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MadMadamMalfoy · 01-21-2018, 06:45 AM

today'scharms lesson takes place on a chilly early November morning, but never fear! Professor Marchand has placed several heating charms on the classroom to keep it nice and toasty. As always, there are refreshments laid out on the table in the back of the room. Today's offerings include mini cheesecakes and hot cocoa.

The professor himself stands in his usual place at the front of the room, ready to greet the arriving students with a warm smile. Upon walking into the classroom, you may notice the setup looks a little different today. The desks are pushed together in groups of four, and at the center of each group of desks is a small maze. And that isn't the only strange thing! There is a cage sitting on Professor Marchand's desk; inside are many brightly-colored toy mice. Why does the professor have toy mice on his desk? Does it have anything to do with the lesson? You'll find out soon!

OOC: Welcome to the first OOC Charms lesson of the term! Class ~~will officially start in ABOUT 24 HOURS (1:30 AM EST [GMT -5] Jan. 22)~~ HAS STARTED!

Lesson Progress
Mini Activity: Mice and Mazes
Question 1
Confundo & Question 2
Obliviate, Mismemini & Main Activity

TeafortheSoul · 01-27-2018, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Gaston thought he saw Miss Macindoe’s hand in the air earlier, but when he looked again, it wasn’t there. Now he saw it and called on her. He had to admit, making the mice swim was the most outside-the-box idea he’d heard so far! He beamed. “That’s a very original and well-thought out solution, Miss Macindoe!” he said. “Well done!”

Gaston's bright blue eyes scanned the room for any more hands in the air. Then he saw none, he addressed the class again, "Well done, everyone! All of your answers were great ideas to challenge our little mouse friends, but only Mr. Kenway and Miss Ben-Ari guessed the spell we'll be working on today: the Confundus Charm. This spell can be used on living creatures or on objects with some degree of sentience, like our enchanted toy mice. Or for a more historical example, this spell was used by Death Eater Barty Crouch, Jr. to trick the Goblet of Fire and enter Harry Potter in the 1994-95 Triwizard Tournament."

He waited a moment to give time for that information to sink in before he went on, "The Confundus Charm will not hurt its target; it simply causes temporary confusion. This can be general or specific to a certain event, depending on the caster's intent. While in this state, the target will be more susceptible to suggestion..."

Gaston gently lifted the blue mouse he'd used for his earlier demonstration out of the cage. "May I borrow your maze again?" he asked Skylar's group. He placed a small piece of cheesecake in the exact same spot he had earlier and set the mouse in the middle of the maze.

"Once the mouse is Confunded, he should follow my directions away from the cake," he continued, drawing his wand. "To cast, move your wand in a question mark shape and point directly at the target; the incantation is Confundo. Keep in mind that this spell requires careful concantration." He pointed his wand, making the apporpriate movement. "Confundo!" The blue mouse looked around the maze and squeaked quizzically. "Go on, little guy. This way..." Gaston whispered, gently nudging the mouse in the opposite direction of the cake. When it reached the start of the maze, he picked up the piece of cake and gave it to the mouse. "There we go. Eat up..." It nibbled contentedly as he placed it back in the cage.

He turned back to the class. "Take a few moments to practice the wand movements and incantation to yourselves, but don't cast the Confundus Charm on your mouse yet!" he instructed. "While you're practicing, here's something to ponder: What are the differences between the Confundus Charm and a Memory Charm?"

OOC: Sorry for the delay! You have ABOUT 24 HOURS (8:30 AM EST Jan. 27) to answer the next question and/or practice the incantation and wand movements.

"Oh, well professor, its not that original. I think I've read something somewhere about water mazes? But I'm not sure exactly what." Bel said. She didn't want the professor to give her any extra kudos for originality when it wasn't exactly so. But then again she supposed it was the case with almost everyone, spells they mentioned they had heard about, and it was about applying your knowledge (even if it was spotty like hers) to a given situation right?

And now they were moving on. She played idly with the edge of the cage that she had put the mouse in and listened to the professor reveal they were working with the confundus charm. Which... sounded hard. And also like something that people could only use for either negative purposes or for self defense. She would give it a good go though, do her best and everything.

..... wasn't it funny that the wand movement was a question mark? At that revelation, Bel covered her mouth and held in a silent laugh. Obligingly though, she started practicing that wand movement. Question maaark and point. Queeeestion mark and..... point!

And there was a question to go with the question mark. Bel looked around at her groupmates, thinking. Hmmm. What was the difference? She put her hand up, wanting to give it a go though she really wasn't sure. "Maybe, professor, confundus just fogs things, while obliviate removes them completely?" Maybe? "And maybe when you are fixing an obli-obliviated person, you can only do it if you have access to the memories that got taken, but if you're fixing a confunded person, you just have to figure out how to clear away the foggy bits?" Anyway that was her try at answering. Bel put her hand down and started fiddling with the edge of the toy mouse cage again.

OH WAIT she was practicing the wand movement, that's right. She picked her wand up and gave the questionmark shape a few more goes.

Daydreamer11 · 01-27-2018, 12:07 PM

Well her answer wasn’t the one the professor was looking for, but Jessi was not totally wrong.......so there was that. It seemed that the Confundus Charm was the one they would be working on. When Professor Marchand began to explain it, Jessi took out her quill and began to write down the important stuff. She was pretty lousy at Charms, but she was determined to be awesome at it......one day.

It was time to practice now. Jessi was a little concerned when she learned that this Charm required a lot of concentration. Concentration was not exactly her strong suit, but she was working on it. She took a deep breath and tried to focus on what she’d be doing. The wand movement seemed pretty easy, so she decided to tackle that first. Jessi made a question mark with her wand and then did it over and over a bunch of times.

Next, she worked on the incantation. “Confundo, Con-fun-do” Yeah, she could do that. “Confundo, Confundo, Confundo, Confundo.” Ok, Jessi felt pretty good about the incantation. The problem was, what would happen when she put it all together? Only time would tell.

For now though, she had another thing to think about. The professor had asked a question. It seemed like the other students had pretty much explained the differences already. Determined to give an answer, Jessi tried very hard to think of something else. Finally, she raised her hand. “With the Confundus Charm, you still have your memories. I mean, they’re still in your head. The problem is, you’re so confused, you can’t make sense of anything.......your memories, your thoughts. The person who cast the spell can tell you anything, or make you do anything and you’ll believe it. With the Memory Charm, everything’s just.......gone.”. To Jessi, that seemed like a horrible thing. Or maybe not, if it was something you really wanted to forget.

*Kolyander* · 01-27-2018, 01:37 PM

From the look on Professor Marchand's face it didn't appear that her answer went over very well even if he had said it could work. Truth was she wasn't all that proud of her own answer anyhow and she would never use it on any creature unless maybe if she was in danger and didn't have choice but that was something else entirely. "Don't worry professor, I wouldn't use that on any creature... it's just the first thing that came to my head that hadn't already been said." Truth and fact.

So they were going to be using the Confundus Charm today. It was meant to confuse the mouse so that she could make it go the wrong way in the maze rather than to the cheese. Interesting. Picking up her quill the first thing that was done was a little bit of note taking. Once that was done she could move on.

"Well you just told us that the Confundus Charm causes confusion and it's only temporary so while the person or creature might not know what he's doing or where he's going in a few minutes time he'll be okay once again. The Memory Charm would make someone completely forget a memory or whatever the caster was wanting them to forget." Which was absolutely terrible to do to someone or to anything at all for that matter. Why would anyone want to do that to anyone?

She couldn't focus to long on her own answer as she still needed to practice the charm. Pulling out her wand once more she began to make a question mark in the air a few times. Simple enough. Now to practice the incantation as well. "Con-fun-do... con-fun-do... confundo.." she spoke over and over again quietly to herself.

Dokimoto · 01-27-2018, 02:19 PM

Ah yes, Confundus Charm was a good bet. She was alright at the spell, but she couldn’t say she had been able to practice much… Although, this was giving her some ideas… *mischievous laughter*
Kye imagined what it was probably like for Harry Potter getting chosen for the Triwizard Tournament at 14… Well, before that time, didn’t they allow any age person to enter? Because then it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, just unfair to others who wanted to go for it. Would she put her name in if they had it again? Hmm… maybe not. Quidditch was enough for her.

“Confundo,” she whispered. “Confundo!”
Regarding Professor Marchand’s question about the difference between the charms, Kye made a face.

“Well they both deal with manipulating the mind… but one alters what you know, and what takes away what you know…” Right?

MadMadamMalfoy · 01-27-2018, 06:35 PM

Text Cut: Individual Replies Here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Her hand was up as soon as he asked the question,
"Well professor the memory charm is to completely erase ones memories of certain events or in huge extremes all their memories, whereas the Cunfundo Charm is just a confusion of the memory that is the in the process of being made. For example, if I would point my wand and at the head boy and use the Cunfundo charm I could confuse him into thinking that his girlfriend was Skylar and have him possibly kiss her but once it's over he'd remember his girlfriend is actually is, whereas the memory charm would be taking the memory of his real girlfriend away." She smiled at the older students before turning back to her table.

She glanced at the boys and then pulled her wand. Maybe she could practice on one of them. A grin crossed her lips before she went back to thinking about movement and practicing them with her wand. For the words she felt she knew them, but whispered them with the movement of the wand just to practice. "Confundo, Confundo"

This seemed easy enough, she was ready to work with her mouse.

Miss Valla’s hand was the first one Gaston saw, but when he called on her… Blink, blink. Did she just say what he thought she said? For a moment, all he could do was stare in disbelief, probably looking like he was under the effects of the Confundus Charm himself. How did he even start to respond to that? “Not necessarily the example scenario I would’ve used, but yes, that’s correct, Miss Valla,” he said. This was all just hypothetical, right? Either way, it made him a bit uncomfortable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Compootor

Annoyingly, Garreth found it was quite difficult not to let the professor's acknowledgement of his correct answer get to his head. He wrestled with his swelling feelings of pride, trying to keep them in, and finally succeeded. What a struggle! Anyways, it was time to practice Confundo! Being a seventh-year, and a particularly inquisitive one at that, Garreth had plenty of experience casting Confundo, but it had been a long time since dueling club, and even longer since he'd had any actually good reason to practice that particular charm, so there was no harm in giving it a few practice casts.

Confundo! he thought to himself, tracing the image of a question mark in the air with his wand, and being very careful not to silently cast the charm. Yeah, he still remembered how to do this one.

"Ooh!" he couldn't help but squeak out before shooting his hand up at the professor's question. It was relevant to his earlier answer after all. "While the Confundus charm causes temporary confusion, disorientation and susceptibility to suggestion, it differs from the Memory Charm in that it doesn't actually erase any memories or thought functions. It just makes them difficult to access for a while." he answered confidently. "While the memory charm causes confusion and susceptibility to suggestion as well, they are more like side-effects of having all your memories erased, as opposed to the Confundus charm, where those are the primary effects."

The uneasy feeling was still sticking around, and Gaston was somewhat distracted as he listened to Mr. Kenway. He got the gist of what he said and gave the boy an approving nod. “Excellent comparison, Mr. Kenway” he replied. “I especially like what you said about the primary effects of the Confundus Charm being side effects of the Memory Charm.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

Note to self research the placement of charms in objects. Hmm... She'd have to work on it.

Confundus charm versus the Memory charm... Well....... She frowned slightly as the memory charm reminded her of her own mother and her memory incident. It was still a sore point for the Lioness. Then Zita mentioned that she could use the Confundus charm on her boyfriend which made Vi only frown more. Vi folded her arms, incredibly displeased by such an example because she didn't know whether or not she should trust whether the girl would do that, considering that she had kissed Derf at the feast.... Yeah if the Snake even tried to make a move on Tenacius or try casting a spell for "practice" and make him believe that Skylar was his girlfriend, then there would be consequences. Oh yes, she could, but don't try it Slytherin unless you'd like this Gryffindor to cast a certain jinx on you. Vi pursed her lips, utterly unamused now.

The Gryffindor Prefect raised her hand. "If you really wanted to replace the head boy's girlfriend, you could even use a false memory charm to achieve the same affect," she said pointedly at the younger year. "It implants a false memory into the victim's mind and you could alter many a things." Wasn't charms a charming subject?

Then she turned her gaze back to her wand, practicing drawing a question mark. She practiced over and over and over. And made sure to keep an eye on young Miss Zita who perhaps was developing eyes for the Head Boy or simply just enjoyed chaos.

Gaston eyed Miss Holden with concern as he noticed her frown and silently berated himself for picking the Memory Charm to cover. He couldn’t blame her for being upset! He watched apprehensively for her reaction to Miss Valla’s comment, half-expecting a catfight to break out at any moment. Luckily, that didn’t happen. “I’m glad you mentioned the False Memory Charm, Miss Holden,” he said. “You’re correct about its effects, by the way.” But he would cover that more later on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

Oh dear, the time's up already but they hadn't finished the mini activity yet. Diandra then put the mouse back to the cage and listened to the Professor's question about how to make this activity become more challenging using a charm? Uhhhh.... Without using a charm, guiding the mouse to the right cheesecake path was challenging already. The badger didn't say anything because it seemed like all of her classmates had spoken up about that so... Moving on.

Confundus charm, right. Using that charm could guide the mouse easier because it would follow their instruction, right? And the difference between memory charm and confundo? That was easy, it's like the difference of orange and apple.... Or not. She was about to put her hand up and answer the question but when Zita Valla spoken up first, Diandra couldn't help but giggled at the example she had brought up. It seemed like that snake girl was totally obsessed with kissing. The Gryffindor female prefect (who was also the Head Boy's girlfriend) wasn't so happy about that. Okay, forget about that it wasn't her business so let's just go back to the lesson. "Confundus charm doesn't erase the memory, whereas memory charm... well, the purpose of that charm is to erase a specific memory and make the victim forget about things." Simply as that, no need to use an example.

Gaston raised an eyebrow at Miss Salim as he heard her giggling. He didn’t see anything funny, but to each their own, he supposed. His expression softened when she spoke up, and he gave her a small smile. “Very good Miss Salim,” he replied. "That's ceertainly true."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Birchwoodmom

How does that sound?? It sounded absolutely wonderful! "Oh, yes sir, that would be fantastic. Thank you so much." She wanted to jump up and hug him, but thought better and remained in her seat. The day was turning out much better than she feared. Even better was he liked her idea, no matter if it was the answer he was looking for.

Confundo. She wasn't sure about that one. He did say it wouldn't hurt the mice, so that was good. She still felt uneasy about a spell that was done directly on the mouse though. It would have been better to do something to the maze. Much more comfortable about the charm after watching it preformed on the little blue mouse, Emmalyn picked up her wand.

"Question mark movement, point at target, say Confundo." She murmured aloud. "I can do that." She practiced the motion several times, then put her wand down to practice the incantation. She didn't want to accidentally put the charm on an unsuspecting student near her.

"Sir, it would seem the Confundo charm would be temporary and the Memory charm more permanent? Like, you would take away the ability to remember something forever instead of just making it a bit foggy with confundo." That seemed like a good answer to her. She had no idea what he was talking about with some Barty guy and a goblet with fire.

Gaston was happy his offer had brightened Miss Walsh’s mood. Seeing a student sad never failed to tug at his heartstrings! He beamed. “Good! We’ll get it all sorted out after class,” he said. “You’re welcome!” He nodded in reply to her answer to his next question. “Yes, that’s true. Thank you, Miss Walsh.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

He held his animated mouse over the maze while Skylar was working on her mouse, but already he could see that his mouse was detecting the direction of the cheesecake with the way it wiggled and trying to get into the maze itself. Which it did, and was heading towards the right direction until he scooped it up again. Well their technique seems to work well enough...

But indeed they were moving on with the lesson, and it looks to be about the spell made to cause confusion. And he had agreed with people suggesting placing obstructions or making the maze shift around. Then suddenly he became part of the discussion. Wait how did that happen?? He shifted in his seat to look at the Slytherin blonde, and tried to grin and shrug it off, because after all it was just an example right. Zita wasnt actually gonna do that right???

And then the response from ze girlfriend. He had to do a double take. Is Vi actually teaching them how to do it more effectively??? The grin froze in his face, but his blue-green eyes was giving signals to his beloved not-to-give-them-any-more-ideas. He might've instinctively sunk a little lower in his seat, as if that would make some difference trying to make his gangly frame with the poofy head a little bit harder to hit with some errant spell.

Oh and whats the difference between Confundus and a Memory Charm? "One can land you in detention and the other could lead to prison?" he muttered. He didnt know for sure of course, but just putting it out there for anyone getting funny ideas....

Gaston noticed Mr. Salander sinking low in his seat and gave him a sympathetic look. He listened to the Head Boy’s answer, but because he was muttering, he was only able to make out a few words like “prison” and “detention”. He wasn’t sure how exactly those words related to the Confundus Charm or the Memory Charm, but maybe it made more sense in context. “I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch all of that, Mr. Salander,” he said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

Harriet raised a little eyebrow at Zita's explanation of the difference. Did she really need to bring other students into it? Could she not think of an explanation that might not offend others. Hmm. Maybe not. But she shook her head, and thought about the question herself. She hadn't really thought about it much before. There was no need to really. But she had some ideas that she could say. "I guess by using Confundus you could potentially confused someone enough to make them believe they were wrong? Or that what they had seen didn't really happen, and that they are just confused. I guess it depends on how long it lasts? I mean you can oblivate someone, and it last forever, so that might make it different from Confundus, which could be less permanent?" She wasn't sure, but she said it anyway.

And now to have a little practice. The blonde smiled, saying Confundus a few times. She could already do the charm, so she wasn't too fussed. She did want to try though, because practice was always good. She next spent a few seconds practising the wand movement. That felt okay. Now she awaited what they would do next.

Gaston nodded in reply to Miss Paton’s answer. “Yes, Miss Paton, that’s exactly what the Confundus charm can do,” he said, smiling slightly. “Actually, the effects of the Confundus Charm – whether the target thinks they’re wrong about something or that something they saw didn’t happen or anything else – depends more on the intent of the caster than the duration of the spell, but what you said about the differences in permanence was spot on.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

So they would be confusing the mice....which, she supposed implied that the way he charmed them made them sentient enough to be open to suggestions in the first place. Now she understood why he'd been the one to charm the toy mice. Not everyone had the level of concentration necessary for such levels of animation.

Jessa idly moved her wand about, practising the wand movement without really practising. Being so ahead of the syllabus, it was one she'd already learned but for the sake of not sticking out, the girl was willing to go through the motions.

"You could have as good or greater success leading the rat with a well placed memory charm as confusing him and guiding him yourself, which I think could be said about most things actually." Planting memories or removing them allowed you the opportunity to step back and left little room for confusion--nevermind that that was essentially what the spell was for. Perhaps it was better to say that a memory charm left less margin for error.

Over and over she drew the question mark but she didn't utter a word. It may have looked like she was non-verbally casting at the little guy in the cage but actually, she was just moving her wand. No real attempts had yet been made.

Gaston was expecting a unique answer from Miss Cambridge, and he was not disappointed! “That’s an interesting observation, Miss Cambridge,” he said. “Maybe you’ll get a chance to test that theory soon.” He gave her a knowing smile, but that was all he would say about it for now. He didn’t want to give away too much too soon!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionegold

Text Cut: Professor Marchand

Gaston considered Miss Dixon’s answer, which was really more of a question, for a moment. “There is,” he replied with a small smile. “There are a few ways you could go about that. You could use a spell on the cake itself or magically encase it in a barrier that would stop the scent from spreading through the maze. Or if you really wanted to confuse the mouse, you could use a spell to fill the maze with a different scent that would overpower the cake and make it harder to smell. Very good, Miss Dixon!”

Gaston's bright blue eyes scanned the room for any more hands in the air. Then he saw none, he addressed the class again, "Well done, everyone! All of your answers were great ideas to challenge our little mouse friends, but only Mr. Kenway and Miss Ben-Ari guessed the spell we'll be working on today: the Confundus Charm. This spell can be used on living creatures or on objects with some degree of sentience, like our enchanted toy mice. Or for a more historical example, this spell was used by Death Eater Barty Crouch, Jr. to trick the Goblet of Fire and enter Harry Potter in the 1994-95 Triwizard Tournament."

He waited a moment to give time for that information to sink in before he went on, "The Confundus Charm will not hurt its target; it simply causes temporary confusion. This can be general or specific to a certain event, depending on the caster's intent. While in this state, the target will be more susceptible to suggestion..."

Gaston gently lifted the blue mouse he'd used for his earlier demonstration out of the cage. "May I borrow your maze again?" he asked Skylar's group. He placed a small piece of cheesecake in the exact same spot he had earlier and set the mouse in the middle of the maze.

"Once the mouse is Confunded, he should follow my directions away from the cake," he continued, drawing his wand. "To cast, move your wand in a question mark shape and point directly at the target; the incantation is Confundo. Keep in mind that this spell requires careful concantration." He pointed his wand, making the apporpriate movement. "Confundo!" The blue mouse looked around the maze and squeaked quizzically. "Go on, little guy. This way..." Gaston whispered, gently nudging the mouse in the opposite direction of the cake. When it reached the start of the maze, he picked up the piece of cake and gave it to the mouse. "There we go. Eat up..." It nibbled contentedly as he placed it back in the cage.

He turned back to the class. "Take a few moments to practice the wand movements and incantation to yourselves, but don't cast the Confundus Charm on your mouse yet!" he instructed. "While you're practicing, here's something to ponder: What are the differences between the Confundus Charm and a Memory Charm?"

Night grinned at the professor's praise. Well, she was on the right track. And that was really interesting about confunding non-living objects as well as living ones. She hadn't known that about the triwizard tournament, but it made a lot of sense.

Oh, had there been a question as well? Ah, yes. The difference between confundo and obliviate. "Well, the Confundus charm is temporary, while the memory charm is supposed to be permanent, right?" That was part of it, wasn't it? She thought back to what she knew about the days of Harry Potter. "And if the memory charm is really strong, can't it basically destroy a person's sense of self? Like, they'll forget everything they ever knew? But the charm we'll be using today just confuses the object or person who it's aimed at, right?"

Breathe, Night. Breathe. Give other students a chance to talk. She began to practice the spell.

At first, Gaston was expecting Miss Dixon so say something along the same lines as the other answers that mentioned the permanence (or lack thereof) of the spells, but he was pleasantly surprised when she brought up the adverse effects of the Memory Charm. “I’m glad you mentioned that, Miss Dixon,” he said with a smile. “That’s a very important point. A strong memory charm – or an improperly cast one can cause irreversible damage to one’s memory. That happened to a professor at this very school back in the Harry Potter era, a fellow named Gilderoy Lockhart.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

..... Natalie rolled her eyes at Zita's response. She would do that too, wouldn't she?

She knew what the difference between the confundus charm and the memory charm was, and it seemed that everyone else knew too, so she just listened and got out her want to practice. She drew a question mark shape several times and muttered the incantation quietly to herself.

"Confundus... Confundus." She was excited to learn this one. She thought it may come in handy someday. For what, she didn't know, but it SEEMED like a good one.

Gaston watched as Miss McKinley practiced the incantation and wand movements. She’d chosen not to speak up but still earned a smile from the professor for her practice. “Well done, Miss McKinley!” he said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

Constant vigilance. It was people like Zita that was why it was a thing. Ronan gave the girl a calculating look, trying to measure whether she actually had the guts to do something like that. If she did, it could quickly become a problem. Hmm. Maybe someone should alert the Headmistress? Though, at seeing the judgemental look on Harriet's face, he simply smirked. Anything that made the snowflake princess uncomfortable was fine with him. Though, could it maybe not come at the expense of his fellow Gryffindors?

"Obliviate is usually considered more severe than Confundo, which I generally agree with. However, Confundo can be right up there if used for the wrong reason. Like, if you just use it to confuse an opponent so you can get away, you're good. But, if you're using it for more nefarious reasons, such as sneaking a kiss from someone who may or may not be willing, then it could get you in a lot of trouble." Yes, consider it a notice. Though, he was still smirking.....

Mixed messages much?

Gaston thought Mr. Carter was on the right track when he mentioned the severity of the spells, but he wasn’t so sure about the example he used to illustrate his point. That sounded suspiciously like a backhanded jab at Miss Valla, and what was that smirk about? For now he was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. “That’s an interesting point, Mr. Carter,” he said. “I would say the two spells can be equally severe, depending on the caster’s intent.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterloo

Maxton practiced his wand movements while the other kids in class answered the Professor's question. He moved his wand in the shape of a question mark and then pointed it at an invisible, imaginary target on the desk. Seemed pretty simple so far.

"Confundo," he muttered quietly under his breath. "Con-FUN-doh."

He hoped he was getting the pronunciation right.

Here was another quiet one. Just as well, Gaston supposed. He would much prefer silence over drama! He watched Mr. Carden practicing the Confundus Charm with a smile. “Nice job, Mr. Carden!” he said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Zae thought this gryffindor prefect might be onto something. She saw the lion placing cake crumbs along a trail for the mouse and it seemed to be working. Zae had hope for her mouse because its nose was sniffing the smell of the cake and just about when it was gonna start on the trail the teacher called times up! Zae snapped her fingers and they were soo close. She shrugged innocently at the gryffindor prefect and heard the professors question. To make the maze more challenging what spells would he use. She heard some spells being tossed around the classroom and she agreed with the spell of Daydream charm and disillusion charm and felt she didn't need to repeat it.

What are the differences between the Confundus Charm and a Memory Charm the teacher asks. Zarina didn't really have any idea. Zae had an idea, "Well I guess the confundus charm is temporary where the Memory charm is permanent till someone casts the counter charm?" Now onto practicing the charm. Zae began to practice, "Confundo....confundo...confundo.." Now she moved her wand in a question mark shape and point directly at her imaginary target.

She did a few times till she felt comfortable and was ready to move on.

Gaston listened to Miss Cararro’s answer, nodding along in places. She was on the right track, except for one minor thing. “That’s mostly true, Miss Cararro,” he replied, “but there is no counter charm to the Memory Charm. It can only be undone by reconstructing the erased memory, and even then it isn’t foolproof.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Zoryn missed the group work already. It was too good to be true. How come they couldn't continue to do that for the rest of the lesson??? This theoretical stuff was just not cutting it, y'now?

The Gryffindor practiced the wand movement despite this, not really making an effort to try the spell yet. There wasn't any point when she probably wouldn't get it to work anyway. Magic was hard. She liked it when they got to do stuff in groups cause then people like Jessa, who were actually good at magic, could do the grunt work.

As for the question, everyone had sort of already answered what Zoryn could've said too. But since everyone was pretty much saying the same thing.. the Gryffindor offered something else, "The incantations probably, that was a difference. Honestly, it was probably the biggest difference.

Could Zoryn win a prize for that? She had the BEST answer, obviously.

Gaston watched Miss Spinnet practicing… well, practicing the wand movement part anyway. Was she having trouble with the incantation? He hadn’t much time to think about it before she answered the question. Blink, blink. Well, this was certainly a different answer! “Well, yes, that’s certainly true, Miss Spinnet,” he replied, smiling a little.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Even though her suggestion hadn't been correct, honestly Skylar wasn't surprised about Confundus Charm being the correct charm they would be working on today. Listening to Professor Marchand continue the discussion on about it with the incantation and wand movement, she nodded as he borrowed her group's maze again.

Taking a few diligent notes about the demonstration, she glanced up at the question and at Zita's response in particular. UM. That was just an example, right? Regardless, Skylar found her blue-gray orbs glancing between Tenacius and Zita and Vi. Also wouldn't she have to be confounded as well? But yea not that she would have objected to the whole kissing Tenacius thing, and she was sure Vi would have been understanding since it was out the Confundus Charm, but SHE herself was all meh about it too. She did the whole snog-the-guy-your-friend liked thing, even it meant nothing. And she was over it. Also she was kind of exclusively snogging only one guy as of recently too. But it was just an example.

And an example that caused Skylar to be completely distracted and unfocused on comparison between that and the memory charm. Yes, what that first year Emmalyn said and her amazing chaser, Zarina said. Memory charm was more permanent. Also, for some reason this didn't seem to sit right with her in that Zarina also mentioned that memory charms can be reversed whereas they were also permanent!? Wasn't that contradictory?!

Which was then that Skylar raised her hand... "If memory charms can be reversed, they wouldn't necessarily be permanent, but i think maybe their effects are longer lasting than a Confundus Charm. And yet a Confundus Charm is multi-layered too and there's even theories about it being similar to the Imperius Curse in that both can be used to control humans and non-humans. The control is actually an important difference because its used for manipulation of something to do the caster's bidding, with malintent or not, whereas memory charm alters the memory as if something didn't exist."

Gaston nodded, smiling slightly in reply to Miss Diggory’s answer. “That’s true, Miss Diggory,” he said. “The Memory Charm is certainly longer lasting than Confundo; it’s almost always permanent. Reversing one is possible, but it’s a slow and intricate process with only a marginal success rate.” Then he addressed her other point. “That’s an interesting comparison. While it’s true that the Cofundus Charm and Imperius Curse both make their target susceptible to suggestion, Confundo doesn’t force one to act in a way contrary to their true nature. For example, if I was Confunded and you told me to – I don’t know – set my desk on fire, I would still have enough sense of self to know that’s something I would never do and resist.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

"Oh, well professor, its not that original. I think I've read something somewhere about water mazes? But I'm not sure exactly what." Bel said. She didn't want the professor to give her any extra kudos for originality when it wasn't exactly so. But then again she supposed it was the case with almost everyone, spells they mentioned they had heard about, and it was about applying your knowledge (even if it was spotty like hers) to a given situation right?

And now they were moving on. She played idly with the edge of the cage that she had put the mouse in and listened to the professor reveal they were working with the confundus charm. Which... sounded hard. And also like something that people could only use for either negative purposes or for self defense. She would give it a good go though, do her best and everything.

..... wasn't it funny that the wand movement was a question mark? At that revelation, Bel covered her mouth and held in a silent laugh. Obligingly though, she started practicing that wand movement. Question maaark and point. Queeeestion mark and..... point!

And there was a question to go with the question mark. Bel looked around at her groupmates, thinking. Hmmm. What was the difference? She put her hand up, wanting to give it a go though she really wasn't sure. "Maybe, professor, confundus just fogs things, while obliviate removes them completely?" Maybe? "And maybe when you are fixing an obli-obliviated person, you can only do it if you have access to the memories that got taken, but if you're fixing a confunded person, you just have to figure out how to clear away the foggy bits?" Anyway that was her try at answering. Bel put her hand down and started fiddling with the edge of the toy mouse cage again.

OH WAIT she was practicing the wand movement, that's right. She picked her wand up and gave the questionmark shape a few more goes.

Gaston was a tad taken aback at Miss Macindoe’s response to his compliment, but he had to give her points for honesty. Her answer to the next question got a small smile from the professor. “You’re on the right track, Miss Macindoe,” he replied. “You’re right about the way to help a Confunded person and needing access to the erased memories to help an Obliviated person, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. You must reconstruct a reproduction of the original memory and implanting it into the victim’s mind.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

Well her answer wasn’t the one the professor was looking for, but Jessi was not totally wrong.......so there was that. It seemed that the Confundus Charm was the one they would be working on. When Professor Marchand began to explain it, Jessi took out her quill and began to write down the important stuff. She was pretty lousy at Charms, but she was determined to be awesome at it......one day.

It was time to practice now. Jessi was a little concerned when she learned that this Charm required a lot of concentration. Concentration was not exactly her strong suit, but she was working on it. She took a deep breath and tried to focus on what she’d be doing. The wand movement seemed pretty easy, so she decided to tackle that first. Jessi made a question mark with her wand and then did it over and over a bunch of times.

Next, she worked on the incantation. “Confundo, Con-fun-do” Yeah, she could do that. “Confundo, Confundo, Confundo, Confundo.” Ok, Jessi felt pretty good about the incantation. The problem was, what would happen when she put it all together? Only time would tell.

For now though, she had another thing to think about. The professor had asked a question. It seemed like the other students had pretty much explained the differences already. Determined to give an answer, Jessi tried very hard to think of something else. Finally, she raised her hand. “With the Confundus Charm, you still have your memories. I mean, they’re still in your head. The problem is, you’re so confused, you can’t make sense of anything.......your memories, your thoughts. The person who cast the spell can tell you anything, or make you do anything and you’ll believe it. With the Memory Charm, everything’s just.......gone.”. To Jessi, that seemed like a horrible thing. Or maybe not, if it was something you really wanted to forget.

Gaston smiled, nodding approvingly in reply to Miss Velasquez’s answer. “That’s a good point you made about the existence of the memory with the Confundus Charm vs the Memory Charm, Miss Velasquez,” he said. “For the most part, that’s true. The caster of the spell has a lot of influence over the target, but you can’t make a Confunded person do anything. If you asked them to do something that doesn’t sound right, they could resist.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolyander

From the look on Professor Marchand's face it didn't appear that her answer went over very well even if he had said it could work. Truth was she wasn't all that proud of her own answer anyhow and she would never use it on any creature unless maybe if she was in danger and didn't have choice but that was something else entirely. "Don't worry professor, I wouldn't use that on any creature... it's just the first thing that came to my head that hadn't already been said." Truth and fact.

So they were going to be using the Confundus Charm today. It was meant to confuse the mouse so that she could make it go the wrong way in the maze rather than to the cheese. Interesting. Picking up her quill the first thing that was done was a little bit of note taking. Once that was done she could move on.

"Well you just told us that the Confundus Charm causes confusion and it's only temporary so while the person or creature might not know what he's doing or where he's going in a few minutes time he'll be okay once again. The Memory Charm would make someone completely forget a memory or whatever the caster was wanting them to forget." Which was absolutely terrible to do to someone or to anything at all for that matter. Why would anyone want to do that to anyone?

She couldn't focus to long on her own answer as she still needed to practice the charm. Pulling out her wand once more she began to make a question mark in the air a few times. Simple enough. Now to practice the incantation as well. "Con-fun-do... con-fun-do... confundo.." she spoke over and over again quietly to herself.

Gaston gave Miss Prichard a smile as she elaborated a bit more on her previous answer. “I understand, Miss Prichard,” he replied. He didn’t actually think she would use that spell on a creature, but still, the reassurance was nice. His smile remained firmly in place as he listened to her next answer. “Yes, that’s true. Very good, Miss Prichard.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dokimoto

Ah yes, Confundus Charm was a good bet. She was alright at the spell, but she couldn’t say she had been able to practice much… Although, this was giving her some ideas… *mischievous laughter*
Kye imagined what it was probably like for Harry Potter getting chosen for the Triwizard Tournament at 14… Well, before that time, didn’t they allow any age person to enter? Because then it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, just unfair to others who wanted to go for it. Would she put her name in if they had it again? Hmm… maybe not. Quidditch was enough for her.

“Confundo,” she whispered. “Confundo!”
Regarding Professor Marchand’s question about the difference between the charms, Kye made a face.

“Well they both deal with manipulating the mind… but one alters what you know, and what takes away what you know…” Right?

Gaston nodded, giving Miss Atwater a small smile. “Correct,” he said, “and a very eloquently worded answer, Miss Atwater!”

Gaston’s good mood at the start of the class had been drained right out of him. He turned to the class wearing a slight frown rather than his usual smile. “Nice work, class,” he said. “I can see from your practice that you’re getting the hang of the Confundus Charm, and on the whole, I’m pleased with your answers. You’ve already mentioned several key differences between the Confundus and Memory charms in terms of effect, severity, incantations, and permanence. In regards to the latter, I have a few things to add…” He waited a few moments for the students’ full attention.

“There is no countercurse to the Memory Charm or the Confundus Charm, but Confundo wears off with time. The Memory Charm is almost always irreversible. Doing so is an intricate process that requires collecting information from other witnesses to said memory and using that to magically create and implant a new memory of the event. That and torture-“ He shuddered a bit. “- are the only known ways to counter a memory charm,” he went on. “It’s also important to know that the Memory Charm can be extremely dangerous if improperly cast, as Miss Dixon touched on. In the worst cases, it can permanently and completely destroy one’s memory.”

He gave the students some time to absorb that important information before continuing, “The Memory Charm was invented by Mnemone Radford and is most frequently used to smooth over incidents that would violate the Statute of Secrecy. It comes in especially handy in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, if there are any of you interested in that field.

There is also a derivation of the Memory Charm that Miss Holden mentioned earlier: the False Memory Charm. This one was used a number of times by Lord Voldemort in his rise to power. While the memory charm makes this target forget, this spell makes its target remember something that never happened, as the name implies. It requires the same careful concentration as the Memory Charm but has much less potential for permanent damage. I’ll demonstrate both spells, but today we’ll be focusing more on the false memory charm.”

Once again, he picked up the blue mouse and placed it in Ace, Skylar, and Vivian’s maze with a piece of cheesecake waiting in the same place at the end. “The incantation for the Memory Charm is Obliviate; its wand movement is a cloud shape with a little tail at the end, similar to a thought bubble,” he explained. “Concentrate carefully on the specific event you want to erase, and… Obliviate!” The little blue mouse scurried through the maze, sniffing around for the cake. “He should still remember the maze itself, but I’ve erased his memory of where the cake is.”

He gave the students a moment to observe before he went on, “Now I’ll demonstrate the False Memory Charm. The wand movement is similar to the Memory Charm; trace the thought-bubble shape, but instead of a tail at the end, make an X. Remember to concentrate, and say ‘Mismemini’.” He repeated the wand movement and incantation while aiming at the mouse. He placed the piece of cake in front of it, but it just sniffed it indifferently. “I’ve made him remember eating the cake already, so he thinks he’s full now.”

Merlin, that was a lot for the kids to absorb! He waited several minutes for all that to sink in before giving his last instructions, “For your activity, we’ll be doing an experiment. Form a theory of which spell, Confundo or one of the Memory Charms, will be more effective in hindering the mouse’s progress, and test it out by preforming the spells. You DO NOT have to use Obliviate unless you feel confident, but I’d like you to at least try the Confundus and False Memory charms. Observe the mouse’s reactions to each spell. Take notes on what you see, and write a conclusion of a paragraph or less explaining your findings. You have the rest of class, starting…NOW!”

OOC: I’m so sorry for the tardiness/lack of individual replies! I’ve had a family emergency to deal with today, but I needed to get this posted so we don’t fall too behind schedule. I’ll edit the individual replies into this post as soon as I can (soometime this afternoon/tonight). We’re not ignoring you, I promise!

You may work alone or in groups for the activity, but each person must attempt The Confundus and False Memory Charms AND write a summary of the findings for full credit. You have AT LEAST 72 HOURS (1:30 PM EST Jan. 30) for the activity.

Birchwoodmom · 01-27-2018, 11:25 PM

She watched, wide eyed, as Professor Marchand demonstrated the various charms on the poor little blue mouse. Real or not, she wasn’t sure how she was going to bring herself to trick the sweet little creature. It just wasn’t in her to be mean to anything. Permanent damage kept running over and over in her mind. With a slow exhale, she turned her attention to Rose. Perfectly happy little Rose with her nose up in the air, searching for a whiff of delectable cheesecake.

Opening the cage door, she simply put her hand out, palm up, and Rose climbed on. Sure, the mouse had to like her too. That was going to make it so much harder. “Ok little one, you are going to have to go back into the maze.” She whispered to her mouse in loving tones. “I’m going to have to try some charms out on you. Please know that the professor is making me do this. I would never do this any other way.” Placing Rose in the maze, she gave her a little scratch behind her pink ears while blocking off her start so she could finish setting the maze up.

Emmalyn slowly placed a fresh piece of cheesecake in the original spot in the maze and readied her wand. “Here we go.” She would be starting with the kindest charm of the three. The confundus charm. She unblocked the start of the maze, raised her wand, moved in a question mark motion, and pointed at innocent little Rose. “Confundo!” she commanded with a painfully sad voice. Rose started off toward the first turn of the maze. So far she was doing just fine. Then, she somehow doubled back and ended up at the start again. Her little nose twitched and she kept lifting up on her hind legs to smell the air. Rose once again headed towards the first turn, made a left, then doubled back to the start. Rose was sufficiently confused.

Emmalyn couldn’t stand it any longer and reached down to break off a piece of cheesecake. She put the chunk in her hand and lifted Rose out with her other hand. She placed Rose next to the treat and allowed her to snack. “I think this is fine since I didn’t show you were the cheesecake was located in the maze.” She would give Rose, and herself, a few moments to recover from the confundus charm before moving on.

hermionegold · 01-28-2018, 04:00 AM

Night decided to try with a different mouse, one of the last ones left on the table. Emmalyn was being protective of Rose, and Night understood that. This mouse was green, and she dubbed it Minty.

"Come on, Minty. It's maze time." Wait, would this be harder since Minty hadn't had experience with the maze? She decided to do a first go with Minty and then try the Confundus charm. Luckily, the mouse was good at the maze. Okay, next was to work the charm.

"Confundo Night whispered, and Minty ran into a wall. Was that supposed to happen? Probably, but she still felt bad about it. She set the mouse in the right position and pointed out the first cheesecake bit. She knew that wasn't problematic without the spell, but was she not supposed to do anything to make it easier for the confused mouse either? Oh well.

Birchwoodmom · 01-28-2018, 05:16 AM

Emmalyn was still holding Rose when she noticed Night going to grab another mouse. “Oh no.” she mumbled. She had been so caught up with protecting Rose, she failed to include her friend in the project. “I’m so sorry” she apologized to Night when she arrived back at the table. She felt horrible for being such a rotten friend.

She stepped back to give Night and Minty room with the maze and more practice time. “You can do it, Minty!” she cheered as she watched Night work with her mouse. She was impressed with how quickly Night had mastered the confundus charm.

When it was her turn with the maze again, she placed Rose at the beginning with a fresh chunk of cheesecake at the end. She held up her wand, traced a cloud shape in the air and whispered “Mismemini”
Rose just stood there, not sniffing or checking things out on her hind legs. She was simply satisfied being right where she was. Not sure if the charm had worked correctly or not, Emmalyn took the chunk of cheesecake and sat it right next to her mouse. Rose still seemed uninterested. “Hey, I think it worked. I wanted Rose to think she didn’t like cheesecake and now she won’t eat it.”

Emmalyn took Rose from the maze and sat her on the table in front of her to give Night another turn. She also needed to take notes on her parchment of what had just happened. Worried that the mouse would escape, she decided to place her back in the cage while she wrote.

Pucki · 01-28-2018, 09:48 AM

Which spell would be the most effective?

Shera let herself contemplate that for a moment, thinking as she pulled out a quill so she could remind herself of what her theory was before she completed the experiment, and have an actual comparison between what happened.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notes

Confundo should be less effective than the memory charm because, while confused, they won't forget having completed the maze.

She thought for a moment, thinking about whether there was anything else that she could add in. Most of her notes would probably come from the actual experiment though. Blue eyes glanced to Harriet and Rylee, "What do you guys think will happen?" Because she could always jot down their opinions before she noted down her own thoughts on what was going to be happening.

*Kolyander* · 01-28-2018, 02:33 PM

What was with these professors and giving them so much information to take down. Gosh. At this rate her little hands would fall off from all the writing. Pausing for a moment to flex her fingers a bit she glanced to the side at Shera and Harriet. She saw no point in working alone when she was already sat in a small group and they could easily work together and help one another with their thoughts and the spells.

"I think Confundo would be a problem for the mouse. The memory charm would make him forget where the cake was for sure but he would still remember the layout of the maze and therefore find the cake... unless we make him forget the layout of the maze but after awhile he would find the cake anyhow. A false memory just means he thinks what we want him to..... but if he confused he'll know he wants the cake and try to get to it but he might go the wrong way.." At least that was what she thought anyhow.

"What do you both think? And who wants to go first?" While she waited to hear their thoughts she had pulled out her wand to practice all three of the wand movements so that she knew how to perform them when it was her turn.

RachieRu · 01-28-2018, 03:21 PM

SPOILER!!: you two

To be honest, all of this was pretty interesting. she'd never really thought about it this way before, but she found it pretty interesting. She made a note in her notebook to remember to look into this more. She was curious about the subject, but also wanted to get some knowledge, so that she wasn't too blind to the subject. It would hopefully help her from getting in this situation. Though she hoped nobody she knew would be mean enough to do something like this.

Hopefully the mice would be okay. But they were only toy mouses, so she figured it was okay. She listened to what Shera and Rylee were saying, making some more notes. She liked having lots of notes, and both the girls were saying good things. "I agree" The girl nodded. "Confundus might make it more difficult than just wiping the memories. The mouse could just figure out how to get the cheesecake, where as if it's confused, it'll not really know what to do" And thus make it harder to get the cheescake.

Ooh. Okay. "I can go first" Since she was the older student, and so should show by example? She put her mouse back into the maze, and then cast the confundus charm on it. She didn't have too much intention, not wanting the charm to last too long. The mouse then seemed to be going towards the cheesecake, but kept going one way, and changing it's mind. "Well.... it seems to be really confused on which way it needs to go" which did confirm their first thoughts on the situation.

SarcasticStrawberry · 01-28-2018, 06:33 PM

Juniper nodded at Professor Marchand, she had figured her answer was a long shot but she said it anyway. She thought it would have been a good addition to this kind of boring maze. No Offense. Well if the confundus charm wasn’t such an obvious answer she would have said it. Professors here was always wanting them to Think outside the box. She quickly scribbled down some notes.

”Well the confundus charm only confuses it’s target to become confused. A memory charm erases memories. It’s a matter of being confused about what’s going on over not having your memories because once the confundus charm wears off you are fine. Memory charms are permanent. But these also a memory charm that creates false memories.” She nodded before starting to practice the wand movements and incantation.

The Ravenclaw watch the professor show them what to do. She was never to concerned about the incantation, it was always the wand movement for her. And she knew it. Always a little too flaily with her wand. Practicing a couple question mark wand movements with a direct point at a invisible target.

Oh so they wasn’t just doing the confundus charm but they were doing memory charms as well? Okay now she could really dig this lesson. She started scribbling down notes on the two memory charms. Then watched the professor perform the memory charm on the mouse and watched to see what it did. And did the same with the false memory charm as well.

Right now they were going to get to try out these charms. But of course they were going to have to write a paragraph about their findings. They had to form a theory about which one of the three charms would be most effective. Obviously to her the confundus would work out the best right.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Dokimoto · 01-28-2018, 07:26 PM

Charms and jinxes with no counter curses were so… crazy. It would probably be a while until Kye felt more confident in her abilities. She didn’t need to mess with anyone’s memories permanently. At least at this point in her life, anything with a defining word of ‘destroy’ was out of her ball park. She came back from her thoughts when the DMAC was mentioned. Kye was very interested in a few Ministry Departments, including that one.

False memory charms? In the hands of teenagers, that could be quite dangerous too! Imagine if you wanted to mess with someone? Or even a group of people? All you needed was the guts, really. Time to move on! Confundus… Obliviate… Thought bubble gets a tail… Mismemini… X shape at the end… She wrote these differences in her notes and started practicing the movements.

Hmm... Kye had a hypothesis that the False Memory Charm would be her pick for this activity, so she decided to use the other two first. She gathered herself, and did her best to empty her mind of side thoughts and daydreams. She wanted an accurate read of course.

“Confundo!”

Kye watched the mouse for a few moments before starting her notes. She watched as the mouse made his way, glancing between her notes and him. She could almost hear his nonexistent thoughts, and could imagine if it was her going through this maze. Definitely a bit longer a run than the previous two this time... Ah, but finally, the little guy had found the dessert! Kye reset the mouse, giving him a little pet on the head. Was that a silly thing to do?

SPOILER!!: Notes

DragonBear · 01-29-2018, 02:21 AM

Ah, what a fun assignment! Crafting theories on the different effects certain spells had on a practical scenario was one of the most fun and hands-on ways to experiment with magic, and Garreth absolutely LOVED it. He listened intently to the professor's instructions, nodding along as he spoke. Okay, first thing's first: Practice the Charms. The seventh-year felt relatively comfortable with the idea of casting all three charms, and was sure he would have no trouble doing so effectively, but it's always best to practice a little bit before you try for real!

Confundo, he thought again, whipping the shape of a question mark into the air.
Obliviate, his mind whispered once more as he traced the image of the thought bubble in the air in front of him.
Mismemini, one more time, he traced a thought bubble, with an X at the end this time.

Okay! Theory time! The boy went straight for his quill and parchment and began writing down ideas. It didn't take long for him to form a pretty solid idea in his mind, and he quickly jotted down his theory. Time to see if it panned out. After all, he couldn't very well present his findings to the professor without sufficiently testing his hypothesis. He reached for his mouse and ran a finger over its head, stroking it gently. "It's okay, little guy. There's more cheesecake for you later." he whispered to his little friend. "But first we gotta run some tests. I'm sorry this might be uncomfortable, but I'll make sure you don't get hurt."

"Confundo." He spoke firmly, flicking the question mark shape towards the mouse. Once in the maze, it made very little progress, stumbling around aimlessly for a while. Garreth nodded and put some more words to the parchment as if that result had been expected. He felt very sorry for the mouse, but there were more tests to run and a schedule to be kept. He waited for a couple more minutes to let the mouse recover, and once it had made it to the end of the maze, moved on with the experiment.

"Obliviate." he was careful to only erase the memories of the maze, and nothing else. He didn't want his new mouse friend to forget him, did he? As expected, the mouse slowly wandered around the maze just as it had before Garreth's masterful use of cheesecake to lead it to the correct destination. It had no memory of ever having run the maze. Success! He waited until the mouse had made it through the maze the normal way, before once again wiping its memory. "Sorry, but doing this a second time is relevant to the assignment."

"Mismemini." this last one was a little trickier than the other two, as he had a very specific memory to plant. The plan was to create the memory of having found the cheesecake in the wrong part of the maze. This time, instead of aimlessly wandering around, the mouse recalled the false memory and struggled with the maze, trying its hardest to find its way to cheesecake that wasn't even there.

Garreth wrote down his findings and let out a sigh of relief that his theory had worked out. Satisfied that he had what he needed, he handed his mouse a bite of cheesecake. No need to be cruel to the poor guy, was there? He'd earned his reward.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Watson · 01-29-2018, 02:55 AM

Vi noted Ace's reaction to her comment and watched as he sent her a warning glance. A signal not to say anything more lest the girls get more ideas. But... She opened her mouth to refute it but couldn't find any words, "[b]I...[/i]" No. She hadn't meant. Olivia nodded and then frowned, glancing at her hands momentarily as she wrung them. She hadn't meant that... She had only been trying to tell them... Ugh. Vi wished she could have just taken the whole comment back. Well not really.... She didn't want to take it back but the way it made Ace react that way.... Vi frowned again, wondering whether her response to the Slytherin's comment had only made the whole situation more worse than it needed to be. She sighed, glanced back at him and shot him an apologetic smile. Hopefully he wouldn't be too upset with her, right? It was just that the She-Snake had a bit of a reputation when it came to being all heart eyes over certain boys...

The lesson progressed with Professor Marchand taking full note of the whole situation that went down. Even some of her fellow classmates seemed to react to it too. But alas, the lesson went on. Vi stole a glance at Zita momentarily, making note to keep an eye on the fourth year. In the meantime, they would need to practice the memory charms.

Obliviate. A car crash could be just like obliviate. Before the crash....you have everything- you could have everything and more... and then... gone. Vi focused her attentions on the two incantations. Obliviate and Mismemini. After practicing both movements over and over again and then the incantation, she glanced at the mouse in front of her.

Alright. What to say now? What to do? She introduced the mouse to the piece of cake first and let it nibble on it. First she'd treat it and then take away that memory of the treat. So she let the mouse nibble on the slice of cheesecake before she took her wand and cast the non-verbal Confundo. The mouse blinked its eyes as it looked at the cake and then back at Vi as if to query her about something? Was the cake edible? What had he been done? Two black beady eyes blinked at her and then the mouse went back to nibbling.

hermionegold · 01-29-2018, 04:25 AM

Text Cut: Emmalyn

"Good one," Night said. She would never has figured out that one so quickly.

Night had an idea. "Let's race them. First, without a charm, and then with. See if it makes any difference." There were no rules against that, right? She set up Minty and laid out another piece of cheesecake.

"Mismemini," she said under her breath. There was no way she wasn't going to get tongue tied with that new one. "Mismemini. Mismemini

MadMadamMalfoy · 01-29-2018, 09:17 AM

Gaston meandered through the groups of desks, keeping a watchful eye out for any mishaps as the students began their activity. So far everybody was doing a great job! He gave Miss Primeaux an approving smile as he overheard her reasoning. "That makes perfect sense. Good theory, Miss Primeaux," he said.

The trio of Miss Paton, Miss Prichard, & Miss Ben-Ari also received a round of smiles from the professor. "Nice discussion, ladies," he said. He watched Miss Paton's mouse wandering through the maze and beamed at the girl. "Great use of the Confundus Charm, Miss Paton!"

Gaston's bright blue eyes flicked toward Miss Holden; he was intrigued. He wasn't entirely sure what her method was at first glance, but he trusted she had a plan. Judging by the way the mouse was blinking and looking at the girl, he could tell she'd cast a nonverbal Confundo. "Brilliant, Miss Holden!" he said, smiling. "And congratulations on doing the Confundus Charm nonverbally!"

Miss Atwater appeared to be having success with Confundo as well. The professor smiled as he watched her mouse muddle through the maze, and his smile grew even wider when he saw her pet the mouse. "Nicely done, Miss Atwater!"

Gaston gave Miss Walsh a sympathetic look as he overheard her talking to her mouse, and a part of him felt guilty for expecting the students to use magic on the mice... even if they were just animated cat toys. He smiled encouragingly as he watched her attempt the Confundus Charm and later the False Memory Charm. "Excellent work, Miss Walsh!" he said, beaming. "And don't worry, Rose is going to be fine."

Then his attention turned to Miss Dixon and her green mouse. He was slightly concerned when the mouse ran into the wall; that could have been the result of too strong a spell or improper concentration. Still, that was a great first try, especially for one so young! "Well done, Miss Dixon," he said with a smile. "As a matter of interest, what specific thing did you want the mouse to be confused by?"

Gaston watched Mr. Kenway's spellwork, but his expression turned slightly worried when he overheard him attempt Obliviate. His hand instinctively went to his wand, poised to react if something went wrong, but it didn't; quite the opposite! Based on the mouse's demeanor, he'd say the spell had worked. He beamed. "Excellent spellwork, Mr. Kenway! Congratulations on casting Obliviate!"

OOC: Take your time. You still have ROUGHLY 36 HOURS (4:30 PM EST Jan. 30) to finish.

Dokimoto · 01-29-2018, 10:40 AM

Figuring that her note taking had given the mouse his little moment of rest, Kye picked up her little purple friend and took a calming breath. She took into consideration the mouse's size, concentrating on erasing only his memory of the maze itself, NOT the prize. It was important that he knew what he was on the hunt for.

"Obliviate!"

She placed him back at the beginning of her maze, and whispered, "Aaaaand GO!"

It was almost as though time had rewound about 20 minutes. It was like the first time she had put him in the maze alllll over again, with one little difference. Kye chose not to boop his nose with dessert this time, and she could tell her mouse could remember the scent. The changes in his movement was definitely noticeable. He was on a mission!... He just needed to follow his nose, and learn the dead ends again. How frustrated it would be to be him right now! Again she imagined being put in a maze and forced to try to find something she found valuable under these conditions. Thank you, little toy, for your time and sacrifice.

Lo and behold, little guy made it to the cake! Kye checked the time... hmph. Well there went her initial thought. Well, she was still sure that he would have the hardest time after the False Memory Charm than either of the first two she tried. If he does best this round, I quit Charms she declared in her mind. She wasn't a fan of being wrong of course, but she decided that that was for last year's Kye. THIS year's Kye was very proud of little mouse for his motivation.

"Good boy..." she pet him again. He was too cute to be mad at. Boy, Edie would not approve of this! She giggled out loud a little bit.

SPOILER!!: Notes

TeafortheSoul · 01-29-2018, 10:49 AM

SPOILER!!: prof

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Gaston was a tad taken aback at Miss Macindoe’s response to his compliment, but he had to give her points for honesty. Her answer to the next question got a small smile from the professor. “You’re on the right track, Miss Macindoe,” he replied. “You’re right about the way to help a Confunded person and needing access to the erased memories to help an Obliviated person, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. You must reconstruct a reproduction of the original memory and implanting it into the victim’s mind.”

Gaston’s good mood at the start of the class had been drained right out of him. He turned to the class wearing a slight frown rather than his usual smile. “Nice work, class,” he said. “I can see from your practice that you’re getting the hang of the Confundus Charm, and on the whole, I’m pleased with your answers. You’ve already mentioned several key differences between the Confundus and Memory charms in terms of effect, severity, incantations, and permanence. In regards to the latter, I have a few things to add…” He waited a few moments for the students’ full attention.

“There is no countercurse to the Memory Charm or the Confundus Charm, but Confundo wears off with time. The Memory Charm is almost always irreversible. Doing so is an intricate process that requires collecting information from other witnesses to said memory and using that to magically create and implant a new memory of the event. That and torture-“ He shuddered a bit. “- are the only known ways to counter a memory charm,” he went on. “It’s also important to know that the Memory Charm can be extremely dangerous if improperly cast, as Miss Dixon touched on. In the worst cases, it can permanently and completely destroy one’s memory.”

He gave the students some time to absorb that important information before continuing, “The Memory Charm was invented by Mnemone Radford and is most frequently used to smooth over incidents that would violate the Statute of Secrecy. It comes in especially handy in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, if there are any of you interested in that field.

There is also a derivation of the Memory Charm that Miss Holden mentioned earlier: the False Memory Charm. This one was used a number of times by Lord Voldemort in his rise to power. While the memory charm makes this target forget, this spell makes its target remember something that never happened, as the name implies. It requires the same careful concentration as the Memory Charm but has much less potential for permanent damage. I’ll demonstrate both spells, but today we’ll be focusing more on the false memory charm.”

Once again, he picked up the blue mouse and placed it in Ace, Skylar, and Vivian’s maze with a piece of cheesecake waiting in the same place at the end. “The incantation for the Memory Charm is Obliviate; its wand movement is a cloud shape with a little tail at the end, similar to a thought bubble,” he explained. “Concentrate carefully on the specific event you want to erase, and… Obliviate!” The little blue mouse scurried through the maze, sniffing around for the cake. “He should still remember the maze itself, but I’ve erased his memory of where the cake is.”

He gave the students a moment to observe before he went on, “Now I’ll demonstrate the False Memory Charm. The wand movement is similar to the Memory Charm; trace the thought-bubble shape, but instead of a tail at the end, make an X. Remember to concentrate, and say ‘Mismemini’.” He repeated the wand movement and incantation while aiming at the mouse. He placed the piece of cake in front of it, but it just sniffed it indifferently. “I’ve made him remember eating the cake already, so he thinks he’s full now.”

Merlin, that was a lot for the kids to absorb! He waited several minutes for all that to sink in before giving his last instructions, “For your activity, we’ll be doing an experiment. Form a theory of which spell, Confundo or one of the Memory Charms, will be more effective in hindering the mouse’s progress, and test it out by preforming the spells. You DO NOT have to use Obliviate unless you feel confident, but I’d like you to at least try the Confundus and False Memory charms. Observe the mouse’s reactions to each spell. Take notes on what you see, and write a conclusion of a paragraph or less explaining your findings. You have the rest of class, starting…NOW!”

OOC: I’m so sorry for the tardiness/lack of individual replies! I’ve had a family emergency to deal with today, but I needed to get this posted so we don’t fall too behind schedule. I’ll edit the individual replies into this post as soon as I can (soometime this afternoon/tonight). We’re not ignoring you, I promise!

You may work alone or in groups for the activity, but each person must attempt The Confundus and False Memory Charms AND write a summary of the findings for full credit. You have AT LEAST 72 HOURS (1:30 PM EST Jan. 30) for the activity.

It did all sound terribly complicated, and Bel was trying very hard to scribble down some notes and pay attention. She was pretty sure that it would be beyond her though, no matter how earnestly she tried. As always she would give it a go, give it her best. There was a lot to write down too, note wise, and Bel spent a few minutes scrawling down what she could from the professor's lecture. She was glad that he was giving so much information though. Not all the professors at Hogwarts did that. So many, Bel found, just expected you to have done all the reading already, but she did feel like she was at least learning things in Charms.

Even if she was doubtful that she'd be able to manage those spells. And the task: She'd have to get at least two of the three spells attempted and give it a good go, and then figure out which she thought would do the best, and then write about her results.... she looked around her shared table. So they weren't working as groups anymore? That was too bad, since probably someone she was sitting with would be better at these spells than her, whereas her strengths in this area boiled down to moral support if anything.

Well, it was time to give it a go. Bel finished up her notes and decided to try the false memory charm first. Well, not on the toy mouse yet, but getting the wand movement and incantation down at least.

"Mismemini." Bel said very carefully. Sort of reminded her of Anemone. Also a word that could be tough to say. "Mis-mem-in-i." Hmm. "Mis-me-mini."

Miss me minny?

Okay. Sure.

Thought bubble with an X. Thought bubble with an X. Bel traced the wand movement a few times until it didn't feel so awkward.

Expecto-Penguin · 01-29-2018, 04:37 PM

Alright time to put confundus into action. Zae was comfortable with that spell, she wasn't soo sure with Obliviate. She thought that spell was more for the older students. Now time to focus on her maze. She took her mouse of the maze so he wouldn't be too familiar with it. "Im sorry buddy I got to confuse you but I am sure you will find the cheesecake." She felt bad but this was harmless play. The mouse would be fine. She got her wand at the ready and let the mouse smell the cheesecake and she placed the cheesecake in the far left corner of the maze.

Zae saw the mouse smelling in the air for the cake and she placed her mouse in the maze and it was already running. She pointed her wand and said, "Confundo!" and did the wand movement of flicking the question mark shape at her mouse and she saw the instant reaction she was hoping for. The mouse seemed confused and was bumping into the walls. The critter had no idea where it was going. She beamed and was pleased with the results. She knew the charm would go away with time as the Professor explained to her.

*PhoenixRising* · 01-29-2018, 06:15 PM

Oh good, Professor Marchand was good with brushing off and skillfully swaying the conversation away from confounding the head boy to kiss her. Charming, actually, the way he was able to do that. And her own answer; huh, for some reason she didn't think the reversal process was that intricate, but she supposed it did make sense. Taking away one's memory was serious business. And wait, but what about a powerful confundus charm? Weren't there like different intensity levels? And yet the imperius charm was unforgivable, so Skylar did reckon it made sense that it would be more ... serious. In that confundus allowed one to remain true to ones self. Interesting, definitely something to note of as she practiced.

So Confundus will wear off, but Memory charm did not. Wait, so Finite Incantatem didn't work on the Confundus Charm? Interesting. Also, she did give a subtle smile over at Vi whom mentioned the false memory charm, since apparently they working more with that than the memory charm. Watching as Professor Marchand demonstrated on her group's maze, she took careful notes of it. Actually, she kind of liked the idea of the false memory charm, instead. Seemed ... misleading enough. But she reckoned practicing the confundus charm first would make most sense.

"Confundo!" she cast, flicking her wand on the mouse and watching as the mouse scurried through the maze, going in seemingly circles and running into the wall and back around and around. Okay, definite confusion seen here as to which way for the mouse to go. She glanced over at her two table-mates. Did they want to try? Have anything to add, maybe?

debpetrisor · 01-29-2018, 06:37 PM

Memory charms, he liked that.

As his Head of House spoke, Daehyun made sure to jot everything down in the handwriting that turned messy whenever he was in a hurry - but he didn't want to miss a detail - the lecture fascinating him to no end. He'd never tried casting Confundo, nor any memory charms before, so there was no way he was going to try Obliviate on the small mouse, even if it was only a toy.

Instead, he focused on practicing the wand movement, the thought bubble shape that he'd carefully traced in the air, and ending it with an X. Mismemini was quite a mouthful to say, so he'd silently practiced the word without any wand waving, because the last thing he needed was to accidentally plant false memories in someone else's mind.

Once ready, he reluctantly pointed his wand at the purple mouse and, tracing the wand movement in the air, he said, "Mismemini," focusing on making the mouse believe the cheesecake was in a different place.

... but the little guy still went straight to the cheesecake to eat it.

Sigh.

Bazinga · 01-29-2018, 06:44 PM

Her answer seemed to hit some nerves though the blonde wasn't really even thinking about hitting any it was fun when it happened by accident. She gave the prefect girlfriend an innocent smile and even wiggled her fingers at the head boy when he looked to be getting uncomfortable. This was fun and that's what she enjoyed about life right now, fun. Then there was Ronan's answer and she gave the lion a grin, was that a challenge or just an offer for some fun? Not that she needed any of these spells to get a boy to kiss her, she had good looks and boys liked kissing her so joke was on him if he thought she'd actually use these for that.

She was quite done practicing the charm and ready to move on so she just watched everyone around her until the Professor started talking again. Was it something she said that caused his mood? Really it shouldn't be she did nothing wrong and she was just answering a question that was asked, so she still sat smiling at Mr. Good looking and tried to focus on his words.

So they were using the memory charms as well, very brave of the professor with some of these students, her eyes went to a certain fourth year Slytherin before looking down. She was not one to keep her eyes near Blaze long. Getting up and walking to get her own mouse this time she pulled out a cute blue one and went back to her seat.

"Alright little cutie I'm not going to hurt you." Lifting her wand she glanced at the boys at the table making sure they weren't about use the maze and set her mouse at the start. Doing the movement, "Confundo" she thought about the memory she wanted to alter and how she wanted to help him move hoping he'd think the cheesecake was right in front of him as he moved around one corner.

MadMadamMalfoy · 01-29-2018, 10:05 PM

Gaston kept a watchful eye on the class. Miss Diggory appeared to be having success with the COnfundus Charm, and he smiled as he watched her mouse going in circles and running into the wall. "Excellent job, Miss Diggory!" he said.

Elsewhere, he saw another mouse running into walls, and Miss Cararro also received an approving smile from the professor. "Well done, Miss Cararro!" His eyes flicked toward Miss Valla, who he was pleased to see was practicing the Confundus Charm on her mouse. "Nice job, Miss Valla," he said with a small smile.

Gaston gave Mr. Yoon an encouraging smile as he saw him try and fail to cast the False Memory Charm. "Excellent first attempt, Mr. Yoon," he said. "I know you can do it;it just takes practice."

He looked around to see Miss Macindoe practicing the incantation and wand movments for the false Memory Charm."Good practice, Miss Macindoe!" he said with a slight smile. Before he could say anything else, his dark head whipped around as he overheard another Obliviate being cast...

... right in Miss Atwater's direction. He was ready to react, but as he watched he rmouse in the maze, his worried expression turned into a smile. "Congratulations, Miss Atwater!" he said. "that's a very difficult spell to cast."

He glanced at his watch as he wandered back to the front of the room.
Was that the time already?! "YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES LEFT!" he announced.

OOC: You have JUST UNDER 24 HOURS (4:30 PM EST Jan. 30) to finish!

DaniDiNardo · 01-30-2018, 03:43 AM

Admittedly, the false memory charm was also already on her list of achieved spells. Why? She'd needed it in a prior experiment and was trying out a new potion that was highly dependent on the charm for its own efficacy. No real tests done with it so far though, but she was hoping one Flynn Kowalski would give her reason. He was already on thin ice as is and she needed barely anything.

Choosing to forgo an attempt at the standard memory charms, Jessa simply focused on what the lesson required. Jessa could be an overachiever, but only when it suited her to be. Otherwise....she couldn't really be bothered and was as content to do the bare minimum.

First things first was the memory charm. For the sake of not having the Professor think she was squandering away the remaining time, Jessa opted to vocalize the incantations while she "practised".

When she felt her brain begin to shut down from the lack of stimulation, the Ravenclaw decided it was time to put both spells to proper use. She waited to be sure no one else wanted to use the mouse before turning her wand to it. "Mismemini!" She drew the thought bubble, ending it with the 'x' rather than a tail. While she cast, she focused on the memory she wanted to implant in their already tampered with test subject. The thing was....it wasn't relying on memory in the first place. Its stimuli was of the external nature, which meant creating a bad memory surrounding the colour so it would no longer follow it.

The thing with THAT was, this mouse wasn't technically sentient. It did not think for itself and could not necessarily make decisions based on emotional memories which meant a memory that involved it never following the marker line in the past.

Jessa placed the mouse inside the maze and waited a moment. It seemed to be observing the colour but rather than follow as it had done earlier, it turned and went the other way no longer remembering that that was the path. Not wanting it to get too far, Jessa reached in to pick it up and cast the second charm. This time, she drew a question sign, focusing on ensuring the mouse wouldn't be able to really concentrate or make sense of its surroundings. The sight of the line would no longer make sense to him. Nothing in his general area would make sense. He simply wouldn't know what to do.

Not for a second considering it didn't work, Jessa lowered the mouse into the maze again. As expected, it didn't get very far. The poor little thing took two hesitant steps forward before going back. It looked in all directions but made no other moves to try navigating the maze. By all indication, it seemed completely lost. Huh. Maybe this was what she should've used on Flynn.

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