Charmed, I'm Sure
xxx
✦ ───────────────────────────────── ✦
mentions| @Katherine Townsend
ooc notes| none! enjoy!
date| 05/02/26word count
typical slytherin uniform |outfit
✦✦✦
First lesson back after the holiday period. Valour had travelled back home for their favourite time of the year. Misty evenings amongst the sandstone architecture; they were even lucky to have a small burst of snow right around New Year’s. Christmas at the estate was a spectacle as always, for better or worse, with platoons of guests filling every room. They were a little grateful to have been brought back to reality.
February, however, came with a stark reminder of the typical weather in Scotland. Argentum sprinted for cover, shielding their head pathetically with their robe, which was now entirely soaked through. They loathed the thought of being the first to arrive, but the first thing on their mind was finding sanctuary from the brutal downpour. Her shirt clung to her skin, her jumper now seemed to weigh pounds and her dampened hair stuck to her forehead like unkempt tree roots. They thought of their ruined parchment and precious violin on their back with a grimace. Valour quickly ducked into the nearest door with a scowl, shaking their hair from their face as if an untrained dog. They looked rather stupid, robes sopping, satchel and violin case on either shoulder, a small puddle gathering at their feet. The witch decided they’d rather take the embarrassment of showing up first to class than waiting around in the hallway for an audience. With that, they trudged upstairs and nudged the door of the Charms classroom ajar with their muddy boot.
Before kicking the door open entirely, they lingered just outside as a charming melody seeped into the corridor. Valour had never encountered the foreign style before - it was unlike any popular music they’d grown up around, and had odd-sounding instruments that enraptured their attention. It was accompanied by careless, happy humming. Intrigued, they shoved in the door and strode inside.
Thankfully, a few students trailed in behind them, allowing Valour to find a seat nearer to the back without enticing much conversation. Professor Fresnel was always far too excitable for their liking, determined to pry open their shell, which was very much fortified. It was just as Valour made headway towards their usual seat that they noticed subtle changes to the classroom layout; seats rearranged, new vibrant curtains opened wide, and a cushy fuchsia armchair tucked next to the front desk. The room just seemed to glitter. They glanced back to the front of the room, only to find a stranger chatting with their classmates.
The witch was dressed like a traffic cone. Or a child’s birthday party gone wrong. She was pretty, Valour would gladly give her that; everything about her seemed to force your attention on her, and not in a subtle way. They were surprised they had missed her at first, patterned tights, eyeshadow and all. She was absolutely glowing at two Ravenclaws, talking animatedly as she wrote her name upon the chalkboard in large, swirling letters. ‘Kitty Townsend’ - it was fitting. Valour could only internally groan, anticipating about double the energy of Fresnel for the entire year.
✦
Professor Townsend - or Kitty, as she insisted they called her - was the darling of the hour. As she beamed, the entire class found themselves unwittingly smiling back, swept away by her sunshine. For Valour, the entire lesson entered one ear and out the other, as it found itself wandering aimlessly around the same basic theory for thirty minutes. They rather wickedly thought to themself that if Hogwarts had an entrance exam, this room would be half empty. Some Slytherin girl Valour had never given a second glance had asked to go over pronunciation of the Levitation Charm for what felt like the hundredth time. Everyone’s wands lay dormant on their desks, like some outdated accessory, as they scrawled out some meaningless written exercise on parchment.
Over the past term, Valour had grown to despise theory. They had waited all their life to get their hands on a wand, and this is what they called a magical education? By the time they were seven, the child had read most elementary Charms textbooks front to back, practicing night and day with a hairbrush in front of their mirror. Now they were at Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Bloody Wizardry, and still being forced to waste time with exercises and homework that served no purpose to them. It was like some sick joke.
Townsend was floating around the classroom, helping students as she peered over their shoulders with a soft, worldly gaze. Her kind words and encouraging attitude meant very little to Valour. It did not bring results, and quite frankly, it was a little repugnant. Like shovelling down honey. They glared at the assignment on the blackboard for a moment, before glancing at a quill on the professor’s desk. There’s a challenge. Valour picked up their wand and checked that Townsend’s back was still turned, deciding to take practical matters into their own hands. “Wingardium Leviosa,” they murmured, just as they’d rehearsed on timeless occasions, staring intently at the quill as they waved and flicked their wrist with practiced precision. The quill wobbled for a second, then rose gracefully in the air - then clattered back down to earth, knocking a pot of ink over with it. She winced and shrank back into her seat, watching as the black ink seeped over the professor’s papers. Valour picked up their own quill, ducked their head down and pretended to write, cursing - screaming - internally. What the hell had they done wrong? It was a basic charm - child’s play. Valour had made things levitate at six years old, what made a charm any different?
Their cheeks burned with shame and annoyance for the rest of the hour, scowling to themselves as they wrote the assignment title in jagged letters, almost ripping their parchment. They didn’t bother with actually writing anything else; they could answer the essay question on the spot. Instead, they scribbled and scolded themself in silence. How embarrassing. The feeling rose up their throat like bile.
The end of the lesson came like a mercy killing. The second Townsend freed them, Valour was on their feet, shoving their things away and slinging their satchel and case over their shoulder. As every student filed out, they set their assignments down in a neat pile on Kitty’s desk - except Valour, who avoided eye contact with a fury and paced out of the door, wondering where they’d find an empty room to play. Charms. Who gave a damn about Charms class anyway? They had a wand and a brain, they could practice in the library on their own to their heart’s bloody content. No writing or sickly professors in sight.
✦
Charms continued in very much the same fashion for the coming weeks. Valour was simply too impatient for their charms to work. Every failure sent them into a self-deprecating monologue, while any sign of success was taken exactly as they’d been raised to. Par for the course. Unremarkable. Anyone else could tell you that the child did possess some natural talent at the subject. It was innate and primordial, unrefined at best. And still, the child avoided their professor like the plague, never handing in a single sheet of parchment.
One day, Townsend began the day’s lesson by writing one fated word on the blackboard. ‘Alohomora’. Oh, Valour’s impish mind was already racing with all the possibilities that came with learning this charm. After all, the forbidden entices the imagination like nothing else. Every student had an elaborate lock on their desk, shut tight and aching to be opened.
The class opened with the usual exposition from Kitty, explaining the charm’s use and demonstrating the desired hand movements. She was interrupted hardly a few words in. There was a mutter from the back of the classroom and the sound of gears returning, followed by a resounding click. A few students craned their neck to stare at the open lock on Argentum’s desk, accompanied by a tiny, self-satisfied smirk. The witch noticed the pairs of eyes on them and cleared their throat innocently, placing their wand down again and making an almost mocking show of picking up their quill. “I’m sorry - you were saying, Professor?”
✦ ───────────────────────────────── ✦
sta 5 | eva 8 | str 5 | wis 2 | arc 1 | acc 9
seer | intuition
sta 5 | eva 8 | str 5 | wis 2 | arc 1 | acc 9
seer | intuition
Last edited by Valour Argentum on 11 Jan 2026, 01:25, edited 1 time in total.
Charmed, I'm Sure
date! february 5th, 2026. |
location! the charms classroom. |
mentions! @Valour Argentum. |
x |
★ you've got your passion, you've got your pride ★ ────────────────
★ ─────────────── ★ but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?Teaching had turned out to be, perhaps unexpectedly, a pleasant experience.
Kitty liked kids. Talking to them came easy; she remembered being young keenly. Her adolescent years were spent on a mix of anger, wanting to scream all the time, and desperation to please. She remembered making friends with first years as she was graduating, doing her best to welcome them to Ilvermorny. Now that she was in some higher sort of position of authority — which still felt insane — she wanted to hopefully help the kids at Hogwarts. Be the kind of adult that only made them want to scream some of the time.
With the exception of one blond whom Kitty ostentatiously ignored, the faculty at Hogwarts was helpful with settling in, too. Everyone had turned out incredibly kind — the Ravenclaw Head of House had seemingly heard of her incident and was sure to offer her support. A lot of people seemed to hear of the accident from nearly a year ago, actually: a fact Kitty tried not to think about.
She focused her energy on the students. She made her lesson plans over the holiday break, spending hours in the Library to try and develop something that hit the mix of interesting yet accessible for the younger years; debated what spells older years should familiarise themselves with before others. The drafts she had made at home were edited heavily, until she had something actually workable. With the work she threw herself into, Kitty had little time to actually settle into Hogwarts: her morning in the first week of January, when the students were set to come back, was spent setting up her classroom. New curtains, a comfortable chair. Something that wouldn't be too imposing, but would feel comfortable for both her and the students.
The month flew by. Kitty fell into a pleasant rhythm. Teaching younger years came with so much imagination, the kind of vivid color and loud voices, not quite yet taught to quiet down that she loved — teaching older years was fascinating all in its own right, full of promise and potential. Young adults just starting on their way into the world.
The day’s lesson was the unlocking charm, and its counterpart. Alohomora and colloportus; must haves, both from a practical sense and from a more plainly educational one. It would be one of the first forays these kids had into something that not only undid, but also prevented. A special kind of counter course. It meant that her lecture took a little longer than usual, but it would be worth it. The magical theory at work was a prime example of the rules and laws that went into not only the casting, but also the creation of spells—
Kitty’s words were interrupted by the sound of gears turning and a quiet click. More problematically, though, the noise meant every other student craned their neck towards the back. There, one specific Slytherin had managed to already unlock the lock placed on their desk for the sake of the practical section that Kitty had in mind. Impressive, if slightly disruptive.
“Thank you, miss Argentum, for that. Great demonstration, for sure,” Kitty said with a slight sigh, tone measured. Miss Argentum… Valour, if Kitty's memory served. A smart kid — maybe not the nicest, but every time they did something in class, it was clear they were focused. Their academic scores, however… they had a penchant for leaving work unfinished, if they turned anything in at all. As much as she had an appreciation for their natural aptitude, their doing tricks in the back of the classroom was not appreciated.
“Now, as I was saying,” she took a slightly firmer tone, recapturing the class’ attention. “The understanding of the unlocking charm relies on its history and its counterpart, Colloportus. Now, I'm sure there are plenty muggle-borns among you. Can any of you tell me…”
The rest of the class went off without a hitch. Only the light click of locks being magically unlocked and re-locked and unlocked yet again with the students’ newly discovered spells. Kitty walked around the room, making sure to answer questions, correcting stances and wand movements with a gentle hand and calm tone. It felt rewarding to see a kid that struggled finally get it — eyes lighting up, jaw dropping a little at what they just managed to do. It wasn't the excitement or adrenaline of a beast defeated and curse broken, sure, but it had a thrill of its own. A charm, one could say.
The end of class came, and Kitty sighed softly as she sat back down in the plush magenta chair at her desk. It was a shame, really; she could have continued helping them for a while longer, if the time allowed. Ah, well. The students slowly filed out, leaving assignments on a neat pile on her desk.
The last student left was, unfortunately for their attempt at a quick exit, Valour. They had deposited no paper, but in their lingering around, ended up being the slowest in the line of kids making their exit. The door locked in their face with a quiet thud and a click of the lock. As they'd turn to look at Kitty, they'd see her with her wand out — at the end of a wand movement that, after the last hour of class, they should be familiar with. To the right, down, to the left, down. Colloportus in all its glory, even if she hadn't said a word. Kitty didn't look up immediately, instead finishing one last note before turning to make eye contact with Valour.
“I hope your attempt at leaving just now doesn't mean that you think me inattentive, miss Argentum. We’re both too smart for that,” she said, tilting her head slightly to the side. Kitty's expression wasn't angry, by any means. Amused, even — a smile playing at her lips.
“Come, sit. I don’t bite,” Kitty invited. She leaned back in her seat, gesturing to the one opposite her desk. Her posture and face were open as always, but her eyes were now trained on Valour. Watching and patiently waiting. The clock ticked quietly above them. Kitty waited for Valour to make their way over; she herself was in no rush. Once Valour sat down, Kitty readjusted: straightening her posture a little bit, leaning forward. Her fingers idly drummed along the surface of the desk they sat at. “Now, I don't want to take up too much of your break time, but I noticed you haven’t been handing in your assignments.”
“You do good in class. I wanted to ask if you had any trouble with the homework material?”
esme hestridge. second year slytherin duelist. |
thales amaro. second year castelobruxo quidditch. |
Charmed, I'm Sure
✦ ───────────────────────────────── ✦
mentions| @Katherine Townsend
ooc notes| I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG BBG
date| 05/02/26word count
val/regent (they/she) |aliases
x |outfit
✦✦✦
"Dream on / but don't imagine they'll all come true."
Finally satisfied with their minor act of rebellion – a small stunt that was more to reassure themself of their own abilities than to prove anything to anyone else – Valour spent the rest of the Charms lecture twirling a strand of inky hair around their index finger and folding parchment into origami cranes. Perhaps if she made a thousand, she could wish to skip from first to sixth year and get onto the more potent stuff, like the Patronus charm, or Legilimency. Besides, what good was participation when she didn’t need it? They had acquired a Locksmith’s Knife quite some time ago now from a joke shop, which was already charmed to open any door. Alohomora was simply a pretty addition to her repertoire. It had always fascinated her with its promise of endless applications, but the theory did little to excite the imagination. Valour resigned themself to spending the rest of class in her own little mind palace, searching for and unlocking new doors of potential.
Time certainly dragged its feet, impossibly stretching the class and Valour’s patience to a point of desperation. By the time Kitty released them, Valour was on the balls of their feet, grabbing their satchel and making a quick beeline for the door. It seemed the rest of the class also had urgent places to be, congesting the doorway and forcing them miserably to the back. A petulant scowl grew on their face as they waited for each student to deposit their assignments into a neat pile on Townsend’s desk. Of course, Valour had nothing material to show for the last hour, and attempted to look vaguely distracted as they walked past. Just as the freedom was in sight, the girl stumbled to a halt as the door unexpectedly swung shut, grazing the tip of their turnt-up nose. They caught a flicker of movement in their peripheral; a clean swipe of maple wood and not a single word uttered. The same distinct click of the locking mechanism rang through the now empty classroom, accompanied by the soft scratching of a quill. Kitty took her time in placing it down before fixing her gaze on Valour, inviting her to sit.
“We’re both too smart for that.” Valour tried not to look too smug at the comment, simply batting their lashes blankly at the young woman before slowly approaching what felt like a trap. She looked calm, which unnerved them more than they’d care to admit. Worse, it almost felt like Kitty was the one laughing. Valour sank into a chair opposite Kitty’s desk with a neutral expression, ready to bargain her way out of whatever scolding she was about to receive.
They refused to be the first one to give in to this silent stalemate - not that her teacher seemed to care at all. Valour simply stared, waiting for her to break the ice freezing over. It seemed obvious to say, but Kitty was a remarkably pretty woman. They figured they’d somehow glazed over the fact, too preoccupied in resenting their classes that they never stopped to look her in the eye. Her eyelids had an opalescent shimmer to them, making her eyes look more teal than blue. Despite her level expression, her cheeks seemed to smile anyway, exuding a sort of self-assuredness Valour reluctantly found refreshing. Behind the ‘pre-school teacher chic’ clothes however, the woman clearly didn’t fuck around. Valour almost found herself liking her - that is, before she opened her mouth.
“I wanted to ask if you had any trouble with the homework material?” The question was innocent enough, but laced with something foul-tasting. The mere insinuation that Valour struggled. They fought the laugh that bubbled up their throat, playing it off as a cough and pressing their tongue into their cheek. A string of colourful expletives poured through their mind as they inhaled and physically recalibrated. She rolled her shoulders back, not breaking eye contact with the professor for a second, lips tightly pressed together in a bitter down-turned smile. In a carefully clipped and measured tone, she retorted.
"No. No problem at all, Professor. I’ve just been busy is all and - quite frankly - I don’t see the point of it." They dared to press a bit further, "I mean, we both know I can cast the spells, so what’s the issue here?"
Valour would be the first to throw their hands up and admit it; they knew they were being a brat. However, coming from a family like theirs, it was difficult not to take offence. Their family quite literally preoccupied the majority of the ‘A’ section of the library. To Valour, it felt like an obvious attack, a snide comment meant to tap some insecurity of hers and, cruelly, it was working. What was even worse was the fact that they didn’t breeze through everything as they always expected they would. She would rather die than admit it to the woman, but her impatience frequently got the better of her, even with charms that should be elementary.
Amidst all this inner-monologuing, Valour’s expression remained set in stone. Unwelcoming and dripping with pride. She cocked her head in a faux-sweet gesture.
“So what are you going to do? Give me a detention? Call my parents?”
It sounded less like a challenge and more of a genuine inquiry. It would likely take more than any punishment to make them show an ounce of respect.
"When will you realise Vienna waits for you?"
✦ ───────────────────────────────── ✦
sta 5 | eva 8 | str 5 | wis 2 | arc 1 | acc 9
seer | intuition
sta 5 | eva 8 | str 5 | wis 2 | arc 1 | acc 9
seer | intuition