Now for the more challenging part, the incantation: Piertotum Locomotor Annexus. Jace stared at the board for a good while, imprinting the spell inside his head as well as the effect of the spell. He’s aware of the animation spell alright, so it was just a matter of adding Annexus to the whole thing.

See, it’s not that complicated. Jace sat straighter in his seat, and practised the incantation without the wand movement. He didn’t want to animate his table by accident, just like what Mason did over there. It was an amusing thought though. A table as an insentient familiar. Grinning at what he witnessed, Jace subtly rubbed both hands, looked at the blackboard and practised the spell by saying it.

“Piertotum Locomotor Annexus. Pier-TO-tum, Lo-CO-motor, An-NEXus. Piertotum Locomotor Annexus.”

Point and flourish.

They really were going to be animating their little clay figures. At least that made the idea of getting her hands dirty a little better. Her little dragon would be active. It almost made her wish she’d brought her little rock Balerion to school, since then they could entertain each other. She wasn’t planning on messing the spell up, or ending it so her new dragon was just clay again. She’d have to name it. Hmm, she thought, momentarily stalling from practicing the spell and trying to cast it. Maybe it would be better to find out what the dragon was like before she settled on a name. She had a few ideas though. Of course she did. There was also the idea of making more dragons later on. Between this spell and the one Professor Bellaire had taught them, she had plenty of ways to make dragons.

She first jotted down the incantation, along with a few brief notes on the wand movement. There wasn’t anything wrong with using her energy for useful things like spells. It was just other notes she preferred avoiding. Once it was all written down, though, it was time to practice. Practice would make sure she didn’t fail spectacularly, not that she usually did. Not when she wanted the spell to work. Intent was important, and her heart was in when it came to this spell. Even if it was giving the clay dragon a bit of her soul. At least it wasn’t a Horcrux. She wasn’t having to do anything drastic this time, side from yanking her own hair out.

“Piertotum Locomotor Annexus,” she said quietly. “Piertotum Locomotor Annexus.” The pronunciation didn’t seem too difficult, not when they’d already worked on the basic spell. This was just an expansion, and even if her original accent broke through, the basic pronunciation still worked. It sounded the same. That meant she should be fine, as long as she visualized the spell working. A point and flourish hardly needed true practice. It wasn’t like there was any complicated movement involved. She still did a couple wordless point-and-flicks just to cover her bases anyway. She’d have to combine the two next, and focus on her dragon coming to life. Not a desk or whatever else the others were accidentally casting the spell on.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus....Piertotum Locomotor Annexus....Piertotum Locomotor Annexus..." Henric kept repeating the spell in his head. Strange... he performed it several times during his practices and it worked perfectly fine before... but somehow today...nothing seemed to go well with him. Hmm...he really should pay close attention to his clay model...instead of losing your focus every.single.time his professor walked past his table! *coughs* He quickly glanced away and returned his attention on his little clay model. Merlin...you have a girlfriend, Henric. Keep that in mind, why don't you? Ehem.

"Come on ...little cub...be alive today please," he muttered under his breath. Earlier in the lesson, he made a baby bear-shaped figurine which he carefully placed on top of his table.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus." He imagined his bear cub alive...and licking its paws. He pointed and flourished his wand once again.

Jace kept on repeating the spell over and over inside his head until he was able to memorize every syllable and exact pronunciation. He knew about being very clear when it comes to muttering the spell, and more importantly, the intent behind the incantation and wand movement.

Well, moment of truth for the small boy. Will his technique of breaking down the process work or not?

He got his wand from the table again, eyed his clay corgi...and imagined it to have life coming from the incantation, reinforced and sustained by the hair he placed inside it. Taking in a deep breath, Jace raised his wand, performed the wand movement he practised earlier, and said the incantation, “Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!”

Zing.

Nope. Nothing. Not even a blue glimmer. Determined to make it move, Jace collected his thoughts, concentrated on his intent, and allowed his mouth and hand to perform what it needs to do subconsciously, “Piertotum Locomotor ANNEXUS!” Blue light came from his wand, and with a flourish, it encapsulated the clay corgi. Slowly...the clay animal came to life, by chasing its own tail. Jace giggled, allowing his insentient familiar to be silly for the mean time.

The small Ravenclaw raised his hand to get the attention of the professor. “Ichihara-sensei? I have a question if you don’t mind?” Of course she won’t, right? “Eto...” Jace paused, as he constructed his question carefully. “If...if we gave it life by magic and is tethered to us through our DNA...will its magic falter or, completely disappear if we, the original maker exhaust our own life energy?” In short, will it go lifeless again if they die? Jace didn’t want to say the D word out loud, especially now that the Gryffindor beside him is still lamenting over the death of her precious snails. “Also...is it possible for it to be corrupted? Meaning...can another wizard or witch steal our insentient familiar and disable it?” Jace blinked as he was able to parallel it with their magic sticks. “Like our wands? It chose us, but there’s this possibility of it choosing another master should we lose its alliance to it, right?”

Jace lowered his hand, and stared at his corgi familiar, smelling...or rather licking its paw. “Please sit.” The Ravenclaw commanded it, and surprisingly, it followed suit.

She could only stall for so long. It wasn't like Brooklyn was nervous, or worried that she wasn't going to cast the spell correctly. She had the incantation down by now. She knew she could perform the correct wand movement. She knew she had enough determination as well. Even if she was worried, she wasn't going to admit it. She didn't admit to having any weaknesses. She refused to. That would mean losing some of her power. Her reputation.

Focusing on her clay dragon, she took a deep breath before pointing her wand at it. With a flourish, she spoke. "Piertotum locomotor annexus." She had cleared her mind of everything but her intended goal, that of animating her dragon. Making it her tiny little familiar, to join the rest of her collection of lesson-related souvenirs. Her tiny little familiar which she was nearly positive that she was going to name Meraxes.

There was a brief flash of pale blue light that enveloped her dragon, and then it faded. Stowing her wand for the time being, Brooklyn tilted her head as she regarded her creation. "Meraxes, stretch," she said quietly, not taking her eyes off the little clay dragon. After a moment, it stretched its legs and back, flicking its tail the tiniest bit.

"Meraxes, fly." The faintest of smiles flickered on her face as the little dragon stretched its wings before taking off, hovering just over the table. It still counted as flying. She just had to decide if she wanted to ask it to do any other tricks or just leave it at what had already been demonstrated. There would always be later.

His lump of molding clay on his desk, Carl pulled out a hair with a jerk. It was painful, but he knew that a sacrifice would make his Familiar work well. He placed the hair into the clay and began to mold it. What was he going to make? Hmm ... maybe a ferret. Ferrets were so cute! The decision might have been random, but he worked hard, squeezing and rolling the clay, until it looked like one. He forgot to add ears, but it was cute and somewhat recognizable.

The Hufflepuff completed his work just in time to listen to Professor Ichihara's explanation of the spell work. It sounded cool - he definitely wanted to animate his Familiar! First, he had to practice the incantation. Piertotum Locomotor Annexus. He picked up his quill and jotted this down so that he could look at it if he forgot, which was likely considering how long it was.

Squinting at the words he wrote, Carl said, "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus." Whew, what a mouthful! "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-nes - I mean, An-NEXus!" He needed more practice.

A small jet of blue-tinted light shot out from the tip of his wand, encircling his clay model before slowly fading away. He eagerly watched his familiar started to move and started licking one of its front paw. Great hippogriffs! He did it! It felt great that his spell finally worked in his favour! The alive clay bear cub was now tilting its head up, it seemed to regard him with big questioning eyes. Oh dear, it pulled some of his hufflepuff hearts strings alright...

IT WAS SO UNBEARABLY ADORABLE!!

Henric couldn't help but to lower his hand towards it after seconds of just bringing it to life. "Hello there...Cuddly..." he greeted with awe. Yes, he would be officially naming his familiar, Mr.Cuddly! His bear cub briefly stood on its hind legs and sniffed curiously with that little cute button nose of his. Aww....

SPOILER!!: Nana!

"An interesting question, Miss Lynch." Nana said, giving the Slytherin a small smile. "A wizard's Corporal Patronus and Animagus form are example's of that wizard's personality and are considered another extension of the self and the spirit. Familiars, true Familiars like our Kitsune might have been are not a reflection on their wizard partner. They are their own spirit, their own entity bound closely to yours. They will listen to you, love you and even die for you, but they are not you. Think of them as an animal soulmate."

"Does anyone else have any questions?" Nana asked, turning her full attention back to the class.

Professor Ichihara had just said that her question had been interesting. That could only mean that without a shadow of a doubt all her attention was on the older women so she could fully take in the answer. This is what she had been thinking, considering it in her mind but hearing it out loud being clarified by the Professor was what she needed. It all made sense. So basically this little hedgehog was her animal soulmate. Something that would always be there for her when no one else was. Special. That's what her familiar was to her. Hady gave a faint smile in understanding and nodded her head. She understood.

Having spoken the incantation and given her wand the proper flourish directed at her familiar Hady now waited. Waited in complete silence for something to show that the spell had worked. Anything.

Then she saw it. The blue glow that surrounded her clay hedgehog before it disappeared. It was faint and only there for a few moments but it had been there. Letting out a slow breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding the girl slouched down in her seat to be almost eye level with her now 'alive' familiar. "Hey there, little guy. Can you just move about a little bit for me...shake or something maybe?" she whispered in a tiny voice. Any sign to really prove to her that she had been right, that she had in fact did this all correctly.

Nearly instantly the tiny creature rolled over from it's balled up position on it's back to being on it's feet were it gave just the tiniest of shakes like it was a small wet puppy. This had to be the sweetest sight Hadleigh had ever seen. A small grin formed on her lips as she whispered to it once more, "I'm going to sit here and watch you for a few moments and I'd like for you to let me know what your name is. I'll be quiet now and you can do as you like just no falling off my desk..." With that she didn't make another sound her eyes fixed on this tiny hedgehog watching it as it watched her.

...............

And yet still there's nothing happened.

Wow, this spell was very advanced. Ava had tried it like... three times but there's nothing happened yet. She did notice the faint blue glowing but it's still not strong enough to animate the clay. But she's not a quitter, she determined to try this spell until she performed in successfully. Alright, the young lioness gained back her focus, pointed her wand to the snake clay and gave a flourish. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus!" She already put on her hair piece on this clay and performed this spell wholeheartedly.

Ssssssssssssshhhhhh.....

She heard a hiss coming from the clay.... Wow, it worked finally! She couldn't help but beamed excitedly. "Hey, snakey." Ava patted the snake head and smiled.

Janelle stared at the little animal for what seemed like an eternity. In reality, it was only a second. Suddenly, a blue light formed around her familiar and Janelle almost gave a shout. It was working. She had done it. As the light faded, the dog began to move. He wagged his tail and began to pant.

"Come here little buddy", Janelle said, as she motioned for the dog to come to her. To her great relief, he began to walk toward her. With a huge smile, she began to talk to her new pet. "I guess you'll need a name. What should I call you?" She thought about it for a moment and finally came up with an idea. "How about.........Mikey?" It wasn't much of a dog's name, but Janelle liked it. Besides, she thought that it suited her dog. Apparently he thought so too because at her question, he began jumping and wagging his tail more. "Mikey it is then. We're going to be great friends." This was so cool. This was possibly the best Transfiguration class ever.......well, except for the hair cutting part.

"Come to me darlings." Kitty extended her pale hands out to the worms. Slowly all three of them crawled into her hands. This was awesome! Beaming, Kitty whispered her next instructions to them. She whispered because she was not sure they would obey - and it would be embarrassing if anyone witnessed that.

The worms sprung into action. Two of them crawled off her hand and wrapped themselves around her wrists. The third worm crawled up her right arm (on top of her robes, not inside) and climbed towards her neck. Then it slowly wrapped itself around her neck - looking a lot like a weird turtleneck made of clay.

"This is AWESOME!!!" She was Kitty Valentine - The Queen of Worms!

Olivia had heard Hady’s question about familiars in relation to patronus’ and animangus and had to admit she herself was mildly curious about the answer. Professor Ichihara didn’t disappoint when she did respond. She’d have to remember that, adding it into her notes for future reference. Maybe a trip to the library was in order during some free time later to learn some more about two out of the three. Having a mother who was an animangus had already exposed the Ravenclaw to that subject already.

With that done, and no questions coming to her mind to add, she returned to her practicing. This first year wasn’t about to let up on animating her cat. Olivia picked up her wand once more and gathered her focus again. “Piertotum Locomotor Annexus,” she cast with a point and a swish just like before. “Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus,” he repeated with both spell and incantation to back herself up. Greeted by the soft blue glow she remembered from the demonstration, she nearly squealed.

It had worked!

“Wag you tail, please,” she commanded and this time the feline responded as requested. “Come closer…” and the new clay familiar scampered across the surface of the desk towards her.

Lock of hair firmly in the mound of clay, Tia was still deliberating on the shape even as the Professor continued on with the next part of the activity of animating their familiars. She needed to decide what her familiar was before she could animate it. Nonetheless, the seventh year still took notes down regarding it because she would have to get to this point of the spells eventually.

Eagle would have been the obvious choice, but crafting her clay into an eagle just seemed too difficult. And she sadly couldn't use magic to help with her artistic abilities. She contemplated just a simple braid, since there was hair in her clay, but an animated braid just seemed weird to her.

Finally she decided to go easy. She rolled her clay into a round ball as best she could using her desk to make sure it was smooth and round. Once she was sure it was as round as she could make it, Tia looked in her sack for her heaviest textbook she had in there and removed it. She slammed it down on her round clay ball, effectively smashing it into round flat pancake. Perfect. She was almost done.

Pencil from muggle studies would work well for this. Using the eraser end, the head girl jabbed two dots into her pancake and below them a half-circle.

It was the perfect familiar. The smile face.

Looking around, Ariadne could tell that some of the other first years had gotten the spell down pat. This meant that it COULD be done by somebody her age, and that also meant that she WOULD get it soon! She would make sure of it! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she'd used her hair instead of real, emotional tears. Even Mason had managed to animated SOMETHING, even if it had just been her DESK.

Ariadne looked at her clay owl with a fierce determination. If looks could force spells to work, her owl would start moving right away. Of course it wasn't that easy, though, and she needed a wand movement and an incantation to go with that look she was giving. She sighed and pointed her wand toward the owl. She wanted to see if moving SUPER badly!

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" Ariadne called out. She tried to put every emotion she had in her behind those words. She gave a nice flourish of her wand, not expecting to see results a split second later. There was a bold, blue glow, and then her owl...it just came to life! "Professor! I think I did it!" she exclaimed. "It was just still, and I tried the spell a few times, but nothing happened! Then there was this blue glow, and now LOOK!" she excitedly said.

Ariadne wanted to tell it to do all sorts of things, from dancing to eating ice cream!

Kaycee might have been a little behind? Why? A. She'd been a blubbering mess like two seconds ago. And B. She had zero artistic ability. At least, when it came to clay molds.

She rolled it around her desk a few times trying to figure out what to make.

Finally, she decided on a sleepy cat. She could pretty much make that out of a lump of clay.

She rolled a ball. She pulled two tiny bits away into what could possibly be interpreted as ears. She then made a small indentation circling part of the ball. There. A tail. Sort of.

She looked at it and bit her lip. Close enough right? She tried. So that's what was going to suffice.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" Carl said, finally able to pronounce the whole incantation correctly. Satisfied with his progress, he repeated the words several more times before deciding that he had enough practice.

He had to move on to the wand movement, a point and flourish. Taking out his wand, the First Year pointed it at the clay ferret in his hand. Then, he added the flourish. Point and flourish. Hmm no, it was not like this. He tried to remember Professor Ichihara's demonstration and how she had managed to make her clay fox animated. She brandished her wand a bit like - this. He repeated the wand movement, this time doing it more accurately.

Some people might say he was fussing over an easy thing, but he wanted to be peeerfect. So Carl continued to practice.

"Not Quite. I'm afraid I cannot explain the depths. Much of it depends on the caster's focus and the strength of their conditions. It varies, Miss Daneker." Nana added. She checked her watch, eyebrows raising as she looked at the time. "Unfortunately Class that seems to be all the time we have today!" Things had certainly gotten away from her but considering the all the minor ( and seemingly major ) mishaps, Nana believed the class had made excellent use of their time.


"For those of you who did not accomplish the spell on your first few go's, do not despair, it is no easy task and you certainly have time on your side to perfect it." Nana smiled, leaning back against her desk. She was already considering how beautifully rewarding a cup of tea would be after all that speaking. "You are welcome to take along your familiars if you wish, if not, please return them to the clay table. I should expect those of you who do take your familiars to keep in mind that the magic may wear off within a day or two, or perhaps even a few hours. Perfectly normal, nothing at all to fret over."


"Class is dismissed!" She called out, smiling softly to the class before turning her back to magically wipe the blackboard clean with a swipe of her wand.





OOC: Class is dismissed! Thanks for playing and participation, guys! ^__^

Class dismissed? Carl looked up, in the middle of flourishing his wand. Awww, he had not put the incantation and wand movement together yet! Still, as Professor Ichihara said, he should not despair. He was definitely going to practice some more outside of class.

And yes, that meant he was taking his Familiar ferret with him. If he never got to master the spell, at least he would have a clay toy to play with. Pushing himself out of his seat, Carl said with a smile, "Thank you for the lesson, Professor!" Then, he swung his bag over his shoulder and, holding his clay ferret carefully with both hands, happily made his way out of the room.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Nooooo. His little niffler was busily walking around, moving its nosey back and forth, just as Jaemin had told it to do, when the professor announced the end of class. Her informing them that the magic wouldn't last very long made the little boy the saddest person ever; he had finally gotten a niffler, and now it was going to be taken away from him?! Unfair. Sooooo unfair.

After quickly collecting his things, Jaemin approached the professor, carefully cradling the small creature in both hands. "Professor?" he asked softly, looking down at his niffler before looking up at her. "When the spell stops working, can we just keep casting it again? Will it keep working the same?"

It would be the saddest sad thing if like, his tear DNA had an expiration date or the spell had some sort of effectiveness limit and after that his niffler just never moved again. LOOK AT IT PROFESSOR. Look at how cute his niffler was. And how tragic it would be if it just turned into a niffler statue forever again.

Noooooooo!

The lesson couldn't be over! Hady sighed softly when she heard Professor Ichihara announce this. If ever there was a lesson where she wasn't ready for it to be over this was certainly one of them. "Welp Kotori, it's time to go so I'm going to clean up here and then carry you out," she quietly told her newest little friend/creation. She wouldn't be taking any chances setting him inside her bag or anything were something might smush him. Nope not gonna happen.

Putting all her things away the snake rose to her feet and slung her bag over her shoulder before carefully scooping the small hedgehog up into her hands. "Really cool lesson, Professor, thanks!," she grinned happily making her way for the door. She was just about to leave when she heard one of her younger fellow snakes ask a very good question directed at Nana. Hearing it Hady hung back a little bit to hear the answer. This she also really wanted to know. It was be a shame if in only an hour or two her little buddy would be no more.

Class was over already???

She was only starting to have fun with her Unicorn, and it was time for Esme to leave. She pouted. At least she would be able to take her new friend with her and that was a huge plus in her books. "Time to go," she said as she affectionately scooped it up into her arms. She would need a name, but that could be decided on later. For the moment she would pack up her stuff and head off to get something to eat from the kitchens.

After making sure that everything tidied up, Esme grabbed her bag and headed to the door. "Thanks for the lesson, Professor! It was awesome." And with that she was gone.

“Sit…” she asked her cat familiar and the clay figure had complied just as Professor Inchihara spoke up to end the lesson. Aww man…it was going great! Although Olivia was grateful they were allowed to keep their creations if they wanted and she wanted, even if the spell wore off. It was cute and creative nevertheless and perhaps she could decide to recast the spell on the clay creature anytime she wanted to.

As for her at the moment, the Ravenclaw stood up from her seat as they were dismissed and started packing up her belongings. When her bag was rightly hanging from her shoulder, Olivia picked up her cat and made her way to leave. “Great class, Professor, thank you,” she said with a smile at the woman as she herself cleaned up before heading the rest of the way towards the door.

He wasn't keen on toting a miniature Zeus around when there was an incredibly high possibility that the real kneazle would ingest his clay counterpart. Perhaps it was best to leave it here, hm? Dima packed up his things and slung his bag over his shoulder before getting up.

The sixth year stopped by the table on his way out, leaving a not-so-thrilled-to-be-abandoned figurine with those of his classmates.

"Thanks for the lesson, professor." Only thing that could have been more fun was hearing about Char's snail drama.

.... which was likely coming next? Joy.

Haddie giggled to herself as the clay lioness playfully attacked the finger that was petting it. Class was over though. "Sit," she commanded. The lioness immediately obeyed and there was a tinge in her heart. She didn't want to see her clay familiar go back to being clay.

Once she'd packed her things and stood up, Haddie held out her hand. "Climb on," she told the lioness. It obeyed instantly. "Thank you Professor," Haddie said, but she didn't head for the door. "Professor? How can we make the spell permanent? I mean, portraits last ages, right? And I bet the tape measure has been at Ollivander's for a long time. So it's possible to cast the spell so it won't wear off, right?" If not, she was sure with help of one of the Professors she could learn how to tweak the spell work used on portraits and on La Rue, the measuring tape to create a lasting insentient familiar. If one thing can be animated to such and extent, than other things could too.

Her clay smile face was all shaped and everything, to which Tia let it set a moment as she decided to practice on the animation spell. Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-Nexus. She wrote down carefully in her notes, being sure to underline at the points of emphasis. Point and flourish. It was an easy enough wand movement, and even the first half of the incantation was easy enough because it was familiar.

"Pier-to-tum Lo-co-motor An-Nexus" the head girl recited first to herself and then aloud. Practicing saying the incantations always led to better results in her experience. "Piertotum Locomotor Annexus," she repeated a third time, speaking it aloud and in normal speech rather than slow pronunciation emphasis.

Once she was confident with her pronunciation, Tia picked her wand back up and pointed it at her clay smile face. With a flourish, she stated the incantation a final time, concentrating her efforts on giving her familiar life, a bit of her as Ichihara instructed, "Piertotum locomotor annexus!" Tia clearly enunciated.

The clay smile face glowed blue for a brief moment before the glow faded away. Though her smile face didn't have legs the way the Professor's familiar of a fox had, Tia had another idea which might work. It was circular. Whispering to the smile face to stand on its side, the smile face did so and as what might be expected when round things were on their circular edge, the smile face didn't just stand still. No, it rolled. It rolled off Tia's desk and on the floor and just kept rolling because that was the Head Girl's bidding. And it rolled and rolled until finally it stopped right at the Professor's feet and fell on its back with it's smile side up.

Mission accomplished. And class was dismissed.

Quickly packing her things up, the seventh year head out but not before stopping in front of the professor. "Thanks for the great lesson. And you can have my familiar, if you'd like. I think he likes you." Or well it was a smile face, so he just smiled at everyone, but regardless Tia smiled broadly as well.