Norah kept her eyes shut tight until the funny feeling of transformation had gone away. She opened one eye and then the other. Woah. Who told the world it was allowed to look so fuzzy? As soon as she turned back she was going to start an initiative to get kangaroos glasses, because it had to be really hard to have fun with this sort of eyesight. She squinted and un-squinted and squinted again, trying to make her eyes see a little better, but nothing happened. Oh well. This was going to be her life for the next...however long the potion lasted. And it was going to be AWESOME.

She turned her fuzzy gaze down to her feet, which were closer to her face than they used to be (imagine THAT. She got to be even shorter than before), but a whoooooole lot bigger. Next came an attempted bum wiggle, but a turn of her neck informed her that the tail on there was much too big and heavy for wiggling. Aw man. After all the bum wiggles she'd practiced she couldn't even try as as kangaroo. Kangaroo!Norah took a step further onto the bridge and immediately fell over onto her furry front. Well. These feet were big enough to not be made for walking. She tried to put her arms beneath her but they were so short that nothing productive happened. Maybe she could....stay here a while. Enjoy the view from the bottom of the bridge? Even if her eyesight was fuzzier than before she could still tell that it was a long long long way down. Ahem. This probably wasn't her best idea ever.

Good thing she didn't judge him. If only he knew how big his face claim was... "Not right now," he said, "unless you count wrestling with my one year old a sport." He laughed briefly. "I used to be the beater of Slytherin though." Good old times. Siiiiiigh.

Oh, his students? "Yeah!" he said, "especially Alice Fischer." His face lit up as if he had been the flying instructor to them. He hadn't been close to the other two students, though. Not all the athletes were dumb, of course.

"You like Quidditch?"

Still laying on her stomach, Norah wiggled her ears. Huh. She could wiggle her ears now! That was even BETTER than bum wiggling. Kangaroos obviously had their priorities straight. She wiggled and thought and wiggled some more, closing her eyes because the fuzziness was making it even harder to think. How was she supposed to stand up if her arms couldn't push? This was the kind of information they SHOULD be teaching in Hogwarts classes, but weren't. What if you got your arms cut off in a duel and couldn't get up, huh? Professor Dakest really needed to hear this idea. The good thing about being a kangaroo is that her cheeks couldn't even go red at the thought of that guy. So there. She was really winning this whole situation, except for the fact that she was stuck on the floor of a bridge with no away of getting up and fuzzy eyesight and fear of rolling off and falling down down down down until her head hit something horrible. Ear wiggles and no blushing totally counted as winning, though. They always counted.

She put her short arms on the floor again, straining helplessly until a lightbulb appeared right over her fuzzy kangaroo head. Okay fine, it wasn't a real lightbulb, but it was good enough of an idea to warrant one. Counting to 3 in her head, she let her eyes open again and heaved herself over so she was laying on her back in the middle of the narrow bridge. TA DA! She was on her BACK now, still on the floor. And still without means of getting upright. Maybe she could take back that 'ta da.'

Hehe. Rooney was applauding him. That was awesome of him. Adi bowed one, twice, thrice! to show his appreciation. After tossing the ball back, he watched intently as his buddy slooooowed the ball. WOOOT! This kid was awesome at his spell work, yo!

"Gosh, you're good at spells, Rooney!'' Really, the kid should be proud of himself. Adi had been an epic failure many times at that age. But not now. Nuh uh. Now he was the master of these things. Or so he would like to think. Ali wants to deflate this boy's head right about now xD

YAAAAH! The Ravenclaw PELTED that ball towards him! AWESOME! Adi saw this as a challenge. Quickly he focused on the ball, mustering up intent. "Depulso!" Sweeping wand movement? Yup!

About halfway to him, the ball vanished then a second later, it appeared in his hands. Woohoo! He and Rooney were on a roll! But now it was back to the Claw! Adi tossed the ball in a slight arch so that halfway towards his friend it went high over the duo's head before zooming down... zooming down at Rooney.

"I..just...um... THANKS." Roo felt the warmth swimming in his cheeks, but closed his eyes and thought about walking in on some teenagers lip locked in his local library at home. This dulled the blush, because it confused him more than embarrassed him. Instead he focused on the ball that was hurtling towards the older Hufflepuff and hoped that his wand work was as sharp as his shouting. It was, and Roo cheered from the other side of the bridge for him.

Okay! Rooney geared himself up with a little bouncing, pointed his wand as the ball went up and...panicked as it came back down. "Depu-ohnOOO." Wrong spell! And he had realised and as the ball approached his head, he batted it away as hard as he possibly could. "Accio ball! ACCIO BALL!" At least it came back his way and he had chance to use his wand once more.

"Aresto Momentum!" Slowing...slowing...right into his hand.

"ADI, DID YOU SEE THAT? I MULTI-WANDED." New term. New phrase. Sure.

Was that Rooney blushing a bit? Hehe. You deserved that compliment, little dude! It was nothing but the truth! "Nooo problem,'' Adi replied cheerily.
He grinned and flashed a thumbs up when he was successful at making the ball appear in his hands. Awesome throws, Roo!
....................

Rooney got this!

But... waaaaah! He had started using the Banishing Charm! Then he ended up taking a swing at the ball Oh, Rooney! The whole thing was quite funny and Adi was laughing. Excuse him. It didn't stop him from being super duper impressed at the other boy's comeback though. Like... that was mad skills, yo!

"That was SUPER awesome, Rooney! Way to keep your head in the game!" Yep, focus was always the key to things! Oh, man! Multi wanded! Adi liked that term! "Don't mind if I steal that sometime.'' Haha.

With a laugh, Rooney just smiled a little and tossed the ball into the air, catching it once more. He was positive that he couldn't mess up any worse and beckoned Adi over with a hand. "Sandwiches and chocolate frogs now?" ACtually, he just wanted to ask the other guy a few questions about being prefect and the like. He didn't want to only ask the simple wuestions, but somewhere in his notebook there was an extensive list of obscure questions.

But he really just wanted those sandwiches without the crusts in the triangles.

And to never do that ball batting thing ever again.

Kangaroo!Norah let herself flop on the wooden boards for another minute or two, no better than she had been when she'd fallen. She rolled a little further until she was on her side, getting a nice and fuzzy view of the down down down down down fall that she didn't really want to experience. Uh. Now what?

Now that the side of her tail was firmly pressed against the floor of the bridge, it felt like she had a whole nother limb that could be used to her advantage. Kangaroo tails weren't just cute, they were STRONG. Cute and strong. Like she was going to be one day, uh huh. Nobody'd ever know what hit them. Letting her arms go limp, she focused her energy on pushing herself upright with her tail and feet all working together. She flopped down after one attempt, and then again after another. On the third try she shut her eyes again to clock out the fuziness, heaving herself upwards with her tail for leverage until she was upright again. Her eyes flew open. The view was still fuzzy but at least it wasn't still from the ground. AW YEAH. If she had a kangaroo friend to high-five right now she SO would. Well, if their arms could reach far enough, which was doubtful. This must've been what it was like to be a T-rex, except more fuzzy and less ginormous. Too bad Culloden didn't have any T-rex bits to mix into their potions, 'cause that would be AWESOME.

Norah was 600% sure she'd spent waaaaay too much time stranded on the ground. Maybe even 601%. She hadn't even done any jumping yet! Or any carrying of stuff in her pouch, but it didn't look like it was made for much besides baby kangaroos, which was a shame. She wasn't entirely sure what else a kangaroo would need to carry, but the universe wasn't very nice for not even giving them the opportunity to try.

There was nothing better than food after a good came of... whatever it was Adi and Rooney just played. "You bet! I'm hungry.'' As usual, Adi, as usual. Haha. Him and his bottomless stomach. He jogged towards the boy. "That was a great game. I'm really impressed with your spell work.'' Like REALLLLY.

"Okay, kiddo. Whenever you're ready to dig in.'' No pressure, Roo. There was just an enthusiastic Hufflepuff here. Hehe. "So, how's second year turning out for you so far?" Asking about that made Adi want to turn back time to his own second year. Heh.

Ethan nodded along. It was kind of weird to see the Headmistress teaching, but it was all good…until the Acromantulas came to get her. That bit was just…over the top crazy! But then, they’re talking about Hogwarts, so, how exactly can you not go over the top crazy, right? “I hope you will stay for a good while, Professor. I mean, it would be easier for the older students especially, to follow their progress with the subject.” He wouldn’t be there to see if he’d get to stay, but he, along with the professor, hopes that he will stick to Hogwarts for a long time.

But…what’s wrong with taking all 12 NEWTs?

Was it really unusual? “Sacrificing some nap time…sleeping time…meal time, and weekends off, professor. That’s how I got by when I took my OWLs.” And the fact that he was admitted in St Mungo’s when he got the dragon pox during the term allowed him to study and prepare for all of the subjects. He had nothing better to do while confined, really. “I mean…I’m a bit paranoid about the possibility of failing a lot of my OWLs, and not be able to get enough NEWTs to get into University. I’m doing this so I can choose whatever degree I want.” Because, what kind of university will turn him down if he passed all 12, correct? “It’s a very ambitious business sir, but I’m willing to take the challenge. I did it once, so I’m sure I can do it the second time around.” Hopefully.

So there will be hands-on stuff during his lessons? “That’s good to know, professor. Makes the class more fun to be honest.” Talking about lessons, he couldn’t help but wonder about their History of Magic class. He wondered what kind of activity they will have, now that they’ve got a ghost as a professor.

Staring blankly ahead, Ethan just nodded along as the professor assured him that he’s going to be ready once he exits Hogwarts. “I’d like to think so too, professor. There’s a greater adventure out there, I’m sure of it.”

Halving the piles of sandwiches, Rooney nudged one towards the Hufflepuff and smiled. He took a seat right there on the bridge, and unwrapped the foil from around the bread, distracting himself from the flush in his cheeks. "It's nothing special, my spell work.. In fact, I wish I had done better." Because clearly Adi hadn't seen the balls he had missed and the final swipe at the ball that almost sent it caveering off into the distance, never to be seen again.

Second year? Oh.. "It's okay. I don't think it's much different to first year. I still have classes and homework and I'm still shorter than most people." And he still made the silly mistakes that he had done as a first year, despite spending a whole year trying to correct them.

"How is seventh year?" The final one..

It was TIME now. Time for bouncing, which was pretty much the entire reason she'd chosen to turn into a kangaroo in the first place. She stared in front of her for much longer than she normally felt she had to look at anything. Her unclear vision was starting to become more of a problem now that she wanted to bounce all the places, considering it was so difficult to distinguish things that might be in her way. Nobody wanted to be knocked over by a rogue kangaroo, right? Okay she would definitely want to be knocked over by a rogue kangaroo, but it hadn't taken 15 years for her to figure out that sometimes she really different from other people. She used to think it was their loss, but it was harder to ignore now. Maybe she could ask Culloden to turn her into a kangaroo forever. There probably was no such thing as a weirdo kangaroo. Lucky them. They didn't even have to worry about being different.

Once she'd determined that the coast was (somewhat) clear, Norah geared up for her first bounce. Bending her legs as far as they could go, with her tail pressing against the ground for balance, she focused on a point about 2 meters away. Kangaroos were supposed to be able to jump FIVE meters if they wanted to, maybe even more. So this would work, right? 1....2...3! She kicked off the rickety floor and flew through the air...kind of. She landed with a satisfying THUMP, insitinctively pushing her tail down again so she wouldn't fall over. She'd only made it about half the distance she'd been hoping for, but it still TOTALLY counted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarShine

Good thing she didn't judge him. If only he knew how big his face claim was... "Not right now," he said, "unless you count wrestling with my one year old a sport." He laughed briefly. "I used to be the beater of Slytherin though." Good old times. Siiiiiigh.

Oh, his students? "Yeah!" he said, "especially Alice Fischer." His face lit up as if he had been the flying instructor to them. He hadn't been close to the other two students, though. Not all the athletes were dumb, of course.

"You like Quidditch?"

Wrestling with his one year old? Oh! "You have a one year old child?" The young lioness didn't think that he's too old for having a baby, she and Teddy were born when their parents were around forties. Ava asked because she loves babies, she had a nephew from her eldest brother and now he's not a baby anymore. Four years old already, but the last time Dima owled her, he said that his wife was pregnant again and hopefully the baby will be born in a few months.

Alice Fischer... "Yeah, I saw her on the game a couple times. She's great." Did that mean that she was great on Potions too? Cool. "Yeah, I like following Quidditch too. I often went seeing the game with my elder brother several times. I like Tutshill Tornadoes!" And Alec Summers, but should she mention it?

Caleb had of COURSE gone with the dog. From glancing at his reflection in a puddle in the courtyard as he walked to the bridge, he was a Beagle from the looks of it. This felt totally natural to him - perhaps he should look into becoming an animagus. That would be SWEET! No goofy potion needed, just BOOM! DOG! Just like that, with a simple thought. He was totally going to research that later.

In the meantime, though, he was going to go for a walk! The bridge was creaking under his paws, which was weird, but made sense - he was a lot closer to the boards making up the bridge than he usually was. Which also meant he was closer to the NOTHINGNESS beneath him...however, he wasn't scared or nervous. All he could focus on was the cool breeze on his face, blowing his beagle-y ears around as he walked.

He wasn't as cold as he thought he would be. This fur was nice! Not that hot, like he thought it would be. AND OOOOH, HE SMELLED SOMETHING. SOMETHING...hmmmm...

Time to follow his nose!

Cosgrach beamed and nodded. "I do. Helena Thora. She was born in August last year." Aaaaah, he missed his daughter again. The little creature had the energy of an angry dragon.

Hehe, sure she was great! "Glad you got to see her. Well, glad you watch Quidditch in general. Although I can't agree with your team." HEHE - oh, wait... that was Alec's team, wasn't it!?

"Their seeker, Alec Summers was also a former student!" he exclaimed again, as if he, himself, taught how to catch the Snitch. "I taught him for his last year. One of the brightest students I've had, again."

He deserved a cup for influencing so many great students.

Plymouth raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't think that he had been rude at all. In fact, he had never been accused of being rude ever. This was new to him and he wasn't sure what to do about it. "I wasn't trying to be rude, I didn't know if you had heard me." Since he did repeat his question after it had already been answered.

It seemed to him that this guy was a bit of a grump by nature, it was sort of evident by the way he was acting; despite the thought, Plymouth decided that the best thing to do was simply to apologize. "I'm sorry that I gave you the wrong impression." Because he was.

Once her first jump was completed, Norah was eager to get the next one accomplished right that second. Apparently being a kangaroo didn't give her any more patience than she'd had before. Patience was overrated, though, and she'd gladly take cool jumping ability over that particular trait.

She focused her vision as best she could on another point a few meters along the bridge, wiggling her ears another time because that was almost as fun as the jumping part. Alright. Here goes nothin'. With a dramatic bend of her knees, she leapt forward again, not going more than a few feet UP but clearing at least five meters forward. OH YEAH. Kangaroo!Norah pressed her tail down again as she made sure she was balanced all over again. Man. This was even more fun than the running she did, and she wasn't even tired yet! How long had she been in this form, anyways? She entertained the thought for a moment before getting distracted by the prospect of jumping. Again.

With her sights set on the end of the wooden bridge, she rocked back and forth with a few soft creaks of the old wood. She tried to focus her vision once more as she prepared for another jump, but the image was starting to get clearer and clearer. She blinked and then stared again. Definitely clearer. What was up with that?

All of a sudden she felt the funny transformation feeling coming on, and she shut her eyes tight. Okay. That's what was up with that. When the feeling went away she opened one eye and then the other, just as she had when she'd first become a kangaroo. The first sign of her transformation was the good eyesight, which she used to inspect her (non-furry) hands and (normal sized) feet. Aw MAN. Norah took a step forward. There was no tripping and falling this time. She jumped as far as she could, making it less than a meter from where she'd been standing. This STUNK. No more jumping and no more fur. What a life.

She checked her watch and saw that it had only been 43 minutes since she'd taken the potion. Huh. She must've wasted loads of time stuck on the floor and STILL it added up to less than an hour. It was more than 5 minutes, but still. It was a whole lot less than 5 hours, which would've definitely been preferable. Imagine how much jumping she could've done in that time. Making a mental note to ask Professor Culloden if he could brew her a kangaroo potion that'd last for AGES, she began her trek back to the castle. At least she could treat herself to a chocolate frog when she got back. Did kangaroos like chocolate? Clearly she needed another dose of potion soon. Y'know, for research reasons. And jumping down the moving staircases would be WICKED.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarShine

Cosgrach beamed and nodded. "I do. Helena Thora. She was born in August last year." Aaaaah, he missed his daughter again. The little creature had the energy of an angry dragon.

Hehe, sure she was great! "Glad you got to see her. Well, glad you watch Quidditch in general. Although I can't agree with your team." HEHE - oh, wait... that was Alec's team, wasn't it!?

"Their seeker, Alec Summers was also a former student!" he exclaimed again, as if he, himself, taught how to catch the Snitch. "I taught him for his last year. One of the brightest students I've had, again."

He deserved a cup for influencing so many great students.

Wow. Just wow.

Ava just couldn't believe that now she's having a nice conversation with the Potions man. Yep, on his class before he didn't seem like a friendly man like the man whom she's talking to right now. Maybe it was the Professor thing? Well, her mother is a teacher but she's so strict at the school and home too. "That's a nice name." The young lioness commented.

"I do love quidditch. My big brother, Teddy and I often came to the match. I did join the camp last year, the one that Ministry held." And did he just mention Alec Summers? The young lioness couldn't help but beam when he mentioned her Quidditch idol. "Yeah, I know him. I met him at the camp and he is very nice! He gave me hug and autograph and we took photo together. I heard he was the Head Boy here." Hehehehe. Yeah. she's a huge fan of Alec Summers.

"Why do you love potions?" Suddenly she changed the topic. "Why do you decide to be a potion master?" Having a father who works as a healer and a sister who now currently took an advance potions class made her curious. Well, so far she did enjoy the lesson but... Let's see.

Awwh, evenly divided up sandwiches! And neatly cut ones too!

"Thanks!" Adi bit into one as he listened to Rooney. With a slight tilt of his head, he regarded the boy. It was nice that he wasn't satisfied with what he had done. That drove even more determination. Take it from Adi. He spoke from experience here. But beating ones self up over thinking they hadn't done good enough was crazy. Not that Rooney was doing that to an extreme. "I think you did awesome and with some more practice, you'll be a pro!" He spoke the truth. Just look at the Puffer himself. He was on his way to master everything! Haha.

He laughed slightly now. "Trust me, there will come a time when you will grow taller so fast, you'll wonder if some sort of spell was used on you." Ah yesh. Talk of the final year. "It's not bad. So far it's been super fun with all of the classes and my friends." Nope, he wasn't getting and feels about graduating. Nop- yes, he was. He didn't want to go but he wanted to start a new chapter in his life at the same time

Caleb was not too thrilled about having to identify craters but he was trying to get himself a bit more excited by reminding himself that this stuff could be on his NEWTs. Which meant it might actually be useful. Plus, looking for craters on the moon wasn't the worst assignment they could have gotten, right? Right.

Staring up at the moon, he took out his telescope and scanned the moon, wondering which impact crater he was going to jot down on his list first. He decided to go with...Clavius. It was on the bottom and easy to remember when he was labeling his chart of the moon. He quickly took note of it and what it looked like, then packed up his telescope and moved to find another place to observe from...

Although he was pretty sure the moon was going to look the same no matter where he went. Oh well.

HEHEHE. Of course it was a nice name, it was his daughter's!

...

"Good! Bet you learnt a lot." From the camp. And, yep! THAT was the Alec this man knew - always the kind, caring boy who inspired younger people. "That's right," he said, "he was the Head Boy. And he's always so polite. Not surprised he was so nice to you." Just so she knew, Alec wasn't one of those "fame" boys who earned tons of money and thought they were better than anyone else. Alec Summers was specia and one of them.

Oh... heh... that was a personal question... for him, anyway. Because only potions didn't fail him when he paid enough attention. Potions had been his company in those terrible lonely days. He had a way of easily understanding them when humans had been the most difficult...

"Because... I realised that if I pay enough attention, it always pays back. And... I just love the way the ingredients bond no matter how irrelevant they look." Those two were among the reasons. Good reasons too.

It was a nice cool morning as Ilia walked onto the bridge. She wore almost all black, her tall to the knee boots, and a hoodie that her cousin Ullr had given her, which made her look like a little dragon. Walking a little way down the bridge, she found a spot almost to the end that she liked. It seemed as though she would probably be undisturbed out here , so she sat down and pulled her knees to her chest so that she could rest her chin on them. Her claw covered hands rested on her knees as well and she breathed in deeply. She knew that she couldn't avoid Henric but also that she couldn't keep herself silent any longer. Adi seemed to think Henric would be happy if she told him about the feelings she had developed for him, but she was nervous. It terrified her, the thought of telling him. If he said that he didn't like her, she knew that it would hurt horribly and probably destroy their friendship. She didn't think she could handle that........

His friends informed him that they saw llia headed towards the wooden bridge alone by herself, looking rather forlorn. Alarmed, Henric wasted no time at all and quickly went in search of her. By the time he reached near the foot of the bridge, he was panting and bending his body forward to catch his breath."Now..*pants* ...where is...*pants*...she?" Henric squinted his eyes to see the farthest end of the bridge and spotted a lone figure huddled in one corner. Oh merlin....thank goodness she was alright! He walked briskly towards her, clenching and unclenching his fist at his sides as he tried to contain his anger."LLIA! You had me worried sick about you! Where have you been? What are you doing here alone?"he bombarded her with questions after questions. His face puffed with redness as he tried to pull his Hufflepuff cardigan closer to him so he could keep himself warm. He was feeling under the weather today too, thanks to the cold season. Henric still wasn't immune to the cold...it made him a little sickly each time.

"I'm going to be Prefect one day. Like my Mama was." Just if Adi wanted to know that little bit of information, because he was actually planning on telling all of the current prefects. "-- I don't think I'll be very tall, though. Mama is smaller than I am." And he wasn't able to remember just how tall his father had been, but anyone would seem tall to a toddler with a 4' 10" mother.

"Do you know what you're going to do after you finish school?"

The cold weather was a blessing in the little blonde's opinion, she missed that about her homelands and it helped her to calm down and think. But......how to tell someone you have been in love with them since you met them? Hello. I love you. Let me jump in your game? Oh hey there Henric , I have something to tell you.......I have been in love with you since you knocked me over in the pet shop.....

Nothing made any of it sound right in her mind. This didn't last long however, because she heard the boy in question shouting her name at her. Startling out of her thoughts, she stood up to face him. He looked.....angry? He was definitely upset with her! Why!? What did she do!?

What was with the questioning??? Worried? Of course she was alone...........if it wasn't him or Adi around when wasn't she? Though.....she supposed the past few weeks that she was more solitary than usual even.

"I'm sorry. There is a lot on my mind and I needed to think." She walked up to him and slowly motioned to place her arms around him. He looked cold and though she didn't have much body to give him heat she wanted to try. "I didn't mean to worry you." She looked up at him with her bright blue eyes a shade softer than usual. They were sad, confused, and a bit scared truthfully. Please let me hold you....don't reject me.