Angel was totally looking forwards to trying to get points for Gryffindor and so she decided that she'd try and get a dummy with the spell she loved using the most.

"Reducto!!" Angel really didn't know what else to do, with all the leaves flowing around and the.....

"TORNADO!!" Angel had never seen one of these before, they never got them in the town she lived in. "Professor, can you make it bigger?" Angel really wanted to watch this tornado. "I've never seen one and have always wanted to see one in action." Angel really, really, really hoped the Professor would show her how to make a tornado.

As Professor Romanos explained the next activity, Jasmine thought it was going to be kind of hard. When she created the little tornado, Jasmine wondered how in the world she was going to bring down those dummies. It was total chaos, even by Defense Against the Dark Arts standards. Leaves were blowing everywhere, dummies were flying and spells were being cast in every direction.

Jasmine wasn't sure how she was going to concentrate in all this confusion, but she was going to have to try. She closed her eyes and tried to get her focus. When she opened her eyes, she tried to concentrate on one particular dummy. It was sailing in the air, changing direction every two seconds and the leaves were obscuring her vision. This was going to be like the last class where you had to think ahead and anticipate where the dummy would be when your spell reached it.

Jasmine continued to follow the dummy with her eyes. Deciding to start with the Reductor curse she raised her wand. When she thought the time was right, she made a sideways V with her wand and said, "Reducto". Then Jasmine looked to see whether her spell had reached the target.

Good thing she managed to do her bit of practicing before all this started. Cassia's attention was on Romanos as she explained the rules. Now that sounded fun. And competitive which she hadn't felt in a while. Good to have that feeling for the last lesson. She was going to miss this competitiveness among the houses. She was going to miss everything actually not just this.

Before the tornado started, Cassia moved closer to where most of the snakes were. Then dummies were flying everywhere. It took the seventh year a moment to stare at it all before she raised her wand. Okay, shouldn't be too hard.

Squinting at one of the flying dummies, she watched it whip around for a bit before moving her wand, Carpe Retractum! A purple rope indeed shot out of her wand but it never reached the dummy. Good thing she didn't pull someone instead. Heh.

So she figured that since the dummies were moving fairly fast she'd have to slow one down before managing to pull it towards her. "Impedimenta!" The snake smirked as one of the dummies wasn't flying so fast anymore. Now she could pull it, mhm, "Carpe Retractum!" Plus a whipping motion and the dummy was attached to the rope. Quickly, Cassia pulled it towards her.

One dummy with them. The snake released the dummy letting fall on the ground behind her then turned to the other snakes, "We should protect this one," she said. Team work and all. She wasn't likely to succeed in keeping it in their possession on her own.

Angel looked around the room and continued to watch the tornado go around the room, she thought that it was so awesome and she had nearly forgot about the task until someone said protect the dummy, why did a dummy need protecting.

O_____o

Angel looked around trying to find a dummy that she could try and get for the Gryffindors. "Impedimenta!" Angel had no idea if it worked or not because with all the leaves floating around the place.

New activity. Leah had not really mastered the spell, but well she could probably manage. It was team work as well, and Hufflepuff was the best house, she did not have to worry much.

She pulled out her wand and shot a Seize and Pull charm at one of the flying dummies. "Carpe Retractum!" Leah yelled through the loud roaring of the tornado, with the whipping wand movement. Or tried to, anyway. The spell did not work.

Lucy was confused...the leaves and the dummies were flying around...
She had listened the instructions of the Professor and now she had to try..
While she was concentrating a dummy was about to strike her:" Impedimenta! " she said..
Lucy didn't know if it was just luck but the dummy slowed down..

It was hard to ignore the sound to concentrate on her spells. Leah covered her left ear with the unoccupied hand while she tried the tug of war charm again. "Carpe Retractum!" She imagined a rope appearing and dragging a dummy down. Her eyes and wand followed a particularly active(?) dummy. As she did the cool whipping motion, the badger felt a gush of wind and she slid down on her bum. Oops.

Leah held on tightly to her wand that still had the little bit of rope she managed to conjure out. With an annoyed flick of her wand, the rope flew back.

A tornado! Cool! It wasn't huge and destructive as a real one but still...cool, never the less. Time for some spell work. Adi decided to work with the Seize and Pull charm because he had practiced it only moments before.

''Carpe Retractum!" And there went the whip like movement. Purple rope flew from the third year's wand but completely missed his target. Hey, it wasn't his fault. He had good aim. Blame that tornado and the chaos it was causing! It blew the rope to the left of the dummy. Meh.

A snort escaped AJ's lips when Adi suggested that the hufflepuff house would take the win. "You wish." Maybe if AJ was in that house they would stand a chane, but she wasn't therefore they didn't. The lion waited with bated breath for the professor to give them green light. She was ready for actio, chaos, and some points.

Right before her very eyes a tornado formed and the chaos that she had been wanting was happening. Leaves we're everywhere,a nd kept obstructing her vision... Rude! She neede to make contact with a swirling dummy. Figuring that it would be easier to do the spell that she had just mastered earlier she screamed "Carpe Retractum." the rope shot out and came within just inches of the dummy. Ugh. There was no time for failure. She would pull a dummy in and let an older Gryffindor finish it off. There was no sense in messing up something this important because she wasn't familiar with the spell.

Err, okay.

So everything was happening at once, and there were spells flying left and right. Sophie dashed around trying to get herself in front of a dummy and to the point where she could cast on it. She was doing pretty good at dashing around getting herself prepared, until something knocked her off her feet, and she stumbled to her knees.

Seriously?! What was THAT?!

... Was there a small tornado whirling around? Merlin! Sophie pushed herself back up and found she was right in front of a dummy. Err... "IMPEDIMENTA!" she called out, flicking her wand in a horizontal movement. It slowed down the dummy, which at least gave her some more time to think.

THERE WAS A FREAKING TORNADO OF LEAVES.

And here the boy had thought it was merely for decoration.

Having never seen a tornado in real life before, the boy tilted his head as he stared at the sight in front of him, his wand clutched in his right hand. Heh. All they had to do was capture the dummies? Keep them at bay? Maybe even slow them down and blast them to pieces?

BRING. IT. ON.

................ Oh?

Before Grayson could do more than raise his wand and try and find a dummy to blast, the words of a familiar voice reached his ears and he turned to look over at the Head Girl herself. One who had captured a dummy. ALREADY. BRILLIANT. And this was THEIR Head Girl. She belonged to THEIR house. SLYTHERIN. S L Y T H E R I N.

Hiss hiss.

Pride coursed through this fifteen year old as he made his way over toward the seventh year. "Good catch, Cassia," he said, shooting the girl a smile, "What's the plan on protecting this one?" Stand guard? Blast anyone else out of the way? Were they allowed to use the Impedimenta Jinx on PEOPLE?! Yes? No?

It was probably no.

And could these leaves NOT flying around near his face? He rather liked the idea of being able to see and aim properly, thank you very much. Squinting slightly, the fifteen year old pointed his wand way over towards a dummy over thereeeeeeeeeee that was whirling in their direction and shouted, "REDUCTO!" Whether the spell had worked properly or not, he couldn't tell.

Freaking rude leaves.

With the dummy now slowed down and not moving about so quickly, Sophie was able to pull her thoughts together and plan her next move. So she could use Carpe Retractum to bring the dummy toward her, and then when it got to her, she could blast it to pieces using Reducto. Right. That sounded like a plan to her, but...she seriously needed to get a move on.

The dummy was moving slower, but it was still moving. Sophie raised her wand toward it, all the while getting a good mental image of what she wanted to do. If this worked properly, she'd bring the dummy toward her and then blast it to pieces!

She made a quick, whiplike movement with her wand then called out, "Carpe Retractum!" The dummy flinched a little then began soaring toward her. Uhh...uhh...

Adi decided this time he would take a shot at a dummy that wasn't on the floor with the Reductor Curse. Trying to aim for one that was a fair distance away from the annoying tornado, Adi held out his wand. Should he move closer to the dummy and away from the tornado?

Adi thought he should so he did just that. Pushing his hair out of his eyes, he said quite loudly, clearly and with as much concentration as he could muster, "Reducto!'' Along with that went the sideways V wand movement.

Would it it? Come on, hit!

So her spell had worked, it was just that her aim was off. The tornado was making it hard for her to make contact with the dummy, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. All she needed to do was fully concentrate and block everything else from her mind.

Looking around between the blown leaves she saw that a few people were having some success, and of course those people had to belong to the Slytherin house. Why did the universe hate her? Didn't it know that she was trying REALLY hard to beat them?

Then a dummy appeared right before her very eyes as if it was in slow motion. This was her time to prove that a first year could be helpful. "Carpe Retractum." The rope shot out in the right color and look!!! IT wrapped around the dummy and it was coming to her. Maybe her luck would be changing after all.

"Lions, help! Can someone finish this off for me?" She knew that she wouldn't be able to do it, and house points were at stake here.

It certainly worked! A small group of leaves exploded in a POOF, leaving a bunch of smaller leaf pieces to fly into the storm.

DID it hit something? YES!

A patch of leaves! Exploding into smaller bits, they continued to swirl around the room in a frenzy.

Smart move to become closer to the target, although, what was he going to do with all the leaves getting in the way of things? The spell hit a patch of leaves with a BOOM, scattering itty bits of leaf into the wind storm. The dummy was free to continue on!

The second spell moved right on target...connecting with the dummy!

"FIVE POINTS TO SLYTHERIN!" Medea called out, keeping a close eye on things.

The spell certainly worked! However, too many leaves were in the way.

A large batch of leaves exploded into a shower of tiny bits, continuing to swarm around the room.

Waiting for the right moment had it's uses. Leaves swarmed around the spell, yet it connected with the dummy anyways.

"FIVE POINTS TO RAVENCLAW!"

Maybe the squinting had hurt his aiming abilities, or maybe the leaves, but the spell zoomed just to the side of the dummy.

So close! Yet so far.

A wonderful cast!

And just like that...the spell connected with the dummy.

"FIVE POINTS TO HUFFLEPUFF!"

Ethan kept his concentration, albeit hitting the second dummy and moved on to his next target. He waited for more captured dummy, but at that moment, it seems that everyone’s having a hard time capturing one. With the leaves swatting his face, the blond boy kept his mouth shut as he moved to another spot, and saw Grayson’s Sophie capture a dummy. Positioning himself right behind her, Ethan waited for a moment until the dummy was close enough to blast. “REDUCTO!”

Well?

Time was running, and so the boy decided to capture the dummy which was directly in front of him. Perfect. “Carpe Retractum!” A purple lasso came out of his wand and coiled itself around the dummy’s torso. That should be an easy target now, yeah? Snakes? This one’s ready to be blasted into smithereens!

Sophie had just enough time to turn her attention to Ethan and give him a silent thank you as he came to her aid. Just then, she lost her balance again and started to sway and stumble. What in the name of Merlin was a tornado doing in here?! Thank you, Romanos. She guessed it was for the best anyway, because...what if this was a real Cold One? Sophie still thought those things were way too creepy.

She regained her balance just in time to pass Ethan another look. He'd captured another dummy, which meant that one was ready to be blasted into little bits and pieces. He'd come to her aid, and now it was time for her to come to his. Sophie hurried over and aimed her wand toward the dummy. With a whip of her and to the right then back to the left, she said, "REDUCTO!"

Kace saw all the commotion that happened in the classroom. WOAH this was crazy! Apparently there was a mini tornado in the classroom. Now this was getting insane. He heard hufflepuff got 5 points! BOO YEAH!! Adi the little puff gave them 5 points. Great job for him. Now onto letting him practice. He knew he needed to use Carpe Retractum and Reducto to blast the dummies. But first he needed to pull one closer to him. He hoped he wouldn't freak out when he saw one. He saw one coming closer to him keeping him in the sights. He got his wand out and said with a whip around his head and said, "CARPE RETRACTUM!" and then the purple rope came out of his wand! He got it closer and then said "FINITE!"

Then when the dummy was about the run away, he got his wand at the ready and with a sideways V wand movement, he said "REDUCTO!" and he hoped he hit it!

Yessss! Jasmine had blasted that last dummy with her Reductor curse. This time she was going to try something different. She spotted the next dummy that she wanted to target. Taking a deep breath to focus, she followed the dummy with her eyes. Jasmine held her wand up mirrored the dummy's path.

She kept following the dummy in and out of the leaves with the tornado wind threatening to throw off her spell. Timing was everything and Jasmine thought that the time was right........now. "Impedimenta", she said while moving her wand in a horizontal flick motion. Unfortunately she missed the dummy and hit a bunch of swirling leaves. So close and yet so far. Jasmine had nothing else to do but try again.

It was hard to tell with all the chaos going on around them, but it seemed to Lux that all her spell had hit was a bunch of leaves. What a shame, but she was not going to give up her attempt to earn some points for her House. Plus a challenge was always welcome unless it involved heights; in that case she wouldn't do it for a million Chocolate Frogs.

Trying her best to gain a good shot with all the leaves flying around, she pointed her wand at what she felt was a perfect spot. Timing was everything, and these dummies were moving so fast. At some point she would try to capture one and drag it down, but for the moment she was set on blasting because why not.

When she felt the time was right, she used the Reductor Curse. Fingers crossed she would actually make a hit this time.

Five points to Hufflepuff, Slytherin, AND Ravenclaw!? This was worse than he thought! WHERE WAS THE GRYFFINDOR REPRESENTATION!?! Maybe Romanos knew that he knew that she was the Cold One leader! O___O And instead of telling him the crazy evil woman was taking it out on his house! NO not on his watch she wouldn't!

Suddenly, Zander heard a fellow lion calling out for help. This sounded like a job for THE Zander Adair of Gryffindor House! Perfect preparation for the Cold One attack, so just like that he ran towards the first year and held out his wand. OHMYGOSH she had the dummy tied up! HOW!? He couldn't even get that stupid spell right. How'd SHE do it???? Hmph. At least he had tons of practice with "REDUCTO!!!"

If anyone was feeling uncomfortable, it was DIMA. He had pretty much been zoning out the entire class, save for the little practice session they'd had on the seize-and-pull spell, and the kid was completely lost now. The Reductor Curse? Impediment Jinx? He hadn't been able to cast THOSE successfully during the other lessons either, and his practice on his own hadn't left him feeling particularly... able, if you will.

Where was that barrier? Could he go hide behind it now?

"What are you aiming your wand at?" he asked Kyroh, eyes wide. How were they supposed to see ANYTHING in this tornado? Through all these leaves, he could barely make out MADDIE, let alone any dummies. This was way too hard. Did Romanos know of something called visibility?

And then some tall Slytherin appeared- the one who wouldn't HIGH FIVE HIM in Astronomy. Psh. Kyroh didn't need HIS help. Or maybe he did, but Dima was convinced HE didn't. So he went ahead and started casting random spells. They had to hit SOMETHING, right? At least he was participating.

"Reducto!" His wand flicked sharply to the right, then left, as if he was drawing a sideways V. If that hit a person, would the professor be cross?

Teamwork looked to be a mighty advantage for this activity. Or perhaps it was the act of using classmates as human shields against the wind and leaves? Whatever the case, the boy's spell hit the dummy square in the chest!

"FIVE POINTS TO SLYTHERIN!"

Although, did they know the tornado was moving closer? The dummy swayed with wind, moving this way and that, despite being captured. Just as the Slytherin cast her spell, the dummy swayed in another direction, clearing it from being harmed.

Oops.

As good as an idea as it was, the dummy started to zig-zag around as soon as the purple rope disappeared.

The spell missed it by THAT much!

Timing certainly was everything. But not this time.

With the force of the wind giving it an extra boost, the dummy sped up just as the spell was cast and...CONNECTED!

"FIVE POINTS FOR HUFFLEPUFF!"

That Gryffindor spirit could come in handy, eh?? The spell shot up towards the captures dummy, hitting it square in the chest!

"FIVE POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Oooh? Hmmm.

"Keep your aim pointed up, Mister Toussaint!" she called out to the Ravenclaw, readying her wand for...another spell.



Taking one more glance around the action going on, she waved her wand a few more times again in a not so subtle manner. The wind increased as a group of leaves that were following the tornado's wind current started to circle up into a spiral of their own. What was that??

A SECOND MINI TORNADO??

BoooYAAAA! Points to Gryffindor! Except... Both Hufflepuff and Slytherin got more points now so basically there's did nothing. Boooo. He looked back towards his Gryffindor group in mention and you know what, that teamwork thing seemed to work the first time! So maybe he could use it again! This in mind, the third year ran towards the tornado!and aimed again.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" Even though he hadn't fully mastered this seize of tug of whatever charm yet, at least he had the impedimenta down.... More frozen leaves. Ugh. What does it take to make some good progress around here. Huffing- a little angrily- the Gryffindor tried again.

"Impedimenta!" And shots fired!! He had managed to freeze a dummy right in front of him. "Hey, I need a Gryffindor to help finish this one off!" And then maybe they could get this one too?

How in Merlin's beard were they meant to see in the middle of this tornado....and a second tornado? It reminded her of the conditions outside but 'cept for the fact that it wasn't unbearably cold and they weren't being thrown about the place, likely to hurt themselves from a random jagged rock. Somewhat safe she supposed, despite that never being an issue anyway.

All around her she could hear the explosions going off and vaguely a few dummies slowing down in their tracks but they weren't necessarily her house doing it, you know?

Over the howling wind brought with the tornado she heard Zander yelling about finishing off a dummy? She was born for that job! Really she was born for any job that involved explosions depending on who you chose to ask. This right here, regardless of the wind speed, shouldn't have been too hard. The thing was already much slower than it'd been a moment ago.

Lex slipped in next to Zander, figuring she could get a better angle from where he stood. "Reducto!!!"

Hopefully this freak storm tornado hadn't thrown her aim.