A cushion in a cup? The first thing West did was wonder how dense the cushion was since you could theoretically just squish it in there if it wasn't too dense. But he went and got a cushion and cup anyways and tentatively smiled at the professor at the points thing. Cool, every bit counted.

He returned to his spot and made a superhuman effort at trying to get the pillow in the cup without the spell. Maybe if he vacuum-packed it? Was there a vacuum packing spell? There probably was. You could maybe use a suction spell for it if you did it on the right angle.

But in the meantime, the pillow was the fist. The cup was the okay sign. It did help a lot to picture it like that. He was ready to start.