The Professor gave the class the OK to start using the Reductor spell. Jasmine was glad to finally practice the spell for real. Concentrating on what she wanted the spell to do, she pointed her wand upward at the piñata. Moving it right then left making a sidesways V, Jasmine said, "Reducto" She watched as her wand emitted a shot of blue heading.

Spells were flying all around and Jasmine hoped that her classmates were pointing up as directed. Ready to give it a second try, she readied her wand and refocused her mind. Pointing up, Jasmine repeated the wand movements and said, "Reducto". Could she be the one whose spell finally breaks through the first layer shield? That would be cool.

Aiming up his wand up at the one spot on the Pinata he had been focussing on from the beginning, Cris prepared to fire off another spell at it. He was determined to bring down the first layer of shield. If not him alone, than he could certainly help weaken it.

Concentrating as hard as he could on what he wanted his spell to do, Cris visualized his spell hitting shield, and causing it to weaken and break apart. With a quick wand movement first to the right and then to the left, Cris called out "Reducto!" again and watch another blue beam of light shoot out from his wand and head towards the shield.

The blue shield flickered when his spell hit it on impact. This time, instead of pausing to cast the spell again, Cris continued casting the spell over and over again, each time focussing on that one spot of the shield.

"Reducto....Reducto....Reducto...Reducto, he called out as he aimed his wand at the shield and performed the necessary wand movements. Beam after blue beams of light shot out from his wand and hit the shield repeatedly over and over again.

WHY was Kyroh running? Maddie didn't know and she wondered if HE knew but it WAS a sight to see so she watched for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. WELP. Whatever floats your boat, Freckles.

It WAS time for her to get going though, right? She wanted to help take out the zombie pinata and so the small brunette tightened her grip on her wand and narrowed her eyes, giving the fake!zombie menacing looks cause she was SCARY! UH-HUH! Then she said very clearly, "Reducto!" With a flick of her wand to the right and then to the left, she WAITED for something to happen...but nothing did.

BLINK.

WHAT?

Yay! Her first spell! Hayden had to wait a moment before she could actually practice so she could calm down. She figured she shouldn't try magic while she was so excited, it might mess with the results. That was an interesting question; would the caster's mood affect how the spell turned out? She filed it away in her mind as something she should find out later. At the moment, there were much better things to do.

Hayden jumped up from her mat and took out her wand. She practiced the movement a few times, right then left, right then left. When she thought she was ready she raised her wand toward the zombie on the ceiling. "Reducto!" She moved her arm in the motion she'd practiced, a sideways V shape. Nothing happened. Hayden frowned, but did not get discouraged. "Reducto," she said again. This time, she limited the movement to her wrist. And this time, a blue jet of light shot out of her wand. Hayden jumped up and down excitedly a few times.

Oh awesome, finally time to do something. Penelope went through the motions of the spell a couple times, just to make sure she had the wand movement down and had a good feel for it. The incantation wasn't hard to say, so it was only the sideways V thing that needed to be done. It was definitely one of the less complicated moves though, so thankfully it wasn't too hard to do.

And now it was time and spells were flying. She watched for a moment and then quickly pointed her wand up, aiming at the piñata. "Reducto!" And the spell shot easily out of her wand.

Almost through the first barrier, huh? Awesome! They could do this! Adi raised his wand again. Swipe to the right followed by one to the left. "Reducto!'' And blue light shot for the zombie pinata's barrier.

Hopefully they would get through this first one in a minute or so. Adi could hardly wait until they got to the pinata. He watched as more spells hit the barrier. How much longer now?

Grayson was excited.

No, scratch that. Grayson was FREAKING EXCITED BEYOND COMPARE.

That wasn't going to stop the fourteen year old from taking this seriously, though. Oh no. What would happen if he was stuck somewhere near these creatures? Did he WANT to be turned into one of them? Not in a million years. It was probably because of this thought that made the boy place his wand down so that he could roll up his sleeves. Rolling them right up to his elbows.

Once that was done, he picked up his wand and looked up at the zombie piñata, narrowing his eyes as he did so. Because he'd taken so long thinking about how great this would be and jotting down a few things and getting prepared for this, some people had already started. No matter. The first shield hadn't been completely broken just yet. There was still pleeeeenty of time. Uh huh.

Okay, he was prepared. Amped. Ready to go!!

Grayson pointed his wand up towards the zombie piñata and tried to take a good aim. This included closing an eye and adjusting his aim just a bit. "Reducto!" he cried, flicking his wand towards the right and then flicking it towards the left. Sideways V shape and whatnot.

................... Eh. Scowl.

Move on? Try that again? Hope nobody saw his failed attempt? "Reducto!!" he called, with a bit more gusto. Better. Maybe the blue light that shot out from his wand wasn't as strong as he had hoped it to be but it was better than nothing.

Lux was thrilled to see that they were almost through the first barrier. It wouldn't take much longer. Eagerly, she cast the Reducto spell over and over again, her wand slashing through the air in continuous motions.

This was amazing practice, and she was proud of how much her spell work had improved in a year alone. It went to show how much better it was to attend school as opposed to learning at home. There was no way her mom would have ever made a zombie piñata.

Had Dima or Kyroh seen her fail? Maddie glanced from one to the other and tried not to look nervous but she WAS. What if they didn't want to be her allies anymore because she couldn't do this? The first year's eyes widened at the thought and she took a step back from the small group, frowning slightly. This was NONSENSE. She wasn't supposed to care this much about what THEY thought and she WASN'T supposed to fail at ANYTHING EVER. What was WRONG with her today?

Sigh.

Shaking the dumb negative nonsense from her head, the tiny brunette straightened up and rolled her shoulders, then her neck, then she tuned out EVERYONE else in the room. It was just HER and the ZOMBIE. Not a REAL zombie, NO WORRIES.

"Reducto." Flick-flick. ...Nothing. WHATWASSHEDOINGWRONG? The first year didn't show it but on the INSIDE, she felt like she'd just lost the Quidditch world cup or something. If this was a REAL zombie, her brains would be breakfast by now!

BUT NO, HER BRAINS WERE TOO VALUABLE TO THE FUTURE OF WIZARDING KIND! GOSH!

"Reducto!" There was more confidence in her voice now and her flicks had more energy behind them this time which SEEMED to do the trick because SOMETHING happened! WAS THAT A LIGHT? WAS IT? SCORE.

Jasmine continued to repeat the spell over and over. She really, really wanted to bring the zombie down. Point, sideways V, "Reducto". Point, sideways V, "Reducto". Jasmine tried as hard as she could to focus on the task at hand.

Jasmine paused only to look around the room at her classmates. All of them were enthusiastically trying to penetrate the zombie's shield. Break over, Jasmine got back to work. She kept saying "Reducto", determined not to give up until the shield was broken.

Marigold rolled out her shoulder before taking a step closer in between two of the other students in order to get a clear shot at the target. Easy enough. She practiced the sideways v once more, then pointed her wand straight forward. "Reducto," she said clearly, smiling as the light beamed out of her wand. Go her.

"Reducto!" She had it...no she didn't. Several Blasting Curses hit the piñata all at once from one side, causing it to swing the other side. Her spell ended up hitting the ceiling. Ah, dragon dung. That was a well aimed shot, too. Wrinkling her nose at the unfortunate miss, Beverly moved slightly to the side where she had a better aim.

Same goal, better bulls-eye.

With a sideways V flick of her wand, Beverly tried again. "Reducto!" Her intent must of have been pretty darn strong, because a bright jet of light shot from her wand, hitting the zombie piñata right in the center of its chest. Come on, you bloody shield! BREAK. Beverly Wayne DEMANDED it.

Spells flew around her as Norah prepared to cast the spell again. Giving her wand a sharp flick, she chanted, "Reducto! Another streak of light shot from her wand and she beamed. Blowing stuff up was awesome! Now, was the shield going to break down already 'cause she wanted some of whatever was in that piñata. Maybe it'd be CHOCOLATE. Yum.

Moving around the spell work, her gaze lingered on each student as she passed. Although, it seemed she was lucky to catch a glimpse of Sophie's attempts, as the girl continued to move as well. "Good, Miss Newell." Both in spell work and idea to move.

Well, he certainly was awake NOW.

"Good, Mister Scabior." she commented, watching his movements. "Keep the movement tight."

Moving past the Gryffindor, she smiled encouraginly and gave an approving nod. Students were doing well!

She couldn't help but chuckle softly when coming across the sixth year. "Don't forget to catch your breath, Mister Strand." she said, stopping next to him and glancing up to the pinata. "Seems you got it down pat. Take your time now. Try and make your spell stronger."

Oh my. Who couldn't not smile at that excitement?

"Well done, Miss Malone. Keep trying."

Having looked past the first year for a moment, she spotted the seventh year's attempts. Which were rather easy from the looks of it. "Good, Miss Greenwell. Very good." she commented, glancing up to see how it reacted with the shield. "You're about ready to attempt it nonverbally if you wish."

If she wanted to.

Quite honestly, the younger years were doing a lot better than she expected. 'Course, she had high expectations for them, but they were going through the roof!

She smiled after seeing Adi's attempt. "Keep going, Mister Rehman."

Making her rounds back to the front of the arena, her ears picked up a particular loud cast. Crossing her arms a little, she moved to stand by the Hufflepuff, having seen how his attempt went. "Good, Mister Whitlock." she smiled warmly, before lowering her voice a little. "Try again. Though, while it's good to be vocal with first attempts..." Hehe, and he most certainly was. "...the confidence that counts isn't through word, but through inner willpower. Especially with curses. You need to feel it here...here...and here."

She pointed to his arm, heart, and head. Let the energy floooooow.

Moving back around to the front of the group, she was pleased to see how eager the third year was. Though not wanting to interrupt her concentration, Medea smiled and quietly moved on.

She'd seen the first year's first attempts, though decided not to bother the girl's concentration. However, she couldn't ignore how close Maddison was to achieving the spell successfully. "Brilliant attempt, Miss Cooper. Keep trying."

Yes, for a first year, very good attempt.

It happened rather fast.

Hit. FLICKER! Hit. FLICK!FLICKER! Hit. FLICKER!FLICKER! Hit. FLIIICK FLICK FLIII-FLI-BOOM!


The blue shield shuddered and BURST INTO SHINING BLUE SPARKLES that filled the arena and fell upon the students. Yet another smaller blue shield stood in it's place, continuing to protect the zombie pinata. "WELL DONE! One shield down. One more to go! You have about five more minutes to get through it. Keep it up!"

Jasmine was in the middle of casting the spells again when BOOM. It was the fourth of July with little sparkler traces falling all over them. One down, one to go. They had taken out the first shield and all that remained was a smaller version of the original.

Hopefully, the second shield would be easier to penetrate. Jasmine went back to her spell casting. Wand up, sideways V and "Reducto". Now if she repeated it about 30 more times, she just might get lucky

It had happened so fast that Lux had barely any time to react as the shield burst into shiny blue sparkles. BLUE. Her favourite colour. Distracted by the beauty of it all, she forgot where they were and what they were supposed to be doing. Happily, she let the sparkles fall on her, landing in her hair and all over her clothes.

SOOOOOO PRETTY.

Regretfully, she was snapped back to the present as she noticed the OTHER blue shield. Of course, how silly of her. The Professor had said that there would be another one of those. Maybe it would rain pretty sparkles on her as well? Oh well, the most important thing was getting to that zombie.

With new found determination, she knew that she would be attacking this new shield with a vengeance. Making the rapid slashing motions with her wand, she called out "Reducto!"

Angel was totally happy with her first attempt now she had to do it again and she couldn't wait. Angel was very confident she could do the spell now she had done it once, but she wasn't overly confident, she didn't want it to bite her in the face by looking a fool if it went wrong. ""Reducto!" Angel said as she did the wand movement again and once again a spell came out of her wand and went towards the target.

*___________________*

OOH, SPARKLEY.

Now, he was anxious to burst the other shield into more pretty colors. After his first attempt, Dec had been lazily casting the Reductor Curse. You know, with the combination of all his classmates doing the same, he didn't feel the need to really try, but SHINY COLORS had motivated him back into putting effort into it.

However, instead of shooting frequent spells at the zombie pinata like most of his peers were doing, he summoned all his energy into his wand arm and blasted then. So, it wasn't much of pew, pew, but more of PEW! PEW! Hopefully, that would work.

OH!

IT WORKED.

YES. What Beverly Wayne demands, she gets. Forgetting all of the rest of her classmates' efforts, of course. Beverly blinked at the shiny blue sparkles, a ghostly smirk on her face. HA! That had been awesome! This was totally tale worthy. Kennedy just HAD to hear about this. He HAD to.

Professor Romano's voice snapped her back to the present. Second shield was going DOWN. Yes! Once again, Beverly decided to focus on one spot and weaken it, then go from there. Seemed like a good strategy. Aiming at the chest, she flicked her wand in a sideways V, and cast, "Reducto!"

BOOM....the first shield was done. Taking heed of what Professor Romanos told him as she walked past him, Cris concentrated even harder on what he wanted the spell to do.

This time he took his time. Closing his eyes, he cleared his mind of all thought....except one. He visualized himself casting the spell that would bring the second shield down.

Concentrating all his energy into what he intended to do , Cris took a deep breath, and he slowly released it. Pointing his wand up at the second blue shield protecting the pinata, Cris moved his wand swiftly first to the right and then to the left, in a sideways V formation, and called out loud and clear, "REDUCTO!!".

Swift as an arrow, a powerful blue beam of light shot out from his wand, and hit the center of the shield in front of him.

AHH PRETTY SPARKS EVERYWHERE. So the first shield was done?! WOHOO! Unfortunately though, Zander was still too busy trying to scribble down notes and wasn't able to get his turn to try to go all "reducto" at it. But he'd definitely help do his fair share for the second round. Alright let's go. "REDUCTO!" The third year screamed and pointed his wand towards the sky. AH yes a hit!

GOOD! He was doing good! Kyroh paused and turned to the professor BEAMING! With all the curses thrown at the piñata, the first barrier broke and BLUE SPARKLES! YAY. Blue like Ravenclaw, and awesome!

Raising his wand again, Kyroh was more ready then ever now. "Reducto!" His movement tightened, not as loose as before, a flick to the right and then another to the left and and beam went colliding with the zombie. YAY!

Ooooo PRETTY SPARKLES. Sophie was bummed she hadn't shot the spell at the first shield when it burst, but she had helped anyway, and without her help, the shield wouldn't have broken when it did. So. She was totally still important.

But also determined to produce a blast big enough to knock the second shield down one of these times.

Moving around the shielded pinata to where fewer people were - she figured when they got to the pinata part and it broke, she'd have less people to fight with for the contents that landed over there - Sophie gave it a calculating look. Looong and hard. She could see the spells of others connecting with the shield, and the way it reacted. The deterioration process was seemingly slow, but gradual, and Soph was sure they'd get the job done in the remaining five minutes. They had to. She'd never be able to go on living without knowing what was in that pinata.

Flicking her wand sharply to the right and left again, the Ravenclaw cast, "Reducto!" Pleased by the beam of light that shot from her wand and collided with the shield, she repeated the movement again, "Reducto!" WHAT A COOL SPELL.

Eek! Leah covered her face with her arms as the first shield exploded. Five minutes left for the second one! She pointed her wand upwards again and yelled, "Reducto! Please." And made a sideways 'v'. It missed the zombie and hit the wall opposite.

Gritting her teeth, Leah tried again. "Reducto!" She said, doing her quick wand movement. The blue beam collided with the zombie this time. How many times did they need to do this?

Cutty busied himself cracking his wrists and limbering his hands as the blue sparkles fell upon him and his classmates. He pushed his chin to crack his neck ineffectively before taking his wand to aim it at the zombie pinata. He flicked right and then left in a sideways V whilst speaking the incantation, "Reducto!" The luminescent blue spell fell, however just above the head of the treat-filled undead.



Time to work on his aim. He stuck out his wand once and then brought it back, repeating the wand flicking motion, this time crouching down a bit and aiming square for the little paper postieror, "Reducto!"