Daniel was blindfolded and couldn't see anything all he could hear was the racketing noise from a far. He was a good listener so, there is nothing he couldn't hear for he thinks he has a heightened sense of hearing.

There is nothing he could do now but to close his eyes and concentrate. Think of the rustling of wind and feel it in his skin.

Concentrate

Think of the vast hill where the lovely Kaiser Garden was. The relaxing breeze and the awesome view. Concentrate on that.

Craning her neck slightly to the side, Daphne frowned underneath her blindfold. There went the humming again. Breathing slowly, she willed herself to follow the sounds, down a torch-lit corridor. Reaching a wooden door, she pressed her hand against the warm door and pushed it open. Almost immediately she was nearly swept away by a freezing wind. Shivering, she rubbed her arms and wondered who was the idiot who forgot to turn up the heat in the house.

It was so hard to find good help these days.

Stepping into the room, despite the chilly air giving her goosebumps, the humming had intensified and, much to Daphne's pleasure, become identifiable. It was the first movement of Bach's Cello suite number 1. The same she had been practicing over and over last summer after Celandine left. Her precious Cello stood underneath the very small window of the room, sunlight pouring over it in true daydream fashion. Although she often complained about the size of the instrument and it's lack of appeal, Daphne Hopton loved it beyond reason. He was loyal, understanding and most of all, always dependable.

Picking up the bow from the bed, Daphne pulled the Cello closer to her, fingers finding their predisponed places on the cello's neck. Just as she raised the bow a sudden chill took over the crown of her head.

Frreeeeeeeeezing!

Letting go of the cello with a yelp, Daphne brought her hand up to her hair--no no....It was too smooth to be hair...could it be--In her nerves, she released the cello recklessly, allowing it to crash on the floor.

Rubbing her bald head (and in fact just spreading the ice cream everywhere) with both hands Daphne began to hyperventilate.

My Hair. My beautiful hair.

SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Celandine got a blindfold and wrapped it around her eyes, immediately relaxing when she couldn't see... them.

She took a deep breath and let her mind wander.


She was up a tree.



...


...


With Copernicus Kettleburn.

The rich smell of earth and honeysuckle was swiftly replaced by the scent of chocolate. Chocolate flowers? And why is it so cold? Copernicus dug his fingers into the ground beneath his knees, trying to root himself to the memory of that garden. He was going to stay focused. He was.

And then something began to jump, first on his knee and then on his head. Casually, he reached for a blossom in his memory. The vine hung just over his head, and he was about to pluck it free, when he spotted the bee there.

Swat!

The chocolate frog went spinning in the direction of someone shrieking. Who would scream in a GARDEN?

Bella hit a little magical button on the side of her cart, and a SUPER MEGA LOUD song blasted out throughout the area. Not exactly a song, though, the old man was yodeling....

YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!

YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!

YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!

Yup, like a broken record...

As she wheeled along to the tune of the song, Bella prepared herself six large scoops of Bertie Bott's Every-flavored Ice Cream. Yumm...wonder what this batch would end up tasting like? She didn't place the scoops on a cone, though...she juggled them, of course! The only problem was, Bella Greingoth can not juggle, so unless her eyes were deceiving her, Lawliet recieved a scoop or two, Kettleburn a scoop, and...well, Merlin knew where the others went off to...

YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!

She almost dropped the fur boot as it seemed to wiggle in her hands. But it was so soft and warm. It must be very expensive she couldn't wait to get her feet into them and then prance around in the mirror admiring herself.

Something licked her face!

"AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

She screamed and fell over into the grass, she snatched her blindfold off to find a dog sitting on her chest looking around for that squeak nose. She groaned, "Dog breath," she said looking at the dog waiting for her to get off her her. The dog weighed more than she did. "Help," she squeaked out as the dog didn't seem to be moving.

Roland's imagination was flickering a little bit, like a television screen when someone moves the aerial around. The house and front garden were all still there as well as the sounds of the animals but other sounds that didn't belong there crept in. A squeaking sounded distantly. A bell could also be heard at one point. It wasn't the front door bell as he remembered it, that was sure. In fact it wouldnt have surprised him if his father had bought home a dog's squeaker toy for one of the hippogriffs.
Then two mixed sounds almost stopped his heart he jumped so much. The image of home vanished from his mind's eye. He wondered what was going on around him. The fused sound of someone yelling and the yodelling was one of the most confusing sounds he had ever heard in his life. He wondered if any wizard in real life would ever have the strange experience of disapparating away from yodelling.

SHRIII-----III----IIII PANT PANT.

Taking deep breaths, hands still rubbing her bald (ice creamified) head, Daphne willed herself to calm down and focus. Hoptons didn't panic and they certainly did not do bad in class! Mortified, she picked up her cello once more, wondering where had the scent of Chocolate had come from?

Picking up the bow (her hand) once more, Daphne brought it to her nose, passing it to and fro underneath her nostrils repeatedly to sniff it out when--


PLAT! Something hit her in the face. Touching her face, Daphne grabbed the culprit and stared at it. It smelled like chocolate but it certainly looked like...like...a moving mass of mud! MUD! MUD MUD MUD!

MUD ON HER FACE! MUD ON HER HANDS!

Panicking! (I beg your pardon? Hoptons do not panic!) Daphne lunged the mud (chocolate frog, really) out the window.

Flying across the area, the chocolate frog made it's chocolate amphibian hybrid appearance on the side of Celandine Toussaint's head.

Taking deep breaths, Daphne hugged her cello (or herself, honestly), tightly. She would not break concentration. She would not. As if to keep herself in her place, Daphne began humming the piece herself, having lost her cello for the time being.


Mmm. Hmmm. HMMm. UHH--- YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!

Daphne blinked and looked down at her hands, her cello had turned into a duck. It looked up at her with beady eyes before opening it's beak.

"YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!" sang the duck persistently.

DUCK!

YODEL-AYYY-HOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!

YODELING DUCK!

The sun felt soooo good.. he was glad he'd unbuttoned his shirt. It was FAR too hot to lay fully clothed up.. that's what BEACHWEAR was for! Clifford loved his cliff. It was the single most amazing cliff on the planet. Yup, and he was the only one that knew where it was too. Hence, Clifford's cliff.

The noises from the beach were beginning to tick him off a little though, and Clifford huffed impatiently. GRRRR. Why couldn't they be bloody quiet down there? Some people were trying to chillax! Like him!

Chillax and catch some rays.. yeah, that's what he was doing.

The Head Boy didn't even realise he'd gone and kicked his shoes off - when did that happen? - and began unbuckling his belt. His legs needed to get catch some rays toooo! He was wearing swimming tucks underneath these annoying uncomfortable trousers, right? He was sunbathing.. surely he'd remembered to put them on.

Shrugging, Clifford wriggled out of his trousers and sighed happily again. MUCH BETTER. In his imagination he was sunbathing on his cliff in his swimming trunks.. in reality he was lounging in the grass, blindfolded and in his most embarrassing Quaffle decorated boxer shorts.

Cela...

....



was making vague smoochie noises in her tree when the object of her affections apparently got a little handsy and smacked her in the side of the head.


Wibble.


A chocolate frog landed in her hand and Cela started mumbling something under her breath about 'thanks. but I'd prefer caramel... oh if you insist but just a bite."

She did bite it, taking the head clean off before tossing it unwittingly in the direction of a Quidditch God and going back to making occassional little smoochie sounds.

"Everyone is doing just fine. We'll continue to work on our concentration skills just a bit longer, then we'll close class. Remember, try and block out anything you think might get in the way of you properly apparating," she said. "The more focus you have, the better your chances of appariting correctly."

As the yodeling cart continued its way throughout the area, Bella remained on the lookout for anyone she hadn't attempted to distract yet. Ahhh, yes. Mr. Bordin! Presenter for group three, if she remembered correctly. Smiling mischievously, Bella wheeled her cart around and headed his way. Hmm...what to do to Bordin? Hmm...

Digging through the box on the side of her cart, Bella pulled out two family-sized waffle cones. Since she was short, she had to climb on top of the cart to attempt this distraction. Once successfully on top, Bella proceeded to crumble the cones on top of the boy's head. It's raining cones! Hallelujah!

Suddenly...

the cart shifted a bit, and it began to roll (with Bella on top) straight towards a group of students. O_o Bella tossed the remaining bits of cone into the air and held on for dear life.

"LOOK OUTTTTT!!!!!!!!!! GET UNDER COVERRRR!!!!" she yelled.

Then...

...as if Merlin was on her side...

...the cart stopped.

Half an inch from Kettleburn.

Whew.

With a whistle, Constantine hailed Roma, a few acorns in his hands. Once he saw that Roma was running back, Constantine wounded up and chucked one of the acorns. Up, up, up! And then down and down...and...

Down and hitting that nice Kettleburn boy in the head. And then he was tackled by a slobbering Roma who collected up the acorn and ran back to Neo, who launched another acorn and hitting more kids in the head.

Copernicus was back in the zone. No more hopping things on him. No bees, no chocolate scented flowers, and no screaming bushes. Ahhh... peace. He let go of the grass beneath his knees and tried to picture the exact way the sun came through the leaves of the thatch over the front door. It was so pretty.

And then there was something cold and slimy sliding down his arm. Banana slug! Banana slug! Those would eat the entire garden and ruin the soil. Cope growled, flinging the slug to the earth and smashing it under his hand. Erm... slugs were so cold inside. Like little gooey snowballs.

He shook the slime from his fingers, and his fingers wrapped hard against something metal in front of him. Ummm... whazzat? His fingers slid up the metal surface, feeling the cold leach into his hands. And then down, and he found little squeaky wheels. Oh, so that's what it was. Freezing rolling death.

Well, that was... not a relief. Terrifying. What was happening to his favorite little spot? Why were there bees and metal things and frozen slugs and... OUCH! Something struck the back of his head, and Copernicus reached to rub the back of his head.

Thud! Cope went sideways, covered by some large furry creature. What large furry things lived in the woods and might foray into the garden?

"BEAR BEAR BEAR!" He was going to be eaten!

Roland's concentration shifted back to thoughts of the Baims' family home and it was just as he was beginning to sink back into the daydream of actually being there that it was broken yet again. He was back at Hogwarts and all he could see was the dark interior of the bandana. He could hear the instructor yelling, he put a foot forward as if to move though he had no idea why, it was just instinct to assume he wasn't in a good spot. In actual fact he was standing quite a few yards away from the cart and facing the opposite direction. The instructor's voice suddenly stopped.
Thank Merlin he wasn't doing his test for a few years now. He probably would've ended up apparating to the top of his own head if he had these distractions then. "Ah" he muttered, as one of the acorns hit the back of his head and if he had to guess at what it would've been he would have said a stone.

Everything was so blurry, the lights mixed with each other, blinding her field of vision with colorful spots. This was one class she was definitely not good at. Tensing her jaw, Daphne squeezed her cello tighter to herself. She would humm the music. She would.

And focus on the sweet smell of almond-vanilla scented candles. And the way her sheets felt so soft underneath her thighs--and--argh!

What was that infernal noise? Train? Freight train? But there were no bloody trains near her house! Oh. Oh. It was getting dark and murky again. No. No. No!

Dagnabbit.

Staring into the darkness her lime green bandana provided, Daphne sighed heavily. Someone was yelling about looking out and Miss Hopton could only flail her cold and sticky hands above her equally cold and sticky head.

Look out? HOW was that possible when they had their eyes covered by ugly fabric? This situation clearly spelled death. It was entirely too like that staircase incident.

Irately going for the knot in the back of her head, Daphne cussed softly pulling even at her own hair. As if it wasn't enough that she was covered in a cold substance she wasn't yet aware of, something was hitting her on the head.

Turning her head sharply from side to side, Daphne pointed an accusing finger at whoever, whatever was standing in her approximate vicinity. "Who did that? Who did that?"

Being blindfolded wasn't fun at all.

Although it certainly was better than being attacked by a bear. Who was being attacked by a bear? Bear?! In her surprise Daphne wiggled slightly, falling clumsily from the log.

Definitely not fun.

As soon as she was sure her cart was good and steady, Bella climbed off the top of it and landed safely on the ground. See if she ever climbed aboard that cart again. She hit the button the cart and turned the yodeling off. After a near-death scare, a loud, belting yodeler was surely not what she needed. Taking a deep sigh, Bella started to wheel her cart around, when an acorn pegged her in the head. Neooo.... She glared at him and have him a 'look' before continuing on.

Ahhh, Toussaint. Hmm...

With another mischievous grin, Bella scooped up some tasty strawberry jam ice cream, then stuck her finger in the scoop she'd brought out. She bent down and traced a mouth-like shape around Cela's lips. She then moved her finger up to Cela's nose and painted it sparkling red with ice cream. After a few dabs of red ice-cream freckles, Bella was pleased at her little clown design. She stared at her creation until...

...oops.

There goes that scoop of ice cream.

OOC: Class will close in about 15 minutes, so if anyone has anything they'd like to add, that's the time frame we're looking at it.

Students with gold stars (as of page 5 or so)

Slytherin: 4

Ravenclaw: 4

Hufflepuff:

Gryffindor: 3

Lawliet was finding it hard to concentrate with all the racket and the noise going on around him when he felt something mushy and cold hit his face. What. The. Heck. He choked as it was dripping into his mouth and it realized it tasted like..... trout. What could possibly be cold, mushy and taste like trout?

...He wasn't sure that he wanted to know.

"WHAT was that?!" he said and felt another.. lump of cold, mushy stuff fall in his hair this time. "Mrs. Greingoth, what is going on?!" the boy inquired, alarmed and yet trying to keep his cool. He knew there was a reason he didn't like being blindfolded and this was exactly it. The boy just hated not being in control of a situation, it made him panic.

"Can we take our blindfolds off now?" he muttered, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

This was not good, not at all.

Madison noticed that Neo was now playing with Roma. That was her signal for the next item she had to use. First thing was first, she reached in her robes and pulled out a little muggle triangle and began tapping. Did anyone realize how much fun it was to try to annoy people? She surely did.

DING! DING!


DING! DING..................DING!

She walked around where the students were sitting as this was all about concentration and keeping your mind in the game.

Dominic listened politely to the Apparition instructor lady as she commented on each of the presentations. All quite well done and interesting points were made. But then, he found himself blindfolded and unable to see with a bandana of a color that he knew not. Only thing he knew was that it was dark and it reminded him of when Bunbury cast 'obscuro' on a few students during their last lesson.

Concentrate

....

Deep in thought and contemplation, Dominic was really trying to picture a destination. The smells, sights, sounds, feel of things around him. But nothing was coming. Nothing except the sweet lemongrass scent of a certain captain. The taste of rosy lips. The sight of forest green.

Yes. Dominic Denton was concentrated not on a place, but a person.

In the midst of his trying to change that concentration towards a destination, something landed for a moment on his lap. It was bouncy and for some reason Dominic was picturing himself laying next to that sweet smell of Willow Kovac, in a grassy meadow, and a child bounced their ball on his abdominals. Which bounced away...

And there were showtunes in the background. It was strange and musical and made him want to get up and dance. But he couldn't really see where he was going. If he got up and danced, then he would be laughed at. He was sure of it. So Dominic just lay there . . . hand squeezing the soft, tender hand of the Ravenclaw Captain . . . in his daydream anyway. Because in reality, he was no closer to the captain then he was to becoming a top point earner this term.

Plymouth cleaned himself like a cat. He licked his arm down first, then used his hand to wipe the bogey ice cream off his face.


Yes, this was after he realized it was, in fact, not penguin droppings.


But anyway, anyway, he was back in the dark. HE HEARD Daphne shrieking... And he peeked out of his blind fold a little to check on her.


"Hehe.." !!!! The first HEHE IN AGES. Or so it seemed, anyway. She was having her own sort of disaster, but she would, in most ways, be okay. He also noted that good looking headboy. He had good legs. Maybe they could be cross country runners together?? Plymouth made a mental note to ask.


Soooo concentration. What to think about. Where did Plymouth REALLY want to be? He had already ruled that out, so where ELSE did Plymouth want to be? Plymouth was sooooooooooooon out in the Greenhouses. Professor Bunz was in the background, looking hot and hugging flowers. And, Daphne was there too, picking little wilted leaves off large rosebush. There was someone else there too, but Plymouth skipped over them to FOCUS. He couldn't FOCUS with HER in his FOCUSING THING. The greenhouse smelled so DIRTY, that warm and moist earthy scent. It also smelled a little like troll bogeys, but that was probably just residual ice cream in his nostrils. Plymouth joined Daphne in pruning the big bushes... and it was kind of happy. It was weirdly quiet. They took turns picking leaves off the bush...

... Maybe Plymouth had fallen asleep?

Celandine simply continued making little smoochie noises, her little tongue flicking out and....

... huh?

Who was strawberry?!

"Copernicus?" Celandine murmured uncertainly.

The dog was making itself nice and comfy on her chest, and she was losing the feeling in her arm. Didn't anyone see that this huge dog was bigger and heavier than Paris?

Oh yes!

The dog hopped off her chest and ran away. She picked herself up off the ground and pulled out a tissue and she wiped at her face hard. "I've got dog drool in my hair!" She shrieked when she pulled back a wet hand from her hair. She was basically a chew toy now! Well the chew toys were a bit bigger than she was anyways.

What in the world was Clifford doing!

He was stripping in the middle of their lesson!

She giggled and giggled. It was the funniest thing she had seen in a few days and frankly she needed to entertainment.

Should she tell the Head Boy he was wearing boxers with chocolate frogs all over them?

Naw, this was a Kodiak moment, best to leave it be.

Daniel was master of concentration. His father made him do that. He said that he will punish him if he gets distracted by anything. So he learned to ignore the things around him when he is in a concentrating mood.

He is hearing loud noises and feeling cold droplets. He even felt something hard hit him in the head. But no... He never budge or moved a little.

This is what he sees. The very beautiful Kaiser garden in Romania. Its luscious flower hedge, its supple trees. the cold wind and the refreshing view. He feels like home.

Back in his daydream . . . grassy meadow . . . soft angelic hand, interlocked with his . . . noisy children . . .

And a sudden outburst of someone screeching: "Bear Bear Bear" as a warning. Oh? Since when were there BEARS in this meadow!? That wasn't supposed to happen!! Frowning, Dominic hadn't realized that he had sat up and was frantically searching around . . . as he was in his daydream . . . to protect the captain from this bear.

He could not let her be eaten. He would rather sacrifice himself for her own welfare and safety. Even if he would rather be WITH her; it was a choice between her life and his own, then let the bear get him.

Along with a glop of cold wetness on his nose. Reaching up - subconsciously - the sixteen year old wiped it off which of course, being blinded, got some in his nostrils. And why did this cold wetness smell like BUTTERBEER!?

Peculiar.

Bella closed the lid on the ice cream cart and wheeled it to the front of the room. She glanced around the area, extremely pleased at how class had gone. Each and every student, regardless of age or ability, had given it their all today. She beamed proudly, clearly honored that they'd all made her very first class so memorable for her. She needed a way to break them out of their daydreams now, though. Some of them were concentrating a little too much, including...

..."Mr. Carden!!!"

Eyes wide as quaffles, Bella hurried over to the Head Boy, who'd concentrated so much he was stripped down to his boxers. She quickly pulled his blindfold off and shook his shoulders gently. "Mr. Carden, you may want to redress yourself before I get the attention of your classmates," she half-scolded. She gave him a slight frown, then added, "Nevertheless, I suppose it shows how well you've done in concentrating..."

She turned towards Lawliet, who was a bit upset, it seemed. "Yes, dear, you may take your blindfold off. In fact, I'm going to take off the blindfolds of all your classmates now," she said, removing his and then gently shaking his shoulders. She continued this way, removing blindfolds and gently shaking shoulders to get the students out of their daydreaming states.

"...and with that, your first Apparition lesson has come to and end," she said. Glancing around, the area was a mess. It would definitely would have to be cleaned before she and Madi headed back to the Ministry. "As you can see, we've attempted to distract you via an ice cream cart, a dog, and tossed acorns...amongst several other things. They represent distractions that can cause you to not apparate correctly," she continued. "Continue to work on your concentration skills and read up on Side-Along Apparition for your second class."

"Before you leave today, please assist us in cleaning the area used for the lesson. Use your wands, or there are paper towels in the front. When you are done, you may come to the ice cream cart and make yourself a tasty treat," she said, with a smile. "Have a good day, students!"

OOC: Thank you sooo much everyone for being good sports and most of all for having a good time. I had a blast, too! *group hug*