((Open! This is a classtoom RP, guys, for people with elemental powers or can do fancy things with their wands. Hopefully we can get this thing going again.))
"Good morning, everybody,"
Stacey's voice was projected through the whole room as she entered her class from the door in the back. Heads turned to watch her, some smiling, others curious. Those smiling knew her, remembered her from the previous year when she had first started teaching this more advanced class. There were only a couple faces she didn't recognize, which she found very... disturbing. She made it her business to know everybody, and the fact that she didn't anymore was shocking.
"Welcome back to all of you. I'm sure most of you were pleased to find that I would be coming back this semester, and to those who don't know who I am, I am Professor Gray. I hope you will enjoy my class." Her eyes were a vibrant violet as she looked around at he students. She had one of the biggest classrooms. Along the sides of the room were waist-high ledges that were full of oil lamps, huge bowls of water, candles, fans, and other various containers. Attatched to the ceiling was a steel frame, from which more candles were sitting. Her desk was pressed up close to the staircase leading to her office, and the student desks were in two rows close to the ledges. Most of the room was empty space, but it was well used.
With a wave of her hand, all of the candles in the room jumped to life and heavy shades fell over the windows. The only light came from the flames now, and the light reflected her pupil's eyes. Stacey walked around to the front of her desk and leaning against the edge. She looked a lot different than she had last time she taught. Then she had been eight months pregnant with her twins, and now they were half a year old. If you looked at her you couldn't tell she had ever been pregnant. Except for her hips being slightly wider--which was entirely unfixable--she looked just as she had before. Her soft brown hair was pulled back into a severe pony tail, and she wore her usual outfit of jeans and a black tee shirt with short sleeves. The whole robe-thing just didn't really work for her, and she never expected her students to be wearing robes either. They played with fire too much to have them.
"I think today we'll start on illuminative properties of the elements. Has anybody ever made anything that gave off any type of light?" She asked, watching the group with her half-smile. It was technically against the rules to practice with elemental powers outside of the classroom, but that never stopped her and she sure didn't try to stop anybody else.
Zepha turned to look at the teacher, Proffesor Gray, and instantly turned back around and stared at her notebook. As soon as she had started talking Zepha instantly knew that she didn't belong here. She had been told to come here, that this was a good class tought by a good teacher. And good teacher or not she knew that she had to get out.
Zepha had just recently discovered that she was a wizard. She had two muggles for parents and didn't even have a clue that she was a wizard. Besides that she had never even tried to do a simple spell. She was scared and nervous about it and really didn't want to suffer the consequenses. As soon as the lights went out she knew that there was no escape, and that at least for today she had to rough it out. There was no way she was getting up now, in the middle of this class, and infront of everybody just so she could "feel better".
She took a deep breath, and slid back in her chair a little. Maybe she could learn something by just listening, so she decided that for at least today, that is what she would do.
Stacey's gaze swept around the room, watching everyone. She idly wondered if any of them practiced their magic in their free time. In the past she would have just scanned their minds, but she didn't do things like that anymore. Her powers were focused on protecting her family, and the garbage most students thought about just got in the way. Still, though, she had to fight against the urge to pry.
"You, miss," she said, nodding to one student she didn't remember at all. "What power do you have?" she asked, meaning the elements. Most of the kids in this class had power over at least one of the elements--earth, wind, fire, and water--but some were just skilled with their wand. Being gone for almost a year, she had all but forgotten who could use what. Her sub hadn't left any sort of information on the skill or range on any of them, and she couldn't help but wonder what they had learned while she was gone--if they learned anything.
"I don't recognize you; what's you're name?" Stacey added, tilting her head to the side and giving the quiet girl a small smile. Her eyes changed from their flashy purple to a soft brown, her "natural" eye color.
At first Zepha felt bad for whover the teacher was calling out. Then after she glanced up and saw that her gaze was set directy on Zepha she froze. She tried to choke out an answer, and nothing would come out. For her this was pure humiliation.
She started shaking as she realized she had to stay something. How much time had passed since the teacher talked to her, for Zepha it had felt like hours. Finally she managed to choke out a reply. I
"I, uh..." she paused, sucked in a deep breath then said "Well, I really don't know. I kinda just found out recently that I was a wizard and yeah." Then she remember that the teacher asked her name so she added "My name is Zepha West, Miss."
"I see," Stacey said aloud, her eyes twinkling with curiosity. She felt slightly bad about calling the girl out; she seemed incredibly nervous. With a small nod to herself, she pushed off he desk and moved towards the center of the room.
"Well, hello Zepha. You can call me Stacey, I'd really prefer that. People calling me Mrs. Gray or Professor Gray just makes me feel old," she smiled at Zepha in an attempt to make her feel a little more comfortable. The other professors thought she was completely unprofessional when she let students call her by her first name, but she didn't care. Not only did she just plain not care what people thought of her, but she really hated feeling old. She was almost twenty, already married with two six-month old babies. She could feel old when she was at home, but at school she just wanted to teach magic.
"You said you recently found out you were a witch? Have you tried any sort of spells or used any magic? What kind of thing have you accomplished that made you aware you were a witch?" Her tone was completely open and curious, no hostility at all. Other teachers probably would have told Zepha that she needed to find an easier class, but Stacey would never do that.
She relaxed a little as soon as Stacey smiled. She glanced around and noticed that everyone, and she meant everyone was staring at her. It seemed like even the paintings on the walls were staring at her. Finally she answered.
"Well, I was snooping around in my attic and, I found an old journal." she let out a breath than began again. "It was my great, great grandmothers and it said she went to Hogwarts and everything, and I got curious. So I tried a few of the simple spells in the back of the book, and well now I'm here." she smiled. Then she said "But other than that, and then again to show my parents that I was a wizard, I haven't done any spells.
She put her hand on her pocket and touched her grandmother's wand. As soon as she found the journal, not that long after she found the wand and had been carring it with her since. Once she touched she suddenly relaxed, it was like her security blanket.
Stacey nodded, thinking about the situation.
"I see. And before you came to Hogwarts, did you happen to get your wand?" Wands were very important things when it came to using magic. She thought about her own wand. It was 10.5 inches of holly wood, with a pheonix feather and unicorn hair inside. She looked over to her desk, where it sat next to an oil lamp. Her wand was almost never used. She could do great things with just her mind and her hands, so why did she need a wand?
Curiosity and impatience taking over, she reached out with her mind just a little and brushed into Zepha's thoughts. There she found that Zepha used her grandmother's wand, not her own. This could be part of the reason she didn't have much success with her spells.
Zepha was kinda worried what Stacey would do next. She sure asked a lot of questions, but then again she was a teacher and that was her job.
"Well, I have a wand, its my grandmother's" she said now pulling the wand out of her pocket and setting it on her desk. Was that a good thing? A bad thing? She didn't know for sure but figured she was about to find out.
(writers block!!! sorry thats almost a one liner!")
((It's okay! We all do one short ones sometimes!))
"Interesting..." Stacey mumbled to herself. As she stood there her eyes changed to a soft green, then back to purple. The green was because of her curiosity, but the purple was her thinking. For a moment she was no longer in the classroom with a small amount of children, but lost in her own mind.
"Zepha, considering how much you don't know about magic, you probably don't know much about wands. You see, every was is perfectly unique. Most students go to wand shop when they first come to Hogwarts and they pick out their wand. Well, actually it's more like the wand picks the student. Anyway, each person has their own special wand with their own combination of things like unicorn or thestral hairs." She paused to take out her wand and held it next to Zepha's.
"If you'd like, I could take you into town and help you find a wand. I think it will help you a lot." She looked at the girl with her still purple eyes. In the back of her mind she thought about how the child hadn't noticed her eyes yet. Most new students were perfectly amazed when they saw her eyes change color, especially the Muggle-born, who were so unused to seeing the extraordinary.
Zepha was starting to realize that Stacey wasn't like most teachers. She was more like a friend to her students than an administrator. She looked at Stacey's wand, it was beautiful and looked exsquisite next to her own, dinky old wand. Maybe it would be a good idea to get a new one.
"I would really apreaciate that" she said meaningfully. She looked into Staceys eyes to show that she was serrious and noticed something. Something was different, just a moment ago they apeared to be green but now, they were purple. Zee shook it off, surely she was imagining things. That was unrealistic.
Stacey smiled widely, noticing Zepha dismiss her eye change. A few people did that sometimes, and it was always fun to watch.
"Cool, talk to me after class and I'll see when we can do that," she offered, giving her one last smile. "Okay, not that we got that settled, who here can make this room a little brighter?" She asked, turning to the rest of the room.
((If you want, we can just skip ahead to the part where they go to town. You can go ahead and start with them leaving the school or whatever, if you don't mind. I'm starting to get writer's block. =P ))
((Good plan! I was running out of things to say!))
Zepha was standing at the gates with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her jacket. She was waiting for Stacey so that they could go get her a wand. It was weird, at home you would never see teachers outside of school, let alone go somewhere with them to buy something.
The wind was whipping her short blonde hair in circles around her face and was really starting to annoy her. She tucked it behind her ear but as soon as she did it would blow around. And her jacket, well its needless to say that it had seen its better days. She looked at her watch, not because she was impatiant but because it made her look impatient instead of the pathetic girl who is always early. It read five o'clock exactly. She walked over to a near by bench and sat down.
A snow leopard came running up to the front gates from the forest, crossing the space with powerful strides. The great cat eyed the girl sitting near the iron entrace with wide, knowing blue eyes. When it came to within a few feet of the girl, it changed into Stacey. She was still wearing her clothes from earlier, but also had a leather jacket. Her brown hair was falling around her shoulders now, too.
"Hello Zepha," she greeted. Quickly she ran her fingers through her hair and shoved them in her pockets, cold. The sun had set, so it was dark by now. "We should probably get going, or they'll close before we get a chance to find you a wand." She smiled at the student, then started down the path that led to Hogsmead. Stacey didn't waste time.
Zepha was staring at Stacey now, all bug eyed. She had just gone through a huge wave of emotions in only 10 seconds. It ranged from curiosity to fear and was quite shocking. She'd heard about people being able to read minds and change into animals and throw trees at the flick of a wrist, it was just shocking to see.
She finally gathered her self and stood up. "Oh, hi" she said. And started following Stacey down the path towards Hogsmead. It had been a while since she went down into town, and the last time she did she was too excited to get to the school and didn't pay attention. She started too fully take in the beauty of the stone walls and how the snow lightly frosted them.
Stacey laughed happily, her eyes flickering bright orange. She enjoyed seeing people make that face, and she had seen it a lot. Being half-immortal, she had slightly different powers than her fellow witches and wizards. People often looked at her like she was odd.
"You just shouldn't be surprised around me, hun," She said after she finished laughing. "Always expect the unexpected around me, or you will constantly be amazed. Now, for some warmth." She snapped her fingers and a small round flame appeared over her palm. She rolled it between her hands for a moment, then pulled her hands apart. The fire grew in size and a wave of warmth rolled off of it.
"So how much do you know about magic?"
((Is it possible for me to join? I didn't want to read all of the posts lol, so if I can, can you fill me in? Thanks!))
((I don't mind if you join. Basically Stacey and Zepha are going to Hogsmead to get Zepha a wand because she doesn't have one of her own. Sky could just pop in and be all, "Hey there, chica!" And Stacey could be all, "Hey, when did you give BIRTH?!?!" Or something. =D ))
(Its fine with me... It started out I was in Stacey's class, and I didn't know anything about magic and she was asking me a ton of questions. And then she offered to take me to go get a wand and now we are on our way to the wand shop thinmajiger. And I am constantly being shocked because she is weird :P )
Zepha figured not being suprised would probably be a good idea and decided to take Stacey's advice. However it seemed like she got kicks out of freaking people out. It probably didn't matter though.
Zee had to walk very quickly to keep up with Staceys pace. She was already a few feet behind Stacey and practically had to run to catch her. She looked at her and saw that now her eyes were orange. Now she was certain that there was something going on there. Anyway she decided to ignore it for now and focus on the task at hand.
"Well, I know as much about magic as you do about me." she said thinking that it would be a good comparison.
"Why did we come out here in this mess?" Sky muttered, as she trudged through the ever increasing snow that piled up on the ground. She held Char close to her chest and was glad he had a hat on. She would be so angry with herself if he caught a cold.
But they did come here for something. Dog food. Yes, dog food. Jake needed more food and Sky hadn't been out of the house in days. She chose an awful day to come and get it though. But she couldn't let her beloved companion starve now, could she?
And that's when she saw Stacey and another girl just a few feet ahead of her. She walked a little faster through the snow and tapped Stacey on the shoulder.
"Hey you!"
"I see, so you really don't know much, do you?" Stacey was saying when she felt a disturbance on her mental radar. Someone familiar was coming up behind her, and she knew who it was--who they were--right before she was tapped on the shoulder.
"Sky! Hey, you shouldn't be out here with him in this weather. Oh, Zepha this is Sky--or Professor Mitch, I guess. She teaches Potions," She introduced. "Hey there little cutie! You're probably freezing out here, aren't you?" Her mommy voice came out as she started talking to her friend's baby. "What did you guys name him?"
Zepha was trying to interpret what Stacey meant exactly when she heard someone aproaching. She turned around and saw a woman with a child. The woman, who stacey introduced as Sky, didn't look that much older than Stacey herself. Sky, was holding a small child who didn't look very old.
Zepha let out a small hi to Sky and smiled. She didn't know her but if she was a proffesor she figured it wouldn't hurt to be in her good graces.
The infant just stared at Stacey, his cheeks red.
"I know, but I had to get some things and Jason isn't home to watch him. Oh, his name? It's Char. I think he looks a lot like his father." Sky shifted her gaze to the young girl beside Stacey and smiled softly.
"Hello. I'm, like she said, Professor Mitch, but you can call me Sky outside of the classroom. I prefer it." The baby held out his hand toward Stacey.
Zepha realized that she was starting to stare at Sky's baby. He was just that cute, but then again what babies weren't cute.
She smiled at Sky and said "Nice to meet you. And by the way, your son is adorable."
(sorry thats all I could really put in...)
"I see. Here, these should help."
Stacey waved the wall of fire away and it dissolved away. Instead two mittens formed in her hands and she worked on putting them on the baby. "Your little handies are probably freezing! You just let Stacey put these on and you'll be all nice and toasty!" Her voice changed dramatically when she started talking to Char, and she hardly noticed the change. She had twins at home, and both she and Aiden would talk to them like this to get them to smile.
"We were just heading into town to get Zepha a wand," she added, looking at the two non-babies.
((Non-babies.))
"Thank you. I must have dropped his mittens on the way here. Its hard not being able to apparate with infants." Sky looked to the other girl. "You don't have a wand, Zepha? Well there is a really great wand shop just down the road. Its not as great as Ollivander's, but a wand's a wand, yes?"
Zepha nodded her head when Stacey mentioned they were wand shopping.
"Well, I would assume so." Zepha said answering Sky. "But I really wouldn't know the difference either way." she added.
(Gahh... writers block...)
((XD That non-babies was just for you, Sky.))
Stacey nodded as Zepha spoke. "Zepha is a Muggle-born, and either her letter get lost or the Ministry wasn't aware that she was a witch, because she only recently found out that she could use magic. She's using her grandmother's wand, which obviously isn't the best for her to be using, so I'm taking her to find her own," she explained, talking quickly like she normally did.
Char started to whine and buried himself into Sky's chest.
"I know honey," Sky tried to soothe. "I know, we'll go get warm soon, okay sweetheart?" She kissed the top of his head and sighed. "Would you mind if we came along? It'd be a good opportunity to get a little warmer. Magical Pet Shoppe is right next door anyway."
Zepha shrugged her shoulders and mumbled an "I don't care". It really didn't matter to her if Sky came a long, and besides it was getting a little awkward walking around with her teacher that she just met anyway. Maybe if Sky came along a little attention would be taken off Zepha.
Zee remember Stacey saying something about the shop closing soon so she started to meander down the road. She didn't know where she was going, but figured she could find it.