Catch The Snitch

"Tomorrow, we will have a practical exam on the use of the water-summoning spell, Aguamenti. Also, please remember that tomorrow's lesson will be in the greenhouses. House Points will be deducted for those who have already forgotten where we'll be meeting. Class is dismissed."

Professor Silverberg had a grin on her face from the last comment she made before dismissing the class, partly because it was addressed to the whole class while she watched two of her N.E.W.T.-level Sixth years whispering during her announcements. She was curious as to whether or not they'd appear when they were supposed to for the exam. Aguamenti was too great of a risk to cast in the classroom, especially with so many books on the she shelves. It was too cold this time of year for students to get soaked in the cold castle, though they should have remembered the charm to dry off their clothes from a previous lesson. Still, whenever more than one element was involved, Elyria always preferred to find larger space to test things out. Her classroom did not have as much space as she would have liked for some lessons, but she figured the students appreciated a little field trip every now and then.

Elyria had spoken with the Herbology professor about setting up an unused greenhouse old crates that could be set on fire as part of the examination. The exam would be simple -- cast Aguamenti on the enflamed crate to extinguish the fire. The written portion would be later in the week to discuss the limitations of the water-summoning spell, with the expectation of the students to explain the temporary nature of the water. They'd discussed the topic today and learned the wand movements and pronunciation for the spell afterward. Students were free to practice the spell after class, preferably in an environment like the bathrooms to prevent common areas from getting soaked.

She waited for the last student to exit her classroom before she made her way to the door to head back to her office. It was a decent walk from her classroom, but it placed her a bit more centrally for the school should the need for her arise. With the school reopening, she felt it was a good idea to seat herself in a midpoint from all classrooms in case a student, professor, or auror needed her. No one needed to traverse the school to get to her. Elyria shut the door behind her and locked it with a flick of her wand, and then headed toward her office. As she walked the corridors, she gazed out the windows. It was almost Spring. It was her favorite season of the year. Seeing of of the plants in bloom was refreshing after six months of cold, falling leaves, and snow.

After making her way through the castle, greeting those who spoke or made eye contact with her, Professor Silverberg reached her office. "Alohamora!" she said with a soft voice and another flick of her wand. A click could be heard. She placed her hand on the door, opened it, and stepped through the threshold. Her office was tidy, with a few magical artifacts placed in a way that would seem like they were used more as decorations, which was far from the truth. The portraits on her wall greeted her as she entered, she politely responded. Her portraits were her eyes and ears to the goings on in the school, with one placed strategically near each of common room entrances, near the entrances into the castle, and one in Kilkenny, at her home. Generally the portraits roamed as they pleased, with the vacant paintings appear more as landscapes as seen from balconies.

Elyria took a seat at her desk and opened a book, The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6, which was the very text used in her class. With a wave of her hand over its pages, they began to flip through until they landed on Aguamenti. She began reading up on the text to make sure she didn't forget to mention anything to the glass and to make sure no random tidbits popped into her head that would've been useful to the class.

If it was not potions or divination, then it was charms as her worst subject. Riley struggled in most of her classes, yes she was clever, intelligent, but she frequently performed somewhere in the range of poor to terrible. The only thing she truly succeeded in happened to be Quidditch and all things associated towards it. But the petite redhead was immensely stubborn if nothing else, asking for help wasn't something which came naturally to the young student. She was popular amongst the student body however, with that innate charm that tended to make her difficult to dislike, even if she had the unfortunate habit of earning more than her fair share of detentions. Rules, never made sense to the her, sitting still and or quiet in class never appeared to click with her as the right course of action.

Focusing on anything other than Quidditch appeared all but impossible. In the air, the roar of the crowd, the thunder of her pulse in her ears, everything seemed to make for want of a better term sense. Of course, she was not seeking out the charms professor to discuss Quidditch nor oddly enough, for a detention. Riley had almost gone a full month without landing herself in some manner of trouble. A new personal best, though she suspected sooner or later she would inevitably do something which brought about the downfall of this supposed new leaf. A new late, a new forgotten piece of homework, talking in class about work, blowing up her potion in well potions. Something.

Eventually she found herself outside the door to Professor's Silverberg's office, she felt as though she arrived here far too early and too late for her liking. A tiny part of her considered retreating, choosing instead to retire back to the common room, the library or the sanctuary provided by the Quidditch Pitch. Sadly the foremost of those ideas would not really help, the latter would leave her staring at vast tomes of knowledge utterly confused and the latter most, though comforting left her work mired in a state of not improving.

Finally, summoning her courage in a not to dissimilar manner as to when she first attempted to try out for Quidditch, Riley knocked firmly on the door three times. She fervently hoped that the Professor indeed happened to be in. It would be just her luck to try and talk to her when the Professor was not home. She mentally attempted to run through the speech she prepared in her head. Say hello, sorry for the interruption, ask how they are then ask for some support. That was the plan, Riley hoped they would not think her rude or poorly of her performance and or behavior in class. It was hard not to, but the owls from home made it abundantly clear she needed to smarten up her act. Scoring high in Quidditch, that was fine, her classroom scores, they had to be improved.

Lost in private and gloomy thoughts, Riley's attention to her surroundings returned with a rush. Alarmed that she may have missed the Professor's acknowledgement and permission to come in, she seized the door handle and stepped hurriedly into the office. "Hi Professor, sorry for the interruption, how are you? I need help." Riley blurted out in a rush of words, far more hurried than her usually habit of talking incredibly quickly.

Elyria perused the pages with a bit of a furrowed brow. Her wand's tip touched her desk while her fingers twisted it around at the handle idly. She could quote the text cover to cover from all of the time she spent in it during her time as a student and now as a professor. Perhaps it was overpreparation on her part, but Professor Silverberg liked to read through the material before the lesson and then again right before the exams to keep it all fresh. Though, half of the time she more or less skimmed some of the materials based on how well she knew the subject. Discussing a levitating charm to first years was so second nature to her at this point.

Finally, the closed the book and gave a flick of her wand toward the bookshelf across the room. A book floated out of the row and glided across the room, landing in her outstretched hand. It was a book on the comparison and contrast of Charms and Transfigurations spells. The two subjects had distinct differences in core curriculum, but there was enough overlap in the more advanced years that Elyria wondered why some spells weren't taught by Professor Dextera instead. It wasn't as if she minded one bit. Any bit of spell casting she could teach made her happy, regardless of subject.

She heard the knock and responded with a preoccupied "Come in," as she finished the paragraph she was on. As Riley opened the door she looked over her book to see that a student had come to visit. She closed her book and stood while straightening out her robes. "Oh, hello Miss McNeill. Please, take a seat." Professor Silverberg gestured to the seats across from her at her desk before taking a seat herself. She waited for the student to sit, or choose to stand, before continuing. "So, what brings you to by today?" Her tone was calm and polite as usual, even offering a kind smile to her student in an effort to quick demeanor.

Unlike Riley the professor seemed to be rather calm and not to mention welcoming. It was with the latter most quality which wrong footed the redhead, since she was used to dealing with professors as a result of the detentions which she appeared to collect a vast amount of in her previous year. "Thank you Professor." Riley answered as she seated herself on the offer chair, pausing only to drop her bag on the floor. There was no turning back now, she had made it this far surely she could summon up the courage to ask right?

Technically she kinda had, but throwing out a request for help probably did not aid the professor much in providing any help right? She took a deep breath and found herself immensely glad that she had come alone. To come with a friend, even her fellow wrecker of potions from her arch rival's house, would have been beyond embarrassing. "Professor... I..." She began poorly, choosing to take another deep breath to try and calm her nerves a bit before speaking. "Professor, I need help I'm struggling in classes, I don't know how to do the homework, I can't find the answers in the library and I know I struggle to pay attention in the lessons but I need to improve." The petite redhead blurted out in a rush of words.

"I... I don't know how to do better. I'm smart but it seems like the only thing I'm any good at is Quidditch." She added on in a quieter tone, her voice sad. Conveniently she decided against mentioning the other thing she was any good at, which was her habit of landing herself into trouble.

Elyria put her wand away and sat up once her student began to speak. She sat in a rather proper fashion, ankles cross and to the side and hands placed one on top of the other, as she listen. She gave a nod as she listened, taking in the concerns Riley had while trying to formulate some decent advice to help her along the way. There were some professors that may have chalked this student up as a failure or as one who would be better suited finding work in a more manual field. That was simply not the way Elyria looked at things. Sometimes, students simply needed a different way to view things, perhaps a correlation to something that interested them.

Quidditch was the key. Elyria enjoyed watching the sport, but knew virtually nothing about the maneuvers, but she was going to do her best... flying... how she hated it! But, perhaps there was something there. She smoothed out her skirt before finally giving her suggestion."Maybe the key to your success in classes is to draw connections to Quidditch, Miss McNeill." Mentally, she put her professor had back on and stood. She stepped over to a board nearby and have a wave of her wand. A piece of chalk raised to the board, ready to write as her wand guided it.
"For example, take the movement of your wand when casting spells. Instead of just trying to do the motion, picture yourself on your broomstick or envision a player on theirs flying in the pattern." She drew the pattern for Ascendio, a rounded 'b' pattern that ended with the stem going up.

"Here is your pattern for Ascendio. I apologize for my horrendous drawing I'm about to do." Professor Silverberg then had the chalk draw a little stick figure on a broom and gave another flick of her wand, causing the figure to 'fly' the pattern before ascending upward to the end of the board where it disappeared. "Sometimes it helps us to correlate what we're learning to something with which we have a better understanding. When that doesn't work, sometimes it helps to break things down into smaller parts and build back to the full concept. Our own experiences sometimes teach us more than any text or professor will." She flashed a smile, because how dare she say a professor couldn't teach a student. Of course, that's not exactly what she meant, but the idea was certainly intriguing.


"Never feel too ashamed to ask any of your professors for help after lessons. There are tutors who can work with you, too, if self study isn't working. Shall we take an example from one of your lessons and try to break it down into a Quidditch match?" Professor Silverberg gave another flick of her wand causing the chalk to fall back into its tray. She stepped back over to her chair and smoothed the back of her skirt before resuming her positioning on her chair and looking back to Miss McNeill.

Riley listened with some difficulty, she shuffled on her chair. The young redhead always struggled to sit still, she preferred to be on the move. Heck, even in Quidditch she shifted ever so slightly on her broomstick as she kept watch for any attempt to try and score by the opposing team. "Aye I guess we can try it... I suppose." Riley said uncertainly, with the same level of confidence and enthusiasm as a introvert being chosen to go first in giving a presentation. She grinned at the Professor's drawing, though doubted she personally could do any better given the time to draw.

She nodded along, trying to take it in what the Professor was saying. Riley knew she should ask for help more often, but she was either too proud or lacking in confidence to ask for it in class. Particularly since she struggled to focus on some of the subjects in particular.

"Oh erm... Yeah, I guess we should." Riley answered forcing a smile as she reached into her bag and pulled out her wand. "Er... What charm would you like me to try?" She inquired, trying to think of any of them which she in particularly found challenging. Telling the helpful Professor she found all of them to be challenging was not going to be useful or helpful.

Elyria thought for a moment. Perhaps it was best to start smaller. She rose from her desk and looked over at a small table nearby. Using her wand she summoned the table closer to where the two of them were. Her plan was for Riley to start off with the Levitation Charm. Professor Silverberg scanned the room for a feature, but instead found a fountain pen.
"Ah, this will do." Elyria pointed her wand at a pen and recited, "Calamum Verto."

The pen immediately shriveled and then expanded as a fluffy white plume feature. She looked back to Riley and grinned,
""Let's look at one of the first charms you were taught your first year - the Levitation Charm. I'll demonstrate." Professor Silverberg pointed her wand to the feather and spoke a different incantation than before while giving her wand a swish and flick, ""Wingardium Leviosa." The feather began to lift from her desk. She guided it with her wand over to the small table, her wand bobbling lightly as the feather glided through the air.

Once the feather was over the table, she gave another little flick and let it fall the few inches down to the surface.
"Before you cast, try imagining the feather as a person preparing to lift off with their broom - nice and easy, as if they were just going to hover. When you are ready, give your wand a swish and flick... swish... and flick... swish... and... flick." Elyria demonstrated as she spoke, once at a normal pace, and then two more times broken down into shorter motions. "Practice that motion a few times to get comfortable. Then, once you feel comfortable with that, recite the charm with it. Wingardium Leviosa."

Riley shuffled on the chair restlessly but she tried to focus on what the professor was demonstrating to her. Part of her doubted it would work, however she was at the very least going to try it before throwing in the towel. She attempted to marshal her courage, despite her already regretting her decision to come here. Riley was proud and stubborn, but she needed help in order to do well in class and progress. "Okay." She replied, managing to keep a smile on her face, uncertain and small though it may be.

The redhead did as her teacher instructed, imaging the feather as someone preparing to kick off of the ground and soar into the air riding their broomstick. She practiced the motion a few times, hoping to get in right or at the very least close enough for the spell to cast without anything going wrong. Her charms were on the plus side better than her work in potions. She and her friend from the house of lions were among the worst in the class. Usually something went wrong in their cauldrons, especially if they were working together. "Wingardium Leviosa." Riley uttered, complete with the swish and a flick though she was clearly braced for something unexpected to happen as a result of a miscast.