If only Eden could remember what she wrote about in her homework. If only. But she didn't remember what the HECK she had written about Silver Shield spells. Merlin. Scratching her head with her pinky, she flipped over her notebook and dated the page with today's date...not that her notes were that great anyways. Thank Merlin Connor had taken decent notes last year....yeah.

But she did raise her hand. "Um. Well. I'm assuming from the name that it's--silver--" in color. "And it quite possibly shields." There was Eden's profound contribution to the class.

Whooh.

Maddie was bored and in an effort not to bore anyone ELSE by giving the same answer over again, she stayed silent. She KNEW about the spell alright, had even written about it for homework. Surely Romanos would know that so she wasn't at all worried the woman would think she was ignorant on the subject. Besides, that Gabe kid took enough notes to help all of Ravenclaw House. If she ever DIDN'T know something, she could just "borrow" his notebook.

Blink. Bliiiink. Silver shield? Sure... Norah wrote the words down on her parchment and looked back up at Professor Romanos, listening to what everyone else had to say. Well. From what she could figure out from the name, it probably made a shield that was prooobably silvery in some way, but everyone else had said something along those lines so the Hufflepuff remained quiet. The name sounded really cool, though. Like the name of a superhero! Maybe she could become a superhero when she grew up and then she could call herself Silver Shield. OR Norah the Explora. 'Cause that would be super cool

Fantastic group of students were fantastic! "Quite right," she nodded, making a mental note on who really spoke up. "It is indeed a silver shield, used to protect yourself from either magical or mundane attacks. And vhile they can take a good deal of damage, the strength these shields hold depends on your own ability with the spell. Granted, even first timers vith this spell can create a strong shield, but the more you practice, the more it'll be able to vithstand."

"Vot I vont you all to keep in mind though," she spoke, not particularly taking time for them to write notes. It was in their books after all, and had been required reading, "is that this charm conjures a physical shield. It's not like your standard protego shield, so it vill be a little bit more difficult to accomplish for those who do need to spend a bit more time in the branch of transfiguration... vhich is completely fine and normal."

Scooting some of the parchments she brought in around, her gaze lingered on a particular section before continuing. "I can say that it isn't quite similar to the patronus charm, Miss Valentine," she smiled, glancing momentarily to the Gryffindor. "Though I may say that they do have similarities in color. Speaking of similarities and differences however..."

"Does anyone haff an idea on just vhy some people may prefer using this silver shield spell in place of the protego shield charm?"


OOC: Terribly sorry for the slow posts everyone. Exams had momentarily overtaken RL.

OOOH. This question kind made a bit more sense! Ish. Eh, it was worth a shot, right? Waving her hand in the air this time, Norah gave her answer. "Maybe it works better against physical stuff and not just spells?" That kinda made sense, right? Or maybe she was just missing the point.....oh well. Picking up her quill, the second year wrote the new information about Silver Shields to her notes.

Everything Professor Romanos was telling them made sense to Lux, and getting out her notebook and a pen she began to record notes. Maybe she would practice the silver shield charm on her own if they didn't in class because it seemed like a pretty useful tool to have.

At the next question she raised her hand. "People might feel more comfortable with a physical shield. Like it would be more reassuring to see it and KNOW FOR SURE that it's there." If that made any sense. She herself would feel that way.

Benny had been listening as the conversation went on around him about the silver shield charm, taking notes on the information deemed correct. It certainly seemed like a cool spell. A physical shield that worked against both magical and mundane attacks. Could prove quiet useful in certain circumstances. As in the second question Professor Romanos posed to the class for them to answer. Wait...had she answered her own question? Or did she want possible specifics and details to what she had said?

"The silver shield protects against stuff other than spells as you said," he said, starting out after raising his hand. "So it could help against...say debris created by other spells. Thus being doubly useful"

That was another thing from the homework, if Toby remembered right. He could think of a great many advantages of this over the magical shield; possibly something to do with his usual preference of muggle methods over magic? Maybe. He raised his hand again.

"If you have the conjured shield, you can use it to deflect spells while focusing on using your wand to cast other spells. You can multi-task. I don't think you can cast other spells when you're trying to keep up a shield charm."

Scribble...scribble...scribble...

Romanos was talking a lot...loads of stuff to write. When the next question was asked, Adi raised his hand almost immediately. "Possibly because the Silver Shield Charm takes a longer time to weaken than the regular Shield Charm,'' the Hufflepuff volunteered.

Annnnd back to making notes. Well, finish up on them.

Angel raised her hand. "Well maybe because the shield will last much longer and you don't need a wand?" Angel had no idea if that was true or not but if it was it would be at an advantage right.

"Personal preference, Professor." That was as good a reason as any, wasn't it? Maddie thought so. She smiled at Romanos and then lowered her hand, satisfied with her contribution. She wasn't feeling particularly talkative today but she was interested in today's lesson if it meant they'd get to try out this spell.

Jasmine thought about the next question that Professor Romanos asked. Why would someone prefer to use the a Silver Shield charm? Hmmm, that was a good question. Finally coming up with an idea, she raised her hand.

"Maybe a person might think that having a physical shield present would give them an advantage. I mean maybe if a person......the opponent saw an actual shield that could block their spell, it might be somewhat of a deterrent."

Well this was all very interesting. Eden was taking notes, regardless of whether it was in the book or not. Because that's how info became IMPRINTED in your brain, right? So far....well....Eden couldn't say it HELPED but it was worth a trrryyyy?

Maddie was so cute. Eden could admire Maddie all day if it wasn't creepy or weird. Only because the younger girl said awesome things ALL the time and whatnot. HEH. Buuuut anyways. Moving on in class and stuff. Silver Shield Spells. Whooh. Yay.

She raised her hand. "Well I feel like they'd be a bit more protective--if they're a physical shield, like you mentioned." Good guess, she thought. It was a logical guess.

Even though she knew most of what Romanos was saying as they HAD been required to read all about it for homework, Sophie took avid notes and multi-tasked very well as the woman elaborated on the Silver Shield spell.

It vill be a little bit more difficult to accomplish for those who do need to spend a bit more time in the branch of transfiguration.

Ha. Hahaha. That made Sophie feel GREAT. As she was TOTALLY the best at transfiguration.

Not.

Though her spirits were slightly dampened and she was a bit antsy about practicing the spell and seeing if it WAS going to be especially hard for her, she tried to push that aside for now and instead focused on the professor's question. Listening to the others' replies for awhile, she finally raised her hand and offered her own opinion with a shrug, "It just seems like a convenience thing, really, to conjure up the silver shield and be able to, like, hold onto it with one hand to block attacks while still being able to shoot off spells in retaliation with your wand in the other hand. Just kinda makes life easier, I'd say, and there's the added bonus of being able to block the physical attacks with it, then, too."

But what happened to the shield when they didn't need it anymore? Would they just have a collection of shields if they used the spell more than once? How did that work? Sophie didn't know.

Having psyched herself up for all the possibilities that could unfold in this class, Lex no longer felt that sitting here like this was gonna cut it. They needed to start shooting things at each other, enter into full on war mode, crawling along the ground, sounding the battle cry--SOMETHING! What point was a shield if you didn't need protection, you know? Just saying.

"I'm guessing it's your safer bet because it takes care of both types of attacks instead of just one? Less likely to have whatever's coming at you actually succeed."

Like paintballs. The spell could work against paintballs. They could talk flower pots too. Grayson and Lex had thrown flower pots at each other in Ancient Runes and she wouldn't mind that being the case now too. The heavier the better...unless you sucked...then you had to sit out.

No pansies allowed. This was war in the making.

... Zander still didn't really want to answer. It wasn't because he didn't have an answer per-say, which this time he actually didn't have a helpful one, but mostly because he still didn't want to acknowledge anything that could be possibly awkward and or uncomfortable. Still. Things felt weird even after the apology last term. After this year he was sure she'd forget all about it, but it would take the year and so he'd wait until fifth year to talk to her again. Yup. What a plan.

Anyways, he didn't say anything other than enthusiastically nodding to other answers he agreed with. Eden's and Sophie's. Those ones were definitely his favorites.

Zhenya thought about that one. Why would someone prefer a physical silver shield over a different one. Her eyebrows were pulled together in thought, and finally, reaching a silly conclusion, she raised her hand.
"Professor, I… don't know much about them at all but V-vampires are… sensitive to silver, aren't they? Or maybe Werewolves. Perhaps some people might use a silver shield against these creatures to ward them off, because they know it will naturally work against them, more than protego, or any other shield charm." IT wasn't much of an answer, Zhenya realised it might even be complete nonsense, but it was the only answer she could think of.

"I assume it'd be....uh, more efficient....despite the extra....uh, difficulty." Ultimately more worth while, though, to exude the extra focus and magic on something more useful....than to use a sub-par shield? With comparing and contrast, Protego wasn't as impressive.

...Noooooot that he was offering any real insight. Others had answered before he had....but Gabe was gaining some confidence from this 'answering in lessons' thing. Besides...this was Professor Flamsteed's...uh, girlfriend? and he was very knowledgeable man. Therefore, Professor Romanos...must've been okay....if the fact that she was a girl didn't bother you.

As long as she didn't....uh, come too close....Gabriel was okay.

Penelope was taking notes on the silver shield spell. Why would someone choose the silver shield spell over protego? It sounded like the silver shield spell offered more protection from physical attacks, and you could perform other spells without losing the shield. She knew what she would use this spell for. The silver shield spell could protect her from all kinds of things, namely most of Professor Flamsteed's activities.

Text Cut: notes

Silver Shield Spell
-produces a silver shield
-shield protects from both magical and physical attacks
-shield is conjured

Fancy pants transfiguration stuff. He wasn't sure how he felt about charms v transfiguration as of yet. Spell work in general was easy enough to get the hang of, but he felt as though he was more of a Charms man than anything else. Still, practice made progress, right???

He couldn't think why someone would opt for one spell over the other charm. But... what if the choice wasn't what came to mind most, or which was more efficient??

Hand raised and waving with eagerness, Zeke offered his view. "What if Professor, you're better at transfiguration than charms, and so, the chances of the spell working and being stronger would be better? If you're bad at charms, it'd be stupid to use protego." Yeah. YEAH!

So the only thing the silver shield spell had in common with a patronus was the color. Which meant that AJ was wrong, but at the very least there was something similar about the two and that meant she wasn't way out in left field.

Umm... AJ didn't know why a person would pick one spell over the other especially since she didn't have any experience with either of them. She listened to what everybody else contributed, and thought about why she may choose something. Well, that was easy.

Her hand was in the air. "Maybe the silver shield spell is easier to achieve?" Eyes on the slackers. Not that AJ could really blame them. Some of the spells were hard and if her butt was on the line then she would be doing what she knew she could do.

"Under the right circumstances, this could very vell be true," Medea nodded, taking a moment to stretch out her legs in front of her. "Especially during earlier stages of developing your talent vith this spell. Although, this line starts to blur vith the more advance castings. The silver shield and protego can, at times, be quite equal vith physical and magical combat."

Her eyebrows raised somewhat at this response. "This could most definitely be true," she smiled, nodding somewhat. "Particularly if your concern on vhether you are properly performing the shield charm correctly or not actually effects your stance in votever combat you may find yourself in. Excellent thought, Miss Carrington."

"Quite true," she nodded again after the next couple responses, head tilting to the side somewhat in thought. "It does indeed protect you from both mundane and magical attacks, although, don't count out the protego charm too quickly. It too can protect you from physical objects, such as debris." She paused momentarily, a small smile appearing on her face. "But, on your train of thought here, Mister Atreyu, I can say that the silver shield spell can protect you from a lot more non-magical threats than protego can."

Were people paying attention? Because these answers...

She straightened her back as Toby and Sophie gave their response, mouth forming into an "o" expression before she got the chance to comment. "Very good! And a quite brilliant strategic plan, making this particular thought possibly the top reason vhy a person vould choose the silver shield spell over protego. It gives you both the chance to use your offensive skills vhile also keeping up your defense vithout compromising either too much."

Again... fantastic group of students were fantastic!

"Oh, yes indeed," she nodded towards the two students, before taking a quick glance to see if people were taking notes. At least, on topic notes, she hoped. "The shield charm at most, can last an extended period of seconds, depending on how vell you've casted it, how long you can keep it up, the force of the spells and/or objects being casted at it, and the pace in which these spells and/or objects are being cast. The shield on the other hand..."

She trailed off, shrugging up her shoulders somewhat. No need to finish that sentence. They got the idea!

....Right?

An unexpected chuckle escaped her.

Goodness.

"Yes...Miss Cooper..."

Possibly the most correct answer yet.

"Now ve're thinking outside of the box," she commented, grin beaming upon her face. "Vhile ve can safely say this idea von't happen all the time during a combat session, it does hold the promise of perhaps giving you a few extra seconds of lack of offense from your opponent. Especially if they had not gone up against someone who had conjured this shield before, it may be vise of them to take a step back and re-organize their thought process to adapt to your sudden upper hand in the confrontation."

Not speaking up right away, there was a split moment when he eyebrows furrowed together slightly.

"Can you explain a little more on vot you mean, Miss McGee? How vill the silver shield spell be more protective?" Not that the girl was wrong, but she did leave it a little bit vague.

Medea, unable to keep a smile from appearing, shook her head. "Perhaps if the shield was made of silver, though unfortunately the only similarities to silver this shield has is it's color. It's internal composition is a bit different than that of silver. On the other hand, a fantastic thought, Miss Burton. Very out of the box thinking."

Her smile from the previous answer didn't waver as Gabriel spoke. She may have even chuckled slightly under her breath. It was heartwarming to see him actually participating. "Do you think you can expand a little bit on vot you mean, Mister Banner?" she asked in hopes to get him to continue speaking.

Out of the box thinkings, yeesssss!

"I vould be astonished if one didn't play to their strengths during a confrontation," she tried to say seriously, though ended with a few chuckles escaping her in the end. "Excellent opinion, Mister Rogers."

She nodded her head a little from side to side, trying to come up with a way to agree with the girl. "It depends really, Miss Valentine. For some, this could be a very easy spell to achieve. For others, it could be quite difficult due to it's transfiguration roots."


Adjusting her legs back into criss-cross-apple-sauce style, she took a deep content breath and continued once everyone who looked like they wanted to speak up gave their opinion. "Ve haff just one more question before ve'll begin practicing this spell. If you vont, feel free to stand up, stretch a little if you'd like."

Leaning over, she grabbed the small pile of parchments she had earlier and pushed them behind her towards the stands, out of the way. "Final question. Vot are some downsides of this spell, compared to protego? Ve already discussed the silver shield's possible difficulty in conjuring, though is anyone able to think of any other complications that may arise?"

Norah scribbled down allll the answers, taking short breaks to shake the cramp-y stuff out of her fingers, before setting her quill down to contemplate the next question. Ummm.

WAIT. Pause for stretching! The second year leapt up and leaned over to touch her toes, glaring at her legs when her fingers came a few inches short. C'mon legs! NOW you decide to be long? Sitting back down on her mat, she recovered from her flexibility failures by ignoring the fact that the entire world probably just saw her being bad at stuff and decided to make up for it by giving the BESTEST answer to the final question. It was gonna be AWESOME. Norah twirled a strand or five around her finger and let it bounce back as she thought.

Hmph. The only things that she could think of were the conjuring issues, which they had already discussed, and how darn bright the room was. Oooh, and what would be for lunch. Maybe steak and kidney pie! Or beef casserole. Ahem, anyways. Complications. Complicatiooons. OOH! Shooting her hand into the air, Norah bounced a little on her mat and offered, "Maybe it gets worn down over time. 'Cause with protego you just deflect the spell like bam! but with the silver shield spell 'cause its a physical shield that you produce with transfiguration it gets weaker after blocking a bunch of stuff." Putting her hand back down, she gave Professor Romanos a satisfied smile. That was sooo good, right? Riiiight?

Zander wasn't about to start stretching, nope. He didn't really see the point. Just because they had the mats and all of that... Just no, he didn't want to. So instead he just stayed put on the ground and continued taking notes-- or trying to anyways. There was just a lot being said and this wasn't really working out as well as he had hoped. It happened every time the end of the term approach. Suddenly his work quality would shift to a dramatic low, weird huh?

As for the next question, Zander decided to speak up this time feeling as if staying quiet wasn't really getting him anywhere. Especially since his notes were kind of failing, participation would probably be the next best way to absorb the information, right? Uh. "Well, with the shield you've probably got to concentrate more since it's a physical thing... But with protego it takes little effort and it's pretty quick," Uh, right? Maybe? ... Next time he'd let Sophie answer. "So in a duel, when you've got little time, a quick spell might be preferred?" He was really trying here, people.

Seeing the eyebrow raise made Lux feel slightly nervous. Was the answer she had given dumb? She hadn't felt that way, but maybe she was wrong. She gave a sigh or relief when Professor Romanos agreed with her and said it was a good answer. Awesome.

Pleased she continued to write notes while wondering what the activity would entail. This subject was always a lot of fun and she was certain this lesson would be no exception. About to answer the next question, Zander beat her to it saying everything that she was thinking. Guess she'd just sit this one out then.