The Purpose of Apprenticeship | Mad/J.J.

Mad waited outside the door to the Room of Requirement, having already obtained the headmaster's permission to meet with her apprentice. It had been far too long since she had met with the girl, the efforts for the war interfering with her duties towards the girl.

The woman had every intention of changing that.

She turned her head as she heard footsteps coming down the corridor, certain that their owner would prove to be a certain young Hufflepuff.

J. J. was excited to be meeting with her Mentor. It felt like it had been too long since she had last seen Ms. Mad.

Almost skipping down the corridors, she was slightly early as she arrived at the designated spot.

"Hello Ms. Mad."

"Hello, J.J.," the woman responded placidly. "The Headmaster has granted permission for us to meet in here, today." She opened the door and ushered the girl inside. A small round table with a tea service upon it stood nearby, the rest of the large room open and empty.

"Have a seat. I trust you've been well?" She took a seat across from the girl, pouring them each a cup of tea. "Tell me about your lessons. What have you been learning, this year?"

J. J. took a seat, and thought about what she had learned in the past few weeks.

"Well, mostly the teachers are just continuing with the basics... moving along a little further with such things. The potions Professor let us pick what we were brewing," she bit her lip having trouble coming up with anything concrete. "We did something with ectoplasim in charms, and I learned the basics of hiding my name or other's names in Occlumency."

After thinking it over for a moment she nodded. That seemed to be all that she could recall really learning recently.

"Very well," the woman nodded. "Now, tell me about your penchant for harming yourself. It is my understanding that you have been to the hospital wing several times this year. Is this correct?" Mad raised an expectant brow.

J. J. blushed at the mere meantion of these incedents, each really more embarassing than the next. How did her mentor know about those? Of Course her meantor would know about those.

"It wasn't that many times," she hedged slowly biting her lower lip. "I was sick once, and I fell a couple of times. Except for that last time none of it was too bad." She unconciously rubbed the spot on her head where she had smashed it against the stair. There were of course no mark there now - thanks to magic - but she could still kind of feel it when she thought about it.

"I tripped," she mummbled into her lap.

"Well, do be more careful. I shouldn't like to hear that cracking your skull open has become a regular habit of yours," Mad said.

The woman took a sip of her tea. "What do you suppose is the purpose of apprenticeship, J.J.? I believe we touched on it briefly in our first meeting, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter."

J. J. nodded, "I will." She really didn't want to try that again. The first time wasn't nice.

"Well... I suppose its for learning," J. J. said slowly. "I mean more indepth learning, and guidence. To have somewhere, and I guess someone to really focus on magic, and stuff." She bit her lip. It wasn't the most eloquant discription and she felt like she still might be missing something but it was as good as her mind was going to come up with.

Mad gave an approving nod. "Correct," she confirmed. "It is for one person to pass down their knowledge to another. The purpose of apprenticeship is, and always been, to prepare the apprentice to one day take their master's place in the world. In a sense, you are my heir, J.J.

"And that is why I have high expectations of you, and why I require you to recount your progress in school for me. I will see you succeed.

"As I am a Charms Mistress, let's begin with those for today," Mad directed briskly. "Demonstrate the charms you have learned thus far for me."

J. J. smiled at the correction, and listened carefully to what she was being told.

She nodded her head at the request, and carefully went through all the charms she had been taught in the past. Doing most with quite ease, and excelling at the colour changing charm for she had been prone to using that one on an assortment of things in the past.

She paused at the end, "Um, Did you want me to do the ones I was taught in class... because the last one required ectoplasim... or something." She was pretty sure it was ectoplasim she had smashed all over the room that last time. Although she did later master that charm, she was rather hesitant to go through with a repeat performance of the first time.

Mad's lips purse slightly. What sort of useless spellcraft..?

"Perhaps, we shall forgo a demonstration of that particular charm, today," she said dryly. "Show me what you've learned in your other classes. Apart from Potions, of course."

J. J. watched her mentors reaction and could tell that she felt the charms lesson she had been given as useless as J. J. had being in it.

"Of course," she nodded her head.

She went through the rather simple transfiguration spell she had learned, and the defensive spell craft from DADA.

She hesitated a moment when she got to occlumency, "My occulmency lesson required someone to actually be searching for a my name." She stated hesitantly trying to indicate that she couldn't exhibit it on her own.

Mad inclined her head.

"Very well," she said. "You have siblings, do you not? I shall attempt to locate the name of the one whom you are closest to." Then, without waiting for the girl to prepare herself, she raised her wand and calmly cast, "Legilimens."

Of course the first thought that came to her head when Miss Mad said siblings was, Zach, and of course her mentor wouldn't give her any time to remove that thought.

So, when she felt the familar tug of magic in her head, she had a moment of panic attempting to cover up this mistake, where she just flung names around in her head, and probably created more confusion than anything else.

But after a second, she managed to calm down, and use some of the control she had been practicing since that lesson, and did indeed hide Zach's name for at least as long as she had in class.

Which honestly was only about five, maybe ten minutes; not all that impressive when put into a real life context, but as a beginner she was rather proud of herself.

"Good," Mad pronounced, ending the spell. "We shall continue to work on that."

Raising her cup to her lips, she finished her tea, then stood. "No, for the remainder of our time today, we shall focus on a spell of your choice. Whatever you should like to learn." She looked at the girl expectantly.

J. J. bit her lip as she thought about what she wanted to learn. There were so many spell options. She had been reading books for a long time now, and there was a whole list of things that she wanted to learn, but had yet to have the opportunity.

"Well," she said after a moment of long thought, finally deciding on one that she read that she thought shouldn't cause too much trouble to teach, and she had wanted to learn for a time, "It would be useful to know... I read about it somewhere, theres a spell that freezes objects, I think-think it was..Imm-Immobu- Immoblesomething." She gave a sheepish little smile at the last part.