Chaos.

That's what he was going to describe this lesson as. Chaos.

And for some reason, the man was smiling. It reminded him of a lesson in which he'd conducted a food fight in the hopes that it would encourage the students to spring up shields in order to protect themselves from the oncoming food. And now, they had to try and master the spell in the hopes of not being bitten by one of the gnomes.

Speaking of biting, there were a lot of cries heard, weren't there? Was this something to be concerned about? He did have something to help the bites and any blood but.... was this becoming too difficult for them? Or was it a healthy challenge? Another sweep of the classroom happened, his eyes taking in everything from the teamwork going on and the vines sprouting up everywhere.

And there, in the distance was Noah, the BoGer. Sleeping.

Surprised? He wasn't.

Deciding to leave him to his beauty sleep, Hirsch turned to the rest of the class and called, "Keep going, everyone! You have eight minutes left!"


OOC: You guys are doing wonderfully *double thumbs up*

This is just a note to say that the activity - and the lesson - will close in roughly 48 hours' time ^^

NOT HER HAIR!

Junia let out a little shriek and quickly muffled the sound with her free hand, not wanting to show she'd been caught off-guard. The tugging was annoying and uncomfortable but she had to keep her head clear so she could get rid of the gnome, she had-

OH MERLIN. TWO MORE.

"Immobulus!" The one tugging her hair was aimed at first, the feeling of the one now clinging to her middle sending her wobbling for a moment before she targeted it, next. "Immobulus!" The third, where was the- "Irretio!" Her annoyance was turning to anger and with that came power, she could feel it as she cast. That was good news for her, hopefully not so much for the gnomes.

Henry wasn't sure he was completely ready for their main activity just yet as he was still working on mastering the spell and hadn't yet been able to do it nonverbally, but he certainly was willing to try. And he was pretty much always eager for DADA activities because they were usually the best.

And finally his curiosity was satiated when the gnomes popped out of the box. So that was what was in there. He had certainly come across his share in his mother's garden but these ones were even more chaotic. They were actually kind of funny... but Henry really needed to focus here so he could put his spellwork to use!

He wasn't even sure where to start since they were just all over the place. But he aimed for a rocky spot and paused for a moment to try to concentrate. "Irretio!" He twisted his wand clockwise, then flicked it up and towards the nearest gnomes as the vines began growing up from the ground.

One minute he was half caring about doing the spell the next he was on the ground being beat by two gnomes, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" He screamed as one bit him.
They had no clue who they were messing with, who cared about the spell they were practicing he now wanted revenge for the bite. "Get off me." He punched at the one before gaining his senses and pointed his wand, "Incendio"

Burn you stupid thing!

He wiggled to try to get free and tried to get them away from him. Standing he pointed his wand, "Irrettio" Maybe the spell could be useful, pin them down and then burn them. He'd be fine watching them all burn.

Nathan was not amused. NOT AMUSED AT ALL. He wasn't going to be attacked again. These gnomes had it coming for messing with a great wizard like him! HAH! Nice try, you smelly gnomes! He stuck out his tongue at the grotty half-frozen gnome. How dare it gave him the rude finger gesture at him! Nathan didn't hesitate to point his wand at it again so he could cast a blasting curse but was rudely interrupted by the same gnome who bit his finger! He gave a few mighty punches, determined to get away from its hold on his leg. "DEPULSO!" He cast. "Get away from me, you freak!" There was no way he would miss this time."IRRETTIO!" he cast once more at the wild gnome. He watched as the vines grew fast from the ground, his concentration unwavering.

Under normal circumstances, Noah wouldn't have sat through the entire class; but Hirsch had put him to sleep a good three or four times now, which only gave him more things to write about in his report. Technically he was supposed to be filling out the form, but felt that it was too limiting and, quite frankly, too stupid for him to use. He preferred to just write out his thoughts in a sort of organized chaotic format, and would submit his paperwork just like the rest of the his colleagues.

Incidentally, the loudness of the children and the gnomes did wake him up and the man rubbed at his eye a few times before blinking and looking around. Once again "Professor" Hirsch had allowed chaos to take over actual instruction. Noah made sure to jot that down on his parchment as well. When would Rowena take him out of his misery? Never, he supposed; he was probably a terrible person in his previous life and is now being forced to suffer through this current one. Fantastic.

He spent a few minutes scratching out some unnecessary details that he'd written down while he was half-asleep, and glanced up every now and then to look at the miniature demons screeching like banshees. Oh, the gnomes were loud too. He shook his head, feeling very unimpressed all over again, and stretched his legs out before closing his eyes again. There was too much happening and he really couldn't concentrate on his scathing review of the model™ and the "class" he was teaching. Within a matter of seconds, Noah found himself sleeping shamelessly, feeling very comfortable in his chair.

When he felt the arms wrap around his chest, his first thought was that it was some scared first year. But once he turned his head enough to see, he saw that it was a gnome. A gnome with vines around its legs. Clinging to his back. Really? He didn't bother looking to see where said vines were coming from, since it was probably the ground like the rest.

Then Ronan heard Professor Hirsch say that they only had eight minutes left. Eight minutes!? Eight minutes to disengage the gnome from his back!? Okay, breathe. He could do this. It would just take some careful ingenuity. He couldn't reach the vines to cut them this time, so that was out. Maybe if he broke the gnome's fingers? He forced his finger under the fingers on one of the gnomes hands and quickly pushed them as far back as they could go, hopefully breaking them in the process.

Her vines spell actually had been able to trip the gnome!! Emmeline was half-shocked, half-pleased that her spell had sort of worked. The gnome was still crawling towards her on the ground, but since he wasn't running, the Gryffindor took a minute to catch her breath and look around the room. Mostly it was still all chaotic and crazy and stuff, but as her eyes traveled over her classmates, they soon landed on the old man in the chair (Noah). The one with the clipboard who was supposed to be writing about how awesome Professor Hirsch's lessons are, if Dora and other people's theories that he was a BoGer auditing classes were correct, but who was SLEEPING instead.

Emmeline bit her lip in brief indecision and RAAGE. Professor Hirsch was one of the verrrry few adults teachers that she actually liked, and he meant a LOT to Stasya. The last thing any of them needed was for him to get fired 'cause some senile old man couldn't stay awake while everyone was conquering the gnomes and stuff! She would do almost anything to protect her Defense professor -- and in this case, protecting him meant waking the old man up and making him see how awesome Professor Hirsch was. She didn't think the professor would get in trouble for anything she did -- adults looooooved blaming kids for stuff, especially when it actually was the kid's fault.

She'd probably make the old man's day. Plus, wasn't it good for old people to get exercise or something? Emmeline was faaairly sure that she'd read that somewhere, mhm. So as the gnome crawled towards her, the second year closed the distance between them and tried to scoop him up. If it was a real gnome, she'd NEVER, EVER do this sort of thing, but it wasn't so she felt zero worry about hurting the gnome. She didn't intend to actually hit or hurt the sleepy old man either, just to wake him up and get him moving and stuff. It was a solid plan.

The second year gripped the gnome tiiightly by the ankle, raised it over her head and spun it around and around like a biiiig top -- the same way she'd read about ancient wizards doing when they de-gnomed their gardens. Once she figured the gnome was spinning realllllllly fast, she aimed in the old man's general direction and RELEASED!! Her goal was for the gnome to land nearby the old man, but Emmeline felt her mouth drop open in semi-horror as she saw that it was actually on track to hit him! OOOOOPS!! She immediately started trying to think of a spell to fix her mistake and save the old man from getting a gnome-to-the-face, but she had a sinking feeling in her chest that she was wayyyy too late.

She had readied her wand, ready to cast another Irretio but instead... she cast "Arresto Momentum!" at one of the running or tangled up gnomes. Vi glanced around the room, watching literal chaos erupt. These gnomes.. There was Ace bashing away with the gnome that was giggling, Ronan had a gnome on his back, Maddie had a gnome on her leg, aaaaand the Board of Governors representative was fast asleep. How was the man sleeping? Her mouth dropped when she saw Emmeline release a wild gnome at the Board of Governor's representative.

Oh in Dumbledore's......

She must have been imagining it, right? Vi paused. No. She wasn't imagining it. Emmeline Sparkles, sweet Emmeline, had sent a gnome flying at the BoG member. Her hands covered her mouth momentarily and she tried her hardest not to laugh.

Hattie did have to say she was a little scared. She didn't want to hurt the headgirl, but she aslo didn't want her to get attacked by gnomes. It was a scary thing. But at least her spell worked.

Kind of.

A little bit. Well. The gnome was frozen at least. But the vines were kind of going up Kitty's legs. That had not been what she had intended to do. Maybe she really did need to work on her spell work. "Sorry Kitty!" The blonde murmured with a little frown. "Opppps" And then she figured she should probably stop her spells so the head girl would be. "Finite!" She murmured, shaking her head.

Okay. Moving on now.

Though her eyes were drawn to the flying gnome that was heading towards the other adult in the room.

Opps.

This could be fun to watch.

Oh no! Maisie wasn't ready for gnomes!
She hadn't even got the incantation right, leave alone the spell!

"Ir.. Irretio?" She whispered. A spark flew out of her wand.

Maisie went pale. She was going to get bitten, she knew it.

SPOILER!!: GNOMES! and Skylar

Quote:

Originally Posted by GNOMES!

The frozen gnome on the girl's (Rhea) wasn't going to go anywhere on its own. Maybe the encouragement was what the girls needed right now.

A thin vine shot out from the ground and latched itself around the gnome and the gnome only. The vine tried to pull it backwards and away from the leg but it simply wasn't strong enough to do on its own. Not with the thickness of the vine that was wrapped around the girl's leg.

Teamwork, ladies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Oops? Her vine got close enough and it seemed to distract the gnome as it froze in place? Were they allowed to cast other spells? Depulso maybe? She was almost sure she heard other spells around the room...

Try again, she heard Rhea say. Yes, all together and maybe it would be efficient in tying up the gnome and freeing it from Rhea's leg. Fortunately Rhea grew a vine around the gnome and didn't tie itself to the girl's leg.

"Irretio!" She cast again, focusing on growing another vine to latch onto the gnome. Perhaps once it was tied up enough, she and Sam could pry it off of Rhea?

It was still. not. working.

Rhea tried racking her brain for a spell that would allow her to free herself from the vine, just as Skylar attempted the Irretio charm again and Professor Hirsch announced that there were eight minutes left. ...Diffindo. That would work to cut the vine from her leg, right? If she could cast it effectively.

Then, suddenly, something flew over her head.

What the- Was that a gnome!?

There was no way a gnome would've been able to launch itself at such a height, which meant someone had to have thrown it.

In an attempt to see who'd thrown it, Rhea twisted round - as far as she could comfortably manage with a vine and a gnome attached to her leg. Her gaze fell on Emmeline, the young Gryffindor who'd thanked her after the incident with Olivia last year but now looked panic-stricken. What was she doing throwing gnomes across the classroom?

Infuriating! She'd always hated gardening back home because she never knew when a gnome would come running out of the weeds and bite her, so she'd always been slightly paranoid. But now they weren't even in a garden, and the gnomes were just attacking them randomly.

Harriet's spell froze the gnome, but unfortunately it also froze her leg. "GAA!" she screamed as she toppled over, unable to support herself with just one leg. Then the vines started wrapping themselves around the lower half of her body. Well this was just fabulous. *insert sarcasm.*

Thankfully Harriet stopped the vines with a Finite, so she was partly free - just with a numb leg. "Thank you Hattie!" she called out as the Hufflepuff ran to help someone else, meanwhile she was crawling across the floor to receive her wand. She couldn't be mad at the Hufflepuff for trying to help.

She got her wand back up from the floor (though her leg was still stunned) and pointed it up at any gnome who might think of taking advantage of her weakness. Nearby she spotted Maisie looking very scared. "Irretio!" she shouted, pointing her wand to the gnome closest to Maisie.

While Noelle was busy getting Ava's little gnoma caught up in her vines, another little gnoma had launched itself at her and was now clinging to her back.

"Oi! Geroffme!" Noelle said wiggling, trying to dislodge the creature from her back. That lesson was really fun. Because they were supposed to be practicing the Irretio spell, and using the vines because they wouldn't scare the animals more... Noelle decided NOT to freeze the bugger on her back.

Pointing her wand at the ground, She nonverbally cast it and sent vines streaking up. Now if only she could control how they got the gnome. She didn't want to end up tangled in her vines WITH the gnome. Concentrating (which was hard with a gnome on her back) she tried to make the vines wrap around him. Come oonnnn.

Luckily for the girl (Rhea), help was at hand.

A spell cast from another girl (Skylar) encouraged another vine to shoot out of the ground. It followed the path of the first vine and wrapped around the gnome and TUGGED.

A ripping sound sounded in the air as the vine around the girl's leg started to rip...

The use of the Diffindo spell from the other girl (Rhea) was exactly what she needed. It hit the vine at the place where it had started to rip and, after a much louder ripping sound, the vine was free from the ground and from the girl.

The two vines that were wrapped around the gnome were now free to send it flying backwards. There was a soft THUMP as it landed on the grass, rooted there and unable to move.

Well done, ladies.


__________


The boy's (Kyle) lack of concentration was going to start to cost him.

The flick did nothing for tightening the vines around the gnomes. Instead, the gnome who still had use of its feet started to wriggle. It wriggled this way and that until it was free from most of the vines surrounding it.

In a mad bid to try and get to the boy, the gnome started to crawl its way to him, dragging the other wrapped up gnome along with it.


__________


Son of a garden gnome was right.

When the girl (Jessa) reached down to grab it, the gnome leg go of her leg and grabbed onto her arm, instead. It scratched and clawed its way up her arm before settling near her elbow.

SWIIIIIIIING!


__________


The girl's (Junia) shrieking earned her a giggle from the gnome sitting on its shoulders. It tugged at her ears again, hoping to annoy her some more. TUG TUG TU-

All of a sudden, the girl's spell hit the gnome's foot and, frozen, it fell backwards and landed with a THUMP on the grass behind her.

The gnome clinging onto her middle started trying to swiiiiiing on her. The Immobulus Charm flew out of the girl's wand and missed the gnome clinging onto her middle by mere inches. Instead, it flew and hit the head of the third gnome who was about to climb up the girl's leg.

The force of the Ensnarement Charm cast caused a thick, strong vine to shoot out of the ground and wrap themselves around the frozen gnome's legs, rooting it in place.

Now she just had a gnome clinging to her to worry about...


__________


Gnomes rarely listened to humans, kid (Eddie).

Fire might not be the best way to tackle gnomes but it did the trick. The fire spell singed the biting gnome's hair and part of the boy's trousers. The gnome let out a loud GRUNT of anger and disapproval but before it could do much more about it, the Ensnarement Charm shot out at it.

But his spellcasting wasn't the only one cast. An older boy's (Henry) stronger vines shot out of a rock and the two combined spells did what one might not have: they wrapped around the gnome and rooted it securely in place.

Now if the younger boy could just do something about the gnome that was still clinging onto his leg, he would be free...

Meanwhile, the older boy might want to do something about the gnome that was flying at him from behind and clinging onto his leg. Claw, scratch, claw....


__________


Gnomes aren't polite, did you know?

The gnome that was clinging onto the boy's (Nathan) leg only clung harder, its fingers digging into the boy's calf. Clearly, it wasn't about to let go just yet.

But the strength of the Banishing Charm made the gnome let go of the calf it was clinging onto. It fell with such a large THUMP onto the ground that the gnome wasn't about to move anytime soon. This probably worked in the boy's favour. No sooner had the Ensnarement Charm been cast, vines shot out of the grass and wrapped themselves around the gnome.

Well done, kid.


__________


Careful ingenuity might just work in the boy's (Ronan) favour.

The gnome that was gripping onto his middle clung harder, digging its fingers into him. But before it could get a proper grip, the boy's fingers reached under him and started to pry it off. The gnome let out a loud and disgruntled GRUNT and before it knew what was happening, the hand had slipped off.

But one hand still clutched onto the boy's shirt for dear life.

All the while, the vine that was wrapped around the gnome tugged harder, pulling both the gnome and the boy downwards...


__________


There was a lot of fire in the young girl (Emmeline) and it showed.

The gnome that she had grabbed spun round and round and round, getting dizzier by the second. When she finally released the gnome, it flew with such a force that it might have looked like it had been thrown by someone much older and much stronger than a second year.

The gnome fleeeeeeeeeew...

.... and landed with a THUMP on an older man's (Noah) lap.

There was a moment when the gnome swayed, clearly confused by the sudden appearance of the new man. Then, sensing weakness, it did the only thing it saw fit.

It bit the man. Straight into that finger of his.

Wakey wakey.


__________


The use of Finite from another girl (Hattie) worked and vines stopped growing around the older girl's (Kitty) leg. Her leg was still frozen but at least she didn't have to worry about a clawing, scratching gnome or vines trapping her in place, did she?

All she had to worry about was getting rid of the gnome that was still frozen and latched to her leg...


__________


A gnome that had been running towards an older girl (Olivia) started to slow down drastically as the spell hit it. But the gnome still tried to battle the force of the spell, looking very much like it was trying to battle strong gusts of wind.

Losing defeat, the gnome, instead, ran towards one of the younger girls (Maisie). The sparks cast from her wand singed the grass around her and made the oncoming gnome pause for a second...

... and then it continued running.

There was a great leap of faith before it latched itself onto her leg.

SWIIIIIIING.

Thankfully for the girl, help was at hand.

A force of the spell cast from the Head Girl caused a thick vine to shoot out of the ground and wrap themselves around the gnome. In doing so, they also wrapped around the younger girl's (Maisie) leg, trapping the gnome against her calf, just like it did with the Head Girl. The gnome wriggled against the younger girl's leg, trying to free itself from the vines but there was no budging.

Maybe the three older girls (Hattie, Olivia and Kitty) could work together with the younger girl (Maisie) for this...

Teamwork, right?


__________


Having trouble, Prefect?

Gnomes hardly listened to what humans told them to do. If that was the case, gnome infestations wouldn't be a thing. So the girl's (Noelle) shouts only earned herself a giggle from the gnome that was clinging onto her.

Her level of concentration needed some improving. At her spellcasting, a very thin vine shot out of the ground and wrapped itself around the gnome's leg. It gave a great TUG to try and pull the gnome downwards but the gnome wasn't having any of it. It clung on HARDER, digging its fingers into her back in an attempt to stay on.

There was another TUG and the gnome started moving downwards, girl and all...

Unfortunately, Noah could not be vigilant while he slept. It was something he always wanted to do but could never actually achieve. As he slept - or, rather, kept his eyes shut so he could think, really, really hard - he imagined that he would awake to the classroom still in chaos with Professor Model™ nowhere to be found. What he did not account for was to feel a thump on his lap.

The man stirred, briefly, and was ready to fall back asleep when he felt a sharp pain in his finger. His immediate thought was why the finger? but he expected that this was another part of the insanity that was Hirsch's failed lesson. Wincing, Noah jolted awake and looked down to see one of the demons biting him - since when did they allow children to bite adults??? surely Hogwarts was really going down in standards - and he shook the thing off of him. He barely glanced at his hand but did in fact pull out his wand and set the little demon on fire. He had no time for children biting him, and would feel no remorse if it died suddenly.

Noah surveyed the room, looking for the most guilty creature there and spotted one of them (Emmeline) who looked like she'd committed the most disturbing crime in the world. Deciding that the best way to reign in a wild animal was to teach it a lesson, the Irishman flicked his wand lazily and cast the Ensnarement Charm on her, and watched, with mild amusement as vines started wrapping around her. He looked over to see if the previous child - he really didn't believe it was a gnome - was still burning, and debated if he should put it out or just watch.

Obviously he opted for the second choice.

After making sure that Kitty was okay, Hattie had run off to try and find another gnome to trap. That was when she spotted Noelle, who seemed to be having a bit of a bad time. She felt bad for her friend, and instantly stopped to help her. She stayed still for a little, waiting to see how the spells that Noelle was casting would work. She didn't want to repeat the mistake she had made with Kitty.

Oooh. So. Noelle's vines seemed to be helping. But the girl seemed to be going down too. Hattie decided it would be useful to try and help to get the gnome off of Noelle. She moved her wand over a rock near her, giving it a flic in Noelle's gnome's direction whilst saying "Irretio!" and then directing the vines in the direction of the gnome.

Hopefully that would help.

Maddie heard Emmeline complimenting her on her spellwork, but all the first year was able to do in return was give the girl a thumbs up. She was starting to feel like she was a magnet for gnomes, and that no matter what she tried to do, they were literally coming at her fasting than she could get them away. Then finally there was a breakthrough, and her Expelliarmus worked and blasted the gnomes backwards. "YES!" she cheered, fist pumping into the air. Now maybe she could make a run for it while she still had the time...

...or not.

Not even two seconds later, the gnome had found its way right back to her leg. "OH, COME ON!" she exclaimed, shaking her leg. If spells didn't work, maybe she could just fling the creature right off her leg. Would it hurt the little girl? Maybe she shouldn't be worried about that kind of thing, though. Just then, the professor announced they only had eight minutes left, which meant the gnomes would GO AWAY in only eight minutes time! "Thank Merlin!" she called out.

In the meantime... "IRRETIO!" she said, casting at the gnome still clinging to her leg. It was a last ditch effort to get the spell right at least once before class was over.

Remy couldn’t hold in the chuckle that escaped his lips as he watched the gnome he had all but catapulted, fly across the room. His eyes light up a bit as it seemed to disappear from his view - only for him to hear someone scream… Uhoh. He hoped that wasn’t due to him… but he couldn’t see them from here - and there were lots more gnomes running crazily around the room that demanded his attention.

Irratio! He thought, focusing solely on the thought of vines growing from the grass to trap one of the gnomes that was moving towards one of his classmates. Smirking as his spell actually worked this time, he almost missed two more gnomes that were running towards him.

… Oh no you don’t!

Immobulus! The seventh year thought as he drew the mountain like design in the air, hoping to freeze both gnomes before they even got anywhere near him.

Stupid Gnomes he would get them for biting him and now he had burned pants. Yes they would hope to not see him away from a professor because a killing curse could be in order (once he learned it and all). He glared at the one that he thought at first he got rid of, but soon realized it was the Hufflepuff badged boy.

"Thanks

He said quickly as he turned his focus on the one still clinging to him. "Get off" He tried to elbow it in the face and pointed his wand. "I'll cut off your arm." He swung his leg trying to get rid of the stupid thing but it wasn't budging. "Stupefy" He was hoping to move it away from his own skin before he started cutting off its hands so it wouldn't be able to do it again.

His focus on keeping cool and keeping his thoughts of destruction long gone with these annoying gnomes around.

The gnome she'd thrown seemed to be flying through the air in slow motion; it felt like it took FOREVER to land, and once it did... It hadn't landed next to the BoGer like she'd planned. No, it had landed ON the old man!!! Emmeline's eyes widened as faaaar as they could go in pure shock. She'd attacked an adult..

Honestly, she'd only meant to make a gnome alarm clock so she moved closer to the old man to say sorry or something. Which was the biggest mistake EVER 'cause HE SET THE GNOME ON FIRE!!!!! Emmeline screamed at the top of her lungs as the fire sprang up; she knew it was a dummy in her head, but all she could see was a gnome burning to death right in front of her. It didn't look fake and the noises it was making... And SHE'D done that to it. Or it was mostly her fault at least. Tears welled up in her eyes and started streaming down her face like mini-rivers. Hadn't she decided after the Niffler Incident with her father a couple of years ago that her new mission in life was to protect creatures?? That was the whoooole reason that she tried so hard in this class. And now she'd thrown a gnome right into another crazy old man's lap. Literally.

Emmeline let out another SCREAM really loud yelp of surprise when she felt super strong vines wrap themselves around her out of nowhere. One summer with Cami and she'd apparently forgotten all of the lessons she'd learned with her family, the first one being: never take your eyes off the threat. She struggled against the vines binding her arms to her sides and her legs together because she needed to RUN, but she wasn't making any progress. Her wand hung uselessly in her right hand, and she was still crying way too hard to say the words of a spell anyway.

And the old psycho man was watching the gnome burn and looked like he ENJOYED it. Enjoyed the smell of burning flesh, the pain and destruction and... Emmeline wasn't exactly sure when or how it happened, but in the next few seconds she was throwing up everywhere. And still the gnome kept burning, burning, burning...

She wanted to disappear.

Chaos was still erupting and it was as though time was running still.

Or maybe that’s just the way it seemed with the amount of movement in the room.

The man stood off to one side, one eye on the watch and one eye on the goings on of the room taker. Constant vigilance, you know? He watched as a gnome sailed through the air and landed straight onto the lap of the man who was meant to be auditing his lesson. And, what was more, the gnome had gotten a bite out of the man as well.

Amused? He certainly was.

"Three and a half minutes left, everyone! Keep it up, you’re nearly the-"

And then a number of things happened.

The yell from Noah wasn’t noted but it was hard to miss the sight of a burning gnome flying through the air. He watched as it sailed past, at a complete loss for words as to what he should say. But before he could do more than open his mouth, a scream punctured the air and he turned to look at.....

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

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.

Shock and fear settled in faster than you could say ‘vigilance’. Hirsch ran over to the now-entwined Emmeline, trying not to pay too much attention to the pounding of his heart or the icy sinking feeling in his stomach. "Oh Merlin, oh no...." Gnomes were jumped over, vines dodged and green eyes were set on the struggling, crying second year. If he didn’t know better, the man would’ve said that this was out of some kind of nightmare.

Being careful not to step in any of the sick, the man started hacking away at the source of the vine, using both his wand and his shaking hands. "It’s okay, I’m right here, nothing’s going to happen to you..." It was a few moments of struggling where he grew slightly more impatient at the rest of the vine around her that refused to cut away as easily. "I want you to take some deep breaths for me, okay? In....... and out......" Something that, unlike last time, he couldn’t do with her because of his focus on cutting the vines themselves.

Once she was free enough, he took a careful look at her face and eyes. "Are you okay? How do you feel? Do you need some water?" Was a visit to the Hospital Wing needed?

As for the one who’d made this happen, Hirsch stood up and looked over at Noah, eyes blazing. All thoughts about the audit and the fact that his future lay in the hands of this man right here flew out of the window. All he could think about was the fact that there was an upset and possibly terrified young girl standing near him and it was down to this excuse of a man right here. "How DARE you?! You do NOT raise your wand against someone who’s underage, unless you’re helping them."

Maybe he could write that in those ridiculous observation notes of his.


OOC: I forgot to mention that you haaaaave 20 hours left ^^

Keep up the amazing work!

Scarlett had been TOTALLY in to this activity - but not so in to it that she didn't notice that chaos that suddenly erupted all around her. She wasn't sure how the gnome suddenly CAUGHT FIRE, but she knew that that was NOT good. Gnomes were a pain in the behind, to be sure - but none of them deserved to turn into an actual baked potato. Jumping up, she ran at the gnome and pointed her wand at it. "Aguamenti!" she exclaimed, sending a particularly powerful jet of water at the gnome to hopefully put out the fire.

Ok, so THAT was taken care of. She looked around for the professor and found Hirsch attending to the young girl who was, for some reason, wrapped up in vines. OH. Right. That Ministry guy had done that. No, not Ministry...Board of Governors...what the WHAT? Were they ALLOWED to do that?

"Would you like me to escort her to the hospital wing, sir?" she asked the professor quietly. He looked like he might set the Board of Governor's guy on fire, and she did NOT want to be in his line of fire when he did so...

Okay but if this wasn't a sign, she didn't know what was. The fact this gnome wasn't running away or trying to go overly crazy to get away from her meant that it clearly wanted to be added to her collection. Any cuts and bruises she got from him would be carefully evaluated but for now she had to focus on how she would keep him--which....admittedly was proving easier than she'd imagine.

He wasn't trying to escape. Sure, he was a little hyper but it was good to get a lively one, wasn't it? Less likely to die? Er....disappear. Possibly being magic, it was unlikely it would die.

Again, Jessa tried grabbing at it, determined to take this one back to the lab she'd fashioned out of an old, disused classroom on the sixth floor.

Vaguely she was aware of the interruption the BoGer and Emmeline had caused for her Head of House but she'd been so busy trying to wrangle this thing that she wasn't entirely sure what it was about. All she knew was, the time was basically up and this gnome was still pretty free.

"Will I be able to keep him when the lesson's over, Professor? I'm not done with him yet."

In fact, she hasn't even started.

Vi's attention turned to the young first year (Maise) who had gnomes all around her. And one wrapped around her leg in a vine. Vi tried her hardest to focus, readying herself with a stupefy spell, but she didn't cast it just yet because she was afraid that she'd get the girl. She bit her lip and glanced around, looking for someone to help her out... Ah! There was Kitty there! "Kitty! Can you help? I think.."

Before she could finish that statement, she heard a scream. She turned around to find... Emmeline?!? Her blue eyes widened and she was about to rush over to the girl's side when Professor Hirsch intervened to help her out. Biting her lip, she watched as Hirsch helped Emmeline out and then turned his attention towards the Board of Governor's representative. What an absolute... Throwing things at children.... For shame.

In the meantime, she turned her attention back to Maise and then rushed over to her side. "Don't move too much, okay? I'm going to stun the gnome..." she said and then cast Stupefy on the gnome. Perhaps that would make it easier to remove the gnome....?