Substitutes and Final Exams

"Good Day! Good Day, good day!"
The young and partly attractive Professor called aloud, smiling exhuberantly as he shut the door behind who he assumed was the last student.
"I bid you welcome, to yet another fascinating day of Charms! And by that I will assume we are discussin the magical kind, not the kind that will get you a date in later years. I am Professor Vici, call me whatever you want, I'm not into those formal titles yet. Today we will be learning a simple but rather amusing charm, Which I call, the guarddog charm. This charm allows one to enchant an object to emit a vocal message whenever touched, the incantatiom and motion are present on the board, please practice with the stones provided on your desks."

He smiled and motioned to the board, which bore the words "Extra Infintante Incantantum."

Though she missed Professor Barahir, Arya was convinced Charms would be much more exciting with Professor Vici. He was younger and more energetic, while Barahir was quiet and reserved.

“Good afternoon, Vici,” she greeted the man, taking his suggestion to call him whatever she wanted.

Arya found a seat in the back, where all of her friends had managed to huddle. They usually couldn’t ever find enough seats next to one another, so they were always separated.

“Bloody hell, I’m starving,” she muttered.

“Dinner is straight after this class,” Elsa reminded her.

Moving the stones around on her desk, Arry examined the board. It seemed like a rather handy spell if you wanted to scare the living daylights out of someone.

Mira rushed down the hallway and into the Charms classroom. She took one look at the new professor and blushed. Head down, she found a seat and heaved a sigh of relief. Today had been rather difficult, but Charms was her best subject. It could only be uphill from here.

“Extra infintante incantantum, extra infintante incantantum,” she repeated quietly to herself, memorizing the words.

“Hello there,” she heard a familiar voice greet her.

“Ah, hello,” Mira responded vaguely as the Slytherin sat down next to her.

Kolby took a seat by Mira, looking at the stones on the desk. Kolby smiled mischievously. This could be fun. he thought.

"How's your morning?" Kolby asked, playing with the stones, stacking them on top of each other and making pyramids.

"Kolby." he heard Devan call from the back of the class. Kolby looked back at the twins gesturing to him.

"I'll be right back." he said, walking up to the twins.

"The fifth years are planning something. Something big." Devan told him.

"They need first years to help them." Mick said, rolling his eyes.

"Do you want to do it?"Devan asked.

"Let me think about it. We'll talk about it later." Kolby replied, although he knew that he wanted to be part of this prank. He was itching to do something mischievous. Devan nodded and Kolby returned back to Mira.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" he asked.

Adelaine sauntered into the Charms room and found her way to the back. How had all of her friends managed to get seats next to each other? That never happened. She gestured for Elsa to scoot over and settled into a desk between her and Marigold, peeking over to wave at Jon and Arya. This could be fun, she thought with a smile. Several minutes later, class began and Adelaine stacked the stones on her desk.

“Charming stones to talk, eh?” she asked, staring up at the board.

“Now I really can have a pet rock,” Jon laughed.

“You mean you can finally have one that talks back,” Edwin said with a grin, sitting down in front of Adele.

“Where have you been?” Adelaine asked, lightly kicking the back of his chair. “Class started ten minutes ago!”

“I’ve got better things to do,” he turned and winked.

Adelaine blushed and quickly looked down at her desk before anyone could see. It wasn’t that she had feelings for Ed, but the Gryffindor had a way with words. He could make anyone blush. If there was an award for Most Charming Lion, he’d win it hands down.

“Don’t you ever pay attention?” Mira whisper-scolded Kolby when he asked her what to do. “Charm the stones to talk!”

With a sigh, she spread the stones out on her desk and thought of what she wanted them to say. Something witty. Suddenly, she felt immense pressure. Looking around, she wondered what the other kids would do. What if her stone wasn’t cool enough?

“What’re you making yours say?” she turned to Kolby.

Perhaps she could teach hers a ballad or something. Before she gave it anymore thought, something occurred to her.

“Professor Vici?” she asked, raising her hand. “You haven’t told us what to do exactly.”

People started nodding in agreement, and Elsa chimed in.

“Right, are we supposed to speak the words we want it to say?” she questioned, reading Mira’s mind. “Or do we think the words?”

“Do we think them in the voice we want the stone to have?” Jon added stupidly, though it was a good question.

Vici nodded.
"5 points to Hufflepuff for your excellent questions, Each object bears their own voice, similar to the way we as humans do. Thus, no you don't need to think of a voice for them. Think the words you want it to say, really focus on them. First say the enchantment, think the words, then do the movement and tap the object. My apologies for not being clearer."

Smiling at the students, Vici began walking throughout them to aid them. In truth, he wasn't too far away from them in age, as those who were first years when he graduated just had graduated themselves. However, charms wasn't his best subject, he much preferred herbology.

Adelaine thought long and hard about what to say. That is, what she wanted the rock to say.

“It all depends on the voice, don’t you think?” she asked earnestly, speaking to no one in particular.

“I am Lord Bacon,” Edwin’s stone shouted loudly in response.

Everyone laughed and Jon set it off five more times for good measure. That would be funny no matter what the voice was, Adele thought with a smile. Marigold’s was intensely creepy; it would be a good one to use in a dark space to scare someone. Finally, Adelaine figured out what she wanted hers to say. The first two attempts didn’t work.

“Third time’s the charm,” Edwin said with a grin.

“Extra infintante incantantum,” she muttered, concentrating with all her might. She opened her eyes and tapped the stone.

In a deep, guttural voice, the stone said “I’m a glittering fairy princess.” The group burst into laughter.

This had to be Arya’s most favorite Charms lesson of all time. There was no denying that Vici made everyone more comfortable than Barahir had. The class was filled with fits of laughter.

“I’m a glittering fairy princess,” Adele’s stone said once more when Elsa tapped it.

“It sounds like a burp,” the Hufflepuff observed, chuckling.

“I am Lord Bacon!” Edwin’s shouted again, announcing it’s status to the world.

Arry thought and thought, but couldn’t come up with anything witty for hers to say. Adele was right, the voice mattered. The reason hers was funny was because it was so contradictory. Like a knight shouting that he was a fairy princess.

“Here goes nothing,” Arya thought aloud, taking a chance. “Extra infintante incantantum.”

She thought the words over and over and did the movement.

“May I have the honors?” Jon asked, leaning over and tapping the stone.

“I SHALL DESTROY YOU!” the stone shouted…in the squeakiest high-pitched voice Arya had ever heard.

More laughter, of course. The stone wasn’t very menacing with that voice.

((OOC: Think of Yzma’s voice when she was a kitten.))

Kolby found his classmates rocks amusing, if not a bit childish. He looked at his rocks, thinking of what to say. Then, he decided to be a bit creative with his.

After five minutes, Kolby was ready to try his experiment. He set the four rocks in front of him, each having a different note on it. He pushed them each once, trying to see if it worked.

"Oooooo." the first rock sang, a high soprano.

"OoOoO." the second one sang, an alto.

"OoOo." the third sang, a tenor.

"OOOOOO." the fourth sang, a baritone. Kolby smiled. His experiment had work.

"That's soo cool. How did you do that?" Mick asked as Kolby touched the rocks in different patterns to create mini songs. Kolby smiled as the rocks sang a beautiful B flat chord.

"I didn't know you were such a virtuoso, Kolby." the first year Ravenclaw, Jane, commented, twirling a piece of hair between her fingers. Kolby blushed. No one knew.

Kolby had a passion for music. But, his father much rather had Kolby perfect the art of war or master the art of politics. So, he always had to suppress the urge to sing or even whistle while at home. It was a habit and now, he hardly ever talked about it. But, Kolby's mother got him private lessons in the harpsichord and the lute disguised as etiquette lessons. Kolby excelled in music; he loved everything about it. He could pick out the most complex rhythms and read music with ease.  

Kolby excused himself to the bathroom and left his rocks for people to play with, his cheeks tomato red. No one was supposed to know.

Mira still couldn’t think of what she wanted her rock to say. Everyone else’s were hilarious; there was no way hers could live up to that kind of stardom. Clearly, this Hufflepuff just wasn’t witty enough to make a simple stone speak.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she quietly scolded herself. It can’t be this hard!

She raised an eyebrow as Kolby blushed and left the room. Jane was a conniving wench, so it didn’t surprise her. The Ravenclaw was already in the back of the room, flirting with Edwin. Mira grimaced. But, back to Kolby – what was he so embarrassed by? Was it so terrible to let people know you aren’t just a mischief causing Slytherin?

“Mira, what’s taking so long?” Jon asked playfully, plopping down in Kolby’s seat.

“Jon, honestly, now is not the time,” she sighed, staring at the ceiling.

“Can’t think of anything?” he figured, misunderstanding her annoyance. “Charms is your best subject. How about you try something complex? Like a ballad!”

“That is ridiculous….Actually,” she smiled brightly. She'd thought about that earlier, but just jokingly. “That’s quite an idea!”

Mira thought of all the ballads she knew by heart. They were all extremely long, but that wasn’t anything new.

“What ballad should I do?” she asked Jon.

“How about Faire Rosamund?” he suggested with a shrug. “That’s always a saucy tale.”

Faire Rosamund was the story of King Henry II and his mistress, Rosamund. Everyone knew, of course, that there was no Rosamund. He was always terribly close to his best friend, Piers Gaveston, however. Oddly close, though it was never talked of in those days. This had nothing to do with that, though. The ballad made Queen Eleanor out to be a villain, and in the end she kills Rosamund.  

“Extra Infintante Incantantum,” she muttered, closing her eyes and thinking the ballad lyrics. Jon did the honors and tapped the stone. In a clear voice, the rock sang like the best of troubadours.


People recognized the ballad and gathered around, clapping along with the beat and singing with the stone. Finally, the last lines came.

Professor Vici clapped at the end of the ballad, laughing.
"Well done Miss Catrain, Well done indeed, both you and Mr. Parry appear to have quite the musical talent. Hogwarts could use some bards like the pair of you. 8 points to both your houses, though, it does appear Mr. Parry caught stage fright, hmm. I do believe however, despite the fun we are out of time~ Please complete page 4 of the study guide before the next class, you are dismissed!"

Vici smiled at them all, and began levitating the rocks into a crate, till he noticed Tari slipping out.

"Oh, miss LeClerc, may I have a word with you after class?" He called after her. She nodded and Hugh patted her back, heading out.

(OOC: I NPC'd them cuz I didn't want to make only one post.)

Arya was actually sad that class was over. That’s a first, she thought. She figured if this was what it would be like with Vici full-time, Charms wouldn’t be so bad.

“I’m assuming we’re allowed to take our stones,” Elsa wondered aloud, pocketing hers.

“I’ll be taking mine no matter what,” Edwin said, tapping his one more time.

“I AM LORD BACON!”

They all laughed, and Arry grabbed hers up. She’d only charmed the one, but hopefully that was enough. As soon as she touched it, it went off again.

“I shall DESTROY you!!!”

With all the stones going off at the same time, everyone laughed and giggled their way down the hall.

Mira wanted to jump for joy when Vici awarded points to Hufflepuff. The end of the year was coming up fast, and they needed every last point they could get. There probably wasn’t much of a chance that they’d catch up, but Hufflepuffs did not give up (contrary to popular belief). She looked at her stone and thought of the ballad.

“You taking yours, Mira?” Jon asked, probably thinking the same thing she was.

“And have that thing go off every time I touch it?” she laughed, shooting him a genuine smile for once.

He grinned and she left the stone on her desk, knowing it would annoy her and the entire house of Hufflepuff if she kept it.

Adelaine packed up her things and grinned as she tapped her rock one more time.

“I’m a glittering fairy princess,” the caveman-like voice said.

She cracked up and tossed it in her bag. These things would really be a hit at the next party. Adele waved goodbye to the professor and headed to the hallway with her friends. They all continuously kept their rocks talking, and laughed at the looks they got from passing students.

“We’d better shut these things up by the time we reach the Great Hall,” Elsa suggested loudly. It was going to be an interesting dinner.

Kolby came back into Charms class to collect his things.

"Hey, Kolby. Where'd you run off to?" Osmond asked. Kolby just shrugged him off. He was lost in thought.

"I'm sorry that I walked out Professor. Here. You can use these as examples if you want. Have a nice day," Kolby said like a robot, his voice distant and sounding a bit sad. He passed Vici his rocks with the notes on it and strolled out of the classroom, feeling ashamed.

Tari bit her lip and shifted uneasily as she watched the other students leave. She pondered if something was wrong, or perhaps even if her grades were suffering...

"Bye Kolby.." She whispered as he walked out, voice held back by the suspicions rising in her throat. She had been surprised and pleasantly impressed by his display of musical skill, and only wished she could have thought of something more creative than 'My name is Gerry!' for her rock to say.
After the last student exited the class she strode up to Vici with a gulp, helping him pick up the rocks.

"What did you want, Professor?" She asked, looking at him curiously before he relayed to her a plan that would change Christiare Le Clerc's life.

((OOC: This scene will not be roleplayed, as it would be me talking to myself.))