With the lantern finally as small as he wanted to get it, it was time to try something else. "Finite," he cast on it to bring it back to its normal size which was easy enough in comparison to the spell he was practicing. Soon he had the lantern back the way it had been when he first took it out of the trunk. At least he figured it was since it was back to its previous form.

Benny walked back to said trunk and returned it to its rightful home before searching for something else to work with. Stuffed animal? Nah. Ball? Nope...likely to not stay in place while he worked and he wasn't sure he wanted to try and hold it in one hand while trying to shrink it with his wand in the other. Finally he decided on a think tome. Something of a different material than the lantern, the Gryffindor preparing it a distance away.

Breathe...

Focus...

"Diminuendo!" And a point just like before. The book began to shrink in size but suddenly stopped. Good start though, at least this time he got it on the first try with the item. Always more time for practice.

Having set the teeny tiny cushion off to one side for now (he didn't want to lift the spell just yet; sometimes his magic did a thing where the spell would undo itself after a few moments, so he was making super sure this one stuck), Toby now pulled the stuffed toy kneazle into centre stage. This one would probably be about the same level of difficulty as the other and, seeing as that spell was so successful on the first try (the tiny cushion was still very tiny), Tobias figured it might be a good idea to have another shot at doing it non-verbally. That was something he'd still never come anything close to managing, so he was keen on working on it.

First, Toby just sat there, staring at the toy kneazle, making unfailing eye contact as though he was staring deep into its souuuullllll. In reality, though, he was just trying super hard to focus, picturing the toy going from regular dimensions down to the kind of size where it could be concealed in his cupped hands. Over and over he envisioned it, 'til he could almost convince himself he was actually watching it happen.

With that level of focus reached, Toby raised his wand, pointed it at the kneazle, screwed up his face in concentration and thought 'DIMINUENDO!' with such intensity that if someone was listening in on his thoughts he would have made their head spin.

He stayed like that for a few moments, willing the thing to shrink and trying to reply the mental image he'd conjured before, but it wasn't working, and Toby could no longer picture what he'd envisioned earlier. But still the Hufflepuff stayed in that position, and if willpower alone could have shrunk the think it would have diminished right out of existence. Or maybe an atom would have had a cool toy kneazle. But nope. Nothing.

Toby persevered for a while longer with the non-verbal approach, but after twenty minutes had passed and the toy hadn't shrunk even a tiny bit, and Toby's head was pounding painfully after so long trying to concentrate that hard on the same thing, the Hufflepuff resigned himself to the fact that maybe today would not be the day. He could always try another time.

Letting out a sigh of frustration and weariness, Toby rubbed his head right where the ache was and used his other hand to point his wand at the toy again in the meantime. "Diminuendo."

... And just like that, it shrank. That was... really quite frustrating, doing it so quickly now after it had been seemingly impossible to do non-verbally, and Toby sort of wanted to throw the thing. But he didn't. Instead, he counted that as a success, set it to one side, and pulled his last item, the telescope, closer.

Sigh.

Dot was skipping by the time she got to the Charms Annexe, and she didn't stop as she entered the room and took in the other occupants. Mr. Grayson was here! He got a finger wiggle and a grin, but Dot was not going to be deterred. She wanted to get this practicing done so she could go do something actually fun.

First, though... she needed to get stuff to practice with. "Alohamora," Dot was glad the spell to unlock was easy peasy, and she perused the contents of the chest for something interesting to use. Hmm... a cup and a saucer and a cup and a saucer and a teapot... there was a whole tea set in here! That would work perfectly.

Always time for more practice...and practice supposedly made perfect.

So Benny wasn't quite ready to give up, deciding to give it one last try. He would either sink or swim and be good with what was the outcome. Gathering his focus, the fiifth year let his gaze nearly stare solidly at the book as he brought his wand up from his side to follow through as he spoke the incantation.

"Diminuendo!" he cast once more, before echoing it shortly after with another "Diminuendo!" for good measure. The book responded well to the magic of the spell, shrinking quite small until he released it. There...that should do it.

Benny was quite satisfied with how he had progressed. So after casting a quick "Finite," on the book to return it to his rightful size, he returned it to where he had gotten it before moving to leave the annex for now.

LOL, had he procrastinated on a piece of homework?

Yes, yes he had.

Had, being the key word. Grayson was now here, at the Charms Annexe, to get the homework done, which was what mattered, wasn't it? Who cared how late he was? As long as he got this done on time, Quigley didn't need to know. He doubted whether the man would care too much in the first place.

So he needed to shrink something, didn't he? HMMM. Start off with something small, then? Good idea. Because Merlin knew how long it had taken him to get the shrinking spell right. But then again, he was faced with some giant spiders and felt the need to protect Dima like he was some sort of freaking Gryffindor. What was all THAT about? Not the protecting, the spiders. Jeez, way to make a guy scared, man.

Small object? A ball. A small tennis-ball sized ball. If he could get it riiiiiight down to the size of his finger, he would be well impressed. So, the Slytherin whipped out his wand and chanted the spell in his head a couple of times -- practice reasons -- before saying, "Diminuendo!"

Look at it shrinking down to the size of a pea! SMIRK. Who was bad at this spell now?

Oh HEY! It was Dot! Grayson smiled and waved back at her. Good kid. Uh huh!

That about wrapped things up, so Kate pointed her wand toward the tiny stuffed mouse on the floor before her. "Finite!" she said, and just like that, the stuffed mouse was its regular size again. Kate gripped her wand by her side then gathered the mouse, the plastic sword, and the plastic pumpkin and brought all three back to the trunk.

She swished her wand into a backwards S formation and said, "Alohomora!" The trunk unlocked, and Kate put all three items back inside of it. Looking back, she checked to see if she'd left anything belonging to her. She didn't think so, so she stuffed her wand back into her holster then headed out the door.

That had been EASY.

So he was gonna move on to another object. One that was slightly bigger and maybe heavier -- maybe being the key word here -- just to get him all pumped up. Otherwise this was gonna turn boring really quickly. And he'd rather be prepared in the case of an attack. Any new means to save his neck was a good means, according to the sixteen year old.

Heading over to the trunk and opening it using the unlocking spell, Grayson bent down and started rummaging through it. Something larger than a ball? It shouldn't be hard to find something that fitted the bill, should it? But some of the objects in there got a few weird and disgusted looks from the boy before he threw it back is there. Seriously? Who in the name of Merlin decided to keep a freaking SHOE in there?! WHAT?!

Jeez. Dirty people.

And not in the good, hilarious way either.

Nope. Not touching that filthy nonsense. He was gonna grab himself a frying pan, mkay? Much better, that was.

Tugging the item out of the trunk, Grayson placed it down on the floor and pointed his wand at it. "Diminuendo!"

No?

"Diminuendo!"

What in the name of--

"Diminuendo!" JEEZ. MUCH better, thank you.

"Mr. Grayson." Dot brought her tea things across the room and seated herself cross legged on the floor near where Mr. Grayson was working. The better to see him and talk to him and look at him. Seeing and looking were two different things, y'know, and why shouldn't she look at the prettiest boy in the school? D'you suppose he knew he was prettiest? Probably... boys like that walked around like they knew people were always watching.

"You can have tea with me when I'm done." Dot set up the tray, cups on saucers and each placed around the kettle. Only when the entire set was in place did she pick up the first cup and give it a thoughtful look. "Diminuendo."

It shrunk down to doll size right in her hand, and Dot moved on to the saucer it sat on. "Diminuendo." The saucer shrunk as well, albeit not as much. It was good enough for Dot's aesthetic, and she placed the cup back on the saucer. "Tea party. Come along, Mr. Grayson."

Just this item to go and Toby would call it a day, because three seemed like a sufficient number of things to successfully shrink before he could say he'd put in a good amount of effort. In any case, Toby's head was aching pretty bad now, and he didn't want to think about getting another set of objects; it was a lot better to view the task as being nearly finished. Soon he could get a headache draught, too, and if that was incentive for finishing up here quickly, he wasn't sure what was.

The telescope was bound to be a little trickier; his last two items had been simple and straightforward, whereas this thing had a lot of components that Toby suppose would make the job a little more complex. Also, Toby-logic dictated that 'cause the cushion and stuffed toy were squishy and fabric, they were easier to cast on.

Nobody ever said that Toby-logic made sense, okay?

The seventeen year old raised his wand again, twirled it once in his fingers out of habit, pointed it at the brass telescope, and cast his spell.

"Diminuendo."

PLINK!

Inexplicably, a super thin jet of white light shot out the end of his wand and bounced off the telescope. Toby quickly ducked out of the way to avoid it, and then turned his head to see it go straight up to hit the ceiling. Nothing much really happened, but the Hufflepuff did notice some trails of dust falling to the floor.



... That... was not supposed to happen. Why had that happened? NONE of that was on Toby's mental list of 'THINGS THAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING'. He stared up at the ceiling a few moments longer, to make sure it wasn't about to collapse on him or something, and then glanced around the room to make sure nobody had... noticed that. Yep, shhhhh, don't pay attention to this corner of the room. Shhhhhhh, it's fine, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Toby would not be the next person to upset Quigley, okay?

Turning back to the telescope, Toby eyed it suspiciously. What was that about, dude? Maybe his concentration had been off? ... Probably. Yeah, that was most likely. Let's... go with that.

Okay then, one more time, WITH FEELING.

And focus.

And... hopefully a non-potentially-catastrophic result.

You know what? He was gonna have to keep the tiny objects near one another so that he could keep an eye on them and Finite the lot back once he was done. Tiny things wet missing easily, didn't they? Like quills. He was sure they disappeared into the unknown more times than he actually did some homework.

Placing the smaller pot down next to the ball, Grayson rummaged around the trunk once again. Now he needed something bigger than that. Something like.........

........... a HAT?!

Grayson STARED at the hat. It wasn't just any kinda hat, it was a freaking fedora. Why? Just....... WHY? What kinda items were in this trunk in the first place? Weird ones, that's what. And just for the lulz, he put the hat on himself. Perfect fit! Now he just needed a mirror to see how it looked and it would all be--

Ugh. Right. Charms.

Taking the hat off, the Slytherin placed it down on the floor and eyes it, trying to imagine it getting smaller and smaller. Intent was key and all that. Kinda like being forceful with it. Showing the spell and the object who's in control. Kinda. "Diminuendo!"

Was he getting better with the spell or had the intent/force part worked? The world may never know.

Tea party?!

Grayson looked up from his shrinking hat in time to see Dot sitting down opposite him and shrinking a tea set. Or, well, a cup and a saucer. Girl was quite good with the spell, actually. A little too good. What was her secret, eh? Dude wanted to know.

But first, there was the matter of the question. "Only if the cups are bigger. That's not exactly gonna fill my appetite." Yes, Dot, you get a Grayson Whitlock for your tea party. Aren't you lucky?

And of course he was the prettiest boy in the school. PSH. Like there was any doubt about THAT.

Pretty as he was, Grayson wasn't saved from the serious stink eye Dot gave him at suggesting his cup needed to be larger. Did he understand the point of this charms lesson? LITTLE TINY cups. Itty bitty saucers. Her scowling was open and consistent as Dot picked up her next cup and saucer and set them out on the floor between herself and Grayson.

Watch this, cutie pie.

"Diminuendo." Cup shrunk. "Diminuendo." Saucer shrunk.

"We're having a tea party, Mr. Grayson. You drink out of thimbles and fairy cups, and you eat pretend biscuits. Haven't you ever had a little sister before? Honestly, how do boys grow up to be good boyfriends when they don't even know how to TEA PARTY?" Sighs for life, man. Eternal, everloving sighs.

Item number... what? Four?

The hat, that was now big enough for a doll, was tossed off to one side before he rummaged around the trunk for something else. Something much better than a hat or a pot or a ball. Something like.......

........ no, not the freaking shoe. Go away.

...... like......

A toy train compartment should be good enough, shouldn't it? Eh. Yeah. It was a scarlet one, too, and kinda reminded him a lot of the Hogwarts Express. And it was already pretty small anyways but due to its bulk -- which was kinda heavy for its size -- the guy felt as if this would be a good item to work with. Besides, trains were kinda boring. There was no way he'd get distracted by this.

Setting the train down, Grayson eye it like he did with the hat and called, "Diminuendo!"

WELL.

It was shrinking, that was for sure. But it was kinda shrinking a little slower than usual? Confused, the Slytherin eyed his wand and then the train. What in the name of Merlin? Was it MEANT to do that? Did that happen? Where was Quigley when you needed him? Dude had questions about this now.

But at least it was shrinking. That was something.

A third year giving him the stink eye was a serious blow to his ego. Jeez, what had he done NOW?! Because Merlin knew that he was always doing something or another that somehow ended up upsetting people for reasons he didn't understand.

Oh sweet Merlin. Thimbles? Fairy cups? PRETEND BISCUITS?! Why PRETEND? What happened to REAL biscuits? "Why do the biscuits have to be pretend ones?" His brain and stomach weren't able to comprehend this. "I have a little brother but not a little sister. And my brother's nearly fifteen so not so little, I guess." Besides, they didn't play with tea sets when they were younger. They played with kid's lab kits that produced jelly and gory things and then go and prank people with them. Usual boys stuff.

"Is having a tea party important to being a good boyfriend, then?" Huh. The more you know.

Okay, Ophelia was almost finished. She just had to go and practice one more time to fix the mistake that she had just made. It was her mother's belief that you should always finish things on a positive note, and it was one of the ideas that the twelve year old begrudgingly agreed with. It led to less frustration and less of the little blonde kicking things, which was something she tended to do when she was younger. The wall actually still had a tiny hole near the bottom where she kicked it at eight years old. The shoe, which her brother had kept and named the hero shoe --he was into really old comic books too-- sat up on her dresser, plaster still embedded into the sole. It was something that her and her brother shared, making a strange karate style noise whenever they passed the spot together.

Anyway, one last try. Grabbing the stuffed animal that she had accidentally shrunk, the Ravenclaw decided that it would just be RIGHT to shrink the bear again, on purpose this time. It was the last object he had used the charm on, so it just seemed justifiable to use the object to her advantage. Putting the ADORABLE toy on the table, the preteen shimmied to adjust her robes and then began.

"Diminuendo!" Watching as the teddy bear shrunk considerably, the child grinned from cheek to cheek. Her last try was correct! She did it! Now all of the objects just had to be cleaned up and the kid could go. So maybe the homework wasn't sooooo bad after all, but still. It took a while. Though it was king of fun to shrink all of the objects. Yeah, Ophelia wasn't sure how she felt about this one yet.

"Finite!" Once all of the objects were -ahem-biggified, the Ravenclaw happily put everything away. But she didn't want to get rid of the teddy bear! It reminded the curly haired girl of the stuffed animal that she had when she was a child and continuously got sick from eating things she found on the ground. It was special. And adorable. And may or may not be still sitting on the bed at her house. But this was like her own little piece of home! Sighing, she placed the bear back where it needed to be and walked over to her backpack, slinging it over her shoulders and walked out.

Dot ignored Grayson at first, deciding instead to just go on and finish up shrinking the last two cups and saucers without pausing to respond to him. He was just terrible and a ruiner and she didn't like that. Instead, she slammed her cups and saucers against the floor, a moved her way methodically down the line.

"Diminuendo. Diminuendo. Diminuendo. Diminuendo." The cups and saucers shrunk, but her lack of concentration was showing. There wasn't perfect uniformity among them, with one of the cups being a bit too large for the saucer it sat on and another cup no bigger than a thimble. Sigh. Boys were so distracting and terrible and Dot was SO GLAD she'd given them up.

Now she could look at Grayson. "It teaches you to do as you're told. It teaches you to put up with something that interests someone else, even if you think it's stupid. It teaches you to be creative and think outside the box. And it teaches you to have whimsy. You don't have an ounce of whimsy, Grayson, and it's troubling." Y'know what tells you that Dot is done? She stops calling you cutesy names.

"I don't need you. I have enough whimsy for everyone." Case in point? She sipped air!tea.

Last item to go, then? Brilliant.

Another rummage around the trunk happened. The LAST rummage, mkay? He wasn't gonna stay here and shrink any more items just for the sake of it. No. Five was enough, thank you very much.

And his last item of choice? A book. A heavy book.

As with the others, this book was set down onto the floor and Grayson pointed his wand at it. "Diminuendo!" LOL. Nothing. "Diminuendo!" Still nothing. "Diminuendo!" Yeah.......... this was just getting embarrassing now. "DIMINUENDO!"

Success? FREAKING YEAH! Look at the way it was shrinking down to the size of--

Oh sweet Merlin what had he done NOW?!

Harmless questions had been asked and Dot was getting MAD?! Seriously? Girls, man. Weird, they were, and he couldn't live without them. Did she think he DIDN'T put up with other people's interests? Did she think he was that selfish? Well, he kinda was, but still! Wow, this was new. And he felt kinda bad, to be honest. And a little hurt.

Again, new.

He was not going soft, mkay?

"I have no problem taking part in your tea party, I'll even hold up my pinky finger or whatever, I just wish there was real food. I have a big appetite." And she had mentioned biscuits! "I don't think it's stupid," Eh. "I'm just hungry." Shrug.

As what in the name of Merlin was whimsy?! Was this something he was meant to have or what?

Okay, here goes. Nothing was going to blow up, nothing (else?) was going to break. He would shrink down this tricksy little telescope and be out of here in time for lunch (which Toby had already decided would be home-made treats that he didn't even need to go all the way home for). And a headache draught. That too.

The telescope received a fair amount of eyeing (and not in the way one would usually eye a telescope, heh) before Toby was ready to get back to work. He was still stumped as to what had just happened, and had been half expecting the thing to... well, he wasn't sure. Maybe sprout legs and run out the room? Melt? Explode? Yodel? But nothing had happened and Toby had simply concluded that his spell was faulty, and that was that.

Up went the wand again.

"Diminuendo!" Toby pointed his wand at the shiny brass instrument and focused on the intent of shrinking it down. This time there was no 'plink', no jet of light, no probable holes in the ceiling. This time it shrank, all components included, until it could be mistaken for a tiny replica of a working telescope.

Toby smiled for what felt like the first time in hours, and picked up the telescope. He held it up to his eye and squinted through it, to see if it still worked like this, but it was too small to see anything. Or perhaps it didn't work in the first place, hence its status as 'charms practice item'. Still, it looked pretty.

But anyway, WOO! All done. Tobias gathered all his items back up and cast 'Finite' on the lot, so other students could use them if they wanted, and returned them to the trunk. He slid his wand back in his holster and finally headed out of the Charms annexe, glad that he'd actually got some homework done.

Success with shrinking one object, but apparently one wasn't enough and she had to make sure she could cancel the spell as well. It was getting slightly crowded in the annexe; clearly others decided waiting till last minute would be wise but Tia wasn't deterred, as she reminded herself of impressions.

Pulling the sheet of parchment about a foot in length, the fourth year held it flat as she pointed her wand at it. "Diminuendo." She murmured, determined, focused, thinking about making a teeny parchment. Within seconds, the parchment shrunk to the sized of her palm - hardly enough room for her written assignment.

Just hope that the reversal spell would work.

Mr. Grayson was SO cranky. Dot sipped air tea from her tiny cup and watched him over the rim. Huh. That was interesting, this ability to rile people up, and she didn't hate that she'd somehow convinced him to do things her way without having to beg or plead. Dot hated begging. It made her feel small.

She held up a hand to stop his tirade as she pointed her wand one last time at the tea pot. "Diminuendo." See? It worked perfectly, and now the whole tea set was little. Adorable. Fairy cups, indeed. "You're a good sport, Mr. Grayson. I happen to have biscuits in my bag. I do think we should return everything to the right size first, though, if we're having a proper party instead of a play one."

So that meant... Dot pointed her wand at the whole set. "Finite." All the cups and saucers and the tea pot righted themselves to the correct size. "Have a seat."

And now it seemed as if people were leaving again as the annexe emptied out once more. Rubbing at her temples, Tia frowned as she considered what else to shrink. She still had her normal-sized quill. Eh, may as well to go with itty bitty parchment.

"Diminuendo" she cast for the third time, this time her wand pointing at her quill and maybe it was hesitancy on shrinking such a valuable artifact to her, but nothing appeared to happen. "Diminuendo, Diminuendo," the fourth year cast again, refocusing her attention on shrinking the quill.

The refocusing helped, it seemed as she watched the writing utensil shrink down to match the size of the mini parchment. Moving the mini-quill on top of the parchment, she glanced around the room in search of something else.

Gabe had been so focused on the task at hand, he'd missed her non-verbal efforts...but hopefully Ruby wouldn't be too upset with him. They'd spent too much time not speaking...and he didn't want to go back to not speaking. They were making progress here.

Still with a few to go, he carefully pointed at each in turn, having them spread out enough so no accidents happened. No double charming so they were too small. That could happen...since the charm could be layered and whatnot. "Diminuendo."...with a simple and precise point. Easy enough.

After finishing up the various colored quills, he'd gotten out a little baggy to put them in. All that was left would be getting a piece of metal to cap the ends...and then getting a bracelet to put them on. All very tedious and non-exciting business......but CB would maybe like it? So, essentially it was worth the trouble.

Hmm?

"........Yes, if you'd like." Gabe was a bit unsure about sitting with Slytherins...So, perhaps they could just eat in the kitchens? Alone and unbothered. There was some stuff he needed to discuss with her, anyway. He needed his sister's advice.

"Ready?"

With that fun done she stood up and stretched once more. It was slowly dawning on her that this window sill was also comfortable enough for a nap. Not now, of course. She just had one. But for later...maybe.

"Finite!" The boot hopped up as it un-shrunk; the bell...it rattled until it was back to its formal ancient glory. Was that another crack she spotted on it? No..... Back in the chest it went.

This time she didn't have to search for something to catch her eye. There was a fluffy tail peeking, so she tugged on it. It took several tugs before it came free--oh! A fluffy toy dog. She petted its golden mane, her fingers brushing under its collar. TAP ME, read the tag. A magical toy. She's seen these kind, the ones that came alive with a tap of a wand. Beverly had one when she was young, the only exception being it was a horse rather than a dog.

Walking back over to her spot on the window sill, she the dog down by her feet and gave its collar a tap. Must have been old because it took it a few wiggles to get it moving. And when it did it moved at a robotic pace, but amusing nonetheless.

"Come here," she instructed. It took the toy a while to get its grip, then waddled towards her. Aww. "Diminuendo!"The toy dog grew smaller and smaller and...

o___o

...bolted.

Alright. Concentrate, Toussaint. For some reason, he was lacking SOMETHING to cast the spell today, and Dima needed to get back whatever it was. Focus was necessary, not a constant train of thought that only had to with the Charms professor. This was about MAGIC, not about might, yes? Yes.

"Diminuendo." He pointed his wand at the book, and it shrunk.

A little. But not as much as Dima WANTED it to shrink.

Where'd the tiny toy dog go?

Beverly found herself standing in the center of the room, hand rubbing the back of her neck as her gaze searched the place. The dog had run Merlin knows where when she'd shrunk it. She knew it didn't have feelings or emotions so there was no way it'd be afraid. It was probably glitching.

She was about to go for something else to practice on when something scurried across her feet, and out of instinct she kicked it off her....

...and the tiny dog toy flew across the room, toward the window sill she'd been sitting on.

Welp. Did she break it?

Grabbing it before it darted off again, she grinned to herself. It was still its glitchy self. Thank Merlin. Now she could test out challenging it's size. "Diminuendo!" With the simple point, she was impressed as it shrunk even more so that it now fit in her palm.

"Finite!" The toy grew back to its normal size and she quickly gave its collar a fine tap, making it go still. There. She was done with this. Mainly because her stomach was telling her it was time to be fed.

Concentration was obviously an issue today, and Dima STARED at the book in consternation. Shrink! Get tiny! Please. Except only a little, because he had to keep using the same item. Finding a new one would make this whole thing go on longer, and Dima didn't want to stay anywhere near Mr. Charms Guy's office.

Another time, then? "Diminuendo!"

Finally. It shrunk to the size that Dima had imagined, not much of a change, but enough to convince him that he'd gotten his mojo back. AWESOME.

Dot was not enjoying her tea party by herself, and she was delighted to spot a Dima practicing across the room. It only took her a moment to gather up her empty tea cup and the biscuits that she was no longer willing share with Grayson (too slow, bro). She skipped across the room and plunked down just close enough to Dima to be annoying.

And then she sipped her air!tea and stared at him. Not unnerving at all.