![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_percyCharms is not generally my favourite class (I prefer Ancient Runes and Arithmancy for the most part), but I will admit that the lessons these past few weeks have been rather absorbing lately. Somewhat childish, perhaps, but unexpectedly fun. Professor Acton, apparently in a desperate attempt to jar the fifth years out of their winter torpor, hit upon the novel idea of organising lessons rather like a treasure hunt and dividing us up into teams of four to try to find the prize (I suspect the treasure chest at the end will prove to be full of leprechan gold of the sort that any self-respecting Niffler should refuse, but the idea is still an imaginative one.)
Last week, we studied revealing charms, both with the idea that treasure maps themselves could be disguised (as ordinary blank parchment, or a fish and chips bag, etc), and that that treasure itself that we're trying to find could be hidden, behind a disguised door or false wall, for example.
This week, we're studying various charms that could be used as wards to guard the treasure. Some of them are quite imaginative. An age line, so that no one below a certain age could retrieve it. (She'd set the date for those reaching their birthday before December 1 of this year, which meant half our team could cross that line, and the other half grew ridiculously long grey beards when they tried). A gender-guard charm (and my, weren't some of the girls insufferable about that. Boys just got blasted back). The sinister charm so that only left-handed people can perform it (and then we experimented with the question of once the charm is performed, can a right-handed person step across the line to retrieve the chest? Apparently not. Susan Spinx, who is right-handed, tried once Max Wentworth performed the the charm, apparently removing the line, but she ended up with no arms at all, until Madam Pomfrey sorted her out.) My study mates and I spent the morning trying to crack another charm, but can't figure it out. I must re-read those sections of the text book. Maybe it will offer some clues.
Anyway, well done, Professor Acton. Why can't History of Magic be this interesting?
Last week, we studied revealing charms, both with the idea that treasure maps themselves could be disguised (as ordinary blank parchment, or a fish and chips bag, etc), and that that treasure itself that we're trying to find could be hidden, behind a disguised door or false wall, for example.
This week, we're studying various charms that could be used as wards to guard the treasure. Some of them are quite imaginative. An age line, so that no one below a certain age could retrieve it. (She'd set the date for those reaching their birthday before December 1 of this year, which meant half our team could cross that line, and the other half grew ridiculously long grey beards when they tried). A gender-guard charm (and my, weren't some of the girls insufferable about that. Boys just got blasted back). The sinister charm so that only left-handed people can perform it (and then we experimented with the question of once the charm is performed, can a right-handed person step across the line to retrieve the chest? Apparently not. Susan Spinx, who is right-handed, tried once Max Wentworth performed the the charm, apparently removing the line, but she ended up with no arms at all, until Madam Pomfrey sorted her out.) My study mates and I spent the morning trying to crack another charm, but can't figure it out. I must re-read those sections of the text book. Maybe it will offer some clues.
Anyway, well done, Professor Acton. Why can't History of Magic be this interesting?
