Jessa was set to stand and begin the exercise but paused halfway up to raise a brow at the Astronomy man. It.....hadn't at all been necessary to go barking orders. While Hogwarts had indeed become more militant, it still wasn't trying to raise an army. Marchand's instructions had been enough. Perhaps the man--and indeed some of his colleagues needed to take a few pages from Noble's....and she hated to say it....but Fletcher's and Scrimgeour's books. The men were strict without trying to be boisterous drill sergeants excuding unnecessary amounts of testosterone and masculine aggression. Y'know, the stuff that were intimidating for all the wrong reasons.

The Head Girl looked the man over for a moment before drawing her wand and in one smooth motion performing the wand movement. He was new here. He didn't know she'd already long since completed the Hogwarts syllabus. Taking her NEWTS privately during the summer that just passed, she felt all the more confident in her knowledge and magic.

Practising was literally to humour Marchand so he wouldn't have an absolute heart attack about the Head Girl being lazy or defiant.

Over and over she performed the wand movement, barely mumbling the incantation below her breath. What was the point? She would cast non-verbally anyway.

This circular charm kiiiiiiiinda seemed like cheating to him. It wasn't really a true orbit if there wasn't a gravitational pull involved, was it? He wasn't about to voice his opinions out loud though... mostly because that just wasn't his style but also because Professor Le Roux was all kinds of intimidating. Not that it took much to intimidate Maxton Carden.

He was definitely up for experimenting with the atmospheric charm after class to try and create a real orbit though, maybe he'd catch Professor Marchand at the end of the lesson.

For now though, it was time to start practising.

A little startled, Max practically jumped to his feet when Le Roux barked the order and he quickly set about practising the wand movements that had been demonstrated. Round and round and roouuuuuund in circles.

Stella looked at Professor Marchand and seen his look and nodded, she knew that he was telling her it was going to be ok. So...her answer wasn't wrong, she was quite please to know that it wasn't. Stella had a very interesting and unique mind, she thought out of the box alot. Listening to Professor Marchand she nodded taking notes in her notebook once more over the charm they were going to be doing. Writing down the incantation and the wand movements she nodded.

Stella was about to stand up herself but jumped at Professor Le Roux barking orders at them once again. Getting to her feet with her wand in her left hand she looked down at her notes. Looking at the wand movements she practiced it in a clockwise circular motion before she tapped the tip of her wand. Practicing the movements she made sure that her circle was nice and perfect. Nodding in approval at herself she mumbled the incantation of the spell to herself.

"Circulus. Circulus. Circulus"

Was she saying it right? Looking down at her notes she seen that she was. Ok.... the incantation was easy but the wand movements was quite tricky, and she didn't want to mess up. Going back to practicing the wand movements she did it slowly.

Gaston looked out at the class, waiting for the students to set about their activity, but before anyone budged, Le Roux started barking out orders again. Was that really necessary? He'd literally just told the students what to do. Oh well, he supposed he should just be thankful Le Roux was barking out the same instructions. He half-expected the man to undermine him and tell the kids to do something different. Le Roux's orders earned a slight eyebrow raise but no further outward reaction from Gaston.

His eyes lingered on the man for a split second, and he couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. Nothing good,he was sure. Whatever disdainful thoughts Le Roux had, the feeling was mutual! And what was that smirk about? Never mind, he didn't want to know. He had more important things to worry about, like encouraging their students!

Gaston wandered between the desks, eyes scanning for signs of progress. He saw Daisy practicing the wand movement, qnd her work earned an approving nod. Elsewhere, Jessa also got a nod, as well as an appreciative glance from the charms professor. He had a pretty good idea what she was doing. The practice had to be boring for her, but she was doing it anyway to avoid trouble with Le Roux, right? If so, he was extremely grateful to her! "Nice wandwork, ladies," he said, addressing Jessa and Daisy both. Then he remembered he hadn't heard either of them attempt the incantation yet. "Don't forget the incantation."

As he made his way around the room, he saw Maxton practicing and nodded in approval of his wandwork. "Great start, Mr. Carden," he said before moving on.

Then he came to Stella. He'd noticed her jump when Le Roux barked at everyone and gave her a quick apologetic look. As uncalled for as that was,
there wasn't much he could do about it. A part of him worried that it might've scared her too much to even try practicing, but he was relieved to see that wasn't the case. He saw her attempting the wand movements from across the room, and when he approached, he could hear her mumbling the incantarion. "Nice job, Miss Starson," he said, nodding. "You have the pronnunciation down."

Gaston looked at his watch as he made his way back to the front of the room. It was almost time to move on. "You have five minutes left!" he announced.

OOC: You have ABOUT 28 HOURS left to finish the mini activity.

When Professor Marchand informed Daisy that he hadn't heard her say the incantation, she said firmly and clearly, "Circulus. Circulus. Circulus." Daisy then repeated the wand movements. She alternated between practising the wand movement and the incantation under her breath in readiness for the next part of the lesson.

The statement that she’d been one of the people closest to the correct answer had brightened Stasya’s mood a tiny bit, even if it was just happiness that she hadn’t let Professor Marchand down. The way things had been going, every little bit helped, after all. Plus, if it helped her stay off the other professors’ radar, she was happy for that too. Survival was the main goal lately, and she’d watched the demonstration quietly. Notes had been taken as well, but she’d slipped her wand out as the direction to practice had happened. Seconds before there had been the barked order to stand up had happened, and startled grey-green eyes had flickered over in the new Astronomy professor’s direction. That seemed entirely uncalled for, especially as she hadn’t seen anyone directly defying the instructions. People were practicing. There wasn’t any outright rebellion happening that deserved something that harsh.

She’d stood up anyhow, if just because it was easier to practice the wand movement unhindered by her desk. It was decidedly not because they’d been ordered to stand up. The movement wasn’t exactly complicated; it was a circle and then a tap, but it was the timing that appeared to be the complication. It was like trying to do two things at once, but she worked on getting it all figured out before she even though about adding the incantation to it.

“Circulus. Circulus, circulus, circulus,” she repeated to herself softly, letting her wand hand relax for a moment or two before she went back to practicing the wand movements again. Soon enough she knew they’d be expected to actually try the charm.

Gustave finally rose from his place on the desk and he looked around, with a wave of his wand the disillusionment spell fell from a black sheet that was sitting near the back of the classroom. Several black large looking puff balls were sitting there, looking rather innocuous.

“All right, now that we sort of have the charm down.” Which in his mind was a stupid charm, were it up to him, he would have taught them a spell called creare orbis, which would literally have the object orbit around you, using your body as gravity, but perhaps he could teach it to them later.

“We can fully practice with these. Now they may seem innocent looking, but these puff balls are filled with glitter that has a semi permanent sticking charm on them. If it collides with your body, the glitter will puff out and stick to you.” He said with a sly grin.

“So everyone take a puff ball and try to make it “orbit” around your person.” He was using the word orbit loosely. “And perhaps attempt to avoid letting it hit you.. ” He said with a smirk.

“Have fun.”

It was good motivation for them to get the spell right, and glitter was mostly harmless. Though it would stick around for awhile on clothes and skin, he was pretty sure glitter wasn’t part of the normal uniform though.


OOC: Welcome to the main activity, it’s fairly simple, use the charm to move the puff balls around you in a circle and try not to get glitter stuck to you. You have about 96 hours to get this done. The glitter will only come out if the puff ball is moving and hits something, it won’t fly out if they pick it up. It’s also green and silver glitter If you need Le Roux, or Gaston put their names in the title bar.

Have fun.

At his turn, Jackson answered, “An example would be the repeating rotation a planet or something makes around something else, like my classmates have said, one of the best examples is a planet around the Sun.” As for the second question, Jackson had been thinking of Locomotor as Stasya had mentioned so he stayed quiet here. Jackson watched as the professor demonstrated the wand movement for this new spell. He started trying to feel the flow of it in his wrist, making a mental note that you could do this spell clockwise or counter (which was nice and made sense for the spell in question). After the demonstration, Jackson tried out the motions again. After about a minute, he started again with his wand in hand. A tap, a clockwise motion over here, and a tap over here… Circulus
And repeat.

“Circulus.”

“Circulus.”

He kept practicing until…

It was time for the main activity. Glittery puff balls huh? Well alrighty then. Jackson took a puff ball, grateful that it didn’t explode at his touch or something. Because honestly, would he be surprised? He picked out an area that seemed to have a bit of space and he hoped that no one would come invade his little bubble because he didn’t need to be covered in glitter today. Once he felt comfortable doing so, he drew a counter clockwise circle in the air above himself, before tapping the puff ball. “Circulus,” he said clearly. He straightened up a bit to give the ball room to ‘orbit’ because of aforementioned reasons of not needing to be glittery. He was doing alright, but he felt something bump into him and

POOF

He could feel it on his back around his waist. EXCUSE YOU?!

Jessa did Marchand the courtesy of saying the incarnation aloud just once before going back to her silent muttering. She’d learned the incantation long ago and no longer needed it—as was the case with nearly all the spells she cast these days. It made no difference to her spellwork.

After some time, the “practice” came to an end. Thank Merlin.

Le Roux’s method of introducing the activity told her, if nothing else, that the man considered them to be incompetent. Then again, it seemed to be a belief circulating diligently among all the new professors. Any other year and she may have been inclined to prove them wrong to the fullest extent but as she was graduating in a mere few months, Jessa tuned the man out completely.

The Ravenclaw chose a spot away from everyone. When she did the wand movement, it was almost lazy in comparison to the practice just now. The spell wasn’t hard, not even nonverbally. Animate enough things to mimic complex behaviour long enough and you found that getting a ball to circle around you was little more than child’s play.

Jessa watched the glitter ball rise and begin circling her with some amount of detached interest. The spell wouldn’t fail, she was sure of that but it was either watch the ball or the men. An easy choice really.

Daisy was looking forward to doing the activity so she made her way to where the glitter-filled puff balls were and grabbed one before making her way to a free space in the classroom where she could perform the spell.

Daisy moved her wand above herself in a clockwise circular motion, followed by using her wand to give the puff ball a tap as she firmly and clearly said, "Circulus!" Within mere seconds, the ball began orbiting around Daisy in a clockwise direction. Daisy was determined to keep the ball orbiting around her and the look in her eyes showed just that.

Glitter wasn't terrible. It could've easily been a lot worse and if anything, Max thought Le Roux had let himself down a little. He expected worse consequences from the bloke honestly. Like dirty swamp water balloons. Or stinky slime goop puff balls. Glitter balls seemed kind of...... well, tame. In fact, there were probably a couple of kids in class who would quite enjoy being covered in glitter.

Max didn't want to be covered in glitter however, so after carefully collecting his puff ball he made sure to find a spot with plenty of space, stuck his wand arm out as faaaaaar as he could and slowly spun in a circle. There, that ought to be a big enough orbit. Satisfied, he then gave the puff ball a tap and concentrated on casting the Circular Charm non-verbally.

And just like that, the glitter ball flew from his hand and started it's 'orbit'.

Cooool.

Le Roux has settled back onto his desk as he watched the students start to circle the puff balls around them. So far, none of them had gotten any glitter on them, and he wasn’t surprised, the spell wasn’t super hard. He glanced over at Marchand for a moment before looking back at the students, his icy blue he’s watching their movements carefully.

“Yiu have about ten minutes left.”

His cold voice said as he glanced at the clock and then back at the students.


OOC: You have about 48 hours left in the main activity.

Daisy wondered to herself if she was able to perform the full spell by saying the charm non-verbally. She tapped the orbiting puff ball in order to cease its' motion. Taking a small inhale of breath, Daisy moved her wand above herself, this time in a counterclockwise direction, followed by a quick tap on the ball as she non-verbally cast, "Circulus!"

This time it took Daisy more concentration and time for the spell to work but it worked just the same. Daisy casually watched the ball orbit her and she wasn't covered by glitter.

Max spun in time with his orbiting fuzz ball, watching it go round and round his body. And then he came to a stop because woah, dizzy. He gave his head a little rub and then raised his arm in the air, careful to stay in the center of his circle.

He had a question. For either professor really, but preferably Professor Marchand just because he was the least scary. Ahem.

"Professors.....? Is there a limit to the size of the object you can get to orbit with this charm?" Because these glittery puff balls were cool and all but he totally wanted to try this later with something else.

Stella looked over at Professor Marchand and nodded and shrugged as if she was telling him she brushed it off as it was nothing. Yes it did scare her, but she was a strong brave lioness and wasn't going to let one of Mr. Beady Eye Stone Face's minions got to her. It was uncalled for, it wasn't like they were breaking the rules and they were doing practicing the incantation and wand movements. Ugh... how she wished this was just Charms class, why did they do joint lessons anyways so Mr. Metal Arm minions could report to him like goos little soldiers? She almost giggled at what she thought to herself but stopped herself just in time, it was funny though.


After practicing the incantation and wand movements Stella nodded to herself. "Ok... now to put this to the test." she thought to herself. Seeing Professor Le Roux more like Le Rotten, she knew that he put the glitter on the puff balls on purpose, she had no doubt about that. In her opinion it was another way for him and the Headmaster as well as well as the other minions to punish them more. If Stella could give Professor Le Roux or Le Rotten as Stella now calls him, a look that could kill he'll be dead. Taking the puff ball she walked back towards her spot and held the puff ball in her right hand as she said the spell. Drawing a circle clockwise, she tap the puff ball. "Circulus!" she said as the puff ball started orbiting around her. Yes! She did it! She actually did it! She felt like smiling but then realize that it wasn't allowed so instead she nodded happily at work knowing that Professor Marchand would know what she meant by it if he seen it.

Gaston kept his eyes (and ears) on the students for the remainder of the mini activity. He saw Stasya and Jackson hard at work in their practice and nodded approvingly to each of them in turn. "Nice work, Miss Dalgaard-Volkova, " he said. "You too, Mr. Thomas. "

Elsewhere, he overheard Daisy and Jessa say the incantation out loud and gave each girl an appreciative look, a silent thank you for doing as he asked without complaint. While he personally wouldn't have been fussed about a lack of a spoken incantation, he wouldn't be surprised if Le Roux interpreted silence as an act of defiance. He inwardly sighed, pinching at the bridge of his nose. Merlin's beard, it was so exhausting trying to anticipate his (for lack of a better word) partner's next move and stop trouble before it started!

Gaston stood to one side, silently listening as Le Roux explained the main activity. So far, so good, and... Blink, blink. What the heck, Le Roux?! Bright blue eyes widened at the mention of glitter and semi-permanent sticking charms, and it was all Gaston could do to clench his teeth so his mouth wouldn't drop open in shock. Since when was that part of the plan? He shot the other professor a quizzical look. He had... so many questions, but none he dared voice at the moment. Like, had Le Roux forgotten that glitter was contraband? Or that a messy uniform was grounds for punishment? Was he actually trying to set the students up for trouble? He saw Le Roux's smirk out of the corner of his eye and realized the man knew exactly what he was doing. So tell me, Le Roux, are you going to hand out punishments yourself or leave that to your colleagues? he thought bitterly.

Gaston bowed his head, trying to hide the anger blazing in his eyes. His hands rested firmly atop his cane to keep them from balling into fists or reaching for his wand. He wanted to vanish those stupid glitter balls before they caused any trouble for the students, but that would go over about as well as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye! He was staying still and silent, just like a good robot, for now. But if Le Roux even tried punishing these kids for a rule infraction he caused, the claws would come out!

As Gaston was consumed by his dark thoughts, he couldn't help but wonder... Oh, good Godric Gryffindor, the kids don't think I had a hand in this, do they? And why wouldn't they? He should've guessed something like this would happen... He should've put a stop to it instead of standing here, powerless. He kept his head down as he continued berating himself. He didn't want to look up, lest he accidentally lock eyes with anyone, but he finally forced himself. The best thing he could do for the kids now was keep an eye on them (and Le Roux).

He saw several students practicing the spell and, to his relief, no one had been glittered yet, but he was too distracted by his thoughts to offer much praise aside from a nod at each student. It was only when he heard Maxton's question that he spoke, Technically, no, but I wouldn't advise attempting this spell with anything larger than an armchair. The larger the object, the more concentration it takes to keep it moving... and the greater the damage it could do if it goes off course."

Moments later, Gaston looked at his watch. Time was winding down, but he was going to let Le Roux give the time warning.

OOC: Sorry I haven't posted in so long! I've been sick the past few days. You still have about 27 HOURS for the activity.

Well, it seemed like no one was going to get glitter on them, and Le Roux’s icy eyes looked up at the clock and then he stood up from his position on the desk.

“All right everyone, time is up, class is over. Time to get to your dorms. ” He said as he aimed his wand at the door and it flicked open.

He didn’t say anything else and instead settled back on the desk, he didn’t dare look over at his fellow Professor, who was probably either mad because he had changed the lesson plan a bit, or having some mental or emotional break down because he couldn’t protect the kids..

From glitter.

That man needed to ease up a bit. Sure Le Roux wasn’t super emotional, or showed emotions at all really and his face seemed to be set in a permanent smirk, but he did sort of, mildly, very mildly mind you, want to protect the kids as well.

Which was why he adhered to strict rules, they were there for order and safety.

Hmmm, part of him wanted to goad the melancholic Professor into actually having that mental breakdown, but he wouldn’t.

For now.

OOC: Class is over, we will lock the thread in 24 hours. Thanks for coming.