Annabeth was feeling unsure about the incantation. She had raised a huge and healthy tree, she didn't want it to turn an ugly weed.

"A weed!! That's it!"

She looked around. The teacher had said they could practice on weeds. Where would she find one? There were plenty of plants there, Anna walked among them searching for an intruder, any ugly weed helping itself with potting mix and warming itself hidden under the shadow of a good plant. The Hufflepuff girl found a suspicious plant beside a mandrake.

"A-ha", she gave it an icy glare, and then pointed her wand at the weed, waving it three small anti-clockwise circles, pronouncing the incantation. The weed shrank and shrank and then vanished.

"Oh my! What did I do?" She peered under the mandrake's shadow and found the weed there; at least she thought that tiny green leaf was the weed. "So it works."

Anna turned on her heels and rushed at her workstation, look at her Enchanting Elm and said in a dangerous tone of voice, "your turn, my baby!"

She breathed deeply and repeated the incantation, "Parveus Minori Minimus!".

The tall tree shrank until a small and charming Bonsai. "I can't huge you anymore, my baby, but now I can kiss you and I'll love you forever!" she said, kissing the small tree and opening her well-known wide smile.

"Professor Bentley, thank you for everything and I beg you forgive my bad mood. I didn't mean... I really love trees and will love this one forever. I just have a couple of questions before going, Muggle Bonsais have to being cut from time to time. Do we have to repeat the spell too? My last question is - this tree is good for wand making, if I tear apart one of this little branches and give it to a wand-maker, he or she would be able to make a tiny wand to use as a key chain?" Annabeth grinned.

OOC: Emily, it was hard to me to find time to RP this term, but it always a pleasure to join you and your class. Very creative plot! I hope you are enjoying your trip, Italy is amazing!

Simon was ready to put the incantation AND the wand movement together. Three little anti-clockwise circles and the long incantation? How hard could that be? Well the long incantation was a mouthful so pretty hard.

Taking a moment to relax, he pointed his wand at his beloved tree. He slow began to draw circles in the air. With each circle he drew, he spoke one word, "Parveus Minori Minimus." The tree slowly began to shrink. Then the spell picked up speed. The branches rushed towards the middle of the middle and then the tree grew shorter and shorter. Simon panicked for a minute, wondering if his tree was actually going to stop shrinking at the right time. Before he knew it, he had a nice adorable little tree sitting in front of him.

Perfect.

A smile played on his lips as he admired his work.

Okay, though he had been repeating the incantation for at least five whole minutes now, he still felt as if he was getting absolutely no where. It was so ridiculously long and complicated. Trying to say it quickly and in one go was proving to be quite the challenge. "Par- uh- veus Min-mini-ori Min-imusesey?"

Okay. Maybe he'd just take it step by step? "Parveus," he read off the board. Okay. That wasn't too hard to say. Then the second one, "Minori" . Now the first two together. "Parveus Minori." Okay. That was doable. Now the third word, which made things incredibly hard because normally the incantation would be two words at most, "Minimus." This word was literally the same exact thing as the second word. What did all of these mean anyways?

Now all together. "Parveus Minori Minimus." Hey he kinda got it that time. Now since he had already practiced the movement, he thought he'd try to do things a little creatively before he picked up his wand. Pointing his finger, Zander began tracing the circles while saying the incantation over and over again. It was so much harder when putting the two together. It would've been different if the incantation were only two words and the movement only required one, not three, circle.

Agatha's soft little girls voice carried like music to Cutty's ears for the words it had formed. He had missed her attempt at shrinking or...popping the dandelion. Were this any other Slytherin who hadn't had the cleverness to suggest payment for misdeeds, Cutty would've manipulated them into doing it themselves via relentless tauntings or perhaps some other less harmless method. But here she was. Happygoody, absent her usual dancerly posture and crow decorated hair, offering up exchange.

He would entertain this.

"How mooch?" He asked inquiring over the price of such a favour.

"Par-ve-us...Minori...Minumus," Sophie siad, saying that first word a little slooooowly. It was a tongue twister--almost. There was no way she was ready to start this charm. She needed way more time on that first word. "Par-ve-us. Parveus. Carve--parve."

MERLIN!

"Parveus!" she finally said. There! That was it! Now for the whole thing. "Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus." AH HA! Right. Now, there was an incantation with this thing, wasn't there? Sophie gripped her wand a little tighter and tried to think of a way to get it all together. The wand movement was easy, but...could she get it all together with that tongue-twisting incantation?

And now onto the wand movement. This should be easy, yeah? One small anti-clockwise circle. Mhm. A second...and a third. EASY! Ethan repeated the movement while chanting the spell in his head. It was a great way to memorize the looooooong spell. Yep!

Also, he looked around to see the his mates' progress. Impressive smartypants. Well, wait until you see this dude shrink his Enchanting Elm. BUT FIRST! A trial must be done. And so, hello there weed! You need to disappear sir.

Clearing his throat, and mouthing the spell, Ethan pointed his wand at the weed, "Parveus..." one anti-clockwise circle wand movement, "...Minori..." second wand movement, "Minimus!" and the final wand movement.

....Huh? Nothing happened? What?

"WHAAAAAAAAT?" Well, at least he got the spell right, yeah? Merlin. This will take him forever! "Parveus...Minori...Minimus!" Come on, weed!

It was time to actually do the spell on Bilbo. Marigold rolled her sleeves up before deciding it was MUCH too cold for that and rolling them back down. Brrr. Anyway, she pointed her wand at the pot and said strongly, "Herbivicus!" She watched and waited for something to happen. Then she realized that nothing was happening, probably because she had done the wrong wand movement. Whoopsies. She did it again, slower, then said (again), "Herbivicus!" This time, she was pleased (and a little startled) to see Bilbo the tree. She promptly hugged it. BILBO!!

So Cutty was willing to do it! That kind of surprised Agatha and she raised her eyebrows and blinked. Whenever she asked people do to her work they would only tell her to keep trying. Cutty didn't AND was even going further asking how much.

Now, how much would a Bonsai cost? Probably lots of money. But she had already done part of the job, so it wouldn't be THAT much. "15 sickles." That was ALMOST a galleon, so it was a LOT of money. She'd offer more, but not only had she done part of the job herself, she also didn't have that much money to give him.

Take it or take it, Cutty, she didn't have another option. Expect begging, but that would be too humiliating.

Shrinking time!--Or no, not shrinking technically if you wanted to be all herbological about it then Bonsai-ing....which actually didn't sound all that legit either so she'd just stop thinking about it and actually get to work. Unlike everyone else she'd have to be working on three. The way she saw it, she could practice on one and if it didn't work she could quickly vanish it and pretend she always had two, yeah? They only needed one and now she saw another benefit to taking extra.

Before such sacrifices had to be made however, Lex needed to get the spell down. That incantation...just...who the hell sat down and thought it up? It was SO unnecessarily long and she bet the guy died right after hitting the last syllable. Good thing this wasn't a defensive spell. Could you imagine trying to cast? You'd be expulso-ed by the second word.

"Parveus Minori Minimus...Par-ve-us Mi-no-ri Mi-ni-mus...Parv-eus Mino-ri Mini-mus."

Her tongue could get used to this...eventually. If not, she had two plants that were disposable so long as the Professor wasn't watching.

"Parveus Minori Minimus."

Ethan gave the weed in his pot a stink-eye, and got his hands on his hips. “You’re supposed to shrink into nothingness.” The Slytherin said leaning closer to the said weed. Yes, people, he’s talking to it. Ahem. The boy however, decided not to be disheartened! Of course, he will get this right. YES WEED, YOU WILL SHRINK!

Ahem.

“Parveus Minori Minimus!” coupling the incantation with the wand movement, and intention to shrink the weed, the unwanted plant became smaller and smaller and…gone. “Huzzaaaaah!” The jubilation was cut short however, because he found another weed. Ethan gave the spell a second try and…well what do you know? GONE. Poof! Yusss!

Giving his tree one final big hug, Ethan stepped back, and inhaled as much air as he can, and breathed out slooooooooowly. “Wooooozaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. I can do this!” the third year tried his best not to think of the spell as an irreversible one because it scares the hell out of him, okay? Okay. The boy focused all of his attention to the tree, and gave himself a clear picture of what he wants to see. A mini-Roberta.

And so…

“Parveus Minori Minimus!” Dear Merlin…please shrink properly? Ethan had his eyes closed, but then took a peek as soon he was done with the incantation. He opened his eyes just in time to see the last seconds of the shrinking process. Fawkes, he did it! Yesssssss! “Hello, mini-Roberta.” The third year smiled at his work and gave his bonsai a pat on its…head.

Okay, he thought it was best for him to keep practicing the wand movement, even though he had already done so.. he was looking around and noticed everyone's wand movements were a lot smoother. Taking out his wand again he kept doing the movements until they were second nature to him.

man was his wrist going to be hurting him...

Satisfied with how her Bonsai had turned out, Lux began cleaning things up. First she took off her gloves, then she used Scourgify to make sure that every bit of loose soil or any other mess she had made was taken care of. Packing away her notebook and everything else she had brought into her bag, she was ready to go. Picking up her bonsai, she headed to the door before giving Bentley a smile. "Thank you for the awesome lesson, Professor." Now she knew how to make tiny trees which could prove to be a lot of fun the the future. Maybe she could make a bonsai garden she thought as she left the room.

She still was determined to try and get the spell right on the first try. Maybe it was a tall order, and maybe Lily was just falling prey to being an overachiever, but she was going to try. Her father would have been proud of her if she managed it, although she knew he was proud of her no matter what. She still wanted to prove that she could be as good at charms and such as he was, especially since she didn’t have his Quidditch ability. She wanted to have something to compare to him, and honestly, she didn’t k now if he knew the Bonsai charm. Maybe it was something she could teach him when she was home next, unless they all visited London again over the summer. Since she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to move back to California after the end of term. She had plenty of other options, and maybe she could even travel. Of course, with the current weather, she wondered if summer was even going to come or if Hogwarts would be stuck in endless winter.

Anyway, she had a charm to cast. She could dwell on how cold it was later, after she had a perfect little miniature Enchanted Elm tree. Maybe naming it wasn’t such a weird idea. She could think about that later as well. For now, she needed focus. She needed to visualize what she wanted to accomplish. “Parveus minori minimus,” she whispered, just to make sure she remembered her pronunciation. It sounded right, so she lifted her wand hand again. Time to put everything together, but she reached out and stroked the trunk of her tree again once before she began. Hopefully she wouldn’t fail.

Pointing her wand at the tree, she spun her wand once in a small counter-clockwise circle, followed by the other two quickly. “Parveus minori minimus!,” she cast, hoping her voice sounded as confident as she felt. She was focusing on a picture of a tiny version of her tree, so she didn’t have time to think about how she sounded. She’d even snapped her eyes shut as she cast, just so she couldn’t see if she failed, or missed her tree altogether. Peeking through her lashes, she let out a breath as she didn’t see her tree in front of her anymore, and then opened her eyes m ore to look downward. Lying on the table was the most adorable little tiny tree she had ever seen, and she smiled. At least it looked like she’d accomplished what she had set out to do.

He totally had a better deal of the wand movement and the spell. Now all he had to dow as to cast the spell at his plant to shrink it. Picking up his wand he did the movement of three anti-clockwise circles as he concentrated really hard and said "Parveus Minori Minimus!" as he watched his plant shrink he smirked.. "hello little plant" he said while looking at it closely.

It just looked so cool, who knew that he would be having so much fun planting trees and what not.. even though his parents had him gardening all the time at the house.. Victor pull the cabbage… Victor make sure the rabbits don't get at the carrots… thank goodness he was at school and he didn't have to worry about those things anymore.

Satisfied with her weed shrinking attempt, Jasmine wrote a few last minute notes. When she finished, she put her things into her bookbag and tidied up her area. Picking up Charlie, she said, "Come on my baby, it's time to go home." Carefully carrying her tree, Jasmine walked over to Professor Bentley. "Thank you Professor. I really enjoyed the lesson. I love my bonsai." With that, she left the room and headed back to her Common Room.

Benny was thinking he had gotten the handle on the incantation, now onto the wand movement. Three anti-clockwise, or rather counter-clockwise circles. Ugg how he hated those kind of movements...they always messed him up or risked messing him up in potions. And this was Herbology, the stuff he actually liked to deal with. Hopefully he wouldn't wind up harming the poor tree with a mistake on his part.

He tried it out with his quill at first. One...two...three counter-clockwise.

Another for good measure. One...two...three counter-clockwise.

Then his wand. One...two...three counter-clockwise.

Beverly squinted at Elmer the Enchanted Elm tree then switched her gaze at her wand. This kept going while she flexed her wand wrist. She wanted to ensure that Elmert was in good hands -- who was she kidding, of course it was! She already practiced the incantation enough to feel comfortable to cast the spell. That only left the second part of it, which was the wand movement.

No proper wand movement and BOOM or simply nothing.

The Slytherin did not want any of those outcomes--or any outcome that wasn't the outcome she wanted. And she wanted the perfect outcome. Flexing her wrist some more, she paused and focused on her wand.

All it took was three small anti-clockwise circles. That was a whole lot simpler than getting the incantation correct for this snakette. Either way, she practiced it a few more times. Three cirlces. Anti-clockwise. Three. Anti-clockwise.

BAM.

Alright. So now to make a beautiful baby bonsai for the Beautiful Bentley. With wand in hand, the Gryffindor practiced making three small circles one last time. Okay now for the real thing. Here goes nothing, "Parv-eus ummm Min-ori uhhh Miniminimus." That did not sound right. Or confident. Or like a charm.

Oops. The third year started the tomato blushing again, but looked around quickly to make sure Bentley wasn't watching him. That would've been embarrassing. Once he decided that the coast was clear, he looked at his plant once more. "Okay you, listen up. We're going to try this one more time. I need you to work with me, okay? You're going to someone special!" Beautiful Bentley was more than just special. But Kevin was standing nearby so elaboration was not an option.

Zander eyed his huge Alder tree and counted down from five. Okay clearing all other thoughts. Four. Need to focus on the tree. Three. It's going to become a baby bonsai now. Two. It has to be perfect. Two. Here's for Bentley. One. "Parveus Minori Minimus." He used the combination of the incredibly long incantation and the complicated wand movement and

VOILA!

Woah. That was fast.

What. That was a LOT of words, and they were complicated sounded too. What a tongue-twister. "Parveus Minori Minimus...Parveus Minori Minimus..." he said. "Parrrrrveus...Minoooori Minimusss..." he said, practicing the spell and making sure he got the pronunciation just right as Bentley had done it.

He certainly didn't want to mess up the tree and damage the little elm!

He had a BLACKTHORN now. A whole big old tree that HE, Dima Toussaint, had made ALL by himself.

Where was his applause?

But unfortunately, so much time had been taken up by his tree admiration session that he'd completely missed what Bentley had been saying about the incantation and movement. Huh? Dima had to copy the spell instruction notes from a neighbor, and even then he was at a loss about pronunciation.

And who was better than his FAVORITE Gryffindor Prefect from whom to get assistance? The first year dragged his pot a little way over to where Alexa was with her... three trees? Weird. At least he could clear her loud and clear, and that was all that mattered. Voices that scary were HARD not to hear.

"Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus. Par-ve-us Mi-no-ri Mi-ni-mus." HAD this.

"Parveus Minori Minimus...Parveus Minori.......Minimus...." Lex paused, watching the little 'Claw haul his plant over to her and hers. This was potentially problematic 'cause see, she came all the way over here to be away from possible disaster inducing idiots. Dima was....hard to place. She didn't think he was an idiot, just...very puffer like for a 'Claw. Did that type mess things up?

Eh, she supposed even if they did he could still stay because her plants were already big and as long as he wasn't aiming his wand at any of them things would move smoothly.

Lex glanced over at him as he came to a stop and began repeating the incantation as well. Getting it right was a promising sign and she could comfortably move into practising the wand movement even with him standing there. Three anti-clockwise circles. Nothing to it.

".....Parveus Minori Minimus....." She was going to be practising on one of her trees to start, right?

...Maybe...THAT one. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" With the three anti-clockwise circles and a whole load of concentration then BOOM tiny plant. Not completely tiny but way smaller than it was before. Did Dima see that? Was he watching? She could do it again. Ahem.

Paaaause.

"Why do you have three?" Dima finally asked after watching her a bit, eyeing up her trio of pots. Was she extra good at it? Maybe Herbology was THAT subject for her, like how Grayson was EXTRA good at Potions. And everything. For all he knew, Grayson could walk on water.

He watched her do the movement for a while too before moving his own wand in the circles. Three of them, mind you, small and rotating in a counterclockwise direction. It SEEMED like they were good, and he was trying especially hard, doing his best to keep the movements fluid and tight.

Just like Lex was! And now one of her plants was teeny tiny.

Could his do that?

It was only a matter of time before he started asking questions. Lex wouldn't even pretend she was surprized and she wasn't annoyed either. It was kinda just a thing with Dima from what she'd come to see after months of running into the kid and sitting near or next to him in a few classes. "Because I'm awesome enough to have three and didn't wanna settle for just one. What if I chose this one," she said pointing to the middle one, "then decided halfway through that I actually wanted this one?" And a poke toward the one on the left end. Did he get it? She was too indecisive for just one.

"And you might wanna loosen the wrist movement a little. It looks like your joint needs some grease." Possibly because he was trying to keep the movements tight. He was welcome for the advice by the way.

Yikes, the class was dismissed and she still had these two. Given the little effort she needed with the first, she figured she could get this done real easy then have them packed up and taken back to her dorm. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" Lex took a step back and watched as this one also shrunk. Bonsai-ing at it's best right there.

Her attention turned next to the last of her tree babies. The only one still standing tall so to speak. "Parveus Minori Minimus." Three anti-clockwise circles and down it went to roughly the same size as the other two. Now they all matched again!

She glanced over at Dima. Was he done too?

Hm. Dima supposed that made sense, but... "What are you gonna do when you decide you don't want one, then?" She wouldn't just LEAVE a tree in the middle of nowhere with no one to love it, would she? He paused again. "I woulda thought you'd pick the flesh-eating one."

Scary things DID go along with other scary things, did they not?

As soon as she mentioned the word loosen, he unlocked his wrist, letting his wand hand flop about. Was that loose enough? It took a while before Dima found a happy medium, and then he decided he was ready to CAST. The big baby Blacktorn was about to turn into a big baby Bonsai.

"Parveus Minori Minimus!"

Three small counterclockwise circles later, the deed was done. Ta-da.

It was time to get this done. Chewing on the inside of her cheek Beverly squinted at Elmer and nodded. You know, those cool nods you give when stuff is about to go down. Because stuff was about to go down.

Focusing and picturing Elmer shrink down like Professor Bentley's Bonsai, Beverly gave the spell a go. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" She flicked her wrist.

Three small circles. Anti-clockwise.

Elmer shrunk, along with its pot, resembling itself only smaller. Beverly smirked at her job well done. Bonsai!