Quinn blinked in puzzlement, more at herself than anything and looked away for a moment. "Yes, of course..." How could she forget they learned Diffindo. She felt slightly flustered now, especially since she'd forgotten it around the Boy. She was blushing now two, slight in embarrassment. The warm pink of her cheeks providing a nice contrast to the cool blue light accenting her features.

She was not at all a fan of what Reese Prichard seemed to do to her when he was around lately, and yet, didn't want to give up new, and rather confusing feelings that were at the root of it.

"Right. I remember."

She turned back and watched him cut the top off, and clean out the pumpkin. He would be a great wizard one day, she was sure of that. "Oh..." What should he carve? "I carved dolphins," she told him. Which wasn't even remotely what he asked, and honestly, he could see she carved dolphins. They were right there on her desk, carved into a polished white granite pumpkin and flickering with blue light... Right. She had no ideas honestly. "What's your favorite animal?" He could carve that.

Reese couldn't help, but catch the blushing of her cheeks and smile.. He hadn't meant to fluster her at all.. But he rather liked the outcome.. He wondered for a split second, if she felt like she could be hit with a feather and fall over because her balance was all messed up, like he did?


" Yeah.. They're really brilliant..", he said with a light giggle.. Her finished stone pumpkin was sitting right there in front of them on their table.. " Umm.. Oooh!.. Alright.. Watch this, Scmebby.. ", he added with a grin as he took up his wand again.

" Diffindo..".. His bright blue eyes watched as he moved his wand this way and that. Every once in a while he'd end the spell to remove the pieces he'd wanted to be removed from the face of his pumpkin and then begin again. After a while the picture was starting to take form and his brow was slick with perspiration as he concentrated on the design he'd pictured in his mind..

When he stood back a perfect carving of his beloved foxes, Pulsar and Radar, by the stream in their den back home. He had a proud grin on his face and with a flourish " Duro.. "


And there it was!.. The finished project.. " Where do I get the candle?", Reesey asked Quinnie-poo.

Eria wasn't sure what it was that she was feeling right now...a foreign thing that she'd had little acquaintance with. She wasn't angry anymore...she'd never looked at a teacher the way she was looking at the Transfiguration master. A mix of confusion, pain, and a touch of something she wasn't quite certain of stirred through her. She had to look away and down at the desk again.

"Green is my house color anyways..." She played off the puce shock as if it had been nothing more than a fleeting thought. Strangely, she didn't feel like holding it against to woman, didn't feel like driving it any farther than it'd gone.

"I've taken potions, just flares up occasionally. ...I'm fine." Her voice remained quiet the entire interaction, it was no one else's business that she had health concerns. She wasn't weak and wouldn't be giving anyone vantage points. How the professor looked at her, had taken her aback and ruffled her feathers. She'd really only seen that sort of expression directed at her by her own mother. She wasn't sure what it made her feel, but she nodded a wordless thank you to the woman.

She heard the allergy riddled lion boy, his whines...his questioning as to who'd flung pumpkin at him. Only, oh yeah she didn't care about him. He should have hobbled out of class a lot quicker and not have left his magnificent poof of a self in free range of the rest of the class. Especially clearing having to have been able to see all of the orange death fruits glaringly apparent in the class room. She felt no sympathy and had no regrets.


Annndd back to her pumpkin. Eria continued to carve and clean her gourd with her wand. Taking a moment to think, she pulled a pencil out of her satchel and began to draw on the skin...really thinking out her design. After a moment, she had it where she wanted it and began to carve. Thankfully the professor returned her pumpkin top, she couldn't complete the carousel design without it.

Biting down on the edge of her lip Beth simply tried to concentrate once more. She could do this, she’d get this. Looking over toward dusty she watched as his pumpkin turned to stone this time and couldn’t help but smile.

”hey good one,” she grinned over toward Daehyun even giving him a thumbs up for the effort. ”I really liked your previous one before y’know…its much nicer than mine, I think” she grinned at her friend before turning toward her pumpking.

I’ve got this. Strong. Durable. Stone. Impenetrable…impenetrable like my cold little heart she was thinking things that she thought were true as she moved her wand in the tell-tale open ended D shape and tried to cast the spell. ”Duro” aaaaaaand nothing.

That was, underwhelming. Again, she tried, this time thinking only of strength and stone and things that withstood time like the Colosseum. Moving her wand in again in the D shape she spoke the spell once more, as clearly and precicely as she could. ”Duro!” opening her eyes she couldn’t help but smile, it had worked.

”it worked!” IT HAD WORKED, ”Eria, Quinn looook…its my forever depressed jackolantern” she grinned over to them as she angled it toward them with a grin.

Jessa had been all set to turn her pumpkin to stone when she remembered the pesky pulp on the inside. It was....unnecessary, to say the least. With the plans she had for this thing, stuffing was nowhere near the list of things that would make it terrific. That being the case, Jessa animated the pulp and watched it shoot from the inside through the hole she made at the top and land in a neat pile on her table.

Much better.

Again, she took aim, this time drawing the incomplete D and opting for a non-verbal. It took only seconds for the slate gray colour to travel across the pumpkin, engulfing inch by inch in stone. Jessa waited for it to be done, tapping her fingers against the table, though whether this was as a result of impatience or just a restless tick, it was hard to tell.

After another moment, Jessa leaned forward and flicked lightly at the stone structure. Yep. Stone.

For a second, the Ravenclaw considered adding other modifications--why stop at just the one--but the lesson would be over soon. There was no point starting something she wouldn't be inclined to finish if she left the room with it still being incomplete.

Rylee sat pretty quietly taking notes for a better part of the lesson mainly focused on what spells she would be getting to be using soon. When the time came around for her to have to choose which item she wanted to work with the second year first cleared all the items from her desk into her bag which she then put underneath her chair. Getting to her feet she went to the front of the room and got decent sized pumpkin placing it on the center of her desk.

Choosing to work completely alone, though she heard quite a few people working together around, yes she heard her brother and Quinn though right now she was in her own world. Pulling her wand from the holster on her arm she aimed it at the top of the pumpkin, "Diffindo!." Slowly she moved her wand around in a circle cutting the top of the pumpkin open. She knew this spell from last term. Then she used "Scourgify!" a few times to ensure the inside was cleaned out nicely before putting the top piece back on.

There really wasn't much need in thinking about what she wanted to carve into the pumpkin. She already knew. Last term she had carved a unicorn. This year... well she had something in mind but she had a strong feeling without even turning around to look that Reese was going to be doing the same thing. So she was going with something else. Perhaps maybe a tad bit cliche but oh well this was her project.

Moving to sit up on her knees on her chair, Rylee put as much focus and concentration as she could into what she was doing. "Diffindo," was used careful again and again in slow easy movement of her wand as she chipped away at the pumpkin carving lines and removing pieces which she set on the side of her desk. Slowly a picture began to take form on the pumpkin a lion cup, poking it's head up over some blades of grass. Above that she carved the letters R O A R !

If no one understood it. Well that was their problem.

Sitting back on her heels, Rylee grinned looking at her handy for several moments. While it wasn't perfect, it was indeed the work of a twelve year old she was very happy with herself. However she wasn't finished yet. It was time to turn it into stone...

Lifting her wand once again and aiming it at her pumpkin master piece she cleared her mind. Focus. Heart and soul. See, feel, make it happen. "Duro!" Nothing. Rylee let out a slow breath and tried again. Third time was a charm. She could feel it. "Duro!" There it was. Her pumpkin carving was solid stone. And it was no doubt going to be heavy... Probably should've thought about that sooner. Hmm... She would worry about that later too. Right now paint.

Ry got up and got herself a few colors of paint and a brush and a little cup of water before returning to her desk once more. This time she sat correctly, feet swinging back and forth, all the while humming under her breath happily as she painted her pumpkin stone carving.

He had to admit that he WAS a little anxious about what card may have been in the chocolate frog this go around, and he was selfishly relieved when it was Circe. "Nah, you go ahead and keep her," he nodded with a small smile. He had about eight of her or so in his collection. Not one of the elusive ones he was still on the look out for.

And since her and Reese were getting down to work...he reckoned he ought to return to his seat and finish up with his pumpkin statue. Though he really didn't feel like adding much more to it. Though he HAD forgotten to cast Duro on the top after he had removed that and scooped out the pumpkin guts, so he needed to finish that off.

Sliding back into his seat, the Hufflepuff readied his wand and performed Duro on the lid without any real disaster occurring. Yay. Next though, hmmm, he didn't really want to put a CANDLE inside and have the wax melt and such...so he opted for something else and readied his wand again and conjured a single bluebell flame...that was unfortunately a little lop sided but it would do. Clearing his throat again, Derf decided to stretch his charmswork a bit - even if this was Transfiguration class - and rubbed his temple while trying to recall the color flashing charm he had used on the t-shirts he had made for IMPS during his second year. It took a bit of thinking, but he eventually DID recall the spell and grit his teeth while performing it on his bluebell flame. Which, well, it became a bit flat afterwards...but at least it was slowly cycling through the colors of the rainbow. Satisfied, Derf quickly scooped the flame up and plopped it inside his pumpkin and set the lid on top of it.

Now...was there a sealing charm or something he could cast to get the stone bits to weld back together? He supposed a Permanent Sticking Charm would do the trick as well...but then he would have that line there and eeeeeeeh.

But, for now? Derf was just content leaning back in his seat and watch his glowing rainbow niffler. Could make a pretty nifty nightlight for his little sister, you know?

"Thanks!" She grinned and read the back of the Circe card, then slipped it into her bag. Quinn watched silently as he carved the pumpkin, impressed. He was good with the cutting charm. Really good. Better than she was at it. And even more impressive was his artistic ability. Quinn's dolphins looked good and all, not as good as they'd have been if she'd drawn them on a flat surface, but they only were as good as they were because of all the time she had practiced doodling them. She was familar with it. She was decent with it. But she wasn't an artist.

Reese, on the other, was truly an artist. And an amazing one in her small, humble opinion. "That's beautiful..." she whispered, softly.

And then it was stone and he was asking her... "Oh. No. It's not a candle. I cast bluebell flame inside it."

Beth's voice drew her attention, and Quinn bit her lip. A sure sign she was trying to stop a smile or laugh, whether on purpose or by habit. "Now that's a jack-o-lantern that deserves to be preserved for all time." Not to mention, it was just so quintessentially Beth, that carving.

Lydia couldn't suppress a smile of delight when Professor Grimsbane had awarded Slytherin 3 points for her answer. Sitting up straighter in her seat, she listened with growing excitement to the professor's lesson. So they'd be carving jack-o-lanterns huh? This was something she knew she could do well. It had always been a Halloween tradition in her family. Her mum was simply mad for everything Halloween-related, and so Lydia had grown up with that same love for the holiday.

Several things were going on in the classroom, including the Head Boy having an allergic reaction to pumpkins, but Lydia was too excited about the activity to notice. She walked up to the table and gathered a balloon, a small pumpkin, and a carving knife. Sitting back down at her desk, she became thoroughly absorbed in her work. The classroom could have caught on fire, and she probably wouldn't have noticed right away.

Lydia blew up the balloon and set it on her desk. She murmured 'Duro' to herself several times. Then she practiced the wand movement again. Finally, concentrating hard, shutting out everything in the world besides her and the balloon, she cried, "Duro!"

The balloon turned to stone. Merlin's beard, she'd done it! Granted she'd only done it to a balloon, which weighed next to nothing, and the professor had explained something about weight effecting the success of the spell, but still! She'd done it. Next up would be the tricky yet also fun part. The pumpkin!

"Reparifarge," Lydia said, waving her wand at the balloon. It reverted to its original form, but it also popped. Oops. Oh well, she didn't want a stone balloon. She wanted a stone jack-o-lantern.

Lydia set about carving her pumpkin. She gave it a cheerful face with a few silly teeth. Now there was a pile of pumpkin goop on her desk, but she was sure someone could vanish it for her later.

Now for the main event. Lydia smiled at the pumpkin. She could do this. Lydia tried the spell several times to varying degrees of success. After each attempt, she used reparifarge to revert the pumpkin to its original state. Transfiguring a pumpkin was much harder than a balloon. Finally, after what felt like the hundredth attempt, she cried out "Duro!" and the pumpkin turned to stone.

Lydia glanced around to see if anyone had witnessed her success, but everyone was absorbed in their own work. Still, she was incredibly proud of herself. She'd be a great witch yet. Now it was time to paint the pumpkin. Lydia retrieved some purple paint and some silver glitter from the table. Her pumpkin was going to be absolutely fabulous!

Soon, Kye had really gotten the hang of the movement, instead of making the D either full or too rounded. She was starting to get a little bored with repeating the spell, when Professor Grimsbane decided to blow her whistle RIGHT by her. WHYYY? And… how did that girl manage to sleep through that? Like… did someone slip something in her pumpkin juice today?! What happened next made Kye’s jaw drop a bit. Really? Bogies and vomit? Pretty gross.

Offensively and defensively using this spell? Kye took a moment before answering, noticing all of the… uh… side effects that had managed to happen. She listened to those who had spoken up first and slightly nodded her head. Yea, Daniel’s answer seemed closest to what Kye had been thinking. If you use it on the attacker, you’re using it for good. If you’re using it on the attacked, theeeennnn you’re using it for ‘evil.’ That was the simplest of terms anyway. She listened to the answers and smiled at the thoughts that went through her classmates’ minds. Turning yourself into a statue?? Yea, that wouldn’t have occurred to Kye at a normal time, let alone whilst being chased. Could you imagine a student halfway Transfigured trying to get to their next class? Hahaha…

She watched as the Theory Lecture appeared on the board, and oh how she wished they could just take a picture of the notes needed and be done with it! Instead, she decided not to chance her fairly fried brain, and she began scribbling it down. She looked up as the professor spoke about the pumpkins and their activity for the day. Hmmm… but what would she want to carve in it? She was pretty sure she had done the Slytherin crest last year when pumpkins had been carved, so she’d have to think of something else. Oh? They had alternatives? Kye knew she would be opting for that. Kye helped herself to a heavier item from the table as instructed, and brought it back to her desk. She looked at her target, which looked a bit like a sculpture of some sort.

Duro!

Yes, she had quite gotten the hang of it with that first activity. On her first attempt, the sculpture turned to stone. [I]YES![I] As she looked at it, she decided that if she made it look a bit older, it could definitely be a good addition to the school’s decoration. Stick it by some of the knights, and enchant it to scare the youngins! Eh, but then what would Peeves do with himself? She decided to do the spell over a couple of times. The third time had passed and, hoping Professor Grimsbane didn’t mind, Kye darkened the color of the stone and gave it a bit more of a rusty look. Perfect! She noticed the first year (Quinn) who seemed to be ahead of herself, but Kye was impressed by her ambition and talent. Not bad, Firstie!

Once the carousel design had been completed....which honestly took waaayyy longer than it should have, she set the pumpkin down to appraise it. The orange gourd was level and balanced enough for satisfaction. All of the details on her horses and saddles were clear enough and that was to be that.

Now, to turn it to stone...

Staring at the creation, she decided she would perform this wordlessly. After all, she needed practice for her OWLs.

Taking aim the she snake made the motions with her wand....D...D...D is for duro...duro is hard...duro is stone....duro is....not working. *Sigh* She supposed she wasn't bending enough will into her creation. She was just making the motions.

A deep breath and an internal monologue pep talk later and the 5th year stared at the pumpkin so intensely that it might explode from her glare. However, with the force of will renewed, it became stone instead. Ha, non verbal stoning was a thing for her now.


Eria looked over at Baby Snake's far less than enthused gourd person and couldn't help but crack the faintest of smiles. "Positively morose Baby Snake...at least you could always name it 'Debbie Downer'." It was a thought. Faces should have some sort of name, shouldn't they? Part of her debated if throwing a stone jack-o'lantern at someone, much like the Headless Horseman of Mr. Irving's tale, would be considered attempted murder? Pre-stone it would simply be a run by fruiting, but once transformed...yeah it might at least be manslaughter.

The next step for Maddie was turning the pumpkin into stone. She was pretty excited about this part, mainly because she was super ready to use some of the arts and crafts materials to decorate it once she was done. She already had some ideas in her mind, too! EYELASHES! She wanted her pumpkin to have long, thick eyelashes! But first...

Maddie reviewed the wand movement in her mind. It was an almost complete D. That should be pretty simple to do. The incantation only had four letters to it, so that one was a no-brainer, too. This should be an all around easy thing to accomplish in other words! Right?

Maddie raised her wand toward the pumpkin and began the D-shaped movement of her wand. "Duro!" she exclaimed. When she blinked, she wasn't expecting her pumpkin to be only halfway turned to stone. "Uh oh," she said to herself. Wasn't this supposed to be easy to fix, though? The third year turned toward the board and reviewed the steps to untransfiguring something. When she turned back to her pumpkin, her wand was once again raised. "Reparifarge!" she said, sweeping her wand. Once again, the original pumpkin sat before her.

Two eyes joined the beak, one on either side of the peak as the eagle continued to form on his pumpkin. His carvings were careful, not just to avoid an incident with the carving knife in his hands, but because Septimus kinda wanted it to look nice. He went over a few cuts before moving onto others that he hoped made it look like the feathers that would have covered and framed the head of a real eagle. That took some practice to work out the right shape of said feathers, but in the end the second year was satisfied with the results.

Now to turn it to stone.

He just had to get the spell right. Septimus copied all that was shared about the duro spell off the board and into his notes for reference. “Duro…” he said, pronouncing it as it was written. “Duro…duro…duro.” The incantation was fine but the wand movement was a bit trickier. The Ravenclaw exchanged his quill for his wand and went about tracing the d-shape in the air. Well the ALMOST D-shape anyway. One…two…three…seven…eight times the charm until he felt okay with it. Finally he put it all together, aiming at his pumpkin and imagining it as stone.

“Duro!”

It wasn't a solid change at first, so he repeated it. "Duro!" It seemed to strength the reserve of his casting and the magic on his pumpkin and the orange squash soon changed into a more greyish hue. Success!

Her comment seemed to have been heard, which was good because Stasya hadn’t wanted Derf to feel any more guilty than he already did over the ink. Plus, she’d definitely gotten the feeling that he’d spent time making the card, because it was way too personal to have been bought somewhere. But either way, she’d only grinned at his comment about the spell. “You read my mind, by the way. I’d really wanted to know that.” Although she hadn’t expected thatto be the answer.

Plus, Professor Grimsbane had passed by and complimented her spell work, so she’d given her a smile too before applying herself to finishing her carving, peeking over at those nearby more to just see what they were doing than anything else. Although she hadn’t forgotten about how, as a prefect, she’d been asked to help the younger students if they needed help, too. It just seemed like those near her were okay, so she was able to focus on her own work. She hadn’t actually tried the stone spell after all, but all she needed was to be confident. And not to close the D-shape. “Duro,” she said, focusing on the pumpkin and the image of it turning to stone. In fact, she might’ve had her eyes closed the whole time, but luckily, as she’d opened them again, all she saw was a perfect stone replica of her carved pumpkin on her desk, in place of the real one.

Derf’s bluebell flame idea was a good one too, seeing as it wouldn’t harm the pumpkin at all. Even if she had managed to turn her pumpkin to stone. Therefore, wracking her brain for the change in spells, she cast and managed to conjure a little tiny bluebell flame and set it inside.

Maddie was pleased that she'd at least gotten half of the spell correct. She'd also gotten the untransfiguration spell correct, too, so that had to mean she was on the right track! With newfound confidence, she raised her wand to try Duro a second time. Hopefully second time would be a charm, and she wouldn't have to keep repeating herself over and over!

She stared hard at the pumpkin as she imagined it turned to stone--completely this time. She made an almost D-shape with her wand as she said, "Duro!" She watched as the pumpkin began to strengthen all over, and it began to turn to complete stone before her very eyes. "I DID IT!" she cheered. She didn't know what she was excited about the most--the spell working or the fact that she finally got to paint her pumpkin!

With a pleased grin on her face, Maddie turned from her pumpkin and headed to the arts and crafts supplies. She selected a few colors of paint and a paintbrush then headed back to her workstation.

Ooh. They were going to carve pumpkins and then turn them into stone? That sounded awesome. It was a great way of making them stay a bit more fresh too. She was excited about it. It was right up her alley, being super creative, and she was already thinking of some great ideas to carve into her pumpkin. The blonde went and collected her items, placing her pumpkin in the middle of her table. She was careful to make sure she waited until the Professor had sorted Ronan's allergy out. They really did not need to have him having an allergy here in the classroom. That would be rather bad, and a bit of an inconvenience. She took this time to think of her design. She drew it onto a piece of parchment, so that she could stick it to her pumpkin and make sure it cut out properly. The blonde had gone with carving out her name. That would be cool.

And now Ronan's situation was sorted, and she could begin to carve. Firstly she cast Diffindo, so she could take the lid off, and then clean it all out. She wanted it to be nice and clean. Then she began to carve. "Diffindo!" She cast, and carefully followed the design of her name, so she didn't make any mistakes. She didn't need them to be wrong. She wanted it to be perfect. She concentrated as she cut her pumpkin, making sure that she didn't make any mistakes. It took her a little while, but she wanted to make sure that it looked good. After about 10 minutes, she had finished, and she peeled her parchment off, revealing her name. Ooh. It looked good.

Now she could make it into stone. She placed the pumpkin back into the middle of the table, and she did the wand movement, making a letter D as she said "Duro!" She'd practised a lot previously, so was pretty happy when her pumpkin, with her name carved out, turned to stone. "Ooh. It looks great! She was very happy with how it had turned out. Shame she couldn't put it into her art portfolio.

Naming an offensive or defensive use for the spell had Bel's mind drawing a blank so she hadn't answered, instead just sitting there with a furrowed brow as other students came up with great ideas, none of which had occurred to her at all.

But back to the task at hand. Bel was still struggling with the spell itself, honestly. The pronunciation, the intent, all of the bits together... the lecture was interesting but it just made her even more nervous about not being able to get the spell right. It sounded like a fun activity otherwise though. She was pleased to see knives available though. Yep she'd be skipping out on the cutting charm, sorry professor. Bel fetched herself a knife and a pumpkin and sat herself down again and then looked around sheepishly. She might have a badge but this captain wasn't going to be much use with helping anyone out.... even the pumpkin carving was really new to her. She set to it though, sticking with a simple face design with angular angry eyes and a jaggly toothy mouth. It took quite a bit of careful work, but she didn't cut herself and it looked at least like what she'd seen jack-o-lanterns to look like in her time at Hogwarts.

Now for the tough bit though. Turning it into stone. Bel took a deep breath. "Duro!" And the almost D shape and..... the pumpkin was still a pumpkin. Try again? "Duro!" Bel said firmly. AAAAaaand the almost D shape... aaaaand....

.....

..... still just a pumpkin. Okay. She was worried a bit now and tried not to peek around to see if certain smart people were noticing her failure. "Duro!"

... nope. And she was running out of time.

Ah well that made sense. She just recalled in her history lessons of a former Potions master turning himself into an armchair, so Skylar figured it would be the same basic principle. Or not, apparently.

Listening first to the task at hand, Skylar diligently took some notes about each of the spells even though they weren't exactly new to her. She wasn't very artsy, but she did have some basic enough ideas to use for a jack-o-lantern, except before she could get to work, her eyes widened at the Head Boy. Ah right, allergic to pumpkin, as she recalled from potions class in a previous year. She shook her head, figuring he was being taken care of and he didn't need her hovering over him. The situation was sorted though and she had a design in mind, so the snake captain non-verbally summoned one of the medium-sized pumpkins to her desk. Senioritis was setting in already for Skylar, which was a pity considering she had still more than half of the year remaining.

Casting Diffindo, non-verbally again, the seventh year concentrated on each cut with precision. First a circle on the top for the lid and then on the side facing her, an invisible knife working through the pumpkin flesh with a line and some more lines splaying out from it. Yes, it was indeed meant to be a broom. Finally, she carved above it, 'S K Y L A R' in neat cursive lettering.

Satisfied with her carvings, she lifted the lid and carefully scraped all the gunk from the inside. Replacing the lid on top, the seventh year flicked her wand as she'd done before with the Gryffindor boy's quill demonstration, nonverbally casting the hardening spell. Perfection, really. And she was done, so with that, Skylar glanced around wondering if anyone needed help?

Juni was debating to give it another go, mostly because she felt like she was just wasting time sitting there staring at her quill. Though she did hear that Chloe had gotten three house points for working ahead. Mmmm… good for her. She flashed her friend a big smile. Maybe she would try it again.

What was that? She had jumped at the professors whistle. She whipped her head around to see what was going on. Oh wow, look at that green hair….

Remind her not to fall asleep in Transfiguration, like she ever would.

Many if the others had already given answered that she would have so instead of raising her hand and giving out the same answer again and just nodded to the ones she agreed with and jotted down some notes.

Now that they were getting to the fun part of the lesson, she got up and grabbed a not too large not too small pumpkin and headed back to her seat with it. How was she going to decorate this pumpkin. Maybe something simple yet with a little halloween flair. Yes, Halloween was one of her favorite holidays right there with Christmas of course. Who didn’t like Christmas? Or Halloween for that matter?

Taking her wand she casted diffindo. Cutting the pumpkin open she scooped out all of the pumpkin guts and gross slimy stuff. She continued to cast diffindo on the side to make the design she wanted. Casting both verbally and non verbally, less of the latter. Of course but it was working out at good practice for her. After a little while she had managed to carve out a decent looking scary halloween cat back arched up and everything.

She replaced top and prepared herself to stone the pumpkin. She done the wand movement the open ended D and said ”Duro!” She watched as the orange pumpkin changed to a cold stone grey. Should she change back and try it again. It actually looked to good to do that though.

Maddie had just selected a pretty rose pink color to use on her pumpkin's face. She was putting makeup (aka colored paint) on her pumpkin, and this pink color was going to be the brush. The brush tip had just about reached the pumpkin, when Maddie noticed that her fellow Hufflepuff, Bel, was having a little trouble. Maddie had gotten the spell right, so maybe Bel would let her help? She guessed Bel wasn't the type to get offended about that, but then...who knew?

"Hey, Bel?" she whispered, putting away her paintbrush. "You want some help turning that pumpkin into stone?" Oh, how Maddie wanted to paint her own stone pumpkin. She had even envisioned just how she wanted the make-up to look! She couldn't just stand by, though, and let Bel not finish the assignment. Maddie would hope that Bel would help her if the time ever came.

Celestia didn't actually believe that Miss Kevelle was fully recovered from overextending herself, no matter what the girl said. It wasn't long before Mr. Prichard had engaged Miss Kevelle in conversation, and the young Ravenclaw seemed to be speaking lucidly and capable of returning to her work. All the same, Celestia marched back to her desk, nonverbally unlocked a drawer, and pulled out a large bottle of Pepper-Up Potion. She had been keeping some ever since that nasty spate of colds had broken out in the castle last year. The professor conjured up a goblet and poured in the amount that the Healer had told her was okay for students before she carried the now-full goblet back to Miss Kevelle's desk. She placed the goblet gently on the Ravenclaw's desk and told her firmly, "Now, you don't have to drink this, but it's Pepper Up Potion and it will help you feel better. And of course, you may leave your pumpkin and pick it up later." A few seconds later, Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne had arrived and offered his chocolate frog to Miss Kevelle of his own volition. Celestia beamed at the Hufflepuff prefect, and told him sincerely, "Thank you for that, Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne. Three points to Hufflepuff!" Yes, he was a prefect and Celestia expected them to help other students -- but she HAD awarded points to Miss Diggory earlier in the class for something similar, and she felt it was only right to be consistent. Miss Kevelle and Mr. Prichard had soon continued their conversation, so Celestia left them to it -- though she did tell Mr. Prichard that his pumpkin was well done when she made another pass by the students' part of the classroom.

Mr. Carter seemed to be recovering steadily. Celestia gave him a very stern frown when he started telling Miss Greyvson his paranoid view on potions. Yes, constant vigilance was a good practice to have -- but Mr. Carter's views seemed to border on paranoia! Seeing as the boy was ill, however, Celestia did not address his words or take any House points from him.

Miss Lovecraft's words about her being fine did not convince Celestia at all, but the professor shot the snake a smile at her joke about House colors. Unfortunately, Celestia didn't see any good that could come of trying to force the girl to get help or medical attention -- and she didn't keep any pain-relieving potions in her classroom. Perhaps she should ask the Healer about that... In the mean time, Celestia had hurried over to deal with Mr. Carter and Miss Kevelle, so that it was much later in the lesson when she went by Miss Lovecraft's desk again. The Slytherin had carved a rather impressive carousel into her pumpkin, and Celestia gave her a warm smile and told her, "Very well done, Miss Lovecraft!"

Miss Greyvson soon called out to her friends to look at her finished pumpkin, and Celestia moved over to see how the first year had gotten on too. Her design was...interesting, and Celestia suppressed a smile with difficulty. She wouldn't want the girl to think that she was laughing at her. "That's very creative, Miss Greyvson," she told her as sincerely as she could. At least the Slytherin had mastered Duro, which was the main goal of the day's lesson anyway.

She was still concerned about Miss Cambridge. The girl's answer to being asked if she was alright had not convinced her in the slightest. Unfortunately, that was about the time that other students had needed attention more urgently, with allergies and migraines and overexerting themselves, so Celestia had not had much time to respond to the prefect's words. She wasn't sure how to help the Ravenclaw, really, and made a mental note to speak to Professor Hirsch if she continued to look so miserable in class. She was pleased to see the prefect actually animating her pumpkin pulp and using a creative way to remove it. The next time she passed by the prefect's desk, Celestia told her, "Nice job on that animation spell, Miss Cambridge. Your use of the Hardening Spell looks perfect, as usual." It really did. Miss Cambridge never ceased to amaze Celestia with her skills.

Miss Prichard had chosen a design that struck close to Celestia's heart. The professor beamed at the second year and told her warmly, "Excellent design, Miss Prichard! And you seem to have mastered today's spell too -- good work!" Celestia was about to give points to Gryfindor, but stopped herself from forming the words just in time; she could hardly award Miss Prichard alone House points for doing an excellent job when she was very, very impressed with students from other Houses' work. She didn't have a problem giving the younger students in those Houses points, but then the older students would likely revolt because the ones in Gryffindor hadn't gotten any points for their work. No, it was best to just smile at the young lioness and move on for now.

Speaking of Gryffindors, Mr. Yoon had mastered the Hardening Spell on his second time around! His design touched Celestia in the same way as Miss Prichard's had, for obvious reasons. However, Mr. Yoon had struggled with the spell more than Miss Prichard had, and so Celestia beamed at him and told him proudly, "Three points to Gryffindor for showing the most improvement today, Mr. Yoon! Very well done indeed!" She felt little no guilt about awarding points to this second year. His improvement truly was remarkable.

Awarding points to Mr. Yoon reminded Celestia of how Miss Swann had carved Miss Walsh's pumpkin earlier in the past. As Celestia moved past the girls' desks, she smiled at them and said, "Take three points to Hufflepuff for helping a classmate in need, Miss Swann. Both of you girls have had a good day's work." As much as it pained her to award points to other Houses, she had done the same for other students in this class today and Miss Swann had earned them.

As she reached Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne's and Miss Dalgaard-Volkova's desks, Celestia was impressed with the color flashing charm that Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne had performed. "That's very clever, Mr. Ashburry-Hawthorne. Well done," she told the prefect with another warm smile. Miss Dalgaard-Volkova seemed to have been thinking along the same lines as her friend, for she had also conjured bluebell flames for her pumpkin. "Very nice, Miss Dalgaard-Volkova," Celestia said cheerfully. It always especially pleased her to see students in her own House be so successful, and both prefects' stone pumpkins looked quite good to her.

Miss Beckett had been steadily working hard throughout the class period, even if she did so quietly. Celestia had noticed the girl use the Untransfiguration spell earlier in the lesson, and then her multiple attempts at the Duro spell. As she made another pass around the room, Celestia noted that the first year had managed to master the spell in the end. She gave the girl a warm, proud smile and told her, "Very, very well done, Miss Beckett! Keep up with that persistence and I doubt we'll find many spells to stump you yet." She was quite pleased with the young Slytherin's work ethic. Many children would have given up after so many failed attempts, and Celestia felt a bit bad that she hadn't noticed the girl's struggles earlier in the lesson - but then, it wasn't often that three different students had medical issues crop up. Celestia gave the first year another warm smile and moved on.

Miss Atwater had also been working steadily throughout the class. Celestia's attention was caught by the girl shouting 'yes' and hurried over to see what the noise was about. Happily, it was as she had suspected -- the Slytherin had managed the spell quite easily. On another pass of the room, Celestia noted that Miss Atwater had added some impressive detailing to her pumpkin to make it look aged as well. "Very nice, Miss Atwater. It's very clever of you to make it look so old," she told her with a grin.

Mr. Hadley-Nairne had continued on with the House theme of decorating pumpkins. Celestia was pleased to see the young Ravenclaw successfully carve in a surprisingly detailed eagle, and master today' s spell to boot! As she passed by, Celestia told him,"Good work today. I like your design!" She did like the detail and effort that he'd obviously put into the project.

Celestia's attention was next caught by Miss Kemp cheering. She made her way over to the Hufflepuff's desk and smiled down at the stone pumpkin with the very large eyelashes. "Looks good, Miss Kemp. Well done," she told the enthusiastic Hufflepuff with a smile. The design was fairly cute, and it was clear that Miss Kemp had at least had fun while mastering the spell, which met two of Celestia's main goals for this lesson. She was delighted with the young Hufflepuff's progress.

Miss Paton had also clearly been hard at work throughout the lesson, as Celestia noted that she had successfully carved her own name into the pumpkin. The professor was glad to hear the seventh year being so pleased about her final results and told her firmly, "It does indeed look great, Miss Paton. You've done well today." The pumpkin looked like a work of art, if she was being honest.

Miss Macindoe seemed to be one of the few students still struggling with the spell. Time was bleeding off the clock rather quickly, but Celestia still moved to the young Hufflepuff's side. "It's quite alright if you don't finish this today, Miss Macindoe. You're always welcome to take it into the practice room if you like, or come by my office. Perhaps you just need a short break before you tackle the spell again, but I'm sure that you'll learn it shortly." She gave the girl an encouraging smile; the last thing she wanted was for students to get frustrated and give up on spells -- which is exactly what was sure to happen to Miss Macindoe if she tried to rush things here at the end of class.

It seemed that Miss Diggory had also chosen to carve her name into her pumpkin. Celestia gave the Slytherin captain a warm smile as she came by, noting that the girl had carved her name in cursive and everything! "That looks very nice, Miss Diggory. Good work today," she told the Slytherin with another warm smile. Miss Diggory had clearly put plenty of effort in to her project to achieve that effect on her pumpkin, and she had mastered the day's spell to boot.

Another student who had been working diligently throughout the class was Miss Primeaux. As Celestia made her rounds of the classroom, she watched as a scary, Halloween-ish looking cat came to life on the Ravenclaw's pumpkin. Once the girl had successfully turned it to stone, Celestia walked over to her desk and gave her an approving smile. "Very good, Miss Primeaux. I like your design -- it's properly spooky," Celestia added. She appreciated the Halloween theme.





Sadly, time continued to tick away until it was about five minutes to go to the bell. Celestia called the lesson to a halt with a few green sparks shout out of the end of her wand to catch the class's attention. She wasn't going to risk a shrill whistle when Miss Lovecraft and Mr. Carter were both unwell. Once all activity had stopped, Celestia gave the class an approving look and said simply, "Well, it seems like most of you have the gist of the spell, so we'll be moving on next class. For homework, kindly research the differences between the Epoximise spell and the Permanent Sticking Charm. I want half a scroll on this topic by next week. You all did very nice work today! Enjoy the rest of the day!" As if on cue, the bell rang out through the castle at that very moment to end the lesson.

OOC: I'm sorry for closing the lesson late, but I had some RL things come up. Thank you all so much for participating, Celestia and I really appreciate it! You all had such fun posts to read and I hope you had fun in the lesson!