arts magical

[occluminous]

Bella has been living in the dorms for two days when the term properly starts. The buses begin arriving and discharging the students who didn't need to arrive early just in time for them to join the early attendees for lunch. Bella is sitting at a half-full table, reading her Charms textbook and prodding at one of her notebooks with the hazel wand. The vine one is still in her hair; she uses it for most things (to the extent that there is a 'most things', but she's getting a jump on her assignments) but she's giving the hazel a try for this particular charm. It's supposed to make the notebook refuse to open for anyone but her. Poke. Poke. "Claudo!"

Her notebook snaps itself shut abruptly. She opens the cover, closes it, passes it to the girl on her right and gets her to try, observes that it does not open. She puts the hazel wand back in her sleeve.

Comments

[sparksflying]

"Okay," says Tony. "I forget stuff all the time, so just keep reminding me of the right one and we're good."

[occluminous]

"Sure," says Bella. "Do you guys know any wanded magic yet? I'm trying to teach myself some things. I didn't do that well on the SPAWN - it doesn't really seem designed to measure aptitude, just whether you've met lots of wizards before, it's kinda stupid. I want to advance quick."

[sparksflying]

"I don't," says Tony.

[nobodyelse]

"I may have picked up one or two things," says Sherlock.

[occluminous]

"Like what?" Bella asks Sherlock, bouncing in her chair.

[nobodyelse]

He hesitates, then shakes his head.

"I'm not sure I've got them right. I'll wait until I know."

[occluminous]

Bella frowns. "But you're allowed to do magic, here. I just did some. Why don't you try it and see right now?"

[nobodyelse]

"Because I don't know if I have it right," he reiterates.

[occluminous]

"But - that's why you'd need to try it. If you don't have it right it won't work and then you'll know you have to change something."

[nobodyelse]

He says nothing.

[sparksflying]

"We'd rather not do our experimenting in the lunchroom," says Tony.

[occluminous]

"Why?"

[sparksflying]

"What if something blows up?"

[occluminous]

Bella frowns. "Is that likely?"

[sparksflying]

"Around me? Yes."

[occluminous]

"Oh. So I shouldn't try the other things on my list of things to try while you're around? That's going to be awkward if we're roommates," muses Bella.

[sparksflying]

"Well, okay, not quite," says Tony. "It's more like, when I do experiments, it's on the kind of stuff that likes to blow up or catch fire or whatever, so we picked up the habit of not doing any experimenting on anything even vaguely dangerous without proper safety protocols, and it's still a good idea even if you're trying to do mostly-harmless magic because even mostly-harmless magic can set something on fire if you screw it up bad enough."

[occluminous]

"I should learn the safety protocols," says Bella promptly. "What are they?"

[sparksflying]

"Probably too complicated to tell you about over lunch," says Tony. "But if we're rooming together, you're gonna see 'em anyway."

[occluminous]

"I wonder why there wasn't anything about it in the orientation packet. They just told us that we're allowed to use magic here but not at home anymore, and that we shouldn't hex each other."

[sparksflying]

"Most people never screw it up that bad."

[occluminous]

"Are you trying especially hazardous experiments or are you just really accident-prone?"

[sparksflying]

"I'm used to experimenting with electronics, not magic," she explains. "That stuff catches fire regularly when you don't know what you're doing. But Mom says it's a good idea to get in the habit of being safe about stuff, even when it's less dangerous."

[occluminous]

"That does make sense," agrees Bella. "They did go an awfully long way to reassure us about how competent the school healer is..."

[sparksflying]

"...huh," says Tony, "you know, I didn't realize until just now, but Muggles are way more concerned about people getting hurt than magic people are."