Zane Lucifer Bishop
Slytherin
[green]6th Year Slytherin[/green] Elemental Master of Metal
You people all have to learn. This world is going to burn.
Posts: 483
|
Post by Zane Lucifer Bishop on Nov 7, 2007 0:13:28 GMT -5
Looking at the work she'd accomplished while she was quilling her response, Zee realized just how far behind he'd gotten. He ran over her notes several times, checking for any obvious flaws and noting the main points in his head. They were supposed to be working together after all. Zee needed to focus more. He might get bad marks for the day if he didn't manage to clear his thoughts.
He took the page they were to translate and focused his mind between that and the lexicon, not even noting Wysteria's many pauses. He would not allow himself to fail at his first day in a subject he knew he was proficient with. And the fact that Wysteria's grade could be affected by his negligence spurred him on as well.
It would be a lie to say that Zee wasn't extremely surprised when he felt Wysteria's soft, warm skin against his hand. Surprised enough in fact to actually lift his head from the runic script and look at her inquisitively for several seconds, oblivious to the professor. He glanced down to read what she had written, though he kept his focus on her in his periphery.
I guess I need to work on my politeness. I'm not trying to be cold, but I'd be lying if I said I was comfortable with what you implied when I mentioned how I couldn't produce a full patronus. I'm fine with other people knowing we're friends; I'm usually more friendly towards people I know. I was just a bit unsure how to act around you at the beginning of class.
Well that brings up more questions than it answers, doesn't it? Clearly something very personal is tied up in her inability to conjure a patronus. It's maddening that she acknowledges a desire to know us better but refuses to let us into that delicious little mind of hers. We should have studied legillimency as thoroughly as we did occlumency.
Zee sighed softly as he scratched out a few words for her. He doubted he'd get any satisfaction in this "conversation." He slid the parchment back to her and continued his mental work on the translation, again examining her writings as well as the work they were to translate.
"I see. Perhaps we'll find time to talk later. I'm sorry for any distress I've caused you. It was not my intent."
|
|
|
Post by Alessandro Darko on Nov 7, 2007 0:20:31 GMT -5
Alessandro let out a low growl as Dylan joined the 5th years section in the back right of the room. He didn't look well, as he had noted that his energy levels had seemed somewhat low. He hadn't seen him eat much during meals either. Alessandro continued to flick through pages of his Ancient Rune book.
He reached forward and jerked the bag of runes over to him as he begrudgingly started the assignment. It appeared that the runic translation he had been given was comprised completely of Elder Futhark, at least, thats what it looked like for Alessandro. He opened the bag and fished around, pulling out stones, looking for the one inscribed with the rune he was looking for. He glanced up at Dylan, really starting to feel that he may not be alright.
"Hey...Are you alright, Dylan? I've noticed something's changed about you...Is everything alright between you and Dee, I noticed you didn't sit right next to her when you came in?" He asked sounding genuinely concerned for his friend and fellow lightfighter.
He held his translation parallel to a piece of blank parchment. He began to assemble runes. "Fehu, Ansuz, Thurisaz..." He mumbled to himself as he jotted down the english word to his translation onto his blank parchment. He stopped short and scrunched up his brow as he heard a voice at the back of his mind.
You force me to sift through emotions and thoughts that distract me greatly. Don't you know it's taken me years to keep my strong feelings in check? You are ruining everything...
His gaze quickly sought out Wysteria with her years near the front of the class. He cocked his head as looked across from her to Zee.
"Eh?" He murmured as he was quite confused with this intercepted thought. He chose not to bring it up now, and would remember to ask Wysteria if everything was alright later.
|
|
|
Post by Dylan Cooper on Nov 7, 2007 0:39:59 GMT -5
Hearing himself addressed through the havoc of his mind, Dylan raised his head from the desk slightly and cast a bleary eye at his bag of runes. Turning his head to face the speaker, he found Alessandro. It appeared he was proceeding through his classwork at a decent rate for only just having begun. His eyes concentrating on nothing at all, they were actually found to be roaming over the wall behind his dormmate. Instead of the tumultuous thoughts that had plagued him since before he had even woken that morning, his mind chose to simply go blank for a minute or two.
It took him a moment to even remember that Darko had inquired about something. Jolting his eyes back into focus, they once more found Alessandro. "Oh... Me and Dee are fine, Alessandro," he replied quietly, finally managing to piece together what the boy had said earlier. "She looked a bit surrounded and I don't really feel like socialising today..." he continued quietly, not really wanting to be overheard. Deciding to play it safe, he halted there. He didn't wish to delve into the activities and tradgedies of the last week or so, not in the middle of a class, in any case. Casting a small glance at Susan, he knew that she already had a light knowledge of his disastrous weekend and promptly returned his head back into his arms.
'It seems it would have been in my best interests to remain resting,' he admitted, aiming the thought toward D'rorah, whom he'd noticed had been steadily working away on her lone classwork. He supposed it wasn't something that was dangerous to be intercepted, and so felt no burden at directing it towards his girlfriend in the front row. After all, anyone with even a trace amount of sense could tell that what he needed was rest, and perhaps some food. Realising that he had not eaten since lunch the previous day, his stomach rumbled unhelpfully.
|
|
|
Post by Alessandro Darko on Nov 7, 2007 1:40:56 GMT -5
Alessandro noticed that Dylan had taken a considerable amount of time to reply to his question. He didn't waste any time waiting for an answer and continued to progress on through his translation. It seemed as though he was in the midst of some diary translation from a young girl living on a farm. She expressed that her father had been cross with her for not feeding the mules, or maybe it was goats? He flipped open is book to cross reference the spelling, while his right hand continued scribbling down notes. He glanced up at Dylan, as he finally answered the question that Alessandro had wondered about. He lazily shrugged it off and assured him that there was no problem with Dee, and that he didn't sit near her because she looked to be surrounded at the moment and he didn't feel like talking much today. Alessandro resisted the urge to narrow his eyes and scrunch his brow as he didn't really buy this excuse. Surely he thought that Dylan would have found a way to sit near his girlfriend if he really wanted to, but Alessandro accepted this answer and nodded briefly, respecting his mate's wish to remain unsocial. Alessandro had nearly finished translating his page and decided to take a short break and leaned back in his hair, letting his quill fall lazily on top of his parchment. He pulled a random rune out of the bag and looked at it, rubbing it between his fingers. Ehwaz...He thought. The rune looked like a capital 'M', a bit stretched out laterally and the downward indent that connected the two long legs was less exaggerated than the phonetic 'M'. Alessandro flipped through his book to find the meaning of this particular rune as it was one he was less familiar with. He found that it was the "horse" symbol. He smirked as he drew a connection with his patronus, a stallion. He read on: The rune may indicate a pair of horses in the original etymology. The rune can relate to a vehicle, including in the sense of how one adapts to circumstances. Partnerships (marriage or business) may be alluded to with this rune. "Bonding" may be a factor. Cooperation and adjustment may be ideas to consider. "Hmmm..." Alessandro hummed as he arched an eyebrow and looked up to the front of the room, eying Wysteria and Zee, remembering that thought he had intercepted. His gaze darted from the rune to the Hufflepuff/Slytherin pair, then back to the rune. He let his gaze drift over to the new student that had been placed with the first years, wondering how he could not have studied Ancient Runes at his previous school. Alessandro's eyes lingered on the new student as he observed him working diligently on his aptitude test assigned to the first years. He shook his head slightly and blinked a couple times, realizing he was staring and decided to get back to finishing his translation.
|
|
|
Post by puddlefeet on Nov 7, 2007 3:39:09 GMT -5
Ally’s eyes had been totally fixated on the professor, and she gave a small start when a familiar face slid into the seat beside her. Covering up her moment of surprise with a friendly nod, she replied to Susan in a soft whisper: “Hey again! Nice to see someone I actually know taking Ancient Runes,” Even as she gave Susan a pleasant smile, she couldn’t help but to feel that there was clearly some veiled reason as to her chosen seating position, and just as she was going to voice this opinion, the Ravenclaw boy inadvertently interrupted her. “Oh, hi!” she said in a warm response, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too! I’m Ally Rubuckle,” Returning the half smile with one of her own, she fiddled subconsciously with a stray quill as she made note of his appearance. She was fairly certain he was slightly older then her: perhaps in his fourth or fifth year? Making a mental note to ask him after the class, she perked up suddenly as Professor Choi began to speak. The quill which she had before been twiddling with was now held attentively in her left hand in preparation for any necessary notes: this was in vain, and her face took on a slightly crestfallen expression as she listened and watched. It seemed like ‘hocus pocus’ stuff: not at all like the advanced translations she’d been envisioning. And the seating plan! Though Ally only sat at the frontmost row if she couldn’t avoid it, Ally never sat at or near the back, and didn’t relish the opportunity in the slightest. With a heavy expression, Ally gloomily piled her stationary up in her arms and rose to leave the table. As she did so, however, Zane caught her attention from the corner of her eye: he had suddenly undergone a very strange array of emotions. Casting her eyes around him curiously, she quickly found the reason why. Wysteria had affectionately seated herself next to another boy, and seemed to be enjoying herself rather a lot. Ally suddenly felt she understood Zane far more then she ever had before, and a slight smirk passed over her lips as she adverted her eyes from the scene and wandered to her designated seating area, sitting next to a nervous looking boy as Choi began to speak again. Feeling relieved that Choi’s first reprimand hadn’t been directed to her, she began to spread her belongings across the table as she gave an awkward smile to the Gryffindor boy next to her. Before being able to ask for his name, she shrunk slightly in her seat as Choi began to explain the rules in her sharp voice. Though she found her teaching style respectable, it did overwhelm her slightly. Accepting the sheet of paper with a faint smile, she began to pour over the words as she bit her lip. Her grin growing slightly, she plucked a quill from the table and began scratching away on the parchment. ((eek, sorry, i'm a bit dim upstairs. ))
|
|
|
Post by janet on Nov 7, 2007 15:17:20 GMT -5
((OOC: Only the 6th and 7th years are working in partners. This is because Janet already knows their skill level and the translations she's given them are much more challenging. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my post ))
|
|
Jason Cruz
Gryffindor
[red]4th Year Gryffindor[/red]
Posts: 179
|
Post by Jason Cruz on Nov 7, 2007 21:08:46 GMT -5
Jason couldn't help but glance repeatedly over at Wysteria as she sat down between a Ravenclaw he somewhat recognized but had never spoken to at school, and a Slytherin he hadn't seen before. He sighed once more at the ill fortune of seeming to only meet people older than himself. Gazing around at the students near him, he couldn't put a name to any of the faces, all of which were looking intently toward the professor and paying him no heed.
A young girl he hadn't met slipped into the seat beside him and offered him an awkward smile. He returned one of his own then snapped his attention to the commanding voice of the professor. He again looked to the Hufflepuff prefect when she was partnered with the unknown Slytherin. Bishop . . . so he hadn't even taken the OWL exams. Odd.
Jason turned his focus upon his own assignment and did his best to put everything else out of his mind. Some of the questions were laughably elementary, but there were a few that had him completely baffled. It was clear this professor was going to expect a great deal from all of her students. A slight sigh escaped as he thought of the copious homework she was likely to assign, even on the first class.
It's not like you have anything better to do.
|
|
Susan Matthews
Gryffindor
[red]5th Year Gryffindor[/red] Shadow Warrior of Earth
goddess, nymph, divine.
Posts: 505
|
Post by Susan Matthews on Nov 8, 2007 8:20:08 GMT -5
Susan listened intently to the directions issued by Professor Choi and immediately got to work on the translations. As Susan looked over the paper of mysterious symbols, it was evident that she would have her work cut out for her this year. She glanced over to Alessandro to see that he had already completed the first few rows of his work. Upon eying Dylan though, she found he had not even started. She wondered for a moment why he was even attending class. It was clear that he was in no condition for this.
Susan tensed when she heard Alessandro question Dylan's well being. Susan knew it would be alright to talk to Alessandro. He was a good guy and a good friend, not to mention he was on their side. Now wasn't exactly the place to discuss things, though, Susan realized. She looked around the class at the quiet students working diligently. In this quiet, practically every one would over hear. It was understandable that Dylan would choose not to speak of his experience now.
Susan caught his eye when he looked toward her. She smiled at him, trying to send him good vibes. Once Dylan had put his head down again, Susan had the notion to send Alessandro a look. Once she saw he was already deep in his work, she hardly tried. Susan sighed heavily, and began working on her own translations. She used the runes as needed and made many references to the crumpled notes from years past as well as the text book. Susan zoned into her work as the translation began coming through.
|
|
|
Post by janet on Nov 8, 2007 20:04:49 GMT -5
((OOC: I'm sorry if any of this is g-modding but I tried to make it as believable as possible in terms of what Janet would think of the work))
Janet looked at her watch and, noticing that her class only have about fifteen minutes left, decided to address her OWL and NEWT students. Standing up from her desk, she walked over to the middle of her classroom, halfway between the groups of 5th years and 6th and 7th years. She cleared her throat loudly to get the attention of those who were still working on their translation and had not noticed their professor approach. She walked a few steps between them and further away from the younger group of students so they would be out of earshot.
"For the fifth and seventh years...meaning the fifth years and Miss Philosophy, this is a very important year for you academically. For the OWL students, if you want to continue on in your Ancient Rune studies you must understand that I only accept students who have earned an "Outstanding" on their OWL exams. As such, you will be taught and graded at that level. Not in the beginning of course, but after a few months you'll notice that the homeworks will become harder and my grading more harsh. By the spring your tests will be at a normal 6th year level and I will be grading them as that. I believe the only way to be truly prepared for the OWL is to regularly give you assignments and tests which are more difficult than the exam." Janet could feel the worry coming from some of the 5th year students and held up her hand to prevent any hissy fits from happening.
"Please don't start shuffling papers loudly again to express your dislike, it's quite childish. Remember," she said in a clipped voice, "That in truth the ONLY mark that matters this year is your OWL. Not any of the grades you receive in this class. Do not concentrate on the actual letter as much as your general improvement in your skills as a scholar, translator, and witch or wizard." She paused for a moment, then added, "but that does not mean I will allow any slacking off or apathy in regards to this class. Trust me, you will regret it," she said flatly.
"The same general principle applies to the 6th and 7th years, with the exception that the 6th year have no formal exam at the end of the year. Now I do have some very exciting work planned out for all three years, but only if you take caution with what I give you. If I tell you that a translation is not to be done in magical ink or recited out loud. I mean it." Janet's features were very firm as she looked at each of her students in turn. She was happy to give her students the opportunity to explore the more interesting side of Runes, but she was a bit worried they would become too excited. But she had plans for these young students, oh yes, and her assignments would most definitely not be handed out randomly.
"Now, let's see what you've done with the work I've given you. This was all just practice of course, I will not be grading these." Janet said, collecting the parchments one by one and skimming her dark eyes over them rapidly. She stopped as she looked over Dylan's untouched copy, giving him a long look before continuing on. Alessandro...Susan...Dylan...not bad, but each of you has unfortunately sloppy work. You're not nearly as proficient with the flow of Elder Futhark or Latin as I would like, and the Etruscan is a disaster," Janet said, rolling her eyes a bit as she shuffled their papers to the bottom of the stack. She skimmed over Miss Philosophy's paper for a moment, then burst out laughing. It was a musical, but barking laugh that made her features light up in a way that hadn't happened during that class.
"I'm so glad to see you caught the dirty joke in the translation Miss Philosophy. Forgive me for assigning something a bit elementary, but I just couldn't resist seeing if you'd be able to catch that." Janet skimmed the rest of her parchment as the small on her face was slowly replaced by her serious line of a mouth. "You've got some mistakes at the bottom, might want to take another look at your grammar notes for encryption, you'll find you translation will be very different when you correct you verb conjugation." Janet went to her next set of papers and sighed, skimming the whole page and a few others behind it before speaking.
"Mister Bishop and Miss Edwin...sloppy, I must say. But you've got some good work here. Oh...oh dear, there's a major mistake with the Etruscan bit." Janet threw her arms up in an exasperated manner. "What is the problem the the Etruscan alphabets? For some reason the OWL exams never emphasize them...which I suppose is why you're not proficient in the language. But it's strange because...well, no matter. You'll know it much better by the end of this year" Janet shrugged and moved on to the next set of translations. It was annoying to see any mistakes in homework, even if she knew they were still learning. She had to remind herself that she was there to teach, and there was a level of ignorance she would have to get used to when dealing with students. It had been over a decade since she'd been a pupil, so it was hard to recall ever having difficulty with simple translations.
Mister Kerridon and Mister Broken...not bad. Mister Kerridon seems to be a bit more versed in this subject than you Mister Bishop. Still some mistakes...the Russian is a mess, but not bad." Janet then moved past the older group of students and walked back to her desk, set her stack of parchments down, and picked up another stack that was sitting near her ink bottle. She walked back over to the students and gave each of the NEWT pupils a booklet with several sheets of parchment in it.
"This is your homework for the next two weeks. You'll finish some by the end of this week, and I'll look over them in class. But as a whole I will not grade these until the end of next week. Each of them are different, so there's no use partnering up except to offer advise." Janet the walked to the fifth years and gave each of them a smaller booklet with similar instructions to her OWL students. As she walked by Dylan she said in a low voice so no one else could hear, "please see me after class, Mister Cooper."
Janet then walked up to the front of the class by her desk and clapped her hands to get the attention of all the students. "Class is nearly over. First, second, third, and fourth years, please hand me whatever you've completed of your worksheet. I've got a homework assignment due by next class that you'll need to pick up on your way out," Janet said, pointing to four stacks of parchment by the door that were labeled "1 2 3 4" above them in magical writing. "If any of you have questions or concerns about the class, let me know and if need be I'll make an office appointment for you," she said, then walked around her desk to sit behind it, once again resuming her work and throwing an occasional glance to the departing students.
|
|
|
Post by Dylan Cooper on Nov 8, 2007 20:56:36 GMT -5
(( Dylan wasn't doing ANY work, let alone work of a sloppy nature. Just thought I'd point that out, considering it might change Choi's reaction toward him altogether. ))
|
|
|
Post by janet on Nov 8, 2007 21:09:37 GMT -5
((OOC: lol sorry, that was my bad, I should read more carefully! I'll modify))
|
|
|
Post by Alessandro Darko on Nov 9, 2007 0:04:58 GMT -5
OOC: well why does alessandro's work have to be sloppy?? ::arches eyebrow::
|
|
|
Post by Wysteria Edwin on Nov 9, 2007 2:59:09 GMT -5
((OOC: sorry, Janet has high standard...plus your profile doesn't say anything about being proficient in other languages ...))
|
|
Jason Cruz
Gryffindor
[red]4th Year Gryffindor[/red]
Posts: 179
|
Post by Jason Cruz on Nov 9, 2007 18:56:44 GMT -5
Jason started as Janet sharply clapped. He'd been intently rereading the third to last translation problem on his worksheet. It was one of a few that he truly had no idea about. It was work he'd never seen before. Time was about up though, so he skipped it like he had the others and rushed through the final two. The first was simple and he confidently wrote in the solution, but the final one made him pause and reread it a couple times. A scant smile emerged as he caught the concealed error that made it something of a trick question. Filling in the correct answer (he believed), Jason started packing his things away.
You can't just hand in the incomplete assignment. She'll think you're lazy and a bad student. You've seen how harsh she can be. You're going to have to explain that you didn't just skip some because they were hard. They were not something you could figure out without further learning.
Jason swallowed hard as he rose from his desk, slinging his pack over one shoulder and scooping up the parchment. He wasn't looking forward to talking with this professor. She didn't seem the type to be amused were he to take five minutes to get to the point he was trying to make. In truth he had less to worry about than he imagined. He'd completed the vast majority of the assignment, leaving only ten percent or so of it blank. It had after all been an assessment to see how much he already knew. His overachieving nature however made him feel quite inadequate anytime he wasn't able to answer every question.
As Jason approached Janet's desk, he held out his assignment with his left hand, shifting the strap he had slung over his right shoulder nervously. Taking a deep breath (he'd learned that if he didn't take a deep breath before speaking he was likely to run out of breath about halfway through and pass out), he spoke up, a little timidly.
"Professor Choi? Ma'am, these answer here that I left blank, I didn't . . . I mean I'm not lazy Professor. I just haven't learned these yet. Is that . . . am I too far behind? Do I need to see you outside class to catch up or . . ."
He gulped once more.
"Or am I just too far back to qualify as a 4th year? I hadn't thought so; I did really well last year but . . . you're the Professor."
Sometimes Jason was sure the hat had made a mistake not putting him in Ravenclaw. His stress about academics made him feel he belonged there. He certainly wasn't feeling very courageous at the moment.
|
|
|
Post by puddlefeet on Nov 9, 2007 20:03:00 GMT -5
Her quill frantically cramming in a few more lines of translations, Alexis glanced up hurriedly as Choi clapped her hands suddenly. Listening with a forced expression of interest, her mind was only truly focused on the parchment. Her work wasn’t particularly brilliant - Ancient Runes had never been her strong point – but it wasn’t too shabby, if she did say so herself. A confident smirk playing across her features, she suddenly felt a stab of panic as Professor Choi announced that the class was nearing its end.
Burying her head back into the worksheet, she immediately began scribbling away on the last translation, before coming to a pause halfway through. The boy donning Gryffindor robes next to her had suddenly stood up and was slowly making his way to the front of the room: with a gloomy stare at the final unfinished conversion, she lowered her head again and continued her frantic translating. It seemed as though the final question was concerning a polka-dotted elephant who got an awful stomach ache whenever he ate Mexican food…?
With a disgruntled sigh, she read over her rendition, taking the time to mouth the words silently. Only then did she notice her serious error in the second line. Staring at it with a morose expression, she shook her head gloomily and rose to her feet, taking the parchment with her. As she approached the table, she murmured to Professor Choi, “I’m really sorry; I was in a rush to finish the last question, and got a bit… muddled.”
With an apologetic glance to the teacher, she lowered her page onto the small pile and turned to return to her desk.
|
|