One Woman's Methods

[Danni Sylvester]

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"Again, they don't listen to me. The Ministry is too stuck in its own ways to realize that I don't need books to show people how to cast a spell!"
It was fairly safe to assume that Danni was off on one of her many tangents. Storming into her classroom, which, quite thankfully for her, was empty. It would have been quite the embarassment if her students actually saw her in this state.
"When I worked there, they wouldn't listen, and even now now, when I'm a teacher, I'm still not listened to!" Sitting down at her desk, she sat down, glaring at the wood paneling. "I thought that what I said would matter a little more, here, teaching D.A.D.A...." she muttered, trailing off. She took a deep breath, swinging her hands up and towards her chest as she inhaled, and then swung them back out again as she exhaled.

Standing up slowly to stare at the board behind her, she smiled slightly, the type that revealed an inner plot. "What to teach today?" she wondered aloud. Of course, the answer was, "Something new; something to catch these students' attentions. Push them a little, too. I don't want them thinking that I'll let them slouch."

Placing a hand on her hip, she turned to the thick book in the center of her desk, labelled, in her own hand, Danni's Spell Book, and, in a smaller print below the title, DON'T TOUCH!, and in even smaller print, VIOLATERS WILL BE PERSECUTED.

Yes, persecuted. Danni had no intention of getting the Ministry of Magic's courts involved, for, from what she saw during the duration of her short career in the Courts, it was quite boring, one, and never got her anywhere unless it was to go on for a year. So, she would just inflict punishment herself for anyone stupid enough to look through her personal belongings.

Digging her nails in between two pages in the middle of the book, she flicked it open with a satisfying crack. She ran the tip of her wand over the countless names in the book, written in the many hands of those she had learned the spells from. "Incarcerous...immobulus...liberacorupus." She smiled at that one, but shook her head. "An interesting subject, but perhaps for another day." She continued on: "Homorphous - interesting as well, but I have no werewolves to test it on and nobody crazy enough to want to test it on an actual werewolf."

Her wand halted on the last one on the page. "Finite Incatatem." She shrugged. "Good enough."

She turned back towards where the students would be soon sitting. Stepping in front of her desk, and facing the front of it, she raised her wand, muttering a word too quietly to hear. A spark appeared at the tip of her wand, and she quickly set to work making quick strokes in the air. Every stroke left behind a fiery line, the lines combining to form letters, and the letters combining to form words until they spelled out the 'spell of the day': Finite Incatatem.

She took a step back, admired her work quickly, and then paused to listen to the bell ringing. "Just in time," she muttered to herself.

She stepped back behind her desk, taking on the expression of a serious, no-fun-allowed teacher. Clasping her hands behind her back, she watched the students file in. Fourth years, she recalled to herself. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. She almost smiled. Fourth years would give her a bit more leeway with what she taught - they wouldn't be challenged by simple charms or anything, but they also, she hoped, wouldn't be looking to learn the Patronus charm. She figured that this spell would be interesting enough for them, or at least in the method that she intended to teach them.

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((For those who were lost as to what I meant by writing on the air, sort of picture what dear Voldy did in the Chamber of Secrets. Mostly thinking about the movie at that moment, but he wrote out his name in the air with that spell to show his anagram.))
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[Dorian Stratford]

(Mrar for bare minimum posts. I added his question for length. I made it baddish grammar because Dorian raising his hand in class is already pushing it, let alone asking it politely)

The first day of school was anything but arduous. Dorian loved the first day. Sometimes you had new teachers, and sometimes there were new students, but there were always new subjects. No, he didn’t mean new classes (though there were some of those), he meant the topics covered in class. It was the day to get pumped about what you would have learned by the end of this year. The really annoying parts came in between, when you were actually trying to learn the stuff. Personally, Dorian just liked looking over class outlines. That is, if the teachers were thoughtful enough to give you one. Hogwarts teachers were, after all, not so often interested in technical stuff like class outlines. He decided he’d be satisfied with a brief verbal summary. But it wasn’t as if getting nothing at all would set him off.

And so, Dorian entered the classroom with a smile on his face. He moved to a seat near the middle of the room, school robes billowing about him, caused by a quick step. He let his bag fall off his shoulder onto the floor as he sat. He pulled out a wand, and laid his text book half-heartedly next to it. He was rather hoping not to start of with theory. It was around this point that Dorian looked up. Professor Sylvester seemed to already be prepared for class. To his surprise, he was among the first in the classroom. But something far more interesting caught his attention.

Dorian strained his eyes to try and make out the air born words. After a moments squinting, he realized they were and incantation. He didn’t recognize it. Must be what they were starting with. Well, he hoped it would be interesting. The bell had rung only minutes before, and the class room was quickly filling up. His view of the front was obscured through the mass of shuffling bodies. He pondered what the incantation was for writing in air. It would be interesting to try. Dorian wondered if it could be altered to write on surfaces as well. The fiery writing would be interesting on paper, assuming of coarse it didn’t light the parchment on fire and was permanent….

Dorian looked around for a moment. The class room itself was as he remembered it. Sort of sinister, but in an inviting kind of way. It was a contradiction, but Dorian didn’t feel it was worth the effort to try explaining it to himself. He himself was curious about the finis whazamtum thing they were supposed to be learning. The class was already starting to settle into their seats. He figured someone had better start of the conversation. He didn’t want to wait for the teacher to do it. From his position, leaning back in his chair, he raised his right arm.

”Ma’am? Whatzis we’re learning today?”

He gestured to the writing in the air.

[Danni Sylvester]

[/i] It made Danni feel like taking pity on them, but she did her best to conceal it.

She nodded in the student's direction, although it wasn't necessary, as he was already talking. Danni couldn't help it now. She let the faintest glimmer of a smile show, a devious, 'I know something you don't!' one at that. "You'll find out," she said, then pointed skywards. "I won't say a word until the bell rings. I don't like repeating myself for those late."

As if on cue, the bell rang a few moments later. She scanned the room slowly, taking in each face. Not a very impressive lot, she thought, although Danni knew she shouldn't have been judging books by covers. But how could she help it? She judged all books by covers - they were all bad, in her mind!

Danni stepped out from behind her desk, taking a place once again in front of it, her head blocking off the center of the words. "First off, as this will be the first year you'll be having me, let me introduce myself: my name is Danni Sylvester." She glanced, slightly pointedly, a smile quirking at the corners of her lips, at Dorian, for he'd been the one to call her 'Miss'.

Her smile disappeared, though, beneath a well-rehearsed expression of seriousness. "Now, students," she began. "The Ministry wants us to use these books. So, I want everybody to take them out and set them on your desks." A chorus of groans and mutterings of 'homework on the first day' and 'the teacher's insane!' answered that. How surprised they would be!

"Now, take a good look at the fine craftsmanship. Thick, leather covers, over five hundred pages..." She finally smiled. "It'll make a good shield, for those of you who are a bit more challenged with the spells, won't it?" Leave it to Danni to find a loophole in being told to use books.

((Meh, it's crap, but it's meeting the minimum...and it's the best I've come up with for the past three days.))

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[Dorian Stratford]

(no worries, mine aswell)

Dorian nodded vaguely. ”Fair enough.” He muttered and went back to gazing around at students. He waved at a few other Gryffindors, but the bell soon cut off any conversation that may have sparked. He turned his head back to look at the Professor expectantly. She looked disappointed about something. Well maybe that wasn’t the right word, but there was definitely something judgmental about the way she was studying the class. Dorian decided he didn’t much care. He had a whole class yet to figure out if he liked her as a professor or not. She could always change her mind about students later.

Professor Sylvester. Lot of ‘s’s in that sentence. It was a prime chance for people like a lisp to stumble over their sentences. Good thing he didn’t has a lisp. Just a vague French accent, when he chose to inflict it upon other people. Most people would rather recognize the lack of British colloquialisms in his vocabulary. He supposed it came from growing up in Canada. Dorian still found it amusing that some muggles referred to the television as a ‘telly’.

Dorian groaned enthusiastically along with the rest of the class. He even looked at the text book as she directed. What was she on about? Suddenly he smiled, talk about cruelty. Here she was, convincing them they’d start off with notes like every other class, and instead they practically got to destroy them! Dorian made a mental note to use the incendio charm on one of these puppies. He’d enjoy watching his textbook go up in flames. Besides, if he needed it to study later, he could always get his mom to send a new one.

Dorian looked up at Professor Sylvester, grinning broadly to match her own smile. Finally, a Professor with some sense! ”Fine shield indeed.” He said to himself. He took his text book in his left hand, wand in the other. So what did this finite thingy do? He didn’t bother to raise his hand. She’d already answered him once, and he knew she was getting to it any ways. His face, along with many other’s in the class, were waiting with anticipation for her to continue. He had a feeling Defense Against the Dark Arts was going to be a lot more interesting this year.

[Danni Sylvester]

((Seeing as I have none of the books on-hand, I'm just going by what the HP Fanzone said about the Finite Incatatem spell.))

Danni smiled to herself at the students' delight in being able to do as they wished with their books. She knew that there might be some who still thought her crazy for telling them that they would have little use for books, but what did that matter? The other students would probably be more than enough deterrent from speaking out. Peer pressure was a fickle friend.

"Just a warning to all of you, this isn't to say that you won't be doing anything here, but I doubt that it will be anything related to these books." As she spoke, she poked one finger a few times, quite disdainfully, into the leather cover, leaving small, curved lines from where she poked the book. Quite obviously she shared the student's dislikes of books, but she hoped they were smart enough not to question it. Asking her why she didn't like books would be like asking for death by homework.

Danni whipped out her wand, and stepped once again behind her desk. Pausing for a split second, she tapped, quite loudly, on the desk with her wand. Clearing her throat, just for those who apparently had very selective hearing, she pointed at the words that still hovered in the air, although they seemed to be losing some of their luminosity.

"I'm certain that all of you have, by now, noticed these words up here. And I'm also certain that you've realized that this is an incantation, have you not?" Without waiting for an answer, although she did get a few mumbled 'yes'-es, and she swore she heard a 'no' somewhere in there, she continued: "This is the finite incantatem spell, used to eliminate the effects of spells." She stepped to the left of the words a bit, mainly because she was sick of staring straight into the flames to see the majority of the class.

"Quite useful in battles, this spell will easily render any harmful spells that don't hinder the clarity of your speech, the ability to speak or wave your wand, or your mind." She paused for a moment, absent-mindedly twirling her wand that hung from her hand by her side. "This spell does not include physical effects; if an enemy curses you with the Furnunculus Curse, it will stop more boils from emerging, but it will not heal the boils you already have."

Stepping forward again, she moved around the desk. She waved a hand in front of the words, and the words flickered once, twice, and then went out for good. "Instantaneous-and-single effect spells are not affected by this spell. If the spell cast is the Killing Curse, then the spell will not be affected by the Finite Incatatem spell."

Danni smiled slightly, then pointed at the class. "To demonstrate, I'd appreciate someone to volunteer. Doesn't matter who, and if nobody does volunteer, I'll just pick you." For added effect, she gave a very crooked grin, just as though to say, without words, 'And I'll pick the person who looks like they don't want to volunteer the most.'

((Do they say 'avada kedavra' freely in HP? Just curious, in case it's mentioned again...))