Lara watched the Professor closely as he split the rubber duck into two halves. She kinda felt sorry for the dock it looked cute. But no time for emotions.

She headed towards the box and picked a little wooden thing from it. She stared at it trying to figure out what it is. Simply it was a mini box.

She walked back to her seat ,took out her wand cleared her throat and tested her voice "Diffindo!" Then it was splitting time! She held the mini box and tossed it into the air just like the Professor and shouted "DIFFINDOOO!" But nothing happened except that the box was flying in the air!

Lara's face reddened immediately, she walked towards the box. She picked it up and walked back to her place trying to swallow her disappointment. This time she didn't throw the box ,she just put it down and held her wand up and said "Diffindooo" The mini box barely moved this time.
She held it with anger she wished she could split it into tiny pieces with her bare hands! She eyed the box and said "Why aren't you braking?" she felt dumb for talking to it but she couldn't know what's wrong with it?!

Most of the class seemed to have started getting the hang of the spell. Time to address the students as a whole, again? "We'll move on to the class activity in a few minutes," Jared announced, "But, before we do that, who can tell me what this plant -" He held up a bunch of gillyweed on a square of aluminium foil - "Does, when consumed by a witch or wizard?"

And before they started getting ideas...

"We are not going into the lake."

Not really.



OOC: Few minutes = six hours, or more. xD It's well past bedtime for me right noow, so the class activity will probably start sometime tomorrow.

Gillyweed?

Oh no.

"We can breathe underwater if we take that," Helena said with her hand in the air, throwing an awkward look at the gillyweed that professor Descoteaux was holding. It was a really good thing that he mentioned NOT going into the lake, since Helena would've never done that.

... just because she doesn't know how to swim. But shh. That's a secret.

Lara nodded as the Professor told her what was wrong with her conjuring. She felt stupid for focusing on the tossing part as she forgot the motion the Professor told them about.

So Lara held her wand again and moved her wand in a downward-slashing movement as she said "Diffindo!" And for her joy the mini box split into two halves! "Huh!" she smirked at the box but she wasn't satisfied yet.

So she fixed it by saying "Repero!" so the box was whole again. She then cleaved it again by shouting "diffindo!" and it split again. She wanted to continue with this... splitting, reparing, splitting ,reparing....
However, the Professor got out a hidious plant and asked them about it.

Well, Lara wasn't an expert at plants issues but when he said a gillyweed ,she thought why not to give it a shot, so she raised her hand and answered "Is this the gillyweed that When it is consumed, it grows gills between the fingers and toes so it kinda turns the person into a fish?" she asked. She hoped she was kinda right.

Daichi was so afraid that the professor would yell at him that he had closed his eyes, waiting for the points to be taken for damaging the desk. He peeked through his slits and saw that the Professor had walked up to his desk and he gulped. He re-pointed at his desk and carefully opened his eyes. Please don't shout, please don't shout.... Luckily he didn't and Daichi carefully opened his eyes to check what he was doing instead. He could just caught a glimps of the table being healed by some spell... which looked oddly familiar. "Thats the spell Evan did when he helped me at slug and jiggers!" he exclaimed and clapped his hands. That was such a cool spell.. "what's it called,?" he asked and then he remembered that he was talking to a teacher and he quickly added the "Sir?" with a faint blush of embarrasment on his cheeks.

Now that he had helped him, Daichi looked differently at the professor...but he was still a ducky killer though! But when he placed the rubber duck back on the table and used the healing spell again Daichi smiled broadly. "You healed Mrs. Duckles!" he said happily as his eyes twinkled. This prof wasn't so bad! OH! maybe he could have Mrs.Duckles so that she (yes the rubber duck is a she) and Mr.Duckles can be friends?! "Uh..can i have Mrs. Duckles? Professor?" he asked while pointing at the rubber duck and looking at the professor with puppy eyes .

He.wanted.Mrs.Duckles.NOW

Daichi smiled and nodded his head when he was instructed to try again. He looked back at the toy car that lay on the edge of the now healed desk and pointed his phoenix feather wand at it. He took a deep sigh as he concentrated on it. "DIFFINDO!" He shouted and made a slashing movement with his wand. The same sound and magic appeared like before and Daichi looked eagerly at the toy car.

Which was still whole. So what did he hit now? Daichi found out a second later that he had cut the floor. "Stupid spell..." He muttered and pouted his lips as he crossed his arms. If only he knew how to use that reparing charm ..or maybe not, it would probably end up exploding the whole classroom.


Luckily, time for practising the spell was over and Daichi reholstered his wand back and took a seat on his chair. He watched curiously as the Professor held up a bunch of slimey odd green things. He remembered reading about it before school started when someone....his eyes automatically tried to find the Slytherin Prefect... told him there would be a three hour sorting test! But he couldn't remember the name. It looked familiar but he just couldn't place it. So instead he leaned back in his chair and listened to the other students.

Marilyn nodded to a house mate, whom she did not know and furthered the explaination. "Documented instances in which Gillyweed was used include in the Potter era, during the Tri-Wizard tournament. It allowed him to remain under water for...an hour, if I remember correctly."

She rubbed her neck, a gesture that'd always helped her think. "It's suppose to be extremely rare, I believe."

"It causes the witch or wizard to grow gills," Arya paused to slash her wand through the air in a downward motion, and mutter the incantation, eyes on the block of wood as it split cleanly in half. "And their toes and fingers become webbed for about an hour."

She wasn't too disappointed that she wouldn't be going into the lake, but she was curious as to why he would bring up such a plant. Her free hand went up belatedly as she cast again.

Ariella's hand shot up into the air. She had already done lots of reading about gillyweed, and having studied it in Herbology helped. "Gillyweed - when consumed by a person - causes the witch or wizard to grow webbing between the fingers and toes. Also, they grow gills. It lasts for about an hour."

Once she finished her answer, she grabbed her wand again. "Reparo!" she said firmly, pointing to the split chocolate frog box. It immediately returned to its original state.

Kurumi, who had been practicing her Severing Charm on a white mitten, had managed to gain control of the spell more easily than other spells - meaning there had been no melting. This was most likely due to her using it in Herbology a few times to trim plants.

She looked up at the professor when he held a mass of green something in his hands. Peering over her desk a bit, it didn't take long to figure out what it was. "Due to its grey-green rat tail appearance, I'd say that that is gillyweed professor," she said with her hand raised up high in the air. "The witch or wizard who consumes the plant will grow gills and webbing between their toes and fingers, which will allow them to breathe and move freely under water for a period of time - about an hour." Kurumi rested her hand on her desk as her brain began going into overload trying to figure out the connection between gillyweed and the Severing Charm. Was this class actually a combined lesson with Herbology? No, they had had an announcement on the Gryffindor house board about their next Herbology lesson already.

Was he going to suddenly fill the classroom with water? Or was the water already there. It DID feel cool in the classroom...

Kurumi began to chew on her bottom lip. "P-Professor, I have often wondered why it is that gillywater doesn't produce the same effects as swallowing straight gillyweed. Is there a process or charm placed on the gillyweed while making gillywater that accomplishes this?" Good to know in case she ever decided to make gillyweed cookies or something.

As everyone had already answered, it was the plant that allowed for a person to breathe underwater for certain amount of time by producing gills. Eino heard a lot of herbologists who studied underwater plants preferred to use gillyweed because it allowed them to see underwater much better than by using charms. It also facilitated swimming and allowed them to speak underwater, which was a great help. His thought process was then interrupted by a familiar voice behind him.

He raised his hand hesitantly. He was speaking, even though it wasn't to answer the professor, but really what else could he say, but he might as well ask for permission anyway. "Gillywater does not contain the actual Gillyweed. It's like when you make tea or strawberry water, you use the leaves and fruit for taste, but you don't actually eat them." At least he never did. Okay, once he ate the tea leaves. Twice, maybe. Three times max. Even though his mom always told him not. "So you don't consume the part of the plant that changes your body." Gillywater wasn't that good, anyway. It tasted like wet dirt.

Penny had been busy with her choices from the box... a cuddly teddy bear and a wooden rocking horse.having tried and failed three time in a row to do any damage whatsoever..

Penny decided to have another go on the teddy bear, "Dih -FIN- doh" and brought her wand down in a downward slash movement..And Hey Presto, the lil bear was in two halves.....

Penny then stuck her hand in the air to answer the question now..."Sir, I think that's Gillyweed, and when it is eaten, the person gets gills on the side of his/her throat so they can breath safely under water and also they get elongated and webbed fingers and toes"

She sat back into her chair wondering; if anyone has noticed that it is Penny sitting among them, not Violet Le Veela...

As usual Violet got the Diffindo charm down with no problem and had easily split a bowl in half and was able to repair it by saying the Reparo charm fluidly. Her other object choice was a tad bit difficult she had to admit being that it was an old clock, but because she concentrated very hard and focused she was able to repeat the charms as she did before. It was still taking Violet a while to get used to not being, 'herself' but she knew it wouldn't take that long for her to get accustomed to being, Penny.

When she looked back at Professor Descateux she noticed that he was holding a rather ugly looking plant but oddly enough Violet knew right away what it was and raised her hand without hesitation. "That's the gillyweed plant sir, and when consumed it gives the witch or wizard gills and webbed hands and feet. It also allows that witch or wizard to breath under water, but only for a certain amount of time..An hour I believe.."

Selina watched carefully as Violet started to charm the teddy bear. Something was off... Violet Le Veela was the most brilliant witch at Charms she had ever seen and now she was having trouble performing a simple Diffindo Charm? That was not like her at all. And there was a sparkle missing in Violet's eye when she performed the Charm. Selina Skylar knew her best friend and this was very out of character for her. She leaned over and said to her friend, "What has you all out of funk with your Charms today?"

Then when the Professor posed the next question Selina replied, "Sir, that's gillyweed, that is. It's a plant with special properties that everyone has mentioned gives the person who ingests it gills for an allotted amount of time. Usually an hour with a certain amount of gillyweed."

Gillyweed? Rebecca, being muggle-born, knew nothing about it . But the professor did say that they weren't going into the lake. Soooo, she took an educated guess. "Professor," she started. "I think that Gillyweed allows the user to breathe underwater, when, ummmm, eaten, I guess..." A good guess for the young girl. A very good guess.

Penny jumped a little when a Gryffindor girl spoke to her.... she had no idea who this girl was - then realising almost in the same second, that this most be one of Violets friends..

"Uhm, nothing, i'm fine Selina", giving the girl a brilliant smile... hoping that would be ok ...Penny didn't want to lose points for Violet by talking in class..

Kurumi looked over her shoulder when she heard someone else addressing her question and she tried not to giggle too much when she saw that it was Eino. She really ought to have known, he was rather brilliant when it came to magical plants. That is, as long as you ignored the Owlery incident from their first year that had brought about the end of Faustus. But...that was only on incident, right?

Nodding as she listened, what Eino said made perfect sense - although she wasn't entirely sure what strawberry water was. It did sound delightful though. "Thanks Eino," she smiled.

"Eating it makes a person grow gills and webbed hands and feet," Sierra answered, her hand raised in the air. She lowered it before saying anything else. "So then the person can survive in a place where gills and webs are...well, needed." She eyed the gillyweed. It looked...disgusting. Then again, it hadn't tasted too great when they'd eaten it last school year in the Slytherin Common Room either. Hmm.

" Thanks for the help profeesor" Willaim told him.

William raised his hand. " You can also use Gilyweed in Gillywater for a drink" William told the professor, " Professor McGonagall used this as a deink" William said to the professor.

Lucy knew this answer is was a easy question for her. She quickly raised up her hand and said "Professor, when a witch or wizard consumes this, they grows gills and webbing between their fingers and toes. Which makes them like a fish so they could breath in the water too. The effect of gillyweed in fresh water lasts for about an hour." as she finished saying that she took her hand down and looked at the professor with a smile.

With a disgusted look on her face, Louisa raiser her hand, "I remember that this particular plant allows humans to turn into an underwater creature." if that made any sense.. Louisa thought so either ways, "Gills.. and layers between the toes and the fingers.. even that smoothing way of swimming underwater." She left out the fact that she would never eat something like that... it had that octopus looking if you stare at it closely! Eeew!

Hmm… the plant- I know it! We talked about it in Herbology… ‘It is Gillyweed’, she started saying. ‘When it is eaten by a witch or wizard, one grows gills and webbing between the fingers and toes. The plant helps one swim and also kind of breath under water… There is some debate among Herbologists as to the duration of the effects of Gillyweed on fresh water versus salt water, but the effects of Gillyweed in fresh water seems to last about an hour.’ And that’s all I know…

Corona thought for a moment. That's it! Gillyweed! "It's gillyweed professor." said Corona. "It allows you to grow gills and webbings between fingers and toes. So you'll able to breathe underwater!" Corona answered quietly, and looked down. She doesn't like to speak up in class.

Eh. Strange, cute kid.

"It's the Mending Charm," Jared said. "Reparo." Wait, what in the name of Hades was Mrs. Duckles? Following the boy's wiiiide-eyed gaze, Jared looked down to see... the rubber duck on his desk. He glanced up, from the object to the huge-eyed boy.

Glanced down, from the boy to the duck thing.

...

"Sure."

He knew before the floor was scratched that it would end up scratched, considering that Daichi's aim seemed to quite, quite off. "Try casting the charm on a larger target first," he said, deciding that a small, toy car didn't seem like the best of targets, as far as Daichi was concerned. The Slytherin needed to work on his aim, before he started working on his charms skills.


Trust Kurumi to think of what no one else was thinking of. Eino, in true Ravenclaw fashion, had answered her question before Jared could, though, and the Charms professor gave the Eagle a faint smile.

"Take a point for Ravenclaw."




They had all said the same thing, more or less. "Take two points each," Jared said. "The plant is gillyweed and, when consumed by a witch or wizard, it gives him or her gills and webbed hands and feet, allowing the witch or wizard in question the ability to breathe underwater for a specific period of time. If someone intends to consume gillyweed, it's preferrable he or she do that after entering a water-course, because breathing above water after you have gills can be..." A complete disaster? "Problematic." To put it mildly. "There's a pouch containing gillyweed and an 'antidote' on each desk -" The pouches appeared there, each containing a bunch of gillyweed enclosed in a light, silver wrap and a bottle that said, Drink this to get rid of those gills - "Pick it up and keep it with you. We're moving on to the next part of the lesson now, and the gillyweed might come in handy."

The classroom had begun to change, even as Jared spoke. The chairs sloooowly shifted out from underneath the students and, once the students had gotten to their feet, then the walls, ceiling all shifted, until the classroom had acquired the look of what might have seemed like an indoor playing area - if it weren't for the fact that the tunnels and slides were huge enough to allow several people to use them without colliding with the roofs or walls or each other - in which the students were left standing. Here and there, a slide or tunnel emerged into a square of knee-deep water. On the floor - or the surface of the water, as the case might be - there were bright arrows that disappeared under foam walls, mountains of sponge balls and the like. Professor Descoteaux's voice could be heard over the set-up.

"Follow the arrows. You'll find your way being blocked by different things. Sever them with Diffindo to move on. Your task is to follow the arrows until you return to the portion of the classroom that hasn't been changed."

When the classroom begain to shift, Salander jumped out of his seat and grabbed the pouch on his desk, stuffing them down the pocket of his robes. His eyes shifted at the new form the classroom took, a slow grin spreading across his features. It was like he was a kid again in a sunday afternoon at McDonalds with his folks. Yeah that was a looong time ago, when he was genuinely happy and everything seemed perfect to him.

He reached out for his wand in his pocket and made his way into the obstacle course, heading straight for the large tunnel...

WHAM!

"OWWW!!! What the?!?" he grumbled painfully, nursing his forehead and glaring at the tunnel ahead of him. He reached his wand arm out and suddenly felt something hard and invisible. "Huh, well whadaya know" he stared, rapping his knuckles against the plastic glass. He flicked the wand just as they had practiced and stuck between trying to do it non-verbal and the habit of saying spells alound he eeeked out a "difindo." Nothing. He sighed frustrated. He had a looong way to go with this non-verbal thing "DIFINDO!" he hollered, the spell striking the glass and cleaving it wide open. Hah!

When Kurumi saw the pouch appear on her desk, she didn't need to be told twice that she needed to grab it. Immediately doing so, she stuffed it into her robe's pocket just in time to see the classroom begin to shift. Why did the classroom always have to turn into something? Water balloon fight, chocolate frog war zone, winter wonderland...couldn't they do something calm and relaxing while practicing charms?

That thought sounded ridiculous and Kurumi was rather pleased that she hadn't said it out loud.

At the professor's last comment, Kurumi found that the ground beneath her had vanished and she was falling down...down...down...

She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Soon, her body hit something spongy and she half expected to have been submerged in water as was demonstrated by her already reaching towards her pockets to pull out the gillyweed. Instead, she found herself in a vast ocean of colorful squishy balls. Her feet touched the floor and she was relieved to find that she could stand up. Still, her head was just barely popping out over the top.

Great, now what was she supposed to do? Oh, right, follow the arrows...

Kurumi turned around looking for something that resembled an arrow, but she found that seeing anything other than colorful orbs was the real challenge at the moment.