Quickening her step to a faster walk she let her feet take the lead. Sometimes it was just easier that way really especially when the platform beneath your feet was moving as well even if it wasn't all that fast.

Spotting a group of sand castles that were virtually untouched she made her way for them. With each step she took she could see the waves out of the corner of her eye swaying along after her. Really it was pretty cool to watch.

Sidestepping around someone she moved behind the bunch of castles not really caring much one which were taken down. Just so they weren't her color of course!

Come on waves crash! Hady willed the waves closer as small waves teased her lapping at the shore but none hitting the castle. Heaving a sigh she shuffled closer to one of the blue castles letting out a breath as a wave began to trail after her growing in size. With just enough time to leap backwards out of the way the wave swept over where she had just been effectively taking down not one but two blue castles!

Epic!

SPOILER!!: Echo

Echo looked over and spotted Hady and she got a yellow one down. "awesome Hady!!!!" she smiled at her new friend as she made her way towards her. "This is way to much fun.. and i think im going to go grab a red one" she told Hady while giggling and Tapping her wand and saying "Aquatraxi Gravita" seeing the waves come in she moved out of the way this time as the red sand castle was washed away.

"How many have you done yet?" she was practically jumping up and down with all the excitement that was happening, and thats when she saw it. a tentacle.

"WAHOOOOOO DID YOU SEE THAT!" she told the girl as Echo knew the professor said that the giant squid was going to help out but she's never seen him before..

"how big is that thing?" she said quitely as she moved alot closer to her new friend, kind of for safety purposes.

During her leap backwards Hady barely had time to register the voice of someone speaking her to her as she quickly sprung to the side so she didn't knock into the girl who she now saw was Echo. Laughing at the younger girls excitement she twirled her wand in her fingers as she spoke. "Erm with those two there three now. And nice job Echo!." She had seen the castle her housemate took out.

With a glance to the water to see if it was following her still (it wasn't) she knew she needed to do the spell again. She also glimpsed the tentacle Echo had spotted and grinned holding in a laugh as her friend moved closer. "Oh yeah that's Bartholomew. He's HUGH but actually very nice, I met him last term, he even posed for a photo for me." Yup it was actually up in her dorm in her trunk.

OH MY GOSH THIS GAME WAS SO COOL!!! MAGIC GAMES WERE ALREADY AMAZING!!! As for proper footwear? Rowan was under the impression that the only footwear to wear in water was none, right? And since she spent almost her whole life barefoot and falling in ponds and such, she just decided to remove her shoes and socks and place them with her bag on the shore, then she ran across the walkway with the rest of the kids, heading for the platform, wand in hand.

Right. She should cast the spell again first, because it had worn off. In fact it had probably worn off before she'd even left the classroom... her balloon had been looking less bothered...

Anyway, spell casting time.

Rowan did her best to get into full concentration mode, but it was very difficult to do that on a floating platform in the middle of the lake. Eventually, though, she felt like she was getting there, and tapped herself firmly on the head with her wand. "Aquatraxi Gravita..." Had that worked? Only one way to find out...

She ran over to a blue sandcastle and stood behind it, WISHING her hardest for the spell to have worked, but nothing was happening. So she took a step back to try again.

Ilia was rushing to her next target when she saw it crumble into the water. Who smashed her next victim? She saw it was Henric and she grinned over at him. "Nice splash!" She stopped beside him and nudged him, pointing at a pair of blue and red castles. They didn't belong to her side or his, so they could both benefit if they target those colors. "I'll race you." She winked and head off at the targets, even if he didn't join her......she was still taking them down.

Stopping in between the castles, she watched the wave come for the blue one, but it didn't have enough oomph to take the red one too. Maybe if she stood with Henric they could get enough force to really start taking out some castles.

Henric was on the roll here, as he darted past students who were trying to get each other castles! Were they at war with each other?! Blimey! It felt like it! Oh wow, his house castle was certainly a favourite target among them. No way he was going to let that happened! His Hufflepuff pride was on the line here!

And ohhh...Henric was loving every bit of this activity now! He spotted llia,his new bestfriend from Slytherin had come to pay a visit eh....nope..not going to happen because he was going to do that first!

He ran towards the Slytherin side and cast the spell again,"Aquatraxi Gravita!" He watched in glee as the wave came crashing down and hit the side of the Slytherin GREEN castle wall.

"Oopss...sorreh." He chuckled and head towards the Ravenclaw side next. The BLUES
knew danger was inevitable anyway so he called upon the wave again.

"Bye byeee wall and say hello to your new invader!!"Henric roared.

SPLAAAAAAAAASH.

Noel Wallace had sneaked TWO water balloons as they headed out of the class and as soon as they were in the clear. They had found their way onto Benzi Rider's back. BWAHAHAHA.

... And then the professor started speaking. Oh. Now this was going to be interesting wasn't it? In the midst of professor space's speech, Noel gave Benzi a look of 'IMGONNAGETYOUMATE' ... and then it was chaos.

EVERYONE WAS RUNNING.

Adrenaline kicking in, Noel toooo moved forward onto the platform. Looking at targets, his eyes locked onto the red and blue ones and then he spoke clearly: "Aquatraxi Gravita" and gave himself a firm tap with his wand. At first nothing happened but then he spoke again - a little more with intent this time and LOOOOK AT THAT .. the wave moved on A BLUE SANDCASTLE GONE DOWN.

WHAAA. YESS.

Ilia watched her best friend grin as he......DEMOLISHED HER BEAUTIFUL GREEN CASTLE!? Oh no, it was on now. Best friend or not, he was going to get it now, this was war and he was the wrong color. "You are not!" She called back in reply to his fake apology. She cast her spell multiple times as she ran to the closest yellow sandcastle and stood next to it, while looking at Henric. "But you will be!" She called back at him with a triumphant grin as the wave demolished the castle into nothing but a color splat.

She rushed off to her next target, the next closest yellow sandcastle and stood behind it. "Water , water, flow and crash. Come on waves lets make a splash!" The wave was enough to splash down her side as it wiped out the castle. She grinned as the water and sand sprayed around her. This was turning into a great day and so far Professor Flamsteed was the best teacher ever! Other than being mad at Henric. Although right now......he had her to worry about as she rushed off to the next closest yellow castle.

Natalia grumbled with frustration under her breath, mentally whacking herself as a reminder to be more cautious. She couldn't afford to make stupid mistakes like that again.

Hearing someone speaking to her, Natalia turned her head to spot Jackson, scolding her for her silly error. "Well, YOU KNOW WHAT JACKSON?" Natalia's temper started to rise in correspondence to her frustration. "How about YOU start minding your OWN BUSINESS!" Without intention, Natalia's wand pointed toward the lake, and an enraged tide bolted across to the shore, surmounting a green castle in near proximity to where Jackson was standing.

Well, look at all. She just destroyed another non-Gryffindor castle. TWO!

"How many did YOU destroy, huh?" Natalia's storm was still not over yet. "By the way, I wasn't trying to destroy our castle! It was an accident!" Why was Natalia even bothering to justify herself? It was a frivolous mistake that she would never make again. End of story.

Taking a deep breath to calm down her anger, Natalia pulled her attention toward winning the game again.

Must win. MUST MEET BARTHOLOMEW.

By the way, that was the very first time Natalia had performed a non-verbal incantation successfully. With her sense of confidence back on, Natalia was ready to take on more castles.

Okay, let's try again. "Aquatraxi Gravita!" Rowan tapped herself on the head again, and nothing HAPPENED. She tried a few times, growing more impatient with each failed attempt, and her head getting a little sore from all the tapping...

"Why won't you woooork... you were working inside." she muttered at her wand, almost pleading with it. Then she looked around.. trying to locate someone older to help her out. "Can someone help me do the spell..?" she announced to nobody in particular... hopefully someone would hear her.

Angel was totally confused about what she was supposed to do... something about knocking things off. "Professor!" Angel now had a few things to ask the Professor. "I'm confused about what I am doing." Angel hoped that things would happen soon because she needed to sort things out.

Angel now tried to figure the spell out. "Aquatraxi Gravita!" Angel tapped her head to see if she was still good on the spell but nothing seemed to happen again, she was totally at a loss about what was happening, someone could help her right.

Adi was happily taking off again, the pain in his foot gradually subsiding when he heard someone asking for help. HELP WAS ON THE WAY! Hehe. "Hi!'' He paused before the firstie. "You could try practicing the spell slowly again,'' he suggested. "More practice would not hurt. Aqua... trax...i... Gra...vi...ta!'' Adi grinned at the girl. "Go on. Give it a try.''

After the younger girl had, he continued. "Remember it's a firm tap on your head but not so firm as to injure your noggin. Also, a key thing to do is to concentrate.'' How about a demonstration for her?

"Like this.'' Adi tapped his head with the wand. "Aquatraxi Gravita!" The Hufflepuff stood behind a red sand castle. "Check out that wave!'' Sure enough another strong looking one was heading towards him.

With an enormous SPLASH! it collapsed two more castles... a red and a green. Adi turned his attention back to the young lioness. "Your turn,'' he encouraged with a grin. "Remember to focus on the spell.''

As Kace made his way to the lake with all the others, he noticed some people already got down to business. Well I guess they didn't want to wait. Kace got his wand out and remembered the spell he practiced. He heard the instructions clearly when Professor Airey explained. He grinned mischievously and saw there was a green castle. He was sooo gonna get it. He cleared his head and focused on the water to make it come closer. He observed others to see how they were doing it and he got the hang of it.

He said the spell, "Aquatraxi Gravita!" and with a tap of his head, he hoped it work. As he stood next to the green sandcastle nothing happened at first. Then slowly but surely as the wave was coming it was coming near his toes and soon enough....

SSSSSSSPPPPPPLLLLLLASSSHHHHHHHHHH

The wave managed to get a green castle down. Success! He smiled and this was going to be fun now. Now which color should be choose next?

Whooooooa, they got to destroy sandcastles as if they were the moon. That sounded pretty cool in Lux's book and she wondered if she would get into trouble for being an Honorary Lion and getting rid of yellow ones. On second thought, maybe she would show love to both of her Houses and get rid of only red and blue castles. Even if blue was her favourite colour, it was going down.

She did love her Ravvie friends though!!

Getting into position, she waited with her wand ready and performed the spell again as soon as he said they could begin. "Aquatraxi Gravita" she said while giving her head a tap with her wand. Time to kill some sandcastles!! Smiling, she ran over to a green one while avoiding falling or bumping into her classmates.

After what seemed like forever but was actually just moments a wave came by and washed the castle away. Haha, awesome. She had watched it form in the water, and if had been a pretty big one. Now on to another castle!!

Moving a few feet along, Lux stopped behind a blue one this time, and watched as it got washed away as well.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

This activity was fuuuuuuun.

There he had been, walking with the rest of the class and minding his own business when "GAAAAAAHHHH COLD!" he YELPED as water balloons suddenly exploded on his back and he JUMPED. Pulling out his wand and turning, he met the eyes of one Noel Wallacce and narrowed his eyes. "You're dead Wallace. So terribly dead," he threatened him in a whisper and turned back to Flamsteed as he began talking.

The more he talked, the more excited Benzi became. Time to DROWN the Hufflepuffs. Because Noel.

RIGHT. He got this. He'd done SPECTACULARLY back in the astronomy tower, he could do it again. He'd be the best moon ever. He'd be double the moon. He'd be MOON MOON.

"Aquatraxi Gravita!" he cast on himself and ran away from Noel and towards TWO yellow sandcastles. Come on waves, come on.......... Edging the closest he could get to the castle without him trampling all over it, Benzi eyed the lake water expectantly until- WHOOOOOOOOOSH. ONE YELLOW CASTLES DOWN. Wave didn't make it to the second castle. Still. BOOYEAH.

Now. TWhere was that puffer friend of his? He looked just about ready for a swim, Benzi thought. And since he was such a good friend, Benz had decided he'd make it happen.

Hehehehe.

Lux was sooooo on a roll with destroying sandcastles that it was crazy. Usually she loved building them, but it could be just as much fun watching them wash away. Maybe later she could make some more castles and those ones could live forever without getting ruined - or at least until winter came. At that point she could turn them into snowcastles.

Looking for another target for her wave crashing, Lux made her way further along the platform. It was a good thing that she wasn't slipping, because she wasn't supposed to swim in the lake though maybe it would be more okay if she fell in. Always best to be safe than sorry so she wasn't running.

There was another green sandcastle ahead, so she decided to stop there and watch it get washed away. She had nothing against Snakes because they were awesome, but they weren't Pufffs or Lions so they had to go. Smiling, she watched as another wave formed in the water, growing bigger and bigger before...

SPLAAAAAAAAAAASH.

Bye bye sandcastle.

Benzi tested out the potency of his spell again, and quickly figured he needed to make it bigger. No sandcastle drowning would happen with these tiny flimsy waves. Sighing, Benzi moved closer to the center and away from the running kids to really focus on getting this right and good this time.

"Aquatraxi Gravita!" he firmly tapped his head, concentrating only on the spell and the correct enunciation. Test? Figuring he'd done Hufflepuff already, Benz went in search of a Gryffindor castle - where was Logan anyways? - and once he located one, rushed towards it with all the grace of a raging bull.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH, AND DOWN THE CASTLE WENT! And, er, the castle beside it. Which had THANKFULLY been green, and not blue. He made a mental note to not go NEAR the blue ones, just in case he'd accidentally knock his own house down. Nope nope, not happening.

Okay but the first thing he needed to do now was FIND WALLACE. A certain someone needed to take a dive, and Benzi had just created a wanderfully smooth patch of sand for this very purpose. Also for the activity. But this too.

...............

Okay, the boy was trying to help, so Rowan was nice, but she KNEW all that. "I've been doing all that and it was working inside but I can't concentrate out here." she said, her lips protruding in a little annoyed pout.

... And she didn't want to have to practice more... everyone else was running around and having fun, and here she was stuck with a dodgy spell that wouldn't work. It was so frustrating. She knew her mum would be disappointed with her lack of patience, but her grammy would tell her to take a second and brreeeaaaathe...

"...I just want to join in the game." she said, eyeing the rest of the sandcastles. "Can't you do it for me and I'll practice it later?" She really would. She wanted to be good at all the magic they were learning, but she just didn't think she could learn whilst everyone else was getting to have fun with it. Sigh.

Because the spell didn't last too long, Lux thought that maybe it was a good idea to cast it on herself again. No harm would come if it was still working at the time, and otherwise she might not draw the waves to her targets.

Tapping her head with her wand she said, "Aquatraxi Gravita!". Now she was ready to make waves!! Maybe she would destroy more blue ones because the sand looked so pretty as it washed away. Blue was the best colour ever.

Happily she headed over to the first blue sandcastle she could see. Standing behind it, she let a wave form and crash into it, sending blue sand everywhere. She'd love to dance in it but that probably could wait for later when she was finished.

Curiously she looked around at her classmates to see how they were doing. There was Kace not too far off. She waved to him. "I bet I can destroy more than you," she told her friend with a smile. Some people might think it was flirting because of the Aparecium article, but that was gross. The only person she flirted with was her boyfriend and Kace was like her brother.

Still smiling, she moved over to another blue castle so that she could see some more of the pretty sand wash away. She was so going to get through a lot of these castles because it was fun. She did a little dance as a big wave formed in the water and washed it away.

This looked like it was gonna be good. But then... a Flamsteed lesson was always gonna be pretty eventful, right? Toby followed the general throng of students out... ONto the water, casually ignoring the way his shoes and socks became instantly drenched, ahem. Right. RIGHT. WHAT WAS THE HAPS.

Apparently, story time was the haps. Toby listened as the story went from fun to downright depression, a mellowed out expression on his face as he looked between Airey and those sandcastles out on the water. But then he was just staring at them all distracted. You didn't see many sandcastles on the beach where he lived, because there was no sand. Just pebbles. Pebble castles were pretty impressive, too, but you needed glue for those.

Toby was ruminating on these thoughts for a little while, quite distracted, before being brought back to the present quite suddenly and for no conceivable reason. But it was just in time, luckily, because Airey was explaining what they were to dooooo. He'd missed the start of the explanation, but EH. He'd surely work it out. Or wing it. It was simple enough to catch on.

And then THREETWOONEGOOMG.

At first the Hufflepuff sort of FLAILY!RAN around a bit like a headless chicken because OMG ACTION FUN AND COLOURFUL SANDCASTLES and, y'know, getting caught up in the MOMENT. But then he, y'know, figured he should get started. And, still keeping a eye out to try and look for both those first years from class, he beelined for a RED sandcastle. Just 'cause it caught his eye.

"Aquatraxi Gravita!" Toby cast even as he ran, whacking himself right on the head and feeling the teeny pulse of pain that meant he'd managed to hit right in the same place as before. The Hufflepuff skidded to a halt right by the red sandcastle in question, almost kicking it over when he nearly went head over heels what with the unfamiliar slippery surface. But he recovered himself nicely, and soon enough the water was ROLLLLLING ON UP towards him, the makeshift tide soon encompassing the sandcastle and making quick work of washing it away.

Right then, Toby was on the prowl. TARGET NUMBER TWO: STEP ON DOWN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenSnake

"No, no, no, no! I DIDN'T MEAN FOR THAT TO HAPPEN. WRONG CASTLE." Natalia hopped around angrily like a little child, not paying any attention to the environment around her. "Professor, can that one not count? PLEASE PLEASE!!" With cherries on top!

Resisting the urge to smack the palm of his hand against his forehead, the astronomer reminded himself that it had been an accident. No house betrayal happening here.

"The mistake stands," Airey nodded firmly. "Consider it a representation of how, despite our best attempts at predicting tidal movements, the natural world can surprise us."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Angel was totally confused about what she was supposed to do... something about knocking things off. "Professor!" Angel now had a few things to ask the Professor. "I'm confused about what I am doing." Angel hoped that things would happen soon because she needed to sort things out.

Angel now tried to figure the spell out. "Aquatraxi Gravita!" Angel tapped her head to see if she was still good on the spell but nothing seemed to happen again, she was totally at a loss about what was happening, someone could help her right.

Again, the urge to smack his large forehead was tempting. But he refrained.

Strolling over towards the Gryffindor, he gave an encouraging smile towards Miss Fields - who truly was trying her best to perform the spell correctly. Truly was a pity that things were not working out. He liked it when hard work and perseverance was rewarded. Attention now on Miss Valentine, he tapped his chin thoughtfully and wondered if her observation skills were lacking.

Seemed to be something that more than one lion was struggling with this term. Ahem.

"Seeing as you have already performed the spell..." he began, gesturing towards the rest of the students who were running around luring small waves towards themselves. "You need to stand behind a sandcastle, any color but red, and lure the water - representing the tide - to come to you and wash the sandcastle away."

Actually...he KIND OF wanted to play...

OOC: current standings are Hufflepuff > Gryffindor > Slytherin > Ravenclaw

WOAH! This was amazing.

Skipping down the path with the rest of the class, Marsha was excited to see that they were going out on to the lake to play, uh… learn… but YAY Water…!! Splashing happily across the platform, the first year stood a little to the side of Professor Airey as he told them what their activity would be for today.

PLAYING WITH WAVES!

As if her Head of House could be ANY cooler! hehe. She was so ready for this!

When he told them to go, she skipped to the closest non-red sandcastle and stood slightly behind it. ”Aquatraxi Gravita.” She said, tapping her head with her wand. The water lapped at the edge, but it didn’t create any sort of force strong enough to knock over the hufflepuff sandcastle that she was standing behind.

Hmm.

Concentrating, and blocking out the noise of the class, she cast the spell again, and grinned WIDE as the wave sloooshed the sand castle out of the way. YES. Quickly, she took a step to her left and wondered if it would be enough for the water to follow her.

It did sort of, and curiously lapped against the ravenclaw sandcastle that she was behind now. Hmm. The retreating water had pulled a good bit of the sand away with it, but the castle still had a base. Frowning, she looked around for Professor Airey. ”Professor? Did that count? My wave took half of the castle away?” If it didn’t, she would get another wave to finish the job. Hehehee.

It took Natalia quite a while to overcome her frustration. But when she did, she was back on her feet and ready to annihilate some sand castles! Especially those glistening yellow ones that sneered at Natalia when she accidentally betrayed disappointed her own house. The fourth year Lioness was determined to make up for it! GRYFFINDORS FOR THE WIN! LIONS ARE THE BEST! Knowing that Professor Flamsteed was the head of Gryffindor house, Natalia was almost certain that he would totally agree.

Hmm...every suitable location was starting to become occupied by all the swarming students. Natalia had to squeeze herself in between some busy areas in order to give herself room spacious enough not to destroy her own house castle again.

THERE! A yellow one! Last time, it was a yellow castle that lured Natalia to make the UNSPEAKABLE, HOUSE-SHAMING mistake. It was PAY BACK TIME.

"Aquatraxi Gravita!" A decent-sized tide leaped toward the lake shore and happily annihilated the desired yellow castle WITHOUT harming any from Natalia's own house. It was an outstanding accomplishment.

Pleased at herself for using the spell so efficiently, Natalia started searching for a new target. Taking out castles one-by-one wasn't a bad plan; it prevented any MISTAKES of possibly taking down one's own team.

"thats amazing Hady, were doing so well" she beamed at the older snake, as she stayed closer to Hady. "Thanks" she said after she had knocked down her pervious castles. "Bartholomew??? thats such a strange name for a huge giant.... and wait.. hes nice and he posed for a photo??" she asked her friend.. that was just strange and weird for her to hear. Laughing because she couldn't figure out what else to do Echo Kept an eye out for some more castles and one was close to her friend.

"oh i'll grab that yellow castle over there" she told her as she ran over and tapped her wand and said "Aquatraxi Gravita" and she moved back to see the waves come in and take over the Yellow sand castle as she smiled and giggled. So far this was her favorite class because it was just so much fun.

"Im going to be so tired after this" telling Hady, because she knew after this she would want to have a nap, thats for sure.

SO MUCH FUN! Zhenya smiled at the last bit of red draining off the platform before running to the next non-green one. A small wave came up to the edge of the castle but drifted back down again. Oh… She ran to one a bit closer to the edge of the platform and stood right behind it, and watched as a wave came up and onto the castle, and splashed her boots. She squealed and watched as a blue castle disappeared off the platform.

Looking around she saw lots of blue and green ones had gone, but didn't think about that for too long. It didn't matter which house won - how much FUN they were all having was important. Best first astronomy lesson of the year ever!

The next castle she stood in front of she made sure was further back from the edge. To see if her spell had worn off or not. She waited a few moments for a wave to lap up to the edge and over towards her. She was the moon. Come on tide! And it lapped up to the yellow castle and logged the castle, drifting the sand out.

So Tia listened first as Professor Flamsteed explained the activity, which admittedly didn't sound too terrible - unless they fell in the water - but at least they weren't going to get eaten by merpeople or grindylows. She observed a few of her classmates first in becoming tidal wave forces and knock down what seemed like most of the blue sandcastles. NOT COOL. Which meant only one thing; it was time for HER to go attempt to knock down their house sandcastles.

Running ... running and AHA! There was a red sandcastle (actually quite a few) to which Tia took stance behind the one and inhaled deeply before exhaling. She could do this.

"Aquatraxi Gravita," she said, tapping her head with her wand, and immediately after she shut her eyes in concentration ... hopeful .

Sure enough, it worked! She felt water lapse up to the toe of her shoes as it had washed over the red castle. HA! Take that red ones!

FUN FUN FUN!

Zhenya decided to run to the other side of the platform. But then she thought best not to run, and power walked instead. She went to the furthest one from the edge, as she could tell anyway, and was DELIGHTED to see the wave trickle up, like it was attracted to her. Well it was, kind of. She was the moon, and she was pulling the tide! It was only a trickle sort of tide, and it washed away a blue sandcastle.

Very excited still, she walked quickly over to another one, no too far away, but wasn't really looking at where she was going. In a few seconds she found herself flat on her front. Good thing she was wearing pants and Wellingtons! She scrambled up, did a quick check to see if she had hurt herself and continued. Silly rock sandcastle. A GREEN one too!

The next one she stood in front of was sort of in the middle of the layer. Not too far away, so surely she would get a greater tide. She didn't, but she still got a tide. Perhaps the spell was wearing off? The tide came, hit against the red sandcastle and trickled the sand away.