Charm The Bubble-Producing Charm, First Year

Serena was looking forward to today’s History of Magic class. While she did like the lecture-style lessons, the first-year was looking forward to a practical course. And who didn’t like bubbles? So, she quickly took a seat in the classroom, bouncing her foot, eagerly awaiting for the class to start.

When Professor Zahid began speaking, Serena made sure to pay attention, taking down some quick notes about the spell. The badger especially made sure to take note of the pronunciation. And when the History of Magic professor instructed the class to say it a few times, she did.

“BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem…BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem…” Serena muttered to herself a few times. Okay, that wasn’t too difficult to say.

So, the first-year lined up. Serena couldn’t see who was at the front of the line due to the numerous students in front. While she made her way through the line, she kept whispering the spell’s incantation to herself. She didn’t want to forget it or say it wrong.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, it was her turn. Serena realized that she was in front of the girl who the professor introduced as Miss Gibbs. Serena gave her a small smile. Then, taking a deep breath in, she pointed her chestnut wood wand at the older blonde-haired girl and said with as much confidence as she could muster, “BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem!”

Professor Edit: Moving on to check on the next student, Zahid was surprised to see the Hufflepuff girl succeed on her first attempt despite her incantation sounding more questioning than confident. Maybe the success would boost her confidence for her next attempt.

"Good work, Miss Bowen."

Bullarum Immortalem learned

@Zahid al-Benghazi ibn Masoud

Professor Edit: Zahid was about to go and help the Hufflepuff with his pronunciation, when the boy asked a fellow first year for help. Good. That showed initiative and that the boy wasn't too proud to ask for help like some of the other students. It bode well for his academic career. And when it was his turn again, the Hufflepuff succeeded in casting the spell. "Well done, Mr. Jones."

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Professor Edit: Making his way over to the next student, Zahid observed her attempts at casting the spell unsuccessfully. And now she stopped and stood there holding up the queue. He sighed. He would have to send her to the back to the queue to line up again and work on her pronunciation with her.

But before he could she did get ahold of herself and made another attempt, this time successfully. "Well done, Miss O'Niell. But now let's have someone else have a turn, hm?"

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Professor Edit:

Bullarum Immortalem not learned

As you do not yet meet the conditions to qualify for this lesson, you cannot learn the spell.

You can either delete this post and repost it later or you can make a new post when you do meet all the criteria.

Professor Edit: The young Slytherin was almost radiating ambitious confidence and Zahid had to wonder for a moment if the boy was being too cocky; overconfident without substance behind it - as several people he had seen in the past that had such an expression on their faces...

But the boy seemed to be right to be confident about his ability to cast this spell as he succeeded on his first try. "Well done, Mr. Thorn."

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Practical lessons were always fun. Ivy loved to learn new spells, and at the mention of the Bubble-Producing Charm, she perked up, a memory drifting back to her. Winter, 2014. She and her sisters had been in charge of decorating the Christmas tree, and Lillian, the oldest, had cast the spell to decorate the tree. A faint smile appeared on Ivy's lips. She remembered how she had thought that it was such a complicated spell. Well, now she was here to learn it.

She turned her attention back onto Professor Zahid, who was talking about the wand movement and incantation. Ivy was relieved that she hadn't zoned out long enough to miss it, as that would have been rather... awkward. She began to repeat the incantation under her breath, not wanting to forget it. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem," she whispered to herself. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem, BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem." The Gryffindor was still muttering it when she moved to line up behind her classmates.

"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem," she whispered as she got to the front of the line. Looking at the Slytherin fifth-year in front of her, Ivy took a deep breath and took out her walnut wand. Just a point of the wand, did he say? The Gryffindor was suddenly nervous, standing stock still. A random girl behind her nudged her, obviously impatient to get their turn.

Ivy glared at her, and stepped forwards. "Bul-LA-rum im-MOR-ta-LEM," she said, her voice wavering slightly as she pointed her wand at the Slytherin. Nothing happened. Oh no. She had messed up the incantation, hadn't she? Ivy felt her cheeks turn red and she looked around, flustered by her mistake. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem, she told herself silently.

Ivy cleared her throat. "BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem!" She pointed her wand towards the Slytherin girl.

Professor Edit: The Gryffindor girl was a good example for stage fright. She had kept repeating the correct pronunciation but as soon as she was at the front of the line… She made a mistake. But while she was clearly flustered the girl caught herself quickly and tried a second time - and succeeded.

Good. Zahid was always glad to see when students didn't let a single mistake derail their attempts at learning something new. "Well done, Miss Bellamy."

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Professor Edit: Stopping next to another of his Slytherin students, Zahid observed how the boy cast the spell at Miss Gibbs.

“Well done, Mr. Rainwood.”

Bullarum Immortalem learned

Word Count: 847

Professor Edit: Turning at the sound of a squeak, Zahid hoped that the student in question would not be too nervous to cast the spell. Whoever it was, they would not be the first student wasting practice time due to nerves and he wondered at the back of his mind if he should've asked for more volunteers to shorten the queues. Alas, it was what it was and given that there was no actual lesson in today's class, outside of teaching a spell, they should all have enough chances to practice, still.

He nodded to the Ravenclaw currently at the top of the line in front of Mr. Everill as she surrounded the poor boy with bubbles. "Well done, Miss Gollens."

Bullarum Immortalem learned

With desks and seats rearranged up against a wall, Pericles' mind quickly leapt to conclusions: they were learning a spell in History class today! Bag slung over his shoulder, wide eyes scanned the room, settling on the professor with a wondering look. To hear his assumption was correct caused his mood to spike from sleepy contentment to wide-awake attentiveness. The upper-years present were an addition he could not calculate, that is, until the Professor explained why they were attending alongside first-years.

They would be learning to cast bubbles. Not soap bubbles, their mentor specified... then what would be their texture, consistency, durability? The example of bauble bubbles seen at Christmas time answered many of his questions all at once. He considered Zahid's cast with a keen eye and rising elation. Pericles would do as instructed, muttering the incantation with care: "Boolarum immortallum. BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem. Bullarum Immortalem." With no wand movement to keep in mind, this would be an easy cast, so long as he did not bumble over the recitation. It was mouthed soundlessly until he found himself in line. There were a few hasty casts here and there: someone summoned a pinkish bubble that fell to the floor and popped with a harmless splat. Others managed orbs of gold, popping harmlessly against the Impervius spells of the upperclassmen.

His turn had come. The past several moments had been spent visualizing, reciting, and observing the way in which others succeeded in their casts. Now standing across the way from a particularly tall (NPC) Slytherin student, Pericles nodded to mutely express his gratitude for the part she would play in his (hopefully) learning the spell. He drew his wand, aimed, and honed his focus. "Bullarum Immortalem!"

WC: 285

Professor Edit: As the Ravenclaw aimed at Miss Ojeda, Zahid noted that seemed very focused. The expression on the boy's face was almost a bit too intense for simple spell practice – but it paid off. “Well done, Mr. Dralt.”

Bullarum Immortalem learned

As nice as it was to do something different every once in a while, Jack inwardly groaned at the thought that another one of his precious history lessons was going to be replaced by the practical application of a spell that he felt really should have been taught in Charms class instead of taking up precious History of Magic class time.

Well, as he did in his usual other classes (particularly Charms), Jack figured that if he mastered the spell ahead of time, perhaps he could spend the actual class doing something else. Usually, he just watched other students while pretending to nap or laze about, but in this class, there was more he was interested in doing.

Maybe, if he was lucky, he could read and compare his history books to one another and make notes in them instead like he was usually only able to do in his free time when there were no prying eyes about to see him. With everyone else probably occupied while busy practicing the spell, no one would happen to notice him reading his history book during class itself, would they? Perhaps if he propped the book up a certain way, he could appear like he was trying to sleep behind it even if he really meant to read.

Inspired by his new incentives to master the spell quickly, Jack tried to look up the Bubble-Producing Charm. To his surprise, he soon discovered there wasn't just one, but three bubble-related spells. Curious, he ended up writing them all down. From what he had gathered, there was the Bubble-Producing Spell that they were going to learn in their next History of Magic class, the Bubble-Head Charm which they were scheduled to learn in their Fourth Year, and something called the Ebublio Jinx.

Looking up all of their incantations to compare them, the Slytherin became rather puzzled. Some seemed to share the same Latin roots, but others were from different languages altogether. Perhaps the differences between them were a result that various wizards and witches over time and across the world had invented the various spells that were similar in nature but different in the magical language of their creators.

The Ebublio Jinx was one of the most confusing because of the four or five sources he had found regarding the spell (he wasn't sure if one of them counted because it simply seemed to be a newer edition of another), four had the same description of the spell, but the fifth had a completely different description. It was also much more highly-detailed in its description of what the spell looked like when performed properly along with its purpose. It even had a bit of history attached to it, which seemed to make it all the more reliable as a source, but given that three or four others contradicted it, Jack found this peculiar. As his hobby was comparing how events were described and portrayed between different history books, this discovery intrigued him greatly and he got a little side-tracked from his original goal.

According to the majority of his sources, the Ebublio Jinx (which seemed to simply be named after its incantation, 'ebublio', rather than its effect,) caused its victim to inflate and subsequently explode into hundreds of bubbles. Supposedly, it could only be cast on the target if an ally was using the spell 'Aqua Eructo' on them simultaneously. However, the one deviant source had some compelling information as well.

This one stated that the Ebublio Jinx was meant to entrap a target in a very large bubble that could not be popped by physical force. It also went on to mention that the wand movement was a lowercase 'e' figure, that the spell produced a brilliant blue jet of light, and that it was useful when fighting against aggressive Fire-Dwelling Salamanders, but that wasn't all.

It also went on to mention something that confused Jack slightly - its title as a 'jinx'. A jinx was supposedly a type of dark charm and considered a minor type of dark magic. Its effects were said to be 'irritating but amusing' and they supposedly had the least severe effects of the three dark charms: jinxes, hexes, and curses. That particular source had a note saying that 'although referred to as a jinx, it is possible that, given its effect, this [the Ebublio Jinx] is a type of Containment Charm.'

Containment Charms, Jack soon read, were charms which were cast with the intention of containing an entity within something or an area. If the other sources describing the Ebublio spell were true, however, it really did seem to fit the description of a jinx more than a Containment Charm which would have explained why they weren't taught the spell in school.

The way Jack saw it, the spell could have been mistaken for a different one or perhaps had different effects when applied or performed differently. In example, it was possible that the Ebublio spell worked as a Containment Charm when used alone. However, when used in tandem with the 'Aqua Eructo' spell, its effects were more suited to be that of a jinx's because it caused its victims to inflate and explode into bubbles.

And if all of that wasn't confusing enough, it turned out the incantation 'ebublio' didn't even have any translation in any language he could find. The closest term he had discovered was 'ebullio' which was supposedly Latin for 'I bubble up', but another source also said it was Latin for 'produce in abundance'. So that could have been why the jinx was said to be able to both cause a target to 'bubble up' before exploding into an 'abundance' of bubbles, but also to 'bubble up' in the sense of encasing a target in a bubble. Jack wondered if it was possible that the actual incantation was meant to be 'ebullio' from the start, but over the years it had been reinterpreted into 'ebublio'.

Fed up of that bubble spell, Jack looked into the second one. The Bubble-Head Charm, as it was known, was meant to create a large bubble of air around the head of the caster. This was useful in the case that one wished to breathe air while they were underwater or in an environment that otherwise prevented one from breathing normally. It was also used to keep foul odors from reaching one's mouth and nose.

One thing that surprised the Welsh boy about the Bubble-Head Charm was that its incantation was supposedly 'aspira' according to the curriculum for fourth years. Apparently, the etymology of the word 'aspira' could have originated either from the Old French word 'aspirer' which had several meanings including 'aspire to', 'inspire', 'breathe', and 'breathe on' or the Latin word 'aspirare' which meant 'to breathe upon', 'blow upon', or 'to breathe'. Jack figured it was also very likely that the Old French word's own etymology originated with the Latin term as its roots.

This was somewhat peculiar to Jack because as far as he knew, the Bubble-Head Charm wasn't simply used for breathing. He was fairly certain it could have also been used as something of a helmet to protect peoples' heads, but perhaps the bubbles weren't that durable. In any case, they had to be more durable than an average bubble, didn't they? And if the spell was about breathing rather than making a bubble around one's head, why was it called 'the Bubble-Head Charm'?

A Latin term that Jack would have used instead for the spell's incantation might have been 'capitis' because while it could also translate to 'head', an alternative translation was 'of the head', which also fit. Furthermore, 'bulla' was supposedly the Latin translation for 'bubble'. Thus, in the Slytherin's mind, 'bulla capitis' or even 'capitis bulla' might have been a more appropriate incantation for the Bubble-Head Charm than 'aspira'. As a mudblood, though, what did he know about the incantations for spells or what was best when choosing them?

And yet, as he returned his attention to the initial charm that had started his research on bubble-related spells in the first place, he couldn't help but wonder why the incantation didn't seem to match the spell as well as he thought it could have. The incantation for the Bubble-Producing Spell was 'bullarum immortalem'.

Aside from the fact that 'bullarum' could just as easily translate to 'buttons' as it could to 'bubbles', the term 'immortalem' suggested that the bubbles (or buttons) were immortal. Presumably, the 'immortal' bit was supposed to reference the fact that the spell should have produced non-bursting bubbles. Unfortunately, that didn't exactly equate to them being immortal since the bubbles were never alive to begin with, so they were neither mortal nor immortal and therefore they couldn't die.

Thus, Jack might have preferred to re-write the incantation as something more like 'bullarum invicta' which would have meant 'invincible bubbles' (or, alternatively, 'invincible buttons'). Another variation could have been using the term 'bullesco' which supposedly translated to the verb 'to form bubbles'. Therefore, 'bullesco inviolabilem' translated to 'to form invulnerable bubbles' and 'bullesco invicta' translated to 'to form invincible bubbles'. 'Indestructible' and 'impervious' were also adjectives that came to mind in place of 'immortal', but as they didn't really have as decent equivalents in Latin that Jack could find, he thought the incantations he had thought up already would have worked fine.

The redheaded Slytherin researched so much about spells and charms and jinxes and bubbles and Latin and etymology that he ended up falling asleep over his books and papers before even getting a chance to practice the spell. When he woke, it was nearly time for class, but he managed to review the essentials of the spell they were meant to perform before he had to start heading to the designated classroom. Even as he got up, headed out the door, and began to walk to his destination, he reminded himself again and again what they were supposed to learn for the lesson that day.

Of the three bubble-related spells he had researched, the Bubble-Producing Spell seemed the least useful, but Jack supposed they all had to start somewhere, especially as first years, and this particular spell seemed the safest of the three.

The Bubble-Producing Spell's incantation is 'Bullarum Immortalem'. Its effect is to produce a stream of multicoloured, non-bursting bubbles which can vary in size and color depending on the whims of the caster.

What this spell had initially been used for or why professors thought it practical enough to be taught in school, let alone History of Magic, Jack had no idea. Still, he supposed it couldn't have hurt to learn a new spell as one never knew when such a thing could come in handy. In his research, he had only ever heard of people making use of it for ornaments around Christmas time, utilizing the un-poppable bubbles as decorative baubles, but who knew? Maybe someone would find a really creative or practical use for it in a pinch.

When performed properly, the spell produces no light; only colored bubbles from the tip of the wand. There is no wand movement for this spell. Funny how that was. And here he'd thought the tapping of broken glasses for the Eyeglass Repair Charm had been simple. Jack supposed the main difficulty would be in concentrating on creating bubbles that were all the same size, the desired color, and that they remained sturdy and indestructible. By the time he was seated at his desk and class was about to begin, he was confident in his ability to perform the spell without fail.

The sight of the upperclassmen that Professor Zahid had invited into their class confused Jack at first, but when it was explained what they were there for, the first year thought it terribly clever that their teacher was making use of the class not only to get practice in for one spell and the first years learning it, but for a second spell and the older students learning that one as well. The time, effort, and resources were all well-spent.

Having stayed up so late to study and look into spells made Jack as sleepy as he usually only pretended to be. Even while standing in line to practice on the upperclassmen he started to doze off. When it was finally his turn, he woke with a start, holding out his wand and calling, "Bullarum Immortalem!"

A number of colorful, different-sized buttons began to appear from the tip of his wand. He stared at them blankly before finally remembering the General Counter-Spell he'd taught himself in his own time.

"Finite Incantatem," he muttered under his breath, cancelling the failed spell quickly before hurrying to the back of the line in minor embarrassment. A little dozing off and some minutes later, he was back to the front again.

"Bullarum Immortalem?"

Perhaps his wand sensed his uncertainty because although it produced bubbles, each one was a different size and color. Jack blinked as he heard a few snickers and some laughter from his classmates.

"What?" he asked, looking around at them in confusion. "Aren't they supposed to be multicolored?"

Several student-given explanations and yet another trip from the back of the line to the front later, Jack was pretty satisfied with having managed to maintain his reputation as a slacker even though he hadn't quite meant to. His lack of sleep must have done even more of a number on him than he'd thought. Getting one more yawn out of the way, he raised his wand a third time and concentrated with serious determination, enunciating each syllable slowly and separately.

"BUL-la-rum im-MOR-ta-lem."

An immediate and constant stream of perfect, golden-hued bubbles began to bloom from the tip of his wand. Smiling slightly at the sight, he concentrated and made more, causally and playfully flicking them at the upperclassmen like the bubbles were silly string. Eventually, Jack decided he'd done enough and decided to sit down, raising his textbook to hide his tired eyes behind.

Though he fully intended to dive into reading its pages as a reward for a performance well done, his fatigued mind had other ideas. It soon sent him on his way, shoving him off the shores of sleep toward Slumberland.

Professor Edit: Zahid had missed the Slytherin's first attempt, having only seen him amongst those who returned to the back of their line while he was helping someone else, so he would ot know what the boy's mistake had made without observing his next attempt first. however it seemed that he had realised what it had been as his next attempt was successfull. "Well done Mr. Burnett."

Bullarum Immortalem learned