SPOILER!!: catch-up in here

Allllllll that lecture-y type stuff about the spell they were working on went almost completely over Abra's head. He grasped enough of it to know they were working on the Hardening Charm, and that this technically wasn't a charm. Mostly, he just wanted to get started with the practical work. Visualising and imagining and transfiguring and things he was actually good at.

So eager was Abra that he decided to skip the practice of the wand movement and incantation entirely. Both were easy enough, he reasoned, with a surge of confidence he wasn't sure he'd ever felt in a classroom before, that he could bypass that part completely. It was strange, that feeling of confidence, and though he had a sneaking suspicion he knew what was behind it, Abra decided to go with the flow and ride it out. It made a nice change from being eternally unsure of himself.

He pointed his wand at a sheet of parchment on his desk (the quill might have been simpler, but it was a Spell Check Quill, and he didn't want to risk removing its enchantments by accident), and focused hard on visualising it turning into stone. "Duro!" He moved his wand like he was tracing a not-quite-D in the air.

Nothing. The sheet of parchment remained looking exactly so, and a quick prod from Abra confirmed that it had retained its parchment-like properties. No big deal; he never got it on the first try, not unless he was having a really good day. He tried again.

"Duro!" He'd barely finished forming the words, his wand still moving through the air, but Abra knew it wasn't going to work; he'd not been focusing hard enough on the visualising. But then, to his great surprise, the parchment did look a little different. Abra stopped to pick it up, finding that it had become somewhat stiffer, and felt a little more like his special watercolour paper. That wasn't really what he was after, of course, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. He set it down again. "Reparifarge."

Okay. This time. This was the one. Abra checked the parchment was back to normal, then sat and did nothing but stare at it for a few moments. He was focusing, focusing, seeing it turn to stone in his mind, watching himself pick up a thin, flat sheet of stone, rough against his fingers and utterly unyielding, solid enough to stick in his desk by a corner, probably.

Then, while the image was fresh in his mind, Abra raised his wand again, and did that 'almost D' movement. "Duro!"

Third time's a charm. This time, he had done it. Abra cracked a grin as the parchment in front of him turned immediately into stone, and he picked it up (needing to slide it off the desk to get a good grip of it) to test it.

It was exactly that moment that Professor Grimsbane went ahead and blew that blasted whistle. Abra gave a sudden start, his heart thumping wildly - sudden loud noises were not his friend - and almost dropped his stone sheet of parchment. Luckily, or perhaps just thanks to finely tuned reflexes, he had the wherewithal to catch it before it shattered on his desk or the floor. While that whole situation with the green-haired student went on, Abra set down his transfigured parchment and quietly changed it back again with Reparifarge, before turning his attention to Professor Grimsbane and her question.

He couldn't help it, he really couldn't. The second the professor had mentioned using the spell offensively or defensively somehow, his mind automatically went to the one scenario he never wanted it to go to, but where it always seemed to go anyway. This time, though, he resolved to try and keep his head, and instead tried to think of how Duro might have helped him back then.

'Tried' being the operative term, because ultimately, Abra could think of nothing, short of turning the entire monster to stone. It wouldn't have worked on the portal, he figured, because there was a high chance that they'd already tried it back then. No, he couldn't think of anything, and was having a lot of trouble focusing his mind on another hypothetical situation, so he just shrugged and kept his silence while other students answered around him.

Lydia watched the professor cast a spell on the sleeping girl's head. Her hair transformed into a really nasty yellowish-green color. Lydia made a face. She was so glad that wasn't her. How could anyone fall asleep during a class here anyway? Everything was so fascinating! It amused her to watch a Hufflepuff poke the sleeping snake in the back. The older girl's snappish reply was to be expected.

Turning her attention back to Professor Grimsbane, Lydia considered the question. She wanted to come up with something good, something maybe worth house points. Hmm, this was a tough one. Some good answers had already been given, and she didn't want to repeat anything and sound like a dumb little firstie. Something creative...

"Maybe the bad person conjures something to attack you. They use a spell like serpensortia or something. You could use duro to turn the thing to stone, make it harmless," said Lydia.

Hopefully that was a good enough answer. Creativity had never really been her strong suit.

Hmm, that made her think of something. "Professor Grimsbane," she said. "I have a question. Does duro only work on solids? For instance, if someone cast incendio at you, could you turn the fire to stone? Or even water?"

Quinn nodded silently to Professor Grimsbane when she suggested Quinn try her hand at a pumpkin or other dense object in a moment, although she truly only half heard the Professor. Her mind was still reeling with the accidental non-verbal casting. It was still a fluke, she was sure of that. Casting with intent was the mark of a skilled and exceptional witch, not by accident. Casting by accident was what children did, before coming to Hogwarts to learn to cast with intent.

Yet, still... Did this mean she might have an easier time at learning non-verbal casting when she was skilled enough? Or did it mean she might learn it ahead of her peers? So many questions fluttered about in her head, it took her a moment to catch Professor Grimsbane's questions.

She listened quietly to the other student's answers while pondering how she might use it. She was still a first year, and despite the fact she was, more often than not, quick to pick up new spells, Quinn was certain she'd not hold her own against older and more skilled attackers.

Thus, for her, for now, targeting the attacker with this spell would probably get her nowhere. But if she fled, and used anything and everything she could to block the attacker's path, turning those obstacles to stone would slow them down even more. As would turning a closed door to stone. That would be a good use of it defensively.

How would she use it offensively? Quinn let her eyes wander while she thought it over. "Professor, would it be possible to use the bubble producing charm and turn the bubbles to stone once they're over the attacker's head? Or using the Avis conjuration and turning the birds into ballistic stone?"

Oh. Oops. Chloe had definitely been carried away, but instead of being upset about it, the Professor rewarded her for good wandwork. The Ravenclaw grinned sheepishly at the professor and put away her wand for now. Best not tempt fate and continue poking at her darling little pumpkin.

Did her classmates know that they were terrifying? Like their minds were DARK. Chloe had a hundred ideas for using Duro for practical purposes, but for fighting? That just wasn't how her brain worked. She chewed on her lip and cast nervous looks at her violent classmates before finally raising her hand. Maybe...? "You could cast it on something like a feather or a leaf and drop it on someone's foot. Like something that isn't heavy on its own and easily... available?" She sighed before offering a hopeful smile to the professor.

Watching the younger student a moment, she beamed when he successfully un-transfigured his quill. "Perfect. No problem." She quipped, as she returned to her seat. Though she'd already practiced the duro spell, non-verbally at that.


Oh sweet! She heard the Professor and maybeeeeee, just mayyybeee, she'd been trying to show off a little and prove to her that there were other great houses besides Gryffindor. Salazar Slytherin would be proud of her. Also, she turned her head when she heard Miss Kettleburn and three points for working ahead? UH... Was working ahead a good thing? Also, Chloe was a Ravenclaw though, so she reckoned it was probably to be expected.

Also noted... the fifth year she-snake who'd been ... wait, what WAS she doing??? She recognized the girl from seeing her in the stands during tryouts, but sleeping? She wasn't ....... Although the hair-color change spell was kind of funny ... mostly because it didn't happen to her. And really, was it necessary to have Maddie wake her up? Skylar was FAIRLY certain that if she hadn't been woken up from the shrill whistling, she'd probably have been dead.

But they were moving on now it seemed, with another question and Skylar had to double-blink at Jessa's answer. Turning ... a heart ... to stone ... uh... note to self: don't ever get on the bad side of Jessa Cambridge.

Also to note. Perhaps it was the "sleeping student" or perhaps it was the mention of the events last term, but Skylar had a slightly different tangent of a scenario to use for the spell. "Spells wear off after a period of time, yes? So what if you used it on yourself? Pretend to be a statue to avoid dangers and like, say everyone around you was getting possessed, if you were a stone statue, you wouldn't get possessed..." Of course you wouldn't be able to help the possessed either, but you'd be helping yourself maybe?

Maddie hadn't really expected a thank you or anything like that. She had, however, at least expected some sort of look of appreciation. If Maddie's haired looked like green beans had been puked onto it, she'd want to know. Apparently, this girl just wanted to sleep. "Kid?" Maddie asked, wrinkling her nose just a little. And who did this girl think she was...someone's grandma? She was...what? Two or three years older than Maddie. The young Hufflepuff just sighed and didn't bother herself with it any longer. Granny over there had figured out what had happened to her, so Maddie's work here was done.

So on to that question. Maddie had had some time to think about an answer, so her hand was already in the air. "What about using the spell to turn something into stone for you to hide behind when under attack? You know, kind of like soldiers using a fort during a battle?" she suggested. Of course, you couldn't hide behind it for long. It would give you a nice place to come up with a plan of attack, though.

She flushed as the professor walked by and smiled. She wasn't exactly sure how she had managed the transfiguration on the second try. It was highly likely it was beginners luck, more than any actual skill she possessed. She decided to remain quiet and let the chips fall where they may when it came time to transfigure the pumpkins.

As for the second question she asked, the other students had offered up some great ideas. "I was thinking along the lines of what Skylar had said. Would it be possible to turn yourself into stone and survive? I would be much heavier, and it would be harder to kidnap me or take me somewhere if I were made of stone for a bit."

She liked the idea of not harming another, even if it meant possibly harming herself in the process. Turning her attacker into stone, or even parts of them, didn't sound like something she would ever want to do.

Celestia was pleased overall with the students’ answers. It was good to see them thinking outside of the box that was “Transfiguration class” and putting the spell into proper context in a variety of situations. However, some of the students’ answers had been rather more dark than she’d been hoping for. It hadn’t even occurred to her that death would be presented as an option so many times! Celestia thought that it was best to get past this subject quickly and get the students started on their practicals...yes…

”Well, I’m glad to see that most of you were able to think of a practical situation where you could use this spell defensively,” Celestia began with a smile. ”The main defensive advantage of this spell is that it allows you to turn ordinary objects into potential weapons or to effectively seal doors and hiding places, or even to slow your opponents down by turning bits of their clothing to stone.” She paused for a few seconds to let students get settled before continuing, ”Let’s get back to our spell and briefly consider it in light of the Transfiguration equation that Miss Greyvson mentioned earlier.” Celestia strode over to the blackboard and gave it another small tap; lines spread out from her wand tip until the equation appeared there.

SPOILER!!: Transfiguration equation breakdown: OPTIONAL Magic Theory Lecture

”As you can see, the intended transformation (t) is directly influenced by a number of variables. Let’s quickly go over what those variables mean in terms of today’s spell. The intended transformation, or t, is obviously the transformation of the object into stone. This is influenced by the caster’s bodyweight, which we’ll ignore for today,” Celestia continued. Teenagers had enough body image issues without getting into the details of that variable, thank you. ”Viciousness is the next variable to influence the intended transformation. As we’re working with inanimate objects today, this is not really a relevant factor either. Wand power and concentration are the most important variables for a successful casting of Duro. You must focus and visualize the transformation like we’ve talked about in order to harness your wand power to the degree necessary for your spell to be cast successfully. Some aspects of wand power are out of your control, but with enough concentration, you can greatly improve your odds of a successful transformation. Z is the variable that encompasses unknown factors, such as the caster’s level of fatigue or the weather or anything else that may affect the spell’s intended transformation.” Celestia stopped talking for a sip of tea. She was really looking forward to the upcoming months, when this basic magical theory lecture would no longer be necessary.

Now it was finally time to get the class started on the practical part of the lesson!
”Today, you will be using Duro to turn these objects --” Celestia gestured towards the table--”into stone, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. However, I thought we might have a bit of fun with the pumpkins first. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to use carving knives or the Cutting Charm to carve shapes into your pumpkins and then turn the resulting jack-o-lanterns into stone. If you would prefer not to delve into the Halloween spirit today, I have a variety of other objects available that you may use the Duro spell on instead. Students in older years should select larger, heavier items where possible. First years, please begin with small items or balloons before you attempt to progress to pumpkins. If any of you need help carving your pumpkins, please raise your hand or ask an older student to help you. I don’t want anyone attempting the Cutting Charm if Professor Marchand has not taught it to your class yet.” Celestia stared significantly at the older students as she gave out instructions. All of them had had classes with her last year, of course, so she was certain that they understood that she meant for them to do the carving FOR any younger students that needed assistance rather than merely “helping” them with it. She also gave the first years a very stern look when she discussed the Cutting Charm. She had no idea when students were officially taught that spell, which was why she had uneasily provided carving knives on the table next to the pumpkins. With the large number of older students and student leaders in this class, however, she was hopeful that everyone would get through this activity unscathed. ”All of your incantations and wand movements are on the board. You have the rest of the class period to finish this.” She had left them about half of the class time to complete the activity; hopefully they would all have fun making Jack-o’-lanterns! Another tap of her wand had the Diffindo and Reparifarge information joining the Duro information on the board.

Celestia was walking over to the table to help students select their items when she glanced towards the class at large and her eyes fell on Mr. Carter. Panicking slightly, Celestia blew hard on her shrill whistle again to stop the students in their tracks. ”Just a moment, everyone. Mr. Carter is allergic to pumpkins! Gather your items but do NOT cut into those pumpkins until I see to this!”** Without another SECOND of delay, Celestia rushed over to the Head Boy’s desk. ”Go on and select your items first, Mr. Carter. Will you be alright sitting behind my desk, or would you prefer to work in the corridor?” She still wasn’t clear what the boundaries of his allergies were. Hopefully the boy was sensible enough to have his allergy potions with him in case of disaster.



OOC: We made it to the main activity! You guys have 4 days to get this activity done. You can make as many or as few posts as you like. I realize that it probably won’t take 4 days to complete this, but the time is there if you want or need it. Celestia and I would like to encourage you guys to push your desks together and play/interact with each other, or find other ways to interact! Class will end on 12 AM CDT on May 22.. We’ll be posting during this time, but if you need Celestia for anything, please make sure to write “professor” or something similar in the post subject line to be sure that we don’t miss anything.
**You guys don’t need to wait on lazykitty and I to figure Ronan’s allergy out posting-wise. Just pretend that it’s already been sorted out by the time your kid starts cutting into their pumpkins IC. Otherwise, the kid will face IC consequences because Celestia will not be happy .

SPOILER!!: OOC Main Activity Instructions

Steps:
1. Choose your item from the table. If your charrie doesn’t want to make a jack-o-lantern, feel free to use balloons, Muggle sports balls, rubber bats/rats/other Halloween decorations or any other random object that you’d like to turn to stone. First years should start with something small and/or balloons unless Celestia told them otherwise.
2. If the student chose a pumpkin and would LIKE to: Use Diffindo OR a carving knife from the table to carve desired face/design into pumpkin.
3. Turn carved pumpkin or item to stone.
4. Correct mistakes using Reparifarge spell. Reverto is also okay.
Note: PREFECTS, Quidditch Captains, HG: help the younger students and make sure no one dies from using knives/Diffindo, especially the 1st years.
(OPTIONAL) Decorate your stone item with paint from the table or any other craft-type thing you’d like. Just assume it’s already on the table.
Note: Kids are taking home whatever they make and they can turn their stone items back into whatever they were using Reparifarge at the end of class if they want to.

Even though turning herself into stone wasn’t going to be a possibility, she did get a few, non-lethal, ideas from the discussion. She would just hope to never find herself in the position to ever need to use it as a defense.

Then it was pumpkin time. She almost bounced in her seat as she listened to the instructions. A carved stone pumpkin. She would be able to keep it around for as long as she wanted without it rotting. However, she was going to have to carve the pumpkin first. She had a brief flashback of potions class the previous year. The one where she almost cut her finger off. Sure, it was only a small cut that hardly required a bandage, but it could have been bad.

Deciding to keep all of her finger intact and knowing that she hadn’t mastered the dffindo spell, she looked to an older student for help. “Would someone be willing to carve my pumpkin for me?” She asked as she made her way back to her desk with a pumpkin in hand.

Daisy wrote down her additional Transfiguration notes.

After she had written her notes, Daisy fetched a pumpkin of a significant size and placed it on the desk in front of her. She was thinking about a design when she heard Emmalyn next to her. "I'll be happy to carve your pumpkin for you."

He frowned.

He couldn't help but frown as professor Grimsbane went off about equations, but he made sure to pay attention and jot down everything she was saying. It was a lot to process in such a short time, so he could already see an upcoming sleepless night, hidden under the blanket and reading his notes over and over again until they made sense.

But it was finally time to do some actual work! Now, Diffindo he knew well. It's always been in his nature to refuse to rest until he perfected something he knew he lacked, and exactly a year earlier, although an ickle first year back then, he'd been embarrassed for not knowing that very same spell when they learned how to brew the Pompion potion. So, naturally, he'd practiced it until he'd mastered it.

... hopefully.

He picked up a medium-sized pumpkin, and returned to his seat. Clearing his throat, he said, "Diffindo," his wand pointed at the pumpkin, and chose to carve a design only on the outside, instead of emptying the whole pumpkin and making a complete mess. Now, he wasn't the most artistic fella, but what he'd tried so hard to carve had some semblance of a lion - maybe someone, anyone would recognize it as the one on his House crest?

"It's not." But there was no point arguing the difficulty of putting a permanent stop to something's heart. So far, she had relatively free reign with her experiments and intended to keep it that way so she'd go quiet on the matter and have the Professor believe that, for her, such a thing would be difficult and therefore a last resort. Duro in itself would be a last resort as there really were more effective ways of dealing with things so if she was going to use duro at all, she was gonna make it count for a whole hell of a lot.

The class was moving on and so was she. Already having more extensive notes on this particular subject matter, Jessa saw no real need to write things down. That being said, if she didn't write, she'd be left idle, drifting in and out of attentiveness while the woman droned on so writing it was. At the very least it would keep her occupied.

Killing two fwoopers with one stone, Jessa chose the largest pumpkin of the group. She levitated it over to her desk where she increased the size further.

Rather than use the cutting charm, the girl got herself a carving knife. This sort of thing always seemed better with an actual tool. Somewhere off in the class she did hear the call for help but it seemed another Hufflepuff would be taking care of it, leaving Jessa to carry on. The Ravenclaw jammed the blade into the pumpkin.

She knew exactly what she would be making.

"Thank you!" Not only was someone going to help her, it was Daisy. She quickly slid her pumpkin closer and smiled brightly at her friend. "I wasn't thinking fancy, maybe some simple triangles for eyes, a round nose, and toothy grin for a mouth?" Hopefully that didn't sound too childish. The pumpkin was on the small side and she figured she might end up messing up the spell to turn it to stone anyway. No need to go to a lot of work making it look extra creepy.

As she waited on her pumpkin, she inhaled the fresh pumpkin smells from the room. It reminded her of fall back home and how her father used to roast the seeds and make pie. It also made her crave spiced cider. There wasn't much better than a hot mug of spiced cider and a slice of pumpkin pie.

Quinn's mind was still reeling a bit about her non-verbal spellcasting, and probably would be for sometime, unless she confirmed it for herself one way or the other. And there was one spell perfect for definitively proving either way: the levitation charm. If there was one spell her wand seemed to love casting more than any other, it was that one.

She quickly finished jotting down the notes, including, once again, copying down the equation. The more she wrote it down, the more ingrained it would be in her mind. Once finished, she set down her quill and picked up her wand.

Quinn leaned forward at her desk, studying the pumpkins from her seat, until she found one that, while it wasn't the biggest, it was still a good solid size. Moment of truth.

She aimed her wand, concentrating with all her ability, visualizing the pumpkin rising from the table and floating to her. Wingardium Leviosa!

Nothing. Not even a wobble. Quinn frowned, but she wasn't done. She still needed to test a few more times to be sure. A few turned into half a dozen and half a dozen turned into a baker's dozen, each time Quinn tried to visualize her intent sharper and clearer. It didn't seem to make any difference.

That settled, it was time to get working for real. "Wingardium Leviosa." With a swish and flick of her wand, the pumpkin she'd picked out lifted off the table and floated over to her desk.

First up, of course was carving it. Quinn studied the wand movement illustrated on the board, and sounded the word out a few times. "Deef-IN-doe. Deef-IN-do. DiffINdo. DiffINdo. DiffINdodiffindodiffindo..." Nodding to herself now that she was confident she had the feel of the pronunciation again -it never hurt to practice the basics again when you have the chance- Quin repeated her standard method of working a spell out. Making sure her wand was aimed at the pumpkin, just in case, Quinn closed her eyes and focused first on feeling wand movement, adjusting whenever it felt off to her.

You could be allergic to pumpkins?

You learn something everyday even when its not a lesson-related subject. So, he followed the instructions to let Ronan go first. Poisoning the Head Boy was likely a no-go in any situation. Then Septimus got up to retrieve what he needed for the activity…a medium sized pumpkin and a carving knife for the first task. It wasn’t that he didn’t know the severing charm, the Ravenclaw figured to get any sort of detail on hid jack-o-lantern, he was better off with the knife. Plenty of magic to be had once he set about turning his finished work into stone.

How cool!

He thought for a few minutes on potential ideas before making the first cut. A downward curve that started from the center of the would-be face of his creation. An nearly mirrored cut was done up from the lowest tip and up to the right of the start of the other cut. A beak of sorts to soon be one of the main features of his project.

One carved eagle coming up.

Eria did not take well to threats, no matter who they came from. Authority...it wasn't that she had a problem??? with it? It was more...why did they think they could tell someone to do something to someone else...like condone TOUCHING THEM, and then threaten them when they reacted unfavorably? She shot the harsh look right back at the older woman. She didn't know her life, she hadn't asked if the former brunette had been okay did she? No. Just presumed she was sleeping and then changed her hair color! Not only did she violate the snake herself, oh no, she okay'd a twerp to "wake" her, and praised the little nit for touching her. There was absolutely no respect in the now puce-haired teen's eyes.

She smirked back as the older woman gave her sardonic smile. To the Transfiguration master's retort, Eria voiced a sarcastic "Thank you Professor." with her equally cordial tone. She didn't care about detention, only about winning her own challenges. There had never been anyone in her family more stubborn than she.


(Step 1)
Once the professor finally decided to let them get on with their torture, oh, pardon her, PROJECT...she perused the possibilities. A pumpkin did in fact seem like it would be the least dull object...after all she could put someone's face onto it and use it for an enchanted pincushion later...

She had her cutting charm well placed, taking the top off of her pumpkin. There was some small amount of joy that came from it at least, carving into that sweet orange flesh........until that bloody whistle sounded again and startled her. Normally the lanky she snake had quite the steady hand, but already having a headache that whistle had rung right through her brain. Then....*POP* went the pumpkin top. She wasn't sure where it landed, who it hit, or what trajectory she'd managed...but that sucker was nowhere near her.

And...a kid had a pumpkin allergy. That was bloody grand. After already mucking with pumpkins and it being All Hallows Eve...why did they just now know this? *SIGH* Eria set her utensils and pumpkin down and sat back in her chair. Any moment now she expected to hear her surname bellowed and something about detention...

Honesty didn't work with adults, intent didn't matter, feelings may as well not have existed, so all she did was sit and wait for the next rivetting chapter in the eyeroll central class known as Transfiguration.

If the cutting was optional, then Chloe was going to opt out. She liked the smooth, unmarred surface of her pumpkin, and it would be forever Halloween-esque with a face cut into it. She wanted a pumpkin she could keep on her desk all year. And she still had the creeping stone-slash-pumpkin monstrosity from before. Probably hard to cut into it when it was all half transfigured.

Math math math math. As soon as she finished jotting down the formula for the transfiguration spell, Chloe dropped her quill and turned her attention back to her pumpkin. "Poor pumpkin. You'll be all stone very soon. I promise." The pumpkin got a little pat pat pat before she pulled out her wand.

Stay strong, sweet little pumpkin. "DURO." Nope, with intention and all those floating figures. "Duro." The pumpkin was already mostly stone, and it changed gray and hard in a moment. So now she needed to try on something else and make the spell work all in one go.

Celestia sighed inwardly at Miss Cambridge's response. She did, of course, understand that it wouldn't be difficult to use a spell to stop a heart if you took all thought, other options, and emotions out of the picture. She just didn't think it was a good idea to advertise that the spell could be used in that way; perhaps it was lying to tell the rest of the class that it would be, but Celestia wasn't opposed to occasional white lies. It wasn't as though any of these kids would actually need to use the spell to stop a heart unless they wanted to commit some atrocity. Besides, it was a difficult feat to make this spell work on living, animate things for most witches and wizards without plenty of practice. Thankfully, Miss Cambridge was not an average witch -- or Celestia would have wondered how the girl sounded so sure that it wouldn't be difficult for her to manage. This last thought made her wander back over to the Ravenclaw's desk after the class had started working and ask hesitantly, "Are you all right, Miss Cambridge?"

Miss Walsh's call for help did not go unnoticed, but fortunately it was answered almost immediately by another Hufflepuff. Celestia flashed a smile at Miss Swann for volunteering to help the younger girl. The girls seemed to be getting on fine, so Celestia let her eyes rove over the rest of the room for signs of students in need of assistance.

The younger boys in the class (Daniel and Septimus) seemed to be making a good start on carving their pumpkins. Celestia was pleased to see that Miss Kevelle was also hard at work on carving her pumpkin -- which Celestia was pleased to note was a rather large one. Good, that ought to give the Ravenclaw a challenge.

Celestia began making her way up and down the rows of desks to inspect students' progress and saw Miss Kettleburn turn her partially-stone pumpkin completely to stone from a few desks away. The professor hurried over to the Ravenclaw's desk and told her warmly, "Well done, Miss Kettleburn! Be sure to try visualizing the entire object turning to stone at the same time next time, but very good job indeed!" She gave the girl an encouraging smile to back up her words, but was soon distracted by a commotion coming from another part of the room.

A pumpkin top had gone flying off! Well, that was not a big deal, really. Celestia had expected plenty of mistakes today. She strode over to where the thing had landed and scooped it up before turning around to discover the culprit.

Ah, it was Miss Lovecraft. Of course it was. The earlier incidents with the girl today made Celestia wonder if she had thrown her top off on purpose, but perhaps she was getting a bit paranoid. In fact, after having had several minutes to calm down, Celestia had come to the conclusion that she most definitely had overreacted to the girl's sleeping in class. Heaving another sigh -- because she HATED to be in the wrong -- Celestia marched over to the Slytherin's desk and placed the pumpkin top on an empty bit of space.
She cleared her throat lightly and said, "I believe I owe you an apology, Miss Lovecraft." She waved her wand and used a nonverbal spell to turn the girl's hair back to its previous color, then paused before continuing in a softer tone that would not carry: "I did not like quite a few of my teachers when I was a student here. They seemed unfeeling and uncaring to me and many of the other students." None of her colleagues had been teaching here at the time, so Celestia did not feel much an ounce of guilt in telling her that. "I'm afraid that we have gotten off to a bad start today. Are you feeling alright? Do you need to go down to the hospital wing?" Because it had also finally occurred to Celestia -- after dealing with Mr. Carter and his odd allergy -- that perhaps the Slytherin was ill or something of the sort. She didn't look ill, but Celestia was not a Healer.

Eria had casually begun braiding her puce hair. She could probably change it back later, after classes were over... If not she could find a book on it. Worst came to worst, she was in the house of snakes and green WAS one of her house colors...

Ah and here came the professor. She wondered if it'd be as dramatic as her hair? Maybe she'd get cuffs or something, told she was an attempted murder...who knew really? Well, at least she got her pumpkin top back. Now....wait what? What the older brunette had to actually say...shocked her a bit. Come again???

Try as she might, the teen couldn't fully conceal her surprise. Her eyes gave the shock away and flat out said "apology" was not a word she had been expecting to hear....in any way shape or form. Slightly more surprise came when she could see her new braid revert to its former dark glory.

Wait, was she worried Eri would write home and make angry parents yell at her or something? If she was...she was wrong because her father was utterly useless in such a way...and she wasn't bugging her mom with trivial stuff.

Some of her icy bitterness softened in her expression and went back to her usual neutral/ slight frown. She listened to the quiet commentary that the professor had to make and took a moment to process it.

Eria was not one to apologize for her not-feelings in any case or matter. She was who and what she was...however, the professor had found one of the djinni's weaknesses. For Eria, it was all about the right questions and the Transfiguration master had managed to ask the right one.

The teen swallowed and turned her face back to the desk, not allowing eye contact. "I'll be fine...thanks." She'd not expected that question, especially not at this point. She didn't want to leave the lesson or be seen as weak...but maybe the woman deserved an explaination. "I wasn't sleeping earlier." She admitted in the quietest of voices. "I get chronic migraines, sometimes even with potions...I won't show it again." That soft voice and admittance was as close to an apology as the girl would give anyone. Her eyes sidelined back up to the professors face, no longer feeling the need to look away once she had ceased her own voice.

Quinn continued practicing diffindo in her head, the pronunciation, the wand motion, all while visualizing the result and intent. Again and again and again. She was rather pleased to note there was no accidental non-verbal casting this time. Finally, Quinn felt ready and opened her eyes.

First step to pumpkin carving was always to remove the innards. "Diffindo!" A cut appeared on top of the pumpkin and she directed it into a circle around the stem. The cut died out about a third of the way around and Quinn repeated it twice more, until she had a perfect lid.

She lifted it off the pumpkin, and looked inside, making a face at all the guts inside it. Usually, Quinn hated this part. But...she'd never had a wand to help with it before. "Scourgify!" Repeating the spell four more times was all that was needed to leave her pumpkin clean inside. Absolutely perfect.

Quinn replaced the lid, and sat back, studying the outside of her pumpkin. What to carve...what to carve? Then it came to her. Something she had doodled so much in the hospital; something that was intricate, in its own way, but not so absurdly detailed and complicated for the young witch, still getting a feel for diffindo.

She leveled her wand midway up the side of the pumpkin, pictured her intent, and traced the peaks and valleys of the wand movement, with its little swish at the end. "Diffindo!" Quinn began to carve the first dolphin into the side of the pumpkin.

ooooooooh so they were making carvings? Beth’s eyes tracked to the pumpkins in the corner of the room and back to the headboy before he well, dealt with his allergies. Really, the girl understood on one level not wanting to be around the allergen but…at least they had potions for that.

Collecting a pumpkin…was a heavy daunting job for anyone. Beth lugged hers even at one point placing it on the ground and rolling it some distance before picking it up again and plopping it with a THUNK on her desk.

Pumpkin, ready. She started practicing the wand movements for the spells they were using. Why was diffindo a V? She wondered as she practiced the spell.

The other spell, well, she was glad she’d done that one once today. Now, she was ready. ”Diffindo” she cast with the V-flick of her wand she began to cut and carve the top out of her pumpkin. Removing the top she looked in and made a face, ew.

Honestly, he didn't get British wizards' obsession with pumpkins. Had it been a mistake to come here instead of Ilvermorny or Beauxbatons? Oh well, too late to come to that conclusion, this being his final year and all. Luckily, after last terms disastrous potions class, his mum had insisted on getting him those special allergy potions, saying that the school probably wouldn't look too kindly on his Epi-Pens. Ridiculous wizards. Ronan still wanted to have to avoid using them whenever possible, though. He still knew how easily potions could be tampered with, after all. So, it was with that in mind that he replied "I'll go out in the corridor."

A move that really would've been fine had it not been for certain a Slytherin and her eagerness, as the top of a pumpkin came flying across the room, narrowly missing him as walked towards the table with the objects. Well, the top itself had missed him. A piece of pulp from said pumpkin top, however? Yeah, not so lucky on that account. It landed on his arm, causing him to stiffen. "S'okay, who did that?" He wanted to know who to curse later. After he was done making a mad dash towards his bag and his potions, of course. Luckily, he reached his bag, retrieved one of the allergy potions, and got it down before he passed out. He was still all kinds of dizzy and fuzzy though. Luckily for the Slytherin.

So, much for a safe year at Hogwarts, huh?

Stasya's smile brought him more relief than he realized it would and he effortlessly returned a sheepish one of his own. Yes, at least it was just ink. Not scolding hot butter like in Charms last year. Phew.

Attention back on the discussion at hand, Derf's stomach died in knots at some of the answers. Jessa's unnerving him quite a bit. He didn't like thinking about his ... well ... Derf wasn't actually sure if they WERE best friends anymore considering how much they did keep from one another these days. Not good, not bad, just growing up...he supposed. But turning someone's heart to stone? Jessa's necromancy and practice of Dark arts (of which he only knew the baseline) was starting to do things to her. He was SURE of it. So he just sorta gaped at her until the professor addressed him directly.

And then he was positively a tomato. Valerie Gray...what was she doing now? Was she well? She never returned his owls.

At least Derf was brought back into the lecture enough to scribbled down the equation for Duro on his parchment, as well as the three spells of the day mostly as a reminder. Duro was the only one NEW to him, ish, but nothing like a little refresher course for the brain, yeah?

Sliding out of his seat, Derf went to retrieve a pumpkin and steered clear of the Head Boy as an extra precaution before settling back down in his seat beside Stasya. Carve a Jack-o-lantern? YES PLEASE! Only he wasn't about to draw a FACE because the fifteen year old hadn't done that for years now. Instead he tapped his wand against his lower lip and considered. He knew what his go-to was when it came to sketching...but something made him change his mind as he pointed his wand to the orange face in front of him. "Diffindo," he said with a fair bit of confidence as he began his artistic process as his wand skillfully (shocking, we know) carved out a certain combination of seven letters in a bit of a warped formation - but there was a reason behind his madness. Always was.

And he surprisingly made quick work of it.

And then a flying pumpkin top caught his attention out of the corner of his eye and....oh, what rotten luck. Derf had to sometimes wonder if Ronan was continuously bitten by a Mackled Malaclaw sometimes. "You okay?" he called over to the Head Boy. He would get closer but, er, he was carving a pumpkin and there was some goop on him and stuff. "I have a chocolate frog in my bag if you reckon it will help?"

Her smile had worked. At least, Stasya thought the return smile from Derf had meant her attempt at making him feel better over the ink incident, however sheepish his smile had been. It had been a smile, so she was taking it as such and anyway, the lesson had moved on. Plus, her answer to the question had gotten a positive response, which was even better. Although understandably she’d been a bit unnerved by some of the other responses too. She was going to stick with casting Duro on non-human beings. In fact, she wasn’t planning on casting it on creatures either, unless it was a last resort. That was just too Dark of an idea for her to be comfortable with.

Turning the objects on the table into stone, though…that was okay. Even if she didn’t feel like he had any use for a paperweight shaped like a sports ball or a rubber bat or any of the other items. At least she wasn’t hurting anything. She’d applied herself to scribbling down the Duro formula and the other three spells in her notes before she’d done anything anyway. That way she’d have it all to remind herself later on, in case it was on exams or something. Only after she’d written it all down did she slip out of her seat to collect a pumpkin and a small balloon for later, letting her grey-green eyes flicker over to Ronan as she wondered about the allergy. She did remember that Potions lesson from before, so there was the wondering over how he’d react now.

In any case, she’d leaned over to whisper to Derf before starting on her pumpkin carving. “My birthday card was safe in my bag” Just in case he was wondering about that in the ink chaos that wasn’t a thing anymore.

Only then did she apply herself to coming up with an idea for her pumpkin. “Diffindo,” she cast, focusing on the image in her head and watching as it slowly appeared as a carving on the orange flesh. Slowly, and a bit rougher than she’d wanted it to look, but it was there.

And also, another glance at Ronan. He wasn’t going to faint, was he?

Now that he was more or less satisfied with his pumpkin, Daehyun would once again attempt to turn it to stone. It had been easy enough with the quill, even got it right on his first try, so he was confident. What would be different, anyway? It was just a larger object to turn, so it required more concentration, right?

... concentration happened to be his worst weakness. But he could do this. He's done it already.

Pointing his wand at the pumpkin that he'd worked so hard on to carve, he didn't pay that much attention to the movement as he traced the wand up, and curved it maybe a liiiiitle too much, and he miiiight have closed the D shape as he said, "Duro!"

Otherwise he couldn't explain how his pumpkin had turned to dust.

"What did I do, what did I do..." His eyes widened, he couldn't help but mumble incorrigibly under his breath, too stunned to clean up the pile of sandy dust or whatever it was. How in the world...