Fifth Years, Lesson Four

James waited for his fifth year students to arrive for their latest lesson, they would be going over another curse as part of their wider review in preparation for their O.W.Ls at the end of the year, he didn't envy them, James remembered how stressful O.W.Ls were when he had been a student at Hogwarts and nothing would be worth going through that again...well maybe one thing.

Once he was sure every one of his students was in the classroom and had taken their seats he closed the classroom door and turned his attention to them. "Today we will be discussing two curses, the Jelly Fingers curse and the Sponge Knees curse. Now the effects of these curses are pretty self-explanatory, one causes your fingers to become like jelly and the other makes your knees sponge like making it hard to walk, I'll let you figure out which is which," The chalk behind him wrote his words, more or less, furiously on the blackboard behind him for the benefit of the students taking notes.

"Now some of you might be wondering something I did when I was in your shoes, not that long ago I might add, why are these two spells considered curses rather than jinxes? Whereas a similar spell such as the jelly-legs jinx is just that, a jinx. There doesn't seem to be a consistent answer, not one that I'd be comfortable sharing with you as a definitive one at least, as our favourite resident grouch Professor Styx once said when he was sitting at my desk a few years ago, a spell is a spell and their effects are the same, so does it matter if the jelly fingers curse is a curse or a jinx? I'll let you ponder on that in lieu of actual homework and feel free to submit your answers to me for a little extra credit otherwise, class dismissed,"

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Assignment: RP the lesson. Extra credit for anyone who completes the assignment.

 

[Teddy Pirrip]

Teddy arrived for the DADA lesson feeling absolutely knackered. All the homework, Quidditch and awkward patrols with Veronica were manageable until a few consecutive bad nights of sleep had set Teddy back. He listened to Professor Cade mention two new curses today which Teddy wrote down. He knew he must be tired because he just didn't care about the difference between a curse or a jinx. Curses were supposed to be more serious but he couldn't think much more into it than that. He noted down the homework, hoping he could give it a bit more thought later on, then left the classroom hoping he had enough time for a nap before his next lesson.

 

[Aurora Chase]

The semester was beginning to close in and in all honesty, Aura was starting to feel a little like maybe she was taking on too much, which felt ridiculous considering she wasn't club leader or doing quidditch or anything like that. Her work volume was probably about the same as anyone else's, maybe even a little less actually. But still, it did all feel like it was sort of dogpiling her and she wasn't sure how she felt about that, or even what she was going to do actually. Professor Cade did mention something she had been wondering though, about the difference between spells being jinxes and curses, and she supposed his answer was about what she could expect. She had always categorised it as one could do permanent and harmful damage whilst the other could be used as a prank, but then that wasn't true in all cases either, like the jelly fingers curse and the jelly legs jinx, as he said, one was a curse and the other a jinx. She decided to do some research for this particular homework and that it was an answer she wanted to know. She wondered briefly if it had anything to do with the severity of it, or the potential implications if not quickly reversed. Someone with jelly legs jinx could still help themselves, where as someone with the jelly fingers curse would be unable to even hold their own wand. Perhaps that was the true understanding?​

 

[Callie Cardoso]

Callie walked into the defence against the dark arts classroom and took her usual spot in the room. Her gaze moved to the professor at the front of the room. She took out her notes and her parchment and began writing down what the professor was telling them about the jelly fingers curse and the sponge knee curse, both of which seemed like a not so fun thing to happen. Callie nodded along as the professor talked about the curse/jinx discussion, making sure that she was getting down the important things about what was being said and then when the lesson was wrapped up and headed out of the room.

 

[Enoch Goldewyn]

Enoch walked into the defence against the dark arts classroom and took her usual spot in the class. His gaze moved to the professor tiredly and then took his quill to take at least a couple of notes from what was being said. He wasn’t sure there needed to be debates on what constituted a curse or a jinx, surely it was just like grammar, and absolutely loose amount of rules that people didn’t always understand. He didn’t need to understand it, that didn’t need to be for him to understand. Enoch got down everything that was important about what was being said, making sure that he didn’t miss anything and then eventually the lesson was wrapped up and Enoch was able to pack up and leave the room.