Blowing out candles was JUST LIKE a birthday, right? Like Nettie said! Phoebe gladly abandoned where she was tying cloaks into knots and pinning pieces together and grabbed up the nearest candle. Make a wiiiiiiiish and blow it out!

This was a weird activity, though, wasn't it? Were they going to just make scenery and put on some sort of play, rather than learning a lesson? Was it punishment for trying to get eaten by a kelpie earlier in the term?

And why was she holding this candle? Phoebe spotted a lit candle nearby and held her unlit candle up to it, relighting it and setting it back by her feet. Oh, more unlit candles! Light all the candles!

He’d never really spent too much time at the seaside for him to really notice if the waves were in fact larger at the full moon but he’d take the Professors word for it. Maybe he’d have to try his hand at surfing someone and then see first-hand although maybe avoiding the full moon then might be a better idea, what with him never actually having surfed.

After fluffing the brush to make sure that it was in good nick, he dipped it lightly into the paint to make sure there were no drippers and then began painting, only partially listening to some of his classmates answers as his mind focused on the monotonous job of painting the moon. Still, at least the Professor was there to help too and to be fair, he was doing a decent job at it, not that this was a particularly taxing job.

With the painting of the moon being completed, the prefect took a step back and admired his their handywork. After painting it though, hoisting it up wasn’t something he really fancied doing so he let other students volunteer for that job while he headed over to the box to grab a flashlight and mast. With both things in his hand, he looked around and surveyed the class, his eyes searching for something to help with.




”Uhh…Phoebe”. Weren’t they supposed to blow out the candles? He had heard that right, right? Heading over to the third year, he put one hand on her shoulder and bent down to blow out the candle she was lighting. ”We’re supposed to be blowing them out, not re-lighting them”, an amused smile on his face now as he looked at the line of candles she’d already lit again.

Remember...things? "That is so not going to happen, Headmaster sir." he thought to himself as he finished painting his dummy and pushed it with all his might towards where the cornfield would be. Grabbing a bunch of tall grass next, he went on to place them haphazardly onto the floor, and surrounded the painted dummy he just made.

Following the rest of the class, he took for himself a cloak, a torch, and a mask and stood aside to allow the others to get their own equipment.

He caught sight of his twin sister, Catherine, and wondered if she'd been taking tabs on him like last time. Will she remember reporting his misdemeanor to their dad and make his future summer a living hell like before? Noah made a face, because despite the phenomenon they were in, he felt that Catherine will, without fail, remember everything should this thing come to pass.

He'd been a mess, and he'd been losing points for their house because of the unfortunate events that has been happening to him recently. Huff.

Now he has a fair idea as to how Uncle Oakey must have felt what with being unlucky all the time.

Nina could tell that people were staring. She wanted nothing more than to disappear. If only she could go from translucent to completely gone. That would be ideal in this circumstance. Especially with the way Ewan was looking at her feet. She pretend not to notice, even though her worries shot up immediately when he began walking over. He wasn’t about to take a jab right?

Her worries were so rampant that she didn’t even think on the disappoint look Headmaster Trent wore after she had closed the door. Nor did she think much of the younger year who decided to re-slam the door after she already had. Not that she slammed it in any case, but it was rather unnecessary. She also didn’t think to question Eiji on his concerns over having intruded on a drama club meeting. The only thing she could think about was how everyone was probably staring at her feet and whispering about her slippers!! Because that was obviously the only thing anyone was thinking about at the moment.

She did try her best to focus on something else though. Namely, the answers her classmates were giving. Her efforts were going decently well until (what was his name?) (Jay?) (Mike?) that hufflepuff exposed her slippers in front of EVERYONE. A matter which was only made WORSE when Headmaster Trent had to correct him and bring even MORE attention to them.

Oh my god.

Nina wanted to die.

Her face had gone entirely red at this point, something which she tried to hide by ducking her head down as she spread out the long grass in front of the stage. ”Not funny!” she narrowed her eyes, glaring at Nemesis Upstead. Red face and smoke coming out of the ears with a translucent body and bunny slippers was, admittedly, not her best look. She did not hesitate to jump up and move to blow out candles. The last place she wanted to be was near anyone else. Thanks. Also the stage. She wanted to be far from that too.

Cole wished he could rinse his mouth with some water so he could get the horrible taste of corn away. Sadly it looked like he needed to endure the yucky taste in his mouth for a while longer, or worse for the duration of the lesson.. As Isla and Carsyn joined him by the moon painting station and asked the obvious question facing all of them, he shrugged in answer.. "Hi Isla! Hi Carsyn! I think we just need to tug on the rope all three of us at the same time so the moon gets hoisted high enough into the air like Headmaster Trent wants and then we secure the rope by tying it down on something solid like i don’t know a table or a stage winch?" How high Headmaster Trent wanted it raised hadn’t been specified. Grabbing onto the rope, Cole waited for the girls to do the same before he started to pull the rope down with all his force. Hopefully the rope wouldn’t break.

Admittedly, Bernie was REALLY getting into slapping the paint on the dummies, so much so that perhaps she tuned out and/or forgot what else was going on in the room, including, but not limited to, the Headmaster Professor's directions, his responses to everyone's answers, that Ravenclaw girl with the stink-eye for her, and Nina Castillo's pink bunny slippers......

AnYwAy anyway ANYWAY, apparently they were now blowing out candles for Flora's birthday??! Aww, good for her!

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!" Bernie started to sing with FULL lungs. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR FLORA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUU!!!!!"

She clapped her hands together as she finished the last line, also forgetting that she was holding a red paintbrush, and thus splattering paint every which way as she clapped her hands. Oops. Big oh well here. This was washable paint though, right Headmaster? Right?

Bernie next decided to do what everyone else was doing, and draaaaaaaaagged her dummy by its neck toward the middle of the room or the stage or wherever it was supposed to go. Still waving her paintbrush in one hand, she then began to skip around the room and blow out any remaining candles. FUN FUN FUN. What was the point of this defense against the dark ARTS AND CRAFTS class? (ANOTHER good one, Flora!) Hehehehehee. It didn't need a point, tbh. Crafting and creating a mess was the point.

SPOILER!!: catchup

When Professor...headmaster whatever his title was told her to get off of the floor she did. She just nodded and looked around slightly, chilled from her absolutelt ridiculous idea of sitting on the ground. Who even did that? WHY were they painting dummies and moons and...and sewing? SEWING where was Matty when you needed him? The brunette got up and walked over to where the moon and the paint were and started to help paint the large opalescent sphere that decorated the skies at night.

When he asked about things associated with the moon the first thing she thought of were tides, womens...uh monthly visitors and things that clearly weren’t part of defense against the dark arts at all. Still, she raised her hand before chirping in “Professor, there are times that muggle witches...uh, pagans? Use the energy of the full moon to power their magic or enchantments” she smiled and gave Avalon a little grin as she had said a very similar thing.

Alright, alright they needed to get their class set up. Islay got up and walked over and started to blow out the candles. She was going to have as much fun as she could with this class – and couldn’t help but grin as Beradette sang happy birthday...wait it was someone’s birthday. “Happy birthday,” she called out as well and gave Flora a small smile.

Noah decided to focus on the curtains because for some reason that was the only thing that stayed in his head. It helped that he had written down curtains on the back of his hand when Trent was giving instructions. Curtains, curtains, curtains, he repeated in his mind as he stood up to draw a couple of them. Then he became distracted when Bernie started singing happy birthday? Huh? Birthday? It was someone's birthday? Then Islay said 'Happy Birthday'. Wait, was it Islay's birthday?

"Happy Birthday," he said, not knowing whose birthday it was nor if it were just something people were saying cause they were blowing out candles. He made his way over to Islay before casually nudging her and whispering, "it's not your birthday... is it?" He thought Islay's birthday was later in the new year as in at least April or May... but then again - he could be mixing up birthdays.

After helping draw the curtains, Noah followed the Professor's instructions. He grabbed a mask, a flashlight, and a cloak. Hmm.. The cloak and mask gave him vibes from a certain musical. What was that musical called again? Something of the Opera? Professor of the Opera?

After Aboli finished setting up some grass, she thought it looked decent enough. It was time to lug some dummies into the scene! Whatever scene it might be...

The nearly sixteen year old pulled one, then the other, cursing at the lack of magic in the back of her head because everything would be sooooo much better if it was back. Ugh. The lugged another over, grateful they weren't a million pounds, and then went to put a cloak on (one of the ones SHE had pinned herself, might as well) and wondered what she should do next...had she remembered everything? Too bad she didn't have her sticky notes with her. She really needed to start bringing them everywhere with her, even to class.

When everyone had given their answers to the professor’s question, he gave the class instructions. There were several and by the time he had stated the last task, Naya had already forgotten the first few. Pausing in confusion, she looked around the room to see what the other students were doing. She would just do more of that. Having finished bloodying up her dummy, she decided to move it toward the corn field. Once she accomplished that task, Naya went back for another dummy and dragged it over near her first one.

Since the field did not look like it was quite finished, Naya set to work on that. She put the tall grass around the “field” and strategically placed corn throughout the grass. It was a work in progress, but with her classmates’ help, it was starting to take shape. Once she was satisfied with her little patch, Naya tried to remember what else she was supposed to do. Then the Gryffindor was distracted by someone singing Happy Birthday. Was it someone’s birthday? Naya looked around to see who the lucky classmate was. At this point, the only thing worse than her memory was her attention span. Now what was she supposed to do?

Wait, what? They were supposed to be blowing the candles out? Why were they blowing out candles? "Oh. Okay." Phoebe frowned at the candle as she blew it out. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, did it? "Do you see the pile of dead bodies? Let's drag them out into the corn field!"

Because that's what they were supposed to do. RIGHT? Phoebe grabbed one of the dummies by its bloody head and then released it with a squeal when her hands came away messy. "Blood! I'm bloody! I'm dying! I'm murdered!"

Carsyn was helping out, too? Awesome! Isla loved working with the older students, especially the prefects. They always seemed to know what they were doing. Err...speaking of which, what were they doing? For a second, Isla forgot what class she was even in. Moon hoisting? Arts and crafts? Must be Muggle Studies!

Oh, wait, Trent was in here! So they weren't in Muggle Studies. They were in POTIONS.

Anyway... Isla turned to Cole, waiting to hear his explanation of what they were supposed to do. She nodded. "Sounds easy enough," she said. She joined Cole in holding on to the ropes. As soon as Carsyn grabbed a hold, too, they could start tugging on the count of three or something.

Heath’s mood instantly brightened when the headmaster said he made an interesting point. Now if only he could remember what it was he actually said! Oh well, no time to think about it now. Trent was talking again, and… wow, that was a lot of directions! He listened carefully, trying to commit the instructions to memory, but everything seemed to leave his brain as quickly as it entered. What was he supposed to do again? Draw the moon, hoist the tall grass and corn, drag the candles to the field, get a curtain from the box… No, that couldn’t be right! None of that made any sense!

Confused, Heath looked around to see what everyone else was doing. Maybe that would give him some clue. He saw some people carrying dummies. That seemed like as good a place as any to start, especially since he was already standing beside a dummy. He grabbed the dummy’s arm and dragged it to the middle of the corn field. He went back for another one, placing it next to the first, and was about to get a third when he remembered there was something else he was supposed to do. But what was it?

He watched several students blowing out the candles around the arena and assumed that was the thing he was supposed to do next. Why did Headmaster Trent want all the candles out? Then it would be too dark to see anything, and somebody could fall off the stage and get hurt! Never mind, he wasn’t going to argue about it. He joined the others in blowing out the candles until he heard singing and clapping. Wait, so he wasn’t supposed to blow out the candles? They were for someone’s birthday? Oops! Sorry, birthday person!

As Heath’s dark head whipped around in the direction of the singing, paint splattered his face. “Hey!” he blurted out, more out of surprise than anything else. The thought crossed his mind to tell off… whoever that girl with the paintbrush was (Bernie), but he decided against it. Maybe he could use the paint for dramatic effect. If the dummies were supposed to be injured, maybe it would make sense for him to look injured too? Ooh, that reminded him that he still didn’t have his costume.

Heath retrieved a cloak and mask and… what was that other thing he was supposed to get? Flashlight, right. Hold on… cloak, mask… ASDFJKL!!! WERE THEY DOING THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?!?!? Just save time and cast him in the title role right now! HIs eyes darted from the objects in his hands to the dummies onstage. Wait, that didn’t make sense! The Phantom’s victims wouldn’t be all bloodied up like that. Ooh, he had it! They were doing Jekyll & Hyde! That was even better!

Getting into character, Heath put his cloak on sort of sideways so that it only covered his left side, the same side as the paint spatter on his face. After ruffling up his hair on that side, he decided he probably looked enough like Hyde, but he’d also have to play Jekyll too. Before he could finish getting into character, some girl’s (Phoebe) voice startled him. Wait, she wasn’t supposed to be murdered. He wasn’t even onstage yet! She must’ve missed her cue; either that or he did. Now he was all kinds of confused!

Naya stood beside her patch of the corn field and tried to remember what it was that she was supposed to do next. Her mind was just drawing a blank. A complete blank. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.......well, sort of. Naya couldn’t remember at all. As her mind started to wander again, she wondered if she would start to forget really important details of her life. This worried her.

Finally. she saw one of her classmates go and fetch some supplies. That was it! A cloak, a mask and a flashlight. Thank Merlin someone had their wits about them. Naya went up and got one of each. Now, was she supposed to put the cloak and the mask on or not? She wasn’t sure, but she decided to wait. If they were supposed to be put on, surely the Headmaster would remind her of this. She glanced around in the meantime, to see if there was anything else she was supposed to do.

............................... Why did Bernadette think it to be a good idea to start belting out happy birthday in the middle of a lesson! Despite there being no magic involved, they were still in a CLASSROOM! The Slytherin rolled her eyes and continued blowing out candles. With the last few near her being out, she decided to help out with rolling dummies to the center as well. She could hide behind them too, so it was helping in that regard as well.

Once she helped drag two or three over, she went to grab a cloak, flashlight, and a mask. The mask would likely be useful in hiding her SHAME. And her face which was still bright red, by the way. She took extra time in picking out a cloak for herself too. She was picking out the longest one. To cover her slippers up, hopefully.

They were eating the corn.

They were eating the corn and re-lighting candles and singing happy birthday. Malachi, who had gone to help with the cornfield to ensure it was tall enough to not be seen over, actually facepalmed. He didn't know where to start and half way through not knowing where to start, he couldn't remember why he'd facepalmed in the first place.

They were doing something he didn't like...he was sure of that.....

And who's birthday was it?

"It's looking good so far, everyone." He commended, doing his best to keep in mind the why so he wouldn't forget the next steps. Yes, he could still remember and would keep repeating it in his mind until it was time to put it into action.

"Be sure to get the tall grass all over, stage and arena floor." They would be using up all the space in a minute.

"Get that moon up as high as you can, you three." He told the trio by the moon. "And make sure the dummies are scattered about evenly. Still got a few more candles that need to go as well. Yoon, get up and do something."

Malachi walked back over to the box and fished out his own flashlight. The Headmaster flipped the little switch then turned the light onto his own face from below to ensure he could be seen. "When you're done, head over to me. Don't forget the cloaks, flashlights and masks."

OOC: I'm loving the forgetfulness everyone Still another 24 hrs in case you wanna finish things up then have your charrie head over to the Headmaster. ^^

OH, it WAS her birthday!

It HAD to be her birthday! Why else would BERNIE be singing to her, RIGHT? RIGHT! Flora was BEAMING, and forgetting about blowing out candles and making ALL the wishes, and the fact that they were all in class and that it really wasn't her birthday, she held her hands out in front of herself to CONDUCT the older girl's song.

It was a GREAT song. And it was sung BEAUTIFULLY. And it had been all for her! She clapped her hands as well as the song sadly ended and gave a dramatic bow afterwards. "THANK YOU, EVERYONE!" For the birthday wishes! "I don't have cake or ice cream, but there is a huge box of corn!"

That's why it was over there, right?

Maybe. Who knew. Whatever. Flora blew out a few more candles, because they were lit again for some reason and she did have more wishes to make, before grabbing a cloak, flashlight and mask and moving over to where Professor Headmaster was. "I've always wanted a flashlight of my own."

What a PERFECT not real birthday!

Astute was actually Nem's middle name. Except that it wasn't, it was actually Nemesis, and their first name was... was... something... else. Uh... what had it been changed to again?

... Well, the point was that, yes, they were very... whatever the Headsman had just said. Probably.

Anyway. "I don't know what you mean, Castillo. I wasn't trying to be funny at all." Nem smiled amiably and turned back to the job at hand. Splashing the dummies with paint was almost fun, and it was also one of those things where, even if Nem forgot what they were doing or why, more savage applications of red paint would probably follow regardless.

When the time came to setting up, Nem dropped the paintbrush - it didn't really matter where - and extinguished some of the nearest candles by licking their index finger and thumb and - tssst - pinching the flames out. That done, they hoisted up one of the slain dummies ready to pull it out to the field that the Headsman had gone on about.

Except that halfway there they might have forgotten exactly where they were supposed to be going, and why, and how come there was red paint everywhere, including all down their uniform (maybe there might have been a touch of forgetfulness about said wet paint when they had grabbed the dummy in the first place). Nem stopped and had a little look around and... was that the moon? ... Sure, why not.

Eyeing the other dummies scattered around, Nem lugged theirs a little further and then just booted the thing the rest of the way, until it sprawled on the floor. Beautiful.

The instruction to grab the other stuff had been lingering somewhere in the back of Nem's mind, and seeing everyone else grab what they needed was enough to make it so that Nem didn't entirely forget it. They donned a cloak, balanced the mask on top of their head - technically it was on, sure, but it wasn't on - and went to join the Headsman.

Clicking the flashlight on, they shined the beam up from under their face, all eerie like, and looked straight at Trent. "So who did we just kill?" Meaning the dummies, of course.

Jina fiddled with the flashlight switch, trying to remember what she was doing before she was distracted by this box of items. All the noise around her was adding to the distraction and soon she gave up on trying to find a task for herself. She decided that she was done - she felt tired, so she must have done some work that she could not remember doing. Holding her flashlight in one hand and her cloak and mask in the other, she blew out the candles near her as she walked over to the professor, whose face she could see thanks to his flashlight. "Oh, are we supposed to do that too?" Jina switched her own flashlight on and placed it below her chin. This was kinda creepy though ...

Missa didn't know what was happening. Everyone's confusion was just adding on to one another and leaving her anxious about WHAT she was supposed to be doing.

Confused, and frankly a little scared by the randomness of it all - she tried sticking by her boyfriend's side, "what even is happening, ...." she started but then stopped - staring at the Slytherin next to her.

What was his name again?

...

Eli?

HORRIFIED and turning BRIGHT RED, she turned away from him - BECAUSE UM???????

Thankfully, the professor spoke again - and she hurried to make a grab at those cloaks and flashlights.

Elliot?

....

Nononono.

".....I am doing something, professor" he said as he leaned forward so that he could wrap the cloak around him. "I'm watching others work. It's called observation" he grinned. ...But fine, okay"

With a groan, he got up from the stage and picked up his flashlight and vaguely wondered who's birthday it was today. Whoever it was, he hoped they had a great day today. Cause everyone deserved to have a nice birthday!

He turned to actually be productive and help the others out and he moved to a row of candles that were still lit and once reaching them he stared at the flickering light. Scratching the back of his, wondering what he was doing on this side of the room, the Hufflepuff began to walk backwards as if that would jump his memory. 1 step. 2 steps. 3 "AH!" he suddenly exclaimed and clapped his hands which still held the flashlight and as he looked down at it and he wondered when he had picked it up.

Wait what was he supposed to do again? Why was he so unfocused? was this all a very weird dream? The fifth year pulled up the sleeve of his robe and began pinching himself. Nope. That hurt! Definitely not dreaming T__T

Hearing the next instructions to walk back to the professor with the items, Minjae turned on his heels and walked to him, leaving the candles burning behind him.

Bernie did a BIG curtsy after Flora finished conducting her. Actually, everyone should bow and curtsy, really, since they'd all helped wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. She was quite proud of herself for singing when she wasn't really the singing type, and dropped her red paintbrush on the floor now, paying no heed to anyone she might've splashed with it. (Big OOPs @Heath, poor lad. But he WAS embracing the red splatters NICELY.)

And mooooooooooooving right along, Bernie now skipped to the cloaks when the Headprofessor reminded them to grab one, and slung it over her shoulders. She grabbed a mask and a flashlight too, but didn't put the mask on yet. Instead, she mimicked her Head of House (wait, he WAS her head of house, right?? That had happened this year??? Or was that last year????) and turned the flashlight on under her chin.

"Are we having storytime, Kale's dad?" She was blanking on his last name momentarily. "Are you gonna tell us a ghost story? I've heard Children of the Corn is a good one. Unless that's the one you picked, in which case, sorry for ruining your suspense. I can tell you a different one about corn! First off, the family lives in the states in Nebraska or Iowa or something, and they start seeing these crop circles in their field, and they think it's caused by aliens, but as we all know, it's really mooncalves, and then they get tinfoil and put it on their heads while they watch TV, and then the little girl keeps leaving her cups of water out at night, and then...."

Wait..... was it REALLY Flora's birthday?? Cause Bernie just started belting out the happy birthday song. Also, the headmaster was completely unphased by all this? And why was Phoebe relighting the candles?? What was she supposed to be doing again? Oh that's right... hoisting the moon. As high as it could go, apparently.



She turned back to Isla and Cole, as Cole tugged on the rope. And Isla joined in, which meant all that was left for her to give it tug too. It was like tug o' war with the moon?

Picking up the end behind Isla, she nodded at the two of them. "Alright, sooo ready set.... pull? And if this doesn't work... we always climb the rope." It would give them better pull if they could get closer to the moon, yes? Maybe? Actually she had no idea.

At the sound of Carsyn's 'ready, set, pull," Isla began pulling on the rope. She didn't know exactly how high it was supposed to go, but Noble had said as high as they could get it, so that's what they'd do. "Why are we hanging arts and crafts projects in Potions class?" she asked the others. Sure, they were void of all their magic, but she'd just assumed they'd be cleaning cauldrons or relabeling vials of ingredients. Oh, well. If this is what Noble wanted them to do, then so be it.

She really hoped this would work. She'd heard Carsyn say something about climbing a rope, and seeing as Isla was the smallest, she assumed that job would go to her. She didn't know how she felt about climbing ropes in Potions class. Anyway, she tugged at the rope some more, hoping to look up any second now and see the moon hanging high above them.

Oh, and... "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FLORA!" she called out. Whoever Flora was. It was actually Isla's thirteenth birthday. Well, it would be in a few days. That thought had oddly not crossed her mind yet, though...

In spite of the fact that Phoebe was murdered and covered in blood, and in spite of the fact that NO ONE CARED, she was easily placated by the Headmaster's redirection. She smeared the fake blood from her hands down the front of her robes and meandered over to pick up one of the cloaks and a torch.

"I'm murdered," she informed Headmaster Trent conversationally, flicking her torch on and off on her face like she was in a ghost story. "But I got better."