So...they were basically making candy for the little beasts. Ok, that was interesting, but Caleb wasn't complaining if he got to taste some of it! Hehe. He grinned and hurried up to the basket. He decided to go with a lime, because those were pretty sour in nature so he could easily tell if he was doing the spell right.

He went back to his station and rather than picking up his wand, he decided to practice the pronunciation first. He cleared his throat and started to mimic what Thompson had done.

"Maa-Gee-Mus...Maa-Gee-Mus..." he said, repeating it over and over again.

Sooo. Spell time. Norah held her lemon out in front of her and pointed her wand at it. Not at her hand, nope. At the lemon. 'Cause it'd be weird if her hand started tasting sweet. Like really, really weird. Especially because then she'd have to taste them. And apparently licking her hands was not the same as washing them, according to her mum anyways, which wasn't fair because cats did it. Ahem. Lemon. Right. "Magimus!" The third year eyed the lemon, expecting it to go all sparkly or something. Helloooo? Was it not going to SHOW it got sweet? Lame.

Peeling off a little bit of the skin, Norah put her lemon to her nose and sniffed it. It smelled like a whole lot of NOTHING, but her nose was all plugged and weird so maybe that was why. Just maybe. With a small shrug, the Hufflepuff nibbled a little of the lemon's insides. EUUURGH. NOPE. NOPE, STILL SOUR. Ew.

The time has come upon Emmylou Duchannes to finally taste test the lemon that she just cast a spell on. the fifth year set her wand down on the table and looked around at the other students. Her blue blues stop upon Kace's face for a minute or two. He wasn't paying any attention so she could look at him all she wants until she gets brave enough to try out the lemon.

Please be sour, please be sour. She didn't want to eat anything sour at the moment but she wanted the lemon to taste like a real lemon. Lemony taste that is what she needed it to taste like because not all lemons were nice tasting. Some were too sour.

The fifth year Gryffindor's eyes dropped down to the lemon. It was now or never. WAIT! Why weren't their oranges? Oranges were pretty good or like grapefruits? Or did they not have any grapefruits in this part of the world? Well growing wise.

She was now getting lost in her thoughts. It was a good thing because not lemon eating and it was a bad thing because she really wanted to get it done and over with and it was for class, in class so she had to get it done.

SNAP OUT OF IT AND EAT THE DANG LEMON!

Emmylou took a brave bite out of the lemon. She chewed it and she was done her whole mouth was all so sour and not a good sour because it wasn't at all sugary BUT it tasted like a normal lemon.

Mission accomplished!

Norah watched the other students for a moment, still making faces because EW, before turning her attention back to the lemon. It only had a tiny nibble mark on it, she could try the spell on this one again, right? It may be sour 'n stuff but it wasn't nice to waste the entire thing. The third year flicked a strand of hair from her face before setting up with the fruit once more. Performing the circular movement again, she said "Magimus" in the strongest, most authoritative you-turn-sweet-right-now-young-ladylemon voice. Eyeing it once more, she let her wand arm fall to her side as she inspected it. It wasn't GLITTERY or anything, but it kind of looked shinier than before, right? All reflect-y and things. That was good, yeah?

Bringing the lemon back to her lips, Norah chanced another teensy weensy nibble. And--HEY! It wasn't GROSS anymore! Like lemon sherbet or something. Hehehe. She pulled off a little more of the skin and took a bigger nibble. YEP. Definitely sweet. Definitely definitely. She peeled the entire thing and then just stared at it, because peeled lemons looked WEIRD. Hehe. Whut.

Wicked! They were going to make food that wasn't tasty into something that WAS? It was the kind of spell Dot wished that she'd known about years ago. Brussel sprouts could see a LOT of improvement, in her opinion, and her mother always made her eat them. Gross.

Dot skipped to the pile of fruit and touched nearly a dozen pieces as she tried to decide what she wanted to try out. Probably not something already pretty sweet, like an apple. Maybe the lemon, since it was just out and out tart and no one just bit into one for fun.

Dot grabbed a medium sized lemon from the middle of the pile, one with sufficient squish to it that indicated it was ripe. And now... magic?

Alright, onto the next part, actually doing the spell. Caleb cleared his throat and pulled his wand out of his bag. He set the lime down in front of him, preparing to cast the spell. He began to move his wand in the motion that Thompson had done, making a circle around the fruit. He practiced this a few times, then was ready to actually get to casting it!

He circled the lime and then muttered ""Magimus!" as he continued to circle the lime. He saw some sparks and knew that meant progress - but was it sweet ENOUGH? He decided to test it...

He took a little bit of the skin off and tasted the inside. BLEGH. NOPE. Definitely NOT a success just yet.

Righty-o. So she had a lemon. And she had a spell to turn said lemon into candy.

Peeeerrfect-o.

Wiggling on the spot, Amur pressed her lips into a thin line and concentrated hard. She wanted to get this right. She didn't want to taste a lemon. She really didn't want to bite into lemon skin (as per the Professor's demonstration). She wanted to bite into candy skin.

"Don't fail me now, wand." She whispered before straightening her back and stiffening her resolve. "Magimus. Maa. Maa-Gee. Maa-Gee-Mus. Magimus."

Amur nodded to herself, confident she had the pronunciation right. A short breath was released before she began to circle the lemon with her wand. Halfway around she gave the incantation. "Maa-Gee-Mus."

She continued to draw her wand in a circle around the lemon. Faint, wispy sparks blinked on and off in the circle. She grinned and after a final pass, lowered her wand.

The lemon didn't look any different, and that was the most concerning part. Would her brain trick her into believing that it was still lemon-tasting because it looked like a lemon? Or would the magic override that?

She shook her head. No. She had to believe in the magic. Believe that it worked. And hopefully she was neither lying to herself nor would she get a mouthful of lemon juice. She brought the lemon to her lips.

Apple chosen, all that was left was seeing if she could make it a lot sweeter than it usually was. Since of course, Brooklyn knew that of the three fruits, her choice was already sweeter. Although green apples were actually kind of tart, which was why she liked them better than red ones. “Magimus,” she whispered, just to practice saying it. “Ma-gee-mus, magimus, magimus.” That was easy enough, and she knew for a fact she was perfectly able to trace a circle around the apple. That was almost as easy as pointing, after all. No practice needed for that, although she had to take her wand out.

Wand out, she pointed it down at her apple, balanced in her left hand. Tracing a circle around it, she spoke again. “Magimus!” Continuing to trace the circle, she waited to see if the sparks that had appeared when Professor Thompson had demonstrated would appear for her too. Maybe there was a faint sparkle inside the circle, but she might have been imagining it. She wouldn’t know until she tried the apple.

Her lemon tasted exactly like a lemon, and no porlocks were going to want to be her friend now. She would fail this assignment, and get all sad about it, and end up failing the subject as a whole. Goodness. She needed to get a grip. This wasn't like her at all. The next time she tried the spell out she would get it just right. No need to flip out. Worse case scenario she would just snag an apple. They were already pretty sweet so maybe she could make due. Her mind went to the whole getting their trust thing... that wouldn't go over well with the creatures.

People all around her were getting the spell right, and she refused to be the last one working on it. "Magimus." The circle was traced with her wand. Oh look, the lemon looked all shiny and perfect like the professor said it would. Could this mean...

Chomp.

AJ took a bit out of the lemon and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. "So juicy... so sweet." If this wasn't heaven she didn't know what was. Chomp. Another bite of the lemon was taken, and juice started to run down her arm. No matter. AJ slurped her arm making sure that she didn't miss a drop of the lemon goodness.

She took another bite. It was as if she was having an out of body experience. This lion had no control over the chomping. For a moment she completely forgot the task at hand, and continued to snack on her lemon until it was all gone.

Sucking on her fingers, it took her a moment to realize what she had done. Her eyes widened as the last bit of lemon was making its way down her throat. Hell, she had ate her whole lemon. That fruit was for the porlock. What was she going to do now?

"Pssst....Adi." AJ moved in closer to her boyfriend. "Can you give me half of your lemon. I, um... kind of ate mine all up." Didn't need to draw any attention to herself. She just needed some lemon, nothing to see here, people.

Rorie set down the green apple nearby while she focused on how to pronounce the spell. "Magimus." She mumbled repeatedly to herself, almost as though she was memorizing a script.

She mumbled it a few more times along with practicing to trace an invisible circle in the air. After a few spins, she might've forgotten the task and had waved her wand around like she was twirling ribbons. No worries, though, she remembered again soon after. Apple we coming for you next.

It was hard to compare the before and after of bespelled fruit when the fruit in question had a rind. This wasn't very scientific, was it? Dot sniffed her lemon as she returned to her spot, and then she gave it a friendly little lick for good measure. Didn't taste like much of anything at the moment.

She licked it again for good measure before pointing her wand. How did the incantation go? Magimus. MAG-i-mussssss. Easy peasy. Dot drew a circle around her lemon and carefully spoke the incantation. "Magimus." There now... it was perfect, right?

To be honest, she didn't even have to taste the lemon to know the spell hadn't worked. It looked the same, and wasn't at ALL drawing the eye through sparkles. As queen of sparkles, Dot could tell. NOT SPARKLY. Major bummer. She dropped her lemon on the ground and groaned at her own ineptitude.

Alright, time to give this another try since the first try wasn't very successful. In fact Caleb was pretty sure he somehow made the lime MORE sour, if that was possible.

Clearing his throat and practicing the movement a few more times, he finally decided he was ready to try again. Focusing on his lime, he moved his wand around, circling it before saying very clearly "Magimus!" as he moved it. The sparks started to fly again, and there were more than last time which seemed promising.

Now the moment of truth. He picked it up and poked at the area he'd started to peel last time. He gently tasted it with the tip of his tongue...and MMMMM, it was super sweet! Like it had literally been dumped in a bucket of sugar. Now THAT was what he was talking about...this was cool! Could he do this to all his food? Mind racing, he raised his hand.

"Professor, how does this exactly make the fruit sweeter? Could I do this to cake or something instead of using real sugar to make it healthier?" he asked. IMPORTANT questions, these were!

Toby didn't want to bite right into the apple, preferring to just scrape part of it off and taste that or something, but at some point he'd managed to chew his fingernails right down to the bed, so that plan went very quickly out the window. Huh. When had that even happened? Toby'd never chewed his nails as a kid; this was more of a recent development. The Hufflepuff just sort of stood there scrutinising his own fingernails for a moment, before suddenly remembering that he was, in fact, in the middle of a class.

He still had his wand in hand, so Toby used that to nick off a teeny tiny segment of apple using Diffindo, and bit straight into that to test it.

Hmmm... sweet, yeah. But... not REALLY sweet. Not quite the way Thompson had described it, at least, which meant that the spell must not have been totally successful. No big, though; he would just try again, and hopefully the extra casting would make the apple properly sweet enough. He held his wand up to the apple and tried again.

"Magimus." Once again, Toby went around the outside of the apple with his wand, focusing as hard as he could on things that tasted sweet like pure sugar, hoping that the thoughts would translate through his magic and into the apple and replicate the flavour. It was easier to focus on now that he'd already tried some of the partially successful apple.

After watching those sparks trail from his wand and die down, Toby used magic to cut off another tiny little segment, and he popped it into his mouth.

Much better. Properly sweet, like it had been saturated in sugar water or something. Basically all the apple flavour was gone, either replaced or overpowered, and Toby now went back to tossing the apple up into the air (way higher this time) and catching it again, just to give his fidgety hands something to do until they moved on.

Oh. They were going to be feeding the little guys? Hehe. Dima liked that; it was a nice, fun, and interesting way to gain trust. Plus the spell could be used for things outside of Porlock trust-gaining too, which was pretty cool. A spell that you could use in dessert making AND making creature friends? Professor Thompson was AWESOME.

Jumping up, Dima headed over to the basket to grab a fruit. Not a tomato, those were too close to vegetables. And apples reminded him of Quigley.

LEMON it was. Best way to test this spell's capacity was by starting sour, right? Right!

All that was left was to try her apple. It didn’t really look different to Brooklyn, and she knew there wasn’t any reason to be nervous about trying it. She liked green apples after all, so she didn’t need to worry. She wasn’t particularly fond of things that were too sweet, so maybe there was reason to take her time and not take a giant bite out of the apple. Just in case she actually had cast the spell right. She still wasn’t entirely sure about that. The apple really didn’t look any different.

She’d only find out by trying. After another moment, she gathered her courage and lifted the apple to her nose. It didn’t really smell any different either, but then, she wasn’t entirely sure what an apple smelled like. Maybe there was a sweet smell, but she still wasn’t sure. All that was left was taking a bite, and she took a delicate one. A tiny one, chewing slowly. Okay, it was definitely sweet. Almost too sweet for her, so she chose not to take another bite. Test was done, so she wasn’t going to make herself sick.

She should have known from the way the lemon smelled, not to take a big bite out of it. Of course, her sniffer only caught up to her movements after she had taken a big, hearty chunk out of the lemon: rind and all.

It took a moment for the bitterness to prick all surfaces in her mouth, but when it did, it was pungent. Her toes curled as she pressed both fists to the sides of her mouth, sucking her cheeks in as if she could suck the tangy juices out. A pitiful mewl sound escaped her throat as she wiggled from side to side.

Instead of spitting the vile thing out however, she swallowed it. Nearly whole and unchewed. Automatic, poor digestive reflexes. It burned on the way down to her stomach, causing her to sputter in surprise and disgust. Definitely a lemon. Definitely still, one-hundred percent a lemon.

Amur wanted to chuck her wand across the barnyard. She should have expected such a thing from her troublesome wand. Tricks. It liked to play tricks on her. Fool thing had a mind of its own.

As she was finally able to draw a full breath in, Amur gave both the lemon and wand a disdainful scowl. And the Professor had made it look soooooo easy.

Her eyes flicked to another student who appeared to be giving up. She sympathized with the girl, she really did. Shuffling over, she plopped down next to the older girl. "Should have known better than to pick a lemon, huh?"

Yeah. Points for wisety there.

A sudden idea sparked her and she turned to the girl. "What if you try enchanting mine, and I'll try enchanting yours? And then we each try the one that the other enchanted?" That made sense right? If someone else's tastebuds were on the line then they were more likely to be forced to get it right.

Was this girl-whose-name-was-not-known agree to such a scheme?

Okay, so this didn't sound to hard to accomplish. Well, selecting a fruit and getting it ready for the Porlock didn't. Would Kate be able to lure a Porlock to her side or not? Only time would tell. This also explained why the professor had been chomping on a tomato like it was an apple right when class began. Kate hadn't said anything, because to each his or her own, but she hadn't seen many people eat tomatoes that way.

Speaking of fruit, Kate should really head to the baskets and select a piece of fruit for the Porlock. She headed in that direction and reaching the baskets, peered in to see which fruit really stood out to her. LEMON. Apples seemed so over-rated, and the professor had just been eating a tomato, so Kate wanted to try something new. She selected a lemon then moved out the way of the baskets to make room for the others. Lemon in hand, Kate headed back to where she'd been before to start the spell.

Right...of course it hadn't been right.

Benny looked back at the quick notes he had been jotting down for anything to help him improve only to spot what the professor had said about proof. Sparkly and shiny Thompson had mentioned. A glance at his apply revealed very little of what could be deemed as either adjective. So he had at least another go to do...for this piece of fruit anyway. The fifth year had a feeling they might need more eventually, even if just for any homework that might be given to them.

Raising his fruit...his apple...back up again so he could aim at it, Benjamin tried to focus back at the charm. Magimus, maa-GEE-mus. Making something super sweet. That's all that he wanted out of the magic he was working on casting. He took a deep breath, he raised his wand up again as well.

"Magimus!" he cast, complete with one solid circle around the apple. Then he watched and waited for a change. It was gradual, but there it was. Sparkle. Benny moved to take a bite and nearly spit it out in disgust.

Yep...definitely sweet.

Bleu quickly sifted through the different fruits and decided on a lemon. She wasn't too fond of lemons so this incantation had better work.

Before she practiced the incantation, she practiced the wand movements. She liked to practice that first, just so it would be in her muscle memory when she tried out the spell. She watched as the professor demonstrated the the wand movements. It was a perfect circle around the object. She did this multiple times to make sure she had it right.

LOOOOOOOOOOOL.

MAN, he was late in getting started?

Swear to Merlin, this was happening so many times recently that all Grayson could do was laugh. It was like when he realised that he'd procrastinated on a piece of homework yet AGAIN, even if he said that he was gonna try and improve. It got to the point where he didn't care toooooo much. Not really.

But he cared enough to try and get this part of the activity done soooo, he was gonna go ahead and pick out a fruit for this. He wasn't too fussed about which fruit he chose but since it was meant to sparkle or whatever, the apple seemed like the best choice right now. It would be one of those fruits that would SHOW him that it was sparkling a little more than, say, a banana probably.

So, apple. He was gonna go for this crunchy looking apple over here.

Now it was time to practice the incantation.

She placed her wand behind her ear and stared directly at her lemon. "Magimus. Maa-Gee-Mus." Using her wand hand with out using her wand she did the wand movements and kept repeating the incantation. "Magimus. Maa-Gee-Mus."

Alright. Alright. Dima HAD A LEMON.

But... what? Grayson had an APPLE? Did he need to get an apple? Were those cooler?!?!

"Magimus. Ma-geeee-mussss. Magimus." Sounded about right, yeah? Like howProfessorThompson had said it, which meant it had to be right. He drew aninvisiblecircle around the lemon without saying anything. Now... down to business. "Magimus!" Dima traced the fruit's circumference as he spoke, observing as it began to sparkle.

Er...... was it supposed to do that? GRAYSON'S wasn't doing that. ABORT MISSION.

"Magimus. Maa-Gee-Mus." Bleu said it one more time while doing the motion without her wand before she actually used it.
She felt ready.

She pulled her wand out from behind her ear, holding her lemon in her left hand. She took a deep breath concentrating on the lemon, and in a swift and precise motion, "Magimus." She created a circle around the lemon with her wand. Suddenly her lemon was sparkling like a diamond. She bounced and giggled. It was so pretty! She knew she had to sample it and try again if it wasn't sweet enough. She took a large bite out of the lemon. It was tart but super sweet taste, almost like a lemon head but sweeter. She smiled. Success!

She grabbed another lemon and concentrated on it. "Magimus." She circled the lemon with her wand and it became a beautiful crystallized lemon. It shimmered beautifully in the sun. She was ready for this creature.

Dima was casting on a lemon too, and Dot quickly snatched hers out of the dirt at the sight of him at work. He would never throw his fruit on the ground just because he failed to properly cast a spell. There was a bit of smudgy dirt on the rind, and she quickly dusted it off with the hem of her shirt before giving it another careful lick. Same same.

And now the spell again, and this time Dot was thinking very very sweet thoughts. "Magimus." Just a point of the wand, and she was thinking about candy and porlocks and shiny things. Workworkworkwork. When Dot lowered her wand, she noticed immediately that her lemon had a slight shimmer to it. SHINY LEMON. She gave it a lick, then a nibble, and then a bite, grinning broadly the whole time. It was sweet. She was a charms-casting queen.

Fruit picked, it was time to practice the incantation!

See, this wasn't bad. They just had to make these pieces of fruit overly sweet and then use it to lure the Porlocks or whatever. The spell was a dead useful one and if it worked on other pieces of food, he was gonna be well chuffed. No more having to endure bland, salty food just because his Dad thought that they consumed too much sugar. Nooooooo!

ANYWAYS. Spell.

Clearing his throat, Grayson held his apple in his hands and started chanting. "Magimus........ magimus..... magimus....... maaaaagiiiiiiiiimuuuuuuuuus........" Elongate those vowels, man. "Magimus........ magimus...... magimuuuuuuus......."

The chanting continued on and on until he reached a point where the spell didn't sound like a spell anymore.

The wand movement? A simple circular motion around the fruit. Dead simple that was and Grayson wasn't gonna practice it. It was simple enough and if he got THAT part wrong, there was gonna be a cause for concern. Oozing with confidence, he was.