"Thanks!" Toby grinned. While Ella looked for a target, Tobias did the same, though he stopped and watched as the older Hufflepuff cast her spell. When she missed, Toby smiled to himself. But it wasn't a mean smile, it was more along the lines of 'now I feel better about missing 'cause Ella missed too and Ella's still awesome' kind of smile, see?

But then she DID get it, and Toby smiled even MORE. 'Cause perseverance, y'know? "Sweet shot!" he grinned, giving Ella a sneaky elbow nudge and suddenly realising that there was only an inch or two between them in height. How on earth did that happen...?

...

... ANYWAY. The spell. Yes.

Toby looked up and, after a moment or two, he eyed a quaffle-sized, but still fast, yellow ball going in a wide arc around the activity area. He raised his wand.

"Ligatenous!" Tobias cast, pointing his want at the ball and imagining CHAINS. It was close, but the chains CLIPPED the big yellow ball and sent it careering off in a different direction, but did not capture it. Instead, the chains continued on, ensnaring a bludger-sized blue ball that had been flying along beside the yellow one, which Toby had not seen.

"Uh..." Toby spoke, lowering his wand and blinking at the blue ball that was forced outside of the force-field with the momentum of the chains. "You didn't see that."

But he smiled.

So would it be second time lucky?

He hoped. Because there was no way he'd hit it three times in a row, that was just far too unlikely in anyones case. He watched the balls intently, trying to target a green one which had become separated from the rest of the colours in order for it to be easier for him. But alas that was highly unlikely and the Slytherin just watched the colours all merge into one. His eyes became trained on one ball in particular and he pointed his wand up to focus on that particular spot.

Come on.. Just edge to the right a bit. No the left. Oh Merlin.

He was left peering out of one eye as he clearly spoke "Ligatenous" and hoped for the best. The chain went whooshing up and wrapped itself around the ball. He breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted the green poking out.

Okay. That was enough, he wasn't going to risk helping the other teams by capturing one of theirs.

Staying in the background to keep watch of the students, chains, balls, and everything else in between to make noooo boo-boos and ouchies were made, all in all...she thought everything was going well. Though there was a moment where she perhaps saw an a little interfering with the student's chains before they captured a ball but...well, it WAS a competition. All was fair.

Mostly fair.

Still no capturing people, hmkay?

OOC: Hey you guys! Hope it's still all fun and games here! I just wanted to give you a heads up, please keep it to capturing just ONE (1) ball per post. That would be mighty awesome of you all, thank yooouu. There's about 4 more hours before the activity is going to end, so if you haven't posted yet, now would be the time!

This was getting irritating and he was losing focus. His shoes were feeling funny were they slipping again and his stomach was growling, could anyone hear it? He looked at his robes as the swung with this walking. Then someone caught his eye and he couldn't help but roll those eyes. Really show off. He pointed his wand and grinned this could be fun, but he saw the professor move. Was she watching him or the balls and he gave her a grin focusing moving.

Balls.. He needed to get balls right on it. Looking back up he pointed, "Ligatenous" The chains flew out and he watched as the sailed upward. Hit something.. hit something.. come on hit.. NOT THE WALL...

DOUBLE HUFFS

He. Needed. To. Get. That. Ball.

Preferably before he got angry with himself.

Grey-blue eyes were locked on the ball once more and he followed its movements with his eyes. He was going to get it. Yeah. Even... if it meant that he had to stay there for the rest of the day to catch it. ... Or maybe not the whole day. He did want to have dinner at some point. And he was pretty sure Romanos wouldn't let him stay here any further than till the end of the lesson.

Alec's eyes continued to follow the movement of the ball. A couple of seconds later, he held up his wand and pointed it over at the yellow ball. He was going to get it. Yeah. And here's hoping that the ball wouldn't dart behind another coloured ball just as he cast the spell.

... Wait... wait... he felt like a predator on the hunt for its prey. Predators were scary and he was... well... he was Alec. He was a lot of things but scary wasn't one of them.

... Focus. Right. More waiting happened...

"Ligatenous!" A chain flew out from his wand, making him hold his breath in anticipation, and then...

... "YES! I did it I--" ... Quieten down? Awesome idea. Grinning, he looked up at the yellow Bludger-like ball he had just captured. HEY there!

Adi was feeling tired now. And his left hand hurt. He supposed that latter part was due to the fact that he had been pointing his wand in all directions for the last few minutes. But he was still determined to take down some more yellow balls.

Oh look! There was one right now! "Ligatenous!" Chains shot out of the wand but as his hand was hurting a bit, Adi hadn't aimed properly. So instead of the chain wrapping itself around the yellow Bludger sized ball, it seized the Quaffle shaped blue ball beside it. Bummer.

Deciding to pretend that she hadn't just captured that blue ball, Penelope returned her attention to the others, looking for that red one she'd been trying to get. It was momentarily hidden among the confusion of the balls that were left, but finally she spotted it - or what seemed to be it - again. She eyed it and watched it for several moments, trying to figure out if there were any of the other colored ones that would get in the way. A few did, but it didn't seem to be a constant thing...

So time to take another shot at it. When the red ball was zooming closer, she raised her wand and cast, "Ligatenous!" The chains shot out, but the red ball moved in another direction just as they did, and the chains flew off, not catching a single thing.

...Well...better than catching one for the other houses, at least? Yep, that was what she was gonna go with.

Lex was all kinds of pumped again. Call it new motivation. That's what winning shots did for you. Another point for Gryffindor. Were she a bit more bored she might have tried aiming at them all but she was only the right amount of bored at the moment and liked hitting the red ones. It was a different kind of accomplishment from hitting any regular old ball or worse, missing.

Very vaguely she was hearing the conversations of others around her. It had a lot to do with her walking around to find the right angle to get a better shot of the next red ball she had spotted. This one would be hers as well.

As she drifted around the room like a restless spirit she heard people getting HOW MANY....? Lex glanced down at her own wand then up at the only three she'd managed to chain. Welp. That was discouraging, 'specially given one of them wasn't even red but helping the other team.

She'd just...yeah stand here and try to get her little amounts. No shame in that. "Ligatenous!" There was shame in missing though, Gee thanks for moving ball. -_-

Determined to make up for the fact that he had captured a blue ball, Adi quickly pointed his wand at the yellow ball beside it. He was going to make sure he got it this time. He made sure his wand was well aimed.

"Ligatenous!" More chains erupted from the wand tip. Towards the yellow ball it went! Yes! It circled the Badger ball. Awesomeee! He felt better now as it made up for catching the Claw ball.

He stopped and took a few breaths. He would do this.. He would he hadn't gotten one in awhile. This was not good enough for Bart Maroon. Nope it wasn't at all. He was awesome and his awesomeness was not showing through this game. He was letting his house down and nope that wasn't going to happen. Now was the time for the force to be behind him. He grinned at his own thoughts.

Stepping over some feet around him and not stepping on them this time Bart made his way over to the center of the arena. Looking up he got ready to aim his wand. Seeing a couple balls coming towards him he pointed, " Ligatenous" come on.. hit the red.. red.. hit the red. He almost held his breath.

The chains swung through the air and wrapped around the red ball. YES he did a small victory dance. Now he felt done.. he was done. Was the game over yet? If not SUB? Oh sub that sounded good to eat. Yeah food was on his mind now.

Sander watched the Professor and wondered whether she was going to stop the game but when she didn't say anything, he looked over at Tessa and Bay as they concentrated on catching their balls and then down at Lux who was concentrating really hard.

He had to do his turn for his house. There was another yellow ball. Sander tracked it again with his wand and when he was ready, he pointed it at a spot just in front of the ball and said, "Ligatenous". The chains flew out of his wand and headed upwards. He grimaced when it ricochet off another set of chains. There was no way in heck that it was going for his yellow ball, but which one would it capture instead?

'Yellow...please yellow....' he thought to himself....and quickly turned around and looked away when his chains wrapped around a blue one.

No it wasn't him that did that. Had to be a Ravenclaw.

Ian figured he would give it one more try. He focused on a bludger that was nearby. It's bright yellow color made it challenging to focus on with the movement, but he did his best. He pointed his wand toward the ball and tried to time it just right....Ligatenous! He watched as the chains headed toward the ball and let out a little whoop of excitement as the chains wrapped around the yellow bludger like ball. With that, he was basically done.

Capturing the first green ball triggered the third year's competitive side. Her kaleidoscope-like eyes were bright with excitement. This was WAY better than theory.

At the edge of her vision she caught Train Boy move further away, and that was okay. What if she accidentally shot chains at his head? Not that it'd happen, but...okay, okay, he was a bit of a distraction and she didn't want any 'cause this was a competition and all.

A green ball zoomed overhead and her eyes locked on it. that one was hers. Her eyes narrowed in concentration. When she was sure of its path she pointed her wand at it. "Ligatenous!"

The chains made a sort of wheezing sound as they left her wand. Then BAM! Green ball captured!

Hissss!

Okay. Adi just just rested his hand a bit and was ready to get back into action. He didn't trust himself to aim with his right hand because that just might prove to be a disaster.

He pointed his wand at another quaffle sized yellow ball, making sure he was aiming properly. "Ligatenous!" Adi watched as the chain shot for the ball. Yet he need not worry for the chain wrapped itself around the ball. There! One more for Team Hufflepuff!

Okay mini celebration over. It was time to move onto the next red ball. He moved even further away from Little Bunny because she was still partly in his sight and he did not want to be tempted to look at her and lose his concentration.

Michael once again took a few moments to scan for THE right ball and he spotted on right at the back of the room. That was actually quite far and there was every possible chance that he would intercept other another ball on the way or the chain may not go that far.

But it was a challenge and he never backed down from a challenge. Turning his body, Michael raised his wand and pointed it at the red ball at the far end of the room. He was most likely going to miss but he didn't care at this point. He just wanted to try.

He spread his feet a little further apart, breathed in deeply and let it out slowly as he sighted down the end of his wand. "Ligatenous." His focus remained firmly on the red ball as the chains exploded out of his wand and sped down the length of the room.

Somehow he just knew the ball was going to move at the last second and he took a gamble on which way it was going to move and directed the chains slightly to the right.

SCORE!!

The chains wrapped themselves around that red ball.

That required two fist pumps and a little dance too.

Since the Professor hadn't called a halt to the contest, Sander decided to continue to capture as many balls as he could. He was now getting used to the rhythm of capturing those fast moving balls.

He looked around above him until he sighted another yellow ball zig zagging around above him. He tracked the ball with his wand, pointing at it as it moved above him. He waited for the right time when the ball was free from the other flying chains and balls, and that was the moment that he called out, "Ligatenous" and watched as the chains flew straight up towards it.

This was going to be a close one for Sander saw a red ball hurtling towards his yellow one. Oh no...oh no....oh no....and he watched as the chains wrapped themselves around the yellow one....just as the red one bumped against.

'Yes another yellow ball for our house.' Sander thought to himself.

It wasn't like it was EASY. In fact it was really, really HARD. Lucas was pretty sure either his aim was off or he just wasn't getting this spell to work. Like.. at all.

He saw another yellow ball and aimed for it, "Ligatenous," ...and nothing. He actually pouted. Full on pulled his lower lip out and pouted at it. "That's not very nice," he muttered to the ball as it bounced away. "RUDE." HMPH.

In any case, he pulled his focus back to the task at hand and pointed at another. Breathe. Focus. Concentrate. "Ligatenous!"

Whooooosh! The chains wrapped themselves around the ball in a tight hold..

And he almost dropped his wand in surprise. Wow. One ball down, ten gazillion to go. Wasn't that exciting?

Time to catch another ball!

Delilah moved her focus to another yellow ball now. It was better to chain as many balls as possible, yeah? More points for her house! Oh, look. There was one.. quite close to her, in fact. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated before lifting her hand and pointing her wand once again. "Ligatenous!"

YES. Chains flew out once again and wrapped around the ball. Delilah was so very pleased. She was quite good with this spell now mhm.

So Mo had managed to grab a blue ball, and while he really wanted to keep at it, he was also aware that the air above his head was filling with chains, preventing access to the balls that were still flying above that mass of metal. He no longer had a clear shot, and it was a wonder any of his classmates were snagging anything at all.

What if he used the chain from his wand to pull together some of the other chains, effectively creating an open space? He could watch for a blue ball to pass over his open space... which was better than hoping one came close to the edge of the room.

"Ligatenous," Mo cast at the thickest net of chains, and he was pleased when his chain snagged them back, creating a little window for him to work with. Almost immediately, there was a flash of blue, and Mo cast again. "Ligatenous."

Did it work?

Still in caveman mode, Cutty began chasing down one green ball in particular as it sped about the room propelled by what he guessed was a similar magic used on Quidditch balls. He manuevered carefully through the sea of flying chains until he was upon it. "Ligatenous!" his readied wand flew at the unsuspecting green ball, moments after it had hit up against another which caused it to spin and effectively had Cutty's chain unable to wrap around.

Giving that green ball up for lost, Cutty found another to occupy his time in the meanwhile. His wand still in hand he aimed directly for it and gave the incantation, "Ligatenous!". The chains flew out again and whipped around the ball soo tightly that they threatened to burst it.

Full on concentration mode, Beverly carefully searched for another target, absentmindedly moving into the crowd of students. She liked this: being the predator. That's probably how dragons felt out in the wild. With the power to demolish anything in their path. Of course, this was just chaining up balls, but she imagined it all the same. The green balls were to her what sheep were to an Antipodean Opaleye.

Two green balls crossed her line of vision. One larger than the other. Being the type to always want more, it was obvious her gaze went after the bigger ball. She followed it with her wand arm extended, tracing its movement as it went.

On a whim she shot at it. "Ligatenous!" Quickly chains burst from the tip of her wand toward the designated green wall.

Beverly almost lost focus. As the chains neared the green ball a red ball zoomed in front of it. She was so sure she was going to capture it, but she willed herself to concentrate, and in the last second it zoomed out of the way, the chains she had produced surrounding the big green ball.

PHEW. That was a close one. Heh.

And there was that spinning green ball again, still turning. The thought occurred to Cutty to cast another spell upon it in order to make it stop, but that was hardly the point here, was it? No matter. He had a plan. "Ligatenous!" He shot the first chain toward the green ball aiming only for the edge of it. He did not wish to hit it, only send it spinning slightly in the opposite direction. Sliiiiiightly. "Ligatenous!" The second burst of chain grazed the edge of the ball enough to slow it, even if not stop it cold. It was enough, Cutty decided. "Ligatenous!" He shot out one last burst this time hitting and capturing the spinner. Painstaking though it was.

It was getting a bit more challenging as ball after ball was being captured. There was more space for them to roam around, giving Bev a tougher time to zero in on just one. She'd almost caught a red one, which was a big no in the game. She wanted points for Slytherin, not other houses.

Zeroing in on a zig-zagging green ball, the snake prepared for another attack. This would make three balls, and though is sounded like a small amount it had taken effort. Getting a good focus on it, she pointed at it sharply. "Ligatenous!"

Swoosh!

Chains spiraled from her wand toward the indicated target. The green ball rudely zig-zagged sideways, but Bev focused on changing the direction of her chains. Well, tried to when a set of foreign chains collided with hers, tangling themselves into a mess.

She's been hit! Not really, but her chains had! And she had had perfect aiming. Gaah! Who did that?!

Amused by the students and their determination to capture the correct house ball, she was rather proud to see that there was a lot of correct captures. 'Course, some could use a little bit of improvement, but practice does make perfect. Or something close to it anyhow. Though despite their growing skill with the spell, and hopefully fun times, time wasn't on their side.

"ALRIGHT! Everyone! Stop you're casting! Let the scoreboard catch up." The numbers below the house names upon the chalkboard faded into one number after the other, while Medea kept an eye out for anybody continuing to cast. No cheeeating! Or chaining of classmates. Noooope. Just...nope.

Sander breathed a sigh of relief when Professor Romanos called an end to the contest. He sat down on the floor, breathing heavily, rubbing his aching arm and rolling his neck to relax its sore muscles. Now he knew what neck sprain felt like because he was feeling it now.

He leaned back supported by his arms as he watched the board calculate the number of balls captured by the students of each house. Sander really didn't mind who won. His main goal was that he enjoyed the lesson, which in this case, he thoroughly did.