down on a seat next to a Gryffindor guy who must've been new, since he hadn't seen him around before. He nodded at him and smiled at the Ravenclaw girl near him.

"Hey." He greeted them. "The name's Spencer."

Leah looked up an saw two other first year boys, one of the boys, Spencer introduced himself.
"I'm Leah"

Charms was a subject that was something Emmalynne felt confident about. Of course, the confidence wasn’t entirely proven, but she hadn’t managed to explode anything yet whenever she had tried out her new wand before the first lesson, and she hadn’t caused any other problems with it either. Besides, it had to be less creepy than DADA was, with Professor Umbranox an d all the spooky decorations, and in fact, she almost felt lighter as soon as she had stepped into the classroom. At least, she was definitely happy, and she sent everyone in the room a big grin. “Good morning Professor Adela,” she greeted the professor, eyeing the two Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw who were in the room as well before she made her way to a seat near them. She recognized them from classes, at least, but aside from knowing Spencer was working for the newspaper too, she hadn’t really talked to any of them.

At the very least, she could say hi to them before class started. Spencer and the Claw girl were talking, if not the other boy. “Hi!,” she said, dropping her books onto her desk gaily. She might be one of the only Puffs in the entire school right now, but she could make up for that easily when she wasn’t freaked out by the classroom setting, or the thought of having to get on a broom. She hadn’t entirely been herself in Flying either, but that was in the past. She’d just have to make sure she wasn’t still talking when the lesson started. “I’m Emmalynne,” she continued, slightly less animated but still smiling. Everyone else seemed to be introducing themselves, after all, so she figured she was allowed.

Emilio looked at his schedule and groaned. He had a class. At least he'd learn how to use his wand. He stashed his wand away in his pocket and left his bag on the floor as he made his way to Charms. A tiny prick of conscience pricked him as he walked away, but he shook it off. As he entered the room, he saw there weren't many people there yet. Perfect. Slouching to an empty desk, he collapsed in it and sprawled into a lazy position. After taking a peek around to make sure no one was watching him, he closed his eyes and pretended to take a nap.

Zoran nodded at the boy who introduced himself as Spencer, Emmalyne and Leah. "I'm Zoran Mandelino." He looked around and that's when he noticed a boy who looked bored and tired. Zoran could pin-point it but he knew the boy and he were alike. The boy was showing what he felt. Zoran didn't. He got up and went over to the boy. "Hey. I'm Zoran. Mind if I sit here?"

Em opened one eye lazily. "Sure," he said. "I'm Emilio." He sensed a kindred spirit in this boy, a feeling that finally someone else didn't want to be here as much as he did. It comforted him slightly that he wasn't the only non-academic in Hogwarts.

Helen walked into the classroom feeling light. It was a new term and a new set of students. New faces, new spells and she was more than glad to impart the knowledge of all the spells they could learn.

"Hello and welcome to Charms!" She said, her dark green robes sweeping the floor as she made her way across to the center of the room. "I'm Helen Adela, your Charms and Herbology teacher." She gave a friendly smile to everyone. "As there isn't enough time, we will proceed to the lesson. Please introduce yourself before answering any questions."

Water-Making Spell (Aguamenti)
Levitation Charm (Wingardium Leviosa)

"Today, we will be learning about these two spells." She pointed at the board. "The Water-Making spell is used to do what the name says. Make water. This is one of the many amazing things about magic." She paused. "Getting water even in a desert." She chuckled. "This is a charm that is used to conjure pure water from the tip of the caster's wand. The amount of water depends on the concentration of the wizard or witch who casts this spell. If the person is concentrating really hard, even a wave of water can be conjured. If the person's concentration is poor, a few drops of water is conjured. The incantation is Aguamenti. You have to stress on AGUA. Does anybody know where the name is derived from?"

Emilio rolled his eyes. He was Italian, for goodness sake, did the teacher have to ask such an easy question? Bored, he raised his hand lazily and answered in a monotone. "Obviously, it's from Italian." The word technically was acqua, but whatever. Maybe magic wouldn't be so bad it he could say all the spells in his native language.

Zoran smirked when Emilio answered Prof. Adela's question. He made it sound obvious, but Z was sure that was not the answer the teacher was searching for. Z waited for the teacher's reply anticipating her reaction.

Helen frowned at the Slytherin boy. "That is wrong Mr. Nocicarte." Then another boy answered. Smiling at him, Helen said, "That is perfectly right Mr. Black. Five points to Ravenclaw. The word is derived from Spanish and Portugese. It is not an Italian word."

Aguamenti: is a charm that conjures a jet of clear, pure water from the tip of the caster's wand

"On to the next charm of this lesson. The Levitation Charm. This is a charm used to make objects fly. This Charm has a number of variations such as the Hover Charm, the Rocket Charm and the Floating Charm, just to name a few, but the Levitation Charm remains the original and best. It also conveniently defies gravity by lifting objects heavier than a normal person would otherwise be able to carry. Almost anything can be lifted with this spell, although the object levitated depends on the skill of the caster and the weight of the object." Helen paused to see that everyone understood what she was saying. Then she continued, "This Charm, however, has a flaw. Can anybody tell me what it is?"

Emilio glared at the Ravenclaw. Know-it-all. Though technically, he wasn't a know-it-all, since he obviously didn't know that Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese were all romance languages, derived from Latin. And Italian was the closest to that. Avoiding the teacher's gaze, he stewed. Professors shouldn't favor students. That's wrong, that's perfectly correct. Em flicked a glance toward Zoran, figuring that the other boy hated kids like Black just as much as Em did.

Gripping the desk until his knuckles were white, Em silently listened to the professor, whom he was disliking more and more. When she asked her next question, he was prepared to ignore it, when he realized he actually knew the answer. He had overheard his father discussing it with his mum years ago. He raised his hand, determined not to make the teacher hate him and said, as calmly as he could, "The Levitation spell does not work on human beings." After an undetectable pause, he added, "Professor."

Dustin knocked on the door of the Charms classroom and entered the room. He stood still in front of the door.

"Dustin Crouch Professor. My apologies for being late, the stairs moved and i ended up somewhere i really didn't want to be." Dustin looked at the professor and stayed there till she spoke or asked him to find a place to sit.

Helen looked at the Slytherin boy who had answered. "Yes, Mr Nocicarte, that is right."

Wingardium Leviosa: Wingardium Leviosa is a charm used to make objects fly.

That's when another Slytherin boy entered the class. He introduced himself as Dustin Crouch. "It's OK, this time Mr Crouch. But please don't repeat this." She told the boy. Turning to the class she announced, "Time for practicals!"

With a flick of her wand, the classroom changes. There were only a few tables -- all of them in the corners. On the tables were placed many bowls. "We will practice Aguamenti first. Everyone please pick one bowl and try the spell. Remember to stress on the Agua. I will be walking around if you need any help."

---

You have till 14 of February to do the first spell.

Leah picked up her bowl and pointed her wand at it. "Aguamenti, aguamenti" she tried stressing the agua part of the spell, "aguamenti." A few drops of water came out of her wand. Feeling a huge amount of pride in the tiny bit of water that just barely wet the bottom of the bowl she tried to get some more water. "Aguamenti" another tiny portion of water drizzled out of the wand.

Somehow Emmalynne felt like the explanation that the incantation for conjuring water was from the Italian wasn’t actually true, but she kept the feeling to herself as Professor Adela had accepted it. She knew a bit about languages from listening to her father talking about some of the things he’d had to do for articles and everything, and therefore that had caused the basis for the idea. That Italian wasn’t an original language anyway, but that it was based off of Latin. It didn’t really matter anyway, as her thoughts had been interrupted first by the late arrival of another Slytherin boy and then the professor continuing the class discussion. Apparently now they were going to have to actually try to conjure water, and it didn’t seem like people were jumping to be the first. Aside from the Ravenclaw girl, Leah, and Emmalynne followed her over to the table with the bowls and selected one.

Now it was time to focus, just like in Defense against the Dark Arts with Lumos, and she pointed her wand at the bowl. Closing her eyes, she mentally went over the pronunciation of the spell several times before she pictured water and opened her eyes again. Probably not a good idea to conjure water if she couldn’t see where it was going. She might overflow the bowl. “Aguamenti,” she said, making sure to put the stress onto the first syllable and letting a small smile grow on her face as a trickle of water appeared and fell into the bowl. Maybe worrying about flooding the room had been anticipating too much, but at least she’d managed to conjure water.

Aurelia listened intently to the Professor's explanation, pausing every so often to jot a brief note in the corner of the margin of her notes. She hadn't contributed to the discussion, as she had been unsure of her answers, though they had turned out to be correct. I could've earned house points, she thought morosely to herself, though she immediately shook the thought from her mind, not wanting to waste time by regretting her actions, or rather, her lack of actions. She watched as two girls--a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff--ambled over to the front of the room to collect their bowls, and Aurelia immediately followed suit, humming a quiet tune to herself as she listened to the sound that her boots made upon contact with the hard ground. As soon as she approached the table, she immediately scooped up the bowl, pulled out her wand from the pockets of her robe, and strode over to a vacated table.

Setting them down upon the table, she glanced down at her papers and reviewed the notes that she had jotted down one more time. "Agua, not Aqua," she muttered to herself, repeating the words several times before deciding to attempt the spell. "Aguamenti," she stated somewhat confidently, pointing her wand and concentrating on the effects it would have on the bowl. Slowly, but surely, a few drops of water began to trickle from the tip of her wand, into the bowl. A smile crept across her features, as she tossed her mahogany mane, and continued to point the wand at her bowl, watching in satisfaction as the insignificant drops of water began to form a more substantial mass of water.

Aylee had been sitting at the back of the class and listening to Professor Adela. The other students didn't notice her and with that, Aylee was fine. She had her small notebook and Muggle pens in front of her and would jot down small notes whenever the teacher paused.
When Professor Adela asked them to try the spell, Aylee froze. She had never tried magic before so she was as nervous as ever. Slowly and quietly, Aylee walked towards the tables to get a bowl after the other three other students did so. After she found a bowl and she was settled, Aylee nervously took out her wand, pointed it at the bowl and muttered, "Aguamenti". Nothing happened. She looked around to see how the rest of the class was doing.
They're doing better than me, Aylee thought.
Once again, Aylee tried to perform the charm by closing her eyes whispering, "Aguamenti... Aguamenti..."
I can do this, she told herself. I can do it.
She opened her eyes and sure enough, few drops came out of her wand.
Yes! she yelled inside her head. My first spell!
A wide smile appeared on Aylee's face as she tried to do the spell again.
"Aguamenti... Aguamenti... Aguamenti..."

Helen applauded lightly for everyone who had tried. "Well done girls. 5 points to everyone who tried." She walked over to the door and held it open. "Class dismissed. I will see you all in Lesson Two. Now would be the time to ask any question you have."

Auden rushed to the charms classroom. She forgot to register and she desperately wanted to do charms! Auden walked into the class and found everyone leaving. She noticed a older woman. This must be the Professor.
"Hello, I'm Auden Mayer. I forgot to register and I would love to join this class. May I join?" She asked nervously.
Auden then looked at the board seeing the Aguamenti spell. Auden found someone's bowl and pointed her wand at it. " Aguamenti, aguamenti." It didn't work yet. Auden the stressed the Aqua. Her wand then dripped a few drops of water.

Sydney pointed her wand at the bowl in front of her. She lazily said, “Aguamenti” The wate rburts form her wand with ease and stopped when she thought of it. Her bowl was filled to the rim with clear, water. She smiled at her bowl and was filled with pride and accomplishment. “Professor, is this right?” She knew it was, but she just wanted to make sure.

Helen nodded at the two girls who tried the spell after sh'ed dismissed the class. "That is right girls. Keep practicing. It might come for your exams." After they were done, Helen ended the lesson.