Mika immediately liked this spell. Really not only did the spell name sound really cool and unique...but the lady teaching was pretty darn cool. She instantly liked Professor Knox because, well, she was a woman who knew how to say what she meant. And she might be a good person to come to for advice on wearing spikes death shoes.

Because they were pretty and did need lessons in how not to fall flat on her face in them...as well as how to put make up on without looking like a clown or a Victorian creeper. She always had that luck with the girly things she'd out it on and come off looking like someone had thrown a chalkboard eraser in her face for the heck of it. But she was diverting to avoid looking at her dusty desk.

Glancing at it she looooooonged to clean it. BE CLEAN YOU VILE DESK. She thought as she glared at the surface. Wait S shaped wand movements and a new cleaning spell! She could polish things! She was ecstatic as she wiped out her wand.

"Scourgify" and look it was clean...well, not pretty and smooth looking but clean enough. "Poh-lee-OH-tuss" she practiced as she made pathetic attempts at an s shaped wand movement. At first it looked like she was trying to make the mark of Zorro, but with an eight...yeah kind of like a lopsided z figure eight hybrid. Eventually it looked like the iconic S of Sydney or Salem academy...or more fitting Slytherin.

"Poliotus" she made the curving ark of the s and smiled brightly as the desktop in front of her went from drab and scratched looking to bright...almost glacial and shiny. It was so shiny. She rubbed her finger over it and it made an awful sound like rubbing her hand on a rubber balloon the true sign of an overly polished peace of wood.

Susan was excited to be learning a new spell. She loved learning new spells to add to her small repertoire. Plus her desk was REALLY dirt and she was not happy having her robe get dust and dirt all over it. Well it was time to clean up. Susan pointed her wand at her desk "Scourgify". There her desk already looked ten time better than when she first entered the classroom. Ok time to try the new spell. Susan concentrated on the task at hand and made a "S" movement with her wand over her desk "Poliotus!"

Darn! It didn't work. Susan could never get a spell to work the first time. She wasn't going to let herself get discouraged though. She tended to do worst when she got down on herself. "Ok." Sue took in a calming deep breath and got ready to try again. Susan made the "S" movement with her wand again over the desk, this time a little more fluid, "Poliotus!" It worked! Susan did a little happy dance, she got it on the second round. Way to go Susan! Now her desk looked squeaky clean with some shine!

Sky wasn't ignoring Knox this time so much as she was weighing her options. She was pretty sure that the fact that Headmistress Truebridge wouldn't tolerate events tarnishing her reign at Hogwarts keep her safe. Plus there was her familial connection to the Ministry which the professor knew well enough about. Nope, she was more worried about ending up being taken out of Quidditch before she even got to play. Which explained what she did next. "Accio robes!" They flew right to her out stretched hand. "Scourgify!" What, she wasn't going to wear dirty robes. Nope.

Anywho, she practiced making the 'S' shape with her wand. Begrudgingly. Because she still didn't think that it was right that they were being treated as free labor and moneybags. "Poliotus," she cast, making the 's' shape. Her desk became supershiny.

Spell practice time now. Great. Not really.

At least she could kinda start with something she knew and then move on to the new one. That was nice at least.

Pointing her wand at her dusty desk, Penelope cast a quick "Scourgify!" and it was clean after a few seconds. There, that was much better, wasn't it? But now it meant she had to try out that new one, Poliotus.

"Poh-lee-oh-tus," she said carefully, just practicing the the pronunciation for the moment. "Poh-lee-OH-tus. Poli-otus. Poliotus. PoLIotus. PoliOtus. Poliotus." There. She pretty much had it maybe?

The wand movement was an S...and that wasn't too hard. She did it a couple times and then figured she could start trying them both together.

Imagining her desk being all shiny and polished and all that good stuff, she moved her wand in the S shape and said, "Poliotus." Suddenly a small part of the desk, where her wand had ended the S shape, seemed a little bit shinier...but the rest of the desk was still dull and stuff.

Meh.

She tried again. "Poliotus!"

The polished look spread a couple inches, but it still wasnt enough.

Urgh.

Sigh.

Deep breath. Eyes closed now. Focus...S shape... "Poliotus!"

Penelope opened one eye...and then both, and a smile appeared.

It had finally worked!

Gingerly, Mo lifted his hands off the parchment protecting his desk. The parchment itself, although dusty, was carefully rolled and tucked back into his satchel. Honestly, he hated to pull out his wand with all this dust on the desk and in the hair. He tried to keep his wand pristine and polished, and the dust... well, it just clung to the wand and made it look streaky and smeared.

He needed someone to cast that polishing spell on his wand.

Mo rolled up his sleeves as he stood, hoping to get a better angle on his desk. The first spell, the Scourgify, was one he was already very familiar with, what with being a fourth year and having a mother who believed in a clean house. He didn't bother practicing this familiar spell, and when Mo pointed his wand a the desk and spoke a clear, "Scourgify," it worked just as expected.

No more dust. Gone.

The next spell was new, though, and Mo did spend several long minutes drawing out the S in the air. Like a snake. Like a shiny shiny snake. Or like a string, perhaps. Or... an S. Whatever it was, he had it down. His arm dropped to his side, and Mo muttered the incantation to himself. "Po-lee-oh-tus. Poliotus."

Only once he really felt it was mastered did Mo attempt the spell on his desk. He drew the S with a loose wiggle of his wand and spoke the incantation, "Poliotus." The dust-free desk went from scuffed to shiny in a moment. Now see? THIS was a desk onto which he'd be willing to rest his hands.

New spell? Alice perked up at the mention of one and listened to Professor Knox introduce a polishing charm as well as she could. Poliotus? Poh-lee-OH-tuss. She ran over the pronunciation in her head a couple of times before cleaning off the desk with a quick "Scourgify." Did that look clean enough? It was inspected and scrutinized a bit more by her before she seemingly moved on to polishing.

Poh-lee-OH-tuss.

PohleeOHtuss.

"Poliotus!" She said the words out loud, slowly tracing a fairly decent S shape with her finger before trying it with her wand. "Poliotus." Alice enunciated the incantation clearly as instructed, and it looked like it had worked, because when she glanced down, there was a perfectly polished surface. So shiny that if it hadn't been wood, she probably could have seen her reflection in it.

Her hair probably looked really good today, too.

Laura decided that it was time to get to work, there was no point in letting everyone else have all the fun if she was just going to stand there and do nothing, she smiled as she looked around the room, it seemed like everyone had gotten the spell so surely it couldn't be that hard right.

"Scourgify!" Laura smiled as she pointed her wand at the desk and cleaned it, seriously that spell was perfect because they used it all the time, now though it was time to learn the new spell and this was going to be interesting, how did she pronounce it again.

"Protection!" Laura giggled, she was sure that was right, she practiced the wand movement and then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, this was going to get interesting very fast wasn't it. "Poliotus!" Laura slowly opened her eyes, was her desk still standing, had it shrunk or worse?

O_____________________o

Laura beamed, it was the first time that a spell had worked on her first attempt, surely that had to be a new record for her and she smiled, so focusing the mind made sure the spell actually worked, she wanted to do a little jig but decided against it in the end.

They were learning a new spell. Sarah liked the thought of it. She knew scourigfy so she did it first.

She faced her desk and said "Scourgify". The desk looked much cleaner. Yet now she had to polish it too. That was what the new spell was for.
"Poliotus" she said pronouncing each sylable with care. "Poliotus" she repeated again and again. This was her way of getting her tongue aquainted with the incantation.

Then she practiced the wand movement. It was just a simply S which was easy.

"Poliotus" she said making an S over her desk. To her surprise it worked the first time around and her desk now shone!

Dylan, deciding not to be a jerkface about life at the moment, took out his notebook, ink, and quill...and started taking notes. No, he was not taking these notes on the desk...but on his lap...Ink well in one hand, quill in the other, notebook on his lap...He had it worked out. Also, it was good to know that they'd be cleaning up this mess soon...The Captain had an aversion to filth. One so bad that he'd lost almost two entire weeks of sleep in the Slytherin Common room because of it.

Finishing up with all the spells that had been offered by his peers, he put the items away into his bag...and withdrew his wand. Scourgify was his best charm...for obvious reasons. He legit performed it at least ONCE everyday...So, now...when the Slytherin about about to perform the spell, the motion and incantation came easy. It was said aloud this time...for Professor reasons. Dylan didn't know if she'd appreciate his performance of the nonverbal...and really didn't want to chance another face-full of dust for his trouble.

"Scourgify!"

Smirking as the dust cleared and lifted from the desk, he quickly turned his wand on himself, saying "Scourgify!", again. The dust particles clinging to strands of his hair vanished...and Dylan immediately felt better. He also may or may not have repeated the spell for his face...and outer robe. Ahem.

The Slytherin felt ready to try this new spell, though. The wand movement was already kinda awesome...being that it was shaped like a SNAKE. Bam...but first things first. Whenever learning something new, he liked to familiarize himself with the shape of the spell...and go through sounding it out.

Poh-lee-OH-tuss.

"Poliotus!" Dylan traced the "S" motion out over his desk....and waited with baited breath. Like West had mentioned, he knew the other polishing spell...but this one was for surfaces...Super helpful and needed considering things.

It took some minutes...but the desk seemed to gleam and shine now...with the sun shining through the grungy windows.

Who was a boss? HE WAS.

No?

Had this new Professor JUST SAID NO?

Nessie was giving her quite a few looks now. Heeeeh. She was so tempted to screech at the teacher right there, but she knew the consequences of that were not good ones. So instead she count to twenty in her head, took deep breathes in and attempted to listen once more.

NOW they could clean their desks? The Hufflepuff huffed a little but reattempted her cleaning spell from before. Hoping that this time NO dust would poof in her face. She WOULD screech this time if it did.

"Scourgify!" she cleaned up the surface of her desk. Ahhh. NO dust at last. A small, tiny smile perked up on her lips. BYE FOR REALS DIRT.

But onto this polishing spell. "Poh-lee-OH-tuss." She said once then repeated the pronunciation in her head again and again. As for the S-shape she practiced that once and was pleased.

She was ready then. "Poh-lee-OH-tuss!" She moved her wand in an s-shape over her desk and smiled brightly as it shine. Perfect. Clean, neat and perfect. Now this was the kind of clean class environment she liked to be in.

Ethan was staring hard at his desk. He concentrated on a picture of a desk without dust. "Scourgify!", he said loudly. He was amazed. He had performed some real magic. "Poliotus!" he said in a softer voice than last time. His desk looked immaculate. For the first time, he set his hands on the desk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Which made him wonder so he stuck his hand up, "Professor, could you use Glisseo to polish things too? I mean it smooths stuff and makes them slick and slippery..." Like stairs to girls dorms for instance.

Or so he'd heard.

Seeing one of the Slytherin boys raise his hand, Ivy nodded to him and listened. "Good question. However, Glisseo is more of a subject-specific spell. Meaning, its original purpose when created was to make staircases inaccessible by turning them into slides, not polishing various things. While this does smooth stairs, I doubt it would work as well as what we can accomplish with this general polishing charm." That was a very good question, though, and she was glad he brought it up. Good thinker.

Ivy spent the next few minutes walking around the classroom and watching the students perform the charms. They were simple, so she was glad most of them seemed to do it within the first or second try, even though most of the students seemed rather bored. And since no one had anymore questions for the moment, Ivy walked back up to the front of the room. "Take a seat, everyone."

She took a moment to eye a few of them. "I realize that some of you, particularly the older students, have already learned the simple cleaning spells and it must be absolutely terrible to have to learn them all over again." She was being sarcastic, obviously, and her tone did not imply that she was remotely sorry. "This is the first lesson of the year. We are going to review and try to get this castle in better shape. You're in school to learn, and learning takes practice. Your parents are paying for your education, do them a favor, do me a favor, and try to have a better attitude. If you can't do that, I invite you to leave and fail your exams." Ivy looked around the class and waited to see if anyone would leave. She really didn't mind. She wasn't even getting paid for this.

Aaaand moving on...

"The next cleaning charm we will be learning today is the Glass Cleaning Charm. Not only does it safely clean the glass, but it also leaves it shiny and polished. You would get similar results using Scourgify and Poliotus, but using one charm saves a little bit of time. This spell is useful for cleaning vision glasses, drinking glasses, windows, mirrors, etcetera." Ivy used her wand to pick up the chalk and write the spell on the board:

Vitrumonia
vee-truh-MOH-nee-uh

"Vitrumonia," Ivy said loudly and clearly for all the class to hear and understand. Then she walked over to the side of the classroom where sunshine was peeking through the dirty, grimy windows. "To perform this spell, simply say the incantation and wave your wand over the glass you wish to clean. For example..." Ivy got out her wand and drew a small line in the air in front of the glass while saying "Vitrumonia." And the small section she waved her wand over was clean, clear, grime-free and shiny.

She holstered her wand and went back to the chalkboard in the front of the room. "We will now move on to the second practical portion of our lesson. What you will all be doing next is using the spells we have discussed today to clean this classroom. And there will be NO complaining about it." Ivy eyed them all before turning back to the board. She erased what was on it and wrote two new lists:

Required Charms:
Scourgify
Poliotus
Vitrumonia

Optional Charms:
Tergeo
Deletrius
Impervius

"You are all required to use Scourgify, Poliotus, and Vitrumonia for the remainder of the class. Clean the floors, the walls, the windows, window frames, doors, empty desks, anything. I want this classroom spotless. Polish the wood and the stone and anything that needs it. For the older students or those who are familiar with Tergeo, Deletrius, and Impervius, you will receive extra points for using those, but you must do them AFTER you use the required charms first. Understood?" She looked at them all before nodding. "Good. Get to work!"


OOC: WOW haha I'm sorry that was so long and painful to read. Here is what YOU need to do: Make at five posts each, using the three required charms we learned today (Scourgiry, Poliotus, Vitrumonia) and have your character clean various parts of the CLASSROOM. One-two-liner posts do not count. These posts have to be at least a paragraph/five decent sentences. If it's any shorter, I won't count it.

If you're feeling ambitious, you can do UP TO 3 more posts using the optional charms (Tergeo, Deletrius, and Impervius). One post for each charm, but only AFTER you do the required five posts for the required charms. You will get extra points for these optional spells. The amount is to be determined.

Does that make sense? PM if you have any questions, or ask Professor Knox! You guys are great! <3

More cleaning. Jory did not mind. He had grown accustomed to it as they seemed to be doing that a lot these days. First, there was the Astronomy homework an then the Cleaning Club meeting where they would no doubt start cleaning as well. But at least right now, they were using magic and that was way better and easier.

The Puffer decided to start with the basic cleaning spell, Scourgify. He would use that on the empty desks. And so he began. There were empty desks towards the back of the room and that was were he headed.

Jory pointed his wand to the first desk he reached. "Scourgify!'' He watched as the dust vanished. "That never gets old,'' he thought. He moved on to another desk. And another, then another repeating the spell.

Minerva was kind of just watching.. Watching the other students since she had finished fairly quickly when she heard Professor Knox's voice and turned her head to listen. As she listened she couldn't help but wonder if anyone would leave. Quickly glancing around the room she didn't see anyone head out and shrugged turning back.

So they were cleaning.. that was there lesson. Well it seemed boring, but it was charm work and she always was up for doing that. Once they were given their instructions, Min got up out of her seat and made her way to some desks that weren't being used. Pointing her wand "Scourgify" then she pointed at the next desk "Scourgify". This was easier then the muggle way she had to do at her grandparents that's for sure.

Jory had used Scourgify on about five desks. He would have done a few more but he figured he had better leave some for the other students as well. Now, which spell should he use next. "I think I'll go with Poliotus,'' he thought. Yes, that would work. Even though the desks were dust free, they hadn't much shine.

The seventh year started at the desk he was standing at. He would work his way backwards to the first one he started on. "Poliotus!'' he said and tracing the S shape over the desk. He watched it being shined as if an invisible hand were polishing it.

He now moved on to the previous desk where he repeated the spell. Followed by the other and the other and ten finally the last one.

Susan was already headed over to the window to try the new spell. She was so excited that she got learn two new spells during one class. This was awesome. Hopefully she would be able to get the new spell rather quickly so she could pull her weight in cleaning the classroom.

This time Sue was determined to get this spell the first time. It seemed simple enough but she was going to really concentrate to make sure she got it. Sue took a deep breath and moved her wand across a spot on the really dirty window "Vitrumonia" A line of sunlight came through the window. It was a clean spot, right where her wand was over. It took Sue a second to realize she actually did the spell on the first try. "AWESOME!!!" Oops, that was really loud. Oh who cares, she actually got it on the first try. This was Susan's new favorite spell!

Looking around the room the first year saw that a lot of people were already rushing about the room and cleaning it with the spells, leaving her to slowly also get up and get involved. While normally she loved activities, considering the first year had little knowledge of these spells she wasn't at all happy about having to do this. But considering it was part of class, she was definitely going to start with the spells they'd just learnt and would probably just forget about the extras...

Though she was thinking about eventually trying it despite the embarrassment she'd have to go through in the process.

Walking over a filthy looking desk she pulled out her wand, pointing it at the top of the desk the look of which made her scrunch up her nose in distaste biting her lip as she internally muttered it a few times before nodding, figuring she'd gotten it right again this time.

"Scourgify" Kahlan said, trying to be as clear as she could, smiling as the desk once again was cleaned.

One down, multiple to go!

No complaining?

Daichi never complained in the presence of someone else, just when he was alone and in his mind he was alone because no one could read it. ...Right?...no one can't right? He shifty looked around for a moment before he decided to give up and do the excersize that the Professor had given them. But...CLEANING! When he gets his own house he is so hiring a house elf...

But then that was sad...mweh dillema! And true, they were using magic now so that the cleaning process went a lot faster but he still did not like it.

He stood up from his chair and walked towards one of the windows on the right side of the classroom. He flicked his wrist and his wand fell out of its holster and in to his hand. Okay Daichi, no complaining. The sooner this is over the faster you can go to the duckpond or something.

Pointing his wand at the window, the Slytherin said "Vitrumonia!" He then waved his wand over the glass, beginning at the top and going to the bottom and watched how the window cleaned itself on the first try.

Ryan grimaced as the professor explained about the new spell and then set them the task of cleaning out their desks and polishing it, as well as cleaning the rest of the classroom. He felt like a house elf and it wasn't a feeling he was used to, nor did he like it. He wasn't that much of a cleaner.

Sighing, he pulled out his, which looked like it could use some polishing, too. Would the spell work on his wand? But then...how would he perform it on his wand? Maybe he had to ask someone else to perform the charm on his wand for him...yeah, that seemed reasonable. Scratching his head a bit, Ryan mutter Scourgify under his breath and waved his wand over his filthy desk. Nothing happened. Blinking and looking around to see if the spell was working for others, he tried again. It still wasn't working. Getting a bit frustrated, he said, "SCOURGIFY," loudly and was finally satisfied. His desk wasn't completely clean but it was a lot better than when he arrived.

Activity time!!! Eeep!! Lex liked activities. They were the part of the class that usually allowed her to jump around casting spells! Best part of the class, especially when it came to DADA. Heh.

She was still making silly faces at her desk while the woman spoke; don't worry, she was listening, just...she found silly faces a bit more interesting than hearing that she'd have to clean. Surprizingly though, it wasn't something that upset her...nah...her mood was too happy for that, hence her still making the faces.

Hehehehe.

That last one was especially silly. Oh! But now it was time to jump around doing stuff!! She could do that!! Lex hopped up and began looking around for anything that needed her immediate attention. There were first of all a couple empty desks closer to the back. She skipped over, humming to herself once again and as she skipped by each she uttered a quick, "Scourgify!" Down the aisle of them she went, getting them cleaned one by one.

Polishing them would be next. Mhm.

Grrr........

She was making them clean the classroom. Did she look like a house elf?! Cleaning up her own mess was one thing, she had to do that at home anyway. But cleaning the classroom meant cleaning someone else's mess. And there in lie her whole problem with this lesson. She wasn't a house elf, maid, or anyone's mother, so it was unfair to expect her to clean a whole room. Not that she would be doing it by herself, but it was the principal of it all.

Still, Sky wasn't going to give the mean woman the satisfaction of leaving class. Instead, she got up and walked over to a section of the floor. "Scourgify." A spell that she could do in her sleep. Which meant that practice wasn't needed at all. "Poliotus." A spell that she apparently didn't need to practice either, as the section of floor she'd just cleaned became perfectly polished.

Once Minerva had cleaned off a few of the desks around her that had no students using them. She looked to move on to some other desks that were sooooo dirty. Before she moved on to another desk though she decided she better polish up the ones that she had already cleaned. It would be kind of pointless to move on cleaning others just to come back and polish what was already clean.

Taking a step back to the first desk she had cleaned, Minerva made the S shape with her wand, "Poliotus" She watched as the desk went from dull and gloomy to nicely polished like they had just bought it from a store, okay maybe not that nice looking, but still she felt she did a pretty good job. Moving on to the next desk Minerva did the same S wand movement, "Poliotus", watching this one become on pretty and polished as well.

Hmm. Ethan finally understood why the room had been made so messy. He decided to start on the area around his desk. "Scourgify!", he said to the floor. "Scourgify!", "Scourgify!, "Scourgify!" he yelled at various parts of the floor, walls, and corners of the seemingly dilapidated room. Most times the dust and grime came right off but sometimes it took a few Scourgifies to get that section. Ethan thought this might be taking advantage of the students but he quickly realized that the room had purposely been made dirty. Concentrating on the work at hand, Ethan carried on.

After Jory had enough of admiring his handiwork, he turned to look at the classroom. Students everywhere! All busy doing something that would make the room look tons better. He noticed not much of the students were at the back of the room. Not yet, at least. So, he turned his attention there. To the windows, more specifically.

Time for that last spell Professor Know had shown them. Jory raised his wand. He had practiced the incantation before leaving his desk and the wand movement was simple. Here goes nothing. "Vitrumonia!'' he exclaimed and waving his wand in front of the glass. Sort of like a line. The Puffer watched in fascination as the glass was instantly filth free. He decided he liked this spell the best.

Jory moved on to another window. "Vitrumonia!'' he exclaimed and repeating the wand movement. After this one was clean as well, he moved on to another.

Alright so Kace knew the drill. All he had to do for the rest of the lesson was use the cleaning spells and get the classroom clean. That shouldn't be too hard right? Ah well...time to work he supposed.

As he got up from his seat. He knew that there were other students there that he wanted to go. Plus he already cleaned his desk and seat so that was no use. He went to the back of the room and saw objects that were so dusty. This place could use some cleaning.

Kace held his wand out. He remembered the wand movement was just a wave of the wand and then the incantation. Kace said with a flick of his wand, "Scourgify!" and then the place was clean and sudsy. He was pleased with himself. He actually knew the spell that would help him out around the house.

He went to other places to see if they needed cleaning. He saw a little corner of the room that had cobwebs and even spiders migrating back to the corner. It seemed like it was their home. Hmmm....he should clean it or leave them there. He did not think the professor would be too happy. So he said with his wand flick, "Scourgify!" and then the cobwebs and spiders were cleaned out.

He did a job well done using this charm. Now onto the next ones.