It was probably not the most grown up and mature thought, not for a proper fifth year like Miss Chloe Kettleburn, but all she could think about was how MUCH she wanted a little pumpkin paperweight. It would look so darling on her desk. And what else could she turn to stone to use as a paperweight? A feather might be cunning.

But first to master it. Chloe drew the incomplete 'D' with her wand, a bit jabby and stunted until the motion felt smoother and more natural. Over and over and over, until she finally felt like she could make the wand motion without jabbing herself or a neighbor in the eye. At least the incantation was pretty simple, without any hidden dipthongs or difficult vowel sounds. DUR-oh. DUUUUUUR-oh. Like calling Derfy from across the room and getting surprised halfway through his name. The thought made her grin, and Chloe looked for Derf to see if he was close enough to share. Nope.

Re-ver-TOE. Okay, easy enough.

He made sure to pay close attention to the girl's wand movement, and mimicked it as she demonstrated it to him, his eyes growing larger when his quill had, indeed, turned back to its initial form. And then... it was back to stone? He'd been too fascinated to notice that she'd cast Duro non-verbally, once again awed by it. When would he be able to cast non-verbal spells? Merlin knows, he'd tried, but was never successful. There were just certain things that books couldn't teach him, and he felt this was one of them.

But back to Reverto. Nodding enthusiastically, he picked up with wand and copied the girl's wand movement, focusing on turning his quill back to normal, and spoke clearly, "Reverto!" In just a moment, his quill was no longer grey, but back to its usual pristine white.

... he had to touch it to make sure it was back to normal.

Turning to look back at the Slytherin, he beamed at her. "Thank you so much for helping me!" Now he could freely practice on his own possessions.

Beth opened her eyes in time to watch Skylar teaching Daniel how to cast the reversal spell. Still, she was going to use the spell they had learned a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, it was a good thing she had accidentally turned the lace on her shoe to stone.

Pointing her wand at the shoe she gave her wand a gentle swish motion like the start of a cursive M, but only the left half of course…and spoke the spell ”reparifarge” she watched then as her lace turned back to a lace and turned her attention back to the quill.

”Duro” she tried again this time with her eyes open. Nothing – oh wait, she forgot the wand movement…hopefully no one saw that.

Whoever came up with the 'third time is the charm' was a big fat liar because Dorian was on his sixth attempt and still he failed to perform the spell. At this rate, little first years would be able to do it before him and he did not want that to happen.

It was a good thing that one of his traits was perserverance and that he wanted to get things right, preferably at the first try but after two years he had learned that magic was not a 'first try , succeed' thing. Which bothered him a lot.

He aimed his wand at the quill on his desk again, made a half shaped D and said "Duro!" Something incredible did happen this time, Dorian could have sworn that part of the feather on top was turning in to stone. He touched it with his hand and could not help but grin when he realised that he had done it!

He picked up the feather and showed it at Rylee. "Rosie! ...i mean, Rylee... Look!" he held up the half stone feather with a twinkle in his eyes. This was BIG for him okay!

It had only taken a cast or three before Jessa grew tired of watching things go to stone with nonverbal magic. As she tended to do, she began to drown out the room of people stationed around her. Derf's accident, that kid needing to get stuff undone, the whole lot of it. Should something more stimulating arise, she may have been tempted to pay attention but for now...there was really no reason.

Lowering her wand, she decided she was through with the exercise. Her quill was now stone. Her textbook was now stone. Her inkwell was now stone. There was only so much she could do.

Reaching into her pocket, Jessa fished out an empty phial she'd been carrying around since morning and placed it before her on the table.

To the outside world, it looked like she was doing nothing but staring at it, lost in thought but actually she was opting for a bit of wandless magic. Of course she didn't expect it to actually work, her severe lack of practice being the biggest hurtle, but she had to start somewhere and this seemed like as good a time as any--in time specifically allotted for learning. Merlin knew that when she left this class, she'd be busy again.

For several moments, Jessa sat there, focusing her will and her intent but she wasn't particularly discouraged at the lack of seeming progress. The non-verbals had been the same when she'd first began learning them and now she did them more often than she bothered with incantations,

It was all a process and she liked having projects to work on.

Harriet had to admit she felt a little anxious when the professor said the NEWT students should be doing non-verbal magic. She couldn't do it. Not properly anyway. It wasn't a thing she was overly concentrating on. She didn't really feel that she had any need to need to do it. In most situations she would probably just be saying it out loud. And when she considered her future, she was applying to a muggle university. So unless she could do wandless magic too, the non-verbal magic was a bit pointless. She did feel a little anxious about not being able to do it. What if the professor brought it up? The prefect really did not want to be embarrassed in front of the whole class. So she decided she'd practice it a little here. Practice helped? And maybe she'd finally get it if she kept on practising.

She pulled a spare quill out of her bag and put it onto the bag. It was something she wouldn't mind ruining. She started her usual practice routine, by saying the spell out loud a few times. She liked being able to know that she could do it. She'd figured she'd do the spell once out loud and then practice it non-verbally. So a few minutes later, she began practising the wand movement, completing the D action. And then she was ready to start it.

With a smile, she did the wand movement, whilst saying "Duro" and her quill turned into stone. Perfect. She quickly reversed the spell, and took a deep breath. Now to start working on doing it non-verbally

So, the Hardening Charm. Vivian had read that from her Charms textbook and that they would be learning it eventually this term... or at least, she read it from the table of contents when she had first purchased the book during the summer. That was really all the reading she did when it came to educational literature, but it did give her the gist of what was to be expected.

However, it wasn't learning the charm that made Vivian a little uneasy. It was how Professor Grimsbane pointed out that NEWT-level students had to attempt casting it non-verbally. And while that wasn't a huge problem, the blond didn't have enough confidence in herself to do it in class. She was still practising and trying to perfect it with simple spells like the Levitating Charm, and it would really take time. She was gradually working on it, though. Vivian practised the wand movement first, which she honestly felt didn't really need much work on for someone who knew how to write a capital letter D.

"Duro," Vivian said, with the wand movement, at her quill, which turned to stone like it was supposed to. It worked verbally, so Vivian wiggled her pointer fingers to celebrate for herself. Yay. "Reverto," and it was back into her quill. The non-verbal part, though... the real challenge was just about to begin.

But she was kinda curious too. Vivian raised her hand. "Professor," she began. "Would the Hardening Charm work in the same-ish way as Incarcifors would? Like as a supplement to whatever is trapping an object, y'know? Or would it further strengthen Incarcifors?" Or were they two different spells that are not in any way related? She did hope Professor Grimsbane understood her question. Her thoughts were all over the place at the moment. Blame sleep deprivation.

Surprised at herself, Bel beamed back at the professor, straightening a little in her seat. Well she'd answered the question well, apparently, but she was less hopeful about the spell. Incantation and wand movement practice she could do at least.

The almost D, she moved her wand in that shape a few times, glancing over at others as she did so... but the part that stumped her was the pronunciation. She, of course, said the u-sound in words like that as a u and not as a double o. D-ewe-ro just sounded far more right in her head, because... every other word with that sound was like that for her. Stupid Latin being confusing. If it even was Latin.

"D-uuuuu--. No. DOOOO-rohhh." It just felt wrong, okay? Hashtag accent poblems. Starting on actually attempting the spell wasn't really an option yet. Bel licked her lips and frowned to herself, listening to those around her and trying to imitate it. "Doooo-rohh. Doo-roh. Dure-oh. Dur." Bleeeeh.

Her hand was getting tired from all the notes she was taking, this was a lot to cover and she wanted to make sure she had it all right, so the first year didn't talk much up to that point and just kept writing. She listened to everyone else though and she made sure to get their every word. She wanted to get it right and wanted to do well, she could do this.

When it was time to practice she noticed an older boy was leaving to the loo and she wondered if she shouldn't have stopped before class, but she'd hold it so she wouldn't get in any trouble. Her green eyes back on the parchment she started saying the word in her head, Duro, Duro, Duro.

Was that right?

She figured it must be, because it sounded it in her head, "Duro, Duuuurrroo, Duro" Over and over again she said the word to make sure it sounded correct. Could they really turn things hard, like super hard? Could you turn humans hard? Would that kill them? Did anyone try it?

Too many questions started in the young girl's mind and soon the practicing of words was being forgotten.

Rylee may have been a bit quiet for the start of the lesson but that wasn't all that important. She was doing what she was supposed to be doing. Sure she was slightly scatter brained, glancing around the room randomly because she couldn't quite get a handle on what she was doing when she wasn't doing something. Feet swinging back and forth beneath her desk. Quill tapping on her desk to some unheard rhythm that was no doubt only in her head. Still she did always take notes and very good ones at that so there was no cause for alarm and this day was no different.

There on the corner of her desk was sat a sheet of parchment on which was detailed notes scribbled in sparkly purple ink. The lessons focus was the hardening spell which transformed an item into stone. Incantation: Duro. She even went about drawing a little sketch of the incomplete D for the wand movement.

Rylee watched Professor Grimsbane demonstrate the spell on a small pumpkin before telling them all to try the spell themselves. "DOO-roh... DOO-roh... DOO-roh.." she whispered several times both in her head and then out loud to get the feel of the word in her mind and on her tongue. "Duro." It wasn't a long incantation luckily. When she was sure that she was saying it properly she reached for her wand removing it from it's holster on her arm, flexing her fingers around it around it. Slowly she worked on the movement of her wand, a D but not a complete one, she didn't want to close it all the way at the end. Over and over and over again. Even when she was positive she was doing it right she did it again and again.

It was true that Rylee hadn't taken notice to Ewan, sorry but this was usually how she got when she was actually focused. No offense or anything to him. On the other hand Dorian did manage to catch her attention. This was most likely due to the fact that not only was he sat beside her but also because he had said her name, well technically he had said 'Rosie' first but that was still her! "Huh?" The lioness asked pulling herself free of her little bubble of focus and turning to face her friend a smile growing wide on her face when she spotted the stone feather he was holding in his hand. "Whoa! You did it, Declan! That's awesome!" To her it didn't matter how many times it took her friends to accomplish a task. One try or ten thousand, an accomplish was an accomplish no matter how big or small.

A quick glance was send over her shoulder at Reese to see how he was doing with before she bent down to grab her bag rummaging through it for her other quill. Pulling out the quill she set it on her desk and took a slow breath in, held it, then let it out slowly.

She raised her aiming it at the quill on her desk. She wanted it to turn into stone. Closing her eyes slowly she cleared her thoughts visualizing it in her head like both Ace and Garry had taught her to do. If she could see it, she could feel it. Once she could feel it, then she could give it a try. "Duro!" Rylee spoke clearly tracing the movement of her wand in an almost complete 'D' but not quite putting all her heart and soul into it as she fully visualized the quill on her desk turning to stone.

There on here were her quill once sat was now a stone quill. Rylee grinned sitting back in her chair, feet swinging back and forth, returning her wand to its holster on her arm.

It felt like she'd been practicing the incantation and wand motion for ages and ages, although in reality, had been less than fifteen minutes. Still, Chloe felt comfortable with the shape of the word in her mouth and how her wand was supposed to slide up and around to make the incomplete 'D', and she really wanted to try on a pumpkin. Worst case scenario was she exploded it or something.

Now she wanted some pie. Was that normal? Chloe shifted the pumpkin to the center of her work station and tried to imagine what it would look like made of stone. The color, the texture, the scent - no longer earthy and like her mother's garden, but the cool and impersonal scent of stone. Did stone have a scent? Scrap that and move on.

When she had it fixed in her head, Chloe drew the D with her wand, clearly speaking the incantation, "Duro." The orange rind of the pumpkin turned gray, starting at the bottom and slowly moving upward. It rocked on its base and came to an abrupt stop, half gray and half orange, and Chloe eeped before casting the spell again. "DURO." Go go go stone. Turn the pumpkin to rock!

Well she did know her transfiguration and charms…. Well fairly enough. She nodded and returned the smile to the professor. She did mention Gamp’s Law, which was pretty cool that she did. Though she did agree with the professor on the point that the Geminio was technically more of a charm.

Anyway she started taking notes. Man this was a lot of notes. Not really, but she was dramatically taking notes. Her brown eyes followed and watched the professor as went over to the pumpkins and carried one back to desk. She watched as she performed what she assuming what was going to be what they would be doing for the lesson more or less.

Now she was going to get to practice the wand movement and incantation. For starters she practiced the wand movement.. a D but not completed closed. She held onto her wand as she drew little opened at the bottom Ds. There that actually wasn’t that hard of a wand movement.

As the incantation that seemed simple as well. It was nice that both wasn’t too hard, considering all the other things she would have to focus on once she was ready to turn something into stone.
”Duro…. duro. Duro. Yeah, that wasn’t too hard. Maybe she was ready to try this out.

Maybe… maybe not. She moved her quill to the middle of her desk. Putting it all together the wand movement, the incantation, and the most important part focus and intent. What would a stone feather look like. Heavier, grey, and hard like stone.

She traced a open D and said ”Duro.” The quill turned grey, and stone looking. She had done it. She picked it up to examine it. Yep it was heavier too. She hadn’t been working on doing nonverbal spells on basic and easy stuff for long but she done a nonverbal reparifarge on her quill to return it back to it’s original form. Now she could use it again in case she needed to make more notes. Which was highly likely.

Trinetta nodded when the professor elaborated more on her answer, scribbling down some notes on her parchment. Good to know...as soon as she had finished, she had moved on, and was talking about the spell they were going to work with today. Smiling slightly, Nettie sat up a bit in her seat, listening and taking notes until Professor Grimsbane dismissed them to get to work practicing.

Pulling out her wand, she practiced the wand movement a few times. A letter D, but not all the way around. Easy enough. She did once, twice...over and over until she was sure she got it down perfectly. It was easy, just don't close the letter and you had it down!

Next, the pronunciation. She cleared her throat and then practiced saying it a few times. "Doooo-roh. Dooo-roh. Duro. Duro..." she muttered to herself.

The overall progress of the class seemed to be going quite well. Celestia wandered through the rows of students’ desks, silently observing their work, when she saw what was happening at Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne’s desk. What in the name of Merlin…? As Celestia hurried over to his desk, she noted the ink absolutely everywhere and the way a grey-ish bit of parchment seemed to be sucking the boy’s inkwell in. He’d obviously completed the “D” with his wand. Sighing heavily, Celestia Vanished the whole mess with a silent wave of her wand before turning to the two students affected by the mess.
”It’s quite alright, Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne. Mind your wand movements, please. Are you alright, Miss Dalgaard-Volkova?”, she asked warily. The Gryffindor prefect had had her desk splattered with plenty of ink before Celestia had Vanished it, after all…

As soon as that situation was handled, Celestia’s attention was caught by Mr. Jones apologizing to her for some reason. Her brow furrowing in confusion, Celestia stopped by his desk to ask him: ”Whatever for, Mr. Jones?” She paused, watching some of his next attempts at the spell. ”For not being able to cast the spell yet? My dear boy, this is not an easy spell to learn. I would be shocked if anyone in your year HAD managed it this quickly. That being said, you seem to have the mechanics of the spell down. Take a deep breath and try again, yes?” Meanwhile, Celestia would get out of the young Ravenclaw’s way and continue to watch his progress from afar. Most first years were nervous enough about mastering new spells in her class without a professor hovering over them.

Miss Walsh received a warm smile as Celestia passed by, but she offered no commentary. There was no need -- for a second year to turn any object into stone was rather impressive. As she came upon Mr. Katharos’s desk, Celestia gave him an encouraging smile and after observing his attempt, told him, ”Remember to visualize the entire object turning to stone as you move your wand. I’m positive that you’re almost there!” A third year successfully casting this spell so quickly would be almost as impressive as a second year casting it only a few minutes in. Celestia hadn’t expected any of the younger students to get so close, and she was immensely pleased with both students’ progress.

Celestia had barely finished speaking to Mr. Katharos when she heard a wand fall onto the floor what turned out to be a student’s desk. Hurrying over -- in case the wand had fallen for an unfortunate reason -- Celestia stopped at Miss Kevelle’s desk. Her eyes traveled from the fallen wand to the girl’s shocked expression to the two halves of a quill turned to stone. The professor felt her own features morph into shock as well -- a first year had cast this spell within a few short minutes! The nonverbal first casting had flown completely past the professor's notice. Celestia prodded one of the half-quill-shaped stones just to be certain, but it certainly looked and felt right to her. A broad smile stretched across her face as she turned back to the young Ravenclaw. ”Excellent, Miss Kevelle! Very well done indeed! Why don’t you select one of the pumpkins or other dense items when it’s time for our main practical?” Her intention had been to start the first years all off with small items and/or light items like balloons, but clearly Miss Kevelle was beyond that.

Still beaming, her attention was next caught by the sounds of someone casting Reverto. Celestia turned her head warily in the direction of the person’s voice, but soon discovered that it was not an older student correcting a mistake. Rather, it was Miss Diggory teaching the spell to Mr. Yoon. Celestia made her way over to the pair of them and gave them both another warm smile, ”Three points to Slytherin for helping a younger student without being asked, Miss Diggory. And very well done with that spell, Mr. Yoon!”, she told them both cheerfully. Celestia normally simply expected student leaders to help their younger classmates without being asked, but she thought that now was a good time to set that precedent for this year’s new student leaders. She did secretly wish that the points could’ve gone to a Gryffindor, but Miss Diggory had earned them all the same. She was quite proud of both students in this situation!

Her attention was next caught by the Head Girl’s raised hand. Celestia made her way over to Miss Fairfield and called on her promptly. The Slytherin’s question soon had Celestia furrowing her brows a bit. ”I’m not sure what you mean by supplementing it, Miss Fairfield. I suppose it depends on what materials you’ve cast Incarcifors on, doesn’t it? A stone sort of prison would be more effective than one made of less substantial materials, but you’d need to cast the Hardening Spell on whatever you’ve conjured up for your prison after the fact. Does that make sense?”, she inquired. Celestia certainly hoped that that was what Miss Fairfield was getting at.

As she looked around the classroom for her next victim student in need of assistance, Celestia’s eyes roved over several students who seemed to be hard at work: Miss Paton, Miss Macindoe, Miss Greyvson, Miss McCarthy, Miss Prichard, Miss Primeaux, Miss Gladin, Mr. Carter, Miss Atwater and Miss Beckett were all hard at work and having varying levels of success.

Miss Kettleburn had unknowingly gotten started on part of the main activity already! That was fine with Celestia, as she liked to see students eager to challenge themselves. The professor approached Miss Kettleburn’s desk and told her with a smile, ”Three points to Ravenclaw for working ahead, Miss Kettleburn! I only ask that you take a break for our next class discussion. I think you’ll find that your pumpkin could use a little something extra before you Transform it to stone.” On that note, Celestia made her way back to the front of the room.

As she went, she noticed that Miss Cambridge was staring intently at a vial of something on her desk. However, the prefect’s vial was surrounded by stone objects -- including one much heavier than any of the objects she’d be asked to practice on later in the period -- and they were about to move on anyway. On balance, Celestia decided to leave the Ravenclaw to whatever she was working on for now as long as it didn’t distract her classmates.

Celestia called the practice to a halt after around 10 minutes by blowing on a shrill whistle that was sure to get the students’ attention or bust their eardrums. It seemed like most of the class had mastered the mechanics of the spell and she was personally quite ready to move on. Many students underestimated this spell’s complexity, but she hoped that taking valuable class time to learn the basics would prevent most disastrous mistakes.
Before they could move on to the activity she had planned, however, she had another question for the students to consider. This was a rather more important matter than the questions at the beginning of the class had addressed, so the professor stared around the room to ensure that she had captured all of the students’ attention.
She had just opened her mouth to speak when she noticed that one of her students had managed to sleep through her whistle!*** As a tight frown spread across her face like wildfire, Celestia stormed over to Miss Lovecraft’s desk and promptly turned her hair a nasty, putrid shade of green with a nonverbal spell. There was no sense in teaching the students that one. She then turned to the student sitting nearest to Miss Lovecraft, Miss Maddie Kemp, and favored her with a small smile and a “Would you kindly wake him/her up, Miss Kemp?” before making her way back to the front of the room.

Celestia waited about a minute longer for the rest of the class to settle down before sighing and calling for order (without a piercing whistle this time). ”Now that Miss Lovecraft has rejoined the land of the living, let’s move on. I would like for you all to please give this matter serious consideration before answering. Would you all kindly give me a different scenario in which this spell could be used offensively or defensively? I’m sure you’ve learned enough from Professor Hirsch to be able to answer this question easily, and I think that given the events of last term, it’s time that we teach you all to become a bit more creative with your spell-casting.” Celestia explained all of this in a tone of voice that did not allow for any arguments. She didn’t want any snide remarks about this class not being Defense Against the Dark Arts, nor did she want to impinge on Professor Hirsch’s territory. However, she thought it was high time that their students began using spells across disciplines. Spells from different classes could be used in all sorts of different contexts outside of school, and Celestia was determined to teach her students that lesson if nothing else.

OOC: ***Feel free to claim the sleeping student or the student sitting next to him/her. I’ll edit this post with names if people claim them. If no one feels like claiming them, they can be NPCs .
For question 2, the students just need to figure out one way that Duro could be used either defensively or offensively. We’ll be moving on to the main activity in 24 hours so at 12 AM CDT on May 18.

SPOILER!!: Usual OOC Reminders

Anyone can jump in with an answer here even if you haven't posted in the lesson yet; just pretend that your student has been here the whole time. Also, anyone can catch up on the mini activity at any point during the rest of the lesson. If you have any questions, concerns, etc. at any time, feel free to contact me .

MERLIN, this professor liked to talk! Maddie just stared at the woman, trying to keep up with what she was saying. She'd heard of Duro before, but when the professor dropped the word 'molecular', Maddie started having to squint to keep her concentration up to par. She got the gist of it, though. Turning an object into stone changed the molecular makeup of the object, and that's what made it a Transfiguration spell.

So now they were going to practice it, which had Maddie promptly on her feet with her wand drawn. She liked getting up and moving around. Too much sitting in one place always got to her to fidgeting. "Duro! Duro!" she said, trying to remember all the things the professor had said about focus and concentration. "DURO!" Tracing the letter D in the air wasn't all that difficult either, but Maddie gave it a go a few times anyway just to make sure she was comfortable with things.

...and then the most super cool form of Transfiguration happened! The professor just KABOOM!...turned somebody's hair into a mix of boogies and vomit colors. Ewww... Then to add flames to the fire, the professor asked Maddie to wake them up. As in...possibly touch that head of hair?! Nooooo thanks! But she'd wake them up, nevertheless. She couldn't even tell who they were all thanks to the new hairstyle.

"HEYYYYYY, YOU!" she called out, in her trademark tone. "You've got a NEWWWWW HAIR-DO!!!" She poked the back of the person ever-so-slightly, so as to hopefully wake them up.

Oh for crying out loud, what was with Professor Grimsbane and loud noises?! One minute, Ronan had been contemplating what to do with the now stone ball of paper on his desk, the next his ears had a slight ringing in them. Though, it wasn't enough to miss the professor's request. Oooh a Sleeping Sleeperson. Said person better be glad it was Maddie who was waking them up, otherwise it would've been the old 'hand in warm water' trick.....

Also, Joker hair, teehee!

Anyway, now that said person was awake, the professor posed an interesting question. "Would the spell work on, say, a human being? A la Medusa?" Because that's definitely what he would do with it. A formerly human stone statue.

Daisy was certainly glad that she wasn't the sleeping student. Why would someone make that mistake? Also, thank goodness for Maddie and waking the student up. Daisy was having trouble thinking about possible scenarios for using Duro until she raised her hand. "Maybe if some bad person is chasing you and you pass a hung up curtain before they do. Duro can be used to harden the curtain thus creating a sort of stone wall which can injure them."

Derf was a liiiiiiiittle too preoccupied trying to deal with the spilled ink to notice Chloe trying to draw his attention - and the expression he wore was one of COMPLETE panic because there was a surprising amount of ink in that inkwell, you know?

Muttering a few more panicked apologies to Stasya, Derf readied his wand to cast Tergeo to siphon some of the spill up when Professor Grimsbane came over herself to handle the mess. "I know....sorry, professor," he mumbled, ears turning a bit pinkish from embarrassment. He ventured a glance over towards Stasya as well, yet another apologetic one.

Well...at least now he knew what would happen if you completed the D?

Rolling his sleeves, Derf was able to successfully revert the mass back into a piece of paper and was ready to give the spell another go when the professor posed a question...and his hand was immediately up in the air. Once again with Valerie Gray on the brain and all that COULD have been.

"Well, say you're like...you know...in this REALLY hot jungle and then you have to battle against this REALLY REALLY strong and like...almost INVINCIBLE runespoor...you could, you know, trap it in vines you conjured or grew and stuff using Herbivicus...and THEN cast Duro on those to make them hard and stuff so that it couldn't MOVE and then you could get away."

Right. Now back to practicing? Maybe. Which mostly meant he was tracing the wand movement in the air again to train his mind and his muscles NOT to close the D shape as he had done the first time.

The separate practicing had gone as well as Stasya had expected it to, although to be honest she hadn’t really figured out what she wanted to test it on. The objects on the table were probably for the main activity…She didn’t see the point in turning her quill or a parchment ball into stone even if it was just for practice. Plus, there was still the matter of her question of why they shouldn’t complete the D-shape of the wand movement.

And then it seemed like she got her answer. A very messy answer, as Derf had exploded his inkwell all over his desk and, subsequently, hers as well. Or maybe he’d imploded it. She wasn’t sure which, but she definitely had seen the result. That and she was immensely glad she’d gotten her birthday card to safety before the mess. She didn’t think the ink would have gone all the way through her bag and inside, not when there had been her desk between the two. Plus her legs, and she’d looked up as Professor Grimsbane had Vanished all the ink. “I’m okay. At least it was only ink?” There were plenty of other possibilities that could’ve been worse, and she also didn’t want her Hufflepuff best friend feeling any guiltier than he probably already was so she wasn’t going to mention more. That and she sent him a smile to show that there wasn’t any harm done.

That and she was glad she hadn’t fallen asleep. Green wasn’t really her color, at least not when it came to her hair. “Could you cast Duro on someone’s shoes if they were chasing you? They’d have to stop to take them off before they could keep coming after you,” because stone shoes would be really heavy, and that way you’d get extra time to escape.

Daehyun beamed at professor Grimsbane's praise, and even more so when she awarded points to the kind Slytherin who'd helped him. Really, he wanted to be just like that, and couldn't wait for his turn to be able to help younger students. He was so lost in these thoughts that the professor's whistle was... well, it nearly gave him a heart attack.

But moving on.

How to use the spell offensively or defensively? It would be helpful either way, since they could turn pretty much anything to stone and throw it back at the attacker, or form a stone shield? It could also be used in another way, but it arose some questions, so he raised his hand. "If we, let's say we're attacked, and try to use the spell on the attacker... what kind of damage would it do to someone who's alive?" Would they still function underneath the stone... would it stop their organs from functioning altogether?

Practising non-verbal magic was hard work, and Hattie could already feel herself getting a headache. This was totally why she never practised usually. Getting headaches could get off her epilepsy, and that was not needed. So the blonde laid of the practising for now. She did have a good reason why. She was sure the professor didn't want to deal with a seizure in the middle of her class. She'd not had one for well over a year now too, so she'd like to keep that record. She was planning on trying the non-verbal magic again though, but she would just keep it low key, practising when she felt like it. And then if she managed to do it, then it would be okay. If not, well that didn't matter either in her opinion.

The lesson was moving on anyway, so that was quite good. Hmm. How could she use this spell? Well. It turned things into stone, so that was quite useful. The blonde thought for a minute, doodling a little on her paper as she did so. A pile of rocks appeared on her parchment as she thought. The seventh year did though, eventually put her hand into the air. "It could be used to barricade ourself into a location, such as an office or cupboard. It would be useful for example here in school, since we'd most likely need to get help from more experienced witches, and wizards, so using Duro to make a barricade would buy us some time"

Oh Merlin.

Well that was one way to get her attention. Jessa winced at the sudden, loud noise that yanked her from her practice in such a way that she physically felt as if her concentration had been yanked from her brain stem. An exaggeration, maybe, but it was how she felt.

With a small scowl in place, Jessa lifted her gaze to the woman again. Oh. They were moving on. Right. The Sixth Year pocketed her phial again, for now forsaking her attempts at wandless magic. If she kept it out on the desk, there was a good chance she'd keep focusing on it and miss all the information she already knew. Real shame that would be.

Silently, she listened to the responses of those around her. Offensive or defensive use for the spell?

She wouldn't use it in either circumstance, not when she had so many more viable and potent options at her disposal. Still, she would humour the Professor with a response.

"If you've got the right amount of concentration, you could literally turn something's heart to stone. Stop circulation and all other bodily functions stop rendering it no longer a threat."

They were moving on and Chloe hadn't even pulled out her wand yet.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Her brain and questions kept her from fully practicing like they should have, but she was back to writing her notes and trying to keep up with everything. The head boy asked the question she was thinking, "Would it kill someone professor if you did it I mean to a person." She didn't want to kill anyone, so she wanted to make fully sure she never did it on someone if that was the case.


Looking at the older girl her eyes widened, "Do you have to get help often and do things like that here?" She had heard stories from her parents and others, but was that really something that she would have to face?

Was the whistle really necessary?

It was LOUD. Even for a girl like her who's attention was all over the place it wasn't that hard to redirect her focus. Rylee visibly winced at the sound, blue eyes lifting upwards right away until they found the professor, quickly grabbing up her quill. She must have missed something, right? That had to have been the reason for the whistle surely because she had managed to transform her quill into stone which was still on her desk.

Nibbling at her lower lip she glanced around at those near her quickly trying to figure out what it was she had missed. It didn't seem like all that much really. Professor Grimsbane was talking once again which meant she needed to take some more notes before answering the next question. How could Duro be used offensively or defensively? Now this was something to think about for sure.

"I suppose if you're being attacked and you have good aim and timing you could turn your attackers wand into stone making it useless." Might not be likely but it was thinking a bit out of the box at least.

Okay, if you didn't know the answer to that question...maybe you shouldn't even be in this class. Yes she wasn't a first year, but she knew the difference within the first week of school. Thankfully baby snake was quick to reply, she did think well of her after all. The child did not disapoint her judgement.



(1)And yet again...she wasn't impressed by lessons. She'd already learned this spell. Still, while she wouldn't practice she would turn things to stone...why not? She pulled a small eraser out of her satchel and set it on the desk, mucking about with the placement of it. After growing board of it, she attempted a nonverbal cast...it was worth a try.

(2) At first attempt nonverbal didn't pan out, and it annoyed her slightly. She had the motion, she had everything...except maybe intent. She really honestly wanted to turn something living to stone if she were being frank. But then her name was Eria not frank so she kept those thoughts to herself. Deep breath and a stretch...god the ink from that Hufflepuff child stunk to her. Having a sensitive nose in this place was awful, that ink was heady and strong. One more try.

(3)Okay, being serious this time. She almost felt like hurling from her irritated sinuses, but she choked it down and GLARED at her eraser. She wasn't giving up and doing this spell verbally. With intense concentration and will and a severe attitude problem, she kept staring down her eraser and willing her spell in the proper motion until the bloody thing finally turned to stone. There! Take that you insignificant inanimate object......and she felt sick. Okay, while everyone else was fumbling with their wands and words, she was laying her head one her little stoney achievement. Migraines were so much fun...



Eria lay still with her head against the cool stone object and the desk as she waited for the next question. That whistle was awfully sharp and she didn't even want to pick her head up to look, she'd listen and then answer. But...she'd noticed that the professor sounded closer than she had before? Sleeping?...enormous piles of Jarvey guano...

And then...it happened. She couldn't help the angry hiss that escaped her mouth as she felt a toddler hand on her back. One irritating little finger... "DON'T POKE ME KID." The deep octaved bellow followed the hiss. She HATED being touched and she was already grumpy from the migraine. Her soured expression shot over at the smaller student with flashing eyes.

Only...as she flipped her head up her hair followed. WHAT IN THE NAME OF VOLDEMORT HAPPENED TO HER HAIR!? No. No way. It wasn't the kid. Did the professor seriously just do that to her!? What was she, a third year!?

Her eyes shot right up at the professor, cold and deeply unappreciative as she considered the question. "Well you could change an attacker's HAIR to stone, so that it weighs their head down and potentially crushes them. It would be a grand distraction." Yes, the hair bit was in fact spiteful. Acknowledging what had been done to her, oh yes, she realised it.