Originally Posted by NifflerFan

Once the class was busy partnering up and getting down to practice, Celestia directed her attention once more to the Slytherin second year in front of her. She felt a pang of sympathy towards the young girl and gave her what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "I understand, Miss Queen. The end of the year can be hard sometimes, as you're so close to going home but still have a couple more months..." Celestia paused, trying to find something constructive to tell the girl. Whenever she had been homesick as a student, she had thrown herself into life at Hogwarts to push the feelings away. This obviously wasn't the case for Miss Queen.
"Err..have you joined any clubs?", she asked gently. It was all she could think of to say, really.

Although she was paying attention to Miss Queen, she wasn't ignoring the rest of the class; she was observing their efforts from where she stood behind her desk. Miss Walsh seemed to struggle with the spell at first -- perfectly natural for a second year -- and Celestia was quite pleased to see the Hufflepuff improve as she began her duel with Miss Kemp. Both girls earned a smile of approval as their duel progressed. After Miss Kemp had managed to create a fiery rope during the duel, Celestia called, "Excellent, Miss Kemp and Miss Walsh!" The professor was quite proud of both of them, but especially of Miss Walsh's composure when she had made colorful balls explode out of her wand on her first attempt.

Mr. Katharos was quite curious about kumquats. Celestia appreciated curiosity in her students, but... "I'm afraid I don't know much about kumquats. I've only held them to get a feel for their shape and texture." The Ravenclaw's comments about trying to conjure colored ropes in the practice room earned him a smile and an encouraging nod from Celestia. As she glanced his way during his practice, Celestia noted that Mr. Katharos was only producing sparks so far. While this was normal for a student his age, Celestia suggested, "Try and visualize the flames leaving your wand as a thick stream." It was possible that he was already doing that; her suggestion was merely to help with one of the most common reasons that students would produce only sparks.

"Keep your focus, Mr. Carden!"Celestia called as she watched Mr. Carden's fiery rope fall apart. She was pleased that he had managed to conjure such a nice looking stream of flames on his first attempt. That wasn't bad at all for a fifth year; he just needed to practice, really. This was still her opinion after the boy's second turn with the dummy -- particularly as his snake resembled a worm. Again, a perfectly normal mistake for a student just learning these spells -- though this was one that always had Celestia suppressing a smile.

Naturally, Miss Cambridge asked the interesting questions. Celestia smiled at the prefect and responded, "These spells certainly aren't perfect, and those would be good ways to counter this sort of attack. I would suggest having your snake attack quickly before your opponent has time to Vanish it. As for taking control of the snake away from you, that would take most wizards at least several seconds. Once you felt that starting to happen, you would have time to cast another spell or to take back or Vanish the snake yourself." It wasn't a perfect answer, but then, there wasn't really such a thing as a perfect dueling spell either. The professor was completely unsurprised that Miss Cambridge chose to use real flames or deadly force as she practiced these spells. She knew that the young Ravenclaw had enough control over her spellwork to keep the spells focused on the dummy -- and she was considerate enough to keep repairing the dummies as she damaged them. "Very well done, Miss Cambridge," Celestia added after the Ravenclaw had demonstrated both spells.

Mr. Carter had decided to show off quite a bit today, Celestia noticed. She raised an eyebrow at the Head Boy as he left burn marks on his dummy; she had no objection to his burning the thing so much as his leaving the marks on there. She expected seventh years to clean up after themselves, but she merely sighed and made a mental note to do it herself later. She was not impressed with the wizard having his snake approach the line of students, though her lips twitched as it made an unmistakable raspberry sound. Rather than telling him off for something that she herself found amusing, Celestia chose to keep her observations to herself.

Mr. Ryker was able to perform the first spell of the day with apparent ease. Celestia smiled approvingly at the Slytherin after his first attempt produced a very nice, fiery rope. [/color=black]Miss Swann[/color] had also mastered the fiery rope spell very quickly, though she had also managed to turn hers into a snake after little time too. Celestia beamed at the young Hufflepuff as she headed back to the end of the line.

Miss Dalgaard-Volkova's attempts at both spells were quite good for a witch her age. Celestia was surprised and pleased at the young Gryffindor's improvement throughout the year, and at how she was able to perform a spell that involved a conjured animal with only a slight pause. The professor thought it best not to draw too much attention to this, however, lest she make the prefect feel embarrassed. She settled for giving the Gryffindor a proud smile after her turn at the dummies had ended.

The professor had noticed Miss Livingston's hesitation when she'd mentioned pairing up. Celestia shot the girl a sympathetic smile; it was perfectly okay with her if the young Hufflepuff worked with one of the dummies for the rest of the class period, but she did hope that someone would volunteer to partner her soon.

Celestia was pleased with Miss Diggory's efforts so far. She was particularly happy that the Slytherin had managed to cast both spells non-verbally, though she wasn't really surprised. Miss Diggory had a knack for this subject after all. She gave the Slytherin an approving nod from where she stood with Miss Queen by her desk.



OOC: Sorry for the late post, but you guys are doing great! You have about 48 hours left in the lesson. I know that's not much time, so if you aren't already dueling and would prefer to just keep going with the dummies, that's fine. There's exciting stuff happening in the RP right now, so thanks for coming and for bearing with me!