Originally Posted by MeredithRodneyMckay

Spanish? Hmm. Isabelle looked at the board and read the spell to herself. Well yes, she could see how that conclusion could have been come to. "Actually it's an amalgamation of two Latin words, and flowers are not part of the spell. Good guess though."


"It is a thimble, correct. But we won't be turning the flowers into anything," Issy grinned at the Hufflepuff.


"A cup is very close actually. Something similar."


"It certainly does, but the origins of the spell lay in Latin, as is usual. And we won't be using the flowers yet, as I just said." Smiling at the Prefect, Issy moved on to the next answer.


Issy's eyed strayed onto one of the Slytherin prefects when she spoke. And then widened when her words sunk in.

Something other than snot?

What on earth was this child feeding her pets? It was --- "Umm, not quite, no. But thank you for the...input, Selena."


There certainly were some interesting answers coming forth today. Mini microphone top. Well it was knobbly, so she could see that. "I suppose it does look a bit like that, but a thimble it is."


Now that was a good idea for a game. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with spell work, so wasn't what they were going to be doing. Isabelle smiled at the suggestion though. "As fun as that sounds, we won't be doing that I'm afraid. And the thimble is going to be something FOR the flowers."




"Good guess, both of you, but no."


They all seemed to be distracted by the idea of the flowers. Maybe she should have hidden them until the time to use them. "Not turning anything into flowers today."


"You're right on the first part of the word, but the flowers are not actually part of the spell. Good guess though."


"In Spanish neo might mean new, but not in this case," Issy winked.


A wastebasket? "Well yes, I guess it does really," Isabelle said. "And you are quite close with that idea..."


Ohhh, ding! ding! They had a winner.

Isabelle beamed as she looked at the child. "You are exactly right! Well done!"




Flipping the thimble over in her hand, Isabelle turned her grin to the rest of the class. "Those of you who said this is a thimble are quite correct. But we won't be using it for sewing today - we'll be transfiguring vases for these flowers to go in later on," she gestured to coloured blooms in the buckets.

"The spell itself is formed from two Latin words..." Picking up the chalk, Issy decided to write it on the board herself rather than use magic. "Flora, meaning flowers, or plants. And Teneo, meaning 'to hold'."



"To hold flowers. A vase. Any kind that your imagination can come up with. And the flowers themselves will be for later, so you can all have some fun arranging them. Now, before I show you the wand movements, could you all come up and collect a handful of thimbles - you'll need some more for homework, so feel free to store them in your bags." Isabelle used her foot to shift the box to the front of the room. It was a little heavy, as there were hundreds of the things in there.

Originally Posted by MeredithRodneyMckay

Isabelle had been stood to the side, to give the kids enough room to swarm to the front, but remain close enough in case they needed anything. And it seemed that a few did have questions.

"Important about what things, my dear? The thimbles? They're just the things you will be using the spell on today. They don't have any magical qualities on their own, if that's what you mean."


"I would say two should be enough, because we won't be putting any water in them until you're all sure you like your designs. And before that you can revert them back to keep trying," Isabelle grinned, eyeing the handful the girl had.


That was a good question.

"In theory yes. But it works best on anything that has the quality of a container - like the thimble, a cup, a bucket etcetera."


The kids were full of good questions today, she liked it.

"You're quite right, a charm could be used to make them like the buckets. But it is the more complex, and different, styles and materials I want you all to aim for today. No plain metal pots." Although if that's what they got on their first try, she wasn't going to scold them for it.


"You will indeed, and Professor Bentley has given us permission to use Greenhouse Three for that. But I'll explain when I post your homework later." Isabelle gave the girl a nod and smile, before walking round to the front of her desk.



"Now you all have your thimbles, I'd like you to pay close attention to the wand movement I am about to show you." Rolling her sleeves up, Issy took her wand back out of it's holster and placed her thimble on the front of her desk so they could all see. Although it was more her wand they needed to be keeping an eye on. "You need to point your wand directly downwards, vertical, right near your object. Then do three clockwise circles, moving your wand further away, and upwards, from your thimble with each one, like so..."

Isabelle did just as she had told them, swirling her wand clockwise and inching it away with every circle, almost as if she was flourishing something from the end of it. "Floreneo!" Almost as if it was growing out of the thimble, a red vase spread upwards and stood, complete, when Issy finished moving her wand.

Beaming at them all, she pocketed her wand again and picked up the vase. It was made of rubber, but they didn't know that - so she bounced it on the ground to prove it had worked properly. It came rebounding back up towards her face, and she caught it just before it hit her nose. "There we go. Mine is rubberised, just to show you the sort of thing you can do. Now, those of you with questions, please ask - the rest of you can begin with practice."



OOC: I'm off to bed now. Isabelle will still be there, but I'll reply to questions tomorrow. You may chat with each other about the task, but nothing else please. Have fun!