The assignment was thus: an extended analysis on a particular charm, hex, jinx or piece of magic with an intensive use of spellwork, in the form of a critical research and theoretical essay, as well as a practical demonstration. It struck Lucinda as having its roots in Magical Theory as an assessment, but she wasn’t complaining. Magical Theory was something she enjoyed greatly.
Having converged around Anthea at the outset of the assignment, it had been agreed that Ailyn, Anthea and Lucinda were to work together on this assignment. Frankly, Lucinda was incredibly confident with them as a team. Lucinda, admittedly, approached most things with a brisk determination that did not allow much room for nervousness or flinching, but this was definitely a merited confidence. Honestly, what couldn’t they do?
The three of them were seated around a bench, preparing to begin. “Given the assignment, I thought it would be interesting if we did the Patronus Charm,” Lucinda said. “A lot of people will be focusing on things like Flipendo and Alohamora, which are absolutely doable, but honestly, I think they’d be boring. Might as well do something worthwhile, right?” A Patronus was built with theory and language, much like many spells, but there was an emotional art to it—emotions were always important with magic, but the Patronus relied on it more than most.
Ailyn only took DADA because it seemed logical; a war was whirling outside the castle walls and there was no way she’d let herself get caught in a crossfire without any expertise in duelling ( not that she was any good at it, but she supposed she’d be a tad better at it if she’d taken two more years of the class ). The practical side of the class were a downright disaster, but when it came to the essays, she performed excellently. After all, while Ailyn may be no good at performing spells, she was damned good at understanding them.
As she formed a group with Anthea and Lucinda — because who else was there, really, who she would perform perfectly with? — a determination was flowing through her veins. While she was not much looking forward to the practical demonstration, the research of whatever spell they would choose was something she was looking forward.Â
“I agree,” said Ailyn, nodding along to Lucinda’s work. “It’ll be a challenge, but that shouldn’t be a problem, now should it?” Ailyn liked challenges, only liked classes when she really learned something and she could not do that if she did was what simple; she would rather fail while taking a chance than choose the easier option. “There’s a lot of sides to it, too, which means we have many ways to approach the analysis.”
When choosing her classes, Anthea - at her parents’ advice - had chosen to stick with the core classes and pick one elective that she really enjoyed, so that she had something to excel in. Her goal then had been to be as forgettable in class as possible; she was going to make a proper pureblood marriage, and she didn’t need school to do that. So she had developed a habit of not paying attention in class; her parchment for notes was littered with doodles and fancy lettering but hardly anything in the way of actual notes, and she missed most of the announcements the professors made. Her first awareness of the group project was Lucinda stopping her after class and asking what she thought about it.
And of course, she would hardly argue with doing a group with the two of them - Ailyn was brilliant and so was Lucinda, and there was the added bonus that Anthea liked both of them a lot, so working together wouldn’t be difficult. The work wasn’t out of her league either; Anthea might not be quite at the same level that Ailyn was when it came to academics, but she was smart enough and she could contribute to the project without any difficulty. But she knew that it would be the wisest course of action to let them take the lead on determining what to do, so she listened and nodded at the suggestion.
“That sounds like a great idea to me. It will certainly provide us with a lot of information to work with, like both of you said.” She grinned, twisting a strand of hair around her finger and added, “I think we can handle the challenge, especially with the two of you working together. I’m sure we’ll have the best project out of the entire class.”
