First try and everything was completed successfully. Awesome. Tag wasn't too bad at this, which was making him feel better about his magic performance.

Opening up his rucksack Tag took out one of his textbooks. Maybe this would be a bit more of a challenge compared to his textbooks in his rucksack? Who knew. As long as he was doing his homework he wouldn't fuss over it. Once again he threw set the textbook on the floor and stood a few feet away from it, like it had been done in class.

First he whipped his wand just for good practice. Then, whipping his wand and pointing it in the general direction of the textbook he said, "Carpe Retractum!" This time the rope did not hesitate to come out of Tag's wand. But, when he pulled on it so the textbook would come to him, the edge of the textbook made hard contact with his shin. The boy winced a bit but then shook it off.

As much as she could think of tons of things more interesting than homework, it needed to be done. It was one of those requirements of school or something. She wasn't all that sure. Lex walked into the practice room with her heaviest text book in hand and another box of items levitating in behind her. Necessary stuff to get this over with. Now all she needed was the Ravenclaw she'd be working with.

Had Lex specified a time? She was almost sure she had. Maybe she should have gone to the Claw Common Room to get him on the way down. That kinda seemed like the smarter option now that she was here.

Nothing she could do about that now so she sat on a desk to the side of the room, watching everyone else practice while she waited. He'd have to show up eventually and if he took too long she'd just get started without him. No big deal. She'd still wait til he was through to leave.

Annnny minute now.

Lex wouldn't get impatient because she needed to ask him a favour while they were here.

It was hard enough to find a bunch of heavy objects to use for practice, and harder still to figure out how to carry them downstairs. If Mo was lazier, he'd leave it to Lex to do the work, but he wasn't. He was Mo, and so he packed his objects into a crate and levitated it down the stairs and out of the common room. Was he late? Probably, but Lex would understand when she saw him making his way into the classroom with his big ol' box.

"Cambridge," Mo let the box fall to the floor as soon as he entered the room, giving the younger Gryffindor a grin. "You missed me. I can tell. What did you bring to practice with? D'you mind if I practice on you later? I really wanted to try the thing where you wrap the rope-thing around something solid and pull yourself, but I couldn't think where to do it."

THERE he was!

Lex hopped off the desk already trying to sneak a peak into his crate of objects. Did she miss him? "Suuuuure." But not particularly, you know? She'd seen him earlier when she asked him to work with her in the first place, gosh Mo. She kicked at the box by her foot. "There's a vase from the Common Room--I don't think professor Bentley will want it broken--a lamp from Alice's night stand but you can't tell her we practice with it and this text book right here, weighs a ton. You?"

You know, it's funny but she was about to make that request toooooo. Now he couldn't say no because she was about to agree. Ahem. "Sure thing. I was gonna ask to practice on you too, you know, to make it more practical."

And how could he think of nothing to attach the rope to and pull himself up. Sigh. He was probably using Ravenclaw logic too much. "You could head downstairs, cast it up here, I'd stick something solid through the window then you could try." A sketchy idea but when better developed would work perfectly.

Genius idea, really, but Mo wasn't willing to risk his life on a homework assignment. That was how he spent his free time. "How long do you suppose it holds, anyway? Like, could you use it to climb up or down a wall, or would it give out too fast? That's a good question to know the answer to as well."

Mo unpacked his crate too, although he wanted a chance at Alice's lamp. He'd leave a note on her and it would make her crazy to figure out how he'd managed it. "I brought the biggest books I have, although I'm nervous about jerking them around. And I brought the helmet from one of the suits of armor up on the seventh floor. And I brought you a chocolate frog. Here." He handed that over before looking in his box again. "I brought the comforter from my bed, 'cause it's heavy but also unwieldy. I wasn't sure what grabbing fabric would be like. So that's it."

He kicked the helmet toward the opposite wall. Might as well start there. "Ladies go first."

Charms!

Ella was especially bouncy because her best friend had decided to come out of the library and help her out with the homework. This was exciting stuff, okay? Mostly because the brunette had been MIA lately and the blonde missed her a ridiculous amount. Just like the things she was dragging into the Practice room weighed a ridiculous amount. She had little arms, yeah? She should have asked Alec to help her bring this stuff up here.

The sixth year smiled a little at those already practicing and was careful not to get in the way as she set out the things she'd be using. A heavy pan she'd borrowed from the kitchen, a giant text book she'd checked out on runes, and a piece of firewood she'd found by the fireplace in the common room. Hopefully she didn't smack herself in the face with any of this stuff. That'd be bad.

"Carpe Retractum...Carpe Retractum...Carpe Retractum..." Couldn't hurt to practice the incantation while she waited for Soph, yeah? Yeah.

She gave that question a moment's thought. How long did it hold? Honestly, she had no idea which kinda made her idea look even more sketchy. It could fade half way up the wall then the Ravenclaws would be without a captain. You'd probably hear it was her fault too but she wouldn't have been the one who forced him to try. "We should take a rain check on that, try after we've gotten an answer." For the sake of safety and all that.

In the mean time, back to the things he'd brought. All very good ideas even the comforter!! Lex relaxed a bit at the fact that he didn't question her possession of Alice's lamp or tell her to return it. Too many stairs. She'd already walked down here.

She watched him kick the helmet but scowled at his choice of words. "I'm not a lady. It's rather rude of you to call me that." Yup, totally but on to the spell, the most important part. "Carpe Retractum!" A length of magic rope burst from her wand, springing across the room and latching on to the helmet which flew toward her almost immediately. Almost because there was a bit of tugging required.

Helmet in hand, she grabbed Alice's lamp and put it where the first object once stood. "Now you."

Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarms homework time! BEST TIME OF THE DAY. WEEK. MONTH. YEAR. LIFE. AH.

Sophie beeeeamed at the room, flying objects, ropes and everyone who was already working there. "Helloooooooooo!!" The brunette greeted her best friend with a grin when she reached her. She looked at the stuff Ella had brought and started rummaging though her bag as she knelt down. "I was going to bring Brady, but mum wouldn't be happy if she found out I've been practising Charms on him again." She shrugged, pulling some objects out of her bag. "So I brought..." She showed a picture frame with THIS PICTURE in it and GRINNED LIKE WHOA at Ella. Hehehehehehehehehehe! "This. And..." She pulled a face while trying to get a bigger something from her bag and a few seconds later, she managed to pull out a HUGE Advanced Charms book, dropping it on the ground next to her. "This. That's all. And I thought maybe we could practise the Charm on ourselves too??" Sophie added as she stood back up and looked at her friend with sparkly eyes.

The Hufflepuff pulled out her wand and kind of got ready to start, practising the wand movement for a bit. WHIP! Just like Theo's nose hair back in the day. WHIP!

Nearly done with the homework now. Which was good for Tag. He was starting to get hungry and he needed food like almost immediately. So the faster he got this down, the better. But you know, his practice couldn't be sloppy either. Responsibilities. Getting in the way of food.

Anyway, talking about food, from inside his rucksack Tag pulled out a silver pan. No need to ask why the boy had taken a silver frying pan from the kitchen, yeah? He just needed the pan. For frying pan like things. After taking out the pan he placed it on the floor, then rummaged through his rucksack some more and found some thick, heavy rocks then placed them inside the pan. There. That would add weight to it.

Going back to his original spot Tag lifted his wand, performed the hand movement then said, "Carpe Retractum!" Hmmm. Nothing happened at first. Give it another try. "Carpe Retractum! Carpe Retractum!" A second time for good measure. Just then a rope came from the wand, tied itself around the pan, and with a long tug Tag pulled the pan with the rocks inside it, closer to himself.

Charms. Homework. And working on this cowboy spell with heavier objects?

... This was the part where Minerva Wheatborn was meant to pop out and help him.

But there was no Wheaty here. Not yet, anyways. And if he did happen to spot her, Alec was planning on rushing over to her side before anyone could say 'Charms'. Because he had a funny feeling that this might not work and he'd need her to show him how to do that whip-like motion that wasn't similar to that of a cowboy's. Because if he was left alone with this, he would end up pretending to be a cowboy again.

Alec readjusted his grip on his bag before heading over towards an empty spot where he could work on the spell. It was probably a good thing there weren't many people here; he didn't really want to seize and pull a heavy object by magic only for it to get in someone's way and smack them over the head.

And his heavier objects? A large textbook, a hair-styling product (ahem) and... his bag. Just because.

Deciding to start with the lightest object first, Alec placed the hair-styling product on the floor before shuffling backwards and settling down a little further away from it. There. Now he was ready, yeah? The boy looked around the room anxiously, looking for the colourful head for Minnie. No. She still wasn't here. So... he'd just have to do this on his own.

His eyes landed back on the small tub while he took out his wand. This wasn't going to be hard. Yeah... whip-like hand movement and... KAHR-pay ruh-TRACK-tum. Here goes nothing. He took a couple of deep breaths before saying, "Carpe Retractum!" Whi-paaaaaaash! Yeah? Yeah?

...

No. Nothing. MINNIE!

Sophie! She was here! Finally but yes! YES! "Hiiiiii Soph!" GRIN! Was Soph excited? She totally was. This was Charms homework, after all. The blonde laughed at her comment about Brady and shook her head, feigning indignation. "Poor thing must have it tough being around the Charms Queen all the time." Heh. And what was this picture? Ella wiggled her eyebrows at the brunette and cracked a smile. "How romantic." Only teasing. They did make a cute couple though. As for the ginormous book, Ella's eyes widened. "And I thought my runes book was huge. Merlin!" Best was going to have back problems if she wasn't careful. "Yeah, that sounds good. I was hoping we could practice on each other. I just hope I'm not too heavy what with these massive Quidditch muscles." She was SO strong, just saying.

As Sophie waved her wand around, Ella did the same. She'd already practiced the incantation so she might as well practice the wand movement too. Lasso-time!

After a few minutes, the blonde glanced at the brunette and smiled. "Alright, ready to give it a go? Maybe we can start with our lightest objects and work our way up."

Whyyyyy was Lex using his super cool helmet? And making him use Alice's lamp? Mo scrubbed at his hair with a puzzled expression, especially because he didn't want to be the one responsible for breaking something of Alice's. Not when she was already mad. It didn't matter that Lex stole it; Mo would be blamed. That was how it worked.

"You're ladyish, so accept it. And I know you've been snogging boys, so you might as well not protest the label." Mo took a moment to sign his name to the bottom of Alice's lamp before swapping out the helmet and returning the lamp to Lex's care. He wasn't going to get in trouble if he could help it. Mo chucked the helmet back across the floor. "I'm not gonna break Alice's lamp. Was that your own idea or is someone paying you?"

The point was... Mo was going to just do the spell and not worry about it. He lifted his wand, cracking it like a whip with the flick of his wrist. "Carpe Retractum!" The orange rope of light crackled from the tip of his wand, reaching out and wrapping the helmet and dragging it across the floor. Bump bump bump. Not... exactly what he'd had in mind.

Sophie laaaughed at Ella's comment on Brady having it tough around herrr. She laughed loudly because she was in such a good mood. Because, YOU KNOW. Heh! The blonde's comment about her picture also made her laugh, but a different kind of laugh. She wiggled her eyebrows backkk and beamed at her Advanced Charms book. "This book is LIFE! It's just BRILLIANT!!" Sophie exclaimed happily. Oh, and that reminded her she needed to go talk to professor Fuller soon. SOON! Like, as SOON as she finished her homework or something. This was important! Sophie didn't want to blow anything up, so she should do this RIGHT.

But anyway, homework time. Sophie laughed out loud once again at Ella's remarks. "I'll try my best, I promise." Okaaay, time to get startedd!"Sounds like a plan!" WHIP! "Carpe Retractum." And WHIP! But both things at the same time, she was aware of that.

Hmmm, so which of those things was the least heavy, then? "I'll go for the pan first, I suppose?" If Ella didn't miinddd, of course. WHIP! Okay! She was readeh! She placed the pan several feet away from them and walked back to where they were standing before with the other objects. She reckoned it would be easier to start with an isolated target. Yes? Yes. ALRIGHT! "Carpe Retractum!" Sophie exclaimed, whipping her wand sharply in the direction of the pan Ella had brought. A pretteeehhh purple rope erupted from the tip of her wand and went right at the pan, slapping the object back. "Oh, woops. That was a bit violent, hehe!" Sophie chuckled then jumped up and down a bit to try and get some of the hyperness energy out. That had been TOO MUCH. Calm down, Sophie. "Okay. Sorry about that." She told Ella. Sophie could go again real quick, yesh? Heehee! "Carpe Retractum!" And a whipping motion towards the handle of the pan. Yeeeup, Sophie was aiming exactly at the handle this time. Unlike the first time that it was quite... random, she admited.

The purple rope burst from her wand, not as fast or violently as the last time. Focus was keeey, was it not? Yes, it was. Sophie watched as the thing wrapped itself around the pan's handle and then she pulled it back! "Ohai, pan!" The sixteen year-old beamed, grabbing the pan that came her way and turning to Ella. Woooooooooooo!! "This is quite cool! And how pretty is the rope??" SO pretteh!

Lady-ish? She was still trying to figure whether this was just a nicer insult or not when he said THAT. "Boy, Branxton, I kissed a boy, no 's' and what does snogging have to do with being a lady? Vivi says it doesn't matter." And of course she still religiously believed anything that Vivi said. Kisses weren't promises and if they weren't then they couldn't change your title.

Lex noted the fact that he refused to use Alice's lamp...even if he was willing to scribble on it. "I'll probably tell her you wrote that there." She casually commented as she watched and was what her idea? "I didn't say you should break it. I just thought it'd be a nice incentive to get the spell right, in case you worked better under pressure. I was only looking out for you, you know." See how SELFLESS she could be?? No one ever seemed to get her generous gestures.

Mo got the spell right, they could move on to the next item. If he wouldn't use the lamp then she would. Alexa walked over to the other side of the room and placed the lamp down. She could be careful, this would be fine.

She stood next to him, ready to cast. "Carpe Retractum!" More careful movements than earlier. Today was not the day she would die. Lex got set to catch the lamp as it flew to her along the rope. SAFE!

Sophie was totally an older, female version of Tobias. The two were so bouncy and smiley and Ella forever had the urge to squish them both. She laughed at her friend's dramatics about her Charm's book and shook her head, thinking of Gran. Speaking of, she had things to tell Sophie but that could wait until later. Maybe once they got back to the dorm. "Whatever you say, Soph." Maybe she'd borrow it sometime. Maybe. As for the brunette trying her best, Ella nodded. "And I'll try mine too." BEAM.

Practice time, yeah?

Ella watched Sophie's first attempt with an amused smile. She had clearly used too much force and ended up whipping the pan rather than lassoing it. The blonde stifled a giggle and offered her friend what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "You'r frightening sometimes, y'know. And you'll get it next time." She was sure of it. SO sure that when Soph did succeed, Ella grinned and said, "Told you so!" Beam! "And yeah, the rope is really pretty." Not nearly as colorful as a rainbow, though. Did Soph realize that?

Her turn. The seventeen year old casually stole the pan from her best friend and wandered a ways away, setting it down on the floor. She then backed up, careful not to knock into anything or anyone. This was enough space, yeah? "Alright, here goes nothing." And pretending she was a cowgirl as she'd done in class, Ella made the roping movement as she said clearly, "Carpe Retractum!" And the pretty purple rope emerged from the tip of her wand, wrapping itself around the pan handle before Ella tugged it firmly back. She was surprised at the force she had to use but then again, this was considerably more heavy than the balloons they'd used in class.

After collecting the pan in her hands, Ella BEAMED at Soph and bounced a bit. "That was cool! What should we try next?"

"Vivi isn't in charge of your face, Cambridge. She didn't kiss a boy until she was 17, and it was Milton, which honestly is respectable but still not enough to make her an expert on kissing. So... just don't tell me Vivi said it's okay like that's a thing. If you say it's okay, then say it's okay because you believe it." What were they even talking about anyway? Mo stomped across the room to place the old books carefully on the floor before stomping back to stand next to Lex.

"And another thing. I'm supposed to be taking care of you still, but I can't do that if you're kissing people all over the school when I'm not watching. So who is it, 'cause I have to go tell him to be good or I'll Bludger him on game day? I can do it too." He could. He had Blue and Nigel and Kalla, and people should be terrified.

Mo didn't want to be grumpy when he cast, 'cause usually that made his spells go boom. Breathing happened, and then he flicked his wrist again. "Carpe Retractum." He was more careful this time, since he didn't want to buy new books, and the rope snagged them generally around the middle and yanked them airborne toward Mo. And y'know, flying books at the face was WAY different than flying cake.

"DUCK."

Alec reached up a hand and ruffled his hair, his eyes on the tub of hair-styling product not too far away from him. This wasn't meant to be that hard. And he had managed to master it in the lesson, so much so that he ended up getting some cake to the face. But he had mastered it and that was the important part. So... why wasn't it working for him now? THAT was the main question here.

...

Cowboy spell take two.

The boy rolled up his sleeves and sat up straighter. He was going to seize that hair care product by magic and then pull it over towards him. Nodnod. He tried to cast his mind back to the lesson and, more specifically, that whip-like hand movement Minnie had taught him. What was it that she had said? More tight whip movement and less... cowboy going for the cattle. Those were pretty much her exact words.

Right. Tight whip movement... tight whip movement... "Carpe Retractum!" Whi-paaaaash! A grin spread across the boy's face as a purple beam of light shot out of his wand and wrapped itself around the tub. The tub flew over toward him when he tugged on the rope and he caught it with his free hand. Maybe he didn't need a Minnie here after all...

Tag looked around some more. There were a couple of people in here that he knew. Was no one going to ask him why he had a frying pan? Like, what was his reason to have a frying pan and why he had smuggled it out of the kitchen? No? No.

Shrugging his shoulders a bit Tag went straight back to work. Frying pan with rocks in it was still at Tag's foot so the boy picked it up and moved it feet from him. There, that was better. He was at least ten feet away from it. Nearly good enough as Professor Fuller had asked during the class.

Wand out again, whip like movement and a "Carpe Retractum!" here. Was that good enough? Nope. Apparently not since no rope came shooting out of Tag's wand. Sighing loudly Tag mentally said the spell in his head again then spoke out loud, "Carpe Retractum! Carpe Retractum!"

An just like a lasso the rope came out of Tag's wand and tied around the handle of the pan. Perhaps he just needed to say the spell a few more times for it to start working properly. That was probably it.

Mo was stating the obvious. She figured she was the only one allowed to do that but apparently not...? "I'm very much in charge of my own face but I know zilch about that sort of thing so compared to me she's an expert." Not like there was someone else she could ask to be sure. Amanda would lead her off a cliff given a chance. "Stuff she says makes sense so I believe it." Made sense? It did to her in a world where just about everyone was an idiot.

....Mo was getting info wrong all over wasn't he? She shook her head. "Not all over the school, just once, in my kitchen in the middle of skateboarding lessons." See? Not around the school at all but see she liked the idea of Mo bludgering someone. "You good with Bludgering your own teammate?" That'd have been funny. She could imagine game day, her aiming a bludger but Mo's bludger getting there before hers. Was that even allowed, aiming at your own team? She wouldn't be the one to try it.

She was about to mention who it was but then there were BOOKS hurtling toward her. Out of pure reflex she ducked and the books went over her head. Alice's lamp hadn't been so vicious. MERLIN.

Lex blinked at the books before standing upright again. Ahem. Back to the homework. She placed the vase down across the room then went back and took aim. "Carpe Retractum!" Admittedly this was a lot heavier and required a bit more tugging but she got it over to her as well. "When can we practice on each other?"

Pretty much done with the homework now, yeah? Just one or two more practices and the boy would be finito. Now. Time to take the homework up a notch. Once again going through his rucksack for a second Tag got out the textbook, then placed it, slightly crooked, inside the pan with the rocks.

Aha. This would be slightly harder.

Things all set up now Tag did the wand movement, then yelped "Carpe Retractum!" Instantly a whooshing sound was heard come from his wand, the rope came out and tied, very awkwardly, itself around the books and rocks, creating a spider like web.

Losing his balance a bit when he tugged on the rope the pan, making a bad screeching sound against the surface of the floor and the rocks jumbling about inside it, slowly inched closer to his feet. There, he was done.

Tag stuffed the rocks and textbook back into his rucksack and heaved it over his shoulder. An, he casually kept the frying pan in his hand as he walked out the room.

Would anyone say anything?

Again frying pan reasons.

It was starting to get a bit crowded in here now, which meant that Caleb couldn't put such a large distance between him and the objects anymore. Darn. Now that meant he had to actually like, CATCH the objects as they sped towards him rather than giving it space to slow down. This could be a disaster.

See, this was why he didn't play Quidditch!

Focusing on his history of magic textbook (and sort of secretly imagining what it would be like to burn it to ashes) he waved his wand, whipped it at the book and yelled "Carpe Retractum!" before yanking it back towards him. He held out his arms and caught the heavy book, although he almost stumbled backwards due to the force.

Sophie made her way into the Charms Practice Room levitating a sack full of items behind her. She should get this homework assignment over with soon. She had way too many other assignments to do, and she just didn't feel like getting them all piled up.

She continued levitating the sack into the room until she'd found herself a nice little corner to work in. There weren't too many people around, so she should be okay here. She lowered the sack then opened it to begin taking everything out. Let's see...

A huge textbook on monsters she didn't think she'd ever read...

A book bag full of supplies...

Three pairs of shoes tied together by their laces...

A makeup case some girl in the common room had let her borrow...

A small sack of flour that house elf Beezey had said she could use...

She laid them all out before her and flicked her wand out her holster.

He made faces at her before retrieving his books from where they'd smacked the wall behind them. Too violent. Too much force. Too... something. He'd concentrated too, but there was a trick to pulling back the object and catching it in the air, and Mo hadn't quite mastered the catching part of it, yet.

He banished his comforter across the room and squared off against it. Wand up. Wait... one of his team mates? Wand down, and Mo turned on Lex with a dark look. One of his lads was snogging the baby lion? Was that even ALLOWED? "Who? Aidan? Nigel? Benjy? Who was it? I'll Bludger you both if you don't tell me." There was zero sense in that sentence, but Mo failed to realize it.

So this was what having a little sister felt like, hmm? Mo didn't recommend it to anyone, and he rued the day he'd have to punch someone for looking crosswise at the youngest girls on his Quidditch team. And heaven forbid he ever grow up to have daughters.

"Carpe Retractum!" Mo flicked his wrist, and again the orange light flew from his wand toward the comforter. It snagged at the fabric and pulled, but it failed to really grab it. Again. "Carpe Retractum!" This time, it grabbed the comforter around the middle and flipped it through the air back towards Mo and Lex. He was ready to grab it this time, but when the folds of heavy fabric hit his face and arms, Mo was full engulfed by the whole blanket. Welp.

"You better believe I'm going to use this spell on you next." Muffled voice was cranky.

Alright, time to move onto the next object - Caleb's shoes. His dressy ones, to be exact. They were sort of heavy...definitely heavier than the balloons, so therefore, they counted to Caleb. He set them down on the place where his book had previously sat, took a few steps back, and cleared his throat.

"Carpe Retractum!" he exclaimed. He whipped his wand forward, felt it make contact with the shoes, and then WHOOSH! They were flying towards his hand.

Well, actually...ONE was. He'd missed the other one. Whoops.

If Mo had been worried about hurting his books a minute ago it didn't show now. They were flying toward them and probably damaging people. Just not her because of her awesome Quidditch Reflexes that he had too or should have had. Those would remain right there until this was done unless he wanted to gather them up and put them back in the crate he'd brought.

She watched the comforter, waiting for him to cast on it too but then he was lowering his wand...? That wasn't how one went about casting spells. He knew thi--oh. Eh. "You can't bludger me. I'd hex your face off before you could try." Said only half jokingly...half...it was kinda a joke...sorta, but merlin did she mean it. "But I'll tell you anyway because you've asked so nicely." Sarcasm, mhm. "It was Benjy, he wasn't half bad and we're not going around the castle snogging each other, in case you were wondering." Might as well clarify, Mo was getting worked up for nothing.

...Even more worked up it seemed after he was whacked in the head by his own comforter. Least it wasn't a sac of bricks? Positives.

Also, he was planning to cast on her next soooo....As quietly as she could she moved away until she was a good distance, immediately did the whipping motion (had to be quick before he removed the comforter) then, "Carpe Retractum!!" The rope burst out from her wand rushing toward him and she began tugging. TUGGING, he wasn't exactly light you know.