xxxASTRONOMY ~ EExxx
- ■ When she first came to Hogwarts, Mallaidh was fascinated (and often frustrated) by the differences between areas of study common to both muggles and magical people. As such, the courses relating to both were a point of interest for her. However, with this specific class, her interest quickly tapered off as it wasn't something she had a particular interest in other than that. Still, she is a diligent student, and made an easy EE on the exam.
xxxCHARMS ~ Axxx
- ■ Charms was something of a struggle for Mallaidh at first, which didn't do her any favors later on in her schooling. She lagged behind in her lessons somewhat, and so catching up once she finally got the hang of it was difficult. She did eventually get it more or less figured out, but she still has some trouble with more advanced techniques. Her only saving grace has been that most of the incantations are easily translatable Latin or Greek, so if she can't remember them, she usually has a fifty/fifty shot of just... guessing.
xxxDEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS ~ Axxx
- ■ Like Charms, this was a struggle in the early days, leading to her having to sprint to catch up when she finally started to get the hang of things. She tried to do well at this, but she's not a particularly combative person, so it was somewhat difficult for her to put herself in the right headspace to get things right. She also has a tendency to hold back too much, and when she finally goes all in, she overdoes it, which can be extremely dangerous. She's a little too timid with this branch of magic as a result.
xxxHERBOLOGY ~ EExxx
- ■ Mallaidh quite liked this class. She also liked her no-nonsense head of house/professor, which made things easier on her than it was on some of her classmates, she was sure. She wasn't afraid of getting her hands dirty, and found the plants they studied fascinating. That said, she's not generally a very 'hands-on' kind of person. She had a tendency to drop things, or to rush through processes which could lead to mistakes or, occasionally, minor injuries.
xxxHISTORY OF MAGIC ~ Oxxx
- ■ When she first started school, this was easily her worst course. She was a muggleborn, of course, and had always been incredibly interested in history. Her earlier lessons in magical history included a fair amount of bewilderment and outright irritation as she learned all the differences and sometimes contradictions between the two. She struggled with keeping things straight and separate. But, history is her passion, and she was determined not to let this new information ruin her life's goal. If anything, she was more inspired than ever to become a historian, to bridge the gap between the two. So, she buckled down and studied hard, until this went from her worst course to her best.
xxxPOTIONS ~ Axxx
- ■ Again, Mallaidh's not terribly hands-on. She did well enough with Herbology, but the finicky nature of potions combined with her hatred of sitting around waiting and doing nothing was something of a downfall. She very likely would've failed this course if not for extra tutoring from the professor.
xxxTRANSFIGURATION ~ EExxx
- ■ Mallaidh liked math, and she liked science, and transfiguration was the only sort of spellwork that even pretended to have something to do with either. As a result, she was able to perform better here than in her other wandwork courses. It was still quite a struggle, but somewhat less of one, and she was always more pleased with her results here than any other branch of magic.
xxxE L E C T I V E Sxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxARITHMANCY ~ Axxx
- ■ Mallaidh took this course because she figured it was the closest she could get to a maths course at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, it turned out to be not like muggle maths at all, and she found it both confusing an less interesting than she'd hoped. She paid attention to her coursework, but not more than was necessary to pass.
xxxDIVINATION ~ EExxx
- ■ This was a course Mallaidh mostly took out of morbid curiosity. She's more interested in the past than the future, as a rule, but the idea that predicting the future could actually be done as fascinating. She actually found it pretty interesting, even if the professor is a little odd. She did sometimes have a hard time remembering which symbol represented what, but didn't let that deter her. She's not particularly gifted, but she makes up for it with gumption.
xxxGHOUL AND GHOST STUDIES ~ Axxx
- ■ Mallaidh was more interested in the 'ghost' side of things than the 'ghoul' side with this course. Ghosts are basically walking (floating?) time capsules that could tell her anything about the era of history they lived through, which was extremely appealing. Of course, she had some trouble with the lessons regarding ghouls, which brought her score down overall, but she didn't think she did too horribly.
xxxMYTHOLOGY ~ Oxxx
- ■ This was a course Mallaidh considered extremely important to her future studies. She was more or less alright with wizarding history by the time electives came around, so she was able to dive right into her studies, and found it fascinating. At first she was curious what would even qualify as mythology to an entire culture whose very lives were mythology to most of the population. Discovering that wizards had their own sets of myths, and seeing the parallels between them and muggle myths, was very interesting for her, and she was very dedicated to her studies.
xxxSTUDY OF ANCIENT RUNES ~ Oxxx
- ■ Mallaidh figured any historian worth their salt ought to be able to at least somewhat parse ancient linguistics, so this was a course she took quite seriously. She found she had something of a knack for it, which was extremely gratifying. After taking this lesson and realizing how good she was at it, she discovered a whole other area of study she wanted to pursue, and found herself studying not only the actual course material, but other dead languages, in her spare time.
xxxWANDLORE STUDIES ~ EExxx
- ■ This was taken more out of curiosity than anything else, and Mallaidh found it quite interesting. She did a lot better with the wand cores than she did with the woods. Wood meanings felt quite random to her, and the cores always shared traits with the creature they came from. She did wish she'd taken Care of Magical Creatures to help with this particular area, but since it wasn't a career-required lesson, she didn't let it bother her too much. She was very interested in the subject, although she cut herself some slack with performance since she didn't technically need it.
xxxWIZARD LAW ~ EExxx
- ■ This class was something of a love/hate situation for Mallaidh. On the one hand, wizard law is wizard history, and she knew that was important for her to know as a future historian. On the other hand, sometimes wizard laws were bloody stupid, especially ones that were still on the books when they should've been dropped or at least altered ages ago. Still, that isn't all that different from muggle law (there's a reason she has no desire to be a lawyer, despite what her father has suggested), and she was reasonably good at the course, even if sometimes it made her want to tear her hair out.
