"Don't sweat it, I didn't learn the other two either... figured I'd focus on the basics first you know?" He didn't see the need to get ahead of himself just yet, he'd get around to it eventually. No harm in taking his time. It wasn't as if he was going to be the greatest wizard that ever lived.... while still at school. Ahem.

Ian's other comment got him grinning, though he wouldn't be able to tell you why. "Nahh, I'm muggleborn, but I was adopted into a magical family." Family, yep, that's what it was. He didn't see them as fragmented, as far as he was concerned they were a legit family unit. "My mum's like super awesome and knows everything, she one of the Ministry bosses." He'd have elaborated further, could even talk for hours about them all, but he shouldn't. "How about you?" he asked, curious now to know.

Finished with his work, Zeke tagged along behind Ian, continuing their conversation but staying out of his way.

Ian picked up the salamander and walked over to the flames as he listened to Zeke. He felt better that he wasn't the only one not doing the others. It was sort of fun to catch the salamanders. He watched as Zeke continued to talk some more. When Zeke mentioned muggleborn, Ian grinned. Good to know he wasn't the only one, but Zeke had been adopted. Hmmmm....

Ian went about answering Zeke's question as he jabbed his wand in the direction of another salamander that began scurrying from the flames. I'm muggle born as well. Ian snapped his fingers in frustration as he failed to capture the salamander. My mum stays at home, taking care of me and the house...well, me when I'm there. My dad is a fisherman who goes out in the North Sea to catch Cod. Fun stuff. Got to do a bit this summer. As far as I know, I'm the only magic user anywhere near where I live. Ian watched another salamander scurry by the benches, looking for a warm place.

Adi eyed Kevin. Did the young Lion want a lecture on respect? Because Adi could give him one. A nice looong one. Hehe. Making fun of himself? Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. "I dunno about others, dude. But I always kid around. And to be honest, my spell work is okay. You just caught me at a bad time just now.'' LOL. His aim had been off. Way off.

Moar eyeing. "Common room, eh? Exactly what were you practicing on?'' Or was it 'whom'? Meh. Loser? "Why you...I wish I could put you in detention for that,'' Adi stated dryly. Or even dock a few points. He watched the boy take a swing at a salamander and sniggered a bit. So much for calling the Hufflepuff a loser. "Nice miss.''

So since he had Glacius down, why not move onto Glacius Duo? Forwards slash for that. The fourth year made a few practice slashes as he kept an eye out for salamanders fresh from the container.

Or why not go after Kevin's escaped one? Yeah! That would be fun. Now where was it? Oh! Was it that one straight up ahead? Adi raised his wand in its direction. "Glacius Duo!'' Forward slash! And a miss! The salamander scuttled away. "Glacius Duo! Glacius Duo!'' More forward slashes. His second attempt missed as well but the third one hit. "Oh yeah!'' Adi's fist pumped the air. "Got your salamander for you, Kevin.''

Common room? Kevin rolled his eyes. "I obviously meant in the corner, why would i be practising this spell in the common room?" when he was down here? didn't make sense at all.

Oh? so he wished he could throw him in detention? The Gryffindor's eyes narrowed slightly and he took a step closer to the Prefect, trying to look intimidating. "Sure you would, kid" Yes, he was aware that Adi was older than him but he WAS still a kid...welll...teenager...whatever.

Watching him perform the glacius duo for a moment , Kevin turned his attention to finding another salamander and when he found one escaping another container in the corner, he turned around, aimed his wand , slashed his wand forward and shouted "Glacius!" the blue light flashed towards the creature as it walked unaware of its surroundings. He bit his lower lip aaand...HIT!

He turned back to Adi and grinned. "Let's make this a competition, i set my watch on a alarm that goes off in 5 minutes and the one who hit the most salamanders wins....no cheating!" Even Kevin didn't cheat.

Camera number 37 given out by Professor Fuller had been fastened around the neck of Cutty Mordaunt by a moke cord he'd stolen from his father when he was about 7. He entered the dueling space with it and surveyed the surroundings. A scavenger hunt of sorts for what could make for good photos with which to practice the charm they'd learn on. It sort of reminded him of that summer which he'd spent at the resort snapping photos of people in embarrassing and sometimes compromising positions. On one or two occasions it turned profitable, but it simply wasn't lucrative enough for Cutty to pursue it for another summer. Besides, he no longer had his mother's camera which he was using for this paparazzi-like game he played.


Cutty pushed down on the button to snap a practice photo of the ground to test the machine again. He reached toward the front and pulled the photo paper out to hold it before him. The tips of his shoes. Boring. He pocketed the image and saw Rehman & Hirase having a go at the salamanders.


The camera wound and clicked, capturing the beautiful light made my Rehman's magic. Glacius Duo. Glacius Duo. He missed the first opportunity to snap it, but upon Adi's subsequent try Cutty managed to capture the salamander as it froze on contact from Adi's hit. It's wiry body suspended there in the ice capsule. The camera spat out the image on the photo paper and Cutty took his wand to it. "Alacer." Tap. From the looks of it, the thing hardly had a chance of getting away from Rehman and his wandwork.

Oh. Corner. Ah well. Common room was logical. "In my defense, you could have been practicing there. I wouldn't put it past you for trying to freeze some of your house mates.'' Hehe. But Adi was totally kidding there. Kevin wouldn't actually use those spells on anyone...Right?!

Adi could narrow his eyes too. Which he did. "You know, if I didn't find some of your ways entertaining, I'd totally dislike you.'' Mhmm.

Annnd the Lion got one too! "Good job!'' Did Kevin give fist bumps? Meh. Anyway, the fourth year still held out a fist. Oooh! A competition, eh? He was always up for that! "You got it! Hufflepuffs don't cheat.'' But we've got our eyes on you, Kevin. "So, you going to count us down?''

While Adi waited for the start of the competition, he practiced the wand movement for Glacius Tria. A side ways slash and because he was left handed, it had to be in a clockwise motion. He practiced it just that way for a few time. Right! He was ready to win!

The second year made her way down to the room that she was expected to do her homework at. Here's to hoping that she would have better luck than she did during the lesson. Her wand was safely in the holster on her hip.

They were going to be practicing on salamanders today. Would that hurt the animal? AJ so wasn't down for animal cruelty. It was only a freezing charm, but AJ wouldn't appreciate being frozen repeatedly for practice.

AJ walked over and spotted her a salamander to practice on. "If this hurts you, you just let me now. Blink twice or something." Then AJ would stop and visit the defense professor.

Why not get a little practice in first? "Glacius, Glacius, Glacius." No sense in practicing the jab. If you couldn't do that then you might as well get the heck out of Hogwarts.

She was ready. Was the salamander? "Glacius." Jab. Nothing. Story of her life. "Glacius." More of nothing. Okay, so maybe the salamander didn't have anything to worry about after all. AJ was making a down right fool of herself. "Glacius." Something was happening....

The salamander was frozen. She did it, she actually did it. If only she could continue to have this kind of luck from here on out, this homework assignment wouldn't be that bad after all.

.........."Dude, thanks for giving me ideas!"

Wait...what? "What you mean with, find some of my ways entertaining? EVERYTHING what i do is entertaining. A lot better than being boring like a lot of people here" he glanced around the room for a moment before turning to the Prefect and he shrugged his shoulders. "Its okay to dislike me, i'm used to it" mweh.

Seeing the fist in front of him, Kevin raised his eyebrow. Was he serious? a fistbump? This reminded him of the time Bentley tried to high-five him. Not cool. But Adi was his age , not a grown woman so it wasn't so awkward so he bumped his fist against his and then set his watch.

"Alright, the watch is set for 3 minutes" should be long enough right? "Three...two..one!" he clicked the button and immediately turned around because he had seen a salamander crawling out of a container. He slashed his wand forward towards the creature while saying "Glacius Duo" and watched the light hit the salamander and freeze.

And would you lookit that! They had something in common. It was nice knowing he wasn't the only muggleborn, he didn't know of many others, it seemed being a pureblood or halfblood was the cool thing to be. That, or maybe he and Ian were just special. That'd be cool.

Zeke nodded along as he listened to Ian, following him around as he did so. "That's pretty cool, being the only one I mean," he said, though he wasn't sure he could say the same for the Cod fishing thing. Or, okay, MAYBE... only because there were hooks and nets and boats and the potential for giant squids to swallow you up, right? Heheh. "I don't hang out with muggles much anymore, know lots of wizarding peeps though, and lots of Ministry people." LOTS of them. It was cool on days where he was allowed to hang out in MLE and fetch Emily coffee whenever she needed it, those people were all sorts of cool and crazy.

But he supposed they were pretty much done here. "You ready to get going?" He could wait and walk him out too.

Luck was happening for her, and she was feeling good about it. Something about being in a good mood sure made the homework seem easier. Her salamander never blinked or seemed like it was hurt, so she figured practicing on the creatures wasn't so bad after all. He would thaw out eventually.

Now where was another target when you needed one? AJ was not about to wait for the first salamander to thaw out. She was not patient enough for that in the least. Here salamanders, salamanders, salamanders...

As if on cue, once came scuttling from behind a bin. Wicked. A moving target was even better. It was time to see if she still had it when it came to her aim. "Glacius." No frozen critter. Dang.

"Glacius." Jaaaaab. The salamander was getting away.... no! If he would just be still, AJ would be able to get her spell to work, maybe. "Glacius." This time the spell worked, and she made contact. Double success. Two frozen salamanders. One more to go.

Adi rolled his eyes. He'd tell Benny to keep an eye on this one when they were in their common room. Though he doubted Kevin would be freezing anyone.

He grinned now. "Whatever you say, Kevin. Though I agree with you on that last bit there.'' He would rather not be boring. And Kevin was used to being disliked? That didn't sound too...good. "Nah. You're too cool to dislike.''

Adi thought he would have been left hanging with the fist bump but he was pleased it was returned. Then they were all set to start. Wasting no time, he scanned the container area. A few salamanders lurked. "Glacius Tria!'' Sideways slash with a clockwise motion. The salamander was still unfrozen because Adi failed to make anything happen with his wand. "Glacius Tria! Glacius Tria!'' Eep! Nothing was happening. Meh.

Ian grinned at Zeke's response as he dropped the salamander back into the flames. It is cool and it isn't. I talked with Professor Morgan about being the only one in my town and how my folks tell me to keep it a secret. Other than that, it is sometimes cool being different. He listened as Zeke explained what it was like being around Ministry folks. That sounds like you get to see the important people who handle magic in our world. It sounds rather interesting.

Ian nodded. Yeah. I think we've caught the proper number of salamanders.

Salamanders were quick little things, huh? Maddie had stood off to the side and watched for quite some time, trying to get a feel for how the creatures moved and which direction they seemed to go when they did emerge from the container they were in. It was hard to draw any conclusive results but she had made some general assumptions that might help her during her task. And so she stepped away from the wall and towards the center of the room, wand at the ready. Time to get started.

"Glay-see-us...glay-see-us...glay-see-us," She muttered quietly, avoiding those around her as to not get in their way. "Glacius...glacius...glacius."

Now she just needed a salamander to freeze. Brown eyes focused on the container and she watched and waited, patiently and with focus. She'd be ready to aim as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

Sophie didn't want to use Glacius or any of its variants, not after what happened in potions, but she was going to practice it anyway and do her homework because she wasn't going to let anyone know how freaked out over the spell she was. She hated the thought of using it on the salamanders, though, as... she knew firsthand how not fun it was to be frozen. The pooooor, poor salamanders.

Soph stood off to the side of the room by the door, out of the way of everyone else and watching the way other students handled the creatures as she waited to see if CB would show up. She'd invited her to come along and do their homework together, as Sophie really didn't want to do it alone, but she wasn't sure if she was going to be battling alone today or not. SHE WOULD WAIT AND SEE.

For now, the fourth year gripped her wand securely in her hand, cycling through the wand movements of each of the three spells and making sure she kept each one straight. Point for Glacius, forward slash for Glacius Duo, side slash for Glacius Tria... right? Wasn't she right? She may have fished out her parchment of notes from her pocket just to be sure, and then continued practicing the wand movement accordingly, an expression of the utmost concentration on her face.

And this was the moment, yeah? Maddie watched with mild interest as the small body of a salamander emerged from the container and crawled down the side and on to the floor, its body movements slow and fluid. And she crept forward, quietly and with her wand pointed towards the creature. She wanted to be sure her aim was true before saying the spell, else she'd miss the salamander entirely.

*JAB* "Glacius."

She squinted as her spell hit but had no lasting impact, feeling something akin to disappointment. She knew hitting a moving target would be harder but still, she'd wanted to get it the first time.

The second year continued after the creature, careful to avoid those around her as she kept on the trail. And then the salamander went to cross in front of her and she aimed again.

*JAB* "Glacius." Bingo. Frozen and unmoving, the salamander rested in front of her feet. Maddie crouched down, observing it carefully. They were meant to return them to the container now, yeah?

DADA homework was the easiest, Lex had always thought so and not because the spells were easy either but because it was one of her favourite subjects so the homework wasn't that much of a chore. Were it any other kind of homework she might have stayed wrapped up in bed and prolonged her snuggle time with her kneazle. No doubt he'd have liked that. Getting up this early should be considered a sin.

With a small yawn, Alexa entered the dueling arena. It was still kinda early, maybe an hour before breakfast but that was the point. She didn't want to be practising with others in the room. That was a recipe for someone misfiring then her 'accidentally' retaliating because she 'didn't know better'. Too many witnesses would be there for that excuse to fly so she'd content herself with the early hours and the empty arena.

Drawing Professor Airey's wand, she walked over to the fireplace. It took her a moment to notice the salamander scampering away from the fire like it had business somewhere else.

This was the homework yeah? Wasting no time, she took aim and gave a firm jab. "Glacius!" For the faintest moment, the wand seemed like it might have malfunctioned or rejected her command but light shot from the wand and in the next second, the thing was frozen in place. Perfect time to gloat to herself but then she saw another and another crawl from the fireplace. A glance around revealed that there were even more than she thought! This was gonna be a busy morning.

Two salamanders have been successfully frozen, and victory was almost hers. Being able to do spells correctly sure did a number on your confidence. AJ watched as the different salamanders scuttled about. Which one was going to be her new target?

There was one in particular that seemed to be on a mission. He was moving SO fast. Oh, AJ could smell a challenge, and immediately went for that one. "Glacius." She missed, drats. "Glacius." The salamander was able to get out of way just in time. "Glacius." Still nothing. GRR!

AJ jogged over closer to the creature. He was not going to get away this easily. The salamander had officially made this a game. "Glacius." More nothing. Dang, he aim wasn't all that bad so maybe her intent was off? That was more of a possibility. "Glacius." The second year still hadn't made contact. She wasn't going to give up that easily, salamander.

Would it be considered cheating if she whipped out something like Glacius Tria and like....froze the fireplace itself? With it frozen...they wouldn't be able to escape so fast and she'd finally get a handle on the situation. This sounded like a game plan, a right proper game plan too that she was wasting a lot of time thinking about while the little salamanders ran about, some even scampering at her feet. Merlin's beard this had to stop.

The Gryffindor hopped from one foot to the next, trying to keep them from scaling her legs in search of hiding. Not a hideout post here, and she didn't want to be taken for one any time soon.

Circe, this was going to make aiming just a little harder wasn't it? Sigh. The sacrifices she would have to make. Lex slowed her hopping some and focused all her attention on the fireplace with its escapees that didn't much care they were making her life difficult. Should have brought Felix, he'd have taken care of half of them for her and the Professor would never need to know.

Horizontal slash. "Glacius Tria!" This time she was sure Airey's wand was rebelling against her. It only froze bits of the fire which then thawed creating...er...steam? She didn't even KNOW but the fire as still crackling and the salamanders were still getting away. Ugh. She didn't have time for this and needed to find her wand. There was another side slash, followed by, "Glacius Tria!" With a little more intent than the spell just before because apparently this wand needed convincing.

This time, the fire did freeze solid (don't ask how that worked, she wasn't sure what she was looking at and didn't make a habit of questioning magic) and the salamanders had stopped. NOW she could get down to business.

After the first salamander was handled. Maddison had to wait a bit for some action. She stood close to the container, face illuminated by the soft glow it gave off. And she watched intently, waiting for one of the small creatures to show itself. She had her wand at the ready, wanting to see how quickly she could freeze it. This was a test of her own ability.

And then it happened, movement she noticed out of the corner of her eye. She waited for the salamander to hit the floor and then she jabbed her wand in its direction, intent and voice clear as she spoke. "Glacius!" And it froze! IT FROZE. It had happened so quickly and Maddie was PLEASED with herself but she didn't dare show it. It was important to act like she'd done it that well a MILLION times before, yes? And so she simply smiled faintly, even though inside she was fist pumping. This felt good.

Sophie went over the spells and wand movements in her head for awhile longer before feeling like perhaps CB wasn't going to come. It was okay that she didn't. Soph would be fine. She DID kind of want an ally to be her witness in case someone froze her solid again, as this was the perfect opportunity for someone to go after her again, buuuut... she would be fine, right? Romanos would probably be better at handling a situation like that than Culloden had been.

At least, she could get started till CB got there. Totally going to keep hoping her dormmate would show up.

Soph stayed by the wall for awhile, calculating the movements of the salamanders and planning the moment she'd strike. Then, as one salamander went scurrying her way from the container, Soph didn't even need to think - she pointed her wand right at the salamander and cast, "Glacius!" BUT SHE MISSED. "GLACIUS!" she tried again, her wand following the little bugger's path as he scampered along - he was quick, wasn't he? - but luckily, this time she was quick enough, and the salamander was frozen.

Hehehehehe. That was fun. She'd try Glacius Duo next time.

Soph hurried over to scoop the creature up before another salamander ran her way and deposited it in the fire, then RAN back over to her spot by the wall to plan her next attack.

This activity wasn't so bad, was it?

Cutty was looking down at his camera and snapping another random shot when he noticed Hirase and Rehman about to enter into a competition. Did either of them know how to lose at things? He'd keep his camera handy. Just in case.


Prepared opportunist had something stuffed away in his robes so long as he was on his way to the Dueling Arena, he'd made a stop to the kitchen. But first things being first, he reached his hand out toward the photo paper and gave the photo a developing flutter. He watched as the randomly captured image came into being and Sophie Brown's hair swept across as she took aim at one of the salamanders.

"Glacius!" He made the jabbing motion with his wand to try and get one of the creatures to freeze. And it did, but figuratively and just before the spell hit the floor in front of it's feet. You know, he really liked this spell.

As Soph leaned against the wall once more, she reflected on the variation of the spell that was the next most powerful - Glacius Duo. That was the forward slash, and Tria was the side slash, yeah? She had that solidified in her head as fact now and... figured she'd best give them a go next.

...Or she was going to, until she spotted Cutty. Her arch-enemy.

Soph narrowed her eyes at him, even though he wasn't even looking at her at the moment, and she grunted a little in displeasure. After her conversation with Culloden, she had FULLY convinced herself that Cutty was the one who had cast THIS VERY SPELL at her and froze her solid in potions class. She just KNEW it in her heart, and Soph was not going to turn her back so he could do it again. Nope. She was going to keep him in her sights at ALL times today and wasn't going to give him the opportunity to "miss" and get her again. So she was going to wait until after he successfully froze one of the salamanders before she did hers.

...But he missed, and Soph SQUINTED at him. What was he playing at? Of COURSE he could perform this spell with great accuracy - even in the midst of chaos in potions class, he'd done it so well, hadn't he? Was he feigning innocence? Trying to protect his bum because he knew she was watching her?

Sneaky little spawn of the devil.

Fueled by her anger, Soph grunted again and waited for another salamander to come her way, keeping an eye on Cutty in the meantime - when it did, she whipped her wand in a quick forward slash and cast right at it with a determined, fiery attitude, "Glacius Duo!"

...And the salamander froze. Right on the first try. Take THAT, Mordaunt.

They were staring at one another. Eye to eye. Beast to beast. The salamander and Cutty. Cutty held cold and Slytherin ice prince toward the salamander who seemed to take on a haughty stance on this whole kids throwing spells at him thing.

That was when Cutty reached into his pocket and pulled out a ripe pepper and extended it in offer to the salamander, whose disposition changed almost immediately upon the presence of food. Animals. This was how they worked. As the creature grew near enough to eat the pepper it turned it's large head and took a side bite. Cutty swore it was glowing brighter as it nommed away and began to attract other salamanders. Dark, dark, evil Snow White. Surrounded by black-eyed fire creatures and feeding them from the hand.

He stole a glance over Sophie's way and spoke to her for the first time since Bellaire's Irie Room Do. "Hey, Brown? D'yer remember the wand motion for Glacius Tria?"

Sophie had SHOWED CUTTY UP, she knew she had, and she kept a keen eye on him as she moved to drop the frozen salamander back in its container of fire. She made it back to her wall in one piece without getting frozen and she attributed that to her STARING at Cutty the whole time she moved.

Not even subtle at all.

But then... he was addressing her? And what he SAID made her grunt again. "You're asking my help? Thought after that potions class, you'd be a finely-tuned grand master at these spells."

Yeah, she went there. Accusatory tone and all.

She would show him, though, because she wanted to show off and aimed at the nearest salamander as it scampered by, waving her wand in a quick side-slashing motion, "Glacius Tria!" The darn thing got away from her, though, and Soph's eyes narrowed. Ruuuuuuuuude of it. Didn't it know she had something to prove here? She abandoned her spot on the wall to move closer to the thing as it continued to crawl around with surprising speed and aimed again, slashing her wand to the side once more, "Glacius Tria! GLACIUS TRIA!" HA. Got it that time.

...And she looked to Cutty, her expression stoic. "...Buggers are fast."

What did Adi just say?

Kevin turned his gaze away from another Salamander before he could use the spell. He was too cool to dislike? He did grin, but it didn't look like his usual grins. It was a bit hesitant. "Yeah, right. You're just making that up" he said with a roll of his eyes before pointing his wand at the Salamander before it moved back to a container.

He slashed his wand sideways with a clockwise motion and shouted "Glacius Tria!" Light flew towards the creature but before it hit it vanished in to thin air. Huh? Scratching the back of his head, the Gryffindor tried again but it was with the same result. He saw that Adi had trouble with the last spell as well. "Seems like we have to stick with Duo for now..."

He couldn't let the Prefect win the game though, so he left him for a moment after he saw a Salamander in the corner and pointed his wand at it. "Glacius!" the spell hit without effort. How much time was left anyways? He checked his wand and gasped silently.

"YO Dumbo! 30 seconds left!"