Ground Rules (Mad | J.J.)

Mad worked on her grading, shaking her head at the sheer idiocy of some of her students. So, perhaps some of her remarks on the essays weren't exactly... kind. Mad was not a kind woman, and the little hellions ought to have put more care into their work - they'd had the whole summer to do so, after all.

She glanced at the clock which stood in the corner. Five minutes to seven. The woman pursed her lips. Miss Jones had better arrive on time.

J. J. rushed through the door, glancing quickly at her watch and let out a sigh of relief. She was just on time. Nervously straightening her robed she knocked cautiously on the door.
"Hullo, Professor," she smiled nervously.
She had been thinking about this meeting all day. What on earth could she be needed for? She was a muggleborn first year who had almost no clue about magic. She certainly hoped she hadn't managed to get herself in trouble. No matter what she wanted to make a good impression. The first one is the most important, or so they say.

Mad looked up as the girl arrived. Just on time, she thought approvingly.

"Have a seat, Miss Jones," she told the girl curtly, nodding to the chair across from her desk. The woman rested her chin atop the back of her fingers as she silently studied the child for a moment. Finally, she spoke.

"You applied for an apprenticeship, Miss Jones. After seeing your satisfactory performance in my class, I have decided to accept you as my apprentice," she told the girl. "I have called you here to set up some ground rules."

Professor Lewis looked up at her greeting and told her to take a seat.
Slowly, straightening her robes again - a nervous habit it would seem she was starting to develop- she folded herself as gracefully into the seat in front of the desk. Now was not the time to look like a bumbling idiot. No matter whether she was in trouble, or in some sort of meeting, she wanted to look as mature, and ... sophisticated as possible.
Professor Lewis looked at her a long moment, appraising her J. J. would say before she spoke, and when she did J. J. smiled with a mixture of both relief and excitement.
She wasn't in trouble at all! She was going to be an apprentice. She wanted nothing more than that. It was an opportunity to learn more, and J. J. would give anything to learn as much as she could.
"Oh Thank you Professor," she responded, trying to rein in her excitement as much as possible, so she didn't look too foolish - no more than ever she wanted to keep up a good impression. It wasn't an impossibility for Professor Lewis to change her mind. She nodded slightly when the professor said they were going to go over rules, "Ok, I'm ready."

Mad gave a curt nod, taking off her glasses and setting them on her desk.

"First of all, you shall continue to call me professor," she said. "Others require their apprentices to call them 'master' or 'mistress'. To me, that is wholly unnecessary. I am still your teacher, regardless of the capacity.

"You will maintain satisfactory grades in all your classes, not only mine," Mad continued. "Poor performance on your part will, in turn, reflect poorly on me. If you are having difficulty, you will ask for assistance, preferably from the professor of whichever class that happens to be. You may also come to me, if the need arises. Your muggle school records indicate that you have suitable intelligence, so I suspect if you apply yourself, this shouldn't be a problem for you.

"You will follow the rules. I will not have an apprentice who feels she may flout said rules. If you get into trouble with another professor, you are in trouble with me. Any punishment you receive from another staff member will be matched with another from myself. You will comport yourself in a manner that is in-keeping with a student of this institution.

"Finally, you will take care of your own well-being. This includes refraining from needlessly reckless behavior, getting proper rest, and attending no less than two meals everyday. I may not be your guardian, Miss Jones, but I am your mentor, now. If you make yourself ill, I will not be unaffected. I will not have it said that I have been neglectful to you, in any way.

"Now," said Mad, leaning back in her chair, "if you feel these requirements are in any way unacceptable, you are welcome to walk back out through that door and I will find myself a different apprentice. Otherwise, I shall continue with what you may expect to learn under my tutelage."

Her eyes focused intently on the girl, waiting for her response.

J. J. mulled over these rules. She'd probably be willing to agree to anything that would get her to learn more, but these rules all seemed reasonable enough. She'd rather call Professor Lewis, that rather than Mistress... that seemed to, slave-ish to J. J. And the stuff about classes, behaviour and health, she'd all do anyways. She wasn't normally reckless by nature, and she wanted to learn out of pure need, and that included all of her classes.
Finally she smiled, "I agree to those rules, and I would love to know what I am to learn now."

"Good," Mad pronounced. "During your apprenticeship with me, you will of course gain a mastery of those spells I teach in class. However, you will receive more in-depth instruction than that which will be given to your classmates. Furthermore, while there are some charms I will not be teaching in class because they fall into branches of magic taught in other classes, I shall see to it that you are properly instructed in their use, as well as other spells I feel it is imperative for you to know.

"I will assign you readings," the woman told the girl. "So long as you take the time to complete them, and commit the information to memory, I will not assign you any writing assignments during your apprenticeships.

"From here on out, Miss Jones, I shall expect more of you than I do of your classmates. Excel and you shall be rewarded; fail and you can expect consequences." Mad folded her hands on her desk, eyeing the girl seriously. "You have great potential, Miss Jones. Follow my instruction and that may become incredible talent."

She waited a moment for her to sink in. Then, she instructed. "Take out your wand. I want to see the charm you learned in class today."

J. J. listened to everything Professor Lewis said solemnly. She felt a reserved excitement at all the things she could learn, and do, and a slight worry at being held above others. What if she didn't meet expectations?
She would! J. J. was going to do everything she could to be the best that she could.
"I won't let you down Professor," she responded solmenly.
Then she fiddled with her bag a moment to get out her wand. She wasn't nervous right now. She was confident she had gotten the hang of this spell in class.
Glancing at the Professor once, and then taking a deep breath she held up her wand.
"Lumos."
She smiled as the tip of her wand light up.
"Did you wish me to turn it off, too?"

Mad inclined her head in approval and nodded when the girl asked if she wanted her to put out the light as well. When J.J. had done so, the professor pushed the unlit lamp on her desk forward.

"You remember my demonstration from class?" she queried rhetorically. "I'd like you to try to light the lamp, Miss Jones."



(Note: Mad doesn't expect you to get it the first time. In fact, she rather expects you to ask if there's a trick to it...)

J. J. looked nervously at the lamp. She figured that she wasn't going to be able to do it. It should be as simple as just pointing at it, as it had appeared in class, however Professor Lewis had asked her to do it, so she figured she'd give it at least one go before she started asking for help.
She lit her wand once more, and pointed it at the lamp as she remembered watching in class. It didn't do anything.
J. J. didn't remember the Professor saying a spell to get the light to jump, but... she didn't think you could do magic with out it.
"Is there another spell you have to do to make the light jump?" she paused a moment to think, "Or maybe you just have to visualize it... there must be something to get the light to move. It shouldn't just jump on its own... should it?"
She bit her lip. Maybe it should and she had failed but... she couldn't imagine magic could ever be that simple.

A very faint smile pulled at Mad's lips.

"You have the light," she said calmly. "Now, envision lighting the lamp... or, as you say, 'making the light jump'. It will not move unless you will it to."

J. J. nodded. Okay, envisioning, she could do that. After all they had spent all transfiguration wiht that challenge. It seemed like a lot of magic was based off imagination. Good thing she had a good one.

Rolling back her shoulders, J. J. took a big gulp of air, and then slowly let it out to centre herself. She didn't want anything else distracting her.
She held her wand, once again to the lamp, seeing the light there. She nodded, now she wanted the light to move, to jump.

She tried for few seconds, but when nothing happened she closed her eyes, trying to make the whole thing more realistic.

Ok, you can do this.

Like in transfiguration she let the whole thing play out on her eyelids. She saw her wand how it was, glowing but separate from the lamp. Then she saw the exchange the light going from one place to the other, and then finally she saw the final product - the light lamp.
For a long moment she just sat there her eyes closed, letting those images play in her head.

Realizing she had no spell to say, but still feeling like she needed to do something with her wands, she gave it a very soft jab.

This is it. The moment of truth; J. J. sighed, getting up her nerves before opening her eyes. She would be so disappointed if she didn't the lamp to...

She gasped when she saw it. Although the light was faint it was there. She tried not too look to proud of herself, even though she was feeling rather cocky. That wasn't a good thing - she still had a lot of work to do.

Still, she had done it.

Mad tapped the lamp twice with her own wand, the light growing brighter with each. A third tap and the light went out altogether.

"Well done, Miss Jones," she told the girl approvingly. "You will of course, grow better with practice.

"Now, for lumos, what would you do if I asked you make the light at the end of your wand brighter?" the woman raised a quizzical brow. The answer wasn't in the first year text, but she wondered how close her apprentice's guess might be.

J. J. thought for a moment. She hadn't read how to do that anywhere... but that didn't mean you couldn't do it. Obviously Professor Lewis was testing her a bit, as she had been all meeting.
How to make the wand lighter?
J. J. thought about it for a moment, but she could only come up with one answer.
Oh well, she thought, might as well give it a go.
"Would it be like the lamp? Do you have to envision or imagine your wand growing brighter?" J. J. thought it sounded too simple, but she didn't have any other ideas. She had nothing to do but wait and see.

"Well, thought, Miss Jones," Mad nodded in affirmation. "That is one means of making the light brighter, though, perhaps slightly beyond your current capabilities.

"A simpler way is to use the incantation 'lumos maxima'." The professor motioned for the girl to try.

J. J. beamed as Professor Lewis told her she was right - at least partly.

She glanced at her wand a moment, taking a deep breath before trying the spell.

The light from before, with the lamp, was still glowing.Squaring her shoulders, she centred her thoughts and gave the wand a firm flick.

"Lumos maxima."

The light flickered brighter slightly, and then went back to dim.

Ok, she thought. She was a little disappointed and embarrassed that it did not brighten right away but it was only her first shot. She couldn't give up.

She nodded. Let's try again.

"Lumos maxima!"

This time she spoke with more command, driven by determination, and flicked the wand slightly harder.

The light brightened.

She waited, and waited.

It stayed.

Excited she did it again.

"Lumos Maxima."

It got brighter still. She beamed once more.

"Nicely done, Miss Jones," Mad told her apprentice approvingly. "You are well-suited to Charms work.

"That will be all for today. You are free to go."

J. J. smiled, restraining in her giddiness. It was all almost too much. But she could wait, wait until she left the room at the very least.
"Thank you very much Professor," she smiled, "I will see you in class tomorrow. Good Evening."
With a small nod she pushed back her chair and left the room.

Mad very nearly smiled after the girl had left.

"Good evening, Miss Jones," she told the empty room. The professor silently turned back to her grading.