Alright, so they were going to be decorating in the tank. Kirk began to think about having a Jarvey in one, though he would of course have to enlarge the size of the tank. This would be neat.

Kirk then got up from his seat when they were given the go-ahead and picked up the bag of dark-grey gravel, a set of blue plants, and the stone-faced statue head. Now this was neat. As for duplicating, he decided to start with the blue plant of his, it was smaller in size so easier to keep a focus on.

His eyes went directly towards the plant as he started with the flick wand movement, pointing it right on the plant. "Geminio." He repeated clearly, keeping focus on the image of the plant, with it's shape and colour as the familiar sensation through his wrist to the end of his wand made the connection.. Bam, there it was. The sheer size of the plant lessened the challenge. Now he had to try the statue head next.

Julie clucked her tongue. She..... Kinndaaaaaaaa knew this spell already, and that was cool and all but she'd been sort'a hoping for something new to add to her repertoire and really impress. Practice wasn't the worst thing ever, though, and neither were some easy points for Slytherin. Julie stepped up from her seat, waiting had been her first thought - give the others a chance and all - but when she realized the better items would be scooped up Julie hustled her way over to the desk where the plants, multicolored gravel and little sunken ships were stationed.

None of it really appealed to her, but that was okay. She'd make it work. Blue eyes swept across the items assembled and landed on the various gravel packets. the colors were kinda cute but none of them looked like they'd make harmony with the plastic plants. She scrunched up her little brown nose before picking up both a black bag of gravel and a brown bag. It would be easier to decide on neutrality when she'd gathered up the rest.

Tucking the bags into her robe pocket, Julie switched her attention to the plants... which..... kinda all looked the same. Humming thoughtfully, Julie picked up one and then another, checking the weight and the colors with critical eyes. The purple one with pink tips was kind of nice, and it'd go well with the black.. Yeah, yeah. Satisfied, Julie grinned as she tucked the purple and pink tipped plant under her arm before rummaging in her pocket and taking out the brown gravel to place it back where it had belonged. This was going a lot better than she'd thought and Julie realized as she looked at plastic skulls, ships and caverns that she was having a fair bit of fun.

Who would have guessed? the last was the easiest now that Julie had decided to add these to Barry the Grindylow's tank. The only one of them that would suit and that he could actually enjoy was the little bridge and so that was the one Julie scooped up into her occupied arms before making her way back to her tank. Carefully, Julie arranged the lot, pulling the plant front and center as that would be her first duplicate. Taking up her elder wand Julie gave a flick of her delicate wrist. "Gemino!" and just like that, where there had been one was now two. Satisfied, Julie brushed the two plants aside and focused her attention on the little bridge. She cleared her throat this time before giving a decisive flick. "Gemino." and the second of her decorations now had a neat little twin to go along.

It might have felt easy to her, but that in no way lessened the witch's pleasure in having performed the task just right and it showed in her satisfied little smirk. What was next? Was she meant to duplicate the gravel as well? Julie glanced at the tank and then at the little baggy in her hand. Was there enough there? Julie jiggled the bag, watching the gravel shift about to reveal the clear bottom of the baggy. No, yeah, that wasn't going to work. Julie set the gravel down again, making sure to push the plants, and the bridges aside least they be duplicated again- and gave her wand another quick flick. "Gemino." She said, watching as the spell took effect, increasing her gravel take by two.

There, done and done, and not too shabby at all.

Junia smiled at Etta when the Hufflepuff sat by her. It'd been quite a while since they'd hung out properly, so the fifth year was pleased to have some time with her friend, even if it was just sitting by each other in class. Next time she took a study break she was going to go find the girl and hang out properly for once. They had some catching up to do.

The first part of the lesson was easy enough and Junia hopped up when they were free to do so, headed for the bags of gravel. She selected one that was a rather brilliant shade of blue, deciding it'd look nice with the green lid currently on her tank. Next came the plants, which weren't especially interesting, but would do the trick. "Gemino." She duplicated the blue and purple one and set it on top of her bag before continuing on down the line of choices. Next up, decor. One caught her eye right away, as it reminded her of a palace. She smiled to herself and then duplicated it without much trouble, eager to take it back to her desk so she could set up the tank properly. "Gemino." There, done.

Once she'd returned to her seat, the Slytherin looked over her choices. She didn't want another decoration, but she did think another plant would help to fill the space in the tank, so she aimed her wand at the plant she'd already decided on. "Gemino." Then she began to lay down the gravel, smoothing it out with her hand. She liked the color even better seeing it out of the bag. Anchoring the bottom of the plants beneath the gravel, she positioned them in the right corner of the tank. The palace looking decoration was placed on the left side on a diagonal. Tilting her head, she considered the setup and then nodded her head, satisfied. Not too shabby. Not at all.

Patrick glanced over at Skylar, "guess we better get started, or I guess I should." Pushing back out of his chair he walked over to obtain the objects that were required in order to set up his tank. Making his way over to the table he tried to remember which items it was that he needed. One gravel, check. One plant, got it. One decoration, done. After getting each item he set them on the table and looked them over before deciding he might as well try to duplicate them himself.

Really, how hard could that be? Could he really screw it up that bad?

Looking down at the plant, he decided to start there. Juh-muh-eh-oh, that didn't sound right in his head. juh-min-ee-oh, his accent, Kentucky was going to cost him house points for not being able to say the spell. Raising his wand he took a deep breath, "Gemino" closing his eyes after the word left his mouth. He said it right, right?

Fear, coursing through his body. He was terrified that he would be dead from a misuse of the spell, or worse that it would be some misshapen object. Peeking out of one eye he looked to see that there were actually two plants on his table now, "cool," he mumbled before looking over at the decoration. He pointed his wand at the decoration and stated, "Gemino," keeping his eyes open and watching a second decoration appear. He felt accomplished and nothing could make that go away while he waited on more instructions from Professor Stewart. Or hints on how to get better at Transfiguration from Skylar, or tips on being an older student for when he was one.

Had the creatures or the stairs held her up? "Both,"she told Cami with a small grin. Really, the stairs weren't her friend at ALL.

The timing thing had made sure that Emmeline hadn't had a chance to properly look around; she'd really only noticed the blue-lidded tank on her desk. But apparently there was a whole table full of stuff, which was going to be cooool probably. Except...all this aquarium business probably meant creatures, which was sort of probably not good. She reallllly didn't want to have the same problems she did in Potions in Cami's lesson too. 'Cept Transfiguration wasn't ever as boring as Potions was... Still, she hoped that they weren't casting spells ON the creatures. Though she trusted Cami to make sure the creatures were totally safe and stuff if they were doing something like that.

Chewing her bottom lip a little nervously, Emmeline shuffled up to the previously covered table and grabbed a bag of light blue gravel first. Next up was a pretty purple and blue type plant, annnd the last thing that she grabbed (having to balance it on her arm, actually) was the skull-type decoration thingy. The second year walked more slowly back to her seat with her haul and wasted no time dumping the gravel in.

There was a new spell written on the board for duplicating things - cool! -- but Emmeline knew better than to think that she'd learn that in any decent amount of time. Still, she pulled her wand out, flicked it at her plant thing and said hopefully: "Gemino!" Predictably, nothing happened. After another three whole tries at the spell, she'd managed to duplicate a single, tiny leaf off the thing. Putting her wand away in frustration, the second year immediately started scanning the classroom for an older student who wasn't all busy -- or someone her age that was faster at learning new spells, mhm...

"Very well, thanks Professor," nodded Vi as she took her seat and then set up her work station. She took out her journal and quill and ink, ready to take notes. Before she could slip her bag on the back of her chair, she heard someone call out to her. Vivian! she thought as she glanced up and saw her Snake friend taking a seat next to her. Oh now THIS would be fun. "Hey!!! What's up?" she grinned with the biggest smile. It had been TOO long since the two of them had hung out last and they needed to fix that.

Before any sort of catching up could be accomplished, it was time to begin the lesson! So they would be choosing decorations, gravel, and plants for the fish tank in front of them? Huh! Cool. This wasn't what she had been expecting but the whole idea of this lesson sounded.... awesome.

Before heading up to choose her items, Vi stayed at her desk and continued writing in her notebook about the spell. Gemino. Juh-MIN-ee-oh. Not Geronimo... as she desperately wanted to say... Merlin. She'd been watching too much Doctor Who lately. The wand movement was simple. A flick of the wand at the target and it essentially duplicated the item. She practiced speaking the incantation first. "Juh-MIN-ee-oh. Juh-MIN-ee-oh. Juh-MIN-ee-oh. Gemino," she said. Perfect. Now she would come up and look at the items and then select one.

She made her way to the front of the classroom and eyed the various decorations that were on display. There were so many colours of gravel... and plants ! How would she ever choose. As soon as she saw the deep blue-purple she had to go for it. Her eye was immediately drawn to it so it was the one she HAD to have. Selecting that gravel, she turned her attention towards the plants. Ooh she did like the blue one there... though she also liked the red one. Choices... Choices... She decided to duplicate both. With a flick of her wand, she spoke, "Gemino! Gemino." And then both plants were duplicated. Now she was truly lost. She could have an epic pirate ship, a sunken ship, a set of .... circles with holes in them ...yeah she didn't know how to describe it. She opted for the ship with the holes in it and the mast down (the one in the top right corner of the photo). "Gemino!" she spoke, duplicating the ship she had selected and then headed back to her desk. She wasn't sure if she wanted another decoration. Maybe another plant would be nice but she liked the idea of the ship being the main centrepiece.

As she placed the items on her desk, she noticed that Emmeline looked a little... frustrated? Vi made her way over to her younger housemate. "Need some help?" she offered with a smile before turning to the items in front of them. "Which ones do you want?"

Thankfully, before she’d had to question her absence, Emmeline had showed up to class and Stasya sent her bestie a smile as the lesson had begun. It had gone to show how well Professor Stewart knew her friend that the late arrival hadn’t really been questioned, and it also helped her relax because she knew her friends weren’t feeling uncomfortable. She could just focus her attention of the mysterious tables, which she’d already decided didn’t have creatures hiding underneath because there wasn’t movement. Or lots of noises. Because if she was a creature, she knew she wouldn’t like being all covered up and not be able to see what was going on. So that just made her more curious, and her grey green eyes had widened in anticipation as the professor had said she wouldn’t make them wait longer than they had to. Yay for not having to wait, and also, it sort of made the tanks make sense.

Because creature enclosures obviously needed decorations, to make it homier. She had barely waited for others to pick their supplies before she had gone up to get a closer look at the things she got to choose from. The things she’d get to duplicate, as she let herself take a second to look at the spell the professor had written on the board. That seemed awfully useful, being able to duplicate things. She could make more toys to entertain Dobby and Albus. And the other creatures down at the barns. But first, she had to learn the spell, and that meant she had to choose the things for her tank.

First, she picked the castle with the pink and yellow details. Because yay castle, and also, it matched the pink lid of her tank. After that, she turned to the plants and eyed them. The blue and pink-purple one was awfully pretty, but she settled on the green one with the pink flower instead. Maybe she could get the other plant from one of the other students if they wanted to share. Finally, she chose the kind of aqua blue-green gravel so there was contrast, and returned to her table. She didn’t think two castles really fit in her tank, so that meant just trying the spell on the plant.

“Geminio,” she said softly to herself, practicing the incantation until she feltlike she was saying it right. She didn’t want to accidentally cut her plant in half or something by saying it wrong. Plus, she kept looking at Emmeline as her bestie seemed like she was getting frustrated. It put a frown on her face, but she had to focus on her own plant. Maybe if she figured the spell out she could help her afterward. So her plant first. “Geminio,” she repeated, flicking her wand at the plant on her own table, concentrating as hard as she could on making a second plant. Except, on the first try, all she managed was to duplicate the flower. More pink was good, but she wanted a whole plant. “Geminio.”

She really wanted another plant to appear.

Plants? Was this a herbology lesson? Was she in the wrong place? Oh no. It was transfiguration. Just with plants. Okay. She could do that. When told to, Hattie got up and headed to get her things. She picked up one bag of gravel, a random plant, and one of the little decorations. "Ooh cute" She mused with a smile. She liked cute decorations. Holding her things in her arms carefully she headed back over to the desk. Now to get working! She could do this. Or at least she was really hoping that she could.

Now first she needed to make sure that she duplicated her things. First she held her wand in the direction of the yellow plant (Best colour in the world of course) and she carefully flicked her wand at the plant, whilst saying "Gemino" And it duplicated. Yay two plants. Smiling, she repeated this with the decoration that she had picked up. So that she had two of each. Perfect! Now she was all ready to get tank all set up!

She began by putting the gravel onto the bottom of the tank. She did this carefully, so that there was gravel all evenly across the bottom. She wanted to make sure that it was all across the bottom. So it looked good. Then she had a little moment to pause before she arranged her plants and two items of decoration in the tank. She wanted it to look really pretty. Eventually, she settled on the two plants in the middle, with the funky boats on either side.

There. It was perfect.

See, this is why she could definitely get behind Transfiguration and Professor Stewart. She wouldn't be like the others who thought the young girl's education was a guessing game--again, they all knew the curriculum, why did so many try to force her into guessing what she'd been learning in any particular lesson. To say the gesture was unappreciated would've been an understatement.

Jessa hopped from her seat with her other classmates and headed over to collect the plant and decorations she would be needing for her tank. It was curious, wasn't it? Collecting all this for a plant, which left her thinking the plant would be turned into something more...alive--as alive as magic could make something anyway.

While she grabbed at things, the Ravenclaw tried to figure out what it could be.

To be completely honest, the decorations looked like something you'd find in a fish tank, especially after considering she also needed the gravel. Would the plant be a fish or some other form of aquatic creature? There was a thought.

Back at her desk, Jessa carefully poured the gravel into the tank before turning to all she had grabbed. Gemino. Yeah she knew that one. Used it a time or two. "Gemino." Two mini pirate ships. "Gemino." Two weird head looking thingies. Did everything have to be duplicated? The plant too, yeah? Jessa reached next for the oddly coloured plant and took aim as well. "Gemino."

Did she need more decorations? Sure, she'd been running out of space soon but she couldn't help thinking something was missing.

She fussed at the tank for a bit, trying to arrange them around in it to see if she could fit anything else in but when she got to really looking at it, just maybe this really was enough. Not too crowded but no too spacious. Depending on what would end up in here, she would adjust accordingly but for now she figured it was alright to leave it the way it was.

Another reason for Skylar to enjoy Transfiguration? Professor Stewart didn't make them guess about the lesson topic. Sure she could see the advantages of suspense when it came to certain classes, but sometimes, suspense was completely unnecessary delay from the important things: like, education.

Another thing of note, they had no guest visitors this lesson? It was almost as if the Board knew that Stewart was alright and didn't need to be bothered observing her.

Approaching the table, Skylar eyed her blue fish tank curiously, before selecting the small gravel bag containing mostly black, with a few scattered multi-colored stones. The fake red plant. And the ambiguous pile of rocks? Hole-y rocks? Stones?

Duplicating spell; that one could actually be quite useful and one that didn't seem too challenging, except she did kind of have a question about its use. "Professor Stewart? When you duplicate something, I was just curious, how real the second item is? Like it looks identical, hopefully, to the original item, but if the original item had some sort of magic within it, would that magic carry over to the duplicated item?" Did that question even make sense? It made more sense in her head, for sure. "Also one more thing, do you mind if we change the color ourselves?"

Back to practicing; the fifth year glanced over at her younger neighbor (Patrick) and grinned at his cool. It seemed he had a knack for Transfiguration? And in her periphery she caught this look of frustration from Emmeline nearby and was about to see if she could maybe offer help - despite having not even duplicated her own items yet - but Olivia was offering first.

Although Staysa looked to maybe being struggling too? She'd gotten extra flowers though, but no extra plant. Since Patrick seemed to be alright, Skylar picked up just the red plant and went over toward the younger Gryffindor (who was as tall? taller than her?). "Need some help? You look like you almost got it... Just, try picturing the whole plant in your mind, as you're doing it the spell." Setting her red plant down on Staysa's desk, Sky set to demonstrate, closing her eyes a moment, then opening them. "Gemino" Oops. Bad example older student she was, because while there was a second red plant, it seemed to only have two branches stemming from it, instead of three. "uh, yea, kind of like that." Maybe she should have practiced on her stones first, which over there on her desk.

"Good afternoon, Professor," called Kitty cheerfully as she entered the transfiguration classroom and moved to sit somewhere in the middle.

She noticed the colorful plants and decorations right away, and wondered if they were going to be transfiguring something into a fish. The decorations looked a lot like fish tank decorations, she knew this from having visited Petco and Wal-Mart (two famous Muggle stores) with her parents.

When they were sent to collect one of each, she grabbed the decoration that resembled a stone building with a purple top. "Gemino!" she said loud and clearly, replicating another which she left in its place.

Next she grabbed a similarly color patterned tank, replicating it as well - before moving on to get a purple plant...

The professor called the class to order and the mystery was soon solved. Well at least it was partially solved. When the hidden objects were revealed, they happened to be things to put inside of their tanks. So maybe they were transfiguring something into fish after all.

Shay went up to the table and chose some pink gravel, a green plant and a pretty castle with some pink trim. She wasn't sure why she went with the pink color scheme, since she wasn't a huge fan of the color. Somehow though, it just seemed right. Having gathered her materials, Shay went back to her seat.

Now it was time for a little interior decorating, fish tank style. Shay opened her bag of gravel and poured it into tank. Then she smoothed it out on the bottom of the tank, making sure that it was evenly distributed. Once that was done to her liking, Shay took out her wand. It was time to do a little duplicating. Shay pointed her wand toward her little green plant. Giving it a flick, she said, "Geminio". Success. She now had two little green plants to add to her tank.

One down and one to go. Shay directed her wand toward her castle and repeated the wand movement. "Geminio", she said one more time. Fortunately she was familiar with this spell. Her one castle became two identical castles before her eyes. If only she could perform this spell on herself. It would be nice to be able to be in two places at one time. Although, two Shay's at one time might be a little too much.

Now all Shay had to do was decide where she wanted to place everything. After thinking about it for a moment, she went to work. She put one castle on each end of her tank and then placed her plants strategically in the middle. After making a few minor adjustments, Shay was satisfied with her handiwork. Her tank was ready to be home to some fish........she hoped. Now did anyone need help?

So now that the blue plant was duplicated already, Kirk didn't need to make another one. He opened the bag of gravel and carefully poured it into the tank before smoothing it out to cover the bottom area of the tank of any spaces.

Afterward Kirk then placed one of the blue plants inside the tank. Only now he had to duplicate the statue head decoration. He wondered if two of the heads would fit in alright? Maybe he could trade the duplicate with someone else who wants one. Well, no use worrying about it beforehand so his next target was on the statue head.

Clearing his throat, Kirk did the flick movement with his wand onto the statue head. "Geminio." He focused on the look of it as he concentrated on replicating all of it. It was larger than the plant so it was a challenge to remain his focus. Eventually he began to see double with his vision of said statue as it appeared to separate.. before he lost focus. Only part of the statue head decoration was duplicated as part of the face cracked. Time to try again.

This spell should learn to work better, mhm. Emmeline moved on to the staring approach -- where she STARED at the plant she wanted to duplicate as she performed the spell -- and finished flicking her wand and saying, "Gemino!" to no effect AGAIN. Apparently the plant wasn't going to be intimidated into being duplicated or anything useful like that.

Letting out a loooong, put-upon sigh, the second year glanced around the room to distract herself see how everyone else was doing. Stasya seemed to be doing pretty good, which brought a smile to Emmeline's face. Plus, Miss Skylar had moved over to her bestie's desk to help out too. She had just been about to call over to Miss Skylar and ask if she'd help her too when Miss Olivia came over!

Emmeline gave the older lioness a biiiig grin and chirped, "Hiii, Miss Olivia! I'm trying to duplicate this plant and this skull thing, but the spell is being reallly mean." She pointed to the blue and purple plant and then to the skull hidey type thing currently sitting all innocently on her desk. She couldn't resist sticking her tongue out at the stubborn items a bit, 'cause they were being dumb and resisting her terrible totally awesome spellwork, mhm. She didn't really, truly think that it was the items' fault or the spell's fault, but it cheered her up a little to think of the problem that way -- sort of like a game or something. 'Cept the dumb items were WINNING. The twelve-year-old turned wide, pleading eyes up to Miss Olivia, doing her best to imitate her cruppy. The older girl would wanna help her now, right??

Getting up from his seat to go collect his supplies - because he did not really trust himself to summon things from across the room just yet - the third year first collected a couple little colorful packets of gravel and then went to look at the decorations and trees. Blinking and furrowing his brow a moment, he glanced back at the board with the spell written upon in and then back to the gravel.

"Professor?" he asked shaking the packet in his hand for no real reason. "How come we are...you know...doing the Doubling Charm in Transfiguration? I mean like...instead of..." He glanced back down at the packets in his hand. "Like...a spell that would turn these into the little plastic trees...or some of the decorations?" Since the colors were kinda the same and stuff. Was that how transfiguration magic worked? Color consistency and stuff? He really didn't know...but he was kinda hung up on the irony. What with previous term's discussions over what was and wasn't considered transfiguration causing confusion and stuff. "Just seems...kinda neat. Dunno...turning stone into plastic or something....or helping it take shape."

Plus...he was a little terrified of what might happen when he actually tried this charm. Like...he had some pretty lucrative VISUALS.

And there was still the mystery of what was beneath the other sheets...

Vi smiled at little Miss Emmeline and nodded, listening to her explain about where she was at with the spell. She chuckled as the younger girl stuck her tongue out at the spell being rude towards her. And then there were those wide, wide, wide eyes glancing up at her. Obviously she couldn't say no to that but she hadn't been planning on saying no to Emmeline anyway. The girl was too cute not to say no with or without the big pleading eyes. "A rude spell? Let's see what we can do," she chuckled. Her eyes noted the leaves that Emmeline had conjured up before. "You did duplicate a leaf. That's progress." Seriously. It was a good job.

"So you have to really picture the object in front of you in your mind," she said as she focused on the plant that Emmeline had chosen. The blue plant. "So we have the blue plant in front of us. You've focused on one leaf.... Maybe try to focus on multiple leaves and then the branches that connect them to the trunk.." Well trunk-esque? Something like that....? Hopefully Emmeline was following...?

"Like this..." She took a glance at the plant in front of her and then flicked her wand, "Gemino!" Vi watched the blue plant duplicate and turned back to look at the younger Gryffindor.

Olivia had gone over to help Emmeline, which meant that Stasya could focus even more on her own things to duplicate. Except her plant still seemed like it didn’t want a twin, because even after the second try she’d made to cast the duplicating spell, she just had more pink flowers but still decidedly only one plant. It was definitely frustrating. Plus, she also definitely got distracted by the question that Derf had asked. Maybe the duplicating spell wasn’t really transfiguration. But then, why was it being so difficult? Either that, or her wand had resorted to making flowers again, which had been cool the first time, but she really wanted to accomplish this spell and lots of others. Not just constantly make flowers appear. Especially since before now her wand had cooperated. Dueling and stuff. Providing water for her pets.

The plus side was the fact she’d already decided she didn’t need two castles. So she just had to accomplish the spell on her plant. Her plant that was defying her with all the pretty pink flowers but no second plant. She glared at it for a second, but before she could try the spell again, she heard Skylar’s voice coming from next to her and looked over. “But what if I was picturing the whole plant?,” she asked, turning her attention to the red plant as the older girl started to demonstrate. Well, sort of demonstrate, but at least she’d gotten another plant.

She still nodded. [b]“Maybe they don’t have to be exactly alike?”[b] Because she did have a second plant now.

In complete agreement with the Professor, Remy nodded his head. ”Sounds great, thanks.” Next stage here he came…. Though he was pretty sure it was more research. Just as well he didn’t mind it that much.... Especially since he acutally wanted the outcome. Unlike homework, this was for him. It made all the difference some how.

Grinning at Henry and Rian as they took their usual seats close by, he looked back to the Professor when she started the class. Looking over the long tables, he shot Rian a look; curious considering the purple tank that sat in front of him. Activity! Perfect. He always loved the practical part of class better. Heh. Whoops.

Standing up and tapping Rian’s desk, Remy made his way over to the designs and gravel and picked up the two closest bags of gravel uncaring of the colour. He aimed for the purple plant for himself though, liking the idea of it matching his tank and he picked up a second bright coloured plant as well…. and then he looked at the designs and he couldn’t decide between what looked like an entrance to a castle and a shipwreck… so he picked up one of each.

Returning to his seat, he gave one of the bags of gravel to Rian, the bright plant and then grinned innocent. ”I couldn’t decide between the ship and the castle… so you can duplicate one and I’ll have swap you.” Innocently winking at his best friend, he slipped back into his chair before taking out his wand. Okay, lets do this! He thought before eyeing the three items on his own desk.

Geminio! He thought once, flicking his wand at the bag of gravel before he grinned as he watched the second bag appearing on his desk. Hmmm. As good as that was, they were a horribly bright yellow - which he didn’t like against the purple plant. At all. So, he held his wand up once more. Colovaria! He cast, changing one of the bags to purple. Then he cast it again on the second bag, again getting purple gravel.

Repeating the Geminio spell on his purple plant, Remy grinned as he suddenly had two of the plastic plants. Perfect. Right, now to duplicate the castle-thing so that he could give one to Rian. Geminio He thought, once again flicking his wand at the target. With a grin, he watched it duplicate. Picking up the second castle, he turned to Rian and did a swap - taking her second shipwreck so that he could put it in his own tank alongside his castle, plants and gravel.

Taking the lid off of his empty fish tank, Remy picked up the first pack of gravel, tore the corner and then emptied it onto the bottom of the plastic, then he did the same for the second pack of newly-changed-to-purple gravel. Then, he placed both purple plants into the gravel at opposite sides of the tank. The Shipwreck went just in front of the plant on the right side at a forty degree angle. The castle went on the left, closer to the front than any of the other decorations.

Satisfied, he nodded. Grinning he happily looked around the class to see how everyone else was doing… taking special note of how Rian, Henry and Zara were doing. Obviously. They were all important… and their tanks looked awesome.

Well, this was an interesting task. Etta got up and made her way over the table to collect her supplies before heading back to her desk, eyeing the various items. A bag of gravel, a plant and a lovely piece of decoration. She sat down, setting them on her desk carefully. Okay, what now? They had to create duplicate items, yeah? She stared at the wand movement and incantation written on the board before immediately noting it down on her parchment for future reference.

First, she carefully poured the gravel into the tank before focusing on the remaining two items on her desk. A plant and a ship. She started with the ship first, taking a deep breath. “Geminio.” She casted the spell with a flick of her wand directed towards the ship.. and there. Another ship. Great. Next, her attention shifted towards the plant. The prefect repeated the spell, Geminio, and with a flick of her wand, there was another fake-plant. Awesome. The spell was simple enough.

Now, how was she to decorate her tank? She hesitated for a moment before placing both the plants inside the tank, pushing one to the right side and the other to the left. She placed both the mini-ships somewhere close to the centre.. heh. She took a step back and looked at the tank closely. Looked pretty enough, yeah? Oh, YEAH. Not too bad at all. She kept adjusting the decorations for a little while, waiting for the class to move on.

Once Professor Stewart called class to order, Henry was brought out of his daydream, at least partially. His plans were pretty exciting so he couldn't completely erase them from his mind for the time being, even if he wanted to. But he would do his best to pay attention in class; he did like Transfiguration after all.

So, would they be doing something with fish today? Henry already guessed as much with the tanks on their desks, but the rest of the materials they were supposed to collect seemed to confirm that. He got up with the rest of the class and got a few things from the table before returning to his seat. He had this little hut type of thing with a palm tree, a green and red plant, and multi-colored gravel. He had no problem casting Geminio, in fact he could do that one nonverbally. And he wouldn't mind having two of those plants, but he didn't think he needed two of the same decoration. Maybe someone nearby had a different decoration that they could each make a copy of their own and then trade their duplicates.

It seemed that Remy had the same idea... though with Rian and not him. He shot him an insulted look, though he was very much kidding, and quickly cast the duplicating spell on his hut-tree combo before seeing if Zara wanted to trade any duplicate she would have of a decoration. His plant was next, which he didn't care either way about having two of the same or two different ones, but he cast Geminio on that as well before pouring the gravel into his tank and placing everything else in just so.

After making her way around the room once more Camilla picked up the last remaining bag of gravel, the last plastic plant and the remaining stone castle. Returning to her desk she dumped the gravel into the little tank she had sitting there and changed the color from orange to a blue and bronze. The little red plant was silently duplicated and the color of one of them was changed to gold. Placing both plants into the tank she added the castle right in the center of the tank.

Once she was finished she turned her full attention to the class. "Amazing work everyone! I really like how a lot of you are working on a color scheme for your tanks." Very much like how she was doing with her own. "It makes me very happy to see a lot of you working together and helping one another." Yes, she saw those older students helping out the younger ones and other students swapping their items with friends.

"Those of you that are still working on setting up your tanks you have a few more minutes to complete that. Those of you that are finished we'll be moving on." Leaning against her desk and crossing her arms she looked around to see that most everyone was finished and others appeared to be almost done. "What is an aquarium? Why do people people keep them inside their homes? How would you care for one properly? How do aquarium's help us or the creatures that live inside them?"


OOC: And we're moving on to the first set of questions! Feel free to have your kid answer one or all of the questions asked... no matter how silly the answer we'd love to hear what everyone has to say! I'll be moving on in about 24 hours

Kyle raised his hand, hesitantly. "An aquarium is used to house fish or reptiles, I think. Caring for them properly includes cleaning them out. I don't know how aquariums really help us, but I know watching fish inside of them calms me down a little bit. Like, the big ones do at my mediwizard's office." Well, doctor's office, but he wasn't about to say that he went to a muggle doctor. He didn't know how the other students would react.

Patrick was working on his tank, setting the plants inside at different ends of the tank and setting decorations in the middle. The gravel he would set in last, so that way he could be sure that everything would stay in place. He heard the Professors question and grinned, he knew why you would have an aquarium at home, fishies. Raising his hand he thought back to his friends who had fish growing up, "To keep water animals in, like fish, snails, frogs, turtles." Keeping them clean, well that was another story that he wasn't to sure about.

The set up of the aquarium she'd chosen only moments ago had already been discarded in favour of an entirely new one. It was the hardest thing to make your mind up at this age and what looked good before shifting in the seat could suddenly look like a disaster waiting to happen for whatever ended up being placed in here.

This was what occupied the 14 year old, until her friend's question. Curious blue eyes lifted to the Hufflepuff and she readied herself to explain that the charm was simply a means to an end in this Transfiguration lesson, so they could appropriately accommodate whatever they were transfiguring--as this was what she'd thought--....but then the Professor said that.....and suddenly the Ravenclaw was confused. Had the Professor meant for this to be the spell taught for today?

How...curious.

Jessa raised her hand, brows knitted in obvious confusion. "But Professor..." She began, albeit a little hesitantly as she tried to figure out what exactly was happening here. "Gemino doesn't conjure anything and wouldn't fall under the branch of Transfiguration that does such a thing. It causes an object to duplicate itself. It influences the behaviour of that object to make it multiply--charms infleunce how things work and behave. Conjuration deals with making things out of nothing. In this case we've got the materials, we didn't make these from thin air." None of her charms texts had ever mentioned Gemino making something where there was nothing. "I don't suspect it's transformation either because we haven't changed their properties to make them something else."

The question about the tanks were all but forgotten in the young girl's confusion and admitted distress. "Curses fall under the category of dark charms." Still charms, so she still didn't understand. "And our Charms Textbooks always list it as the doubling charm. It's on the curriculum for Charms, I've already learned it."

So...this charm was a means to an end in this lesson. They would be getting to the actual Transfiguration and until that happened, the child would settle down and not have both Derf's question and the Professor's response rattling her brains too much. She did still wants a response though.........because Gemino was very much a charm. Perhaps Professor Stewart was yanking their legs to see who'd been paying attention. It was an exceedingly clever way of keeping them on their toes. Jessa was glad she'd caught on.

No way the woman would be serious about something like this. Settle down Cambridge.

Yes. Settle. Maybe by answering the question. "Aquariums make it easier to replicate the creature's natural environment so you can keep them safe and healthy while enjoying the luxury of keeping them in a home that in no way resembles their natural habitat."

Distracted for a brief moment when Professor Stewart answered hers and Derf's questions, she nodded. That made sense actually, though, that the magic wouldn't transfer.... or would it? She had the keen sense that Stewart had been withholding some information about its use in her answer and yet, she could see why. So another smile and a nod, when she got confirmation to change the colors. She'd decide what color to change things too in a moment; for now, she had a Staysa to coach some more.

Wait, hmm, she was picturing the whole plant? Well, then again, as evidence from her little blooper, exactly alike wasn't in the cards even if one did picture the whole plant. "Um, hmm, maybe," overhearing Olivia talk to Emmeline, "Maybe you just have to focus on building the plant? The trunk, the leaves, the branches? It is a conjuration spell, so building it in your mind, rather than just picturing it whole... And yes, maybe they don't have to be exactly alike. It's a good start though."

Back to her own desk, "Gemino," she cast on her bag with black and multicolored rocks. Good, extra rocks now. "Colovaria" she cast on her lid to her fish tank, watching it turn a pretty shade of pastel green (instead of the original blue). Perfect. Pouring her rocks into the aquarium, Skylar smoothed them out carefully with her hand.

Oh, Stewart had some questions for them. "Aquariums are meant to create a habitat similar to ones own natural environment. But they also, while aesthetically can be pleasing to the eye, are constrictive on the creatures."