Subjects and Sins - Week #5 - Results

[Equinox Chick]

CHOKING CHARMS

You've settled nicely into Hogwarts and are well into your second month. You probably like the House you're in, as well.

But how are the lessons going?

For the next few weeks, the weeklies are going to be based around the subjects taught at Hogwarts and one of the seven deadly sins. You need to write a drabble of between 300 - 500 words based on both the prompts given.

You may write an OC or a canon character. You may write a student or a professor, but the drabble must take place in the lesson the prompt suggests.

You may write any POV, tense or era, but we want to get the feeling of being in the actual lesson.

PROMPT 1 ~ CHARMS

PROMPT 2 ~ GREED

Form for your drabble:

[B]Name:[/B]
[B]House:[/B]
[B]Title:[/B]
[B]Ratings/Warnings:[/B]
[B]Word Count:[/B]
[B]A/N:[/B] 

Please direct any questions to the "Ask a Barmaid thread" here

All standard MNFF guidelines must be followed. Whilst a minor typo can be ignored, glaring SPaG (and canon misspellings) cannot. This has led us to discount marvellous drabbles before now, so if you're not sure, then use a beta. Your barmaids have been known to glower at canon inaccuracies, so please don't have Gabrielle Delacour transferring to Hogwarts to join Harry in a lesson. It didn't happen.

This competition will close on Thursday 11th November at 10 pm GMT.

Thank you

Your Barmaids.

[kehribar]

Name: kehribar
House: Gryffindor
Title: Accio Chocolate!
Ratings/Warnings: 1st-2nd Years, None
Word Count: 498
A/N: 1) Not a great piece of writing; but at this point, I'm happy about having written something comprehendible at all. 2) I know that Harry only learned about the Summoning Charm in his fourth year, but since this is set way before, I hope it's safe to assume that Charms curriculum was different then. 3) Many thanks to Hogwartsbookworm for beta'ing this.

It would be an understatement to say that second year Phineas Nigellus was disappointed about that he would not be going to Hogsmeade.

He was fuming. How could they not allow the second years to go?

He glared a group of fourth year Hufflepuffs happily devouring huge chunks of Honeydukes chocolate outside a classroom. Stomping down the corridor to his Charms class, Phineas rolled his eyes at the idea of Hufflepuffs being fair. What was fair about that; that he had spent his weekend piled under homework with only a bag of Chocolate Frogs to cheer him up whereas the fair Hufflepuffs had had all the fun and the booty in Hogsmeade?

He entered the classroom with a huff and dropped into the first empty seat that he found. He would talk to his father about this; perhaps he could convince the school board to reconsider the rules about Hogsmeade trips.

There was a sound of crumpling paper from behind him, and Phineas turned back to stare at his Gryffindor classmates.

"My brother gave me these," Heather Longbottom was saying as she unwrapped a chocolate bar and shared it with her friend.

"I can't wait 'till next year," responded Barnaby Peakes, taking a bite from his share. "I hear Deandre Weasley's bought a bag full of sweets from Honeydukes. They say she's planning a party."

If looks could kill, Phineas would need the best attorney his father could afford.

"Attention please," chirped the high- pitched voice of Professor Tugwood, and Phineas turned in his seat. "We will continue working on the Summoning Charm today - I assume that you've read the assigned section on them, so you should know the correct wand movement. I want to see everyone practicing it now. Go on, start flicking."

Huffing yet again, Phineas pulled out his wand and started practicing the wrist movement. He might have been deprived of Honeydukes sweets, but he had done his homework.

"Good, Mr. Nigellus," Professor Tugwood commented approvingly as he passed by Phineas' desk. "You should try the spell now." He nodded at the little white feather resting at the edge of the desk, and strolled away. Fixing his uninterested gaze at the target, Phineas pointed his wand at it and muttered "Accio".

The feather fluttered, but remained in place.

After a few more unsuccessful tries, Phineas slumped back in his seat and stared at the feather, bored. He knew he should be concentrating on the feather and really summoning it to himself. But he wasn't interested in the boring feather. Now, it were a bag of Honeydukes chocolates...

His brow creasing with a sudden idea, Phineas straightened and looked hard at the feather. How hard could it be to summon it? He pointed his wand and said the spell.

The feather flew obediently towards him.

A sly grin creeping across lips, Phineas stole a glance at the pair of his Gryffindor classmates.

Deandre Weasley would never know what had hit her and her party stock.

[Cinderella Angelina]

Name: Cinderella Angelina
House: Hufflepuff
Title: Conjured
Ratings/Warnings: 1-2 yrs/none
Word Count: 497
A/N: I had a hard time getting the word count down, but I realize now that I was being a tad too lecture-y in attempt to be canonical. There's your Charms lesson for the day.
Edit: This is my hundredth post. How apt that there's a feast to celebrate. Who knows what it'd have been if the challenge closed on time!

"To conjure food requires a different incantation than any other conjuring charm we use. Does anyone know why this is?"

"Food is an exception to Gamp's Law of Essential Transfiguration," Lily answered.

"That's right. So we can't conjure it out of thin air like we could, for example, water, even though we can consume it. If we wanted to eat dirt or another basic element, we can conjure that with one of the generic spells, but food requires more specificity."

Professor Flitwick pointed at his desk, waved his wand, and said an incantation. A large plate of miniature tarts appeared on his desk, and the class was immediately riveted.

"I managed that by arranging with the house-elves in advance that I would be taking this plate, focusing on where I wanted to conjure it from, and using the spell. It's more of a translocation spell than strict conjuring, but in practical use they are very similar." He wrote the incantation on the board, then said, "Given what we've learned in the past about conjuring, I want you to use this incantation and try to conjure just one tart to your own desk."

There was a rustling as wands were taken out and students prepared to do the spell. After a short while, Lily's muttered incantation resulted in a tart popping onto her desk.

"Well done, Miss Evans!" Mr. Flitwick smiled at her. "You may eat your spoils."

The class watched jealously as Lily delicately devoured her tart.

"Bet I can get more than one tart," James muttered to Sirius.

"Bet I can get more than you." The race was on.

Sirius succeeded first, successfully conjuring two tarts onto his desk. Before Flitwick could protest, he'd jammed them both into his mouth. "Ha ha," he garbled, spitting crumbs onto James' desk.

"You know what?" James said. "I see your two tarts and I raise you...the whole kitchen."

"Like to see you try," Sirius said, still muffled.

James thought about the kitchen, and the food he knew was there. He closed his eyes, concentrating, then said the incantation firmly, waving his wand in exactly the proper form.

"James Potter, what have you done?"

He opened his eyes at Professor Flitwick's outraged tones, and laughed when he saw that he had indeed brought up the whole kitchen, or at least most of the food. Tarts, roast beef, mashed potatoes, pies, biscuits, sandwiches -- all were piled haphazardly around the classroom and everyone was eyeing them greedily.

"I conjured enough for everyone," James said innocently, then picked up the nearest tart and took a bite. "And if you want my advice," he added to the class at large, "you'll dig in while you can."

None of the boys needed telling twice, and started tearing into the food. When James offered Lily a sandwich, she responded by pushing a pie into his face.

"That's what you get for one-upping me," she said smugly. Then she licked the cream off her fingers.

[Equinox Chick]

Urghh!

Sorry for late closure.

This barmaid has been sadly obsessed.

Hmm, quiet in here, isn't it? Disliking my prompts, are we? Ah, well, only two more sins to go. Perhaps you're waiting for Gluttony ... no, I thought not.

Now comp later today - I promise.

~Carole~

[Equinox Chick]

Oh Merlin!

I enjoyed both those drabbles very much.

Ayse - I really liked the fact that you used an underused charatcer and time period and wrote a really interesting drabble keeping Phineas totally IC. Great use of both prompt, as well.

C.A. - Oh! Marauders - my favourite. I was chuckling all the way through, especially when James summoned all the mashed potato. I'm glad Lily got her revenge at the end.

Okay - it was quiet in here, but these drabbles were both excellent, and so I'm going to award you 5 points each. This won't happen every week it's quiet, by the way.

Gryffindor - 5 points
Hufflepuff - 5 points

The Barmaids