That out of the way Paulina was ready to follow some more of Professor York's instructions, this time involving focus. She had done this kind of exercise before though it had always been as a way to deal with anxiety; focusing on something peaceful always made her feel calmer. Needless to say these imaginings never dealt with green elephants.

Closing her eyes, she focused on a shade of grey... keeping that image in her head until it gradually shifted to that of the ocean. It was almost as if she was seeing things in a black and white movie: the sky was a light grey while the ocean was a darker shade of it.

Oh. Look at that green elephant walking across the beach and adding a pop of colour to the scene.

As she kept her attention on the elephant, it walked towards the shore before entering the shallow water. It didn't stop there, but kept going. The elephant was enjoying a nice swim! Paulina had to smile at that.

Worms to matchbooks.

Okay, he could do this. It was one of their previous homework spells and not the hardest of the bunch either. Adi was already taking care of the retrieval of worms and Benny smiled and nodded as he accepted it. "I wont...don't eat it, Badger," he remarked in return adding a little tease for his boyfriend. Badgers did it eat them...he looked it up after being one. Worm on his desk at the ready, it was time to do as was asked him, the spell both horribly and correctly.

And of course Adi was doing it non-verbally beside him.

"Flidaflors!" he cast first, his words mumbled and titally wrong as he did a casual wand movement working upwards and coming out all wrong. So of course there was no matchbox, or water goblet for that matter. Hopefully that was a good enough mess off his spellwork because he was moving on.

"Flintifors!" This time his wording was loud and clear and his wand movement was a distinct point and flick upard while he imagined the wiggling worm became a book of matches. Imagery became reality before his eyes and Benny was ready for the next thing.

Next, Caleb had to do some visualization exercise. This was going to be hard, because Caleb always had like a thousand things on his mind. But he was going to give it a try, of course - it was pretty good advice, advice that HE had given no less, it was just hard for him to follow his own advice.

Ok, so he had to imagine just...plain colors. Which was hard since you could see light through your eyelids when you closed them. NOPE. FOCUS. Ok, white. Just white...then just black...darkness...that wasn't so bad. And now he had to think about the ocean, which wasn't bad either. Uncle Ben lived on the ocean...but now he had to think of a green elephant? THAT wasn't distracting at all...he thought about it walking through the water, then going for a swim...it was weird, but hey, he was focusing on that, and that was the goal right?!

Angel now had to try and find a partner but who should she work with. "Does anyone want to partner up with me?" Angel took it that she would have to try and find a younger student right since she was a fifth year. She looked around to try and see if there was anyone she knew that she could partner up or with someone else.

"Ceruchous!" Angel thought that she might as well practice the incantation whilst she was looking around the classroom and searching for a fellow classmate to work with.

And move on they did...to DRAGONS!

That topic always effected Benny and Professor York had to be aware of this from their conversations. He was sure Adi beside him was at the very least. Yes, he saw that look sent his way from beside him. Though like the flying lesson, the seventh year was doing his best not to seem too overly excited about things. Had to be mature about it. And probably failing miserably on the outside as much as he could feel it all bubbling on the inside.

He shouldn't be THAT excited.

The dragon spell wasn't new. Not to mention being turned into one yourself kinda trumped turning a rock into one. But it was still pretty fun-sounding. And would be cool if he managed it all like York was describing to them. Benny copied down the three spells and their accompaning material into his notes seeing it was two out of three that he already knew in the long run. So iy would be part refresher and part new activity involving learning. The Gryffindor retrieving a rock from the front.

But there was still one thing he needed to do after nodding in acceptance of Adi informing he was going to work with Ava. And that was find a younger partner himself. "Um...does anyone need a partner..." he said aloud as he looked around the classroom.

Ooookaaay they were moving on again already?! Davie was really excited to get to the dragon activity ---- the professor made it look so easy ---- but he had to finish turning his worm into a matchbox first!!! Excitedly, the boy rolled up his sleeves, straightened up his posture, and focused on the worm in front of him.

"Flintifors!" he cast, loud and proud, watching with pride as the worm became a cute little matchbox. And no whiskers this time!

Now, he needed to practice this rope spell and dragon one and what was the other one again? Davie glanced at the board and then sank back into his desk to adjust his notes. He didn't have ANY notes on these three things. Better fix that.

SPOILER!!: Notes!

Incantation: Ceruchous (Ce-RU-kee-ous)
Wand movement: Circle
Effect: Conjures a circle of rope

Incantation: Draconifors (Dra-con-ee-fors)
Wand movement: Slash wand at target, and keep wand engaged to control the dragon
Effect: Transforms target into a small dragon

Incantation: Finite (fi-NEE-tay)
Wand movement: Shape of a shield
Effect: Terminates effects of spells

While Adi waited as Ava practiced and conjured her ropes, he decided to continue to send his own ropes into the air. He had four to go, after all. Of course he would be taking a good deal of time keeping an eye on the little prankster beside him because he was determined to see her cast those spells before the end of the lesson.

''Ceruchous!'' There came the second length of rope after the circular movement! He used his wand to guide the rope about two feet higher than the first. ''Ceruchous!'' The circular movement was done and the third rope was sent sliiiightly below the second rope. The process was repeated twice more until a fourth rope was hiiiigh above the others and a fifth was at the lowest below the previous four.

Professors should really make them do those exercises before jumping on to the introduction of new spells. Their brain cells seem to be more accepting of new knowledge that way.

So when Professor Bee presented the a new spell that will turn animals into a matchbox, Owen diligently copied it down onto his notebook before practicing it as instructed by the Professor.

First was sloppy, unfocused practice. Owen could do that. He messed up a lot in his spell works that this would not even take an effort. After getting a worm, he immediately got out his wand and mumbled, "FlentY-fUrs!"... The worm wriggled to and fro and didn't really do anything else aside from that. As expected.

Now this time he had to do it properly. So...FOCUSED and such. "Flintifors!" Point and flick!

Lo and behold, a matchbox.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Dragons?

Adi glanced over at Benny. The Puffer had one already, he didn't need another. Hehe. But no doubt his bestie would be pleased about this turn of things in class. He listened to the instructions been given to them. Oh, cool! This sounds like SO much fun! But first... he needed to find an ickle one to help.

His eyes spotted Ava. Why not work with the lil sister? "Gonna go help Ava,'' he told Benny and shuffled over to the firstie. "Prankster Burton! I'm here to help!'' Hehe. First they needed ropes, yeah? "Any luck so far, Ava?'' He didn't see any ropes around so maybe she needed some encouragement.

"Let's try the incantation first. Ceruchous. Ceruchous.'' And the wand movement? A circle. Adi practiced just that. He grinned at Ava. "Let's try it together now. Ceruchous!'' A length of rope shot up from his wand. WOOHOO! Like Beatrice had done, he sent it up into the air. High... up!

And.... nothing happened.

Huh? She already pronounce the incantation correctly, also the wand movement wasn't that wrong and the concentration? She did concentrate that she's gonna conjure the circle of ropes from her wand. And then somebody came approaching her. Oh, hi Adi! "Noooooot yet, I'm still trying to conjure the ropes." The young lioness said. Okay, maybe she needed to practice the correct incantation first. "Ceruchous... Ceruchous.. Ce-RU-kee-ous " Feeling confident enough with the incantation, Ava then tried the spell again. She had been thinking of conjuring ropes from her wand, then the circular wand movement and... "Ce-RU-kee-ous!!"

Yay!! There's a circular rope was conjured from her wand. She sent it up in the air and then repeated it again until she got five circular ropes.

The way she had been doing this was simple enough really but maybe mixing it up just a little bit would be much more fun. First she would make the rings of rope. So Ceruchous. Right. She had done it once before and could easily do this again.

Clearing her mind and focusing on the charm she needed to preform the brunette raised her wand and began making a circle in the air. "Ceruchous," she spoke clearly a rope forming into a circle as she done so. Using her wand she guided the circle of rope higher and higher.

Once it was in place she preformed the Ceruchous charm three more times (since she had done this once earlier). Each ring of rope was smaller then the previous and each was raised higher into the air then the one before it. Which meant her smaller ring of rope was highest up much closer to the ceiling. That for sure was bound to be the most difficult one.

With her rings of different sized ropes in place she was ready to move on once again.

After sending his ropes up, Adi turned all his attention back to Ava. Awwhh, she was having some trouble. "You can do it!'' he encouraged enthusiastically. ''Ce-RU-kee-ous. Emphasis on the 'Ru' part of the incantation.'' With a grin and bouncing slightly on his feet, he shut up now to watch his friend do her thing. Come on, Ava!

And she delivered! WOOT!

''Awesome job! How about a high five?'' Don't leave him hanging there! But then it was time to conjure a dragon! Could he just levitate Benny around the place? LOL. That would be super duper fun levitating the boyfriend like that... Anyway. "Here we go, Ava!'' Adi set his rock down on the floor. ''Draconifors!'' The wand went in that slashing motion as he focused on a liondragon.

Watch the rock transform, everyone!

With all his intent and stuff, there was soon a smallish dragon before him and Ava. Awesomeeeee! "Your turn!'' the Puff told his partner, keeping his wand engaged to keep a reign on the dragon.

Whut. DRAGONS? Whoa. That was pure awesome.

But their activity sounded AWESOMER because turning rocks into dragons and having dragons light ropes to make 'em flaming? This was going to be a carnival and Owen couldn't wait to get started. Ecstatic, he copied down everything onto his notebook while mentally practicing the incantations in his head. Ceruchous, Ceruchous, Ceruchous. Draconifors, Draconifors, Draconifors. At least those weren't all so hard on the tongue.

Now, who to partner with?

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

After sending his ropes up, Adi turned all his attention back to Ava. Awwhh, she was having some trouble. "You can do it!'' he encouraged enthusiastically. ''Ce-RU-kee-ous. Emphasis on the 'Ru' part of the incantation.'' With a grin and bouncing slightly on his feet, he shut up now to watch his friend do her thing. Come on, Ava!

And she delivered! WOOT!

''Awesome job! How about a high five?'' Don't leave him hanging there! But then it was time to conjure a dragon! Could he just levitate Benny around the place? LOL. That would be super duper fun levitating the boyfriend like that... Anyway. "Here we go, Ava!'' Adi set his rock down on the floor. ''Draconifors!'' The wand went in that slashing motion as he focused on a liondragon.

Watch the rock transform, everyone!

With all his intent and stuff, there was soon a smallish dragon before him and Ava. Awesomeeeee! "Your turn!'' the Puff told his partner, keeping his wand engaged to keep a reign on the dragon.

Glad that Adi was encouraging her so she's not gonna let herself down just because she couldn't conjure the rope. But once she did it, Ava gave the Hufflepuff prefect a high five. Yay!!

And then, time to the most fun part: Transforming a rock into a dragon!

The young lioness watched her partner did it first. AWESOME!!! the stone had transformed into a cool dragon. Now it's time for her to try the spell. Grabbing a rock, she slashed her wand to it and cast the spell "Draconifors!" But then... nothing happened. Huh? Ava then tried it once again, thinking about a stone and transforming it into a dragon while she mumbled the incantation, and time for the execution. "Draconifors!"

And SUCCESS!! Awww... look at the ickle dragon! She kept engaging her wand to the dragon and as she raised it, the dragon went upward and flew around. Hehehe.

Angel was looking around for a partner and she suddenly saw a first year that was looking around. "Would you like to be partners with me." Angel wasn't sure if the young Hufflepuff would want to be partners with someone in her own house.

High five returned, Adi watched Ava have a go with her dragon. Nothing at first but yet he didn't have to tell her to try again. This was one girl who didn't give up easily- that much was obvious. "Awesome! Let's get our dragons going!'' But Ava was already on that so Adi followed suit, raising his wand and letting his dragon beat its wings to climb into the air.

He let it move around for a minute or so before moving it towards the first row of candles. It grabbed some fire from a candle on that row then Adi concentrated as he sent the creature towards the hoop of the highest rope. Annnnnd through the loop it went!

Alert! Alert! ONE ROPE ON FIYAAAAH!

SPOILER!!: big brother

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

High five returned, Adi watched Ava have a go with her dragon. Nothing at first but yet he didn't have to tell her to try again. This was one girl who didn't give up easily- that much was obvious. "Awesome! Let's get our dragons going!'' But Ava was already on that so Adi followed suit, raising his wand and letting his dragon beat its wings to climb into the air.

He let it move around for a minute or so before moving it towards the first row of candles. It grabbed some fire from a candle on that row then Adi concentrated as he sent the creature towards the hoop of the highest rope. Annnnnd through the loop it went!

Alert! Alert! ONE ROPE ON FIYAAAAH!

Now she already transformed a rock into an ickle dragon, what should they do next?

As Adi said that their dragons needed to get going, Ava firstly watched the Hufflepuff prefect what would he do with his dragon

WOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!!!

She was in awe, almost losing control of her own dragon. Oops! She kept gripping her wand and engaging it to the flying dragon. Right, it's her turn now. Controlling the dragon with her wand, the young lioness aimed it to the first candle, got some fire for her dragon and then aimed it to the hoops. Aaaaaaaaaaaaand... One rope had been on fire. Should she continue next?

MAN. He wanted to do more of those tongue twisters. Why couldn't they just do that forEVER?! A whole class on tongue twisters. Maybe he could teach them all some of his best techniques. He knew the good ones. And he knew really good ways to make it easier to pick up on them so they didn't leave you stressed or feeling flustered. But, then had a new thing to be doing and just as instructed...Rooney closed his eyes and imagined white. First, he started at white spots, which morphed into clouds and then...well then, he could only see white. Nothing else. None of the light from the room he was in, just white space. Full of white noise, and the occasional burst of Professor York's voice. (He liked her voice, though)

His white space was invaded almost immediately with a little wave of water, to the point where he made little water splash noises with his mouth. The elephant addition made him laugh though, and he almost lost the beautiful scene he had created in his mind. Rooney was able to pull it back very quickly and pictured his green elephant taking a little dip in the water and then whOOOOSH he went in for a really good swim. His elephant was a great swimmer.

...Did anyone else think that this was a little strange????

They got to turn worms into matchboxes. That was pretty simple, but Paulina could understand what Professor York was going for here. This was a perfect example of why focus and concentration were very important when it came to spell-work. She easily could imagine that the worm was a dragon if she could imagine a green elephant going for a swim at the beach.

Okay, that was a dragon on her desk. Paulina looked down at it, her back slightly bent. The dragon looked as if it was about to spray fire, but Paulina wasn't the least bit concerned. What did it matter when she was going to turn it into a matchbox...or was it supposed to be a goblet? Not really caring one way or the other what it became, Paulina lazily waved her wand. "Flintallifoooors."

What do you know, nothing happened.

Paulina straightened her posture and focused all her attention on the worm. She was picturing it turning into a matchbox. Keeping the image firmly in her head, she pointed her wand and then flicked it upwards. "Flintifors."

Smiling, she picked up the matchbox.

Worms, hm? Rooney went forward and took two of them. Just because he was positive one of them would wriggle away as soon as he was ready to start this task. He returned to his desk, made a face at the two worms, refusing to name them as that would be a complete problem and he would get emotionally attached...AGAIN. He was going to work alone on this one though. He let himself slouch and pointed his wand at the pair of wrigglers.

Then he was just thinking about them turning into a flower. A wriggling flower. FUNNY. HYSTERICAL. HAHAHAHA. He was way too amused to be focussed on this, so it was ALL good. Wand movement a little twirly, he casted. "Fliiiiiiiiiiintiforrrrrrs!" Teehee-HO.

Oh.

Oh no.

... This was bad, wasn't it? Why did his worm have a big head and a shrimp like body? This was... Huh?

Okay, time for the rope spell. Ceruchous. David said it once to himself, silently. "Ce-RU-kee-ous," he pronounced aloud, straightening his posture in preparation for actually performing the spell for reals. Davie tapped his wand once, twice, thrice on his desk as though he were about to conduct a symphony, all the while imagining nice, thick, round, loopy ropes coming out of the end of it like hoops. Then he cast.

"Ceruchous!" the first year intoned, moving his wand up and up as the ropes came out in big loops. He was absolutely determined to get this spell right, and so he concentrated on keeping the loops up even as he glanced at his notes for the next spell to do.

This was kind of lame, yet also kind of unique. It's not that Tia didn't understand why Professor York was emphasizing pronunciation, but she also didn't really think she needed it. She was generally careful and tongue twisters were way worse than pronouncing spells anyway. Tongue twisters were just playful games that had no meaning on reality.

"Less-er leath-er nev-er weath-ered wet-ter weat-her bet-ter"

Breathe. That first line wasn't bad, but as she'd pre-read the paragraph on the blackboard, she knew it only got worse.

"I thought ... I thought of think-ing of thank-ing you"

Another deep breath.

"Can you can a can .... as a canner can can a can can?"

"Sea sells sheshells by the sea shore..." Oops. That one didn't quite sound right as she said the words aloud. Breath, Tia, focus. "She shells seashells by the sea shore." "She sells seashells by the sea shore."

Alright, tongue twister done, now she could concentrate on her focus. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine shades of black and white and gray, which was actually easier than she would have thought, particularly with her eyes closed. As the professor spoke, it made it easier for her to just relax her breath, to fall into this breathing pattern that was so effortless. To think of the crash of the ocean, particularly she was thinking of the Tyrrhenian Sea, which wasn't an ocean but it was a body of water where she recalled going as a young girl with her family... Reflective of the memory of the sea, she made a face at the green elephant. She didn't remember any elephants. This was different. So she focused instead on the large mammal, staying with it, her attention fully on it, as it walked along the coast of the Sea ... seemingly like it was to go for a swim, only it didn't. It stopped short and then, just like that, it was gone. And she opened her eyes and the room seemed a whole lot brighter.

And now the horrible part of the lesson, the part where they were actually meant to be casting. Right. Of course. Blaise walked over to get a worm with everyone else, just because it was what he was meant to be doing and he would draw less attention to himself, then the boy went back to his seat and just stared blankly at the spineless thing.

Maybe he might have tried some Houdini magic just to make himself look busy but he wand was tucked away up in his trunk so....more staring. All the staring,

"Flintifors." Said with no conviction and absolutely no concentration, just like the Professor asked. The results? Nothing happened--though he supposed that was to be expected when he didn't actually have a wand waving but ah well. "Flintifors!"

And look at that, the worm was still a worm. Interesting experiment this one was. The boy was better off taking notes. Least then he'd be able to make up for it later in his exams. This was a lost cause.

Ahhh, this was SUCH fun!

Just for his whim and amusement, he took a quick minute to let his dragon fly around the ropes. Wheee! Look at the little fellow go! And Ava was getting on well too! She and her dragon got things going just as fast as he did.

Okay, it was time to get back to the task. Adi doubted he to return his dragon to a rock state before proceeding with the second rope so he directed his wand (and in turn the dragon) to the second row of candles where the dragon easily snagged some flames. Annnd to a random rope it went, setting that one on fire too!

Was Ava watching? Adi figured she was following his lead so here's to hoping he was doing this right. Let's see that dragon of yours fly, lil sis!

Up to the third row his own little creature went. This require a tad more focus since the row was higher and the flame size was decreased but his dragon snagged some fire and soon had the third rope on fire. The fourth row required even more focus to get that increasingly smaller flame. When it came to the fifth row, his dragon sot past the aimed at candle completely (woops) because Adi's left hand suddenly decided it wanted to do a weird jig. Seriously... he just sort of lost control of it for a second. But anyway, he quickly got back his focus and the dragon managed to capture some fire. Annnnd back to the ropes... THERE! Five ropes on fiyaaaah!

Lovely.

Beatrice walked between all of the groups, eyes on the ground, at their hands to observe their wandwork, in the sky to see the ropes and dragons. It was all brilliant. "Good job everyone," she boomed.

Ah..

Ahh...

Hmm.......

No wand. Was she surprised? No, not particularly. Heading over to the lad, Beatrice stood so that her back was towards most of the students, and she was facing Bentley. "Now, Mr. Bellaire," she said, dropping the volume. "It helps to actually... hold your wand. I'm very happy to see you here, but I need for you to use your wand. Did you bring it?" She didn't want to cause a fuss, Merlin that was probably the last thing he needed. But... wand!

OOC: HELLO EVERYONE! you have about 17 hours or so to complete the activities. As I said previously, if you're running out of time, you can make longer posts (and less of them). If you feel as though you're too far behind to start, you can jump in anywhere and it will get you some points as before, PM/VM if you have any questions.

Right so... ropes.

Zeke practiced the incantation a couple of times to make sure he wouldn't trip over it. "Ce-RU-kee-ous"...."Ce-RU-kee-ous" .... "Ceruchous".

Yeah, he was cool with it.

With his rock waiting, Zeke conjured the ropes. All five of them, one after the other, setting them higher and higher up in front of the candle flames.

"Ceruchous!" One...

"Ceruchous," two... "Ceruchous,"... three.

"Ceruchous."

AND....

"Ceruchous."

Now he just needed his dragon and he could do the... mini obstacle course.