Uhh, so Sophie needed to practice first. Maybe she should have done this before she cast Petrificus Totalus on her poor rabbit, but she couldn't help it. The animal just wouldn't cooperate and stay still, and she needed it to, so she could cast on it and turn it into a hat. No big deal, right, rabbit?

She picked up the stiff creature and brought it back to her own desk. She sat it there and tried not to look at it. It was frozen with a look of horror on its face, and if she looked at it too long, she'd start to feel guilty. Guilty was just not a feeling she could afford to have right now.

With the rabbit still as a board on her desk, Sophie first practiced the incantation. "Lepus Caput," she said. "Lepus Caput." That wasn't too hard. She then started moving her wand in that upside down U formation the professor had taught them. Okay, two easy steps--now to put them both together.