Focus your energy as though the wand is a natural extension of your hand. Cela looked down at the silvery scar on her hand, which always seemed more prominent when she was doing wandwork. Bowing her head slightly and letting a shower of acorns hit her, Cela took a moment to focus.


She was one with her wand.


Ohm.


She moved her wand hand in a smooth and quick upward arc, widening it slightly without being entirely aware she was doing so, and flicking it as she spoke the spell firmly, "Protego!" Cela was completely astonished at the resulting shield, which appeared bubble-like and almost tangible.

Moe astonishing than that was the fact that the Protego charm had extended to include Kazimeriz and his umbrella for a brief flickering moment before a flurry of acorns drove it back. Cela shook herself and immediately cast again, her wand hand darting upward , "Protego!"

Cela kept the bubble tight and firm about her, acorns flicking off in every which direction for a goodly sustained while before she had to cast again.

Jack winced "Ok, thanks" he started to do the movement "Protego, protego, protego, protego, protego, protego, protego, protego" He muttered constantly hoping for a shield "I got one!"

Well, this wasn't right, thought Daphne gawking slightly at Garret who had finally managed to conjure a strong enough shield to keep him from harms way. In her folly, she forgot all about self-preservation taking peculiar curiosity on Crocker's assaulted nose.

Pounded by spiky acorns, Miss Hopton yelped and instinctively threw her arm up casting a haphazard shield over herself which soon fizzled out. Another three acorns hit her shoulder and she winced before biting her lip.

"Protego!" she finished with perhaps a bit too much flourish of her arm, protecting herself from further attacks at least for the time being.

Lizzie listened to the professor and then looked at her wand, thoughtfully. Sustaining the shield.. hmm. She knew she had the spell and the movement of the wand, so according to her checklist it must be the focus that wasn't strong enough. With a sigh she kept trying, now trying her hardest to cut out the surroundings like she did when she read. It worked quite well, the shield stayed longer each time. She was definately getting better at this by every try. Happily she continued, too focused to hear the surroundings. Protego!

About ten minutes later Theo ran back in. But he tripped on something. He skidded along the floor on his stomach and collided with Kazi's feet. Well it was a different experience. And he had announced he had returned.

'Great, now why don't you concentrate on doing one and keeping it, rather than trying to do a bunch real quick. Just think hard about it and believe that you CAN do it, and you will.' Qaz said, trying to encourage the poor little guy.

Ruby was thinking hard and concentrating she had done this spell in the duel arena but not under these curcumstances she flicked her wand and said "Protego"

A slight shield appeard for a couple of seconds and Ruby growled under her breath "i can do this she" she thought again and said really confidently "Protego" and the sheild appeard and stayed for a minute she smiled and the shield went

"humf" she hated it when she couldn't get it

Paris was faster at dodging those acorns than most students and she they weren't hitting her, but she had to throw up her shield charm. "PROTEGO!" She said forcibly. Her shield shot out of her wand and the acorns bounced off with a satisfying ping.

When the Professor said her name, Evangeline almost jumped out of her skin (literally), thinking she had done something wrong and that he'd now get rid of her. Oh noes. She let out a audible sigh of relief when he said 'well done', forcing herself to smile back at him. Acck! The man was scarier than watching Quidditch in a windy day! "Tha - thank you, Professor." She muttered in response, eyes widened when he adressed the rest of the class.

If they didnt all get it right in the next five minutes, they'd move to something more motivational than acorns?!

Gulp.

Ooooh. He’d given her permission to work on larger shields. Goody. That must mean he understood how brilliant she was.

Okay, time to do it. She dropped her original shield, and recast, making sure to include the horizontal motion this time. “Protego”. Oh my God. She’d known that larger shields would take up more energy, but this was kind of ridiculous. After just a minute, her shield fell and acrons smacked into her once again. Great.

She cast a quick regular protego as something came to mind. She raised her hand. “Professor, I was just wondering. With the obvious amount of energy needed to cast a large protego shield, would it not be easier to cast a variant, such as protego totalum if you needed to protect a large area? From my understanding, that particular variant does not need to be maintained.”

While she waited for his answer, she attempted the dreaded large shield again. Upward arch, horizontal motion and wrist flick. “Protego.” She focused every ounce of energy and concentration she had into it and was pleased to see it lasting. For about two minutes. Eh, not great, but better than before. If there was a more efficient variable though, she would much prefer that one.

ACK! Jake couldn't keep it up anymore. He tried to work out if it'd be better to have weaker sheild charms, and cast more, or stronger ones which lasted. It was taxing for someone as small as Jake.

Catching an acorn in his mouth, Jake crunched on it and swallowed. "Protego!" he cast upwards, feeling MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTILY miffed about these stupid acorns. "This... Is... Ridiculous!" Jake muttered through gritted teeth. But if it helped block things, then it was all good.

His sheild appeared again, and Jake was relieved that it was finally working and getting stronger without much effort.

Pride goes before a fall? What the heck did that meaaan?! Cam didn't have the time to think about what the professor meant so he continued with the practice and tried to think about protection. Either that or be hurt again by the spikey acorns. Pointing his wand in the air, he yelled the incantation out lout and quick. "Protego!" The incantation was followed by the sharp snap of his wrist.

Protection, think about protectiooooon. You are in a happy place and a man is behind you in leotards. You use the protection spell and back away from the man. He cannot get you. Professor Kazimeriz cannot hurt you. You are saaafe.

He didn't smile when finally realizing that acorns were starting to bounce off from his shield. The urge to think about something else was fighting him, it was like... EXTREMELY hard! The spell only lasted for about 15 seconds though, which was actually good, right? "EEK." Another spikey acorn went on his hair.

A worried looked flashed across Jack's face "I don't think I can, but I will try" He nodded "Protego" he cast seeing it form, he grinned, while he was concentrating on it, he sneezed and sent some acorns flying "Haha" he laughed as he shook his head "Protego" he cast again, this time the shield held "That's better" he muttered as he stared at it willing it to stay.

'See, you can do it. You just have to try and block out everything around you and concentrate on what you're doing. Why don't you come out ands try out here?' Qaz said, waving her own wand she commanded 'Protego' and watched as her shield charm reappeared and replaced the protection charm.

Melanie was taken aback. More- more scary than acorns of doom...Yipes! Melanie looked kinda freaked out,wait no correction, terrified. Evil professor... An acorn hit her in the forehead and it hurt reeeally bad. Mel wouldn't give evil professor the satisfaction though. So ha! Although her head was starting to hurt. Bad. She reached up to see if there was a bump forming on it and consequently their was and although Melanie didn't know this it was also a bit red and stood out on her pale face. "Uhhhm My head..." she moaned, but then a little growl erupted from the back of her throat. I really have to stop that. Melanie thought angrily glaring at the stupid acorns.

Anyway she decided she had best get this spell down before he got out some daggers of doom. So, from the ground where she had stayed, Melanie shot a third spell up at the stupid acorns. "Protego!" she shouted and the shield stayed for a few more seconds than last time, but then drifted away as Melanie's thoughts drifted away to how funny it was that the spell sounded so much like the name to her favorite spaghetti sauce...

Melanie let out a huff of annoyance as her head was now throbbing and tried the spell yet again. "Protego!" she said, less loud this time. It actually worked and the acorns stopped coming at her for as long as a full minute.

Don't wanna die. Don't wanna die. Don't wanna die. Acorns of doom are not gonna hurt me... she thought with her eyes closed tight. As soon as the spell broke they came flying back down on her again and frankly the girl was in too much pain to want to do anything. Regardless she made herself send up another spell and this one actually worked for few minutes so while she was under the sheild the girl proceeded to stomp on some acorns. Mwhaha Feel my wrath you stupid acorns!

"I can" Jack crawled out from under the desk "Thanks" he mumbled "Protego" he cast again when he was stood up, he was finally protected against the acorns.

Anna watched as several more acorns bounced away from her shield. She was correctly casting the charm, or so she thought, but her casting wasn't proving to be effective enough. She was supposed to be blocking all the acorns, and so far she'd only blocked one the first try and a few the second try. Anna drew in a deep breath and continued to focus on her target---the ever-pouring rainfall of acorns. She forcefully raised her wand into the air, leaned in, and made the familiar sweeping, upward arc. A sharp snap of her wrist and a pivot to the right later, she called out, "Protego!" This time, the acorns directly above her head---all of them, how many ever that may be---bounced away from her shield.

She'd only managed to get the ones directly above her, though. She still hadn't shielded all Without pausing or stopping a beat, Anna thrust her wand further into the sea of acorns. She was going to get it this time. She could feel it in the very depths of her heart! She confidently swept upward with her wand, all the while focusing on the acorns pelting down upon her. She snapped her wrist and pivoted to the right, just as she'd been told. Concentrate...focus...concentrate...focus... "Protego!" she exclaimed. Anna soon found herself protected from all the acorns trying to crash down on her. She felt as if she had her own umbrella hovering over her head, protecting her from anything and everything that would come her way. She'd done it! She'd successfully casted all the acorns away from her.

'Great job. Keep it up.' Qaz said, and then wandered back to her seat.

As soon as she left, Jack started to panic "No, don't go, don't leave me" he cried out as his shield started to falter "Owowowowowowowowowow" he muttered

Stupid acorns, stupid spikes STUPID LESSON!

Jack wanted to run, run away from this place, with these stupid acorns, he was going to BURN them

BUUUUURN!!

Marina was shocked. What was up with this Professor? This was her first Defense against the Dark Arts lesson ever, she was being bombarded with acorns, she had even produced something like a shield and she was already getting points deducted? Cruciatus Curse! As if anyone was going to attack a Hogwarts student anytime soon! "Protego!" she shouted with a shaking voice, getting the wand movement wrong this time.
Whenever Kazimeriz wasn't looking she kept warding off the acorns with her arms.

Ludo was having an interesting time in at the lesson. Being a sixth year, he'd known how to use a shield charm for quite some time. However, he'd never thought of altering it to become larger or smaller before.

Ludo'd been watching some of the other students progress and noticed Qaz use a shield spell they'd used in Transfiguration when firing arrows. "Clever." he thought.

Nonverbally, Ludo cast the Protego charm and felt the average shield about him. Dropping the defense, he cast again, "Protego" but added an upward flick of the wand. The shield around him felt much more narrown than before. Ludo repeated the exercise but with a horizontal swish, resulting in a wider shield.
"Cool..." he muttered, and then got to thinking.


He raised his hand and hoped to get the Professor's attention. "Professor? Is there any way you can control the direction of a rebounding spell or object from your shield?"

As soon as Qaz left, the young fella lost his nerve, so she went back again.

'Okay, I'm here....let's get that shield back up, pronto. You can do it.' she said, making sure that her shield was covering him as well.