Charm The Bubble-Producing Charm, First Year

As fascinating as History of Magic was, even Illowy couldn't deny that the days when they got to actually practice magic and learn new spells and charms were by far her favorite days. For the dedicated and studious Slytherin, it was at the same level as having a class movie day for Muggles.

Once the Professor dismissed them to start practicing, Illowy was one of the first to branch off on her own to practice saying the incantation. Of course, she'd already read about and mentally practiced this spell a dozen times, but she certainly wasn't a show off; she wouldn't just allow herself to be the first person to stride up to the queue and cast the spell perfectly. Or worse, mess up on a slight technicality and the charm not work properly. That would simply be embarrassing.

Slowly, carefully, she practiced the words, trying to match Professor Zahid's inflection of each syllable. Once she's boosted her confidence in it, she made her way to the line. One by one, the snake watched her classmates cast at the upperclassmen. Some seemed to have a perfect handle on it, but others were clearly struggling and that made her nervous. That fact was only made more obvious as the girl twirled her wand through her fingers, watching the others intently.

No no, now is not the time to let yourself go silly with nerves, she thought, trying to pep herself up and she stepped up to her turn. Before her took an older Gryffindor boy who looked like he'd never heard the word 'comb' in his life. He had a mischievous look about himself as he readied himself.

Illowy took a deep breath, trying to relax herself before making her attempt. The still twirling wand came to an abrupt stop when she felt she met her peak for nerve and took at at the target, "Bullarum Immortalem." the child spoke clearly and confidently. A string of golden bubbles sprung forwards from the tip of her wand that the Gryffindor boy.

Professor Edit: Noticing how as one of his students attempted the spell she did manage to produce golden bubbles only for them to immediately dissolve after forming, Zahid made his way over to correct her pronunciation. "Admirable attempt, Miss Magnard, but the pronunciation is BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. Take care to enunciate properly and try again." he offered with an encouraging smile.

Bullarum Immortalem not learned

As you did not include the proper pronunciation of the spell, you did not learn it.
You can still learn the spell by making a new post writing how you try again - just make sure to include both the wandmovement and the pronunciation this time.

Thora walked in, noticing the strange setup of the classroom and the five mysterious students standing at the back of the room. Obviously, they were older, but Thora didn't know why they were here. Apprehensively, she sat down and waited for class to begin. 
So, today is another hands-on day, thought Thora as the Professor explained what they would be doing. Once the History of Magic professor informed the first years of the correct incantation of the Bubble-Producing Charm, Thora began muttering under her breath.
"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem," she whispered. Glancing around, the girl's face flushed red, hoping nobody had noticed her talking. As the Professor released the first years to practice the spell on the older students the Slytherin had previously noticed, Thora couldn't help but feel a shiver go up her spine. As Thora began hurrying towards the queue where her fellow students were waiting, the girl hung back. What if she messed up? She had better practice a little first... 
As she waited for a few more students--a pair of Ravenclaws, a slightly pudgy Hufflepuff, and a fellow Slytherin to line up in front of her, Thora tried to master the spell herself.
"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem," she whispered, while making sure not to point her wand at anyone, lest she accidentally perform the spell. The redhead shifted her feet and turned her wand over and over in her small hands--a nervous habit. When, at last, it was Thora's turn, she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Praying that she wouldn't mess up, Thora pointed her wand at the pretty Gryffindor fourth year--the professor had introduced her as Allison Gibbs. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem," the Slytherin said loudly and clearly. To Thora's relief, a steady stream of exquisitely golden-colored bubbles flowed out of her aspen wood wand and towards the Gryffindor. The nervous snake shot a quick smile at the older Gryffindor before re-queuing at the back of the line.

Professor Edit: "Well done, Miss Larkston." Zahid nodded to Thora as she turned to make her way back to the end of the queue. She seemed far more nervous than she had to be judging by her first proper attempt at the spell. But alas, some students would always be nervous in class.

Bullarum Immortalem learned

How incredibly frustrating. Though she'd managed to produce the bubbles with proper form, her pronunciation and inflection failed her and the moment they made contact they completely dissolved. Her lips pressed in a tight line as the Professor strode towards her, explaining exactly where she'd gone wrong and how to correct herself. What a simple, stupid mistake, she scolded herself.

It held true that one's self was always their worst critic, but it was especially true in Illowy's case. The girl was often too proud for her own good, and when it came to her magic, failing even slightly, it took a blow to her ego. Perhaps in time, she'd learn to let moments like this keep her humble instead of seeing it as some sort of catastrophe. After all, she was still just learning, and especially with things as precise as magic, she couldn't expect herself to do every spell perfectly every time she flicked her wand about.

Professor Zahid reminded her once more of the proper pronunciation, "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem." she repeated carefully after him before taking her stance once more at his encouragement to give it another try. She could do this, she knew she could. The snake simply needed to stop letting her nerves and her pride cloud her common sense.

Pale blue eyes flicked to her target once more as she lifted her wand, muttering the pronunciation to herself a couple more times to ensure she would execute this perfectly. Her wand traced through the air with a deliberate and careful motion, "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem." she spoke, trying to maintain the confidence from her first try.

By Merlin, she hope the spell worked properly this time. How completely, utterly mortifying if she would have to take herself to the back of the queue to wait her turn to try again.

Professor Edit: Watching the Slytherin making another attempt at the charm, Zahid nodded in satisfaction as she corrected her mistake this time around. “Well done, Miss Magnard.” She may be concentrating a bit too much on how she moved her wand at her target given that she merely needed to point her wand at it, but it was a success and there was enough time left in the lesson for her to practice a bit more to grow comfortable with the spell. He didn't doubt that she would.

Bullarum Immortalem learned

As soon as he had heard bubbles, Piérre had been all over it.

Turning his wand in his hands, he waited for he professor to finish speaking. Apparently if he didn’t his right, he could make bubbles that wouldn’t ever pop!

Pranks tripled in the span of five minutes!

”The proper incantation is BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. Wand movement wise this spell is even easier than the last one we covered. You merely need to have your wand pointed towards your target when you incant the spell, no actual movement required. Now, as I said, if you cast correctly the Bubbles will not burst – and they will not harm your target, so do not worry about that – but if you do not cast correctly the miscast bubbles (if any appear at all) may be of differing sizes or colours and they sometimes burst like soap bubbles hence the Impervius.”

Immortal bubbles, Piérre translated internally. Since Latin and Italian were so closely linked, he found it quite easy to simplify it and translate it back to English as far as the true meanings of the spells were concerned. It was as if Italian had been based off of the language of magic. Was there a reason for that? He would have to ask the professor later.

Nodding, Piérre recited it aloud to himself. ”BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem... BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem”

After being instructed on the nature of their task, Piérre ended up in the line like everyone else, furthest in the back. He used the time to practice the incantation. He, by nature, was rather poor with spells, and if he had to bet, it was going to take at least two tries to get the spell right.

By the time he reached the front, he was confronted by a kindly smiling blue-eyed girl. He recognized her as a fourth year Gryffindor. Piérre had seen her around the halls, but had never spoken face to face with her before.

Piérre stood there, readjusting the wand in his hand once again before he took a deep, shaky breath, pointing the wand directly at the girl as a translucent shield began to materialize around her form.

”BUL-la-rem im-MORE-te-lem.” Piérre commanded, doing his best to subdue his accent as he pointed his wand at the Gryffindor girl’s shield.

Almost immediately, bubbles left his wand, but Piérre could tell immediately that something was wrong with them. They were not gold like the professor’s had been, on the contrary, they were a rather icky looking black, almost like ink bubbles. They were warped and in rather odd shapes, and as they floated to the girl, they popped on contact with the shield, spattering liquid black on the floor.

Piérre huffed as he lowered his wand. Wrong pronunciation. He figured that already. Damn, it was hard to reduce his accent and make sure it was Latin and not just Italian.

He still had one more go, though. May as well make the best of it.

Composing himself again, Piérre readjusted his stance, pointing his wand at the girl again, who by this opposing had created a second shield for herself.

With a deep breath, Piérre tried again:

”BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem!”

If Piérre succeeded, he would ask the Professor his question about Latin and Italian and would ask the following question: ”Professor, would it be possible to change the color of the bubbles? Like, say if we added the word ‘viridans’. The incantation would translate ‘Green Immortal Bubbles. Could the bubbles turn green?”

Professor Edit: Zahid raised a brow. The middle of a lesson with everyone was practicing a spell while standing at the front of the line, blocking the spot from the other students queueing up, was hardly the perfect time to ask such a questions - that's what the metaphorically open door of his office was for.

Still, the question had been asked and Zahid was not about to leave a student's question unanswered if he could do something about it, so he gave a the boy a polite smile and a nod. "Yes, put simply Italian is one of the languages that evolved from Latin. But, no, it is not that easy to change a spell. While it may seem that it should be that simple, spell-crafting is far more complex than that - but the particulars is possibly a question better posed to your Charms Professor. He should have a better grasp on the theory behind it than I do." With that he turned to correct the incantation of a Ravenclaw girl in the neighbouring queue.

Bullarum Immortalem learned

October 2018

Katrina stood in line and watched as people slowly trickled from the front of the line to the back. Some people mastered the spell on the first try, while other struggled. Katrina held her chestnut wand at the ready, and when it was her turn she rose it.

"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem" Her hand shook slightly and a few bubbles sprouted from the tip of her wand before falling. She squinted harshly at them before trying again.

"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem" No bubbles appeared. That time she knew she had spaced out the words all wrong. She huffed and stomped to the end of the line to try again.

Under her breath she whispered the spell, careful to not raise her wand. By the time she was at the front again, anger had festered within her. She was not going to make a fool of herself this time. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem, BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem" Katrina said it twice and was shocked when a really large amount of bubbles flew from her wand.

A rare grin spread across her face. The person who she had cast the spell at poked at one of the bubbles and Katrina followed suit prodding the shimmering orbs- filled with delight.

Professor Edit:

Bullarum Immortalem not learned

As you did not meet the required word count, you did not learn the spell.

You can still learn the spell by either deleting this post and reposting it edited to meet the required word count, or making a new post that meets said word count.

Professor Edit: ausing next to the Ravenclaw as she reached the front of the line, Zahid observed as she attempted the Bubble-Producing Charm.

The girl seemed almost overconfident which often tended not to turn out too well, but she did succeed in casting her spell. “Well done, Miss Starr.”

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Jorah arrived in the History of Magic classroom excited to see that the desks had been moved to make room for spell castings. Excellent, he thought. He was starting to enjoy these atypical classes. Jorah felt that he could read about history in the library, but where he really struggled was with spell casting. Jorah welcomed any opportunity to improve this deficiency and these practical lessons were a start.

The professor introduced his helpers and demonstrated the spell for the students. Jorah wrote down the proper pronunciation unto his parchment for later review. How useful really is this spell, he wondered. I'm not an interior designer. When am I ever going to need to make bubbles? For fun, perhaps. The only real use Jorah saw in this spell was for Defensive Magic. The bubbles could be used as a quick way to slow and prevent the movement of an opponent.

Jorah practiced reciting the incantation. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. He repeated a few more times until he knew it by heart. The students stepped forward forming lines to practice the spell on the volunteers. Jorah hopped into the line forming in front of an older Ravenclaw student. Jorah always felt more comfortable with students from his own house. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem, he repeated in his head.

Jorah didn't pay too much attention to the other students. He just focused on the words. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. It would be too embarrassing if he failed the conjuration and would have to queue up again, but with his low skill, failing was a likely scenario. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem.

It was his turn. Jorah stepped up to the Ravenclaw who greeted him with a slight smile and a nod to proceed. Jorah pointed his wand directly at the student, cleared his throat with a ah-ah, then recited BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem! Nothing, not a single bubble. His heart beat a little faster. C'mon, he thought. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem! A string of unstable bubbles of various sizes and colors sprang forth from his wand. Not quite right. The student behind him was motioning him to return to the back of the line. "No," he said defiantly, "I get one more try." With that Jorah let out a louder and more confident BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem! A solid string of identical bubbles sprang forth from his wand to his great pleasure.

Professor Edit: Zahid was about to tell the Ravenclaw to let the next student have a turn and not to hog the front of the line, but before he could, the boy succeeded in casting the charm on his third try and so Zahid merely gave him a nod and a “Nice work, Mister Moussa.”

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Another extra-curricular History of Magic lesson. Although the first one had not been particularly interesting -- barely an extension of their first Charm's lesson -- it had still been interesting. And definitely something of a confidence boost to have been able to put her Charm's practice to good use with the ocular twist. She was eager to see what was in store this time around.

Arriving early, Evelynn was among the first to enter the room. The first thing that struck her was that the desks had been pushed off to one side of the room to make a clearing of sorts in which stood a small group of older, unfamiliar students. To the front, the professor stood at his desk and she cast him a quizzical look. Given the charm learned in the first of these lessons, she knew it could have been anything, really. Thus she hadn't the faintest idea what to expect this time, especially with the gaggle of elder students gathered at the center. It felt like she had to wait for hours as the rest of the class trickled in.

Thankfully, Evelynn wasn't left to wonder for too terribly long. Eventually, Professor Benga--something--asoud spoke up. He broke through the din of chattering students and pull the redhead from her reverie with ease. Clasping her hands genially in front of her where she stood, she listened with rapt attention. For all of about five seconds. The soap blizzard? The recent lesson popped to mind. What on earth were they about to learn? The quizzical expression returned, deepening all the more-so as the professor explained the spell they were about to learn. By the end of it, Evelynn had to suppress the hint of a smile as the image of Wartortle casting bubble-beam at the students in the center of the class came to mind.

With a lick of her lips, Evelynn mentally shook her mind clear again and strived to maintain her academic dignity. Focus. It was very possible that the spell could come in handy in the most unexpected way. Even as the professor described its use for decorating during the holidays, she made a mental note to keep that in mind, already picturing how lovely that could be. As he continued through the introductions of the volunteer students, she reminded herself of the three fundamental rules of charm work: focus, precision, and enunciation.

Focus. Precision. Enunciation. She repeated it as a sort of mantra. It helped to clear her mind and reorient her attention to the lesson at hand.

"BUL-la-rum im-mor-TA-lem," Evelynn uttered quietly at the professor's urging. "Wait, no.." Her nose wrinkled with annoyance with the error. That wasn't right. "Im-MOR-ta-lem," she corrected herself. She would have to look up the etiology of the first half of the incantation, but the latter half certainly sounded like immortal. Given that the bubbles weren't supposed to pop, that did make sense; but with the emphasis on a different syllable, she could see that causing her some trouble with enunciation if she wasn't careful. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem," she repeated again. And then again. And then silently again several times within her mind.

That the wand movement was even easier than the last, she had a hard time believing it initially. All they had to do for the eyeglass repair charm was to tap the glasses. Have your wand pointed towards your target. Ah, yes. That could certainly be considered easier. Only two of the three fundamentals were of any concern then. Focus and enunciation. And it was the latter that was still more likely to cause issue.

BUL-la-rum im-mor-TA--- Wrong. Im-MOR-ta-lem. Im-MOR-ta-lem. Im-MOR-ta-lem. Evelynn repeated it over and over as she waited her turn to cast her attempt. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. Better.

Before long, it was her turn. She heard the permission uttered by the professor to take her cast. She closed her eyes, and took a breath. One. She could feel the cool wood of her wand held delicately between her fingers. Two. Her heart drummed rhythmically in her chest, each beat coming just slightly more slowly than the last as she held her breath. Three. Air seeped from her nostrils as she slowly released her breath.

Raising her wand to aim ahead directly at her upperclassman, she opened her eyes, her mind empty of all but the spell. With dulcet confidence, Evelynn chanted, "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem."

Professor Edit: Zahid hoped the Gryffindor student was concentrating on internalising the spell and had not fallen asleep – he vaguely remembered she had seemed on the verge of falling asleep in the last extra lesson – but considering that she already (correctly) pointed her wand at her victim-of-choice before she re-opened her eyes he supposed it was the former.

While she might need a few more tries to get the amount of power put into the spell right, her first try was a success. “Well done, Miss Decipio.”

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Bubbles had always held a certain interest for the young Ravenclaw, mostly because she recalled swimming and spitting up bubbles in the sea. So the notion of creating her own bubbles by magic was certainly something that caught her attention. To be in History of Magic working on spell rather than history itself was a bit curious, but she didn't mind.

Instead, she listened eagerly to the Professor's instructions. As she listened to him speak, she looked over the volunteers for today's class. In their own way, they each looked prepared. One day, she wished she too could volunteer for something like this or some kind of leadership. But she turned her attention back to the matter of the day and wrote down the incantation: BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. As for the wand movement, there barely was one. She pursed her lips slightly, it couldn't be that easy, could it? There had to be something else.

But there wasn't too much time to over analyze, fortunately. She locked eyes with the Hufflepuff boy, the one with green eyes and messy hair. Nodding, she exchanged the notion that he would be her target. But first some practice on her own. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem! BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem!" she cried, but to little effect. There were some bubbles, but few and small in between. Looking down at her wand, she deduced the problem might be that she wasn't pointing at anything--that was the wand movement after all.

And perhaps that was indeed why they had guests. Turning, she faced the Hufflepuff boy and tried to smile. She still found it odd at times to be casting on a person, but perhaps this was why she didn't sign up for dueling. Pointing her wand, she took a breath before uttering the words, "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem!" It took a moment, but soon she saw the bubbles emerge and her face spread with glee. This is how she'd decorate the family christmas tree from now on.

Professor Edit: While the students were supposed to practice the incantation without using a wand at first to get the pronunciation correct, he was not particularly surprised to see a student skipping that step and instead simply attempting to cast the charm – with moderate success. Being at the front of the line, the girl then immediately turned to Mr. Fabbri to cast the spell again but this time with a target.

Bullarum Immortalem learned

AJ had made sure not to be late for this one. The professor had been incredibly generous in providing an extra lesson and taking time out of his life to teach these students an extra spell that could be of use to them. It would've been incredibly rude to rock up late to it.

He lined up alongside his fellow first years, interested to hear what wisdom the professor had to impart. The boy gave a friendly nod to all the 'practice dummies' to silently thank them all for also being here to help. He tried not to let himself get too distracted though as the older gentleman was still explaining the lesson.

He had pulled out his wand in preparation for casting but quickly slipped it back into his robes at the order from the Professor. AJ supposed it made sense that he wouldn't want a whole heap of untrained First-Years accidentally slinging random spells at the unwitting elder students. It would seem the intention was to verify that they actually knew how to pronounce the spell before allowing them to attempt it. AJ nervously licked his lips, proper pronunciation was something he always struggled with due to his accent, however he was determined to get this right even if it took him all day. A fact that the students and the professor would likely not thank him for.

The students altogether tried pronouncing the spell in a cacophony of disorganised and sometimes incorrect pronunciations. AJ took a few moments to mull the word over in his head, whispering out the sounds individually, trying not to stumble or slur. "Bool-eh-room...no! Bo-bu-be-bu..." There was a few minutes of him repeating each sound until he got to the point where it sounded like he was faking an English accent, by this point many students had made their first attempt at actual casting.

"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem" The boy finally managed to announce with the sound of an Aberdonian impersonating a Londoner, the pronunciation was correct even if the accent was jarring.

With approval he would take out his wand again and line up, trying to keep the pronunciation on the tip of his tongue as the line progressed forward. Eventually, he stood at the front. He stood square on to his target and took a breath, pointing the tip of his wand towards them. "BULlerum Immeetalum!" A blunder in his pronunciation. Numerous tiny green bubbles were emitted from the tip of his wand, hardly effective.

He would take a second attempt. "Bollurum Imortalem." He was closer but still wrong, this time creating one large bubble that floated upwards and then popped, sprinkling his face with a viscous liquid.

The pressure was on slightly and his heart started to race. He closed his eyes and willed his mouth to say the words as he was intending them to be said. "BULLARUM IMMORTALEM!" With a raised voice from desperation alone he pointed his wand at his target as numerous bubbles shot out of the tip of his wand towards the target.

Tentatively AJ prodded one of them with his wand and was relieved to see it merely be pushed away rather than bursting. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and went to the Professor to receive some critique.

@Zahid al-Benghazi ibn Masoud

Professor Edit: Having just corrected the pronunciation of one of the Hufflepuff boys - how that boy had gotten stuck on saying Im-to-a-lem was a mystery to him - Zahid turned to the observe the next student. The Gryffindor seemed to be one of those that thought speaking an incantation louder after it was said wrongly before would help with spell-casting but then, did most students not seem to fall into that group?

Still, the results seemed to prove the boy right as the bubbles did what they were supposed to do - they did not burst. "Well done, Mr. MacAllister."

Bullarum Immortalem learned