Participants:
Scene Title | The Neville Longbottom Cheering Squad |
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Synopsis | Help with Charms (that pesky Wrackspurt detector!) then talk of lots of things, including Neville |
Location | Grounds at Hogwarts |
Date | Mar 27, 2005 |
Watch For | Cheering for Neville! YAY! |
Logger | Angelina |
What a lovely spring evening! Spring has finally come to Hogwarts! The Whomping Willow has long since shaken off the last remnants of snow and ice. Most of the students have been sitting outside all day, the first truly nice and shiny, warm and dry, spring day of the year.
Angelina is no different than the others. She has her Team Gryffindor picnic blanket spread out, a plate of cookies there, her broom laying next to her. She is studying, however, under the shade of a tree on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. From the looks of the blanket and the plate of cookies, she likely had other visitors who have since gone.
And who should be walking out of the Forbidden Forrest just at this wonderfully present time? Remus Lupin, of course. Why was he in the Forbidden Forest to begin with? Well, that's a whole other story to begin with that he'd rather not talk about. Before he's seen by Angelina, he scurries up a ways and doubles back along the edge, hoping to make it seem like he wasn't in the forest at all. As he approaches Angelina he smiles. "Miss Johnson," comes the greeting. "How are you?"
Angelina looks up from her spot on the ground, then beams at the man. "Professor Lupin!! Hi! Isn't a lovely evening?" She sits up and crosses her legs, settling her book in her lap. "Would you like to join me? I have coooooookies. With choooooooocolate…" Because, you know, those things are tempting!
Lupin smiles softly. "Chocolate…well, I do not mind if I do, thank you Miss Johnson." He snaps his fingers and one of said cookies jumps over to him as he approaches. "It looks like you've been having a picnic…with your broom." He observes. "Well, I do hear brooms can be quite the good company. Even known to talk back if charmed properly and skilfully." He smiles kindly.
"Haha." Angie rolls her eyes at him, filled with sarcasm. "you're sooooo funny." She does grin though. "Nah, I just allowed myself a tiny, teeny break to fly today. It was so pretty out. I know I should have been studying. But I couldn't help myself."
Lupin smiles ever so slightly. "Well, I won't chastise you for it. A little broom ride never hurt anyone." He tilts his head ever so slightly. "Were there others here earlier? Well…I assume there were." He nods.
Angelina nods. "Oh, yeah. Fred and George and the team of course. Just sitting out here for a while." She motions to an open area on the blanket. "Please, have a seat. I have some things to ask you about, if you have the time?"
Lupin bows his head, taking the seat. "I wonder if these questions are to do with the Rengalli plant, perhaps?" He wouldn't be a good tutor if he didn't mention that! "Besides the Rengalli plant, what else would you like to know, for I assume you wish to know something more as well?"
"Yeah. That plant too. If it looks like about six others! And if it can change the leaves to whatever shape, how are we supposed to find it?" But that wasn't Angie's main question. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a folded paper before passing it over. "I was wondering if you could help me with some spells for that."
"A trick to that is to catch it changing. That and the tell tale white spot under each leaf." Lupin explains. As he's passed the paper, he opens it up. "Sneakoscopes and a broken…is that a remembrall? What kind of spells are you requiring?"
"So really, unless you just happen to be lucky, just the white spot then?" Angie writes that down, then tips her head as he examines the drawing. "Well, yeah. And I think one of the sneakoscopes is broken. I don't know. Lovegood insists her father made this thing that worked, and the Slytherins took it from her, so we have to find a way to make a new one, so she doesn't have to tell her father. We need a hoop, for one thing. But we need a way to me those things hover inside the hoop…all together, bonded, and like they are suspended by cables to the outside…"
Lupin nods a little. "Yes. The white spot. And that spot can be quite difficult to find as well. But if you can find them on all the leaves, you know that it's this plant." He looks down at the picture once more. "What would the point in bonding all of these items and placing them in the middle of a hoop be? I mean…what is it's purpose? Sneakoscopes are quite different devices from Remembralls. They serve different purposes."
Angelina looks at you pointedly. "For one. it's Lovegood's idea." Really, Lupin. That should explain it. Come on. "Two…she says that the remembrall makes the sneakoscopes remember what they are supposed to be finding. That is why it has to be a broken remembrall. So it only remembers that one thing."
Lupin shakes his head. "Luna Lovegood, as well as her father, have been known to have good ideas." He'll leave it at that. "It shouldn't be hard to produce a spell that makes all three objects hover inside loop as if tied to it and to each other. I assume you have collected, or will be collecting, the Sneakoscopes and Remembrall and loop?"
"We have everything but the hoop. However, there is no string or connection involved except between the sneakoscopes and the remembrall. The hoop there..they are supposed to just stay centered in the hoop, no matter how it is turned. Only we don't know the charm for it. And we don't know the charm to make the sneakoscopes communicate with the broken remembrall." Angie takes a deep breath. "Ideas?"
Lupin takes a deep breath in. "I could look into. But…have you considered sending an owl to Mister Lovegood, Luna's father, to ask him how he did it? You needn't say that you wish to make a new one, but merely that you're curious." He takes a few deep breaths in before speaking again. "That being said, I might just have a few ideas."
"No. Lovegood refuses to ask him at all. No matter what. It isn't her fault the Slytherins took it, after all. But she won't ask him. Out of the question." Angelina taps her fingers on her leg. "I had a few ideas too, but I don't want to be blowing anything up. And it was either you, or the Weasley twins. I figured your spells might at least be more stable."
"Well, you see…items such as these, the magic that is encapsulated with in them must be channelled between them if you want them to work together. That would be difficult. There are specific charms that are placed on them so that the magic does not run errant." Explains Lupin. "What you would want to do is use a charm, or multiple charms as the case may come to, to create a stable funnel between each of the three objects." He sits there silently for a few moments. "There are one or two spells you could use."
"Hmm. So..like make the spells all flow around each other? That is probably what the hoop was for — to contain the spells within it, making them all three share their magic within the one big circle, making it a whole new magical item with different properties…" Angie's voice trails off, before she picks up her parchment and starts writing once more.
Lupin bows his head a little. "That's probably it." He agrees. "The loop is most likely there to help control the magic as an outlet where any extra magic can be placed and then used again later." He says thoughtfully.
"So…they don't just hover there, in the center. Its more like a sphere. An invisible sphere. Like the remembrall itself. And the magic is held within….and flows altogether? Something like that?" Angie makes a bit of a face, trying to picture all this.
Lupin nods a little bit. "Yes. That's exactly it. It may seem difficult, but it is doable." He smiles softly. "If you look in…well, I think the spell you'll need in Advance Charms for the Wayward Marvels, Third Edition."
"Right." Angie writes the name of the book down. "Would that be in the library here? Or do I need to order it? How much will it cost? I'll have to see if I have enough for it here. I can't ask daddy for it, or he'll want to know why." She rolls her eyes. "Alright. I will get that book then, and see if we can get a hoop off an old barrel from Hagrid…and then I think we can try it again. Maybe all of them have to be broken, not just the remembrall."
Lupin smiles slightly. "Ask Madam Pomfrey. She should be able to find the book for you." He says with a soft smile. "I wish I could remember the spell right off the bat. I think it's something to the effect of Tranquilitatus. Or similar anyway." He says with a nod.
"Trans….quil..itatus.." this Angie writes down as well. "Very well then. We will look for it. And that is to make them share the magic? So we will need another one to make the invisible sphere to enclose it all in." She scratches at her head. "This is part of the detention I got for walking out of potions class. I have to help Luna with it. Once I get this thing working…whatever 'working' actually does, I am done."
Lupin smiles softly. "Well, you could certainly have a worse detention. I could think of a few that are worse." He gives a glance to Forbidden Forest for a moment before looking back to Angie. "Well, there's one much more simple for that, you know." He says with a slight smile.
"Oh, I know there are worse detentions. Its just hard to know if the thing will even work. Am I supposed to work with her on it all year if it never does what she says the other one did?" Angie leans back on her hands, legs still folded. "I think I know the spell for the sphere. It shouldn't be that hard to contain the magic within it. I think we used something of the like in potions class a few times, when brewing something or other. In case it exploded."
Lupin smiles softly. "Well, who gave you the detention again? It was…Moody, wasn't it? Well, knowing him, it will just be until you are done helping Miss Lovegood and then you won't have to do much more. Hopefully."
Angelina bobs her head in a nod. "Moody. I just don't know how long I'm supposed to try to make it work. I mean…how do we know it ever did work to find these imaginary creatures in the first place?"
Lupin tilts ever so slightly. "Which 'imaginary' creatures is this object supposed find?" He asks curiously.
"Wrack…spurts? They apparently live in our ears, but look like pigeons. How something that big lives in our ears, I don't know. But there it is. That is what we're looking for."
Lupin blinks a little bit. "Oh yes…I do believe I heard Miss Lovegood mention something about that. Wrackspurts. They seem to be curious creatures from what I can tell." He says with a light chuckle.
"And do they, in your estimation, actually exist? The finder will never work if there is nothing to find, will it?" Angelina grins at him, sighing. "Oh, by the way, Neville is helping me some with Herbology too. Nice kid. No one really gives him much credit. It makes him happy to help me, so I figure it can't hurt. I need too much help to be rejecting offers of assistance."
Lupin shrugs. "I couldn't say whether they exist or not. I've never seen one. I know that a certain people do not believe in their existence. Really, you can't say whether they are real or not until they're seen…but then, there are a few animals most people cannot see. Thestrals, for example. I can see them, but many people cannot." He smiles. "Neville…he is a good person. He really is."
"He really is, yes. I've been trying to encourage him, some. It bothers me when people treat him like some brainless git. He isn't. He just doesn't have the confidence that others do. But I saw him charge Bellatrix Lestrange..at least, that is who they told me it was after the fact…in Hogsmeade. He is no pansy. He just needs to stop second-guessing himself so much."
"Yes. He does lack confidence. But he is smart. You've just got to get him in the right circumstance." Lupin takes a deep breath in. "He faced Bellatrix Lestrange, did he? Well, that was mighty brave of him. She is not one to be taken lightly." None of them are, really. "Can't imagine why he would have, though. It is out of character for him." Though, really, Lupin knows full well why Neville would have wanted to face Bellatrix head on. But it's not his place to say.
"I'm trying to help him with it. I don't know that its working, but I'm trying." One hand lifts to rub at her right eye. "I'm trying to do alot of things right now. I'm not sure any of them are working, frankly."
Lupin smiles softly. "Don't give up on Neville. I'm sure he appreciates it. And you're giving him a chance to do something he loves, which is botany. And he's getting to teach you it. Nothing could be much better for him." Except for his parents getting well, of course.
Angelina nods. "I'm not giving up on him. He's a sweet kid. And he does seem so excited to help me with the Herbology. I couldn't tell him no."
Lupin bows his head slightly. "Well, really, it's his best course. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes off to do something in the area of Herbology. If he didn't, I'd be most taken aback."
"He's really good at teaching. If Dumbledore were smart, I mean, not that I don't think he is…I'm just saying..when it came time for another teacher, Neville might be a very good option." Angelina gives him a soft smile. "You've been well, yes?"
Lupin nods ever so slightly. "Well, perhaps. I am sure that some day Neville Longbottom could be a fine teacher." He looks down toward the lake for a few minutes, silent as he tends to get.
Angelina allows him his silence for a moment, then lowers her voice to talk more quietly. "Is something wrong?"
"Hmm?" Lupin looks quietly back to Angelina. "Oh, no. No. Nothing wrong." He smiles softly. "I was just recalling something from a long time ago. Nothing to worry about.""
Angie grins. "You wanna share it, or keep it private?" Her arms wrap around her knees. "You know I like hearing your stories."
Lupin shakes his head. "No, it's nothing important. Not mine to tell, regardless. Not my own story." He clears his throat. "Besides, my stories are never all that interesting, are they?"
"I think they are. I like hearing them. But then again, I like hearing stories. Just the way I am. I've always liked hearing stories. Since I was a kid. I just like to listen, sometimes." Angie shrugs. "I like to watch people's faces when they tell them."
Lupin bows his head a little. "Well, maybe one day you'll be the one telling the stories, sitting by a lake with someone younger than you asking to be told stories. Consider that for a while." He smiles softly.
Angelina tries to wrap her brain around that. Finally, she just shakes her head. "Naaaaaaaah. I'm not the teaching type."
Lupin shakes his head. "Don't say no. You never know. But, I digress." He chuckles.
"Nah. According to Moody, the odds aren't stacked in my favor. There likely won't be anyone to sit and listen to my stories." Angie begins to gather up her books.
Lupin nods a little bit. "Well, Moody doesn't look too favourably on much of anyone, let me tell you. He holds people up to high standards. He expects people to work the way he does."
Angelina nods. "I got that. I'm trying." That is all Angie can really offer. She is trying.
Lupin nods a little bit. "Well, I shan't hold you up much longer. I should be back to doing some chores. It was pleasant speaking with you, however."
"Thank you for your help on the project. I'll look that book up in the library tomorrow. Thanks for talking to me. You want to take the rest of the cookies with you?" Angie is already folding a blank piece of parchment and putting them within it. "You can just put them in your pocket..they'll be okay in the parchment.."
Lupin shakes his head. "No, no. You keep them. Give them to Neville as a thank you for him helping you." He says lightly.
Angelina grins. "Alright. Have a good night, Professor."
Lupin bows his head. "Good night, Miss Johnson."
Any additional notes fall to the bottom.