You know, Abra was super torn for a moment. Torn between setting a good example as a prefect and everything - not to mention respecting the professor - and the urge to immediately throw his bag on the ground and jump onto it at Zoryn's shout. Just because, you know, years of conditioning. The floor was lava.

Except for the fact that it wasn't, and Abra knew that, and he knew that this was... not the time to be playing. So... he guessed he lost this game.

Decidedly not making eye contact with Zoryn, Abra listened to Professor Darlington as her explanation started to make all the sense. Clouds. They'd obviously need a clear day if they were going to be conjuring clouds, so they could see their process and everything. Sure.

When they were told to do so, Abra went ahead and found himself a space in the clearing where he had a little bit of elbow room to work with, and retrieved his wand. "Nubecula," he muttered to himself, pointing his wand up into the sky but not making any serious attempts at casting the spell for real just yet. Just practicing, you know? "Nubecula... Nubecula..."

Okay, well, he had the incantation more or less down. It was pretty simple, really, so now he supposed he needed to actually give the spell a go. Pointing his wand up into the air, he tried to visualise a cloud forming just as he'd seen in Professor Darlington's example, and... "Nubecula!"

Well... it wasn't quite what he'd wanted, but there were definitely some wisps of cloud-ish substance swirling into the air above him, except they disappeared before anything could really come of them. No bother. He would just... try again.

Oh.

Max shrank back into himself, his previous fervor and scorn gone in an instant to be replaced by red-faced shame. He cleared his throat, rolled up his sleeves and began to quietly mutter the incantation. "N-n-nubecula. Nub-b-becula." He repeated it once, twice, three times without his wand, willing his tongue to work with him for once.

Deep breath. He wiggled his fingers. He wiggled his toes and he thought really long and hard on clouds - except he didn't. Maxie's mind kept jumping back to the fire, to his messup and dumb hand waving- and ughugh.

Clenched fists? Check. Frustrated expression accompanied by reddened cheeks and unnaturally shiny eyes? Check. For a single shining moment he thought maybe- just maybe he could sneak out of here- and then he remembered they were out on the grounds and any kind of escape would not go undetected. Slightly miserable (as usual), Maxie pulled his wand from his pocket, pointed it high up into the air and-

and-

and???

Nothing. Nada. Zip. He did not move. He did not speak.

Again. Just try again. Yep.

Abra wasn't too concerned that he hadn't managed the spell the first time around, of course. It was rare that he ever did that, and he never ever got it perfect the first time. After all, who did? Transfiguration was his best subject, so he knew he could do it. Knew he could.

Pointing his wand up into the air again, Abra cast the spell. "Nubecula!"

This time, more substantial wisps appeared, and started swirling, as Professor Darlington's had done, into a sort of cloud shape up above him. But it was still... you know... a little pathetic looking; like a half-hearted attempt at a cloud on a really sunny day. Sooooooo he decided to give it a little boost. With his wand still pointed upwards, he tried one more time.

"Nubecula!"

That last one was the one that did it. The cloud overhead grew larger, much more present, commanding the space up above his head. Immensely pleased with himself, Abra gazed up at it, a grin on his face.

Was Archer chuckling in amongst all this chaos? Why yes, yes she was. Not that she was particularly fond of fire or anything. It's just that the amount of panic over what was really a small batch of flames was amusing. Plus, Professor Darlington got the flames out pretty quickly.

Anyway, the topic of the class was clouds and conjuring them. Archer practiced saying the charm a few times to get a feel for it. Seemed easy enough. Once she was ready, she pointed her wand over her head. "Nubecula!" Oh yay. It worked. Hooray.

Conjuring a personal CLOUD? She didn't even know that was possible! Although she wasn't entirely sure what the purpose of having a personal cloud was, she thought it would be cool to have a mini cloud floating above her head. The fact that it was a relatively easy spell to master was definitely a plus, since she was still a beginner at doing magic.

Jade took out her wand and pointed it directly above her head. "Nubecula!" She said confidently. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Perhaps she was pronouncing the incantation incorrectly? She returned her wand into her robe pocket and decided to practice the incantation by itself first. "noo-BEC-yu-LAH, noo-BEC-yu-LAH, NuBECuLA," she muttered under her breath. Okay, she thought she got the hang of it now. Whipping her wand out again (she loved doing that), the brunette pointed her wand at the area above her head and said the incantation clearly, putting emphasis on the correct syllables. "Nubecula!"

... still nothing. What was going on? What was she doing wrong?

The impromptu ‘floor is lava’ game that had broken out had startled Stasya in more ways than one. As a Gryffindor, she was rather used to it happening at the oddest of times, usually in the common room, however. The part that had really startled her was the fact that, not only had Cam latched on rather quickly and been reprimanded for it, but the instigator had been Max. Not Zoryn, although the older Lion had understandably jumped on the idea quickly enough. Either way, she had found herself watching it all rather speculatively, only half-paying attention to the fact the lesson had shifted from the guesses as to what they were studying in an open field to what they were actually learning.

Besides, the topic of human Transfiguration had a different sort of meaning to her than she imagined the few who had suggested it likely meant it. She was almost grateful when she acknowledged the fact they were only learning to conjure clouds. The fire had gone rather unnoticed by her as well, aside from a brief thought about how it was appropriate for the floor is lava game that Professor Darlington had vetoed. Not only that, but the professor had also doused it before it had become a real issue.

Instead, she took a moment to jot down the incantation and relevant information down on a sheet of parchment before slipping her wand out. The wand movement wasn’t exactly difficult, but she spent a few moments to go over the incantation. “Nubecula. Nubecula, nubecula, nubecula.”

Okay, that wasn’t really hard either, although she’d noticed a few others nearby who had stumbled over the word. She was staying confident. It was just a small little cloud, not anything complicated. Pointing her wand over her head, she repeated the incantation one more time. “Nubecula!”

She only looked up after a second or two had passed, but the wispy fluff floating above her looked like a cloud. Clouds all looked different anyhow.

Nubecula. Nubecula. Nubecula.
Kaira practiced the incantation in her mind. She supposed that was enough and held her wand out, pointing at the air above her head.
She drew in a deep breath and exhaled. She said :'Nubecula!,' and there was a hint of a smoky something above her head. She decided to try again.

'Nubecula!!,' she said, and a cloud seemed to form above her head. It looked so pretty and wonderful, Kaira could not help but grin

Hanna grinned at Professor Darlington when it turned out that indeed they were going to touch on weather transformation. Clouds, even! It seemed a simple enough word and wand movement, but being that she'd not used the spell before she had no way of telling how it would work.

Walking over to her own little space, in case it went horribly wrong - at least she would be the only one affected - she said the incantation. "Nubecula. Noo BEC yu LAH. Noo BEC yu LAH." It didn't seem too hard. She raised her wand, and without having a tricky wand movement to practice, a simple pointing directly above her head, she just went for it. Above her head, her wand pointing, "Nubecula," she said.

Above her head, from her wand, came wisps of air. They stayed in the space above her head, in the appearance of a translucent and small cloud, before vanishing. Pointing her wand once again above her head, she said "Nubecula," with more determination. She pictured a huge, soggy grey cloud, though she did head that they weren't going to get the rainclouds, but visualisation helped. From her wand, again, came wisps of air, but this time they swirled around and the cloud they formed was more solid. Not soggy and grey, but fluffy and white.

Being able to control the weather was something that had always baffled Caolan. It was something that science had barely been able to achieve and yet here they were in school learning how to conjure.. clouds?

Okay maybe that wasn’t so useful. What use did Caolan have with a personal cloud? Would it follow just him around? Would it make it rain? So many questions.

However the other students got to it and he shrugged and kept his questions internally. Having enough space around him to do it was easy enough considering he was stood all by himself anyway having few friends and all.. He glanced at the board and spoke the incantation a few times before he gave it a go.

“Nu-bec-u-la” he spoke clearly. Why was everything in Latin in the Wizarding world. Why couldn’t it be something simple and memorable like ‘cloudus’. Heh. Could you imagine if it was that easy? Needed to find something? Findus. Finally wanted to grow facial hair? Beardus. Maybe then some of these seventh years would act their age if they could grow a beard - looking at a certain someone.

Once satisfied that the word was in his head and he would be able to attempt it, he pointed his wand directly into the air above him. “Nubecula” A small whispy cloud appeared seemingly out of thin air above him. It wasn’t perfect but it was there.

A smile was sent towards her friend, but before Madison could ask Hanna how she was doing, the lesson was starting. Hmm. They could just chat after class. No big deal. For now she was focusing on what they would be learning about today, and honestly she had NO real idea. So she remained silent and listened to what her classmates had to say.

Ooooh. Clouds.

That should be rather simple - especially since Transfiguration was Madison's best subject. And now she was wondering if they were going to learn now to make all the different kinds of clouds (like storm clouds), or stick to the basics for now. Whatever, she was just looking forward to making some.

Quietly she sounded the spell out a few times until she felt confident in the pronunciation. "noo-BEC-yu-LAH... noo-BEC-yu-LAH... noo-BEC-yu-LAH... noo-BEC-yu-LAH... Nubecula" The wand movement was simple enough, so really there wasn't all that much need to practice it. All that was required was pointing towards the sky.

Only five minutes left?

Madison glanced at Professor Darlington for a moment before returning her attention to the task at hand.

Pointing her wand above her head, she muttered, "Nubecula." Smiling, she watched as wisps of air left her wand and swirled around forming a cloud right above her. It looked just like a cotton ball. So fluffy.

Feeling that her lonely cloud could use some company, she pointed her wand up into the sky right beside it. This time she performed the incantation non-verbally. Nubecula. Now there were two clouds. Awesome.

Tina couldn't help but feel some small sense of satisfaction when the lava people got told off. She liked this professor's little tolerance for shenanigans! Just when she thought things would settle down... fire broke out. Tina blinked in shock. Was that accidental magic or did that Slytherin girl (Holly) do that on purpose? She couldn't tell, but either way, she was starting to get really annoyed with all this chaos, especially when she saw that little Hufflepuff (Maxie) waving his arms around. This had gone too far! Not only was all the craziness distracting, it was clearly scaring people. Her hand instinctively went to her wand. but Porfessor Darlington had already put out the flames before she could react. Thank Merlin!

Biting her tongue against the harsh words that wanted to come out. Tina tried to ignore the chaos and listen to Professor Darlington. Oh, they were conjuring clouds today? That wasn't where Tina thought this lesson was going, but it sounded fun to try. She watched the professor's demonstration intently; it was always nice to see what a new spell was supposed to look like in action before trying it... make it easier to tell when you're doing it right.

When the professor was finished speaking, Tina copied down the spell information in her notebook and set about practicing. She chose a space far away from the weird lava people and the firebug to work. Hopefully that would cut down on distractions! Now to start practicing... She gave her notes a quick glance over before attempting the incantation. "Noo-BEC-yu-LAH " she repeated as clearly and firmly as she could. "Nubecula, nubecula..."

After a few tries, Tina was confident enough about her pronunciation to try casting. She took a deep breath and visualized a fluffy cloud forming above her. "Nubecula!" she said, pointing her wand over her head. Whisps shot from the tip of her wand and combined to form a small cloud about the size of a saucer. She smiled to herself. Not a bad start, but she was sure she could do better! "Nubecula!" she said again, pointing her wand upward. This time,
she was able to produce a cloud the size of a watermelon. As she kept practicing, she wondered whether this spell voild be used to create clouds in a specific shape... a cloud shaped like a matagot or a beater's bat would be fun! Maybe she would ask Professor Darlington about it later.

Making clouds when the room looked like a beautiful sunny day? Seemed like a downer to Septimus but he wasn’t sure the professor would understand his reluctance as it was a transfigured room as it was and they were supposed to learn and practice what she was teaching. So he did as his classmates did, spread out a little so he could practice the incantation he had written down into his notes for future reference.

Nubecula

“Nubecula…noo-be-cul-a… noo-BEC-yu-LAH… Nubecula” Septimus practiced the incantation over and over trying to get the words all right. “Nubecula…noo-be-cul-a… noo-BEC-yu-LAH… Nubecula” A little bit of a tongue twister but eventually he was satisfied enough to attempt it with the wand movement. At least that was simple, a point over his head. Just had to have the mixture of everything with the intent behind it.

“Nubecula!”

That looked…fluffy. “Nubecula!” he tried again, getting more of a response. The third time was the charms as he got a cloud as he cast the spell once more “Nubecula!”

She continued pacing amongst the students, stopping every now and then to observe their handiwork. It was safe to say that some of them were naturals and disappointingly some of them …… weren’t. If they couldn’t even manage the simple conjuring of a cloud the next half of the lesson wasn’t going to fare well for them.

“Some of you could do with some more practice.” She said bluntly, returning to stand before the blackboard and facing the group. “But regrettably time isn’t on our side.” Otherwise some of them would no doubt be here all day. “Remember, visualisation and determination are key here. Picture the cloud you want to form before you say the incantation clearly.” Yes, she was looking at you Mr Anderson-Belfort. She’d heard rumours of class pranks involving potions….. had someone slipped the young Hufflepuff a Babbling Beverage?

With a few flicks of her wand, each and every cloud vanished in a puff, and off to the side of the gathered students appeared a clothing rack containing a number of bright yellow rain macs in varying sizes. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that there wasn’t going to be enough for quite everyone….

“I want you all to go and fetch yourself a rain mac,” she said, pointing in the direction of the clothing rack for those that were too busy day dreaming to notice. “And while you’re doing that, I have a question for you. What uses might magical folk have for weather related spells?”



OOC: This is where the fun is gonna start, guys! If you want to have your charrie miss out on a rain mac, that’s completely up to you. And Joyce wants you to come up with a reason magic folk might need weather spells. We’re gonna be moving on in another 24 hours-ish.

Oh boo. Her clouds had disappeared.

Ah well.

The lesson was moving on, and Madison knew that she could make more soon... Probably rain clouds given the next set of instructions. She made her way over to the clothing rack, grabbing herself a rain mac before making her way over to her spot and putting it on. That done, she raised her hand to answer the next question. ”Rain clouds can be useful for watering plants, especially during a draught. You’d just need to control HOW intense the rain is so that they don’t get overwatered and drown.” Obviously.

Patrick watched a few of his classmates try the spell. He wanted to try and get it on the first go around. He raised his wand pointed it toward the sky and he pictured nice fluffy clouds. The kind of clouds that looked like perfect and round like in animated movies he and his muggle friends would watch as kids.

Taking a deep breath he readied himself for it, "Nubecula" he watched as a little whisp of a cloud emerged. That wasn't what he wanted to happen. Taking a deep breath he raised his wand again and pointed at the sky, visualizing the nice fluffy clouds he wanted last time. "Nubecula." This time a nice puffy cloud went into the air. He could have jumped for joy. He had to work a bit harder in Transfiguration, but he was hopping this year might be different.

Looking back around at Professor Darlington he heard her question about why use weather spells. "Would it not help in cultivation of plants and animals?" He was wrong about what they were going to transfigure so he wasn't so sure he would be right about the weather spells.

Ah, so rain was the point? That made more sense, because keen as it was to chase someone around with personal shade, it made more sense that conjuring rain was the real point of this adventure. Chloe twirled her wand thoughtfully before flicking a few more practice rounds.

She was ready to move on, though, and as soon as the rack of macs appeared, she holstered her wand and headed off in search of a good seventh year sized coat. She was pleased to find one in good condition that fit her well enough. Draping the coat over her arm, Chloe headed back toward the professor.

Torii kind of thought the professor wasn't as intimidating as she'd made her out to be, but at the same time, she still didn't want to mess around in this class. She was also glad she'd managed the spell, because Darlington didn't seem too happy with those who hadn't. Within seconds, the conjured clouds were gone and raincoats had appeared. Hmm...Transfiguration was an awesome subject, wasn't it?

A rain mac? Was that some sort of British word?

Never mind that. Torii headed toward the rain macs and chose a yellow one in just her size. Not that the color mattered much, because they were all yellow. Rain mac now on, Torii headed back to where she'd been before and raised her hand. "Could weather be used as a defense mechanism? I'm thinking it might be useful if you're under attack and need a diversion," she said.

Ooh...they were conjuring clouds? That sounded like fun and she couldn't wait to get started, although she wondered if she was going to be good at this subject. Biting her lip she listened closely to the Professor taking notes in her notebook. Ok... if this was like Charms some she'll be good at it right? Although Charms had movements and she heard Transfigurations really didn't have much. Ugh... can her mind shut up so she could focus on this lesson?

Uh...oh... time to do the spell.

"Ok... relax Stella you got this." she thought to herself as she took a deep breath. Looking at her notes she mumbled the incantation. " noo-BEC-yu-LAH!" She didn't want to do the spell until she had it right, she wanted to do this right the first time. After mumbling it several times, she decided that she finally gotten the spell right to practice it. Pointing her wand above her head she thought of a nice fluffy cloud. "Nubecula!" she said as a wisp of smokey like cloud appeared above her head. Ok... that was close, maybe if she tried again and focused she can do it. Pointing her wand a bit upward she said. "Nubecula!" as a fluffy cloud appeared above her head she smiled happily.

As her cloud disappeared and she heard the question she raised her hand. " What about modifying the weather professor? Surely they use it to modify weather when there's a bad storm." she said shrugging. She didn't know, but it was a guess right and a guess wouldn't hurt right?

Hanna was about to create another cloud with her wand, already held high, but her attention went to Professor Darlington instead. Poof went her cloud, disappearing along with the others.

She was quick to get one of the yellow rain jackets. Thinking about the question, Hanna could name of loads of reasons why magical folk could use weather spells, but at that moment nothing good came. At least nothing that she thought Professor Darlington would appreciate. She raised her hand, thinking of the only Christmas she had ever had where there wasn't snow. It wasn't really Christmas. "If you wanted a certain weather on a certain day. Like... if it was raining on your wedding day you could stop it. Or if... Christmas was warm you could make it snow so that it was proper Christmas." At least in the opinion based on fourteen Christmases, some of which she didn't remember.

Oh, okay. Goodbye cloud, it was nice knowing you.

Abra looked up towards the professor and then over at the rain macs. From where he was stood, he could see that there simply weren't going to be enough for all of them, so he made a slightly mad dash over to the rack to claim one for himself. He grabbed one - one that was clearly two sizes too big for him - and was about to put it on when... something stopped him. He did not want to be one of the students left without a mac, not at all - think of his hair - but that would also mean making someone else go without, in all probability a younger student, and what with him being a prefect, that was probably... not good. He was already feeling just a smidgen of guilt about it.

So, in the end, and with great reluctance, he returned the mac to the rack for someone else to take... but stood by, in case he'd calculated it wrong and there would indeed be one left for him.

Anyway, the question. Abra raised his hand and... just had a go. "If you were out on an adventure, or maybe camping, and you really needed a shower or just to cool down, you could make it rain for a while."

Daisy knew how to perform spells to dry her herself off if she got wet, so she didn't even bother to get a rain mac when they made their appearance. Thinking of an answer was proving rather difficult and when she raised her hand to answer, she felt like she was going to be 100% incorrect.

"I think a weather spell would be great if someone is out in the sun but their core body temperature can't withstand the heat. Changing the temperature or creating a cool breeze can certainly help."

Jackson listened to the instructions and acted as the professor spoke. He looked around the room/clearing. He stared at the patch of grass, and wondered if it had to do with that. “Are we turning the grass into like… a tree maybe?” Oh! Or or or maybe… Oh. Uh. Jackson had lost his train of thought when he saw Zoryn making a scene. No one was surprised except the professor. Jackson was surprised that she hadn’t just taken points away right then and there, but he did have to remind himself that this was a new year. New staff, new rules, new blah blah blah. He watched as the cloud spell appeared on the board, and he wrote them down. He imagined that people would be changing the weather on their own left and right after this… Honestly, if he wasn’t a Prefect, he would be mighty tempted to make it rain in the Great Hall or something… Hmmmmmmm… He moved away from the nearest students and looked up to the air in front of him while going over the spell in his head. He held his wand steadily forward and tried it out.

“Nubecula.”

Well… there were definitely wisps coming from his wand, but it wasn’t enough. Jackson cleared his throat and cast the spell again, this time with much more conviction.

“Nubecula!”

Ta dahhhh! A cloud quickly began forming and he watched it swirl together. It didn’t gain too much color or anything, but it sat there. Grayish and fluffy. He was reminded strongly of a certain sad grey donkey.

"Professor, if you cast the spell with different emotions behind it, do you think it affects the cloud type or anything?" Could he make a happy cloud and an angry cloud??

After receiving positive verbal feedback from the professor, Cameron felt confident enough to try the spell WITH his wand. He consequently pointed his wand at the sky and said, "Nubecu-"



He hadn't noticed the small fire until he heard his sister yell. Which was a noise he would have heard from ANYWHERE. "Holly, what-" The few seconds it took Cameron to process the scene in front of him, Professor Darlington had already extinguished the flames but it left him staring at his sister all the same. Wait, SHE had started the fire? What?

Completely ignoring the professor's question for now, Cam quickly headed over to Holly and touched her arm. "Are you alright? What happened?" Why had there been fire?

Caolan was a little proud of his pet cloud that seemed to be following him around from side to side as he fidgeted and waited for the lesson to move on. But as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared with a wave of the Professors wand. As pointless as the miniature cloud had seemed he had grown a little fond of it over the last five minutes.

He thought about the question for a brief second and almost raised his hand to answer when another student spoke of exactly the reason he was thinking. He sighed inwardly, keeping his hand by his side for a brief second until he could come up with something worth saying.

“Like others have mentioned magical plants all have different ideal growing environments. Some plants that ordinarily grow in desert areas wouldn’t do well say here in Scotland because it’s too cold and wet. If you could control the weather you could grow useful plants in any location you wish.” His Da was a Herbologist and this was right up his street. He knew that it was an obvious answer that had already been mentioned but it didn’t hurt to expand on it, right? And he couldn’t think of another answer either so it would do.

Tina had just raised her wand to conjure another cloud when Professor Darlington vanished everyone's clouds. Oh well, she could always practice again on her own time, and she was eager to see what they were doing next. As the lesson moved on, something the professor said gave her an idea. If visualization and determination were key, maybe she could create a cloud in a specific shape just by visualizing it. That would be fun... she was definitely going to try that later!

Somehow Tina had a hunch that rainclouds were going to be the next topic, even before Professor Darlington's instructions to get a rain mac. She didn't think she'd need a mac - she could always just use the impervius charm on her uniform - but she walked toward the clothing rack more for the sake of following directions than anything else. Eyes scanning the rack, Tina doubted there would be enough to go around. If that turned out to be the case, she decided she would give hers to a younger student, but for now she picked up a mac she thought would more or less fit her. She thought wrong! It was too short at the arms and too wide in the middle, but it would have to do!

Tina rejoined the group, carefully considering the question.
Her first thought was herbologists cultivating plants, but that had already been said and she didn't want to repeat answers. Another idea came to her, but she thought it was too far-fetched to voice out loud. She was afraid of looking dumb, but she didn't want Professor Darlington to think she wasn't trying, especially since she'd been too flustered by all that lava nonsense to answer the last question! She tentatively raised her hand and waited to be called on. "Weather spells could be useful in quidditch, " she said. "You could conjure rain or wind for players to practice flying in adverse conditions, or say a dangerous storm started in the middle of a game, you could use a weather modification spell to stop it so the game could continue as planned." Was that a bad answer? Probably... she was going to stop talking now.