She pulled a face but didn't argue. She watched as it went flying over the fence, "I think it's going to do it!" she exclaimed brightly watching as it flew slowly coming down towards the ground but passing over the top without a problem. "Well done!" she said beaming at him "You got it!" And no more injured gnomes...wherever the other one had disappeared to.

Once the gnome was over the fence, Dan breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks." Looking around, he shook his head. "Can we go now?" He didn't want to be here any longer than he already had been. He had to go and read the rest of his book. It was a lot better than throwing gnomes. Ugh. He hated this class so much. "I prefer the books to gnomes. Most books don't bite."

Okay. One down. One sleeping gnome tucked in her pocket. One gnome left to deposit over the fence. Apparently they were pretty tricky to catch. Gwen watched the rest of the class running wildly trying to get the little veggies.

She spotted one peeking it's little head up above the ground and lunged for it. Only to fall on her face as her hands missed the quick little creature. Where had it even gone?

What about Norland as the name for her new pet? Norland was a kind of potato, and the thing kinda looked a lot like a potato. Or Tater? Maybe. Gwen got distracted, thinking about names for a minute before remembering that she still had to get one more gnome over the fence.

Having removed two gnomes from the garden, Cris went looking for the next, occasionally stepping out of the way of another student as they ran after their own gnome. He smiled encouragingly at some of the younger students as they chased after their gnomes, successfully catching their prey and tossing them over the fence. Degnoming was no easy task, he could attest to that.

...and then one ran right past him!

Refocussing on the task at hand, Cris gave chase, zig zagging past the other students as he zoned in on his target. He was so intent on the gnome he was chasing that Cris didn't even see the other gnome until it was too late. The gnome, obviously running away from another student, had unknowingly crossed his path.

"Out of my way!" Cris called out but it was too late. Cris stumbled over the creature and fell forward. Down he went onto the grass...and onto the gnome he had been chasing!!

Class wasn't dismissed... "Ummm, well let's...'act' like we're studying our notes." she suggested. They had tossed 2 1/2 gnomes each. Right? 1/2 gnome was Dan's that hit the fence which they weren't going to mention. SO 2 gnomes each. "Til class is over." Right, books don't bite... "Most yep. So...study?"

Alright now it is time to swing this little fella. This will be his first time swinging the gnome in a while. Just think of it being home or actually throwing a softball. Use force but not too much. He began to swing his gnome and he wasn't liking it. He was trying to bite him. I guess his Immobulus charm didn't work too much. He wasn't really confident in the spell maybe that is why. This one was a vicious one. He didn't want to miss and try to swing him again.

He began to swing and then once he felt it was good, he released the gnome and he.....LANDED on the other side. He smiled and was glad it worked. He didn't want to deal with the vicious gnome. Now he was onto finding another one and do the whole process. But this was a fun task. He was starting to sweat though.

The Professor did say they could use spells? Yeah? So long as they didn't hurt the gnomes? She could only think of so many spells she knew that wouldn't HURT anything. The ones that were hardly worth learning but would prove useful for this class apparently.

Lex watched the gnome running further and further away. It must have felt SO clever, getting away from giants that are getting rid of his friends. His time left in here was pretty much numbered and the moment she drew her wand, it was up. Lex took aim. "Stupefy!" When Professor Romanos had taught it to them using a butterfly she'd assured everyone that it wouldn't hurt it...not that that was any concern for her but, you know, over caring Professor dude might have liked taking points.

The Prefect jogged over to frozen gnome and grabbed him by the limb closest to her, which happened to be an arm. With it secured she unfroze it and watched as the creature flailed and scratched and--GASP, it tried biting her.

Remember the Professor Lex.

Deciding he wasn't worth it, she tightened her grip then began spinning. Nice and dizzy so he wouldn't come back. That was the theory anyhow.

Sighing, Dan nodded and led the way back to their notes. "Sounds good to me." Paper didn't bite. It only gave you papercuts. "You can stay with the gnomes if you want. I don't mind." He wasn't going to force her to join him in the 'boring' area. "You seemed like you were enjoying it."

Now onto finding his next gnome. He needed to find one that was less vicious. He saw the teeth marks the previous gnome left on his gloves. The gnomes back at his aunt's house were this vicious. Maybe they felt threatened that these students were invading their homes. It was understandable. As he was looking, he saw a gnome to the right of him. He was staring him down, challenging him. Kace was no stranger to a challenge. He went into his running stance. He smirked and sprinted after him. The gnome stood there wide eyed and started to run but Kace was too quick for him. He grabbed him by his feet and didn't resort to using magic. This gnome was known he was defeated and he seemed tired from running from everyone.

He smiled a smile of victory. He smirked and said, "You thought you could run from me? Big Mistake.." he said. Now all he had to do was throw him over. He began swinging the little guy. Now it was getting angry.

There! Gwen spotted a gnome and reached toward it, but the gnome tucked in her pocket started to wiggle. It had woken up from its nap. And it didn't seem very calm. She stopped reaching and pulled the little creature from her pocket.

He looked so scared. Gwen held him carefully with two hands. "It's okay. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." Hadn't the class said they ate plants? Gwen plucked the nearest plant right out of the ground and offered it to him. "Here you go. See? You're okay." It took the offered plant and chewed on the end of it, still looking a little frightened.

"I've got to put you back in my pocket," Gwen informed him apologetically. After a minute, she tucked him, plant and all, back into her robes. Really, one more gnome and she would be done, and then she could go ask Mr. Kitridge if she could keep the gnome.

Winded from the fall, Cris lay face down on the grass. He was more embarrassed than hurt. Here he was, a first class athlete, taken down by just a foot tall creature. If his siblings ever heard what happened here, they would never let him forget it. So he made it a point to never mention it to them...nope this was one story that would stay here on this grass and never be retold to anyone.

Raising his head up off the grass, Cris looked around and hoped that everyone else had been so busy chasing their own gnomes that they didn't see him take the dive. It was only when he sat upright, and began brushing the grass off from himself, did he notice something moving under his legs.

Quickly glancing down, he realized that he had a gnome pinned down under his legs. Instinctively, he immediately raised his legs, removing his weight off the creature thereby enabling it to get out from under him. However, just as the gnome was about scurry away, Cris belatedly remembered that he was supposed to be catching them instead of releasing them, so he lunged forward and grabbed hold of the gnome's legs.

Kicking and squealing, the gnome struggled to get loose, but Cris held on tighter. Getting to his feet, he walked over to the fence. Dangling the gnome by its foot with one outstretched hand, Cris spun around four times, swinging the creature along with him. When he was ready to release the creature, Cris swung with all his might and tossed the gnome up and over the fence and onto the other side.

After feeling like she'd given the gnome a good enough spin and like she was about to throw up the Gryffindor came to a sudden stop, giving a light shake of her head to dispel a little of the dizziness. Ugh. Next time she'd try not to go around so many times. It clearly wasn't necessary and was making her vision all kinds of foggy.

Once she was sure she could see proper, she pulled back then hurled the gnome as hard as she could, watching as he sailed clear of the fence and all the way over. Where did he land? She honestly had no idea and she couldn't really say she cared either. It was gone and her service to this school had been carried out. She would accept her reward in chocolate frogs, thanks.

Lex spun on her heel, ready to go in search of another when THWACK, something smacked right into the back of her foot. It kinda stung actually, like merlin slow down and not hit into things, yeah??

She looked down at the disoriented gnome. It must have hit into her harder than she'd thought which would make sense given the throbbing in her leg now. If she didn't know any better she'd think someone just had REALLY shoddy aim and hit her instead of sending the thing over the fence. Pfffft, amateurs. This one was snached up before he had a proper chance at running. There would be no getting away.

Head moving this way and that, Cris watched as gnomes darted past him, around him and in between his legs. They were definitely fast and furious, as evidenced from the grumbling sounds they were making. Whenever one got close, Cris would try to trip it, or reach out to grab them, but now wise to what the humans were trying to do, the gnomes were prepared to dodge, bite and kick in order to escape.

Deciding just standing in one spot, would not get him any gnomes, Cris randomly picked any gnome and gave chase. Unfortunately, this gnome was obviously a runner, like he was, and gave him a run....no pun intended...for his money...or job as the case may be.

He knew he looked comical chasing after a foot tall gnome, but heck! everyone was doing it and if truth be told, Cris was actually finding it funny, chasing gnomes around the place. Now if only this gnome would tire out...which didn't seem like it was, any time soon. So out came his wand. Pointing it at the zig zagging, creature, Cris called out the incantation for the the Freezing spell, "Immmobulus". He watched as the blue stream of light shot out, targeting gnome.

But this was a clever gnome. The moment it heard the spell being cast, it swerved to the right and Cris' spell did nothing but hit the grass.

Result? No frozen gnome or grass. Thankfully, no students were harmed in the making of this mistimed spell.

Okay, seriously, what in the name of Merlin?

UGH. Ego. Shattered. Again.

Grayson looked up to see exactly WHO had decided to interrupt his serenading of the grass blades by LAUGHING. He would have asked them WHY they hadn't decided to leave him alone but his eyes had landed on a familiar head of hair and he grimaced. Oh jeez. First Potions and now this. This girl was going to have the upperhand AGAIN.

She even KNEW that it was him so there wasn't any point in trying to hide or deny this fact. "Uh huh. Nice to see you again, Lux," Okay it wasn't given the current situation he was in but whatever. He could deal. "Yeah, I'm good. Just giving the grass the smooch it deserves." SNORT. It was a joke. Just a joke. Honest.

Regardless, he buried his head some more into the grass. "I got a bit dizzy and fell. Think you can help me up?" he mumbled, holding his hand up in the air.

Alexa needed a settled moment before she began spinning again. She may not have been feeling dizzy anymore but there was that subtle feeling of nausea she was trying to get rid of as well. Someone should have told her what they'd be doing this lesson. If she'd know she wouldn't have eaten as much candy as she did with her lunch--hell, she wouldn't have eaten so much lunch!!!

Okay. Okay she was ready to give it another go. Ignoring the flailing creature, once again she tightened her grip and spun. This time this one had the courtesy of screaming as if it'd seen it's entire life flash before its eyes. Kinda made it wothwhile, you know? Like she was making a difference in the life of this gnome. Persuading it to never come back. Most likely it would but the Professor would have to think of a different solution when that happened.

Lex came to a stop, not quite as sudden as the first but a stop nonetheless. This time she had to kinda squint at the fence. Had it gotten further away while she was spinning? Was that even allowed??

Deciding not to dwell on it for too she hurled this one toward the fence as well, pleasantly surprized to see it go over...or well...she guessed it did but with everything still spinning the way it was, things were hard to tell. Still, she was about 80% sure the thing had flown over the fence and the Gryffindor wasn't prepared to dwell on this any longer.

HAHAHAHA!!

Oh gosh. It was Grayson who had been kissing the ground. LOL

Amused because he didn't seem to be hurt, Lux made her way over to him and offered her hand out. "Don't you have a girl to kiss as opposed to the grass?" she joked. Seriously no one would want to kiss grass. Obviously she wouldn't want to kiss grass. That was one of the things she had a boyfriend for. MMMMMM.

"Silly Grayson," she mused as she looked around some more for the potato-looking Gnomes.

AHA!

There was one not too far off, and she kept her eyes glued to it. The hunt was on.

Adi tore off after the gnome. It wasn't that far ahead of him but at that moment, it occurred to him that he could use a spell that would help him get the gnome. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the escaping creature. "Stupefy!'' Red light headed straight for the gnome and hit it squarely in the back, causing it to fall face first onto the ground.

Now, why hadn't the Puffer thought of using a spell before? Professor Thompson did say they could, right? Anyway, he caught up to the gnome and grabbed it by the legs. There was obviously no commotion this time like there had been with the first gnome.

Grinning to himself, Adi began swinging it in the air.

All Gwen had to do was get one gnome, give it a good spin, and launch it toward the tall grass. She could pretend like it was a little Iestyn. Lord knew she wanted to launch him over a fence.

Luckily, a gnome someone else had chased out came running toward her. Without hesitation Gwen scooped it up as it ran. It still thought it was running, its little legs miming the motion in mid-air. That was adorable.

Okay, Gwenhwyfar, just do it. She took a deep breath and spun in a circle, holding the little gnome. No. She couldn't. She couldn't throw it. It was so innocent and stupid. It just seemed inhumane to throw something that didn't know any better. It wasn't being malicious. It was just eating. Kind of like how humans weren't being malicious to bees, they were just using cell phones. The little thing didn't know it was hurting anyone. And it certainly wasn't doing it on purpose.

She would just spin it, and set it down like she had the other gnome.

Yeah...she was just gonna....actually hunt for the next gnome while her head stopped that spinning thing it insisted on doing. Maybe some steady movement would have her not seeing three fences in any one place anymore? She'd go with that and hope for as much.

Lex walked along the garden, side stepping quickly and jumping back at other times to avoid the others who were just as busy trying to get gnomes out of the place. Lookit everyone so hard at work, the Professor would never know if she chose to slink back for the remainder of the class, yeah? But she didn't suppose she could. There was still sugar running through her that left her feeling a bit restless. Standing around would only have her shifting from one leg to the next without anything else to do. Couldn't have that now could they?

While she walked, her eyes scouring the garden she caught sight of one that was trying it's luck at hiding in the tall grass. PFFT, did it really think that would work?

Alexa tried being as light on her feet as possible, slowly inching toward the gnome that was busily looking off in another direction. Might have been one that escaped and thought it was safe. If only he knew. Slowly she made her advance, sinking a bit lower as she did in a vain effort to blend in. Just a liiiittle closer.........

Perhaps Jasmine had gotten a little overconfident in her ability to catch the gnomes because she seriously underestimated the next one. Sneaking up behind him, Jasmine made a dive for the gnome and missed. She ended up face down on the ground as the gnome ran away.......laughing. Laughed at by a garden gnome, that was about as humiliating as it could get.

Jasmine picked herself up from the ground and looked at the gnome. She was on a mission. That gnome was going waaaay over the fence. Jasmine started to run after him again. She couldn't believe that she was being outsmarted by a garden gnome. She was a Ravenclaw for Merlin's sake. She was detemined not to use a spell on the gnome, but he was making it very hard to resist the temptation.

Gwen was dizzy. She knew that the point was to get the gnome dizzy, not herself, but she got dizzy pretty quickly, watching everyone else spin and then spinning herself. Ugh. If everyone could just hold still for just a minute until she felt like the world was sitting straight, that would be great.

Gnome in hand she sat down and stared at a stationary plant for just a minute. When the world stopped spinning around her she stood again. Now she had to spin. And then get her second gnome over the fence.

Then it bit her. No longer was it the cute cuddly little creature she had imagined it to be. This demon was nothing like her pet. As an automatic reaction she threw the thing away from her like it was a spider, managing to get it over the fence.

Marisol rubbed her nose. The gnome probably thought it looked like a carrot, for the brunette's skin and hair were tinted a slight orange. She gave a sideways glance to the gnome, who had a blank look on its face. They sure were stupid, all right.

The first year, keeping Mr. Potato Head away from her face, swung him above her head. She could be, like, a cowboy, and the gnome was her lasso. Its eyes were spinning in her head. Marisol did feel a little bad for the guy.

When she felt she'd gotten close enough to the gnome, Lex crouched as low as she could and took a small crawl forward. There was a moment of silent pause where she could have sworn they turned all the sound down or something before she lunged forward grabbing at the thing. Her stomach hit the ground hard but the grass cushioned most of the fall thankfully.

Despite her efforts, her hands felt unusually empty...like maybe her grabbing hadn't gone as well as she'd thought it would. This wouldn't do at all. Nope.

Without getting up, she began searching around for the direction the thing might have gotten off in and spotted it making a mad dash for the other side of the garden. For that moment her wand was completely forgotten as the Gryffindor scrambled to her feet and gave chase. No way was this thing getting away, not after she'd put so much effort into catching it in the first place. No. Just no.

There might have been some pushing of people to get them out of the way but really, what else did you expect during a gnome hunt? At least she wasn't hurting the creatures.

Just when she thought she'd gotten close enough she felt herself tripping and stumbling. A glance down confirmed a rock she hadn't been paying attention to. Luckily she'd managed to regain her balance but glancing up again she realized she'd lost the gnome.....

SERIOUSLY?

Kace was still swinging his gnome that was getting angry. I guess he didn't like being hung upside down. I mean he wouldn't like it either. He began to swing and then he lost his grip and it slipped from his grip! ARGGHH!! He almost had it. The gnome grinned and stuck his tongue out and ran away from him. Kace got his wand from his robes and said loudly and confidently, "IMMOBULUS!!" and then the gnome stood there frigid. Kace smirked and ran after him before the spell wore off.

It stood there in shock not expecting to be hit with a spell. Now Kace could try again and throw him over to the field. He began to swinging him and then used his baseball arm and then he flew him over to the field. He did it! Whew...
He wiped the sweat from his forehead. This task was making him sweat, but he saw other students run after the gnomes so he wasn't the only one. He hoped the professor wasn't mad at him using magic but it was just a safety precaution.

Oh jeez, was she LAUGHING at him?!

This was embarrassing. EMBARRASSING.

He was grateful for her hand, though. When his hand finally reached hers, he grasped it and used it to pull himself up. What? A GIRL to kiss? "I don't have a girlfriend, if that's what you're asking," he said, brushing off the dirt on his robes before leaning down to pick up , "'Sides, maybe the grass was feeling lonely." Wink.

Could the ground swallow him up NOW?!

Leaning down to pick up his still immobilised gnome, he said, "Helpful Lux. Thanks, by the way."

With his gnome in his hand that he went on to spin around like a lasso, he looked over at her............ and then over at the gnome she was looking at. Oh? Smirk. "Don't let the bugger get away and maybe we can make this interesting." Because he like competitions. He really did.