"Normally, I'd say age before beauty, but you're obviously older and prettier, so I'll just say... ladies first," he bowed and gestured for her to proceed.

Sloanne smiled, "Oh yes! Of course." Bless this girl. Sloanne was so worried about finding a partner. "Hello Twilight." She outstretched her hand to Twilight, offering a formal handshake. "I'm Sloanne Greene." She said in a friendly manner. "Fifth year Slytherin."

Cadence's eyes widened at Set's anger, and she was hurt that he had ignored her. She whispered to him, Please, Set, just calm down. It's okay. We can earn those points back. She took a steadying breath and pointed her wand at the chest again. Alohamora! she said confidently and with perfect diction. The lock clicked open quietly. Cadence was begining to think that she was rather good at magic. She looked at the Charms book laying open on their desk and studied the spell to lock the chest again. She pointed her wand at the lock, steadied herself, and said Colloportus!, and the chest was locked again.

She almost sighed in relief when Kayla agreed to be her partner. She smiled at Kayla as she winked at her. "Biting my lines I see." She giggled. "Well I am certainly honored to say the least."

She had almost parked her putt in her chair when she heard the professor tell them to get their chest. "Oh almost forgot." She walked over to the front of the classroom and grabbed a chest. She then walked back over to Kayla's desk. She picked up her things from he desk on the way. "Want to go first?" She asked her.

"Sure!" said Allie, when Tobi asked her to be his partner. She had met him a couple times in her last couple years at Hogwarts. "Thats okay, Im not all the great either."

Becca, without much hesitation, agreed with Juni. "That's fine with me." Ah, her large ego was slowly coming out. She had always been exceptionally good at charms, not perfect, but usually things went as planned. Maybe it was her wand, or maybe charms was just one of the few things in the wizarding world she could excel at without much fuss.

She removed her wand from her robes and gripped it comfortably. Then, she stepped back, pointed her wand at the chest, and spoke clearly, "Alohomora!" The lock seemed to shake violently for a very brief moment, but then it clinked down, unlocked. Maybe it wasn't a completely perfect result, but at least she had suceeded. "Meh. Your turn, Ju-ni-per," she said very matter-of-factly, relocking the lock by hand, then stepping back to let her friend go. Becca just knew Juniper would have a much cleaner charm.

Anna beamed at Copernicus and said, "Oh, Copernicus. You make me smile..." Anna moved her wand from left hand to her right and then pointed it directly at the chest. "Alright, here goes nothing," she said, taking a deep breath and then focusing on the trunk. "Alohimora," she said, slightly mispronouncing the word. She stared at the chest, fully expecting it to fling right open. When it didn't, she put one hand on her hip and frowned, clearly disappointed. "Copernicus, what did I do wrong?" she asked.

Set was getting bored. He had locked and re-locked that thing 50 times. Normally he would be helping Cadecne, but she got it almost as quickly as he had! He decided to look in his uncle's book to look for other things he cold do to that lock. "Let's see..... um....no, not that.... oh! See here. Tergeo!. That looks like a good one for this rusty, dirty old lock." Set said as he pointed his wand at the lock and said, "Tergeo!". The rust on the lock began to syphan off! It was amazing!.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Dominic perked up the moment the Professor had mentioned something about partners. Couldn't they just practice on their own!? Without partners; but then again, there were probably budget cuts and they had limited supplies of locked chests. Right - partners before points were docked or something due to slowness. Glancing around, he spotted the other Hufflepuff Prefect along with few other familiar faces. But none he fancied working on charms with. And then he saw her; the quiet but kind girl from Ravenclaw - Mystery Girl, whom he now knew to be Willow.

Walking over towards the fifth year, he bit his lower lip nervously. Oh c'mon Denton, just ask ... not like it's a date or anything ...

"Uh. Partners?" He finally managed to say.

As the fifth year took notes of what Professor Ashby was saying, she heard the man saying that they would have to partner up with someone in order to practice the charm. Oh, perfect. In truth, she had nothing against working with a partner, but since the girl was so independent, she just preferred to work alone.

But it wasn't like she had a choice, really. Ashby had told them to find a partner, after all, and he was the one in charge; the last thing she wanted was to lose points for disobeying a professor. Gryffindor was already too close to them. . .

. . . "Huh?" Said the girl, upon hearing the sound of someone's voice. As distracted and immersed in her own thoughts as she had been, Willow had failed to notice the arrival of Weird Boy Denton. Until he had spoken to her, of course. "Uh. Sure?" she answered now, sounding more like her usual self. "You look a bit tense, by the way," commented the Ravenclaw, already on her way to Ashby's desk to get the locked chest.

Set, you're going to get in trouble again. Please, let's just keep practicing. She was terrified that Set would get in trouble and get detention. A-alohomora she said, with a slight studder, and the lock didn't click open. She stared at it blankly. The first time she hadn't done a spell right. Tears swam in her eyes, but she took a deep breath, calming herself. Alohomora! she said again, but this time she placed the emphasis on the wrong syllabal due to a sob that had strangled her throat. The Prefects and Professors had made her even more paranoid about getting in trouble than she had been when she got here. She couldn't stand the thought of Set getting in trouble, or that she might get in trouble by extension.

"Yeah sure" Kayla replied lazily. She had learnt this charm in her first year, so this was rather easy for her. Pointing her wand at the lock on the chest, she spoke in a clear and confident voice, "Alohomora." She heard the sound of the lock clicking as it gave way and the chest sprang open.

So he dragged the imaginary-eating boy back to their desk and tried to carry the chest. It was really heavy so he had to use all of his strength to place it right on the desk. What was inside of it, treasure? Maybe there were more than a dozen of candy! If that would happen, then Charms would totally be his #1 favorite class of all time. Cam nodded and took out his wet-tipped wand, wiping the saliva away with his robes. Yes, now this would be his moment of all moments!

Like Peter Pan, he put his hands on his hips while tapping his feet in a rhythm. The action music for the day was one of those old groovy disco ones the muggles had a hundred years ago. "Yeah, yeaaaah, yeah!" he said and then mixing it with his own beat. "Choo choo cootie shot, train! Choo choo train. Yeaaaah, yeaaah, yah!" His voice was horrible and wondered if everyone's eardrums were broken already.

With his hands he started to create to do weird mumbo jumbos like violently karate chop the air into pieces, if that was possible. He was the spotlight, all eyes were on him (not really) and he continued with the tapping. And then he did old dance moves like the "light bulb" and the "sprinkler". Now for the reaaaal magic part.

His wand was gripped in his hand as to have better control. "HALOMARAH!" Nothing came out of his wand, not even a sound of a whoopee cushion. That was worse than Firsitan! "ALOHAMORRE. ALOYAMORA... ALOHO-MORA. Cam was violently flicking his wand all over the place, not caring if he suddenly lost his grip and made someone lose their eye. The last one, he knew it was right but still nothing. Had his wand failed him?!

Cam turned away from Jake and looked at his wand, in a sad face. "Awwe, it's OK wandie. We'll get it next time? My little wand... so adorable and... maybe you have boo-boo. I'll make it better!" And he secretly smooched his darn wand, hoping no one had seen it.

"Your turn Bakers!"

"Maybe the way you're holding your wand?" He tilted his head the other way and glared at the chest for being so badly behaved and not opening immediately for Anna. "Did you get a good flick at the end or are you holding the wand too tightly?" He hesitated before putting his hand over hers on the wand.

"This will be interesting then, won't it?" Tobi gave her a game smile. "I'll go get the chest."

Being 17 and insanely tall came with a few perks, weaving your way to the front was pretty, and lifting the chest wasn't too hard either. But Tobi had been raised with a lot of manual labour. It was certainly the least he could do to do the heavy lifting this time around, seeing as he was probably going to be responsible for some Charms Accident to befall Allie.

In short order he returned with the chest. He set it down on the ground and eyed it apprehensively. "Uh, d'you wanna try first?"

Quietly observing at the back of the room, Mariel decided she like this new Charms professor. Not only did he seem incredibly encouraging, but he was a former Ravenclaw Quidditch captain - and Mariel loved anyone who was a Quidditch fanatic, which he obviously was to be captain of her House's team - aaand he gave away points like candy. Thinking of candy made her wonder if he had any candy to give away like two of the other new professors did in their classes. Craning her neck to peer over some of the taller students in front of her, she didn't see any candy at Ashby's desk... but, wait! Maybe there was candy in those chests they had to magically open. That thought was exciting and she jumped up from her seat to find a partner. Yes, it was the part of class that she dreaded the most because it usually meant her seeking out someone she didn't know, but she wasn't going to fault this awesome new professor. It was probably some requirement at Hogwarts as all the teachers made them pair up during lessons and he was just made to go along with it. Glancing around, Mariel realized that she didn't spot anyone she knew. Did all her friends drop Charms this year? Letting out a big sigh, she looked around for anyone who made it apparent that they were partnerless.

Cale watched as everyone ended up with partners, even Anna who went with Copernicus. Sigh. At least it wasn't Plymouth, otherwise he'd have a bone to pick with someone later. Looking around, he didn't see any of his friends who were partnerless....boooooo. Now he needed to ask for help. He NEVER asked for help finding partners. Ever. This was a first, and his ego was taking a serious hit.

Just as Cale had been about to ask Ashby for help EEEE! The horror! he spotted a Ravenclaw girl he had never met before. She looked partnerless as well. Yay! He walked up to her and cleared his throat. "Er, do you need a partner?" he asked.

Lucky Becca. Juniper watched as the other girl successfully unlocked the trunk, with only a little trouble. She, on the other hand, was likely to make the chest explode or something. Nevertheless, Juniper grinned at the younger girl and applauded a little. "Good job, Becca," she told the girl.

Now it was her turn. Juniper pulled her wand out and tapped it against her right hand, staring the chest down. She just had to convince herself that she would be able to do the charm, and she would be able to. Right? "Alohomora?" Juniper pointed her wand at the lock. She was as confident as she was going to get. But... nothing happened. The lock didn't even look like it was going to pretend to open. Juniper couldn't help but let her shoulders slump as she motioned for Becca to take her turn again.

She was a failure.

"I guess it will be." she said, with a smile back. She waited as Tobi go the chest. "Sounds good."
Now lets hope she didn't mess this up. It couldn't be as hard at that levitating charm they did last term....which probably would have been easier if she wasn't so easily distracted.
She pointed her wand at the chest and said,
"Alohormora!"
SHe thought sh eheard a faint click sound but she wasn't sure. She tried to open the chest and check, but it seemed to be still locked.
"Well that failed."

"it's ok" Set said, taking her into a hug. "It'll be alright" he said. He cold tell she was getting upset over his obvious anger at the horrible insident involing a mind-reading proffessor and a silent converation. "it's ok, i can ask about the charm if it makes you feel better." He raised his hand. "Proffesor, is it alright if, once I've prefected this charm, I could move on to something else. that deals with the lock, of course!" Set asked, (extemly, awesomely, superly, fantasticly, running-out-of-"ly"-wordsly) politley!

Anna shrugged and glanced down at her wand, wondering if she had indeed been holding it the wrong way. "I don't know, Cop. It's possible," she answered, suddenly feeling like she'd lost half her senses. What was it with her and school this year? It was like she'd gone back a few years instead of forward. Maybe the classes were just getting a little tougher, though. Yeah, that had to be it. When Copernicus placed his hand over hers, she froze for a moment and then glanced over at him. Copernicus was shy and seemed so insecure. It made her happy to know that he was finally opening up to her. Now maybe she could actually eat her jelly slugs instead of having to throw them all at him. "Okay, let's try it again," she said, pointing the wand towards the chest. "Alohimora," she said, still slightly-mispronouncing the word. Nothing.

Cadence didn't wait for the the Professor to respond. Instead she took a few deep breaths, moved her feet into a stronger stance, pointed her wand steadily at the lock and said again Alohamora! perfectly. She heard the soft noise of lock click open again and she wiped the tears from her face with the sleeve of her robe.

Reese looked around the classroom at all the people who stared finding partners.Gah.She was bad a finding partners.She noticed Cale all by himself and was about to walk over to him,but then he starting talking to another student.Er-nevermind.Where was a partner when you needed one?

"O cool." Twilight answered "I am a first year. I think we have had all the houses in my father's family the Mcdonahues."

She hoped that would reassure this kind girl." Let us go get ur chest so that w can start. I am sure you are way better than me. So watch out." she winked and grinned.

"No, there's a suitable amount of fluidity to your wand motion," Copernicus let go of your hand and glanced up to the front of the classroom. "Perhaps the pronunciation is incorrect. Phonetically, looking at the charm, I would say... Ah-low-ha-more-uh. What do you think?"

Set went back to un-locking and re-locking the lock. Over , and over! he hoped that the proffesor would get to that secong thing already! Either that or put him in a higher level charms class cause this is boring!