Her seed was planted and watered, and now all Lily had left was to actually figure out the spell that was going to make it grow. Conceptually she had it down. It was right there in her notes, and seemed easy enough. Yet she still wanted to make sure this didn’t turn out to be one of the spells that she couldn’t get to work right. She’d learned charms since she could barely walk, but there was still that chance that she’d fail. Her frustration lately with just about everything, starting with being so cold almost all the time, only made her feel more trepidation. She was a full-grown witch, legally could cast whatever spells she wanted to no matter where she was, but she still needed practice. She still needed to learn new spells, and she had a feeling that was something she’d always like doing. Odds were she wasn’t about to come up with any of her own any time soon, like her father had, so learning new spells was the best she could do.

First she decided to practice the wand movement, ignoring the incantation for the time being so she wouldn’t accidentally think of it and cast nonverbally. She pointed her wand at the pot, allowing herself to imagine the tree that would hopefully grow once she allowed herself to cast the spell for real, and then flicked it in the seed’s direction. A few more points and flicks, then she lowered her wand hand. Now for the incantation, without the wand movement. They’d be put together soon enough. “Herbivicus,” she said softly, letting herself get the feel of the syllables. “Herbivicus, herbivicus, herbivicus.”

His answer had been drastically wrong but Kevin didn't really care (who did?) because Merlin's beard had he confused himself with that answer.

He listened to what the right answer to the difference was and was still not taking any notes. Notes, bleh. He was instead looking around at his uncaring and selfish classmates and realised that Angel was sick as well. Maybe he had infected her when she had kissed him on the cheeks muwahaha? And of course Zander looked like an idiot. Which reminded him they still needed that TALK. He had promised!

When the lesson continued in to an activity, Kevin brought his attention back to the now. He grabbed a pot like instructed and scooped in some potting soil until it was a little more over a halfway full. Then he grabbed the Enchanted Elm seed and with a gloved finger he pushed a hole in the soil and placed the seed in it. Putting some of the soil over the top of the seed in the pot, Kevin then grabbed his wand and pointed it at it. "Aguamenti!" he said and watered the tree.

Angel was still shivering but she was going to get this tree grown even if it meant her falling over, she really wished that she had a cup of hot chocolate. She took out her wand and said. "Hot chocolate." Angel blushed when she realised that she hadn't been thinking and said what was on her mind, she shivered a bit more before concentrating this time.

"Herbivicus!" Angel did the wand movement and then she watched as the baby seed grow into a tree, it was amazing and it was very fast, she was glad she didn't grow old this fast. "I'll think I'll call you blan.." Angel sighed, she really needed to stop thinking about warm things, okay so she was shivering but still. "I'll think I'll call you Trunks." Angel smiled, she thought it was a cool name.

Repeating the incantation to herself was starting to feel like a tongue twister. Lily knew that it wouldn’t matter if she kept repeating it forever. She either knew it or she didn’t, and she started to wonder if her elm seed was feeling neglected. She hadn’t paid attention to it for a while, and half the rest of the class already had trees grown. She needed to actually attempt the spell. She just had to have confidence that she would be successful. It helped that a few of those who already had trees had planted elm seeds as well, too. It gave her a visual to help with her concentration. She could visualize her own tree growing now that she knew what it was supposed to look like.

Pointing her wand at her pot again, at the tiny spot where she knew her seed was resting under the still slightly damp soil, she imagined her tree sprouting and growing nice and tall. Flicking her wand at the seed, she cast the spell. “Herbivicus,” she said, her voice confident and calm. A tiny smile flickered on her face as a tiny little sapling grew almost immediately, continuing to shoot up quickly to the point she stepped back to avoid getting hit by a branch as her tree reached half her height. Soon enough, it was as tall as she was, and still growing. She slid her wand back into its holster as she waited for the growth to stop, just so she knew she wasn’t accidentally causing it to grow too tall. She’d let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding as her tree finally stopped, well over six feet in height, and reached out to stroke the trunk. It was a gorgeous tree, and she almost felt hugging would be too simple. She respected it too much.

So the next step was practising the incantation right? Only problem was, he couldn't remember it anymore. And he hadn't taken notes but he had different ways of finding things out. He leaned closer to his neighbour who luckily happened to be a Ravenclaw (Lily) because Ravenclaws were the nerds right? She was bound to have written at least some notes, and sure enough he found what he was looking for.

With a grin, he returned to his seat and decided to practise waving the wand movement first. He pointed it at the pot where the seed was and then made an upwards flick. He tried again to get the feel of it and when he was sure he wouldn't make any mistakes, he placed the wand on the table. But upon doing so, a sudden bright pink colored spark hit the pot and a second later... the pot had...pink circles on it. "Ewww!" he said in disgust. It looked like a girly flowery pot now...

Not knowing how to vanish the pink circles, he let them be. As he was also too stubborn to ask for help and practised muttering the incantation instead. "Herbi...Herbi...what?" The boy blinked a few times and listened to the others. "Herbivicus?...herbivicus!" he thought he got it.

Her seed was planted all nice and neat, and it even had a good shower. All that was needed now was to actually make the tree grow. Knowing her luck with actually making spells work for her, she was somewhat reluctant to start. She was not in the mood to struggle right now. Sucking in air, she looked at her wand as if silently communicating to it to get it together. Because it wasn't her fault that she struggled with spells.

"Herbivicus!" Her wand flicked, annnnnd nothing! Well, that was underwhelming. Story of her life. Concentration was a must yeah? Thinking of a huge growing tree AJ locked her eyes on her pot of soil. "Herbivicus!" This time she was sure that she saw something in the soil move, but no tree. Grrr...

She bent down and had her nose pressed inches away from the soil. "Look here seed... you are going to grow into a big and beautiful enchanting elm, AND you are going to like it... OR ELSE!" What the or else was, AJ wasn't exactly sure. If the seed wanted to try her though, she would figure something out. Threatening almost always worked, so now she expected results! "Herbivicus!" Flick. This time, the tree was growing. AJ was beaming from ear to ear. She was pretty sure that her tree was even bigger than Bentley's. EEP! That seed didn't want none! She patted the pot. "Good tree." It didn't deserve a hug.

After he was sure that he had the incantation right, Kevin grabbed his phoenix feather wand and pointed it at his girly flower pot. He flicked his wand and said "Herbivicus!" He waited...and waited...but the seed just stayed a seed. With a sigh, Kevin looked around to see students already having made a tree and he looked back down at his own pot.

"Herbivicus!" he tried again and this time something did happen. The seed suddenly turned in to a sapling and a second later his enchanted elm tree was growing in to the air. His eyes seemed to twinkle with excitment as he looked up towards the ceiling.

......Wait...hugging the tree? Kevin did not do hugs.

"Herbivicus!'' Adi said flicking his wand at the pot. He waited in anticipation for his seed to start growing but sadly nothing happened. Must need more concentration, Adi decided. 'Herbivicus!''

It was like watching a fast fowarded video; or something like a time lapse. All Adi saw was a little plant poking it self out of the soil and shooting up. Woah! This was so awesome! Soon, Adi was looking at a fully grown flesh eating plant. It needed a hug and a name, yes? "Um, I shall call you...Elmo!'' Elm...Elmo, get it? Hehe. "So Elmo. I'm going to give you a hug now.''

The Hufflepuff extended his hands around the plant, giving it a quick hug before backing away in case Elmo decided for some reason he was a tasty elf or something.

Annabeth got distracted with the others's trees. It was amazing! The room was becoming a forest! It wouldn't be wasting to turn all that trees on Bonsais? Anna shook her head, 'get away from me, bad thoughts! You made me lost two points!', she muttered to herself as she searched for her wand. It was at the right place on where she had left, 'what am I thinking? Wands hasn't legs!' she muttered again, smiling slightly.

"The incantation... Herbivicus, point the wand, a quick movement towards the seed. Anna, you can do it!" she said, her gaze fixed on the pot on where the Elm seed was laying. Aware of all her body, gripping her wand pointed to the pot, she flicked once her wand, saying the incantation, "Herbivicus!"

Her eyes widened as well as her mouth gaped, when the sapling emerged from the soil... growing... growing... til a tree. A huge tree. A lovely tree. Enchanting Elm, her wand's wood. The teacher had asked them to hug the tree... She didn't need to ask them to. Hugs were unavoidable. She threw her body against the tree, making it to oscillate slightly, and gave it a big hug, "Momma loves you, baby tree! Welcome to life!" Anna closed her eyes and remained tied to the tree until the teacher say the next step. Or an enchanted prince come to save her from this impossible love. Whichever came first.

Pat pat pat!

Soooooo now that his seed was planted, he needed to practice the spell that Bentley had mentioned before. Herbivicus. And the wand movement was............ Grayson glanced over at his journal. A flick. Simple enough. And it looked simple because some other people had managed to get their own Bonsai trees to grow.

Practice first.

He placed his wand down before clearing his throat. "Herbivicus......... herbivicus........... herrrrrbiiiiviiiiicussssss......... " Right? "Herbivicus...... her-bee-vi-cusssssss! Herbivicus...... herbivicus........ herbivicus......." How many times should he practice this? Was that enough? He was going to say so. Uh huh.

The flicking of his wand was easy as anything. Flick flick flick! See? Dead simple.

............. And what was this about hugging the tree?! What if they didn't want to?

Patting the soil once more just to make sure she was doing it properly, Beverly drew her wand out and directed it just over the pot ready to cast Aguamenti, but quickly paused. Wait. Was she supposed to cast water then cast the growth charm right away? That's how she'd seen Professor Bentley do. Maybe it could be done either way, BUT being the perfectionist she was, Beverly decided to practice the spell first. Her Elm would be gorgeous, yes it would and she wasn't about to mess it up.

The wand movement seemed pretty simple; a point and flick.

Point. Flick.

She did just that and grinned at her wand hand. Yes, yes, she had that part. Now for the incantation. "Her-bi-vi-cuuuus." Rhymed with mucus, no? "Heeer-biiii-viiii-cuuuus." Now she was feeling silly. She could pronounce it, you know. "Herbivicus!" THERE.

She HAD this.

Her seed was now ready to be watered and then the growth charm. Oh my Merlin! "Aguamenti!"

Thinking about hugging the tree was only making him scowl -- and he didn't even have a tree! -- so he was going to think about something else. Like actually performing the charm because he did want a tree of his own, thank you. Using that as determination -- what? It counted, right? -- Grayson took a deep breath, pointing his wand over at the pot and, more specifically, over at the place where he had placed his seed before. "Herbivicus!" he said, flicking his wand at the pot.

........ Wait.........

............ Wait.............

And nothing.

More scowling.

"Herbivicus!" No. "Herbivicus!" Again, no. Grayson leaned right over and looked down at the pot. WHY wasn't the seed growing? There wasn't something wrong with his wand, he knew that. But the seed had gone ahead and decided that it didn't want to freaking grow. Did it need some words of encouragement? Shame, he wasn't good at giving those. Kid was no cheerleader.

Leaning back, the Slytherin cleared his throat again and tried a different approach. Something about intent and whatnot. And imagining a tree to be there when he was done with the spell. "Herbivicus!" he said, flicking his wand at the pot. And then............

............... SUCCESS.

There was a raised eyebrow look of surprise on his face when the seedling emerged from the soil, which was then followed by a slow grin once the seedling grew into, you guessed it, a TREE. An actual TREE. A tall one, too. HEY there. "YES! Knew you could do it!" Or he knew that he could cast the spell correctly. Whatever worked.

And now there was time for that hug. The boy cringed internally before wrapping his arms around the tree and giving it an awkward hug. Because it was a plant. A freaking plant. And he didn't understand why this step was so necessary.

Once he was done, Grayson leant away and nodded at the tree. 'Sup.

After the watering her seed, the Slytherin stared at the pot for a bit. Granted, Herbology wasn't her strongest suit, but she had this. Plus, the spell they were performing was a charm and that fell under this Wayne's specialty areas. There was no reason to doubt. Pfft.

Let get this done. Hiiissss!

Taking in a deep breath to clear away her mind, Beverly ended up turning away from her pot and coughing. What. The. Hell. Was. That. She wasn't ill. BAH! It was this BLASTED cold. And it down right angered her because she couldn't control it. No one could control the weather. Rude gestures to you, Weather.

Deciding to NOT take calming breaths, Beverly focused on the matter at hand. Growth Charm. Boom. Plant. Okay, okay, here goes.

With a point and flick in the direction of the planted seed, she cast: "Herbivicus!"

Asldjfkjl! It was happening. With an alert gaze, Beverly watched as the Enchanted Elm grew and grew and grew. Yes! It worked. She did it! Pffft. She knew she would. She had a new precious.

And...she had to hug it. Erm...okay? Awkwardly, Beverly wrapped her arms around it and gave it a little pat. The sort she gave when Silver cried on her shoulder because of ruined shoes. It was awkward. Pulling away, it was evident in her face that was proud of her work, though.

Ian smiled at the professor. Thank you, ma'am. He went over and pulled another seed for the blackthorn out and headed back to his space. He made sure the hole he had poked into the soil was still there and placed the seed carefully inside it before covering it with some of the soil.

He took out his wand and placed it in the mouth of the pot to avoid spillage were he to fail at stopping his water spell. He intoned the word Aquamenti and very shortly after Finite! to cut off the water supply.

He listened and looked around some before continuing. He watched as other, more careful and successful students named their trees while hugging them. He hoped he'd have as much luck.

Agatha flicked her wand a couple more times, really irritated because she wasn't able to do the spell. She was going to be the only person to NOT have a full grown tree, apparently!!! UGH!! NO!!

"Herbivucus!! Herbivucus! Herbivucus!!!!" Woooooorkkk, THING!!! The girl kept flicking her wand like mad and it still WASN'T WORKING.

She stood up and glared down at the pot. Huffing, Agatha pointed her wand at the soil again. "Herbivucus!" WORK!!!!

...

GRRRRRR!

Angel was totally shivering and waiting for the Professor to say what they were doing next when she heard someone struggling. Angel hoped that the girl didn't mind if she helped her.

"You need to concentrate really hard." Angel said to the girl and then say the spell clearly. "Herbivucus!" Angel smiled. "If your struggling just break the spell down and then put it together." Angel looked at the girl. "Do you want to try now?" Angel beamed at the older student.

Marigold stared a bit at other people's progress, then decided to start practicing the spell. The incantation was Herbivicus, so she would say that a couple times first. "Herbivicus. Herbivicus," she enunciated clearly. She took her wand off the dirt, where it had been laying, then went through the wand movement veeeerrrrrry slowly until be had it memorized. Then she faced the dirt holding Bilbo.

Ready?

Ooh, planting her own tree! This excited Hazel. She used her gloved hand to scoop some soil into the pot. She only spilled a tiny bit, which fell to the floor. Whoops. She took a seed and carefully dug a small hole with her gloved index finger. She dropped the seed into the hole and covered it with a bit of soil. There! Now her plant was ready to grow. "Aguamenti!" she said, water raining down onto the little tree. She hoped she didn't drown it.

When Sophie had added a decent amount of potting mix to the point, she collected the seed she'd chosen at the beginning of class and put it in the pot. She remembered that once upon a time, she'd been told to add a little water at this point and then the rest once the remainder of the potting mix was added in. So Sophie flicked out her wand and aimed it into the pot.

"Aquamenti!" she said. She watched as the water poured into the pot, and when she was satisfied with the amount, she ended the spell with "Finite!" Then she collected the potting mix and added enough in to fill the remainder of the spot. When that was done, she flicked out her wand a second time.

"Aguamenti!" she said. When she was done watering the plant, she paused, trying to remember the spell in her mind.

He aimed his wand for the buried seed and gave it a flick, once...and then a second time. "Herbivicus." It sounded like a name to him. Herbivicus, you'd better get in here Puddlemere is about to score. Or...You owe us all an explanation, Herbivicus.

Was that Happygoody with a hint of frustration to her voice?


"Having trouble, Hapgood?" He asked smoothly.

Obviously.

"It's herbivicus." He said as if he were an glaring fact. Not that his own accent didn't cause a few trip ups every now and again from an incantation or another. "Vick-us. Like, viscous but replace the second consonant with a 'k'."

...

The spell came to Sophie's mind, and she mentally reviewed the incantation and wand movement. Herbivicus, she said in her mind. Herbivicus. Then...what was the wand movement again? She'd just had this fresh in her mind! ARGHHHH. Thinking...thinking...thinking...

Oh. It was just a flick, right? Right. She knew that...

"Herbivicus!" Sophie said aloud. "Herbivicus." She paused then retrieved her wand. She flicked it forward, which she was pretty sure she didn't need to practice. Oh, well. She did that anyway. "Herbivicus!" she said again for good measure.

Okay, time to do this for real.

He stepped away temporarily to let Agatha practice her incantation and try it one more time himself. "Herbivicus!" Flick.

Was that working? Cutty didn't see anything. No sign of movement beneath the dirt. He lifted his wand to the spot once more. "Herbiv..", then he saw it. A wiggling that suggested a surfacing earthworm heralded in the seedling which continued growing and growing and growing until it was almost, but not quite the same height as his teacher's. Maybe if he'd been thinking less about how it sounded like a name, he'd had a much taller tree. He liked watching the thing grow. It looked powerful and unstoppable.

A large smile was worn on his face without shame as he tree settled into place. He flung his arm around the trunk of the tree in a one-armed buddy hug thinking about the way he'd use him, cause they were buddies. And that was apparently okay with Cutty.

With her wand in her hand, Sophie looked down at the pot. What if her spell failed, and the tree shot out the pot way faster than it was meant to, and suddenly there was a huge oak tree in the room? That would be her luck...

So she just continued staring at the pot for a little bit as she gripped her wand in her hand. Okay, time to do this... Staring wouldn't get her credit for this class, after all. Sophie did one more quick review in her mind then raised her wand to the pot.

"Herbivicus!" she said, picturing a fully grown plant before her. Hopefully one not too short or too tall, but one just right. She flicked her wand at the pot. It seemed like there a burst, or maybe that was just Sophie, but after that, there was a fully grown plant before her.

"Whoa," she said aloud. So that's what an Enchanting Elm looked like...

Agatha had stopped waving her wand around like mad and was about to think of other ways to try the spell when a TINY LITTLE GIRL came to help her. What was she, a first year????? Agatha... being helped by a first year!! And to make it all worse, a Gryffindor. Urgh...

She gave the little girl a hard stare but didn't shoo her away. "That's what I'm doing." The Slytherin snapped. "Herbivucus." She flicked her wand towards the pot again and nothing happened. Again.

Before she could say anything to the sassy little Gryffindor, Cutty spoke up and told her she was saying it wrong. Oh. Agatha felt her cheeks and forehead burning a bit as they were probably turning red. "Right." She replied to her housemate and turned away from both of them. That was your cue to go away, little girl, and for you to carry on with your business, Cutty. Hm.

"Herb--" What was that again? "Herbivicus." ?? Oh yes, the wand movement. Flick. "Herbivicus." The girl said firmly, staring at the soil in the pot in front of her. A couple of seconds later the soil started moving and it freaked Agatha out a bit, and she stepped back just in time for the tree to start growing like mad. Did she have to do anything to stop it??? MERLIN, it was MASSIVE AND-- it stopped.

Good.

.... Oh Merlin.... she made a student cry.

............

......

She was officially a terrible terrible person.


As a result of this, among other things, Seren took to taking turns about the room. Pausing to watch students and their progress, but not really seeing.. she was essentially lost to her thoughts.

It was only as trees started sprouting left right and centre, that she came to, and with a short shake of her head, and a smile back in place, she continued on. Observing.

"Wonderful, wonderful! We're half way there," she informed excitedly.

Heading back to her position at the head of the table, Seren clapped her hands together in an effort to capture their attention, and continued with the lesson.

"As Kyroh had asked not long ago, Bonsai is the art of growing dwarf ornamental trees and shrubs, and while they don't serve to have a proper practical application, they do make for charming companions and are great for homes that are too small to cater for their bigger counterparts." Clearly not as useless as Annabeth had thought. Hmph.

"The transformation to Bonsai, is a permanent one, and the change cannot be reversed... however, particularly when coupled with the Herbivicus Charm, their longevity is guarenteed ... not to say you don't need to care for them, you do, but they are likely to live much longer than even you."

"The incantation for the Bonsai Charm is, Parveus Minori Minimus .... which is quite a mouthful, so you want to make sure you get it right. Mispronunciation may result in unevenly sized branches."

And with that in mind, a demonstration wouldn't go astray, "Take for example, my Alder..." she started, wand drawn out and pointed at the tree. "With your incantation, you will require focus, and the wand movement calls for three small anti-clockwise circles.... like so." Together with the incantation, "Parveus Minori Minimus," and the wand movement of three small anti-clockwise circles, she executed the charm. The tree, as quickly as it had grown to full size, shrunk - along with its pot - until it became diminutive in stature, though still handsome and fully grown.

"See," she indicated, holding it up in her hands for all to see. "Now it's your turn. Practice the incantation, practice the wand movement... the charm will only work on flora, so if you spot a weed anywhere feel free to practice on that first." And for their benefit, she tapped the board with her wand to ensure the appropriate information was there for them.


OOC: This is the last phase of the lesson. Again you're looking at approx 3 posts. 1- practicing the incantation 2- practicing the wand movement 3- execution of charm. I will unreachable in approx 16-17 hours as I'll be FLYING to Italy, but will continue checking in once I land. I will leave this activity open until Saturday morning ITALIAN time, whatever that is. I will post Bentley in the next 12 hours dismissing people so please don't 'leave' before then. Thank you!