Quote:
Originally Posted by
MeredithRodneyMcKay 
"I am going to set up a walled grid at the back of the room to make this fair - don't want you all to just copy what the person next to you is doing. Each compartment will have enough space for you and your desk and chair." Isabelle stopped and looked at the kids to make sure they were paying attention, or if she wasn't making sense and they had questions. "Don't be alarmed when the walls go up. You will be able to move out of them, but you WON'T be able to see anyone around you. If you wish to do this task, please write down ALL the instructions I have placed on this board, soon you won't be able to see them."
Checking that they had all made note, as she asked, Isabelle went about setting up the classroom. With a flick of her wand several walls shot up, concealing a few of the desks at the back of the room, but leaving some near the front open. "Please make your way to the front if you wish to continue practise, and to the one of the cubicles if you want to do this task."
She gave them all enough time to move around as they chose, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she waited.
"Right then, those of you that are doing this task please find North and turn your desk to face that EXACT direction. If your compass is correctly transfigured the red arrow should point to magnetic North. Then please take out a separate piece of parchment, and WITHOUT drawing the compass lines on it, please follow the directions I gave you before to create the image I'm looking for." She knew what it was, but she wanted to see if they could read their new compass, and get the lines going in the right directions. "Use your compass to get your bearings on the paper. Once you have finished, just give me a shout and I will get rid of your cubicle walls. You can start, please."
... oh.
After quickly jotting down the instructions, Jake frowned slightly as he looked around at the walls that had suddenly sprung up. Mmmmmkay. He was more worried about the fact that he KNEW he hadn't been concentrating earlier.
Quickly looking around him and seeing only walls and the window, Jake picked up his wand again and cast a quick 'reverto' on his compass. It was immediately a pocket watch again. "Comletia!" he cast on the watch again, this time able to focus a bit and needing to, at that. He imagined a fully functional compass again on the pocket watch, and focused suuuuuuuuuuper hard.
And there it was.
Quote:
Line 1: Starting at the top (North) of your parchment draw a diagonal line in the direction of South West.
Line 2: Continuing from that line, draw a line from South West to North East.
Line 3: Draw a line from North East towards the West side of your parchment.
Line 4: Draw a line from West to South East.
Line 5: Draw a line from South East to North - finishing by connecting to the place you started in.
Reading through his instructions again, Jake could SEE what the picture was in his mind's eye, but did the task anyway. It was worth seeing if the compass worked, right?
However, he didn't feel the need to move his desk at all. The needle was just pointing towards the front of the class and continued to point there as he turned the compass.
Figuring he had due North wrong already, Jake shrugged and got to work.
When he finally looked at it, Jake blinked. It looked... odd. Like... the instructions had confused him somewhat, so now he had some weird looking... thing. So, by labelling the edges of his parchment in a fixed position, he tried again.
Raising his hand, Jake called Magnus over.
"Professor... first time I tried it... I don't think it worked. Because if you go in those directions from the point you're at, you get this..." He pushed the first bit forwards.
"But if you label certain points that line up with the compass from the middle of the page I got this... which is still a bit... weird."
Jake ran a hand through his hair. "I think I'm just not focused toda-" Before he could finish his sentence, Jake suddenly burst into a coughing fit. He managed to put his hands over his mouth first, but it had that bleh sound to it, a deep and hollow grating noise, like a heavy wheeze.
"Sorry..."