Bending over, Esme picked up the little box and studied it carefully.

Time to see what was hidden inside. Well, she already KNEW that it was a number code that would help her move on to the next section, but it was still rather exciting. She hoped that whatever was waiting in the next area was interesting and not anti-climatic; that would be quite the let down.

Here goes nothing.

...

Esme pointed her wand at the box. "Alohomora!" The tell-tale click greeted her, letting her know that she had performed the spell correctly. Now all she needed to do was extract the code and she could move on.

Awesome!

Linc continued to stare at the cabinet for a short while. He peered at it through squinted eyes. Eventually he took one more deep breath and calmly spoke the spell.Alohomora To his surprise, Lincoln's cabinet clicked and swung open.

Yes! He answered as he retrieved the box. He stepped back and tried to close the cabinet with the other spell. Colloportus! Nope. Nothing. The first year cleared his throat and tried again, with a little more emphasis with his wand. Colloportus Nothing once again. Colloportus. Colloportus! Colloportus! He tried several more times. Colloportus! His eyes widened when the cabinet clicked shut.

This is so awesome! He exclaimed. Now he only had to get the box opened.

Right so with the box opened he wasn't exactly sure what to do next. Maybe he had missed that bit when the professor's voice echoed through the room or maybe he didn't exactly tell them what to do. He turned and looked at Blaise with a puzzled look on his face.

"Soooo ummm...Blaise...did you catch the bit that told us what we're suppose to do when we get the numbers out?"

OooooOOoooOOOOOoooooOOOooooohhhhhhhh!!!

First lesson! Matt was excited about it, HOWEVER, he already hoped there was no homework. He hoped it would be a FUN class and full of ACTION. Matt wanted to do SPELLS and CHARMS and INCANTATIONS and ASDFGHJKLKJHWOOOOAAHAHHDSKFJSDFKLJDSF! YAS!

He walked in and blinked. Empty room.

EMPTY ROOOOOM!!!!

Matt ran a few laps around the room because he LOVED empty rooms. So much SPACE and he could do so many THINGS there! "RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" He shouted as he ran, enjoying the reverberation of his voice. How FUN!

He had noticed the board when he came in, but he took his time to read and follow the instructions. He eventually got to it.

FIRST SPELL EVAH! Matt went up to the cabit and pointed his wand at it. "ALOHOMORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He said yelled dramatically. Did it open? Did it? Yes? No? YES??

...

No.

WELL THEN. "AlohomorrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaAAAAAA!!! ALOHOMORA!"

Mel looked over to Lucy and grinned. “Al-LOH-ha-MOR-ah” she tried herself you know, to be helpful because that was what friends…or well…people who could very well be friends did. “Your welcome.” She grinned. “You can call me Mel if you want,” she offered with a grin before looking over to the older Ravenclaw that was also helping the hufflepuff girl Lucy.

OH locking things. Mel quickly took the items out of her cabinet and set them on the ground before turning to listen to Sha….”so isn’t that like sticking door?” Mel furrowed her brows and shrugged – it had probably helped that the school she had gone to had insisted they take Latin right?

Listening to Sha explain how to say it she just nodded. “Cull-low-PORE-tus” she tried sounding out the spell and kept going. “Cull-low-PORE-tus…culloportus” the spell slowly began to sound right as she practiced it. “So you just point the wand?” Mel asked before doing just that forcefully pointing her wand at the door.

“Culloportus” there was a slight noise, but the door remained unlocked. “I’m going to try this again” she muttered to herself and frowned at the door as she continued to practice the forceful wand thrust at the door. Someone was going to loose an eye with this spell weren’t they?

...No? Nothing? Alright then.

"Uuuhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Matt looked around as he turned away from the cabinet.

...

He suddenly jumped back to facing it, his wand pointing straight at the lock thingy. "ALOHOMORA!!" YAHHH! "ALO-HOMORAAAAAAA!!" He waved his wand frantically at the cabinet. "OPEN NOW! ALOHOMORA ORA, YOU THING! ALOHOMORA! ALOHOMORA! ALOHOMORA!"

The boy said the spell over and over and over again, and eventuallyyyyyyy decided to check the cabinet just in case.

Oh.

Oh!

It was open already. Lol. LOOOOLOLOLOLOL! HOORAY! HE HAD DONE IT at some point. WOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! "HELLO, BOX!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

"I look forward to it," Callum replied brightly. That meant Davie wanted to talk to him more and he now had someone to sit with at dinner tonight. The day was certainly looking brighter already, and Callum felt more and more at ease, even as they stepped back inside the room he had not wanted to return to any time soon.

Following Davie over to the cabinets, Callum removed his wand from its holster, holding it in both hands and twirling it in his grip nonchalantly as he watched and listened to Davie's demonstration and instructions. He nodded along - yes, he knew what the spell was, but the additional tips Davie had were quite helpful, and Callum watched with a slight squint as Davie made it look very easy to unlock his cabinet. "That was brilliant," Callum applauded genuinely, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.

Now he just had to replicate that. No big deal.

He gave a nod to Davie's encouragement, facing his own cabinet, and giving it a good, hard look. He tried to emulate what Davie had said he did and imagine the lock itself opening. When he had a good mental image of what he wanted to do, Callum raised his wand confidently, copied Davie's small swish first, then gave the lock a tap with the tip as he spoke, "Alohomora!"

Quite to his surprise, the lock clicked open, and Callum's eyes widened slightly as he turned to give Davie an incredulous look. "I got it!" Right there, on the first try! Could have only been because Davie had explained it so well and made it much easier for Callum to copy his success, but he also turned the incredulous look to his wand, too. Oh, how he thanked his sweet wand of sycamore and griffin claw core for not making him look like a complete incompetent fool in front of David Truebridge.

At least for now.

Cool. He had a dinner buddy then! Guess he wasn't going to finish the last chapter of Holidays with Hags tonight, but it could be good for him to NOT read during one meal.

Callum thought his spell work was brilliant! Aw, yay! "Thank you," Davie accepted the compliment with a genuine smile of his own. There was no telling what boat they'd be in later on in room like.... seven, but for now he knew all the spells!

He watched as Callum completed the spell, perfectly well on his first try, and then applauded the boy just as he had been applauded. "Excellent! I knew you'd be a natural!" Davie reached into his own cabinet then, and pulled his box to the edge so it was right in front of him. Much easier to cast on this way.

"Since your first try worked so well, you should do Alohomora again on the box!" The excited second year suggested, even though it wasn't the exact order of things on the board. This way though, the firstie would start to feel confident with wandwork before learning a second spell. "You've got this, Callum." David again demonstrated Alohomora by swishing and tapping his box, grinning with glee to himself as it brilliantly clicked open. So easy. So fun.

Oliver walked up to the drawer closest to him and eyed it. He knew the directions wouldn't be wrong but what if it wasn't actually locked? What if he could pull it open without the charm? Looking around first to make sure no one was watching him, he grabbed the knob on the drawer and pulled lightly. Locked. Right.

He took a few steps back, dropped his stuff on the ground, and pulled out his wand. Ollie had no problem with Alohamora, it was the other charm he wasn't sure about. Waving his wand in the air, he said the encantation. "Alohamora." The drawer unlocked and slowly slid out a little, showing him he had done well.

He walked up to the drawer and pulled out the small box. "So easy." How exactly was this even a test, professor? Not that he'd ever say that out loud. Nope. All sassy comments were generally kept to himself.

And now to lock it again...

Grinning puppy-like, Callum was quite receptive to Davie's praise, feeling much taller than his 4'9" stature by the minute. It was a huge relief to have not messed up his very first attempt at spellwork in this class, and he now wished he had paid more attention when the people at the wand shop told him the properties of his wand. Had they said if it would have made him a natural at charms? He could not remember, but he was assuming his current success had something to do with his wand's abilities and not his own. It was a relief either way and his elation continued to build as he, too, pulled his own box from the cabinet and mimicked Davie.

He watched first, finding it quite helpful to actually see someone do it once more so he could envision himself doing it, which he did soon after Davie's successful unlocking. He saw it happen in his mind's eye with his own wand, he wanted it, and... he let himself have it. A slight swish, a tap of the box, and he cast once more with feeling and focus, "Alohomora!"

Much to his delight, the box opened, and Callum turned his grin to meet Davie's own. "I like this spell." Perhaps it was one of the most simple ones he would ever learn, but he liked it. "I think it helped to see you do it first. I like being able to watch, then do it on my own." He was both a visual and kinesthetic learner, so this was right up his alley. "So... thanks," he smiled. For helping and all. He may have been a bit sour before, but Callum's demeanor showed a clear change from his displeasure to having been put at ease, all thanks to Davie.

Once Scarlett had gotten the lock off the cabinet, she whipped the doors open and found a locked box. So she would have to unlock it again, yes? But first things first - she had to close up this cabinet. She set the box aside and closed the cabinet, making sure it was closed up tight before attempting the spell.

Reminding herself that she was already done with one spell and another would be no problem, she focused on the lock and muttered "Colloportus!" pointing directly at the handles on the door. She reached forward and was pleased to find the doors were closed tight - but after another tug the doors opened. Nope. Time to try again. Closing the doors, she pointed her wand at the door again. "Colloportus!" she exclaimed again.

This time, the doors did NOT open despite her best attempts. EEEEP! She was getting good at these spells!

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

Grinning puppy-like, Callum was quite receptive to Davie's praise, feeling much taller than his 4'9" stature by the minute. It was a huge relief to have not messed up his very first attempt at spellwork in this class, and he now wished he had paid more attention when the people at the wand shop told him the properties of his wand. Had they said if it would have made him a natural at charms? He could not remember, but he was assuming his current success had something to do with his wand's abilities and not his own. It was a relief either way and his elation continued to build as he, too, pulled his own box from the cabinet and mimicked Davie.

He watched first, finding it quite helpful to actually see someone do it once more so he could envision himself doing it, which he did soon after Davie's successful unlocking. He saw it happen in his mind's eye with his own wand, he wanted it, and... he let himself have it. A slight swish, a tap of the box, and he cast once more with feeling and focus, "Alohomora!"

Much to his delight, the box opened, and Callum turned his grin to meet Davie's own. "I like this spell." Perhaps it was one of the most simple ones he would ever learn, but he liked it. "I think it helped to see you do it first. I like being able to watch, then do it on my own." He was both a visual and kinesthetic learner, so this was right up his alley. "So... thanks," he smiled. For helping and all. He may have been a bit sour before, but Callum's demeanor showed a clear change from his displeasure to having been put at ease, all thanks to Davie.

"Right?" David had to agree with Callum. This was exactly how he felt about aguamenti, the first spell HE had successfully independently cast. And did Callum see how fun learning was?! David was glad he'd taken such a risk for him and actually left the classroom to find Callum. It had been well worth-it, because now his BFF's brother was becoming a Charms star. How swell. Anywho.

The second-year opened his little box and gave the numbers a glance, then closed the thing back up again and put it in his pocket. This was why he almost-always wore cargo pants or cargo shorts or the cargo pants that zipped off into cargo shorts. One couldn't beat the pockets! Even more pockets than a robe ordinarily had! Time to move on with the cabinet though, and then he could examine the box in more detail.

Clearing his throat importantly, and imagining himself as though he were his own dad teaching a class, David gestured toward the cabinet door for the next spell. "The incantation cull-low-PORE-tus makes me think of doors, lots and lots of doors slamming shut. Sometimes I just picture locking a door shut, like with a big key, or with a deadbolt." Sometimes he got to lock the door at the cottage at night with this spell. But never in the manor, no, they had elves for that. "So colloportus locks doors, and you just--- you kind of seal the door as you do the incantation. Watch me?"

He again slowly did the wand movement, then tapped the cabinet door, stating, "Colloportus!" confidently as he did so. With a knowing smile toward Callum, David checked that the door was shut by pulling on it, and to his pride, it didn't pull open again. Whew. Alright. So far, Professor Truebridge the youngest hadn't messed up any.

Matt looked at the box all around because it was a cool box and he was actually curious to see what was inside. Although he already knew what would be inside. Anyhow, he still was looking forward to opening the box anyways.

"Alohomohwait." He said pointing his wand at the box, which made a loud popping sound and jumped off his hand to the ground. "Wha?" Matt gave the box a surprised look and picked it back up. "Hold on, I forgot to do the other- Collo-" He had to look back at the board to see what the incantation was again. "Colloportus, right. Colloportus!" He said after pointing his wand at the cabinet.

He was holding the box with his free hand, so he used his wand hand to test if the cabinet was locked. Aaaand it wasn't. Matt sighed. "Here we go. Colloportus. ColloportusCOLLOPORTUS, come onnnn. Colloportus!" He exclaimed repeatedly as he made jabbing motions with his wand towards the cabinet. "Lock, lock, LOCK!! COLLOPORTUS!"

Well?

He tested it again.

Still unlocked.

"NOOOO, WHY?"

"First year here, yeah," she smiled and rolled her eyes in a friendly way. She knew helping a first year was probably not the #1 thing on a fourth year student's to-do list. Altha knew from the fact that Echo recognized her from sorting meant she had to be a Slytherin as well, otherwise she doubted she'd remember seeing her. This made Altha wonder what she'd looked like, being sorted, to everyone else. Somehow she felt better about receiving help from a student in her own house.

After she laughed at the thought of the food fight that had followed the sorting, she acknowledged that they were on to the next step. Grateful that Echo was going to simply show her the incantation, rather than forcing Altha to come up with some completely random guess, she tried her best to remind how the professor's voice had pronounced the incantation.

"...How did he say... Cole-Low-Port-Us?" was the best guess she had.

The numbers glowed 6, 7, 5, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 6, 0, 0, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 9, 7, 0, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 2, 4, 3, 6. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 10, 3, 4, 5. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 6, 7, 5, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room. Unfortunately it seems that in the directions it says that only one person can pass with each number code. With two of you using the same box, which will go and which will stay?



The numbers glowed 8, 7, 8, 8. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 1, 2,3 , 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 4, 6, 7,3. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 0, 1, 0, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 3,4, 3, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 2, 4, 3, 1. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.




The numbers glowed 8,8,8,9. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 3, 5, 4,1. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.




The numbers glowed 8, 4, 3, 2. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.




The numbers glowed 7, 4, 8, 5. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 4,5,3, 2. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 5, 2, 3, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 6, 7, 5, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 8, 5, 4. 5. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



The numbers glowed 6, 7, 5, 4. After saying the numbers you can now enter the next room.



Julien not far away saw everything that was going on and soon a patronous came into the room and stood in front of the second year. The same voice that was heard at the beginning of class was heard again, " Leaving is not something I would like you to do, but if you are leaving you need to turn left and count down two doors. Please come into that room. I would like to have a word." With that the patronous was gone.


** Please, Please, Please let me know if I have over looked your finished post count and didn't link you! I'm checking, double checking, and triple checking, but I still might miss a post.. It is in no way meant to be overlooked!

Alright, time to unlock this box again - Scarlett was confident about this one, since she'd already done it once before. This time, though, it seemed to be harder for her to get it. "Alohomora!" she exclaimed, pointing right at the lock as she had done the first time...but it didn't budge. Not one bit! What the hey??

Frowning, she took a deep breath and pointed her wand at the lock again. "Alohomora!" she cried again. This time it jiggled a bit, but she knew without even trying that it wasn't open. UGH. She had just done this! Why was it so hard all of a sudden? Perhaps it had been false confidence that made her lose concentration? Hmm.

She took a deep breath again and pointed at the lock, and this time, with real PURPOSE, she muttered "Alohomora!" and this time, POP! The box popped open right away. Finally!

Okay okay. So what was the next charm?

Ollie looked over at the board and saw the word written up there. He thought maybe he'd heard his mum or Jon use it before but really, he didn't even know what to do for it.

Setting the box down next to him he twirled his wand and practiced saying the encantation a few times. "Colloportus....CollOportus....ColloportUs.... " Okay...so he wasn't sure which was the right pronunciation...and he was far too shy to ask any of his classmates. No way, no how. However, he stood there, twirling his wand, and listened hear how everyone else in the class was saying it. As hard as it was, he was pretty sure he could hear the student next to him saying it with the accent on the first o...maybe. Worth a try anyway.

He pointed his wand straight at the drawer and said the words. "Colloportus!" Oliver had learned that saying it with a little more feeling generally helped him get it down right. But there was only one way to know for sure.

Walking back up to the drawer, he pulled on the knob and smiled to himself. Locked.

Dot turned back to her cabinet to close it back up again when she heard someone casting the spell. Very badly. It hadn't gone unnoticed that the little creeper was watching her, but if that was what she'd learned... well.

Dot waited until after Penelope helped the girl, and then she offered a small smile of her own. "Alo-ho-mora. You're nearly there, but not quite." She leaned in and mouthed the word again, just to show important it was to emphasize each of the Os and not let them slush together.

What was she supposed to do? Oh, right? Seal up the cabinet and move on, yes? "Colloportus." The cabinet locked back up again. Not quite as easy as the first spell, but.. she nodded to the younger girl. "Coll-o-port-us. You can do it."

Kat was a nervous wreak as it was and asking this older girl didn't help. Well it did but just the justing part is what got the puff. But Kat continued to watch her lock the cabinet back up. She watched her ever so closely because Kat was honestly scared to ask this one for help on the locking spell.

So silently observing her the first watched. Once the older girl had finished she stepped back. Nodding when the Slytherin girl told her it was a backwards 'S' "Thanks" Kat was still going to be nice to the girl she did help her. But she was getting as far away as she could from that older girl.

Kat moved over to another cabinet. Now she was ready she know the wand movements and the locking spell. She was good to go. Or at least she hoped she was.

Rolling up her sleeves as if that was going to help in the slightest. She took her wand and done a few backward 'S's' in the air. Just for practice.

"Alohomora!" With the wand movement. No click. She stared at the cabinet for a moment. Ugh. Why was this not working. She had to be forgetting to do something. What could it be? She tapped her foot incantation, wand movement and? Oh jam it! Where was Phillip the one slytherin who Katerina could trust with helping her out and he was.... well Phillip knowing his brilliance he was probably already in the other room. So it was all up to her.

Taking a deep breath.

"Alohomora!"

Ailsa meant to let it go. She really did. Honest. But the little voice in the back of her mind reminded her of Haddie's teasing about Garreth the other night and, well...

"Haddie?" She reached over and tapped her cousin on the shoulder. "How'd you make it do that self-unlocking thing?"

She opened up the box and looked inside to see glowing numbers reading 2, 4, 3, 1. Still over the moon about successfully casting these spells after a little help from Norah, she stumbled a little before saying the numbers to allow entrance in to the 2nd room. The door opened and Kaylee stepped in wondering what to expect in the next room.

Cornelius' head perked up when he noticed the number of students in the classroom dwindle. He needed to get this done and stop playing around....Weeeell. He didn't HAVE to stop entertaining himself, but he had to hurry up. Being last sucked eels. When he glanced down at his textbook again, Cornelius realized he had been using the incorrect wand movement. OOPS. Probably needs to nail that in order to get the charm to work.

With new focus and resolution, Cornelius puckered his lips in concentration, bushy brows furrowed together. And GO.


"Alohomora!" He waved his wand (real wand) and focused on intent, just like Aunt Astrid had told him many times. Perks of having family in the educational field, you knew LOTS of stuff. Downsides: they expected MORE of you than the ordinary.

Whatever. The door clicked open, that was all that matter. Snatching the box close to his chest, he shut the door and pointed his wand at it once more. "Collocoportus!"

O________________o

Wait....that doesn't sound right...

Charms!! Hope was attending her first class! and she was almost late! how? well Hogwarts is huge!! She listened to the professor and immediately got nervous. She had only done one spell and it was one she didn't even remember how to say!!

She pulled her wand out and walked over to a cabinet that seemed like no one had gotten to yet. She took a deep breath. She watched a couple of students do it. Just to make sure she knew how to do it. She swished her wand a couple of times for practice and then repeated the word that she had heard the professor say. "Alohomora".

NOTHING. Nothing at all happened.

Hope shook her head and tried again. This time with a little more swishing power.

"Alohomora!"She said a little louder.

This time she heard a click! She did it! Oh Merlin! She did it! she did a little dance. Then remembered where she was and looked around hoping no one saw that. She opened the cabinet and got the numbers.

Click!

It clicked! It was open! She opened the cabinet up. Taking the box and sat in the floor. Placing the box in the floor in front of her. Then she went back to the cabinet.

"Colloportus!" Doing the wand movement she'd seen the mean slytherin girl did. Katerina didn't hear a click to indicate that it had locked she tested the door out. Nope it didn't lock it.

Intent. Ahh that's what she was missing, intent. She couldn't remember what it was called she knew what it was she had it earlier. Getting the cabinet unlocked. She thought about it being unlocked. Now she needed to think about it being locked.

"awesome well welcome to Slytherin" she winked at her. Echo was really starting to like Altha, maybe she would take this little snake under her wing. "yeah it sounds pretty close to that. Colloportus. so it kind of sounds like this. "cull-low-pore-tus" why don't you give that a try." she waited for the girl practice before she moved on to the next step which was the wand movement.

"and the wand movement is moving it across the front of you, kind of west to east and then a short movement down, and then back over to the west and the last movement is down for a short movement." she showed Altha just to make sure that she got it right.

"wait here, let me show you" she said while taking out her wand yet again.

"Colloportus" she said while doing the hand movement and she waited for the box to unlock so she could get her code to move on to the next room, but of course she was going to wait for her little first year to finish before she moved on.

See, professor? I don't need a test.

Oliver was getting a little cocky now and it was kind of uncalled for, but he didn't care at all. He had done the two spells and he'd get to move on now. Maybe all the time he spent sleeping on books in the library last term did him some good after all.

He picked up the little box, waved his wand, and said, "Alohamora" and unlocked the box. "Easy peasy." He actually half wished Timmy and Kali were around so they could see him doing well without any help.

Ollie tool out the slip of paper and read his numbers.