After Candice made sure that her foot was okay, no blood and all, thanks to her shoes, she took off to find another gnome. She looked around and saw that most of the students already managed to catch and throw the gnome into the pen.

The eleven year saw a gnome not far from where she was standing, she approached the creature slowly. Its not as big as her previous gnome, the one that managed to bite her foot. The gnome was still busy doing Merlin-knows-what so its easy for the Gryffindor to grab its legs and now she had a gnome hanging upside down in her hands. "You're not going away this time gnome." And she was not going to let the ugly thing bite her again.

Marisol was really getting into the groove of this activity. She had learned that it was all about the timing. The student would have to let go at exactly the right time in order for the gnome to soar far enough. Other people had made mistakes, and their creatures had all hit (or not gone near) the fence.

The gnome, on the other hand, just stared. And Mari had to admit that this was pretty wacky. Since when did Hogwarts have a fence? She thought that people snuck into the Forbidden Forest sometimes. No mention of a fence there! Oh, well. Just keep swinging.

With the gnome on her hands, Candice started to spin and spin and spin. Okay now she was dizzy from that spinning. She hoped that the gnome already felt dizzy enough because she's not going to do another spin or she might puke. Time to throw this ugly little thing.

One...Two...Three....There goes her gnome......

She saw the gnome flew over the fence and it landed into the pen. She did it. Yes, one gnome to go!

This sounded like a simple task, one that didn't need much effort and concentrating. It was a nice start, and she supposed there were more tedious tasks they might have been given so she was glad for this one. With her gloves on, Cassia entered the field and started walking around. It seemed that everyone had gotten started already, the energy made her energetic herself. So instead of walking around watching spying on others she decided to get started herself.

Directing her gaze downwards, she squinted in search for a gnome to RUN after. There was one!! Taking two large strides towards the gnome, the creature of course started moving towards the other direction. Oh, she could so keep up with a race. No biggie. She didn't even need magic.

Well, that until she kept running for like five minutes with no success in catching the freaking thing. Her hand reached for her wand and with a flick and a simple Stupefy the gnome toppled over and Cassia immediately caught it! HA!

O___O

Theodore watched the demonstration in awe. Did he just throw that gnome halfway across the fence??? That was so mean! But apparently it was totally acceptable to treat the creatures this way, so Theodore shrugged and put his game face on. The target was more than two, because he wanted to know what the prize was. More to the point - he wanted it.

Okay, it sounded easy enough. Stopping the gnome with his foot, since Theo was not too confident with shooting spells at a moving target. A running target, it seemed.

A few moments later, he spotted one! Theo waited for it to run at him, but as soon as he lifted his foot, the gnome spun on its heel and dashed away in the other direction. Aw, crap. Instinctively, he chased after it but was struggling to keep up with the creature's quick route changes. Just as he was right about to capture the bugger, it disappeared into a bush and because he was rushing so fast, Theo also slam-dunked into the bush.

Owwie, his nose, ouch. It was grazed. He grazed his nose. Ow.

Theo stayed in the bush for a little while because his eyes were tearing up a bit. Though that soon stopped when a great big GNOME stood in front of him, staring him down. He opened his mouth to yell but TOO LATE - the gnome chomped on his hand, laughed hysterically, then disappeared again.

Oooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Now that the gnome was captured, Cassia dangled it from its feet and made sure to keep its mouth away from any part of her. Which was a little bit hard, having to hold it securely at an arm length. But she knew that she had to take advantage of the fact that the gnome was stunned now.

And Cassia knew how to do the next things so she wasn't worried. Their garden back at her house suffered from gnome attacks at times and she and her brother have been responsible for getting rid of them since forever as Cassia recalled. Her grandmother was no longer fit to complete the task herself. Spinning a gnome was surely something not an old woman could do. It needed strength and stability. Just like the professor demonstrated. He did it wonderfully and made it look so cool for de-gnoming.

So now she had to start spinning. Tightening her hold on the gnome's feet, the seventh-year started to spin.

After cradling his bitten hand and rubbing his grazed nose, Theo emerged from the bush with an incredibly put out expression on his face. How long had he even been taking part in this activity? A mere three minutes? It didn't look like he was getting that flipping prize. It didn't take him long to notice the nearest gnome, so he just assumed that it was the one who attacked him. Theodore dashed after it, game face truly on, when he heard tiny footsteps coming from BEHIND him.

He whirled around quickly, lifted his foot and bumped the gnome that was headed for his ankles.

Oh goodness, he had done it!! But now what? He had to pick it up??? It sounded so dangerous and he let out a small whimper at the thought. Theo reluctantly lowered his foot and made a quick grab for its leg. It wriggled around like a rabid animal, chomping those bloody teeth and everything.

How was he supposed to swing this thing when it was wriggling so much?!

You know, he now understood why people didn't want these things in their gardens. Theo would much rather call in the exterminator.

She'd done this task countless times this summer and the summers before it but did her arm ever not feel sore while spinning the gnome? Nope, it never happened and wasn't likely to ever feel like it was nothing. Which made Cassia convinced that it wasn't her being not fit, it was the spinning movement that was something muscles didn't get used to it. Not to mention she was starting to feel a little bit dizzy. Good thing it wasn't that sunny, else she'd have fainted long time ago.

After what seemed like a good round of spinning, Cassia finally released the gnome yet didn't stop immediately, it was a hard thing to do. And when she did, she blinked repeatedly and held her arms on either sides of her body to regain her balance. Wow. Their garden was smaller and it was all easier there. Everything was harder in school, wasn't it ?

Rolling her shoulders for a bit, she allowed herself a little bit of rest. Meanwhile she looked around to check how others were doing. Some seemed to have stopped, quitters or good de-gnomers? She couldn't tell. She noticed Theo, who didn't look like he was having a grand time. It made her grin at that. Another firstie near by looked like she was proud of herself. And Cassia feared that the little one was going to end up flying with the gnome she tossed. Luckily the kid didn't. Yeah, it was fun to watch people but it was time for her to continue.

Her attention was back on the gnomes around. She spotted a couple of ones and was about to chase after the closest but it looked mean so she decided to choose another one. And as to why she decided that that gnome was mean, she had no proof but her instinct. And she was going to go with it!

But further ahead was another one who looked vulnerable. Just what she needed. Slowly, the blonde started making her way towards it. Now she was going to find out if sneaking up on a gnome would work.

Theo shook the gnome a bit, hoping to make it a bit dizzy before he did the actual spinning. It seemed to do the trick and the creature settled down with the wriggling. Okay, now he was ready. He grasped the gnome's leg with both hands, spread his legs out a touch, and looked at his surroundings so he would have a good overlook of things.

He started the spinning at a slow speed to start off with, gaining a bit more with each turn. He spinned a total of four times and then he released the gnome in the direction that he THOUGHT was the fence... Nope, it was the opposite direction, and it turns out it had only reached a few feet from where he was stood anyway.

WHAT was that?

He was supposed to be a chaser, for Merlin's sake. Throwing things was his THING.

Theo closed his eyes and pressed the bridge of his nose hard with his fingers. After a moment of composing his rage, the Slytherin stormed over to where the gnome had landed. Thankfully it hadn't regained its dizziness yet and was still lying there. He grabbed it and hoisted it up into the air again. Take two.

Lucy has to find another gnome ..
She saw her classmates around who were using some spells ..
She thought: "I know a simple spell learned this summer .. Why not?" And she turned around to search a small head of potato..

....blink blink.

Olly's eyes were slightly out of focus while she tried to recover from the excessive amount of turning on the spot she'd just done. Okay, maybe next time she should let go sooner. Though at least it looked like the gnome had gone over the fence. Not that she had any way to tell for sure but she was going to go with yes. There was no way she was going to find it again if it hadn't gone over anyway.

So yes of course she'd succeeded.

But another gnome. She had to find another gnome. Sniffing slightly, Olly blinked one last time before turning the other way and slowly making her way through the grass. Gnomes...gnomes...there were quite a few around but most were already being dealt with (or not) by other students so....

.......ah there was one. She tried to approach it as quietly as possible. She was NOT going to chase after a garden gnome after all. No.

This task did include some gnome action. His first task with some action that’s all he wanted. But had to be no hurting so way were the gnomes to attack them. They had to be punished for this. This is as easy as he’d thought. This requires some concentration and some thinking to catch them and he was sure he would at least two as professor asked OR maybe even three. DEPENDS on his condition after he lands at least two.

Oh! So she is ready to help….great “Thank you Candice” he was happy she agreed to help. Fellow Gryffindor are to help each other right? He looked at her feet as she caught one and how it was trying to escape. He actually felt like removing his wand and try a spell on him. Wahoo. Ouch! Now that ought to hurt he saw her scream. “Hey, are you alright, we could go to the professor and get something on it” he offered. Whattttt? he was supposed to get it? And how would he do that? Since he was so good at catching them. It requires some foot action! “Oh, yeah sure! But I guess that one’s ran off.” He looked around there’s another. He ran and stepped on one accidentally on running and landed on his face again. oh man....

Slooooowly slooooowly

She didn't want to scare it off after a-

And apparently she WAS running after a garden gnome after all. Annoying little......but she was running now. Actual running. Which she hadn't done the least bit of ever since July. So naturally, she was quite out of breath after only a few moments. Ugh. Stupid gnomes. Stupid lesson. Stupid-

Ah, there it was again.

And now apparently it ran towards her again. Or it might have been running FROM someone else. Who knew? Frankly, she didn't care either way. Olly quickly put out her foot so the gnome was interrupted in its path. Now, this time she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, so she pointed her wand at the creature and (since it had worked so well the first time) cast another Aguamenti spell at it. Yes. Perfect.

She was getting really good at this.

With a gnome in each hand (one she'd caught and one she'd gotten off a baby Gryffindor's head) ZAHRA LAUNCHED ONE ....then the other..... in a spectacular display of DE-GNOMING DONE RIGHT.

The first gnome cleared the fence, but the second, thrown with her left hand....LOL TOTES SPLATTED THE FENCE.

HAHAHA DID ANYONE ELSE SEE THAT? HAHAHAHA oh man. That gnome would have a SERIOUS CONCUSSION. Hilarious.

Zahra went to go see how jacked up THAT gnome was. hahaha

Adi grabbed the first gnome by the feet. Was it him or did it seem heavier than usual? Was it possible that unconscious weight was just as heavy as dead weight? Hmmm...oh, well. The job had to be done.

The boy began swinging the gnome- with some difficulty, of course- due to the weight factor. And because of this, he chose to swing it a little longer than he had done with his first tossed gnome.

When Adi determined he had swung enough, he released the gnome and watched it sail into the air, joining a few of its peers. Adi's gnome flew with great speed towards thee fence...over the fence...and in to the grass!

Two gnomes successfully tossed!

No, no takers. That was a shame and a wild hope that one would run up to him again. It made this activity a lot more bearable. The only thing Nigel could think of while running after this gnome or was it stalking. Now was not the time to debate that question in his head.

Ah there is was "Petrificus Totalus"

Why waste all the effort to tackle it and subdue it when magic can do the work fro you. That is if you know the spell. Still now he had to run and retrieve it before someone tries to steal his hard work

Jasmine saw Cris heading her way and she was still fuming. "That nasty little gnome had the nerve to bite me. Well he won't be coming back any time soon. I figure he'll be dizzy for the next week or so."

When Cris suggested they team up to defeat the monsters Jasmine was all in. "You mean we partner up and outsneak the sneaks? I like it and I'll do it. What's the plan, boss?" Jasmine couldn't wait to have at it. The rest of the gnomes would pay for their little friends mistake. Wait, was that bad? Was she taking this too seriously? Oh well.....

"I'm fine. Its no biggie." Didn't he see that she just sent a gnome flying into the pen over there? She could still walk just fine so no need to alert the Professor. The gnome ran off? Pfft. Here she thought she would get her revenge. Sigh.

Candice saw Nick was trying to catch another gnome but somehow he fell and landed on his face. What the......? "You okay?" He should probably be more careful or next time he would landed on a gnome instead of his face. The eleven year old saw a gnome was running towards her, she was preparing herself to hold that gnome with her foot again when suddenly the gnome ran past her just like that. "I'm not letting you run away from me gnome." She mumbled. "Gotta catch a gnome. Good luck, Nick." She said to her fellow Gryffindor before she ran after the gnome.

Norah skipped around the other students in search of another gnome. Skipping AND throwing AND twirling? This was the best class EVER! She caught sight of another gnome coming out of its hole as if to see what all the fuss was about. Silly gnome; she guessed they didn't have a lot of brain in that little potato heads of theirs. Heh.

She rushed over to her newest target and saw the students around her were using spells to stop their gnomes. Wooooah. Could she do that? She took her wand out of her robes and pointed it at the gnome. What spell do you use for stopping a gnome? She hadn't learned anything about that in any of her classes yet. She waved her wand in circles and yelled "STOPYGNOMEY!" but nothing happened. Darn!

The gnome turned and ran away while she shook her wand in frustration. A few sparks flew out...COOL. She went the few spells she had learned in her head until she reached a spell that might help- maybe she could levitate it and then...do stuff. She pointed her wand at the gnome's retreating back and yelled "Wingardium Leviosa!" and gave her wand a swish and a flick. Nothing happened. It's LeviOsa not LevioSA, she reminded herself. Shoot, now the gnome was gone.

Theo wasted no time with his dizzy gnome, since he was certain that the effects would soon wear off. He spread his legs wide enough to get a firm stance on the ground, then began to swing in circles, but a tad slower this time. After a few twirls, he picked up the speed but slowed down enough before letting go of the gnome. Just to make sure he was throwing in the right direction this time.

Once the fence was in view, Theo tossed the gnome as far as his arms could muster... and dang... the creature went pretty far.

He definitely wasn't coming back. Ha ha ha.

Anyway, he had two more to get in order to gain that reward, and time-wise - he was a bit behind schedule. He clapped his hands together quietly and looked aaaaaaaaaall over for his next victim. Aha! There goes one. Theo decided to try the magical way this time, because he was a seventh year student. There was no excuse really.

Uhhhhhhh... what spell to do??!?!

Uhhhhmmmmm.......... phhhhhhtttttt...... how did you be a wizard again? "Confundo!" Wow, the spell actually did what Theo wanted it to, and his gnome target stopped running and looking around a bit disorientated. He rushed over to grab him before the effects wore off.

Josie scanned around again looking for any other sign of an available gnome that wasn't currently being captured by anyone else. For the most part, everything was going on so frantically, it was a bit difficult still to process everything. Until she caught sight of one hiding behind a collection of flowers. She began making her towards it slowly trying not make a sound. But as she was rather close, the gnome burst from the behind the flowers & was trying to evade the second year. She gasped and went to take a step in the direction of chasing, but had accidentally tripped it. Josie gasped again giving out another, "S-Sorry!"

..Well this was the perfect opportunity..

She went to grab for its' feet, but the garden gnome was quickly up & at it again, only this time it was successfully running away from her. Without hesitation, she began running after the tiny thing.

Ughhh why was he having such a hard time catching these things. He had only managed to catch one and send it over the bushes. He wondered if he sat down if he would get into trouble for sitting? he needed to catch his breath like crazy and some water would be great.

Adjusting his gloves on his hands he started to slowly walk around to make it look like he was doing something. He had made a few attempts to chase after some gnomes but still he was being unsuccessful. Maybe he should just admit defeat and go sit in a corner….. he sighed and totally wished that could be an option.

Frozen gnome does sound like a horrible type of food. Nothing Nigel would ever eat. But as Nigel walked on over to grab his frozen gnome by the leg he look around at all the crazy stuff that is going on. Let's just get this over with.

Nigel picked up his third or fourth gnome up the legs. He was losing count at this time. Just that he knew it was more then the required two. He was thinking of trying a one handed spin. but did not feel strong enough in his own strength. So back to the old and true method.

Around and Around, he goes

Okay he needed to just stand there and watch what other people were doing. These students were catching them so quickly and getting rid of so many. One kid was using confundo some others were using freezing spells.. and some where just totally yelling at the gnomes. Bay had to laugh at the last one because he felt very close to doing that himself.

Taking out his wand he waved it towards a group of Gnomes.. "CONFUNDO" he shouted as one had a dreamy look on its face. Bay took his chance and walked right up to it and picked it up by his feet as he swung around the little creature and released him over the bush..

"oh this is better than waiting in the corner" he said to himself as his eyes widened in new hope. He had his two down but he could totally do more now.

......

Everyone ELSE was busy snatching up gnomes and here was Schuyler, gnomeless.

Homeless and gnomeless.

Okay, not homeless.

But it was time to catch a gnome already. The chasing and diving for the little buggers did look pretty fun, so the Gryffindor decided that she would start off without magic, and if she wasn't having much luck that way (or if she just got sick of doing it the muggle way) she would switch to spells for assistance.

Aha! There went one gnome scurrying past her.

And after the gnome went Schuyler scurrying after HIM.