10 Mar 2020, 19:20
A Space-Saving Solution
It was such a shame that shrinking living creatures was considered both complicated and dangerous - too much to allow Hogwarts students to practice in class - but Jack didn't intend to learn the spell in class. He had read and heard of many occasions during which the Shrinking Charm had been used on animals and even humans rather than objects and he was fairly confident that if he was precise enough in his teaching himself, he could master the technique. It made sense to him why teachers would prefer to warn students against using the spell on live beings - not just because of what could go wrong, since the consequences of that were drastic no matter what magic was misused or performed badly. No, Jack believed students were mostly discouraged because of what could be accomplished if things went right.
Storing secret possessions easier and hiding them better, finding lost things that were too small to see, exploring a vast new landscape from a different perspective, reducing the quantity of food one needed to consume, sneaking into places...the possibilities were endless. Jack had often thought the benefits of shrinking things were often overlooked, whether by muggles or wizards, so long as one knew how to enlarge them back to their normal size at will. That was something Jack had yet to learn, truth be told, but he wanted to start with shrinking first. Enlarging something shrunk would not only be much more practical than enlarging something normal-sized, but it would also likely be much less noticeable if anyone happened to have come across him while he was working and/or if he failed.
Thus, as usual, the redheaded Slytherin waited until the Charms classroom was vaccant and he had a good deal of time before it was occupied again. As he had intended from the beginning of the school year to use it frequently when it was vaccant, he had staked it out for a while. Eventually, he learned the regular times that class was held in it and other students made use of it before creating a table reminding him of the times most likely for him to have it to himself. Since then, it had only been a matter of checking the room duing those times to see if he could use it without fear of being disturbed.
That day he got lucky in finding neither student nor faculty member in the room. Satisfied, Jack walked in with his schoolbag, placed it on a desk, and took out two identical quills. He set them next to each other on a desk, pointed his wand at one of them, and went over the pronounciation in his head while recalling the hand movement. This one was easy; just a simple 'V'. He liked to think of it as a downward arrow encouraging his target to get smaller and closer to the earth. His plan was not only to shrink one of the quills, but to reduce it to approximately half the size of its twin. If he wanted to master the spell, he was going to have to use extreme focus and precision.
"Reducio!" he said, voice strong as he ennunciated the word as clearly as he could manage. As he'd hoped, a purple light shot out of his wand straight toward the quill. Jack kept his gaze trained on his target, concentrating hard until...there!
Once the other quill was the size he'd been hoping for, the Slytherin broke concentration and lifted his wand, causing the light to cease. He excitedly went over to examine the quill, turning it this way and that to inspect it against its normal-sized double. It was nice being able to focus without worrying about other eyes watching and judging him or noises disrupting his thoughts. If he hadn't, he doubted he would have been able to get the quill to the size he desired on his first try.
His accomplishment gave Jack renewed confidence, however, and he set the half-sized quill back down next to its brother. It was time to learn how to englarge it again, but he thought this would be trickier since he had to make sure the size was exactly what it had been before. If it ended up too large, at least he thought he could shrink it back down to what he wanted it to be, but knowing how much energy magic took to perform, Jack wasn't keen on messing up.
Storing secret possessions easier and hiding them better, finding lost things that were too small to see, exploring a vast new landscape from a different perspective, reducing the quantity of food one needed to consume, sneaking into places...the possibilities were endless. Jack had often thought the benefits of shrinking things were often overlooked, whether by muggles or wizards, so long as one knew how to enlarge them back to their normal size at will. That was something Jack had yet to learn, truth be told, but he wanted to start with shrinking first. Enlarging something shrunk would not only be much more practical than enlarging something normal-sized, but it would also likely be much less noticeable if anyone happened to have come across him while he was working and/or if he failed.
Thus, as usual, the redheaded Slytherin waited until the Charms classroom was vaccant and he had a good deal of time before it was occupied again. As he had intended from the beginning of the school year to use it frequently when it was vaccant, he had staked it out for a while. Eventually, he learned the regular times that class was held in it and other students made use of it before creating a table reminding him of the times most likely for him to have it to himself. Since then, it had only been a matter of checking the room duing those times to see if he could use it without fear of being disturbed.
That day he got lucky in finding neither student nor faculty member in the room. Satisfied, Jack walked in with his schoolbag, placed it on a desk, and took out two identical quills. He set them next to each other on a desk, pointed his wand at one of them, and went over the pronounciation in his head while recalling the hand movement. This one was easy; just a simple 'V'. He liked to think of it as a downward arrow encouraging his target to get smaller and closer to the earth. His plan was not only to shrink one of the quills, but to reduce it to approximately half the size of its twin. If he wanted to master the spell, he was going to have to use extreme focus and precision.
"Reducio!" he said, voice strong as he ennunciated the word as clearly as he could manage. As he'd hoped, a purple light shot out of his wand straight toward the quill. Jack kept his gaze trained on his target, concentrating hard until...there!
Once the other quill was the size he'd been hoping for, the Slytherin broke concentration and lifted his wand, causing the light to cease. He excitedly went over to examine the quill, turning it this way and that to inspect it against its normal-sized double. It was nice being able to focus without worrying about other eyes watching and judging him or noises disrupting his thoughts. If he hadn't, he doubted he would have been able to get the quill to the size he desired on his first try.
His accomplishment gave Jack renewed confidence, however, and he set the half-sized quill back down next to its brother. It was time to learn how to englarge it again, but he thought this would be trickier since he had to make sure the size was exactly what it had been before. If it ended up too large, at least he thought he could shrink it back down to what he wanted it to be, but knowing how much energy magic took to perform, Jack wasn't keen on messing up.
Word Count: 744 words
PC: Jack Burnett | iNPC: Ginyami Midorimori
26 Mar 2020, 22:13
A Space-Saving Solution
Another late reply. I have read through Jack Burnett sneaking into my classroom and successfully learning "Reducio"
Artemis Vernatis
Professor of Charms