Just a Little Help Would Be Nice [Roisin]

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

Lovino did not like admitting that he didn't understand something. It left a sour taste in his mouth and a dark cloud over his head for the rest of the day, especially while he dealt with it. Anyone who happened to bother him during his struggles was treated to an especially violent rant and raging moment from the Italian. But even he knew better than to avoid getting help. Not understanding something and refusing to get help to understand were too different things, and Lovino was at least somewhat proud to say that he never indulged in the second habit. As much as he wanted to at times.

So when faced with an especially difficult concept in Charms - or perhaps not extremely difficult, but difficult to him - he walked to the classroom as quickly as he could, hoping that Professor Gallagher was still there. And not a total ass about questions like many teachers could be. Lovino had dealt with many who treated him like an idiot for not quite getting something in the homework. It made him a bit hateful of teachers in general.

He paused outside her door, scowling at the wood and wishing to be anywhere but this exact spot. Lovino carefully knocked, making sure he did so loud enough that she heard him but soft enough that he was still being somewhat respectful. And then he waited for her to answer the door and hopefully help him. He tensed whenever someone passed him, not liking the vulnerable feeling that came from going to someone for help. It left bitter lump in his throat that was tough to swallow. He just wished that she would hurry up.

Guest

The room was positively covered in four leaf clovers. It made Rosy smile. Earlier that day she had a group of eight students scouring the grounds for them as a detention. She considered it one of her more successful detentions. The smell of clover was soothing as she alternately pressed and bundled them.

She was humming a lively tune to herself, watching as Murphy chewed on a few she had deemed substandard when a knock interrupted her. She set down her current bundle and crossed to the door, wiping her green stained hands on her robes. She opened the door, slightly surprised to see the young Italian on the other side.

"Lovino! Well this is a pleasant surprise," she remarked, "Come in." She stepped away and motioned him into the classroom. "Mind the clover now." She leaned against her desk. "Now how can I help you?"

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

The smell of clovers was the first thing Lovino noticed when the Professor opened the door, making his nose wrinkle. He knew that she enjoyed making charms instead of just using spells, but the smell of the things she used were overwhelming at times. Thankfully he wasn't often in there and thus hadn't manage to get a headache from the fumes yet, though it was only a matter of time before he did.

"Hello Professor." He didn't dare pronounce her last name in the likely chance that he got it wrong. Lovino walked inside and looked for a place to put his books where they weren't likely to get green tinted, eventually putting them on a desk that had nothing covering its surface. She was quite the messy worker wasn't she. "I was hoping that you would explain one of the concepts in our homework." He was not blushing. He simply wasn't. His face felt hot only because this room itself was hot.

Pulling out his textbook and flipping to the page with the concept on it, he held it out to her and explained just what his problem was. Lovino ignored the strange cat that Professor Gallagher had in the room, knowing that it wasn't a very important detail right now. He really just wanted to get this done and get out of here; the smell was enough to make him feel dizzy.

Guest

"Certainly," Rosy replied, smiling at the boy. He almost looked nervous, it was sweet in a way. She sauntered over to him, deftly stepping over and around the scattered clovers on the ground with the ease of someone used to using the floor as a shelf. She leaned over to get a better look at the section he was pointing out, nodding her head as he went over his confusion. She brushed a few strands of hair that had escaped from her ponytail out of her face.

"The trick in these charms is that you have to give in to a degree of whimsy," she explained, for once the competent professor that she had been hired to be. "The trick is to follow the correct wand patterns but allow yourself to let some imagination lead," she continued, twirling one hand in an abstract manner to encompass the imprecise definition of imagination. "Does that make more sense?" She asked, looking up at the student.

"Are you feeling alright, Lovino?" she asked, scrutinizing his face.

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

He hid a scowl at the smile she gave him, not happy about this. He absolutely hated asking anyone for help, especially for something like Charms. It had always looked so easy, when everyone else was doing it, but when he tried... nothing happen. No mistakes - which was nice really - but also no results. However, he would never show a teacher any sign of disrespect, so he kept the scowl to himself to avoid making her angry.

His confusion - which had been simmering in the background while he listened to her explanation - came back full force when she was done. "Ah... yeah, that helps." Except it didn't, not really. He had to do the spell but not think about the result? Not even to try and focus the spell? He didn't understand, and what was worse was that his vision was starting to weave ever so slightly in front of him from the smell of the clovers. He refused to show any sign of it though, just looking through the passage again to see any sign of her advice.

"Hm?" Lovino looked up at Professor Gallagher, holding on to the desk tightly when his head started pounding. "Yeah, I'm fine." Be respectful be respectful be respectful. He wasn't about to tell her that the clovers were making him feel sick, though he definitely wanted to.

Guest

Roisin raised an eyebrow in Lovino's general direction. He didn't exactly sound convincing to her ear. She knew that charms didn't come naturally to the boy, but didn't know if offering an intensive would offend the boy. He always seemed so sensitive about things like that.

Her expression had gone from playful to professional. Something more than a confusing charm. Her eyes darted over Lovino, looking for signs of something wrong. He seemed fine enough when he walked into her room, so maybe it was something... of course! Her eyes swept the predominantly green room.

Her hands began going through her pockets. Nope, those didn't have what she was looking for. She continued searching through the folds of her open robes, thinking maybe she had tucked it into them. Come on, she knew she had one on her today... Aha! She deftly retrieved the charm she sought from where she had tucked it into her bodice earlier.

"Hold this for me, will ya?" she asked pressing it into one of Lovino's hands. It was a health charm made of amozonite and moonstone encasing some dead sea mud. It wasn't her most powerful, but it should at least take the edge off.

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

He flushed and turned his head away from the look she was giving him, not prepared to explain that he simply did not understand. He was too stubborn for that; that's why he had taken this class past the OWLs even though he didn't need to. He wasn't one to let something go once he made up his mind to figure it out. But... he wouldn't figure it out unless he got more help, and to do that he needed to ask for it.

Struggling as he warred with his pride and his desire to understand, he didn't even notice the shift that came over Professor Gallagher's face as she looked him over. Lovino also didn't notice the realization that swept over her when she figured out just what was wrong with him. He did, however, notice when she started looking through her robes for something.

Giving her a confused look, he tilted his head to the side as he tried to figure out what she was doing. And promptly blushed when she pulled something out of her bodice, scowling in embarrassment. Not, not that he had any reason to be embarrassed! She should be the one blushing, she was the one who had done something like that in front of a student. He coughed, trying to pull the blush away.

And then blinked in surprise as something was dropped in to his hands. "A-ah, okay... " He frowned and looked over the charm, absently noticing that the pounding in his head had gone away and his vision had straightened itself out again. But he attributed that to the idea that he was probably just getting used to the scent of the clover.

Guest

There was color in Lovino's face again. Good. That should mean that he was starting to feel a little better. She had worked with these materials for so long that she sometimes forgot that others didn't always react so well. Clover on its own wasn't much of an irritant, and the scent was usually considered quite pleasant, but in such large masses it could be very overpowering. Her whole life she had been exposed, and thusly had developed a tolerance for their stronger properties. Rosy sometimes forgot that it wasn't natural for most other people.

She nodded to herself, pleased to see good results. "There, that's better," she said aloud. If nothing more, it might make it easier for her to explain things. Now how to go about it without offending the boy... "You know, charms are really a very paradoxical study," she said in a conversational manner, hoping that having an open topic would encourage Lovino to ask more questions.

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

Absently turning the charm over in his hand, Lovino went back to thinking over the professor's explanation for the spell. He really did wish he understood it, but it just wasn't making sense to him. Sighing and giving him, he went to ask for a better explanation and paused as she started talking. "Eh? What's better?" He wondered, tilting his head in confusion.

Stopping at the next piece of information she gave him, he thought it over before realizing what it was. A way out for him. Lovino almost smiled with gratitude but managed to push it off so he only relaxed. "What do you mean?" He wondered, closing the book and putting it off to the side. He kept the charm in his hand though, actually kind of liking it. He was almost hoping that Professor Gallagher wouldn't ask for it back.

Guest

She waved off Lovino's first question as if it was just something she'd said on a whim and not anything to be taken seriously. It fit well with Rosy's personality, so it would probably be dismissed. She was glad the charm worked for him, but he didn't need to know he was getting some extra aid there. If it worked well enough, she just might have to make one for him.

A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth as the boy jumped on the out she gave him. He was plenty clever, all she needed to do was figure out how to get him to loosen up a bit. She thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to word the concepts so they were clear. "It's kind of like... handwriting," she settled on, nodding to herself at the comparison, "You don't think about every single quill stroke when you're writing, you just write the word."

She paused to let that set in. "Performing a charm is a lot like that. You learn all of the steps at the beginning, but when you want to use it you just make the whole charm at once. You focus on the end result, not the little parts that make it up. Performing a charm should feel as natural as writing your name."

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

Frowning at the dismissal of his question, he decided that it wasn't that important. It couldn't be, not if she was going to be so dismissive of comments on it. So he decided to just ignore it, focusing more on what he had come here for. Gaining a brief suspicious look at her slight grin, he worried over the actions he had just gone through and wondered what had caused that look.

Unfortunately, she moved too fast for him to get his mind settled on something. Blinking as she jumped into the explanation of charms, Lovino tilted his head. It was starting to make more sense now, especially with an explanation like that. "So... it's kind of like Potions? Even though the set up is important, the end result was all that mattered?" That was how he studied for things. He compared them to Potions, which made it stick in his head.

Perhaps not the best study strategy in the world, but it worked for him. Taking a mental note to practice what she said, he frowned in thought. "Are there any... simpler spells that are like this one that I could start out with?" He asked, looking away from her with a bright red blush on his face. He hated asking for help and especially hated asking for something easier. It made him feel weak.

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