Having just lead the students out into the corridor, Professor Stewart waited just a moment for them all to join her in front of the Transfiguration Practice Room. Now normally this room was strictly used for practicing or the students use outside of lessons but not this afternoon. Opening the door and stepping inside she allowed the students to file into the room before she spoke.

Just for the days lesson the room was broken down into several different areas, each with it's own obstacle course meant for tortoises, rabbits or both. There was things for the animals to crawl through such as tunnels, grass, small puddles and mud. There were hurdles for the rabbits to jump over. Little ramps and little slides as well. There was also some distractions such as food for the animals to munch.

"As you all can see we'll be having some fun with obstacle courses today. I want you all to break up into pairs of two and set your item at the start of the course. You can then transform it back into the rabbit or tortoise. It doesn't matter who you work with there are courses here for any pairing you like." So if they were using a rabbit and wanted to work with a friend that was also using a rabbit they could. "When both items are transformed into the animal of your going to use the gate to the course will open." They didn't need to worry about the other person getting a head start.

"You are to follow your animal through the course, should you want to do the course yourself alongside the animal you may or you can just lead your animal through it." Simple enough really. "Your animal must get through each area of the course, once an area is complete it will glow and then you can move on. You can NOT touch your animal or the other persons, should you do so all the lights on the obstacles you have completed will go out and you'll have to start over!" Camilla glanced around at them all making sure they were paying attention.

"The first one in each pair to get their rabbit or tortoise to the other side of the course completing all THREE obstacles wins. The winner will not have to do tonight's homework assignment!" Was that incentive enough to focus and have a good time as well. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that while you can NOT touch the animals once the gate has opened you are well to cast HARMLESS transfiguration spells on the course or your opponents animal to slow them down. You may turn the animal back into its original state, transform a tunnel into a dead-end or cage the animal but it must be a transfiguration spell!" No spell names would be listed as she wanted to really see what the students remembered and what they needed to work on. Of course they didn't need to use any spells at all should they choose not to do so.

"If there is no questions go on and break up into pairs and select a course. Transform your item into your animal and get started!"

Let the fun begin!


OOC: So this is the Main Activity for the lesson! What the students are doing is breaking into pairs, selecting a course and than transforming their item into a rabbit or tortoise (it doesn't matter if both people use the same animal!)... Once the gate opens (when both animals are transformed and ready to start this happens automatically so you don't need to wait for me)... they need to guide their animal through THREE parts of the course (you can make up what the course is) WITHOUT touching their animal. The obstacles light up when completed. They can also cast harmless transfiguration spells to slow the other animal down. Have fun everyone you have roughly 72 hours to get at least three posts in but you're welcome to post as much as you like!

Holding her not-furry teacup, Natalie listened to the instructions for the big activity. It sounded pretty fun, as long as she was able to turn her teacup back into a rabbit again. What if the first time had just been luck? At any rate, she wasn't sure if Derf could totally turn his object into a tortoise yet, so... this would be interesting.

After the instructions, Natalie stepped up to Derf. "Still want to be partners?" she asked him with a smile. You know... just in case he had changed his mind in the last five minutes.

She had been trying to pay attention. Really, she had, and Stasya had actually managed to write down the three spells and the accompanying important information. But she’d sort of missed the part whereby Professor Stewart had assigned them a number so instead she’d just decided that she wanted to make a rabbit. The fuzzy thing, not to insult the tortoises. She just wanted something fuzzy to cuddle, and she’d wondered if the professor would let them keep their animals after the lesson since a lesson pet had to be allowed in the dorms so it maybe would keep her from wanting to smuggle Dobby into the castle. But she’d kept that to herself as she’d gone up to collect a book from the collection and returned to her seat. In time to hear that the lesson was already moving on, literally.

So she’d moved over to the practice room with the others, slipping the page of her notes about the spells into her pocket before listening to the instructions for the activity. So she definitely needed to manage to complete the spell casting, and she really hoped that whoever her partner ended up being wouldn’t be too mad if she didn’t manage it on the first try. In fact, she’d just quietly sat down near one of the gates and started casting before anyone asked to be her partner.

“Lapifors.” She pointed her wand at the book, lying on the ground in front of her and tried to focus on it transforming into a rabbit. A cuddly bunny. She could get a partner after she got a bunny, right?

Oh, so no matching based on what animal you had. Oh. That made her feel slightly better walking in just as that bit of the explanation was going on.

She thought to ask Derf, but remembered he'd already asked Natalie to be partners if the class every came to that. The fact the Slytherin was now asking if he was still game told her she was very much still going to have to find a partner--either that or get another animal for herself and race them on her own. Didn't matter that she wouldn't technically have a winner because transfiguration was no great burden. Doing the homework wouldn't have been the end of the world.

Expertly, she kept her gaze away from food that was obviously set out for magically conjured animals that could--because of their nature--not eat it, or even possess the desire to eat it. All it did was remind her of that fateful class in which the Professor gave attributes to the creatures that couldn't have done nearly half of what she'd said.

With a sigh, Jessa turned to an obstacle course but that was about all she did. Her tortoise remained a teapot but she did note the Gryffindor present at the gate. "Hey Stasya, wanna be partners?"

Patrick followed his classmates into the transfiguration practice room to continue their lesson. He looked over at a few students who were already starting to pair up. He wasn't sure if he would get someone to be his partner but he'd better try since he needed to get a good grade. "Anyone still need a partner?" He looked around waiting for someone to join him.

Zoryn took her time getting to the Transfiguration Practice Room and made it midway through the instructions (that she was honestly not planning to listen to anyway). But upon her arrival, it became evident that everyone had brought their items to this room with them. UH when did (the better) Professor Stewart ever say they had to bring their props?

Rude.

Of course Zoryn wasn't rude in response because she was POLITE and waited until the end of (the less terrible) Professor Stewart's speech, before running back to the classroom to grab her tortoise.

Upon her arrival it looked like most of her friend had already paired up, which meant one thing and one thing only: she'd have to find a seventh year to do all the work for her. Except, she didn't see any of those. So she had to settle. Alas.

"Yoooooooooooooo, partner," she slid next to the random dude and gave him a sup nod. "What are we doing?" And was he aware that he'd have to pull all the weight? 'Cause that's usually how these partnerships went.

Oh, they were supposed to have transfigured their object back before following Professor Stewart in here? Somehow he had missed that and instead carried his rabbit over.

Ronan listened as she explained what they were supposed to do. Honestly, it sounded kind of fun, except for the whole pairing up thing. One wanted to be the odd man out, but inevitably someone would. He could only hope that wouldn't be him. "Anyone need a partner?"

Patrick recognized Zoryn. She was very loud in most of these classes, and typically he avoided that. Well mostly because he was a first year, and first years did not need to have attention drawn to them. Life was about ten times easier if there wasn't someone shouting and bringing unnecessary attention to him.

He looked her over trying to decide what he wanted to say. She asked what they were doing and he really wondered if she was paying absolutely any attention before they left the room. He didn't want to be rude, cause mama would have killed him if she knew he was being rude to a fellow student. "Well," He looked at her hands and noticed that she didn't have her object with her.

Great, he thought to himself as he realized that he was going to have to be kind of rude so she didn't walk all over him as a partner. "Well you need your object from the classroom to even race. So I guess find something that you can transfigure into a rabbit or the turtle because we're supposed to be racing our transfigurations through this course."

He had to fight the urge to roll his eyes so hard because he realized that he was going to have to carry this team on his back. Lovely.

Zoryn didn't see why the dude wasn't SUPER thrilled to be working with her. This went differently than she had planed for. "I'm Zoryn Spinnet, by the way," it was an important detail and he ought to remember it. Just saying.

"I've got a teapot," she gave him a funny sorta look. She heard that part. She hadn't brought it with her the first time, but when she noticed everyone else had one she went back!! That's why she got stuck partnering up with him and not a smarter seventh year (no offense), DUH. She held her teapot out so that he could see it. Boy, this kid didn't give her any credit.

Off to a rough start already. Geez.

She wondered how he'd take it when she made it clear that HE was gonna have to do the work. 'Okay, so like, let's transfigure them!" Only problem was that she couldn't get hers to work right the first time so uh... Yeah.

Miranda looked around and saw everyone pairing off and saw another fifth year looking lonely so she waved to him.. On went her warmest smile.. " I need a partner.. If you please?.. ", She said as she went over t say hello and all that jazz..

Under her arm was her bag and in her hand her item.. " Maybe you should change that back?.. "

And now he felt bad. He wasn’t sure why he had been so mean, maybe it was because he wanted to do well in the class and was afraid that he wasn’t going to do so hot with someone who had forgotten things. [b]”Sorry, I just don’t know what I’m doing that well.”[b] He grabbed his block and began to imagine it as a rabbit. Just like he had done before. He squeezed and let go of his wand a few times freaking out about trying again.

Sure he had done well the first time around, this time may not go so well. ”Would you want to start? I’m not certain that I can get it right.” He had bravado when he thought he needed it but at this point, being a first year he really didn’t have it down just yet.

”Mine is lapifors right?” he looked down at his block again wishing he had his notes with him.

Okay, on first try the book had turned kind of fuzzy, but it was still definitely not a bunny rabbit and Stasya had frowned. Apparently she hadn’t focused hard enough because it wasn’t hard to point her wand at the book and she knew she’d said the spell right. So that meant she must not have focused right, and that was annoying. She didn’t want to have to sit out on the lesson activity just because she couldn’t make her book transfigure into a rabbit. And she definitely wouldn’t be able to convince the professor that maybe she could learn more about animagi if she couldn’t manage other transfiguration spells. So she was going to focus.

Well, she’d focus in a second, as she realized Jessa had stopped near her at the obstacle course gate and looked up at her from her seat on the ground. “Sure. ‘Cept I kinda haven’t managed to turn my book into a rabbit yet,” she admitted, showing the Ravenclaw her fuzzy book. Except she was definitely planning on managing to accomplish the spell because she couldn’t very easily snuggle with a book, even if it was fuzzy. If she could keep her rabbit after the lesson which she still didn’t know if she could.

The bad thing about wanting to be organized - again - was that Skylar had to make sure everything was back in her bag before departing the classroom and following her classmates into the practice room.

She did arrive in time to hear the instructions and frowned slightly in confusion. So they were doing the obstacle course with their animals? Or ... well, how were they meant to control it? It wasn't like they were all gifted with the ability to control animals? Also, was this a race thing with the partners? How important was the partner thing, because it seemed everyone already had partners to the fifth year's initial gaze.

Recalling her transfiguration from before, Skylar decided she should pick the course and her partner first, then transfigure the book. Setting the book down at the start of the course, "if anyone needs a partner, I'll be at this course," she said aloud, hoping she wouldn't have to say it again. Where was Hattie or Vivian or Flynn? Wasn't the perk of best friends in that you'd have a forever partner?

Juniper was currently wearing the black hat on her head. As she followed the others into the practice room. She was kind of bleh about doing another obstacle course type thing. It wasn’t exactly like the other obstacle course. One with animals.

So they were suppose to find partners. Whee was Slate? Zita? Chris? Anyone really. Juni had now gotten up and was now looking around at the courses. They all looked really fun to be honest. Was there a way she could do all of them? Maybe not all at once. By this time she had almost forgotten that she was suppose to be looking for a partner.

She should probably do that before all the good ones were gone. ”Hey Skylar you want to be partners?” Or maybe she was one of the good ones and Skylar was looking for a good partner too. Either Juni knew that she had a good partner. She liked Skylar for the most, and liked that they had gotten to spend time being on the set of the play together. Plus Skylar was older and Juni liked hanging out of the older students. It made her feel cool.

It wasn't long before someone approached, thankfully. A fellow fifth year, if he remembered correctly. Ronan returned her smile with one of his own before replying, "But of course, mademoiselle."

It took a moment before it registered that she was talking about the rabbit in his arms. "Nah, it would just be a waste of time now." Since he'd have to change it back into the rabbit again to participate in the activity. "Would you like to chose which course we run?" See, contrary to the opinions of some, he could be polite.

Why did they always have to go to another classroom this term? It seemed every lesson sent them somewhere else.
He had tried to wait to be the last person out of the room, but he figured Derf would just catch him again so he moved with the class to the following room and that's when she said the direction and Edward could have rolled his eyes way too much over this.

Thank Merlin he got the rabbit though, because who wanted to take a tortoise through a thing like this? Though he was not about to go looking for a partner,
that meant talking to someone and he wasn't good at that, nor did he want to be. So Eddie moved into position alone and set his object down. He hadn't even made the stupid thing into a rabbit yet in the practice room so this was going to be annoying.

"Lapifors"

Nothing..... Great

"That's alright." Jessa assured, taking the fuzzy book and returning it to its original state. It really was, in fact it was an all around better position for her if she really thought about it. The Ravenclaw turned the book over in her hand a few times before drawing her wand. "Lapifors." It took only a moment for the book to once again grow fur but this time, it came with a cute nose and a fuzzy tail; the full salt and pepper rabbit package.

"I can help you with the spell after class, if you'd like." She continued, offering the ...er.....rather spirited rabbit back to her. Had she somehow botched a piece of the transfiguration? No, her intent had simply made the rabbit a wild little thing. One not so easily held, ready and rearing to go and having none of this sitting around business. As it happened....she'd also made sure it didn't like tortoises. "For now, let's do the race." What little of a race there would be if her incantations cast had anything to do with it.

Jessa took her own teapot, placed it on the floor by the gate and once again took aim. "Testudinidifors!" It wasn't a giant tortoise this time, but one of a size closer to the rabbit she'd made. By all observations, he appeared as 'spirited' as the rabbit. As it so happened, her intent when casting to create him had given him a similar dislike of rabbits. "Ready?"

So admittedly Skylar had been planning to run the obstacle course on her own. Which she wouldn't have minded, but then a younger Ravenclaw approached her and automatically, without even looking up from the book item, "Yes," and then looked up and saw it was Juniper. Not that she minded the girl; they'd spent time working together with rehearsals for the play, but the third year hadn't been who she expected was all. Also her surname seemed so familiar to the fifth year and had it been a year earlier, she might have been able to pinpoint it to Marchand's predecessor; her charms professor her first year. But as it were, the She-snake's mind was on fuzzy overload with OWL studies.

"Okay, so my rabbit is kind of ... wild." Or at least it was when she transfigured it before, in case she hadn't noticed in the classroom, "but I think if i follow closely behind it, it won't have anyplace to go but forward and should be alright."

"Lapifors," she cast, the book transforming into a rabbit, as before. And just as before, her rabbit was very spirited, but as she'd already set the book at the start of the obstacle course and was blocking its entrance with her body, the spirited animal leapt forward. Oops, so much for waiting for Juniper's animal? Hopefully hers had just as much energy?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

Holding her not-furry teacup, Natalie listened to the instructions for the big activity. It sounded pretty fun, as long as she was able to turn her teacup back into a rabbit again. What if the first time had just been luck? At any rate, she wasn't sure if Derf could totally turn his object into a tortoise yet, so... this would be interesting.

After the instructions, Natalie stepped up to Derf. "Still want to be partners?" she asked him with a smile. You know... just in case he had changed his mind in the last five minutes.

Quickly finding a spot beside Natalie, Derf set his teapot on the ground and listening as the professor explained what they would be doing. Which yeah, it DID sound kinda neat and...well...he supposed that if he didn't totally transfigure his into a proper tortoise it would still be alright, yeah? Though now his imagination was picturing ways in which he COULD make this happen and it was completely distracting his focus.

"Of course!" he chirped, throwing her TWO thumbs up for emphasis. "Let's transfigure our things, yeah?" he grinned, pointing his wand to his teapot and TRYING to focus. Only now his imagination was not the only thing distracting him. UGH. "Testudinidifors!"

Just like in class, his teapot began to expand to the appropriate size for a Giant Galápagos tortoise and then in another flash of brilliant light completed the transfiguration. Sorta. There was MORE of a neck and head this time...although it still had the curvature of a spout and the tortoise kinda had duck lips due to them still taking on the shape of the end of the spout but the head was way more tortoise like overall. There were actually EYES this time! The shell though...er...well...it had retained the floral design of the teapot and had the appearance of porcelain.

"Uuuuum...." he murmured, ruffling his hair while turning to look sheepishly at Natalie as it slowly began making its way over towards the gate as Derf intended the tortoise to. ".....ready?"

This is what, Professor Camilla Stewart, liked to see. Right away the students began to break up into pairs though she did spot one or two that went off to work alone. Not exactly what she wanted to happen but they still had some time to pair up or she would do that for them.

Walking around she noted those that were already transforming their item back into their respected animal, either a rabbit or a tortoise. Some a little more quickly than others. "If anyone is still in need of a partner please raise your hand? If anyone needs any assistance in transforming their item let me know as I'll be walking around." Without properly transformed animals the obstacle course wouldn't go over so well.

The time was passing by and yet it didn't appear that any of the pairs had actually gotten their animals into the course. Perhaps she needed to let them all know they were running out of time. "There's roughly twenty minutes left to the lesson everyone!" Just a quick heads up to get them moving.


OOC: There's about 6 more hours left to the activity!

Okay, he wasn't going to fail at this. Blaze don't fail! So he pointed his wand and concentrated. He was going to do this one way or another. Stupid thing not letting them in if it wasn't a rabbit. Well he would show it, "Lapifors" He watched as the object moved and finally turn to the rabbit.

Looking up he saw the light change and he started to lead or well his rabbit started to lead him into the maze. Around the corner and straight he came to a charmed around that the rabbit seemed to not be sure what to do. Come on you dumb thing just keep moving.

He kept walking, what did this thing have for them anyway? What were they even learning? Before he knew it he was stuck in the maze with the object again.

Damn, he lost concentration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

So admittedly Skylar had been planning to run the obstacle course on her own. Which she wouldn't have minded, but then a younger Ravenclaw approached her and automatically, without even looking up from the book item, "Yes," and then looked up and saw it was Juniper. Not that she minded the girl; they'd spent time working together with rehearsals for the play, but the third year hadn't been who she expected was all. Also her surname seemed so familiar to the fifth year and had it been a year earlier, she might have been able to pinpoint it to Marchand's predecessor; her charms professor her first year. But as it were, the She-snake's mind was on fuzzy overload with OWL studies.

"Okay, so my rabbit is kind of ... wild." Or at least it was when she transfigured it before, in case she hadn't noticed in the classroom, "but I think if i follow closely behind it, it won't have anyplace to go but forward and should be alright."

"Lapifors," she cast, the book transforming into a rabbit, as before. And just as before, her rabbit was very spirited, but as she'd already set the book at the start of the obstacle course and was blocking its entrance with her body, the spirited animal leapt forward. Oops, so much for waiting for Juniper's animal? Hopefully hers had just as much energy?

Giving the older slytherin, a small smile. ”Great.” Slipping off her hat and tossing it on the floor at the gate of the course. Juni wasn’t quite sure how her rabbits terment was. She had only petted it a few times, then changed it back to a hat. So haha this might be interesting.

Watching Skylar for a moment curious to see just how wild her rabbit really was. It didn’t take long the book quickly turned into a rabbit and started hopping off right away.

Whoa. Apparently that rabbit had never heard of get ready get set go before. Or maybe he really was that wild. "Lapifors," Come on little bunny, they had some catching up to do. In what was one of the quickest times she had successfully transfigured the hat to a rabbit on the first try. The rabbit stood there for a minute, stood up on its hind legs for a better look around then casually hopped down the course.

Jessa’s assurance was met with a tilted head from the second year, curious how it was alright when she didn’t have a creature to race. Except, in the next instant the Ravenclaw had remedied that, leaving Stasya just watching as her fuzzy book had first been returned to its normal state and then into a fuzzy bunny that had been handed to her. A bunny who received a surprised little giggle from the blonde as it proved to be very active. A surprised giggle that had hid the fact she’d been distracted enough to forget that her partner had spoken again. “I think it really wants to race.” Either that or the bunny wanted to just bounce off to explore whatever it could find, but she managed to corral it as best she could at the gate to the course while she waited for its race partner to be transfigured.

“’Sokay. I’ll just keep practicing the spell after class and I know I’ll manage it,” she added, even though help was always welcome. She just knew she could manage it, and she had to prove to herself that she could do it on her own. That and she was already proving that she could handle a spirited creature. The bunny wasn’t too much harder to handle than her squirrel had been, although as Jessa’s tortoise had been placed down at the start of the obstacle course she could tell her bunny didn’t share Dobby’s feelings toward other creatures. At least, it didn’t seem to like the tortoise, as the rabbit had darted off into the course almost as soon as the tortoise had hit the ground.

Looking at the object he got annoyed that it disappeared,
but he was now in the maze so did he really have to turn it back into a rabbit? Picking it up he began walking through the course but was stopped by a block. He looked around but didn't see an opening. Could he just vanish it? This wasn't a course to practice other spells was it? It had seemed just for the rabbit, but maybe if he made the thing a rabbit again the block would leave.

Sitting the object back on the ground he pointed his wand, "Lapifors" since he did it once he knew this time it would go to the rabbit. Once it was in the animal form he began concentrating on its movements. Just as he thought the block lifted and he could continue on with the rabbit hoping in front of him.