Oooh fire repellant! Shumeeta took a bottle and quickly began to spray the younger students. The older ones could wait a bit!! As for her own self, that would come later on, probably when the rest of the class had been sprayed.

She could wait ...... she had a whole bottle of the stuff!

"For those of you who are concerned about the fact that we are currently in a wooden shack, rest assured that I have already taken the necessary precautions to be sure the building does not burn down. Not only has the wood been coated with repellant, but several charms are in place." Truebridge watched as the older students sprayed the younger ones. "Do not forget to spray yourselves." He pointed out and shot a small glance at Annie. Quietly, he took a bottle and sprayed her from head to toe, then himself again just to be sure.

Would any of the students recall he was once a dragon keeper? It had been a while since that lesson, the one that had heralded in the duel with Kazimeriz and Truebridge's subsequent probation...

... which still hadn't been lifted.

In any case, he was quite able when it came to fire safety.

Erm okay, he was'nt too concerned about being in a wooden shack with fire because he trusted that that the HOM professor haad set that the right precautions, if it had just beenthe Herbology professor he would have hightailed it out of class a long time ago. As it is they were about to deal with fire which is nerve wracking even in the best of circumstances so he felt it best to just do as he was told. He grabbed some flame repellant spray and sprayed all of the youngest students closer to him from head to toe but at smelling whatever was in the stuff his throat closed up and he started choking before he even tried to spray himself and tries to exclaim the best he could under the circumstances, "I...CAN'T...BREATHE". He started to panic, he had never had anything like this happen to him before in his life, he is absolutely terrified as he feels his body shutting down and he dropped the flame retardent spray and collapsed to the floor with a THUD still struggling to no avail seing everything around him go black.

"Panic attacks are bad." Truebridge observed. "There's nothing in the spray that will have caused a reaction, which is why it is the magical spray of choice when it comes to repelling fire."

Might as well explain that to the class, any opportunity for a lesson.

He flicked his wand at Fred, casting a charm to wake him up and help him breathe. Weak constitution, clearly because Truebridge would never give out something that would harm any student.

"I suppose a volunteer is necessary to escort Fred to the hospital wing."

Fred slowly opened his eyes and saw light and felt sweet air rushing through his body, he could breathe again, he slowly tried to lift himself off the ground and with a little effort managed to do it. Once standing up right he still felt a little shakey as he stared out at everyone as he waited to see who was gonna take him to the hospital wing. His cheeks flushed bright pink, man this is embarassing.

Jake raised his hand straight away, having every desire to get OUT of this lesson and not come back and get away from these scary plants. And that answer to his question had been... okay... but Jake was still not happy with the idea of taking a precious life, even from a plant. He didn't want to KILL!

Ironic, huh?

He had of course, forgotten about the climbing thing.

"I'll tttttake him, sssssir!" he said quickly, eyes over-eager.

"You'll be alright. We'll talk about this later Fred." Truebridge told him, not sternly but without much warmth either.

He didn't really do warmth, even when he meant well.

"Alright. But you will come right back Jake. Ten minutes."

Ethan gestured for everyone to hurry up with the repellant spray.

"Alright we'll start by practicing the wand movement. Its open to interpretation a little bit, but once you get the hang of it and find what works best for you, you will be able to cast stronger. You need to trace a sort of flame shape in the air, and flick and twist your wrist to end."

Ethan demonstrated.

"Everyone will have a slightly different flame shape, the more natural it feels, the better result you will have. This is why it will require some practice."

Complicated wand movements were annoying.

ooc: actually using a wand movement previously taught for this spell in the RP FYI

"I'll ttttry," Jake mumbled, glancing down at his watch-that-wasn't-really-a-watch. He looked over at the nearly dead guy and went over to grab his arm, pulling him in the direction of the trap door and waiting for him to go through first.

How the heck would he get past the tree again?

Hmmm.

Maybe he wouldn't, maybe now he was not focused, he would just be beaten up by the branches. Maybe the smartest thing would be not to dwell on it... to just wait until he had to do anything.

Darn Truebridge and his knowing what Jake was up to.

Poor Fred. Fyo raised an eyebrow as Jake - yes, JAKE - was allowed to escort the Gryffindor ... away from the lesson. Would the Hufflepuff even come back? Fyo wasn't too sure. REALLY.

But ooooh, this sounded awesome! Fyo's eyes lit up when Professor Truebridge demonstrated the wand movement. The fourth year whipped out his own wand, and gave it a try. A flame 'shape' ... mmm. He traced it in the air with his wand, a nice, breezy flame, then glanced up at the History of Magic Professor. Had he done alright?

Noooo ideaaa.

Yet.

Of course there would be a certain wand movement. Why couldn't everything just be simple; say incantation and point? 'Then there would be no school.' Shut it.

Flame shape, flick and twist.
Flame shape, flick and twist.
Flame shape, flick and twist.

Easy. Now what was the incantation again?

Ah yes she had better coat her own self too. Shumeeta directed the bottle at herself and sprraayyyyyed herself ....... wooot wooot!

Okay, on to the wand movement now. The tomboy did as they had just been told to do an' traced the outline of a flame in the air. It was sort of hazy but it felt quite natural ....... soooo she did it again! Flick an' twist. Flick an' twist.

Ya, she had the hang of the thing now.

So he had something of a handle on the ... flame shape thingie, now. Fyo tried it again, then decided he was ready to give the complete wand movement a try, the wrist-flick-twist included.

Once more, he drew the outline of a flame in the air, then finished off the movement with a quick flick, and an easy twist. It was simple, simpler than he had expected it to be, so the fourth year tried it twice more. Then he beamed at his wand, and looked around at the class.

How was everyone else doooooiinngg?

Yes, he .... wondered.

Josh only kept staring around...where was the evil plant? Apparently they were all goin g to fight with it. 'Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!' It was going to be fun and he was planning to burn it more than the others did. He did not care if they were in old wooden ruins or did not care if...his concentration faded when he felt something and looked around again. Some older student was spraying him. ''Thanks'' he said with a grin. 'So fire repellent spray. Cool and...weird.'

Then he took his wand out when Professor Truebridge explained the movement and tried to practice it as everyone else in the room did. 'Flame shape. This shouldn't be hard' It was hard. However he kept flicking his wand and doing what he believed to be a flame shape. 'Hmmm...Where did Rose and Destiny go?'

Taking out her wand, she stared at the movement the Professor did, a fire shaped thing and a flick and twisty thing at the end? Eh, seemed easy. Drawing a little flame in the air, and the flick and twist at the end, she tried a couple more times before deciding she had it down, and leaned against the wall with crossed arms.

If any of that plant gets near her, it, will, buuuuurrrn. And than after that, a three hour shower sounded nice.

"Alright it looks like most of you have the hang of it, The incantation is Incendio. In-SEN-dee-oh. Repeat it a few times until you are sure you have it right and then we will practice casting and finally enter the room and see what it is like to face one of the older and more dangerous types of Snare. Older volunteers," Sans Fred, obviously. "Have your wands ready for the flame freezing charm, but you should practice too if you do not already know the spell."

Ethan moved over to stand by a clearly distraught Annie. He hoped they wouldn't have to have a memorial service for the snare or something.

Oh they were doing the incendio spell? Snickering and shaking her head, she stood up away from the wall and stared around at everyone else. She already knew that spell, she just didn't know that that specific wand movement was for it. She never pays attention to the movement, just the fact that she could do the spell. Well now she wasn't so worried anymore on that part...it was just the part of actually getting close to the snare plant that still freaked her out.

Incendio.
Hmm, seems easy enough. Yeah, Destiny could do this. Buuut the whole using it on Devil's Snare, not so much.
She would stay close to Evelyn, she seems to know what to do.

So they were just going to bust down the door and kill the plant now. Bunbury's face was long and sad and all wrinkled with sadness and feelings of saddity for the plant. Sadface.

She shuffled away from Ethan a little - he'd sprayed her with fire repellent, after all, what if they stuck together? - and motioned for him and the class to just GO ON THEN and KILL THE SNARE since since since....

Oh she couldn't watch. Annie covered her eyes with her palms in anticipation of the dying of the Devil's Snare.

Celandine finished spraying anyone that hadn't been sprayed and because she knew the spell she just waited with her wand ready to cast the flame freezing charm if she had to

Aww poor Professor Bunbury. Maybe Cela could get a cutting from the Snare at home for her?

Jake wasn't entirely sure how much later it was, but he'd sure taken his time and was probably more like twenty minutes rather than ten, but he HAD spent a while deliberating whether or not it was safe to go back or not.

He had, of course, realised he might be in trouble if he didn't go back, and so he went.

Now Jake stood, scowling beside the trap door, for he was suddenly and inexplicably CERTAIN that he would not be allowed to climb that stupid tree. And for this, he just stood and scowled up at everyone, his face stormy, arms folded across his chest.

He would not kill the plant, would not go closer. And as if to illustrate this, Jake turned and stood not with his back to everyone else but his side.

Jake Upstead was now in a bad mood.

"In-sen-dee-oh."

"In-sen-dee-oh."

"In-sen-dee-oh."

The little Hufflepuff continued to whisper the charm in a forlorn, tiny voice. She didn't want to do this. She really didn't. Wesley had never killed a plant before. Her Flitterbloom was wilting sadly on her nightstand; no matter how much coaxing she did. Wesley had even upped the water, so much that the liquid was visible by about a centimeter above the soil. She didn't know what she was doing wrong. But, no matter how limp the plant had become, it was still alive.

Wesley didn't want to become a plant killer. This was almost as bad as that-one-potion-she-had-promised-to-never-mention-again. Correction, it was worse.

So when Jake appeared and showed defiance openly, Wesley wasn't very surprised. She understood; it still made her feel sadder.

But what could she say? 'It's okay?' 'You're not really going to kill it?' 'You don't have to do it?' No. Those where lies. It was not okay, and they where going to kill it, and unless they wanted to end up in the scary dungeons in detention, they where going to have to do it.

So she reached out a tiny hand, and, standing on her tippy toes, tentatively patted him on the shoulder, offering a small smile he probably couldn't see.

Then she returned to spell chanting.

'Incendio' All those moves were for incendio? Sounded like they were and Josh was imagining learning about a new fiery spell. That would have been cool. Everyone used that spell in one of the Divination classes he could clearly remember. Yes, but to adapt the tradition he took his wand back at where it used to be and practiced the pronounciation of the incantation. ''Incendio, incendio, incendio, incendio, incendio, incen...'' his voice trailed off. That was boring and he was unable to wait more for the action. ''Go , go! Let's burn it down!''

Now all fireproofed Melanie watched Professor Truebridge do the spell, a slightly dubious look on her face. She wasn't really sure if she even could do the spell with such a advanced wand motion ....but she'd try. Usually she was pretty good with her wand. While rather eager to learn the new spell, Melanie still wasn't very inclined to hurt the Devil's Snare. It just didn't feel right to kill a plant who had probably been there for AGES when they had just arrived. It wasn't fair. It was his domain.

Watching the expression on the Herbology professor's face curiously with wide eyes, Melanie couldn't help but wonder if she'd be upset at her if she didn't do it. Maybe she'd like them all more if they were all people strangling plants... Perhaps where Melanie had previously decided inside her there was a hungry tiger, there was really a fluffy little kitten just waiting to come out...?

Right. That had to be it.

Deciding she should make an attempt to concentrate on the spell work at hand instead of getting caught up in her thoughts, Melanie bit her lip. Time to practice pronunciation... "In-SEN-dee-oh, In-SEN-dee-oh, In-SEN-dee-ohhhhhh...."

When she felt that she'd done pretty solid at that, Melanie moved on to the part she considered the hard part: The wand movement.

She reached into a few of her robe pockets until she found her willow wand. The young Hufflepuff brandished it in her right hand, moving it around like a burning flame, and then twistin' and flickin'. To tell the truth, the flame shape she made didn't seem the less bit 'natural', but she felt okay on the twist and flick movement.

All I all, she came to the conclusion she'd need much more practice before she actually attempted to do the spell. So, Melanie continued practiced, listening for the indication to do something different.

Truebridge shot a disapproving and disappointed look at Jake's back then turned his attention back to the class.

"Good. If you think you have the hang of it..." He pointed out at the open space looking out over the room below.

"Go ahead and give it a go. Anyone who casts at another person or plays the fool WILL lose points so do not test me on this."

Ethan stepped forward to demonstrate the spell, wand movement and incatation together.

"Incendio!"

A controlled burst of flame spread from his wand and then stopped and he turned back to the class. "As you know, magic works on intent, with this spell, rage and passion are an excellent fuel for that intent. Give it a go now and then we will face the Snare which is the purpose of this lesson of course."

Jake felt the pat on the shoulder from Wesley but didn't look around, but the gesture softened his bad mood and he found himself making more excuses to himself.

It's not like I can DO magic... I'll end up blowing up the shack.

They have enough people making fire... there'll be no plant left.

He totally missed the look Truebridge shot him, but he didn't need to see it to know (or THINK) that another of the few people who had any faith in him was giving up on him. He'd disobeyed the man in the class, the one who was always patient...

Nevertheless, Jake stood back and tried to stay out of the way, hanging around with the stuff that had been put aside for safety. At least he'd come back...

...

Shouldn't have expected anything less than that from a bloody teacher, the boy thought, jumping to his own conclusions.