peckenpaugh | PATRONUS PRACTICE SESSION

patronus practice

what's up? Signs all over campus today point students toward Club Room 1 in Central Classrooms where this evening they’ll get the chance to practice the notoriously difficult Patronus charm under the supervision of Mr. Purcell and Ms. Gunzenhauser.

After dinner, students head to the emptied out activity room, which smells faintly and pleasantly of relaxing mint for the occasion, for an hour long Patronus workshop. Joining the teens are several members of the faculty and locals from town, all eager to either help or give the spell one more try. Ms. Gunzenhauser lectures on the history of Expecto Patronum while Mr. Purcell effortlessly summons multiple ethereal versions of his beloved pug Queen Guin as demonstration. Students are instructed in form and focus, and then given the chance to attempt the spell, themselves.

visuals!

volunteer slots! Queen G has a teeny tiny elf hat stuck to the tip of her snoot, and a huffy Mr. Purcell asks Cicero to take care of that before they get started. It’s easy enough to pluck the hat off Queenie’s nose, but now every time Cicero moves they hear this jingling. Where is that coming from?

Having trouble and looking daunted, Armani gets some assistance from a surprising source: Mr. Stirling stops by and after discerning that the problem is finding a happy memory, he confides, “happy doesn’t necessarily mean nice.” The first time Mr. Stirling summoned a patronus, he explains, the memory that did it was of his school rival’s Prefect badge being charmed to read Pinhead by his brothers, instead. Huh. [Receive a small bonus to your roll with this slot.]

Staying focused is tough. 💯 Tybalt is horsing around, refusing to focus. They goad 💯 Ramona into a covert duel — see who yelps first as they fire off Static Hexes back and forth. Before a clear winner can be declared, Mr. Purcell catches them and docks each of them 5 Points.

how this works! ⬥ Welcome to Peckenpaugh’s Patronus practice session! This event takes place in the evening after dinner and lasts for one hour. All students were invited to attend, and you can wander in at any point.

⬥ Because the Patronus Charm is so notoriously difficult, canonically prior to this point no students were able to previously manifest a fully formed Patronus. However, we’ll be doing rolls to see whether or not you can now!

⬥ Fill out the form below and paste it under the PATRONUS CHARM header.

NAME: Who’s trying?
YEAR: soph/junior/senior
ARE YOU IN DADA, CHARMS, O&L, or DUELLING CLUB? Go ahead and let us know if you’re in honors, also.
PATRONUS: Your character’s patronus animal. You can tell us a little bit about why that is their patronus, too, if you want!
HAPPY MEMORY: What happy memory are they tapping into to attempt this spell?
EFFORT: 1 - 10. How hard did they try? Were they distracted, or expertly focused?
ANYTHING ELSE?: If you want us to auto-fail you, let us know here.

⬥ Students will make a 1d100 difficulty roll, and will receive positive modifiers for the following:

YEAR: Older students will have a slightly easier time than younger ones.
CLASSES/CLUBS/HONORS: DADA, O&L and Duelling club all receive bonuses, Charms students receive a small bonus. An additional small bonus will be afforded if you are in Honors for DADA or Charms.
CHARACTER’S EFFORT: Try harder, roll higher.
ETC: we may afford an additional small bonus for particularly thoughtfully written entries.

locations! ⬦ PATRONUS CHARM: Post your forms to this header to get a roll!

⬦ AT THE PRACTICE SESSION: Students meet in Club Room 1 on the first floor of Central Classrooms. The room has been cleared out except for a raised platform in the center where Mr. Purcell and Ms. Gunzenhauser are instructing from, and a long table near the entrance. There's plenty of room to stretch your limbs and practice your Patronus summoning, it's soothingly warm and the smell of mint fills the air. An array of snacks and drinks have been set out for participants, finger foods, sweets and veggies, soda and several pots of warm tea.

⬦ ELSEWHERE & AFTER: The Patronus practice session goes for a little more than an hour, leaving kids with plenty of time to bum around before curfew. The persistent rain and snow mix makes it a little unpleasant to spend much time outside, though.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

PATRONUS PRACTICE SESSION

Re: PATRONUS CHARM: A boy in a cool leather jacket