  DMACFirecrab
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 739
|  Lecture and Mini Activity Gryffindor for life Notorious Niffler
SPOILER!!: Individual Responses SPOILER!!: Bel
Miss Macindoe’s answer was certainly creative and seemed like a generally good idea to Celestia. She beamed at the young Hufflepuff and told her, ”I like that idea, Miss Macindoe! Well done for thinking outside the box. You could attempt to conjure a specific type of flowers using Orchideous, yes -- you would have to focus on conjuring those specific flowers.” Celestia paused, then added, ”While this is a good idea in the right circumstances, you’d have to be sure to know the extent of your opponent’s allergies well ahead of time and evaluate the weather if you’re planning to blow pollen on them.” She gave the Hufflepuff another smile of approval, which only spread across her face like wildfire at the girl’s next question. ”Excellent question, Miss Macindoe! You will find that the -fors suffix, when added to certain Latin words, forms a basic incantation for many Transfiguration spells. As for why, magical theoreticians offer us two possibilities. The first is that -fors comes from the Latin word ‘forma’, which means ‘shape’, ‘figure’, or ‘appearance.’ Personally, I am not fond of this theory, as I’m not sure it covers all Transfiguration spells with this suffix. The second theory is that it comes from the Latin word ‘fors’, which means ‘fortune’ or ‘luck’. I believe that there is always some degree of luck involved in spell casting.” A somewhat sheepish smile crossed Celestia’s face briefly, for the question reminded her of the many debates she had engaged in with classmates over this very subject, before she pulled herself back to the present. ”Does that make sense?” She knew that was quite a bit of Latin to engage in in so little time. Celestia favored the class with a smile, as she had been pleased with their answers. Many of them were thinking outside the box and this was obviously a good habbit for the students to fall into. Once the class had fallen silent again, Celestia prepared to begin her lecture, ”Well done, class! Some of you had rather interesting ideas.”
”Now, today’s spells are both difficult and dangerous. If I see anyone messing around in this lesson, they will be asked to leave and will not be returning,” Celestia began sternly. ”Today, we will be studying some advanced spells that will allow you to get the upper hand in a duel, to distract your opponent, or at the very least to cause a diversion that would last long enough for you to get away.” Celestia peered into all of the students’ faces to ensure that they were taking her seriously.
”The first spell that you will practice conjures a rope made of fire. Like so,” Celestia said before pulling her wand out of its holster. She waved her wand as though she was brandishing a whip, and cast, ”Ignisio funem!” A thin stream of fire curled its way out of her wand tip and slowly wove in a rope-like shape around and around Celestia’s body. She held the spell for a moment before ending it abruptly; the fire died away instantly without leaving even a trace of smoke in the air. ”As you may have noticed, the fire that you conjure using this spell is magical in nature -- it does not give off smoke nor should it burn unless the caster wills it to do so. It is a more...interesting cousin of the spell that creates bluebell flames. The caster likewise controls how ‘thick’ the fire is once it forms a rope shape, and should direct where the rope will come into existence. This can be accomplished through will alone, or the caster can wave his wand along the path he wants the ‘rope’ to follow. Now, this spell can be cast with real, non magical flames by changing the incantation -- and we’ll be doing that in N.E.W.T. classes.” Celestia paused once again to gauge her students’ reactions. Some of them wore expressions of alarm on their faces, while others looked excited or intrigued by the spell. Celestia shot the latter group of students a small smile.
”The lesson will not end with that rope of fire, however. Although it would make a good distraction and can detain an opponent on its own -- if the caster wills the fire to truly burn -- we will now see a means of countering the spell!” Celestia silently conjured the fire in its rope shape once again, but this time she directed the flames to lay in a straight line about two feet off of the classroom floor. It was far enough away that there was still a good distance between the line of fire and the cushions nearest to the front of the room; the professor didn’t want to spook anyone with this next spell. She drew an ‘S’ shape with her wand slowly and precisely before shouting, ”Anguisfors!” The line of flames that floated off the fire was quickly replaced by a large, black snake.
”No need to panic,” Celestia said quickly. ”This is not an actual, living snake; it is merely a conjuration that is completely under the caster’s control. With enough will, focus and force behind the spell, the caster should be able to command the conjured snake to attack or wrap itself around an opponent.” Celestia Vanished the snake almost lazily before turning a slightly guilty look on Miss Dalgaard-Volkova and the other creature lovers in the room; she had completely forgotten that some of them still seemed to find it difficult to accept that conjured animals were not truly living creatures. Her assurances from before class still held, for they would not be using any living animals in class today.
Celestia strode back to the blackboard and tapped it with her wand. Lines of text spread out from that spot and summarized the information for these new spells at once.
Once the information that the class needed was on the board, some of the students seemed eager to begin. Celestia waved her wand once again and removed concealing spells that had covered two areas of the room. In the back corner behind her desk, a clothes rack holding various cloaks and supporting a stack of hats in many colors was revealed. As she gestured towards this clothes rack, Celestia explained, ”As you might expect, you’ll be getting some dueling practice in a minute. These cloaks and hats are infused with some basic Shield Charms. First, second and third years are required to wear a cloak and a hat at all times today. I would highly recommend that everyone pick a hat at the very least, but I will not force older students to do so.”
”Before you pair up and begin dueling -- practicing only Transfiguration spells, please -- you will practice the spells on the board on these for about 15 minutes,” Celestia continued as she waved toward a line of stone mannequins with a target painted on each chest. The statues were lined up along the back wall, where Celestia’s cloaking spells could keep them out of the students’ way. ”Off you go!” The red cushions on the floor would disappear as soon as each student left his/her seat. [/color] OOC: You guys had such great answers! Sorry for the long post. You guys have 48 hours to practice the 2 spells from today by aiming them at the mannequins. These are like the things that Dumbledore’s Army used to practice on in the Room of Requirement. Feel free to control their fates. The kids would have to wait in short lines, but you don’t need to wait OOC -- just pretend that it’s your kid’s turn. Remember that the fire can only burn things if the caster wills it to, and the same goes for the snake attacking. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have these things happen by accident; perhaps your kid imagines the snake lunging just as he conjures it and thus causes it to strike. There are hats and cloaks with Shield Charms for the students to put on -- you guys can make up what the hats look like, what color the cloaks are, etc. In other words, total creative freedom here  . We’ll move on to the main activity at 12 AM CDT on July 22. |