Ascanius had been listening the whole time this lesson was going on, yeah? S'just that he was rather bored by the monotony that the lesson had been working up thus far. He wasn't an idiot and common sense pretty much covered all the bases of what to do and what not to do when disappearing mid-air. The fact that it had to be expressed to his peers or the fact that the people who were teaching them thought so lowly of them that they had to express little tiny common sense-like details made him want to roll his eyes.

But he didn't. He just Ascanius faced the entire lesson, which was somewhere between boredom and indifference. The sixth year was actually really gifted at said face. Ahem.

When they finally got down to the grind of it all, though, the actual work he was ready. Destination, determination, deliberation. Those three things he could do, yeah? After all, he really wanted to master this skill...'cause how cool would a dead kneazles concert look if he just poofed from one drum set to another? Think about it. He'd look awesome.

Jeez, this was tedious.

He eyed the hoop 'cause he wasn't getting his hair wet for anyone and thought long and hard about the hoop. That was his destination. He wanted to be there. Work it out, Stark. As to determination...he had that down. The sixth year was freakishly focused. And then the third and final D he was all down to really imagining and thinking about his newest destination. He could do this...he could do this...

.....any time now magic. Work. Could it work? How about now?

...now?

....or now?

Jeez.

Why wasn't this working? Everyone else in the room could do it, but Alice couldn't? She really wanted that apparition license. And she really wanted to never have to floo again. And she really wanted to just get this damn thing over with already, because it was embarrassing that she was incapable of doing every important thing, like defeating a boggart or casting a patronus or performing nonverbal spells or apparating.

The seventh year just stood there and thought about how she had to be on that lily pad. Had to. And then... she was hit by the worst pain she'd ever experienced. Her lungs were collapsing and shriveling up, her chest was on fire, and her body was being crushed by this invisible force that was pushing and pushing and pushing and she couldn't take it anym-

When it seemed like the agony was going to kill her, the feeling of torture dissolved instantaneously. What? Was she dead? Slowly slitting an eye open, she realized that her view of the room was different. Like... like she was in another spot. Like she had moved. Had... she moved?

She hadn't appeared on a lily pad like she wanted to, but being on the other side of the room in a hoop was good enough for Alice. And no splinching. Only... what was that lurching in her stomach? Why did she feel dizzy?

".... I think I'm gonna hurl." Oh Merlin, oh Merlin, why her?

Focus. Concentration. Intent. All that good stuff, that was what she was supposed to use to Apparate. And magic obviously. So she just needed to keep at this, yeah? Determination. That was one of the Three D's.

So she did, but first she opened her eyes again and went to the edge of the swamp to better study the place she wanted to appear. Swampy, greenish, pretty good sized lilypad, water all around which she didn't want to land in...yeah. Okay. That gave her a little bit better of a picture in her head, though she was pretty sure her first one was fine too.

Time to take a few steps back and try again then.

Closing her eyes again, she concentrated hard on her destination. Focussss. Imagining herself disappearing, going through the air sort of somehow, and then reappearing right on that lilypad. Focus. Destination, determination, delibera-

GAHHHHH. What was happening?? It felt like she was being pushed at from all sides, like something was trying to squeeze the life out of her. She couldn't breathe or open her eyes or move or scarcely even think. Had she done something wrong? Was she splinched?? Was-

SPLASH!

ASDFGHJKLLASLDKASL SHE WAS DROWNING. FLAIL FLAIL FLAIL SOMEONE SAVE-

But then her feet hit the bottom and she realized she was standing and the water was only four feet high, and she was a good foot and two inches taller than that. Oh. She was fine. Except - COUGH - ew, swamp water in her mouth. Gross.

She'd clearly Apparated though! Which she considered progress, even if it wasn't exactly to where she'd wanted to go. Still coughing a little, she clambered out of the water and started to squeeze the water out of her hair and clothes. Didn't want that somehow affecting her next attempt, right?

Theo was still standing in his same starting position, and alongside his terror of splinching, there was now also a dash of annoyance. He really, REALLY wanted to get this right now and not have to retake the exam at the Ministry, or whatever the process was. Learning at Hogwarts was so convenient and he wasn't sure if he could cope with all his friends learning before him.

SO... with that in mind, he tried again.

Theodore squeeeeezed his eyes shut and imagined himself inside of the hoop once more. See the hoop, feel the hoop, BE THE HOOP. He thought about magic as well. He tried to imagine it filling every bone of his body, which is something he hoped would happen on its own but whaaaaaatever, he was prepared to make the effort.

HOOOOOOOOOOOP.

I WANT TO BE INSIDE THAT HOOP.

MAGICALLY INSIDE THAT HOOP.

HOOP-DE-HOOP.

Theo opened his eyes and...

Yeah West was gonna stick with the hoops thanks, Mr Newell. He selected one and found a spot and just tried to focus. He was kinda nervous but you know, repeating the three D's in his head and all that.

And then he tried it. Aiming/focusing on that hoop. The next thing he knew he'd reappeared on the edge of the thing, apparently intact and yet his foot caught on the hoop and West tripped and stumbled. Dammit.

He righted himself, and righted the hoop and tried again.

A bunch of times.

And never quite made the target hoop, though he didn't splinch at all either. Gah. Why was his aim so off? He closed his eyes and focused himself again. In the hoop in the hoop in the hooopppp....

On the twelfth attempt, West managed it and he opened his eyes and immediately inspected body parts. Yep. He was good.

Now to do it again, and obsessively, until he could hit the center of the hoop every time. It was only ten feet... shouldn't be that hard, right?

Err...

So....

Ella kept landing outside of the hoop.

Like, she'd tried apparating three more times and her concentration must not have been good enough because although she was moving from one part of the room to the other, she wasn't in the exact place she wanted to be when she arrived. That was sort of annoying, y'know? Given she knew what it was like for someone to show up somewhere they didn't mean to. OAKEY GUNTER. Ahem.

But she wasn't giving up, okay? She was going to keep practicing because she wasn't a quitter and she was confident she could get this right. She would get this right. Yup. She just needed to think on those three...the three..the three Ds? Yes, the three Ds again. Destination, Determination and Deliberation. She was going to get it this time. She was, she was.

...

Only two more tries later and she still hadn't gotten into the circle.

"Merlin's beard!"

>.<

Oh Merlin.

The time had come for them to practice. But the theory had gone so quickly and as exciting as the thought of being so close to just moving about purely using your mind, the overwhelming terror of splinching yourself was also implanted firmly in the back of his head.

The sixth year wandered over to the pillows and grabbed one, placing it inside of a hoop and standing about 10 feet away. He closed his eyes in preparation, deciding that not being able to see anyone else attempting would be less of a distraction and enable him to think and concentrate a lot clearer. He thought of his destination, the inside of the hoop and counted to 10 in his head.

Ten, nine, eight..

He opened his eyes to see that he had moved absolutely nowhere and was still stood firmly on the same spot that he had left on. Brilliant.

Concentrate Terence Radley. This isn’t that hard! He closed his eyes once again, his mind focused purely on moving and being superior in the centre of that hoop. He could do this, he definitely could.

Three, two, one..

Urgh it felt so weird! The sensation made him feel a bit giddy as he ‘flew’ through the air. He opened his eyes with a gulp, scared of the prospect of seeing himself bleeding. But it was a massive relief to see that he was all in one piece.

HA! He had done it.. He had beaten appari—

Except he had only moved two feet forward and was nowhere near being in the middle of his hoop. Well that was just fantastic wasn’t it?

Nothing.

Theo was so close to giving up. He could fly, so he didn't NEED to apparate, is what he told himself. He would keep trying until the class was over, though, just because lack of effort wouldn't get him anywhere at all. He tried a few more times, still with his eyes shut, but nothing. So he opened them for the next go, just to see if it made any difference.

The first thing he looked at was the two cushions resting outside of his bloody hoop. That stupid hoop. Theo hated the hoop.

Instead, he focused on the cushion. Was it possible to apparate onto a cushion? Theo didn't see why not, so he thought about THAT instead. What he wanted more than anything else was a sit down, or a lie down, on a comfy cushion. He also thought about magic again because that did stuff to his confidence, or whatever, and WOHESOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... WHY DID HE SUDDENLY FEEL LIKE DEATH? Theo's stomach turned inside, and even though he was only out of his head for a split second, it felt like forever. He landed with a thud on his front, where he spent a few minutes regaining his sanity, and also trying to stop any sudden movements that would cause him to throw up.

Good job the cushion was there. Apparently that really WAS where he wanted to end up. Perhaps somewhere in his head, he just knew that there was no way in heck he would master apparition today, and that he was 99% sure that he would end up on the floor no matter what.

And hey presto, here he was, on the floor. But on a cushion.

Comfy, comfy.

But he had moved, nonetheless. HE DID IT.

Theo rolled over onto his back and looked up at the Great Hall ceiling, beaming to himself. He really wanted to jump up and down and scream and flail at everyone that THEODORE KINSLEY had progressed in a class, but you know, his stomach really did feel funny...

OKAY, YOU RING...

Ella narrowed her eyes and stared at it, angry that she still hadn't managed to land inside of the circle. And sure it was silly to be upset at a hoop as if it was the hoops fault for her failing but she couldn't help it. Grumpy Ella was feeling quite grumpy. She wasn't so grumpy that she was done trying, though. She'd keep going right up until the last second if she had to.

Okay, alright, deep breaths. Relaxing was happening and the blonde looked around, trying to shake off all any negativity she was feeling at the moment. Then her eyes went back to the ring on the floor and she...wait, what was she doing again? ... ... ...OH! Okay, yes. Apparating. APPARATING. She was going to do that thing. Mhm!

And so she got determined. SO determined that she blocked out all the other people in the room and decided it was just her and the ring. Just you and me, partner. Old western style and everything. Bay would be so proud.

Next she thought only of the destination. Inside the hoop...inside the hoop...I'm going inside of that hoop. She was so going to do this.

And deliberation. Slow and careful thought. She was going to do this. Move inside the hoop. Inside the hoop. She could do this. Move inside the hoop.

And suddenly her stomach dropped.

It was that inside-twisting, feeling like you were being squished and squashed feeling she'd felt before. And as much as the eighteen year old felt like she could vom, this meant any second she was going to be-

IN THE HOOP!

She'd wobbled a bit, sure, but she was IN THE HOOP. IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. IN THE HOOOOOOOOOOP! The blonde gave a little fist bump and then winced because owwww but she had done it. SHE'D DONE IT!

Did Alec see? Did Soph?!

Probably not because they'd been practicing too but AJHLHDLJDHJLKDHK SHE DID IT!

BEAM!

Tag gave a quick glance to all of his classmates. And he was oddly proud of them, you know? It was hard, apparating. And they were all doing it together, it was no easy task, so seeing people you saw in class every day, do and accomplish, at least to some extent, something like this you shared some sort of happiness with everyone else. Even if they weren't showing it or anything. No, everyone was too concentrated at the task at hand.

But anyway, back to his challenge. The blonde had definitely apparated. Not successfully, but apparating for the first time was a success, depending on how you saw it. Now though, now he really needed to get into the hoop. No matter how hard he tried. He'd get it. OK! He'd get it.

Determination. Deliberation. Destination. That kept running through Tag's mind. As long as he kept that with him while trying all his attempts it should go by more smoothly and faster. Hopefully. This wasn't something one could get done on the first try.

Hoop hoop hoop. The leprechaun was going to get in that hoop.

He cleared his mind of everything. All he kept in mind was the Three D's, and perhaps those brownies. Those seemed to be some sort of great concentration point for Tag.

That hoop was mocking him. The pillows were mocking him. He'd show them ALL!

Over and over again, those three words ran in his mind. Tag pictured his body like, disappearing and flying through the air and landing inside the hoop. Pictured it for a good couple of minutes. Memorized the outline of the hoop, what the cracks and stone of the floor looked like. He wanted to know everything and clearly picture it in his mind.

The boy closed his eyes and tried to picture it all within the back of his eyelids. The entire area within the hoop. Taking a breath the boy believed with all his might that this would happen.

Ugh. There was that odd sensation. Everything was pulling at all his sides, he was running out of breath. He tried to catch his own breath but couldn't. Then he opened his eyes, very slowly. One at a time, scared to see where he had landed.

Better. He'd moved, yes. But, at least he wasn't on the floor like last time. Just slightly tripping over his feet. Improvement. He improved. Nowhere inside the hoop, just outside of it. Like last time.

What else could he do?

Alec was trying his hardest not to look around to see how the others were doing. Really. It was only going to end up distracting him, right? And he'd feel great for any successful attempts and a little... mad at himself. Just a little. How long would it take to perfect this, exactly? He was kind of hoping to get that license as soon as possible, not in another couple of year's time.

... Moving on...

Deep breaths were being taken again and he was trying to clear his mind. This reminded him a lot of Divination where you had to clear the mind of everything but the question at hand. And years of practising that art should mean that he would get a little better at doing so but... that... wasn't the case. No. He was trying, though. Bonus mental points for effort? Yeah?

Deep breaths...

... deep breaths...

... he wanted to land in the hoop. Or near it, at least. Somewhere... somewhere there. That was enough determination, right? He wanted to land as close to the hoop as possible. And he was going to do it. Determination and destination was there so... there was only one thing for it, really. Thinking about that, Alec stepped forward and turned on the spot.

...

What... what was this sensation?! He wanted to open his eyes to see what was going on and whether he had moved or not but the sudden sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was stopping him. That and the fact that he felt as if he was... flying? ... No. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but it felt a lot different to the flying he had done numerous times in the past.

... Just as quickly as it started, it stopped. Grey-blue eyes snapped open and glanced around at the area. Had he moved? Had he actually managed to--

... No. Well... not accurately. He was standing a lot closer to the hoop than he had done before but... he wasn't in the hoop. Frown.

Okay. Don't be discouraged. Believe in yourself, Caterina. Focus. She put her hands up to cover her face which made blocking out everything around her much easier. She gathered up all of her concentration, everything that she had in her and visualized herself moving from where she was standing to the hoop. She could do it. She could. She could. She could.

When Caterina opened her eyes again, she found herself standing inside the hoop. She blinked, sure that she was seeing things. When she realized that she'd actually done it, she squeaked and bounced around and did a little happy dance.

SHE WAS AWESOME!

Oh, wait. Was she ALL there? Caterina patted herself down, just to make sure all the parts of her body that had been there before, were still there. She checked her hair and eyebrows and fingers and everything. But surprisingly, she seemed to all be in order. Everything was still there. Amazing. She'd been sure she was going to splinch herself. Sure of it. She bounced around inside her hoop, getting out all the excited before she concentrated on doing it again.

Okay. He was going to do this.

This time he'd be successful and land inside the hoop and not eight foot away like he had last time. Well, at least he had gone somewhere. That was definitely progress wasn't it seeing as the first time he had gone absolutely nowhere at all.

The Slytherin closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could on the spot that he wished to land. The pillow in the center of that hoop. The soft squishy landing. He could do this. All he needed to do was block out all of the sounds of his friends who were also practicing and land in that very spot.

Three... Two... One...

The weird feeling returned to his stomach again as he felt the strange sensation of apparition once more. He landed with a thud and the dizziness caused him to wobble a little back and forth as he attempted to regain his balance. Urgh, such a strange feeling it gave you. He frowned a little and checked that he hadn't left anything vital behind. Nope. His body was free from any splinching.

He looked around him, trying to find where the hoop was, only to realise that he was crouching on something squishy.

Wait.. Had he done it?! His landing hadn't exactly been successful but he had apparated into the spot that he wanted to be in! He was IN the hoop.

The Slytherin grinned as he stood up, glancing around proud of his achievement. Now he just needed to perfect the way that he landed and he would be an apparition pro. Well almost anyway.

If you fail twice, you just had to try again, yeah? ... If it wasn't a test. Only practice. Which is what this was.

Alec... didn't really like the idea of failing.

... No. He had to concentrate. Concentrate harder than he had done the previous times since... his concentration levels hadn't helped him a lot before. That and more determination. He was going to get into that hoop. Yeah! He just... needed to believe in himself. Maybe spring up a bit more confidence while he was at it too. ... Frown. A lot of things required confidence, which didn't make Alec feel any better about all of this.

Breathe... breathe...

Heading back to his previous spot, he closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind yet again. Thinking about failing would... only make him fail, yeah? Yeah. And he was going to do this. Really. There were lots of things he had done that he didn't think he could ever do in his wildest dreams. Like... come to a magical school. Get a badge. Help win Quidditch championships. Play Quidditch in the first place. There were some things he still couldn't do. Like... like figure out how to get rid of the grey hairs once and for all. And smash open an egg.

... No! Head!shake.

Concentrating was happening again. Concentration and deep breaths and eyes that were being squeezed shut to help him with the concentration. The hoop. He was going to get into the hoop via apparition. That hoop that he had placed a cushion near. There was the destination part... and the determination part. Now... he just... needed to move with deliberation. Deliberation... the eighteen year old stepped forward and spun on the spot.

...

... He couldn't breathe. WHY couldn't he breathe? ... Because something was strapped to his chest. Or that's what it felt like. As if he was wearing some sort of metallic-like jacket that was shrinking more and more near his chest area. Not good. This was worse than whatever it was he had been feeling before. Alec didn't like thi--

His feet slammed against the ground, causing him to wobble a couple of times before buckling onto his knees -- OWWWWIIEEEEE! -- and falling forwards onto...

... his cushion?

It was his cushion, something he noticed when he took a quick peek at where his face landed. The Hufflepuff blinked a couple more times and took in a deep breath of air. ... Air. He could BREATHE again! Which meant that he wasn't wearing a jacket that was tightening around his chest, yeah? And just to make sure, he patted his side. No... no metallic-like jacket here. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that his feet were in the hoop which meant...

... Successful apparition? YEAH!

And could he... lay here? Yeah? Because OW!

Once most of the water was squeezed out of her clothes and hair, Penelope went back to her original spot to try again. Shouldn't be as hard as before now since she'd actually Apparated, right? All she had to do now was just land on the lilypad like she wanted. She could totally do this.

So she closed her eyes again and concentrated hard on her destination, imagining herself disppearing like before but reappearing on the solid lilypad instead of the water. Focus...use the magic...

Once again the awful squeezing sensation overwhelmed her, but she felt more prepared this time so it wasn't as much of a horrible shock, except-

SPLASH!

NOT AGAIN.

Her mouth was shut this time, at least, so no swampy water in her mouth, but her nose wrinkled in annoyance at landing in it again. Lame. She crawled out and repeated the process of getting the water out of her hair and clothes, then resumed her position, even more determined to try again.

But still, for the next couple times she Apparated, she landed in the water in various distances from the lilypad. The Gryffindor started to clamber out of the water once again with a huff, but then paused....and moved over to the lilypad. Maybe if she got a good look at it from here it might help. Maybe. At least make some use out of constantly falling in this stupid water.

She eyed it for a couple moments, letting herself get a better image of it in her head, then finally climbed out of the water again. Okay. Trying again, and this time she was completely DETERMINED to get it right.

After once AGAIN getting the water off, she went to the same spot and stared at the lilypad, trying to clear her mind of the frustration of all the failed attempts. Just concentrate on this attempt. This one would be good. She was getting better. She could do this.

Self-motivation was good, yeah? Or whatever it was called.

And maybe...she could keep her eyes open this time. Maybe keeping her eyes closed wasn't helping her right now for some reason? Worth a shot.

So Penelope kept her eyes on her destination, picturing herself leaving this spot and magically reappearing over there. Destination. Determination. Deliberation...

The squeezing came for a few seconds and then it was gone....she stumbled a bit on landing but fortuntely didn't fall...or land in the water...so she looked down.

SHE WAS ON THE LILYPAD. YES. FINALLY. SUCCESS.

Penelope fistpumped the air excitedly - and now...she also kinda wanted something to eat. Apparating and falling into swamp water really worked up an appetite.

The problem with apparation and Ascanius was just about everything. He didn't understand why this wasn't working for him. The sixth year was doing everything he was told and was even bothering to concentrate, which was a huge deal for him and lessons, yeah? 'Cause he didn't like to do that especially when the Professor was that of the male persuasion.

Just jeez...he was actually trying. Magic had to stop being so testy and just work with and for him.

Trying to calm himself down and not be ruled by the frustration of the current situation he refocused in to the situation at hand. The Slytherin looked around the room and located a hoop, which would be his destination if he had anything to do with it. His eyes never left the spot on the floor that the hoop outlined.

Then he honed in on the actual act of getting from one place to another and tried to imagine himself being in his new destination. He closed his eyes and let one quick breath hiss out of his slightly parted lips. Brilliant, he was ready. Time to do this.

He focused on the destination once more and tried to imagine himself getting from one place to the other.

Ascanius tried NOT to panic when he felt something yank at his naval from the inside. Like someone had attached a string and was lightly tugging on it for the fun of it. But it had to mean that something, anything was working and he'd deal with it.

But nothing. Still nothing.

Having semi recovered from losing the contents of her stomach in front of all her peers, Lily walked away from her hoop. She had to try it again and she had to make it to the center of her hoop, preferably without losing anything else. Standing about ten paces away from her landing zone, the seventh year stared at the center of her hoop. She wanted to be there.... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight there in the center of the little circle. Standing... right there with every hair and cell of her body, there, in that circle, over there.

Was that enough focus yet?

All she wanted was to be there and be done. She could do that, right? Just poof and you're there? Focus...right... Get to the hoop...get in the hoop, be in the center of the hoop with nothing missing. Closing her eyes, Lily turned, envisioning herself standing in the hoop....

and Tada! When the seventh year opened her eyes, she was standing...in the center of her hoop. A quick patdown later, she realized that she was still all one piece... and this time while she felt nauseous, she hadn't gotten sick. She'd actually done it!!

Ok. He had to get this done. Today. He really didn't have any choice. Tag didn't fancy failing his apparition test, you know. It was something that could come in handy. And, he didn't want to be a failure on something as huge as this and then have a waiting time when he knew he was capable of it. Tag had already apparated twice. Now he just needed to be completely successful.

INSIDE THE HOOP.

Concentration. Clearing the mind. Keep all the Three D's in mind. The only three things Tag needed right now. Once he got that all done he knew he'd be able to do this completely successfully.

Tag in hoop. Tag in hoop. Tag in hoop.

Like last time the blonde concentrated on the floor within the hoop. Memorized every single piece of it, closed his eyes and tried to imagine it as clearly as possible in his head. As soon as he got that done he now cleared his mind of most thoughts. That's how it was done, right? Go away distracting thoughts. Go away. We don't like you right now. Mhm. Hopefully they had left him.

Third's a charm, right? Tag had disapparated twice, but not too successfully, it had to be this time.

But before attempting anything Tag had realized something. Both of his attempts had failed, to an extent, because of his feet. His feet was getting in his way. That was it. That's why he couldn't get into the hoop properly. Lose of balance. So, he thought of his feet transporting themselves into the hoop and then sticking to the ground. Flat, still, balanced.

Suddenly he felt everything get thin around him, like if he were being compressed through a tube. In that very short amount of odd space and time Tag did his best to imagine his feet sticking a landing, almost as if he were a gymnist.

Then he felt himself on solid ground again. There didn't seem to be any swaying of any kind of him.

He opened his eyes and immediately stared at his feet. They were apart from each other at a good, equal distance. Then he looked beyond his feet. There was red around him. Red from the color of the hoop. Tag didn't believe it. Even stayed within the circle and did a rotation within the space of the hoop.

At long last, he'd done it.

But getting it once wouldn't be enough for him though. He could've had luck on his side this time. He'd have to keep doing it as many times as he could.

No. No vomiting in front of everyone. Please?

Alice wrapped her arms around her stomach and tried to stay still until that lurching stopped, mouth tightly clamped shut. Once she was sure that no throwing up was going to happen, she relaxed a little and moved back to the place from which she had started. Alright. At least she'd moved, yeah? Now she just.... had to move to the right spot.

Her fingers curled around her wand with more determination than before, and the seventh year tried to focus very intently on where she wanted to go. That had been where she was having trouble. So Alice thought long and hard about the lily pad, and when she opened her eyes, she.... hadn't moved.

Was this frustration thing going to happen all over again? Really?

But after closing her eyes once more, it wasn't long before that squeezing sensation overcame her another time. When it began to feel like she wouldn't ever breathe again and the life was being sucked out of her, the pain abated, and...

SPLASH!

Not being able to swim and all, it was only natural for Alice to start flailing around like mad.

And then she remembered it was four feet deep. Yeah. Was that swamp water in her mouth?

Elodie wasn't impressed. With her trusty nose and butt wiggling. they had failed her. When other people were around. And she was still standing looking like a fooooool. Whatever. This was totally overrated anyway. She could floo places. But when she started something. SHE FINISHED IT. (And also if someone else started things.) Back to the drawing board. Maybe no wiggling this time. Or internal freak out. The freak out was okay, but the lack of wiggling would totally keep no one from knowing when she was specifically trying her hardest to do what...to do what her best friend now could. Inner claps for you, Caterina. You did wonderful.

DESTINATION. DETERMINATION. DELIBERATION.That. Hoop. Right. Over. There. She tested a couple of methods over the next few tries with this. Making gooey girlfriend eyes at it, except that took her mind off the subject and onto her boyfriend. Going over and standing in it already and taking things in from RIGHT THERE. And then calling it a place. Her hoop was an AREA. It had a name. It wasn't just 'hoop', it was important now. It was her friend. IT WAS HER FRIEND RIGHT?!?! Three or four tries after that, she'd managed to get no where and had nothing but a frustration headache.

Taking a deep breath, the sixth year closed her eyes and most definitely did not look at anyone else in the room to see them fail or to see them succeed and dishearten herself. And then she concentrated. Every little ounce of energy from the tip of her toenails (which she had painted rainbow colours yesterday!) allllll the way to the top of her head. And that was how Elodie Robertser died. Just kidding. But she did end up in the hoop she was aiming too. After the whole lurch in her insides and feeling like she was being violated and betrayed by that bagel she had had for breakfast. Her head hurt when she opened her eyes and took in the fact that SHE HAD FREAKIN' DONE IT WITHOUT WIGGLING.

She did reward herself with a wiggle though. GO ELODIE.

Ew. It WAS swamp water. Alice made a face, then spent the next few seconds trying to disinfect her tongue.

She slowly climbed out of the swamp, dripping water everywhere as she headed back to her starting position. Whatever, right? It was no use bothering to dry herself when she might just end up getting drenched on her next try as well. So the seventh year just stood there, staring at the lily pad and trying to ignore the frustration building up again from all those failed attempts. Only moving was no longer enough. Being there was.

Eyes closed again, she was soon overtaken by the now familiar sensation that came with apparating. It still felt like she was being shoved into a tube half her size, one she would never be able to escape, and just when she was sure her lungs were going to give out...

YES! There was a LILY PAD under her soggy shoes. Success!

And then Alice turned and promptly vomited into the swamp water. Oh hi there, breakfast. Nice of you to make an appearance.

It took ages but West got it. He was there. In a hoop. As aimed. Almost but not quite dead on target. He had practiced quietly on his own, focusing furiously, trying not to get distracted by things and people and stuff. It was strange because it wasn't... effortless. At all. It required all of his focus utterly, so much so that he didn't even notice vomiting girlfriend...

... though actually he sort of felt dizzy and queasy. Like he might need a sit down. West didn't sit, but he did take a moment to just stand there and try to mentally regroup.

Erm. Ok. Lots of people getting NAUSEOUS and such because of the apparating. Cale hadn't expected THAT to be honest. He'd thought there'd be more splinching involved...not that he was complaining, though! He was running around on vomit patrol, cleaning it up as a few kids lost their lunches in his pond. UGH. Gross. Good thing he was here!

Once all the latest patches of sick had been cleaned up, he raised his voice by tapping his wand to his throat.

"TWENTY MORE MINUTES OF PRACTICE!" he called out. They probably didn't realize it, but they'd all been at it for almost two hours now!


OOC: This thread will close in about 5 hours. There will be a short break, and then either tonight or tomorrow morning the testing thread will open up!

TWENTY MORE MINUTES! Tag had only just fully succeeded. And it took the Gryffindor a couple of minutes to clear his mind and concentration on the spot within the hoop. How much time was that going to take up? Now he was panicky. He was short on time. Under pressure. Or at least more pressure than there was already.

All that concentration within the hoop. All those little marks on the floor, it seeped into Tag's mind again. He repeated the Three D's in his mind again. Like he always did. Destination. Deliberation and Determination. That's all he needed to do. The blonde even shook out the thought of those stupid brownies. They might've been a distraction, a motivator, but a distraction nonetheless since it had hindered his success. Just four things, all focused onto apparition. Three Ds and concentration.

Taking in a deep breath Tag stared at a particular spot on the floor. That little scratch mark that looked like an oddly shaped W. Everything went into that.

Be one with the hoop.

He shut his eyes tight, blocking out any commotion around him. The boy didn't like seeing himself travel, as well, it was odd. And there came that feeling again. SLAM! Only it wasn't really a slam. Tag opened his eyes and just saw his feet take a small step forward, perhaps that was the sensation he had felt. Thankfully, though, he was inside the hoop. Successful, second time.

Though, all this apparating, from just trying to clear his mind and put focus into it, and then falling to the floor, tripping up on himself, and then his last two tries earlier, were taking a toll on him.

He felt instantly sick. Not sick sick, but fatigue, and tired, sore. It was definitely starting to hurt his body. Of course, he'd been disappearing and being squished by an invisible tube every time he apparated, he'd be taking some pain with him. Hopefully, though, that wasn't any indication that he'd been splinched or something. But no, as far as he could tell he was fine. Just tired.

It was time to try again. Terry had to perfect his apparition before the test. He needed this apparition license. In fact, he was so adamant that he would be apparating at seventeen that he had been quoted in the daily prophit about it. Which by the way, his mum was so excited to see her son getting involved with current affairs, she had clipped out the article and stuck it on the wall. Terry had no idea why really.

Wait. It had been about 2 hours since they had started?! Where HAD the time gone? And was 20 minuted really enough to get this down to a tee.

The sixth year had the three D’s whirling around in his mind, making sure that he concentrated hard on these so that the next attempt would be perfect. He’d land on his feet in that hoop and then he could move onto the lilypads next just to challenge himself.

He placed the hoop 12 feet away from him this time, just to challenge himself that little bit more. He focused on the hoop, telling himself that he needed to be inside that hoop within the next ten seconds. He closed his eyes as he continued to think about it. It was only 12 feet. And the sensation wasn’t that weird once you had got used to it.

Three.. Two.. One..

*pop*

His eyes were squeezed shut as he felt the weird feeling in his stomach once more. A lot of people had been getting really queezy and throwing up all over the place as they apparated. Terry had quite a strong stomach and was determined that it wouldn’t happen to him. Once he felt his feet firmly on the ground and there was no spinny feeling in his head, the Slytherin opened his eyes to see that he was indeed upright and had moved from his spot.

He looked down at the ground to see that he was stood firmly within the exact centre of the hoop. His landing had been perfect! In fact, the whole thing had been perfect. He hadn’t splinched himself once and he moved 12 feet.

SUCCESS!