Private message to Antosha
Sep. 17th, 2014 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_savithaIn class today, my lesson plan did not go quite as I'd expected. I had them form threesomes, which left one out -- I was entirely correct in my prediction as to who'd find themselves unpartnered.
What I was not expecting was for Harry Marvolo to leap to his feet and demand to take her place as goat.
Should I have expected this?
We were working on the Shield Wall charm with Darios's variation; done correctly it packs quite a wallop. Marvolo said he thought everyone would learn more with someone truly excellent at Defence striking from the outside. Of course, my original plan had been to give everyone a shot at using it against a weak opponent, THEN adjust groups as needed to provide a bit more of a test.
I told Marvolo the defensive charm, obviously. Though in retrospect that may have been a mistake. If he wants to take the goat's place, he can take the goat's punishment.
(His group was -- oh, let me check my notes. Marvolo paired up with Zach Smith and Millicent Bullstrode, which was also not quite what I'd expected. I would assume a year ago he and Draco would have pulled in a third; do you know who it would have been?)
What I was not expecting was for Harry Marvolo to leap to his feet and demand to take her place as goat.
Should I have expected this?
We were working on the Shield Wall charm with Darios's variation; done correctly it packs quite a wallop. Marvolo said he thought everyone would learn more with someone truly excellent at Defence striking from the outside. Of course, my original plan had been to give everyone a shot at using it against a weak opponent, THEN adjust groups as needed to provide a bit more of a test.
I told Marvolo the defensive charm, obviously. Though in retrospect that may have been a mistake. If he wants to take the goat's place, he can take the goat's punishment.
(His group was -- oh, let me check my notes. Marvolo paired up with Zach Smith and Millicent Bullstrode, which was also not quite what I'd expected. I would assume a year ago he and Draco would have pulled in a third; do you know who it would have been?)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-18 01:59 am (UTC)As befits the son of Our Lord, he is often driven, and Defence is his favourite subject -- he had been working with Razzer for quite some time, after all. He also, I am afraid to report, escaped Madam Umbridge's tenure with a firm conviction it is his role to protect everyone in Hogwarts, even when what he is protecting them from is a little pedagogically-mandated discomfort: he feels we have had entirely too high a death rate in Hogwarts throughout his years here (as to that, I cannot wholly disagree) and occasionally overcorrects. I would recommend that you have a word with him before your next lesson, and explain to him that there is a method to your choices. I have found him quite reasonable when he understands the purpose behind certain decisions. (And stubborn beyond all belief when he feels the decisions around him are arbitrary whim.)
Remember, also, that he does not know you as well as he knows many of the rest of our brotherhood, and Hogwarts has not, alas -- Razzer excepted, and I dare to say myself -- housed the cream of our company during the years Mr Marvolo has been in residence. (Amycus. Alecto.) It was quite some time before he began to relax into my plans for the classroom as well.
Were he any other student I would of course advise the stick, rather than the carrot, but as Our Lord's son his role is ... murky. If he proves to disrupt your lessons too much, perhaps pass him out of your class and assign him independent work. He is certainly enough of a prodigy in Defence to justify it.