Now this was how one adapted a muggle game. Yes, he'd seen many variations of this game on the phone, but there was just something about doing it in real life that added something.

Anyway, Ronan took his time picking a group of bubbles to go after, finally deciding on a group of four in the very corner. "Wingardum Leviosa!" He carefully levitated his plane in the direction of his chosen bubbles and-

POP! POP! POP! POP!

Success! That was four red bubbles down....

“Thank you, Professor.” Etta replied, glad that she could do non-verbal spells with a lot more ease now. It had required a lot of hard work and effort but it had all been worth it. Casting the levitation charm, she directed the airplane upwards.. straight towards a cluster of yellow balloons.

.. And pop. She watched as another four balloons popped in a row, feeling a little pleased. Hey, this was way more easy than she’d thought at first. And fun too, obviously. She grinned and cast the rocket charm again. Non-verbally of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

He had only finished dealing with that minor crisis when a loud BANG caused his head to whip around just in time to see FIRE. His heart dropped and the color drained from his face. Jarring himself into motion he quickly drew his wand and extinguished the fire, leaving the remains of a yellow airplane. No need to ask who that belonged to... He pulled another yellow plane out of the box on his desk and gave it to Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne. "Great attempt, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne," he said with an encouraging smile, "but try saying the spell a bit quieter; that should keep it from igniting."

Quieter. Right. He could do that.

Probably.

Derf's entire existence was sorta always on Sonorus though so this was sorta easier said than done.

"Thanks, professor," he grinned sheepishly at the professor as he accepted his slightly singed paper airplane and shuffled himself over to a more opportune spot for launching it towards it up towards the balloons. Er...right...only those of the same color...um....

Sighing, Derf felt his stomach drop as he tried his best to make certain that he had YELLOW balloons in sight...but it was kinda hard when, you know, several looked a pleasant shade of the color. Really only shades of yellow and blue. Oh well...seemed like trial and error it was then. And given his skill with spellwork...it was unlikely to really make anyone all that suspicious.

"Alarte Ascendare," he whispered (oh hey looky that, he COULD be quiet!). Only his paper airplane hardly lifted out of his hand let alone pop any balloons.

Um....

Ruffling his hair sheepishly, Derf decided to give it another go. "Alarte Ascendare," he said with just a tiiiiiiiiny bit more gusto. This time the paper airplane DID shoot up and out of his hand up towards a cluster of balloons...only to have it bounce off and crash into the floor in a glorious nosedive.

SIGH.

Okay...so those were NOT yellow one then. Check.

This wasn't hard at all and the third year was bored quickly, but he was now focused enough to keep going. He knew how to act like he was enjoying things and how to pretend he was a good student. Today was one of those moments.

"Good job Natalie"

That was her name, right? Liam's sister? Edward made a note at some point to remember people around his house so if he needed them for something. He walked towards group of bubbles that were clustered together. The green was paired near other colors so he knew it wasn't going to easy.

"Windardium Leviosa"

Moving his wand he watched the rocket go towards the bubbles and bump the red, but it didn't hit it, he moved his wand and POP the first green popped for him. Moving his wand more so that the rocket did a zigzag around a few yellow bubbles and hit the next green with a pop.

Gaston continued wandering between the rows of desks, dodging the flying toy planes and offering words of encouragement as he went. Slytherin was still miles ahead of the other houses, and he smiled as he saw three of the Snakes (Eddie, Natalie, and Skylar) having more success with the bubbles. "Excellent work, you three!" Mr. Blaze also got an extra beam when he said something encouraging to Mias McKinley.

The other houses were fighting back, though. Miss Paton and Miss Kramer each got a beam from the professor as they popped more bubbles for Hufflepuff. [B]"Well done, ladies! And you're very welcome, Miss Kramer.[B] he said, returning her thanks for the earlier praise. Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne was doing much better with the ticket charm now; he had the spell down, he just needed to work on his aim a little. Gaston smiled."Much improved, Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne! I knew you could do it!"

Was it just him, or did Miss Cambridge seem a little... unenthused about the activity? Gaston's heart sank. He'd hoped she would find this class fun, but at least she was participating without complaint... and doing incredibly well! "Great job, Miss Cambridge!"

Now where were his Gryffindors? They really needed to pick up the pace if they were going to stay in the game! As if on cue, a series if red bubbles burst, and Gaston turned to Mr. Carter with a beam. "Nicely done, Mr. Carter!"

He glanced down at his watch. Was it that time already? " FIVE MINUTES LEFT!"

OOC: You still have ABOUT 12 HOURS to finish.

Three down, not a bad number to begin with and not when she could already spot another two in her sights. Jessa expertly maneuvred the paper airplane about, avoiding the reds and greens despite the knowledge she wouldn't have popped them regardless. It was another means of strengthening her precision with the spell so...why not?

Jessa waited until it was just under the pair of blue bubbles, not at all concerned her non-verbal levitation charm might give out. Her worry came with another attempt at the rocket charm.

You'd think that for the sake of the lesson, the Ravenclaw would at least produce the charm once, verbally, to prove to the Professor that she could in fact perform it but no, the young girl was much too determined to stick to her resolve and her resolve said she wouldn't cast if she couldn't cast it non-verbally. It was a huge inconvenience when she'd first began this form of training but she couldn't deny its effectiveness. Through necessity alone, she'd actually picked up a few of them in decent time.

The rocket charm...just happened to not be necessity.

Like earlier, she imagined the paper airplane suddenly shooting into the air...er....shooting higher into the air. She even imagined the way it crashed into the two bubbles and popped with them a satisfying sort of banging noise.

For all her focus though...the object only did another funny sort of leaping motion before careening toward the floor. Jessa caught it with another levitation charm, positioning it as she'd done before. "Come on Jessa, you got this." She muttered to herself. Perhaps she would stop waiting til her classes caught up to the spells she knew in order to begin learning them non-verbally. It was obvious that by this point, it would be too late. With only five minutes left, if she was hearing right, there was little chance she would grasp this spell non-verbally.

With a sigh, she flicked her wrist upward, leading the airplane right into the two bubbles she'd been aiming at earlier.

At least she got them. SIGH.

Popping bubbles this way was pretty fun. Now that the others were joining in the bubbles were popping left and right. She grinned hearing the compliment from the Professor. That only made her want to do even better.

“Windardium Leviosa!" With a swish and flick of her wand she directed her plane toward the top where there was another cluster of 5 blue balls. She had to move around some of the other planes to get to the top row of bubbles. But finally she made it all the way to the top and hit one bubble and the others popped right after the other.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

The popping of the bubbles was momentarily paused from Natalie when she caught side of Derf and got distracted by his hair ALMOST success attempt at popping some balloons. And even though it was a competition, she wanted to HELP him because he was her best friend and she thought he could use some friendly encouragement.

And apparently she was a master at spells now.

"You got it," she said with a smile, stepping up to his side. "Now you just gotta aim." She took his wand hand and demonstrated, you know, because THAT was necessary. Hand holding and such.

During said hand-hold, she heard a voice say good job with her name attached to it and Natalie turned her head to the sound of the voice and saw that it came from one of Liam's dormmates... who she never talked to...

"Err... thanks..." but also... why...

Anyway. She wanted to win kind of, so more bubble popping.

"Windgardium leviosa!" she said again, floating her plane up to another cluster of balloons until it popped four more. No homework for HER tonight!

Gaston continued to watch his class popping bubbles as the time wound down. Miss Primeaux and Miss Cambridge each got a smile and an approving nod as they succeeded in popping more bubbles for Ravenvlaw, but Miss McKinley got a little something extra. His bright blue eyes fell on her and Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne, and he couldn't help but beam. That was exactly the sort of kindness he liked to see in his students! "That was very nice of you, Miss McKinley," he said. "Two points to Slytherin for helping another student."

He returned to the front of the room and checked his watch. Just a few more moments, and... "TIME IS UP!"

He waited for the students to find a stopping point and turn their attention to him. "You've all done a wonderful job with this activity, but unfortunately there can be only one winner..." He quickly added up the scores in his head. "...and the house with the most bubbles popped is SLYTHERIN! Congratulations, Slytherins; you will receive ten points for winning the game." And no, he didn't have a Slytherin bias, thank you very much! They won fair and square, and the points given to Miss McKinley were the same as he'd give to any student who showed an act of kindness in his class.

With a wave of his wand, the remaining bubbles on the ceiling vanished, and another wave opened the door. "Class dismissed; enjoy the rest of your day!"

OOC: Sorry for ending things a bit early! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get on SS later to do it. Anyway, thank you for coming to the lesson! I'll leave the thread open for about 24 more hours for those who want to post their charries leaving.

The professor's praise only made Derf feel a bit more sheepish - though the validation for his improvement was appreciated - but it merely drew attention to an underlying problem that the Hufflepuff was not entirely open about. So he merely bowed his head in response and was about to go on about his attempts when Natalie came to his side and LITERALLY pointed his wand in the right direction.

"A-Aim...right," he swallowed, arm initially tensing for reasons but ultimately just letting her guide his hand. Oh. So those were the yellow ones. Got it. "Lli~bi~ffewuu," he grinned, slipping in a little Mermish as he flourished his wand. "Alarte Ascendare!"

This time his airplane went shooting up and connected directly with the balloon Natalie had guided him to and burst with a satisfactory soft POP. Grinning over at her as class was called, Derf gathered up his things, thanked the professor, and made his way out.

And yes, he would walk Natalie back to her common room if she wanted.

Seeee, she was being HELPFUL.

Natalie BEAMED at her friend when he slipped in some mermish, just to make her happy. As if she wasn't already in a good mood! And then Derf said the magic words and his plane went up and actually got a bubble popped! "See? You did good!" ~CUE MORE BEAMING~

Oh, and then she got EXTRA points for helping Derf? Well, that was cool. Natalie's cheeks turned pink at the Professor for noticing and awarding her for it. It wasn't that big of a DEAL, but she appreciated it. "Thanks, professor..." she said sheepishly, but with a smile.

Also, Slytherin won. Which was awesome.

"And thanks for the lesson!" she added with a positive chirp as she hurried and gathered her things before snagging Derf's arm and exiting the classroom.