Cut the branch whilst... something to do with the runes. Hm. Well... Tobias had just said all the runes, hadn't he? Was he supposed to do that again?

If he was honest, Tobias was pretty sure he wouldn't remember what he was supposed to chant, especially if he was concentrating on retrieving that branch type thing. It was probably safer to leave the chanting and maybe... think of the runes?

Also, the assignment directions told them to use magic, but Toby wasn't very good at the severing charm yet, and magic he hadn't masters had a tendency to... well... cause flames. And he really didn't want to set Hazel on fire. And the textbook said that traditionally wands were snapped off, and this branch was small enough to snap with a bit of Toby!force.

Toby set his book face down on top of the other book, the one he'd tripped over earlier, and approached the tree again. He looked for the branch he'd been directed to early and found it quickly. Tobias could only assume that the tree was still helping him out, so obviously he hadn't got anything wrong yet.

"Okay Hazel, um... I'm gonna take the branch now, and I'm going to snap it off, so... if you want to maybe look the other way 'til I'm done? Then I've got something to put on it afterwards."

He waited. There were still no negative vibes, and Toby was ACE at detecting vibes, so he assumed the tree was alright with him doing the snappy thing. He stretched up onto his tip-toes and reached up high, grabbing the branch he'd been offered. The best way to do this was with all of his body weight, so Tobias pulled hard on the branch as though he was going to do a pull-up. He wasn't that heavy but the branch wasn't that big and Toby's feet didn't even leave the ground for half a second before there was a CRACK and the branch came off in his hand.

"Did I hurt you?" Tobias asked Hazel worriedly, looking up at the fresh, wound-like mark on the tree. But the he was still feeling cheerful and even encouraging vibes so he gave a relieved smile and reached into his trouser pocket for a small brush and a small pot of what looked like black paint.

"This is bituminous paint... it basically protects you when I paint over the bit I pulled off. I borrowed it from my Quidditch Captain; she's already done this part so she said I could use it for my project. Hold still," Toby said to the stationary tree that was rooted to the ground. He reached up with the brush that he'd dipped into the pot and dabbed it on the mark of the tree that was lighter than the bark around it. When it was covered, he cae back down off his tip-toes.

Now to thank it again, which required looking back at the book because there was no way he could remember all the words to the next part.