Say whuuuut they're allowed to clone toads? "Quark I can make you a twin!" the Curly Top grinned as he pulled a few duplicating charms over his pet toad. At the start of it most of those just looked like toad ghosties, but after a while he managed to get a few that actually looked like Quark and didn't vanish into thin air.

But NOW they get to catch these toads. Like Bulbasaur and him making like Ash Ketchum! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! He should go start with "Quark!" His own toad was getting away!

"Incarcolvo!" he cast at the toad he thinks is Quark, and the netting sprang out from his wand. "I gotcha hahaha--whu? The toad dissappeared!

Nuts this was gonna be a lot harder than he expected. There were lots of toads hopping around, but he was really just concerned over his own pet. He spotted another toad with familiar markings, sneaking it's way towards the lake. Ok for sure this is Quark. "Incarcolvo!

Nailed it!

He grabbed his pet and added it into the Gryffindor tank. Safe and sound for now at least.

After successfully casting the cage over a toad, and since she still had time to catch more, Skylar set her gaze on more toads that had not yet disappeared or been claimed by another house. Just as she was about to go all stealth on one though, it was snatched up by Henry. Frowning at the older Hufflepuff, she sighed, "Just cause you're older doesn't mean you should get first dibs." Okay, so it probably did. His magic was stronger, after all, wasn't it? And besides, Slytherin's tank still had more toads, so she shouldn't complain.

Nonetheless, the third year wandered off and away in search of more toads .... over to a less crowded area of the room and there was one little guy hiding! "Hi there," she cooed, hoping to coax it into cooperating. "Incarcolvo!" A netted cage sprang from her wand, but the toad didn't seem to want to cooperate as it hopped away just in the nick of time.

"Hey wait. Come back!" Skylar called, treading through the mud puddles after it.

Okay, Brent was officially annoyed. The NERVE of these toads! He had run after three or four of them but not had the first second of luck. What made it worse, the toads seemed to be disappearing right before his very eyes. Once he'd lay his eyes on one, it would disappear before he even had time to point his wand forward.

FREAKIN' TOADS.

Brent was determined to get one, even though it seemed there were very, very few left. He darted off in another direction, having just spotted a group of them ahead. "INCARCOLVO!" he called out, jabbing his wand forward. He held his breath as the mesh net shot from his wand. To his surprise, it engulfed the toad and captured it in a little cage.

"YES!" he cheered.

After a successful first go when it actually counted, Rooney was what would be considered smug. Maybe a little too smug. As he delved back in on the toad hunt, Rooney had his wand at the ready to shoot a net or find another way to grab the toad and boost up the numbers in the Ravenclaw tank. As per usual, they were behind the other overeager students. "Incarcolvo!" He cast at a toad that crossed his path, but as soon as the net was close enough.......the toad was GONE.

And the net had actually ended up around his feet and Rooney went flat down into a nearby puddle.

Bugger.

Oh it was game on.

Noelle kept hearing shouts of glee as several Slytherins got toads and put them in that tank. Nope!

The competitive side of Noelle woke up and despite her mood, she began grinning. Picking up speed, she pointed her wand again at a rather nasty looking toad. "Incarcolvo!!"

She grinned triumphantly as the toad was captured. Taking it, she placed it in the Gryffindor tank.

So the first toad seemed to be a bit easier. She was hoping this one would be easy as well. Watching them hop around Nat walked as close as she could to a few and did the wand movement, "Incarcolvo" The toads scattered and all she got was grass. Well boo on them she scoffed and started to make another move for another toad she had seen jump towards the left.

"Incarcolvo"


The netting came out again and this time it went around the frog. She was going to pick it up when she looked down and it was gone. Where did it go? Ugh she had caught one of the duplicates that decided just at that moment it was going to vanish.


Well played toads, well played.

The female transfiguration professor couldn't help but laugh under her breath as toads began to disappear. It made the activity all the more comical really and by the shouts, running about and she wasn't positive but she thought laughter, the students seemed to be having fun.

With her hand in her hand Camilla aimed it at a toad silently cast, "Incarcolvo," effectively caging the animal. This was done a handful of times as she walked around slouching through the mud.

Would anyone be interested in the help and take one of the now caged toads or would they continue to capture them on their own?

Hmm...what else could the professor do to add to this little game of 'catch me if you can?'


OOC: Professor Stewart has caged 5 toads! Have the students pick one up or ignore them!

Brent was pretty proud of himself now. He had this toad-capturing business down pat! He continued to race around, though, not wanting to miss a single second of capturing a toad. This was kind of like a sport to him, since there really weren't many of those here.

...and now the professor was getting into the game, too! Brent watched as the woman expertly made her way around and captured one toad after another until five were captured. MERLIN! If this was a real game, she just won! "Awesome job, Professor! You giving those away by chance?" he asked. "If so, mind handing one over to Slytherin?"

It was a long shot, but who knew what she was up to.

Juno noticed that a lot of the toads were starting to disappear. This was going to be very interesting. Juno came up on a toad, it hadn't disappeared yet, so hopefully it wouldn't or wasn't going to and was a real toad and not a copy. "Incarvolvo!" She said with a jab at her target. The toad was immediately surrounded but netting that soon turned into a cage. With a WOOT and an air punch, Juno headed off to the Puff house Tank.

One down...a few more to go.

Then she saw that the professor had caught some toads. A younger Slytherin boy took one off of her hands. Juno rushed over to the professor. "Oh, Can Hufflepuff have one too, please?" She asked overhearing the boys question.

She was sure they were up for grabs.

What was this? Camilla had gotten so into toad capturing she had hardly heard the compliment. "Oh, why thank you, Mr Westwood." It was all about the timing and focus really. The more they practiced the better they would get at it. "Be my guest. Anyone else that wants one is welcome to take one. That goes for Hufflepuff as well, Miss Darcy." It was basically first come first serve right now.

She would give everyone a few more minutes before deciding what else should be done.

Rooney Bronwyn was only just getting himself up out of the pool of water when he watched Professor Stewart BOSS a whole handful of toads. "Wickeeeeedddddddddddd." Despite the soaked through clothes he had one, he for SURE squelched his way over there waggling his arms. ME ME ME ME ME.

"ProfeSSAHHHH. Can Ravenclaw have TWO?" You know..Because he had two hands? And it wasn't like she had said there was a limit to one. Because five toads meant that if all houses got one...one house would have to have two. Four tanks, five toads. It made logical sense.

And to make sure that he was potentially going to get his way, he crouched and took one in one hand and tentatively reached for a second.

?????????????/

Junia was muddy and damp and grumpy, but class wasn't over and she had to keep at it despite her current condition. Every step she took made her trainers squish and she belatedly realized she should've made them waterproof before starting this activity. UGH. WHY DID YOU ALWAYS THINK OF THE IMPORTANT STUFF AFTER THE FACT?! All the sighs.

But wait, what was THIS? The professor had caged toads FOR them? Um, YES, THANK YOU!

SQUISH. SQUISH. SQUISH. SQUISH.

"I'll be taking one, too!"

Skylar was roaming around looking for more easy shots and trying to not get discouraged by the dwindling number of toads hopping around, when she caught sight of the professor participating and capturing a handful of toads herself. The third year couldn't help but stare in awe for a moment, before she realized this was her game so obviously she would be able to do the task. But it was just so effortless and

.... she was giving them out?? She noted as Brent and Juno each claimed one, Sky hurried over herself. "Nice job, Professor. Mind if I have another one for Slytherin?" Skylar asked politely as she picked one of the remaining caged toads up from the grassy ground. It want as if she hadn't caught her own, but hey, free toads for her house, how could she resist?

"Cool! Thanks, Professor!" he said with a grin. He collected one of the toads, while also fighting off the urge to literally collect all five. He didn't think the professor would have so nice of a response that time. Better stay on her good side! Brent ventured off again, still in awe of how many toads were disappearing. Seriously, though. They were either capturing them at a really fast rate, or the toads were literally vanishing.

Spotting another small group of toads, Brent hurried over to them and jabbed his wand forward. "INCARCOLVO!" he said. The mesh net dashed from his wand and surrounded a toad. He was getting really good at this, but at the rate the toads were disappearing, there would seriously be none left to catch soon.

Eventually...yeah. Derf was QUITE keen on learning this particular spell...but considering he had yet to perform it properly on his own textbook he was not too interested in experimenting now that they were on to the main activity. He was quite good at catching them with his bare hands...so that was what he would do. He was not about to risk the life of a living creature for the sake of his own magical advancement, it just was not worth it!

So while the professor was using a charm - Derf had really rather been hoping they were going to learn a spell to turn mud balls or rocks into toads because THAT would have been neat - the first year made his way over to a patch of dirt and removed his wand. "Aguamenti," he whispered, making it rain lightly over the ground in hopes of luring some worms to the surface for bait.

Why DID worms do that? It was one of life's great mysteries still. It was essential that worms live in a moist environment...but that did not really explain MUCH. He was personally team migration purposes when it came to the subject, however.

Grinning eagerly as a few popped their head out of the moist soil, Derf plucked them from the dirt and clutched them in his hand - he rather enjoyed the wiggly feeling of them against his palm. Oops...he had missed the chance to nab a free caged toad from the professor...oh well...he could still manage to catch SOMETHING with the worms in his hands, surely.

Finding a spot a bit away from all the chaos, but still very much within hopping distance, Derf squatted down and held his hands palms up and open against the ground with the worms wiggling about. Staying veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery still..he waited...

Here toady toady toady...

After that trick that the toad pulled vanishing Natalia was determined not to be caught off guard again. She was going to make sure it was a real toad this time even if she didn't know how to truly make sure it was a real toad. She walked around watching the professor a bit. That was nice of her to cage some toads for students.

Her eyes caught one hoping away alone and Nat just watched it. Rea or not real? She crept closer as it stopped and stood still. Are you a real toad? She was going to have to watch it a little longer, but then she didn't want someone else to take it. So doing the wand movement she did a nonverbal Incarvolvo. The net came out and caged the toad.

Score a real one!

She went and placed it in the tank with the others.

Leon looked over at the Professor as she gave out toads.. But he was too late to get over there sadly.. so it looked as though he would have to do his own toad hunting..

The seventh year started to looked around to see if there were any toads near him, but sadly it didn't seem like there were at all. He started to slowly look around the swampy area, he moved his foot around the puddles and pushed through the grass, hoping his movements would disturb a toad and send it hopping..

No luck..

Were they all gone?

Leon sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair.. he had only gotten two for his team.. surely he should have been able to catch more, yeah? He started to walk towards the Ravenclaw tank and lo and behold..

There was a toad hopping just behind it!

Haha!!

"Incarcolvo! " He said as the net sprang forth and caught the little guy in a cage! He picked it up and put it in the Ravenclaw cage..

There.. not to shabby..

"Thank you, Professor!" Juno called out as she took off with a toad to the Puff tank. She quickly put it safely inside of the tank, hoping to find at least one more hopping freely.

Juno moved around, stamping in puddles hoping to get a toad to hop out. It seemed as though all the toads were gone. And then she heard a croak. She turned around looking down at her feet, and sure enough there it was, hanging out on a lily pad.

"Incarcolvo!" Juno called out and jabbed her wand at the toad. Instantly, netting flew from her wand and wrapped itself around the toad, then turned into a cage. She quickly picked it up and ran to the Puff tank, placing it inside.

Could she get another one??

Ah, so this was where the messiness was going to happen. Made sense.

Rula gathered her things and the mat and set them to the side as instructed, then she turned around...and watched, looking for an unsuspecting toad to catch.

Like that one over by that mud puddle.

She crept over there carefully, trying not to scare it. It seemed pretty content, or just oblivious, because it didn't move an inch. And finally, once she was close enough... "Incarcolvo!"

There. That was easy. The toad was trapped in the net, which then turned into a cage-

And the toad disappeared.

Oh. Well. Crud.

"Finite." The cage disappeared, and Rula searched around for another target. Hopefully a real toad this time.

Brent was probably loving this a little too much. He was still attributing it to the lack of sports at this school. Call it the athlete in him, but he was loving the thrill of the chase and the competition to see which house can get the most toads.

Speaking of which, he saw a few toads up ahead that were literally just begging to be caught! Actually...not really begging, but they were out in the open and just sitting there, so he saw that as begging. Heh. Brent stormed forward. His pointed wand actually startling a few of the toads, but he didn't care. He just needed to capture one!

He gained in on them and eyed the one he wanted to capture. It was HIS, he only had to cast and cage. When he got close enough, he jabbed forward. "IN-...." Wait, what? He paused and just blinked. The toad...had disappeared... before his very eyes.

WHUUUUT.

Juno searched, searched, searched but could not find another toad. All the duplicates seemed to have disappeared and all the real toads seemed to be caught.

Juno decided to head back towards the professor. On her walk back, she stepped into a particularly muddy puddle, and out popped a toad. She gasped, and without thinking, quickly sent a non-verbal 'Incarcolvo' at the toad. The netting automatically shot out and caught the toad before it hit the ground, turning into a cage.

Juno squealed with delight, but when she went to grab the cage...the toad was gone. She sighed and stamped her foot with anger. "Finite." She said frustratedly, waving her wand. The cage disappeared, and she continued to head towards the rest of the class.

Stupid disappearing toads!

Stepping around the mud as much as she could, Rula looked around for another toad, but either they were really good at hiding, or most of the toads had been caught or had disappeared. Either way, she was having trouble finding any, and that was sad. Had she really missed out on all of them or-

Aha! One hopped out of the tall grass over there.

"Incarcolvo!" The net shot out of her wand - and the toad hopped away just in time. And continued hopping.

"Hey! Get back here!" She walked quickly after it, trying to aim her wand at it, but with the constant hopping, it was difficult. And with her focus on her wand, she stumbled a bit when her foot slid in a mud puddle, splashing mud all over her leg.

Merlin. Sure, she was wearing clothes that she didn't mind getting dirty, but that still didn't mean getting dirty was a lot of fun. Plus, now that toad had gotten away, probably hiding somewhere again.

She'd find it though, somehow. She was determined.

Ah, see free cages toads always did the trick. It had barely taken a moment before the students realized what Camilla was doing and came over. "Be my guest and take them! If there's a toad in a cage created either by yourself or me then you may take!" Hopefully everyone had clearly heard that statement. Just so no one was taking the toads from anyone else she was perfectly fine with helping everyone out. There was just one other thing that needed to be told right now...

"There's only five more minutes left to the activity everyone! You're all doing amazing let's see how many more toads we all can capture!" The time sure did fly by when one was running around through the mud and grass capturing toads.

"This will be the last time I'll be doing this before the end of the activity!," Professor Stewart called out once more just in case anyone wanted a caged toad. Continuing on her path around the area she jabbed her wand in the direction of a toad that was sitting on a lily pad in a small area of water, "Incarcolvo!." This was done just like before capturing a few toads....they were getting harder and fewer in between to find now.

Camilla smiled as she came around to where Derfael was collecting...worms? Alright then. However he wanted to do this activity was alright with her. "Mr Ashburry-Hawthorne, would you like to work alongside me and try out the spell again?" It was simply an offer if the boy wanted to take her up on it was completely up to him.


OOC: OMG! You are all amazing and these posts are so much fun to read! As Cami said there is only 5 minutes left to this activity! The activity will finish in about 6ish hours!

Who'd ever thought toad chasing can take a lot outta ya eh?

Maybe when he was 5 years old he can do this all day-- which he did once upon a time, but now he can already feel the weariness of chasing slimy amphibians through the muck and the detritus.

"Incarcolvo!" he whipped the spell at the rocks just outlining the shore. Out sprang the netting. Did he catch it???

Apparently not, because a second later he saw the toad hopping away!

"Hey come back here!" he called out, giving chase to the croaker. "Incarcolvo! Incarcolvo!" He was tossing out the spell in almost every beat of the toad's hopping. But this was a wily one and it dodged his nets at every turn.

He stopped to catch his breath. He had to be smart about this. The more he gives chase the faster these toads move. They knew he was coming after them. So what if.... they didnt know?

He straightened up and looked around. It was chaotic around here, what with everybody trying to catch 'em all. So he walked around, tiptoeing mostly peeking around corners and hidden niches, being as sneaky as these slimy hoppers--

-- oh look theres one over there!

The Curly Top crept around, pretty much from behind the small crevice by the tree. He cant see now, but if he aimed right this croaker wont have anywhere to hop to--

"--Incarcolvo!"

BAM! Got one finally! "Into the tank you go!"

It wasn't that Charlotte hadn't been paying attention, okay? She had SOME idea of what was going on, because as everyone knew, she was definitely into the really active types of lessons like this one. It was just that she'd gotten behind before because of toad gazing and now she was just taking a moment to actually practice the spell. Conjuring wasn't all that simple for her, even if she'd improved greatly via dueling. It usually took a few goes.

"Incarcolvo. Incarcolvo. Incarcolvo!" It didn't exactly flow off the tongue, did it? At any rate, with a jab of her wand she put some intent behind it. "Incarcolvo!" And sure enough a net-like thing sprung from her wand..... only.... it didn't form into a cage. Just stayed a droopy net. Well. She vanished that one and started over, still not casting on a toad though. "Incarcolvo!" She pictured it going from net to cage, and this time it absolutely worked. Great!

So where was this game thing going? Who was winning? Didn't matter! Gryffindor time! RAWR.

Charlotte darted into the fray. There were far less toads now, which was fine by her, made it more of a challenge! THERE WAS ONE. She DIVED across the mucky grass, pointing her wand as the toad tried to spring away.

"Incarcolvo!" She shouted with determination. The net sprung out..... right into the toad's trajectory... and.... CAUGHT. CAGED. TOAD IN A CAGE.

.... and MUD ON HER FACE! Char didn't care though. She got up, fetched the cage, and ran over to the Gryffindor tank, emptying the toad into the tank and then banishing the cage.

Okay. NEXT!