Peony pointed her wand at the parchment, her brown eyes narrowing with concentration. Well, not quite complete concentration. I'm hardly going to get a letter that I need to vanish straight away...

The Voice snickered in agreement. Most of the time you storm around, waving it about and yelling about what you'll do to your sisters when you get home. Everyone must know about when they dropped your book into the toilet bowl.

Peony pulled a face, twitching slightly, her mind away from the spell and on her ruined books as she uttered, "Evanesco!" Those stupid little brats - am I going to rip them into tiny pieces and feed them to the goldfish after this...

Her weak spell missed the parchment and hit the table. Peony's eyes widened with alarm as a dozen splinters rattled in the box when she shook it. The table had a bald patch.

Why am I unsurprised?

Shut up!

"Evanesco!" The spell shot out, straight as an arrow, Peony's wand barely inches from the paper, and the parchment vanished in a flash with no nonsense.

Kalaya tried agian. She focused on the parchment, closing her eyes in concentration.
I should try it with my open. If I'm hiding something from someone they'll know I'm doing something when I close my eyes she thought.
Opening her eyes Kalaya concentrated. "Evanesco!" she watched it hit the parchment and make it disappear. Crossing her fingers she opened the box.
Yes I did it!!! I saw some people doing spells but not saying anything. I bet they were saying it in their head.........that could be useful..

Sighing, Laurasia centered herself before she tried again. She focused on the parchment, steeled her reserve & determination, & cast the spell. "Evanesco!"

She smiled broadly as the parchment disappeared. She picked up the box to be sure that the parchment had indeed appeared underneath it. Pulling the parchment back out, she re-cast the spell & was able to do so successfully. She continued to re-cast the spell until she was comfortable with it.

Jaren suddenly ended up with two cards in his hand due to Nadia's spellwork. He aimed his wand at them and muttered the incantation, vanishing them, one to Nadia and the other to Laurasia.

Just as the professor was talking, Nadia felt something on her hand to discover at least one of them, members of her group, had succeeded in the vanishing charm and was using those cards for something. Or, well, have chosen her as receiver.

Whatever the case, she was randomly distracted as a box as put by her side while she tried to give out more cards for the group to keep practicing. She waved her hand over the desk of cards and found when she turned back that she had, to be quite obvious, not concentrated enough on the incantation.

So that was why Laurasia had been showered by cards, why Jaren ended up with a card stuck on his forehead and why Zekke got thee cars and a half (a card) like a crown in his head. And say, oops!

Jaren stared crosseyed at his forehead, or attempted to, and pulled the card off.

"Concentrate," he said, unnecessarily, vanishing the card into the box with his wand.

Sheephingly smiling, appologetical for her small... mishap, Nadia looked away and returned to her cards as if hoping the scene would erase if she ignored it. Now with her deck on her hands, Nadia wondered if she should vanish the card invading other people's boxes or not, if that was the aim of the excersise or just a bother.

Sighing, Nadia decided to first try on her own box, trying to vanish one card at the time. Not half, not two cards. One.

Laurasia was just about to re-cast for the fourth time when something suddenly appeared in her hand. Gasping, she looked down to find a card between her fingers. She looked around & noticed Jaren looking at her. Suddenly she knew where the mysterious card had come from. She tried sending the card back into Jaren's hand, but instead it simply appeared next to him on the desk. She sighed slightly as she glanced up at Jaren.

She was about to start casting her parchment back into the box when she was suddenly showered with cards. For a moment she just sat there. Having heard who had just casted the spell, she slowly turned her head towards Nadia with a slight grin. She stacked the cards into a pile on her desk & focused on them. She was hoping to make them all appear over Nadia's head.

When she felt that she was ready, she cast the spell. "Evanesco!" To her dismay only about half of the cards actually disappeared. She suddenly realized that it had at least partly worked. She looked around just in time to see the small stack of cards appear over Nadia's head & then slowly begin to fall away from each other & rain down on top of her head. She smiled mischieviously at Nadia with a giggle.

With half the deck of cards on her hand now, Nadia had to work with that and stared at the box trying to picture how it would be inside it and entering the card inside. She failed the first attempt, then something seemed to disturb the habitant over her head for she woke up with a loud shierk (which concidentally pierced though her ears as if it was next to it) and felt the extra weight.

Next, something was comind down from her hat, more like pushed than naturally fallen; maybe even kicked. A couple of cards got stuck on her glasses not letting her see a thing. Shaking her head and herself over, she brushed the hat to take the cards off, then took off her glasses to let the rest of the cards fell to finally replace the card back in front of her eyes.

The last strand was finding that one or a couple of cards fell on the wrong place and into her shirt! So, wand in hand, she tried intercpting the card as it fell, which almost felt like it was alive. It wasn't looking too good, while she tried to fell the card, piking it and failing, and in the end, one even ended on her pants and at the base of her shoe, sticking next to the sock...

Heshasa who had nailed the spell while saying it aloud decided to try it wordlessly.

She looked at her cards and concentrated as hard as she could taking everything else from her mind. Looking at her cards she thought as hard as possible "Evanesco!"

To Heshasa's dismay the top card simply gave a feeble stir. Repeating the emptying of her mind she mustered every ounce of thought she could put towards the deck. She thought once again as hard as possible "Evanesco!" the deck disappeared she rushed over to the box and opened it. The cards was inside!!! Pullingthem out she continued to practice.

Kalaya saw a few kids goofing around, making it fall on their heads. She smiled and glanced over at Heshasa, who had just finished a spell and was pulling her parchment out of the box.
To bad we didn't talk much...maybe when I get better at this I'll send her a note using this spell...

Turning back to her paper Kalaya tried to do a non-verbal spell.
Clearing her mind, she concentrated on the parchment and it in the box.
"Evancesco!"
The paper didn't move. Frowning, Kalaya cleared her mind again. Concentrating she thought "Evanesco!" this time the paper disappeared! Smiling, she glanced at her box..it had come just short.
Darn..maybe next time..

Kalaya tried a few more verbal spells, doing them all perfectly. She smiled at her rapid improvment and decided to try another non-verbal spell.

McAiken turned in the direction of the sound of cards hitting something and falling. He saw the cards fall on Laurasia. He was about to say something when the girl sent the cards to shower over Nadia's head.

"Laurasia, this not a game. I don't know who started the card showers but I shall end it. Ten points from Slytherin for playing games when you are supposed to practicing." McAiken told the girl, "And I want the name of the person who cast the first shower. Speak up, girl!"

Noel looked up sharply from her seat, Laurasia, why?. Slytherin was supposed to have the cup in the bagt this year. She continued practicing.

Nadia turned to the professor, for the first time in her years at Hogwarts, not quite bothered to loose 10 house point, and unfairly at that.

"It's not that professor," she explained, "It was my fault, I lost concentration and sent too many cards instead of just one from the deck you gave us. Tried to send cards too many people at once and failed. You could say I started it."

Well, it felt good to be right.

"I give you the directions and you follow them not the other way around. My instructions were precise and accurate. The cards were to vanished into the box Miss Rey. My instruction did not include sending them to your house mates. That will be another 5 points from your house for not following directions. If you want to vanish cards to your house mates I suggest you do it on your own time and in your common room." McAiken stated as he approached her desk and stood over her. "You're a seventh year student and should know that by now.

Adz bit her lip, and carried on following instructions - she didn't want to get in any trouble, and the professor seemed to be in a bad mood at the moment.

Jenna stopped in mid-wand waving. She looked up at Professor McAiken.

15?! She thought. She felt bad, but was all in all glad it wasn't her house. As the professor began walking around again, she looked back at her deck of cards (for she had mastered the parchment).

Evanesco! Jenna made a non-verbal incantation, and the deck of cards vanish into the box. Smiling, she reached into the box and tried again.

Stopping in the middle of her spell she listened to the professor. Wow 15? gulping and turning to her cards she completed her wand motion but she lost concentration and the spell didn't work. She continued to concentrate and started a new spell. Moving her wand in the correct motion she thoguht the incantation and once again made the cards disappear into the box.

Kalaya listened as the professor took away 15 points from Slytherin.
15? That is a lot....I suppose its a good thing its not my house. And I probably shouldn't send the note I was thinking about..might get some points taken away...

Turning back to the parchment Kalaya cleared her mind. Waving her wand she thought Evanesco! As she watched, the parchment fluttered and disappeared.

That really could use some work...Kalaya thought pulling it back out of the box.

Setting it back on her desk she prepared to try again.

Violet listened to the proffessor and thought "wow... harsh.... 15 points? I should work hard!"
She concentrated hard on the cards and said "Evanesco!" the cards dissappeared and appeared again in the box. "Wow i'm getting a hang of this!"

Nadia was not one to talk back, but the professor was surely pushing her buttons. "With all due respect, the fist activity required us to work in groups and set the cards in the different baskets of our companions, and my little accident ocurred before we got a chance to start the second activity. And, any case, I had the most number of cards and had to equipate my mates with cards so we were even.

"Might I also add, it was an accident of Destination because of my lack of concentration, like others would fail in Determination or Deliberation even if I had attempted the second activity, unless you are punishing a slip of attention?" she ended her case, not a slight tone of her voice like she worried about house points. If anything, McAiken should award her like he awards Gryffindors on being brave.

Zekke calmly plucked out the cards from his hair and stacked them as he listened to the professor and Nadia... have words... concerning the card banishing activities.

Nadia hadn't intended to start a game of card showers or anything, so why was she getting into trouble for it?

Lee looked from his cards to what was happenign between McAiken and Nadia. The two really weren't the best of friends, it showed even in past terms. Deciding he should step in and help out Nadia as she had helped him with his Potion gone wrong a few days back.

"Professor if you don't mind me eh... interupting but I need... emm help! yes help with moving my cards. Everytime I do it the nine of spades seems to stay behind," Lee lied. He sincerely hoped that the Professor would just come with him and ignore Nadia. Afterall Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had always had an alliance.

Laurasia looked up with a slightly shocked look on her face at Professor McAiken's sudden reprimand. "We are practicing," she thought, but fought the urge to voice openly. 10 points?! her mind screamed when she heard his punishment. When the professor asked her who had started it, she just sat there momentarily. Started it? We are just practicing the spell. She was just about to say that it was Nadia who had cast the first "shower", but they had been casting cards to each other since he had asked them to start doing so when Nadia suddenly spoke up.

Laurasia sat there, still a bit surprised, as Nadia explained what had happened. When she heard the professors response her mind reeled. 5 more points! But Nadia had been following the original instructions! She spun in her seat & faced forward, picking up her wand to distract herself with more practice. She was unable to keep her mind focused enough to perform the spell though. She simply couldn't quiet her mind. "There is something very wrong with him this term. He is simply not himself."

When she heard Nadia re-addressed him she groaned under her breath. While she agreed wholeheartedly with her, & understood her need to clarrify what had happened, she felt that it was only going to make matters worse right now. Suddenly she heard Lee trying to distract Professor McAiken's attention away from her housemate. "Oh please, just drop it & let it go," she thought as she waited for the Professor's response.

"Alright Miss Rey, I'll accept you definition of what occurred as an accident on your part. BUT explain this....did I ever tell you to unbox the cards? Search your mind carefully because I never did. I instucted the class to vanish the deck of cards. Pural cards means the whole deck inside its box. Why, you ask is this fact important? Look at the objects on the table in front of you. It is a progression. Do you understand the definition of a progression? Now ask yourself this a progression of what?"

"Anyone in the class can you look at the parchment, the boxed deck of cards, and the book and tell me what the progression is?" McAiken was neither angry or moody. He was simply tired of being second guessed. He waited for a response from someone in the class before he continued.

OOC: I've restored the five points I took from Slytherin for Nadia's actions to start the showers.