Alright, it was showtime. Jasmine checked and rechecked her gloves then set out to find a gnome. She tried to walk away from the crowd of students and found an area that was less congested. While she was scanning the area for gnomes, Jasmine tried to decide which spell she would use to subdue the gnome.

Finally, Jasmine spotted a little potato scurrying in her direction. She'd have to time it just right to stop it with her foot. As the gnome got close to her, Jasmine stuck her foot out just in time. She stopped it, but the little critter tried to nip at her ankles. Readying her wand, Jasmine pointed it and said, "Immobulus".

Hmm...

As Agatha watched the professor's demonstration, her expression was a mixture of unamusement and annoyance. Not that she wasn't enjoying the lesson - though she actually couldn't care less - but the thought of having to do more of that kind of work just bored her. A lot.

Nice spin, though, professor. It did look like a ballerina. Agatha approved of that.

Once they've been given the rules, the thirteen year-old waited for a couple of students to go first. She soon-ish joined them and went looking for one gnome to... toss over the fence. Merlin, such a silly thing to do. Not a lady's job either. Hmph.

Do not punt them. Those words kept echoing in her mind when she saw one ugly little creature hurrying her way. Gross!! That thing was HORRIBLE looking. Ugh, Merlin, do not punt them. That sure was tempting. Yuck. YUCK.

Looking disgusted, Agatha wanted to turn around and leave that ugly thing to someone else to deal with... but in the last second, she lifted her foot and... kicked it. ....Oops?

It was SO gross, though. Urgh! And now the thing was complaining and making the stupidest noises EVER! The girl pulled out her wand and tried silencing it, but failed because she had never been excelent at spells. Great, now she had a loud, ugly creature that was freaking out next to her. Oh... had the kick hit the thing's eye? She did wonder why it didn't get up and tried to hit her back.

The ugly thing was being LOUD and annoying. Agatha was actually having a hard time trying to grab its flailing feet.

The dirty little scoundrel definitely was one of those Cris had described earlier because it knew exactly what Cris was about to do. When Cris stuck his foot out in its path, the gnome just dodged under his foot and kept on running. Dismayed, however, not surprised that he had missed tripping the guy, Cris ran after it with a vengence.

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

Being a runner, Cris caught up with the little fella in less than three paces. This time he wasn't messing around with it. When he came alongside the gnome, he stuck out his foot under the gnome's little feet, this time making contact with it. The gnome tumbled over and stared up at Cris. Growling, it bared his teeth.

Not wasting any more time, Cris reached out with one hand, and when the gnome leaned over to bite that his hand, Cris reached out with the other and grabbed its feet. Heh!...that was as basic a decoy than one could get.

Dangling the struggling teeth gnashing gnome by its feet, Cris looked around. Okay spinning he could do. He spun around a lot especially when he was danc....making those roundhouse kicks!!

Easy, peasy...just do the spin without the leg kicking. Walking the gnome closer to the fence, Cris looked around to make sure no one was within distance of his crazy spin and then he let fly. One rotation, head quick flip 360. Another rotation and another rotation.

....round and round he went, with the gnome in tow and as he completed his last rotation, Cris flung with all his might and hefted the gnome up and over the fence sending it flying into the bushes some distance away. Brushing his hands together, Cris turned around and returned to the melee of both running creatures and humans.

Ethan slowed down and looked over his shoulder, waiting for the gnome to catch up. As soon as it was close enough, he abruptly stopped, turned around and jumped over the thing.

Hehehe.

Now the gnome stopped too, confused as to where he went. Peeeeerfect! Ethan got his wand out and pointed at the gnome’s body. “Rictusempra!” His gnome fell back laughing, causing Ethan to laugh too. Loooololol! Funny gnome is funny!

Ethan was about to pick up the gnome when another gnome from out of number smashed into his leg. “What the…” the Slytherin looked behind him to see a gnome massaging its ugly head. He took the opportunity to grab the other gnome’s leg, causing it to hang upside down, and the tickled gnome by its arm on his other hand.

“Anyone lost a gnome?” he asked around as he held the ugly creature by its leg.

Returning to the turmoil, Cris looked around for any gnome within running distance from him. Ah! there was one coming towards him. Cris ran forward to meet up with it. He charged it, and watched as the gnome bared its sharp teeth and stared at him with those angry eyes. It growled at him and Cris growled back.

"Yes two can play this game, buster!!" Cris said as he turned up the volume of his growling and bared more of his pearly white teeth. Running towards the gnome, Cris felt like he was one of those NFL linebackers, charging towards an opposing team member....only his opponent had very sharp teeth and he wasn't afraid to use it!!.

Closer...closer....and just as Cris reached down to grab it, the gnome ducked under his fingers, ran in between his legs, stopping only long enough to kick him in the shin before running away, laughing to itself.

What the....Cris was caught unawares by that surprise gnomish maneuver. Hopping around, he reached down to rub his leg.

"Look out for that gnome. It kicks back," he called out a warning to the rest of his classmates.

Josie gulped as she prepared herself for this task. It was very nerve-wracking, but she couldn't decipher which she was more afraid of, the teeth of the tiny garden gnomes OR messing up Professor Thompson's directions. Well, clearly there had only been one way to find out. But, what if she couldn't stop the gnomes? What if she slipped & would be at the peril of very sharp teeth? What if she accidentally kicked a gnome & got in trouble for it? Would the gnome hate her-

Before she could even think of another thought everyone had already begun. And everyone went scrambling after the pesky things. She soon followed suit, wand tightly grasped in her hand (out of fear) as her blue eyes were frantically scanning her surroundings. As she took one step, she heard a twig snap & whipped her head around to see teeth bared running straight towards her. The second year gasped & soon found herself frozen where she stood as she saw the ugly looking gnome make its way towards her.

'...Here it comes...here comes the pain...'

Should she stop it? She had to stop it! Just like Professor Thompson did. Wait, how had he managed that? OH RIGHT WITH HIS FOOT! Josie took a deep breath quickly put her foot out. She couldn't look. Josie shut her eyes tightly as she heard it approaching. But then suddenly she felt something collide with the bottom of her foot that made her lose her balance & fall backwards to the ground. "OOF!" She picked her head up & saw the gnome had fallen face first into the grass. Josie gasped and took her opportunity to reach for it's tiny legs. Making sure it's back was facing her & mouth away from her hand & arm she couldn't help but give out a quick, "I did it!"

With the initial pain of that gnome kick dissipating, Cris went looking for a gnome...any gnome...but preferably the one that had given him that nasty kick. Yes there was the possibility that one of the other students may have already caught it and sent it flying where it deserved to be, but Cris hoped he had a second chance to catch it.

But until he came across it again...if ever, he was on a mission to send another gnome out of the area. Sighting a gnome heading into the bushes....presumably to hide, Cris ran after it. When it ducked into the bushes, Cris ran up to it and reached in with his hands.

That's when he felt something clench down on his fingers. He had just been bitten!!

Okay, she was supposed to give it a swing and throw it out of the garden, but it was so darn cute! It's face was squinty and pinched, but it's teeny eyes looked up at Gwen with curiosity shining in them. He could be a Ravenclaw. She thought suddenly. Just so curious about everything. People thought they were stupid. Maybe they just didn't manifest intelligence the same way. Gwen could relate to that. For some reason, she was a Ravenclaw, and she had trouble reading.

"You know what?" Gwen asked the tiny creature she was holding. "I'm going to ask Mr. Kitridge if I can keep you." He was their head of house this term. Also, he seemed like a reasonable guy. So if Gwen told him why she wanted the little gnome, and that she was fully prepared to figure out how to take care of it, he might agree with her and let her. Maybe. Okay, so she'd never actually talked to the man, but she liked to imagine he might say yes.

Gwen looked around to make sure nobody was watching, and sneaked the little guy into the gigantic pocket in her robes. Now she really did have to throw two gnomes over the fence though, to get points in the class. Not this one though. This one she was going to keep.

Okay, show time. Norah looked around in search of a gnome she could snatch. Around her, students spun around in circles, chucking the creatures over the fence with varying levels of success.
What looked like a potato on legs crossed her path, and she rotated her body to face it head on. Its scrubby head reached the top of her shins. Norah gulped. It seemed much bigger than the gnomes she had thrown from her own garden. Now her dad wasn't here to scoop up the feisty ones so she didn't have to. The gnome bared it's teeth. Were they always that sharp? She took a steadying breath and stuck her foot out in the gnome's general direction. Her hesitation cost her, however, and the gnome ducked under her outstretched leg and darted away. Those gnomes sure moved faster than their stubby legs suggested.
Norah huffed in frustration, but a mischievous glint was making it's way into her eyes. That gnome thought it could get the best of her? No way.

Whaaaaat?! They couldn't punt them?! AWWWWW why?! They looked like running American footballs! DRAMATIC SIGH! Fine.

He step out into the war zone garden, scanning the field for a potato head. THERE! He locked eyes with the nasty looking thing. "Come at me, gnome!" He taunted, straightening his stance across from it. Dec was so ready to make this gnome kiss his shoe.

Would you just look at the block-block on that one? Cutty looked the older Slytherin boy up and down and studied his technique.

SO. Danged. HUFFLEPUFF.

A snorting sort of laughter might have escaped from Cutty's throat.



Cutty had put on the glittery pink gloves and was gazing admiringly down at them upon his hands when Professor Thompson raised his foot. The action held Cutty's rapt attention. Was Professor Thompson going to step on the gnome and crush it to death? The third year's eyes went wide and his breathing stopped as he peeped that game.

No. That wasn't what happened. Instead Cutty got an earful of just how creepy and eerie sounding the laughter of a garden gnome actually was. The sound caused the hair on his arms to stand on edge and his lips to curl into a wide smile, which only widened further when he'd seen what the Professor had done with the body of the gnome. Thus far, Professor Thompson's Care of Magical Creatures classes had been great fun.



As other students began to cast against the gnomes, the sound of their creepy little laughter filled the space they were in. It was like a choir. A chant to the god of skinny little trouble-making punks everywhere. Cutty approached the other Mordaunt boy and calmly flicked his wand toward the gnome that had just smacked into Ethan's leg. "Stupefy!", the spell shouldn't do too much physical damage and it would keep the gnome under control long enough to toss it out of the garden. "Double toss, Mordaunt. Let's see you do it!" Could the boy fling two of them out of the garden at the same time?

A double toss? Is it possible?


OF COURSE IT IS POSSIBLE.

Ethan eyed the stupefied gnome and looked at Cutty. “You sure you don’t want to give it a go?” Because your just giving him the opportunity to show-off, Cutty dear. The Slytherin shrugged and eyed both gnomes on his left and right. “A double toss…THE GAME IS ON BROTHA!” Ethan wore his huge smile and stepped away from Cutty. He didn’t want them gnome faces smacking his, yeah? Yes. Good.

Ethan rolled his shoulders and cleared his throat. “You know how muggles sing when they tend their gardens? Bet it’s fun.” And he can’t wait to try it out. Spinning and singing IS fun. The Slytherin started to spin, and this amplified the laughter of the other gnome. Was Cutty enjoying this?

And now for the real show. “I’m…SPINNING AROUND! Move out of my waaaaay!...” Ethan sang as he spun around the garden. “…I know you’re feelin’ me ‘cuz you like it like this!” And with that he tossed his first stupefied gnome…another turn then the second laughing gnome was thrown across the air and into the tall grass.

“So looooooong fellas!” he belted out as he did a dramatic wave.

Success!

“Your turn, brotha!” Ethan called back to Cutty as he started to look for another gnome.

This was fun!

Cris pulled his hand out and examined it. Thank goodness for the dragon hide gloves he had pulled on right before the chasing and tossing began. Cris berated himself for his recklessness. He had been all gung-ho on catching the gnomes, that he had forgotten how nasty they could get the moment they realized they were in danger...heck! any creature would go into defensive mode when threatened...yes! even humans.

'It's time to stop messing around, Cris,' he told himself. Pulling his gloves securely back on to his hands, reached down and picked up a stick. Then he pulled out his wand, and reaching down, he poked the stick through brushing aside the branches and leaves. This time he was ready for the gnome. When it appeared and attacked the stick, Cris pointed his wand at it and non-verbally cast the Freezing spell,"Immobulus"

He watched as a blue beam of light streamed out from his wand, striking the unsuspecting gnome. He waited for the gnome to fall to the ground, before reaching in to grab it by its legs.

Josette watched the little gnome squirm in her hand. She struggled for a moment trying to her keep her grasp on it. What was it she was supposed to do now? OH RIGHT, spin & make the gnome dizzy, then toss it right? Um...right. She slipped her wand into her pocket and took both of the gnome's feet in her hands. Taking a second to see where the fence was, she nodded her head feeling ready. She held a tight grip on its' feet as she began to spin around just as Professor Thompson had done.

One...Two...Three....Four....

Not long after that, she'd stopped spinning & let go of the gnome. There it went flying far into the sky. Mouth open she watched as it flew out of sight & right over the fence until she'd head a large thud. Josette covered her mouth before wincing at the sound. She whispered softly, "..S-Sorry.."

..Well at least that was one so far, right?

Cris carried the gnome over to the fence and then looked around to make sure no one was within spinning distance of him. Merlin forbid, with his luck, he would end up smacking someone with the gnome and that was the last thing he wanted to do. Suffering the indignity of being caught, spun around and tossed over a fence was already bad enough. Getting your head slammed against another human, worse yet, another unfortunate swinging gnome, would be downright cruel...and that was something Cris wasn't.

So he made sure he had sufficient space to maneuver. Before he started spinning, Cris held up the gnome and whispered parting words to it, "I'm sorry to have to do this, but right now we need to get all of you out of here. I'm sure you'll eventually find yourselves back here, but try not to do it anytime soon, okay."

...and with that said, Cris held out both his hands, and while holding onto the gnome's feet, he began to spin. One round, two rounds, three rounds, moving faster with each round, just like an athlete readying to toss the hammer in a track and field event. On the last circuit, Cris released his hold on the gnome's legs and watched it fly up and over the fence and down into the bushes.

Two gnomes out...on to the next one.

It was probably at the least a 10 second stare off between Dec and the creature before it actually decided to make a move.

Instinctively, he immediately stuck his foot out to keep the gnome at bay, except, it wasn't coming at him, it was running the other way!

"'EY, YOU!" He bellowed, taking off after it. "GIT BACK 'ERE!"

This wasn't fair, she had to catch a gnome and throw it over the fence, what had the gnome even done to the Professor, Angel was now sure he was crazy but well she always did what she was told, she was sure her sister would love doing this but well Angel didn't want to throw it hard, she caught one with her foot and then.

"OUCH!!!!!!!" As Angel went to pick it up it bit her, the stupid thing bit her even though she hadn't done anything to it, okay granted she was going to throw it over the fence but still it bit her, that was it she wasn't going to be gentle with it anymore, it deserved a good tossing did that one and it was hers once she could find it again.

Did the Professor really say thank you? He wasn't snapping at him or take away points? This made the Gryffindor's mood so much better and he grinned. The grin turned in to a full blown laugh when he say that the Gryffindor Prefect got sprayed withglitter on her face bwahahahaha! And even the Slytherin who thought Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were dumb lost points. Yep, Kevin's mood went up.

He followed the others to the tall grass and was kind of fascinated at how easily the Professor stopped the gnome with his shoe. But when he heard they couldn't use brute force he rolled his eyes. If one of those things bit him in his legs no way he wasn't going to kick it hard. With the instructions done, the Gryffindor entered the battle field and looked around for a gnome.

He spotted one in the far corner of the field so the Gryffindor sped off towards it while taking his wand out of his holster as he ran.

Leah entered through the gate, grumbling and grumbling and grumbling all the while. She did remember to put on her gloves, however, as she understood the importance of doing so. De-gnoming..

The second year paid attention in the instructions, however, because what if she got bitten by a gnome? Disastrous. Still, she wanted to avoid any gnomes if possible. Luck was not on her side. She encountered a little gnome as she was walking around the garden aimlessly. Leah could not back off now, she had to do it. It was disgusting, but she bent down to see it more closely before stopping it with her foot.

Angel was very cross now, she had managed to lose the Gnome that she wanted to catch, she had no idea where it was all she knew was Leah seemed to be just as upset about throwing them as she had been until one had bit her, now she just wanted revenge on the one that did.

Angel suddenly felt something near her feet and she nudged it with her feet before saying "round and round we go, we were stop no one knows." Angel giggled as she realised the gnome, that had been more fun that she had expected it to be.

It was ugly. Ugly explained about everything of this gnome. Oh another thing, fat. Screwing up her face, Leah reached for the little creature with her small hands. But the gnome would not give up that easily. It grunted, though she was not sure whether that was a snort or a cackle or just a snore, and ran off.

The chase began. Leah could not even say a single word to Angel as she passed by. The gnome was.. kind of whooping right now, apparently glad of its victory over the second year. Then it slammed right into a tree stump. Well, the girl did not expect much from gnomes. Before it could resume its run, Leah grabbed the gnome by the ankle and lifted it up.

Angel was really enjoying this now but she still had to get another gnome and they were fast to say they were small, she looked around and saw Leah trying to get a gnome, it seemed like she didn't really want to do anything to it but well they deserved it they bite.

Angel had no idea where the next gnome was, she looked around to see if she could find one but they all seemed at the other end of the field, she decided to try and trick the gnomes by staying where she was so that they would come to her, she thought that would be a lot easier than running around.

"Aargh!" The gnome was waving its hands in the air and Leah had a hard time holding on to it. Growling, she started spinning as the professor said, trying to look graceful, but how could anyone look good holding an ugly gnome? While she was chuckling to herself, thinking of a real ballerina dancing with a gnome in her hand, the gnome managed to wriggle free from her hand. It landed with a *THWAK* on Leah's head.

Screaming, the second year waved her head vigorously, but the gnome was clutching her hair tightly. "HELP!" she yelled, running around, and hitting the gnome. Gosh, what was wrong with her?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awarlesta Black

Whaaaaat?! They couldn't punt them?! AWWWWW why?! They looked like running American footballs! DRAMATIC SIGH! Fine.

He step out into the war zone garden, scanning the field for a potato head. THERE! He locked eyes with the nasty looking thing. "Come at me, gnome!" He taunted, straightening his stance across from it. Dec was so ready to make this gnome kiss his shoe.

So they weren't ALL .....*SO* Hufflefluffy. Zahra paused in her pursuit to note THIS Puff, grinned,and WAS BACK ON THE TRAIL OF A GNOME.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanyjj

"Aargh!" The gnome was waving its hands in the air and Leah had a hard time holding on to it. Growling, she started spinning as the professor said, trying to look graceful, but how could anyone look good holding an ugly gnome? While she was chuckling to herself, thinking of a real ballerina dancing with a gnome in her hand, the gnome managed to wriggle free from her hand. It landed with a *THWAK* on Leah's head.

Screaming, the second year waved her head vigorously, but the gnome was clutching her hair tightly. "HELP!" she yelled, running around, and hitting the gnome. Gosh, what was wrong with her?

....she was about to STOMP ON THE HEAD....err.....or gently put her shoe on a gnome (what?) when THAT happened! ANOTHER PUFF BEING PUFFY! HAHAHAHA

"AHAHAHAHAHA..... you're DOING IT SO WRONG!

Zahra HELPED! She ripped the GNOME off the second year girl. BUT SHE ALSO kept that gnome, BEGUN AN EPIC SPIN SPIN SPIN SPPPIIIIIIIIIIIN and launched that gnome SO FAR AWAY it'd be lost for at LEAST A WEEK.

"YOURE WELCOME, PUFF!!!" Zahra yelled as she RAAAAAAAAAAAAN OFF to get another gnome.

Well... she was right about it being a nice, distracting lesson.

...

Maybe nice wasn't the right word. But Derry was a seeker. She had lightning fast reactions, and she was in too grumpy a mood lately to bother about the poor animals.

Plus, they'd be fine, right?

Derry scanned the ground for movement, and caught a little sway of grass out of the corner of her eye. AHA! Potato head! She crept as close as possible and stuck her foot out and.......

GOTCHA!

...

Wait, no... no she didn't.

Wriggly little thing. "Hey..." she protested as it wriggled out of her not-so-strong grip. She'd been trying to be gentle apparently... didn't want to hold them too tight in case it hurt.

...

WELL, NOW IT'S ON!