The rocks stopped falling, and the cloud was just a cloud once again. Sophie had messed up twice now. Would the third time be the charm? She decided to pause and mentally review things. The incantation was Stiricidium Nubila. She said that to herself a few times. Stiricidium Nubila. Stiricidium Nubila. Stiricidium Nubila.

Then the wand movement was a counter-clockwise swirling motion while pointing at the cloud. That was easy enough. She should be able to do this. Sophie drew in a deep breath then pointed her wand toward the cloud. "Stiricidium Nubila!" she said. She turned her wand in a counter-clockwise swirling motion. A few seconds later, a light flake landed on her nose. It was SNOWING. It wasn't enough, though, so she'd have to get stronger with her spell. At least there was progress!

The snow was now coming down hard, so Cris decided to end the spell and try again, just to make sure that he would have no problems doing it on demand, when Professor Bellaire asked them to. Saying, "Finite" he watched the snow flakes stopped falling and the cloud begin to grow whiter and deflate again.

And then he focused his attention on brining up the image of a snow cloud again, with snow clouds falling from it. Holding that image in his mind, he raised his wand and pointed it up at the sky. Holding his wrist as steady as possible, he moved his wand in a counter clockwise swirling motion while saying the words to the incantation, "Stiricidium Nubila," clearly and with determination.

Cris watched as the cloud grew darker again as it began to swell vertically upwards. It got even more chilly overhead....and then it began to snow.

Nice beautiful snow flurries.

Alright so the professor seemed to be a bit busy with other students. While he was waiting, he would try again. He got the spell down he thought. It was Stiricidium Nubila. It was a mouthful to say that is for sure. He cleared his mind and began to concentrate. He tuned out all the sounds from the other students. He took a deep breath and said and did the clockwise wand movement and said, "Stiricidium Nubila!!" and then he saw a snow cloud. He hoped it was rain snow. But what was coming out of the cloud was rain.

Aggh....he was SO close. He was nearly there!

Caleb had never felt so FRUSTRATED in Transfiguration before. He had no idea why he wasn't getting this hang of this stupid cloud spell. His cloud had basically just gotten a bit bigger and fluffier, but that was it. No snow, no nothing. Not even a huge rainstorm to signal that he was WAY off or anything. At least if that happened, he'd know that he was at least doing SOMETHING, even if it was totally wrong!

Maybe he was getting into his head too much. So, Caleb took a deep breath and took a break for a few minutes. He had practiced it and was sure he was saying it right, everyone else around him was saying it the same way and THEY were getting somewhere. So it had to be his confidence. His confidence was wayyy down. Yes, that was it!

Clearing his throat after a few minutes, he decided he was ready to give it a go again. Pointing overhead at his little cloud, he moved his wand in a counter clockwise motion and muttered "Stiricidium Nubila!" as he did so. He really focused on his wand, imagining the snow falling down as he moved it in circles.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, he felt something...damp falling on his hair. It was snow! Not a LOT of snow, just a few snowflakes, but it was SOMETHING. FINALLY!

Even as Cris was congratulating his success at another productive snow cloud, he noticed a younger Slytherin boy, successfully make snow fall from his snow cloud. Leaning over he whispered to him, "Congratulations on your snow cloud. You have that snow falling nicely."

Yes he was making small talk, even thought it was with someone he didn't know in person but had seen a lot in the classes he had already attended.

Angel was getting her cloud to work. "You're doing great, Angel!"

This time she would get it right. Penelope did not need anything else to go wrong. It was bad enough that she was wet and had feathers stuck to her. Making sure to do the wand movement correctly and speak clearly, Penelope tried the spell on her cloud again. "Stiricidium Nubila!" This time, her cloud got a little bit bigger, and a few tiny snowflakes came out of her cloud. Not quite there yet, but getting better.

Angel smiled at Penelope. "I'm sure you can do it." Angel beamed and then some snowflakes came out of her cloud. "Awesome, that is so cool" Angel beamed as she watched it and then decided to do some more with her own.

"Finite." Angel beamed as she watch her cloud stop and then she did the incantation and said the incantation, "Stiricidium Nubila!" Angel concentrated really hard and then smiled as more snowflakes came out of her cloud, she was totally happy about this.

Seriously. It’s either his cloud will not produce snow, or shower him with things unmercifully. MERLIN. That cloud is just…pssh. No words, really. Ethan had to wade through to get out of his snow mound and eyed his result. Not bad, to be honest…but he was sure that the cloud could produce normal snow just like everyone else, and not a snowstorm. Jeez. His moody cloud reminded him of someone very dear.



The Slytherin patted his mound and sat on it comfortably facing the older boy. “Very moody, indeed. I have no idea how we ended up with those.” He said as he looked at his cloud suspiciously. “Looking at the bright side though, in the end, it’ll be easier for us to manipulate this thing because it’s being picky and such right now, yeah?” Practice makes their spellwork a whole lot better. So there’s that. “Just think about it. Challenging clouds will make us masters when we’re done with this class.” Hehehe. Manipulating clouds with ease? Oh yessir!

Ethan shrugged and crossed his arms across his chest as he watched the older Slytherin. “Yeah, show that thing who is BOSS.” Nod nod. It is his cloud anyway, and he has full control over it. Go on, older boy. Command it to snow. Ethan however, chuckled at his comment. His cloud was scared of him? “I don’t know mate. It’s more of…it’s mad at me for being too forceful. Look.” He said as he patted both of his snow mounds. “At least I got what I wanted. So I win.” Yeah? Yeaaaaaaah!

And…and…le gasp and stuff! Lookit! Snowflaaaaaaaakes falling on the dude’s face!

“You’re almost there! All right!” Ethan cheered his fellow Slytherin and offered his hand for a high five. Now…where is that girl (Marigold) who was looking at them? Did she see his mate’s snowflakes? He wins, yo!

Hohoho! :3

Around her, there were people who were ACTUALLY getting their cloud to SNOW. Hmph. Norah inspected her wand, but it looked as normal as a magic stick can look. But what was going wrong? She faced her cloud with a look of grim determination and brandished her wand like a sword. She WOULD get this time, yep. "Stiricidium Nubila!" Norah said forcefully, waving her wand in the motion the Professor had indicated previously. She screwed up her eyes and thought of every cold, snowy thing she could imagine. Her eyes flew open when she felt some cold substance on the back of her neck, and looking up excitedly she saw a thin trail of snowflakes falling from her cloud which was now dark grey. ITWORKEDITWORKEDITWO- wait. The cloud had suddenly been reduced in size, and the idle snowflakes that had been floating from her cloud were lost in a downpour of rain. MORE rain? SIGH. Was transfiguration always this frustrating?

Marigold eyed the boy with a bit of jealousy and distaste. She would get it this time, though. Now worried. "Stiricidium Nubila!" She screwed up her eyes in concentration aaaand.... Woah. She watched in wonder as her cloud slowly started emitting soft bursts of white snow. She beamed, then turned to the boy again. HAHAHAHAHA.

This was getting crazy, everywhere he looked students were getting it wrong and sending down crazy things…. first he had birds and then rocks.. he just wished he could get it right. giving it another shot he sighed and took out his wand did the wand movements and said "Stiricidium Nubila" closing his eyes he didn't want to see what was coming at him… then some wet stuff hit his nose and he peeked open an eye to see that he had done it.

it was snowing and his cloud was grey.. maybe third time was the charm. Stopping the snow he said "Finite" now he would just practice the incantation some more in his head to get it right.

Stiricidium Nubila. Okay Toby, you got this. Stiricidium Nubila. Stiricidium Nubila.

Toby looked up at his cloud as he held his wand out, ready to cast the spell. He did the anti-clockwise swirling motion with his wand, glancing at it to make sure his aim was right, and then looked back up again as he spoke the incantation.

"Stiricidium Nubila."

..........

......................... nothing.

Okay well, that was to be expected. Toby had never got a Transfiguration spell right on his very first try; it was a steady process. He squinted up at his cloud, trying really hard to ignore everyone else in the room and become distracted, and attempted to recall as much as he could from what they'd taught at primary school about the weather and everything. Precipitation. That.

After a few moments of staring straight up at his cloud, Toby suddenly nodded once to himself and tried again.

"Stiricidium Nu- oops."

Gloves made things so much more difficult. As Toby had attempted to do the swirling wand moved, his grip on the polished hazel of his wand slipped due to his wool gloves, and went spinning out of his hand. He watched it fly through the various weather settings in the classroom and clatter to the ground, and quickly went after it so he could carry on practicing.

Caleb was happy that he'd at least gotten a BIT of snow out of his cloud, but he knew he'd have to keep going and practicing if he wanted to get full credit and really master the spell.

He started off with the wand movement first, moving in a counter clockwise above his head. "Stiricidium Nubila!" he exclaimed as he moved his wand. This time, a few more fluffy flurries came down, dusting his hair and making him look like he had a serious case of dandruff but that was ok! Success! THAT was what mattered.

Adelaide grinned, looking at her cloud. She was going to get this spell down before she left the lesson today. Sure it was a lot to shoot for, the first time doing a spell. But she almost always had them by the end of the class. Then just tiny problems after. Guess you could say she was just good with her wandwork.

Adelaide pointed her wand up at the cloud and did the counter clockwise motion. "Stiricidium Nubila!" ...and tiny little flurries were all that fell from the cloud. No more hail. No giant flakes like she was hoping for, but flurries were better than hail.

Oh she made it snow, all right. Ethan grinned at the girl and pointed at his own cloud. Time to avenge, his older housemate! Hihihi. The Slytherin pointed his wand confidently at his cloud and did the proper wand movement. "STIRICIDIUM NUBILA!"

Snowstorm.

"Finite." Still not the proper snowfall he was hoping for, but he made it snow. And a snowstorm, nonetheless. Can she do that?

Okay.

Fine.

He still needs to practice more, hmmkay? But snowstorm. Heh. How wicked is that?

Bree was a bit hesitant to try a spell like this because being just a firstie and snow probably being rain or worse on her first go. Still she knew she was never going to get anywhere in magic if she did not take risks and keep trying no matter what. Bree took her wand out and pointed it at her cloud and said hesitantly, "Stirictium Nubilo", her cloud started expand a little. She looked up hopefully at it and then heard something strange like chirping, huh. Little blue birds started to fall from her cloud fly about around her. She chuckled a little as she looked around at the cute little birds. Well, its certainly not right but they are really cute. Sadly I must end this spell and try again, awe. Bree raised her wand said, "finite", The birds stopped raining from her cloud and rest of the birds disapeard and she could try again a fresh.

"Luck of the draw." It was true! The clouds were freaking idiots and they had to be the ones stuck with them. And then this boy was looking at the BRIGHT SIDE? What was he, a Hufflepuff? Grayson's blue eyes landed on the kid and he raised an eyebrow. He had a point, there was no point denying that. And then there was smirking. Full. On. SMIRKING. He liked the sound of manipulating it very much. "Uh huh. And it'll be easier to manipulate other types of clouds too." The idea of being masters of this class did a lot of things for the fourth year's ego. Really. "Looks like the clouds have to watch out then."

"That's not bad advice, you know." Just saying. Don't let it get to your head. Mad for being too forceful?! Grayson snorted. LOL. LOOOOOOOOOOL. The kid was sitting in his own snowstorm. Oh MAN. "Yeah, you certainly showed it who's boss, alright." There was grinning, though, so there's that. "Try again, mkay? Keep doing the boss thing because it worked for me." Kiiiiiiiinda.

High fives were NOT something he was used to receiving but that didn't stop the Slytherin from high fiving his fellow Slytherin back. This one was alright, really. He could produce FREAKING SNOWSTORMS, which he had gone on to do. Not being one good with words of comfort -- pointless, those were -- Grayson decided to move on to a NEW tactic. He shuffled over so that he was standing next to the younger kid. "Come on, we'll try it again. Maybe find a middle ground between our forcefulnesses so that we can make it snow properly." Just like Gold had done. Oh MAN. They needed to pick up the pace otherwise they're going to look dumb and, frankly, stupid.

"Finite!" The cloud went back to its usual annoyingly-fluffy look, which made the fourteen year old scowl again and let out a sound of disgust. It just looked like something that'd fart rainbows and glitter and Grayson hated that. "Ready?" He'd BETTER be. "Stiricidium Nubila!"

This cloud had better snow properly.

So now that Sophie had seen snow, she just needed to keep working on the spell, so she could strengthen it. She'd just ended her last try, so she was back to having just a plain cloud. Thankfully there were no cotton balls or rocks falling down anymore.

Sophie paused and took some time to really focus on what she wanted to do. She wanted this spell to cause a decent amount of snow to fall from the clouds. No cotton balls. No rocks. No tiny amount of snow.

With that, she was ready to cast. She aimed her wand toward the cloud. "Stiricidium Nubila!" she said, keeping her intent strong. She moved her wand in a counter-clockwise swirl. Snow began falling from the cloud. This time, it was a pretty decent amount. AWESOME!

Toby returned back to his place in the classroom, right beside Sophie, now kinda soaked and covered in melting snow and even some hail. His trip through the classroom had led him through all sorts of weather as the other students in the class were having various degrees of success, which was also a reminder that he sort of needed to get a move on. Okay. Snow, coming up.

Before he tried again, Toby simply stood still, his eyes closed and brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to visualise exactly what he needed to do. When it snowed, the sky was usually completely white, yeah? Like one huge white cloud blanketing the entire sky. That was what he needed to imagine. And the cold. It needed to be super cold for snow to happen. Toby EVEN tried to picture snowflakes. Individual snowflakes made of intricate patterns of ice, all clumped together to make the falling snowdrops. Okay. OKAY. He was READY. He was gonna make it SNOW.

The Hufflepuff's eyes suddenly snapped open and he beamed, wand pointed into the air again. As he made the little anti-clockwise swirling movement (and making sure he had a good grip this time), Toby said the incantation.

"Stiricidium Nubila!"

Immediately, Toby knew it hadn't worked. Instead of the cloud going all thick and white and blankety, it immediately darkened, and Tobias could have sworn he heard a low rumbling coming from up there. His eyes widened and he quickly scrambled to undo the spell, but not before a ton of hail started pelting him painfully in the head and face. Toby bent his head forwards but the hail just went down the back of his robes instead, causing him to shiver.

"Finite!"

And just like that, it stopped. Slowly, inch by inch, Toby looked up at his cloud again. It was now back to looking peaceful and fluffy and white, and the fifteen year old let out a huge sigh of relief.

Okay, so maybe he'd been a bit too enthusiastic with that attempt, but something HAD happened when he'd tried the spell. THIS WAS PROGRESS.

IT WAS SNOWING!!!

Snow-snow-snowing!

Snow-snow-snowing!

Kyroh felt like dancing! He felt like dong a backflip! But he couldn't do a backflip. So instead he settled for a slightly more pathetic front roll. YEAH. ...He'd have to learn how to do a backflip. Dusting the falling snow off his robes, Kyroh held his head up and looked at his cloud and the snow falling from it. Okay COOL what now?

Norah looked around and noticed an older Hufflepuff student with his cloud emitting perfect flurries of snow. HUMPH unfair! She squelched the urge to stick her tongue out at him and instead edged toward him timidly. It wasn't his fault she was bad at this, after all. Standing on her tiptoes, she gave him a light tap on the shoulder. "Hi, I'm Norah," she said, giving him a meek smile. "I was wondering if you could give me a hand with my cloud, it's kind of..." she trailed off, gesturing towards her cloud which was as as white, small, and irritatingly snow-free as ever. SIGH. If he couldn't help then maybe she could accept defeat and, y'know, go get some food to make up for it all.

Cris glanced down from his observance of his snow cloud, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He smiled to see it was a fellow housemate of his.

Glancing up at her cloud, he commiserated with her, "Sure thing. I found it hard to cast the spell myself and only have been recently successful...after let's see being hailed on a couple of times," he grinned down at the girl. "Hello Norah, I'm Cris and it's nice to meet you."

"Okay let's see. First, why don't you show me how you're doing it? That way I can help correct you if there's anything to correct," Cris first suggested.

"Remember keep your wrist steady, and say the incantation clearly." he reminded Norah.

The cloud was just a cloud once again. Arista frowned she had messed up again. Okay, so third time would be the charm? She decided to go over the stuff in her head before she would actually perform the spell for the third time. The incantation was Stiricidium Nubila. She said it again, "Stiricidium Nubila. Stiricidium Nubila. Stiricidium Nubila. Stiricidum Nubila."

Then the wand movement was a counter-clockwise swirling motion while pointing at the cloud. That was easy enough. Arsita took a deep breath in and pointed her wand toward the cloud. "Stiricidium Nubila!" she said. She turned her wand in a counter-clockwise swirling motion. A few moments later, a snow flake landed on her nose. It was SNOWING!!!! It wasn't enough, though! So she'd have to get stronger with her spell.

But at least she had done it!!

“Cloud manipulators. How about that? Or…Master of the Cloud?” Yeah, they should totally have a name or something after this. “If I’m not going to get it right today, I’ll stick to my Snowstorm. Which is wicked.” Not everyone can do that, yeah? See, faulty spellworks can be an advantage. “Snowstorm Maaaaan.” Yeah, he likes the sound of that.

Ethan stood up from his mound, did a little stretch and placed his hands on his hips; eyeing his cloud feeling a little proud. What’s not to be proud of anyway? The older kid was giving his approval and all that. He’s got this feeling that the older Snake don’t compliment much, so the idea made him feel great about himself. “Thanks, man.” Grins and nods for you, mister! It would have been better if he got a nice pat on the back, but then again—his fellow Slytherin wasn’t the touchy feely type, no? Okay. He can live with that.

The younger Slytherin nodded and joined his fellow Snake by standing beside him. Squaring his shoulders, he looked at his cloud again imagining it to be snowing in a normal fashion. His hair’s already a mess from the wind and stuff, so maybe a break from the Snowstorm would be better, yeah? He too didn’t want to mess the other boy’s hair because of his cloud. Besides, they’ve got a show to put on display for everyone to see.

“Middle ground. Copy that.” Ethan nodded enthusiastically and focused all of his energies on his wand. Vision, intent, follow through, emotion…check! “Ready when you are.” The Slytherin grinned as he pointed at his cloud, “Stiricidium Nubila!”

Bigger…darker… come on snow flurries.

Norah beamed at Cris, extending a hand to shake his. A little politeness never goes astray, eh? She turned to face her cloud with a look of grim determination. It WOULD work this time, yep. Five bazillion and first time's the charm, right? She waved her wand in the circular motion and said, "Stiricidium Nubila," probably a little more forcefully than necessary, but she couldn't pretend she didn't have a good amount of pent up anger for that cloud. The cloud swelled a bit, darkening a few shades, and excreted a single snowflake before a shower of hail began to pound on Norah's shoes. She turned to Cris and gave him a grimace and a shrug before pointing her wand at the cloud and stating firmly, "Finite."

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong, she began before adding, as an afterthought, "Is transfiguration always this hard?"