They got to make a patronus! Janelle was beyond excited. She couldn't wait to give it a try. Oh she was sooo going to get this spell right, if she had to practice it a hundred million times. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

The first thing that Janelle had to do was think of her inspiration......something that made her happier than happy. A couple of ideas came into her head, but she dismissed them as not quite powerful enough. No matter what she thought of, she always kept coming back to her family. Her mother, father, sister and brother. She was happiest when they were all together. That was something that didn't happen too often lately. No matter what happened in Janelle's life, the frequent moves......always being the new kid, somehow she was always happy when the whole family was together.

OK, that was her happy thought. Now she needed the happiest of the happy memories. And there it was. Janelle remembered being happiest when her family was still living in California before her father was deployed and they moved to France. Before her brother and sister went off to different schools. that was the best time ever. Janelle closed her eyes and remembered. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face. Yes, that was her happiest memory. If she could only transfer that feeling and make the patronus happen.

For a moment, Janelle thought about her sister. She wondered what her happy memory was. She didn't know for sure, but she had a pretty good idea what it might be. Back to the task at hand though. Now that she had her memory, she needed to practice the spell. Then she really needed to work on her concentration. She was going to do this, or else.

Having sat still for a few minutes, holding her wand between her hands and turning it top over tail, there was a huge grin over Marsha’s face. The only problem was that she wasn’t particularly sure which memory the happy, giddy feeling came from.

Thinking about it more, she realised that it all stemmed back to her family. Her loving, protective super awesome Tad. Her protective, supportive, beautiful, hard working Mam. Her gorgeous, if slightly loud, adorable baby sister Alis. The smile that was spreading across her face was almost enough to make her cheeks hurt as she thought about the first time she had held her baby sister after her Mam had given birth. It was, to this day, the only time she was happy to have a September birthday as it meant she got to see Alis growing up for her first year, rather than only seeing her for three weeks.

So, the charm.

Expecto Patronum.

”Ex-pect-o Pa-tro-num.” She made a slight face as she tried again. ”Ex-pect-o Pat-ro-num. Expecto Patronum. Expecto, Patronum.” She said the charm over and over again until she figured she had the same pronounciation as the Ravenclaw Prefect… After all, she said it and she managed to cast a patronus!

Her ferret was super cute! Look at it sitting on one of the guys. She giggled, the joy of her thoughts making her even more excitable and happy than normal.

Marigold was in a grumpy mood already, which was bad because this NEWISH PROFESSOR DUDE SEEMED PRETTY COOL, but Marigold just kinda wanted to hug Eden or Rorie. She didn't know why she wanted either of those people, but that was the kind of mood she was in.

She wrote up a couple of the notes, then put her quill down. A happy memory? Easy peasy, seeing TDK in concert. Man, that was AWESOME. Like, super duper happy. She was already in a better mood, and she hadn't even closed her eyes yet.

Maybe the patronus thing had a point. Even coming up with the happy memory was making her happier. Huh.

But more details. Like how warm the air was, how sticky it seemed, with everyone dancing like crazy, like how she TOTALLY made eye contact with THE West Odessa and it was like, TOTALLY a MOMENT, like how Ascanius took his shirt off which was kinda weird but expected, and how Vesper KILLED IT. And Nigel was just kinda doing his own thing, like normal.

Marigold was sitting there, eyes closed, wide smile, and when she opened her eyes back up, it was to see Sophie Brown's patronus dart around. She gave her friend a big thumbs up.

Patronuses. Brooklyn had been curious about those for awhile, but every word that came out in the discussion only made her feel like maybe she should have followed Agatha toward the door. If it hadn’t gained the attention of the professor, that was. She hardly felt like gaining attention for being a scaredy-cat any time soon, but the happy memory part was going to be the hard part. Not that she didn’t have happy memories. She just figured hers were significantly different from most other people’s, and because of that maybe they wouldn’t work for a Patronus. And she didn’t want to fail. She never wanted to fail. All that was doing was remind her of Charms when she hadn’t gotten the Gryffindor girl very high off the ground.

Bad memories were definitely going to make her fail, and Brooklyn Andrews refused to fail. Except… Ethan had retreated to the corner, leaving her all alone where she’d been seated. Maybe everyone expected her to fail. No, she thought vehemently to herself. She wasn’t going to fail. She just wasn’t going to worry about if she’d get a corporeal Patronus right now. Maybe that would ease her mind. That and she was going to ignore the people around her who were already producing wisps of light or more.

Happy memory. She’d come up with something eventually.

"Expecto... memory," Dot muttered to herself as she watched her classmates around her. Most of them were making faces and not doing much, which was pretty much what she was doing. No, she was also trying to squish!balance her wand between her top lip and her nose, like a very pointy mustache.

It was her thinking posture.

She didn't want a happy memory, since that seemed like something kinda changeable. She wanted to have something grounding. And if she didn't make even a puff of something happen today, she sort of felt like the professor would know and not let her come back. A full corporeal patronus? It wasn't even on the agenda for this fourth year.

So her memory. OH. She had an idea! A little toothless grin had entered her mind.

He couldn't do it. Any of it. Wouldn't be able to cast a patronus. Couldn't even find the right memory. Merlin. Maybe he should've just taken the hint after that OWL score. But no. Zander Adair was a lot of things, but he wasn't a quitter. Unfortunately he was stubborn. Sigh.

So yes he was still sat there on the floor thinking really REALLY hard about this memory thing. He remembered that time with his dad over at the park. No, not strong enough. Or maybe that time in the dueling arena making his first friend? No, not strong enough. He was stumped. Maybe he could find his happiest memory in fighting Peeves with Kevin? But that wasn't really happiness, was it? It was fun and still brought a smile to his face... But again, nothing strong enough.

The only memory that seemed to beat out the rest was the one of his birthday. His birthday, the room of requirement, endless smiling, and some really good pizza. That was the best memory of all. Still made him feel warm on the inside just thinking about it. Maybe that could be the one to do it? It sure gave him some confidence, though being around her always did.

As hard as Norah tried and tried and tried to concentrate on finding a memory happy enough for a patronus, she kept on getting distracted. It wasn't her fault, okay? People were just so INTERESTING and then Sophie Brown cast a patronus and she just about LOST IT. The ability to pay attention, that is. But you know what, that whole paying attention thing was a big lie because she WAS paying attention, just not to what they said she should be paying attention to. So there. It was really okay. Her hazel eyes were wide as she watched the ferret dart around, first to Zander the Prefect Dude: Chief of the Sparkle-Haters, and then to Toby. This magic was CRAZY. Did they know? Sophie Brown created a whole entire ferret that knew who she liked and everything just by thinking about something happy. If that wasn't totally wicked, the Hufflepuff didn't know what was. She turned to watch Sophie instead, wondering if she'd ever be that cool when she was a sixth year. Didn't seem likely, really, but Sophie deserved it a whole lot. Everybody knew that.

It took a hundred and five percent of her willpower to tear her eyes away from the patronus and stare at the floor under her desk for more thinking. She shut her eyes. Think think think. Happy things happy things happy things. Norah thought back to the summer racing her little brothers and winning. Not good enough. She thought back to the kittens with Hayden and being a detective, and back to her first day of Hogwarts and tripping over Mari, and all the times she got hugs, and going to her Gran n' Gramps house, and the time she grew her very own plants when she was little and only stepped on one of them, and the time she earned points and Hufflepuff won the house cup. She tried to hold all of them in her brain at the same time, but even though every now and then her heart gave the good kind of flutter she didn't feel happy enough. This was dumb. She was happy, everybody said so, but suddenly she had to be happy enough and that wasn't fair because 'enough' ruined EVERYTHING. 'Enough' was an unfair word. It was hard to be happy when things were unfair.

The thinking was making her brain hurt, so she went back to watching the patronus. That wasn't just beautiful enough, it was the MOST beautiful. Lucky ferret.

Henric muttered the charm,"Expecto Patronum," for several times so he could remember not to lose concentration. His memories flew back to when the time he first entered his new home, his first teddy bear bestfriend he used to hug every night until he was 7 years old, his dad teaching him how to fish by the lake, volunteering at the orphanage and playing football with them, these were the things that made him happy. Yet, bad memories were always there to haunt him again...how could he forget them? Everytime he tried, the memory would get too vivid, it was hard not to simply notice them. His dark times for when he was destitute and hungry with no memories of where he came from still lingered in his mind.

He sighed, pausing for a while. Henric then turned to look at the others who were trying their best to conjure up their own patronus. Seemed like it was hard for them too...Henric noticed llia was looking at him, he smiled back and gave her a thumbs up to show her that she could do it.

Returning back to his own position,he readied himself again before letting out a determined shout,"Expecto Patronum!!"but failed to produce a mist pf any kind.

Oh good gosh that was a lot to take in. At some point during everyone talking around her the third year and taking out a sheet of parchment and her quill to take down very specific notes. Seriously she wasn't missing anything that was being said especially by the Professor. Casting a Patronus was something she wanted to accomplish for as long as she could remember...probably since the very first time she'd seen one. It was her father whom had cast it and it had resulted in a million questions from the tiny girl over the course of the years. Now though...now she was finally going to get to try it for herself.

With her notes taken she replaced her parchment and quill into her bag. Getting to her feet she moved to an empty space and set her bag along the wall near her feet.

What she needed first was a happy memory. Not just any one would do though it had to be special...one that could she see clearly in her minds eye, feel it, sense it completely like the moment was happening all over again. Taking slow breaths Hady began to go over each memory in turn. Her acceptance letter to Hogwarts, her trophy in dancing, the finalized adoption papers with her parents and her names on it. Shaking her head she knew each of those were happy times but just not the right ones.

Think Hady you can do this.

It didn't seem properly fair that there were some people already making proper patronuses, and then there were people hitting themselves in the face with their wand. And by that, she meant that she accidentally dropped her wand!stache and tried to catch it and poked herself in the eye.

Sigh.

Anyway. Expecto patronum thing. Dot waved her wand carefully, frowny face out, thinking carefully about the incantation, the wand movement, her memory (grinny baby face), and the fact that of COURSE Sophie could master a patronus. She was perfect. Didn't people know this by now?

Oh, right. Focusing. "Expecto patronum," Dot spoke the incantation clearly, she did the wand motion right, and... nothing happened. Not even the smallest puff of silver.

A slight frown had appeared on Toby's face as he stood there, lost in his thoughts. Though whether it was his 'concentration frown' or his 'frowny frown' wasn't clear, as both were the same (and he had a tendency to sort of... never frown in front of other people if he was upset... unless he was at home, and even THEN it was rare). Thoughts of Dementors were stuck in his mind now, and he couldn't seem to shake them. They really were unpleasant things, and memories of Toby's first year were all flooding back now.

One memory in particular stuck, one of that girl... K-something... she had a K-name and she wasn't a student. She'd pointed out the silvery patronuses to him when Hadley was attacked, told him they fought off Dementors and everything, and hadn't he been so amazed, so desperate to learn how to do it? And now-...

He was seeing silver. It was hard not to. Toby had fully zoned out, forgetting he was even stood in a classroom, so when the ferret made up of positive magical energy appeared right there on his shoulder, it startled him so much he actually jolted.

"Wha-" Toby blinked. And blinked and blinked. It really was very bright. And just as the Dementors in his memories of first year had been driven away by the patronuses back then, so too were the memories driven off by this very real one. Not in the same sense, though, just because... it had distracted him. Which was good.

A ferret, a ferret patronus. Toby blinked at its nuzzling and raised a hand to pet its head to say hello, then looked around for the caster (though he knew of course who the creature belonged to). His eyes connected briefly with Soph's, then went back to the ferret, and he interacted with it just as he might have if it were real. 'Cause it WAS real, technically. Was he not looking at it, feeling it nuzzling his face? Very very real.

It made him wish he could cast his own one, sad that he wasn't going to, but not enough to encourage him to try. So he just stood and made clicking noises with his tongue, 'talking' to the ferret, trying to pet it, and idly wondering what kind of happy memory had produced this little protector.

All this memory searching was giving her a migraine. There were loads of memories coming to her but nothing appeared to be good enough. Sure her trip to Ireland was epic and the school trip with her friends this past summer was awesome but they didn't do either. What she needed was a moments break from this.

Deciding to practice the incantation was a good start and she already knew exactly how to say it. "Expecto Patronum...Expecto Patronum...Expecto Patronum," she repeated several times quietly. Once she had a good feel for the words she said them a few times more just for good measure. She wasn't taking chances with messing this up.

Removing her wand from it's holder on her wrist she gripped it firmly but at the same time gently in her hand. A circle. A simple circle. That's all she needed for the wand movement. Starting slowly she formed a small circle with her wand in front of her once, twice and then a third time. Really that was simple as well. One couldn't exactly mess up with a circle could they?

Incantation down. Check.

Wand movement down. Check.

Now the important part...the part that would really make this work or fail. A MEMORY! She still hadn't chosen one...

Okay, so now Marigold was all good and happy… but she was a bit distracted. She was humming a TDK song while making the beat on her leg with her wand, idly observing Toby and the patronus. It went to Zander first, mental note. Were Toby and Sophie no longer a thing? Sad. She like Toby a lot maybe even more than she liked Zander and plus, she had known him for like…almost 7 years. Which was a long time, so she felt like she had like…allegiance to'm or something.

Oh, right patronuses. Patroni? Patronodes? She didn't know the plural. "Expecto patronum?"

She shouldn't've expected anything. Although she was happy, she was muuuch too unfocused.

Again the reactions were as diverse as the students and their answers had been. Some stayed where they were, some moved off, some started muttering or moving their wands and some brought so many walls up Sabel wasn't sure if they were already in the labrynth.

Time to do a walk-about.



This. Just....this.

Sabel's eyes slid to Zeke, considering him with the highest raised eyebrow yet. Had the kid put them up to this? Surprise surprise that it was chocolate frogs of all things. He looked bemused enough to have been the mastermind behind it.

Shaking his head, Sabel returned his attention to the few students who had read his rules, and then back to AJ. "No food in the class. I would hope that you're not exerting yourself so much with this spell, that you're going to pass out." Self control, restraint, all that jazz. Some of them had it, right? [i]Right?![/b]

"Not only that, but it's a distraction to the current lesson. Instead of focussing on a truly happy thought, you'll be distracted by the happiness chocolate brings and that won't be enough for a patronus. If you're feeling faint, let me know and take a break. You can eat to your heart's content after class is over."

Kids and their frogs.





Sabel moved back to the front of the class, noting the expressions and general state of the room. "You're all doing fantastic. Remember, I don't care what you can or can't cast today. This excercise is for you and your benifit alone. Do not let grades or tests be a concern. I don't care about them right now." So, by extension they shouldn't either.

"If you have questions, just ask." He'd do another wander around the class and then decide whether to move them forward or not.

---------------

OOC: Heya all!

We'll move forward onto the next activity in about 12 hours from now. Feel free to keep posting, interacting with each other, trying the charm. If I notice things dying down I might move us along sooner.

Grab us for any questions or interactions.

And if you post and then see this and want to edit, GO AHEAD One time allowance type thing

Puck had stayed quiet most of the class. Her eyes almost wide in shock, she wanted to succeed at casting her Patronus. She wanted to know what it was. But there were problems, her own problems that would mess with her even casting a simple one, she was sure of it.

She was only sixteen; it wasn’t like she was going to be able to cast a full. Probably not ever. She wanted to know one thing though – when was it that they were going to work with boggarts. Because she wanted to work on hers, to know it, to harness it. To use her own fears for her own advantage.

There were many memories that she could try to think of but where they strong enough? Were they genuine? Had her own childhood ruined the chance for her to cast a patronus? She wasn’t sure, but she was going to try. She smiled a bit as she thought about when she met Kace, and meeting Bianca...and how Bianca's family had accepted her.

So now that Janelle had her memory, she had to practice the spell. She started with the incantation. "Ex-pec-to Pa-tro-num, Ex-pec-to Pa-tro-num." She knew the words, but she wanted to make sure that she was saying every syllable correctly. "Expecto Patronum" Janelle wanted to be able to put all of her focus on her memory. She wanted the incantation to be second nature.

As for the wand movement, Janelle practiced making circular movements with her wand over and over. That part was easy. The hard part was going to be putting everything together and keeping her concentration while doing it. Piece of cake. Yeah, right.

Closing her eyes, Janelle tried to get in the concentration zone. So younger kids had a harder time with this spell because they had the attention span of a gnat. Well that and a bunch of other reasons. But Janelle was not your average little kid. She could focus.......when the situation called for it. And this spell was something she really, really wanted to do. Desire had to count for something, right? Eyes closed, she took herself back to the best time of her young life......so far. If there was one thing that Janelle was good at, it was daydreaming. She was right there, on the beach with her family.......together.

Janelle tried hard to keep herself focused while at the same time moving her wand in a circle. "Expecto Patronum", she said with authority. Aaaaand nothing. Well, she hadn't really expected to hit the ball out of the park on the first try. She'd try again and again.......as many times as it took.

Sophie was aware of people watching her and her patronus, but she didn't let them distract her from her thoughts - both Zander's and Tobes' reactions to the ferret's presence had made her smile, and she closed the distance between herself and the Hufflepuff, the sheer joy on her face not faltering.

"Sorry. She's got a mind of her own." She very clearly wasn't sorry - she was smiling away and watching him interact with her patronus fondly. He'd be cute with a pet ferret, wouldn't he? Soph could tell he was sad, though, even with her ferret giving him lots of affectionate nuzzles, but... how was she supposed to make this lesson any better for him? Or any easier?

She wasn't sure that she could, and she hated that.

"Don't tell the others," she said quietly with a smile, "but you're my happy thought." The ferret climbed up onto Tobes' head and sniffed inside his ear before burrowing into his hair, making himself at home, and curling up in a ball to rest. Which was... ahem. Not desirable. "Sorry," she said again, this time more genuine. "Should I make her go?" She was worried it was bothering him, but... maybe he'd welcome the distraction? So it was important to ask for that reason. More than that, the question was, Do you want us to stay, or should we leave you to it?

Dakest's sudden presence and encouragement to Tobes made her smile, and she gave the man a nod of encouragement of his own, letting HIM know that she thought HE was doing a good job with this whole consoling and teaching thing.

Thinking was going on. Only her thinking probably looked more likew meditating. What, it helped her think and remember sometimes. And she hadn't moved from her spot either. Nope, just crossed her legs, closed her eyes and started breathing deeply.

Only problem was, once she found a memory, it was quickly dismissed as not being good enough. But Heather did overhear Professor Dakest telling someone they could use the rather general 'home' or 'family'. Which was what she was going to do. Now, thinking.

Natalia was actually having quite a good time humming, when the professor turned up.

The fourth year quickly nodded, smiling sheepishly as she shifted her feet anxiously. Did he want her to start attempting the charm now?

I'm going to start now. Natalia thought to herself, hoping that the professor would turn away from her and not watch her fail. Hehehe... this is going to my first attempt...

After a couple seconds of hesitation, the Lioness lifted her wand and exclaimed: "Expecto Patronum!" As expected, she was met by empty space. It was no no deal. Natalia understood that it was challenging magic; it was anticipated that most people would not be able to conjure it at first try.

Perhaps, a powerful charm required a powerful voice?

"EXPECTO PATRONUUUUM!"

Thaaaaat... was probably a little too loud, too loud that it would certainly scare the little corporeal animal away. Was there another way that she could approach this? The wand movement? The pronunciation of the incantation? THE CLOTHES THAT SHE WAS WEARING, PERHAPS?

"Expecto Pah-tro-NUM."

"Expect-OH Patrol-nuuum."

"Ex-pec-toe Pae-tro-nium."

"Expect-me at three tomorrow afternoon at the coffee shop."

"Ex-cuse me, why are you stepping on my toe?"

*AHEM* Natalia, please concentrate here.

"EXPECT MY PATRONUS."

"RESPECT MY PATRONUS."

Kace heard Professor Dakest comment on his pronunciation. He said it sounds good which made him feel even more confident. He breathed a sigh of relief and now was more focused. He knew the incantation by heart and the wand movement, now it was time to zone in on his memory. He needed to think of a happy memory. A powerful happy memory like he did before. He thought about it and how it brought a smile to his face. With that aside time to get down to business!

He focused on it really hard and then said the spell, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" and then used the circular wand movement and he looked at his wand and saw nothing. Eh he didn't expect it to happen the first time. It was a 50/50 shot the first time around. He thought he might try again. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" and then did the circular wand movement and saw nothing again. Hmmm maybe he needed a stronger memory? That could be it.

Dot almost jumped right out of her shoes when the professor's voice came from right over her shoulder. She didn't poke herself OR him in the eye, at least, when she swung her wand hand wildly. So. That was so graceful. Good job, Dottie.

"I'm not telling you, so don't you dare ask me," Dot gave the professor a cheeky smile and flourished her wand correctly this time. Just watch this, Professor Man. She screwed up her face tightly, not thinking too hard about the incantation or the wand movement. She'd practiced those, although not a LOT, but enough that she could think about her happy memory. Not just think about it, but sink into how it made her feel, what that happy was like. It was more than happy. It was belonging and home and love.

Hmm. "Expecto Patronum." And there it was, the tell-tale streak of silver. "I DID IT, PROFESSOR MAN." She was queen of Charms, basically.

Trial one had been a bust, but Janelle was hoping for a little progress on trial number two. What had she done wrong the first time? Janelle wasn't sure, but she knew that she would have to do everything twice as hard the second time. Twice as focused, twice as happy. That would be a tall order, but Janelle was determined to do it.

She closed her eyes again and took herself back to the beach. She was there with Mom, Dad, Jasmine and Jason. Janelle was concentrating so hard, she could almost smell the salt water. Good times. Happpy times. She had to keep herself there and cast the spell at the same time. Holding her wand, Janelle made a circle and held onto her memory. "Expecto Patronum", she said even more powerfully this time.

Opening her eyes, Janelle did not see a patronus, but she did see a puff of something........smoke?, vapor?.......coming from the tip of her wand. It was gone so fast that for a second she thought she had imagined it. But it was there and that was something. It was a start. Janelle was on her way. She would get this patronus if it was the last thing she did.

It was a good job the ferret had sort of woken him up out of his earlier reverie, otherwise the clap on the shoulder from Dakest would have made him jump about a foot in the air. But no, it was fine, even though Toby hadn't heard him coming over he simply looked around to see who was there, one hand still petting Soph's patronus.

Take it easy. Words... he had been told a bazillion times before, though in a very different context, and words that were easier said than done.

He was quiet for a moment, eyes searching Dakest's face. Talk later? Toby had his misgivings, but... it was worth a shot. He liked visiting professors anyway, and while he was there he could insist properly about how there were no real Dark wizards. And maybe talk patronuses. Maybe.

"Okay, sir," he finally said, with a nod. "... Thank you."

Dakest just... seemed real nice? Patient. Toby liked that.



Back to the patronus then, except now Soph was here too. He started to nod at what she was saying, and opened his mouth to speak, but then abruptly stopped nodding when it... perched up on his head. Um. Ferret. Pls.

"I like her," he said, and quite genuinely too. But it was making him think of how nice it would be to have a companion like that, who'd always be there as long as you could conjure one. Like a permanent pet. That's what it was like. It was like everyone was getting a pet, but Toby wasn't allowed one. Which wasn't even true, it was more like he wasn't allowing himself to even ask for one, but that wasn't how it worked in his own, irrational mind. "... But yes. I'll say hi to her later. I just... I think I'm gonna go..." he waved his hand vaguely off in a random direction, the rest of his sentence unfinished. Gonna go do what? Practice alone? No. Maybe just... go. "You could go help Zander out, though. I bet he'd appreciate that."

If that came across as mean or bitter, that wasn't Toby's intention at all. It was a genuine suggestion; he'd seen Zander's expression earlier, when he'd looked up to see who cast the ferret, and was willing to be anything he was having trouble with the lesson as well, so... y'know. Toby was only really focusing on patronus feels, after all.

He waited until she'd called the patronus off, which actually made him feel sadder, like when the otter had given him a wide berth earlier. Toby loved animals, even in this form, and it broke his heart to turn his back on them, or see them do the same to him. But still he smiled at Soph, and get the patronus a goodbye 'pet', then turned and wandered off.

... off to the very edge of the room, where he promptly sat back down and watched everyone else at work. He was technically still ~thinking~, though he'd already decided on two memories that would have worked. One, easy, the day he was officially adopted, though sometimes that memory was still tinged with fear of things. He'd not even have considered that if Dakest hadn't mentioned the whole 'don't let it get shaken up by fear', 'cause that only happened when things got really bad. But now he was thinking about it anyway. And then there was Curtis, his little brother. Not even a particular memory, just Curtis. Thinking of him. But... oh Merlin, he missed him, he wanted to be home and with him, and that made him so sad. And now every happy memory he had was turning sad, and he was trying to take it easy but it was hurting his head and making his eyes sting and none of it felt very fun at all.

Toby put his wand away, now back to playing with that darn thread on his sleeve while he waited out the rest of the activity.

So, Eden had made a list of happy memories, and she scratched out the ones with Phoenix, because she missed him entirely too much to feel happy about these memories. Sigh. She really did miss him...that left...some family memories, Cole things, and Iwin and Emmalee.

Her cousin and his girlfriend..she just..ugh. The past weekend being able to talk to them? Maybe she could think of that...that would be nice. It was happy and something that Eden knew was affecting her current happy mood. So there. She would try this memory first! If not, she thought the second one on her list would be the bakery opening...her mam's bakery...last summer, was it? That was a very happy day for her, too...

So.

Expecto Patronum.

She closed her eyes, thinking of the past weekend, the news she had received...everything. Eden did the wand motion, and said, very softly..."Expecto...patronum...." and, as Eden expected...nothing. She didn't know if what she had done had counted as a try, though...but she sighed and sat back down in her desk, rubbing her face. This was pointless...she couldn't DO this...she just wasn't meant to have a patronus...

Sophie BEAMED at Tobes' declaration of liking her ferret and she was relieved that he wasn't totally annoyed with the patronus taking such a strong liking to him. It... only really made sense, didn't it? Good thing Tobes was such an animal person, really, and...

...

Oh. He DID want her to go. "Okay," she gave him a sad smile, and directed her ferret to go bounce to the other side of the room... until his last sentence.

The patronus disappeared instantly.

Sophie turned her gaze from where the patronus had been back to Tobes, the color drained from her face and her jaw set. Despite how innocent his intentions may have been, Soph only heard it as a hurt, bitter statement, an implication that she should go tend to Zander because... Zander had been the one to come between them, and maybe Tobes thought Soph liked Zander more. Maybe he resented Zander. Maybe he didn't want Soph around and was trying to push her away. Maybe he wasn't as okay with their break as he'd tried to make her think, and he'd just slipped up to his true feelings. Maybe she'd hurt him and he hated her for it.

And all the pure elation that had been filling her up was sucked right out of her.

She was just going to... go... over there... "Professor?" She neared closer to Dakest, her jaw still set firmly, and she tried to look calm and composed. "I've gotta use the loo. Really quick. Three minutes, I'll be right back. Emergency. Can't hold it. Girl things. You know. I'll be back in a flash, scout's honor. Y'know I wouldn't miss this kinda lesson for the world."

And she darted from the room without another thought. Needed to clear her head without all eyes on her, which wasn't something she was going to be able to do IN the room, as everyone had been watching her and her patronus. Just... needed... a moment, okay?