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E L S B E T H
L Y N W E N
S H O I C H E T
BLOOD TRAITOR │ FORMER HUFFLEPUFF │ CHARMS PROFESSOR

Elsie began the lesson as she passed out candles to the class. "Once you receive a candle, please light it," she instructed, figuring she didn't have to spell it out for them- they should all know incendio by now. "Today we'll be learning the flame-freezing charm, or flammus friggus. Simply put, the charm takes away the heat and burning powers from flames, making them feel more like a gentle tickle instead. Wendelin the Weird famously used this charm every time she was burned at the stake, as she actually enjoyed pretending to shriek in pain, fooling the muggle witch hunters." Elsie moved to the front of the room to demonstrate the wand movement. "The incantation is flam-MUS frig-GUS, and the light from the spell should be pure white. Simply wave your wand above your head like so." She clapped her hands together after demonstrating. "Now, please try this on your lit candles."

▬▬"Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. " ▬▬

Vespera silently groaned the entire morning and stumbled into charms, into the closest seat to the door. She was more disappointed when Professor..what's her name? The charms lady. When she made them introduce themselves. She said groggily, but loud enough so Professor Shoichet could hear, "Vespera Salazar, Slytherin. Useful charm was incendio. Catches things on fire, fun stuff right there." She sat back down and opened her notebook, and doodled random lines, they were going to be flames, but she was half asleep still and her brain was not working with her fingers. She needed more coffee.

Monday morning, Sonora managed to wake up with a full hour before it was time for Block 1 Charms. She got breakfast, filled two thermos with three parts normal coffee to one part decaf, mixed it up just in case that was how coffee worked, and headed back upstairs with a breakfast roll. Steadying her nerves, she crept up the stairs to the boy's dorms and called out as loudly as she dared. It wouldn't be too bad to wake the other second year boys since they all had charms anyways, but she didn't quite feel like she ought to be on this side of the dorms. "Jonah? I have coffee and a roll for you, and if you wake up soon we won't even have to run to class!"

--

As Professor Shoichet lectured on Scourgify, Sonora found herself partially distracted, wondering if Jonah, or Vespera--who she'd offered the other thermos of slightly-decaffeinated coffee to-- noticed. But Professor Shoichet's excitement was contagious and by the time the their practice material was revealed, "I never thought I'd look forward to doing the dishes," Sonora confessed to her friends before heading towards the back and coming back with a stack of dirty plates for her friends and herself to practice on. She flipped through her notes again and reviewed the pronunciation and wand movement a few times before picking up the first and directing her wand at it. "Scourgify."

The plate washed itself easily enough and after a moment she leaned towards Jonah and Vespera conspiratorily. "Do you think it works on stains?"

▬▬"Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. " ▬▬

Vespera gladly took the coffee from Sonora, glad her friend had thought of her and Jonah. She listened to the lesson on Scourgify, not evenhalf awake. She didn't know that Sona had decreased the caffeination. Vespera took a dirty dish, "Scourgify." While it mostly became clean, there were still some spots left. She shook her head, trying to wake up, and did it again, "Scourgify." This time the dish became clean. "I don't know why I can't wake up this morning. I need more coffee. Maybe it's just finally catching up to me, maybe it's time to start drinking more coffee in the morning. Or trying to potion in it." She looked at Jonah, wondering if he felt the same way,. She laughed at Sona, who had mentioned stains. "We'll have to try it next time we spill stuff in the Library." She picked up the next dish, and began casting the charm on it again.

After a week of getting 3/4 coffee, 1/4 decaf for her friends whenever she could, Sonora was wondering if she ought to stay with the dilution course of action. Vespera had mentioned being unable to wake up...slow, patient did it. She stuck with 3/4 coffee, 1/4 decaf, and went up to wake Jonah and gave the

She took her notes diligently during charms and made careful note that it wouldn't work as expected on live targets. Well there goes using that for dueling, she mused, striking the idea out on her manuscript book.

The activity sounded like a lot of fun. She barely waited for the other student to kick the ball to call out the spell--good thing too, as it came flying down the classroom like an oversized bludger. "Arresto Momentum!" With a triumphant grin, she caught the ball and rolled it back.

In line to kick now, Sonora quietly consulted Jonah and Vespera: "Do you think we could charm our robes to help us slow-fall if we ever fell from a broom?"

Bright and early for the first day of class, August headed upstairs to the Charms classroom. He'd worked extra hard at Charms last year, thinking that Professor Shoichet must have thought him a slacker for occasionally being a few minutes late-- although that was entirely thanks so some infernal staircase. That summer he'd taken regular walks and even gone running regularly that summer at his mother's insistence, but knew better than to underestimate the staircases at Hogwarts. To his satisfaction, he arrived at the Charms classroom with almost fifteen minutes to spare and took a seat at the front, taking out his textbook to review before class and looking to greet his fellow classmates.

When class began he flipped to a clean page for notes taking. When the question was first post, he almost named Scourgify, as it on the list that he had been previewing over the summer. Thankfully, he caught himself before it was his turn. "August Li of House Slytherin. I found the mending charm, Reparo, the most useful last year."

E L S B E T H
L Y N W E N
S H O I C H E T
BLOOD TRAITOR │ HUFFLEPUFF HEAD │ CHARMS PROFESSOR

Elsie couldn't stop chuckling to herself about her plans for the second years' very first real lesson of the year. When the students entered, she was arranging a tarp over something in the back of the room before she straightened, waved at them, and made her way to the front of the classroom. "Good morning everyone!" After a minute or so devoted to taking attendance, she was prowling before the class once more, obviously quite excited about something. Written in neat cursive on the board was Scourgify.

"Scourgify, or the scouring charm, is one of the most basic cleaning spells out there. Its purpose is almost as basic: to clean dirty objects. It's often confused with Tergeo, but while that spell can siphon away liquids and dirt, and even be used in the art of Healing, scourgify is intended solely for non-living things. It creates a stream of soap and bubbles, and as you can imagine, makes many household tasks much easier." The blonde doubted the students really cared much about 'household tasks', but they would eventually. "It's rumored to have been created by a witch or wizard serving the Crown to make their duties less arduous. This may not seem like a very powerful or important charm, but it does require effort, like all magic, and should prove useful to you at some point or another in the future. Unless we do have royalty among us in the room, in which case, take this as a chance to see how the other half lives."

Cracking a teasing grin, she turned to draw the wand movements for the charm on the board.



"As you can see, very simple indeed. The pronunciation is as follows: SKUR-ji-fy. Now, for your practice of it...," Elsie strode down the aisle between desks to the very back of the classroom, and pulled aside the tarp. Several tubs of dirty dishes and kitchen items sat on the ground. "It took me a very long while to talk the house elves into letting me take some of these, so please don't waste my hard work."