(1939-09-25) A Class in Resistance
Details for A Class in Resistance
Summary: Eibhlin and Anthony plan, and then teach a class for Sampson, Madeline, and Gabriel
Date: (1939-09-25)
Location: A forgotten room in Hogwarts Castle
Related:
Characters
AnthonyEibhlinAgnesGabrielMadeline

Anthony is lounging on a couch. He's taken his shoes off, and his feet are curled up under him, as he reads what would appear to be a first year charms textbook. Revision? Or…. lesson planning.

Seated on the other side of the couch, feet likewise drawn up underneath her, is Eibhlin. She has her wand out and has been going through basic wand techniques with fluidity… "I've been thinking," she says after a while. "We ought to have our first meeting soon."

You say, "I agree. Very soon, in fact. I was thinking tonight."

Eibhlin turns and faces Anthony. "Which subject and when?"

You say, "Just after dinner. I was going to go with Charms. It's the one we're both happiest with, with the biggest catchment. I mean, Runes are great, but they're an elective.."

Eibhlin nods. "Works for me," she replies, stretching out her legs. "You know.. I met with Morgana at Hogsmeade. Well. I ran into her."

Anthony freezes a bit. After a moment or two he says, "Aaaand?"

Eibhlin just reaches out and takes Anthony's hand. "It's fine. She knew about us, apparently, and she's not upset."

You say, "Well, I'd seen her, and mentioned it. In passing. We talked about this situation in the School. But… you know, we came up in the discussion"

Eibhlin nods. "She's glad that you're doing well and we chatted… briefly about the school thing." She smirked. "She said that Head Boys are useless and that I should be prepared to have to do it all by myself. To be honest, I've rarely seen Shafiq."

Anthony gives a firm nod, "I suspect he won't do much, except revel in his position. But perhaps that's a touch cynical."

Eibhlin shrugs. "I don't know. I'd imagine that the shouldn't have to do much except tell kids not to run in the corridors." She sighs. "I'm… ready for this year to be over already. I never feel this way about school."

Anthony gives a wry smile, "Well, it does have _some_ compensations, don't you think?" He reaches an arm out, giving a space for the girl to cuddle into, if she chooses to. "I wonder if I ought to start reading about Teaching Theory."

Eibhlin does, in fact, curl up under Anthony's arm and tucks her wand off to the side. "I've got you covered," she says with a small smile. "I've got a book from the library upstairs. Do you want it?"

You say, "Yes. Yes please. That would be very helpful. I mean, the Professors always just seem to… you know… know how to teach. But I suppose it's something they have to learn too."

Eibhlin reaches for her wand and merely says 'Accio theories on teaching." After a while, the book shows up, narrowly avoiding a second year's head as it zooooooooooooooms through the commonroom. "You know… I should really work on adjusting that spell so that it doesn't break anything…"

Anthony laughs, his arm still around the girl, "Not keen on getting up? Comfy, are we?" There's fond teasing there. He appears to be well adjusted to his roll as pillow

Eibhlin laughs. "Well, aside from taking out people, this is much quicker and more efficient," she replies. "Besides, you can't go up there."

Anthony gives a lazy smile, "True." And he leans over to whisper into her ear, "One, at least, of your bedrooms, I'll never get to see." There's a chaste kiss to her ear, before he leans back. He catches the book, as it arrives. "This looks… interesting. Perhaps it'll make some of the things the Professors do make more sense."

As if on cue, Eibhlin's cheeks flame to life and she looks rather shyly embarassed. "Anthony," she mutters in mild protestation that isn't really protestation. She sneaks him a small smile… And then moves on to the book. "I've found it to be rather informative, actually. Particularly with regards to practical versus theoretical approaches."

You say, "Well, practical is good." He pauses, "Did Madame Patil select it for you? Or the new Assistant Librarian?"

Eibhlin hrms and then furrows her brow. "You know, I can't actually remember. One of them did."

You say, "I just wonder…. I mean, based on my being given that book in the library…"

Eibhlin shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I couldn't say. I'm willing to bet that it was probably Madame Patil who helped me find this book. I usually go to her…" She pushes up. "Did you want to see about rounding up our group?"

Anthony says, slightly plaintively, "Does this mean taking my arm from round you?"

Eibhlin grins. "Yes…"

Anthony sighs, and lifts his arm, "Alright. Alright. Lets do this, shall we?"

Eibhlin stands. "Yes. Let's see. Pick a nice quiet space for us to meet and we'll go there after dinner."

Anthony considers this, "There's…" He pulls his book out, and leafs through it, "Meet on the top floor corridor. There's a passageway from there."

Eibhlin nods. "Now. How about you walk me down to dinner?"

Anthony stands in his turn, shoves the book away, and offers his arm. "Agreed."

Eibhlin takes said arm and lets Anthony lead the way.

There's almost a hush here at the top of the stairwell, all the bustle of students and grinding of gears going on below muted by the total silence above. Occasionally a particularly loud clang of staircase connecting to its landing, or a spike in laughter will reach the ears, but it fades and is quickly forgotten. It's never too silent here in the corridor because very often a stuffed lion's head will look left, then right and then give a thunderous roar before being chided by those in their portraits for startling them.

Anthony is waiting, leaning on the wall next to the Divination Classroom, looking a little nervous. Of course, he has every reason to be here. He turns as he hears footfalls…

Footfalls? More like a stampede. Madeline bounces onto the scene, moving with a skip to her step and her usual bookbag aorund her shoulder. After all - Madeline stampeding about is nothing to pay any attention to. But if the girl were to try sneaking? … yeah. That would look odd. "Hello," she greets Anthony in a cheerful tone.

Agnes arrives, with are nearly with Madeline, making her way into the room and casting her attention about. She has her SCUMs book with her, on top of the fifth year Charms book, of course even though it is still theorically legal

Eibhlin is, on the other hand, quite calm and collected. Emotional restraint, thy name is Eibhlin. She's got a class schedule out and is murmuring softly in what sounds like Gaelige for all the world. Maddie's stampeding and Agnes' arrival are met with a mild smile. "Ready, girls?" she asks quietly. "We'll be moving shortly."

Anthony pushes himself off from the wall, and gets out a small book, "RIght. Is this the motley bunch you've collected, Eibhlin?" His wand is casually brought out from his pocket. "Any more for the…?"

Agnes walks over towards the class plan that is laid out. Then she looks the Anthony and Eibhlin over before stepping back towards Madeline, "Thank you.." She says, it is not 'Thank you' for passing the salt, it is a weight of the two words that implies something very deep and emotional, that almost has her eyes watering. She draws out the Charms book and tosses the SCUMs book down on a surface, table or what not.

Sampson peeks his head into the room, with a bit of trepidation. He's not even all that sure if he's in the right place for this supposed lesson in magic, but he's also not really expecting that he's just walked right past the people planning to give the lesson. Turning back around with a bit of a low sigh, he starts to turn back for the stairs only to almost slam right into Madeline. Gabriel also arrives with him

"Hey Sampson," Madeline greets the boy that nearly runs into her, stepping hastily out of the way as she speaks to avoid the collision. "You ready?" she adds quietly, as she looks from him - up to Anthony with an eager smile. She's ready!

Eibhlin nods to Anthony. "This is our group this time," she says. "Lead on." Agnes, however, is given a gentle smile and a nod. "Not a problem," she says quietly. "We'll get you ready for your OWLs, Granger. Don't worry."

Anthony gets out a small book from his pocket, reads a couple of lines from it silently, and then points his wand down the corridor, behind the group, and says, "Right. Everyone hold hands." He waits a moment or two for this to occur, and then twiddles the wand. "Fumos!" And he's then pushing at what looked like a bit of wood panelling in the corridor, which unexpectedly gives way into a passageway, into which he leads the others, as the smoke blocks the view of others.

Anthony gets out a small book from his pocket, reads a couple of lines from it silently, and then points his wand down the corridor, behind the group, and says, "Right. Everyone hold hands." He waits a moment or two for this to occur, and then twiddles the wand. "Fumos!" And he's then pushing at what looked like a bit of wood panelling in the corridor, which unexpectedly gives way into a passageway, into which he leads the others, as the smoke blocks the view of others. (re)

Even the summoning of the passage is not missed on the Hufflpuff, she watches Anthony's motions, and silently repeats them. Then Agnes will take her place to link hands with the group in which ever order she ends up. Then she follows, watching around her for anything, but especially spiders.

Grabbing randomly for someones hand Sampson's not really expecting anything to happen, but then again he's not exactly used to the whole way of the wizarding world to begin with. The sudden smoke makes him cough a bit out of habit half expecting it to be some kind of poison thanks in part to some of the books he read in his time at the store. He closes his eyes tightly trying not to let any of it get into his eyes.

Eibhlin swiftly ushers the younger kids into the secret passage, essentially bringing up the rear. She makes sure that the passage shuts firmly behind them. "Lumos." A light springs to life at the end of her wand. "After you, Anthony. You're the only one who knows the way from here."

Madeline is also eager to watch how the passage is opened, and reaches out to hold Sampson's hand. She moves into it with the others, and looks around with great curiousity once the wand is lit. "Where does it go?" she asks eagerly. "And it's so close to the common room! Who knew, huh? Do you think there's any secret peep holes?"

Anthony leads the way, "It goes… this way. Lumos!" His wand brings up a dim glow, enough to set the darkness into more vivid relief, as he leads the way, through a twisty passage that's probably in the walls between classrooms. Finally, there's a small room, dusty, with chairs and desks, and cobwebbed windows. There's even a boarded up door into a corridor beyond. "This is one of the old classrooms. It's _possible_ we might be chanced on, but I think it's unlikely." He seats himself at a desk, casually. "So, pull up seats, chaps."

"So we're not bein' gassed?" Sampson asks as he's lead about keeping his eyes held tightly as he realizes they aren't exactly burning at the moment. This combined with the fact that he's not falling over coughing has lead him to a rather simple conclusion: Either this isn't poison gas, or it was so effective he simply hadn't realized he was dead quite yet. He'd prefer to think the former, as he wasn't exactly a fan of being dead.

Agnes does take a seat, making herself comfortable, while still mouthing the words Anthiny spoke to obscure the path here. More practice, but at least it is a start on learning something. She takes out a quill and her notebook. An ink jar from her pocket and then sits studiously.

"It's just the smokescreen spell," Madeline tells Sampson. "'Fumos.' It's pretty neat. You can use it in dueling so the other guy can't find you." She looks around the room, the drops her charms book onto a table, sending up a puff of dust. She sneezes. "This is great! she exclaims brightly.

Sampson finally lets go of the hands he was holding onto so tightly and opens his eyes, a look of confusion on his face. "Wai' yew mean duelin' like wiv swords. Nuff said, yeah?" He looks over towards one of the older students asking with a big smile on his face "Do I get a sword?". He moves over to the nearest sitting spot and just plops himself right down.

Eibhlin shakes her head. "No one's being gassed, Smith," she replies kindly. "Rowle and I have no desire to die. That was called a smokescreen spell. Professor Dumbledore will no doubt be teaching that this year in your duelling club…" She frowns a bit at the dust and waves her wand without a word. It takes a couple of minutes, but pretty soon the desks are dustless. "Ugh," she says, nose wrinkling. "And you duel with spells, Smith. Right… Anthony, why don't you work with Evans and Smith… I'll work with Granger on her OWL spells, alright?"

Anthony gives a little nod, at the division of labour, and gestures the two younger students to one corner of the room. "Alright. So. Smith. You won't have done any _real_ Charms, will you? I mean, since getting here? Which is a bit depressing for you, I'm sure. So, lets start with the simple stuff." His voice is patient. Gentle. He's tall. Well spoken. Probably a Southern English accent. "Can you show me if you've been taught… well… any spells at all since you've been here?"

Anges watches the others a bit attentively, and she lets them deal with teaching Sampson about the spell, it will be one of the spells she will likely need to master, just to extend her knowledge, but she can do that with the Dueling club. Her gaze and a smile though go to Eibhlin, "Thank you." she offers again. "This was a terrible year for the change over." she states softly.

Sampson pulls out his wand from deep inside of his pockets points it at Anthony's feet, and yells out something in latin. Despite his rather thick accent the spell seems to go off without a hitch, and now Anthony's shoes are completely spotless, buffed to a mirror shine. He then spins his wand arround, before slotting it back into his 'holster' or rather the pocket of his pants. "Ifn we 'ad a shi'er I'd be able ter show yew da uvver spell I've gotten pret'y good at if I do say so, an' I do"

"I'm not cleaning any loos today," Madeline mutters quietly to herself. "I still need to finish learning the pestering jinx properly. And I want to learn the Bubble Head and the tripping jinx! Or maybe jelly fingers and the impediment charm. Those are both in the charms book for second year."

Eibhlin nods at Agnes. "I can only imagine how frustrated I'd be if it had happened to me this year," she says softly. "If it weren't for a bit of information about my da, if would have happened to me." She shrugs. "Let's get started though. Why don't we begin with something simple, like the summoning charm?" She flips in the 5th year charms book to the correct page. "Do you know how to say the spell?"

Anthony glances down at his gleaming shoes, "That is an _incredibly_ useful spell that I would be obliged if you could teach me! However… I think we can push you a little more. Now… what are your contemporaries studying right now? I believe it's about weight reduction, and its natural extension, levitation." And he demonstrates 'Perfusorius', enunciating the word clearly, and showing the flourish of the wand carefully, step by step, several times. "Now, your turn. I'll watch a few times, and then you can practice that, whilst I move on to second year, alright?"

"You'll get the featherlight one in a jiff," Madeline tells Sampson encouragingly. She'd already been trying, after all, to furitively demonstrate for Sampson and little Felicity how pronounce the word and do the hand-motion. She smiles at him, then looks up at Anthony, bouncing eagerly on the tips of her toes.

Gabriel continues to quietly read his Charms book while he waits for the older students working as tutors to come around to working with the third year students. As he reads he uses a regular old stick to trace the movments for the various charms n the air without risking an actual cast, or worse, a miscast.

Looking down at the first thing he can really see to make lighter without thinking or really much practice he tries, and as expected fails to cast the spell on a small ink vial that had been left behind from who knows how long. It's rather unimpressive as he goes through what he thinks the motions look like and calls out "Perfusorius" Not a single thing happening at the end of his wand or to the ink well in question.

Anges nods about the spell, turning to the notes she has already made about it in her journal. She smiles, "I have been trying to get it down, but the books, even with the moving pictures don't convey the proper motions very well." Without drawing the wand, "AK-see-oh." She pronounces.

Anthony makes a very slight correct to the pronunciation. "Second syllable gets the stress a little more than you had it. Try again. And… um, before you do. Do you mind if I put my hand on yours as you move the wand? I might just _slightly_ adjust what you're doing?"

Madeline watches Anthony and Sampson for another moment, then decides - well - why not? She dumps some scraps of paper on the floor, points her wand at Gabriel and abruptly announces, "Remordeo!"

Eibhlin nods. "Good," she tells Agnes. "Now, I tend to use my wand like this. I am dictating a command to the object and I keep that in mind when moving my hand and saying the words. Like this.." She demonstrates with her wand, but does not cast. Her flick is curt and decisive, a hint of power behind the motion.

"Sure," Sampson says with a bit of uncertainty in his voice as he goes for another shot at the spell "Perfusorius" His wand still pointing to that same little empty ink vial.

Anthony gives a little nod, "That sounded better." And he flicks the ink vial with his finger, which soars way higher than it should for such a tiny impact. "I'd say that was success. Right. Keep practicing it. One lucky casting is not competence. Meanwhile…. Evans! Hiccup Curing! Do you know it already?"

Madeline blinks at Anthony, and shakes her head, still holding her wand pointed at Gabriel. "No…" she admits. "But that's not what I wanted to learn. I need to learn something that'll be useful when the excitement happens. Like jelly-fingers or impediment or, well, I know the tripping jinx isn't second year curriculum, but I think it'd be great."

Gabriel looks up from his book as he catches Madeline casting at him in the periphery of his sight. Arching an eyebrow slightly at his friend he slowly draws his wand and he swishes it at her as Anthony faces her way, "Carpe Retractum!" A bright rope of light flashes by Anthony and attaches to Madeline wrist.

Agnes follows the motions and then rises, drawing out the poplar wand. She begins going through the gestures of the spell, timing it silent with lip motions to match Eibhlin's own motions. The motions repeated until she has it down, then finally Anges steps away from her desk, "AK-see-oh Charm book!' She says with the motions this time.

Anthony says amiably to Gabriel, "This is not how a class practices usefully, is it, Mr Ward? Evans is getting a useful discussion now on why we're not going to jump through to what is useful right now." He turns to the 2nd year. "Magic isn't a game. And it's not a restaurant menu, where you pick what you fancy eating, and only that. It's a masterpiece of balance and selection, made by a master chef. Some spells strike one as useless under normal circumstances, and one wonders why Professor Viridian teaches them." He gives a little smile, "So, is the Professor an idiot, Evans? We're all breaking the school rules, so I doubt anyone will report you if you say yes."

Madeline was looking at Anthony as Gabriel cast - so she lets out a startled squeak as the spell locks onto her wrist, and her friend gives her a gentle tug. "Oh! That's pretty neat, Gunny!" she exclaims brightly.

Her attention shifts back to Anthony again, her expression a little guilty. "Of course he's not," she answers. "And… and I'm sure I'd learn something useful about magic just by learning that charm, and it would be handy to know, because hicoughs are pretty annoying… But we don't have time for that sort of stuff right now, and I think Viridian'd agree with that, too," she insists staunchily. "Please?" she begs.

Sampson turns to look over at Madeline and the others, taking a break from flailing wildly at various objects around his person trying to make everything just that little bit lighter. When he sees the conversation may have that chance of going oddly confrontational he turns his attention back to practice.

Gabriel lets out a little "eep!" and snaps his wand to point up towards the ceiling, making the rope of light disappear and release Madeline. With an only slightly embarassed look he nods at Anthony, winks at Maddie, and goes back to reading his book, switching out wand for twig to continue practicing his wand movements.

Anthony pauses, and then shakes his head, "Not in this session, no. The _reason_ Professor Viridian teaches it in that order is because it is a more forgiving way to learn gestures and techniques which you then _need_ to learn more complex spells. If you mess up a hiccoughs spell, the worst that happens is someone keeps hiccoughing. If you mess up a full body bind, what… _precisely_ will you do if you paralyse someone's ability to _breathe_, Evans? Or Jelly fingers and make their head wobble like that, so their brain is injured?" He shakes his head, "The other things you can pick up in Duelling Club, or in due course…." There's a pause, "Or by finding me after these classes for a bit of private study. But _here_ we will stick with the syllabus. AS your colleagues are studying it."

Madeline shuffles her feet, lets out a sigh, and nods while looking down at the floor. "Yes, sir," she agrees with Anthony rather than argue some more. Hicoughing charm. Now. Ugh. Rena could be here any day now, and she could be spending this time getting ready! "So how's it done?" she asks.

Anthony demonstrates. Brisk. Unhurried. Flicky wand movements. Incidentally, don't they say 'things' about Wizards who use Yew wands? "Singultio" A single word, smoothly pronounced, "Do you have that, Evans? The sooner you get this down, the sooner we can challenge you a touch more."

Gabriel looks back up from his books as Anthony goes to work with Maddie and then put the book all the way down and wanders over to Sampson, "So you got it down good now, mate?"

Madeline nods, determined to get the spell down - and get it down fast. "Singultio," she repeats, copying Anthony's pronunciation. "Right? Singultio…" She tries the motions next… before putting them together. "Singultio!"

Anthony listens critically, and then nods, "I think that would have worked. Now practice it. Any time you hear someone hiccuping." He turns towards Gabriel at last, "Now… you wished to cast a spell on Evans. She's looking a touch miserable because I wouldn't teach her how to tongue tie before I was sure she wouldn't pull my tongue out of my head by accident! So, the first spell on the third year curriculum is the Cheering spell. Have you read it up?"

"Din' Dong Bell I'm not sure if I know 'ow ter poin' da wand right way round" Sampson says with a bit of a jokey inflection. He glances around before spying the book and with a good bit of effort actually manages to kick off the spell correctly again.

Gabriel grins at Sampson but then his names is called. As Anthony asks him if he's read up on the Cheering Charm he slowly turns to look at the older Ravenclaw. Tilting his head a bit to the side he looks at Anthony is slight disbelief, as if the other boy had asked him if birds can fly. After taking a moment to wrap his mind around the question and convince himself Anthony's serious he nods, "Yes. Yes I have." Taking his wand out of its pocket on the interior of his robes he smiles a bit bigger and asks, "Who should I demonstrate it on?"

Anthony gives a slight nod towards Maddy.

Madeline nods, a determined look on her features, readying herself to cast the spell again. Before she does, though, she adds towards Gabriel, "You cast that spell on me and I'll sneak up on you and get you with a Pester!" It's not a threat. It's a promise of hijinx to come! She flashes him a grin, then declares "Singultio!"

Gabriel shrugs a bit at Madeline, grinning mischievously, "Hey, what can I do? Orders are orders, right?" Then he flicks and swishes and draws in the air with his wand as appropriate and calls out in a happy, cheerful tone of voice, "Exultus!" Only to have his wand thow out a short lived shower of sparks, doing its sparkler imitation.

Abruptly, Madeline turns towards Gabriel and counters with, "Remordeo!" When her little papers and some of the other junk in the room suddenly spring to life to pelt against her friend, she lets out a happy squeal of success. "GOT YOU!"

The problem is, when you want to cast something like that you don't warn your target ahead of time. Wand already at the ready and pointing at Maddie Gabriel's dueling reflexes kick in and he flicks his wand around calling out "Defleto!" As he flicks his wand to the side Madeline's spells goes flying off and hits poor Sampson. And indeed he room suddenly spring to life to pelt against the younger boy, "Ooops…"

Sampson ducks his head down as glass ink vials, quills, and crumpled up bits of paper smack themselves into his head. Shocked he can't really help but call out "What did I do" trying to dive under the table as he's chased around by bits of various junk.

"Soooorry!" Madeline giggles. "I didn't mean to- I was aiming for Gabriel!" she cries. Thankfully, there is little chance that Anthony and Eibhlin would allow poor Sampson's suffering to continue, and one of them will surely end the spell. "Almost got you!" Madeline crows cheerfully at Gabriel.

Gabriel grins at Maddie and nods, "Sure did, Copper. Would have too, if you hadn't warned me ahead of time." Turning to Sampson with a giggle that he forces into a chuckle he says,"You didn't to anything. It was an accident. Sorry about that." At least it was a harmless jinx and that makes it so that Gabriel can't keep himself from laughing, even if he is trying to hide with with his hand.

Anthony keeps working with all three of you in firm rotation.

And then, when the class is done, he'll return you through the same secret passageway.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License