Miss McNally’s hand was the first Gaston saw in the air. He nodded, and the bit about not wanting to yell at one’s valentine got a slight chuckle from him. “No, you certainly wouldn’t!” he said. “Excellent, Miss McNally. Volume and tone are two very important differences.” With a flick of his wand, he levitated a heart-shaped revealer toward the Ravenclaw.



Miss Kramer spoke up next, and Gaston listened intently to her answer. “Indeed a howler does burst into flames,” he replied, “and no, you would need to cast a separate spell to make a message explode like that. Great guess, Miss Kramer!”

It seemed Miss Sparkes had the same idea. Gaston nodded, smiling slightly. “No, that wouldn’t be a nice valentine at all!” he said. Especially not for someone who was afraid of fire, like him for example! “Very good, Miss Sparkes.”



Now here was a good answer! Gaston was impressed. “Well, yes and no,” he replied. “The charms used to record the messages are the same for both howlers and out projects today, though the application is slightly different for a howler in that it requires an additional charm to amplify the voice. Good point, Miss Holden!”



The answer Miss Cambridge gave was more an emotional difference than a magical one, but no less accurate. Gaston nodded, smiling slightly. “Very true, Miss Cambridge,” he replied. “The intent behind the message makes a big difference.”

Later, Miss Fairfield said something along the same lines, and she too earned a smile and a nod from the professor. “I should say they would!” he said. “It wouldn’t make much sense to send an aggressive valentine, would it? Good guess, Miss Fairfield.”



Gaston couldn’t help but notice that Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne was having quite a bit of trouble with the folding charm. Goodness, did he really think the spell was “pickle”? Had he not pronounced the incarnation clearly when he demonstrated or was the boy just not paying attention? He approached the boy’s desk. “The spell is Plico, not pickle, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne,” he said, careful to keep his voice down so as not to embarrass the boy. “I’ll show you again.” He picked up a piece of paper and repeated the spell and wand movement. “Move your wand over the area you want to fold in the direction of the fold.”

Out of the corner of his eye, the professor saw a ball of paper sail through the air toward Miss Sparkes and assumed that was a note. He wasn’t going to do the cliché teacher thing of making the student read the note out loud; he had more important things to worry about. Instead, he simply said, “Passing notes in class is not allowed, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne – and please don’t throw things.”

Gaston wasn’t quite sure he followed Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne’s train of thought as he answered the question and paused a moment to think of the right way to answer. “You’re saying that some messages take a separate charm to play back the recorded message, yes?” he said. “If so, then yes, that’s true. Howlers don’t need a spell to play the message, but neither do our projects today.”



Again it seemed Miss Awning has nothing to say. Gaston was beginning to worry that she might not understand the lesson. Oh well, maybe she was just shy? Or having an off day?



Gaston was impressed and a bit surprised when Miss Diggory gave an answer that hadn’t already been said. The answer earned her a beam from the professor. “Very good, Miss Diggory,” he said, smiling. “Howlers do have a much simpler design than our origami.”



And here was another unique answer! Gaston gave Mr. Salander an approving smile. “Not exactly, though you make a good point, Mr. Salander,” he said. “The spell itself isn’t positive or negative; it’s the intent behind the spell that gives it a positive or negative connotation.”

The professor paused a few moments to give the students more time to answer. When no one else spoke up, he addressed the group, “Well done, everyone! You came up with some very creative answers. Just to recap…” With a wave of his wand, a diagram appeared on the board.

“Now a howler typically uses four charms: one to record the message, one to amplify the voice, one to make the letter explode after relaying its message, and one to silence the howler until the envelope is opened. That last one is very important – without it, the howler would repeat its message at the wrong time.”
He gave the class a few moments to process the information before going on, “Now today, we’ll only be focusing on one of those charms: the recording charm. I’m going to show you a couple of different variations of the spell. First, you’ll write your message on the origami shape you made earlier – this step is the same for every variation of the spell…” He picked up a quill and jotted something down on the back of the origami heart he’d made earlier.

“If you want your creation to simply speak its message, trace your wand in the shape of a speech bubble and use the incantation Nuntium dico, like so…” He made the speech bubble shape with his wand and repeated the spell. The origami heart called out, “Happy Valentines Day!”

“If you want to record a singing message, the spell is a little different,” he continued. “After you’ve written your message, you’ll make a musical note shape with your wand and say Nuntium cantabo…” He performed the spell on a paper bear he’d made before class, and it sang, “La la la la la!”

“The last spell is more of an add-on than a variation,” he said. “If you want your shape to say its message only once, you won’t need to use this spell. If you want your message to repeat itself, follow the steps for either the speaking or singing recording charm, then you’ll use the spell Repeto; the wand movement is a figure eight.” He demonstrated the spell on a paper dove. “Coo, coo coo!” it said; it was silent for a moment then said, “Coo, coo, coo!” again.

Gaston clapped his hands as he looked out at the class. “You have the rest of the class to add sound to your creations. You don’t have to do all three versions of the recording spell, but I expect you to try at least one. If you still haven’t finished your origami, you may use this time to do so. I have a stack of envelopes with a silencing charm already placed on them, should you want to use them for your finished product.” He jerked his head toward a stack of white envelopes on his desk. “Let’s get started!”

OOC: You have ABOUT 60 HOURS to do this activity! As Gaston said, you’re welcome to try all the spells, but you only have to practice one for full credit. There is no minimum post requirement. If you have a question, please indicate in the title of your post. Gaston and I will be checking back in periodically to answer.