The Charms Mistress' Apprentice || Mad and J.J.

The missive had arrived at breakfast time on Saturday by way of a lovely barn owl with silver and copper feathers across its back and wings. Landing gracefully between the dishes on the table, it hopped around a platter of toast to stop beside J.J. glass, thrusting its leg out towards the girl.

Waiting for her to retrieve the message, it hooted once. Then, it snagged a piece of bacon and flew away.

The message read,

J. J. stood outside of the school, exactly as instructed, the note clutched in her hand. It was a few minutes before eleven. She did not want to be late so she had made a large effort to be early.

She bit her lip, nervous she had somehow ended up in the wrong spot.

But she was excited too. She couldn't wait for another lesson to begin.

Mad stepped into the courtyard. "Good day, Miss Jones," she told the girl. "Let us be off. We'll be having your lesson off of school grounds.

She led the way towards the fronts gates of the school, stopping once they had reached the anti-apparation boundary. "Take my arm," she directed. Once the girl had done so, the woman turned on the spot, apparating them to Lazarus Lake.


(Ack! Sorry for the long delay - I was distracted. )

"Hello Professor" J. J. smiled and then realized something "... or... what am I to call you now that you aren't actually my Professor any longer?" Saying anything but Professor seemed an oddity to her.

Excited to be doing anything magic related, and eager to know where off ground they were going she followed the older woman as instructed and when asked to grab her arm did immediatly.

It was only afterwards she had found any reason at all to regret it. She lost her vision and her chest refused to move as it felt like she was trapped in a giants hand - a giant that was set on squishing her into a small unrecongizable mass.

"That sucked," she gasped, not really stopping to think about anything else, once the sensation had gone away and she had caught her breath again. When she was feeling more normal she realized the exact words that had come out of her mouth, and how they might have sounded and flushed, "Sorry..." she paused trying to think up of an excuse but gave up after a moment, "but I there really wasn't a better description for that."

She stopped then and actually took in her surrondings, "Where are we?"

(don't worry about it; I don't have a life, but I completely understand that other people do )

"I suppose you may call me Ms. Lewis," Mad told J.J. "If you should like, I shall even permit you to call me Miss Mad."

The woman gave a quiet chuckle at the girl's response. "Indeed, that may, in fact, be one of the most... apropos descriptions," she said wryly. "We are at Lazarus Lake, outside the city of Azorat. Have you heard of it, Miss Jones?"


(OOC: Weeelll.. it's not so much that I have a life, as I was watching Asian drama shows...)

J. J. smiled a bit.

She looked at her surrondings again, before she answered the question; the name sounded... not exactly familiar but not new either.

"I might have pro- Miss Mad, but..." she paused for a moment fighting her brain for information, "I couldn't tell you a thing about it, or where I heard it."

"The City of Azorat is one of the most celebrating Wizarding cities in the UK," Mad told the child. "It is said that at one point, the lake had dried up entirely, leaving the area barren. One day, one of the founders of Azorat dug a hole at the center of the dry lake bed and struck water. From this small hole, the entire lake eventually sprang. Thus, 'Lazsurs Lake', after one of the old muggle religious stories."

The woman looked out over the water as she spoke, then, turned back to the girl. "Tell me, Miss J.J., how're classes progressing? You have gotten potions sorted out, I trust?"

J. J. listened to the explantion with facination. Wizarding venues just had so much better stories than those of the muggle place she had heard of. She looked out at the water with more interest, wondering if this story was true, or just a fable.

J. J. became alert once more when questions were directed back at her.

"Yes, I did get potions sorted out - Just a lot of care and concentration," she grinned ruefully, "I don't think it will ever be my forte though. My other classes are going good too though Professor Smith was..." she paused, unsure what to call what they did in their last class - she also didn't want to sound like she was whinning either, "in a mood last class." Was what she finally settled on.

Mad pursed her lips. "If your Defense professor becomes too... unorthodox, you are to let me know," she said. "He will be having words with myself." She was well aware of Cobalt Smith and his many 'moods' - most of them some variance of surly.

The woman withdrew a small wooden disc from her pocket. "Let us see how your color-changing charm is coming along," she instructed, holding the object out to the girl.

J. J. nodded solemnly.

"I will. I don't think he was too... unorthodox yet.. I mean his leason was a good one. I assume he just wants us to be prepared for any attacks that may come at us, and to be able to ... I guess attack before we're attacked," she paused for another moment, "He is just very hands on about it."

She looked at the disk and smiled. She had been practicing that spell - it was one of the only peices of homework she had actually enjoyed doing - and she felt rather confident that she was coming along well with it.

Pursing her lips with concentration she thought of a colour to change it - the bright green of fresh grass; she picked that colour and held it in her head, smiling slightly at the warm feeling it gave her.

Taking a deep breath, she moved her wand in the apropriate motion.

"Colouris Mutation."

She smiled at her creation. It wasn't quite the green she invisioned - then again she wasn't sure any spell could recreate the perfect new spring green she had in her head. The memory was so tainted the colour probably didn't exist - however it was about as close as she thought something could come.

Mad gave a nod. "Well done, Miss J.J.," she told the girl. "I trust you have continued to practice Wingardium Leviosa and Lumos as well?

"And what of your last Charms lesson? What did my successor teach you?"

J. J. nodded earnestly; she loved doing magic of any kind. She knew so little it was a point of pride to do the few spells she had mastered.

She paused a moment, her enthusiasism dying slightly.

"Well... she didn't actually teach us anything... she just made us practice Wingardium Leviosia again... on another student," she bit her lip not exactly relishing sharing that news.

Mad raised a brow. "Only certain charms are allowed to be practiced upon fellow students in class," she stated. "Wingardium Leviosa is not one of them. And just what did she say the boxes were for then?"

J. J. flushed for the new Professor's sake, "Umm... to put the pieces of parchement in to vote for the student to go up in the air."

It sounded as ridiculous to repeat it as it had when the Professor had announced it.

Mad pursed her lips, gaze focused over the lake. "I have been replaced," she declared, "by a moron.

"And what did you or your classmates suspect the boxes were for? Did you also expect to be putting pieces of parchment into them to vote on which student you would be performing potentially dangerous practice upon?"

Although all things concidered J. J. was inclinde to agree to the woman's statment she kept that to her self.

"Well, she asked us what we had learned so far - and so I told her, and I also said I suspected that you were going to teach the unlocking charm before she showed up," she still couldn't remember what the name was although after the not so satisfying class she had gone and read about it, "The rest of the class didn't speak about it but... well, I think they probably thought along the same lines as I did."

Mad inclined her head. "It is good to know that some intelligence remained in my absence," she remarked.

Conjuring a small lock, she turned to her apprentice. "Alohomora, J.J.," she instructed, demonstrating the charm as she spoke. She waited for the girl to give it a try.



(NOTE: Mad just had a really bad first, second, and third impression of the woman. Thus, she shall never like her. That's Mad.)

J. J. watched as the Professor conjured a lock, and demostrated the spell she had read briefly about earlier.

She nodded her head as she fished her wand out of where she put it.

She looked at the lock and pictured what she wanted - for it to unlock. She took a long moment to let that image settle into her head, so she was really sure that she had it.

"Alohomora." She thrusted her wand at the lock with demand, but held back a sigh when nothing happened.

When all else fails, she chanted in her head determined not to get discouraged, try, try again!

She rolled her shoulders and made sure she had not other thought in her head but what she wanted. Once again she thursted her wand at the lock.

"Alohomora!"

She smiled as the small lock sprung open.

"Very good, J.J." Mad had elected to drop the 'Miss' from the girl's name altogether. After all, it was hardly necessary, anymore.

"Now, which classes were you taking again? Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, and Defense, I believe? Any others?" She raised an inquiring brow. "Knowing Professor Smith's usually means of instruction, I doubt he is teaching you much in the way of new spells. Are you taking Wizard Dueling, by any chance?"

J. J. nodded that pretty much covered it - those were the classes they were actually doing things in. Her other three classes had... fallen short of expectations. Her History of Magic class seemed to have stopped meeting all together.

"No," she replied softly shaking her head, "I just wanted to make sure I had the basics in the begining."

"A sound idea," Mad said. "Unless you wish to do so, it is not necessary for you to join dueling class. I am well able to instruct you in the use of defensive and offensive spellcraft, myself. It is a little known fact that my NEWT score in the subject has yet to be surpassed.

"First years would naturally start with the basics and move on from there. We'll start with the disarming spell." The woman took out her wand to demonstrate the movement.

"Expelliarmus," she pronounce clearly. "Now, aim at your target - that would be myself - and try to disarm me." Mad held her wand loosely in front of her, waiting for the girl to comply.

J. J. tightened her grip on her wand. 'Dueling magic, some how had the sudden effect of making her far more nervous than trying to attempt any other spell - except perhaps potions, but that was just because she knew she had no talent for it. Maybe it was just the message behind the words - dueling. It implied that if she messed this up she would be in more trouble than with anything else.

There seemed to be a lot riding on her ability to achieve this.

She nodded as she listened to the instructions.

Ok, she told herself thinking about it reasonably, don't get all panicky... just treat it like a charm. Think what you want to do... and then do it.

She proceeded that thought with a nervous image of the wand being moved. Nodding she readied her wand.

"Expelliarmus!"

She tried to cast the spell with a confident voice, and then bit her lip, watching to see what would happen.

Mad watch the girl as she mentally prepared herself to cast the spell, her expression impassive. Her wand jerked in her hand, but otherwise remained in place.

"J.J.," the woman spoke evenly, "are you in any way afraid to disarm me? Because I am your mentor, perhaps? In order for expelliarmus to be successful, you have to truly wish to disarm your opponent. I have given you permission to do so. Furthermore, even when you do succeed, I am more than capable of defending myself. I've no doubt you have the theory behind the spell down, now exhibit the desire.

"Again."

J. J. nodded, and took a deep breath. She would try again.

Get a grip; leave the fear behind she ordered herself as sternly as she could. She could do this - there was nothing to start freaking out about.

She started to bite her lip but stopped when she realized that it was a nervous habit, and she would have to do away with her nervous habits if she was going to get this down.

This time she closed her eyes for a long moment to get what she wanted to happen into her head. She let the image play back to her on her eyelids as it sunk in.

She tightened her grip on her wand and once agian took a deep centering breath. She could do this - she would do this.

J. J. raised her wand and pointed it where she wanted her spell to go.

"Expelliarmus!"

This time, Mad's wand flew from her hand, making a rather quick beeline towards J.J. Mad looked on in mild amusement.

"Well done," she approved. "I would find a schoolmate to practice with later on.

"Now, the next spell you should know is the shield charm. The incantation is protego." The woman used her hand to show the girl the proper wand movement, then nodded for her to try.