As she was redoing her shield, Daphne's arm arced but the commotion in her vicinity caught her attention. Tobias Avalon seemed to be in a little trouble.

She flicked her wrist. Alright, he seemed to be in a whole lot of trouble. Her actions stopped briefly as she saw the mucus enveloped acorn zoom towards Kazimeriz and smack him right dab in the center of his chest. Swallowing, Daphne completed her motion, muttering the spell underneath her breath, thankful she was inside her shield.

Self-preservation, she told her self to ease the little guilt she felt of not even bothering to help a fellow Gryffindor.

Kazimeriz restrained himself from chuckling at the boy as he complained. Pain was a terrific motivator.

Kazimeriz nodded at her, pleased by her sustained shield.

Kazimeriz shook his head impatiently, striding over to the student. "Stand up. Is this how you're going to defend yourself against the cruciatus curse? Really. Two points from your house for cowardice." He shook his head. "You have a wand. Use it."

"Yes, you can. Concentrate!" he spat at the student. Really, they were all so soft and weak these days.

Kazimeriz shook his head. "Pride goes before a fall." he cautioned.

"Man up, Skippy. You've got air exchange and you're conscious. Use your wand." Honestly.

Kazimeriz ignored the boy for the moment, watching the choking boy instead with an interested gleam in his eye.

Kazimeriz smirked. "Actually, it does. A dead student is a powerful cautionary tale and an example of what not to do." He commented dryly.

"Better, Newell. Perhaps your female counterpoint could benefit from your assistance." He nodded toward Anna.

Newtington again. Of course. "For heaven's sake, Newtington, you're not an infant. What is the problem?"

"Very good, Prefect Green." He smiled with approval.

Kazimeriz looked down at the gunk on his shoe and chest, wrinkling his already heavily wrinkled nose. He looked at Tobi, and used his wand to cast a cleansing charm, then pointed it directly at the boy. "You only need to ask yourself one question... Do you feel charmed, Avalon? Well... do ya?" he hissed, his obsidian eyes glittering as he trained his wand on the boy.

Seymour flinched as the acorns began to rain down upon the classroom, bouncing off desks and chairs and-- well, people. He stared fixatedly at an acorn he had removed from his inkwell for a moment, perplexed. Spiked acorns? What on earth ate acorns at Hogwarts that required they had THIS level of protection against? Or had they been mutated by the professor? He hastily drew his wand out of his pocket and pointed it upward. Merlin, he would have rather faced the runespoor again-- at least the giant, neon orange striped snake had been easy to keep track of.

"Protego!" he cried, making more of a z-like motion with his wand instead of the sharp flick of the wrist as he tried to shield his glasses from the spiked nuts. A very faint haze shimmered over him, deflecting one or two acorns, but soon vanished. Hadn't he cast just like the professor told him to? For the love of Merlin, why wasn't it working?

Okay! It was time to concentrate on what the old man was teaching at the moment. She loved this subject but the professor had an attitude and was rude, crude and just not what she liked. Favorite subject, bad professor.

Protego. This was a shield charm, one that would protect from...EEEEEK! Acorns! Lyra frowned as she needed to cast her protective spell and get this thing over with. This was one of those spells she had used many of times before, she was a sixth year, supposed to be a seventh year so she knew about this charm.

"Protego!" She shield protected her as she waved her arm just right. This was too easy for her, but she was not about to do anything else at this point. She was more annoyed by the professor than she was learning about something she already knew.

She then heard him laughing and snickering at the students. Her eyes flashed towards the professor as she eyed him through narrow slits of her eyes. He was completely MADDDDDDDDDDDDDD! INSANE!

"Protego!" she said once again to keep from being hit by the tiny little nuts that seemed to fall all around them.

Garret snapped and snapped and snapped his wand, the incantation was starting to sound like a curseword the way he was spitting it out. The spiked acorns were starting to - no, had in fact been hurting for a while, and his eyes were starting to sting from holding back the tears.

He saw a boy choking, and Tino trying to help him, but what he couldn't understand was why wasn't Daphne helping him?! If she claimed to love him so much, the least she could do was shelter him from spiked acorns.

Glaring at her, although ineffectively as he kept wincing and ducking his head, "Protego!" A weak shield flickered out of the tip of his wand and in his frustration, he smacked an acorn flying right at his face... only to watch it bounce against Daphne's shield.

ARGH! "Protego!" His shield did nothing but move an acorn slightly out of the way.

Theo moved an arm out of his way to see the Professor towering over him. "I forgot my wand," he whimpered. He covered his head again with the arm. He didn't want an acorn in the eye. He only had two of them.

Freya had sustained her shield for over two minutes before she let it fall. And over those two minutes, she was able to see all sorts of different reactions from the students. Amazing what a few falling acorns could do....Freya raised her shield again as she gave a quick snap to her wrist like she were cracking a whip and thought the spell to herself. The shield came again and the acorns bounced off the top like hail off of a car hood. 'I wonder what else we'll be doing...' She thought as she kept her shield going and glancing around at the other students again to see what progress was being made.

"Did someone hit you with a memory charm? You just did this incantation mere moments ago. It is not a zigzag motion, it is an upward. arc." he said, coming over to Seymour and pulling his arm into the proper position. "Now- focus and do it correctly or I will start taking points from you all."

"Good! Miss Noir, very forceful!" Kazimeriz nodded his approval.

"Watch how the older students are doing it. Like Noir, Yaxley, or Newell... Winters... focus!" He needed them all to know this shield charm so the lesson could progress.

Kazimeriz rolled his eyes. This boy reminded him of another student he had had back in the 1980s... utterly stupid and died stupidly, as he remembered it. He sighed. "You have five minutes to go retrieve your wand. If you are not back, wand in hand, at that time you will face the consequences. Go."

Anna was slightly aware of her professor's nearby presence, but she continued to stay alert and focused on shielding herself from the ever-growing rainstorm of acorns. She sharply nodded once as he commented on her progress, happy to hear that she'd pleased him in at least a small way. A "not bad" from Professor Kazimeriz was worth a lot more than a "not bad" from most other professors. This particular "not bad" had to be more than just a little well-earned. She swallowed hard, willing the cotton in her throat to go down so that she could manage some sort of reply. "Yes, sir. Thank you," she said, still focused on the pelting acorns. Once again, she positioned her wand toward the falling acorns and moved it in a sweeping, upward arc. When it came time to end the motion with a sharp snap of her wrist, Anna pivoted her wrist more to the right and leaned forward a bit more. She glared at the acorns pelting down, sure that she could manage shielding more than just one now. "Protego!" she called out, hoping to see many more acorns bouncing off.

Celandine kept her mouth shut and a look of determination crossed her face as the acorns fell. After perhaps every two hits with an acorn, her shield faltered and she had to furiously flick her wand and cast, "Protego!" again. She was terrifically fast at casting the charm, but the strength and duration of it was another matter entirely.

"Protego!" Celandine cast again, concentrating as hard as she could. Slowly... little by little.... her shield lasted for three acorns, then four, then eight...

When KraziKazi came up to him and started shouting instructions, finally the intent part of the spell casting became all too real and Garret managed to squeal out a "Protego!"

This time a shield did emerge from his wand, sending the acorns back, far off him... however it seemed the shield was actually for holding the Professor back and not the mutant seeds.

"Meep." he squeaked, trying to tear his eyes away from KraziKazi, but finding himself unable to look away as he maintained the shield charm. Hopefully the professor would think it was for the acorns... and not himself.

Theo shivered in his little ball on the floor. "F..f...five minutes Sir?" he whimpered again, "But I only have little legs. And it is all the way in the dungeons." He would either die, falling down the stairs, or get back and have a detention.

Mariel rose from her seat again when instructed, prepared to perform a shield charm. She smiled a little to herself, confident in her abilities. If there was something she could do, it was perform a basic shield charm. She had plenty of practice with that one.

The Ravenclaw girl held her wand out, waiting for further instruction and keeping her attention on the professor, when she looked up as he pointed his wand at the ceiling only to be pelted with falling acorns. Eep! What was it with this school and its obsession with acorns? Throwing a protective arm around her head, Mariel used her wand arm to cast the shield. Sweeping up towards the falling acorns with her wand and ending the movement in a snap, the young Ravenclaw commanded, “Protego.” Instantly a shield appeared above her, repelling the acorns and she smiled to herself pleased with her success.

It took nearly all her concentration to hold the spell for as long as she was. Mariel was plenty used to casting a shield charm to repel offensive spells, but those usually didn’t require any sustainability. This was a bit more difficult but she retained her focus. However, she was wondering how Lasca was doing next to her. She was a first year and perhaps she would have trouble with the spell. Making the tiniest movement, she looked out of the corner of her eye as she still held her shield. It appeared that her fellow Ravenclaw was doing just fine. She gave her a reassuring smile which she hoped the girl caught since she was facing away from her and didn’t want to attempt any sudden movements.

Then she thought of a question. Professor Kazimeriz wouldn’t think she was speaking out of turn if she asked, would he? Certainly he valued knowledge as was shown at the beginning of the class and who better to ask than the teacher who would be the obvious expert? She silently prayed that he again would not find her presumptuous and raised the hand that was not holding her wand.

Waiting for her to be called upon, she tried to speak which proved difficult to do at the same time as trying to retain her focus. “Professor? Is it possible… to make our shields… bigger?” As she paused to try to regain her concentration, she noticed him aiming his wand at the ceiling again. What was he doing now? Her face paled slightly at the sight of new acorns with spikes, then took on a look of fierce determination as she continued to hold her shield aloft. Continuing, she explained, “I mean, in order to protect someone else along with ourselves… Not anyone here, necessarily… since we’re all learning the proper shield charm…” She was really finding it difficult to get all the words out without losing her shield, but she really didn’t want to get hit with a spike acorn. “I have a five year old step-brother and obviously he doesn’t own a wand… Would it be possible to create a larger shield charm and protect us both from, say, a manticore attack?” Good, she got all the words out and her shield only slightly wavered. Now finished speaking, she focused all her energies into repelling those nasty acorns.

"Puh..." Jake said, for that guy just got spit on his mouth. EWWWWWWWWWWWWW. He blocked out the pain from and stared up, no longer flinching; focused. "PROTEGO!"

His sheild burst out ahead of him, stopping those bloody acorns. Jake didn't stop to think and paid no attention to anyone else; everything he had was going into this. It seemed weak, but it was true. When Jake was casting the sheild charm well, he stopped hyperfocusing and let himself hear the words from others, remembering about being aware of your surroundings.

It was hard, to keep up the sheild and stay alert, and Jake felt like it would need recasting sometime soon.

Camira desperately wanted to move on to attempting a non-verbal protego, but she probably wasn't allowed. And she didn't want to ask the professor when so many students obviously needed help.

And then she spotted Seymour. Awww, poor kid! Ouch! The acorns had broken through her shield again, or rather, her shield had fizzled out. It was so annoying having to think only of protection. She hopped quickly over to Seymour, not even bothering to try and dodge the acorns. They were everywhere. Alright, time for her own shield. "Protego". The acorns bounced off of her shield once more. Now, to keep it up while helping Seymour.

"Seymour, you have to make a sharp motion, flick your wrist more. And remember, just concentrate on being safe and protected." And she could feel her shield weakening yet again and so she focused on it completely. She was done getting pelted, thank you very much.

That poor little second year. Juniper could not tell who the little boy was, and she doubted that she would recognize him even if she could see his face, but he looked especially worse for the wear. And those spiked acorns were painful, that was for certain.

"Protego!" Juniper waved her wand at the air above her head. Oh, that couldn't be right. Why would a shield charm have a heart-shaped wand motion? The fourth year scoffed at her own folly and tried again. "Pro-te-goooo!"

It was not working. And Juniper knew that she was pronouncing it right, so her problem was either that she didn't have the willpower or she was making the wrong wand movement. Juniper winced as an acorn hit her pinky finger. Who would have thought that an unborn tree could cause so much harm? The fourth year sneezed and wagged her wand arm in front of her face in a fruitless attempt to get the shower of acorns out of her field of vision.

"Protego!" Juniper jerked her wrist in a shaky arc movement and was pleased to see a few acorns change their course and fall in an unnatural way, away from her. She had done that! Hadn't she? Beaming, the Ravenclaw cast the spell again and shooed several more acorns away. It was too bad that the majority of the acorns were still falling on her head.

But now that she could get rid of a percentage of the acorns falling, Juniper made her way over to the little second year. "You're waving your wand a bit too much," Juniper said to the back of the little boy's head, trying to be helpful. She ignored the fact that she was not succeeding much more than the younger student. She flicked her wrist ever so slightly and said "Protego" to demonstrate, and was pleased to see about ten acorns redirect their fall away from her. She glanced at the professor as he gave the boy more instructions and tried to apply them to her own spellwork.

Lizzie tried the spell a few more times, just to be sure she got it perfectly right. She wanted to be sure she managed it properly in case the professor would pick volonteers for the next part and she'd have to use it in front of everyone. Just in case.

It wasn't that hard anymore, she was really getting a hang of it! Protego! she said, making sure that the shield stayed where it was supposed to be to save her from the acorns. Proud to have made it, she was only second year after all, she glanced around at the other students to see their progress.

Freya looked over to Mariel and gave her a quick thumbs-up. 'Good question. I was actually about to ask the same thing...I've never known that about this spell.' She looked over to the Professor and awaited his response, it would certainly be good to know.

She allowed herself a moment of satisfaction, her lips twitching with mirth. It was her mistake and immediately, three acorns pelted her head. "Ouch!" startled by the sudden attack, Daphne glared up at the ceiling and quickly waved her arm, flicking her wrist she reached the last syllable of the incantation.

Self-preservation. Self-preservation. Unfortunately, that's all she could think about to keep herself as uninjured as possible, even though every ten seconds she's get hit by three to four acorns. Annoying!

Kazimeriz raised an eyebrow. "Then you'd best run very, very fast. But not on the stairs, or you will likely break your neck. Go." He said coolly.

"Very good, Miss Toussaint." He nodded in approval. "Focus your energy as though the wand is a natural extension of your hand."

"Good, Crocker. Keep practicing." He said, watching him. "Stand up straighter- good form helps the spell."

"An excellent question- two points. You may increase the size of your shield by adding a horizontal shift to your wand motion. Once you have successfully learned how to master a sustained charm, you may attempt this if you desire. However, a shield charm or any other charm will be useless against the manticore; most charms have no effect on the beast. Try reasoning with them, you'll have a better chance of survival... this is why a Ravenclaw is most likely to survive a manticore attack." He smirked.

Kazimeriz grinned. "That's better." he said, lowering his wand. "Keep it up or I may just hit you with a sneak attack." Ah, fear. Such a good motivator for young minds.


Kazimeriz nodded at Yaxley. "Very good, both of you. You may move on to larger shields, Miss Yaxley."

"Focus on your own work; your work isn't strong enough for coaching yet." he cautioned Juniper.

"Work on sustaining the charm, both of you." he instructed. "I want everyone in the class to be able to complete this charm within the next five minutes or we will have to move on to something more motivational than acorns." he smiled an evil grin, obviously plotting.

Wot's this old codger doin' still standin' there? Garret whined in his head, his bladder feeling like it was ten times too small for the goblet of pumpkin juice he'd had before coming to this class.

The shield flickered and three spiked acorns took advantage of it to hit him right on the nose. One after the other. He took the professor's advice (maybe he'd go hover over someone else if he did) and stood up straighter, holding his wand with more purpose as he snapped it upwards, "Protego!"

Suddenly, he took pride in the fact that not only had he managed to cast a proper shield, but he had said the incantation in a proper manly voice, too. Well, as manly as a thirteen year old going through puberty could get his voice to be.

Theo shivered again. He was scared. He nodded, jumping to his feet, "Yes Professor." He quickly ran out of the door. He hoped he wouldn't die trying to get his wand.

Qaz could feel her arm start to shaking, she knew that she would loose her shield if she wasn't careful.

Enough of this, she though. Wand in a circular motion… ‘Impiriano.’ She was surrounded by a lovely blue aura and the acorns just bounced away. The protective charm they learned in Transfiguration did the trick and gave her arm a rest.