Summoning Charm – Accio — upside down U (can't be too far or too vague); Banishing Charm – Depulso — sweep of the wand. After taking down the notes, Nero closed his notebook and withdrew his wand to start practicing. "Accio... Ak-key-oh..." he muttered several times. Then, he imitated the wand movement the professor demonstrated early as he took a few steps forward closer to the trunk. He raised his wand, pointing towards the trunk, took a deep breath and traced an upside down U. "Accio!" he summoned, the cotton snowball flew towards him, but he grabbed it right before it could hit his face. That was close!

"Depulso!" and of the ball of fluff went... Right over the trunk. What? Did he get the wand movement or incantation wrong? "Accio," he summoned it back. At least he got the Summoning Charm right. "de-PUL-so!" he said it loudly and clearly this time. He even made sure he properly made a sweeping motion with his wand. This time, the snowball hit the lip of the trunk. Nero was anxious, afraid that it won't go in again. Fortunately, it fell inside. SCORE!!!

And it was time to practice the two charms, which turned out the other one was the summoning charm; not that Skylar was terribly surprised but she also hadn't wanted to duplicate what most of the class had stated and instead offered up other potential complementary charms to the banishing one. Next thing Skylar knew though, there were balls flying EVERYWHERE. Ducking just in time as one sailed over head and back into the trunk, the third year stepped to the corner of the room where she could safely practice some incantations and wand movements. 'Ak-key-oh.' That one wasn't too terrible, as she'd used the summoning charm before.

Though she never banished anything. "De-pull-e-cio". No wait. That didn't sound right. "De-pul-cio?"

Bleh. That still didn't seem right. The third year sighed as she tried to focus and listen to the way others were pronouncing the incantation. In the meanwhile, she thrashed her wand in a sweeping movement. Not too difficult, least not compared to some wand motions.

"Accio snowball" Skylar exclaimed, moving her wand in an upside down U, figuring she might as well summon some of the fake snowballs from the trunk. She could banish them once she figured out how that spell was meant to be pronounced...

Their answer on the summoning charm was the correct one, and now they were going to be practicing on the white snowballs inside the trunk. Were they snowballs, she wondered, just enchanted to not melt? Well she'd find out as soon as she summoned one!

Rolling up her sleeves past her elbows, she brandished her wand in the upside down U shape (she'd done this spell before) and said in a clear, "Accio snowball!"

One of the white balls flew out of the trunk and right into her hand. She held it in her palms triumphantly and rolled it around. "Nope, you're all fuzzy," she said jokingly.

OKay so Accio she had down pat, Noelle just needed to get Depulso down.

The cottonball was on the ground before her. Picking it up, she tossed it in the air before pointing her wand at it. "Depulso!" She exclaimed but this time added the sweep to it.

The cotton ball flew backwards away from Noelle and.....

straight into Etta.....

Opps....

"Sorry about that!" It was just a cottonball so hopefully no harm done. She was sure a by passing cottonball may hit her at some point.

Gaston glanced at his watch. He had given the class a little extra time to practice, but now it was time to move on. He rose and waited a moment for the students to stop what they were doing and look at him before he addressed them, "Wonderful work, all of you! I've seen some excellent progress, but now it's time to move on."

He aimed his wand at the "snowballs" that had missed their target and sent them flying neatly back into the trunk. There may or may not have been an extra flick of his wand toward the balls, but what was it for? Only time would tell. "Now," he continued, "in the spirit of the holiday season, today's activity is a snowball fight. For this game, you'll summon balls from the trunk, just like we practiced, and send them flying at your classmates using the banishing charm."

He summoned one of the giant cotton balls to demonstrate and caught it in his awaiting hand. "If you get hit with someone else's snowball, you are out; you're to sit on the benches for the remainder of the game." He gestured toward the benches lining the walls. "Don't worry, they're just cotton balls with an engorgement charm placed on them. They won't hurt you - however, they are charmed to burst into a cloud of glitter upon impact... just so there's no cheating." He sent the ball in his hand flying toward the back of the room, where it burst against the wall and covered the spot in blue glitter.

The professor gave the students a moment to process this information before going on, "There are two ways to block a snowball coming at you. You may either use the Banishing charm to deflect it toward someone else or summon it and try to catch it. What happens if you summon a ball but don't catch it and it hits you?"He summoned another snowball from the trunk but instead of catching this one, he let it keep coming until it burst and covered him in silver glitter. "These balls are charmed to remember the last spell cast upon them. They burst into blue glitter if hit by a banishing charm, silver glitter for a summoning charm. Getting hit with your own ball DOES NOT count as an out; as long as you're not hit with blue glitter you're still n the game! But just to make it easy, remember: Blue is bad, silver's safe."

Did that make sense? Good, moving on... "Your team is your Hogwarts house. The object of the game is to take out as many students from other houses as possible. The house with the fewest number of outs at the end of the game wins 10 points." He clapped his hands. "You may start NOW!"

OOC: There is no post count for this activity. If you are hit with a ball, please put "OUT" in the title of your post to make it easy to keep track of the scores. I'll be checking back in from time to time to asnwer questions; just indicate in the title of your post. You have ABOUT 48 HOURS to do this activity!

Alright. She could do this. It wasn't a difficult wand movement, just the incantation. That was when she heard Noelle nearby call out the banishing charm; OH. DEPULSO. How was she getting that extra syllable, Skylar wasn't sure. "Depulso," Sky practiced again, sweeping wand movement, and watched as her snowball zoomed successfully back to the trunk.

Now she just needed to summon some ammo toward her so she'd have something to counter against her peers. But not too many because she needed to have free hands to catch snowballs.

"Accio snowball," Skylar called, summoning one of the fluffy snowballs towards her. Catching it in her non-wand hand, she tossed it lightly in her hand deliberating who to attempt to take out first. Obviously younger students would be an easy target, but she wanted to win because it was earned. "Depulso," the third year cast, as she targeted a group of gryffindor students nearby. Hopefully one of them it would hit?

"Ooh, how wicked." Zelena thought to herself with a mischievous grin. She had seen her fellow Slytherin (Skylar) aim a snowball at a group of Gryffindors so she decided to aim for a Hufflepuff or two.

Her eyes fell upon a couple of Hufflepuffs. She turned herself towards the trunk and aimed her wand and motioned her wand in the shape of an upside-down "U" as she clearly said, "Accio snowball!"

The "snowball" came hurtling through the air as Zelena caught it deftly with her non-wand hand. She concentrated hard on the Hufflepuffs she had spotted earlier.

With the sweep of her wand, Zelena released the snow with a clear, "Depulso!" After the object exited from her hand, Zelena crossed her fingers, hoping that she had executed the spell properly.

...and a snowball almost hit her on the face. Whoa, nice. Etta grinned at the other girl, shaking her head. "That's alright. No worries." It was just a cotton ball anyway.

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

Etta listened as the professor spoke, her eyes widening slightly. Well, that sounded like a lot of fun! She enjoyed competitive games and since she'd practiced the spells enough times.. she smiled slightly, had her wand ready and said "Accio!", summoning a few cotton balls towards her and immediately sent them flying across to a couple of class-mates ( Slytherin ) with a "Depulso!" .. HEY. That worked easily enough. All the practice had helped.

.. She stood close to her desk, looking around carefully, making sure that no stray snowball would hit her...... OOOOHWAIT. One was flying towards her right NOW. AHHHHH. She immediately deflected it elsewhere ( randomly ), really hoping it wouldn't hit a Hufflepuff.

Phew, that was close but definitely exciting.

Well, thank Merlin the balls were soft and Katy didn't have any sort of concussion from that wicked and stupid Accio to the old brain box. She rubbed the spot where it hit regardless and turned her attention to the new game. Snowball tag. She kind of wanted to cover everyone possible in glittttttter.

Without a scintilla of embarrassment, Katy pointed her wand at the snowball at her feet. "Accio." The ball flew up into her hand, leaving a smattering of silver glitter. And noooooow? "Depulso." She banished said snowball in the direction of Skylar Diggory. Take THAT.

Whooooa. COOL! Brent was more excited over the fact that they were playing a game using two spells he was really skilled at. Now he could focus on the competition and not have to worry about accidentally doing something the wrong way. Or that was his plan, at least. He had practiced two or three times, and ready or not, the game was starting!

He thought it would be a complete bum if he got out, because once that happened, there was no getting back in the game. Too bad there wasn't a way for a teammate to bring you back in! Brent gripped his wand in his hand and focused on the snowballs. They seemed to be all over the place all of the sudden, keeping him on his toes.

"Accio snowball!" he called out, moving his wand in the motion he'd been taught. A snowball came zooming toward him. He kept his eyes on the ball, and his wand at the ready. When he felt the time was right, he waved his wand and sent the snowball flying toward the closest Hufflepuff he could see, which just so happened to be Etta. Oops. Sorry, Etta, but right now, you're the enemy! "Depulso!" he said.

Juno was cracking up laughing when so many snowballs hit him. Through her giggling she commented, "I try!" before getting into a bigger fit of giggles. Then the professor started speaking again so she turned to listen stifling her laughter to hear the next set of instructions.

YES! Juno loved games like this! She bounced on her heals listening to the instructions. Ok hit by snowball without deflecting BLUE and you are out, hit by snowball using a spell to deflect SILVER and you are NOT out. She got this! "Accio Snowball!" A ball came towards her and just as it was within an arms length she cast, "Depulso!" The little snowball turned on the spot and flew at an unsuspecting Ravenclaw across the room! Hopefully it would make contact!

"Sorry but I am about to take out one of your housemates." She grinned over at Leon. 'Puffs were gonna win!

Ohhhh so its a bit like dodgeball then? Kinda? Oh he's so game--

He was just about readying his stance-- because stances are important in dodgeball ok?-- when out of the corner of his eye he saw one of them snowy glitterbombs headed his way. Out goes his Alder wood and a quick "Depulso!" The snowball froze in mid-flight barely a foot from his wand before zipping towards the far wall, exploding in glorious blue glitter.

Ohohohoho now its his turn "Accio!" he aimed at the trunk a few times, catching the snowball with his free hand and started collecting it in a small pile at his feet. He crouched low-- hoping he would even be harder to hit this way-- before banishing one snowball after another at the Slytherins One! Two! Three! Fourrrrr!

Zelena heard the sound of multiple snowballs flying through the air, one heading in her direction. It was the thanks of some Gryffindor and she was going to let him have it. She waited until it was close to arm's length and focused on the Gryffindor boy. Zelena gave a strong sweep of her wand and said in a strong tone, "Depulso!"

She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping the snowball had covered the Gryffindor in blue glitter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Gaston was expecting Miss Umbridge to sass him again, but to his surprise that didn't happen. Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne's pleas for him not to dock points from the girl tore at his heart, but it was too late to take it back now. He knew she was trying to help, but he still thought that was the wrong way to go about it. He gave the boy a small sad smile as he shook his head. "I know, but I'm afraid I can't allow smacking in my class, no matter what the circumstances," he said. He wasn't cross, at least not now; he might've been at the time. He was just sad and conflicted. Had he made the wrong choice in docking points?

The first year still wanted to protest - especially since surely there were SOME circumstances that smacking would be okay (and he was pretty sure he could think of a few off the top of his head) - but that did not stop him from throwing one of THE most disheartening pouts that he could at the professor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

"Now you'll have the chance to practice both of the spells we learned today, but just for reference..." He pointed his wand at the blackboard, and the following words appeared:

The professor turned and aimed his wand at the trunk. The lid opened to reveal the inside full of snowballs. Well, not real snowballs but cotton balls with an engorgement charm placed on the to make them about the size of a softball. "For this exercise, you'll use the summoning charm to make the balls come to you, then use the banishing charm to send them back into the trunk. Repeat this process a few times until you feel comfortable with both spells, and don't worry if your aim is a little off. Just try to get as close tdo the trunk as possible. Let's get started then!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOH! It was going to be like summoning a fluffy white cloud!

Derf actually had a little bit of confidence with the Summoning Charm. It was one that he had actually tried out on his own in his dormroom once or twice with moderate success. It would just be so much easier to just summon things than have to get out of bed for them, you know? He had only broken one three of his jars of dirt in his private practice - and swept some of it under the rugs there because cleaning charms were not so much of a thing yet - so cotton balls shouldn't be tooooo bad...

"Accio cotton ball snowball thing!" he chirped, flourishing his wand appropriately and grinning as one began to move towards him. Not...flying through the air as one would expect...but it did tumble towards him like a pleasant tumbleweed! Once the ball of fluff - which actually reminded him more of an albino pygmy puff now that he had it in his hand - was to him, Derf prepared himself for the whole banishing aspect...

...where things were BOUND to go wrong.

"Depuls-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-sO!"

He knew the moment he had hit that first 's' that this was NOT going to go well...and sure enough...the cotton ball in his hand ignited. Eyes as wide as a mooncalf's Derf dropped the flaming cotton ball to the ground and began stomping on it to put it out.

Er...just...er...gonna...er...try and smudge out that burn mark there in the floor then...er.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

He summoned one of the giant cotton balls to demonstrate and caught it in his awaiting hand. "If you get hit with someone else's snowball, you are out; you're to sit on the benches for the remainder of the game." He gestured toward the benches lining the walls. "Don't worry, they're just cotton balls with an engorgement charm placed on them. They won't hurt you - however, they are charmed to burst into a cloud of glitter upon impact... just so there's no cheating." He sent the ball in his hand flying toward the back of the room, where it burst against the wall and covered the spot in blue glitter.

The professor gave the students a moment to process this information before going on, "There are two ways to block a snowball coming at you. You may either use the Banishing charm to deflect it toward someone else or summon it and try to catch it. What happens if you summon a ball but don't catch it and it hits you?"He summoned another snowball from the trunk but instead of catching this one, he let it keep coming until it burst and covered him in silver glitter. "These balls are charmed to remember the last spell cast upon them. They burst into blue glitter if hit by a banishing charm, silver glitter for a summoning charm. Getting hit with your own ball DOES NOT count as an out; as long as you're not hit with blue glitter you're still n the game! But just to make it easy, remember: Blue is bad, silver's safe."

Did that make sense? Good, moving on... "Your team is your Hogwarts house. The object of the game is to take out as many students from other houses as possible. The house with the fewest number of outs at the end of the game wins 10 points." He clapped his hands. "You may start NOW!"

Oh boy...ooooooooh boy...sooooooooo...basically he was proooooooooobably going to be sending flaming blue cotton balls around the classroom.

No sooner had the first year pointed his wand towards the trunk to do the spell he KNEW he could perform, did he notice a cotton ball coming right towards him. "ACCI-----PULS-SO!" he squeaked, having already been halfway through summoning a cotton ball and then trying to switch mid word. An electric orange looking spell erupted from Derf's wand and launched itself at the incoming cotton ball....and MISSED - which meant it was now heading for someone else (and hopefully wouldn't do anything too terrible if it hit....). SORRY!

Meanwhile, the incoming cotton ball smashed right into the first year's face. Blue glitter went everywhere, including in his mouth and up his nose, and he spent the next few moments just trying to spit out what he could and even went so far as to claw at his tongue with his fingers.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW! And also owie...because there was glitter in his EYES too.

Glitter

How pretty. So this was going to be a colorfulish snowball fight. Noelle could definitely go along with that. She grinned big as she watched the silver and blue glitter start falling around them. She pulled her wand out, competition was a thing.

Noelle giggled. "LETS GO GRYFFINDORS!!" She accioed not one but three snowballs to her. Catching each one and holding them gingerly.

She saw a group (Etta, Juno, Brent) trying to get each other. Seeing how it looked like they might get each other out, Noelle sent a snowball towards Brent, hoping itll hit him. "Depulso??" She watched it sail over towards him.

Noelle saw orange and blinked before narrowly getting out of the way of whatever that was. She looked to where it came from and saw Derf with blue glitter all over him. Poor poppet. She couldn't help but giggle.

Ace was sending snowball after snowball after a group of Slytherins. She grinned at his technique before sending her last snowball over. DEPULSO!"

Oh dang, Tenacius blocked her snowball and sent it back her way!!! Diving off to the side, she moved out of the way just in the knick of time as the snowball collided with the wall behind her, smashing blue glitter everywhere....

Almost distracted by the blue glitter, it was through her periphery that the third year caught another snowball heading her way, "Accio snowball" she cast quickly on the snowball as it continued on its path, to which Skylar extended her hand and reached out to catch it. Upon impact with her hand however, it did smash only this time it was SILVER glitter. Which was GOOD, right!? Close call though, because had she not reacted she'd have been out of the game. Looking to see where the snowball came from, she frowned when she saw it was one of her own housemates. "Oi. Katy! I'm on your team!" Seriously, was she TRYING to make Slytherins lose? Sometimes Sky had to seriously the question the sanity of some of her housemates ...

"Accio snowballs!" Skylar called again, summoning some fresh snowballs to her pile. Truth be told, if she could throw them instead of banish at other houses, it might have been quicker? Maybe. "Depulso!" She cast on one, sending it zooming towards one Juno Darcy. Sorry, not sorry cuz.

Daisy's guess had been right but Professor Marchand just took it one step further. House battle. Oh yes, the Slytherin was very, very up for that. These Hogwarts professorts were mostly hitting the nail in the head. ALSO, it involved GLITTER which was, obviously, one of the seven wonders of the world. Of Daisy Carden's world, at least.

Right. To battle.

She shuffled closer to the group of Slytherins and sent Skylar a wink. YES, they would RULE this game. MWAHAHAHAHA. Before she even had the time to fully stretch her hands, though, glitter was erupting EVERYWHERE in the room. Do. not. get distracted!! Soon enough a snowball was flying towards her and the girl gripped her wand tighter, squinting her eyes amusedly at the Gryffindor that had sent it her way. Aaaah, Noelle. Daisy swept her wand, pointing towards the Gryffindor Prefect. "Depulso!"

And off went the not so little cottonball, sailing towards the fifth year girl.

Honestly, this would be much easier if she could just throw the balls at them.

"Accio."Without waiting much time, Daisy pointed her wand and summoned over three balls, holding them all in the hand that was free. Close ammunition was important, you see? With one ball on her hand, she quickly surveyed the scene .. it wouldn't take a genius to see that the Slytherins were being targeted by the reds. Nope. This would not do. "Depulso!" And another snowball went flying towards the group of Gryffindors.

Eyes widening… Woah!!! This was SOOOO cool! The moment the professor told them that they could start she pulled out her want and spoke her first spell while calling a first snowball toward her. “ACCIO!” She called and her smile widened when the snowball flew toward her, this time she was going to do it good without making any foults! Hah! “DEPULSO!” She called when the snowball was close enough and she sended it flying toward the Gryffindor prefect, Noelle Grace Summers. Please, let it be a hit… she wished silently while ducking away quick to not stand directly into the open, asking to be attacked by others.

Snowball fight based on houses? Ehehe. Let's do this. Olivia readied her wand as she headed towards Noelle and a few of her housemates. Stronger together, right? She saw a ball headed towards her and Noelle and quickly reacted. Think on you feet, she told herself as she readied herself. With a wave of her wand, she called out "Depulso!" and the snowball headed towards the Slytherin group that her fellow housemates had teamed up together against. Whoops! It looked like the snowball was headed straight for Brent. Sorry friend!

Right. Now she needed to find some more ammo.

Hmmm....

There was glitter everywhere. EVERYWHERE. And Carlton was more than excited. He bounced and aimed his wand at a cotton ball. "Accio snowball!" It swooshed towards him and landed in front of him.

Now, who to target? Carlton bounced a little, watching the other students successfully aiming and hitting each other, resulting in bursts of glitter. So exciting. He aimed his wand at his snowball. "De-pul-SO!" Wait... Wasn't it "de-PUL-so"?! His cottonball flew straight towards a group of Slytherins. They were on his own team!! His eyes widened in terror. Hopefully they would be able to deflect it before it covered them in blue glitter. THIS WAS NOT HIS PLAN.

Err...

"Incoming!" Carlton ran after it but there was no way he could catch up with it when it sailed through the air. Instead he felt something hit the back of his head and he spun around, desperately trying to catch sight of the glitter.

"What color is it?! What color is the glitter?!" WHAAAA. He ruffled his hair and blue, sparkly glitter particles began to soar down to the floor.

"Noo...."

Carlton slumped his shoulders and walked with heavy steps to the side of the room. He was out.

Another kind of unorthodox practice, but she had to admit it would make for pretty good reflex training. Just think of it like DADA. At least the glitter colours had been chosen well: bad blue for Ravenclaw and safe silver for Slytherin. Heh.

There wasn't much time to muse on which houses were going to be her allies, though, because pretty soon all of them seemed intent on attacking Slytherin at any cost. There was even some friendly fire- which, hello, was definitely not okay because she wanted them to win this thing. Didn't they have any house pride?

Realising she wasn't going to last long on her own, she ducked her head and nipped over to where the other Slytherins were gathering in a kind of rag-tag group, wondering what best to do. She knew she wasn't going to have the best aim- so maybe her efforts were better directed at defence? She thought she could cast reliably, anyway. Plus, it would be hard to get a clear shot when everyone in the room was kind of taller than her.

She began firing off depulso every time a snowball looked like it was going to hit their group unchecked, without any particular regard for which house they rebounded towards- though it would be pretty good if they could hit somebody else out. Her rhythm was rudely interrupted when she caught a flash of orange light out of the corner of her eye and saw Noelle- a Gryffindor who was actually nice to her, yay- narrowly dodge a volatile-looking spell. Which was now headed straight for her face. UM.

"Protego!" she babbled, without time to think too much about what she was doing. She couldn't help but flinch as the spell struck her shield, and she was apparently right to do so as a wall of fire rippled over its surface. Weirdly enough, the shield seemed to hold, but she could feel the heat from where she was and thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't got burned. And nothing else seemed to have caught fire: a double blessing. Who had cast that, though?!

And to add insult to injury, Noelle had just launched a snowball straight at her. Betrayal, much? It didn't look like it had been that targeted, but shocked as she was, Sinead couldn't move to deflect it and it splattered solidly against her shield, creating a weird sheet of blue glitter in the air which sprinkled to the floor a moment later when the shield dissipated. So. Was she out, then? There was no glitter on her, apart from about two flakes which had landed on her shoe... so she was going to count that as an escape and keep on casting, which she did as the stupid male Gryffindor Prefect sent yet another snowball their way.

Katy grinned at Skylar, all ferocious wolf-girl teeth and wild hair. So what if she was aiming at her housemates? Maybe they all needed a little anarchy. A little every man for himself. A little wild and crazy. Plus Skylar would look pretty with blue glitter in her hair, right? "OOPS." No oops. No regrets.

She wanted to jump right back into the game, in spite of being scolded by Skylar, so Katy flicked her wand in the direction of the nearest discarded snowball glitter!puff. Whoooo should she go after this time? How about precious tiny Derf? He was a cutie pie baby. "DEPULSO." The ball swung through the air in a perfect arc toward the ickle. Quidditch would be more fun with wands. She should tell Henry.

She watched as everyone got ready for the snowball fight and she couldn't help but smile. This was fun, good idea professor. She didn't think he wouldn't have a good idea though, he was a band member and all. So maybe she was a bit biased now that she knew his musical background.

Accioing a snowball to her she looked around. "Oh lions" She grinned as she tried to aim her wand in the right direction. "Depulso" She sent the snowball flying towards them. Accioing another one real quick she again aimed and tried to send it towards the group on the other side.

Gaston would have to be blind not to notice the pout Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne was throwing at him. It broke his heart, but he couldn't back down. That would send the message that he was a pushover. He shook his head, but that look on the boy's face stayed in the back of his mind as he went on with the lesson. He hoped one day the child would forgive him for it... or if nothing else understand why he had to do it.

The lesson was progressing according to plan for the most part until Gaston just happened to look up from this desk just long enough to see a fireball in Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne's hand! The color drained form his face and his bright blue eyes grew wide and panic-stricken. But the panic didn't last long. He was at the boy's side in an instant, wand in hand, but he'd already stomped the fire out. He noticed the burn mark on the floor, but that was the least of his worries right now! "Oh my - are you alright, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne?" he asked, trying to hide the frantic look in his eyes. "You didn't burn yourself, did you?" He didn't even want to think about that... he was sure he'd never forgive himself if a student got hurt on his watch!

It wasn't long after that an odd orange light caught the professor's eye. How had that happened? That wasn't the right color light for either spell... But there wasn't time to think about it now! A wall of fire was headed straight for Miss Dance! His hand trembled sightly as it gripped his wand tighter, and memories came rushing back of a wall of fire just like that one... but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He was jarred into action, but he wasn't fast enough. Luckily, the girl was able to deflect the spell on her own. He shuddered to think what could've happened if...

Gaston turned around and saw a snowball hit Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne right in face and explode into a cloud of blue glitter, and once again he sidled over to the Hufflepuff. The poor thing! That had to be the worst way to get hit... and it looked like he got glitter in his eyes too! "Here, look at me," he said gently, drawing his wand. "I promise it won't hurt you; it'll just get rid of some of that glitter." He waved his wand and made the glitter vanish; he gave the boy a small smile. "I'm afraid this means you're out, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne."

Oh, Merlin! What else could go wrong? He didn't think he wanted to find out! He glanced at his watch and, to his relief, time was almost up. "You have FIFTEEN MINUTES left!" he informed the class.

OOC: There's still a bit of time for this activity. You have ABOUT 20 HOURS.

How mean. Etta quickly deflected the snowball from Brent ( HEY!! She was getting better and better at this ) and EYED him. She had her wand ready, tried to be as mentally alert as possible to make sure there were no snowballs flying towards HER! She didn't want to be out already, okay. Although... she momentarily wondered if SHE had sent the snowball that hit the baby!Hufflepuff. She felt kind of bad, if so. Poor kid. She didn't mean to, okay?? Especially since they were on the same team!

.... Oooooh, she saw Olivia! Etta grinned and used the banishing charm to send a snowball towards her friend. HEHEHEH. This was all fun, anyway! She wouldn't mind, right? Hopefully.