So, there. His hair had been chopped.

Pushing his thumb into the lump of clay several times, he made a decent-sized cavity. Then he sprinked the little bits of his hair into the indent and smushed that clay back together again. Not too difficult, right? But now it was time to get down to the real business.

First, he kneaded the clay and rolled out a sort of base for his creature. There was more rolling to create the basic form of extremities. Long neck, tail, legs and arms. His fingers were carefully pushing into the medium to gain a more distinct shape. It didn't take long for him to pull out some make-shift tools to help: a quill to score the edges before attaching them to the base, a bit of water from his water bottle to help those extremities to stick.

The lesson seemed to cater to several of his strengths, in fact. He was good at individual work, tended to be detail-oriented, and according to his mother, could be terribly tunnel-visioned when he was interested in the task at hand.

In other words, Sam was really enjoying this lesson.

Finally, after quite a bit of focused, hard work, Sam was finished. There on his desk sat a small, clay dragon. And although the creature of course had wings, there also appeared to be several slits on either side of its neck. Gills. Because yes, Sam's dragon could also go underwater.

With a pleased smile upon his face, he leaned into the back of his chair with satisfaction. Not too shabby, if he did say so himself.

Kitty was just about to begin trying to pronounce those terrible complicated words when THIS happened. Mason's desk had come to life right before their eyes! Her mouth hung open in surprise, but then she burst out clapping.

"Mason has a desk familiar!" she shouted excitedly, pointing to Mason's desk in case anyone missed it. "Mason, that's awesome! Tell it to do something!" This was so neat!

''Piertotum Locomotor Annexus.'' This was recited several more times each time clearly and quietly until there was a true feel for each word and they flowed off her tongue like nothing.

The wand movement was nothing. A point and flourish. Easy. Simple. Nothing at all. Taking her wand in her hand she closed her fingers around it feeling the cool wood against her palm. Even though she knew the movement the brunette raised her wand, pointed it at the clay hedgehog and gave a delicate flourish. Nice.

Feeling good with the incantation and even better with the wand movement Hady felt like she was ready. It was time to bring her creation to life. Or well give it life? Something. It was time to make this little one move, be hers.

Inhale. Exhale. Calm even breaths. Full focus. Clear exact intent. True emotion and a little bit of her. All this and then some when Hady put her mind on what was next to come. Flexing her fingers around her wand she cast clearly, ''Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" A point at the clay hedgehog and a flourish of the wand was given.

Please.

Please..

Please...let this work...

Azura smiled down at her clay Red Panda and spoke to it.. "Alright Sunset, are you ready?" Yes, she had already named it! Even if it wasn't alive yet! She took a deep breath and then focused on the clay figurine and then smiled at it.

She could do this!

Concentration, confidence and pronunciation!

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" The young Ravebclaw said as she pointed her wand at the little clay animal and added the needed flourish!

Had it worked?

"Sunset? You there? Can you move your tail please?"

Oh please Merlin let her not have animated her desk or anything else! She waited with baited breath for what seemed like hours, but really it was only a second before the little red panda.. Moved its tail!!

Holy Fwoopers!! She had done it!! The purple eyed girl was so excited she nearly hit herself in the face with her wand!!

Careful Azura!!

"Sunset!! You are so cute! Hi!" She said brightly as she put a finger down to gently touch it's head.

D'awwwww it was so adorable! She squealed ever so softly as she looked at it.

"Just don't break my nose and we will be okay hmm?" She whispered softly, to the figurine as she asked to to walk around her desk!

Aww nutz. So just his hair or his spit but not both. He ran his fingers through his messy curls. Nope no errant strands of curls. Of course there wouldn’t be because today he brushed his hair. Of all the days to have done that and now faced with a project that needs hairstrands eh? Also there looks to be a long line waiting for an available pair of scissors....

So spit shine it is!

He flattened the clay and just spat all over it. Spit spit spit spit spit spit. Gross? The curly top didn’t think so.

So with the DNA imparting done, he began to massage the clay very well, get that all mixed in. Mix mix mix mix mix. Oh he's gonna need a small bit of another color of clay. The curly top stood and grabbed a small bit of a darker shade of clay and gave it the Salander spit shine treatment. Awwyea!

Alright now he's ready to be sculptor Ace!

He isnt gonna aim for realism, he knows he cant pull that off. So he's just gonna work on it to be as simple and as fun as his fingers can muster. He cut the brown clay into three, then proceeded to roll the biggest one between his palms, pressing and bending and extending one end of it since something will be attached to it later. And there he has it-- a brown blob! That was simple enough yeah?

He took the second largest one and did the same thing, comparing it to the first one. That will be the body and this will be the head. Taking his quill, he poked and lined and tweaked the head until it sorta resembled a face. Squeezed out a bit of brown clay from the reserve to make ears. And then he took the first brown blob and attached it to the head. Ok.... Its starting to look somewhat decent.... For a zombie. But no matter. Now for the legs!

He took the last brown clay left over and split it in four, once again rolling the clay in his hands. He's gonna make legs see? Tapping one end of each of the rolled up clay against the table to flatten it, it started to resemble hooves. Kinda. Anyway there goes the legs being attached to the main clay body.

Does it look like a horse now? A bald horse. A bald horse with no tail. And this is where the other colored clay will come in.

Again his patience will be tested, because now he had to figure out a way to make the mane and the tail. He split the darker clay in half. Working the fingers, work it work it work it.... And then stick em stick em stick em. A horse' mane isnt always perfect, besides if this was a pony after his heart (and spit and hair) then it should be expected to have messy hair yeah? So messy mane it is!

On the left over dark clay he split it again, then twisting half of it so it could make for a decent tail. The rest of the dark clay he split and flattened into the hooves and the eyes and stuck them to where they should go.

Tenacius leaned back into his seat to survey his creation. Cute horsie was cute eh?

Kitty pointed her wand at her three worms and shouted "Pier-tortun Loccomortis Annexus!"Nothing happened. She sighed. How DID you pronounce that word again? It was such a hard word to pronounce, and there were so many awesome distractions all around her (like that AWESOME desk) that it was hard to concentrate.

Whoah animation time. And no not cartooning-- like actually make his ickle horsie ALIIIIIIVE! Mwahahah-- ahem.

And wowzers that is some advanced spell. Can he do it? Its not like self-doubt or inexperience ever stopped this curly haired boy before.

So he grabbed his Alder wood dragon-heartstring magic maker and practiced the whole flourish thing. Flourish flourish flourish. Ok that looked really awkward. Maybe he should try saying the spell first?

"Peertumtum Locomoter Anexis." Flourish flourish flourish.

That didn’t feel right. That didn’t sound right either.

Lets see if we can make that better.

"Peeeyerrrrtowwwtummmm..." that sounded better "Locoooowmoooowterrrrr...." eh no bad "Anehksissssss." Eh can he do it with the wand stroke?

"Pee--" aaaand he forgot pretty much everything.

Olivia heard her name being supplied by the professor, it seemed her answer was a good lead into what they would be talking about. Cool! The Ravenclaw listened carefully to what all was being said as Ichihara further went into what she was talking about and responses to the other various answers. Familiars…much like her cat…well maybe not at the moment. She supposed they needed more time together to be more connected. It was all so very interesting in her opinion and she was ready for what lay ahead in the lesson.

Which she didn’t have to wait very long to learn as the woman moved them on, it was to an activity. A creative activity involving clay…and parts of themselves. Olivia’s eyebrow raised slightly at the notion but not thinking negatively on the idea. When they were free to begin, the Ravenclaw moved from her seat to retrieve some clay as she debated her options. She didn’t want to wimp out and take the weakest choice, though she didn’t think she could produce genuine tears on demand.

So hair it was.

So Olivia retrieved a pair of scissors as well before returning to her seat. Then she brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulders and tried to think of her best choice before picking a few strands of her locks in front. Somewhere it would be slightly noticeable in her look so it was somewhat more of a sacrifice. At least according to her train of thought on the matter. With a couple of snips of the scissor it was free.

One step down.

A girl had lost some of her snails? Esme though that was rather tragic. No wonder she was in a state; the death of a pet was always hard, and she had lost multiple ones in one fell swoop. Hopefully she wasn't in trouble for it, but the Professor was being rather considerate at least. Ichihara was strict with rules and everyone knew it by now.

At the mention of Professor York she felt a small pang. It was a shame that she had only taught for one term because she was a nice woman and was always willing to share treats with students. It was Professor Cassie that she missed the most, however. Thanks to the hag her love of Divination had died.

Esme wasn't too sure about this new spell because it seemed pretty complicated, but she was going to try her best. Taking a deep breath, she began to practice the incantation. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus." Was that right? "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus." One more time for good luck. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus."

Figuring that third time's the charm, she moved on to the wand movement which seemed rather simple. At least there was that because it would really suck if BOTH the incantation and wand movement were complicated. This Transfiguration stuff could be HARD.

Point and flourish. Point and flourish. Point and flourish.

Ok this is not only a mouthful of a spell, but it’s a complicated spell. With wand action to boot!

He grabbed his bag and took out a parchment and his quill, and decided to write it down exactly as he was hearing it from the Professor...

Quote:

Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus

The curly top practiced it several more times, saying it over and over until he got comfortable with it. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus. Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus. " Flourish flourish--

--wait.

It was point and then flourish. Details eh? "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus.... And then point..." points with his wand "... And then flourish." Flourishing wand action.

.... And it was then that the wand gave a slight blue mist at its tip.

ASDFADSFA! "I got it I got it!" he fist pumped.

Hadley mimicked the Professor's wand movements as the Professor was showing the class. She practiced them a few more times before gripping both ends of Kira, her wand, and shutting her eyes. Pier-TO-Tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus. Pier-TO-Tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus. Pier-TO-Tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus. She focused on the words in her mind, almost meditating on them, which she was actually starting to get good at thanks to Herbology class. Haddie had figured out that doing this before practicing a spell, actively helped her get results the first go. At least she thought it did. She'd finally been able to do the journal protection spell Penny taught her.

"Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor Ann-EXus." She was just practicing the words out loud for a moment. Was that right, through? Something sounded off to her, but couldn't place it. As eager as she was to animate her clay lion, she was more determined to impress Professor Ichihara by casting the spell right as close to the first time as possible. She wanted the Professor to see she was working hard to try and get it right the first time, not just jumping in and learning by trial and error. Even if she didn't get it right the first go, at least the Professor would see that she was giving it thought and focus and all that. This was solely so Professor Ichihara would like her more and actually train her to be an animagus.

Everything always came back to that.

"Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor ann-EXus..." Still off a bit, but this time she thought she narrowed it down to the last word. An-NEXus. "Ann-EXus." It was subtle but it was there... An-NEXus. "Ann-EXus." An-NEXus. "Ann-EXus." An-NEXus. "Ann-EXus." Ah-HA! She wasn't putting emphasis early enough. "An-NEXus." There it was. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus." Yeah, that was it. She was pretty sure that was it, at least. Only one way to know...

With the two parts of her would-be sculpture gathered, Olivia supposed all that she had left to do was make what she was going to make. She balled up her cut hair and wrapped the clay around it as they had been told that the part of themselves was supposed to be in the center. The first year then proceeded to roll it all up into a ball, trying to figure out what to make out of the clay. Something meaningful to her? Something random? There was a good deal of choice in the matter so she mulled over optio—

Oh wait!

Familiars had made her think of her cat, so cat it should be. The Ravenclaw gradually changing up her movements and touches of her clay ball to try and form the various parts of the feline form. First the head and a then a leg. Then another leg. And then the tail before the final two legs. A few adjustments were made until she was satisfied with what she had come up, a content smile crossing her face as she placed the clay cat on the desk before. There…she was all good.

Blue-green eyes now focuses on his ickle clay horsie , still repeating the spell incantation in his head, his hand making tiny gestures that mimicked the wand stroke. He was building his confidence see? Intent, important that is.

He breathed calmly then set his wand at a ready position. "Piertotum Locomotor Annexus" point and flourish.

A blue mist emerged from his wand and bathed the clay horse in that blue mist, until it too faded just like the professor's did. He sat still wondering if his efforts had any effect...

The clay horse twitched its head as it blinked its eyes, slowly coming to awareness at his new existence. But it wasn’t moving its body at all. Something the small clay figurine was starting to realize.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" the boy repeated with an even more intense delivery and another blue mist bathed his clay creation.

It was then that the clay horse stomped its leg as it swished its tail.

"YAAAAS!" Gryffindor kid was excited. And the little horse that could echoed his jubilation, tapping its front hooves back and forth, its mane and tail swishing about in tune to some silent dance tune.

''Pier-to-tum Loco-motor Ann-exus!" Kitty stretched the word out, being sure to put emphasize on each syllable. ''Pier-to-tum Loco-motor Ann-exus!" Meanwhile doing her best to ignore the walking desk next to her. She ignored everything.

Then she raised her wand and pointed it at the three worms. ''Pier-to-tum Loco-motor Ann-exus!" A flourish of the wand...

A bright blue light emerged from her wand and seeped into the worms. They began to twitch...

"I did it!" Kitty beamed at her lovely worms. Yes!

Haddie flourished her wand at the clay lioness, repeated the flourish and then repeated it a third time. She was ready to cast spell for real now. Build the determination to make the spell work was easy; she already was extremely determined to have a living clay lioness familiar. Haddie raised her wand, "Pier-TO-tuh..."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nc.Ap.

"PROFESSOR!!!!!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goblinfrog

"Mason has a desk familiar!" she shouted excitedly, pointing to Mason's desk in case anyone missed it. "Mason, that's awesome! Tell it to do something!" This was so neat!

Wait, really!? Haddie put her feet on the seat under her to get a better look. That is awesome! Haddie was about to cheer Mason on as well, when she remembered which class she was in, and yeah... She gave Mason a grin and sat back down properly. Okay, now to perform the spell herself, preferably without animating her desk too. Impress Professor Ichihara so she'll agree to train Haddie next year, that was the goal.

"Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus!" She gave her wand a flourish as she spoke. There wasn't nothing to indicate it worked. "Give me a roar," Haddie instructed. Nothing happened. She was still too distracted by the idea of Mason making a desk familiar. Focus, Haddie. Focus. Living clay lioness. Living clay lioness. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus!" she ordered. A sheen of blue light shimmered over the clay animal and it shuddered ever so slightly.

"Roar for me," she told the clay lioness. It opened its mouth in a ferocious, yet completely silent roar.

She'd done it!

Colt was too busy dazing to answer the questions plus they were too detailed for his liking. What were they supposed to be like ravenclaws? He was definitely not going to put too much thought into his questions and answer the Professor's riddles. He rolled his eyes and began to tap on his notebook. Just get on with the activity. Once she was done babbling and such, he heard they were doing activity time. FINALLY. He got out of his seat and went to get some clay. He heard he needed to put a part of his DNA into the clay. Huh...so the spell could work. He shrugged and went with it. He got some scissors from the front and he needed to cut a little piece of his hair? Can he just pull it out? He looked around and saw other students doing the same thing.

Yeah the hair thing was safer. He put his scissors to the side and yanked a piece of his hair. Ouch! He then placed his hair piece into the clay and began to massage it in. This was kind of weird for his liking but it is what the teacher told them to do. As he was massaging the clay, he wondered what shape was going to do....

We shall see won't we?

Now for some magic it seemed.

Professor Ichihara called for their attention again and away from the outbursts that had developed. What in Merlin’s beard had caused that? Whatever the case, Olivia was ready to move on and animate her clay cat, confident in her careful measures in creating it. Granted it wasn’t perfect, but it was kinda nice. She watched the professor give a flick of her wand and as new words were magically written upon the blackboard as the woman spoke on.

Piertotum Locomotor

Piertotum Locomotor Annexus

She wasn’t a returning student, so she hadn’t had Professor York or the mentioned lesson, though the first spell wasn’t completely unfamiliar. Her mum had mentioned it once, and if Olivia wasn’t mistaken, it had played a cool roll in Hogwarts’ history at least once. Her blue eyes brightened in curiousity even though it wasn’t quite the spell they would be learning and trying out. Nope….that one seemed even COOLER!

Especially when Professor Ichihara demonstrated the spell with her own clay figure, getting the fox to not only move but to do precisely as she asked. Olivia couldn’t help be itching to try it on her own. No half-hearted plans for her. She listened to the described wand movement to go with the earlier pronunciation and readied herself for practice.

“Piertotum Locomotor Annexus… Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus…Piertotum Locomotor Annexus,” she said as clearly as she could over and over, trying to get her mouth and words around the troubling incantation. “Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus.”

Everything happened so much. Jaemin was busily making his niffler when the Gryffindor girl appeared looking as if she'd gone through both a washer and a dryer; her revelation about her pets made his tummy clench up, and he felt at his pocket for the small lump of hedgehog sleeping inside. While Sniffler was not the pet Jaemin had wanted, he was still very much Jaemin's beloved tiny pocket creature, and he couldn't imagine how he would feel should something so awful happen to him.

He almost felt guilty about the niffler familiar. Almost.

The boy watched the Gryffindor sadly for a moment, wishing there were a way to help her out, but... he was in class. He had to pay attention to class before anything else could be done. And the professor would surely handle the girl's sadness better than a small Slytherin who didn't even know her. He turned back to his niffler and finished prodding its little clay stumps into feet.

It was a bit more paunchy than he had meant it to be, but the clay niffler looked enough like a niffler to be recognisable to anyone who actually knew what a niffler was, and Jaemin was a bit proud. He felt around in his robes for his wand and pulled it out, all while listening carefully to how the professor pronounced the spell. It wasn't going to roll off his tongue very easily, and he scrunched his nose up a bit as he swapped his wand for a quill so he could write it down. He was careful to write the pronunciation after it as well, using capital letters for the things that needed to be emphasized and spaces between the syllables to try and make it easier on himself.

"Pier TOE tum Low cah motor Ahn NEXT us," he whispered to himself. It sounded... close? To what the professor had said? But... not quite right. Try again, Jaemin. "Pier...TO tum... Lo co motor... Annie Exus."

Why did he always have such a hard time with saying the words?! He frowned at his notes and tried again. And again. And again.

And again.

Text Cut: Kitty

"Mason has a desk familiar!" she shouted excitedly, pointing to Mason's desk in case anyone missed it. "Mason, that's awesome! Tell it to do something!" This was so neat!

Oh my Merlin, really??!!

Mason was freaking out because um, hallo, she had just animated her FRIKEN' DESK!

And she was definitely not going to make matters worse by actually talking to a desk, much less ask it to do a back-flip. Seriously?!! Just when things started going her way, bad things like this always happened.

Text Cut: Haddie

Wait, really!? Haddie put her feet on the seat under her to get a better look. That is awesome! Haddie was about to cheer Mason on as well, when she remembered which class she was in, and yeah... She gave Mason a grin and sat back down properly. Okay, now to perform the spell herself, preferably without animating her desk too. Impress Professor Ichihara so she'll agree to train Haddie next year, that was the goal.

Well clearly nobody was noticing how she was literally having a breakdown. She just gave Haddie nervous smile back. She seriously felt like she was going to vomit. That'll probably make the desk's bond to her even stronger. GREAT!

"Well isn't this just SPLENDID!!!!" she shrieked as the table roiled and gave a little jerk. Now the thing was bloody mocking her too?

"Professor! I realllllyyyyy need your help!" she basically shrieked, "What do I do?!"

Was literally nobody even going to try and help her? A First-Year whom ahd clearly no control over anything.

Again FAN-FRIKEN'-TASTIC!

Alright, the moment of truth.

Let's see if she's gonna succeed performing this spell or not.

Ava took a very deep breath, concentrate, put her 200% focus on this spell work. This wasn't an easy spell, she admitted that. Even last term she barely managed to cast the animating spell in one try.... Well, wasn't practice makes perfect? Let's do it! She pointed her wand to her snake clay, pointed her wand and gave a flourish movement. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus!"

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

And nothing happened.

Let's just try it again. Shall we?

She gained her focus back, pointed her wand to the snake clay and flourished it. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus!" She did watch the model glowed a faint soft blue but... Still nothing happened. Come on. She muttered to herself. Ava remembered that the Professor said that she couldn't perform the spell successfully if she didn't do it wholeheartedly.

So now here she was, pouring her heart and soul to perform this spell successfully. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus!" She pointed her wand to the snake clay, gave a flourish and watched what would happened. Just please work for this time... Please work for this time!!

Something about dead snails and a new spell later, Chloe was staring down her snowman. She had to really focus, that was what the instructions said, but she wasn't sure she could. It was hard to focus on her intent when all she seemed to notice was how lopsided and ridiculous her snowman actually looked. Her terrible craftsmanship was actually a distraction. This whole assignment was frustrating her.

So much so that her freckled face was starting to twinge ever-so-slightly pink.

Chloe had to get her act together if she was every going to complete this project. Her grade was on the line here.

Tucking some unruly blonde hair behind her ears, the twelve year old drew her wand. She practiced the wand configuration and whispered the spell under her breath, "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus..." And so on. Her mind was the farthest thing from focused. So she practiced and practiced and practiced as a stalling tactic.

It was just as he thought and Blaise was fully prepared when it came around to this section. This ball would be his 'familiar' and he was going to 'bind it to him' to get it to 'do his bidding'. For the record, his quill did that quite well and he never needed to raise a wand to it thank you very much.

The little boy placed the ball dead centre then grabbed his molded 'wand' he'd thought to make and cleared his throat. Might as well put on a show, couldn't just sit there doing nothing--rather, he could but didn't fancy having the Professor coming over to check so.....lights, camera....ACTION.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus....Pier-to-tum Lo-co-mo-tor An-nex-us...Pierto-tum Loco-motor Annex-us...." One always looked more productive when they pretended to be practising the incantation and it would serve him well to get it now in case he decided to try teaching himself the spell later on when there weren't.....quite so many eyes to see his mountains of failure.

Small chance though. Even in his private practice, the boy seldom taught himself transfiguration spells. At the moment, he didn't think the new wand Airey gave him was quite ready for those and he didn't want to push it.

Why yes, he WAS also pretending to be practising the and movement at intervals. Such a diligent student he was proving to be. It had worked well for him his first year in the few Transfiguration and Charms classes he'd gone to. Once you looked as busy as everyone else, it worked out in your favour.

It was very important not to draw attention to yourself.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus...Piertotum Locomotor Annexus"

Are you freaking SERIOUS?! She was going to get to animate her owl?! This was the single most SUPER, COOL, AMAZING, and AWESOME piece of magic she'd learned since she's started school here. Ariadne looked down at her owl and immediately began fidgeting in place. She had ALWAYS wanted her own owl, and even though this one would be a modeling clay owl that she had to tell to move, it would still be the closest thing she'd ever had to an owl!

Ariadne's eyes welled up with real, emotional tears. Too bad these tears came after she'd modeled her owl. She could have used them to mix into the figure she'd created! *fidget fidget fidget* Ariadne was ready to get started RIGHT NOW! The professor had gone over all the steps with them, so all she needed to do was execute them.

First, though, should practice the incantation and wand movement. This wasn't really the kind of spell you wanted to just dive right into. She could REALLY mess up her owl! "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus," she said, sounding out each part of the incantation just as the professor had. "Pier-TO-tum Lo-CO-motor An-NEXus. Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" After a few tries, Ariadne raised her wand and first pointed it then gave it a good flourish. Okay, PERFECT!

Next, Ariadne decided she was going to really try and put some meaning behind this. She sat down and put herself at eye level with the modeling clay owl. "Okay, so, I'm supposed to animate you and give you something similar to life. This is my first time doing this sort of thing, too. I really hope it works out, and I don't really mess you up," she told the owl. Could she still love a half-animated owl?! ... Ariadne decided that she already DID love her owl, and it wasn't even animated yet. "Okay, I'm with you no matter what! I've wanted an owl for so long now, so let's get this done!"

Surely that heartfelt speech meant SOMETHING.

This was actually really weird, however interesting it might have been in hindsight; Dima wasn't quite sure he could give part of his 'life force' to..... Zeus. Zeus, the snobby, drooly, scratchy, bitey, spoiled, yet somehow creepily endearing kneazle.

Why had he not chosen a toad, again?

It was a new spell, so the sixth year muttered it under his breath as he stared at the clay feline figure. "Pier-to-tum Lo-co-motor An-nex-us." Yeah. Sounded about right. He wasn't going to go on mumbling like a loon, because it wasn't like his tongue was tied today.

Now... to figure out how in Merlin's name he could put conviction behind binding this squishable thing to himself.

Likely, the answer was that he couldn't. Couldn't do it. Would his dad be upset if he failed Transfiguration this year?

When he figured he'd done enough of a show at practising the spell, the little boy put on his most serious concentration face--the kind that he most usually had when writing a story. Wand raised, posture perfect, it was time to get this show on the road.

"Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!"

Oh darn, nothing happened. Shame that. Best he revisit this in another year or two. So much for trying. He did his best. Clearly this was just not the spell for him. Too bad, so sad, what ever would he do?

Try again? SURE he could do that for all the good it would do.

Once again, the young Gryffindor took aim at the ball and worked at the wand movement the best he could mimic it. "Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" Still nothing? Huh. It reminded him of when he DID have a wand. The result was the exact same. It wasn't as if he was missing out on anything. It was one of those times where he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. Might as well make a joke of it.

This time he would add a bit of dramatics to the act. With a great flourish of his wand, he took aim once more. "Piertotum Locomotor Annexus!" He uttered, allowing each word to play along his lips as they left his mouth.

Clearly taking this seriously. Yup.