"This should be easier than turning my gecko to a goblet" Amy mutters to herself. After repeating variegatus a few times, she tries it on her pretty rock. Performing the slashing with her wand (that she perfected after all the tries on the gecko) and "Variegatus!" When Amy saw that the light from her wand was violet, she knew it worked! "Professor! I did it, I did it!" Then she set her pitcher aside to show Prof. McAiken later.

Marybeth smiled, thinking that this lesson would be easier than the gecko-into-a-goblet one. She brought her wand down in a slashing motion and said the incantation, "Variegatus!"

Nothing happened to the stone, but Marybeth wasn't about to give up. Raising her wand once again, she repeated her actions, and the stone began to melt a little. Quickly poking it with her wand, she was rather annoyed.

"Variegatus...Variegatus..." she muttered under her breath. Taking a deep breath and concentrating hard, she brought her wand down as though she were to slash through something, "Veriegatus!"

To her amazement and delight, the ston molded itself into a crude pitcher. Her hair turned a bright red and then went back to her normal dirty blonde as she fought to keep her Metamorphagus powers under control.

Xavier picks his wand up again and points it at the rock on the table. "Variegatus," he says. Nothing happened.

Lorelei pokes the rock with her wand. She swishes and points her wand at the rock, and says "Variegatus". Nothing happens. She clears her throat. Swishes and points again, "Variegatus" she says again. The rock shook a little, but nothing else happened. She looks around, seeing the other rocks already turned into pitchers. She concentrates harder, looks and points at the rock, "Variegatus". The rock morphed into a a pitcher, but only for an instant, and turned back into a rock again.

Rosa pointed at her rock and said: 'variegratus' making the wand movement. her rock didn't change a bit. she tried again and again. the third time her rock looked a bit more square, but that was all. she pointed at the rock again and said: 'variegratus' this time her rock changed into a very rough pitcher. Rosa smiled and tried to turn her pitcher back into a pitcher

Correct, that a very good observation Nadia," McAiken said across the room. "We aren't changing the physical properties of the stone just it's shape."

"Everyone's attention for a moment, please," McAiken continues speaking. He hurries to his chalkboard, writing in the air as he goes. "I'll give 10 points who can tell me what word we use today that has it's root in our incantation "variegratus"? he asks. Suddenly the word appears to burn itself on the board then turns white like chalk. "Anyone" He asks again.

Aschere glanced at the other students around her, all working very hard at turning their stones into pitchers. Nervously, she picked her wand up from where she had put it on her desk and pointed it at the stone. 'varie-- *cough* var-ie-gat--us' she managed to croak, barely above a dry whisper, and the stone merely deformed itself into another shapeless, slightly larger stone. Aschere sighed. This was just the wrong time to have a sore-throat..

Aschere raises her hand.

After several failed attemps at transforming her rock, Arkee started shaking her wand, as if it were malfunctioning and a good shake would set it right again.

"Variegatus... variegatus... variegatus..." she repeated quietly while still shaking her wand, "variegatus - whoops!" A thin stream of violet shot out and hit an unsuspecting ink bottle, which cracked open like an egg, spilling the dark contents.

Arkee tried to look innocent, hoping that the student who owned the bottle would take pity on her.

*walks in and looks around before taking a seat* hmmmmmmmmmmm
*pulls out his books and writing equipment then places his bag on the floor*

Yes, Gryffindor wants to try," McAiken calls on the girl and points at her.

Terry ponders the variegatus in her head. The words variety come to mind. Then it hits her. Professor could the word be variegate? In fact variegate has it's origns in the Latin word, variegatus.)

McAiken see the ink bottle break and with a wave to his wand the mess is gone and no harm is done. "Please be care," He asks of everyone, "I have an extra bottle of ink if you need some." He continues class.

Aschere recovers from her coughing fit and tries softly, "Sir, would that be the latin word 'vario', meaning variegated? Since we are trying to 'vary' the shape of the object..'

"Aschere, do you have an answer for us, if not I move to the next person?" McAiken asks then waits for just a moment or two more.

"Excellent, 10 points to Gryffindor," calls as he hears Aschere's soft voice answer. "Another 5 for giving us the Latin because I was going to ask that one next."

"Now, return to practicing for a bit more," He requests.

"Varie-gratus. First part come from "Varius", Latin for variegated, party-colored, mottled, diverse, various. Also bent, turned awry, crooked. Gratus, from Latin; beloved, dear, acceptable, pleasing, agreeable. Roughing would be "change at likes" I presume..."

Aschere smiled and looked back at her stone. Wow, nothing like getting house points for encouragement. She'd give it another go. She swallowed once and pointed her wand at the misshapen rock.
'variegatus!'
Her aim had been a bit off-center, apparently, or perhaps it was the already disfigured nature of the rock, but the stone pitcher it had morphed into was so lopsided that it immediately tipped right over and would have fallen off the edge of the table, had Aschere not made a move to stop it..

(Ack. Always late.)

Nadia took her wand once more and kept practicing, every now and then her eyes would move around the classroom as if to find something there. Weird that magic didn't feel like magic to her right now. The next time she waver her wand it was in a rather clumsy, uniformic motion. The stone half-jar before her seemed to melt and change into a puddle. Nadia sighed and put her wand aside until she was able to concentrate again.

"Keep your focus," encourages McAiken, "The more you do so the easier the task will come. The whole purpose of Hogwarts it to train you to success in life and you must give this time your all." He moves about the room correcting wand movements, and incantations. He finds his students are do well on a whole.

Terry points her wand at the stone and concentrates on turning it into a pitcher. She performs a swirl and then a slashing movement and says "variegatus". A bright light comes out of the end of her wand, and the stone is transformed into a crudely shaped stone pitcher. "Professor, since we are using a stone in this transformation, does that mean the pitcher will always be made of stone?"

Once more... Aschere frowned lightly in concentration. She tried observing the students around her. Suddenly, she realized what she'd been doing wrong all along! Pushing back her sleeves and feeling more confident now, she pointed her wand at the stone, and said as clearly as she could, despite her bad throat, 'varigratus!'
The sideways-pitcher suddenly lost all its shape for a moment.. and then in a flash, standing on her desk was a perfectly balanced, solid stone pitcher.
'oh phew!'
Aschere flopped onto her chair in relief and grinned at Nadia in greeting, across the class. Somehow that girl was consistently smart..

Raven should have raised her hand but kept quiet and wrote down the notes. She clapped softly for the Gryffindor's ten points and contiuned practicing the spell.

Ally takes out her wand.....
mutters to herself:"concentrate,concentrate......
points wand at the stone and says "variegatus......"
the stone turns into a stone pitcher....
"holly cow, thank god i got it right!"