Kurumi looked up from her jabbing practice to listen to the advice Professor Magnus had given. Not so much a jab as it was a fluid jab. What was a fluid jab exactly? Maybe she should pretend to be jabbing with something like a feather instead of her wand? That would probably make the movement softer and less dramatic. Reaching for the stuffed animal that was sitting next to her on her white pillow, and adjusted her sitting position so she could more easily point her wand at it.

"Incarcolvo!" Kurumi squeaked jabbing her wand very slooooooooooooooowly towards the stuffed cat.

Nothing.

Kurumi had expected as much considering Professor Magnus had said that this spell would be very difficult for the younger students.

Shifting her position again, Kurumi repeated the spell three more times and still nothing happened.

Scratching her head, Kurumi rolled onto her stomach and stared at the purple cat. At this rate, she wouldn't mind if it melted like all her other transfiguration attempts had been thus far. At least that meant she was able to change the shape. Nothing happening was...disheartening.

Sitting back on her knees, Kurumi repeated the incantation and wand movement and this time she saw some change. the tail of the cat began to widen and flatten out until it looked like a lopsided pancake. After a few more moments, the flattened tail turned into a purple net looking mess.

Progress? Maybe?

Emily grinned and nodded, she understood... the slight tap on the nose clearly meant yes!.... though now that she knew they were going to practice to living... moving... targets, Emily wondered what they would be.

Were they going to practice on animals? or on each other? sort of like a game of chasey... but instead of tagging people, you'd have to capture them... so the last person standing would win? or perhaps it was more like a game of scare crow??? playing in teams according to our houses you have to capture as many people from the other houses as you could... but their team mates could free them?

Emily sighed... all the possibilities.

Taking another toy she placed it a fair distance away, wanting to test the range of the spell. Once she was metres away she aimed her wand carefully at the small fluffy object.
"Incarcolvo!" said Emily as she jabbed her wand in the direction of the toy. The mesh net thing erupted from her wand again capturing the plush toy with remarkable speed.

Hugo snorted. Cages? OKKAYY, let's do it! Before taking his beautiful shiny wand out his pocket, he practised the incantation. "Incarcolvo." Sounded alright, yeah? Again. "Incarcolvo!"

That was easy.

Then he took his wand. Point, jab. Jab. Jab? Jab.

Even easier.

Then he cleared his throat, pointed his wand at the stuffed animal and... "Incarcolvo!" Alright, that didn't work... >_<

Cage. A cage? Well that sooooo wasn't as fun as shooting arrows at these stuffed animals. With her hopeful smirk smile disappearing, the Slytherin sighed before settling back down into a comfortable position on the ground, leaned back on her elbows, legs crossed by her ankles, and...stuffed animal on her stomach so she could glaaaaaare at it.

Incarsellvo? Wha? Incarselvo...

Meh.

Waiting a few minutes to listen to what everyone else was saying as they practiced, she finally figured it was Incarcolvo. Maybe. Sitting up straight, Evelyn took the bunny stuffed animal and placed it in front of her. Pfft...look at it's limpy ears, beady eyes, and the carrot it held...and just it in general. Yuuuck. "Incarcolvo." she said, jabbing her wand in the direction the bunny.

...

That didn't work. It was all the bunny's fault! "Incarcolvo!" JAAAB! Wooork net! Wor- oh! Wait...wait no. Just a fly. Pffft.

Hyun sat up from his green comfortable cushion . His eyes looked at the stuffed animal that layed on his cushion......a duck...a big yellow plushie ducky that almost! made him squeel.
He grabbed his wand from his holster with a swift movement. Riiiight...so the incantation was... Eeeh.. He looked back at the chalkboard which had the incantation written on. "Incarcolvo?" sounded like a muggle medicine to him... He pointed his wand at his duck , "Incarvolso!" Nothing happened...he jabbed his wand furiously in the air... jab jab jab jaaaaaaab~!!!!

Groaning in frustration because he had hoped he could have done the spell right immediatly, Hyun focused and tried again. "Incarc...ola?" He looked back at the chalkboard , re- reading the word. "In-Car-Col-Vo" he muttered to himself and took his eyes off the board. Pointing his wand back at the duckie plushie, he shouted. "Incarcolvo!" he jabbed his wand once aaaaaaaaand...Fail.

He.Must.HAVE.That.Duck!

Oh, we know what you are getting at, Professor Magnus. Yes we do.

And it was so obvious that Destiny's mind was clear of that person who the Professor was thinking about. She did not conjure up a heart shaped net, did she? Nope.

But, Destiny would have rather had a heart shaped net than a broken wand.

Removing the hood completely off her head, since there was no point in hiding anymore, Destiny gave her wand a good shaking, trying to get the thing to work. If she wasn't so afraid of it breaking completely, she would have banged it against the ground as well. That would come later though, if it was still broken.

Nodding her head towards the Professor, she practiced a fluid jabbing motion with her wand a few times before adding in the spell.

"Incarcolvo!" she said, watching as the black mesh net appeared and..totally missed her stuffed animal.

"Crud."

While other students were practicing the spell, Josh, holding the stuffed dragon in his hands, was only staring at the toy of course his mind was totally elsewhere. And no one needed to ask what was in his mind. They probably already know it, or not. Who cared? Holding the little dragon a little bit tighter, the Gryffindor finally took his gaze away from it and looked around at the other's work as he moved to a more comfortable position on the red cushion he was sitting.

Pfft.

He was starting to get BORED. So to keep himself entertained, the boy started to pay more attention to what others were doing, his gaze, of course, stopping on Evelyn. It looked like she was having an avarage class. Then he glanced at the professor in case she'd catch him staring at the she-snake instead of practising the spell. Well....maybe he had better get started and at least he would keep himself busy. Yes, that was not a bad idea.

So opening his bad he to get his wand...Huh? He opened the bag some more as if about to tear it up. Where was the wand??!! WHERE??!! He could not see the wand in the bag. Either there was something wrong with his eyes or...or the wand had decided to abandon him. Eeeeh! What could he do now?

When he looked up from his bag which only contained messy and unorganized pieces of parchment and a white quill, the first person his gaze landed on was Destiny, the girl who was sitting on the nearest green cushion. And she seemed to be VERY busy with what she was doing. What was she doing anyway? Ha! She had just missed the HUGE animal, had not she?

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Once his laughter at the Slytherin girl was over, he scooted a little bit on the red cushion towards her direction and whispered loud enough to hear from that distance between them ''Pssst. Pssst. Destiney! DESTINEY! You had better gimme your wand. I want your wand.'' Extending a hand towards her, he smirked. ''You have only ten seconds. Be quick and be a good girl. Gimme the wand''

...

She had missed the stuffed animal. HOW could she miss it? It was RIGHT in front of her. Perhaps Professor Magnus had a way to target the thing better or perhaps her wand was really broken.

Standing there in DISBELIEF, Destiny gave her wand a few more shakes, even mumbling something about it being stupid and useless. But, hearing some type of maniacal laughter, she stopped shaking it to find the source. And she should have known. The only person that would ever laugh like a crazy person would be Josh and she had no problem with it..until she realized he was laughing at her.

Narrowing her eyes, she watched as he scooted closer, not really hearing what he was saying until his hand was out in front of her. What the!? Give HIM her wand!? What was he going to do with it?

"Why do I only have ten seconds!?"

It was like one of those moving pictures on the muggle box. Like..

HER WAND WAS GOING TO EXPLODE OR SOMETHING!!

Weird? The teddies looked like....teddies, to her. Maybe Simon just wasn't used to having them around. Sometimes stuffed animals were more of a girl thing. Sometimes. "Doesn't really matter what they look like, Simon, so long as they serve their purpose." Which was to just sit there and get trapped.

....Or not, in this case.

"You're a third year, correct?" Isabelle asked him, standing next to where he was sat. "I don't expect you to be able to do it first time, you know. I doubt your wand is broken, you are just doing a harder spell. Although, you do need to look after them, yes. As for MOT's - I've never had to take mine in anywhere..." But she usually was careful.

*stare*

"Destiny will do no such thing." Ears like a bat, had Isabelle, she heard everything. Of course the fact she was only a few feet away when the whispering began helped. "Five points from Gryffindor for forgetting your wand. Really, Josh. When coming to a spell casting class, you should check your things first, and NEVER go anywhere without your wand! Go back to the castle and get it. NOW. Or it will be more points off." Silly child. Frowning, Isabelle's arm shot out to the side and pointed towards the castle. He was not going to take someone else's. Destiny needed it herself.

Simon looked at the Professor, really to him it did matter what they looked like if they had been blowing them up then no it wouldn't matter but to have to look at one of them for the whole listen well it was going to be hard "Professor why did you have to pick teddy bears?" Surely she could have picked something better. "Profess you could have picked anything like a dinosaur or a dragon." Simon smiled practicing a spell on one of those two creatures would have been cool.

Simon looked again at the Professor and smiled. "I am a third year." he was glad that she wasn't expecting him to get it first time because he had already failed. "I always try and take care of mine." Simon nodded to the Professor if it didn't need an MOT maybe it was ill. "Professor has your wand ever been ill?" Simon loved this lesson but today had gone so badly, he normally would be able to a spell like this and he was sad that his wand was playing up.

Hahahahah. HAH! She was asking oh-why she had only ten seconds. Well...it was because he wanted it that way. He did not need another reason and she did not need to know about that. There was only one thing she needed to know now and it was crucial for her.

''Your ten seconds are gone, Destiney! You lost it. You are NOT a good girl. NOT a GOOD girl!''

So, smirking even wider he slowly and carefully approached her, leaned towards her and was about to snatch the wand out of her grip when...

Gaaaaaaah!

The mean professor totally GOT him! And she had just ruined all the fun of it. Why was she saying that hmmm? Did she own the wand? He did not think so. It was Destiny's wand not HERS! So there was no point she was deciding what the Slytherin girl was going to do with it. Just staaaaaring back at the woman, he did not react the point loss in any way since he was pretty used to it. At almost every class those professors had to take points from him. Meh.

The Gryffindor boy just kept staring at the Transfiguration professor with the very same expression, neither bothered nor happy, as she scolded him and finally raised his eyebrows as a reaction when she practically yelled at him to go back to the castle and get the wand. The boy took a deep breath and then let it out. ''All right. All right. All right. All right. I'm getting it.'' Just don't freak out on me! Crazy, mean woman. Could not she just summon it here? He was going to walk all that way up to the seventh floor, was not he? Pfff. Better start now so he could be done with it as soon as possible.

So jumping on his feet, he slightly glared at Destiny and started to walk towards the castle, leaving the class.

O__O

Destiny staaaaaaaaaared at Josh, it was the only thing she could think of doing at the moment. He said SHE had lost it? Sure, he was talking about losing seconds, but he lost his mind! Josh was a crazy boy, trying to take her wand and thinking she was not a good girl.

And oh sweet Merlin!

The crazy boy was moving closer. Holding her wand very close to her chest, Destiny started backing away from Josh, still not knowing what to do or say. Perhaps if she was able to trap her stuffed animal in the net, she would have been able to trap him. And then ship him to St. Mungo's or something. Get his head checked.

Thankfully, though, Professor Magnus had ears like a bat and heard what Crazy Josh was saying.

Turning her attention back to the Professor when she (hahahahaha!!) took points from him and then sent him back to the castle, Destiny FINALLY knew why he wanted her wand. It was because he was crazy and forgot to bring his own. "Crazy boy." she mumbled, glaring back at Josh as he made his way to fetch his wand.

And just so she was ready for when the boy came back, she was going to continue to practice the spell. Just in case she really did need to trap him in a net and ship him somewhere for help.

"Incarcolvo!"

Jab.

Well. The net was closer to the stuffed animal at least.

Nika pouted when she heard that points were going to get taken away from Gryffindor. She looked at her professor with big eyes. Nika put the matter behind her and looked once more at the stuffed animal. Raising her wand once more she practiced the spell over and over.

Charley leaned over and hugged Jaina after the teddy was repaired.
"It's okay. Just keep practising. I'm not having an easy time either, but it'll get easier."
She practised the incantation a few more times herself, and the wand movement again as well, then cast the spell towards her teddy.
"Incarcolvo!"

K-Lee didn't even care that it wasn't her own polar bear soft toy. She had already named it Reyde, and she loved him. She hoped the professor would let her keep it.

Might as well go on with the spell and such. "Incarcolvo!" Reyde seemed unharmed... The spell though hadn't worked. The net had sort of half formed. Well it was progress.

AnnaBelle wrote the charm incantation into her notebook, she got off her cushion and tried to say it first.."In-car-sol-vo!" she said. "Incarsolvo..incarsolvo..incarsolvo.."she muttered under her breath. "Yeah i can get the hang of this." she thought. She got her wand movements down, with a little flick she said incarsolvo! But nothing happened. "Hmmm typical." she shrugged. She tried again on her stuffed animal which was a dalmation named bentley, she said it and concentrated and it didn't happen. "Professor what am i doing wrong? what are the wand movements again? Belle asked curiously.

Chloe was rather glad that her assumption in her heaead was wrong. She was also rather surprised to learn the assumption in her head was almost right. They were conjuring something for animals out of thin air, not transfiguring the stuffed animal. Oh boy, that would certainly make things tougher. She grabbed a stuffed animal and "incarcalvo", with a jab of her wand, nothing.

"Actually Simon," Issy smiled, "they're not all teddy bears, you just seem to have picked a cushion with one on. There is a dragon, or a whale over there if you want to swap." If it was THAT important to him, anyway. Although honestly, looks didn't really matter.

Bless him. Truly. Ill wands. No. "Not that I'm aware of. If I'm having a bad day though, my magic can play up. Not usually to do with my wand, however. Try focussing a bit more."

Was he...staring back at her? At least his time in detention had taught him, however long it would last, to hold his temper. And Issy was genuinely surprised that he just agreed to go back and get his wand. She was expecting him to argue, or shout at her - leading to another detention if he had. Disrespect was something she couldn't abide. But he didn't. Progress. "Thank you. Try not to be too long, please, I'm moving on shortly." And he was young, surely he could walk quickly. Grin.

Wandering over as a question was asked of her, Issy watched the girl give it another go, and she nodded her head. "Conjuring is not easy, Belle. You're not really doing anything wrong, it's just you need to spend some time perfectly your concentration, and your magic will follow." Taking out her own wand, Isabelle aimed it towards the girl's animal and said the spell, jabbing the wand forwards in one smooth motion. The net erupted and engulfed the animal, before springing up into a cage shape. "See what I did? The wand needs to jab forwards, but not in a jerky movement, nice and smooth. Have another go."



"Alright everyone, I was hoping to move on to the next part of the lesson - as Emily asked, it is with live animals, as opposed to the stuffed ones. It was also going to be in the form of a game...." Isabelle turned around to face them all, once she'd walked up to the front. "But if you wish to spend a bit longer practising, you may. Which would you all prefer?" Because, you know, real animals moved about a bit. Heh.

Helena's eyes went wide as professor Magnus spoke. "We're going to... practice on live animals?"

No, no, no, no, no. NO!

"Aren't they going to get hurt? I mean... if we cast the spell wrong... somehow." She didn't want that. It sounded a bit... cruel.

Simon looked at the Professor and smiled when she said there was a dragon or a whale there, saying that where was this whale maybe it was in the lake. "Professor I don't see a Whale around." He didn't want a toy he wanted a real dragon or whale trying to do a spell on one of those would be cool.\

Simon still couldn't see why his wand wasn't working. "Professor are you sure that it can't be ill, I can go took it in bed if you allow me too, though of course I'd have to borrow a wand whilst it gets better." Simon hoped that the Professor wouldn't mind him doing it, he always focused so that wasn't the problem.

Nika's mouth opened when she heard they were going to practice with real animals. Hearing someone else show concern Nika pipped in to support the girl. "Yeah Professor are you sure it won't hurt them?"

Isabelle was a little concerned that the kids might think like this. Especially the younger ones, who didn't really have a handle on the spell. "No, they won't get hurt," she smiled, tilting her head to one side. "There is only one known way for this spell to go wrong, and that would be just a net coming out, and it not hardening like it's supposed to. You won't damage them, or injure them with a net." If you manage to conjure one...

Isabelle was beginning to get a little irritated with Simon's non-class related questions. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face him and forced a smile on her face. "Simon, the toy whale is over there," she said, pointing to her left. "And your wand is not ill. It's not damaged either, by the looks of it, so please keep trying." Tuck it up in bed? Where did he get these ideas?

"I'm positive. None of you will hurt the animals. The worst that could happen is they end up covered in a net - that you can promptly remove."


Walking back over to the curtain, Issy pointed her wand towards it, and it vanished with a pop. Behind it were two very large pens. One was filled with rabbits, the other was empty. "There are one hundred and fifty rabbits in this pen," she said, gesturing towards them. "They are small like the stuffed animals you have been practising on. The aim is to use the spell you have learnt to capture them, remove the numbered key from around their necks - you only need the numbered ones, place that key in the basket that corresponds to your house, and place the rabbit in the empty pen right here."

She eyed them up and down while she paused for breath. Were they going to understand all this? Mind you, it was fairly simple. "One hundred of the keys have numbers on, the other fifty do not. One of them will open this box..." Strolling over, she placed her hand on top of it and smiled. "The team with the winning key will get whatever is in here, plus 15 extra points for their house." Flicking her wand at the board, a grid appeared with numbers all in a row above it...



"Each time you capture a rabbit with a numbered key, please come over here and strike off that number from the board, adding it next to the name of your house. To make it fair, you can have no more than twenty five keys per house, and no more than one house member in the pen at any one time - so four in all." Folding her hands in front of her, Isabelle sighed. "Are there any questions?"





OOC: Okay, here's how this will work: Not all keys have numbers, so it stands to reason that you won't get one every time you capture a rabbit. When you do get one, please place the number you have - anything between 1 & 100 - in the title of your post, and COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING LIST, STRIKING OUT THE NUMBER YOU GOT. This way we won't get duplicate numbers, and it will be easier to tell who has the winning number - which was picked the other day at random....by my dad. xD