FIREBALLS.

Shooting the puff buff a dirty glance - Zachary BARELY avoided a panic-y moment, his wand all ready to shoot a protective shield over them all - until he realised the fireballs did absolutely nothing.

So stupid.

Gradually though - they reached land - and he thanked whoever was up there, because somehow they had made it, the professor was there, everyone was THERE.

Upon further instructions, he had his wand at the ready. The charm, an easy one, but he agreed - it definitely needed concentration, so he did just that - firm on his stance, he cast the spell the moment one of the creatures appeared.

The words leaving his mouth, clear and proper: "Lumos Maxima!"

Malachi takes his wand out of where he had stashed it and watches Septimus closely and tries to do it himself. "Lumos!" The tip lights up for a second before going out almost instantly. He tilts his head in confusion before looking up at Septimus with questioning eyes.

Focusing on the approaching lanterns nearest to him, Abra noticed that, as they got closer to the light, he could make out their smoky forms a little bit easier. Of course, the light was then making said smoky forms a little less smoky, and a little more solid, though not nearly as quickly as he needed it to happen.

"Lumos Maxima!" Abra cast, pointing his wand at the nearest hinkypunk and sending a harsh beam of light straight at it. As practicals were where he excelled, Abra was not surprised to find that the magic had soon worked its... well... magic. The hinkypunk that had caught the full blast of the beam quickly solidified, giving Abra an opportunity to cast another spell at it. "Flipendo!" he cried out, a note of triumph in his voice, and the fake!hinkypunk went careening backwards into the water behind it.

Satisfied that he knew what he was doing and that it seemed to be going decently, Abra allowed himself a smile, but turned quickly to the next hinkypunk, which was half solid and seemed to be raising its lantern, poised to attack.

"Lumos Maxima!" He sent the spell at the wispy creature, and, once it had turned reasonably solid, followed up with, "Flipendo!" Nyooooom, away it went.

Two down! This wasn't so bad at all.

Fireballs... huh. Alright. Charlie kept rowing but made the decision -- unconsciously, perhaps -- to not process the fireballs. That would serve her well, seeing as she would probably have a panic attack if she chose otherwise, That, of course, would do her no good in participating in the rest of the class. As they kept rowing down the river, and kept rowing, and kept rowing, Charlie remained almost eerily calm (because, of course, she was filtering out the fireballs).

Land ho! Charlie wasted no time in setting down her oar and clambering out of the boat, snapping out of her eerie calmness. Readjusting her robes, she refrained from nearing the headmaster for a moment to wait for Stasya, Rylee, and Isla. Whatever was next, it would serve her well to have a group around her (and she hoped her presence was beneficial, or simply welcomed, also).

She then approached the headmaster, noticing that her socks and shoes were practically soaked. Charlie was, in no way, pleased by this, but there wasn't anything she could about it now. She had more important things to concentrate on.

Battling monsters, apparently. Fake ones, though... right? They were definitely fake....

Charlie furrowed her brow -- as if that would do anything to help -- as she concentrated on the spells that would help them battle the hinkypunk monsters. So, light made them grow solid, and they'd use a knock-back jinx to seal the deal. Simple enough... she guessed.

As the headmaster paused, Charlie scrambled to practice all of the wand motions -- sans wand, of course, as that might be dangerous until she had a better idea of what she was doing. She mouthed lumos, concentrating hard -- therefore further furrowing her brow -- and then making a loop with what would be her wand hand. Simple enough, she thought happily. Maybe she would try lumos maxima in the practical!

And now for the knock-back jinx. Charlie concentrated on Headmaster Trent's hand motions, mirroring them and mouthing flipendo over and over.

And now for the practical.... Charlie had this in the bag. The hinkypunks were fake, anyhow. Even if she failed miserably at tackling the hinkypunk monsters, she would leave class unscathed (she would prefer not failing, though).

She smiled at both Rylee and Stasya respectively, letting them now that she thought she had it but really appreciated the support.

As the first hinkypunk approached her, Charlie drew her wand and stood her ground, quickly reviewing the wand movements and incantations they were just taught. "Lumos maxima!" she exclaimed loudly, feeling quite giddy when the hinkypunk solidified. She couldn't get too ahead of herself, though, as she had to knock him back, too.

"Flipendo!" she exclaimed even more forceful, cheering when the hinkypunk went toppling. She felt confident enough to try it on another monster and did such.

Charlie could take on the world now.

Drewett's head was aching. He honestly just wanted to sit down for at least five minutes but alas, the hinkypunks were here. Everything was in perfect timing, as always. Of course. He didn't even have an idea what had hit him on the head earlier, anyway. What kind of a bloody boat had walls to its side? Strange place, Hogwarts.

Ah well, at least he didn't drown. He'd take a concussion over drowning any day. Maybe. Actually, he'd rather not have any of those if possible.

Fishing his wand out of its holster, Drewett kept his eyes on an approaching lantern and he naturally backed away a little. He wasn't ready for this. He never will be. The only thing keeping him sane at the moment was the fact that he'd practice this spell a lot during his free time. Advanced studying had its perks, all the time. "Come on.....Lumos Maxima!" The fourth year croaked, his voice cracking a little because... wow, puberty, today out of all days?

This was humiliating, human biology! Come on.

AHEM. PANIC. "Lumos Maxima!" Drewett gave it another try with a loop of his wand and squinted a bit when light came out his wand. Ah yes, more head throbbing from too much brightness. Just what he needed.

The other girl from their boat seemed to be doing fine, so Indigo focused his attention on the hinkypunk that he'd just solidified. They were weird little creatures. He half wondered what would happen if he just kicked it. That seemed like it would have pretty much the same effect as the knockback jinx, wouldn't it? But no, that wasn't what they were supposed to be doing. "Flipendo." He cast the spell the direction of the hinkypunk and that took care of it. This was pretty easy. Hinkypunks weren't that hard to defeat. But to be fair they were in the classroom and prepared for this, so things might be different if the situation was more organic.

Vita offered Indigo a smile before turning her attention back on the few Hinkypunks that had fallen victim to her spell. The light worked as intended and gave her the opportunity to rid the area of a small portion of the threat. "Flipendo!" Her voice was clear, her pronunciation precise, and it worked beautifully. This. This is what she enjoyed about lessons.

"Lumos maxima!" More were coming, eerie and intent on causing harm. Vita knew some of the younger students around them were struggling so the more she could take down, the better. "Flipendo!"

Torii thought for sure that the hinkypunks would be diminishing in number by now. Surely the students far outnumbered them three to one. Surely everybody had taken out at least one by now, and the creatures would stop coming.

Nope.

Just as Torii took out one hinkypunk, another two were on their way. Oh, come on! "Lumos Maxima!" the fourth year casted. The bright light darted from her wand and headed toward the hinkypunk. Torii was happy to see the creature stop right in its tracks, a startled look on its face.

She followed that up with a quick, "Flipendo!" She was able to quickly knock back a second hinkypunk and send it on its way. She paused, taking a few seconds to check on her surroundings. Chaos, was the first word that came to mind. The area was a wild mix of both students and hinkypunks. Speaking of which, was there yet another one heading her way?

Hanna had no idea if they could. Could they? Surely if they tried hard... but her confidence in the situation was slowly dwindling, even if Chloe was reminding them that it was just a bog. In the classroom. Right, in the classroom. In the castle.

And then it was a sweet picture to her eyes. She grinned, almost whooping out in joy as she saw LAND. But not only land. Professor Trent was there, waiting. She hopped out of the boat as quick as could be. Dealing with the Hinkypunks, however, was not something she was overly excited about. But there they were, in a lesson, and apparently with fake hinkypunks. So, really, she could do it.

Her wand in hand, as one came towards her, she cast "Lumos Maxima," with the resulting bright light coming from her wand. Her voice, reminding herself of the created environment and creatures, was confident. The Hinkypunk appeared to solidify, which meant it was time for the next one. One she hadn't practiced much, unlike Lumos Maxima. "Flipendo!" she said, moving her wrist in the flicky-swirly way. It didn't have enough oomph to really knock that Hinkypunk back. "Flipendo!" she repeated, with the wand movement. The blue light that came from her wand hit the Hinkypunk. "Flipendo! Flipendo! Flipendo!" She repeated, until the Hinkypunk disappeared.

He had to say, on a whole, they weren’t doing a bad job at all. Malachi had been a bit worried some would pitch a fit and insist they couldn’t do anything...or run screaming and not attempt the activity. This was a far better outcome and the man was pleased.

Watching them, he saw teamwork and a willingness to help each other. Those were key elements for survival when you could afford it. When faced with danger, it could never really be just about themselves while others were around.

“Tiiiiimmmeee!” He let the word drag for a bit, allowing them to get the last of their spells out before yelling the word again, this time with an amplified clap of his hands to gain their attention. “Time!”

He gave them all a moment to settle “Good job everyone, it was some good spell casting and defense on your parts. I hope if there were any doubts, you now see that there’s no reason to panic and I’d like this to carry over into the real world. Make no mistake, there are real dangers out there, ones that will actually kill you but a level head goes a long way—as does teamwork like several of you have demonstrated. I’m not disappointed. That said, this is the end of class.”.

The Headmaster waved his wand and all the charms vanished. The bog, the river, the boats, the mud they’d trekked onto their shoes, it was as if nothing had happened. The classroom was once again as it should be, four walls, windows, desks and chairs.

“Homework!” In case they’d been hoping he would forget. “Read up on chapter 6 of your Defensive Magical Theory textbook. All of it. There’ll be a quiz next class. Let’s not start the year of with D’s and T’s. On another note, the duelling arena is open to anyone wishing to brush up on their defensive magic and if I’m available I can make myself available to lend a hand. You’re free to go.”

OOC: Aaaand that’s a wrap folks! I’ll leave the thread open til I get home in case any wanna play wrapping up and leaving but the lesson is officially over. Thanks for playing!

After watching his friend, it was Camilus' turn. Carefully picturing in his mind how Septimus had done it, Camilus readied himself.

"Here I'll give it a go," he said as he took a stand. With all his might, Camilus shouted, "Lumos!"

His wand lit up like a big old lightbulb, but seeing how others were able to increase their spell, Camilus challenged himself further.

"Okay, that went well. Now, Lumos Maxima!" Yes! Camilus had only needed to be shown the right way to do it. He hadn't wanted to ask anyone ever at home, because he was embarrassed that his spell never worked well but now being at school and with older students had pushed him to do his best not to fall behind.

"Fantastic! Thank you Septimus!"

Patrick had batted off the hinkypunk with the knockback jinx, doing just what he thought he was supposed to do per the headmaster. It was wild to see all of the light in the room since everyone was casting the lumos charm. He was interested to see what the rest of the term was going to hold since they were already doing big experiences like this.

Gathering his bag he got his things together to leave. He stopped short of the door, "great lesson professor." He almost stopped and asked about if he was able to dress down when he said dress down in the instructions for each class. Shaking his head he started to head back out of the class, happy he hadn't died.