Melanie opened her book and, pulling out her wand, attempted to mimic the movement. She was so excited to be learning her first spell. Hopefully Prehenso did something really cool, or at least looked impressive. She was anxious to put this wand to work!

Wanting to also make sure she didn't accidentally set something on fire instead of grip it, Melanie then began practicing saying the spell. "Prehenso...PreHENso...PREhenso..." Melanie thought for a moment, wondering at the enunciation. "PreHENso," she said again. Yea, that one sounded the best.

A lot of notes later, Selena sighed. Prehenso... that didn't sound too difficult to say... nor was the wand movement very difficult. Selena took out her wand and looked at it, rolling it back and forth in the palm of her hand. Perhaps she should practice the incantation first? Yes, that sounded about right.

"Pre-hen-so," Selena said aloud - the word felt foreign and weird as she said it. Frowning, she tried again. "Pre-hen-so. Pre-hen-so. Prehenso. Preeeeeeheeeeeennso," Selena continued. Blech. Definitely felt weird. The word didn't seem to get any easier to say. Eh, Selena was sure she'd get it eventually. "Prehenso. Prehenso. Preeeheeenso." Weird word, it was.

Maybe she would be better off practicing the wand movement. Twist and tap. Twist and tap. Twist... and... tap. Twist... and... tap. Yup. Seemed easy. Just the odd, odd word being used as an incantation... Selena supposed things weren't as easy to say as they sounded. Twist and tap.

Twist and tap. Right. Alex picked up his wand, looked at his textbook for a few more moments just to be sure he knew what to do, and then practiced. Twist. Tap. Twist. Tap. That didn't seem so hard. Some of these wand movements were just downright ridiculous and complicated, but this one was simple enough.

He put down his wand and cleared his throat. "Prehenso," he muttered. Another incantation that wasn't too hard. "Prehenso," he muttered again, just to make sure he got it down. Yes, fairly simple to say, he could do this spell no problem!

He picked up his wand again and went back to practicing the wand movement, so he could make sure that when the time came to practice them all together, he knew he had the wand movement down pat.

"Prehenso... prehenso..." Eino repeated the word with a slight modification the second time. After some futile contemplation, he turned away from his parchment and to the professor. After raising his hand, he spoke. "Professor, should we pronounce the 'h' as it is pronounced in the word 'hend' or should it be mute?" Knowing it would make a difference if he mispronounced, he thought it would be best to ask. "Though it would be correct to mute the 'h' I suppose it depends on how it was originally intended to be pronounced, correct? For example, the Fire-Producing Charm is pronounced 'in-SEN-dee-o,' though the correct pronunciation should be 'in-CHEN-dee-o,' but it still works with the incorrect Latin pronunciation." So it wasn't so much about the correct way, but the way the spell was invented and intended to be spelled. He wondered how Roman wizards would feel about this...

Justin practiced the wand movement several times until he was comfortable enough with it. Then he replaced his wand in it's holster and practiced saying the incantation. " Pre-hen-so. I do hope that's right. Professor, Is that the correct pronounciation? I want to be sure to get it right. I'd hate to say it wrong and have something terrible happen." He asked before he said it again.

Sophie opened her book on page 47 and glanced at the instructions. She then grabbed her wand excitedly and was ready to practice! "Finally!" she thought.
"Twist" and she twisted her wand "and tap!" she then tapped it on the desk. She did the movements a few times and then decided she was going to move on to the words. Sophie put her wand down on the desk and looked straight ahead.

"Prrre-hen-so!" wait... "Pr-pRe-hen-so! Pre-hen-so. Pre-hen-so! Prehenso! Prehenso!" Sophie continued repeating the words with a smile. She was actually having fun!

This should be easy enough. Lily thought taking out her wand to practice the motions. Twist and tap. Following the instructions in her book about how to do each step, Lily mastered them quickly. Now on to the incantation. Putting her wand back on the desk, Lily muttered the incantation. "Pre-hen-so, Prehenso, Pre-hen-so." Lily kept repeating this until she felt comfortable with both the incantation and the motions. Then Lily stayed quiet waiting for further instruction.

"Prehenso. PRE-HEN-SO, prehenso" Minerva said over and over again continuing to practice speaking.

She muttered quietly,"Prehenso, prehenso, prehenso."

Keefer carefully set his wand on his desk. Directions followed, he set about the pronunciation process. "Pre-hen-so." Well, at least he could split it up into three actual English words. That made it easy. "Pre-hen-so. Pre-HEN-so." He exaggerated the middle syllable as had mentioned earlier in the lesson.

Well, at least I can say it correctly. Time for the wand movement.

He picked up his wand and held it at the ready. Twist. Tap. Twist. Tap. Twist. Tap. He repeated the motion several more times until he was sure he had it down. It wasn't very familiar to him, since few incantations require it.

Gideon had known Selina of all people would be the one who knew the latin to which the spell was connected to. It was part of the reason he hadn't answered, the other part was he himself wasn't sure of his own answer. Taking down what she had said since Professor Schirmer had approved of the answer, the boy simply listened to the rest.
Then when they moved into practicing he perked up knowing he'd have to contribute, not that he had a problem with it. First to try out the incantation, his wand resting on the desk not in use.

"Prehenso."

"Pre-hen-so"

"Prehenso"

Satisfied with his pronuciation, Gideon moved onto the wand movement, picking up his wand and getting a good grip on it. Twist and Tap...Twist and Tap...Twist and Tap. The Gryffindor moving his wand in the directions he spoke in his mind, practicing for several minutes until he was semi-comfortable with it.

Nathan listened to the professor explain a new spell and its incantation, and its wand movement but what did it do, hmm. He could not wait to find out but now was not the time. Pronunciation was what he knew was key breing such a young wizard so he pacticed, "Prehenso, preehenso, preehensooo, hee hee".

Prehenso. Now that was a new one. "PreHENso. Preh-enso." No, no, no. That was definitely not correct. "Prehenso. Pre-hen-SO. Pre-hen-so." Yes! The last one was it. "Prehenso!" she said more clearly. That sounded good enough. Well, at least she thought so.

Then, Ariella practiced the wand movement. Twist and tap. Twist and tap. Twist...and tap.

Right. Okay. Logan pronounced the spell clearly:
"Presno!" he said. He then blinked. "That's not how you say it, stupid!" he muttered to himself under his breath. He looked around, afraid of anyone seeing him making that mistake. He shook his head and went back to trying to say it. He cleared his throat nervously. "PRE-Pre....pre...?" how did it go again? Ohh gosh..
He looked around and listened to the others saying the spell. OHHH! Prehenso! Right he knew that.
He cleared his throat yet again and said clearly: "Prehenso!" and beamed. There we go! That's EXACTLY how he should of been saying it all along. The blush in his face finally went away and he began practicing the wand movements. Easy peasy!

Minerva decided she had said the spell enough and wanted to practice the wand movement again. So she picked up her wand and began to twist and tap.

Kennedy grinned back when Professor Schirmer smiled at him.

He wrote down the the incantation and wand movement for later reference and then set his quill down. Okay, time to practice the word. "Prehenso," he said. "Prehenso...Prehenso." This was an easy one, now would casting it be the same?

The boy took out his wand and held it in front of him to practice the wand movement. Twist and tap. Twist and tap. Twist and tap.

After practicing both the incantation and wand movement separately he set his wand down on the desk and waited for further instructions.

Looking that other students were still practicing the wand movement and incantation, Alyssa decided that she should continue doing so too. So she first practiced pronouncing the incantation again. "Prehenso....Prehenso.....Prehenso...." Once she was sure that she had got that right, she picked up her wand, again making sure that she didn't say the incantation, she practiced the wand movements, Twist of the wrist and Tap of the wand, Twist and Tap, Twist and Tap. She was going familiar with it. She couldn't wait to try it out for real.

Angelina grabbed her wand and started practicing.

Twist and tap
Twist and tap
Twist and tap.

She believed she could remember that enough! She then laid her wand down on the top of the desk and started practicing saying the word, "Prehenso... prehenso... prehenso." Angelina kept quiet and went over it in her head, with her eyes closed a little.

Again, Sierra held her wand directly out in front of her. She had to figure out a way to make this wand movement less awkward for her. It was the way her wrist was angled, and she still wasn't entirely sure it was supposed to look that way.

She twisted her wand to the right, stopping when she thought she'd twisted just enough. Then she tapped... Still awkward. Was her wrist still supposed to be turned sideways when she tapped?

"Professor?" she asked, raising her hand. "This just feels awkward. When I tap, the position of my wrist just doesn't feel right..." She twisted her wrist to the right again, showing the professor what she was talking about.

Nessie picked up her wand and moved her wand in the direction that the open page instructed. After she felt that she had the movements down she put her wand down and started muttering the incantation.

"That's what I'm here for, Miss Charlotte."

"Thank you for helping a classmate, Miss Hollingberry."

"There is a slight emphasis on the centre syllable, but its a fairly smooth incantation, one you should not over think. Prehenso." Professor Schirmer supplied.

"If it was at the same time, I would have told you so. Its a twist and then a tap. You can practice the tap on your desk." Professor Schirmer almost sounded nice about it. Well at least the kid was on task.

Althea watched for a moment, not quite approvingly, and then moved on.

"Its a twist and a tap, not a swish, dear."

"Good question, Mr Uronen. 2 points. And yes you pronounce the 'h'. Much like Incendio is to Incendiary, Prehenso is to Prehensile, as far as the influence of the English pronunciation goes." She nodded approvingly.

"Yes, just keep practising to get it to roll off the tongue smoothly. You'll get the hang of it."

She watched and then nodded. "Try using a little more of an elbow movement with the tap. Its a natural movement so you have to be careful not to force it, and with your wrist aligned such, there is less room for the tap." Althea suggested.

-----

"Alright everyone. We're going to go outside and get an opportunity to apply this spell very soon, but first I'd like to see if you've been paying attention.

First, I'd like for you to cast this charm on your hand. You'll know when it has worked because your hand will tingle a little bit, and if you run your hand along your desk, the wood will feel slightly more roughened. Don't feel bad if you don't get it right away. I'd like you to cast the charm on your hand and then after you feel the difference between the charmed hand and the uncharmed hand against the wood, I'd like you to cast finite to counter the charm.

Can I get an older student who already knows how to cast finite to come to the front of the class to demonstrate it, please?"

ooc: instructions:
1. cast prehenso on the hand your character is not using their wand with (fairly obvious... right?)
2. put your wand down and touch your desk with both hands and compare the different feeling between the gripping charm and how your hand usually feels on contact with the wood. take note of the tingling sensation!
3. cast finite on your charmed hand.

Older students: If you want to demonstrate finite, just RP coming to the front of the class and showing how to do it, no need to wait to get called on.

Younger students: It might be worthwhile to RP watching how to do finite and practising it too Just saying. *eyes house points*

Once you're charrie has successfully shown they can do this, they'll be allowed to go outside. There will be a thread for this, so simply wait for additional instructions from me. I'll post a link in the first post too.

This should take at least three posts! you have around 20 hours to do this. Other than that, this will be the end of the first part of the lesson.

She watched and set her wand on her desk so she could pay attention more to what was going on.

Oakey wasn't sure if had practiced the charms well enough to go to the front of the class. He set his wand down and waited for an older student to do the demanstration

Okay.. so now all Ira had to do was to practice the spell. Time to practice!

Ira was not fond of theoretical lessons, so she was eager to learn to do the actual spell. Let's start practicing the movement first. She referred her textbook once more.. A twist and a tap. That seems easy. She took her wand in her right hand and began. First, she twisted her wand to right and quickly tapped it against her wrist. "Preh..." What was it again? Oh yeah Prehenso.

She first decided to say the spell over and over again, just to ingrain it within her mind. Prehenso.. prehenso.. prehenso.. That was fine now.

So she repeated once more. Twist and Tap.. then "Prehenso!" against her left hand.

Minerva waited for an older student to go to the front of the room, but it seemed they were being shy right now so she picked up her wand and twisted and tapped her left hand "Prehenso" she felt her hand, but it didn't seem to do anything.