Post by professor thomas barnes on Jul 11, 2012 18:35:51 GMT -5
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[/b][/div]professor thomas barnes
twenty-eight ▪ former ravenclaw ▪ ryan gosling
THE STORY
Thomas’ life story is practically right out of a muggle story book. His parents grew up living next door to each other in the small Norfolk city of Norwich, England. They were inseparable for the first eleven years of their lives, despite their many differences. You see, Clara McKinnon was a big believer in magic. She just knew that somewhere out there were fairies and witches, dragons and princes just waiting to slay them. She thought fireflies were pixies and the strange noises houses made were ghosts. Clara was also convinced that her best friend Porter Barnes was a warlock. For as long as either one of them could remember, Porter was always making weird things happen. He could grow his hair back when his mother buzzed it for summer, he could make things fly sometimes. But never on purpose, never when he tried. Porter on the other hand, was less than convinced. Porter was a skeptic, he didn’t believe in magic or fairy tales. Fireflies were fireflies, and houses sometimes made strange noises. Sometimes a big gust of wind made the coffee table float. He wasn’t doing that, he was just an ordinary boy.
Porter wasn’t just an ordinary boy.
One day, on Porter’s eleventh birthday, a professor came to the Barnes residence with a letter. Porter, the professor said, was a wizard. That’s why strange things were always happening around him. Porter would need to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry if he wanted to learn how to control these powers, and meet other people who had the same abilities as him. Porter was reluctant at first, but he came around once he realized no one was playing a practical joke on him. His parents, unsure how to explain such things to their little neighbourhood, promptly moved to London the summer before Porter left for his first year at Hogwarts. It was much easier to field questions about Porter’s school from people they had not known for over eleven years. Porter and Clara drifted apart as our former skeptic became quite at home in a land of magic, while Clara continued to try to find magic in her own corner of the muggle world.
Fifteen years later, a healer specializing in poisons and antidotes ran [literally] intoa muggle doctor specializing in homeopathic and alternative medicine. Clara and Porter meet again, and rekindle their friendship. Eventually, it turned into more and Clara and Porter were married. Clara was delighted to know that everything she imagined was actually real, although disappointed that she couldn’t perform magic herself. The couple had a few bumps on the road, but they were generally happy. A few years later, little Thomas was born on December 5th.
Clara and Porter were awfully busy with their respecting medical careers, so Thomas spent much of his weekdays with his maternal grandmother. Despite her muggle heritage, Thomas' grandmother was a bit of a Seer. The muggle version at least. She always had hunches that turned out to be right, and she was quite handy with tea leaves and tarot cards. Thomas inherited this ability, and from an early age his grandmother taught him everything she knew about seeing and the sight. Porter wasn’t too pleased, but even he had to admit there was something a bit odd about his son. Thomas would sometimes go into strange trances and predict the strangest things, but it was benign so he didn’t say much about it.
Thomas attended muggle school until he received his Hogwarts letter at age eleven. He was sorted into Ravenclaw were he made a few friends. He was always a bit too spacey and his predictions usually a little too true for most people. He managed to excel, as many Ravenclaws do, in most of his chosen classes, and eventually earned high N.E.W.T. marks in Arithmancy, Astronomy, Charms, Divination, History of Magic, Potions and Transfiguration.
After Hogwarts, Thomas spent a few years travelling the world. When he returned home to England he wrote horoscopes for some magical newspapers, and then when a spot for a Divination professor opened up at Hogwarts under Dumbledore, Thomas applied. He managed to get the job, most likely due to being the only true Seer who applied, and has been at Hogwarts for three years now.
THE PERSON
Thomas was a Ravenclaw while at Hogwarts. He was known as a space cadet even then, regularly going into trances and telling the person next to him that her house had just lost ten points, or that there was a letter waiting for her in her dormitory. He floated through Hogwarts, ghost like and often unseeing, at least not with his eyes. Many of his friends were as weird and artistic as Thomas himself.
Thomas loves to learn, but he has trouble zeroing in on important things to remember. He loves the big picture, loved to see how all the magic he learned in his different classes relate to one another. This makes it difficult for him to just focus on Transfiguration or Charms alone, because he can see how the wand movements from Charms will help him in Transfiguration, and how his Herbology knowledge will help him know how to handle the ingredients in Potions. He made good marks in his classes, but professors often told him to focus more on just the one subject, instead of giving them essays with two or three subjects jumbled together.
Thomas is a true Seer, and has been for as long as he can remember. He almost wasn’t able to attend muggle school because of his habit of going into trances and sharing information he couldn’t have known. He made it through though, with very few incidents [thankfully]. In addition to trances, Thomas is able to tell people things about themselves and the world they interact with using many different tools of the trade. He doesn’t just pretend to see things in tea leaves or the crystal ball, or pretend to know what your star chart or tarot card readings say about you, he actually Sees, he actually knows. He not only predicts the future, but sometimes the immediate present too. A great deal of her trances have to do with things actually happening at that exact moment somewhere else. Thomas is not a mind reader by any means, but he does seem more in tune with others than most people are. Thomas has never predicted anything life changing or horrible, his predictions are usually mundane and benign. His worst prediction ever was in his second year of teaching, Thomas told a student her pet was going to die soon so perhaps she should be excused and catch up on the work later. The cat died the next day.
THE PROFESSOR
Thomas was young when he was offered the job to teach Divination at Hogwarts. He was idealistic and thought he could really make these children love Divination. He was also the only true Seer who applied. However, Thomas also knew it would take time, that Divination wasn’t going to be popular overnight, it never had been, but he hadn’t fully prepared himself for his class being considered a joke. Where was the respect he remembers affording his professors in his day? Once Thomas weeds out the students who take Divination for a laugh, or because Ancient Runes seemed too difficult, or because they want to see whether or not he’ll predict their N.E.W.T. grades or read their minds, he’s left with one or two serious students who probably don’t have the Sight but are so enthusiastic and willing to learn that it almost makes up for everything else.
Thomas’ teaching style is incredibly annoying to those who were expecting an easy O or wanted a class to nap in. He doesn’t really plan lessons; he tends to walk into the room and ask excitedly, “Now, what do you want to learn today?” and then goes from there. He makes sure his students learn enough to pass their O.W.L.S. if they wish, but if the class would rather spend ages on tea leaves and less time with the crystal ball, Thomas isn’t going to worry about it. He often sets up work stations so students can pick different things to work on, that way if they’re good at star charts but need help with tarot cards they can work on tarot cards while others work on their star charts. He believes in self-guided learning, so often questions are answered with, “I don’t know, what do you think? Shall we have a discussion, class?” or, “Why don’t we make that question extra credit homework? Half a roll of parchment on the origins of crystal balls for next Friday.” His teaching style, coupled with his spacey personality and tendency to go into trances at random times during class, has given him a reputation of a bit of a nutter and a lazy professor who doesn’t seem to know his subject much. This isn’t helped much by the fact that sometimes Thomas finds his visions difficult to control, and he has been known to cancel a Gryffindor/Slytherin combined class on those days. Well, would you let a bunch of high strung teenagers looking to fight with each other loose in a room with tons of breakables if you knew you were likely to spend half the class predicting next week’s lunch menu?
Thomas freely admits that he is proud of his muggle heritage, and loves all things muggle. Naturally, this has made things a bit difficult. Like his students, this is Thomas’ first war. He wasn’t alive for Grindelwald, and since things with Voldemort hasn’t heated up yet, Thomas hasn’t quite grasped the seriousness of the situation and that he should probably stop advertising his muggle heritage. So, students should expect loads of muggle-related asides in his classes. He loves to share with her students how muggle do this or that, compared to what wizards and witches or, say, centaurs would do. Many of the newer tools used in Divination have muggle origins, or mixed origins, and he’s always happy to share how muggles developed it, how wizards co-opted it for their use and everything that follows. Thomas believes in integrated learning, so often his classes contain a bit, or a lot, of Muggle Studies, History of Magic, or even Astronomy along with Divination... Much to the amusement or chagrin of his fellow professors.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
My wand… is made from elder wood. It has a unicorn hair as a core, and is 10 inches long. Ollivander always said it was perfect for Divination. Springy, but not springy the way a Charms wand is springy. So, less springy I guess. Not entirely inflexible. Though, perhaps it would be better for Charms than a rigid wand. I wonder if anyone’s looked into this matter… I use it when I read crystal balls and it’s never failed me yet, so I doubt it ever will. It produces a spectacular patronus, all whispy, floating, yet corporal, just like when you look in a crystal ball. A Newfoundlander, which is a breed of dog. Powerful swimmers, they have webbed feet you know.
Of course I have fears, everyone has fears. Even you. Speaking of fears, perhaps you’ll want to avoid the Great Hall on Tuesday. Your fear will be there then. My fear is losing my Sight. It’s such an integral part of my personality, you know? I don’t know who I’d be without it. My worst memory is, perhaps, muggle school. It’s not an easy place for a Seer, and I got into trouble more than once. Nothing worth mentioning to you, it’s bad enough the Dementors know.
What I want most out of the world is to have a vision worth telling the Ministry about. Some Seers have many prophecies sitting at the Ministry of Magic, but so far none of mine have been worth that honour. But other than that, I’m extremely happy. I love Hogwarts, I love teaching. I don’t see myself leaving any time soon, perhaps one day I’ll even be head of my former house, Ravenclaw. I obviously support the Order, but I’m not sure if this current political climate will come to blows. I just don’t think people could seriously hate muggleborns so much. We’re not that bad, I promise.
Thomas’ life story is practically right out of a muggle story book. His parents grew up living next door to each other in the small Norfolk city of Norwich, England. They were inseparable for the first eleven years of their lives, despite their many differences. You see, Clara McKinnon was a big believer in magic. She just knew that somewhere out there were fairies and witches, dragons and princes just waiting to slay them. She thought fireflies were pixies and the strange noises houses made were ghosts. Clara was also convinced that her best friend Porter Barnes was a warlock. For as long as either one of them could remember, Porter was always making weird things happen. He could grow his hair back when his mother buzzed it for summer, he could make things fly sometimes. But never on purpose, never when he tried. Porter on the other hand, was less than convinced. Porter was a skeptic, he didn’t believe in magic or fairy tales. Fireflies were fireflies, and houses sometimes made strange noises. Sometimes a big gust of wind made the coffee table float. He wasn’t doing that, he was just an ordinary boy.
Porter wasn’t just an ordinary boy.
One day, on Porter’s eleventh birthday, a professor came to the Barnes residence with a letter. Porter, the professor said, was a wizard. That’s why strange things were always happening around him. Porter would need to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry if he wanted to learn how to control these powers, and meet other people who had the same abilities as him. Porter was reluctant at first, but he came around once he realized no one was playing a practical joke on him. His parents, unsure how to explain such things to their little neighbourhood, promptly moved to London the summer before Porter left for his first year at Hogwarts. It was much easier to field questions about Porter’s school from people they had not known for over eleven years. Porter and Clara drifted apart as our former skeptic became quite at home in a land of magic, while Clara continued to try to find magic in her own corner of the muggle world.
Fifteen years later, a healer specializing in poisons and antidotes ran [literally] intoa muggle doctor specializing in homeopathic and alternative medicine. Clara and Porter meet again, and rekindle their friendship. Eventually, it turned into more and Clara and Porter were married. Clara was delighted to know that everything she imagined was actually real, although disappointed that she couldn’t perform magic herself. The couple had a few bumps on the road, but they were generally happy. A few years later, little Thomas was born on December 5th.
Clara and Porter were awfully busy with their respecting medical careers, so Thomas spent much of his weekdays with his maternal grandmother. Despite her muggle heritage, Thomas' grandmother was a bit of a Seer. The muggle version at least. She always had hunches that turned out to be right, and she was quite handy with tea leaves and tarot cards. Thomas inherited this ability, and from an early age his grandmother taught him everything she knew about seeing and the sight. Porter wasn’t too pleased, but even he had to admit there was something a bit odd about his son. Thomas would sometimes go into strange trances and predict the strangest things, but it was benign so he didn’t say much about it.
Thomas attended muggle school until he received his Hogwarts letter at age eleven. He was sorted into Ravenclaw were he made a few friends. He was always a bit too spacey and his predictions usually a little too true for most people. He managed to excel, as many Ravenclaws do, in most of his chosen classes, and eventually earned high N.E.W.T. marks in Arithmancy, Astronomy, Charms, Divination, History of Magic, Potions and Transfiguration.
After Hogwarts, Thomas spent a few years travelling the world. When he returned home to England he wrote horoscopes for some magical newspapers, and then when a spot for a Divination professor opened up at Hogwarts under Dumbledore, Thomas applied. He managed to get the job, most likely due to being the only true Seer who applied, and has been at Hogwarts for three years now.
THE PERSON
Thomas was a Ravenclaw while at Hogwarts. He was known as a space cadet even then, regularly going into trances and telling the person next to him that her house had just lost ten points, or that there was a letter waiting for her in her dormitory. He floated through Hogwarts, ghost like and often unseeing, at least not with his eyes. Many of his friends were as weird and artistic as Thomas himself.
Thomas loves to learn, but he has trouble zeroing in on important things to remember. He loves the big picture, loved to see how all the magic he learned in his different classes relate to one another. This makes it difficult for him to just focus on Transfiguration or Charms alone, because he can see how the wand movements from Charms will help him in Transfiguration, and how his Herbology knowledge will help him know how to handle the ingredients in Potions. He made good marks in his classes, but professors often told him to focus more on just the one subject, instead of giving them essays with two or three subjects jumbled together.
Thomas is a true Seer, and has been for as long as he can remember. He almost wasn’t able to attend muggle school because of his habit of going into trances and sharing information he couldn’t have known. He made it through though, with very few incidents [thankfully]. In addition to trances, Thomas is able to tell people things about themselves and the world they interact with using many different tools of the trade. He doesn’t just pretend to see things in tea leaves or the crystal ball, or pretend to know what your star chart or tarot card readings say about you, he actually Sees, he actually knows. He not only predicts the future, but sometimes the immediate present too. A great deal of her trances have to do with things actually happening at that exact moment somewhere else. Thomas is not a mind reader by any means, but he does seem more in tune with others than most people are. Thomas has never predicted anything life changing or horrible, his predictions are usually mundane and benign. His worst prediction ever was in his second year of teaching, Thomas told a student her pet was going to die soon so perhaps she should be excused and catch up on the work later. The cat died the next day.
THE PROFESSOR
Thomas was young when he was offered the job to teach Divination at Hogwarts. He was idealistic and thought he could really make these children love Divination. He was also the only true Seer who applied. However, Thomas also knew it would take time, that Divination wasn’t going to be popular overnight, it never had been, but he hadn’t fully prepared himself for his class being considered a joke. Where was the respect he remembers affording his professors in his day? Once Thomas weeds out the students who take Divination for a laugh, or because Ancient Runes seemed too difficult, or because they want to see whether or not he’ll predict their N.E.W.T. grades or read their minds, he’s left with one or two serious students who probably don’t have the Sight but are so enthusiastic and willing to learn that it almost makes up for everything else.
Thomas’ teaching style is incredibly annoying to those who were expecting an easy O or wanted a class to nap in. He doesn’t really plan lessons; he tends to walk into the room and ask excitedly, “Now, what do you want to learn today?” and then goes from there. He makes sure his students learn enough to pass their O.W.L.S. if they wish, but if the class would rather spend ages on tea leaves and less time with the crystal ball, Thomas isn’t going to worry about it. He often sets up work stations so students can pick different things to work on, that way if they’re good at star charts but need help with tarot cards they can work on tarot cards while others work on their star charts. He believes in self-guided learning, so often questions are answered with, “I don’t know, what do you think? Shall we have a discussion, class?” or, “Why don’t we make that question extra credit homework? Half a roll of parchment on the origins of crystal balls for next Friday.” His teaching style, coupled with his spacey personality and tendency to go into trances at random times during class, has given him a reputation of a bit of a nutter and a lazy professor who doesn’t seem to know his subject much. This isn’t helped much by the fact that sometimes Thomas finds his visions difficult to control, and he has been known to cancel a Gryffindor/Slytherin combined class on those days. Well, would you let a bunch of high strung teenagers looking to fight with each other loose in a room with tons of breakables if you knew you were likely to spend half the class predicting next week’s lunch menu?
Thomas freely admits that he is proud of his muggle heritage, and loves all things muggle. Naturally, this has made things a bit difficult. Like his students, this is Thomas’ first war. He wasn’t alive for Grindelwald, and since things with Voldemort hasn’t heated up yet, Thomas hasn’t quite grasped the seriousness of the situation and that he should probably stop advertising his muggle heritage. So, students should expect loads of muggle-related asides in his classes. He loves to share with her students how muggle do this or that, compared to what wizards and witches or, say, centaurs would do. Many of the newer tools used in Divination have muggle origins, or mixed origins, and he’s always happy to share how muggles developed it, how wizards co-opted it for their use and everything that follows. Thomas believes in integrated learning, so often his classes contain a bit, or a lot, of Muggle Studies, History of Magic, or even Astronomy along with Divination... Much to the amusement or chagrin of his fellow professors.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
My wand… is made from elder wood. It has a unicorn hair as a core, and is 10 inches long. Ollivander always said it was perfect for Divination. Springy, but not springy the way a Charms wand is springy. So, less springy I guess. Not entirely inflexible. Though, perhaps it would be better for Charms than a rigid wand. I wonder if anyone’s looked into this matter… I use it when I read crystal balls and it’s never failed me yet, so I doubt it ever will. It produces a spectacular patronus, all whispy, floating, yet corporal, just like when you look in a crystal ball. A Newfoundlander, which is a breed of dog. Powerful swimmers, they have webbed feet you know.
Of course I have fears, everyone has fears. Even you. Speaking of fears, perhaps you’ll want to avoid the Great Hall on Tuesday. Your fear will be there then. My fear is losing my Sight. It’s such an integral part of my personality, you know? I don’t know who I’d be without it. My worst memory is, perhaps, muggle school. It’s not an easy place for a Seer, and I got into trouble more than once. Nothing worth mentioning to you, it’s bad enough the Dementors know.
What I want most out of the world is to have a vision worth telling the Ministry about. Some Seers have many prophecies sitting at the Ministry of Magic, but so far none of mine have been worth that honour. But other than that, I’m extremely happy. I love Hogwarts, I love teaching. I don’t see myself leaving any time soon, perhaps one day I’ll even be head of my former house, Ravenclaw. I obviously support the Order, but I’m not sure if this current political climate will come to blows. I just don’t think people could seriously hate muggleborns so much. We’re not that bad, I promise.
jade ▪ pm ▪ atlantic canada
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