Adi tried the spell a couple more times. At first he had gotten nothing but after about three tries, he managed to produce a purple rope thingy whiich vanished a second later. So much for mastering the spell.

Taking a moments break, Adi glanced around at his classmates. Some like him, were having trouble. AJ was included in this group. His memory traveled back to the first Transfiguartion lesson of the term when they had worked together, both encouraging the other and having a bit of competition to see who would make their cloud snow first.

Things had been awkward for a while but maybe that had changed? Shrugging, the Hufflepuff headed over to the Gryffindor. "Hey,'' he said. "Having trouble? I bet I could grab the dummy first.'' He grinned. Adi knew that was a great way to motivate AJ. See? No awkward. Anyway... "Carpe Retractum!" Adi did the wand movement. Another purple rope! It zoomed towards the targeted dummy. But much to the boy's disappointment, the rope decided to disappear. Ugh!