Jasmine looked at the radiosonde and tried to imagine how this instrument would give them the information they needed. Giving it the once over, she began to unravel the string a bit. Once she felt that she had enough string, Jasmine attached it to her ballon. She looked at it carefully to make sure that string was secure.

Just as she was finishing, Jasmine saw a familiar face approach her desk with balloon in hand. "Hi Leah, of course I remember you.", Jasmine said to the younger girl. "I don't know how much of an expert I am, but I'll help you as much as I can. Why don't you try again and I'll watch you. The most important thing is to concentrate while you're casting the spell. Picture your balloon growing to the size that you want and then give it a try. Oh and don't forget to hold the balloon tightly so it doesn't get away from you." Jasmine stood back to watch Leah perform the spell.

Jasmine did seem like a teacher. Leah listened to the Ravenclaw, feeling that she was in another class. Wait, she needed to try the spell in front of her? She should have guessed this coming. "Er, okay." The second year said, holding her wand up. She stuck her wand into the balloon again and said loudly, "Helic umtus!"

Again, nothing happened. "Give me one more try," Leah said to Jasmine quickly, and concentrated on filling up the balloon with helium, making it watermelon-size, or even bigger. "Helic umtus." she repeated for the umpteenth time and felt something emerge out of her wand. Excited, she held both the wand and the balloon tighter but it stopped immediately. "Well, at least I improved." The Hufflepuf smiled. "What should I do better?"

Soon enough Hayden was standing with a fully-expanded balloon in her hand. She smiled happily. "Thank you," she said gratefully to the older girl. The rest she would have to figure out herself. Like tying the balloon. She'd never been able to do it herself before, she'd always needed someone to help her. Hayden carefully stretched the tip of the balloon and wrapped it around her finger once and then tried to get the end under the stretched out part. She was having problems getting it and it was starting to hurt her finger. So she unwrapped it and waited a second. She could do this, this wasn't supposed to be the hard part.

She did it quickly this time. The second it was wrapped around her finger she slid her finger out of the circle, pulling the end with her. By some miracle, it actually worked. The end went through and she had a full and tied balloon. Now she had to go get the device. She set the balloon on her desk and the second she took her hand off it, it started floating up. Up, up, and out of her reach. So that's what he meant by Helium being lighter than air. Oops.

"Come back!" She'd shouted that louder than she'd meant to. Yes, she knew the balloon couldn't hear her but she really needed it back. She didn't want to have to ask Cassia to fill up another one, and she didn't think she'd be able to tie another one. Maybe someone would hear her shout and help get her balloon back. There had to be some spell, right? Please?

Jamine watched Leah as she performed the spell. She was sooo close to getting it right. "Leah, you almost got it that time", Jasmine said. "First of all, relax. You can do this. Take a deep breath. Now try it again, but this time give your wand just a little flick. Remember to concentrate, but keep breathing." Jasmine knew that at times she became so tense that she couldn't make a spell work. Relaxation was important in this situation, at least she thought it was.

Jasmine watched Leah closely as she prepared to repeat the spell. She had a good feeling that it was going to work this time.

With the balloon in one hand and wand in the other, Zander said the spell under his breath a couple more times. Okay. He could do this. Just had to concentrate. "Helic umtus," the Gryffindor flicked his wand and waited... Nothing? Hmph. Merlin. Sweet Merlin. Why.

He didn't want to have to ask for help, especially because it looked like some others were already figuring it out! He'd look like a total loser if he couldn't get it now! Okay, okay once more. "Helic umtus!" Zander waited again, this time anticipating the incantation to do it's thing, the magic thing, but again. Nothing. Welp. This was bad. Okay, okay one more time, "Helic umtus!!!" And before he knew it the balloon was filling with air! It was working!! FINALLY!

Now how would he know when to stop--

POP!!

O________O

...oops.... Heh. Okay, well now that he actually understood how to do it, it wouldn't be all that hard right? Got it right once, he could do it again. This time, with more confidence he tried once more, grabbing another balloon that he found on the table. "Helic umtus!" he said firmly watching as the balloon filled um with helium. YAY!! This time before the balloon could fill up too much, "Finite!" Perfect. It was beautiful. Well... it was a balloon. And it wasn't a popped one? Now for the hard part. Tying it.

It took a couple of minutes and a few tries. The balloon had significantly decreased in size by the time he had tied it off, but it was still rather large. So that was the good news.

Say please.

Kevin stopped trying the spell out on the balloon and lowered his wand. He turned to the Hufflepuff Prefect , blinked a few times and then LAUGHED. "You really think i'm going to say THAT?" yeah no. Even Flamsteed over there had tried but had failed miserably. He watched, still amused when the girl blew up her own balloon, literally. The second year Gryffindor laughed out loud yet again and shook his head. "Wow, you're terrible. How can a Prefect not even---" but he stopped talking when he saw that she had now successfully made a balloon and tied an knot to the end to secure it.

Not fair.

"You have to help ME. Not show off" Kevin rolled his eyes and looked around. Seemed like he was getting behind. "Oh okay! help me out plea...." ugh he hated that word. Come on Kevin, it is just a word! "plea----sure" WUT? "Oh come on just help me out, please! or are you scared of a second year?" ..........He had just said please hadn't he? Ah crap!

Well someone clearly has issues and would end up in an institute before he aged into an adult. Him laughing at her didn't even strike a nerve, because she'd soon after shut him up and was getting closer to leaving him here to act like a toddler some more. "I don't 'have' to do anything." It was a nice thing to do, helping others, but he clearly didn't know that she didn't do it often. "I only came over here to watch you prove yourself awful with your wand." Which, she'd witnessed twice and luckily his wand was still intact. Because she'd have snapped that clear in two if he had kept it pointed at her face.

Please.

She'd heard it. With a smirk, Elodie nodded. "Of course I'll help. Give me your balloon. I'll inflate it and you can tie it off." And then she was going to keep an eye out for him in the castle and tie his laces together using her wand. Ta da. She didn't address the 'scared of a second year' thing, because that would mean she'd need to acknowledge him for longer and the quicker she got this done, the quicker she was out of here and thinking about setting his hair on fire.

Uhum okay. Now that he had his balloon all tied up, there was only one more bit left, right? The weird device-y thingy? Alright. Not bad. The Gryffindor held onto his balloon as tightly as he could because he did NOT need all his precious hard work floating away from him. Then looking at the devices on the Professor's desk he grabbed one and went back to his own seat. Alright. So uh, how does this thing go on again?

Zander turned the machine thing around in his hands a couple of times inspecting it. Alright so, uh what? There was some stringy stuff? Was that supposed to be how he attached it? Yes. Okay. Ugh wait. Did that mean he needed another knot? Buuuuut it was so difficult the first time, hadn't that been enough?

Struggling to get the balloon attached, it definitely took the Gryffindor more than just a couple minutes to finish. There. All done. Now, how do you even use these thingies??

Phew.

Simon chuckled and nodded in agreement with Professor Airey's statement about karma. Yes, that was true. "Glad to hear it, Professor!" he said with a happy nod and then saluted his Professor and went back to work. It had just felt very appropriate to salute Professor Flamsteed when he had told Simon to carry on. It seemed like the proper thing to do. Uh-huh. So Simon went back to his table to check on his completed weather balloon.

Radiosome in the right place? Check.



He was continuing to make sure that he had everything in place when he heard a voice shout 'Come back'. Simon glanced up from what he was doing and saw a young girl looking up at a balloon that was slowly floating to the ceiling. Oh no- the balloon was gone forever now. Thank Merlin, he silently thought to himself. They didn't need any more pesky or troublesome balloons around here.

However, after stealing a glance at the first year, he decided to retrieve the balloon for her. He knew how it felt to lose a balloon by not holding onto it tightly enough. So Simon raised his wand and cast the summoning charm. The balloon slowly floated back towards him and after holding onto it firmly (not too tight that it would burst but just firm enough so he could have a good grip on it), he made his way over to the little girl. He waved. "Hey! Is this your balloon?" he asked with a kind smile.

Reaching for her pack of balloons she turned it around in her hands examining it for no important reason really. Just curiosity. And it was the same one as the others', not that she expected it anything else. Ripping it open, she searched for a green one but another color caught her attention. Purple. Her favorite one. Yup, she was choosing this one.

As she was busy with her balloon something caused her to look up. Whose voice was that?! Last she checked it was only her and Ethan.

O___O

And it turned out it was Ethan who apparently inhaled some helium causing his voice to sound like that. The snake couldn't help not chuckle when he spoke again. That was hilarious. And it helped that he, too, found it funny. Since it'd be kinda mean to laugh at someone who didn't find it funny. Though, she doubted anyone not finding this funny.

Getting a grip on her laugh, she handed the balloon over to the younger snake and cleared her throat before saying, "Helic umtus," Plus a flick of her wand once she placed it properly. Gradually the balloon started to fill up. And popping another balloon wasn't a choice it wasn't something pleasant despite it being totally harmless. Once the balloon was by the size of a decent watermelon, Cassia quickly cast Finite ending the conjuring.

Now she wasn't going to repeat Ethan's fault and put the end of balloon to her mouth so she set aside her wand and took the balloon from the third-year. "Thanks, man," His help was much appreciated. As a sigh she put up her hand for a high-five. See, they made a great team.

Okay, so he was definitely going to have to try again. The spell had worked but not as well as it could have. And he couldn't move on until he got it to inflate all the way. So Benny prepared himself to give it another go, thinking over all he had done in an attempt to figure out what he might have done wrong and needed to fix. Hold balloon on wand...say incantation...small flick of wand. He had done everything without missing anything so it was just a matter of twiking his work.

"Helic umtus," the Gryffindor cast, trying it all again. Incantation and small concentrated flick inside the balloon. It succeeded in inflating the balloon once more, this time to the size of a small melon. Closer, but still not enough. Benny took a deep breath and focused as he repeated, "Helic umtus," imagining the balloon filling up. He almost didn't notice right away that it was actually doing so until he felt it in his grasp.

And continued.

Benny watched as it inflated, waiting until it was roughly the size of what Professor Flamsteed had instructed. "Finite..." he finally cast when it did. One inflated balloon all set.

Oh boy. OH BOY. Toby was warm. Very very warm. All that running and the many many layers had definitely warmed him up a little TOO much, so when Airey was explaining to everyone what was going on, the overheating Hufflepuff was struggling out of the two extra sweaters. There was nothing to be done about the pyjama bottoms he wore under his school trousers, but he already felt better after the removal of the jumpers, so everything was a-okay and Tobias had just enough time to attempt to tune back in to the lesson, now appearing kinda sweaty and with messed up hair.

Right, okay, he could do this. He could focus.

Toby figured the best idea was to practice the incantation and wand movement first, as was his usual routine when it came to learning new spells. Before anything, he made sure to note down the procedure for the spell and the instructions Professor Flamsteed had given them, and then retrieved a blue balloon from the already open bag still between himself and Soph (ready for when he actually practiced it).

Okay, wand movement first. A flick. Easy enough, except from what he could see from comparing himself with those around him, Toby's wand movement was still far too exaggerated. It needed to be far, farrrrrrrr more subtle than that.

So next time, he did a teeny tiny very small flick of his wand, which was still a little too big because Toby did not do small movements very well, but he figured it would do.

Now just for the incantation, which those around him didn't seem to be having too much trouble with. And of course, it was best to try it without his wand first.

"Helic Umtus." Yeah, dead easy. "Helic Umtus."

Okay, he'd wasted enough time, and he was ready to try the actual spell. Toby grabbed the little blue balloon he'd already prepared and held it onto the very end of his wand, a little like when he was a kid and liked to blow up muggle balloons with a balloon pump.

"Helic Umtus." Flick. ... Did it work?????

...

Nope. Well, he could only keep trying, right?

"Helic Umtus." Flick. No. "Helic Umtus." Flick. YE-... no.

And so on he went.

Angel was totally upset about the fact she couldn't do the spell, normally she was really good at spells but this was going really wrong. "This is hard." Angel sighed as she thought about what kirk would do.

"Helic umtus!" Angel gave her wand a subtle flick and watched as the balloon started to full up but then stop, why was all the stars against her tonight. She wondered where all her friends were that she could ask but they seemed to be really busy with their own work.

Benny carefully slipped the balloon off his wand and tied it off, not wanting any air to escape needlessly, it had been hard enough work to get it inside. With that step down, there was the part about connecting the balloon to the whatcha macallit. Benny had no clue on the scientific portion of the lesson. It was all gobbly di gook and that was coming from someone used to learning Latin incantations. A glance down at his notes revealed what it was indeed called...a radiosonde.

Right. That thing in the box.

Carefully placing the balloon down upon his workstation, the third year moved to the professor's desk to retrieve what was needed. The radiosonde which was a machine with some sort of string attached to it. Well that answered the question he had on how to attach the two items, he mused to himself as he made his way back to his seat. The Gryffindor looking around to see what other were doing and the few around who had passed him confirmed his thoughts.

So Benny proceeded to tie the balloon to the radiosonde. The boy hoping he had done it right as he finally sat back down with a sigh of relief.

"Helic Umtus." Flick.

Whooooooosh.

OH HEY IT WORKED. Toby found himself pleasantly surprised when the balloon did, in fact, begin to inflate right before his very eyes. He watched it carefully, making sure to stay focused on keeping the spell going, waiting for it to become watermelon sized. When it did, he 'finite'd the spell and focused on trying to get it free from his wand without losing any helium. That done, he spent a good few minutes trying to tie a knot in the end. As he wasn't all that great with small, fiddly things that required close attention, this took multiple tries and very sore fingers.

BUT it WAS DONE EVENTUALLY. At last, Toby sat back in his chair, holding out the blue, watermelon-sized balloon out triumphantly in front of him. Okay, what next?

Ah, he had to get that whatchamacallit. The radiosonde. Toby was half tempted to use his recently perfected Summoning Charm, just to show that HEY HE COULD DO IT, but no... he never passed up the opportunity to move around, right?

So up he went, retrieving the weird looking device from Airey's desk and then returned to his seat. This... would require more fiddly attaching, right? Probably. Best get started then. Toby glanced around at those nearest him to see how they were doing this particular task, and got to work himself. If he messed it up, Professor Airey would surely help him out.

Professor Top Hat talked a LOT, and Dima had little to no idea of what he was saying. Something about being lighter than air... were they going to float?! Were they doing anti-gravity related things? What did that have to do with weather? Did it matter? He wanted to do that! Toussaint vote cast!

... except there were apparently other plans for today's lesson. Sad.

"Helic Umtus." The incantation was pretty easy enough, and the first year had flicking DOWN. At once, he began fixing a balloon onto the end of his wand, doing his best to hold it in place with his non-wand hand. Ready? READY. This balloon was about to get blown.

Flick. "Helic Umtus!" Nothing happened on his first go, seeing as Dima's pronunciation had been tongue-tied. His wand movement was a little exaggerated too, but he amended that on his second try. The words seemed to be sliiightly smoother coming out of his mouth as well. "Helic Umtus!"

Instead of the balloon growing bigger, Dima went flying back into the desk behind him. Whoops.

There wasn't much to do while she waited for the Firstie to give the spell a try since she'd already inflated her balloon and gotten the necessary equipment. That being said, she did remember she hadn't attached hers as yet and they were somewhat running out of time to get this done. Lex reached under her table where she'd left the balloon with the desk babysitting and pulled it out.

How...exactly was this meant to work?

Alexa stared at the instrument for a few moments before looking around the room at others who'd already gotten theirs attached and ready to go. It was the string. Of course that made perfect sense.

Lex got straight to tying but see, she had a question. How were they getting up in the air with these things like the Professor said they would? Surely he'd explain this part soon enough. She just needed to wait a little longer. Not to worry Professor. She was READY.

Marigold placed her balloon gingerly on her seat as she stood up and hurriedly grabbed the materials from Flammy's desk. She came back to her seat and picked her balloon back up. Now, how was she supposed to attach it? She looked around. Maybe… oh! Maybe she tied the string around the end? Like a normal balloon? She did that, then set it back on her desk. They would fly it soon, right?

It took a while for Dima to get back to his feet because slamming into desks HURT.

And his backside was sore now. Ow.

But once he'd achieved the standing up bit, the rest was pretty simple. The first year channeled more intent into his next spell, and the incantation he uttered was more articulate. Flicking was important too, and his wand only gave the slightest indication that it was moving, but it was enough.

Still, it took six more tries for him to successfully conjure up the helium and blow up his balloon. "Helic Umtus!" FINALLY, the thing began filling up, and soon Dima had expanded a balloon on the end of his wand. After making sure it was good and tight, the kid slipped it off the tip with a careful hand and knotted the end up. It LOOKED like it was the size of a watermelon, like Professor Top Hat's had been, so he deemed it fit. Ta-da!

... now what?

Just as Hayden was about to decide it was hopeless and give up, her balloon flew down toward the ground and right into some boy's hand. She smiled thankfully and ran over to him. "Thank you!" She grabbed her balloon and remembered to hold on to it this time. She didn't want to have to keep getting help.

Keeping a tight hold on her balloon, Hayden went up to professor Flamsteed's desk and grabbed one of the...things. She had no idea what they were called, but that wasn't what was important. The important thing was connecting it, which she didn't know how to do either. There was a string though, so she tied that to her balloon. That looked right, yes? She hoped that someone would tell her if it was incorrect. For the time, Hayden waited by her desk for further instructions.

Clearing his throat wasn't doing anything to bring Mo's voice back to normal. Instead, it was just wearing his vocal chords raw, until he sounded like a house elf with a chipmunk in its throat. Not attractive and very painful. Mo was distracted from his obsession with his house elf voice by the approach of a younger Slytherin.

Agatha, right? She'd been in the History of Magic skit with him.

"You need help with the spell?" Mo tied the string to the knot of his balloon and let it float away, keeping hold of the string as an anchor. He knotted it around his wrist for the moment so he could focus on the girl.

"The incantation or the wand movement?"

Ah, the professor sounded JUST like him. That was definitely a little bit of a relief. Mo grinned at the professor and gave him a salute. "I don't sing, sir, but I might be willing to give it a go for entertainment value. We could take this act on the road."

Tied balloon in hand, the first year trudged over to the professor's desk to retrieve a radiosonde thingy. His bum had stopped hurting, so that made it a lot easier to CONCENTRATE on what he had to do... which was what exactly? Mr. Top Hat was confusing, so he went and watched his neighbor do it.

That helped a little. All they had to do was tie? He had already done that with the balloon, so knotting the radiosonde to the latex was no problem. Dima tried to be neat about it, taking his time with the string and making sure it was attached well.

WAS HE DONE?

His bum hurt again.

Kace heard the professor mention to pick up the pieces. "I am on it professor!" He nodded and picked up his pieces and threw them out in the garbage. He was going to try again. He got out the ballon and put it over his wand. He was hoping it wasn't gonna pop. He did so well before. Alright, he was set with the balloon and now he needed to do the spell. He said the incantation, "Helic Umtus!" and then the ballon was blowing up to the right size. He was fine with that, he said the incantation "Finite!" and then he accidentally let the balloon go!


UH OH.....


The ballon was flying around the classroom and making farting noises. He was chuckling at it and he saw it landed on the professor's desk. Ermmm well this is awkward. He half grinned and shrugged innocently.

Agatha watched the older Ravenclaw kid finih preparing his balloon. It looked so EASY when he did it. Merlin, she wished she was older.

Yes, she needed help with the spell. Couldn't he see her boring, not-filled-nor-floating balloon? "Both. Actually, can you do the spell for me, please?" Agatha risked. She knew she'd not be able to get the spell right any time soon, and she was sure the lesson would move on and she would be the only only left with an empty balloon. But he was older and probably all just and fair and all that... old people stuff, so she doubted he would do it like that. And she couldn't bribe him either. The Slytherin hesitated before whispering. "I can't do it." As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt her whole face burning. She was surely turning bright red, as usual. Ughhhhh, hopefully no one would see it. "Please?" And please, don't make her beg.

Okay, just a little more adjusting here... and retying this part here... and... done?

Toby finally sat back again after the long haul of concentrating on this balloon stuff. It SEEMED like he'd attached the radiosonde to the balloon well enough, but he also didn't want to let go of it and find out, in case the entire thing (or just the balloon) made a bid for freedom.

But part of these lessons was trying and failing sometimes, right? So there was a great reason to test it right there.

Very veeeeeeeeeeeeryyyyy tentatively (odd, seeing as Toby was not the 'tentative' kind of person usually, which showed how much dedication he had to this class and activity), Toby released his hand from where the radiosonde was attached to the balloon. The thing started to rise, of course, being filled with helium, but Toby could see he'd attached it just fine. He plucked the baloon from the air again and waited for the lesson to move on, right back to tapping his feet on his floor and his fingers on the now-inflated balloon. It was like a cool drum.

... He was also still kinda sweaty; Toby decided that a shower would be happening after this class. Yep.