It really did not need to be any warmer in here. It was already pretty stifling. How were students meant to learn like this? It was making her feel a little sleepy. To be honest a nap was probably going to be much more worth her time than this little lesson would be. She knew that her past teachers didn't meet up to her expectations, and she did not have much hope for any of the teachers here. But she was going to give them a go anyway. Maybe she would be wrong, and actually learn something. But Melody was rarely wrong, and so, wasn't holding much hope at all. She waved her hand around a little, trying to fan herself. Hmm. Maybe she could do a cool air charm or something? It was charms after all.

Oh. Things that annoyed her. Did they have all day? Or maybe she could write an essay. There was a lot of things that annoyed her, and not a lot of charms that helped with the annoyances. "I wish that there was a charm to stop annoying idiotic peers from being so annoyingly idiotic..." Melody mused, a little smirk on her face as she raised her hand into the air. " The Muffliato Charm can be pretty useful though for some situations when annoyingly idiotic peers are present"

Drewett was always early to Charms class so he could have a nice seat at the side near the middle of the classroom. Except right now, he could feel himself sweating in his own uniform. He disliked feeling sticky, and Drewett would take sweating from exercise over this...and that was saying something. He didn't even like forced exercise. Last term was hell for him. Sitting in an awfully humid and closed room was a different story. He was almost tempted to take his name tag and use it as a fan.

Not to mention, he was quietly appalled by the number of male Slytherin prefects present. Like, the seventh year one...Mercy's adoptive brother, as Drewett recognised. The fourteen year old was gaping as more and more Max Cardens entered the classroom, and he was almost judging them. Almost. What were they doing? It was kind of funny, but also insane.

Drewett forced himself to look away when one of the Max Cardens--okay, this was both confusing and overwhelming--answered soggy socks. He didn't want to stare at the prefect, if that was really him. They all looked rather shocked. All. Of. Them. They've done their acting research, apparently. Drewett had even miss Dia's response about her pancreas, which would normally have elicited a look from him. And then the response of one of the new Stemp House residents, the female Mathews. Err...okay. "A charm t-to look for certain books or chapters p-pertaining the topic I want would be really useful...." There was a lot he wanted to learn, but the library was just filled with lots of books. On top of that, the books had chapters too.

What was up with all these Max's? Seriously. It was slightly confusing but really it didn't even concern her. As long as her focus remained on the lesson all would be well. Unless the overly warm room got to her and she fainted but that wasn't all to likely, she liked warmth.

Charms was something she was good at and it got her attention right away. Hearing Derf as about advanced lessons or something made her perk up even more, wondering if that was something she could do as well. And transfiguration. Not that she needed help in the lessons but she wanted to get ahead in them. Anyhow that was a thought for later on. Right now what was something that annoyed her...

Uhhhh... Lifting her hand she gave her answer, "When I can't keep my attention on the task at hand." This was something that happened... A LOT. If she really truly didn't enjoy what she was doing it wasn't hard to distract her from it but than again even if it was something she loved doing, like making flower crowns she could still easily be distracted by thoughts or a butterfly even. "The Focus charm could always be used though to help clear my mind and keep my focus on what I need to do."

It took her a while to realise what was happening, as there was no particular reason why she'd pay too much attention to things to do with the Slytherin Prefect.

Only some of her classmates were whispering and looking around, which made the Gryffindor curiously look around too. She chuckled when she finally realised there were... she didn't even know how many Max Cardens in there now.

And the professor didn't even notice it. Bless her! Anna already felt protective of the old lady.

That is why she frowned and pointed a reprimanding finger at the rude Slytherin girl (Skyler) when she spoke up. "Oi, watch your mouth! Show some respect." Honestly! Not only was the professor super sweet, she was also proper old. So some extra respect was in order. Anna would make sure of that.

The... several Maxes situation, though. Anna chuckled again. That wasn't disrespect in her books, so she let it go. That was quite funny, actually. She started trying to figure out which was the real Max because seeing his reaction would be priceless. There was a particular one kind of overacting, and Anna wondered for a second if the real Slytherin would be pulling such faces or if one of the people behind it all was trying hard.

Either way, that was her kind of entertainment! She even forgot to answer professor Dopple's question.

And the worst part? The new Professor didn't even seem to acknowledge the bizarre situation. Didn't even bat one droopy old wrinkly eyelid. She'd just gone ahead and let a whole gang of Maxes come in and take a seat.

He knew he had an active imagination, but not THIS active. Surely not. He was LITERALLY sitting next to HIMSELF. The REAL Max Carden eyed his clone deskmate suspiciously. It was like looking into a mirror. And..... wow, his hair was looking pretty good actually.

BUT NO! THIS WAS WEIRD. WHY HIM!?!?!?!

Rubbing his eyes, Max tried to block out the intruders and instead turned his attention to the Professor. Concentrate, Max, this is aaaaaall just your imagination. Something that he found irritating......? Ummmm.

Hey, soggy socks was actually a good answer. Soggy socks were the WORST. He quickly raised a hand in the air.

"I agree with Max, Professor." Wait. "I mean... I agree with me.... I mean......"

His head hurt.

He wasn't sure whether or not he felt relieved that the headmaster had got hung up while on their way back to the classroom and therefore sent Derf on ahead so he wouldn't miss more of class, making it so he could slip back into the room and return to the seat he had left his things with quietly and mostly painlessly. Relief did come in the sheer fact that he had returned alone and therefore there was no dramatic entrance and no we for the time being. In fact, maybe the headmaster would do him a favor and not mention his name at all!

Taking his things out and arranging them on the desk, Derf ruffled his hair and maintained focus on his piece of parchment that he was not meticulously dating and writing the subject on. On, right. He also needed to do the whole name tag thing since he had not done that when class had begun. Shifting the tip of his quill from parchment to that, he wrote his name as neatly as he could...which was to say that it was not particularly neat.

Name tag done, the Hufflepuff promptly returned to the elaborate design that was the date on his piece of parchment. Just, you know, casually taking notes here and waiting for class to move on since...er...he did not feel like answering this particular question aloud.

And looking up and seeing all the multiple Maxtons made his stomach churn a bit. No offense to Maxton. The real Maxton.

Skyler narrowed her eyes and turned to face the voice.
"What? It's true," she said. "I'm burning up in here. Did you check to make sure this wasn't the gingerbread house?" Skyler asked as she took her robe off to let her arms breathe through her long sleeve shirt.

Did she have doubts? Maybe. Did she have all the nervous energy? You betcha. But was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY. A million thoughts were racing around her head. The most frequent one being whether she was going to get detention for this? It was worth it if she did, though. She got to take Polyjuice potion and take part in a prank, two things she hadn’t done before. Well, obviously she had pranked her siblings – who hadn’t? But this? This was a big moment for Tessa. And the Professor didn’t even seem to care, she barely even nOTICED. Her outburst of ‘You, my boy!’ startled Tessa slightly, though. “Errr..” was her only reply. Yes? They had, technically, because she was Max. But also no because she was a…different Max?

It was soon clear who the real Max was. His reaction was undeniable, and Tessa mimicked it to the best of her ability, almost – almost – laughing, then turned her attention to the front. This was an educational lesson, after all. Oh, who was she kidding? All these Maxes were distracting to her. She did worry that she didn’t know Max well enough to pull this off, but it wasn’t actually that difficult when she was surrounded by other Maxes that she could imitate.

Oh, and, as if she didn’t have all the nervous energy already, this heat was uncomfortable.

Being a boy was……..strange, to say the least.

Actually, she was trying very hard not to think about the fact she was physically a boy.

Ew.

“Soggy socks,” she said, echoing Max and Max. A very serious problem, they were. Although the Hot-Air charm could probably sort them out. Heh. She could add that… but was it the Max thing to do? The others Maxes hadn’t so she didn’t either.

Tessa was also so preoccupied with the Max business that she didn’t really notice certain other people’s reactions to them. She didn’t even notice when Derf got up and left…and returned again.

Kaira stared from one Max to another. She blinked and shook her head again as one Max agreed with another.

Why wasn't anyone saying anything? She looked from Max to the Professor and then to Max again. What was happening? Were they all brothers? But she didn't know of brothers that had the same name! It had to be polyjuice potion. Unless the boy in question had a gang of brothers who looked the same.

As she looked at the others, she felt that maybe they too were confused. She looked at the person nearest to her - the head boy - Derf


'Umm.. what's going on, exactly? Is pranking with potions..umm..regular? she asked, for the lack of a better word.

Alessandro registered Gunnar’s question around the same moment he noticed there were duplicate Maxes all around the room. Al raised a very suspicious and exasperated eyebrow. Really, the potion negligence this term was starting to get out of hand. First, the love potion debacle at the opening feast. Now, an obvious slip-up with polyjuice?

This wouldn’t happen at Durmstrang.

Al finally replied, “I haven’t got the slightest clue.”

Then, the professor, the one that kept the room so hot it could melt the face off of some high society ladies, began the lesson with a flourish. And lipstick still on her teeth. Someone ought to tell her. She really was, in spite of the heat, a lovely old woman.

Alessandro raised his hand, “I don’t love wrinkles in my clothes.” Surely, that was a worthy irritant.

Her eyes were widening and if they could get any bigger they would have. How could you not notice there were four of the Slytherin prefect in the room. There were four perfectly prefect badged boys in this class...

*staring for a dramatic pause*

Trying to push that away she looked at the professor as she spoke and didn't seem to mind at all that it was so hot in here. How could she not realize? Happy when some commented about the heat because she thought maybe now she would cool down the room.

GASSSSSSSSP

More staring happened when she heard the girl being very rude to the professor, did she not realize how good they had it with some old sweet lady compared to last years crazy mean make you run until you puke professors? Merlin, please do not let this lady turn into a mean man or something.

Putting up her hand she hoped the others talking and herself answer could distract from the weirdness going on. "Ma'am feeding my pets at home, that could be one that would go so much faster if I could just use a charm."

Kaira looked around and saw one of the array of Maxes sitting next to her. (Waterloo)

'Umm..hi..Max?,' she said, tentatively. 'I suppose you're the real one..who did not orchestrate this?..You don't think you should speak up?,' she asked , gingerly, softly, so that the professor wouldn't notice. But there wasn't a big chance she'd notice, cos she hadn't noticed Derf slip out and slip in, nor had she noticed the parade of Maxes in the room.

Skyler frowned but ignored the girl. She didn't say anything directly to her so Skyler didn't say anything back. Sorry but she doesn't trust any of the professors now. Maybe that's why she's going to take a new approach and push their buttons just to see how far she can go with the new professors at this school.

Did Indigo notice that there were approximately five of the same boy in this classroom? No he did not. See, Indigo didn't really pay attention to people. If it was not one of his friends, he simply looked past them most of the time. He didn't talk to people much either, so he wouldn't know if there was a set of, er... quintuplets at this school.

He stopped doodling when the professor started the lesson. He was a bit distracted right away. Man, she really was old. Right, okay, she was talking about things that were annoying. Indigo heard someone say that being too hot was kind of annoying, and that made him smirk a bit. Hear that, professor? But what annoyed him? He didn't get annoyed easily, but he also wasn't easily pleased. In his opinion most things were just pretty neutral. He thought about it and raised his hand. "It's pretty annoying when people try to talk to me when I'm busy." That wasn't necessarily something that a charm could fix, but the question had seemed like a one or the other kind of thing so he stood by his answer.

”Quite annoying, indeed.” The Headmaster moved into the classroom, agreeing freely with the only student who’s response he’d heard. Russell? Rusnik? Rou-something? That Ravenclaw right there. He was getting better at names but a lot of them still escaped him.

Thankfully, he wasn’t here to play the name game...except he was. Merlin, the Head Boy hadn’t been kidding. One...two...three...four Tree Boys? None of them thought the one was ample? That the one covered everything? That the one gave enough lacadasical answers on his own?

And Dolly there continuing the lesson.....as if it was all normal....?

His arms folded as he shot each a disappointed look before turning to the elderly woman. “Dopple, don’t you think you’ve got 3 or 4 too many Cardens in your classroom?” He’d started there. Surely she’d noticed. Tell him some parts of her were still sharp. Perhaps this was part of the lesson, but then why would the Head Boy alert him if that was the case.

There were many things that didn’t add up in the moment.

What in the name of Merlin's most greying underpants was going on?

Oh yeah, Abra's attention was well and truly diverted from The Dead(?) Kneazle by... well... you saw. You all saw. HOW many Maxes did it take to cast a Lumos spell? Five, apparently.

As everyone else was staring, Abra didn't feel quite so bad for doing the same thing, even though staring was kind of rude. But... well... so many Maxes! Clearly a polyjuice incident, unless someone had managed some sort of cloning spell...

Oh. They were starting. With difficulty, Abra dragged his eyes from each of the Maxes and instead looked up at the professor, and tried to pay attention, though he did keep glancing around at the many copies of Maxton Carden as he did so.

Uhh... Annoying things. After thinking on it a little bit, he raised his hand and said, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice (aka his usual way of responding to a question in class), "It's really annoying when I've just gone to get something, and then as soon as I sit down again I realise I need something else. But there's the Summoning Charm for that. And also just getting back up to go get the thing."

.......... What was it about the Headmaster appearing that made Abra suddenly start feeling anxious and guilty, despite not having done anything wrong? Because that... that was happening. But also, he hadn't failed to notice that Derf had left the classroom, returned, and then suddenly the Head had decided to show up. Which... well... you know...

You know?

Professor Dopple seemed very enthusiastic and, well, it made Lucas smile. He hardly registered what she said about the room being too cold - which it really was NOT - and just smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be a bad lesson, yeah?

You know, apart from all the current...... weirdness.

Something that annoyed him? WELL. He wasn't sure if it was annoying but it was something he didn't like. Or stayed away from. Did that count? He hoped it did because it was the only answer he had right now.

"Uh....... see, I don't get annoyed by it but..... I don't really like loud sounds." Which, thinking about it, put him in a bad house. Thanks, Sorting Hat. "I guess a quieting charm would be the best solution to that."

Another thing he didn't like? Exercise. But there was nothing he could do about that so-

..............

The HEADMASTER was here?!

Lucas's eyes widened as he looked between the man and the, uh, many five versions of the Slytherin Prefect in the room. A part of him felt a little nervous as he sat there, gripping onto the edge of his chair a little too tightly, but another part of him was...... intrigued? Yeah. This was just a bit more interesting than the lesson right now.

Sorry, Dopple.

Okay Septimus wasn’t stupid and oblivious. Something was up and it wasn’t just the professor and her pet that seemed far past their prime. He looked around to see what the commotion was only to notice that a few of his fellow students looked like they were related. Or rather like they were twins. Someone had to be playing a prank. One that he was grateful not to be involved in. Who wanted to look like someone else? Even if the original was a prefect. The fourth year looked to see what the professor had to say about all the Maxs in the room.

Cue oblivious professor.

She completely missed it. Not just said nothing about the collection of identical students in her classroom, but there was no noticeable reaction at all. She was all about wind and irritations and charms to help with the annoyances. Septimus had to keep from chuckling at Ewan’s remark on her question, settling instead for looking at him in silent agreement.

Spot on my fellow Ravenclaw!

And then there was Max, or A Max agreeing with Max. Well another Max. That nearly got the fourth year snorting, the boy covering up his mouth and nose to stem the reaction. Ok so he was glad to not be involved but that didn’t stop the amusement. Until the headmaster showed up and Septimus did his best to appear absolutely normal.

At least maybe now they'd figure out what was going on.

Well this was interesting, the headmaster entered the room, much like last year when that tired old man entered the room as well. Skyler still stayed silent at this point deciding not to say anything ignoring the beads of sweat rolling down her forehead.

Patrick had answered the simple question she had asked wondering when someone would pipe up about the max situation. “I really dislike when my shoes come untied. Blasted things do it mid run all the time.” he was always tripping over his laces when he was running over the summer.

His classmates were contributing so much in the class it was as if his head was spinning round and round and round trying to keep up. Just as he was about to spin around once more he heard the headmaster come in. Oh boy this was going to be interesting.

Chuckling. That was the sound coming from Archer as Professor Dopple seemed to not even notice the multiple Maxes in the room. Because, yes, the situation was funny to her. "You'reee so vainnnn....." she sang out between chuckles. Joking, of course she was joking. She didn't know Max well enough to say rather he was vain or not.

And then the Headmaster had to come and ruin the fun. Sigh. But at least his immediate response wasn't to punish and scold. Much better than last year.

Tad was sitting close enough to Ewan to hear his musings, "Yeah, I don't think he has that many brothers." Or any.. well, he didn't know anything about the older Slytherin but he knew something was off with that many look-a-likes. "Could be trouble." He had to see what would happen next.

Something annoying? Tad didn't think he got peeved easily... Oh no wait, there was some things.. He raised his hand and waited until it was his turn to speak, "Chores are annoying, I'd rather be doing something else useful.. so it would be nice if my bed could make itself or have clothes that could fold itself without having the elves do it or me doing it the muggle way." Anything to save some extra time would be good.

Hm? That's the Headmaster. Tad looked around to see the others reacting. Maybe he would take care of the weird situation.

Tessa almost didn’t notice when the Headmaster entered the room. It was only when he said her Max’s last name that her head jerked up. Oh no. Oh noooooooooo. She knew this, or something like this, was bound to happen but she thought she would have more time before it did.

She ducked her head, running her his fingers through her his hair.

This was definitely the behaviour of a Max, right?

"Um, I..." Chloe was trying to think about what she found annoying with her hand still in the air, plus try to figure out how to explain what was going on to Bel, when the Headmaster arrived. With Derf.

She found this part of leadership confusing. This seemed like a harmless prank and no one was bothered, but should she have run off to tell on people too? Was that the job? She didn't want to be the person pushing people off cliffs they didn't even know they were on, but Derf wouldn't do anything wrong.

But this felt very wrong, and she just gave him a puzzled look before returning to her half baked answer. "I'm bothered by mornings. They come far too early in the day and they keep happening. Like every day. It's terrible."

Torii always tried to be polite, but she was really annoyed by her new Charms professor. Why would Hogwarts hire somebody like this? Later on, she'd feel guilty for being so rude [even if it was only in her thoughts], but sitting here in class and hearing that high pitch voice made it hard to be appreciative.

Too cold? If anybody even mentioned the word cold, she was sure she'd have to hex them. It was SCORCHING in here, and she was even sure Dopple's cat had suffocated because of it. She tried to push all those thoughts to the back of her mind as the lesson got underway.

...

Seriously?!

The first question was asking them what annoyed them? That was almost too ironic. Having an idea that wouldn't get her into trouble, Torii raised her hand. "I hate waking up early," she said. "Say...before ten o'clock or so." Just as she lowered her hand, the Headmaster walked into the room.

Too many...Cardens? What was a Carden?