Before he could get a chance to hug Gandalf again, Professor Bentley was telling them about the next step. Ooh boy. He picked up his quill and began to scribble more notes down about the bonsai and its importance. So first they had to practice the Bonsai Charm. "Par-ve-us.. Minori-whaa?" said Simon at first when he squinted at his notes. "Mini-mus. Minimus. Sweet Merlin, that was a very long incantation. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to try saying the incantation again. "Par-ve-us Min-ori Minimus... Parveus Minori Minimus". Perfect. Now he had that done, he had to practice the wand movement.

Jasmine picked up her quill and turned to a fresh page in her notebook. Then she wrote down all of the information related to transforming a tree into a Bonsai, including the instructions for performing the spell.

Professor Bentley's Bonsai was so cute and Jasmine couldn't wait to try the spell on her Charlie. The incantation was a mouthful though, and she knew that she would really have to practice to get it right. No time like the present, Jasmine thought. She started repeating the incantation by breaking it down into syllables. "Par-ve-us Mi-nor-i Min-i-mus, Par-ve-us Mi-nor-i Min-i-mus." Jasmine said the words a few more times before she felt like she had gotten the hang of it, sort of.

Now she tried smoothing out the syllables to make the actual words. "Parveus Minori Minimus, Parveus Minori Minimus." Trying the incantation that way several times, Jasmine felt that he was ready to move on to the next step.

This seemed like fun, and Lux enjoyed Herbology a lot, but why did Professor Bentley expect her to be able to pronounce such a convoluted incantation? Staring at the blackboard for a moment, the Honorary Lion blinked before shaking herself out of it.

She could do this.

Totally.

It was all a matter of breaking the spell down until she could get the feel of the different words. "Parveus Minori Minimus." Ugh, horrible! "Par-veus Min-ori Mini-mus." Definitely better! "Par-veus Min-ori Mini-mus... Par-veus Min-ori Mini-mus... Par-veus Min-ori Mini-mus..." With each go through, Lux felt more and more confident until she was sure that she finally had it perfectly.

Dima didn't very much understand any of what Mo said, but he wasn't sure if that was just him or EVERYONE in the class.

Most likely everyone.

Obviously, the first year had shied AWAY from the flesh-eating option, going with a simple Blackthorn seed. He gave his notes a quick look over before heading over to one of the barrows with the potting soil in it. His pot came along with him, and Dima filled each one up to the halfway point before making a small hole. Next, he dropped the unborn tree inside of it and gently replaced the soil.

"Aguamenti." YEAH. He KNEW that spell now. Letting in just enough to moisten his soil thoroughly, Dima cast a quick "Finite," to end the spell.

Did it need a name? It needed a name.

Agatha was glad she had a proper tree now, just like everybody else. She hated to admit she had to be corrected, but at least it had been Cutty and he wasn't so bad. That had been right on time, too, as professor Bentley just called their attention and gave more instructions. The third year turned around and watched the demonstration, ignoring as best as she could the fact that her Bonsai was surely going to have unevenly sized branches.

Professor Bentley's Bonsai was perfect! Agatha wanted hers to look like that. Were they going to keep it? That would look lovely next to her bed. She'd have to find a way for her cat not to destroy it too.

The Slytherin's eyes went to the board as more words appeared. They were meant to practise the incantation first, so she mouthed each word as she read it in her head. 'Parveus Minorus Minums.'

She pursed her lips and tried again. 'Parveus Minuri- Minoori Li--' What? 'Min...imus.' Agatha's head started to throb a bit at this point. She took her hand to her temple and pressed it a little, squinting her eyes to see if that would help her read better. 'Parveus Min...ori Minimus.'

"Parveus..............Minori.............Mininums. " So much for getting it right at 'first'. The girl rubbed her temple for a second and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Pervus Minori Minums. Minimuns." She couldn't even tell if that was right anymore. Sighing in frustration, the girl put her wand down and gave her Enchanted Elm a tired, almost upset look.

He was supposed to practice the spell next. But he didn't REALLY have to practice the wand movement, right? Flicking was for BABIES. Dima Toussaint could flick like a pro! It was required for the most basic of spells, and he was one hundred percent sure he had it down pat.

So the kid moved on to the incantation rehearsal. "Her-bi-vi-cus." It was pretty easy to break down, as long as the first year didn't get too tongue-tied on the middle two syllables. "Herbivicus. Herbivicus. Herbivicus."

And then Dima drew his wand out of his robes and gave it a flick just for good measure. NOW could he cast?

Sigh. Whatever. She didn't care. Who needed a stupid little tree anyway. Not Agatha. Hmph.

She frowned as she reread the instructions on the board and half heartedly started doing the wand movement. Thank Merlin for ballet lessons; the only reason she could tell clockwise from anti-clockwise. If she failed at that too she would have headbutted her own Enchanted Elm. And Merlin knew how much that would hurt. Hmph.

Agatha did what felt like millions of small anti-clockwise circles with her wand as she looked unenthusiastically at her classmates working. Some of them look oh-so-happy and excited she could slap the back of their heads to stop them from being so giddy. It was just a plant. How boring was that? Who would want to have a silly little plant in their room? Agatha wouldn't. Hmph.

Of course, it was a smart thing to review your notes before casting a spell. Trying to be thorough, Dima did that before he attempted any growing spell of his own. Concentration... was supposed to be easy. Intent was a important in magic, he knew, but he also had LOTS of it. The kid very much intended for it to work, so it would... right? He just had to BELIEVE. Imagine his little Blackthorn seed growing into a big, strong tree and believe.

He HAD this.

Dima gave a small flick, but it seemed to be more of a swish. His pronunciation was spot on, though. "Herbivicus!" Due to his lacking movement, his seed didn't do much of anything. Frowning to himself, the eagle raised his wand to try again. Persistence. That was important in spell casting, too.

"Herbivicus!" Another flick. That earlier movement practice he'd opted to skip out on would have paid off at that moment, but the second try was the charm for him today. A shoot sprouted from the dirt of his pot, stretching and thickening as it grew. Into a TREE. Dima had made a TREE!

Angel decided that she was going to ignore the rude Slytherin, she had tried to help but now someone else was helping her which was good. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" Angel was sure that she could say that. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" Angel beamed yes she had got that down, which was cool, but she would try again soon. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" Angel looked at her wand, now it was time to practice the wand movement because she knew how to say the spell.

Once she actually had a tree to call her own, Lily had started wondering if it was required to name it. It seemed like everyone else was, but then, maybe her tree didn’t need a name. Maybe it already had one, and she just didn’t know what it was. It might be an insult if she gave it a name that it didn’t like. It was all a little panic inducing to her, but then Professor Bentley had spoken and given her something to focus on. Even though the spell seemed a lot more complicated than the Herbivicus spell had been, that made sense. It should have been simpler to get a plant to grow than it would to make it tiny, at least in the proper way. She’d made sure to scribble down the new set of notes that had appeared on the blackboard, anyway, before attempting anything else.

Okay, she thought. Time to practice, especially since she wouldn’t want to mess up and damage the beauty of her tree. If she’d been worried that the wrong name would hurt it, being shrunk irregularly definitely would. Therefore, she needed to make absolutely sure she was ready before trying to cast. There didn’t exactly seem to be any weeds in the room to test the spell out on first, after all. Therefore, she’d have to be perfect. “Parveus Minori Minimus,” she murmured. “Par-ve-us Mi-nor-i Min-i-mus,” she repeated, separating the syllables just to make sure they sounded right. It sounded like it had when the professor had demonstrated, anyhow. “Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus.” It wouldn’t hurt to practice the incantation a few more times.

Angel was totally enjoying herself now, she couldn't wait to try these spells on flowers at her home, but she knew that was ages away as of this moment she had to try and get the wand movement exactly right, she knew it was three small anti-clockwise circles and so she decided to practice the wand movement a few times, she wanted to make sure she was 100% confident before she used the spell.

She looked at the Slytherin girl she had been helping earlier and smiled. "Are you okay now?" Angel really wanted to show her head of house how much she loved Herbology.

Jasmine was ready to practice the wand movement. She really wanted to get this spell right. Raising her wand, she moved its in three anti-clockwise circles. One, two, three. Remembering that they were supposed to be small circles, she tried again. One two, three. Did style points count? Jasmine didn't know, but she tried to make her anti-clockwise circles as tight and even as possible. She figured that she should practice the wand movement several more times because.........more was better than less, right. Finally Jasmine felt ready to put the two parts together.

Parveus Minori Minimus. Ethan just deadpanned when Professor Bentley said the words, and performed it on her tree. Without wasting more time, he got his muggle pencil and notebook and wrote the spell down in big, bold letters. This spell is irreversible, so he better get this right, or else…Roberta will suffer. No. He will not allow that to happen.

Holding up his notebook, he read the spell over and over again. “Parveus…Minori…Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus.” Ethan closed his eyes and pictured the words in his head in an attempt to memorize it. “Pareveus…Minimus?...no. Parveus…something.” Merlin, this is hard, okay? Ethan rolled his shoulders and recited the spell out of his notebook again. “Parveus. Minori. Minimus.” And repeat. “Parveus…Minori…as in Minor…Minimus…as in minimum. Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus.”

This will take him ages to get the incantation right. Mhm.

Angel had her incantation and her wand movement down, now all she had to do was to make sure she said it correctly together, she decided she would put everything together now.

"Parveus Minori Minimus!" Angel smiled as she did the three small anti-clockwise circles and watched as her plant and pot went smaller. "Professor this spell is awesome." Angel was really enjoying herself, now all she had to do was see if her sister was okay or if she needed any help, plus she wanted to make sure that third year was okay with her work.

She had a tree!!! Did everyone see it? AJ had done it! The moment passed quickly though because Bentley was moving on. The first year turned her listening ears on once more and her mouth dropped open a bit when the next incantation came out of the professor's mouth. Parveus Minori whaty?

Blinking a few times, she had to wait until the words were put on the board. How do you pronounce that again? This was going to be fun. She looked around the room to see if anybody else was having problems. Holy Guacamole... people were done.

On that note, AJ went straight to trying to pronounce the word. Parveus Minori Minimus. That's what the board said anyways. "Parveus." Pause. "Minori." Pause. "Minimus." More pausing. "Parveus Minori Minimus." AJ was pretty sure that it was coming out all wrong so she said it over and over again until she felt somewhat confident about it. She had to move on... people were done.

Jasmine knew that concentration was very important in getting this spell to work correctly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, hoping to focus her mind on the task at hand. Jasmine visualized Charlie shrinking to a miniature size, just like Professor Bentley had demonstrated. When she had the picture locked in her mind, she raised her wand.

"Parveus Minori Minimus", Jasmine said while moving her wand in three anti-clockwise circles. She watched with amazement as Charlie shrunk before her eyes. When the shrinking was done, he was the cutest little mini-Blackthorn bonsai ever. Jasmine couldn't wait to take her bonsai tree back to her dorm. She knew just where she would put him.

Cutty was staring at his Alder. It would live longer than he would. There had to be a way to tap into that. Some cheat sheet equivalent to the philosopher's stone. If he could find a way to unlock that, he figured he could probably stand to gain quite a bit in monetary value.

"Parveus. Minori. Minimus." He practiced the incantation in clipped tones. "Minori...Minori...Parveus...Parveus." PMinMus. How hard could that be to remember?

Maaaaaybe she should spend some more time on saying the incantation, but she decided to move on to the wand movement now. It was three circles. It really couldn't be that hard. Of course she had thought that before too, and come to find out those little flicks or circles are very important indeed. Even if she managed to get the incantation out perfectly, bad wand work would equal no results. No results equaled a not so happy first year. AJ didn't even have any chocolate on her so there would be absolutely no chance of cheering her up.

Circles. She needed to make circles. The lion swirled her wand around three times, and then noticed that she was doing it the WRONG way. Who could mess up circles? Apparently AJ Valentine could. SEE, this was the exact thought process that she just went through. She had gotten cocky, and went to wrong direction. Imagine if that would have been while she was actually doing the spell. Thoughts of a forest fire came back to her mind. She eyed Bentley. If only the woman knew what was going on in her little eleven year old head. The moral of the story is that you were NEVER big enough to not practice circles. Remember that kids!

This time AJ practiced the three small circles going counter clockwise. She could follow directions. The brunette did it three more times for good measure... she was only thinking of the trees. Here's to hoping that she would be able to put the circles and super long word together and make something happen. She noticed Angel out of the corner of her eye and was amazed that she was already done, and that she didn't even have any trouble. What was this world?

Ian was content his attempt to water the plant had been successful and so it was time for him to make it grow. He took a step back and pointed his wand in the direction of the soil and spoke the incantation Herbivicus! He was rather pleased to see the haunting loveliness of the blackthorn before him. He was so overcome with excitement he went to the tree and hugged it tightly. It was such a lovely tree. He really hated to make it smaller, but then he would have the chance to keep it with him. Fabulous! he said out loud to himself.

He decided he needed to work on the verbiage of the next spell. He would hate to ruin such a perfect tree by making it awful and disproportionate. He stepped away from the tree and admired it a bit longer before speaking the words. He decided he would start with one word at a time. PARVIUS....PARVIUS....PARVIUS. Content he'd mastered that word, he worked on the next. MINORI....MINORI....MINORI That was a fun word to say. mee..no..ree...he began to do a little dance in a tight circle as he said the word quickly in succession minoriminoriminoriminoriminori... After a bit of time however he got a bit dizzy and nearly fell over his tree. He used the trunk to balance for a moment as he regained his balance and looked sheepishly about the room to see if anyone had noticed his silliness. Odd that he was being so silly. He wasn't normally so. he thought to himself.

He looked back at the board for the last word. He cleared his throat and spoke the last word Minimus! Minimus! Minimus! This really was amusing as he imagined a mini moose prancing about amongst a bonsai forest. How interesting that would be. Would there be mini moose calls as families sought one another amongst the tiny trees? He began to make moose calls as he imagined it. Mooooooose! he said in rich notes with a 13 year old boys voice. This class was rather fun.

The boy's hand was outstretched and it cracked at the wrist with a faint and soft popping sound as he turned and wound it. It seemed a fast and accurate, the wand motion portion of the spell did and so he thought it best to limber up his wand hand. He drew out his wand with his left hand and passed it over to his right. Once, Twice, Three times around in a small anti-clockwise motion. He paused and then tried it again considering as he did so that surely the idea to tap into trees for longevity and youth had been thought up before. Maybe someone had even tried it...and failed. But, if they had left notes on their research it wouldn't be hard to access them, study them and see where they had gone wrong and avoid making the same mistake.

One, two, three times around anti-clockwise.

Adi listened to Professor Bentley go on about Bonsai while he jotted down notes. Gosh. That incantation sounded like a complicated one. He wondered vaguely how long it would take him to get it right. Hopefully it won't be long. Right. He was finished making notes. Time to get to work.

''Parweus...not it's Parveus.'' Oh great. he was already having trouble with the incantation. "Parveus, Parveus, Parveus, Parveus, Parveus.'' Now to try the whole thing. ''Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveus Minori Minimus.'' Well, that wasn't so bad. This part of the activity was mercifully under control.

Professor Bentley had mentioned that the spell would only work on flora and that they could practice it on any weeds they should find. But the plants were, for having been carted about in an emergency cold front, in remarkably good shape. He'd be hard pressed to find...hang on!

Sticking out from behind a pointy sort of fern was a little white fluff ball headed dandelion. NOBODY MOVE! HE SAW IT FIRST!

His wand whipped around in small even anti-clockwise circles as he passed a bummed-out looking Agatha Hapgood. He did not seem to notice her as he kept his eyes fixed on the dandelion, but he did see her. She did not like Herbology OR Herbology did not like her. Cutty saw this as a challenge to the house cup, which he only cared about in terms of what else it could get him. But he liked challenges and he could work with Happygoody.

He flicked his wand at the dandelion and said, "Geminio!" Immediately after his wrist wound into three anti-clockwise circular motion as his mouth wrapped around, "Parveus Minori Minimus!". After one of the duplicated dandelions diminished, the other was plucked out by his hand and placed before Agatha Hapgood. She knew what to do.

With the confidence brought on by having seen the spell work first-hand, Cutty wound his wrist in the circular anti-clockwise direction whilst speaking the incantation once more. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" He said casting directly at his alder tree. At around the same speed at which it had grown, the elder tree retreated to a much smaller size.

Grayson had half a mind to keep the plant this size. It was BIG. And the part of him that wanted to keep it this size only wanted to do so because of how big it was. He didn't want a tiny plant, thank you. Besides, he liked how it looked, even if it wasn't a carnivorous plant. It was his wand wood plant and that was nearly as cool.

Nearly.

The other part of him was currently reminding him that his mum wouldn't be impressed if he went back home with a large plant that attracted far too many flies.

Shame.

And yes, that spell really was a mouthful. Parveus Minori Minimus. Parveeeeeeeus Minoriiiiii Minimuuuuusssss! It was probably a good thing that there were weeds nearby that he could practice on. That was going to happen. Uh huh.

But first, he needed to try and pronounce the hard spell. "Parveus. Minori. Minimus." Slowly. One word at a time. "Parveus..... parveus...... parveus......... parveus...... parveus......." His wand was kept on the table for the time being. "Minori...... minori....... minori...... minori...... minoriiiiiii!" Good? Good. "Minimus...... minimus....... minimus!" Out of the three words, that last one was probably the easiest to pronounce.

Kace was pleased to see that everyone was growing their trees. He was happy and named his Ferb. It was a nice name that suited his tree. Plus it was Emmy's suggestion and he took it. Now onto the next assignment. He stared at the blackboard and it copied it down.



Now that spell was a mouthful! How was he gonna pronounce that. He broke it down. "Par-ve-us...Min-ori...Mini-mus" Alright not too bad. Now let's see if he could put it together. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" He smiled and was glad he got it down. Now let's see if he can do it a couple more times without getting tongue tied.

"Parv.....parv....eus.....eus...Parveus!" he got the first part. "Min....in...ori....Mini....mus!" Wohoo!! "

"Parveus Minori Minimus........Parveus Minori Minimus.......Parveus Minori Minimus.....Parveus Minori Minimus.....Parveus Minori Minimus...." It seemed he got it down now onto doing the wand movement!

AJ was just about to work her magic when the sound of somebody saying the spell funny nearby caught her attention. Looking over to see who it was, she saw a familiar face. "You okay?" It wasn't every day that you got to see somebody almost fall over a tree they had made. It was amusing, but AJ managed to keep her giggles under wraps.

Turning her attention back to her own tree, she cleared her throat. "Parveus M..." she was cut short though by the moose calling. Not able to control herself this go round, AJ busted out laughing. She didn't even have to look to know that it was coming from Ian. That voice matched the voice that was just saying the spell funny. "Hey, maybe you can shape your tree into a moose." Maybe all you had to do was say moose after the spell and moosey things would happen.

She needed to focus. It totally wasn't her fault that Ian was so funny though. What he was doing was far more interesting that what she was currently doing. Ahem. "Parveus Minori Minimus." she cried with the correct wand movement too! Nothing. Why was it ALWAYS nothing?

Hopefully the next try would be the last one. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" It looked liked it moved somewhat, but clearly not enough. Did it need another talking to? Were the threats already forgotten. She gave the tree a look. The tree would know what was up. "Parveus Minori Minimus!" she cried with THE look still on her face. Counter clockwise circular motions happened, and the tree shrunk. It worked! She had to resist the urge to jump up and down! She looked over at Ian. Did he need any help with his moose problem now that she was all freed up?