Open Intro to Magic: Unofficial Workshop #1 (of 1)

[Aine Thompson]

Sometimes Aine got ideas that she couldn't get out of her head. She was only a second year, not exactly organised or loaded up on resources, but she'd had a lot of time by herself to think over the holiday break. And play around with word processors making a poster to stick outside all the dorms (and in the Hufflepuff dorm) that she kind of cringed over now, but she still had the spirit.

When she'd gotten to Hogwarts, a year ago, she'd felt incredibly out of her depth. There were possibly other people in her year like that, but she hadn't really spoken to them at length and was sure they were fine. Still, the new first years deserved a better start, and ar the very least they could all groan about quills and ink.

She'd brought a few bags of freddo frogs and caramello koalas from home and set them out in bowls. Wasn't quite chocolate frogs but she'd just really had the chance to hit the supermarket, not Honeydukes. "Uh, hey, everyone," she started, when at least a couple of curious people stopped by. "Grab some snacks, get comfy, we're gonna probably make a huge mess trying to use quills." She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I don't get why they haven't just moved to pen and paper more permanently. They're kinda backwards." Aine made a face, unwrapping a koala before continuing. "Oh, and I'm Aine, I'm in second year and I still don't know too much about the magical world, but if you've got questions about Hogwarts we can at least, um, try and come up with answers that make us all feel better."

((OOC: any firsties who are new to magic welcome, as are 2nd years and anyone who just has amused curiosity!))

 

[Liesel Besemer]

Liesel already missed Google. Indexes and glossaries were great, and everything, but they were so inefficient - especially when you had to do a week's weight training just to flip to the back of the book. She wondered whether there was a secret online community of witches and wizards who had decided to embrace technology, but if there was, it was deeply buried under thousands of communities of Muggles pretending to have magical powers. Liesel had looked. It seemed that she was just going to have to learn about magic the tedious way.

That was, until she saw a poster stuck up beside the door to the Ravenclaw dormitory. A magical workshop! All her prayers answered at once! It wasn't Google, but it had to be better than leafing endlessly through her wizard's pocket dictionary every time she wanted to read a chapter of her textbooks. She arrived in the student lounge at precisely the stated time and grabbed a couple of Freddo Frogs before finding herself a seat. Unsure how intensive the workshop was going to be, she had come prepared with a notepad and pen, which she balanced on her knee while she nibbled on her chocolate; but it soon became apparent she would not be using her own stationery. Backwards as the wizarding world may have been, there was something quite thrilling to Liesel about the idea of writing with a quill on parchment. She felt as if she were in a very old, romantic novel. But the novelty was bound to wear off, and then she would wish just as much for a ballpoint pen as she did for the Internet, which was why she had taken to writing all of her notes in shorthand to save ink.

Liesel wiped the crumbs of chocolate from her face and said, "How do the paintings see and talk if they don't really have eyes or a mouth?"

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine paused at the question, trying to think of how best to answer. There was a lot she herself didn't know, but she at least wanted to try and help. Sure they were given a very basic overview from the Ministry, but that didn't compare to having magical family or growing up in the wizarding world. "That's a really good question," she replied, looking thoughtful. "I'm not really sure how the magic behind it works, but I mean, wizards don't have video or anything, I guess enchanting pictures to move and respond a little is their equivalent of AI?" AI was pretty impressive, after all. "It's like how their chess sets move and interact since there's no actual video games. I guess it's kinda like this is as close as you get to wizarding tech?" She tapped at her chin, hoping that was at least a helpful way to think about it.

 

[Joshua Lynch]

When Josh had heard about this quill class, he had decided to go. Even though he had found classes, really boring. He wanted to know how to use those stupid feathers that they used as pens. He still didn't understand why the school was backwards and why they were still stuck in the very old centuries. When the Gryffindor walked into the student lounge where the classes were held, he had noticed Freddo Frog chocolates which were one of the muggle lollies that he had missed since he had entered the school, he decided to take a couple.

He listened as the slightly older girl spoke about the class and get started with what they were doing. The first-year boy grabbed a quill, confusingly dipping the feather into the inkpot, before getting started onto the parchment to write. He had made a huge ink trail from the inkpot to the parchment. But he didn't care. He then began to write. Writing his name a couple of times and other random words. Though he was struggling a little, there were huge puddles of ink everywhere as he was writing. He was trying really hard, concentrating really hard with his tongue out a little. "How the heck do you write with these stupid feathers" Josh muttered a little, not sure if anyone else had heard him. He looked up at the question of the talking portraits, as he had been curious about how they spoke and all.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine gave the boy a sympathetic look. She hated quill and ink, and parchment just seemed like it was environmental waste waiting to happen. Sure, it could look beautiful, but not necessarily in the hands of eleven and twelve year olds. And it was so much slower than using a pen, too. "Oh my God, I know right? It sucks so much," she admitted, nodding quite seriously. "I think they sell quills with everlasting ink somewhere but we don't get to go to Brightstone Village yet," she added, screwing up her mouth in distaste. "I did, however, spend my holidays watching tutorial videos online. A lot of the Professors will let you use pens, but not all of them. I'd use a pen and paper as much as possible anyway, you'll probably just need to use these for exams so it's helpful to know what to do." She looked around, giving a nervous smile. Why had she decided to do this, again? Aine hated her impulses, sometimes. Maybe Valerius should have talked her out of this, after all.

"So, uh, you wanna dip the quill in the ink but then let it drip off a little so you're not splotching the paper. I...don't know if this is a good example but it's a bit like nailpolish? You don't want to have too much sitting on the brush." She suspected that wouldn't help at all, but it was the best description she could think of. "You wanna tilt it down at an angle and away from your hand so you aren't dropping too much ink on to the paper. Parchment. You know." She pulled out her own, giving something of a demonstration even as ink dripped on to the page. She knew she should've practiced more, she thought, embarrassed. "And don't put too much pressure on, cause then you can break the quill or go through the ink too quickly. Apparently writing on a cushion is good too, but don't panic if you don't have one or anything cause I didn't know that until I watched a couple of how to videos."

Aine looked around, hoping she didn't come across as a complete idiot. "But like, seriously don't panic or anything, you'll all be alright, the Professors are pretty understanding. They just don't, y'know, actually give you much of a chance to learn this stuff in class."

 

[Valerius Bianchi]

Valerius hadn't realized until he'd seen the poster that Aine wasn't just asking hypothetical questions. Sighing, he walked to the student lounge. He looked around, raising a brow, before walking over to Aine. "You know, being partners means you tell me when you're doing these things," he scolded her gently. He took a seat beside her. "I'm here to help you, dummy." He looked to the other two kids there. "How is it going?" He asked, not bothering to reach for any snacks.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine hadn't actually expected anyone to show up, least of all the one person she'd actually briefly spoken to about her idea. She shrank a little on the spot, rolling her eyes as he scolded her. "I didn't think you were actually serious about helping me," she admitted, truthfully. "Also I fail to see how being duelling partners equates to you needing to assist me in making a fool of myself out of the classroom," she added. She couldn't help but be honest around Valerius. It wasn't as though she'd had a real friend before. Aine probably figured that if she didn't curb her tongue she'd drive him away and prove herself right, that nobody would actually want to be her friend if they spent more than five minutes around her. She gestured at her heavily ink splotted page. "This is just reinforcing the inconvenience of quill and ink."