Evelyn had crossed her arms and leaned back against the chair, listening intently to what the professor was saying. She was very interested in non-verbal magic, though she probably needed to step up on the 'focusing' part. 'Which is kinda difficult with this voice in my head!' she mentally yelled, hearing the voice snicker and taunt her.
Aaaand...what was that? Raising an eyebrow, Evelyn leaned forward in her chair, arms still crossed, and looked behind her where the ghostly creature the professor produced from his wand disappeared. 'What was that supposed to do?'

With his arm draped lazily on the table, Samson had about filled three fourths of one parchment (half of it with mindless doodle and half of it with actual notes) before the professor insisted on a demonstration. Now with both hands on the table, he leaned forward and watched with mild interest as a panda shot out of Mr. Ashby's wand. Weird. A panda. Yeaaah.

He then looked at the boy who volunteered, and wondered if the professor would actually consider. Non-verbal spells would be hella useful for sneaking up on Carla. Heh.

Zoe watched as something that looked like possibly a red bear shot out of the professors wand. She couldn't imagine being able to do a non-verbal spell.

She was just barely being able to do the verbal kind. Turning sugar Peeps into stone in Transfiguration had taken almost the whole class period and she thought that was fairly simple magic. 'Ughh, what am I supposed to do now,' she thought to herself. Trying not to fall into a cycle of negative thoughts Zoe turned her brain to contemplating non-verbal spells.

Raising her hand she asked, "Umm, Professor, could practicing non-verbal spells make it easier to accomplish verbal spells even if you aren't successful with the non-verbal ones?" She placed her hand back on her parchment to hold it still so that she was ready to write down what the professor's response was.

Mina looked up from her note taking at the sound of Professor Ashby's voice. She had been busily taking notes when she noticed the red panda coming from the professor's wand. 'That's interesting,' she thought to herself. 'Wonder where it's going?'

Looking down at her notes again, she thought about what she wrote.

Text Cut: Class notes

• non-verbal equals wandless
• strength of nonverbal
  • regular witches/wizards - non-verbal can be weaker than verbal
  • highly-trained witches/wizards - non-verbal can be just as powerful as verbal
• Very advanced
  • the discipline and focus required can translate into any other area of life

Focus seemed to be a common trend in everything here.

Bella listened carefully as she realized her mistake of non verbal to wandless magic.she carefully took down few notes and looked up to see a red panda coming from no where
[/I]woaw...now where did that come from?[/I] she thought amazed

Carter was taking notes when a red panda flew by. "Wait... what?" he thought to himself. He looked up and sure enough a ghostly red panda flew by. "Well... that was interesting..." he thought watching it float away.

Kylie jotted down a few notes. She really hadn't had much trouble with any of the verbal spells she had learned up until now.. but she didn't exactly want to volunteer herself for a non-verbal spell. The magic was so advanced! She was only a first year! She could only imagine the strange look on her face..torn with indecision. She was so busy trying to decide that when a red panda passed right by her it took her a few seconds to realize something had passed her at all! When she finally did realize it, she was startled to say the least.
Whoa. She thought to herself.

Marie was busy taking notes as she listened to the professor speak when all of a sudden what appeared to be a red panda came out of the end of the professors wand. She was just getting use to sparks coming out of her wand, now animals were suppose to come out of it too? How in the world am I going to make that happen she thought to herself as she looked around to see where the panda had gone.

Adrienne internally sighed as Professor Ashby spoke about non-verbal spells and focus. It was like being back with her grandmother in France, during her lessons there. Except Professor Ashby obviously looked nothing like her grandmother. But she had to admit, she was curious about learning more non-verbal spells. And the panda was interesting. She couldn't tell if it was a Patronus or something else.

Michelle started taking notes about non-verbal spells. This was surely going to be an exciting lesson. What were the uses of non-verbal spells now? She raised her hand and spoke in a low voice. `Professor, non-verbal spells can be pretty useful when you want to attack someone while not letting them know what spell you cast. That way, the opponent doesn't get a chance to block the spell or be prepared!'

Jecca raised her hand and "Most spells are listed by their incantation, with their vernacular name in parentheses, when known. Some spells have no known incantation—the only canonical reference is by an informal name. It is possible to omit shouting the incantation aloud in order to gain a tactical advantage when dueling; such spells can generally only be identified by their effects. As most people, including skilled adults, appear to generally use incantations, saying them aloud seems generally preferable in terms of efficacy. "

Sitting in his chair looking awkward, Jake bit down on his lip, slightly worried. He had the greatest trouble with just the simplest spells, and so far that school year he'd only managed the levitation charm, and even THAT was weak.

Non-verbals? Forget it.

Jake sighed and leaned back in his chair, watching the progress of the... patronus, was it?

Either way, it was a COOOOOOOOOOOOOOT panda.

Edem listened carefully, his eyes fixed upon the professor, his quill brushed against his chin occasionally when he wasn't taking notes.

Levicorpus.. Hoisting the opponent by their ankle? he started drawing a caricature of the image of the spell being done, which had appeared in his mind earlier. Pursing his lips, he let the drawings stay where they were made. His attention returned to the professor. A red panda was bursting out of the professor's wand just when he looked up. What was that?

He thought dumbly of again partnering up and casting random, nonverbal spells to defeat the panda. Meh.

Cool! A Panda Patronus. Jack had never attempted to produce a patronus. That would be so awesome.

Jack was never bored in this class. In fact, he just realized that he was having so much fun that he had neglected to keep up with his notes, so he hurried to catch up. He certainly didn't want to miss anything.

Daniel was so focused on the non verbal spells he had learned that he never noticed the huge panda near the door. He was taken aback by it and almost fell from the chair.

Sky jumped up and down in her seat excitedly. Panda Patronus! She guessed Professor Ashby would levitate the floating body.
She raised her hand to ask a question.
"Professor, can a person perform the Levicorpus hex on a non-solid object?"

With a couple knocks on the classroom door, Constantine entered into the room. "You hailed," he asked, looking at his uncle friend with a 'what's going on' look and then gazing at the class for a couple seconds. Was Ian having panda issues with Spots?

"Yes, actually, I would, but I actually have already sent for one. That's what my patronus was for. Thank you though," Ian said.

"That's a good question," he said, rubbing his chin. "And it will depend from person to person, but generally, because it requires more concentration to produce a non-verbal spell, it should be easier to create a spell while saying the incantation. It might also even increase the power of your spoken spells." He hoped he wasn't overloading the students with all this verbal vs. non-verbal stuff; it was quite a difficult branch of magic.

"Umm.....how about I try that on one of the ghosts here at Hogwarts and get back to you because I have no idea...." It was time to team up with Peeves again.

"Ah yes, here we are," Ian said, smiling at his nephew friend-colleague. "Class, this is our lovely groundskeeper, Constantine Masterson. Mister Masterson here is going to help me with my demonstration today."

He placed his hands on his hips...so superman right now. "Is everyone ready?"

Jack was more than ready. He knew that this would be fun. Knowing a bit about the Professor, he was rather glad that he wasn't the volunteer.

Professor Ashby's patronus was a PANDA.

Wow, how cool is that. Edem chuckled. He looked at the Groundskeeper who came not long after the patronus was sent--are they going to perform a duel? Nodding at the professor's seemingly rhetorical question, Edem indicated that he was ready.

Mina looked between the two men in front of her, setting down her quill. 'Wonder what they are going to do,' she thought as she nodded her head at Professor Ashby's rhetorical question.

Patro-what? Had that ghosty panda thing sent a MESSAGE? Tibi looked from Ashby to Masterson - who was no longer that furry thing Bunbury had made him, thankfully - and back to Ashby.

This was just too much for Tibi's brain to handle. Spells without speaking? Ghost-pandas delivering messages? So, he just stared, kinda vacantly, but kinda alert, at the two men, waiting to see what would happen.

Iris listened to the professor and watched as the groundskeeper came in .... Why was he here? ... She smiled to herself as the professor answered the Gryffindors question. Surely as the Charms professor, he would already know if you could do that? Ah well ...

She Watched them both as Professor Ashby told them that they were going to be having a demonstration ... oooh ... interesting. She was still wondering about why Ashby's patronus thing was a panda ... maby because he slightly resembled a cuddly panda bear? ... She then went on to wonder what hers would be if she could produce one ...

Right now though, Iris was glad that she wasn't Mister Masterson, because she didn't fancy non-verbally dueling Ashby ... He knew LOADS of spells and Iris ... didn't. Well, maybe Mister Masterson was better equipped ... after all, he would know more spells than Iris.

Nataly dropped her nugat-flavoured sugar quill |(it was even writing in a chocolate brown clour!) from amazment when the panda flew from the Proffessor's wand. It was so adorable! She wanted to go and hug it.
Wait! I'm being Hufflepuffish again! Nooo! she thought with panic, and resumed her notes.

So that was the groundskeeper? He looked nothing like Rubeus Hagrid from the chocolate frogs, the legendary Hogwarts groundskeeper in the war against Lord Voldemort.
Nataly nodded at the Proffesor's question. She was anxious to try non-verbals, even if she was only a third year and wasn't likely to success.

Sky opened her mouth in amazement, but closed it quickly. This was the gamekeeper? He didn't even look like he could wrestle a flobberworm. Her grandfather had told her tales of the half-giant gameskeeper from long ago, friend of the famous Harry Potter. This man did not meet her expectations, but she was ready to please.