So the time had gone. The bottle rocket would now be shot into oblivion, and...maybe it won't ever come back. Had Burbage's even landed yet? Sierra glanced around, but she didn't even see Burbage at the moment with the large crowd of students.

She stood over the bottle rocket, yet not so close she'd blast off with it, and pointed her wand at her creation. She traced a circle in the air over the bottle then said, "Explaeris!" ...and then the flapping commenced.

*FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP*

The bottle rocket began to shimmy as if it was lingering somewhere in between wanting to blast off and wanting to just settle down again. More flapping then...

*FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP*

Sierra felt like a FOOL. A right fool.

...but---the bottle rocket was taking OFF!

She found herself getting a little excited and even mentally doing the whole '3, 2, 1 BLAST OFF!' The rocket shot into the air.

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Awar stood back up after awhile. She eyed the rocket, making sure it was ready to launch, making sure it was perfect. Well, it was good enough.

She was about to practice one more time, but was spooked when Professor Burbage boomed out something about rubbish. She watched as she furiously threw a piece of parchment in the air.

When the professor moved away from it, she curiously made her way over to it. Ah, rumors were not slow in spreading. She moved back to her rocket and finished practicing her chanting and flapping.

Why was Kurumi just brushing off the whole issue of Latin? It was something they should really discuss ad nauseam, which if anyone was wondering was also Latin. See? Latin was everywhere and Kurumi just wanted to leave the topic of Latin at if you say so. The redhead was a little irritated. Selina indulged in all of the topics that Kurumi loved butbored the heck out of Selina. Like, Selina never wanted to talk about animal shaped cookie cutters or Lewis' hair or toe socks. But she sucked it up and listened because she loved her best friend. And Kurumi now just was BRUSHING OFF LATIN? The nerve.

A little peeved, she stalked off to the launcher next to Kurumi. When she asked if it was time to flap, the redhead just nodded in response. She would have replied ita, which meant yes in Latin, but Kurumi did not want to talk about Latin. So a nod would have to do. Following Kurumi's lead, she leaned down to the launcher and attached her bottle rocket to it. Whatever she had just done it seemed to have worked because the thing was staying on without her assistance.

Standing up, she crossed her arms and waited to see what Kurumi wanted to do next. Because SELINA wanted to talk about Latin. But no... that was okay. They would just do what KURUMI wanted to do.



Then Burbage went off. Something about an article. Selina just watched her in shock as she started to yell and thrust the article in the air. It was JUST an article. Perhaps she was over-reacting. No?

"No worries, Professor. If they can't even be bothered to get my name right, I'm sure their research is questionable and they don't have the faith of the student body. They don't have mine," Vivi offered helpfully as she hefted her rocket and settled near the closest launcher.

She'd actually been a little disturbed when she discovered her mention in the little periodical... mostly 'cause they'd gotten her name so terribly and obnoxiously wrong. But now she'd decided that she was well over it. She was her mother's spy. Sure.

It was almost a shame to fill her pretty rocket with water and then shoot it up into the air where it might get damaged. Except that the shooting and the exploding and the parachuting was so AWESOME. So... Aguamenti.

Vivi stuck her wand in the opening of the bottle and filled the reservoir slowly, gauging the heft of the bottle with her hands since the paint obscured how full it was. That was... just... about... perfect.

Alyssa was happy to see that the other students were also starting to flap their arms. This could only mean one thing. More rockets were about to get launched and she waited for the sound of the rocket thrusters to go off...but instead she heard someone shouting and Alyssa turned to see that it was Professor Burbage. Alyssa's first thought that Professor Burbage was doing some sort of celebratory dance until she noticed the yellowed parchment in her hand.

The dreaded Aparacium. Who would dare read it let alone bring one to class. She was about to tell the Professor to ignore whatever was written in that garbage of a paper but then she heard Elijah speak up.

She smiled at what Elijah said. Only Elijah would think of something that nice to say to anyone. He always had the right words to calm someone down.

"Elijah is right, Professor. My Mom always told me that every time a woman adds on to her age, she also get more beautiful, and you, Professor Burbage look absolutely radiant. Whoever wrote that garbage is obviously jealous of your beauty and must be wondering how you managed to find the Fountain of Youth and kept it a secret." Alyssa said as she joined Elijah and the hopefully now calmed down Professor.

Cora smiled at Elliot. She giggled a bit. Elliot was always able to be over the top about anything. But it WAS true, her rocket was great. Cora was automatically glad that Elliot had so much more experience than she did. Yes, Cora knew just about anything she could learn from books, but her wand sat growing cobwebs on her desk in her room for too long.

Cora listened intently to Elliot's advice. "Thanks, Elliot! I'll give that a shot." Her brow furrowed again in concentration. She held her wand a bit more confidently, and practiced circling her rocket. Explaeris. Hmmm. Wanting to get everything perfect, Cora wondered exactly how the flapping was supposed to work. Was it a dramatic flapping? A soft flapping? Fast? Slow? She tried to replicate the actions that were demonstrated. Did she look ridiculous? Cora wondered if anyone would make fun of her.

Why did Selina look as though Walnut had just clawed up her beater's bat. Not that the feline could actually do that because said bat was still missing. Every SECOND that past where Selina did not have her bat made the seventh year worry more and more about the sanity of the red head. Not that Selina had ever been entirely sane to begin with...

"Um...okay then..." Kurumi said as she approached her rocket and checked to make sure it was on properly once more. Which it seemed to be. Right, so a circle over the bottle... "Explaeris," Kurumi said after completing the circle. Now...he had to flap. So flapping she did.

FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP

Kurumi seemed to have been flapping for a long time...but nothing was happening to her rocket. Beads of sweat were even rolling down her brow now...but nothing.

"Hmmm....I wonder wha----"

O_______________________________o

What was she flapping about now?! Because it really wasn't about the spell from what Kurumi could see...

Oh...Kurumi's violet eyes fell on the piece of parchment in Professor Burbage's hands. Oh...the Aparecium. Funny how you learned so much about yourself from that. Like how Kurumi had found out she was part house elf.

Marion was no longer flapping, she was FLAILING now at the oooooooooobviously lowering standards at Hogwarts. The Board of Governors would hear about this. Annie would hear about this...SHE WAS GOING TO SEND THE CULPRIT TO THE MOON!

One way ticket, darlings, one way ticket.
"Oh, that is awfully kind of you to say dear," she said as she patted the studmuffin in the making on the shoulder rather FIRMLY.

Marion huffed and puffed and blew a few bottle rockets down. "YOU were in this RUBBISH too Miss Branxton?" she exclaimed. WHY THE NEEEEEEEEERVE....
Marion's eyebrow twitched and a vein in her forehead began to protrude a little more than it should. Actually, A LOT more than it should.

"MISS POTTER," she said, jabbing her finger in the girl's direction. This girl was laying on the compliments faaaaaaaaaaaar to thick for her liking and was oooooooooooooooobviously trying to cover something up. LIKE WRITING THIS ARTICLE.
"100 points from Hufflepuff for writing this BLASPHEMY!"

The woman was practically snorting now only she somehow managed to compose herself just long enough to turn to the rest of the class with a pixie like grin on her face. "CARRY ON DEARS! You are all doing marvelously. Just keep flapping and doooooo be sure that you are the one who cast the spell or else it will not work."

As in no one person casting the spell and the other flapping.

Awarlesta stood over her rocket. It was time. She walked around it a few times, observing it. She stopped and positioned herself. She circled the bottle with her wand. "Explaeris!" She began flapping her arms, slowly at first and then gaining speed. Preparing for lift off...10...9...8...7..6...ow...ow....ow...ow

"PFFT" Her rocket died. She dropped to her knees. My arms have failed you, young rocket. She stood up. "I won't fail you this time!". She set off to starting again.

Elliot nodded..."You're welcome..." she said. She then pulled out her wand again. She just felt...like she needed more practice. Especially with SO MUCH at stake..

"Ex.Plae.Ris." She said it slowly, at first...then.."Explaeris.." she then thought she knew the spell...ugh...she glanced at Hannah...were they ready to start the race thing? Because Elliot TOTALLY was! Yeah! She patted the top of her bottle rocket..."You can do this, Mr. Bottle Rocket..." she encouraged it on...not that it needed it.

It was an object. Oh well.

She turned back to Cora for a second..."You got it, Cora! I mean, obviously, you're a 'Claw!" she gave the girl a wink...Cora always brought out the best of Elliot. Like, her nice side. which was rare. VERY RARE.



"PRofessor...you should be honored that they wrote about you...it means...that you're important," she said loudly, not wanting the lady to completely go bonkers in the middle of class.

Right...it was a bottle rocket launcher. Because of course a bottle rocked needed something to launch it like a regular rocket did. Or so he thought seeing as he wasn't too familiar with the process hands on. The contraption still looked bazaar to him. And if that didn't seem weird enough as she explained the process, the whole flapping of one's arms to cast the spell made the whole thing even more ridickulus. Sigh. This was going to be oh so much fun.

Doing as they were told, Gideon held his bottle to the side and pointed his wand inside it. "Aquamenti..." he cast waiting upon the spell to add a good amount of water inside. Not enough to fill however seeing as the professor hadn't mentioned to do that. "Finite," he added cutting the water spray off and slipping his wand tip back out of the bottle as the elder woman began yelling clearly upset.

What was going on?

Gideon didn't know other then seeing a parchment in her hand however it was the louder exclaimation that gave him more of a reaction. 100 points!! Sure it was from Hufflepuff and not Gryffindor but it was still a lot and took Gideon by surprise. He turned to see who was the one who had gotten the punishment from the astronomy professor only to spot Alyssa facing the accusation.

What had been written and was the accusation true or not the prefect was completely unsure of. All he knew was things may have just gotten more interesting.

Whoooaaa....

Who would have thought the Professor would go wild for something like that? It was obviously just a joke being played by a very hilarious immature person though after seeing the reaction of the Professor had to some other responses on that particular topic she decided to keep her opinions to herself....

Merlin! 100 points?! That had to be over kill or something!! Even Lex could tell that the girl had nothing to do with the article thingy--and she was a pretty oblivious person most times! Not wanting to get in the way of the woman's wrath she turned back to her rocket that hadn't gone swoosh like everyone else's. Her brows crinkled as she looked down at it wondering whether or not Pretty Boy had done the spell right when she heard the Professor saying you had to cast the spell yourself.

...

It seemed that she would never get a break.

"Hmm...if that's the case then I guess I don't need you anymore." Lex said, looking up at him but quickly losing interest; he no longer held many opportunities for her. "Thanks for getting water in my rocket but I'm guessing you'll have to do your own flapping if what the Professor said is true." Which it was seeing as her rocket was still there.

She turned to the Professor who seemed to have perked up just a bit and thought she would ask for her help before anything else could happen to annoy her again. "Excuse me Professor but could I ask you to demonstrate the spell once more." Yes she had seen it the first time but she felt that seeing it again might've helped her grasp it better.

Alyssa almost fainted when the Professor started accusing her of writing all those lies about her. It didn't ever register that the Professor had taken a 100 points from her.

"But Professor I didn't write that. I hate the Aparecium. They wrote horrible lies about me. I would never write for them even if someone paid me a million galleons. I never lie and I woud never write rumors like that. What I said to you was the honest truth." Alyssa began to cry. It was only then that it registered that the Professor had deducted 100 points from her just for telling the truth.

Alyssa turned pale. 100 points?? She couldn't handle losing points, let alone 100. She had caused disgrace to the school, and even worse, to her house. Alyssa looked at everyone around her and she needed to get out of here. Away from everyone. Alyssa turned and ran back into the castle.

The next step was to attach bottle rocket to launcher. He looked around. Some of the students had already finished this step.

He selected the launcher directly in front of him and carefully balanced his rocket over to it. The badger stooped down and with great care, plugged the rocket in.

"Done!'' he thought straightening up again. Now, to get on to the next step.

Kurumi crouched down and eyed her rocket for a few moments. It didn't even look as though she had pumped any air into it...or however it was the spell worked. Kurumi assumed that it was acting like a bike pump based on the little introduction they had all been given.

Nervously, she reached out with one hand and sort of poked the bottle...finding that it was showing no signs of the spell actually taking effect. Ug...at least she hadn't melted it or anything. Better try that again. Kurumi stood back up and twirled her wand in her fingers. Her arm was getting rather sore from all the flapping she had just done. Did it matter which hand you used as your wand hand? It was things like this that Kurumiw as now thinking about and wondering - not that she should really experiment NOW. Launching something up into the air seemed like a pretty bad place to start experimenting with.

"Finite," Kurumi said with a point of her wand, just to make sure that she really was starting over with the spell. Rolling her shoulder and massaging her arm for a moment, Kurumi traced another circle over the bottle, focusing just a little bit harder this time. "Explaeris." Now....back to the flapping...

o____________________O

Kurumi dropped her wand and went stumbling after it when she heard the woman shout and then her jaw dropped when the pieces fell together - mostly because she saw Alyssa running back towards the castle. Errrrrrm...

"P-Professor Burbage..." Kurumi stammered, somewhat fearing for her seventeen year old life at the moment. "The Aparecium is just the school's gossip magazine. No one knows who writes it...it can be rather....mean and say things that are untrue..." Although, everything DID always seem to be based on fact. Kurumi had appeared in it several times...more times than she could count really.

By now Kurumi hadn't been flapping her arms for a few minutes...so her spell had essentially become void. Sigh...it was time to start over...again.

With her bottle rocket squeezed under her arm, the Ravenclaw followed her classmates as they gathered around the Astronomy Professor for the next set of instructions. Aguamenti spell for the water. Copy that. Beezus nodded..and nodded....and nodded...as more and more directions were given to them.

So they will be using a new spell for the launching then. She didn't mind learning a new one right now. Her brain wanted to accumulate new knowledge even if she was a failure when it comes to remembering most spells. Oh well.. Explaeris, that was the incantation of the spell and she repeated it in her head for quite sometime before finally muttering it. "Explaeris. Explaeris. Explaeris." Got it!

It'll be quite easy then!

O___O

What in Merlin's underpants were they to do? Making a circle over their bottles and FLAP? FLAP? FLAP? She was just going deaf, yes? They weren't actually going to flap right? It was plain balderdash! ....No. She was actually doing it.

For seconds, Beezus stared at their Professor as if the woman's just loosened her screws. Pssshhh. She wasn't going to do that. Her classmates wouldn't do such nonsense too, no?

....BUT THEY WERE!

With an incredulous expression, the brunette stayed glued to where she stood, eyeing her classmates who had gone through the steps and were now flapping. ..And then she quickly brought her hands to cover her mouth. She was laughing. OHGOSH! They looked so funny! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

And she remained like that as minutes went past, trying to suppress a huge amount of laughter that was bound to escape her lips but neither failing nor succeeding in the attempt.

Oh! Oh! Oh! FUNNEEEHH!

Her bottle rocket won't be launched in this situation.

FAIL.

She was gonna go crazy with all the flapping around her. Her stomach was hurting so much now. Beezus bit her lip forcefully to stop herself from getting overly amused with her classmates when...

O__________________________o

Minus 100 points from Hufflepuff? With widened eyes, she looked at Professor Burbage, her expression half-shocked, half-triumphant.

She turned just in time to see Lyssie ran towards the castle and that's when a parchment decided to perch on Beezus' head, she read it and giggled a bit afterwards. HEH. Aparecium. Next time, make sure the item of gossip won't get a hold of you.

Feigning a casual, plain expression, the Ravenclaw walked towards Professor Burbage and she just heard what Kurumi had told the woman.

Butting in, she chimed, "Kurumi's right Professor. You said so yourself, this is rubbish." She held up the parchment on her hand. Did the woman want it back? Naah, probably not. So after shaking it lightly, she threw it over her shoulder and as if on cue, the wind carried it away. "So you shouldn't let it get to you. After all, you know yourself more than that rubbish." Right? RIGHT? She just had to agree.

Nodding more and somehow, she wasn't feeling like laughing anymore, Beezus pulled out her wand and filled her bottle with water. "Aguamenti."

Professor Burbage shot this one a LOOK. Honored? For being called OLD in a publication?! Hmmmph!!


Wait....where was the girl going!?

Before Professor Burbage could properly go after her, two other students spoke up and explained a bit about that RUBBISH publication. "OOOOOOOOOOOOh...gossip you say?" Why hadn't she really seen that before. Probably had to do with her being called OLD and in such a ruuuuuuuuuuuuude fashion. Marion actually appreciated a bit of gossip. Lived for it at times really. The difference was that she only enjoyed gossip when it wasn't about her and right NOW it was about her.

"Weeeell," she said as she flicked her wand towards the parchment, setting it on fire instantly. Away it went. Bye bye horrid thing! "No points from Hufflepuff then. At least not for this RUUUUUUUUUUBBISH," she said in a sing song voice. After all, if no one kneeeeeeeew who wrote that rubbish there was hardly anything to be done about it - besides go and speak with Annie about how ruuuuuuuuude someone was. "That will be 10 points for leaving the lesson before being dismissed though."

And perhaps Marion should try and sit down with that girl over a cup of tea. Hmmmmmmmm...

Oh! But a student was asking her for some help! Looooooooovely.

Wiggling and clanking her way towards the young Gryffindor, she removed her wand from her pocket and chirped softly. "Why, of course dear. I won't go through the entire thing seeing as setting of your rocket for you would siiiiiiiiiiimply defeat the purpose of the exercise." She then gave her bum a little bit of a wiggle and traced a circle over the top of the bottle rocket. "Explaeris." She then began to flap her arm like a bird and the bottle before the two of them began to fill with air, expanding a bit as it did. She did this for a few moments before ceasing her flapping and pocketing her wand.

"I doooooooo hope that made things a bit more clear darling, why don't you give it a go now?"

Gossip. UH-HUH.

Beezus merely nodded. Aparecium was very talented when it came to those kind of things. Good thing that publication didn't know anything about her. She'd possibly go mad if her name goes prattling on one of their articles. But she knew she was safe. Aparecium won't have anything to write about her anyway. YUP.

Oh, but only if she knew.

The Ravenclaw only commented once more when the Professor took back her minus 100 points litany. Instead, she was going to demerit Hufflepuff House with 10 points. "I think that's more appropriate too Professor. 100 points is just too much." Although, if truth be told, it was the woman's fault. For reacting like that, unaware of the true situation. But oh well...Alyssa shouldn't have dashed out like that too, no matter how upset she was.

She shrugged then. And with a small bow to the Professor and to the Gryffindor Prefect, sauntered over towards an available launcher. T'was time for step two!

She bent down and carefully attached her bottle rocket to the launcher. DONE! Now, what to do next?

Cassia wasn't walking far away from her rocket and launcher because she was afraid that someone might snatch her beautifully made rocket. Yeah what if people got jealous of the cute colored rocket. She couldn't risk losing her precious rocket. Not when she worked hard on building it. She was just walking between near students hoping that someone will say the incantation she had forgotten. She really should have written it down.

The tour was actually helpful considering she got to see how the flapping is done. Though it seemed to be tiring but there was nothing she could really do about it.

Wait! What was that! Cassia turned to the Professor who was repeating the incantation to a first year. Oh it was Alexa…mental note to thank the lioness later. Cassia made sure to listen to the incantation and memorize it well. She won't forget this time!

The twelve years old bounced back to her spot where she left the rocket attached to the launcher. She grinned seeing that the rocket hadn't fallen. Good, then she was doing it correctly.

Sitting cross-legged Cassia cleared her throat and squared her shoulders. Time to practice! "Explaerix!" Mmm….it didn't sound like this when the professor said it. Cassia tried again, "Explaeris!" Yup that was it. Though Professor Burbage seemed to stress a bit on the next syllable, no?

"Explaaaris!" Um..too much. "Explaeirs," Here that should do it. Now the movement part.

With the bottle now filled about a third of the way Vickers set to do the ridiculous task of building pressure within the bottle. He took the launcher and was just fastening the mouth of the bottle onto it when all hell broke lose....

Aparecium..... blasphemy.... 100 points from the Puffs....

Yup, nothing new there. Ok so maybe that 100 points was a lot, but heck it seemed like the Puffs are dead set to burrowing their hour glass towards the South Pole this term.... why not give them an extra hand?

He was kidding of course.

He looks up long enough to hear Elijah say what he said to the wizened Professor. Before he could help himself Vickers let out a cackle, then suddenly clamping his mouth shut and set to look incredibly busy with his bottle rocket. He was soooo not gonna forget that Wilde. Most specially during Divinations classes.

He tapped the bottle and uttered "Explaeris". The bottle shook and.... thats pretty much it. He groaned silently. This is what he gets for being distracted...

Now the tiring part. Cassia stood up readying to do some flapping! If the old woman could flap like a mother goose then Cassia could do it no problem. You know considering the Professor is an old person no matter what she said and no matter how many huffie young men were fans of her.

Speaking of which ,Cassia wasn't paying much attention but when she did ,she found that the professor was bothered by the Aparecium article. Well, sure she was calling her old and that kinda stuff. Had the Aparecium been a student he or she would be now long gone…from Earth of course.

Anyhow, Cassia was about to start the flapping thing she saw how the Hufflepuff girl ran towards the castle leaving the lesson.

*Blink*

Oh they could do that? If only Cassia had known this very important piece of information at the Herbology lesson, she would've fled from the beginning. Maybe next lesson?

Now ignoring the drama and back to the flapping. Cassia put the wand aside first and took a deep breath in. Aaaaand ACTION!! Drawing a circle in the air she started to…Flap, Flap… Flap… Flap… Flap… Flap… Flap… Flap… Flap… Flap.

Cassia stopped feeling that her arm was protesting…somehow. Cassia just got the feeling she tends to feel her limbs feelings. Uh-huh.

And anyway, flapping without a wand was actually a bit stupid. So enough practicing. It is time for the real show! Hurray!

Looking around at everyone busy with their rockets, Orr smiled to herself This lesson was turning out to be such fun

She picked up her rocket and her wand and pointing her wand to the bottom of the bottle said 'Aguamenti' stopping when the water reached the right amount.

Picking up the small rocket launcher that sat next to her- she tried to attached the rocket to the launcher but couldn't. It took her a few minutes until she realized what she had to do to keep it secured.

Laura looked at the Professor as she took 10 points of Miss Potter. "Professor I don't want to sound rude or anything but seriously if someone took 100 points of you for nothing, wouldn't you storm out?" Laura then thought of something, "and Professor, I've appear 3 times in the thing already this term and I don't know why my life isn't really worth it." Laura blushed seriously she had no idea why this Professor was acting crazy.

Laura looked back towards her rocket she had no idea why she was so behind oh yeah. "This is ground control to Hyde1." Laura smiled okay so she had named her rocket big deal. "We are at all systems go." Laura was pretending she was a big rocket person. "We are putting in the fuel now." Laura pointed her wand too the bottom of the bottle. "Aguamenti!" Laura was enjoying this. "Fuel level good." Laura was talking to her rocket.

Filling the bottle with water. Done. Attaching it to launcher. Done.

Now she needed to practice the incantations before she could proceed to the wand movement. Personally, she knows it is necessary for her to channel her tongue with the words she needed to utter first. See, her brain has this annoying feature, where it forgets corresponding incantations of certain spells. And she still haven't got over it. Her solution was to write down the incantations on a small spell journal which was what she was doing as of the moment.

"Okay. Explaeris." She read as her hand provided the hard copy of the entry. Then she began to say the incantation again, again and again.

"Explaeris. Explaeris. Explaeris."

Hmm.

A little faster, perhaps?

*this is said in a quick manner* "Explaeris. Explaeris. Explaeris!"

Good. She was ready for the wand movement now.

Laura looked at the rocket. "This is ground control to Hyde1." Laura smiled. "We are about to attatch you to the rocket launcher, are all systems go?" Laura then pretended to be the rocket. "This is Hyde1 to Ground Control all systems are A-Okay." Laura smiled as she struggled to attatch the rocket.

Laura looked at the rocket launcher. "This is ground control, there is a problem at this end, we are currently working on it." Laura then was the rocket again. "This is Hyde1, we are a-okay at this end still for launch." Laura was really struggling to get this rocket attatched to the launcher.

"This is Ground Control, we have successfully attatched you too the launcher." Laura had finally managed to get the rocket on the launcher. "This is ground control are all systems A-okay?" Laura was enjoying this. "This is Hyde1, all system are A-okay." Laura couldn't wait to launch this rocket.