Enough of that twirling. It was about time to release the gnome. Taking a deep breath, Marisol let go at the exact right time. Mr. Potato Head, as he was appropriately named, landed just beyond the tall fence. Barely enough to qualify, but it was done. One down, one to go!

When...how.....what???

Lex blinked, unable to believe she'd lost it after she'd been so focused but there was no point in dwelling on it was there? It was gone and there might have been a bunch more of them running about all willy nilly waiting to be caught and thrown from the garden. She was on it! In truth, that chase just now might have done her some good. It got her blood racing and left her eager to find another one.

10 galleons said this feeling would wear off real quick. Perhaps mere seconds after the novelty of this activity wore off which she suspected would be soon--short attention span and all.

For now though, Lex searched the ground, checking at every bush she figured they could have been hiding under. Soon she saw one that had some shuffling going on and in the next second a gnome was crawling up from under it. Not thinking it through Lex made a sudden movement toward it and watched as it recoiled into the bush. Sweet Circe.

Another turn on her belly it would seem. The Gryffindor got low again, crawling over to the bush and sticking her hand under it. Not the best idea given pas experiences but what choice did she have? This one was as good as hers!!!

There. Now he was up again and no harm done. "I find hard to believe that you don't have a girlfriend," she said with a smile. Well, he was nice enough, and not bad looking. Maybe one day he would move up from kissing grass and actually kiss a girl. "Well, aren't you sweet caring about the grass like that." Awwwww. "Glad I could be of service to you!" It was part of being a Hufflepuff. And so what if she had laughed at him? It was alllll in fun, and he had no harm done to him. It wasn't like she would have been amused if he had gotten hurt.

Wait.... Was he challenging her?

Casting an Impediment Jinx towards her Gnome, she froze it in place. "I'm listening." If it was a competition he wanted, it was a competition he would get.

She would have to do it. Agatha was still holding the laughing gnome by its feet while she looked around and considered how to do it. She would have fixed her hair with one hand, but she needed both to keep the gnome from freeing itself from her grasp.

Her hair would have to get in the way again. Well then.

Agatha stared at one point beyond the fence for a few seconds. She needed to aim there. She narrowed her eyes a bit and concentrated as if she was about to cast a spell that way. That would be her focus point, like if she was doing a proper pirouette. She would have to ignore her hair, then, but all the technique she knew would have to come in handy now.

So the Slytherin started spinning one more time. A firm grip on the gnome's feet and she concentrated on the point she was aiming at, her gaze leaving the tall grass last and arriving first, before her body did a full spin. Her hair was still in the way, but she had decided not to be bothered by it for now.

Pirouette... pirouette... If only Messer could see her doing that! And her ballet instructor as well. They'd be proud of her, mhm. Aaaaaaaaaaaand she let go of the gnome's little legs, sending it flying over the fence.

GASP. "Did you see that?????" She asked whoever was closest to her. She probably ddn't know them, but she didn't mind. Had they SEEN it????? Agatha smirked and flipped her hair, extremely proud of herself. "I do ballet." She said to no one in particular just because people needed to know where she had gotten all of that amazingness from.

Norah pushed herself up off the grass and started in on a third attempt at catching a gnome. They were much feistier than the gnomes that sometimes made a home in her mum's garden, and a lot bigger too. She spotted another gnome standing idly in a corner and she rushed over to it, maybe knocking into a person or two on her way, but a quick shout of "Sorry!" probably excused any of the damage. This one seemed runtier than the rest, only reaching halfway up her shins, but the pinched scowl on its face didn't make it very pleasant. She shoved her foot in its face, probably a little harder than she needed to, but she was determined to get it right this time. Those pesky gnomes were not getting the best of her this time. She grabbed its stunted arms and began to spin around, dodging its flailing feet as it tried to kick her. She allowed herself a few extra twirls just for fun before releasing the gnome and watching it sail over the fence. It didn't get too far over, just a couple of feet, but the thump of the gnome was satisfying all the same. She pumped a fist in the air and let out a triumphant "Wooooohooo!" or three. Okay, that was a little obnoxious, but its not often that a little person gets to be the strong queen of the world. Or queen of the gnomes, but really what's the difference?

Maybe Jasmine should have taken her strength potion before this class because then she could have thrown that gnome all the way to Hogsmeade. Taking a deep breath, Jasmine started after the monster again. Running him down, Jas dove again and this time she didn't miss. Grabbing hold of the gnome, Jasmine was preparing to pick him up when somehow he managed to find a piece of exposed skin above her gloves. Then he bit her. "Ouch", Jasmine said angrily.

Getting up, Jasmine started to swing until she was dizzy. There was no way that gnome would be making it back anytime soon. Swinging once more and letting go, Jasmine said, "See ya". Once the gnome was gone, she checked her arm and saw little gnome bite marks. She'd better be speaking mermish really soon.

Her hand swept along the ground below the bush, hoping to hit into the gnome she was SURE had gone hiding. Another sweep, she felt a lump that didn't belong to the plant. Lex grabbed at it with everything in her but quickly retracted her hand after feeling a sudden, sharp pain run through it.

"Holy kneazle!"

Out of pure reflexes, she drew her wand and was only seconds away from an 'indendio' when she caught herself and put it back in its holster. There were very civilized ways of dealing with rude gnomes. Granted there were none she could think of at the present second but that didn't mean they didn't exist. Just how badly did Professor Thompson want want these gnomes gone and just how unharmed did he want them to stay? Important questions right here.

Lex got to her feet and began kicking at the bush, trying to rattle it into running out. At first it didn't seem tobe working but then she saw the creature bolt like its life depended on it. Now that was just being dramatic. She would have only tossed it from the garden. This time the Gryffindor was determined NOT to lose it so with her wand drawn again, she cast another stupefy. Now wasn't that just better.

With a pep in her step Lex headed over, unfroze the gnome and began spinning like she'd done earlier. Once she was suffieciently dizzy she stopped and hurled the gnome clear across the fence. That was how you did it.

So she had been asking him about girls. Er, come again? It was hard to imagine that he didn't have a girlfriend? Oh, that was probably true. "Uh huh? And why's that?" Because he knew of a couple of reasons as to why he didn't have one: the major one being that he couldn't see himself in anything as serious as that. Him? Sweet? HIM?! Grayson snorted as he looked over at Lux. "You're not mocking me, are you?" She'd better not be.

Oh Merlin, she really was a Hufflepuff, wasn't she? The Hugger and Finders House seemed to sprout a lot of unnecessarily nice people from it. Whatever. He smiled and nodded at her. Good for you, nice Lux.

Oh look, she hadn't let the gnome get away. This was going to be GOOD. Grayson cleared his throat before launching into an explanation. "It's simple: we see who can fling their gnome the furthest." Into the pen, of course. But at least it would make this whole thing interesting.

And he was still swinging him gnome around like a lasso. Needed to get it nice and dizzy.

Smiling sweetly, Lux shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Well, you aren't a bad guy and I'm sure there would be a girl who wants to date you." See, she was nice and she liked Grayson. He was fun to laugh at, but she STILL liked him!

... Apparently he was a paranoid one though. "I'm not making fun of you, silly. You will know when I am." Because she will be laughing at him.

Heading over to where her victim Gnome was, she grabbed it by its feet and walked back over to where Grayson was, making sure that she left enough room between them so that Gnome-tossing collisions could be avoided. "Sounds good to me. No more snogging the grass though, if you can help it." See, NOW she was mocking him.

HAHAHAHA!!

Giving some good spinnnnnnnnnns, she tossed the Gnome into the air and watched it soar into the tall grass of the pen. "Okay, try to beat that."

Two over the fence. Gwen was done. And her finger was bleeding from where the thing had bit her. It wasn't going to get infected was it? Could she clean her cut with scourgify? It couldn't hurt to try. "Scourgify." Hopefully that helped it not get infected. Who knew what was in that beast's saliva. So gross.

Um, clean or not, the finger was still bleeding. Not badly, the bite hadn't been very deep, but it was definitely bleeding. That kind of stuff didn't really make Gwen queasy. She'd played soccer for far too many years for the sight of blood to make her sick, but she didn't like it.

She she shook it off, brushing the blood onto her black robes. She was done now. Could she maybe go inside and talk to Kitridge about pets she was and wasn't allowed to keep?

Basking in the glory of her previous triumph, Norah stood up straight and scanned the garden. It took nearly all her effort to keep herself from skipping when she spotted one not to far from where she was standing. Aha! You're going down, gnome. She strode towards it, now brimming with confidence, but the gnome didn't stop when she reached it and instead continued on a slightly altered path. AHEM did that gnome just ignore the queen of the world? She took another step so she was once again in the gnome's way, and when she reached down to grab its arm it took a swing at her leg and kicked her in the shins. OUCH. Well that was rude.

That smile was a little suspicious. Nobody smiled at him like that. Or, very few people did. Maybe his mum did when he complimented her. Whatever. "Er, thank you. If you find said girl, bring her my way, mkay?" And he was in no rush because being by himself was great. No complaints here.

He will know when she was mocking him. He. Will. KNOW. Grayson liked this; the idea of knowing and not guessing. "That's good to know for the future, then." SMIRK.

Oh NOW she was mocking him? REALLY? The fourteen year old rolled his eyes at her before saying, "I'll keep my hormones at bay, then." Two can play at this game, whatever this game was. And he was very glad that she had decided to distance herself from him a bit because he did NOT want to be hit and sent toppling to the grass again. No thank you.

Her toss? The boy watched it carefully as it soared right over the pen. MAN. How was he meant to beat THAT?! "Not bad, not bad," he said, nodding slowly. What? He had to give her that satisfaction. Still flinging the gnome round like a lasso, the Slytherin started to spin around like a ballerina. Merlin, this was EMBARRASSING. Forget the fact that she had had to do something similar, this was still embarrassing.

Finally, he released the gnome and sent it flying..............

.............. over..............

........................ the pen. The pen with the tall grass.

"Whose gnome flew further?" Because he couldn't SEE. Thank you, tall grass. Hmph.

Kace was about to get another gnome but then he heard the little firstie hufflepuff he met at the feast. She seemed like she was in trouble. He went over to her and asked if she was okay. "Hey you okay??" he asked her. He saw that nasty kick the gnome gave her. But she seemed like a fighter but he just wanted to make sure.

He was still on the lookout for more gnomes to throw over. He saw one standing by itself and he zoned in on him and carefully treaded near him. It felt like he was a hunter and it was his prey. But it spotted him and was nervous. He held his hands at bay and said, "Hey don't worry i am not gonna hurt you.." he promised him. It gave him a suspicious look and ran away. Well so much for that.....

It was slightly off-putting to throw the gnome, just to start all over again. CoMC seemed to be a popular class, and there were many students. This was why Marisol didn't see as many gnomes. She waited for one to come.

A sly little creature scurried out from under one of the bushes to Mari's left. It had its sights set on the first years muscular thigh. But Marisol put her foot down. Literally. It kept moving, but that gnome wouldn't go anywhere on her watch.

Dec walked to an area where he had a certain distance from anyone. He didn't want to give anyone a face full of gnome, ya know?

Once he it was clear, he held the gnome by it's legs and placed the counter-curse for the freezing charm on him. It immediately began snarling at him like it never even stopped. Declan snarled back, "Sorry. It's only business."

He spun around maybe about three momentum heavy times and let go in the direction of where they were suppose to throw it. "Actually, no. It's personal." The boy mumbled as he watched the creature go THUNK! in the tall grass.

With a nod, Lux accepted her duty as match maker. Maybe it would be fun. Relationships were funnnn. And he was a cool guy, because he didn't mind when she was teasing him, just like he hadn't mind when Bay had been playing pranks on him. What a nice boy he was! "I'm sure the grass is sad to hear that, but I wish you the best of luck with that."

It was a good thing that he had managed to toss this Gnome without falling over again, because seriously he would be making it WAAAY too easy for her. Lux wanted a challenge, not a competition she could win effortlessly.

Standing up on her tip-toes, she tried her best to get a glimpse of whose Gnome had soared the farthest. "Looks like it was yours. Good job, Grayson!"

Norah beamed at the boy who she recognized from the feast before looking down to inspect her leg. Was everyone in Hufflepuff this nice? She had the sudden urge to hug him and thank him for caring about her, but she figured that would be a little strange and opted instead to answer his question. And anyway, boys had cooties, yep. "Oh, I think it'll be okay, she said, looking up at him. "It'll probably just be a bruise. Thank you, though." She grinned again, hoping the boy would see how much she meant the thank you. Too bad her brothers weren't here to see her bruise; she knew they would be impressed.

Now that the whole gnome kick situation was somewhat sorted out, Norah turned to search for another victim creature to expel from the garden. They were going DOWN.

This time Hayden was determined to get it right. All previous qualms she'd had about the work had vanished when the gnome knocked her over. Now it was personal. She stalked around the garden, looking for gnomes. Maybe even the same gnome so she could get her revenge. She noticed the other kids stopping the gnomes with an outstretched foot as they ran toward them. That was what the professor had done too, so maybe that was the best way to do it. Hayden would have to try it out.

She got a chance soon enough. She spotted a gnome running full speed toward her, maybe trying to knock her over again the pesky devil. So she stood where she was and, when the gnome got close enough, she stuck out her foot to stop him. Unfortunately, she was not a very strong little first year. The gnome ran right into her foot, but that didn't mean he stopped. He continued running, pushing her back down to the ground and covering her in dirt. The gnome didn't even stop running, and he vanished from her sight.

Kace smiled and was glad the little first year was alright. "Yeah it might be a bruise but it will be epic. You can sayy like a gnome was biting your leg off or something. Make it sound epic." he winked and patted her shoulder. She seemed like she was in good shape. Since the previous gnome ran away from him, he was on the hunt to look for more.

He saw one just getting out of his hole and he was set on getting him. He ran over to his hole site and tip toed behind him since he seemed distracted. Then he leaned down, slid on the grass and got his feet and held him upside down. It was trying to nip at his arm and hands but good thing he had the gloves. He smirked and got his wand out of his robe and said, "Immobulus!" and that prevented the biting. Now onto the next step which would be throwing this little mean thing over the fence.

Holding the gnome aloft and away from her as possible, Beverly had the sudden urge to give it a little shake. In the end she decided not to, not knowing if the same rule for babies applied to gnomes. Calculating her distance from the fence once more, to make sure she wouldn't miss, Beverly moved her feet to spin. Slowly at first, then picked up her speed.

Whoa!

That was probably too much spinning. Her head felt fuzzy. But if she was dizzy, then Potato Head must be too! Spinning once more, Beverly released the gnome’s feet just as she turned toward the fence. She wasn't the strongest or the biggest, she knew that, but the momentum she’d gained helped boost her throw, and over the fence the gnome went. Even swaying on spot, the Slytherin gave a tiny smug grin. Take that, you gnome!

She was going to match him up with someone? Was. She. SERIOUS?! Oh Merlin, that really was nice of her. And he felt that it was his duty to mention that he wasn't exactly the most matchable or likeable person at Hogwarts but he decided to keep that quiet. Let's see how this goes. At her words, he looked down at the grass and snorted. "It'll have to find someone else to snog," he said before looking up at her, "Thank you!"

This was going to be interesting.

Just like the outcome of this small competition.

Grayson looked over at the pen as well to see whose gnome had gone the furthest but, before he could try and size things up, Lux had announced the winner. Oh? SMIRK. "Thank you." Instant ego boost. "You're not a bad competition."

And speaking of competition, his eyes landed on a nearby gnome that had peeked up to see what the commotion was about. "You want to try that again?"

Around and around went the poor gnome. This gnome was going to land even further than the first one. Adi could feel it! Yes, he could! Or...wait...No! He wasn't feeling it anymore. What he was feeling was actually the gnome slipping from his hand. Ugh!

Before Adi could do anything, the gnome was airborne. Man! He had not gotten enough spinning in. The Puffer watched in disappointment as the gnome crashed into the fence, head first. Uh uh. Was it hurt? He hadn't meant to you, little gnomy!

But much to his relief, the gnome picked itself up and scuttled off into the fray of students and its fellow gnomes. Phew! As much as Adi disliked the creatures, he didn't want them to be hurt. Thank goodness it had landed on its head. Hadn't Professor Thompson said that their heads help cushion their falls? Or something along that line.

Anyway... time to find another gnome.

Marigold was all teasy at the gnome.

"See who's laughing now, Mr. Gnomey," she said, giggling. Which prompted a necessary question - how could you tell in gnomes were males or females? "Professor, how can you tell if gnomes are boys or girls?" Was it the head shape or something wickedly cool like that? Also, the gnome started moving again, so she shot another stunning spell at it. Haha.

Poor heartbroken grass. SNOOOORT.

Laughing, Lux was happy to see that Grayson seemed so pleased that he had won. Surely he had needed that ego boost after she had beaten him at arm wrestling. He could have that victory, but she would have the next one if she had any say in it.

"Awww, well thank you." Following his gaze, her eyes landed on her next target. "I would love to try it again. I want to toss as many of these Gnomes as possible." As long as she didn't end up kissing the grass herself, she was up for spinning around all afternoon.

Carefully sneaking along, she made her way slooooowly towards the little potato, and watched as it ran towards her. Awww, apparently the little thing wanted to bite her, because it was trying to nip her pant legs. Yeah, no.

Putting her foot out, she kept the Gnome at bay, and another use of the Impediment Jinx stopped it entirely. What would she ever do without that spell? It was simply amazing.

"Now you need to find a potato to toss." Spinning around and around, she held the Gnome's feet.

... ZOOOOOOOOM it went soaring through the air.

"How far did it go that time?"

Regaining her bearings, the Slytherin jumped when yet another set of teeth sunk into her leg. Okay. OUCH. That hurt! She needed to be more alert obviously. Unlike the last one, this gnome was smart enough to bite and flee the scene of the crime. It wasn’t long until she spotted her next victim, as it rushed toward her with a stupid smile plastered on its ugly face.

Lifting her foot, the bottom of her shoe connected with it, an echoing laughter coming from the tiny creature. Dude, you just got a kick on the face, and you’re laughing? Beverly shook her head, though she could have been grinning a tiny bit out of amusement. If she had, it was gone the minute she brandished her wand out.

“Impedimenta!”

Gotcha!

Running, she grabbed the gnome by its feet and held it away from her just in case the spell wore off. No more biting her, or she’ll start swinging.