Okay it was time for him to try casting the spell again. Sander reminded himself that he needed to concentrate really hard on how he wanted the spell to work and what he wanted his topiary animal to do once the spell was cast.

He first began visualizing his dog leaping off its main trunk and then landing on the grass before proceeding to run around the garden a few times before returning back to where it had originally been planted and changing back to an inanimate plant.

He kept that image in his mind as he raised his wand, held it aloft in the direction of his topiary and said the words to the incantation,"Plantea Locomotor," and waited with abated breath for the spell to take effect.

To his amazement, he saw the head of his topiary dog begin to move, followed closely by its legs. Then the tail began to wag.

"Come on...come on. Get down and run around," Sander whispered to it.

But nothing else happened. After a couple of head shakes, legs moving in mid-air and tail wagging, all movement ceased. Sander sighed again.

He had been so close this time to getting his topiary to do what he had planned for it. Sander ended the spell again by saying,"Finite".

He would try again.