Oh boy. What was it with Transfiguration and complicated incantations? Were they all like that? Hayden was already having trouble with this one and she hadn't even said it out loud yet. She didn't even take her wand out to try the spell yet because she knew she was going to have to spend some time just practicing the incantation.

"Orchideous Striricus?" Nope, that was not correct. The first word wasn't too bad. Orchideous. She had no idea how to spell that but she could pronounce it, at least, and that's what counted. But how did she say the second word again? "Stircase. Struricus. Stiricacus?" What? She'd pronounced it incorrectly so many times that she forgot what she was supposed to be saying in the first place. Hayden listened carefully to the people around her, especially the ones who had gotten the spell right, and focused again on what she was supposed to be saying. "Stir....ia...cus." She said it slowly several times to get the hang of it.

"Stiriacus. Stiriacus. Orchideous Stiriacus." Yes that sounded right. Pronounce the incantation? Check. Next step, actually perform the spell.

Thrilled with her first successful attempt, Lux was so ready to make more ice flowers. This time, she pictured a rose. They were really pretty and she was fond of them, though they were not as lovely as lilies in her opinion.

With nothing but the image of a pretty rose in her head, Lux performed the spell. "Orchideous Stiriacus!" It made her happy to see that the rose looked better than the lily merely for the fact that it showed she was improving. Another lily would have to be made so that it would be the prettiest flower in her garden.

Satisfied with herself, she planted her ice rose beside her ice lily.

LOL. How far behind was he already?

Very. That was the answer.

Maybe it was because they were conjuring up FLOWERS or maybe it was because he was currently still practising. Still. Probably over-practising too but Bellaire hadn't said anything about moving on so he was going to take as long as he could. Stall the process of the flower conjuring. The ice part WAS still the coolest part about this, but what with all the snow outside, he wouldn't have any complaints on not seeing any snow or ice until he was 30.

At long last, the boy stopped practising the wand movement and the incantation and looked at the end of his wand, instead. If he imagined an icy flower sprouting from there, it was bound to happen. He had FULL confidence in his Transfiguration skills AND in his wand. The thing hadn't let him down thus far and it wasn't bound to let him down now. 'Course not.

"Orchideous Stiriacus!" he cried, moving his wand in a semi-circle in the clockwise direction. He waited............

........ and waited.........

........ tick tock went the clock......

........... and nothing.

WELL then.

She had one tulip, she had one tulip. She had one tulip... hey, hey, hey, hey! Could she make another one though? That was the real question. Come to think of it, she didn't want to make another stinking tulip. Where was the fun in that? Hmm... what other flower should she try to make? A daisy. It was the first thing that came to mind, and that was what she was going to do. You should always go with your first instinct.

Ahem. "Orchideous Stiriacus." Crap. What was the wand movement again? Why did her mind have to go blank at that very moment? Of all places to catch things on fire, this would be her very last choice. Even though Bellaire claimed to be in a good mood, AJ seriously doubted that she would take kindly to a huge fire melting away her ice garden... or whatever it was that she was calling it.

It was a clockwise circle motion that she was supposed to be doing. Oh yeah. "Orchideous Stiriacus." Wand movements happened. AJ was thinking hard about a daisy, and one was produced right before her very eyes. How nice.

She had the incantation at the tip of her tongue and her wrist ready for the wand movement, the only problem was that her teeth kept chattering and her hands trembled. Not only that but the cold made it hard to focus. All she could think about was her warm bed or the nice fire in the common room.

But she had to do this. Then after acing this thing she could run back to the common room and huddle in front of the fire. That sounded like a lovely picture. Rubbing her hands together, she glanced up.

Oh...



Professor Bellaire DID have a heart. See! Beverly knew she did. The woman was just too cool for others, she knew that because she's had plenty of experience with cool people. As if. Family doesn't count.

Beverly shuffled close to one of the posts with jars of blue flames. Oh yessss. This was better. At least some kind of warmth. It also made the classroom seem like some sort of Winter Wonderland. Feeling like she could focus a lot better now, Beverly gave her wand the proper flicks and cast: "Orchideous Stiriacus."

At first nothing happened but an expulsion of a swirly frosty breath from the tip of her wand. She did it again, this time properly thinking of the flower she was envisioning. "Orchideous Stiriacus!"

It happened. The swirly frost took form, building up to a white evening primrose. In a matter of moments, in her palm, the delicate flower glittered under the blue flames.

OMM! She did IT!

Angel really wanted to make sure that she could do the spell and now it was time to understand. "Orchideous Stiriacus" Angel did the wand movement again and then she watched as another flower came out of her wand, it was amazing and she wanted to make sure that she had a bunch of ice-flowers so she could give them to someone if the Professor would let her.

How was it possible that she wasn't getting anywhere with this. It couldn't have been that difficult if Kinsley got it and the Professor was expecting all kinds of variety so you know she was probably not thinking this should have been too hard for them either. She probably just needed to concentrate a bit harder on the conjuring, something that was made easier when the Professor took care of the cold because Merlin her fingers were starting to complain and they hadn't even started on actual planting yet!

She could give this another shot now. No way would she be one of the only people without any flowers to add to the garden.

"Orchideous Stiriacus." Remaining calm and focused, she tried to imagine one of the flowers from her step-mum's garden back home. As lousy a person as Amanda was, her flowers were okay to look at...you know, for most people.

Slowly she began to notice something forming as she did the wand movement. Spinning little reeds of ice spiraling together until the end product loosly resembled a creeping zinnia. It looked so weird all on its own though. She could only ever remember seeing them in clusters which evidently meant she would need a cluster for here too.

Eh. This was gonna take all day, she could already see it.

Okay, she could do it. Probably. No, Hayden was sure she could do it. Definitely. There was no place for probably in magic. She had to have confidence or the spell wouldn't work, right? Did magic work like that? She should probably ask someone about that. At the moment she had a spell to cast.

"Orchideous Stiriacus." She said the incantaion accompanied by drawing a clockwise semi-circle with her wand. Nothing happened. But she'd pronounced the incantation right and everything. Of course she couldn't have gotten it correct on the first try, she just had to keep trying and eventually she'd get it right. Hayden thought about the kind of flower she wanted to make. Hmm...a dandelion. A grown dandelion that was at the point where someone could blow on it and make all the seed things fly everywhere. Would she be able to blow on it and make little chunks of ice fly around the room? That would be cool, but probably not very safe. Anyway.

"Orchideous Stiriacus." As she said the incantation and performed the correct wand movement, Hayden made sure to have a clear picture of the flower she had in mind. Still nothing. She'd just have to keep practicing.

Adi was all set to try the spell another time. This time he concentrated on a rose. "Orchideous Stiriacus!'' Cue the wand movement. He waited...and waited but nothing happened.

"Orchideous Stiriacus!'' the third year tried again. This time clear stuff was appearing from the wand. Soon enough he had conjured up a rose. It wasn't perfect though. One half of the flower was a bit bigger than the other as if that half had bloomed more while leaving the other side behind. Oh well...it was a flower never the less. Adi planted the ice rose.

There was currently now a new mission. The one flower in her hand--that really she was meant to plant immediately--needed company down in the bed of the garden otherwise it'd look completely out of place and the Professor would be questioning not only her taste but her skill level. She wasn't a Firstie anymore and if she could pull this one off and certain people could make bouquets then she was going to make this work.

Focus Lex. Think on quantity while figuring the quality out. Concentration and intent were just as key.

"Orchideous Stiriacus!"

The disappointment was fresh on the tip of her facial expression until she saw one flower turn into two then three--five!! LOOK! It may not have been a whole bloody bouquet but she DID IT. hvfksjdsgvrfis. YES! This patch of snow right here now had new hope. Granted six flowers was only a start if she didn't want it looking sparse and bare but shhh baby steps, she was still getting the hang of this and not causing blizzards anymore.

Of course now these needed to be strategically placed.

Okay, Bay had the hang of things now.. making these ice flower things was pretty fun and he was plenty warm with the blue flame jars around.. taking his wand he decided to do some more. "Orchideous Stiriacus" as he did the proper wand movement.

seeing the flower he planted it right next to his other one..

phew there, he wondered how many more he needed to make. Looking around he spotted people doing more than two, so he did one more to round it off so his little flower buddies weren't being left alone.

"Y-yeah, mate," Mo agreed. It was something he could do for himself, but it was unlikely he could do it well at this point. Plus West was offering, and sometimes it was nice to let your friends do things for you when they offered rather than insisting on doing everything yourself.

Something he had to do for himself? Cast the spell and get more than one measly flower at a time, like West just had. And maybe work on doing it non-verbally, although Mo had a lot more luck with non-verbals when he knew the ins and outs of the spell. Maybe he'd just start with the multiple flowers and move on from there.

What flower would he like to see a bouquet of? Lilies, maybe, since those were Cat's favorite flowers, and the clean and bright lines would look really lovely in ice. He drew a circle with his wand as he spoke the incantation, "Orchideous Stiriacus!" The first lily came easily, and then the second and third before Mo lost steam. Or feeling in his fingers. Pretty, though, and with just a little droop to the heads that made them look that much more realistic.

This was so much fun!

Lux was enjoying making her ice garden prettier with all these flowers and there were so many different kinds to choose from. Next up, she thought to make an ice tulip. Picturing what she wanted it to look like in her head, she focused really hard and performed the wand movement. "Orchideous Stiriacus!" There, an ice tulip to plant among the other ones she had created.

Lovingly it was placed in the ground.

Ice flowers...?

For an ice garden?

Benny was really trying not to be bored with the cold kick people were on. He wanted it to be warm and instead they were doing cold stuff. He wrote down the spell in his notes, adding both the incantation and wand movements in for further reference. Who knew what they would be asked to do for the homework. And yes...he knew about conjugation. Professor Bellaire didn't have to go on about that for the lesson.

Opting to practice the incantation and such first, the Gryffindor kept his wand in his pocket for the time being. "Orchideous Stiriacus." he spoke, trying to get his mouth around the two words. "Or-chid-e-ous...Stir-ri-ac-us... Orchideous Stiriacus."

Leah looked up from her bag, and saw people conjuring ALL kinds of flowers everywhere. Gosh she was behind. She had succeded in creating a wreath, how hard would conjuring an ice flower be?

Not as confident as her last attempt, the Hufflepuff picked up her wand again and concentrated on making a.. not one type of flower came to mind. Then Leah saw her new friend Jasmine nearby. Okay, jasmine flower. She concentrated again on conjuring a beautiful ice jasmine flower and said, "Orchideous Stiriacus!" moving her wand in a semi-circle in the clockwise direction. Yep, she had done everything right.. hopefully.

But nothing happened. The second year groaned.

West carefully took the ice flowers from the end of his wand and then flicked it carefully at Mo, aiming at socks first, then the rest of his robes, obligingly bespelling the lot so that it would, as with his own, feel fresh from the dryer and warm, and maintain that warmth for an hour or so.

"Your mum wouldn't be so happy if I let you freeze and stuff anyways." West pointed out and then grinned at Mo and gave him a shoulder bump.

Now... back to it.

time to plant the ice flowers yeah? He knelt down in a likely spot and arranged them carefully in front of himself, trying to plan how he would lay them out once planted.

Angel wondered how many flowers she actually needed to make at the minute she had two ice-flowers but then she noticed that a few people had made three and she decided that the practice would be worth it and it would give her a bunch of ice-flowers to give to someone or to work with.

"Orchideous Stiriacus!" Angel did the wand movement and then she beamed as another ice-flower came out of her wand, she decided that three would be enough, she was about to put her wand away when she noticed Leah was having trouble.

"Need a hand?" Angel asked as she looked at Leah, she hoped the Professor didn't mind her asking but she didn't like seeing her best friend struggling.

Nope, she could not give up. Leah tightened her grip on her wand and turned around to concentrate again when a familiar voice called out to her. It was her best friend Angel. The Hufflepuff's determination to get this spell right increased when she saw the three ice-flowers in the younger girl's hand. Three? Really? Leah's cheeks flushed, embarrassed that she could not even conjure a single flower yet.

She gave a small smile to her friend. "Hey," she said. "I'll have one more go at this, and if I still have trouble you MUST help me. Okay?" Third time's the charm, right? The second year coughed, pulled her wand out and said in a clear voice, "Orchideous Stiriacus!" and made a clockwise semi-circle. She closed her eyes tightly and imagined a beautiful ice jasmine flower being conjured out of her wand.

When she opened her eyes again, a tiny flower was at the tip of her wand. Leah caught it with both hands and squealed. "I did it!" she whispered. The girl quickly walked over to the garden and planted the flower in it. She got the hang of this.

Angel wondered why Leah was acting all funny with her, she wondered if she had done anything wrong at all, she was trying to figure out what it could be when Leah produced her wand. "That's amazing Leah." Angel gave a weak smile before deciding that she probably should plant her flowers before anything bad happened to them, she quickly went and planted them before turning back to Leah, though she didn't say anything.

"Thank you, Angel." Leah said, smiling. Her bestie was always a sweet girl. She thought it was best to stand right next to the garden, because.. it was more convenient to just conjure flowers and plant them straight away than walking back and forth.

"What's your favorite type of flower?" The badger asked Angel, while she absent-mindedly practiced the wand movement. She was going to try to create that very type of flower and plant it in the garden. "Orchideous Stiriacus" she muttered, swishing her wand with the correct wand movement, focusing on creating a.. sunflower? Rose? Aargh. Not concentrated enough. Nothing happened.

Sunflowers.

Yes. SUNflowers. They really look pretty and...SUNflowers. Merlin. Ethan had to suppress a sigh and instead, imagined himself in a field full of sunflowers, where the SUN is SHINING brightly. Oh and he did mention that his favorite season was Summer, yes? YES.

Ugggh. After casting another hot air charm on his face to thaw his nose, he continued with the task at hand. Plant...ICE flowers.

Picturing again the lovely sunflower garden, Ethan raised his wand, did the wand movement and "Orchideous Stiriacus!"

Hellooooooo, ICE SUNflower.

How about another ice carnation? Adi pictured another one of those clearly in his head. "Orchideous Stiriacus!'' he said confidently as he did the appropriate wand movement. His first try for this flower and things were happening!

A carnation was blooming out of the wand. When it was done, Adi plucked it and examined it. This carnation was a lot better than his attempt with the last flower. Meaning it looked pretty good. No lopsidedness of anything.

Maddie had carefully removed her ONE flower from the tip of her wand and planted it carefully in the ice garden, smiling proudly as she did. The problem WAS, she'd only produced ONE. Something told her that only one wasn't good enough to earn her any kind of props in this class.

The first year shifted a little and decided that maybe a different type of flower could work. Something she'd seen countless times and would have no trouble picturing in her mind. ...Roses. Her dad was ALWAYS getting her mom roses. It was gag-worthy, really, but still. It was a flower she had seen and touched and smelt so she could do this. If anything, she could make ONE rose and one wasn't GREAT but it was SOMETHING.

Concentrating on the flower AND producing it, the twelve year old made the semicircular motion with her wand and said clearly, "Orchideous Stiriacus!" Her eyes widened slightly as not one but TWO roses were now within arms reach from her and though it wasn't exactly a bouquet like some were producing, it was something. It was MORE than one. That meant she was getting better, right? ...SURE it did.

Gosh, she was good at this.

Marigold was going to try and make an ice marigold, yes she was. She sat for a few minutes, picturing what her namesake looked like, then took out her wand. She made the circular wand motion and carefully said, "Orchideous Stiriacus!"

She watched as a flower bloomed from her wand. With closer inspection, it certainly looked like a marigold. She beamed, then went to plant it. YAYAYYAYYY.

Being sure she was kneeling on her robes and not directly on the snow itself, Lex got down on her knees to have the six she'd conjured planted. She would assume they just...stick them in the snow and do some covering because what else was there? This wasn't actual soil and these weren't actual plants. At first she considered planting them in a pattern but then she figured she'd need more of them before she could do that so these were planted in a straight line going horizontally across.

So it was clear, this robe did little to keep the chill of the snow away and the Gryffindor was all too happy to hop off the floor the moment she'd steadied the last of them in the snow.

Once standing straight again she reviewed the circle she'd dragged into existence with her feet earlier. It didn't seem like she was getting anywhere honestly....but it was a start. Optimism Lex or you'd never get through this. Just had to convince herself that this was progress and roll with it.

"Orchideous Stiriacus."