Aim your wand away from your feet?!, the Ravenclaw repeated in her head. How could I cast the spell on my feet when I can't even see them? How are we even going to see what we are doing in this place? Psh.

Grabbing her wand, Gwen decided to start practicing the wand movement, just like everyone else did. This shouldn't be so difficult..., she thought and looked around. Time to practice, I guess... Let's see- circular movement, the third year told herself. Realizing that the wrist movement came rather natural, Gwendolyn practiced it a couple of times, and then glimpsed back at the Professor.

He liked how the professors here had them practice the incantation and wand movement individually first. Like that it was less likely that something would go wrong afterwards. Less likely. Not impossible. But still.

Reaching for his wand, Lewis realized that it wasn't that easy to hold it, and above all bend his wrist with his gloves still on. Were they allowed to take them off for this? He quickly glanced around at the other people already practicing the wand movement. None of them were wearing their gloves. And now that he got to think of it, the professor wasn't either. Huh.

Lewis slowly took off his gloves, and tugged them back into his bag before reaching for his wand again. Ah, that was loads better! Seeing as they were supposed to point their wands away from their feet, Lewis shuffled a little away from a boy close to him who was apparently not paying too much attention and was instead inquiring about cows. Right. Weird school this was. Very weird indeed.

Pointing his wand away from his feet, Lewis tried to mimick the professor's wand movements a couple of times. The 'smooth rotation' proved to be a little more difficult than expected after watching the professor perform it with such ease. But he was getting there. He was usually pretty good at doing spells.

Harvey watched as Professor Bentley did the wand movement.. he then pulled out his wand and bent his wrist the way the professor had bent hers careful not to point it at his or anyone else's feet.. he then did the circular wand movement as the professor had shown. He then heard a fellow classmate ask about the direction of the motion.. and he looked to the professor for the answer.. he then realised he was still doing the motion with his wrist and so he paid more attention to the movement but kept his ears open for the answer.. he kept doing the movement until he was comfortable with the motion and felt that it was done correctly

Hannah paid close attention to the wand movements that the professor was doing. Now it was her turn to try out the movements. She picked up her wand and bent her hand at the wrist and made some pretty smooth fluid motions is you asked her. That was pretty easy she thought to herself. She couldn't wait to put the incantation and wand movement together!

"Looks good dear, just try to keep the motion soft and fluid as if you're doing it without effort."

"Ahh good question Jezzabelle, in fact, have two points."

"The direction of the motion doesn't matter, as we're simply going to be tracing the inside perimeter of the pot, so as long as your motion is smooth and connects, then the charm will work."

Cow?

0_______o

"Uhh what cow?" she asked a little perplexed. How on earth had the boy come to the conclusion of... cow... in the incantation? Chaudensis... there was nothing cow-like about it at all.

"Chaudensis dear... chaw-den-sis."





Well on the whole it looked as though the students were getting along quite nicely. While they continued practicing the wand movement, Seren summoned a box of goggles--because you could never be too safe, and another small cart of watering cans.

Right, gloves, goggles, cans, pots, soil... SEEDS!

Feeling around in her robes pocket, she plucked out an old silver tin and screwed the top off. Inside where the fire seeds, all hot and red hissed a little as it met more oxygen.

"Alright everyone, I trust you all have your notes ready.." and that they were paying attention.

"First things first, you must perform the charm on your pot... now you will know if it has worked because you will feel the sides begin to warm, it wont be hot, just warm to the touch. Then come up and get your materials and follow the instructions on the board."

Simple, yes?

Tapping her wand on the blackboard once more, another line appeared beneath he instructions.

"So everyone come and claim a pot and goggles and get started. ONLY come for your seed when you need it."

"Also should you wish to mark your pot for whatever reason, feel free to do so." ... because she expected at least SOME of them to visit their seedling as it grew.

OOC: To be eligible for full participation marks you need to complete this activity following the following rules:

[1] This must be done in 5 posts, no more, no less.
[2] Do NOT double post.
[3] Title each post with which number you are up to. i.e. #1 ... #2 etc etc
[4] If you require Bentley's assistance write Bentley in the title as well, i.e. #3 Bentley! ...
[5] Have fun, remember you have gloves and goggles so you shouldn't get hurt. If you do you will be asked to leave the class to see the nurse and therefore miss out on the rest of the activity.

Kurumi smiled and winked at Jezz when her question was rewarded. Hopefully the girl caught her look, because in the next moment her attention was turned back towards the front as Professor Bentley moved the class along. Well, first things first. Kurumi grabbed a spare piece of parchment from her bag and wrote down the instructions and placed those in her robe's pocket for safe keeping. Once she did this, she retrieved her dragonhide gloves and goggled from her bag and put the goggles on first, adjusting the band so that they fit snugly on her head and then put her gloves on. After retrieving her pot, Kurumi set it down and removed her wand from its holster - which was a little difficult considering she was already wearing her gloves.

Kurumi leaned over her pot and inspected it for any cracks there might be, and when she noticed none traced a circle inside the pot. "Chaudensis," she chirped. Had it worked? Kurumi pocketed her wand and removed her gloves temporarialy so she could put both hands on either side of the pot where she was pleased to feel that it was becoming progressively warmer. It felt really nice, especially when one considered just how cold the greenhouse was back here.

Deciding to take a moment, Kurumi hugged the pot to her and let it warm her up for a few moments before setting it down and putting her gloves back on.

Raven wore her google and gloves. She noticed on her journal what will to do first.

She took a pot and saw whether there is any water. No. She filled the pot with water.

"Aguamenti." then she charmed the pot to heat itself, she rotated her wrist to make a circular movement.

"Chaudensis." Raven touched the pot. Slowly it became warm. Good! Let's do the next step.

WHAT WAS THIS STUDENT DOING!? Bentley was mentally twitching... POT OF WATER=BAD!

.... breathe Seren, breathe, she said to herself mentally, trying desperately not to explode and eat the student like an Ogreous Oak. Merlin that would be terrifying.

"Raven! minus five points for not paying attention! a pot of warm water is NOT going to do your fire seed any good! Pay attention and read the directions carefully!"
Rubbing her temples... Seren tried to calm down... yes... students, head her warning. Read the directions CAREFULLY.

Having now pried herself off the pot, Kurumi felt even colder than she had before. Maybe it had been a bad idea to warm herself up a bit. Note to self, don't do that again.

Still with her gloves on, Kurumi returned to where Professor Bentley was standing and grabbed a bucket and a shovel before taking some dirt from the pile. Once her bucket was filled, Kurumi dragged it back to her station and wiped the sweat from her brow with the sleeve of her robe. Merlin was this bucket heavy. She then picked up the small shovel and began to scoop the dirt into her pot, patting it down here and there but not too hard. The dirt did need to breathe after all. When the dirt had filled half the pot, Kurumi put her shovel back in her bucket and set them both to the side. Now she needed to wait for it to heat up.

After a few minutes, Kurumi removed the glove on her right hand and stuck her index finger into the pot to see if the soil was warm enough. Nope. Still had a chill to it. Better wait a little longer.

Messer pick up his note book and wrote down all the instructions. Then after he finished with his notes, he retrieved his dragonhide gloves and goggle from his bag. He put the goggle first because he thought it'd be so much harder if he put his goggle when he already wearing his gloves.

The first year claimed one of the pot "Chaw-den-sis" He said the incantation while rotating his wand in a circular motion. Did it work? The Professor said that he will feel the sides begin to warm. Messer removed one of his gloves and he put his-free-glove-hand on one side of the pot and he can feel that its warm like Professor Bentley said. He did it. He DID it! Yay for him!

As the Professor spoke, Amelia looked down at the instructions she had copied down:

Quote:

1. Charm pot to heat itself.
2. Fill half of pot up with soil and let it rest for several minutes to warm up.
3. Carefully take a single fire seed with dragon hide gloves and place on top of the soil.
4. Cover fire seed with soil, so that pot is filled. Pat the soil down a little (not too much, you don't want to suffocate it).
5. Water the fire seed with boiling water, without drowning it.

For boiling water, add water (via aguamenti) to the watering can and heat it. This will ensure you 1. control the temperature and 2. don't over water your seed. Use a VERY small amount, simply enough to moisten the soil.

As Professor Bentley had said, the first step was getting the pot to heat itself. Taking out her goggles and her gragonhide gloves from her bag, she placed the goggles over her eyes before carefully putting the gloves on. Now she was protected from both the heat and anything potentially getting into her eyes.

After going up to get a pot, she returned to her table and with some difficulty - because of the gloves - she picked up her wand and moved it closer to the pot. Next, she inspected the pot to make sure that it was intact, because she didn't want to risk any holes or cracks going unnoticed.

Once she was satisfied with her pot, she picked up her wand again, placing it inside the pot, and did the proper wand movement while saying "Chaudensis."

After waiting a moment, she removed her hand from inside the pot and placed her wand on the desk again. She put both hands on the outside of the pot now, so that she could feel if it was getting hot or not. At first she had thought that she had failed, but then she noticed the increasing warmth. She sighed happily at how nice it felt, then went to look at her instruction sheet again. She crossed off the first step:

Quote:

1. Charm pot to heat itself.
2. Fill half of pot up with soil and let it rest for several minutes to warm up.
3. Carefully take a single fire seed with dragon hide gloves and place on top of the soil.
4. Cover fire seed with soil, so that pot is filled. Pat the soil down a little (not too much, you don't want to suffocate it).
5. Water the fire seed with boiling water, without drowning it.

For boiling water, add water (via aguamenti) to the watering can and heat it. This will ensure you 1. control the temperature and 2. don't over water your seed. Use a VERY small amount, simply enough to moisten the soil.

After writing down the instructions, Nora walked over to take a pot and a pair of goggles and returned to her stool. She wasn't sure when exactly she will be needing the goggles, so she put them on, aware of how silly she must have looked, and, when the gloves were on her hands, she pointed her wand at the pot.

First doing a few more rotations, bending at the wrist, she finally muttered "Chaudensis" while doing the wand movement, and waited to see if anything was happening. Without taking her gloves off, she cupped the pot to feel that it was heating itself, which was good.

Returning to her instruction sheet, Amelia saw what she had to do next was the obvious job of filling the pot halfway with soil and then letting it rest while it warmed up. Not too hard she figured.

Going up to the front, she walked over to where Professor Bentley was and grabbed a shovel and a bucket before she started scooping up what she thought to be a fairly decent amount of soil for the task. Once satisfied, she returned to her table and started filling her pot.

She made sure that she patted the soil down in the places that it seemed to need it without making it too compact for the plant. As soon as she was sure that she was at the halfway point, she put her shovel down and started the waiting part.

She waited several minutes before taking the glove off of one of her hands and placing a finger inside. The soil was warm, but not hot.

Perfect

She crossed the second task off of her list now:

Quote:

1. Charm pot to heat itself.
2. Fill half of pot up with soil and let it rest for several minutes to warm up.
3. Carefully take a single fire seed with dragon hide gloves and place on top of the soil.
4. Cover fire seed with soil, so that pot is filled. Pat the soil down a little (not too much, you don't want to suffocate it).
5. Water the fire seed with boiling water, without drowning it.

For boiling water, add water (via aguamenti) to the watering can and heat it. This will ensure you 1. control the temperature and 2. don't over water your seed. Use a VERY small amount, simply enough to moisten the soil.

After checking her notes, Nora made her way to where the soil was and returned with just enough to fill one half of the pot. Making sure it was no more, no less than a half, she took another look at the instructions while she had to wait for it to warm itself up. She had to hold back the giggles when she thought they might as well have taken care of dragon eggs, with all that heating process.

When she was eventually getting bored of waiting, she softly patted the soil and felt it fairly warm. Now, time to deal with the fire seed.

The activity was already beginning, and Sierra would get to it in just a minute, but she hadn't exactly had enough practice with the wand movements yet. Trying the charm on an actual pot before getting the wand movements down pat couldn't result in anything good, and so Sierra went through the movements one more time before charming the actual pot.

She held her wand in front of her and bent her hand at the wrist, ensuring the wand was now facing downward. Remembering to make smooth rotations and to not move her entire hand, Sierra moved her wand around in a circle. Hmm--seemed easy enough. Easy enough to go ahead and get started on the actual pot.



Sierra rummaged through her bag, grabbed a piece of parchment, and jotted down the instructions for the activity. She paired them with the notes she already had then turned back down to her bag to retrieve some other materials. She slipped her goggles on over her face, adjusted them so they weren't too tight or to loose, and then slipped her gloves onto her hand. She double-checked to make sure she had on all the necessarily protection equipment. Yup, all there. The last thing she needed was to lose valuable house points before she even got started.

Right, so now she needed a pot. Sierra retrieved one and placed it directly in front of her. She flicked her wand out its holster, getting a good grip on it straight away, so that it didn't fall to the ground. All good? Yup, all good. Time to charm the pot. Sierra raised her wand toward the pot then moved her wrist in all the right directions. After tracing a smooth circle using only her wrist, Sierra said, "Chaudensis!"

Okay, so now she needed to check and see if it worked. She pushed her wand back into her holster to free her hands. She placed her hands on the sides of the pot and waited to see whether it'd be warm to the touch. A few seconds later, she felt a low heat begin to rise to the surface of the pot. Smiling to herself, she removed her hands off the pot, pleased to see that the charm had worked.

Alyssa reviewed her journal before preparing to start planting the fire seeds.



She took out the pot and first made sure that it was clean by pointing her wand at it and saying "Scourgify". Once it was clean, she put on her dragonhide gloves on her hands and put on her goggles to protect her eyes, before picking up her wand and began the process of heating up the wand.

Pointing her wand inside the pot, she moved it in a circular motion while saying the incantation,"Chawn-Den-Sis". She then removed one of her gloves to touch the pot to make sure that it was heating up. She could feel it warming it up, so she put on her gloves again and waited a few more seconds before proceeding to the next step.

Gwen took a pot, a pair goggles and a watering can.
Before charming her pot, she put on her goggles. Doing the wrist-twisting movement her wand, she said, "Chaudensis."
Not quite sure how to see if the charm had worked, Gwen pressed her hand against the pot. She wasn't sure if she was just imagining it, but the pot seemed to be warming up.
Although Gwen wanted to mark her pot, she didn't know how.

Making sure that her gloves were making their job and protecting her hands, Nora walked once again over to where professor Bentley was, and also the fire seeds to carefully take one and return with it to her pot. Trying not to make any sudden move, only because she had that insane idea in her head that the seeds might explode any minute, she placed it in the middle of the pot, on top of the already warm soil, glad that step number three was finished. But, thinking that there were two more steps to go, she couldn't relax just yet. She still had enough time to burn her hands.

Louisa stopped her practicing and listened to what the professor had to say. It sounded quite easy, and with every instruction the girl would nod her head and arrange the steps carefully in her mind. Once Bentley gave the green light for them to go ahead, Louisa stuffed the other glove in her hand so that both of them were gloved now, and slipped down her goggles. There, she was all ready for the operation.

The Ravenclaw went ahead and chose a pot before grabbing her wand and clearing her throat. "Okay so, the incantation is easy and the wand movement is easy too.." preparation phase was over. "Chaudensis." Tracing a smooth circle moving only her wrist. Louisa waited for a second before getting rid of one glove and touching the pot with her finger. Nope. Not warm at all.

SIGH.

Again. "Chaudensis!" Rotating her wrist in a careful smooth circle. The wand felt different this time. Enthusiastically, Louisa touched the pot with her finger and BAM! It was warm indeed. Yay! First step was success.

Ira reviewed and updated her journal:


Then she took the goggles and put them on. What else safety did she need? She had already put on the gloves before. So now she was all set to plant the fire seeds. So she looked in her journal for the next step.

She had to charm the pot to heat itself. She retrieved a pot and set to work. As instructed, she rotated her wrist and muttered, "Chaudensis". To check if she had been correct in casting the charm, she removed her gloves and touched the pot. t currently didn't feel any warm, but yes, it was increasing. So that meant she was right for now!

She updated her journal:

Hannah picked up her quill and copied all of the notes from the board and checked them twice to make sure that she had copied everything down correctly. She kept them out to use for reference. She didn't want to mess anything up. She pulled out her goggles and tightened them up until she had a perfect fit. She then slipped on her gloves.

Hannah retrieved her pot and looked it all over. It seemed to be in good working condition. Hannah traced a circle in the pot and very clearly stated "Chaudensis." She hoped that had done it correctly spo she placed her hand on the pot and sure enough it was getting warm. She couldn't help but to smile to herself. She felt really good about her progress.

Messer put back his gloves on then pick up his notes and saw that he need to fill half of pot up with soil and then let it rest for several minutes to warm up. He went up to in front of the class where the soil was and returned with what he thought enough to fill one half of the pot. He made sure that he filled the pot exactly a half no more, no less. Now all he need to do was wait.

Several minutes later, Messer took his glove off placed his hand inside and he it feel warm, not too hot just warm. Good!

It was now time for the fire seed, and Amelia was glad, because she was kind of eager to put this plant seed in the soil and check on it as it grew. She was just sorta oddly into Herbology. :3

After placing her dragonhide gloves on in order to avoid burns and an annoyed Professor, Amelia headed back to the front and carefully picked herself a nice looking fire seed. She inspected it curiously to make sure that it was in what seemed to be fine order, and then headed back to her pot.

Carefully she placed her seed on top of the soil in what she deemed to be the center.

She crossed off the third step in the assignment now:

Quote:

1. Charm pot to heat itself.
2. Fill half of pot up with soil and let it rest for several minutes to warm up.
3. Carefully take a single fire seed with dragon hide gloves and place on top of the soil.
4. Cover fire seed with soil, so that pot is filled. Pat the soil down a little (not too much, you don't want to suffocate it).
5. Water the fire seed with boiling water, without drowning it.

For boiling water, add water (via aguamenti) to the watering can and heat it. This will ensure you 1. control the temperature and 2. don't over water your seed. Use a VERY small amount, simply enough to moisten the soil.

With another brief look over the instructions, Nora helped herself with more soil, just enough to fill the second half of her pot and returned to her seat. Afraid that she might do something wrong and eventually suffocate the seed, she took her time and carefully sprinkled tiny amounts of soil on top of it until she filled the pot.

As she was softly patting the soil, she wondered though, how could the fire seed survive in the soil. Didn't fire need oxygen? Or... it probably made its way thought the soil. Yup, that had to be it.

Once her pot had been heated enough, she looked over in her notes for the next step:


Now she had fill her pot with soil.. no, half fill it. Okay.. then putting her gloves back on, she went to the front and grabbed a shovel and bucket. Then she dug a little and collected some soil. Then taking it in her bucket, she returned to her pot nad pored it into it, till it was half-filled.

Now she had to wait for a few minutes to allow it to rest and heat up. Meanwhile, she updated her journal: