Focus | Mad and J.J.

Mad stood idly at her window, awaiting her apprentice. The girl, indeed, showed great promise, and tonight's session was sure to prove how accurate the woman's assessment of the child's talent had been.

Not that Mad was ever wrong, of course.

J. J. showed up at Professor Lewis's office with time to spare. She was excited for this meeting; she couldn't wait to learn more magic.

Knocking almost confidently on the door J. J. made her greeting, "Evening Professor."

"Good evening, Miss Jones," Mad returned, bidding the girl to enter. The woman leaned against the front edge of her desk, nudging her ink well forward.

"Show me the charm we learned in class today," she directed.

Not wanting to seem cocky, J. J. repressed her smile, but she felt confident. She had nailed that spell in class. It was an easy request.

Of course, it was only the first request so it could be expected to be easy.

Pulling out her wand she looked at the ink well, and focused on what she wanted to do.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The ink well shot up; she played with the control for just a bit before letting it settle on the table once more.

"Very good, Miss Jones," Mad told the girl. She walked over to her bookshelf and pulled out a massive tome, which she then placed on her desk. Nodding, she waited for the girl to cast the spell on it as well.

The book made a loud thunk as if settled on the table. It was definitely going to be harder to move than the ink well.

At least you don't have to read it, she told herself good naturedly, and readied her wand to do the charm again. Just focus.

Taking a deep breath she pushed aside all thought except what she wanted the book to do.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Once again, a little more slowly this time, the book floated. As a heavier object, J. J. did not waste anytime "show boating"; she let it go up, come back down, and then settled on the desk.

She lowered her wand and waited for her next instruction.

"Well done," said Mad. "Are you aware, Miss Jones, that given the proper focus, most charms can be cast on almost anything?

"Same spell, Miss Jones. On myself, this time."

J. J. blinked at the Professor for a moment. She wanted her to levitate herself?

"Okay Professor," she said once the thought made it's way fully through her head. She hadn't imagined those words.

Okay, she thought, Professor Lewis said to focus... so we have to focus... really, really really focus.

She tried picturing it in her head. She wanted the professor to float, up in the air.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Nothing happened. She must not be focusing enough.

She closed her eyes and poured all her energy into what she wanted the spell. Every last thought in her head she pushed towards her end result.

She took a deep breath sparing one thought for, Oh God, please don't let me drop her. And then did her spell.

Swish, "Wingardium," Flick, "leviosa."

She paused a breath, and then squeeked open one eye, and then the other.

Professor Lewis was hovering, not high off the ground, but her feet were definitely no longer on the floor.

Consious of the amount of concentration it took to achieve this, and not wanting to drop the Professor, she held back her excitment until she had gotten Professor Lewis onto the floor once more.

"Well done, Miss Jones," Mad praised. "Do sit before your expended energy catches up with you.

"Now, why do you suppose it is that the same spell that takes so much energy for you perform now becomes easier with practice?"

J. J. who was starting to feel a little tired greatfully sat in a chair.

She paused a moment to think over her Professors question. A definite answer never came to her head, so she was left to sort through all the possiblities that did come.

"Would it be because... well the more you do it the more... familiar?" she wasn't completely sure on that word and paused for another moment to think over the other possibilities, "Yeah I guess I mean familiar the spell becomes... and the desired affect so you have to focus less to... you know come up with what it was supposed to do... ?"

"Correct," Mad confirmed. "With greater familiarity comes greater ability to obtain the desired result. The key to performing any spell is focus. Obviously, once you know a spell well enough, you no longer have to concentrate quite as much to make it well. For some, once you know a spell well enough, you have no need for a focus of any kind at all."

She held up her wand, her physical focus, before setting it down at her desk. Then, she casually waved her hand at the large book and it promptly re-shelved itself.

"So, tell me, Miss Jones," the woman inquired, "what are you learning in your other classes?"

J. J. listened as Professor Lewis explained about time and focus, and silently hoped that one day she would be able to do spells with out much or any of it. Focus was getting rather tiring and quite time consuming all things concidered.

She watched, impressed as she reshelved the book with such ease.

"My other classes?" J. J. asked, and then frowned as she had to think about it, "Umm... In Transfiguration, a lot of it boils down to this focus.. or picturing what you want to change; generally though we learned Twithero, how to meld or transform needles to they are stuck together in a new shape, and how to change a needle from Iron to steel," she smiled a little remembering with some pride that she was the only student to have gotten it.

She had to stop once more and think about what other classes she has, "Umm, I think the point of our last defence class was to learn how to dodge unfriendly spells..." she wasn't entirely sure if it was that or if the Professor was just a little on the crazy side.
"Herbology we started talking about devil's snare;Potions -"

She frowned a little, not her best class at all, "we boiled a boil cure potion."

"Flying obviously I'm learning the basics of flying, and in History of Magic..." she trailed off they barely ever get anything done in that, " well we're supposed to be learning about the history of Hogwarts I believe."

Once that was said she paused for a moment to make sure she hadn't missed a class. Once satisfied she hadn't, she nodded her head with a small smile, and waited to see why Professor Lewis had wanted that information in the first place.

Mad nodded, stepping around her desk to open a drawer and pull out a box of matches. Drawing one out, she held it out for the girl to take.

"A needle, if you would, Miss Jones," she instructed. She had been serious about making certain the girl was doing well in her classes.

Once the girl had done so, Mad checked the composition of the needle. "And if you would change it to steel for me." Another approving nod. "Well done. Now, what if I asked you to make the needle a different color?" Mad didn't teach color-changing charms until fifth year, usually, but she felt that with instruction J.J. would be able to perform such a spell.

A smirk pulled at Mad's lips. "Yes. Professor Smith has always been rather... unique in his methods." She gave another nod. "Unfortunately, potions are not my strong suit. If you are having difficulty in that class, I would recommend that you ask the professor or an older student to tutor you. As for History, it is my experience that you can learn it just as well from a book.

"Very well," Mad leaned against the front of her desk. "As I told you in our first meeting, I intend to make sure you are doing well in your studies. You are already one of my own best students, but quite obviously, your education consists of more than simply Charms. I take my duty as your mentor very seriously.

"That said, I shall be retiring from my position as professor sometime in the near future," Mad told her apprentice. "When I will be leaving depends on how soon the Headmaster can find a suitable replacement. You may wish to seek an apprenticeship with the new Charms professor, or you may continue on as my own apprentice. We would have to meet on weekends, of course, but if you are agreeable to this arrangement, there's no reason why I can't continue to mentor you."

J. J. thought about the colour changing for a moment, "I guess if you asked me to change the colour the first thing I would do is ask if there is a specific spell I needed to say?" She was perfectly willing to try, but she didn't want to go about it blindly.

"If I have any further trouble with potions I will do just that," she responded solemnly.

J. J. felt a twinge of disappointment when Professor Lewis announced her retirement. She was become rather attached to the older woman. She may not be very 'aproachable' in the classical sense, but J. J. felt, through their lessons here, that she actually cared about her education. So it was only after a moments thought that she knew how she was going to respond.

"I would like to continue as your apprentice if that wouldn't be too much trouble."

Mad nodded. "There is, in fact, a spell for it," she confirmed. "A few of them, in fact. However, color changing also happens to be among the most prevalent forms of accidental magic.

"The incantation is coloris mutatio," Mad instructed. "The wand movement is a small circle, then jab. With this charm, you must envision the color you would like in your mind. Others require you to specify the color. Give it a try."

Mad actually smiled at the girl's response, the effect it had on her features making it easy to believe that she had once been rather comely as a younger witch. "Not at all, Miss Jones," she told the girl. "I, too, should like to keep you on as my apprentice."

J. J. smiled as the Professor did too. She didn't think she had ever seen the older woman smile before. It changed her features quite a bit. "Thank you, Professor."

"Okay," J. J. nodded looking at her needle. Change the colour... change the colour. To change the colour she needed to have one in mind. She looked around the room for some inspiration, and the colours on her tie caught her attention. Yellow it is, then.

Before even staying the spell she took a few moments to just do the wand movement - circle, jab; ciricle jab.

Sighing she proceeded to try and empty her head of everything but a yellow needle.

"Colouris Mutatio." She looked at her needle; her heart sinking. It was still as silver as ever.

Stubborn as ever, she wasn't about to give up.

She tried again, and again, and again.

"Colouris," circle,"Mutatio." Jab. After about four or five tries she held up her needle looking closely at it with a small smile. It wasn't the yellow she envisioned, and it was faint - the silver still shown through - but she would be confident in saying that it did indeed have a slightly yellow tinge to it now.

"A good start, Miss Jones," Mad declared. "I want you to continue practicing this charm for our next meeting. It ought to work on anything.

"That will be all for today. I have prior obligations that must be seen to before tomorrow.

"Keep up the good work, Miss Jones. If you've no other questions, you are dismissed."

J. J. beamed, "Okay Professor. Good evening."

She got up and started to leave but paused at the door as a thought struck her. She bit her lip as she turned around.

"I'm glad that I'll still be your apprentice, even if you're leaving."

Then she ducked her head, and hurried out of the room.