As Professor Ashby walked into the classroom Herminny looked in his direction as he explained why he was late Herminny gave him a look of sympathy cause she had almost gotten lost during her last visit to the bamboo forrest.

Then Herminny looked at the board as the professor with a wave of his wand made what Herminny could only tell to be some sort of incantation appear on it that sounded like they were gonna annimate something, mabe the puppet acorns and Herminny thought yeah, this could be fun.

Emalyn hurriedly attached a little green outfit to her Irish acorn, sticking a felt crimson tie onto the front of the shirt. Tah dah! It was cute. Emalyn set it aside and turned her attention to Professor Ashby, who was quite out of breath.

Aggie finished the last few curling charms on the ends of the acorn and soon she had a little acorn-faced yellow-yarn curly haired puppet boy with a little red shirt made out of an old napkin.

“How’s yours coming Tobi? Need some help?” She glanced over to find Cale sticking a leave to Tobi’s forehead. Tobi looked like he was about to blow a gasket. “Oh boy,” Aggie whispered softly to herself as she took a step away from Tobi. If Tobi lost his temper, she couldn’t argue that Cale didn’t deserve it.

Ian looked at his clock and realized that he was TERRIBLY late. Oh dear. How had he allowed himself to get so lost in the bamboo forest?

"As I see many of you have guessed, this lesson will focus on you bringing inanimate objects to life, so to speak. It will allow you to control the inanimate object, almost as though it were your puppet. Now then, it is very simple. The incantation, as you see is on the board. It is pronounced eck-skee-toe ah-nee-mahnz."

"As for how to perform the charm, you simply point your wand at whatever object it is you want to bring to life, and concentrate on that object with all of your energies. In order to make it do things, all you do is imagine the object doing what it is you want it to do. Unfortunately, I don't have much time left in this lesson due to my lateness, but let us quickly try to make our acorns dance! Watch and try to repeat."

Ian pointed his wand at his acorn, which was decorated as a quidditch player (naturally). "Excito animans." he said, forcefully. Suddenly, the acorn sprang to life and Ian squished his face together in concentration. It almost looked as though he had smelled some rancid cheese, or accidentally stepped in a pile of abraxan...well...you know.

"After you are finished practicing for a bit, you are free to go. Your only homework is to practice this charm on your own. No need to submit anything to me, as this will be on your final exam.

Awww!! Evangeline knew it was late, but all they got was a bit of practise and then they could go? Boohooo. Going meant studying for the History of Magic final! Honestly, she'd much rather stay here and watch her acorn!puppet dance.

If she managed to make it dance, anyway.

Clearing her throat, she concentrated and pointed her wand at her acorn. "Excito animans!" She confidently said. Oooh ... nothing happened. Frowning, the sixth year twirled her wand once before firmly pointing it again at the acorn!puppet. She could so totally do it. "Excito animans!" Weeeeeee!! Suddenly, her acorn!puppet came to life, but Evangeline didn't allow herself to lose concentration. Unconsciously pulling a face, she concentrated hard and long on making the acorn!puppet dance and after a while, it started wiggling around.

Eh.

Okay - that was a poor attempt at dancing, but clearly her acorn!puppet wasn't a dancer. Hmpf.

Qaz thought about it for minute...hey, that must be the charm that you use in cooking....chopping and stirring and stuff. Better get this one down.
Pointing her wand at her silly looking acorn, Qaz said, 'Excito animans' The acorn jumped up and started spinning in a circle, then bounced up and down, then spun some more. Okay, this is rather boring. I can't wait to try this on other objects back in the dorm.

She was so excited at the prospect, that she packed up and dashed off.

William put the finishing touches on his Bunbun puppet and grinned. His acorn wore a pink tutu and blue shirt with sparkly arms and legs. Hilarious if he could say so. Trying not to grin so much he finally noticed professor Ashby walk in and smiled happily at him, ready for whatever was to come.

Making his puppet dance? HOW COOL he thought practically bouncing in his seat as he held his wand out and put it on the table beside dancing Bunbury. What could he say he loved Herbology too much, had it on the brain of course and apparently he thought a puppet that looked like Bunbury would be cool.

Meh.

"Excito animans" He said trying to learn the incantation. At least it wasn't as difficult as the other spell, the clipping one had had messed up before. "Excito animans" He said once more, enunciating the words clearly. Picking up his wand he pointed it at Bunbun-puppet and said in a very clear voice, "Excito animans!" At first nothing appeared to happen, except her arms and legs moved a bit.

Well, it was a start.

Cale leaned over and looked at Aggie's puppet. "Looks a lot like Tobi," He chortled and then went back to finishing up his gnomtruckle puppet by adding a few more leaves to the elbow of the left arm and one near the eye to serve as an eyebrow. "Adhaerro," he stuck the last bit on - a smidge of fabric for a mouth.

"So, Aggs," he said standing his pupped up on it's sticky back legs. "Looks a lot like Noland don't you think? I think I'll dub him 'Noland II'." He chuckled and then leaned on the desk as Professor Ashby started talking to them.
Despite the professor looking like he was a bit constipated while invoking the charm, Cale figured the project wasn't too bad. Besides, someone of Professor Ashby's age looking constipated wasn't that unusual. He probably needed to include more prunes in his diet.

"Alrighty Aggs, my dear," He glanced at Tobi to see if he was going to have a cow for the use of the word 'dear'. Tobi if he heard, looked like he'd kill Cale later. "Let's make our boys dance."

"Eck see toe ah-nee-mahntz," Cale tapped Noland II on the head with his wand but nothing happened. "Odd." He turned to look at Aggie to see if she got it.

Ian walked around the class, chuckling at the various faces the students were making. Oh, if only he had a mirror.

"Excellent, Miss Green! That is a good start!" he said to the prefect.

He grinned at the young Ravenclaw he saw attempting the charm. "Ah! I see it! It's doing the inflatable tube-man dance, right? That's my favorite!" Ian immediately began to wiggle his arms as though they were spaghetti. Did I mention he was a dancing champion?

"If I may butt in," Ian said to the Ravenclaw prefect, "You dropped the C in 'excito.' Perhaps that is why the charm didn't work? Try it again."

Cela had been painstakingly sticking bits and pieces to her acorn for the entire lesson and she was finally done! Her Professor Bunbury acorn was ready to go! And it look much cooler than it had originally!

She looked up at Professor Ashby, wondering what made this spell a charm and not a transfiguration. After practicing the pronounciation, she pointed her wand "Excito animans!" Could acorn versions of Professor Bunbury walk in high heels?

John looked around the room most of the other acorns where alive, but for some reason John didn't want to bring his to live. Well if it was part of the test he would have to. "Excito animans!" He shouted as he waved his wand, nothing seemed to happen, so he said it again. "Excito animans!." He moved backwards when his Acorn came to life. He wondered if it would speak. "Hi." He smiled at it. He then looked at the Professor. "Professor do these speak?"

Daniel almost laughed at the lesson. If the Professor didn't noticed he had his puppets doing the waltz earlier. He was so grateful for his mother teaching him the incantation. He remembered that she said, Just use it when you miss us, me and your father, and when you are bored. He smiled.

He watched his waltzing puppets and then got another bright idea. He then changed the dance into tango the dance of love. Its a good thing he have no one as a seatmate, he got the whole desk for himself.

The puppets are now doing the tango. *pam pam pampam

Sarah leant forward towards her acorn bear and spoke to it.(Yes she was going a little mad studying for the finals...)
"OK little fella you have to dance...please."
Swinging her wand around to face the acorn she concentrated with all her might on making it move. "Excito Animans!!" she said,loud and clear.
The little object sprung into life,but just hopped around on the spot. Well it's like dancing I guess.
Screwing her eyes up Sarah tried to will the thing to do a flip,but to no avail.
"I hope I get better at this before finals," she sighed.

Letting her concentration fade,Sarah placed her wand back into her pocket and shoved the acorn in her bag.She'd just have to practice somewhere else.
Standing up from her seat she glanced in Ashby's direction and smiled.Such a nice teacher,shame this lesson was so short.
"Thank you for the uh...short..lesson,Professor," she said. "Have a great day,bye!" With that she skipped out of the classroom and back to studying.

“You think so? That wasn’t my intent-oh what?” Cale was busy laughing at her and Tobi was ignoring him. She suddenly felt very self conscious. “Don’t laugh Cale,” she gave his arm a smack and then realized it might not have been the best idea as she could have caused Cale to drop or squish his little puppet into puppet mush. Thankfully nothing happened, and so, Aggie didn’t have to apologize.
“Who’s Noland?” Aggie asked as she looked at Cale’s propped up puppet. It was quite obvious that Noland wasn’t human, seeing as Cale had given his puppet leafy hair and eyebrows, well, unless Noland was a hermit that was very into nature. Some wizards were odd like that.

“Dance? I’m not sure that was Professor Ashby’s intent with this pro- oh you were talking metaphor- I’m going to shut up and not talk-“ she blushed even more feeling a bit slow as she watched Cale attempt his charm’s practice. Aggie herself wasn’t the greatest at Charms, in fact she was little more then rubbish at it. Usually she partnered on things like this with Tobi, but Tobi wasn’t in a mood to work with other people.

Cale on the other hand seemed to have downed the entire contents of the Ravenclaw House Table’s sugar bowl at breakfast. So when his face scrunched up in confusion when his charm didn’t work, Aggie could help but laugh. “Cale, you’re rushing it – I think…”
Well, surprise upon surprise (not). Aggie’s observation had been wrong. That’s it, she decided. I have to go into some sort of work where magic isn’t really needed. I wonder how much magic you perform as a crystal ball maker?

But the professor was standing right next to them as if he was expecting her to try the spell as well. She sighed and pulled her wand out. Alright, Agatha, she gave herself a mini-pep talk. You can do this.

“Eck-skeeee-toe ah-nee-mahnz.”

The mini-Tobi look alike puppet twitched, wiggled, and then fell over on the desk.

William grinned chuckling as he watched Ashby do the weird dance. "You're a good dancer Sir." he said, grinning. Wow, suck up much Cullack? he thought shaking his head and turning back to his puppt again.

His face was one of utter concentration now, "Excito animans!" He said, his face full of concentration as he pointed his wand at Bunbury-puppet, hoping this time she'd get up and do something. His eyes burned holes in the puppet as it slowly got up on shaky legs. He scrunched up his face, eyes bulging slightly as it slowly began to move, walking shakily to the end of the table before collapsing.

Hmm, not too bad this time he thought.

Chris Potter took out his wand and placed his acorn puppet on the table. He laughed a bit at how strange his loooked.

He concentrated as hard as he could and said the spell. "Excito animans!"He watched in amazemnet as his little acorn began to move. He then thought of a funny dance. He had heard of his muggleborn friends say something about a dance called the Moonwalk. He thought about it and then his acorn began to do the strangest dance he had ever seen! "Haha! Professor look at what my acorn is doing!"

Cedric took out his wand and point it on his girly acorn on the table..he was concentrating then he sighed.."Eck-skee-toe..Ah-nee-mahnz" then his acorn puppet start moving and dancing..

They had to make their dressed up acorns DANCE!? The things were scary enough when they were STILL! The thought of making them move was simply.. horrifying!

Still, it sounded like a pretty decent spell. He'd learn it and perhaps use it on something else! WOOT! Drawing his wand, Clifford cleared his throat and concentrated on bringing his acorn to life. "Eck-skee-toe ah-nee-mahnz!" He said, poitning his wand at the acorn and pouting when guess what? Nothing happend. Nothing new there then. Eh.

Well, he wasn't about to give up.

"Eck-skee-toe ah-nee-mahnz.. Eck-skee-toe ah-nee-mahnz! Excito Animans!" And to his surprise.. it actually worked! Well, his acorn seemed to jump and twitch and then roll off the desk.. but he'd made it move! RESULT!