... ... Practice time.

Alec blinked a couple of times and stayed rooted to the spot. It was actually time to get started! GULP. That talk hadn't last long at all. His face paled considerably as he looked over at the nearest hoop, the one he was going to be apparating into. The man said that you could use pillows, yeah? For safety precautions? Was he going to use some? ... YEAH!

Grabbing the pillow he had been sitting on and his hoop, the boy placed both ten feet away from the spot he had been sitting before. There. Awesome. That was the EASY part done and now it was just time to... apparate. Easier said than done, that was.

Standing ten feet away, the eighteen year old took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He had to imagine himself apparating into the hoop, yeah? The three D's... destination... that hoop... determination... did he have any? And... and... what was the last one again?

... No. Just... just clear the mind. Clear it. Breaaaaaathe...

Tessa had just reached the lilypads when she saw that she was not the only one to reach the swamp. She grinned and waved at Sander, who was already out on the lilypads before returning her attention to her apparating.

"Okay, which lilypad," she murmured, her eyes moving over the swamp to pick just the right lilypad to apparate to. Finally, she had picked one and raising her wand, she cast a ring of sparks at it. "I'm aiming for that one!" she called to anyone else who had come to practice at the swamp. After all, apparating was hard enough without having to worry about someone else apparating on the same spot, or bumping you into the swamp.

She took a moment to clear her mind again and focused just on the lilypad. It was a location she hadn't been, so it would take a little more imagination to achieve the 'destination' of the three Ds. Once she was sure that she had the location in mind, she turned on the spot. The feeling of apparating surrounded her and soon she landed. Well, landed wouldn't be the best word, since she was right at the edge of a lilypad. She waved her arms, trying to get her balance and managed to get herself to fall forward- no swamp water for her! For the moment anyway. With a sigh, she stood in the center of the pad and focused on where she had been. She apparated there with no issue and sighed.

This would take some more practice.

Sander decided to try the hoops again. This time he took 3 hoops and placed them a few feet apart from each other. Then he walked back until he was at least 10 feet from the first one, and then turned around and focused on the first one. He cleared his mind of all things except his desire to move from where he was standing to the exact center of the first hoop.

He visualized himself standing here in this hoop and then disappearing and appearing standing inside the hoop. 'Here....there....here....there he kept chanting to himself as he continued to visualize how he would be apparating to the hoop.

When he was ready, he kept the image in his mind, closed his eyes, moved his left foot back and turned on the spot. Sander felt the now familiar sensation of turning and moving....then POP!!

He opened his eyes, looked down and smiled. He was standing right in the center of the first hoop. To make sure that he hadn't splinched he quickly examined himself from head to toe before breathing a sigh of relief. Now that he had managed to get himself into the first hoop, Sander turned and focused on the next hoop in front of him.

He again concentrated on what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go, all within a split second. He visualized himself first standing in this hoop, then disappearing and appearing in the one in front of him. Closing his eyes, Sander, moved his left foot and turned on the spot. The familiar sensations were felt and then POP!!

Sander opened his eyes and looked down to see where he was standing. He was definitely standing in a hoop but which one. He turned to look behind him and smiled when he saw that there was only a single hoop behind him. Sander punched the air in triumph. He had made it into the second hoop, without splinching after some close examination of his anatomy and clothing.

'Okay let's try for the third one, Sander. Practice makes perfect.' he thought to himself as he turned to look at the hoop in front of him. He visualized and concentrated as hard as he could and then closed his eyes.

Moving his left foot back, he again turned on the spot. He could feel himself turning and moving and then Pop!!

Sander quickly opened his eyes, turned to count the number of hoops behind him before looking down at where he was standing. He had counted 2 hoops and he was standing inside the third hoop. Quickly examining himself again, he breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't left anything of himself behind.

Sander was happy. He had successfully apparated himself into three separate hoops.

The three D's. She nodded upon hearing what Mr.Newell said about them. She was thinking that it might not be that hard and that she might actually be able to do it right now and here and YAY! Well, that until talks about splinching started. Not that she didn't know about it and haven't heard of it before, but she was telling herself it was something that rarely happened. But it obviously had to do with concentration. Now that was a big deal.

The snake grew a bit uncomfortable about the talk but tried to tell herself it could be avoided. Should BE! D:

Oh, so they can start now?

Cassia closed her eyes for a brief minute suspending herself from her surroundings, or attempting to. Her eyes were fixed on one of the hoops before her. She squinted in concentration and closed her eyes again. She thought it was best she tried with the hoops. Why start with the swamp so early, yeah? Starting gradually was wise.

Concentration. Check.

Destination. Check.

Determination. ..... Weeell, she actually was a little bit worried about the splinching thingy? So kind check?

Or not at all since she didn't move one bit. She actually would have been super surprised if it worked right away. Or like freaked out!

To try a second time.

So now they were getting right down to the gritty stuff. Already they could start practicing.

O____O

But but it had all ended so quickly. Too quickly. Didn't the instructor have more advice to give them? Things to think about? To remember? No? No. At least Tag was glad the Splinching conversation was was already done, but they had him in a panicky mood. They would be there to save him. Right?! Right!? Hopefully.

The blonde looked at everyone else who seemed to already have started on trying to get the basics of apparition. Some weren't having much success, which was completely understandable. Anyway he went to go grab a couple of pillows, four of them to be precise, and a hoop. He set up the four pillows in the front, back and sides of the hoop which he placed ten feet in front of him.

Let's get down to business. Tag's eyes squinted at the hoop for quite some time. Be the hoop. See the hoop. Be one with the hoop. The boy tried to imagine his body standing inside the hoop already but even trying to get that down was hard.

The three Ds that's what he needed. Destination, Determination and Deliberation. Whatever that last one meant. He tried to think of all of that, being one with the hoop, imagining himself standing inside it and hoping not to get splinched.

Determination. Deliberation. Destination. He got this. Tag closed his eyes, cause he didn't want to see anything, and concentrated on that. Suddenly he felt himself tripping forward and whoa, had he moved? He was smiling to himself when he realized he'd probably been thinking too hard and actually tripped up on his own feet in confusion.

Epic fail.

Eyes were closed, concentration was happening, knowing where she wanted to be and being determined to get there. Only...she was still in the same spot.

Disappointing, that was.

Ella opened her eyes and frowned slightly, looking around at her classmates to see if any of them were having any luck. It was kind of scary, not having a solid idea of how to get into the hoop. Like, she knew she just had to use the Three Ds and that'd help but without an incantation, she felt a bit lost. Was her magic really strong enough to do the work without her wand? It just all seemed like a bit of a stretch. She needed to figure it out, though. Especially if she planned on getting places on her own in the magical world. She could do this. She just... needed to try again. Yeah.

Destination, Determination and Deliberation...

Eyes closed again, Ella visualized the hoop. That's where she was going, her destination was the hoop. Next she cleared her mind of any other thought. She was determined to get to that hoop. Her mind was made up and she would get there. Yes. And she was going to move with deliberation. Take me to the hoop. ...Take me to the hoop. ...Take me to the hoop.

O______________________O

A sucking feeling. Like being in a vacuum or something and having it suck at your entire being and pull you into the blackness. It was weird, like her lungs were going to fail and she couldn't see and was she dying? Oh no, okay, she was going to die and she was in class and how emba-

BLINK!

Suddenly her feet were on the ground. She wobbled a bit and as her balance wasn't the best lately, fell over the hoop that was on the ground next to her. O_o Was that...her hoop? Looking up from where she was on the ground, the eighteen year old found that she was now on the opposite side of the room. Only, she hadn't landed in her hoop, just next to it.

That was something though, right? SHE HAD APPARATED! She hadn't lost a body part! SHE WAS ALIVE!

...And she also couldn't get up so there was that. Cool.

Oichi slowly started to feel like her dizziness was fading and slowly got up. She had done it. Oh wow, that was a rush, but I did it. Now, should I continue to practice or jump right to the swamp. Hmmm, sure getting wet is unpleasant but its only 4ft deep and I can swim. I'm gonna go for it, no pain, no gain. Oichi put on a sassy smirk as she walked over to the swamp. She concentrated hard on apparating to the closest lily pad 2 feet away. She looked right at it as the magic of her inner being sent her into the void and then came out again looked down. 'Gulp, SPASH...' Oichi fell and at first she was dizzy like last time but as soon as she she hit the water she snapped out of it and started to swim like a penguin and was soon close to classroom floor again. She lifted herself out and felt her bones creak and her back felt like knives were being stabbed into it. But she still tried to stay calm and breathed in and out slowly. She had no idea when she would feel well enough to get up. But she felt some solace in that she succeeded in apparating for the second time without the loss of limbs. It was just this stubid debilitating condition getting in her way again but she was not gonna let it defeat her.

Three D's. Okay. She could do this. Whew.

Destination. Determination. And... what was that last one again?

Never mind. Alice tried to clear her head, slipping her wand out of her sleeves and closing her eyes. Who wanted to do those lame hoops? This girl was no coward, and it might look like she was afraid or uncertain if she didn't go for the swamp first. Those who knew her well were quite aware that the seventh year was never certain, but... swamp first. For the rep. Mhm.

Eyes closed, she tried to move. Was that the sucking feeling there? Yes! That was it! She was apparating! But when she peeked out of an eye, Alice realized she was standing just where she started. Oh? Had she apparated back already? Man, she was a pro at this.

Or she just hadn't moved. Whatever.

Maybe she wasn't focusing on the destination bit hard enough. Concentrate, Fischer.

Lily pad. Lily pad. Why wasn't she ON one yet?

In time Oichi got up again and was determined to make it to a lily pad this time. She concentrated on her destination and was determined to get there. She stared at it intently and then with a pop she found herself falling and then landed on green. I did it, I did it. Now I just gotta get back, I have faith I most certainly can.

All that he had to do was be zen and not think about splinching. He could do that. Just think about all the awesome things he could do with an apparition license.

Destination, Determination and Deliberation. Or just Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate. Alright now the question on where he wanted to practice apparating. Swamp maybe or the easier rings. Swamp did sound more fun and he did not mind the falling in the swamp water. So Swamp it was. One lily pad to another. So first step is getting to the first one. Easier said then done.

Might as well close his eyes and try this. Nigel concentrated on that lonely lily pad thinking how awesome it would be to just appear there. Like magic and it would be really awesome.

Concentrate Nigel Concentrate.

What was this weird feeling, lily pad, lily pad. Nigel opened his eyes looking down thinking he moved. Well it was a positive sign that he was not in water. Very positive. And this was not the spot on the floor where he was before. So he added one plus one and discover he had done it. No splinching. He did not even care that he had apparated to the lily pad. He was in one piece.

Definitely not like driving a muggle car, that was for sure.

The fact that he had tripped on himself, while standing completely still, that was a new accomplishment.

Determination. Destination and Deliberation. Determination. Destination and Deliberation.

These were the only things that kept running through Tag's mind. He thought of the hoop and himself traveling towards it. How was this even possible? Going from one place to another without having to take a step. Just like that. Poof and poofing back into existence. His mind was still trying to wrap around it, but he would not be complaining about its possibility. Not ever.

Tag to hoop. Tag to hoop. Tag to hoop. Tag in hoop. Tag in hoop. These were just, alongside the basic rules of apparition, things that ran through his mind. Way too much to think about. He needed something to make him want to be there faster and actually accomplish the task. What could it be that, his booster?

Food. Free food.

So, what did he do? Pretend there was free brownies inside his hoop.

He was going to get those 'brownies' even if he lost an arm. No. The blonde hoped that wouldn't happen.

Destination, hoop. Determination, hoop. Deliberation, hoop. Focus, focus, focus.

Tag squeezed his eyes and went through the mental checklist in his mind. Apparate little unicorn. Apparate.

Suddenly the boy felt his body being compressed, everything being squished, and him momentarily losing his breath. He couldn't hear or feel or see anything at all. Then, his elbows were scraping against a rough surface, his face slamming against one of the pillows.

His body was sprawled over the outside of his hoop. Arms out in front of him. The blonde stayed there for a few seconds, trying to regain his breath, and slowly turned his head to one side and kept it still.

Had that really just happened?

Looking once more around himself, he realized it wasn't a win.

But, he definitely had moved from his original spot.

No brownies.

Hula hoops? Mo wanted to feel all inspired by the hoop, but mostly he was just thinking that he wanted to skip the learning and go straight to the doing. No jumping through hoops (literally)... Mo wanted to jump on lilypads. He wanted to Apparate home.

He wanted to visit France, even.

Today, he'd have to content himself with hoops and swamps, though. Mo retrieved a few hoops, tossing them into a long isosceles triangle on the floor. Standing at the top point inside the hoop, Mo closed his eyes and tried to envision himself in the hoop to his right. Right right right right.

OKAY GO.

He peeked through one eyelid and then the other. Nope. He was definitely in the same hoop. Try again?

Nervous didn't even begin to describe how she was feeling right now. She'd only just gotten her arm back and healed proper like, now she might lose it. What if she LOST HER HEAD OR SOMETHING? What would happen then? She would be dead. That's what would happen. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Needless to say, she was scared.

Perhaps it was her inner Slytherin showing. Maybe. Self preservation above all things. Bet Salazar Slytherin wasn't scared of apparition.

She thought about seeking out Mo for comforting hugs but decided against it. She really needed to focus on concentrating but if she was going to her doom here, it would be nice to go with a few kisses. She rubbed at her temples and attempted to calm the inner panic, it was not going to help at all. She needed to concentrate on OWNING this. She could totally do it. She just needed to focus.

Caterina decided to try the hoops first because she didn't fancy landing herself in some kind of nasty swamp if she broke her concentration. She could totally do this, right? RIGHT. CONFIDENCE. She wanted to be in that hoop right over there. She did. Yes. Decidedly, Caterina closed her eyes tightly, worked on clearing her mind of all other things besides that darn hoop. Here to there. From here to right in the middle of that hoop. She could see herself standing there but when she opened her eyes again, she'd gone nowhere. She just couldn't seem to focus all of her concentration.

...This was going to take a while, wasn't it?

Concentrating and clearing the mind was hard. Questions, you know. No matter what the boy did, he couldn't drive those out of his brain. It might have had a lot to do with the fact that he was downright nervous about this. Apparition was hard, he knew that. It even looked hard. AWESOME but hard.

... Clear the mind. Think about the hoop and the hoop only. Did they have to do this everytime they wanted to apostate? If so, how were people able to do it so quickly and... effortlessly? And what would happen if he ended up splinching himself? In front of a lot of people he knew, too. That would be... embarrassing. But the man would be able to fix it, yeah? Quickly? And was starting off with the hoops a good idea? What about the lily pads? When could he try and apparate onto one of those?

Yeah, Alec had questions which he was trying to shake off by closing his eyes and shaking his head. There. Think about the three D's. Destination... the hoop. Determination... he was going to make it into the hoop and pass the test otherwise... he'll force feed himself a big helping of something with spinach in it. Shudder. And... and... deliberation? Move with deliberation.

Move... without haste... with deliberation... moooooove...

...

Quick peek at his surroundings. Nothing. Nope. Sad face.

So, that was it? Just think and concentrate? Sounded easy enough, in theory. As long as no more annoying children popped their heads in just to say hi.

But first, breathing and clearing her mind so she could concentrate. In..........and out. In..........and out. There. Now Layla laser focused on the ten feet away. Aaaand nothing. No disappearing and reappearing anywhere.

Well, at least she hadn’t splinched herself.

Tessa looked out at the lilypads, ready for her next attempt. If everything went well, she would feel a lot more comfortable with apparition. She looked over and envisioned landing on the pad. From the feeling to how everything would look around her. She had switched lilypads, so it would be a whole new view.

Once she was finished the destination process, she turned on the spot. She landed on something slightly bouncy, and there wasn't a struggle to keep her balance. So far so good... She opened her eyes and saw that she was on the lilypad she had aimed for. Not stopping to revel in her success, she turned to look at another, further lilypad. She focused on the same details, and turned. The process was quicker, easier, and she landed on the previously mentioned lilypad.

Grinning, she went to a third Lily pad before finally returning to the stone in front of the swamp. She had done it!

As the students practiced, Cale was walking around the room, watching them. They all seemed to be doing fairly well - a lot of them were looking at him like he was nuts, though, asking them to just DO the apparition thing so fast. Well, that was how you did it! You just had to jump into the fray, so to speak.

"Good job, keep it up!" he called, giving out little nods of encouragement as he walked by. So far, only a small incident of splinching, and that had been HAIR. Not bad, not bad at all!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Sophie grinned to herself as she approached the room off the Great Hall. Was she old enough to attend this lesson? Nope, but she wasn't here for the lesson. She strolled closer to the door and stood there for a moment, listening to the sound of the voice she heard from within.

Yup. It was him alright. Too bad Caleb wasn't around.

Sophie gently pushed open the door and grinned. "HI, DAD!" she called out. With a quick wave, she stepped back out and closed the door behind her.

Yup, that was all she'd come for. Ta ta for now. She turned away from the door and headed on her way.

Cale stopped when he heard someone yelling, echoing through the hall. Dad? OH WAIT. THAT WAS HIM. HE WAS DAD! He turned on his heel and saw Sophie peeking in through the door, waving at him. He chuckled and waved back before she disappeared and ran out of the hall.

WHOA. Would he be teaching his kids to apparate someday? FREAKY THOUGHT.

Sander watched Tessa as she tried out the lily pads. He was so proud of his girlfriend. She was really good. Sander decided that he would try apparating on the lily pads again. He had done it before successfully once, but this time he wanted to try jumping from one to another, not necessarily in a row.

So he stood in front of the first lily pad and focused his attention and concentration on it. He visualized himself disappearing from where he was standing and landing on that lily pad. He took a couple of breaths to clear his mind. He kept his focus on the lily pad and then he closed his eyes, and moved his left foot behind, and turned on the spot.

He immediately felt the turning and moving sensation and then POP!!. He quickly opened his eyes and found himself on a less stable surface. He quickly raised his arms parallel to the water to stabilize himself. Then he examined himself to make sure he had not splinched.

Satisfied that he hadn't, he turned around and focused on the lily pad floating next to the same one he was standing on. He visualized where he wanted to be and how he was going to do and then closed his eyes, moved his left foot back and turned on the spot. The same turning and moving sensation was felt and when it stopped. POP!!

Sander opened his eyes and smiled to see he had moved onto the next lily pad. Without any hesitation, he visualized himself moving from that pad back to the stone at the front of the pool. He didn't even turn around to look at it. He closed his eyes, concentrated as hard as he could, and then moved his left foot back and turned on the spot.

He felt himself turning and moving....and then POP!!. He slowly opened his eyes and looked down. He had done it. He was standing right smack in the middle of the stone. Sander got off it and examined himself carefully.

No sign of splinching. Sander breathed a sigh of relief. He had been successful again at apparating.

....Bam! Lily's feet were on solid ground when the seventh year opened her eyes, only she didn't feel like she was on solid ground. The whole room looked like it was spinning and the redhead held her hands out to try to steady herself.. and then promptly lost the contents of her stomach into the hoop that was right next to her... more specifically around her right foot. That was her hoop, right? She had apparated!?! And even though she had just lost the content of her stomach upon realizing this, Lily was very excited!! She had actually done it, even if she kinda missed the mark in the center of the hoop.

Now to just clean up her little mess that nobody had to see and try again. Nobody saw that right??

So that didn't work. Mo paced across the floor to the other hoop, the one he was trying to send himself too, and he spent a long time studying how the room looked from this angle. If he had to move himself from one spot to another that was nearly identical, it would help him to understand where he was going, wouldn't it?

It was a little TOO close to his other spot, but Mo tried to mark the differences. How far the wall was, how far the tables were... and then he marched back to his original spot and closed his eyes tight. If he could just do it ONCE and knew how it felt, then he'd be able to do it again. Just like casting nonverbally.

Deliberately, decisively, Mo turned slightly as he envisioned that OTHER spot... and he felt about as much pain as he'd ever felt in his life. All his joints were on fire, his lungs were collapsing, his back and legs... and when it seemed like he couldn't take it anymore, the pain abated. Was he dead? Was he splinched?

Mo opened his eyes and found himself in the other hoop. A quick pat down demonstrated that he seemed all in one piece, which meant all that pain was just how Apparating felt, apparently.

Yay?

WHY WAS THE THOUGHT OF THIS SO FUN BUT SO TERRIFYING AT THE SAME TIME?!?! WHY HADN'T THEY BEEN DOING THE THEORY FOR THIS SINCE FIRST YEAR?!?! WHY WAS SHE INTERNALLY HAVING A FREAK OUT AND WANTING TO CRY OR RUN OR YELL AT SOMEONE?!?! WHERE WAS DELILAH STARR WHEN ELODIE NEEDED TO PUNCH AT SOMEONE?!?!!? Okay, breaaaaathe.

Fact was, Elodie had pretty much wrote down every single thing Mr. Guy Person Human With Official Things had said since they had been in here. Word for word. Pause for pause. Breath for breath. And before she could even ATTEMPT to do what everyone else was doing and achieving and BEING GOOD AT (yeah, we see you kid attempting it 7449738 times), Els had to read over her notes and look frantically at her friends for supportive smiles or nose wiggles or something that would save her skin right now and she wouldn't lose any part of her. Because..face it..losing something and splinching would HURT and/or make you incredibly lopsided. Brrrrrrrreathe, Robertser.

The rest of the stuff here looked like it could make her cry by trying to consider it, so Els settled with hoops. Hoops were fun. And just to get into the spirit of things, whilst going to get her own spot in the room...she hula hooped it as she walked. Ohhhhhhh yeah. Okay. Sorted. In a place. Ready. Notes all read. NOW TO DIE BE COOL. THREE D'S. THREE OF THEM. D was probably her least favourite letter of the alphabet. Death began with a d. Was that like..some sort of warped joke about this? DESTINATION. DETERMINATION. DELIBERATION.

Destination? NOT RIGHT WHERE SHE WAS STANDING ALREADY. Determination. OH, ELODIE WHY DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!q?!?! Deliberation. SEEEEEEEEEEE YOURSELF NOT HERE. SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IT. BUTT WIGGLE. NOSE WIGGLE. EYES CLOSED AND ALL THAT JAZZ. Not here not here not here not here. More wiggling, more wiggling. Were you supposed to feel anything? Anything but the slight ache in her butt from the wiggling?

Peek. No. Nothing. No movement. "I didn't mo-OOO-ooo-OOOOOOOOOVE."

No one had to know. No one was observing her specifically to see if she was the worst human in the world. Time for try number two. Maybe no wiggling....

How could TAG apparate and she couldn't? Like... no offense or anything, but he was Tag.

Merlin, this was really bad.

Destination. Determination. D.... d.... dumb idea. That was probably the last one, and Alice was focusing on it more than any of the D words of which she was actually meant to be thinking. This was stupid. Anything she wasn't good at was stupid.

Taking a deep breath, the seventh year closed her eyes again and grasped her wand a bit tighter. Please? Please move?

But when she peeked... nothing. Again.

She was either not concentrating enough or was worrying a tad more than necessary. Or perhaps both? Probably. She'd rather think the reason was in her will than her ability. She definitely was capable of right? She was a witch who preformed magic and stuffs. Just the will, she can fix that!

Her eyes stole glances at people around her. See, she wanted to know who got it done FAST! But also didn't wanna feel bad that she didn't. or would she feel all competitive and encouraged? Probably not. Besides she didn’t want to break off her concentration.

Now onto the second attempt.

Eyes closed. I want to apparate like just a couple of feet ahead? Would thinking it do it? She really was thinking it HARD!
Well, obviously it wasn't enough as she didn't move a millimeter.

She sighed and eyed the hoop. Kept eyeing for a good one minute thinking that she wanted to appear inside it! Yup, there!

Clearly she was missing something here. HMPH.

Okay, time to practice Apparating.

Though she probably wouldn't admit it out loud, it was a bit scary and intimidating. Just the thought of possibly splinching yourself badly was pretty freaky. But that obviously meant you shouldn't think about it, yeah? Anything could seem scary if you thought about it way too much and built it up to be scary. So that was something she was gonna try to avoid now. Just focus on Apparating successfully, not about splinching herself.

The hoops were probably the best and safest option to start with, but she couldn't bring herself to settle for those, especially not since Alice was apparently going for the swamp already. If Alice could do it, so could she. So Penelope went over there, stopping at a good spot with a pretty good view of a lilypad she could land on.

So now it was time. Focus. The three D's. Destination, determination, deliberation.

Obviously her destination was the lilypad. She focused on that for a moment, studying it and trying to get a good image of it in her mind, and then trying to picture herself standing there. Yes, good. And then determination - yeah, she had plenty of that. She was determined not to fail this. Then deliberation...what did that mean again? Not rushing into it or something? Something like that, maybe, yeah.

So the Gryffindor had those all on her mind, so it should totally work, right? Time to try.

Penelope closed her eyes to help her focus. Picturing herself disappearing from this spot and landing on the lilypad, not in the water. Focus...focusssss.....

.......

...Anything?

She opened one eye a little.

...Nothing?

...Okay, just keep focusing....

Deliberation! That was what the last D was!

Only Alice couldn't remember what that word meant, so she was just going to keep focusing on the other two.

"Dear Merlin," she whispered, eyes still closed. "I really, really need to know how to apparate because flooing is extremely horrid. If you're up there, d'you think you could take pity on me and just stuff me through that apparition tube-y thingy? Yeah? Thanks, man."

Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she realized her chest felt like it was contracting. Was she MOVING?

Alice opened her eyes, and.... realized she was still in the same spot. So that tightening in her chest had just been from holding her breath.

Hmph. After this lesson was over, she was going to go draw a mustache on her Merlin chocolate frog card.