Oh sure they could use a revealing charm but Charlotte tried to think outside the box and not repeat what people had said, because you didn't always have the ability to cast a spell did you?

She put her hand up.

"What if you used the environment? Like if it was a person you could do it by looking for footprints in snow or dirt, or like.... throw water or dirt around because the spell doesn't repel that stuff -they would have to make it substantive and stack other spells in order to have the effect of repelling that sort of thing- so it would stick to the object, so you'd see like... a shimmer from water or smears from dust and dirt and whatnot. Oh or paint! If you had paint. Just because you don't always have access to your wand so...." That would work, right?

Oh that was useful! Being able to accio objects that were camouflaged into their surrondings.

Noelle jotted down the notes as they were put on the blackboard. This lesson was going to be quite useful. Looking up, she watched the professor as he performed the disillushionment charm. So the spells were different from person to object. She underlined that. Her thoughts were going a mile a minute.

Noelle also liked the revelio and what Char was saying. She looked at her friend, nodding along with her. That was a smart answer. "Or what about sending a smoke screen spell at an object you think is hidden and seeing if it shows up as well? Kinda like the smoke moving around the hidden person or object?" She asked, adding onto what Char was saying.

Yes, she wanted to say, please do switch seats, YES. But she didn't, and the boys didn't either, and her chevalier was sat far away (by one person) from her.

Yeeeeeeah, only a topic like this could have made her focus, and she tried her best. She'd already known what was written on the blackboard, though, so she didn't bother copying it. She also didn't answer either, because that was such a straightforward question. She did listen to what Charlotte was saying, though. Well, yeah, but that was highly impractical. You'd have to specifically know where the person would enter from, and actually actively wait for them; because otherwise upon the first step, the disillusioned person would notice the trap, and cover up their traces. Katherine didn't say any of this out loud, though, because she wasn't very much feeling up for a debate. She considered to do it for extra points for half a second, but... Charlotte was mainly addressing the professor, so nah.

Back to looking at her chevalier with juuuust the corner of her eye.

Henry perked up a bit knowing that today's topic would be about the Disillusionment Charm. Now that would be a cool spell to learn and he thought it was kind of an advanced one. He didn't have much to add to the class discussion as the first question seemed very straight-forward and people already answered it. Plus he wasn't feeling all that out-of-the-box thinking just now. He was a little distracted and kept to his notes, though to be fair, it consisted more of doodling than note-taking, even if he did have the relevant information written down.

The second question seemed the same way - straight-forward with the correct answer stated right away. But he looked over at Char as she offered an answer, and he gave her a little smile. Smart. She was really smart. Because what if you couldn't use your wand? Or what about younger years who weren't able to perform a revealing spell yet?

Thinking for a moment, he raised his hand. "Maybe you could also try to focus on your other senses? Like when people lose one, the rest are said to be stronger to make up for it. You could close your eyes for a moment since a person wouldn't be visible anyway and focus on sounds or smells." That is what he thought blind people did anyway. People who were disillusioned might make a noise, unless they were standing really still. But of course you might hear breathing. And people did have certain scents, not just those in need of a shower, such as shampoo or perfume. Those sorts of clues could help, right? At least it wouldn't hurt to be aware. Or you know, feel around for stuff. The sense of touch could be helpful too.

Skylar beamed a little when he said her offered answer was one of the most common uses for the spells. Listening to some of the other reasons offered and then when the Professor went on and asked about finding an object placed under the disillusionment charm, Skylar like the first few students immediately thought of the revelio spell. Ooh, Charlotte had an interesting answer about the environment, which may or may not be affective.

Actually the thing Henry mentioned about using your other senses probably made more sense than the environment, because the environment thing only really worked if one, you knew what to look for, two it was the right conditions, and three, well, something more, no doubt.

Was there something else she could offer to the conversation without being redundant? Perhaps...

"What about, assuming you're able to use magic in the area you are, but what about the summoning charm? Assuming it's an object you're looking for and not a person, because I don't think we can summon people?" She phrased the last bit somewhat hesitantly; COULD they summon people?! LIKE could she summon Noah anytime she needed big brother hugs?

"I was thinking about sounds too, just like him!" The Hufflepuff boy with the nice face. Check them out, being brain twins and all. Great minds, right? "Like you could utilize a spell that causes the person to sneeze if you knew the general area they were hiding in. Oh, or maybe one that makes the air fill with a peppery smell and wait for the sneezing to start. Or coughing. You could do something to cause that, I'm sure."

How to find something that was under the Disillusionment Charm? Rula listened as quite a few others offered their suggestions, some with spells and some with non-magical solutions. All of them sounded pretty good to her too. It seemed like the kind of thing that you could go about doing in a lot of different ways, depending on the situation.

So she raised her hand to offer her own thoughts too. "Maybe you could use Finite Incantatem. Since it gets rid of all the spells and enchantments nearby, it could cancel the Disillusionment Charm on something too, so you'll be able to see it."

Cassie jotted down what was accepted and confirmed by the professor, smiling softly when he remarked in response to her own supplied answer. She was glad that she remembered that spell, hoping the other mentioned counterspell would be worked out later. The Ravenclaw had an idea on what it was but couldn’t be sure. But that was for later. For now, she was listening as Marchand moved them one, explaining the spell and the two different wand movements associated with it. Either twirling your wand tip around yourself or someone else like a rope as you cast for casting on a human or a simple flick when dealing with an object. And the incantation…

…Dissilusiona.

When the topic was changed to how to reveal a suspected object, Cass was about to give what she suspected was the other counterspell but she was beaten to it by an older Slytherin and a Hufflepuff around her age. Oh well. She’d see if ti was right either way. Though she had to admit what Charlotte and the Gryffindor prefect supplied about other ways to show the object by adjusting its surroundings made some sort of sense. Oooo and Finite Incantatem! The fourth year absently tapped her quill on the desk as she tried to think of anything else to add for herself, coming up with nothing new.

Revelio was her choice.

Disillusionment Charms! This was actually a super interesting topic for their lesson today. And... weirdly enough, one that Sinead didn't know all that much about. How had she overlooked that, as something to read about?

She listened intently to her classmates' answers, jotting them down as rough notes before copying up a neat list from what the professor put up on the board. Her immediate thought of an answer to the next question was Homenum Revelio, a pretty useful spell she'd read about the other day. Somebody else said that pretty quickly, though... and she didn't want to just parrot what her classmates had said, so instead she considered what she'd do if she couldn't just cast a spell to find the object, for whatever reason.

"If it's not really invisible, Professor, could you sometimes just see it didn't really match up at the edges of the object? Maybe especially against a complicated pattern- you could look at those places and see if anything doesn't look flat. Because sometimes you might not be able to cast a spell." That seemed pretty reasonable to her- just looking at the cookies, she thought she could make out some kind of ripple in the air. Maybe that was just wishful thinking, though; she certainly hadn't noticed their teacher at the start of the lesson.

There were so many good answers being thrown around that Leon didn't want to repeat any of them! Instead he carefully took down notes of what other people were saying and looked forward to practicing the spell. It was one he knew actually..

Since the seventh year wanted to be an Auror, stealth was a big part of his training.

That thought however made him remember something and he raised his hand. "You could make it rain or snow in the room, that way it should be easy to see the figure or object that is using the spell due to their silhouette being outlined by the weather you created. " After all..

They did know the Rain charm from his class last year!

So this lesson seemed pretty cool. Brent kind of wanted to go hide Easter eggs right now and think of cool ways to camouflage them. The Disillusionment Charm...how would he find an object under the effects of the charm? He looked around as others around him started tossing out their ideas. Some of them even shared what Brent was thinking right about now. He raised his hand before too many other people could say the same thing.

"I'm with the people saying we could cast another spell that would cause something to cover the shape of the object---glitter, confetti, snow, those kinds of things," he said. "They're harmless, but maybe we'd be able to see the shape of the object and pick it out among everything else." Whooooa. Was that what they were going to do with the Easter eggs? If so, that sounded really cool!

Brent grinned and leaned back in his chair. This class was going to be awesome!

Camouflage. Interesting.

Slate raised his hand. "Could you summon it, maybe?" he offered. Mostly because he had an obsession with the summoning charm recently. He didn't actually think it was that easy.

Or maybe it was.

Magic was weird.

"Of can you wash it off with water?" That made sense to him.

It was good to see the boys back in class. Nat had just noticed Henry as she looked up from her notes and left her own thoughts. She couldn't imagine what they went through in that portal and even out now. It was good that they were getting back into classes, hopefully it would help them.

Her eyes went to the professor as he started talking and asked about how to reveal something that was hidden. Well, that was easy, she'd use the revealing charm, but others had already said it so she really didn't see apoint answering again. So instead of answering Nat just listened to everyone else. She thought about the wand movements in making herself invisible. That was where her interest was and she couldn't wait to get started.

"It's okay, I'm okay." All was okay. About the whole PROFESSOR SUDDENLY APPEARING THING. Abey had perhaps just not quite realised exactly how on edge he was right now and so everything was MUCH MORE ALARMING THAN USUAL. But HEY! LOOK! An extra cookie! Abey grinned his thanks at the professor and pretended like he wasn't actually already planning on eating the broke cookie anyway actually. He munched on both as class progressed, not even really looking at the board because it was actually already making his eyes go funny.

... HmMmmmMmmMmMMMMmm... finding an object under the disillusionment charm? Abey supposed all of what everyone else was saying made sense, yes, but right now he couldn't help but think of when he woke sometimes up in the middle of the night and tried to find his wand so he could light it and see where he was, but couldn't actually find it, because dark, and couldn't use Lumos, because wand. There was a very simple method for that situation, and Abey provided it, after his mouth was no longer full of cookie.

"Grab and hope." Meaning, you grabbed at where you thought it was, and hoped it was there. Not unlike this was another of Abey's favourite methods: madly flailing and grasping at everything within arm's reach. He was still working on perfecting it though actually.

Gaston didn't have to wait long for students' hands to go up. Miss Penrose's was the first he saw, and he called on her. Somehow he had an idea it wouldn't take long for someone to mention the counterspell. "Yes! Revelio is the perfect spell to counter a disillusionment charm," he said, beaming back at the girl. "Excellent, Miss Penrose!"

It seemed Miss Kramer had the same idea, and she too got a beam from the professor. "So you agree with Miss Penrose then?" he said. "Very good, Miss Kramer."



Miss Kettleburn took a different route with her answer. Gaston listened carefully to all she had to say, nodding along every so often. He was impressed with her line of thought! "Excellent point, Miss Kettleburn!" he said, smiling at the Gryffindor girl. She was right, sometimes you wouldn't have your wand. "One's environment can be extremely useful in revealing disillusioned objects."



And here was another outside-the-box answer! Gaston smiled, nodding along with Miss Summers's answer. This was the kind of thinking he liked to see from his students. "Yes," he replied. "That's a very good idea, Miss Summers!"

Mr. Kennedy soon said something along the lines as Miss Summers, though he suggested a different type of spell. Gaston was pleased to see he still remembered the lesson on weather charms from last term and beamed at the boy. "Excellent, Mr. Kennedy!" he said.

It seemed great minds thought alike, as Mr. Westwood also suggested using a spell to uncover a hidden object. He had to admit, using glitter or confetti sounded like a fun idea! "Very good, Mr. Westwood," he said. "That would be an effective - and fun - solution."



Gaston nodded in reply to Miss Diggory's answer. The girl was certainly on to something with her idea! "Excellent, Miss Diggory!" he said, smiling at the girl. "And as a matter of fact, you can summon a person... not that I'd advise it, of course." Too dangerous, but it was possible!

It wasn't long before Mr. Ryker echoed Miss Diggory's answer; he too earned a smile from the professor. "Indeed you could use a summoning charm, Mr. Ryker," he said, "but I'm afraid charms don't wash off with water." Though it was still a creative idea!



An eyebrow raised at Miss Botros's answer. Gaston certainly hadn't considered using a sneezing spell to find a person under a disillusionment charm, but he didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work. "Well, that would certainly be an original solution!" he said, beaming at the girl. "Five points to Slytherin for your creative answer, Miss Botros!"



It seemed the other Botros girl had a very different but no less intelligent idea. Gaston nodded and gave her a small smile. "Yes, Miss Botros. That would work, though Revelio would be a more effective option."



Gaston listened carefully to Miss Dance's answer. It seemed a bit far-fetched to him, but it was definitely original and creative, which he appreciated. "I suppose that's entirely possible, Miss Dance," he said, "though the visibility would depend on the caster's skill level." Or lack thereof as the case may be.



Gaston looked out at his class and couldn't help but notice how unusually quiet Miss Holmes, Miss Moss, Miss McNally, and Miss Franks-Mundie were being. Oh well, maybe they were just unsure of an answer or had nothing new to add. At least he hoped that was all it was! He gave the girls an encouraging smile before moving on.



Gaston was beginning to wonder if anyone was going to mention the use of one's other senses when Mr. Whittebrook spoke up. He beamed at the Hufflepuff. "I'm very glad you brought this up, Mr. Whittebrook!" he said. "Focusing one's senses should be the first tool we use to locate something under the disillusionment charm. Before we can cast a spell, we must have a general idea where our target might be." And speaking of focusing one's senses...

Mr. Botros's answer got a slight chuckle from the professor. "Yes, Mr. Botros, that's certainly one way to find a disillusioned object!" he said. Though he wasn't sure how effective randomly grabbing things would be...

Gaston turned to address the class as a whole again. "Very good answers, everbody! You had some creative and original ideas!" He paused a minute to give the students time to focus. "A few of you already mentioned the counterspell we'll be learning today, Revelio."

"The wand movement for this spell is a little more complicated than that of the disillusionment charm itself," he went on. "The wand movement for Revelio is the shape of an eye; I've found it most effective to start at the inner corner of the eye and work out in a clockwise motion." He demonstrated the pattern slowly and carefully before pointing his wand at the plate of cookies. "Revelio!" And the plate instantly reappeared.

"For today's practice, you'll be using both the disillusionment charm and Revelio on the Easter eggs at your desk," he explained. "and no need to worry about losing them! These eggs are bewitched to give off sensory cues while disillusioned. Some will beep; others give off a floral scent." In order to demonstrate he pulled a spare egg from behind his desk and cast a disillusionment charm on it. It beeped incessantly until the spell was cancelled. "And should you need a review..." He flicked his wand, and the following words appeared on the blackboard:

"Repeat both spells until you feel comfortable performing them; I'll give you a few minutes to practice."

OOC: Mini-activity time! There is no minimum post requirement, but you must attempt BOTH spells to get full credit. If you need help or have questions, please indicate in the title of your post. Gaston and I will be checking back in periodically. You have 30-36 HOURS to finish practicing!

Okay. Activity time. Here. We. Go. Okay. Lets see. First spell.
"Disillusiona....disllisiona....' jonas had kept repating that word.

Zelena added the information about the Revealing Charm to her notes.

She decided to practice the Disillusionment Charm first. She had only read about it, not used it in any way so she muttered the incantation a few times under her breath.

" Disillusiona, Disillusiona, Disillusiona."

Zelena then picked up her wand and only did the movement that was for humans. She aimed the wand at a space where nobody was near and twirled it as if she was coiling a rope around someone. She didn't see the point of the other wand movement considering the simplicity of the flick of a wand. Once she felt confident that she had practised the Disillusionment Charm enough, she placed her wand on her desk.

It was then time to practice the Revealing Charm. Zelena muttered the spell under her breath.

"Revelio, Revelio, Revelio."

Zelena picked up her wand and took a slight breath in. This wand movement was one that needed some dedication. She moved the wand in the form of an eye just like Professor Marchand had demonstrated. It took her a couple of attempts but she Zelena felt ready to put both spells to use.

AURORS!

Well...Derf was now sufficiently distracted because he was thinking about Alexa and the time she had taken him to France for dessert on one of their first dates. Then he had proposed to her with a ring pop about a year and a half later and now they were married. Which, of course, somewhere in that overactive imagination that was the first year's brain he knew was all make believe - he would be LUCKY for someone like Alexa to husband him up though! - but it was enough to whisk him off into schoolboy fantasy for...well...most of what the professor was talking about.

"USE A CRUP!" Because they still had a sense of smell and all. "Or niffler if it's for dis-s-silussioned gold and that s-sort of thing..." The first year paused here for a moment because something crossed his mind. Something more than his anxiety about being able to pronounce this particular spell that is. "PROFESSOR?" he pleaded, hand raised up up in the air. "What's-s different wiff this incantation and Dis-sillusio?" Besides the obvious that is. "Is-s-s one more powerful than the other?"

As for the incantation...he was going to practice it meeeeeeeentally.

Disillusiona...Disillusiona...Disillusiona....Disi llusionaDisillusionaDisillusionaDisillusiona!

Zelena moved her basket of eggs closer towards her and flicked her wand as she said, "Disillusiona." The eggs vanished from view as her nostrils were now being permeated with the strong smell of florals. Zelena felt as if she had plunged her head into a cauldron of potpourri. Her nose started twitching and she stifled a sneeze. She needed to reverse the spell as fast as she could.

Zelena aimed her wand where the strong floral smell was the most apparent. She then moved the wand in the form of any eye like she practised as she clearly said, "Revelio!". The floral smell was replaced the welcome sight of the Easter eggs.

The young witch smiled as she quickly grabbed a handkerchief and sneezed into it. The florals had caused her some issues. She politely wiped her nose and then performed a Cleaning charm on the handkerchief which she placed in her pocket.

Etta pushed her hair out of her face impatiently as she finished noting down what the professor said. What the spell again? "Disillusiona." Okay. The pronounciation was simple enough. And the wand movement--- flick of the wand. Right. Again, simple.

Now.. moving on to the other spell. "Revelio." But the wand movement--- UHM. Seemed a bit complicated. She practiced carefully, starting with the inner corner and slowly moving the wand clockwise in the shape of an eye... and Etta repeated it a few times. Great. It was time to properly practice the spells now.

Blah blah blah, theory. Olly just wanted to practice these spells because they were pretty cool. He also thought it was cool that they were charming easter eggs to be invisibile. It would be like an extreme easter egg hunt. No one would ever be able to find the eggs. Or maybe they could, but they'd have to do the spell to do it. Was that what they were going to do after practicing? Have an easter egg hunt?

The first thing he had to do was cast the disillusionment charm to make his eggs invisible. He said the incantation a few times under his breath until he felt comfortable with it. The wand movement was easy. Since it was just an object all he had to do was flick his wand at the egg. He took one of the eggs out of the basket and set it on the desk right in front of him. Olly readied his wand and flicked as he said the incantation. "Disillusiona." The egg became a bit opaque, but it was still visible. Dang. Olly tried again. "Disillusiona." Flick. There, it was invisible now. He smiled, but that smile quickly faded because his egg start emitting an unpleasant high pitched beep. He needed to reveal it stat.

Gaston's bright blue eyes blinked a couple of times in reply to Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne's answer to the previous question... not because what he said was particularly shocking but because he couldn't believe he didn't call on him before moving on to the practice. Ignoring students?! Nice job, professor! he silently berated himself.

He smiled as he turned to the Hufflepuff. "Very good, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne!" he said. "Using a creature would be a fun way to find a disillusioned object."

Gaston returned to his desk, keeping a watchful eye on his class. So far, so good. It wasn't long before he saw Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne's hand go up again. He considered the boy's question for a moment before replying, "That's a very good question, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne!" He was impressed! "Revelio is equal to the disillusionment charm in terms of power, which is why it can cancel the spell." Did that make sense?

OOC: Sorry for the typos!This was a phone post. You still have AT LEAST 17 HOURS to practice.

Henry turned his eyes to the professor again as he demonstrated both spells. They were both really cool ones to learn and he was actually eager to try them out. But first he should probably jot the notes on his parchment. The parchment that was quickly getting covered with doodles he had been subconsciously drawing in the margins since class began.

His eyes caught a glimpse of something that seemed hauntingly familiar and he quickly turned his parchment over to start a new page. He needed to... focus. Henry looked up at the board and wrote down the information before beginning to practice.

Disillusiona... Disillusiona... Henry repeated the incantation in his head a few times before trying it out loud. The wand tap on an object was simple enough. But maybe the twirling around a person would be a little more difficult. The sixteen year old got up from his seat to try twirling the wand around him as if to disillusion himself, which he fully intended to try out at some point. It was kind of an awkward movement but he tried it a few times until he felt more comfortable with it.

"Hey, Char..?" He glanced over at the girl next to him. "Can I try the wand twirling around you?" Might as well know how to disillusion another person too, right? And it would be a somewhat slight different maneuver to twirl the wand around another person as opposed around oneself.

Uh huh, Katherine knew the theory - she'd read the charms textbook with gusto during the summer break. She still listened, though, in case she'd missed something, but she hadn't. GREAT. Now, the next magical word out of the professor's mouth should be 'work in groups'... she waited... waited... waited...

...but it never came...

Every single class ever since she set foot on this castle had required a sort of group activity, but this one. UGH! JUST HER LUCK when she decided to fall in love. She made a face to herself, and got her wand out. She also couldn't help but glance at Samuel, but it was no use. The professor didn't want any new love to bud. Whatever. Maybe, if she quickly did the charm but Samuel failed - but she also didn't want her crush to fail - but I mean, fail just a little to ask for her help...

Anyway, for any of that to happen, she needed to cast it right and well on first try, so she began with the classics: She placed her wand on the table and repeated both of the words "Disillusiona, disillusiona, disillusiona... Revelio, revelio, revelio..." until they felt comfortable. Then, she stuck out her index finger as if it was the wand, and practised the wand movements: She first flicked her wand-finger at the egg (which was easy, so she didn't repeat it again) and then drew a caaaareful eye. Pretty sure by the time she finished drawing the eye, the disillusioned person would be far far away though, so she tried to get faster while occasionally glancing at Samuel. Was he doing good? The moment he said "I need -" she would jump on it. Yeah. Back to the eye, though. She drew another, and another imaginary eye in the air with her finger, and once she felt like she was fast enough, she grabbed her wand.

Intent? Check. Wand movements? Check. Incantation? Check. Samue - wait, no, she couldn't allow him to distract her just now. If he needed help, he'd better hold it for a few more seconds. Alright. She briefly visualised what her egg would look like, then flicked her wand while clearly saying "Disillusiona." The egg... well, while for those who didn't know it was there, it was disillusioned - unless they looked closely. And the egg did reveal a floral scent (good one, thankfully), but Katherine wasn't pleased with her wandwork, so she said "Revelio," while making the eye-shape and her egg was back. Oddly enough, she'd always found the spells undoing another easier, and this was no exception. Maybe it was because that matter wanted to return to its natural state... anyway, she cleared her throat, glanced over Samuel and tried again: "Disillusiona." Her work was better this time, and she grinned to herself. It was juuuuuust distinguishable to her eyes. Great! She didn't quite expect to make it completely invisible, since she was just learning it and was a fourth year. This was the closest she could get. She idly wondered if Hermione Granger could do it on her first go, and peeked at Samuel again. Need help? No? She smelled the flowers again, glared at Oliver's egg (how FITTING was it that his egg was so annoying!?), and clearly said "Revelio." while drawing an eye.

Did Samuel need help?

Make it stop! Olly glanced frantically up at the bored to remember the counterspell. Of course this had to be the one with the more complicated wand movement. An eye shape? He took out his wand and tried it a few times without the incantation. But there was no way to tell if his shape was good enough when he wasn't trying a spell. It would either work or it wouldn't. He might as well just try.

"Revelio." He made the eye shape with his wand over the area where the egg had been, and where the noise was now coming from. He was concentrating really hard because he really wanted to stop. And it did, thank Merlin. Olly sighed with relief and slumped back in his chair. He would not be disillusioning that one again any time soon. But he regarded the other eggs in his basket suspiciously. Would they be just as annoying? The professor had said different eggs had different responses to being invisible, so he hoped he hadn't gotten all annoying ones.