bastion

[Gerri]

If you have time, let's go check out Hogwarts and Beauxbatons.

There have to be clues.

[Students]

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be teaching all of you alone for, or if I’ll be asked to step in again. So I figured why not set some quick expectations.

1. As I’m the same age as most of you, let’s keep anything sex-related out of the classroom. It makes me uncomfortable.
2. If you feel uncomfortable with me teaching you due to my lack of teaching experience, please do pass your discomfort up to senior members of staff.
3. I’m not going to be able to join in on any schemes or pranks. Whatever happened last academic year.
4. I find it’s easier to teach through doing. If you learn the practical application for a charm, you’ll probably be able to incorporate it into your daily life easier.
5. We all have different learning styles. If you find my way of teaching hard, let me know and I’ll try and work with you to help as best I can.

I hope that helps as we go forward. I don’t know how long I’ll be teaching you, but I hope we can make some progress before Professor Whittaker gets back.

[Gerri]

Can we talk?

So this is a house with a lot of thin walls, we're all discovering that.

I've put silencing charms over as many of the rooms as possible.

You're all welcome!

Tomorrow's charms class will be spent building out gym 2. Bonus points for flair and design.

Hello!

There are two muggles wandering the campus. A tall woman with blonde hair and a gentleman with black hair.

These are my parents. They're here to see me help with classes. They know about magic. Please be nice to them and not weird.

Thanks in advance!

[Text 2 Xander]

> XANDER CHECK THE JOURNALS
> U ARE KISSING A MAN ON THEM

[Students]

If any staff members approach you about using unforgivables, please make me aware.

You can always filter to me, or speak to me alone in the gym.

[Staff (excluding Rhea and Morgan)]

Nora McCready is here. From what I understand, she has not in the past gotten on with Rhea or Morgan.

I've let her use one of the rooms on the top floor. Can we be careful around Morgan when he gets back?

[Staff excluding Natalia, Xander, Zeke and Morgan]

I'm also very concerned at the allegations raised on both sides of the argument on Thursday. Xander alleging that Zeke could've injured a student and Zeke alleging that Xander asked a student to use an unforgivable. In public.

I think we need to... I'm not sure what we should do. Set out some appropriate training on student safety, maybe. For the staff.

I think we all need to agree that stupid fights need to stop. But then we agree they need to stop about once a month and then get right back into fighting. I really don't know what else to do at this point. There seems to be a massive lack of respect for others here and I don't know what we can do to change that.

There's a heavy storm out. Make sure you get indoors somewhere safe before the lightning gets closer. Remember, count the seconds between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder, then divide the number of seconds by five to work out how many miles away it is. Five seconds between thunder and lightning = 1 miles away, etc.

The power shouldn't blow, but if it does I've set out some candles in the entrance hall for everyone. Lumos will work too.

Have fun.

[Eon]

What's all this about, then?

[Staff]

Eon has decided he's dropping out because he thinks the school is too dangerous and people are keeping the kids in the dark. Paraphrasing there, he writes a lot.

I do not have the right training or pay grade to convince him to stay. I would suggest somebody else pick up there.

I know alcohol is sort of a no-go, but what if we had an end-of-term party?

We've been through a lot over this academic year. We should celebrate finishing up.

[Everyone not Gerri]

And Gerri will be graduating, right? We should make her the guest of honour.

I'll be stepping back to TA now that Jack's back.

Over the weekend I managed to get a dataset of gifs of me performing charms. I still need to use "metadata" to "describe" them (so that they can be searched in Andrew's system), but if you'd like to look at them and follow along, let me know. We can test their effectiveness.

(Please don't ask me to explain metadata. I spent three hours reading articles about it this morning and I still don't get it.)

Does anyone need any help prepping for upcoming exams? I can offer some tutoring, now I've got the time.

[Vania]

What happened with you and Jazz? Do you need Shadow to keep being your bodyguard?

Hi! There's still delicious strawberry-lemonade pie slices left. I'll bring the remainder to Charms with me today.

I had to take a break, but I'm bringing back muggle self-defense classes on Fridays. Once again, that's not a defense from muggles, but stuff like how to punch properly, or get out of a hairy situation without your wand.

But I'll also be running a beginner's ballet class on Thursday. If you've ever been interested in learning how to dance, come along. It'll be fun. Ballet isn't just for girls. I want to see some guys there too.

And, to showcase Andrew's technology...a video of some happier days:





[Gerri]

We never did that trip to Hogwarts. Still want to try?

Myself and Andrew have been working on a cool project to create a database of spells with accompanying GIF instructions as a sort of teaching aid.

I've done a few of them and I'd like to get some feedback and do some research into how much you know about technology and how useful you'd find being able to instantly look up spells.

[A GIF of Elliott performing Wingardium Leviosa, with the wand movement slowed down to show it clearly.]

I'm in the pub, avoiding the honking [obliterated with ink] if anyone wants to give feedback in person. That's an 18+ option though, and I'll need at least one beer bought for me before a negative review.

Thanks!

[Xander]

What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you spreading rumours about me and Morgan having an affair?

1-1

[Leyla]

Hey Leyla,

As you know I'm currently involved in assisting with the teaching of Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and teaching a muggle self-defense class.

There's a lot on my plate. Are you okay if I take a step back and not teach DAtDA anymore?

Thanks,
Elliott Lethe

[Jack]

Heya,

I think having three people teaching DADA is too many people, so I'm going to drop it. That means I have more time to spend doing prep work for charms, though. Can I help you out in any way?

[Jason]

Would you like to get coffee?

I'm thinking of a pizza and movie evening this weekend. Anyone fancy it? We can watch an old classic like Space Jam. Or one of the Star Wars movies? Let me know what you'd like.

The gym is just about done. There's lots of space and some equipment. Thanks for all the help! We need to focus on a swimming pool next.

Does anyone know if there's a Nandos equivalent in France? I miss the chicken.

[Lethes]

I'm thinking of getting a dog.

[Vania]

Would you like to go out to dinner?

[Jack]

How're you doing? Should I bring you anything?

[Students]

Unsealing everyone's doors now.

It looks like what happened last night was Sparrow getting loose and trying to look for Ana. Sorry about that.

[Werewolves]

How do we make sure that what happened last night never happens again?

Thanks for the party guys.

It's really nice. 21!

I'm glad you're all my friends.

At some point we should all just take a nice trip somewhere like Paris. See the stuff they have in movies, like the Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge!

I love you all and you're all my very good family.

♥

[Handed directly to her:

A pack of frozen grapes
A set of fruit tea varieties (including blackberry, strawberry and lemon)
A tea infuser shaped like a strawberry
And a mug with a bat on it with a note that says "put this in the staffroom with all of ours, so everyone knows you belong here!"]

( Owl to Jason )

Red squirrel.

[Lethes]

I'm staying with Jack for a bit. She needs it.

[Staff]

I'll be visiting Morgan in a few days. Let me know if you'd like me to bring him anything from everyone.

[Gerri]

Let's push back our Hogwarts visit to Thursday or Friday.