Cramming 101

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

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Tag: Steffi

Sulking, that was Ilsa today. She sat on the harbor as she continued on her mad cramming session on the Dark Arts. She hated those classes and they were more than she could ever possibly bear to take. She bite down on her lip, as it was one of those bad habits she had when forced to do such menial work.

Her eyes kept darting over to one of the books on the stack that laid near her as she studied that afternoon away from her usual areas. They held books that she would rather be reading of princesses and knights saving them, but they had to wait another day. No, she had to cram until her little brain could take no more information.

Slowly, she found her one hand reaching out to the book that was the fantasy novel she was reading and had put away for a few days. What was the harm in that? She opened it and began to read a bit. She would just read a few pages as a break and then go back to the studying, but Ilsa didn't go back to studying as fast as she should have and ended up spending about an hour reading the book after getting past the really good part.

Sighing she pushed the book away from her and went back to studying the Dark Arts looking much more defeated and moody than before. Why did they have to learn this stuff? It was useless to her since she wasn't the type to run around hurting others. Only psychos needed the Dark Arts in her mind and the world had enough of them. She dropped the book with a thud as her head began to throb from all the reading. "Darn," she said out loud as she rubbed her temples too distracted to notice someone heading her way right now to see that she was still goofing off as usual. Why couldn't one just sleep on a book and the information seep into their head while they slept? No, that would be too easy.

[Steffi Maier]

Steffi's head began spinning around with mild interest when he heard another student behind her making some rather distracting noises. She needed to keep her focus on her studies for the upcoming examination, and all of this meaningless background noise was doing nothing other than distracting her. Despite this though, Steffi looked around until she located the source of the noise, smiling quietly at her classmate "Studies not going to well I take it?" she asked with an understanding nod.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"When do they ever go well?" Ilsa responded to the other German girl with a bit of a sullen look on her pretty little face. "I can't stand Dark Arts at all. I might as well accept the Troll grade by this point since this subject is abysmal. I wish it could be a different core class," she said to Steffi venting a little about the whole thing.

She continued to stay where she was laying across the wooden planks of the landing on her stomach looking completely lost of all hope. She shoved her book away with a bit of a sigh and then said to Steffi, "Are you any good at Dark Arts? Maybe you could help me cram or something," she said with some hint of hope in her voice for some sort of help even if it would be from someone in a year under her. Anything at this point would be better than the route she was taking.

[Steffi Maier]

Steffi shrugged and replied "It all depends on the methods which you utilize to study." Steffi was generally better than most of her friends with these things because she did not leave things till the last minute, but she was in no way an expert. "I suppose I could lend a hand." Steffi mused quietly, before shrugging and adding "Sure, why not? Let's see what you've got!"

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

Ilsa pouted some more at the thought of utilizing study methods. That alone sounded like a giant bore to her and she was pretty sure her mind would wander within minutes of that conversation. "So, there isn't a spell in existence yet where one could just sleep on their text book and the information would absorb into your brain?" she asked the girl jokingly. Now that spell would come in handy and probably be very popular amongst any and all students.

She shoved the book over to Steffi along with her sparse notes from the past few years. "Yea, not much to work with there, but I did try," she said with a weak smile. More like did not try hard at all in that class. It was always her weakest and worst class. She usually hung out with the below average people grade wise. The professor for the Dark Arts gave up on her a long time ago when he realized that Ilsa just did not care or want to know more about the subject.

[Steffi Maier]

"Unfortunately such a spell has yet to be discovered, Steffi replied, laughing at the thought of such a spell - though of course it would be incredibly useful. She rather doubted that such a thing was even possible, but then again she supposed that one never did know what could and could not be done with the right spells.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"Oh, someone should just hurry up and invent it to make the lives of everyone easier!" Ilsa exclaimed in a joking manner. "Lord knows it would come in handy throughout life's troublesome moments of cramming as much information one can into their mind."

She leaned back against the wooden boards letting out a sigh as she looked up at the nice warm sun. There weren't too many clouds in the sky, which showed a sign of good weather. She really wished she could enjoy the full extent of this beautiful day without having to be doing work right now.

[Steffi Maier]

"I imagine it is much more complicated than all that." Steffi replied mildly, looking off into the distance as though actually considering the mechanics of such a spell. It would be very complicated to say the very least, and indeed it was more than likely that it was in fact impossible, though she did not know enough about the laws of magic to say so for certain.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to dream about it," Ilsa replied still thinking that such a spell would be amazing. She quietly bit down on her bottom lip as she was thinking and then pulled her book to her staring at the page before her blankly. It was on something about the unforgivable curses, which just showed her another reason she hated this class so much.

[Steffi Maier]

Steffi shrugged and replied "Maybe not - but it's not like it would help very much either." Steffi was far from the most practical of people, but one thing which she never indulged in was hypothetical magic. She didn't see the point really - after all so much actually was possible with magic that idle speculation just seemed like being greedy.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"Yea," Ilsa replied continuing to pout a little as her eyes read through some of the unforgiveable spells. "I just hope they ask easy questions and the other part goes along just as easily. I have this feeling it's going to be unbelievably hard compared to the others."

[Steffi Maier]

Steffi smirked at the girl's comments and asked dryly "Do you really think they're ever going to give us easy questions? Come on, you're not a new kid you should know how this works by now." She seemed to find this quite funny, and truth be told it rather was - a Fifth Year student forgetting such silly things.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"Well, I can dream. Can't I?" Ilsa asked Steffi in a joking manner. "It isn't like I'm going to do anything with the Dark Arts in my future anyways. I'll probably just be another paper pusher for the German Ministry or something, editing supervisors or managers papers all day with a pretty little smile on my face while dying slowly inside from the misery of it all," she said a little too truthfully of what she predicted her future would be in some long run on sentence.

[Steffi Maier]

"I suppose so, but that still doesn't make it very realistic." Steffi replied, ignoring completely the girl's comments about how she didn't expect much out of her future. It seemed many people were lacking ambition these days, so it hardly surprised her.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

Ilsa sighed and then shrugged her shoulders. She knew it wasn't realistic, but she still could hope for at least something. "Still think the Dark Arts are a waste of my time. Why can't we just learn Defense Against the Dark Arts or something?" she asked the other girl scowling a little. She really did hate the Dark Arts and it was up there with Potions as she was quite dreadful in that class too.

[Steffi Maier]

"The best defense is a good offense is it not?" Steffi replied pointedly, never having patience for those students who complained that the approach they were taught was not the best one. Of course it was the best, they were students of Durmstrang, and Durmstrang would tolerate nothing less than the very best!

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

Ilsa was a little baffled by the comment since she never really liked sports all that much. They tended to bore her a bit too much, which was why she always enjoyed reading books so much. They provided her just the right amount of entertainment that she needed. "I guess so," she said but she still couldn't help but to feel unsure about the answer.

[Steffi Maier]

Steffi's comment had not been intended to pertain to sports, and so she saw no reason to be concerned about Ilsa's understanding of what she was saying. "Yup, that's why I said it." Steffi said with a confident nod - because she was right.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

Whether or not Steffi was right was besides the point at this time. It still didn't get her past the fact that she knew this was it for her and this class as she was sure to get a T in it. She couldn't really imagine how she would feel with her parents seeing that grade on her OWLs. "So, are you doing anything fun this summer, Steffi?" she asked the other girl shoving the thought from her mind now.

[Steffi Maier]

"I'm not sure." Steffi replied mildly "My parents usually plan a fun vacation or something, but I haven't spoken to them yet, so I don't really know what it is we're planning on doing." Steffi was sure it would be fun though - it always was.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"Oh, vacation. That does sound like fun. We usually hang out in the Black Forest and do a few hiking trips. Nothing too big or amazing really," Ilsa admitted while shrugging her shoulders rather innocently. Her life really wasn't that interesting, but she sure could hope couldn't she?

[Steffi Maier]

"That sounds rather interesting - perhaps I will suggest something of that nature to father." Of course Steffi was not going to bother actually attempting that. Her parents would pick their vacation without the need for any input from her - that was just how it worked.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"Oh, it can be fun. I like hiking. You get to see quite a bit of the nature around you," Ilsa said with that normal dreamy look on her face like her mind was elsewhere but her body was here. She liked hiking for those reasons but she didn't like the whole sweating bit or the fact that it could get strenuous at times.

[Steffi Maier]

"Oh, well nature is always cool." Steffi agreed with a nod, being something of an outdoorsy type herself when all was said and done. Of course, that didn't mean that she was opposed to less active activities, but a nice trip out somewhere beautiful was never a bad idea to her.

[Ilsa Hirschenwald]

"It is," Ilsa said to her agreeing. "And therapeutic at times. Always nice to get away and enjoy the fresh air." Ilsa liked the fact that she lived so close to the Black Forest as the place felt more like a home than the wooded areas around Durmstrang. Sure, she liked being her, but there was something about home that always beckoned to her.