Finally! They get to do the fun part!

They just need to defend their castle from the dummies, And stay away from the sparks that shoot from the dummy' wand. Okay. She could do that. The first one sound fun but imagining herself got shove by the sparks from the dummy' wand was not a pleasant thought.

She saw Ava was already putting her battle face on. She should do the same too probably. Candice saw the young lioness managed to disarm one of the dummy. "WOW! Good job, Ava!" Speaking of dummy. There's more dummies coming towards their castle.

"Protego!" She managed to cast the Shield Charm right on time because if she cast it one second longer she might get hit by the red sparks.

HOW HAD HADY NOT DIED YET???

From up here it looked like the dummies were everywhere. And they were closing in. It seemed like there were simply not enough Slytherins to defend this castle. But NO! No she wasn't going to think like that. They could do this! They were strong! They were working together surprisingly well too.

And they were the BEST house after all. They could do this!!!

Seeing as their primary goal was to keep the dummies from invading the castle, Maggie leaned out of one of the windows and drew a vertical line in the air with her wand while directing it at the castle entrance. "Protego!" One of the dummies had gotten dangerously close.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Why were there SO MANY dummies? Seriously.

Zeke was hit again... and again... and again. Each time he was knocked back a little more, and then in one last fristrating move, he stumbled backward, landing on his bum.

None of it had really hurt, but it was perhaps the most annoying thing he'd encountered at Hogwarts so far. Minus HoM class.

Raising his wand, and with clear intent and precision with his wand movement, cast "Expelliarmus," at the nearest dummy which was closing in on him and them, and their castle. Swiftly, the dummies stick went flying over their heads.

Hady was indeed very much still alive!

Surely she had been hit more then once by the red sparks that certainly would end up leaving marks but it was all good. She could handle this and someone had to be outside the castle helping to defend it.

Only there was a problem. As great a job as the snakes helping her were doing there were just FAR to MANY dummies coming their way. With each one taken out it seemed like five or ten more replaced it.

Where were they all COMING FROM?!

Step back. Step back. This wasn't good. Hady was being forced back nearer to the castle, her wand arm still raised. "Protego!," she called out clearly and intently casting a shield around herself for the moment. Come on snakes!

Blaise broke the darn thing over his leg, thus effectively disarming his opponent. Magic wasn't the only way. Even at 11 he knew this wouldn't work in a real situation if there really was an enemy coming after him but he didn't find that all that practical anyway. He didn't have enemies and neither did his parents. There weren't many Dark Lords running around tormenting people either. He would have to be exceptionally unfortunate to find himself in such a situation and without his parents to defend him nonetheless!

Turning, he saw another dummy trying to make its advance on their castle. Oh it was gonna be like huh? Once again, the boy would put on a show.

"Expelliarmus." Whoooosh, the boy grabbed at the stick one more time and yanked at it so hard that he nearly toppled over. This was his now and like the first, the broke broke it clean in two to prevent the dummy from being any real 'harm'.

Harm. Right. It was just a stick. Much like his own wand.

Oh, hello Maggie. Oliver paused for just a moment to give the older girl a wave before turning his focus back to the defense of the castle. From his height, he was able to see almost all of the dummies coming toward the castle. And there were a lot of them. Maggie had a good idea - protecting Hady. So far she was the only one outside the castle, getting attacked by all the approaching dummies. Even though he liked being protected by the walls of the castle, he decided that he could be nice. Oliver Tate Thomas-Borzekowki to the rescue!

Oliver leaped down from his position and ran out the door. Wow, it seemed even more chaotic from out there. Probably because he was actually personally facing all of the approaching dummies. All he had to do was make sure they didn't come too close.

But they were shooting sparks! That hadn't been a problem while he'd been inside the castle, but it was suddenly something he had to face now. The dummy closest to him shot red sparks out of it's wand. They slammed into Oliver, making him stumble back a few feet. At least it didn't hurt, but it was pretty annoying. As the dummy raised its wand again, Olly was ready.

"Protego!" He brought his wand down in one clean slice. The sparks that had been aimed toward him were stopped by his shield, and the dummy was knocked back aways. Take that, dummy.

She just managed to protect herself from the red sparks when she saw another dummy sending a red spark from its wand. Unfortunately she's not fast enough and this time the red spark hit her and it knocked her back a little. It didn't hurt her but she felt a little bit annoyed by it.

"Expelliarmus!" And the dummy' wand flew over it head. One down and many more to go!

SIGH!

Norah ducked under the sparks from another dummy's wand and took a few steps to the left where she could see a substantial number of dummy's making their way over.

She watched them approach with eyes slightly narrowed, imagining their wands flying backwards as she repeated the incantation under her breath. This one would surely work on the first try. She was READY. The first dummy came close enough for her to aim, so she raised her wand. She was about to cast the spell when another two dummies caught up with the first one and all of a sudden she was cornered. Uh. Hi? Which one did she cast on first?

Norah glanced at each dummy's face, her eyebrows raised in surprise. These ones were moving faster than the first one. What'd she do what'd she DO? The first dummy sent sparks in her direction and she stumbled backwards. That one. That one was the one she was going to get first. It was R U D E with a capital EVERYTHING. "Expelliarmus!" With her wand aimed at the rude dummy that was really far too close at this point, she performed the wand movement with eyes still narrowed in concentration. Her face softened slightly as the dummy's wand was sent spiraling towards the ceiling and came back down again. Served it right. Now there was just the other two to take care of.

She couldn't help but grinned when Candice said that she did a good job disarming those dummies. "You too." She said when her fellow Gryffindor cast the shield charm. Maybe she should try it too? But Ava still need to work more with the disarming charm.

Oh no, the dummies became MORE offensive to them. They started sending the red spark to her but quickly she ducked to protecting herself. Wait... why she had to duck? Ducking wasn't really the answer now, duh. The young lioness then stood up and cast the shield charm. "PROTEGO!" Lucky that she was quick enough to cast it. Those dummies kept sending the red sparks so she cast some more. "Protego! Protego! Protego!" And ended up with disarming charm. "EXPELLIARMUS!"

Why were there so many of them? Why couldn't they go attack the other castles. Like the Gryffindors? Why did it always seem like there were less Slytherins than any other house? Luckily they were so good that they could take care of their whole castle all by themselves. SLYTHERIN RULES!

But still, there were a lot of dummies making their way toward the Slytherin castles. Too many. How were they supposed to defend against all of them? Oh right, by being AWESOME.

"Protego!" Olly slashed his wand down, blocking the path of a dummy that was getting dangerously close to the Slytherin castle. And there was another one on his other side. "Protego!" Rapid-fire spellwork was the only way to solve this problem.

Oh no... his housemates were getting 'shot' one by one by those dummies! Henric didn't like it one bit, he didn't like seeing his friends being pushed back like that. There were about three or four of them against two hufflepuffs in front of him. Grr...those dummies were relentlless,weren't they? It seemed like the professor made them into giant 'push-over' bullies. On his other side, he could see Adi and the rest were doing their best fighting off the enemies as well. Way to go,guys!! Watching them fight made him all the more determined to oust the attackers. Without looking back, Henric ran towards his 'enemies' so he could face them bravely. He wasn't going to hide and take cover from now on. He directed his wand towards them but their spells got to him first and hit him squarely in the chest. He stumbled back a few steps. Okay ow...bro, that hurt!. Annoyed,he took his aim and shouted,"EXPELLIARMUS!"

AWAY FROM HERE, YE DUMMIES!

Oliver let out a battle cry and leaped forward, into the middle of some dummies. Sure, he was being dramatic, but at least he was helping. If he could take down all of them, it was definitely help the rest of the Slytherins. As long as he could stop the dummies from getting in the castle.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" He made a swish and a flick with his wand toward the nearest dummy. Its wand immediately flew out of its hand. Was it a fake wand? Probably? Why would fake people have real wands? Something hit Olly from behind, sending him forward into another dummy. He snatched the wand out of its hand and gave it a kick for good measure. Dang those sparks.

"Expelliarmus!" Another swish and a flick at the offending dummy. "Expelliarmus!" Again! He kept swishing and flicking his wand, casting the spell, defending the castle.

Feeling rather pleased with herself for managing to both defend herself AND hit a dummy at the same time (because that apparently took skill), Paulina was looking for another opportunity where she could launch another attack.

Even if it was only Expelliarmus.

Who was to be her next victim...?

There were no shortages of dummies, so it wasn't as if she was stuck with slim pickings. Paulina eyed a dummy that wasn't too far from where she was. Its wand was giving off sparks the way the other one's had been. She wasn't going to let this one hit her either; nope, she was going to get him first!!

"Expelliarmus!!!" The dummy's wand left its hand and went flying through the air. Much better.

Bentley watched in dismay as Blaise performed his own version of disarming. That was it. He was done trying to help him see reason. If he wanted to live his life as a muggle then that was his problem. He'd love to see how that conversation would go down with his parents.

In the mean time he was going to save the Gryffindor castle with real magic. And the dummies were on their way.

"Expelliarmus!" Bentley shouted pointing his wand at the closest dummy. Aha! Disarmed! "That that dummy!"

Did the professor have a problem with friendly fire? Would she be mad if he pointed his wand at his cousin to show him that he really did need a wand for protection?

He was sure she wouldn't mind. "Oh Blaaaaaaise.." Bentley sang as he pointed his wand at his unarmed cousin.

Angel smiled as she apologised to Zeke for getting distracted with her thing, so they didn't have time to finish their work and she was sad about that but now she had to use a couple of charms on some dummies and now she had to figure out what she was going to do first.

"Protego!" Angel practice some more. "Protego!" Angel now had to practice the wand movement and she did that a few times before she decided that she was ready to continue with the practicing.

"Protego!" Angel did the wand movement as she saw that a dummy was getting close to one of the Gryffindor castle, no way was she letting the dummy get through, she would jump on one if she had to, though she hoped that wouldn't be the case.

This activity was rather fun.

Paulina liked how it wasn't all competition based, but all the Hufflepuffs were working as a team to drive off the dummies. Just as long as she stayed on her game and didn't let herself get hit with sparks everything would work out.

As the dummies continued the assault, Paulina called out "Protego!" conjuring up a shield. That would help to stop them from advancing, and what would you know a few of them were stopped in their tracks as they couldn't get past her shield.

Silly dummies weren't aware that they could go around her and Paulina wasn't about to let them know that.

With a slowing down in the attacks in his general direction, Benny was switching tactics. Heading for the offensive once more to try and get more faux wands away from the attacking dummies. Take them while they weren't paying attention to him. "Expelliarmus!" He cast, aiming at the nearest dummy's wand hand to disarm it. However he was either off in his aim or the dummy's movements had thrown the point off and the wand remained in the dummy's possession.

No biggie.

"Expelliarmus!" he cast again when he got another good angle and shot for it. This time the modified wand went flying from the dummy's hand. Now that was waaaay better.

Angel was totally enjoying this lesson but now she was suddenly seeing something that she didn't like a dummy was getting close to the Gryffindor Castle and now she was going to get ready to move this dummy from the castle.

Angel now had to do this spell, but she only had one shot. "Protego!" Angel did the wand movement. Suddenly he saw something coming towards her and the castle and she knew she had to do something else. "Protego!" Angel was enjoying this now she had to see what she had to do next.

Benny was wondering if he really should be trying these spells nonverbally. Professor Baxter had given them the option today rather than making them do it nonverbally, but he was technically used to the spells by now having learned them before. Shoot he had been dueling all those years with Adi and used one or both with his friend, the practice had been a refresher. It was more his apprehension with his non-verbal casting that kept him preferring to do it verbally.

*Protego* he tried pointing absently at nothing in particular as he tried it out non-verbally. The Gryffindor imaging it being cast though he had no proof at the moment. *Protego!* he tried again with another point of his wand. So what if he was practicing some more during the actual activity.

And then there was an incoming spark and he reacted as best he could. *Protego* However this time it was clear the status of the shield. It hadn't formed because Benny was pushed back by the red spark causing him to stagger slightly before freezing in reaction.

Woah.

Again, Yoongi did not bother writing down notes because he couldn’t even count on his fingers how many times he had had classes about these charms in charms school before. So without any other word, the Gryffindor got up from his mat when Zander had done so and followed the Head Boy to the Gryffindor castle.

Taking out his phoenix feathered wand, the sixth year held it out and pointed it at the ready when the Professor unleashed the dummies. Immediately , he saw sparks flying towards him and he reacted quickly by moving his wand as told and non-verbally used the ‘protego!’ spell. The problem was. That the shield had not worked and he was hit in the chest by the spark. He stumbled backwards but kept on his feet before raising his wand again as the dummy shot another spell ‘Protego!’ the sparks bounced away on an invisible shield and Yoongi grinned.

Angel was now trying to figure out what she had to do next, Protego was working on some of the targets but not all and she was scared that the fort was going to get attacked and it was going to be her fault... she would feel really bad about that and would actually find somewhere to cry if that happened.

"Expelliarmus!" Angel said the wand movement and did the wand movement and then she smiled as it hit one of the dummies, oh now this was a good spell. "Expelliarmus!" Angel said again, but this time it missed, now that wasn't good... she knew that she had to concentrate.

Angel concentrated hard, trying to just picture the target in her head. "Expelliarmus!" Angel said the incantation whilst doing the wand movement and she smiled as the spell hit the dummy, no dummy was going to attack her teams castle whilst she was protecting them, well she hoped that they weren't going to anyway.

Wasn't his cousin done talking to him for today? Because he'd heard all he cared to from the boy and would rather suffer through the rest of the lesson in piece.

Reluctantly, Blaise turned at the sound of his name being drawn out in that sing song tone that usually meant trouble when it came to Bentley. "Wha--" The boy's heart literally did a flip when he turned and found a wand pointed at him the way it was. That wasn't the activity. They weren't meant to be aiming at each other. "Don't you dare." But just in case Bentley WOULD dare, Blaise began inching behind the dummy he'd just 'disarmed'.

"That's not funny mate, put the wand down before you get yourself in trouble." And before he did a spell wrong and it actually hit him. Was he thinking what would happen then? HMMMMM???

"Protego. Proooteeeggoooo." That was Blaise for 'SHOVE OFF MATE'.

He didn't have long to bask in his minor victory, because... DUMMY ALERT!

He was ZAAPPPPED, again, knocking him off his footing a little. There were so many OTHER charms he would have liked to use on the dummy, but he supposed they weren't part of the task, and the last thing he wanted was for the Professor to get on his case about doing the 'wrong' thing... bleh.

So as he tried to right himself again, he received another hit from the sparks of the fake wand.

Dammit!

Before the dummy could do it again though, he cast, "Protego," defending himself from the shock before swiftly following it up with the disarming charm.

Could he kick the stupid thing?

Astrid was a proud professor. Yes she was. If she was a star she'd probably blind the students from how blindingly proud they made her. Keeping her distance as she paced around the perimeter, the brunette watched with lighted eyes as dummy by dummy fell at the hands of the students. After having practiced and reviewed these charms they seemed to feel fairly comfortable with it. Majority did. It was mainly why she had decided to challenge them with this activity.

"Great job," she roared with joy.

Look at the Head Boy! Sure it wasn't a nonverbal but she WAS allowing sixth and seventh year to cast verbally or nonverbally. During this activity they'd have a choice. "Brilliant shot!"

As the dummies dwindled, her eyes caught a pair in Gryffindor robes. Always the Gryffindors. She would know. She jinxed her own brother during her time here. He made such a great dummy.

"Don't even think about it," Astrid said, eyeing the two boys (Blaise and Bentley). One of which she's been observing as he snatched 'wands' from the dummies. "Straight line downward and Protego, Mister Bellaire." Astrid demonstrated with her own wand, producing a shield of her own. This is why you attend class. :|

Norah watched Professor Baxter show the two firsties the spell, trying to shoot them an encouraging smile while simultaneously hiding her gratefulness at the demonstration. Now she didn't have to ask what the wand movement was. Perfect.

The moment of distraction was more than enough to let the dummy press even closer, another round of sparks from the end of its wand pushing her backwards another few paces. If she didn't cast the spell soon the meanie butt thing would probably push her all the way to the fort!castle thingy and THEN where would she be? Cornered by something that didn't even have a brain. Honestly. Focusing on the offending dummy, she brought her wand straight down just as Professor Baxter had shown. "Protego!" NAILED IT. This time it was the dummy's turn to be knocked backwards.

She took a few strides forward now, ready to face the next wave of dummies. Those things had nothing on Queen Prefect Norah. She was prepared to bring that title back just for this lesson, 'cause this was HER yellow castle.