FIC - NO CHALLENGE
Title: Serpensortia!
Summary: A sixth year Slytherin invents a new spell.
Characters/Pairings: Brutus Malfoy (ancestor of Draco, mentioned in canon); Matria Flitwick (Filius Flitwick's OC grandmother whom I'm using as 17th century Charms prof)
Genre: gen
Beta: none
Rating/Warnings: G (though I did take advantage of similarities between the languages used for spellcasting in the Wizarding world and the languages used for programming in ours.)
Medium: fic
Word Count: 918
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: yes
If yes, your Tumblr username: mmailliw
Brutus Malfoy was a bit frustrated with his homework assignment. The sixth year NEWT level Charms teacher, Matria Flitwick, had given their students just two weeks to invent their own spell and incantation. It was well into the second week, and Brutus was still stumped. He was unable to perform his duties as Prefect effectively as all as he tried to put his mind towards inventing spells.
And so, late one Sunday evening, just a few days before the assignment was due, poor Brutus was sitting by himself in the Prefects' bathroom, thinking about how frustrating the assignment was. He was near tears as he thought of how he could use a nice coily hug (knowing full well that asking for such a hug would cost him his entire reputation in House). All of a suddon, though, he felt his lips moving as if he was being possessed. First they went to form a hissing sound; then they puckered up as if he was spitting. As his tongue moved back to a 'hissing' position, he made a good approximation of an "n" sound... followed by a long hiss. Towards the end of that hiss, his tongue moved to a position where he was whistling... or simply shushing someone. At the end of that final sound, Brutus was suddenly aware of a presence around him: he recognized the biggest snake from the Slytherin House Ophidiarium moving to coil around him. He sensed the snake thinking "I sssssupport you in your endeavourssssssss..." and enjoyed a hug for a few seconds before the snake diappeared.
Brutus thought for a moment about what just happened: it seemed he had spoken Parseltongue and summoned a snake. Brutus had discovered a new spell! He remembered that the Parseltongue incantation he had said was best approximated as "Sssp'n-ssss-sha"... and that no wand movement was required. Brutus tried saying "Sssp'n-ssss-sha" again, but nothing happened. Realizing that he was just saying words without thinking of their meaning, Brutus tried "Sssp'n-ssss-sha" again, thinking of the exact snake that had just hugged him, and was rewarded with another tight coily hug from the snake.
Brutus now knew he had a solid response for the assignment. It wasn't due until Wednesday, so he had plenty of time to experiment. The next afternoon, when he had a free period, Brutus went down to the ophidiarium for a bit more testing. He would say "Sssp'n-ssss-sha" thinking about a specific snake in the area, or pointing his wand at that snake. The summoned snake would disappear from the main ophidiarium to appear at Brutus's side for a few seconds. The snake would then follow a few basic commands for motion (Brutus sensed it could also be used for attacking) but after a few seconds of no commands, the snake would disappear and return to its place in the ophidiarium.
The day after that, a nervous second year Slytherin was depressed over various stresses and pressures and came to Brutus, in private for some prefectly help. Brutus's response was "I hope you like snake hugs!" followed by, of course, "Sssp'n-ssss-sha", while thinking of his favorite snake from the ophidiarium. The snake remained coiled around the second year for ten minutes until the second year felt ready to take on any possible challenges.
Finally, Wednesday morning arrived, with Charms presentations at 10 AM. Professor Flitwick's procedure was as follows: each student would present their spell in front of her and then she would ask them some follow-up questions on the spot about their spell and its extension. Grading would be determined by both the initial presentation and the answers to the questions. Of the first few people, either they never had a great spell to begin with or they hadn't really thought about it, so they couldn't answer the followup questions.
Soon it was Brutus's turn. He said, "I hope you don't mind snakes, because I'm about to use Parseltongue!" Shortly after, his incantation, "Sssp'n-ssss-sha", was uttered as Brutus thought about his favorite snake. The snake slithered harmlessly around the classroom before wrapping itself around Brutus for a coily hug. "Impressive!' said Professor Flitwick. "Now, how would you generalize this spell to Latin? Think about how your lips moved right after hissing." Brutus thought for a bit... and realized that there were potentially some missing "r" sounds somewhere in there when speaking in Latin. The first part, which he thought of as "sssrp'n"... was easily "serpent" when thinking of a snake, but what about the second part? He tried the same trick and thought "sersha..." and then "insertion"... but that didn't sound right at all. Professor Flitwick interrupted at that point and asked "What is the verb form of going OUT?" Brutus's response, "sortire", made it clear that the Latin incantation was "Serpensortia!"
So Brutus said "Serpensortia"... at which point dust from the room assembled itself into a makeshift snake before quickly disintegrating. Professor Flitwick's next question was, "Why did this happen?" Brutus's response: "I didn't think of a snake. If this happened in Parseltongue, the spell simply wouldn't cast without a target; however, the way Latin magic works, the spell tries to make a target out of the ambient atmosphere." Professor Flitwick said "Well said! Now, can you repeat your performance in Latin?" Sure enough, Brutus managed to mimic his earlier feat by saying "Serpensortia" and thinking of his favorite snake, which ended up wrapped around him as per usual.
"Excellent! You have earned the first Outstanding of the year," was Professor Flitwick's response.
William//Slytherin//31 points earned
Summary: A sixth year Slytherin invents a new spell.
Characters/Pairings: Brutus Malfoy (ancestor of Draco, mentioned in canon); Matria Flitwick (Filius Flitwick's OC grandmother whom I'm using as 17th century Charms prof)
Genre: gen
Beta: none
Rating/Warnings: G (though I did take advantage of similarities between the languages used for spellcasting in the Wizarding world and the languages used for programming in ours.)
Medium: fic
Word Count: 918
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: yes
If yes, your Tumblr username: mmailliw
Brutus Malfoy was a bit frustrated with his homework assignment. The sixth year NEWT level Charms teacher, Matria Flitwick, had given their students just two weeks to invent their own spell and incantation. It was well into the second week, and Brutus was still stumped. He was unable to perform his duties as Prefect effectively as all as he tried to put his mind towards inventing spells.
And so, late one Sunday evening, just a few days before the assignment was due, poor Brutus was sitting by himself in the Prefects' bathroom, thinking about how frustrating the assignment was. He was near tears as he thought of how he could use a nice coily hug (knowing full well that asking for such a hug would cost him his entire reputation in House). All of a suddon, though, he felt his lips moving as if he was being possessed. First they went to form a hissing sound; then they puckered up as if he was spitting. As his tongue moved back to a 'hissing' position, he made a good approximation of an "n" sound... followed by a long hiss. Towards the end of that hiss, his tongue moved to a position where he was whistling... or simply shushing someone. At the end of that final sound, Brutus was suddenly aware of a presence around him: he recognized the biggest snake from the Slytherin House Ophidiarium moving to coil around him. He sensed the snake thinking "I sssssupport you in your endeavourssssssss..." and enjoyed a hug for a few seconds before the snake diappeared.
Brutus thought for a moment about what just happened: it seemed he had spoken Parseltongue and summoned a snake. Brutus had discovered a new spell! He remembered that the Parseltongue incantation he had said was best approximated as "Sssp'n-ssss-sha"... and that no wand movement was required. Brutus tried saying "Sssp'n-ssss-sha" again, but nothing happened. Realizing that he was just saying words without thinking of their meaning, Brutus tried "Sssp'n-ssss-sha" again, thinking of the exact snake that had just hugged him, and was rewarded with another tight coily hug from the snake.
Brutus now knew he had a solid response for the assignment. It wasn't due until Wednesday, so he had plenty of time to experiment. The next afternoon, when he had a free period, Brutus went down to the ophidiarium for a bit more testing. He would say "Sssp'n-ssss-sha" thinking about a specific snake in the area, or pointing his wand at that snake. The summoned snake would disappear from the main ophidiarium to appear at Brutus's side for a few seconds. The snake would then follow a few basic commands for motion (Brutus sensed it could also be used for attacking) but after a few seconds of no commands, the snake would disappear and return to its place in the ophidiarium.
The day after that, a nervous second year Slytherin was depressed over various stresses and pressures and came to Brutus, in private for some prefectly help. Brutus's response was "I hope you like snake hugs!" followed by, of course, "Sssp'n-ssss-sha", while thinking of his favorite snake from the ophidiarium. The snake remained coiled around the second year for ten minutes until the second year felt ready to take on any possible challenges.
Finally, Wednesday morning arrived, with Charms presentations at 10 AM. Professor Flitwick's procedure was as follows: each student would present their spell in front of her and then she would ask them some follow-up questions on the spot about their spell and its extension. Grading would be determined by both the initial presentation and the answers to the questions. Of the first few people, either they never had a great spell to begin with or they hadn't really thought about it, so they couldn't answer the followup questions.
Soon it was Brutus's turn. He said, "I hope you don't mind snakes, because I'm about to use Parseltongue!" Shortly after, his incantation, "Sssp'n-ssss-sha", was uttered as Brutus thought about his favorite snake. The snake slithered harmlessly around the classroom before wrapping itself around Brutus for a coily hug. "Impressive!' said Professor Flitwick. "Now, how would you generalize this spell to Latin? Think about how your lips moved right after hissing." Brutus thought for a bit... and realized that there were potentially some missing "r" sounds somewhere in there when speaking in Latin. The first part, which he thought of as "sssrp'n"... was easily "serpent" when thinking of a snake, but what about the second part? He tried the same trick and thought "sersha..." and then "insertion"... but that didn't sound right at all. Professor Flitwick interrupted at that point and asked "What is the verb form of going OUT?" Brutus's response, "sortire", made it clear that the Latin incantation was "Serpensortia!"
So Brutus said "Serpensortia"... at which point dust from the room assembled itself into a makeshift snake before quickly disintegrating. Professor Flitwick's next question was, "Why did this happen?" Brutus's response: "I didn't think of a snake. If this happened in Parseltongue, the spell simply wouldn't cast without a target; however, the way Latin magic works, the spell tries to make a target out of the ambient atmosphere." Professor Flitwick said "Well said! Now, can you repeat your performance in Latin?" Sure enough, Brutus managed to mimic his earlier feat by saying "Serpensortia" and thinking of his favorite snake, which ended up wrapped around him as per usual.
"Excellent! You have earned the first Outstanding of the year," was Professor Flitwick's response.
William//Slytherin//31 points earned