Jessa was a stark contrast to the apprehension currently running through two of her group mates--ironic, in truth, given the level of anxiety that ran through her at any given moment in time but there it was. It never occurred to her to conceal what they were doing or make up excuses because in her mind there was nothing wrong. The Professor had animated his mouse and they had animated their own. Six of one half dozen of the other really.

Rather than be hung up on his questions or relieved when he smiled and gave them his blessing, Jessa grinned up at the man, pleased he'd thought their idea was original. "Thanks Professor!" It was simple but effective.

Thankfully, by now Abra had done drawing the line through the maze for their little rodent friend here.

With the Professor already moving off, Jessa twisted back into the right position in her seat, leaning over the table to get a look at the maze. "Nice work, Abra." He almost seemed effortless when he'd done it, even if she suspected that had more to do with her paying him little attention while the Professor was there.

"Alright, time to watch it do its thing."

The Fifth Year placed the fake rat into the maze. It hesitated a moment but once it spotted the line it was off. Nice. It was always real nice when things went according to plan.

That was exactly all Matt was waiting for.

As soon as the Slytherin girl started talking with the mouse - lol - the Gryffindor sat back down and watched. Would that even work? Part of him hoped it didn't, because that would be too funny, but the other part of him couldn't care less whether the mouse would get to the other side without magic or not.

He ate another mini cheesecake of his own and sat there... watching...as sloooow progress was made...

He grinned a cheesecake-y grin when the Slytherin girl gave him a repulsive look. "Want some? I bet you'd enjoy it more than that mouse." That wasn't even real.

Patrick looked at Zae, he did remember her now from the quidditch tryouts. He watched her mouse move through the maze, or just bump into the wall. Well at least he wasn't the only one who was having a bit of a challenge with getting the mouse to do what it needed to do. "Honestly, I had the same trouble with mine. Had to leave a small trail of cheese cake crumbs in order for it to actually get the big piece."

He shrugged a bit while looking over at Vi wondering if she had noticed why it was doing that and wondered if she had any input.

Um...yeah. He had temporarily forgotten about Matt's tendency towards messy eating. He was better at hiding his repulsion than Zita, however, solely responding with a returned "What's up?" Speaking of the Slytherin, he could think of four words she needed to hear: sit down, be humble. Again, he wasn't about to say that aloud. "Hello." was what he said instead.

Ah, so they simply had to get the mouse through the maze? Okay. But it seemed easier said than done. "Maybe if we used the cake crumbs like breadcrumbs and left a trail to the center? They could use the crumbs from Matt's eating instead of destroying a perfectly edible (read: delicious) cheesecake.

OOC: Sorry this took so long! My new laptop took longer than expected to set up.

So Maxton had clearly picked the slowest mouse known to man. The poor thing had almost made it once through, but now they only had five minutes. And sure, the professor had told them they were doing great work, but still.

Fortunately, things were beginning to pick up. "Hey, it made it!" Or.. he? she? It. "Good job, little fake buddy." Halfway sarcastic thumbs up for the mouse. Finn was about to put the mouse back at the starting point, but then he paused. "Er, think we need to run another cheesecake through for a stronger scent first?"

Night could see why the professor didn't use real animals. Too much risk, honestly. Students would take them out as pets. With a charm, that could happen too, but they would eventually revert back to their original state. It was just a charm. Would saying that help or would she come off as rude? She had a different idea.

"Over the summer, we can go to Diagon Alley and buy a similar one. For the rodent area in the common room. I mean, unless you get clearance to keep her in our dormitories." Hopefully that would work.

When it was time for class to start, Jessi gave the professor her undivided attention. She listened as he explained what their first task of the day would be. Getting more excited by the minute, the first year couldn’t wait to play with the toy mouse. Annnd for the first part, no magic was involved. Now that was right up her alley.

Following instructions, Jessi went back to the snack table and got one of the little cheesecakes. Back to her seat she went and waited for her turn to use the maze. Finally, her time came and she placed her treat at the end of the maze. Jessi made a mental note of the exact placement, since the professor said it had to be the same every time. Now it was time for the fun part. She went and picked out a green mouse and brought it back to the maze.

Even though the mouse wasn’t real, he was kinda cute. Jessi was really getting into the activity, so she decided to name her mouse. “I’m going to call you Lucky”, she said, and placed him at the entrance to the maze. “Alright Lucky. We’re going to have some fun now.” Hopefully the toy mouse would learn a little something in the process.

Jessi went into cheerleader mode. It was her job to encourage her mouse and get him to the end of the maze. “Come on Lucky. Follow me and you can have an awesome snack. Can’t you smell it?”. It was at that moment, Jessi realized how ridiculous she was being. Of course a toy mouse couldn’t smell. Well this was magic after all. Maybe he could.

Lucky started moving, but didn’t seem to inspired to go very far. Jessi had an idea. She retrieved the remnants of her cheesecake and took several little bites. “Mmmm. This is so good. You can have some too, if you keep going.”. Jessi tried to get Lucky interested in the maze, but he seemed content to hang out in the front. “Luckyyyy. You’ve got to trust me. I’ll help you get to the other side.”

Jessi didn’t want to tease her mouse, but she needed him to het moving. Breaking off another piece of her cheesecake, she dangled it in front of Lucky like a carrot. That got his attention. As she moved it along the maze, the mouse began to follow. Slowly but surely, Jessi led Lucky through the maze until finally he reached the end. “Okay, you can have your treat, but next time, I can’t help you so much.” Lucky had been so focused on the cheesecake, he probably hadn’t paid attention to which way he was going. Jessi would have to train him up really fast because the professor had just called the 5 minute warning.

"Sure!" Why not? Perhaps they could have two mice go through the maze and see which one got to the cheesecake quicker. It could be the ultimate showdown of mice and cheesecake. They'd figure it out more. Just as she answered, Zae had already confirmed that Patrick should indeed bring his mouse over.

She remained silent, watching the mouse struggle to make its way through the maze. It kept on bumping against walls. Upon hearing Patrick's comment, she nodded. "Yes, leading it with a few crumbs would help the process go smoother," she agreed with that. "Or maybe if we rubbed a little bit of cheesecake along the path?" Taking a small piece of cheesecake, she rolled it between her hands and then spread it along the pathway, wondering if the smell would help the mouse. Then she crumbled up a few pieces and placed them along the trail.

"Perhaps that'll work?" she offered, before trying to keep an eye on the mouse. Now would it play along or continue bumping into walls?

Zoryn was SO proud of her contribution to the group that she hardly even registered all the rest of what had just happened. One minute she had been devouring a whole plate of cheesecake-cubes, the next minute she was giving one away for the activity, and the NEXT FOUR MINUTES Jessa had come up with a genius plan that Professor M didn't sound all too fond of at first.

Repeat: Huh?

Zoryn was EXTREMELY confident in Jessa and also in her own debate skills, so she wanted to chime in to answer Marchand's question. Fortunately, before she could come up with some excuse, Jessa had already saved the day !!! Tbh Zoryn didn't really understand it at first, but NOW she had it. Same spell, just a shift in intent. This is why Jessa was their group's leader. Mhm.

The Gryffindor wouldn't have minded drawing on the maze, but since Abey technically hadn't done anything yet it was probably better that he did it anyway. SEEEEEEEEEE. Teamwork. Zoryn liked teamwork SO much 'cause it meant she didn't have to do as much real work, y'know? Lessons were super exhausting. How come quidditch players couldn't get excused from them? Practices were exhausting enough. And on top of all that, they had to LEARN too? Ridiculous.

Her attention was brought back to the table (again) when Jessa placed their mouse at one end of the maze. Zoryn wasn't sure how it was gonna work, but again ZERO doubts. She had sooooo much Faith in Jessa. Mhm. Mostly because the girl was RAVENCLAW.

And

And

Annnnnnnnnnnnd....

"AYYYYYYYYYY!" Zor threw her hands into the air in celebration of their victory. That was AWESOME!!! It wasn't often that she succeeded at something in a lesson, so when it happened... It was a VERY big deal. Did the rest of her group feel as accomplished as she did? 'Cause Zoryn was ready to call it a day and take a nap. That was enough work for one lesson. THANKS !

"You owe me a cheesecake, mouse."

Also, important. Y'know?

Not that the mouse could really hear that. It was just the sentiment that counted.

Okay… wait the cheesecakes wasn’t actually for them? She was confused. Should she hack it up now? Yep never again… she was bringing her own snacks to classes. Some Professors seemed to be okay with eating in their classrooms hints always having snacks for them in lessons. Juni was having a major teenage angst party right in the middle of the lesson.. well more like right from the beginning actually.

The fourth year took the piece of cheesecake and places it at a random spot in the maze. Next she got up headed to the front and picked out a purple mouse. Of course she picked a purple one. She headed back to her seat, sitting the mouse at the starting point of the maze.

Watching her mouse she directed it toward the cheesecake, it had gotten off of track a few times. But Juni poked it bpack in the right direction whenever it had gotten off track. Finally when her purple mouse had found the cheesecake, may she shouldn’t have placed it all the way on the other side of the maze from the starting point. Did she have time to try it out again?

Oh great, Cam got the cheesecake! Bel watched as he put it in the maze, gave him a bright smile, and then looked at Alessandro. That was a good question. WOULD the mouse just go?

"I think its... charmed to... just go." Bel suggested with a little laugh. "If not then I think we're out of luck since I don't know about you guys but I have no idea how to make that happen."

She looked at Diandra when the older girl spoke and nodded. Coaxing somehow maybe the smell was good enough? She watched when Diandra took the yellowy- orange mouse and put it in the maze. Trying it first WAS a good idea. And... oh.

".....do you think our mouse is defective? Oh... wait what if we help it out with some little bits of cheesecake along the way? Like.... a smear here and here," Bel pointed at the bits of the maze which seemed to be giving the most trouble, "So it knows to keep going?" The professor had said nice start, but now it was the five minute warning. "We're going to run out of time, I'm going to try it." Bel said.

She put her fingertip in the cheesecake and with the resulting cheesecake goop on her finger, she went ahead and put tiny smears of it just past wherever there was a fork or a weird bit to encourage the toy mouse to go the right way and also to know what cheesecake smelled and tasted like.

.....


that was if toy mice had sense of taste and smell. Welp.

"Okay mouse, go!" Quickly before time was up!

What did she do to deserve that side eye, Diggory? The prefect was innocent. So innocent, she could just smile at her dorm mate.

Actually, Vivian didn't really have much to offer to her desk buddies. They were doing pretty well even without her doing anything, but that was mostly because it was SKY and ACE, and it seemed like things were always done well with these two. And definitely, she agreed with Ace's idea. It was easier to guide the mouse when it knew the smell of the cheesecake. But y'know, she'd want a bite of the cake later. Maybe after the activity, she'd grab a slice because why not?

"Take a right, Sky," the blond said. Well, she didn't do much in the planning process, but she had paid attention when Ace's did that reverse hop thing. Maybe a little bit, but yes. Vivian then scanned the maze path for the route towards the cheesecake. Err... yeah, it was starting to get confusing. Help.

Gaston continued his rounds for the next few minutes, observing his students' work and giving praise as he went. "Great job, you four!" he said to Jessa, Abra, Junia, and Zoryn's group. "Looks like your plan worked well!"

More praise was also given to Katy, Natalie, Maxton, and Finn's group, Hattie, Rylee, and Shera's group, and the duo of Hanna and Daniel. The group of Bel, Diandra, Alessandro, and Cameron received an encouraging smile, as did Zarina, Olivia, and Patrick's group; Ace, Skylar, and Vivian's and Zita, Matt, and Ronan's.

Some of the students who'd decided to work alone were doing very well too! "Brilliant, Mr. Kenway!" he said, beaming. "Nicely done, Miss Velasquez!" "Great job, Miss Primeaux!"

He was making his way back to the front of the room when he came to Night and Emmalyn, who he couldn't help but notice seemed sad. He didn't like that! Sad students made him sad too! "Is everything alright, Miss Walsh?" he asked softly, giving her a sympathetic look.


"TIME IS UP, CLASS!" he called as he stood beside his desk. He picked up a box he had hidden behind his desk, and with a flick of his wand, several small cages floated out of the box and landed on the students' desks. "Please put your mice in these cages for now; we'll be using them again later."

He gave them a moment to redirect their attention and follow his instructions before continuing, "Don't worry if your mouse didn't complete the course. The main goal of the activity was to get it familiar with the maze so it will remember it later on." Yes, class, his emphasis on those particular words was a clue to the subject of the lesson. "Now, let's say we wanted to magically make the maze more challenging for the mouse. What are some spells we could use?"

OOC: You have ABOUT 24 HOURS (6:15 AM EST Jan. 26) to answer this question!

Oh duh. Skylar glanced over at Mr Head Boy as he spoke up and she regarded his words thoughtfully, cupping the fake charmed mouse had he spread the cheesecake bits over the maze.

Skylar was about to set the mouse back in the maze but apparently the familiarizing bit was over and so instead the sixth year returned the mouse to the cage. Not that she was opposed to holding it; it was fake and wouldn't harm her. Anyway, attention back on Marchand a moment as posed a question for them.

Magically make the maze more complicated? Was that magic on the mouse or the maze? Staring at the man thoughtfully a moment, she raised her hand finally. "is it possible to maybe magically charm some obstacles in the maze? Like a mini cat in its path... or water squirting out from one of the walls?"

Having been preoccupied with his sixth run of the maze, Garreth was slightly startled by the professor's voice booming across the classroom. He really had to be less jumpy. Maybe there was a potion for that. There was a potion for everything. Anyways, it was time for Garreth's little green mouse to take his place in the cage, and just for fun, he gently placed the mouse on the table and created a cheesecake trail leading into the cage, which the mouse dutifully followed. "Good work, buddy." he baby-talked at the critter and closed the latch on his cage.

Ooh! A question from the professor? Spells for giving the mouse a hard time with the maze? Hmm... He raised his hand.

"Well, Professor, if we wanted the mice to struggle with the maze again, we could use Obliviate to simply make them forget the layout, but I suspect from your earlier presentation that that would defeat the purpose of today's lesson." he answered with a laugh. "But we could probably use The Confundus Charm!"

As Lucky nibbled on his cheesecake treat, the professor called time. Jessi was disappointed that they hadn’t had time to go again, but what could she do? When a cage appeared on her desk, she opened the door. ”Sorry Lucky, but I’ve got to put you in here for a little while.”. She picked up the green toy mouse and placed him inside the cage. Then she put she last of his cheesecake inside with him and shut the door.

Turning her attention back to the professor, Jessi listened as he asked a question. She thought about it for a minute and then raised her hand. “Maybe we could use the Daydream Charm. That way, the mice could see things that weren’t actually there. The maze could look different and they would probably get confused.” See, she had been reading. Since Jessi didn’t know how to perform many charms, she figured she at least needed to know about of a lot of them. One step at a time.

Maxton scooped up the pink mouse and set him carefully back down in the cage the Professor had provided at their desk. Apparently, they'd be using the mice later on in the lesson but Max figured it might be a good idea to swap theirs for an alternative. He had been rather slow through that maze.

The Professor asked how they could magically make the maze harder and Maxton was going to suggest the Confundus charm until an older Ravenclaw boy beat him to it.

There was no way he was about to raise his hand and provide an answer unless he was absolutely sure it was right and Maxton was out of ideas.

Harriet had quite enjoyed this lesson. It was quite nice to do things simply and without magic. Though this was a charms so she knew that they would need to use magic at some point. The task was fun, and it had meant that she had gotten to know some younger students too. It was nice to make new friends. Hattie remembered fondly that she had loved knowing the older students when she had been younger, so she hoped that she two girls she'd worked with were happy too. But they were moving on now, and so she paid attention to the class, after putting her mouse back into the cage.

Hmm. She thought about it, trying to think of how they could use magic to make the maze harder. She wanted to think of a good answer him. Eventually she put her hand up into the air. " guess you could use Obscuro, to obscure the mouse's vision as it goes around the maze, thus making it harder

Kye did as instructed and put the mouse away. With a thoughtful expression, Kye thought about the question. Yes, she definitely agreed with confusing the mouse, or a spell to create obstacles.

"We could use a spell to maybe shift the maze around a bit? Ooh, or a disillusion charm on the cheesecake? There would still be the scent, but it would still confuse him." Kye was thinking out loud now... she wished she had more spells coming to mind. She could visualize what she wanted to do, but the spells were tip of the tongue.

Rylee watched very closely as Harriet used almost the same technique she had to get the mouse through the maze again. The scent of the cheesecake really seemed to help the little mouse find it's way and she was going to keep that in mind. She was having a good time working alongside the older girl and her fellow first year Shera.

It was over much to soon however as the lesson moved on. Already having Cheesecake the mouse in hands made it much easier to get her inside the little cage. "Sorry, Cheesecake. I'm sure I'll get to play with you again soon.." she whispered setting the cage at the corner of her desk. Being as quiet as possibly she very quickly moved to her original desk but just to grab her bag before returning to sit by her group once more. Pulling out parchment and her quill she was ready to take down any notes while she thought of an answer to the professors question. "There's the Jelly-Legs curse," she answered softly wrinkling her nose a little. Not that she would use that on the mouse... even if she were able to cast it.

Miranda had listened carefully to the professor's instructions and did just as they had all been told.. Her mouse got rather good at finding its was way through the maze. It only needed to back track once as it learnt it's way. It has nearly made it through the entire maze when Professor Marchand stopped them and posed a question.

Hmm? What charms could they use to make it more difficult.... There were so many charms that could be used... " We could use an illusion charm, Sir. ", she said after being called upon.

As he approached, Emmalyn tried her best to keep the tears from spilling from her sad brown eyes. Night was right, maybe she would be able to adopt another mouse, but she LOVED this one. Sure, she knew it wasn't truly real, but she didn't care. "Sir, please don't take Rose away." She pleaded, with the saddest look her little eleven year old face could make.

Then he announced they would be taking the mice away, for the time being. She instinctively held little rose close to her body as she saw the cages float up from the box and land on the desks. Not wanting to get in trouble or, Merlin forbid, lose house points, she very reluctantly placed Rose inside the cage. At least she was still on the desk with her.

A few tears fell from her eyes and slowly slid down her cheeks. She didn't even bother wiping them away. She knew she would be saving her ugly cry for later, when Rose was gone.

"Sir, I suppose you could make a few of the walls appear to be solid, when they are actually openings. Kind of like how we got on the the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 3/4?" It was her best idea, and it wouldn't hurt Rose. The other students were already commenting on things that made her stomach swirl. Obliviate? Confundus? Jelly-legs curse?? Nope, she wouldn't be doing any of those to Rose.

She watched the mouse as Ronan spoke and she did like the idea.
"Yes that could at least train him to go that way and look for the food." Though as they went to try it Professor good looking started talking again. She crossed her legs and turned to the front of the room. Mr. Fill my face could put the mouse back since he took it out.

She wasn't fully sure what charm would work that hadn't been talked about yet,
but she looked at the maze and tried to think of something. Running through all the spells in her head. "What about a duplicating charm where you could duplicate the cheesecake and place it in multiple places. I know we have many treats here, but if we didn't."

She kept looking down at the maze though thinking.

Scarlett frowned. She didn't like the idea of making mice perform for any reason, and now they had to think about how to make it MORE difficult? All the ideas the class came up with just sounded so...cruel. Making them confused? Jelly legs jinx? BOOOOO. Boo to ALL those ideas. She tried to think of the least obstructive thing she could and then raised her hand.

"Maybe you could charm some of the walls to move? So after a few seconds they moved, making the mice confused?" she suggested. It still was a terrible thing to do to them, but at least it wasn't painful or MEAN, like squirting them with water.

She couldn’t lie, despite already knowing what the outcome would be, Jessa was still pretty proud of their lab rat and the way things worked out. There was nothing like a successful experiment to wake a girl up. Although, to be fair, a failure would’ve woken her up too with arguably more success. Obsession was a dangerous thing and it was the most potent fuel when it came to her. There was just something about trying and trying and trying until you cracked the code.

Anyway, the man definitely had her more attentive than she’d been when she walked in earlier. Why couldn’t every charms class be another experiment? They could find innovative ways of getting things done or they could study outcomes. Merlin she’d never be late to class then—not that she was now save the odd time or two but you got the idea.

Jessa waited for the cage to arrive at their desk then plopped the little guy back inside, content with the promise they would get to use him again. All that told her was there would be more experiments making this officially one of the best charms classes ever. Right now she was perfectly in her element. They were discussing theories. This was life.

“We could mimic the moving staircases in the castle within the maze, causing the walls to move about as well. Constantly changing, which would then make the paths constantly change. That’d be pretty challenging.”