Seems everyone answered the same, hmm. Yes, stitches. No brainer. He raised his hand to give another answer instead, "They are all novelty items?" Nathan shrugged. Hey....the professor asked them about what those objects were in common, right? One would probably think they had some value in them. Who else would keep a Frankenstein mask? So yeah. "Are we sewing Halloween costumes or something?" he asked, his face incredulous. He hopes not. Nathan didn't sign up for home economics class. Lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

There.. Was that everybody? Gaston hoped so, as he couldn’t delay the start of class any longer! Without any further hesitation, he aimed his wand at the door, and it shut with a quiet click. He took his place at the front of the room and waited a moment or two for the chatter to stop before he began, ”Good morning, class – and happy almost-Halloween! I’m sure most of you are probably wondering what’s inside this bowl; now I can tell you these are prizes…” He reached into the bowl and pulled out a small orange pumpkin-shaped vial. “…pumpkin-scented ink, to be exact. You can earn these for things like good behavior, creativity, and participation. By the end of the class, everybody will get one.”

He paused a moment, then turned his attention to the items on his desk. “As you can see, here we have an embroidered pillow, the Frankenstein monster, and a baseball. Now who can tell me what these three things have in common?” he asked. “The answer will provide an important clue to the subject of today’s lesson.”

Rhea hadn't been wondering what was in the bowl, actually, but now she was vaguely interested. Something about pumpkin-scented ink piqued her interest. Though she didn't care much for the vial, so she'd probably switch that vial out for another one.

Finally, the Ravenclaw turned her attention to the items on the desk. It was obvious, at least to anyone with eyes, what the three items had in common. Embroidered pillow, obvious stitches on the face of Frankenstein's monster, and baseballs, too, had stitching along the seams. Rhea raised her hand. "They all have a degree of sewing involved in making them." Some more than others.

Text Cut: ”Celandine”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

ZOMG Cela had missed being in this particular classroom. Charms had ALWAYS been a favourite class of hers! She waved happily at her children, and their friends, and her niece, and also at basically every curious or smiling face that happened to look her way, and also the professor, who she also smiled at reassuringly. She knew that the man was the nervous sort so hopefully he wouldn't be worried about her presence!

With the lesson not quite having started yet, she got her quill and paper ready, just as she once had as an eager Ravenclaw student, but now it wasn't to learn, it was to assess. She took note of the layout of the classroom, how the students greeted the professor, and generally tried to get an idea of how eager the kids were for the class or not -you could tell a lot about a professor by how keen kids were from the beginning- and examined the items on the desk. Interesting! She wasn't so sure about the refreshment table though? Was that normal?

Cel took on the chin the fact that her darling eldest clearly didn't want anything to do with her (she would absolutely accost Charlotte with a cuddle after she was done here! If Charlotte thought otherwise she was miiiistaken! Cela was pretty sure that Callum and Chloe would both willingly accept mum hugs though!)

And.... the lesson began! How exciting! Expectantly, Celandine set her quill to note taking, and listened as the professor offered scented ink as prizes. Hmm. Was it a prize if everyone was going to get one? Oh and the kids were answering now, including her own Charbear. SO PROUD. But AHEM. She had a job to do, and it was easy to turn her attention to the task at hand.
Learning was SO exciting, wasn't it?

The moment Gaston saw the woman from the Board of Governors, all the color drained from his face, and his body went rigid, as if he’d just been hit with a full body bind. He recognized her immediately as Mrs. Kettleburn. While his last encounter with her a couple of terms ago hadn’t been unpleasant, this whole audit business set his teeth on edge. She was going to find fault with him somehow; it was just a matter of time. He suddenly felt like a mouse trapped in a nest of vipers, just waiting for the inevitable strike to come!

His panic-stricken eyes darted around the room, searching for anything that might be used against him. What if she didn’t like the decorations? Or the refreshments? What if she didn’t think he should be offering prizes? So many things could go wrong! It was taking every bit of resolve he had not to cancel this class and run, but he knew that would reflect badly on him and he was not about to hand her a reason to criticize him!

He took a deep breath and forced himself to move; he returned Mrs. Kettleburn’s wave and smile with a polite nod and a slightly forced smile of his own. Should he offer her a refreshment? Would she find that unprofessional? Or would she find it rude if he didn’t? His eyes momentarily flicked toward the table, as if to say, help yourself. Then he turned his attention back to his students. At least they were answering now; that made it a bit easier to distract himself from his fear of getting ripped apart in this assessment.

Text Cut: ”Daisy, Etta, Shay, Cassie, Katy, Scarlet, Miranda, Charlotte, and Rhea”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ginevra

The pumpkin-shaped vials looked very adorable. Daisy needed some more ink and the scent of pumpkins made her think of Autumn and Halloween which are her favourite season and holiday, respectively. She raised her hand quickly at Professor Marchand's question. "Each object contains stitches." She was just going by what she could see.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady of Light

Ooooh, prizes! That’s interesting. Pumpkin-scented ink that too! Etta was excited to get one, honestly. She paused for a moment as she eyed the three objects that sat on the professor’s desk. What did they have in common, hmm? The girl absently tapped her fingers against the edge of her desk for a little while before putting her hand up to answer.

“Uh.. I’m not sure professor? Stitches, I suppose.” She didn’t see anything else in common. Also.. she was distracted and confused. What costume was she going to wear for Halloween?! That was her main worry at the moment. She barely had time, yeah?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

Shay was just finishing her cookies when class was called to order. She snapped to attention, quill in hand and was ready to go. But first, a bit of good news. They would be getting prizes today. Shay was pretty self motivated, but she would never turn down a prize 'cause........free swag.

Soon enough, the first question the day was presented. And as soon as she thought of her answer, someone beat her to the punch. Man, she really needed to work on getting her hand up quicker. Raising her hand into the air, Shay prepared to add to what had already been said.

"I agree. All of those things have stitches. So they must all require some type of sewing, whether it's by hand or by machine." Were they going to learn a sewing charm?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holmesian Feline

Cass was all set for the latest charms lesson, smiling as her greeting was returned by the professor. Her quill absently in hand, the Ravenclaw listened as Marchand spoke, bringing the class to the start. Pumpkin-scented ink…quite interesting that. She looked to the three objects once more, the ones she had vaguely noticed upon entering the classroom and getting settled in her seat. Then it clicked…the thing all three of them had in common. Cass raised her hand to wait to be acknowledged before speaking out her answer.

“They all have stitches.”

The embroidery…the medical stitches piecing the monster together…and the red stitches along the baseball.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Stitches. Yup. Katy was absolutely on board with that answer, and she didn't feel the need to agree with everyone who had already spoken. Not only was it a waste of breath, but she was far too busy staring at the Head Girl's... erm... head, actually. Like the girl normally had this moody-girl vibe thing going on, which, respect if that was her thing. And today she was bright pink. Pinker than any color Katy had ever dyed her own blond tresses.

It made her eyes burn, and she had to look away. AND OH! OH HAI AUNTIE! Katy wiggled right out of her chair and waved excitedly at the older woman. If she'd seen her earlier, she would have plunked in right beside her and given her a huuuuug. "Hi, Aunt Cela." She'd be quiet starting... now.

Attention back on the professor. "Yeah... stitches, sir. Absolutely. Sewing charms, perhaps?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

It was sooo hard for Scarlett to concentrate in this class. She couldn't help it, though - Marchand was just SOOOOOOOO pretty. This wouldn't be the first time she had gotten a late start on note taking because she was too busy looking at his rugged good looks instead of scribbling notes on her parchment like a good student. Whoops.

Once she snapped out of it, she raised her hand and smiled at him. "They all have stitches of some sort!" she exclaimed. Although, if they were stitching together SKIN, like in the case of Frankenstein - she was out. Nope. Not doing it. Gross.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devina Wellheart

Well.. That was an easy enough question now wasn't it?..The three things that the professor had up on his desk were easy enough to discern.So... Up went Miranda's hand like a shot.After waiting to be called on she answered, " Professor.. They all have stitches holding them together...
"

Oh how she hoped they were going to learn a sewing charm.. That would be fun and also pretty useful to know in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Charlotte hadn't greeted the professor in her normal cheery way, because she'd bounced into the classroom only to see her mother sitting up the back in the corner looking excited to be in a classroom again. Like, Char KNEW her mum was on the Board of Governors KNEW it? BUT she had always been able to completely ignore it until right now. Her eyes had gone wide as her mum had waved and blown kisses at her (SO EMBARASSING??) and then PATTED THE SEAT next to her in invitation.

NO WAY. NOPE. Sorry MUM you're on your OWN. Char had instead sat down at the first empty seat she could find and slunk down, too preoccupied to greet Professor Marchand.

But when he started the class she fixed her attention on him as best she could and tried to pretend her mum wasn't there.

"I agree with Daisy." Charlotte spoke up, hand in the air. "They all three have stitching, even if its different kinds of stitching."

Quote:

Originally Posted by natekka

Rhea hadn't been wondering what was in the bowl, actually, but now she was vaguely interested. Something about pumpkin-scented ink piqued her interest. Though she didn't care much for the vial, so she'd probably switch that vial out for another one.

Finally, the Ravenclaw turned her attention to the items on the desk. It was obvious, at least to anyone with eyes, what the three items had in common. Embroidered pillow, obvious stitches on the face of Frankenstein's monster, and baseballs, too, had stitching along the seams. Rhea raised her hand. "They all have a degree of sewing involved in making them." Some more than others.

It didn’t take long for someone to correctly guess where this was going. Gaston nodded, beaming at Miss Swann as she answered. “Yes! Indeed they do,” he said. “Very good, Miss Swann.” With a swish and flick of his wand, he levitated a vial of ink onto her desk.

Miss Kramer didn’t seem quite as confident about her answer as Miss Swann had but arrived at the correct one nonetheless. “Then you supposed correctly, Miss Kramer. Well done!” And another vial of ink sailed through the air and landed neatly on her desk.

Here was someone else with the answer he was looking for! Gaston smiled as he sent another orange vial toward Miss Morrison. “Correct, Miss Morrison,” he said.

It seemed stitches were the most popular answer so far! Another smile and nod from the professor, this time for Miss McNally, and another vial floated across the room. “Very good, Miss McNally,” he replied.

“Stitches” was clearly the most popular answer so far! Gaston smiled at Miss Toussaint as she too guessed the answer he was looking for, but his smile grew even bigger as she also mentioned sewing charms. “Yes, that’s exactly what we’re doing today!” he said, levitating a vial onto the girl’s desk. “Nicely done, Miss Toussaint.”

Gaston half-expected Miss Reynolds not to answer; maybe he was just imagining it, but the girl seemed a bit distracted. Nonetheless, he was pleased when she spoke up and offered the correct answer. “Yes! Correct, Miss Reynolds,” he said, returning her smile as he levitated a vial toward her.

Most of the students were correctly guessing the answer, which Gaston was very pleased to hear. Another vial floated across the room and landed on Miss Blaze’s desk, and he smiled at her. “Very good, Miss Blaze,” he said.

Gaston was suddenly reminded of his unexpected visitor’s presence when Miss Kettleburn spoke up. He would be taking extra care to be nice to her today – well, he tried to be nice anyway, but he didn’t want to make her mother angry! He smiled, nodding as she mentioned the stitches, and that smile turned into a beam when she brought up different kinds of stitches. “Very good, Miss Kettleburn,” he said, levitating a vial onto her desk. “That’s an important point you made about different kinds of stitches; we’ll come back to that in just a moment.”

And another student who thought sittching was the way to go. Gaston nodded, smiling as he sent a vial of ink toward Miss Durant. "Indeed they do, Miss Durant," he said.

Text Cut: ”Ava”

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

The charms professor got a smile from her. It seemed like Healer Reed didn't tell him about what had happened to her because as her head of house, he didn't ask anything about it and honestly Ava was glad that he didn't know about it. Professor Marchand was known to be a little bit dramatic when it comes to his students and she didn't need his worries.

Anyway, back to the lesson. A pumpkin-scented ink? Well, that was nice but she would prefer a vanilla ones if the Charms professor had one. Biting her quill, the Gryffindor listened to his question and paid attention more to the three things that he had talked about: a pillow, mask, and baseball. Well, these three things doesn't exactly had things in common except... "I think... three of those are handmade, sir." Ava said as she put her hand up in the air.

Well, this was a different answer! Gaston smiled and nodded. “Not necessarily what I was thinking, but that’s true, Miss Burton,” he said. “Kudos on thinking outside the box!” Now he was conflicted. Any other time, he would’ve given her the vial of ink, despite her answer not being the one he was looking for, as a reward for participation and creative thinking, but there was just too much potential for it to reflect badly on him. It wasn’t a risk he was willing to take. I’m sorry, Ava, he thought. I promise you’ll get one later on!

Text Cut: ”Hattie”

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

Oooh. Ink? They were going to get ink? Now it was no secret that Hattie adored ink. If she could spend all of her money in the ink shop then she would. But she needed to stop thinking about ink and get her mind back onto charms. She tilted her head as she thought about the question. She really had no idea how any of the three object had to do with charms, or any magic at all. But she still thought. She needed to have a think about the question. She didn't want to repeat what her class mates said, because that would just not be good at all.

She hummed to herself a little before she put her hand up into the air. "Kind of carrying on from what Ava and Daisy said, I guess they take hard work to make? So take some effort" Which could relate to charms, since they required effort too.

And here was another new answer. “Yes, I’d say these things take quite a bit of hard work and effort to make,” he replied, smiling at Miss Paton. Oh, if only he could give her a prize for that answer! He was beginning to regret offering prizes…

Text Cut: ”Skylar & Remy”

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

And just behind her, Hattie had taken the seat next to her, which Skylar had to admit befuddled her mostly because she wasn't sure that Hattie had been as keen on charms as she was? But she was grateful nonetheless for her presence and a grin showed it.

They had made it just in the knick of time though, as the door closed and Professor Marchand was beginning with assuring them that he had prizes. For everyone. Yes, she adored the man, but prizes for everyone? Wasn't really a prize. Also, there was a familiar blond in the back of the head and yes she'd seen the way she looked and blew kisses at Charlotte. Which was then that it struck her that there was a board member present again, which just so happened to be Charlotte's mother. Who had just so happened to be at Hogwarts with her own parents, even though her parents were a few years older. Enough contemplating about Charlotte's mom though, because there was a lesson to focus on.

And it seemed they were talking about three objects and what they had in common. Yes, stitches, as half the class admitted to, which was something rather obvious. But if one were to delve deeper, then there were more similarities. "All three objects are stuffed with something too." The something was different for each of them, but the point was that none of the objects were hollow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormdancer

The grin grew wider as Professor Marchand smiled with him. ”Sure am… Going to be mirror’ing with my siblings - they are excited for Halloween as always.” He chuckled and grinned as he found his seat. ”Likely wishing they could have more sweets than my parents will allow them to have.”

Chuckling still, he started to write a few bullet point notes in his note pad as the class started to give answers on what they had in common. ”I agree with Skylar, something about the stuffing? Or that objects are more than what they seem to be?” They were all stuffed in a variety of ways, and in a different density… but he also agreed with those who said it was something to do with their stitching… After all the Monster had been pieced together - ”Oh! Actually… Is it something to do with the fact they are pieced together?” Potentially that was just another way of saying they were stitched together - but eh. You know.

Gaston’s eyes widened slightly at Miss Diggory’s answer. Of course, he knew the three objects weren’t hollow, but he hadn’t been actively thinking about that fact until just now. “That’s a very good point, Miss Diggory,” he said, beaming. It was getting harder and harder to deny students prizes, but as impressed as he was with her answer, he simply could not give it to her (at least, not with someone from the Board of Governors scrutinizing his every move) because she hadn’t referenced the stitching.

Then Mr. Edwards offered an answer along the same lines, and Gaston nodded. “Very good, Mr. Edwards,” he said. The next part of the boy’s answer made him stop and think for a moment. “That could be true too. Is there a specific way you think these things are more than they seem?” Did he just make himself look inept by asking Mr. Edwards to elaborate on his answer? He hoped not!

Text Cut: ”Zoryn”

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Zoryn looked at the three objects with utter confusion. What did any of them have to do with anything???? Zoryn was not a fan. Plus her attention was really on all the hanging bats and jack-o-lanterns. But anyways, most people had the same answer and Zoryn Amari Spinnet wasn't a copy kneazle (a point she made to Derf and now HAD to hold herself true to).

So raising her hand, the Gryffindor tried to offer up an original thought MHM, "Maybe the monster dreams about baseball." Hence the pillow. The baseball. And the photo of the monster. ~~~~ CONNECTIONS ~~~

VERY intelligent answer tbh. Zoryn was quite proud of herself. And with that, she wiggled her bum a little bit to get all nice and proper comfortable in her seat. She didn't care for the smelly ink either, tbh. How come he wasn't giving away Halloween candy? Come on Professor, get with the program!!!

Now, this answer made Gaston laugh out loud! Leave it to Zoryn Spinnet to lighten the mood! The thought crossed his mind to award her house points for diffusing a tense situation, but somehow he didn’t think that would go over well. “It would be funny if he did! Who knows? Maybe he does,” he said. As far as he was concerned, that answer definitely deserved a reward for creativity! But he doubted his guest from the Board of Governors would feel the same way, so he refrained.

Text Cut: ”Emmeline”

Quote:

Originally Posted by NifflerFan

So there was a strange adult in this class, too. Emmeline slunk lower in her seat as she watched the older witch come in and her eyes followed the woman's path through the classroom until she'd marked where the witch sat down in the back. Her exact seat, actually. But then something happened that put the second year almost completely at ease with the strange woman's presence -- she blew a kiss to Miss Charlotte. And Miss Charlotte looked embarrassed, but not nervous or scared. Emmeline liked and trusted Miss Charlotte LOADS, so the older lioness's reaction to the older witch calmed her down considerably. In fact, she was even able to sit up right in her seat and pay attention to what Professor Marchand was saying. The older witch in the back clearly wasn't a High Level Threat, nope.

Emmeline softly drummed her finger tips on the desk in front of her as she tried to find a connection between the objects that wasn't what everyone else had already said. Zoryn had a cool theory, but unless they were learning a dreaming charm or something, Emmeline thought the lesson was probably more about stitches or sewing or something. The second year eventually raised her hand and added, "For allll three things, the stitches are the ONLY things holding them together. Like keeping them from falling apart and DYING and stuff." She knew how that felt sometimes -- like she was only being held together by threads and stuff. She hadn't felt that way much since she'd come to Hogwarts, thank Merlin, but she still remembered the desperate feeling.

Miss Sparkes seemed to calm down a bit once class started, which Gaston was relieved to see. Seeing his students sad or scared never ceased to affect him… probably a lot more than it should, but there was no changing that now. Her answer incorporated the stitching aspect, but she also managed to put her own spin on it. He beamed as he listened. “That’s true,” he said, sending a vial of ink floating toward her. That was fair, wasn’t it? He had mentioned stitching, after all. “Good point, Miss Sparkes.”

Text Cut: ”Maddie”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

OH MY GOSH, WHUTTTTT.

Pumpkin scented ink?! Maddie got so excited that she had to briefly stand up, squirm, and then sit back down. Coolest prize EVERRRR. She tried her best to get comfortable in her seat again before looking back toward the items on the desk. Hmm...what did they all have in common? Somebody beat her to the punch and said something about stitches, but Maddie wanted to come up with something a little different. Hmm...a pillow, Frankenstein, and a baseball.

Ohhh, she knew! She knew!

Maddie raised her hand high in the air. "They would all have super huge holes in them if you didn't charm them together!" she said. That Frankenstein looked like he'd been dead a hundred years. She didn't even want to think about what he'd look like without all those stitches.

Miss Kemp’s reaction to the news of scented ink made Gaston smile, though he was a bit surprised when she stood up. He was going to ask her to sit back down, but she did befoe he had the chance. Here was an interesting answer! Gaston thought for a moment. Miss Kemp was certainly on the right track, but he wasn’t sure “huge holes” was an entirely accurate description… more likely they would just fall apart if they weren’t held together with stitches. “That’s a very good guess, Miss Kemp,” he said. “I don’t know about holes, but the objects would certainly fall apart without some means, magical or otherwise, of piecing them together.” Did that make sense?

Text Cut: ”the quiet ones”

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermygirl

Sam returned the smile and wave to Maisie, the awesome Ravenclaw firstie, before turning her attention to Professor Marchand for the start of class. Apparently her curiosity with the objects was warranted, since that's exactly what the first question of class was about.

Except she had no idea what linked them. A cushion, a picture of Frankenstein's monster and a ball. A hard ball, by the looks of it, oblivious to what baseball referred to, despite he previous term's visitors. All she knew was that it was the wrong shape and colour for a cricket ball. Was the picture on the cushion relevant? Or was just because it was soft and fluffy for stuffing up a top as part of a Hallowe'en costume? Lots of thoughts, none particularly useful, as far as she could tell.

Others were were mentioning stitching though, and once they'd said it, it totally seemed like the sensible answer. So...nothing to add here, nope.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Settling into his seat, Derf couldn't help but smile when Stasya joined him WITH treats. "You know I can't REALLY say no when you offer," he teased with a bit of an impish grin as he gladly took a cookie from the Gryffindor. "Thanks."

Pumpkin scented ink? WHICH kind of pumpkin? Cause like...raw pumpkin smelled loads different than pumpkin pie pumpkin, you know? Did it taste like pumpkin too? All questions the Hufflepuff would have answers to soon enough since the professor had assured them all they would be leaving the classroom with a bottle. It was a pleasant thought of sorts to have while he nibbled on the cookie from Stasya.

Stitches was the obvious answer to be sure, but the third year's stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch thinking about sewing up SKIN like on that one person. Baseball? Sure. And that needlework that reminded him of some of the colorful throw pillows his grandmother had made. So...sorta...technically...the common denominator was thread and needle.

An aspect which that one Slytherin had just brought up, the thread.

Knitting Charm? Or...er...Stitching Charm, rather?

He was just going to continue to nibble on his cookie in silence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hey Ju

Matt would've replyed to the professor's first question saying the items had all been sewn one way or another but he was too busy stuffing his face with the cookies and when he got around to being able to speak, similar answers had already been given.

Back to stuffing his face it was then! Omnomnomnom.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bone_baud10

Aymeric agreed with his classmates. The common factor to all the objects was that they were sewn when produced. It wasn't a very complicated observation. He didn't find it necessary to answer the question, but nodded when hearing other's answer. Hopefully, the Professor would understand this gesture, and not think he's just too lazy.

The Ravenclaw, in the meantime, took out of his bag his Charms notebook. He began writing down what was going on in the class. Not only the answers (which he didn't agree with all) did he write, but described the setting and decoration of the classroom. In doing so, he waited with patience for the next instruction, or perhaps activity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

Halloween mood was definitely in the air, and that has definitely filled this Curly Top's head as to what his plans were, so much so that he was only half listening when the discussion started. He got stuck at looking at ol Frankenstein's pretty mugshot there... should he dress up as the flat-top Monster or some other classic Monster? He caught the word stitches being echoed about and he winced involuntarily, remembering his own accident not to long ago, caressing the back of his head....

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

Ummmmmm.........Charms professor/Head of House say what?! Pumpkin scented ink?!

HELLO?! PUMPKIN ALLERGY HERE!!!!!!! As his Head of House, Ronan felt that Professor Marchand should know this and have thought of it before bringing those demon inks to class. Maybe he did? Please say he did!

Needless to say that he was distracted and didn't hear the question. But if he had, he would've agreed with the rest of the class that the answer was stitches. Instead, he was too busy keeping an eye on the bowl of inks. After all, it had been easy to avoid the pumpkin spice tea, but the ink?! Maybe if he stayed silent he wouldn't get one? Yeah, yeah, that was a good plan. Just stay silent and you won't get ink.

Oh no, WHAT IF SOMEONE SPILLED SOME ON HIM?!

Yeah, he was just going to sit here and have a panic attack, okay?

Miss Tyler remained silent while the others were giving answers, but Gaston still gave her an encouraging smile. Maybe she hadn’t yet thought of a similarity between the objects? Or maybe her idea had already been mentioned?

The professor wasn’t entirely surprised when Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne kept quiet as well. He was probably still distracted by whatever was on his mind earlier. Come to think of it, Mr. Merriwether seemed a bit distracted too, though in this case, it was probably because of the food more than anything else.

Mr. Willis was also being quiet, but he was taking notes. That was a good sign! Gaston smiled at him. Another smile was given to Mr. Salander, though the professor found it a bit odd that he hadn’t said anything. The Gryffindor prefect was usually more vocal than this!

Mr. Carter was also silent, and Gaston noticed him eyeing the bowl of prizes. Was he imagining it or did the boy look awfully panicked? For a moment, he wondered why but then remembered his pumpkin allergy. If that was all it was, he needn’t worry. He gave the boy a sympathetic look as he set the bowl down and crossed the room to his desk. “It’s alright, Mr. Carter,” he said, taking care to keep his voice down so no one else would hear. “I’ll ask the class not to open the vials yet, and I have a different kind of ink set aside for you…” He pulled a vial out of his jacket pocket where he kept it so it wouldn’t get mixed up with the others. “This one’s just plain orange ink.”

Text Cut: ”Jessa”

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

"I must say they're pretty good, Professor." Jessa replied, taking a bite of one of them to make her point. The snacks were usually good. Being made by the elves, she didn't suspect there would be a time she didn't like them.

Settled and ready for the lesson, Jessa was paying attention. Naturally. That was how she immediately drew the connection the three items shared. It was like just about everyone in the room had said, stitches. Yeah...right.... The Ravenclaw's hand shot up, moving beyond the initial guess to a question of her own.

"Will we be stitching each other up today, Professor?? Will it be a different sort of stitching than would typically be used by a Healer?? Is it gonna be like having our own Frankenst--are we switching limbs? How will it work? Is it plausible? Can I go first? Do we get to choose our own partners? Can I have someone who isn't squeamish?"

Okay.....so.....maybe it was more than one question but once her mind got going, there was no real way to shut it off.

This would potentially be one of the coolest lessons, ever--and just in time for Halloween!!!

Gaston beamed when Miss Cambridge offered her critique of today’s snacks, but then…

HUH?

He could only stare blankly at the Ravenclaw as the conversation took a turn for the sick and disturbing. Did she really just say what he thought she said?! Maybe she was just putting on an act for the holiday, but he still bristled at the very idea of students practicing stitches on each other. How could she think he’d allow such a thing?

“Certainly not, Miss Cambridge!” he said, a little harsher than intended, once the initial shock had worn off. “We are not now, nor will we ever practice stitching on a living creature in this class! The spell we’re learning today is not intended for medical purposes; doing so could cause serious injury.” He sighed. “If you’re interested in medical stitching, maybe Professor Reed would be willing to help you; he had more experience in that field than I do.”

Text Cut: Nathan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Symphora

Seems everyone answered the same, hmm. Yes, stitches. No brainer. He raised his hand to give another answer instead, "They are all novelty items?" Nathan shrugged. Hey....the professor asked them about what those objects were in common, right? One would probably think they had some value in them. Who else would keep a Frankenstein mask? So yeah. "Are we sewing Halloween costumes or something?" he asked, his face incredulous. He hopes not. Nathan didn't sign up for home economics class. Lol.

Mr. Hale certainly came up with a unique answer! Gaston nodded and gave the boy a small smile. "Yes, I suppose one could consider them novelty items," he replied. The next thing he guessed was a bit unexpected... though very close to correct. "Not excatly the activity I had in mind, but you're on the right track, Mr. Hale"


And with that, he addressed the class as a whole again. "Excellent job! Most of you correctly guessed that the three objects all have stitches, thus the spell we’ll be covering today is the stitching charm. For those of you who have earned your prizes, please DO NOT open the vial until after class! The rest of you still have plenty of time to earn them.” He paused for a moment. “As Miss Kettleburn mentioned, there are different kinds of stitching, so in using magic for sewing, there are different variations of the basic stitching charm to produce different stitches. Because of time constraints, today we’ll only be covering two of these, but if you’re interested in learning more later, I’d be glad to help you. Just come to my office on your own time.”

Now it was time for the actual spell demonstration! “The incantation for the basic stitching charm is ‘Suturis’; this version of the spell produces a simple running stitch,” he went on. “The wand movement is fairly simple. Move your wand upward, then make a clockwise loop like so…” He traced the movement with his wand, then drew the same shape on the blackboard. “The shape should somewhat resemble the eye of a needle.” He picked up a couple of swatches of fabric lying on his desk and repeated the spell, “Suturis.” A line of neat stitches appeared across the edges of the fabric.

“The other version of the stitching charm we’re covering produces the whip stich, which looks like this…” He picked up another piece of fabric with stitching going over the top of the edge. “The incantation for this stitch is ‘Suturis Flagellum’, and the wand movement is a little different. You’ll still begin by moving your wand upward, but instead of making a loop, you’ll make an upside-down U-shape.” He domeonstrated the corresponding wand movement and drew it on the board before grabbing another pair of fabric squares from his desk. “Suturis flagellum!” Tiny stitches crossing over the top edges of the fabric appeared.

“Now we’ll move on to a mini activity,” Gaston said, picking up a box of fabric he had hidden behind his desk and setting it on top of the desk. “In this box, I have squares of fabric and felt cutout shapes. You’ll come up to the front and pick a square and a cutout; there are lots of colors and designs to choose from! Then you’ll use either the basic stitching charm or the whip stitch variation to sew your cutout to the square. Pretty straightforward, right?” He paused a moment to give time for the information to sink in. “If you have questions or need help, just raise your hand and I’ll come to you. You have fifteen minutes for this activity, starting… NOW!”


OOC: You have ABOUT 3 DAYS to do the mini activity (until about 8:30 AM GMT -4 Sept. 25). If you have questions, indicate in the title of your post, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Oooh. Hello, Jessa. His friend received a smile in greeting.

Quietly eating the cookies, Cameron regretted not taking anything to drink too. Not that the cookies were dry but...okay, they were a little dry. Tea would've been good with them. Or hot chocolate. As it were though he only had his water bottle on hand (because he didn't really feel like standing up again) so he took a sip of water. While absently watching the other students. Oh and-

Wait. He knew her.

His eyes flicked from Celandine to Charlotte and back to her mother. Huh. Interesting. He sent a polite - albeit curious - smile at both of them. Before he could do anything else, however, Professor Marchand started the lesson. In the bowl were prizes? Interesting. Although a little LESS interesting once the professor had said that they'd all be receiving one by the end of the lesson. Well, that kind of took the fun out of it, no?

As for the first question, most of the other students had already answered that. So instead of repeating what other people had said, Cameron simply wrote down "Stitching" on his piece of parchment. Now, would they really be stitching anything in this lesson? Before he could think about that for too long, Jessa had shared her theories which made him look over at her. Now, THAT would be interesting. That's what Frankenstein had done, no? Obviously they wouldn't be doing anything that he had done per se but maybe they'd be discussing-

Apparently not. The professor's reaction seemed a bit harsh making Cameron frown slightly. Hey now. It could have been possible that they'd be learning about those kinds of stitches. It would have certainly been really useful to Jessa and her experiment(s). Eh.

As it were though they'd be only learning about...sewing fabrics together? Why? Was this one of those things that would come in handy in the future when they lived by themselves and had families and children, maybe? Either way, right now Cameron wasn't particularly interested but he'd learned that practicing a charm wasn't just about learning this specific spell. It was also about learning to control your magic and channel it the right way. So he didn't complain.

Instead he got up and walked to the front to get the two pieces of fabric.

Matt wasn't that interested in today's lesson because he wasn't into sewing at all, buuuuut he guessed that type of spells could come in handy eventually. Who knew?

He did carry on eating some more biscuits, though, because omnomnomnom. Pulling out his wand, he quickly went over the wand movement as he chewed. Instead of going over to the front to pick up some fabric from the box, he simply summoned a few pieces because he wasn't that bothered about shape and colour. He'd just practice both Charms as he ate more biscuits. Speaking of, he also summoned some more of those to his desk, being specific about getting some of the bat shaped ones.

"Suturis." The sixth year said while moving his wand upwards and doing a clockwise loop thingy at the end. He kept magically sewing the random pieces of fabric together and watching as he watched the stitches appear, he thought of something. Raising his hand, Matt then spoke with his mouth half-full. "Professor," he started, swallowing some cookies, "can you use this on flesh?" The Gryffindor wondered if he could stitch peopleup with that. Maybe his thoughts went that way thanks to the Ravenclaw who had gone a bit wild with her questions earlier.

Matt approved.

Miranda smiled as a vial of ink was sent her way for her correct answer along with the others that had deduced the same thing about the stitches. " Thank you, Professor.. ", she said.

Then she settled in as he explained that is WAS in fact a lesson on different sewing charms!!! This pleased Randa very much.. Knowing how to mend her clothes and things would be very helpful to the accident prone teen..

Closely she paid attention to every word and wand movement he used for the two variations of the sewing charm... So.. To herself she said the two incantations several times along with their respective wand motions to execute the charms. After feeling comfortable with both she went up to the front of the class and chose her fabric and felt cut-out. She wondered if they could work together and decided to go back to her spot and start working on the activity...Though she was open to working with a younger student to maybe help them out with their stitching too.

Maddie thought her answer had been really good for a first year, but she still hadn't earned any of that ink. She was disappointed, but there was still time to earn more, right? The professor confirmed that a second later, which earned him a HUGE SMILE from Maddie. She listened to the instructions, deciding that she was just going to practice the regular Suturis for now. As a first year, she hadn't been a hundred percent successful in all the activities they'd done so far, so she thought trying for the second charm might be expecting too much of herself.

She skipped to the fabric squares and shapes and selected one of each. The shape she'd chosen was a pumpkin, which made her think back to that pumpkin-scented ink. She headed back to her seat and laid out the materials, placing the shape on top of the fabric square. "Suturis!" she called out, whipping her wand into the shape of a needle. A very unsteady inch of stitches appeared on her shape. She'd gotten the charm, but she just needed to make things neater.

Stitching. An interesting activity....

Now she would have to make something... Hmm.. With the stitches charm... She would need something... Vi picked up a couple of shades of pink, red, and deeper red of fabric and then a middle shade red of felt. She picked up a square and then glanced at the fabrics one more time before making a decision. Taking the rich fabric colours back to her table, she placed them in front of them and arranged them in an appropriate fashion. Readying herself, she took a deep breath and then moved her wand upward and made an upside down U-shape over the fabric. "Suturis Flagellum" she spoke. Then she began to replicate the stitch as she performed it non-verbally once. Twice. Three times.

Hey! It looked like she was getting the hang of this! Vi smiled and continued her work.

Ah so here's a spell that could prove mighty useful for a young man still dependent on his mother or the house elves for darning his socks....

He took a handful of random fabric and felt patterns and went back to his seat. By then he spied what Vi was working on a smiled, she looked like a natural at this and her practice fabrics were looking like its gonna come up with something professional.

Ace focused back on his random bits of fabric, now partly wishing he paid more attention to what he was pawing off of the box. He should start with something basic... like that running stitch thing. 'Suturis' he willed the command as he performed the wandstroke over the fabric. There was a faint, squiggly, singular stitch that appeared on the fabric. OMG HE WAS DOING IT! #AchievementUnlocked

Oh dear. Why did the professor look like he was about to pee himself? Cela was concerned. Maybe he had forgotten to go to the bathroom before class? It was the exact same expression her toddler at home got when he was upset and/or needed to pee.

Her quill kept moving, taking notes at his responses to the student answers. She was a little puzzled when he didn't give any of that prize ink that he'd said was for creative answers as well, to everyone who had given it a go, but she supposed the man had a plan. Of course he did! He'd been a professor for some time now, he knew what he was doing, she had no intention of not giving him the benefit of the doubt, even if he did look in need of a motherly hug right now. A note in his favour for being sure to have some ink on hand that wasn't going to set off that one boy's allergies, but Celandine was somewhat astonished to hear him harshly redress one student's answer about potentially practicing stitching on each other. She recalled doing such things as a student in her own time, with different spells of course. Oh goodness, the man needed very much to relax, didn't he?

She had been hoping for more teaching moments before the activity portions began but Cela looked around as the students began moving to begin the activity he had set up and continued taking notes, generally interested to see how the lesson progressed.



Cool, she won a prize already? That was...... well, that was easy. She wasn't so sure what she'd DO with pumpkin scented ink, but also she was a little disappointed that she couldn't open it now and try it out and see if she actually liked the scent of it... then again if she had she'd be thoroughly distracted and not end up doing the activity. Which sounded easy enough?

She'd practice the wand movements and incantations first though... upwards and clockwise loop? Aaaand... and upside down U shape. Easy enough. She did those a few times. The incantations she didn't really feel as much need to practice since she also intended to do the spells non-verbally, but she read over them and fixed them in her mind. Suturis. Suturis Flagellum.

Now to get some fabric.... were they making a giant quilt??

Oh look, there was another BoG member evaluating the professor and this time was Char's mother. Hehehe, she was relieved that none of her family members made into the board because it was embarrassing if someone (particularly her parents) saw how she's doing in the class. Well, hopefully Professor Marchand could survive her without excessive sweating or even worse, fainting. Back to the lesson, the charms professor complimented her about giving a thinking-outside-the-box answer. Hell yeah, even her answer was good and different than the others but the Professor didn't give her the prize as the reward which was... Okay, Ava didn't really bother about the pumpkin scented ink but she judged the professor by rewarding it to the correct ones only.

That was just not fair.

But let's just move on to the mini activity. Shall we?

So today they're going to do stitching charm. Well, this was interesting and surely such a useful thing in case she suddenly ripped her robe or any kind of clothing emergency. As Professor Marchand had instructed, the Gryffindor stood up and picked the materials: a square fabric and some cutouts in various colors. The charm didn't seem like a complicated one so Ava tempted to try both of them non-verbally. She placed one of the cutout fabric on the square one and tried casting the stitch charm by moving her wand upward and drew a clockwise loop. "Suturis." And there, a running stitch was applied holding the fabrics together. Ooooohhh! Let's try it non-verbally then. Clearing her mind, Ava tried to visualize performing the stitching charm while moving her wand. The result? Unsurprisingly she failed on her first attempt.

Well, let's just try it again.

A stitching charm! Well, this would definitely come in handy at some point.. yeah? Plus, she has a prize already. She couldn’t wait to try out the ink.. and hopefully she would like the smell. Heh. The girl took notes as the professor spoke, making sure she had written down the names of the spells as well as the wand movements that would accompany the spells correctly.

Right. She headed over to the professors desk first and picked up a few pieces of the fabric squares and cutouts before heading back to her desk. She decided to practice the spell first before trying it on the fabric. Practice makes perfect, yes? “Suturis.. Suturis..” She practiced saying it aloud a few times to get the pronunciation right before practising the wand movement.. which was to move the wand upward and then make a clockwise loop. Simple enough. Once she was sure of the wand movement as well, she decided try it out. The girl took a deep breath before placing a cutout on a blue-coloured fabric and casted the spell suturis non-verbally, accompanying it with the appropriate wand movement. OOOH, nice. She watched as a line of neat stitches appeared on her fabric.

Gaston all but collapsed into his chair as soon as he finished the instructions for the mini activity. Picking apart everything he did to try to find flaws before Mrs. Kettleburn did was beyond exhausting! He sighed quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose. For a moment, he thought about helping himself to some pumpkin spice tea; the drink might help calm him down. But he decided against it. It might make him look unprofessional, and besides, he was afraid he might vomit if he tried to take anything and his students did not need to see that!

He turned his eyes back to the class just as Mr. Tamesis came to the front to get some fabric, followed by Miss Blaze and several others. Watching them made him feel slightly less frantic. As long as he focused on his students, he'd get through this - or at least, he hoped!

Then he saw Mr. Merriwether's hand go up, and he was at the boy's side almost instantly. He thought about the question asked for a moment. "I'm afraid not, Mr. Merriwether," he replied. "Stitching flesh is a more delicate process than stitching fabric; the stitches must be smaller, stronger, and more precise than the ones made by a simple stitching charm. Using this spell on flesh would do more harm than good. It would be extremely painful to its intended target, and the stitches would most likely break and cause further injury." He waited a moment for the information to sink in. "There is a spell specifically used for stitching flesh, but it's a lot more complex than this one." Hmm... maybe he would do a lesson on that and other healing charms at some point. The students seemed interested.

Gaston moved between the rows, keeping an eye on his students' progress. He picked up the bowl of prizes from his desk, just in case he saw opportunity to give rewards as he made his rounds. And it wasn't long until he did! He passed Miss Kemp's desk just as she made some unsteady stitches appear. He was impressed! That spell was very advanced for a first year to do! "Excellent first attempt, Miss Kemp!" he said, beaming. Would his guest think he was rewarding her too easily if he gave her a vial of ink for that? He decided to go with it. He'd already denied prizes when he didn't want to in an effort to win her over, and she was going to find fault with him anyway... might as well fault him for being himself! He smiled, setting the ink on her desk. Now for a little helpful advice. "You've got the incantation down, but try doing the wand movement a little slower. That'll steady your stitches a bit."

Then his eyes fell to Mr. Salander and the single stitch he'd produced so far. "You can do it, Mr. Salander!" he encouraged. "Putting a bit more gusto behind the incantation will help you make more than one stitch at a time."

He continued meandering through the rows of desks. "Nice job with those wand movements, Miss Kettleburn!" he said with a smile as he passed her desk. Then he saw another opportunity for prizes as he watched Miss Holden and Miss Burton succeed with the spell and attempt to do them nonverbally as well. That kind of initiative deserved a reward in his book! "Great work ladies!" he said, giving each of them a vial of ink.

And Miss Kramer was doing very well too! He beamed at her as he passed her desk. "Nicely done, Miss Kramer!" he said. He would've rewarded her work with a vial of ink, had he not given her one before!

Then he made his way back to the front of the room. "Great job so far, everyone!" he addressed the group. "I like the progress I'm seeing."

OOC: You still have JUST UNDER 2 DAYS to do the mini activity. Sorry for not replying sooner! I had a very long day yesterday. Also a couple of things I forgot to add (I was so sleep-deprived I could hardly think straight when I did my last post! ): You only have to do one square to get full credit for this activity, but you're welcome to do as many as you like. And feel free to make up the color/design of your fabric and the shape of your cutout.

Before beginning the assignment, Aymeric took a moment to write the Charms and sketch an accurate image of their wand movement into his notebook. As exciting as the assignments are, knowledge preservation is important for the end of term exams.

Okay now to the main activity. Confidence arouse him, Charms was his strongest subject and he had to prove himself. The Ravenclaw, performed two (verbally of course) shaky summoning Charms (one piece of fabric almost fell on the floor), but he managed to get the fabric safely to his table. The Summoning Charm was considered challenging for someone his age however nothing really exciting happened since the beginning of term... so he decided to do a little alone time of extra-curriculum.

Okay... now really to the main activity of lesson. The Ravenclaw had summoned two square fabrics one dark blue and the other bright orange. With the help of a few Diffindo's he cut the orange fabric to the shape of an eagle's head. House pride.

Time to stitch the two fabrics together. Aymeric decided to try the second spell the Professor presented to them. He had no concrete reason, he wasn't aware to pros and cons of each stitching method.

The third year placed the orange eagle-head shaped fabric above the blue fabric and pointed his white wand at the two pieces. He motioned his wand upwards finishing with an upside-down U-shape,"Suturis flagellum," he said quietly. Whip stitches began appearing attaching the two fabrics together. Ha! It worked on his first try.

Aymeric held his 'creation' in his hand. He moved it from side to side proving the stability of his Charm. He was pleased. He glanced once again at his attached fabrics. "Nice touch of house pride and Halloween," he thought to himself.

Hmm... will he have time to try again, or did he spend too much time on this 'work of art'?

Head tilting slightly to the side, Remy considered the three items at the front of the classroom. ”Well, the pillow, everyone would consider comfortable and just another item to use to go to sleep - but the embroidery means that someone has put a lot of time, thought and work into making it look so good… meaning it is potentially more for show, than for comfort or for using. Something to show off and be proud of.”

“The Monster, was considered horrible and something to be scared of when he was in fact… more a victim of his circumstances than anything else.” Or, so the movies he’d watched led him to believe… he hadn’t read the book though… it was so old he just couldn’t get into it – or any of the other pieces of “classical” muggle literature his mum and aunt had tried to make him read. Though… His brain was putting various aspects of this together now. ”Though, like the pillow – it took a lot of time, thought and work into making it – unfortunately, less so that it would look good but more so that it would work effectively, rather than looking good – after all, Frankenstein didn’t care what he used to make his collaged man – he just wanted to advance science and medicine… or something like that…” Unfortunately, he wasn’t 100% sure on the details… but he was on a roll and his brain was working on over time.

”The ball however, could be mistaken for something soft and harmless… but I’m pretty sure they are really hard – especially when used in the game… If I’m remembering the game right-” …and he could be entirely wrong, but he was hoping he wasn’t about to completely embarrass himself. ”-anyone who is in the direct line of target has special gloves so they don’t get hurt.” He was rambling again. Whoops. ”But… making them takes less time to plan since they are pre-designed but just as much time and effort to make them fit for purpose… I’d assume they are like Quidditch balls in that they have industry specifications and weights etc to follow…” He trailed off and gave the Professor another soft grin. Sorry, Professor… you asked! One thing to be proud of, one thing to try and advance current industries and one thing to sport-industry standards…



Having listened to the rest of the classes answers, Remy noted down the various answers (though most agreed with the stitching option) and the Professor’s relevant replies. He nodded his head in various places, liking where this was going. Stitching… that would be helpful if he needed to sort out his trousers or ripped … something…. Though, he had done a great job with asking his mum to help him, he guessed in the future (like with most things) he’d have to start taking responsibility and doing them for himself. Heh.

… Go to the office to practice sewing in his own time… Sorry Professor, but that would more than likely be a no. He’d learn these two and hope that they would be enough. At least until he got to his Mum to ask for more help… or he had time at a later date to focus on learning more. But, for now – two was more than enough.

Get a square. Pick out a shape cut out. Attach one to the other. Got it.

With an easy smile, Remy bounced to his feet walking to the front of the class. He picked out a black square and the first cut out that he found. Turning around, he slid back into his chair without even looking at the cut out he had picked up. Rolling his wand between his fingers, he looked down at his notes around the hum drum of the class. ”Suturis. Suturis.” He tried, letting the charm roll off his tongue to get used to the charm.

The stitching charm. That sounded like something Felicity would be terrible at: she was in no way delicate or creative, not unless it came to make up. She knew, though, that he dad was an absolute whiz when it came to these kind of spells, and obviously she wanted to do him proud, to be able to tell him about it. If worst came to worst, though, at least he could give her some pointers.

She noted down a few things about the different kinds of stitching, and therefore different stitching charms, and hoped against hope that they'd be learning the simplest ones in this lesson, even if she probably wasn't going to go to Professor Marchand for extra help. Mainly because she didn't quite find it interesting enough, but also because she wasn't sure she'd have the time for it. Unless Skylar like, added it to their schedules.

Which, honestly, Liss wouldn't put past her friend, not least in the run up to OWLs.

So, suturis was the charm that produced a running stitch. Whatever that was. Felicity noted it down, adding a drawing of the wand movement next to it. Underneath that, she wrote Suturis Flagellum - whip stitch, again drawing its wand movement. There was no way her stitches were even going to come close to those that the Professor produced, and honestly, that dimmed her motivation. Especially when it came to talk of an activity.

The presence of the Governor probably helped suppress the sigh she wanted to let out, as she moved to the front of the room. Fishing in the box, she pulled out a green square and a circle felt cutout, purely because they were the first ones her hand came across. Then she proceeded back to her desk, setting the material down, felt circle on top of green fabric, and pulled out her wand.

"Suturis."

Maddie was just about to attempt the spell again, when a vial of ink appeared on her desk. "FOR ME?" she asked the professor, with excitement in her tone. She'd won a vial of the coveted ink! She was SUPER EXCITED about the ink and couldn't wait to use it! "Thank you, Professor!" She spent the next minute staring at the ink and grinning foolishly. It was the little things that made her happy, and this made her very happy. She had almost forgotten about stitching the pumpkin to the fabric square.

She looked back at it and frowned at the unsteady stitching. At least she knew she could get the spell right, even if it wasn't a perfect job. She'd work on getting better at that part. "Suturis!" she said again, waving her wand in a needle-like formation. More stitching appeared, and it was still unsteady and nowhere near straight, but at least the pumpkin was getting attached to the fabric. As she moved along, the stitching slowly began to get a tiny bit straighter. She might have the most crooked pumpkin in the patch, but at least she was actually on the right track.

Yes, alright, fine and dandy, but Katy was interested in her prize ink for now. Did it have actual pumpkin in it? Was it ORANGE? Would anyone be offended if she just sniffed it for now, and perhaps had a taste because why not? She'd tasted ink before. Merlin knew she was a curious kid... she'd tasted everything before.

And no surprises, but it tasted horrible. Katy pulled a face and moved to retrieve some scraps of fabric from the front of the room. She wasn't sure exactly what they were making... a quilt, maybe? Did she need to make something out of these scraps? For now, at least, she laid two scraps against each other and ran her wand along the joining edge. "Suturis." And no surprises, but SUCCESS.

Success, and a very bad taste in her mouth. Could she get some water per... oh. Merlin. She'd gone and sewn the fabric to her sleeve. With some resignation, Katy held up her hand for assistance. Focus, kiddo.

Pumpkin scented ink, cooool!! Emmeline BEAMED at her Head of House as a vial of the ink floated over to her desk. The second year wasted no time carefully stowing it in her bag to check out later; she had enough problems learning new spells without the added distraction of sniffing ink, mhm. She tried super hard to pay attention to all of the talking parts of the lesson, but as usual her focus tended to drift a bit. Especially when Professor Marchand started talking about the second spell, 'cause it looked waaaayyyy too hard.

Emmeline was realllly NOT good at these household-y spells at ALL. Growing up, Blinky the house-elf had done all her sewing for her, and the Hogwarts house elves did all of it now during term time. She hadn't needed any sewing done over the summer, but Cami was realllly good at other household-y spells, so Emmeline was super sure that her guardian would be great at sewing ones too. Still, she could recognize that this was a useful spell 'cause she wasn't gonna live around house elves or Cami forever, right?? Right!

The Gryffindor tried to walk up to the professor's desk without dragging her feet too much, grabbed a couple of scraps of fabric without looking at them, and marched back to her desk with a bit of determination in her step. The kind of determination that came from wanting to learn a new spell, even if it was a household-y one.

She wiggled in her seat a little bit, still stalling for time, before she finally spread her pieces of fabric out on her desk to look at them. By pure coincidence, she'd gotten a blue-ish square of fabric and a cutout that looked like a black cat. At least, it looked like a cat if she tilted her head to the right and squinted at it, but that was close enough for Emmeline. She always had more motivation to do stuff if creatures were somehow involved, mhm.

Okay, time to work (ugh) now. The second year withdrew her wand from its holster and studied the wand movement drawn on the blackboard for the first spell. She moved her wand upward and then made a loop that moved in the same direction as the clock on the far wall that she was totally not looking at that she used to keep track of how long they had for each activity. Professor Marchand was right; this wand movement was pretty easy, actually. Emmeline smiled as she practiced the movement another THREE whole times anyway, just 'cause she liked doing stuff right. And then she practiced saying the spell, "Suturis." That wasn't hard to say at all, either, so hopefully she could get this spell to work super fast so she'd have time to draw more creatures so she could learn new things, mhm.

Emmeline lined her cat up in the middle of the blue square, imagining it as a night time background or something. Muggles thought that black cats prowled around on Halloween or something like that, didn't they? She'd have to remember to ask Miss Kay later. The second year moved her wand up the middle of the cat shape, looped it in a clockwise motion and said: "Suturis!" confidently. Only...nothing happened. Nooooo!!!

Whip stitch? Running stitch? Huh?

Blinking and only really HALF getting the instructions from the professor, Derf hesitated several loooooooooong and awkward moments to watch his classmates before getting up out of his seat to retrieve his own supplies. Grabbing a few pieces of fabric at random, Derf flopped back into his seat and then just STARED at the materials. The good news was that his stutter was mostly gone soooooooo...this spell wouldn't have the old issues of failing with the incantation. Now it was more of an, er....confidence problem. Which was kinda a big one, you know? "Suturis...Suturis...Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuturis..." he repeated several times to get the taste of the spell embedded properly on the tongue.

Er...what had the wand movement been again? BOTH had been kinda complicated and long and, er, he had sorta boarded another train of thought and had only been half paying attention during the demonstration.

Peeking around, Derf focused on a nearby student to see what they were doing. Upward wand movement with...a U shape at the end. Alright. He could do that! Tracing the air a few times with his wand, Derf picked up the purple witch's hat piece of fabric he had retrieved. Maybe he should start small,
you know? Make sure he could do the charm proper just on the piece of fabric before trying to sew it to another. Like...how in flying the precursor to handling a broom was just getting it to rise up THEN you mounted it and stuff.

"Suturis!" he chirped with much enthusiasm at the piece resting on his palm.

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

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

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

Yelping like a kicked crup, Derf's eyes widened and he waved his hand about in horror - the pain, if there was to be any - had not hit him just yet as the third year went into a state of complete SHOCK.

He now had a purple witch's had sewn into his left palm...and it was just dangling there by a few threads twirling in the breeze.

No offense but patching up a piece of fabric was SO boring. Zoryn still went up to grab some supplies but she had absolutely no intention of doing any of the work. 'Cause first of all, it wasn't like she could probably get the spell to work right anyways. And second of all, this was dumb. Maybe if they actually got to patch up a body like the frankenstein monster, MAYBE then it would be cool.

So instead, on her way back to her seat she marched up to their guest. "Um, no offense, but like... Who are you?"

And who were all those other old people in their classes. Were they trying to have an intervention or something? These were all things that Zoryn felt she had the RIGHT to know. Mhm. That and it was a lot more important than sewing fabric pieces together. Just sayin.

Gaston listened intently as Mr. Edwards explained how he thought the three objects on the desk were more than they seemed. He has his own ideas on the subject, but he was curious to know the boy's thoughts. He smiled, nodding along in places; he especially approved of the analysis of the Frankenstein monster! "That was an incredibly eloquent explanation, Mr. Edwards!" he said as he levitate a vial of ink onto his desk. He hasn't much to add to it, except... "And you assume correctly. Baseballs do follow industry specifications, the same way as balls used in quidditch."

He was making his rounds through the rows of desks, bowl in hand to award prizes should the opportunity arise. Speaking of prizes, Miss Kemp's reaction to the ink made him smile! "You're very welcome, Miss Kemp!" he said, watching as she kept practicing the spell. Her stitches were still a little unsteady, but there was definitely improvement! See? You're getting it; that was much better!"

Then he turned his attention elsewhere. "Great start, Miss Harrington," he said as he passed the girl's desk. As he went on, he noticed Mr. Willis succeed in sewing a Ravenclaw eagle to a blue square. "Very artistic, Mr. Willis! And nice job incorporating other spells into the activity," he said, beaming as he gave him a vial of pumpkin ink.

Everybody seemed to be making great progress... well, everybody except Miss Spinnet who hadn't started yet. Gaston wondered why. The thought crossed his mind to scold her, but for now he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Is there a reason you're not working yet, Miss Spinnet?" he asked. "Do you need help with the spells?"

Miss Sparkes appeared to be struggling a little too. She had the incantation and the wand movement down, and the professor could tell by her tone that intent wasn't the issue either. He reasoned it must have something to do with focus. You're on the right track, Miss Sparkes," he said, giving her an encouraging smile. "Why don't you try it one more time, and concentrate as hard as you can?"

Gaston was going to help her more, but he saw Miss Toussaint's hand go up and sidled over to her. Oh, dear! It seemed she'd sewn her fabric to her sleeve. "It's okay, nothing we can't fix," he said, more to himself than his student. "Just hold still, and I'll detach it..." He carefully lifted up the fabric to reveal the stitches, drew his wand, and aimed a nonverbal Diffendo at the threads, being especially careful not to get too close to her sleeve.

He had barely finished doing that when a yelp caused his head to whip around, spilling his dark hair into his eyes. Oh, good Godric Gryffindor! What now?! He rushed in the direction of the sound to Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne, and he turned pale as he saw the purple witch's hat sewn to the boy's palm. Merlin! At this rate, the Board of Governors would think he was the worst teacher ever! But there wasn't time to think about that now! He bent so that his eyes were level with his student's. "I'm going to cut the fabric away so I can get a better look at these stitches," he said in the calmest tone he could muster. "My wand is not going to touch anything besides fabric, so it won't hurt you. Ready?" He gave the boy a moment or two to prepare before he slowly raised his wand and aimed it at the purple witch's hat. He hoped this would work!

OOC: You still have ABOUT 28 HOURS to finish this activity!

Remy couldn’t help the grin that spread over his lips as the Professor confirmed his assumption about the muggle sport. Chuckling, he held his hand up to catch the vial of ink, nodding his head in thanks to the older man. He liked that, presents were awesome. Looking the vial over, and heeding his statement to not use or open the ink right now, the tall man leant forward and slipped it into his bag for later inspection.

~~~~

Looking down at his second swatch, he chuckled as he realised he had picked out an orange felt pumpkin. Sure, made sense with Halloween and - even better - it looked great against the black square he had already picked out. Score. Shaking his head at his own internal thoughts, he got back to work.

”Suturis!” Remy stated out loud, the pumpkin resting over the square, held in place by his thumb at the centre. He moved his wand upwards adding the clockwise motion at the end and grinned as a stitch appeared on his fabric at the top of the pumpkin just like he had thought about. Continuing the motion of his wand - up, loop - up, loop - he watched as a few more stitches were also added to the fabric. Amazing. The stitches weren’t even, they weren’t exactly neat or uniform… but it was stitch and it would hold the pumpkin in place easily enough.

Repeating the charm, this time non-verbally, Remy sighed when it didn’t work. Trying again, he focused and tuned out the hubbub of the class before the charm worked on the third attempt. There we go. Perfect. This time, he tried to keep the motion going, seeing how many stitches he could get the charm to work for - and surprisingly if he focused solely on the charm and what he was doing - he got the stitches to keep going the whole way around the design.

……………….

Except…. How do you…

Putting his hand in the air, Remy waited for the Professor’s attention before asking; ”Professor, how do we secure it in place? Surely at the moment, if something catches the design, it would slowly unravel?” Yup, all the attention so he could learn to tie it off in some way…

Once returned to his seat with the two pieces of fabric, Cameron picked up his wand and practiced the wand movement a few times. Or wand movementS rather. They were similar but still different enough for him to have to practice them separately. At least they didn't appear to be too complicated. Neither was the incantation. "Suturis." He said, setting down his wand for a few moments. Yeah, no. Not too difficult.

Next step was putting the cut-out on top of the square and laying them both down onto the desk in front of him. Maybe he could do one side with the simple running stitch and the other with that...what was it called again? He briefly glanced at his notes. Ah, yes. Whip stitch.

Alright then.

Moving his wand in the correct way, Cameron started sewing. "Suturis." Did people really still sew clothes by hand? Or by wand anyway. That seemed like a tedious task nonetheless. "Suturis." Did that mean he could mend his clothes too now if they got ripped? Only somehow his stitches didn't really look nice enough for him to consider applying the spell to his own CLOTHES. Maybe they'd get better over time. With practice. "Suturis flagellum." Okay. What was a whip stitch supposed to look like again? Because THAT didn't look like it would hold the two fabrics together for too long.

Jessa recoiled at the sharpness in the Professor's response, not sure she understood the reason for the sudden change of tone. It had been an honest question. She'd practiced the suturing charm on herself so many times that she could stitch a wound in her sleep. Surely with enough practice, everyone would be able to as well and he HAD said Frankenstein. What other stitching could there be?

The Ravenclaw sank down into her seat, nibbling at the very end of her treat and wishing she hadn't said anything. Surely the lesson would have been explained sooner or later, there hadn't been a need for her to give input if it would be that incorrect.

The more she listened was the more her brows crinkled. They'd be doing regular sewing?

O..Okay....

No people involved in that. Safe, she supposed.....but the last thing she'd need. Couldn't use this to stitch her rats back up or her birds when their wings started falling apart. Reckon it was good she'd already practised the medical one then as it didn't seem they'd ever be formally learning it.

When the time came, she got up from her seat and got herself a piece of fabric. While she did, she was sure to avoid any and all eye contact with the Professor who must surely have been thinking the worst of her now. First Wayland and now Marchand, honestly, she was on a roll.

Jessa reclaimed her seat and drew her wand, listlessly practising the wand movement. Up then clockwise loop. Up then clockwise loop. Over and over she did this simple motion before turning her attention to the fabric. "Suturis." The simple stitch appeared as she'd intended it and she found it to be naturally more simple than the other kind of suturing charm. Guess you learn one, you learn 'em all, huh? "Suturis." She would begin the other stitch in a moment.