Maisie's mood wobbled. She was excited by the lesson, but it hurt. She'd seen her mother use these charms a million times.

She tried to think about the letter she would write that night. How thrilled her mother would be to hear about Maisie learning sewing charms at last.

Grabbing a cookie on the way, Maisie picked two pieces of deep purple fabric.

Back at her desk, she practised the words aloud first, then the wand movements, and then she tried combining the two.

"Suturis!" The two quarters began stitching themselves together. Maisie's eyes widened. All that sewing her mother did must've rubbed off on her. Well, Maisie did spend a lot of time sitting at the same table as Dilys while she worked.

Let's just try doing it non-verbally again.

You know, Professor Marchand didn't really ask them to try the non-verbal spell but it's necessary for a NEWT level student like her and she wanted to, plus it seemed like the Charms professor was cool about it. And look, he just gave her a bottle of pumpkin-scented ink. "Thanks, Professor." Then she's back with her second attempt of non-verbal running stitch charm. Clearing her mind and focusing her intent to perform the spell, the Gryffindor moved her wand upward and drew a clockwise loop. But still, she didn't succeed it. Ugh. She thought it was easier than performing a defensive spells non-verbally. But Ava Burton would never quit this. She tried it again until the nonverbal running stitch charm was done on fifth attempt. Yay!

Did the professor have another reward beside the ink? Because she deserved another one.

Now, moving on to whipped stitch charm. She grabbed a red cutout fabric to be stitched on and tried the charm. "Suturis flagellum." This time she moved her wand upward and made and upside-down U shape over the fabric until the stitches happened. Once Ava felt satisfied with her charms work, she tried to do it non-verbally again. This might be a little bit harder and longer to succeed than the first stitching charm but well, let's just try it.

The intent, Ava. Remember the intent.

Her first try didn't go well, ugh! When would she succeed the non-verbal charm on the first try? Never. Even for a simple charm like lumos or aguamenti, she needed to try them at least... 292837383 times. Moving on, Ava tried it again and again and again until on her seventh try she succeeded the whipped stitch charm. So, what they're going to do for the main activity? Sew a dress for their Halloween costume, perhaps? Let's just wait.

Maddie jumped when she heard a loud YELP. Looking a few feet away, she saw Derf, and it looked like he had sewn a bit of his finger. OUCHHHHH. Maddie hadn't even thought about that, but now that she had seen it, she was afraid of it happening to her, too. She stopped sewing for a bit as she watched the professor come to the rescue. "It's okay, Derf! I know it's so super scary, but I bet Professor Marchand knows just how to fix it!" she said to her housemate. She also had a piece of candy in her pocket if Derf thought that might make him feel better, too!

Maddie gulped nervously then turned back to her own project. It looked super messy and not really straight at all, but for a first attempt, she thought she was doing pretty well! "Suturis!" she said, beginning on her project once again. This time, the stitching didn't get any straighter at all. It got messier. Maddie was so worried about sewing her own finger that her eyes remained fixed on her hand most of the time. She finally just stopped, so she could wait and see if the professor really could fix it.

Kyle went up and got a square, but spent a good few minutes deciding on a shape to stitch. A triangle would be easiest, because it was all straight stitches. A circle would probably be the hardest, for the opposite reason. He finally decided on a heart. It had curves and straight edges, so he could practice both. Settled, he went back to his seat. He practiced the wand movement for each charm a few times before turning to the fabric in front of him. First, alongside one side of the heart, right?

"Suturis!" he cast, and at first nothing happened. But then one little stitch appeared. Problem was, it was only on the square and didn't even touch the heart. Well, he would need a little more oomph and to actually aim, it would seem. He remembered Professor Hirsch's telling him about intent and control. Would the same thing in Defense work in Charms? It was all spell casting, right? But Charms should be easier. Oh, well, perhaps not.

Kyle cleared his throat and concentrated. He could do this. He just needed to get at least one stitch, binding the heart and the square together. He cast again, with an upward motion and a loop. "Suturis!" This time a few stitches appeared, binding the heart and the square together. It wasn't pretty, however, and wasn't quite along the edge, but it was a start.

Harriet was kind of bummed that she didn't get any ink. That was really sad. Though it just made her some determined to work harder so that she could get some ink. She really wanted that ink. That was what came from being a ink hoarder. So for now she tried to not think about the ink, and instead concentrated on the activity. Maybe if she was really good at the activity she would get some ink then. She was sure that that would help. So she was going to be very good at this activity. Or at least she hoped anyway.

She made notes as the Professor talked, making sure that she would have notes for when she came to revise this later. She wanted to make sure she was really prepared for when it came for her exams later on in the year. But now onto the activity!

When it was her turn she went up and got her fabric and cut out. She picked a yellow cut out, and then a black cut out. Of course she would go for the hufflepuff colours. She went back to her desk, and then began practising the wand movement. She always did this so she knew that she was doing it correctly.

She had decided to use the whip stitch variation, wanting to challenge herself, so she practiced that spell. She began by moving her wand upwards, and then created the upside down U shape with her wand. This was pretty simple. But still, she set about practising this for a few moments.

He beamed back at his HoH's encouragement. He may not be able to stitch up a stuffed unicorn today, but he sure gonna try to make a decent quilt... or something.

Once again aiming his wand against the fabric, he willed Suturis as he made the wandstroke, moving along bit by bit until he managed to stitch together some kind of patchwork rag with the random bits of fabric he fished out of the box. Wasnt too bad was it?

A very good point? But not good enough to get the scented ink? Not that she really cared too much about the ink, so much as she cared about the fact that she maybe wasn't one of the top charm students anymore. Skylar was definitely blaming Charlotte's mother for this; while she didn't know everything about Professor Marchand, she knew him well enough in that he was feeling anxious and nervous being observed. It was rather ironic how he led the Gryffindor house, given how nervous he got, but she liked him as a professor regardless.

Sending a comforting smile toward the Professor, basically saying, you're doing great, the she-snake set to work on focusing on the stitching charm. Stitching was tedious, but charms? She got charms. She liked charms. She could handle this, even if she wasn't convinced that she would ever use this in practical application. "Suturis," she said aloud in practice; although the second incantation, was that, a better stitch?

Wait, did Katy just accidentally sew the fabric to her robes? Focus, Skylar, Professor Marchand was handling it. She needed to use extra care then... "Suturis flagellum," She practiced the whip stitch incantation. And up to the front of the classroom, she selected a black square fabic, with a cutout green rectangle. If she worked extra diligently, she could maybe cut the rectangle to resemble a snake?

"Suturis flagellum," she said again, wand moving upward and then the upside down U. Tiny stitches bound the cutout to the fabric ... to the desk? Well she supposed it was better than being stitched to herself? Tugging lightly at the fabric square, she sighed; yes, it was definitely stuck.

1. He didn't want the pumpkin scented ink, why would he want scented ink? He wasn't a girl. 2. He wasn't a girl so why did he have to learn to sew, this was a woman's job and he wasn't going to stand for it. Eddie just stared at the professor. For everything, he could be learning in this class he was learning how to sew.

Eddie just sat there and pretended to listen for the most part. He rolled his eyes when his sister actually was participating. Why did he have to take classes with her anyway? Why couldn't they have a class without the puffs.


Now he wanted them to actually do this. Actually sew things together. HE WASN'T A GIRL!! Annoyed and reluctant Eddie made his way up from and grabbed some pieces, but instead of going back to his desk he quietly headed around the seats until he was behind his sister. Pulling his wand he did the movements, ""Suturis "

Sewing the pieces on her robes seemed like so much more fun than just doing the stupid practice they were supposed to do.

Henry wanted a prize. Had everyone but him gotten one? He knew that everyone was supposed to get one by the end of class anyway, but he was feeling somewhat competitive about it and his desk remained without special scented ink. The thought preoccupied him a bit.

He was also preoccupied by the contemplation of what he would use this spell for outside of this class. Henry did like learning new spells, but it seemed like an arts and crafts sort of thing, and he wasn't all that into it. He'd still give it his best shot though and he went to retrieve the necessary materials.

It was also a little distracting for him that his girlfriend's mother was sitting in this class to observe. Of course he had returned her smile and wave with ones of his own; she had always been so nice to him and he really did like her. He also didn't miss that Char seemed a little self-conscious about her presence and he could understand that. Luckily his own mother hadn't showed up in any of his classes yet to observe and embarrass him. But he wasn't completely sure how appropriate it was for finger wiggles, note passing, or longing looks across the classroom with her mum watching.....even if he did sneak in a few of those looks during class.

But for the time being, he tried to focus on this new spell. Until a loud shriek from Derfael caught his attention. Henry turned suddenly, mid-stitch, to see what was going on. Ouch, that probably hurt, but at least the professor was taking care of it now. Turning back to his fabric, he frowned a bit to see that the heart he was trying to stitch to the square was now a bit misshapen, likely because of his being startled as he was casting the spell. Should he keep going or start over?

It wasn't until she'd come full circle that the Ravenclaw figured it best to begin the next charm. After the repetition that took her to this circle in the first place, it was a wonder she was paying enough attention to notice at all! But she had. There was no stitching over a spot that was already stitched, it just didn't make a lot of sense to.

A circle already in place, Jessa decided she would produce the whip stitches at the edge of the fabric as the Professor had done.

Funny how much smoother things went when you weren't trying to stitch a wound. "Suturis flagellum!" Upward then an upside down 'U'. The young girl was willing to admit the wand movement was just a little trickier than the first but even then, it presented very little trouble for the Ravenclaw who'd been stitching things up since her Second Year. By now, she was sure she could stitch an army of her undead subjects up in her sleep.

"Suturis flagellum." Over and over she did the spell, being sure to get each side of the fabric until she was right back at square one.

With the last stitch done, she held it up to have a look. Not as impressive as her experiments but it was to be expected given the nature of the charm.

Fabrics. Merlin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

....

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!

Derf was still in the middle of processing what all exactly was happening. There was a purple witch's hat stuck to his hand...and thread magic'd through his palm...did it hurt? He wasn't exactly sure. He wasn't sure that he could feel much of anything to be entirely honest and his complexion had gone a bit pale compared to his slightly sun kissed look thanks to all the time he spent outdoors. He hardly registered that the professor was by his side and the man's words were more of a dull drone going in one ear and out the other.

Was this...kinda cool? Derf gave his hand another small wiggle and watched the hat flap to and fro in the air. No...it wasn't cool. Wait...yes it was. Wait...

"I DID it?" he ended up squeaking, although it was more of a raspy whisper than anything else. Because, you know, for the first time in his little Hogwarts career he had actually done the spell the way it was supposed to go. Sorta. At least nothing had exploded or set on fire?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Maddie jumped when she heard a loud YELP. Looking a few feet away, she saw Derf, and it looked like he had sewn a bit of his finger. OUCHHHHH. Maddie hadn't even thought about that, but now that she had seen it, she was afraid of it happening to her, too. She stopped sewing for a bit as she watched the professor come to the rescue. "It's okay, Derf! I know it's so super scary, but I bet Professor Marchand knows just how to fix it!" she said to her housemate. She also had a piece of candy in her pocket if Derf thought that might make him feel better, too!

Maddie gulped nervously then turned back to her own project. It looked super messy and not really straight at all, but for a first attempt, she thought she was doing pretty well! "Suturis!" she said, beginning on her project once again. This time, the stitching didn't get any straighter at all. It got messier. Maddie was so worried about sewing her own finger that her eyes remained fixed on her hand most of the time. She finally just stopped, so she could wait and see if the professor really could fix it.

Still feeling...some sort of way about his spell piercing his own skin - features still very pale and accentuating his bright blues - the third year turned to look back towards his first year friend with a bit of a dazed and distracted grin.

"I DID it," he repeated to her with the same amount of shocked enthusiasm. And MERLIN did he need to do something about his voice. He could see the concern in her eyes and any other day likely would have acknowledged it in some fashion - appreciatively and reassuringly, of course - but it was kinda hard to do that when one was torn about the magical progression of his enchanted sewing. Both OVERJOYED and low key appalled.

Okay. So she was feeling pretty content with how the wand movement was coming. She was pretty good at that, so she was pretty confident that she would actually manage to sew the two bits of fabric together well. She hoped that they would get to keep it, because she had totally made something badger related. House pride was everything, and Hattie was very happy to be a badger. Though she would have to actually get the two pieces of fabric sewed together to be able to use it as house pride related thing. So better get moving on to practicing the incantation.

"Suturis flagellum!” She said slowly, trying to get her mouth around the incantation. She wanted to make sure that she got it correct. She didn't want to say it wrong and end up getting random stitches all over the place. So she practiced that a few more times, until she had gotten it perfect. She knew how she worked was probably a little over the top, but she didn't care. It worked for her and that was that.

But now it was time to put it altogether. Carefully she lifted her wand up, and then made an upside down U. She did this whilst saying "Suturis flagellum!” again, and then beamed as she watched little stitches come onto her fabric. Perfect! Good going Harriet. She was very pleased with herself, and so carried on, so she was certain her fabric pieces were securely tied together.

Gaston realized the unintended harshness of his tone only when he saw Miss Cambridge recoil, and he felt terrible. "I'm sorry if I came across too harshly, Miss Cambridge," he said, his expression softening. "I was just a little... shocked." Well, shocked and on edge, but she didn't need to know that, did she? "I hope you don't think I was discouraging your curiosity when I suggested you speak with Professor Reed. I can teach you the spell used for medical stitching if you want, but I've only had to use it once outside of a practice setting." He never said he wouldn't teach the spell, just that he wouldn't allow his students to practice on each other. "I referred you to him because he has more experience in that area and could help you better." Then the activity happened, and he beamed as he saw her succeed with the spell on her first try. "Excellent work!" he said, placing a vial of pumpkin ink on her desk. So no hard feelings?

Miss Dimple was also having quick success with her work, and she too earned a smile and a vial of ink from the professor. He continued on his rounds through the rows, offering more praise and helpful suggestions as he went. "Nice practicing, Miss Paton! Are you ready to try it on the fabric?" "Excellent, Miss Burton!" "Great job, Mr. Whittebrook!" "You're off to a great start, Mr. Tamesis. Keep at it!"

He paused beside Mr. Erikson's desk. The spacing need a little bit of work, but he was pleased to see that the boy had managed to piece the fabric together. "Very goid, Mr. Erikson!" he said with a smile as he set a vial of ink o his desk. "If you try aiming your wand a little closer to the edge, that'll help with the stitch spacing." And another vial of ink was given to Mr. Salander shortly thereafter. "Nice work; that was quite an improvement!"

Gaston noticed the smile Miss Diggory gave him and returned it with a smile if his own. His smile grew even wider when he saw her fabric color and design choice. "That's a very creative design, Miss Diggory!" he said, beaming as he gave her a vial of the pumpkin ink on her desk. Oh, dear! It seemed she'd sewn the fabric to the desk. Well... no big deal. "No harm done; we'll just have to cut the stitches. Would you like me to do it or do you know the spell to do it yourself?"

While he was in the middle of helping Miss Diggory, Mr. Edwards asked a question. "The stitches made with this spell should secure themselves, but if you think they need reinforcement, you may tie a knot in the end if the thread," he replied.

Then Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne happened. A quick beam was given to Miss Kemp as she assured her classmate before his attention turned back to the injured student. After he'd cut away as much of the fabric as he could, he assessed the stitches themselves to determine the best way to remove them. They were fairly loose and didn't appear too deep, but he still wasn't taking chances! "I don't believe the stitches are deep enough to cause serious injury, but just in case, I don't want to pull them out and cause more harm," he said. "I'm going to make the stitches vanish instead. It won't hurt you..." He delicately lifted the thread, taking care not to pull, as he held it as far from the boy's hand as possible, then carefully aimed his wand at the thread.

Gaston took a deep breath. Merlin, what next?! He was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed... Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Mr. Blaze attaching a piece of fabric to his sister's robes. At first, he thought it was just an accident, but it looked like he was sewing more than one piece of fabric; he was at the boy's side in an instant. "Mr. Blaze, please stop that at once!" he scolded, his tone firm but not exactly sharp. "Not only was that an unkind thing to do, but it is not the intended purpose of this activity. Please use those materials as you were instructed; I will not ask again." His eyes flashed warningly. He was going to give him a chance to straighten up, but if this went on, there would be consequences.

Gaston shook his head. Why couldn't Mr. Blaze have picked a day to act out when there wasn't a guest to see it?! If he didn't know better, he would think he just did it to spite him! He glanced at his watch. . almost time to move on, thank goodness! "FIVE MINUTES LEFT!" he announced.

OOC: You have JUST UNDER 12 HOURS left to finish!

They would be learning the stitching charm today. That would certainly come in handy and for that reason, Shay was excited. She was fairly good at sewing the muggle way, but knowing the stitching charm would be a great time saver. Paying close attention, Shay wrote down the incantations and wand movements for the new spells.

Then Shay went up to the professor's desk to select some fabric. She chose a blue and green tie dye-like pattern and a lighter green felt flower cutout to go on top. Once she was back at her seat, Shay decided on her stitch. She was going to use the basic stitching charm because she thought it would work best. Before the actual stitching, Shay wanted to practice a few times. Starting with the incantation, she said, "Su-tur-is, Suturis, Suturis". When she felt comfortable saying the word, Shay moved on to the wand movement.

Shay took out her wand and practiced moving her wand in an eye of the needle shape. Several times, she moved her wand up and into a clockwise loop. Then she was ready to try the spell for real. Shay placed her flower on her fabric piece and prepared her wand. Then doing the practiced movement, she said, "Suturis". Shay never ceased to be amazed by magic. She smiled to herself as stitches began to form around her flower. How awesome was that? Now she wanted to try the second spell. Could they do that?

Embarrassing. Katy really needed to get back on her game before it negatively impacted her grades. Or worse, her reputation. She still needed the good opinion of the professors who would write her recommendations for university. Screwing up spells and being forgetful... that would cost her credibility.

"Thank you, sir. It's an awkward angle for such a delicate cutting spell. I hate to ruin my sleeves." Not that it was acceptable to sew the fabric to herself in the first place. Dummy. "I'm fine. Thank you," she said, again.

She needed to keep practicing, that was all. Stay focused and stop getting distracted. Now. Katy smoothed two pieces of fabric on top of each other, and she kept her sleeves well clear this time. "Suturis." The two bits were firmly attached. And Katy was not. Success!

Nathan couldn't help but groan at the idea of sewing some useless fabric. He already knew he was going to be so bad at this. Nonetheless, he would still need to at least give it a try. After getting his materials for the activity, he walked back to his desk and starts arranging the fabrics in front of him. Nathan was not keen on doing this at all but ...he must. Blegh. He picked up his wand and practice the wand movement as shown on the board. "Suturis....." he muttered half-heartedly. He watched as the needle goes up and through the fabric but not exactly attaching anything...

Gah. What's next? "Suturis....come on....suturis you stupid needle." He glared. However, the needle pokes him in retaliation! "OW!"

His eyes were on Miranda and his lips were parted in a smile,
something very rare for this one. He was going to add a few more to her robes, but then he was there. His eyes lifted to the professor and knew he was busted. Sighing he got up and moved back to his desk. He had left the pieces on his sister though, that he wasn't getting off because he wasn't sure how.

Taking the pieces he still had he sat and moved his wand, "Suturis" He watched the sitch happen as he was supposed to do it instead of on his sister. Doing it to Miranda was so much more entertaining though.

Was he doing a great job? No, Henry certainly didn't think so, but he glanced up from his pieces of fabric when he heard the professor and simply gave him a small smile before trying to salvage his sewing. He ultimately decided that he should cut out some of the stitches, the parts that he cast when startled and had skewed part of the heart shape. A quick, well-placed Diffindo took care of that and he pulled away some of the loose threads.

He tried to recenter and straighten out the part of the heart shape that was unattached. Holding it steady with one hand, he cast the stitching charm as he slowly turned the shape in his hand, allowing the stitches to follow along the edge. Or at least he gave it a good effort. It was a little bunched up in a couple places and somewhat off-center, but he managed the spell well enough to sew a heart onto a square.

Professor Marchand got a biiiig smile and a "Thanks, Professor!" when he passed Emmeline's desk and offered the hint about focus. Right...she could do this...

The second year had juuuust raised her wand and started on the spell when she heard a YELP! coming from somewhere nearby. Emmeline quickly spotted the source of the yelping: Derf had somehow stitched a witch's hat to his hand! She was about to go over there and see if her friend needed any help, but Professor Marchand was already there and fixing the problem. And Maddie had been realllly fast on the comforting thing too. Soo, there was no need for Emmeline to go over to Derf's desk or anything, but she shot her friend a BIIIG smile and called, "DERF! You did an 'S' spell!!!" Of course he already knew that, but the Gryffindor was pleasantly surprised and super PROUD of her friend, mhm. She was sooo happy that he'd managed to get rid of his stutter so well and she BEAMED at him from her seat! 'Cause this was a BIG deal, mhm.

Derf's getting the "S" spell right had been realllly distracting (but in the best way!), and Emmeline didn't turn back to her spell for several minutes. Not until Professor Marchand had gotten the stitches out of her friend's hand and everything. She had just turned around and started staring at her bits of fabric in an effort to concentrate when she heard Professor Marchand telling Eddie off for something. Wellll...she couldn't NOT look 'cause whatever Eddie was doing, it was probably more fun than sewing.

Emmeline swiveled around in her seat in time to see Eddie attaching the laaast bit of fabric to his sister's robes, and she had to bite her lip HARD to stifle some giggles. It was the sort of thing that she would've done to her big brother if he'd gone to Hogwarts, mhm. She did sort of wish that Eddie hadn't picked the day when there was an old witch observing the lesson to mess with his sister, though. She hoped Professor Marchand wouldn't get docked points for that or anything.

Eddie's thing with his sister finally seemed to be the end of obvious distractions, so Emmeline turned around properly and made herself sit up straight and STARE at her cat and its blue fabric. She needed to get this done--

And then Professor Marchand gave out a five minute warning, and Emmeline sort of panicked. Not REAL panic, of course, but the kind she got in lessons when she was behind and didn't want to be. The second year immediately pictured the cat being stitched to the blue fabric in her mind, moved her wand upwards and then in a clockwise circle, and cast: "Suturis!"
Thank Merlin, some stitches appeared riiiight down the middle of the cat shape this time! Only, the stitches were sort of going in a curvy type thing instead of a straight line; they looked like a big, jagged C. But that was good enough, right??

Pumpkin ink! He got pumpkin ink! Kyle was feeling rather pleased with himself as he looked at the vial He would definitely save it for a special occasion. But for now... The Professor said to hold his wand closer. Okay, that seemed simple enough. He also decided to shrink the wand movement a little, so it wasn't so exaggerated. That should allow him to keep his wand close. He did the smaller movement close do the fabric, aiming carefully as he cast. "Suturis!" There it was, almost perfectly along the edge. Okay, well it was a little messy and could probably use some work, but it was perfect to him in this moment, because it seemed so much better than what he did before.

He continued casting, going around the heart, only a few stitches at a time for the round parts. How was that for control? Sure he had to cast more often, but it worked out, right?

You know, Char actually kind of thought that Jessa's question wasn't a bad one, given the incantation sounded like sutures, which was for skin, and the frankenstein thingy was skin... even the ball maybe could be considered skin if it was made from leather. But then the professor's cautioning ended up making sense when Derf managed to use the spell on himself and hurt himself. Or was he hurt? Maybe just in shock? She was thoroughly distracted from continuing her practice just from watching that, and then she spotted Henry out of the corner of her eye and.... was that a heart he was stitching? Okay now she was even more distracted, even to the point where she temporarily forgot about her own mother's presence in the room.

ZOMG, a child was talking to her! Oh dear, Celandine hadn't wanted to distract anyone. Perhaps it would have been wise for the professor to mention her presence to the students to put them at ease, but then he himself wasn't at ease so that might not have helped. She smiled brightly at the young girl, though. Why would she be offended?

"I'm sorry for unsettling you, its not my intention to disrupt the lesson. My name is Celandine Kettleburn, I'm on the Board of Governors. We're just assessing your professors, nothing to be worried about!" She smiled reassuringly. "I'd love to see you give those spells a try, and I'm sure Professor Marchand would too."

She'd been letting her quill continue to take notes too, on the situation with the young boy stitching himself, her niece stitching her robes, telling another child off for good reason, and the Professor's complete about face with the girl he'd chastised earlier. Hopefully she wouldn't run out of space for those notes.

----

And now her mum was talking to Zoryn. Embaaarrrassing. Please don't be embarrassing. Charlotte screwed up her face a little and hurried to gather together the patches she'd be working on. Needed to distract herself. It was so weird having her mum here.

As per usual when she wasn't thinking about it too hard, non-verbals came to her easily, and Charlotte had stitched a star cut out onto a floral square with suturis in her mind's eye, and an upward clockwise loop of her wand. She still wondered about if they'd all end up stuck together in a great big blanket.... maybe a picnic blanket. A giant one. She decided to do the other stitching around the edge of her square... it would look kind of nice, she thought. Her wand went up and into an upside down U shape. Suturis Flagellum. The stitching worked all the way around the square and it gave her an ideaaaaa..... could she do it from here though? How safe was this spell from a distance? Because Henry's heart shaped cut out on his square REALLY should say Char + Henry = ♥ or something like that!

Gaston smiled as Miss Toussaint thanked him. She was right, it was an awkward angle to aim a spell, but nothing he couldn't handle. "You're quite welcome, MIss Toussaint. It was no trouble at all," he said. It seemed she was getting the hang of the spell now, which he was very pleased to see, so he moved on. He continued wandering through the rows, offering praise and encouragement as he went. Miss Sparkes and Mr. Erikson each received a beam from the professor as they followed his advice and had success with the spell. "Much better! I knew you could do it!" he said.

Miss Morrison also earned praise for her work. "Nice spellwork, Miss Morrison," Gaston said, smiling. "And what a pretty design!" So pretty that he would've awarded her some pumpkin ink for her artistic eye, had he not given her some earlier! Miss Kettleburn had come up with a nice design too. "Well done, Miss Kettleburn!"

Miss Paton had moved on to practicing on actual fabric now and was having quick success with her spellwork. The professor beamed as he placed a vial of pumpkin ink on her desk. "Excellent work, Miss Paton!" he said. Mr. Whittebrook was making progress too, and he too earned a vial of ink. "Nicely done, Mr. Whittebrook! Don't worry that it's a little bunched up; that's normal when you're just starting out." After all, mistakes were part of the learning process. And speaking of which...

The professor's head whipped around at the sound of Mr. Hale's voice just in time to see him get poked with a needle. "Merlin's beard, Mr. Hale! You're not hurt, are you?" he said, rushing to the boy's side. He could already tell what the problem was. "I think the needle poked you because there was a lack of intent behind your incantation; magic can be tricky like that. You have to really mean the spell when you say it."

Gaston half-expected Mr. Blaze to mouth off when he told him off for not following directions, but to his surprise and relief, the situation didn't escalate further. He'd been a little annoyed at first, but he wasn't angry about it. The boy had followed his directions without sass, and that was all he wanted. "Thank you for cooperating, Mr. Blaze," he said. He smiled a little as he watched him successfully stitch fabric together - and not to his sister! "You certainly have the spellwork down!" He'd seen that before when he was attaching fabric to his sister's robes. "Keep it up and you'll earn some ink in no time!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He looked at his watch again. Good Godric Gryffindor! Was that the time?! It was well past five minutes! He resumed his place at the front of the room and clapped his hands to get the class's attantion. "Nice job, everyone! You've made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. If you still haven't finished with your fabric square, you'll have time to come back to it later on, but now we must move on..."

He gave the students a minute or so to find a stopping place and refocus their attention on him. "We have another spell to get to, but before we start casting it, you're going to guess which spell it is. Here are a few clues for you..." With a wave of his wand, the following words appeared on the blackboard:

This spell is not another stitch
It helps you when you're in a pinch
Important when you learn to sew
But has more uses than you know
Use to cut ties with mistakes
Or simply when you need a break
Let's see if you can now discern
the name of the charm you're about to learn!

The professor stood to one side to give the students a better view of the board and said, "Now, who thinks they can guess the answer to the riddle?" He picked up the bowl containing his dwindling supply of pumpkin ink, hoping to entice the students. This time he would be handing it out for answers he felt deserved it, not just the ones he thought his guest would approve of!

OOC: You have ABOUT 24 HOURS (9:30 AM GMT -4 Sept. 26) to answer the riddle!

Miranda was busy working with her Fabric and Practicing the sewing charm, Suturis.", along with the prescribed wand motion...
Easily the stitches appeared and held the felt cut out of a chicken onto the blue fabric she'd chosen... Maybe they'd be able to save their creations and she could owl it to Damon...

She wasn't aware at first of her brother right behind her... That is not until she heard his voice saying the incantation for the charm.. " What the?..
What are you doing, Eddie?, eyeing him as she turned around. she didn't trust that boy at all.. Still unaware of the fabric he'd sewn to her robes.


Then the professor was calling their attention back for the next portion of the lesson.... And He was speaking in riddles now?!... Now that's where Randa drew the line... She wasn't in the mood to solve a riddle!... She was in the mood to figure out what her brother was up to!

The time's up already? Merlin, but she's just successfully cast the charm non-verbally and she hadn't finished the stitches. But that wouldn't be a problem, Ava still could do that later on their main activity and she was still curious about what they're going to do. Putting her stitched fabric aside, the Gryffindor listened to Professor Marchand telling them that there would be another spell he would teach them. But instead of asking them another question, he gave them a riddle that needed to be solved. Okay, solving riddle wasn't her forte by the way.

This spell is not another stitch
It helps you when you're in a pinch
Important when you learn to sew
But has more uses than you know
Use to cut ties with mistakes
Or simply when you need a break
Let's see if you can now discern
the name of the charm you're about to learn!

Ava kept staring at the riddle while putting on her thinking face and stroking her chin. She tried to solve the riddle but Merlin, this was so difficult! "Professor, I am not a Ravenclaw so I'm not really good with solving the riddles." She confessed to Marchand. No offense to the Ravenclaws, they're great people with great minds and not to mention her own twin brother was one of them. Bless the house of eagles.

Kyle read over the board out loud, as it if would help him think better.

"This spell is not another stitch
It helps you when you're in a pinch
Important when you learn to sew
But has more uses than you know
Use to cut ties with mistakes
Or simply when you need a break
Let's see if you can now discern
the name of the charm you're about to learn!"

He thought about it. Well, there was the cutting spell, right? What was it? "Diffindo!" He shouted out. Wait, was that right? "Diffindo? Diffundo? Deffundo?" Was he getting closer or farther from the spell name? Did he have it right the first time? Oh, now he was getting confused.