No, she wouldn't sit down on the floor, thanks. Still standing, Agatha was showing little to no interest in today's lesson, but actually, she was listening to every word said. Well, kind of. Every word said by the professor at least, because most some of her classmates only spoke rubbish and she had no time for that.

There was something on the way professor Dakest spoke about the Dark Arts that was kind of... fascinating. He made it sound like Dark Magic was indeed a really big deal and that was fascinating. The ballerina balanced her weight perfectly between both legs and even though she was standing perfectly straight, she looked around the classroom nonchalantly.

Then he said it. The spell Agatha prayed she would never have to try to cast in front of anyone. A Patronus. They would learn to cast a Patronus that day.

The Slytherin tried her best to not look worried, but she wasn't able to stop her face from turning pale. If only she could hear the end of Cutty's answer, she would've smirked. But no, she was internally freaking out at the moment and wasn't able to process anyone's answer anymore. So as the other students spoke, she started to quietly and slowly step back towards the door.

Norah gave Professor Dakest a small smile, nodding slowly and saying nothing. He said her answer was VALUABLE. He DID. She shut her eyes real tight because she didn't know if anybody had ever said THAT before. Kittredge. Calm down. Caaaaaaalm. She didn't think she'd every be the one telling herself to calm down because everybody and their grandmother knew that being not-calm was much more fun. Except this was the un-fun find of not-calm because her eyes were starting to get all sting-ish which was NOT a allowed because fourteen year olds did not let their eyes sting. Especially in front of an entire class. It was weird, though, 'cause even though fourteen year olds weren't babies and didn't let their eyes get watery her eyes seemed to WANT to be watery a whole lot more which didn't even make any sense. Maybe she wasn't destined to be a real teenager, but that was a whole nother story. She opened her eyes, crisis averted.

Ahem. Things were happening now, yeah?

PATRONUSES? That was fancy pants magic, everybody knew that. Even if Professor Dakest had smiled at her, it didn't mean that she was capable of doing anything that cool. Man. Patronuses. That was AWESOME. She gave her right eye one last rub before putting her hand in the air. "They look like animals! Except I don't think you get to pick what animal it looks like. How does the spell decide what animal to be?" It couldn't be different for everyone, right? Did that many different animals even EXIST? How many people could do patronuses, anyways? She sure couldn't. She didn't think anybody at Hogwarts even could, besides maybe Sophie Brown but she was all sorts of special.

Marigold's face dropped when the professor mentioned that saying. Curiosity did kill the cat, but wasn't something added? In some newspaper. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. So, like, yeah, it was bad for kids to want to experiment with "the dark side" in Ethan's words (yo, Star Wars) but to totally just shut that down with "curiosity killed the cat" was seriously pushing Marigold's buttons.

Also, like, she wasn't alone with that sentiment. So she didn't get why he was totally shutting down her opinion.

Well, grumbly!Mari was making an appearance. So early, too.

"That's a patronus," she said, pointing towards the silvery light. Good contribution.

Professor Dakest seemed..unamused at the idea of psychology playing into the dark wizard thing. HEH. Eden found it interesting, at least. Did she know any people in the psychology field? Nope. It was a pity. Eden thought the subject was interesting.

But now...patronuses. Oh great. So Eden's fears were realized. She knew she wouldn't produce it. Wasn't even possible today, on a day where she felt good and fine and happy. It just wasn't going to happen. She didn't have a lot of happy memories like that....

But she saw Sophie glance over at her, and at first Eden flushed and felt...hhmmm. Did Sophie think she was incapable of a patronus? Because of recent....things? She wasn't sure, but she bit her lip and sank in her seat a little. Mental health stuff. Eden wasn't sure what to make of Sophie's words...they were actually ringing around in her head so much that she almost forgot to raise her hand and state the...obvious....

"Patronus. Friend of humans, foe of dementors," She said softly. Since no one had said that yet? She didn't think? Just about the actual patronuses and what they looked like and stuff.

YES! CALEB KNEW IT! He KNEW they'd be talking about patronuses! He raised his hand eagerly, contributing for the first time this lesson. He had decided that this professor was AWESOME. He was of course basing this purely off of about 2 minutes of this class, and the whole patronus thing, but you know. That was the important stuff.

"They are unique to each person. While some people might have the same animal as a patronus, it's because of some personality trait of those people, not just some random assigning of patronuses by the universe," he explained. He hoped that made sense...

.

.

Gabriel had been silent so far in this lesson, opting instead to take a King's ransom in notes. His quill scratched dutifully against his parchment as questions were asked and answers were given. One thing the Ravenclaw could offer about this new professor was that he was very clear and concise with the material. There wasn't a lot of fishing around to interpret meanings...

Of course, the direction that this lesson was going...had caused Gabe's anxiety to spike tremendously.

Patronuses.

...........Sophie Brown was getting looks...because yes. Basically everything she'd just said. Gabe had studied the theory well enough...but it was easy to read and understand a thing. Practical usage was another story, however. Happy memories were hard to come by for some people.

So, yes. Head down. More writing. He was just going to...do that, instead.

No.

No no no.

Please no.

Benzi froze and stared up at Professor Dakest. Patronuses? Really? The one, ONE, thing he couldn't do? He'd trained so hard to prove himself to the DADA teacher, to impress him. First impressions were so important. And now... now everyone were going to be able to cast a patronus while he would be marked the idiot of the class. The one who couldn't do it, like the first years.

Looking sideways at Cutty, and then at Sophie, Benzi curled into himself. Mental health stuff. He was FINE, nothing wrong with his brain, but... He sighed. His eager and self assured posture crumbled and he brought his knees to his chest, hugging them as he stared glumly ahead. Benzi didn't say a word, avoiding everyone's eyes and just generally trying to not slip into one of his moods.

For a brief second he wondered where Evie was and if she was feeling as bad as he was. But she'd probably be able to get it, under the capable hands of their auror teacher. He couldn't. He just... couldn't do it.

Benny had been quiet in the class when the first question went up. Why people would be interested in the dark half of magic was beyond him. And anything tht he could think of as a reason was soon being spoken aloud by a classmate so the older Gryffindor was simply listening. That and trying to decipher what might be the point of today's lesson which he wasn't sure of at the moment. But then the young Professor spoke up once more in response to the others and it seemed to be revealed.

Patronuses?!

They would be learning about them? Benny found he was just a bit mroe excited about the topic at hand. He had to admit the concept by what he had read of in passing was quite interesting. AND if was more a defense than an attack which the sixth year would say was his prefered stance. He glanced at Adi remembering his question before class. It seemed like his friend would get his inquiry fulfilled and the hufflepuff was showing his excitement.

Now what did he have to contribute? "Like animangus forms, corporal patronuses take the shape they do based on the castor's personality," he answered after raising his hand. Though he wished his was automatically a dragon.

Well that would not stop people from calling them heroes and villains. Not like Dante wanted to argue about something when he could care less. So onward to whatever he wanted to talk about next and it was about patronus or is it patroni. Patronues. Dante did not know.

Like he did not know anything about a Patronus.

Not something he cared to know about or get info on in the past.

Shrug.

"And satisfaction brought it back," Xavier said under his breath as the professor made the comment about curiosity and the cat. Maybe it wasn't true, but his mother had always said it and Xavi believed that curiosity was always a good thing. Nobody ever learned anything new without curiosity.

He hadn't a clue what a patronus was. It sounded like the latin word for "godfather" though so he decided he might as well ask. "Does it mean godfather?" he raised his hand but spoke without being called on. As he asked the question he quickly realized that he was wrong. The other students were telling facts and ideas about patronuses and he understood now that the silver otter that had been in the room earlier was one of these things. And apparently it was supposed to be protection from the Dark Arts.

Xavi's face turned red as he realized his mistake, but he wouldn't take it back. The only thing worse than making a public mistake was making it, and immediately apologizing for it. There were no such things as stupid questions, and while he now knew what a patronus was, it could still quite possibly be the latin word for 'godfather.'

They were talking about patronuses? Was this lesson about patronuses? Were they going to learn how to produce a patronus? She had heard that it was really hard to produce a patronus. "Patronuses are a sort of guardian against dementors and other things. The spell is really hard to do, so not everyone can produce one." The younger students probably wouldn't be able to produce one yet, but some of the older students could produce a patronus. Penelope could not produce a patronus yet, but she was hoping to learn how to. It would not be easy to produce a patronus, and it might take some time to learn, but she was going to learn, and there was nothing that could stop her from trying. She was going to read books on patronuses, get help from professors, get help from older students who could produce a patronus, practice a lot, and whatever it took to learn it.

Echo really didn't have any clue on how to answer this question, she just sat there and listened to everyone elses answers. and tried to make as many notes as possible, because everyone was giving really great and out of the box answers.

She had such smart class mates and she couldn't wait to learn more.

For a bunch of simple people (Hugh was talking about his peers) they all had a lot of opinions. Which was really funny to him. The blind leading the blind, yo. The debate that his peers were having amongst themselves. Not Professor Dakest. Hugh didn't know if he was a genius or not but he was eneamoured enough with him to just assume. So he did. Everyone BUT Dakest was unfortunately plagued by stupidity.

As to answering his next question Hugh failed. He raised his hand to get his two sense in but then lost the English language again.

Beautiful, beautiful man.

Snaps. Well done, universe.

Kyroh stared at the professor, his quill tapping his desk lightly. He had never said that HE was curious about the Dark Arts. Frankly it didn't appeal to him he had just given a reason why. But Dakest's answer bothered him. Curiosity killed the cat? Sure he was saying be mindful but in a way Darkest and Quigley were the same. Having the same 'don't ask questions just listen' ideal, yeah? If he didn't ask questions then how was he suppose to go into the deeper understanding of things?

It didn't make him feel good knowing that was the way he was suppose to go about learning.He sort of missed the days when he was excited to come to class......

Kyroh raised his hand slightly. "If you're not happy I don't think you can produce one sir."

.

.

.

As he carried on with his writing, a thought did occur to the Ravenclaw. An interesting and intriguing idea of fabrication...or spells...that might help someone (like himself, let's be honest here)...produce a patronus.

Settling his quill down carefully, Gabe raised his hand. "Hypothetically...do you think potion or spell usage could alter ones....ability to perform this...successfully?"

The discussion they started off with was certainly interesting. Jenna hadn't felt like contributing since most of the possible thoughts about it had been brought up, and she didn't have any strong feelings one way or the other on peoples' curiosity with the Dark Arts. It didn't seem like something to take notes on either since it was mostly opinions, so she simply listened.

The next part though - this was definitely a time to start note-taking. So they were going to do Patronuses today. Interesting. She knew some of the basics about them, but she'd never gone out of her way to read a whole lot about them before, so she didn't have much to add for an answer. Taking notes would be her thing for now, though her mind was now racing with curiosity - would she be able to cast one today? Unlikely, but what if? What would it be?

Jenna suddenly really wanted to know.

Bleu raised her hand patiently and waited to be called on. Once she was she replied, "Well, I have heard that Patronus' are very hard to produce. Even the most talented wizards have problems producing one. Some wizards have never been able to produce one because they are so difficult to produce." Her worry line was showing. She really wanted to be able to produce one if that was what they would be doing today.

"I don't think that's always true ." Ruby said casually. "Isn't Charles D'Isigny still at large for instance? He's so hot, I've seen pictures. Have you heard of him, professor?" Innocent question? Noooot exactly. She kept up to date on the goss of the Wizarding World, when it involved attractive people who weren't related to her at least.

And honestly if said bad boys were the sort to expire quickly then they weren't very good at being bad, were they? She wouldn't choose those ones. Juuuuust an observation.

Not that she was on the market for such things right now. Nope.
Her attention wandered again, but probably not for the reason most people expected. Honestly Ruby wanted to do one of these Patronus things, not just for messages like her cousin who couldn't cast a proper corporeal one thanks to this school. And she sort of listened, a bit. To some answers as well and instead of giving an answer herself, Ruby actually put her hand up and asked a question.

"So like, what proof is there that Dark people can't cast a Patronus? Like wouldn't it sort of depend how they use the Dark Arts? I mean patronuses are to do with happy thoughts and stuff right? They can't all be unhappy, and I mean they teach Dark Arts at some schools and I doubt there are entire magical schools of kids that can't cast them and never will just because they know some Dark Magic as well. Soooo how does that even work? I mean like, is it just something that regular witches and wizards tell ourselves just because it was true of a few historical people or whatever, and its a comfort to us? And how does it harm them exactly?"

Curiousity killed the cat but at least it died knowing. Obviously Hugo didn't wanted to die. He couldn't help it, Dark wizards and all that jazz was very interesting. Interesting to know about.

They were going to cast a patronus?! YES! He wanted to know what his patronus would look like. He was excited and didn't answer the question since everyone already had said something. It is used to make dark stuff go away, blah blah blah. Let's just cast the spell!

Dot was wiggling. There was a lot of talking and she was fine with that, EXCEPT when she was could tell something active was coming up. She really wanted to just get TO it already. Why did they hafta spend so much time chatting about stuff when everyone kept agreeing with each other? It made a girl want to stir things up just to make it through class.

So her hand went up. "Professor, sir? I heard that it doesn't always take a really happy memory, and no one is totally pure of heart, so... isn't there a lot of hy... hyperbole about casting patronuses? Like some of the stories make it sound like you need something that grounds you, rather than something real happy. Like with Harry Potter, my mum read me a book about him, and they said he didn't use a happy memory the first time he cast a corpor... corp... an animal patronus. He just knew he could do it." 'Splain that, Professor.

He smiled at Professor Dakest's encouraging words. I mean he didn't have a heart set decision yet. I mean it could change right? He heard the Professor move on and when he mentioned dark wizards and like many other of his classes, he listened to his advice and he nodded. I mean it made sense to not go too much into their ways. I mean their minds were twisted in ways Kace couldn't fathom. He really liked his quote when he said, "There is a fine line between understanding, and pity. One will keep you safe, the other may put you in a very tricky spot." He wrote that down in his notebook and kept it for future use.

Anyways onto the next topic at hand. Professor Dakest wanted to know what he knew about Patronuses. Hmmm this was a topic Lecium was most excited to learn about. He wanted to create his own. What did he know about them? He raised his hand and said, "Professor I know they can used as a form of communication but how do they manage to make their patronus use their voice or better yet how are they able to talk through it?" He was always curious about that.

Marsha gave the Professor a smile as he said that she had done a good job of thinking about their boundaries. She guessed that that was what she had been trying to say… Yes. That. Hehe.

Oh man, his otter had gone. Saddd face.

Oh. Patronuses?

Frown. She knew that she couldn’t wait to find out what her own was; her Mum and Tad often used them to send each other messages if her Tad was working away from home for a while. Hmm. ”They are hard to make … uh… corporeal?!” Was that the word? Was she even thinking of the right thing? Was that the same thing as the Professor’s otter? Or was a patronus something else and she was being an idiot?

… She was pretty sure that she was on the right track. Hopefully.

The reactions to his question were so widley varied that for a moment Sabel briefly wondered if he had picked the right topic to teach today. Some students looked ready to dance, others appeared on the verge of crying and others were such a mixture of emotions he didn't know what to make of them.

But this was important. And the answers that did come were curious, thoughtful and even insightful. It seemed the student body knew a lot more about what patronuses were, but little about how they worked on a personal level. Perhaps that was the reason for all the hesitation, and the less than excited atmosphere of the classroom.

Letting out a breath, Sabel reminded himself that the learning circumstances here, were different than from when he had first learned the patronus charm.



First things were first. The basics. And the students covered, pretty much everything there was to say about patronuses. He nodded with a smile firmly in place to each answer given. "Good. Very good. You are all correct."

He hadn't brought a chalkboard to make a summary, so perhaps a verbal one for those taking notes was a good idea. "As Mr. Adair pointed out, the incantation is Expecto Patronum and the wand movement is a simple circle, which draws out the energy of the positive emotions and happy memories that give the spell life." He made a slow circle in the air with his finger, to demonstrate the movement.

"The technicalities of the spell are relatively straightforward, while the mental state behind it is the difficult part, and where the patronus gets its reputation for being an advanced form of magic."

More on that in a moment.

"There are two types of patronuses, a non-coporeal and a coporeal. Both can be used to send messages and ward off dark creatures, particularly the Dementors and Lethifolds. But the coporeal is the more powerful of the two. It is known to take on a form particular to the caster's personality, and the harder of the two to produce, even though both the coporeal and non operate by the same mental state and thought process."

Which led him to the next line of answers.



There was one small thing he needed to add onto the relatively simple concept of how the corporeal patronuses worked. His eyes drifted about the classroom. "A little piece of advice. When you are able to cast your corporeal patronus," because he was not going to give them any doubts on if, "it would be wise not to let anyone know of why you suspect you got the animal you did. It is very easy to tamper with perceptions of oneself, as it is with memories. The more you safeguard the personal mechanics behind your patronus, the better protected you will be."

An edge took to his voice, one of gentle, but firm warning. "The same goes with whatever memory you choose. Whatever happiness drives your patronus. Do not reveal it, unless you are comfortable with risking it being corrupted."

Because it was easy. So very, easy.



His attention returned to the rest of the class, speaking to them as a whole. "Your classmates have brought up very good, and important points. More than the wand movements or the incantation, it is the emotion behind the casting which is important."

"But 'happiness' is a bit of a vague term. I'll give you some tips. It has to be lasting happiness. Something that cannot corrode or diminish over time. Something that cannot be shaken by fear, by negativity. Think of it, you're happy thought, as what you go to normally when you are afraid. What gives you comfort when you are terrified and there is no one that can help you." His gaze drifted to Dot again briefly. "Think of what grounds you in safety. And let it fill you, consume you. Relish in it, and you'll find your ability to cast a patronus."

It all sounded wonderful and magnificent. Because it was. But easy? No. And they all knew that anyways, so there was no need to readdress it.



There was yet again, another silent group. It consisted of Mr. Hughbert whot had returned to staring at him in that strange way, Mr. Rider who seemed to think that making himself as small as possible would save him from the lesson and Miss Hapgood who was...inching towards the door?

Merlin were patronuses really so scary? Or was it simply the fear of failure? That would kill the excercise real quick.

Letting out a breath, Sabel locked eyes with the retreating Ravenclaw. "Miss Hapgood. I'll not stop you, or anyone else who is too uncomfortable to sit through the rest of the lesson from leaving, but I do ask that you give it, me and most importantly, yourself a chance." He spread his hands. "That's all I ask. No miracles, no feats of amazing power. Just honest effort."



Sabel's attention returned to the class at large, considering them all. Now for the scary part. Or what many of them looked like they were expecting to be scary.

"As Mr. Fuller-Thompson said, the meaining of Expecto Patronum roughly translates to 'I await a protector'. The patronus is your protector, but more than that it is a physical representation of your greatest protector." He tapped his temple and then his chest. "The happy, grounding thought or memory that brings forth your patronus. If you remember to go to this, in times of fear, with or without your patronus, you are using something that protects you. And you have something worth protecting."

Pushing himself to his feet, Sabel brushed off his hands. "Remember, that the patronus is a representation, a force, of what protects you and what you wish to protect the most. Do not fear it. Ever."

That being said, it really was time to start, wasn't it? "You all know the wand movement and the incantation. I would like you to see what you can do. Whether that is to find your happy memory, or to try to cast a patronus, I'll let you decide. Move at your own pace, and for the sake of the knots in Merlin's beard, do not worry about not getting a patronus today or a year from today. Do not worry about anyone else. This is for you. For your protection."

Drawing out his wand, Sabel motioned them all up with his free hand. "I'll be here if you need my help. Do not be afraid to ask."

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OOC: I'm sooooo sorry for the delay everyone! RL ate my time today.

This is the mini activity, which will link up to a 'larger' activity later. The larger activity will start morning of OOC May 18 (so approximately 28 hours from now).

This section requires 2-3 posts minimum of your character searching either for a memory to try the patronus charm with, or trying the patronus charm, or a combination.

I'll post intermittently throughout the day today, so feel free to grab us!

If you are just arriving, feel free to jump right in!

As much as he LOVED to be right, this time, it wasn't that he was right that got his attention 163748493493BILLION%. No, what had his attention, was that Sabel had addressed him as Mr. Browne. BROWNE! He was kinda technically a Browne now, but it had never really occurred to him that he should TAKE the name. He'd only entertained the thought of it in Arithmancy ONCE and that was in his first year.

Merlin.

Zeke Browne. He had to admit it was better than Rogers.

...

Something to think on.

But wait, what had Sabel said? What had he missed?

Zeke blinked a few times, trying to shake the thoughts from his mind. He had to focus, this was a class, he needed to know things, he ESPECIALLY needed to know things if he was going to be able to cast a corporal patronus. MERLIN!

Would Emily approve the name change? Dare he ask?

FOCUSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

Something about animals not being a choice, but... what? A representation of what? WHAT? He knew that already, kinda, just not so eloquently, so he really should have been listening properly. Hopefully that wouldn't be a question he would have to write about on the final.

Unbelievably, he managed to semi listen to the rest of the class conversation, and so he wasn't completely out of the loop with what all was going on.

The fact that it was a CHARM that they were learning, worked in his favour. He was good with charms, less so with transfiguration spell work... that stuff was always a little iffy. He hadn't tried casting a patronus of any sort yet, partly because he loathed failure, but partly because it simply hadn't come up, and he knew it wasn't something a first or second year typically knew how to do.

So when they were given the go ahead, Zeke stood and thought hard.

He wanted to cast a proper one, and for that he would have to dig deep, reach deep... cling to a memory that would give him strength. He had one, or two, or three, but he was sure they weren't all going to be good enough.

Did he want to opt for his first big family get away? First night in Prague? The day Emily picked him up and he was legally in her care? He remembered that day as if it were yesterday, and without even realising he was smiling to himself.

Zhenya was delighted to be listening to everyone's suggestions, and Professor Dakest's responses. She mouthed the incantation Expecto Patronum, not speaking, and copied his finger moving in a circle, mimicking the wand movement. Zhenya felt a slow spread of goosebumps up her arm. Professor Dakest had full confidence in his students that they WOULD be able to cast a patronus. But his warnings were now etched into her mind. Don't reveal why the patronus is a certain animal, and don't reveal the happy memory. But there was something in her mind. Something that would NEVER diminish, something that she always thought of, and something she knew would protect her, even though it was just a memory. Zhenya really wanted to remember all the points everyone was making so she could write them down when class finished. It would be good to look back on. Everything PRofessor Dakest was saying, though, about protection, just reminded her of her dearest Grandpapi. She almost wanted to cry, it felt like he was there with her. How weird was that?!

But for now they were to practice. Their happy memories, the wand movement, incantation, the spell... just practice. She stood up and turned her back to everyone. She faced a wall and let her memories come and go. But the weird thing was, she didn't need to search for a memory. It was just... there. Rather than a memory of an event, it was the memory of her Grandpapi. Even though he had passed away, he was still there in some inexplainable way. He was everything to her, and even now he had gone he still was. When he was alive he was her protector, or so it seemed. So the mere memory of him made her feel euphoric, so incredibly happy, and she felt so safe. So, with that in her mind, she raised her wand and slowly performed the circular wand movement. She practiced it a few dozen times, just to make sure it felt okay.