The room wasn’t so dark now, the candles still burning along the walls and stretching to the ceiling, but the curtains were open as well. The natural light acting like a curtain of it’s own as if flooded the stone with it’s golden light. The day was warm outside, despite the winter biting at the heels of the wind, but Gale felt the castle was far too cold for such a class. The day might be one of the last, the weather was very true to the season, and normally by now the air held a bitter chill. And he planned to take full advantage of this last bit of warmth.

“Open the windows please,” He instructed one of his students that filed in earlier than the rest, and took his seat waiting.

On each of their desk was an apple for each student with a little tag tied to the stem that read, ‘Don’t Eat Me.’ There were a few extras of course, because he knew well that there were always a few…

The lesson wasn’t going to be as normal as one of his, and presently he worried if he should even have a class in his condition. Gale was shaken, his pale skin bruised though he tried to conceal a few of the darker places with his hair, but the fight was still so fresh in his mind that even when the chairs moved across the floor he snapped his head to make sure it wasn’t another attacker.

“Good day, class. Please take your seat.”

---

Please post at will, and don’t worry about turn order just yet.

“Open the windows please.”

Alvis was halfway to his desk when the request came. It brought him up short with a start of surprise -- he hadn't expected to be spoken to. He'd been slipping into classes early all week, to snag the back corner seats where he could more easily avoid the lingering reactions sparked by last week's Transfiguration rumor. As such, it took him a moment before the request processed. "Oh," he said finally. "Yes, Professor. I'll get it."

He left his things on the far-left desk and moved around the outside of the room, unlocking the windows and letting the castle's magic carry them up and open. An unseasonably warm wind hit him in the face on the last pane, which made him sneeze.

Other students trickled in as Alvis finished the job and returned to his seat, smoothing out a new roll of parchment for his notes. He regarded his apple and the note on its stem carefully. "Don't Eat Me"...it made him think of Wonderland, from one of his mother's favorite books. Perhaps that was what Profesor Kesali was going for. It was hard to tell with him sometimes. Alvis made a note of it just in case and kept his head down, waiting for class to begin.

Ambrose arrived as Alvis opened the windows and the November air seeped into the classroom, with he damp, late autumn air. He was glad of his jumper over his school shirt and tie. Kesali was not the only Professor who liked to keep them awake with fresh air.

Having remembered his Charms text book before Muggle Studies that morning, Ambrose had not had to dash back to the Gryffindor dormitories to pick it up, resulting in him being on time. However, he had realised since arriving in Professor Kesali's classroom that he had left his Defences book, and that he'd almost certainly not have time to run back now for it. He resigned himself to the strong possibility of detention from Professor Storm next lesson.

Ambrose gave a nod to Alvis, and sat down at his usual desk. Automatically, he reached for the apple, and then had a second thought, fingers outstretched and looked to the Professor. His counterparts were sitting down at their desks and also looking curiously at the apples with their labels.

Was this one of those weird tests where you were told to do the opposite?

He flexed his fingers and reached forward to inspect the apple. It was harmless enough, just an apple, surely?

With the change in months from October to November, the weather was already starting to change. Actually, the general feeling in Hogwarts was changing, besides the different rumors and ideas about the other schools in the TetraWizard Tournament. The castle had been feeling cooler than usual. Despite that cooler feeling, the warmth was still hanging on a little bit outside. It probably wouldn't last too much longer.

Addison walked into the Charms classroom that morning with a smile on her face, as she normally seemed. As long as she wasn't stressed out with her perfectionism, she normally didn't walk around without a smile on her face. "Good Morning Professor," she greeted Professor Kesali. Turning to the few members of her peers, she gave each boy in the room a nod. "Hi Alvis, Ambrose," she greeted them, before taking a seat in the middle of the room.

Addie took out a piece of parchment, a quill, and her wand. Turning to look at the apple in front of her, she study its polished appearance. Indeed, apples always appeared to be in pristine condition. Even after falling from a branch, apples appeared to be pretty sturdy. She questioned the necessity to having an apple on the desks. Considering the note on it to not eat it, she guessed that it was going to be used for class today. That certainly meant that it shouldn't be eaten. Looking away from the apple, she rested her arms on her desk, awaiting the start of class.

Zoe walked into the classroom behind Alvis, turning to the sound of Kesali's voice. The command wasn't directed at her, so she allowed her housemate to open all the windows, setting her stuff down at a desk next to Norling's. A person who knew Zoe would be surprised by this action, the young witch always sat near the front. However, as she was also an early arriver to class, the Ravenclaw had noticed that Alvis's behavior had changed after Transfiguration. As she pitied him, the girl had decided to keep him company. "Bless you," Zoe called as Alvis opened the last window.

She removed the needed supplies for class, looking at the apple on her desk. "Oh, it's like Alice in Wonderland, but the opposite," she mumbled to herself. Her first impression was that the apple was poisoned. Why would the professor give them all a poisoned apple? Wasn't stuff like that saved for potions?

The logical side of her caught up. Of course, if the tag wasn't there some students in the class would be stupid enough to eat the supplies for class. Zoe fingered the handle of her wand, then pointed it at her quill. "Locomotor Quill." The quill rose with a motion of her wand, and the Ravenclaw began to draw a slightly sloppy picture of the apple on parchment. The self-inking quill was enchanted to have the color of the ink changed with a spell, and Zoe would every now and then use a color changing charm to make the color of the ink match the apple.

Harlow skipped into class, making her way to an empty spot next to Addison and plopping down on the seat, letting out a huge sigh. She enjoyed charms very much, it was one of her favorite subjects. But, being a Ravenclaw, she was bound to like almost every subject, if not all of them. Looking her Addie, she offered her a quick smile in greeting, but was almost immediately distracted by the item on the desk, preventing her from using that section of the table. It was bugging her, it was in the way and she didn't know what it was there for. Was it to eat? No, that's an obvious one, it had a note attached clearing stating 'Don't Eat Me.'

But why? It was on her desk, like everyone else, so if it was not there to eat, then what benefit could it have to her learning ability. Unless the apple was part of todays charm work, she didn't see the point. But, even then, couldn't Professor Kesali have just handed them out later? Someone was bound to take a bite. It was almost inevitable. Like placing the answers to a quiz in front of a student and telling them not to peek. The temptation was too great. Even though, it was only an apple.

Harlow placed her arms on the table and then put her chin on them, getting a closer look at the apple. It didn't look like anything was wrong with it, it just looked like an ordinary apple. Her eyebrows furrowing slightly, Harlow reached out and plucked the apple from her desk, holding it carefully in her hand, as if it was going to explode any second. Then, as if in slow motion, Harlow raised the apple to her face, keeping her eyes on it the whole time. The apple stopped, only inches from her lips and she took in a small breath through her nose. Not smelling anything out of the ordinary, Harlow placed the apple back on the table and a big smile spread across her face.

After all, the note didn't say anything about not smelling or touching the fruit.   

Amara entered the classroom just a few moments before class would begin. She made sure to pick an empty spot, as far away from the front as possible and also avoid eye contact with Professor Kesali. Uncomfortable was a mild description for how distraught she was feeling around the man as of lately. She seated herself gracefully and extracted her favorite Self-Inking Quill from her bag and a piece of parchment.

She was rather grateful for the fresh air, autumn was her favorite season after all. She noticed the apple on the desk, and moved her hand to feel the tag. It made her smile bitterly, "Alice in Wonderland" was her favorite book, her mother always read it to her before bedtime. It was one of the few happy memories she still had about her, time had not been generous to Amara's recollections of Otilia.

Raising her head to look around her, unexpectedly her gaze stopped on her professor. Her observant eye, noticed a few carefully concealed bruises on his pale skin, and he seemed tired and rather too cautious. Worry suddenly took over her. The petite witch had at once been filled with ridiculous ideas and thoughts. She wanted to go over to him, ask him what had happened, how could he think to teach in his condition, why had it happened and most of all if he was feeling okay. She squeezed her fists as she tried to calm herself and gather the strength to remove her gaze from him. Just as she was taking a deep breath, his eyes suddenly intersected with hers, and her cheeks reddened instantly. She couldn't for the love of all lower her head, she was transfixed, and her face had contorted into a confused expression filled with worry, pity and caring. The sound of another student entering had quickly awakened her from her reverie, and she lowered her gaze to the apple in front of her.

There had to be a way to make this go away, it wasn't healthy and it was definitely causing nothing but trouble. But she had no idea how to go about it, it was her first—interest? Was it interest? Or Merlin forbid, a crush? The only reason she had been able to identify it as such was from books, and Elena told her that as some point books would prove completely useless in her searches. It seemed the time had come when written knowledge was too poor in offering her the required information. One thing was sure, she would not be able to learn anything in Charms in the current situation.

"Oh, it's like Alice in Wonderland, but the opposite."

Alvis's head popped up in surprise. It'd been strange enough that Zoe decided to sit next to him -- she'd always sat at the front, ever since their first year -- but to hear his own thoughts in her voice was more startling than ever. "I was just thinking the same thing!"

The words fell out of his mouth without a conscious thought. A moment later he realized that he'd actually looked at her -- directly at her, head and body turned -- and that he was still looking. His jaw snapped shut. His cheeks flushed. He turned quickly back around, faced straight forward, and adjusted his glasses.

"Um...sorry," he muttered. People'd never been fond of making eye contact with him for long, but ever since the rumor got started they'd avoided his gaze altogether. Torret was quite kind, but even she probably didn't want him staring at her. He probably shouldn't have spoken to her at all.

But Alvis couldn't hide behind his hands and glasses forever. Eventually, his eyes trailed back in Zoe's direction, going past the edge of his glasses into the place where things got indistinct. She'd charmed her quill and it was drawing now, something red -- the apple, no doubt. Alvis had been in the process of doing something similar, by hand. He'd never used the Locomotor spell on a quill outside of their earliest lessons with it. He wondered how it affected her drawing, but swallowed the words. He wasn't going to ask. Class was about to begin, and he shouldn't bother her further.

"Really? What a coincidence!" Zoe turned to Alvis with a smile. It felt completely normal to her to look someone in the eye, and the young witch began to say how she loved muggle stories involving magic. Suddenly Norling turned away, leaving the girl confused. Had she said something? "There's no reason to apologize Alvis. You didn't do anything wrong."

Still confused but trying to put it aside, Zoe had decided to draw the apple. She finished the red body, adding a few off color splotches. The drawn apple was bulkier than the real object, parts of it seeming lumpy from the harder task of controlling the quill by Locomotor. "Multicorfors Brown." The ink within the quill turned brown, and the Ravenclaw started to draw the stem.

As she tried to draw a semi-straight line, the girl had the feeling she was being watched. She twisted her neck towards Alvis, noticing immediatly he was staring at her out of the corner of his eye. Zoe couldn't help but smile once again. "You know Alvis," she started, meeting what she could of his eyes. "You can just say something to me if you want. I really don't mind."

"Thank you Alvis," Gale slipped with the use of the boy's first name, transfixed on the little darling. The boy made his heart warm as he watched, and a pain fill his chest with the overwhelming feeling of an emptiness. If I ever have a son, I'd like him to be like this. Little glasses, and a little shy. The Norling child reminded him the most of his own youth, and what he was like before his time at Hogwarts--before Arthur.


The whole class seemed to go along with the Wonderland theme, though the thought amused him. Wasn't it Snow White with the poison apple? Suppose it was the tag, and he mused quietly with a small smile while running his fingers through his hair to brush out the braid that had once been there. He would redo it before class started, and seated at his desk he put his feet up on the edge. They didn't know it was poison, of course.

"I'll give it a few more minutes in case we have a few that are late." Always the softy. He really was too easy on them, but he'd save the harsh actions for Storm.

"Did you know," He spoke out starting to re-braid his hair, "That in the original story of Snow White the Evil Queen was in fact her mother, and it wasn't the apple she tried to kill her with first? Ten points to the house that knows what that fatal object was." A little trivia never hurt, and though he did well to quell his excitement on the topic. Gale's Picardy accent always came out the most when he spoke of dream things, and stories.

He smiled to Amara, and with his good eye (the only visible one) winked. I'm fine darling, just enjoy the class.

Ata first, Naomi figured the apple was a play in reverse psychology, but, in a class with young and curious students. So the ravena-haired witch immediately thought the apple was poisoned--or that it could bite. The latter was something she might do to her brother, while the former might be something Storm might do to an entire class (whether it was relevant to the lesson or not.) 

So without another thought Naomi sat back in her chair and listened to the class prattle on about Wonderland, until the new professor mentioned Snow White. After seeing the movies so many times Naomi let her lips twitch into a smirk and tried not to chuckle at the class' fairytale mix-up.

Naomi then let her smile disappear as her tone rolled with light amusement, "She first tried a tight bodice," the Slytherin spoke up with a clip of disdain at the thought of wearing anything resembling corset, "'den a poison comb, and then the apple--"The witch then cautiously perched a digit on her apple and inspected it to see if it actually showed any signs of being tampered with, before she absent-mindedly added, "Third time was th' charm, I guess."

Becoming bored very easily as she waited for class to begin, Addison started to sketch the apple on her parchment. She took the time to try to draw in the polish by shading in the apple. As she did so, she heard low mutterings of a connection to Alice in Wonderland. It was certainly a possibility, but she quite frankly had no idea. While the Professors wanted to undoubtedly test their skills, they probably wouldn't make them do anything too challenging until the NEWT level courses started in their sixth year.

As Addie drew in the Do Not Eat sign, Harlow came into the Charms classroom and sat down next to her. She smiled, noticing her friend sat down next to her. She looked up to greet Harlow after finishing up the sign on her drawing, but stopped when she noticed the girl was already playing around with the apple. Just as she was about to tell Harlow that it probably wasn't a good idea to eat, Harlow put down the apple on her desk. For a moment there, she thought that she would have to remind Harlow that eating something placed on a desk was not a good idea, just like it was the case in Potions.

Within a few more minutes, Professor Kesali finally addressed the class. It wasn't to start yet. Apparently it was to give any late stragglers a chance to be able to come to class on time. Then, he decided to mention Snow White. It seemed like the Professors wanted to continue with the muggle references during class. 'Hopefully this reference isn't as out of the loop as Sandusky's was before Transfiguration,' she thought to herself with a shake of her head. The trivia question that Professor Kesali offered the fourth years was promptly answered by Naomi, and she nodded. Indeed, the earlier version did have three attempts at Snow White's life. It at least made that early German version to be more believable in her mind.

"You know Alvis," you can just say something to me if you want. I really don't mind."

"Oh. I, uh. Um." Alvis's already flushed cheeks went a darker red. He pushed his glasses up again and turned a little more towards her, still not meeting her eye. His gaze flickered down to the page instead, taking in the out-of-proportion apple and its slightly shaky lines. "I was only wondering if the, um, spell made it harder to, uh, draw."

It was hard to judge from here, partially because he'd never seen Torret draw by hand. The Professor spoke at the front of the room and Alvis glanced up, since the last thing he wanted was to interrupt the lecture. But Kesali was only offering a trivia question, which Foley quickly snatched up. From Alice in Wonderland to Snow White...between all this and last week's Headless Horseman, they were certainly getting their primers on muggle magic interpretation this semester.

Since class hadn't technically started yet, Alvis felt a bit more comfortable glance back Zoe's way. "Er, what I mean is...I don't know what I mean. I don't use that spell often, so I'm not, um, quite as familiar with how it works. It seems like it would require a lot of control."

Enough time passed that he supposed he should start class, but really watching his little younglings proved to be an adventure every moment. Though, when Naomi answered him with such purity and such conviction in her answer he was pleasantly surprised.

“It’s one of my favorite.” He admitted with a small smile and stood to his full height before the gathering.

“So poison. Comes in all sorts of findings. Potions, vines, and every time Landis Morgan takes off his shoes, but what I think we have to truly worry about is this little guy.” At the tip of his wand a single set of taps produced a jar with a rather hideous looking worm.

“All of your apples have one. Rather curious looking bugger no?” The sounds of his accent made it clear that his French heritage outweighed all the rest of his muggle mutt blood. “Full of poison too, absolutely horrid. Found him a few weeks ago down by the lake. One bite. And you’ll be sick for weeks.” Sick meaning with pink hair and a strawberry scratch and sniff scalp, but he left that part out. After his month of October he thought it best to keep this semester rather simple. However, in truth this wasn’t a Charm to be taken lightly at all.

“So hungry eh?”  He took the apple closest to him and in a quit flick of his wrist the dagger he kept tucked in his boot sang to life as it chased the apple into the wall splintering the core right through and the worm showed it’s ugly head. The little thousand legged creature made a horrid sound, and Gale raised his wand like a tide gathering the sea.

”Depulso.” The worm was gone, though knowing his hippy heart it would end up again outside.

Kelvin hadn't been overly concerned with the apple or the conversation going on around him; he had actually pulled out an essay for another class that was due the following Monday.  He was already finished with it, but on the way to class he'd thought of something else to add to it.    So while everyone else chatted about Wonderland and Snow White, Kelvin was bent over his essay, siphoning ink off the parchment and adding more information to an essay that was already longer than it needed to be.

He was in the middle of a new sentence when the professor started the lesson.  He quickly rolled up the parchment and pulled his set of charms notes out.  He watched the professor show off a nasty looking bug in a jar.  He jumped a little in his seat when the dagger and apple hit the wall with a wet thud.  He watched the professor use the spell on the worm as it stuck its head out of the apple, but he didn't see what happened to the worm.  He was pretty sure depulso was the banishment charm, which was just the opposite of the summoning charm.  He wondered if the worm was just smooshed somewhere in the apple.  With that particularly nauseating thought, he pushed the apple to the edge of his desk, "The worm can have it," he said quietly.  Thankfully the class wasn't right after breakfast or right before lunch.