CHRM-201 Lessons

Welcome to Year Two of Charms!

Welcome, students, to your second year in Charms class. I am Professor Lavinia Laurel, and I will be instructing you this year! As always, should you have any questions, comments or concerns about the class at all, feel free to contact me and I will respond as quickly as possible. Our wonderful team of PAs are available as well should you ever need assistance! Without further ado, let's take a look at the course schedule.

Assignments

This year we will continue to have the worksheets and journals, as well as a scattering of other assignments, though the nature of the journals will change a bit. We do expect more effort this year and will be including things like grammar, overall effort, and relevance to the prompt in grading.

Journals

Journal entries will be due for each class and while I do recommend you complete them, they will again be optional. The minimum length requirement is still in effect (at least two paragraphs of five sentences or more, or an equivalent amount if using other media). I will be providing several journal prompts for you to choose from, though the option of free-form entries (like Year One) is still available for anyone who has found a particular format that they enjoy. For some lessons, such as this one, the free-form option will not be available. Whenever this is the case it will be noted in the assignment.

You should follow this strict warning: journals will NOT be graded as loosely as last year, as I have already mentioned. Each of your entries will be graded on the full scale from 0-100. Doing the minimum required amount of writing will result in a minimum passing grade. If you want to do better you will need to do more work for the journal, but keep in mind that there will be no final journal turn in this year.

A Day In The Life...

This year we will be looking at what goes into the creation of magical objects. We will also be learning about the artisans that create these objects!

Let’s start by examining an account by magical craftsman Patrick Proudmoor to see how Gobstones are made. Now, while you are not expected to fully understand the material below, as this is only an intro, I have outlined some key terms for you to aid in your understanding.

Melatus - Melatus is the lead craftsman of brooms

Stinksap - A green fluid secreted from some plants with an odor of rancid manure

Offal - Decomposing flesh

I began by taking the appropriate materials down from the shelf. The things I needed were a container of small glass spheres and a jar of what smelled like the worst offal I had ever encountered.

The first step was to charm the Stinksap that would later be shot at players when they lost points. Consulting a separate list, I began casting a series of spells, each layering itself in with the others in a loose matrix. The spells would replenish the Stinksap in the Gobstone after it fired at a player. For an object this small, the spells were no trouble, so I was able to move onto the next set relatively quickly.

Within ten minutes I had applied all the necessary spells on the base needed so that the Gobstone would be able to fire accurately. I also set rules that determined when the Gobstone would fire (upon activation) and how the Gobstone obtained magical energy (collection). Of course, usually it takes a great deal of precise spellcasting and a lot more time to create a magical object, but Gobstones are small and don't require much magical energy.

The next step was to prepare the vessel that would hold the bewitched Stinksap I had just created. With a lazy flick of my wand I levitated one of the glass beads into the air. I murmured "Incendio," and slowly directed more and more heat to warm the glass. As I continued to apply the heat, the glass grew so hot that it began to melt. I spun my wand in slow circles, coaxing the glass to expand into a roughly marble-sized ball.

I cooled the glass ball with another murmured spell, then applied a few charms so that the Gobstone wouldn't just shatter if it fell or hit another Gobstone. Finally, just before I finished the last durability spell, I used the Switching Spell to swap the air inside the glass sphere with the bewitched Stinksap. I applied a final spell to protect the Gobstone from other spells, and sighed. One down, twenty to go.

Note to self: If you backfire while casting the Firing Charm, try to keep your mouth closed because Stinksap tastes disgusting!

Homework

This lesson is just an introduction to the concepts we will be looking into with much greater detail throughout the course. Your journal entry for today simply asks you to consider the lesson and think of your favorite magical object and what properties it may possess. Please see the assignment for more details. Note that today marks your first essay. You must submit it before moving on to Lesson Two.

^{Image credit: Harry Potter Wiki}