Kitty thought she got the hang of the spell but of course she wouldn't know until after the evil duckies went wild. But she thought she got the hang of it. "Re-VER-to. Re-VERTO!" Easy and simple, really.

"Professor, why do they have horns on their heads? Is that to make them more like the fish?" Maybe she hadn't been paying attention, but she thought that the creatures had quills and not horns.

Wand movements were something Jaemin was okay with for the most part. As long as they weren't crazy complex, he could get them down pretty easily, and Defence stuff seemed to be pretty straightforward. After all, you didn't wanna have to spend too long doing wand movements... if you did, then whatever you were casting at could hurt you and stuff, and that was the exact opposite of the point of all this stuff.

The only problem with them came when they were supposed to be fairly gentle and/or flowy, because his energetic nature made everything just... go fast and hard. The little boy held his wand, however, and very carefully practiced the wand movement. A flourish. No jabbing or swiping or anything like that.

Gentle-like.

It was now time for the main activity, but Ariadne still felt like she needed a little more practice. These Echinokarps seemed freaky, and she didn't want to go into the main activity anything less that SUPER PREPARED. "Reverto!" she said again. "Re-VER-to!"

She paused and whirled around toward the professor to catch the gist of the directions. Oh, GOOD. There would be no ACTUAL Echinokarp! PERFECT. Ariadne could relax now. Ohhhh, so THIS is why the random rubber duckies were here! They still looked SUPER EVIL. Ariadne didn't trust them in the slightest.

...and now they were closing in on them!

"Reverto! REVERTO!" Ariadne quickly said, getting in one last bit of practice. ERM...did the professors go over the wand movement for this? WHAT. WAS. IT?! "Reverto!" ... Help!

The spell was also one that wasn't terribly difficult, thank Merlin. Jaemin still had a hard time saying certain spells, which was extremely frustrating to him. He couldn't figure out why he mixed up words and sounds so often... he spoke two languages just fine, so spells should not have been as difficult as they sometimes were. The small boy stopped flourishing his wand and went about murmuring the spell to himself.

"Reverto. Re-ver-to. Re-VER-to." He repeated it a few times, putting stress on each syllable before putting it on the syllable where it actually belonged; it was a right sight easier than saying 'wingardium leviosa', that was for sure. He still had a lot of trouble getting his tongue to work with that one. The small Slytherin squeezed his wand and muttered the spell a few more times before turning to pay attention to what the professor was saying.

They... were going to be attacked by ducks. Spiky ducks. Mean-looking spiky ducks.

Why was this school like this??

It was time for the activity and Rachel was prepared. Or at least she thought she was after understanding the instructions. She was excited to commence reverting the cute duckies but that was until Professor Ichihara bestowed them with horn and spikes.

Oh no! There was one making its way towards her right now! Rachel bit her lip nervously. The duck looked utterly terrifying. Why couldn't they have remained cute and cuddly? Was it just her or did it look like it was waddling faster than a regular duck? It looked as though it were angry.

"It's only a fake,'' she reminded herself sternly and raised her wand. "Reverto.'' The girl remembered to stress on the middle syllable and lightly flourish her wand. Would it work?

They said practice makes perfect. So yeah, Ava would spend her time more on practicing this spell.

Even the main activity had started, she still practiced on the spell incantation and the wand movement because it was the most important thing to make she successfully cast the spell, right? At least that's what Professor Beatrice said. Merlin, she missed that white haired lady Professor.

"Re-VER-to!" the young lioness repeated the incantation. "Re-VER-to, Re-VER-to, Re-VER-to!!" And don't forget the wand movement: making a light flourish movement with her wand.

And now she was ready for the main activity.

...

Jace perked up...even sat taller when Professor Hirsch started talking. It isn’t hard to come up with a clever answer when needed because it came out of his brain naturally, but the fact that he’s limited to just that worried him. That man knew that he needed help in the practical area, and Jace was more than ready to learn more from him. Anything and everything that came out of Hirsch’s mouth is sacred to him.

The fact that he liked his answer, Jace ended up turning red like a ripe tomato. He felt great about the fact that he wasn’t a complete dunce in Defense, he just needed more confidence in himself that he can do it. Quickly getting his notebook from under his thigh, the Ravenclaw started to jot down notes in his native tongue—which proved to be much easier since every character represented a whole sentence—and placed all of his things neatly inside his bag once he was done.

Brown eyes focused once more on the beautiful Nana Ichihara, and quickly memorized the incantation in his head. Now, that is some clever spell! He liked the fact that it won’t do any harm on people or creature on the get-go. He’s all about peace and love after all.

“Re-VER-to. Re-VER-to. ReVERto.” Sounds easy enough. Having an idea on what it should do, Jace reckons he’d get the spell in no time.

A flourish of the wand was simple. What she would have to work on was the way she spoke the incantation. It had to be clear. Firm. Stressing the second syllable as told.

Setting her wand on her lap for the moment Hady was reading to give it a go. "Re-VER-to," she stated clearly getting a nice feel for way it was supposed to sound. Once was good enough though. "Re-VER-to. "Re-VER-to." Under her breath the chanting went on and on until she was sure that she had it down.

Honestly it wasn't all that hard. Maybe in a time of high stress if would be but not at this very second. Good thing too as her hazel eyes shifted back onto Nana as the instructions for the lessons task was told.

No, her spell had not worked one bit. Not even in the slightest. For some reason Rachel expected it to because she had never felt as confident as she had when she casted the spell. Her eyes went from the duck to her wand and back to the duck. Oh no! It was approaching her still with that menace.

"Reverto!'' The Eagle said the incantation with greater urgency, trying to keep in mind that her attacker was just cute duck underneath all the terrible horns and spikes. She flourished the wand lightly but yet again, nothing happened. "Reverto!'' she called again and repeating the steps, hoping for better results as she backed away because the horned duck was approaching fast.

Carl, who had been taking notes on (almost) everything the Professors were saying, turned his eyes to Professor Ichihara as she instructed the class to pay close attention. Transfiguration was his favorite subject, so his mind could not help but drift away during some parts of the joint lesson and come back at others. He was however, determined to learn the spell well.

Unfortunately, the Badger had never heard of the Reverto spell before. He had found out that reading up on a spell made the practicing significantly easier, but he did not let his confidence falter. He grinned as the Professor conjured up cute rubber ducks, then cleared his throat. It was time to practice.

"Reverto, Reverto, Reverto." He said clearly. "Re-VER-to, ReVERto, Reverto." He repeated confidently, focusing on the second syllable. Good, it was not a very difficult incantation.

Next on the practise list was doing the wand movement. This was easy as well. A simply flourish of the wand. The Head Boy practised it only a couple of times because he already knew the spell. He just had to find out if he could perform it and one can’t see that if they’re just practising so he waiting and watched the other students until the female Professor spoke again.

He listened carefully this time, knowing that it was the main activity. He watched as the woman transfigurated the ducks to have them have horns and spikes on them and he stared at them, wand at the ready. Groups…groups…where were his Gryffindors at?!

As soon as he got bored repeating the same incantation over and over again, Jace went on to practise the wand movement. Brandishing his wand from its holster, the Ravenclaw began to do the flourish movement. He watched his hand carefully, adjusting the movement if he felt it was too graceful, or if he was too jerky. It had to be perfect. Precision is key. Precision is one of the things he would like to master one day.

Once he was done, his eyes focused on the only female professor in class, and was not prepared to see what was underneath the cloth. Though altered, those ducks looked hideous; so hideous that it really ought to be transformed.

But just like any other class, Jace could not help but ask a question. “Ichihara-sensei, how would we know if a creature...or an object was transfigured? Are there signs present to indicate that it was altered perfectly or otherwise?” Because a clue would definitely help them in Defense. Just saying.

Before he could even get an answer though, the ducks started to move!

Yep. He better start moving!

Suddenly the ducks looked much less cute and much more menacing. Kitty took several steps backwards and almost tripped over her cape, but thankfully caught herself just in time. Pointed her wand at the closest duck (a blue one) she shouted, "Reverto!"

No, no, no! She wasn't having success with this spell. what was wrong with her? In the meanwhile, the duck kept advancing. Deciding that backing away would do her no good, she stood her ground. "Reverto!'' The wand movement was repeated. "Reverto!'' The duck was closer now but still she did not budge; determination was welling up in her.

One of the spikes suddenly grazed her outstretched wand arm. "Ow!'' It hurt but not as much as she thought it would. This was a good thing because she was still able to cast her spell again. The cut, now slightly pink as a little blood escaped, seemed to fuel her determination even more.

"Reverto!'' Light shot from her wand and a second later, returning the duck to its original state. "I did it!'' Rachel exclaimed jubilantly. Smiling broadly, she checked the cut on her hand. Lovely! It hadn't bled much and it seemed to have stopped, anyway. There was just a sting left now. Not paying anymore attention to it, she turned her attention to the other mutant ducks.

Which would be the next one she took on?

The spell bounded right off the duck and it kept on coming. "Re-VER-to!" She tried to put emphasize on the second part of the word like the teachers had instructed and it would have worked, but unfortunately her aim was off and the beam that came out of her wand ended up hitting a small bush nearby. The bush shrunk until it was half of its original size, and meanwhile the duck kept advancing. Another duck (this one red) joined it and they charged right for her.

"GAA!!" Kitty screamed and made a beeline for the Professors. She stumbled over a branch and landed sprawled out on her back.

And now she's ready for the main activity!

Ava watched Professor Ichihara cast the animating spell to the rubber ducks... Okay, now they did look a little bit.... Amusing. Well, like the Professor had said, they weren't that dangerous if we didn't disturb them. Okay, her wand was ready so was she. She already practiced the spell and yeah, she felt quite confident with this. Come on!

Carefully the young lioness looked around... Oh, she spotted a red one. "Reverto!" Ava made a light flourish wand movement and cast the spell. First try: Fail. Damn it. "Re-VER-to!" Again, she tried the spell and... It worked finally.

Despite the fact that the incantation seemed to be very simple, Esme wanted to practice for a fair bit; Professor Ichihara had said that that it had to be said precisely for things to work and she did not want to go into the activity while not having a firm grasp on what she was supposed to be doing. Clearly those rubber ducks were going to play an important role in what was coming next.

"Re-VER-to... Re-VER-to... Reverto." Speaking clearly, she enunciated the word the exact same way as had been done during the demonstration.

Once she was confident that she had this part covered, Esme moved on to the wand movement. A light flourish was all that was needed. Wand in hand, she proceeded to perform the movement a few times though she wasn't as concerned with this part as she had been the incantation.

And so there Kitty was, sprawled on the ground on her back after having tripped over a tree branch, and two giant rubber ducks with horns on their heads ready to pound her. The yellow one smiled evilly (or maybe she just imagined that) and fired spikes at her. They hit her in the left arm, causing her to scream in fear more than pain.

Then it jumped towards her - but she was ready. With her teeth gritted, she raised her wand and shouted "Re-VERTO!"

It jumped...

...and was hit smack in the chest with her spell.

The duck was instantly transformed back into a normal sized rubber ducky, and landed on her chest.

"Yes!" Kitty stood up triumphantly with the angry looking little duck in her hand, angry looking but no longer any threat.

But she had little time to celebrate this victory, because the red duck was still advancing.

"Bring it on!" Kitty taunted the red one, backing up and pointing her wand at him.

Ariadne faced the army of ducks with a mixture of panic and determination. Why she was feeling threatened by an army of ducks was beyond her. She had always been weary of things moving when they shouldn't be moving. Maybe it was just the Imperius Curse or the thought if it. Either way, Ariadne didn't like these ducks one bit.

Ariadne looked around for the other Slytherins. They should get close together and band as one against this army! "Reverto!" she called out, waving her wand toward the ducks. "Re-VER-to!" Did the spell hit? She wasn't quite sure. There were so many ducks! JUST SO MANY!

Ariadne darted to the side and tried the spell from another direction. "Reverto!" she said. She couldn't be sure, but it looked like she'd angered one or two of them. SORRRYYYYY! Don't kill me!

O_O

Yeah, she was taking back her original opinion of the ducks being cute.

Suddenly they had adopted horns and became quite aggressive in nature. Obviously they wouldn't HURT any students - the Professor wouldn't have programmed them to - but the fact still remained that they appeared to be rather menacing. Esme had to remind herself that they weren't any real danger despite appearances; all of this was just to make them more in line with the Echinokarps and between the two she would much rather face off against rubber ducks. It seemed that one of them felt the same way in regards to her as it was making a beeline in her direction.

"Nice duckie," she said without thinking as she slowly backed away.

It took a moment for her to remember that there was a handy spell she had learned moments before. A spell that would render this red duck harmless.

"Reverto!"

Okay, this didn't look like it was working. There was another row of ducks coming at her, and Ariadne didn't think all the Revertos in the world would get them all away from her at once. So she tried a different strategy. Ariadne moved away from the ducks and got near a group of other students. If she was standing by herself, then she had the whole row of ducks to fight all alone. If there were others nearby, though, surely SOMEBODY could make the lucky cast.

Ariadne noticed a Hufflepuff girl near her. Esme, she thought her name was. She didn't really take her eyes off the ducks to look at the girl, though. "REVERTO!" she exclaimed.

Why were NONE of the ducks backing up? NONE! "Reverto!" she shouted again, waving her wand just the right way. Or so she hoped. Where were other Slytherins?! Where was the band of snakes she'd pictured at the beginning of the activity?! Instead, she had a band of DUCKS.

A few of the answers Olivia were hearing as she listened didn’t seem to quite hit the mark. Maybe her classmates hadn’t understood. But goodie…her answer to the transfiguration professor’s question had been answered with positive remarks from the Care of Magical Creature’s professor who no doubt had some at least passing awareness of the creature she had mentioned. The thought confirmed as he explained further to the class what she had been going for when she mentioned the chameleon ghoul in the first place.

When enchinokarps were in turn further explained, the Ravenclaw added more information to her notes for future reference. She was somewhat grateful not having to deal with one this class based on the mention of their dangers and rating, but she was curious and so made sure to catch one of the picture copies to get to put an image to a name. And when she did, Olivia couldn’t help but make a face. Yep…she’d prefer not to come in contact with one.

And no…she was clueless as to what they could be used for. Potions ingredients?

------------------------------

The class was momentarily passed to Hirsch, the defense professor mention what they would be learning to do. And then Professor Ichihara was given the task of teaching them what they needed to know. Olivia thought her mother, a transfiguration professor herself, would find the whole situation amusing. However her attention was soon enough drawn back to the woman and what she was telling them about the spell. She bit the urge to groan and the mention of precision and great determination being needed.

She already had to do that with her wand.

Time to practice.

“Reverto,” she said trying it out. “ReVERto!" She tried again with emphasis, remembering the second syllable needing to be stronger. Best do all she needed to do to increase her chance of even small success. “Reverto! ReVERto! Reverto!” Don't mind her repeating it over and over again to try and get the pronunciation right.

Which mutant duck would be returned to normal next? Rachel did not have to look long before a pink one caught her eye. It was natural that it did. Pink was her all time favourite colour. The duck wasn't paying attention to her though for it was menacingly looking for a student to target. Perhaps she could use its lack of attention to her to her advantage? But what if her try failed? Rachel bit her lip, weighing her options.

"I'll give it a try,'' she told herself. "I won't improve my spell work unless I keep practicing.'' So she took an aim at the duck. "Reverto.'' The light flourish followed and she watched the jet of light shoot towards it. In a second or two she would see if she was successful.

One duck down, more to go....

This wasn't really a difficult task though. Yeah sure that the animated duck looked a little bit scary but, as long as she didn't disturbed them. No, Ava didn't underestimate the duckie at all since they could be dangerous anytime any minute soon. So she'd better watch around and be prepared.

QUACK QUACK QUACK!!!!

There were too many duckies around here. Goodness, did she really need to revert them all? Maybe not. The young lioness spotted another one who seemed a little bit... harmless. "REVERTO!"

Barely finishing up with her practicing Hady snapped her head to the side just in time to see some very angry and overly large...rubber ducks?

What even?!

Blinking a few times Hadleigh looked the duckies over taking notice to the spikes they had on them. Or were those supposed to represent quills? Either way it was something she wanted to stir clear of the best she could.

Before she could do anymore thinking on this situation Professor Ichihara instructed the rubber ducks to ignore the professor but advance on the students! It was a little daunting to say the least at how quickly these puppy sized muggle bath toys came at them. There was already some screaming, running about and a whole lot of spells being cast going on. Confusing honestly.

Gripping her wand firmly the fifth year gave it a flourish in the direction of a particularly grumpy looking yellow duck, "Reverto!" She was sure her aim was spot on and her pronouncation clear but had the beam of light from her wand struck it's target?