Doing nothing wrong? Snort. When hadn't she said that back in her first and second year. It took her awhile to stop blaming her wand and the spells themselves and realize it was all her...and some impatience. Ahem.

Lex muttered the incantation a few times while she waited for him to get close enough. She wasn't about to shout to him from across the room, Professor or no Professor. Once he was at her side, she nodded toward the vine on her desk. "First things first, you have to really want it to change. That's one of the major things. Intent. You have to kinda see it changing and already know what you want it changing into before you give it a go."

For as long as she'd been getting help, that was all she'd ever been told. "I mean, it's gonna take some amount of power too, obviously, but intent plays a big role too. Watch."

Lex flexed her wrist, just to work out a knot she felt in it then pointed to the vine on her desk. "Be sure to enunciate but don't draw the words." And yeah, now was a good time to hope this didn't fail considering she was meant to be TEACHING.

"Vinea Funiculus." She said, already trying to will the vine to change because it would. There was a satisfied look on her face as the vine started twisting and contorting until it's build resembled that of a rope. "Now you."

Gwen glared at the wood and the vine. Her early glee at having altered them slightly had vanished. Most of the other students now had ropes and boats. She sat up taller, trying to tell the inanimate objects that she meant business now. Focus. "Lignum navicula!" she tried it again. The wood did not change shape, it simply fell off the table as she jabbed at it with her wand.

She sighed and retrieved the wood. It was going to work this time. She got distracted by a sudden thought. What about Annora? Not Annora in specific, but other deaf kids who had never taken speech therapy. She couldn't say the spells, so could she just not do magic? Because signing while waving a wand would be difficult. FOCUS GWEN! she shouted at herself. It was a question she would have to ask later.

This wood was going to turn into a boat. Any minute now when she said the spell there would be a boat sitting in front of her. Gwen squeezed her eyes shut and envisioned a cute tiny little version of a grand pirate ship. Eyes still closed she tapped the wood lightly, not wanting to retrieve it from the ground again. "Lignum Navicula!" she said firmly.

She tentatively opened her eyes, expecting to see the same misshapen log as before. To her surprise and delight it was exactly what she had imagined. Minus the sails. But she supposed sails weren't really made out of wood, so they wouldn't transfigure, right? Still, it was gorgeous. Gwen felt a grin creep across her face. This magic thing was going to be great after all.

Since the pronunciation was under control -- was it? -- and the wand movement was mastered, the boy decided that it was time to try and practice the spell. Properly. This vine was going to turn into a rope, no matter how many times he had to keep casting the spell.

Practising time.

Alec cleared his throat and held his wand ready. Vinea Funiculus... Vinea Funiculus... "Vinea Funiculus!" Point.

... Nothing.

Alec BLINKED down at the vine in surprise. Had he said it wrong? He couldn't possibly have gotten the wand movement wrong; how hard was it to point at a vine? So it must be the pronunciation. Or... the intent? He had to really want it to turn into a rope, right? The boy reached up a hand and ruffled his hair. Transfiguration was... hard.

Again. He took a deep breath and tried to imagine the vine turning into a rope. The spell was mumbled out loud a couple of times, too, just in case he needed to work on that. "Vinea Funiculus!" Point. Nothing. "Vinea Funiculus!" POINT.

...

ROPE! The Hufflepuff GRINNED as he looked down at the rope that lay there. It wasn't the best, probably, but he could say that he had managed to get this right, yeah? But it was a good idea to try again, yeah?"Reverto!" The rope went back to looking like a vine. "Vinea Funiculus!" POINT. There. Rope again. Maybe he had the hang of this already.

Maybe.

Now the vine. Satisfied that she had done the boat, Gwen was feeling pretty confident in her magical skills. She stared at the vine, closed her eyes and envisioned it as a strong, gorgeous rope. "Vinea Funiculus," she her eyes snapped open to reveal....a vine. What was the problem here? She had visualized it, like she had done for the log/boat. It should be a rope now!

Gwen thought briefly about her mother. Her mother had always believed in magic. She read her horoscope every day, and picked names so carefully it had driven her father nuts. But Gemma had always maintained that names had power. After Mo telling her to name her broom the other day, Gwen couldn't help but agree. Maybe it would be easier if she named the vine. She scanned through the list of all the names she knew and what they meant. Aiolos. Her brother had nearly been names Aiolos because it meant "the changeable one" in greek. That was it.

Gwen picked up her vine, glancing around to make sure nobody was watching. "I'm going to call you Aiolos, okay?" she whispered to it. She gently set Aiolos down, closed her eyes and tried again. "Vinea Funiculus!" with a point of her wand. She opened her eyes and there sat a rope. It was funny looking, as if it wouldn't probably hold up a person, but it was a rope. We did it Aiolos!" she beamed at the inanimate object. Now if only she knew how to change them back so she could try again....

Time for the vine.

Ella pushed the small boat aside and pulled the vine forward, eyeing it carefully. Vines turned into ropes made her think of rope swings and how fun would that be? Not that it was the sort of weather you'd want a rope swing for or anything. Especially the kind of rope swing you'd use to swing right into a lake or something. Maybe a tire swing would be more inspired for Autumn but th-

...

She should probably be focusing. Yeah.

Shaking her head, the blonde adjusted the grip on her wand and mentally went over the incantation. Vinea funiculus. She could handle that.

Ahem.

"Vinea funiculus!" Point!

...Huh? Her vine had twitched a little and seemed a bit thicker than it had been before but really, it was still a vine. She blamed thoughts of rope swings, honestly. She needed to be more focused.

"Reverto."

Focusing. Foccccccussssing. Focused. She knew exactly what she wanted and how she wanted it to look. She was going to get a rope this time.

"Vinea funiculus!" Point!

GRIN! GRIN! GRIN! Ella had done it, created a rope. It probably was the best or the strongest but it was definitely a rope. Perhaps with more practice, she could adjust it so that it'd be more useful as a tool. She'd have to work on that.

Despite his confidence and concentration nothing happened to the wood. Adi sure was looking forward to the day when was able to cast a spell and it would work on the first attempt.

''Lignum Navicula!'' he said and tapped the wood with his wand. Nothing. ''Lignum Navicula! Lignum Navicula! Lignum Navicula! Lignum Navicula!'' More taps and still nothing. Adi silently thanked goodness that he was a patient person otherwise he'd have gotten frustrated long back. ''Lignum Navicula!'' Tap! He stared expectantly at the wood. It firmly remained wood.

Well of course he wanted it to change why would he be trying if he didn't want it to change. The vine was just stubborn very stubborn, but he wasn't going to be rude to her since she was cool and all. Nodding he watched as she continued to lecture. He hated lectures just do.. do so he could watch.

Watching as it seemed she was going to actually do the spell he watched as the vine moved and changed, "Cool" It did seem easy enough so it shouldn't take him long to do. "Aight" He was going to do this yes he was.

He moved back to his vine he could do this visualize the vine going to a rope got it. He closed his eyes and squinted a bit, because who could visualize with there eyes open anyway? Scrunching his face thinking he opened his eyes tapping the vine, "Vinea Funiculus." He watched work.. work..

It moved and twitched and started to form, but quit half way through. Stupid thing.. Huff

Lex gave a nod and cast a reverto to get her rope back into the shape of a vine. More practice even though it was clear she'd gotten it. Before casting again though, she watched Bart give it all a go. Her breath stopped as she waited to see how it would go and a tinge of disappointment settled in when it stopped half way.

Man, she thought that was the only one that sort of thing happened to. Half transfigurations might as well not done any transfiguring in the first place. That's how she saw it.

"Good. That was better that just now when it slapped you in the face. I suggest putting more oomph into it. Give it some more power and a little more focus. Go on. Try again, I'm watching."

Watching....and practising too. In all her helping she had to get this nevermind that she already did and needed to move on to the wood. She'd wait for him. Point. "Vinea funiculus!" And another well formed rope. If she was out in the wild, she'd SO live. Did no one see her rope making skills? Lex would be able to cut free a few vines then knot herself a makeshift candy bag...in the event some rabid beast tore up the one she had. Had to think about these things.

Leah was totally freaking out. The professor was leaving, and she wasn't even sure how to pronounce the two spells. She concluded on writing the spells on the board on her journal first, and practice reading the spells before using it.

SPOILER!!: Leah's Journal

lignum navicula

vinea funiculus

Clearing her throat, Leah said, "Lig-num na-vi-cu-la. Lignum navicula. Got it. Vin-nea, no, I mean, vi-nea fun-ni-cu-lus? Well, let's try it." Leah took out her wand and jabbed at the piece of wood, saying "Lignum navicula!" Nothing happened. She knew it would not work in her first try. "Lignum navicula." She repeated, this time giving the wood a softer tap. It transfigured immediately into a boat the size of her head. The girl squealed with delight.

Did she not see the motivation and effort that took to get the vine half way to a rope. That wore a boy out he was ready for a sugar quill and maybe swinging from trees, because that had to happen at some point. Now back to this practice stuff which did he mention was annoying since it wasn't working. He had a few spells not work last term and he ended up throwing the cup in frustration. Again set vine on fire was still int he works.

Was she really waiting for him to do it again it seemed that way. She was trying to help, but it was making him nervous having her watch like this. Turning back to the vine he did a spell he knew he could do "Reverto" Watching it turn fully back to the vine.

Tap

oh wait..... visualize and concentrate. He thought about quidditch and about swinging on vines, no no vines turning into rope focus. FOCUS. Aight he could do this.

Deep breath point and tap " "Vinea funiculus!"

Watching he saw it twitch again and this time form into a rope. "Sweet I did it! See I did it."

Beverly stared at her piece of wood and vine. She decided she'd focus one instead of trying to cast both spells. If she did that she was bound to confuse herself, or take longer getting the assignment done.

Drawing her wand out, she poked the vine. You first, mister.

"Vinea Funiculus." She tested the words first. Language was something extra she'd been taught by tutors, but it was the most boring subject to her...and she secretly read books on other subjects while she was supposed to be studying. Such a daredevil. Hiss.

The words felt right, so the third year went ahead a gave it a try. She tapped her wand on the vine. "Vinea Finiculus."

Blink. Blink.

I'm WAITING.

There was only so much pointing practice Tobias really needed to do. He was pretty good at aim and stuff, after all. Now it was time to put the incantation and the wand movement together with the intent, and try to make some ROPE. Aw yis.

Pushing the block of wood to one side for the time being, Toby set the vine in the middle of the desk. Pride of place. Y'know, so he could give it his full attention.

The boy mentally prepped himself and everything, tried to put his full focus on the vine and also to forget how he wasn't likely to get it right straight away, what with Transfiguration being one of the subjects he found most difficult. No, he wouldn't think of that. Would just focus on trying to turn the vine into rope.

"Vinea Funiculus!" Point.

...

...

...??????????

Had it worked?

Tobias bent closer and squinted at the vine, trying to see whether or not anything had changed. But... no. Nothing. But that meant he could simply try again!

The Hufflepuff cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter. "Vinea Funiculus!" POINT.

........ Still nothing.

Toby sat there for a minute, thinking. Then it came to him that he wasn't really visualising the spell quite like he'd done when mastering spells in the past. The third year closed his eyes for a moment and thought hard. Thought about the vine strengthening and becoming more reinforced and turning into a thick, fortified rope. He visualised it over and over before opening his eyes, ready to try again. Toboas raised his wand.

"Vinea Funiculus!" Point.

But this time, he visualised it properly. Saw the flimsy vines turning into a strong rope in his minds eye. Really WILLED it to happen. And...

... it... sort of worked?

It wasn't quite the heavy duty rope Tobias had been expecting, and it appeared just as flimsy as the vine had before the spell, and likely to snap if put under any tension. BUT it was definitely a ROPE. Suuuuuure, it looked a little bit like a vine still, and was kinda green, but DEFINITELY A ROPE.

Beaming to himself, Tobias decided that it would be a good idea to turn it back again and and that he would keep on with the vine-to-rope spell until he could make a good strong rope with ease.

"Reverto."

And he got to work.

Tessa sat back and watched with a warm smile as Lux went through what she had said. And then... she did it! Sure, not perfect- but rarely did someone do it perfect on the first try! "Congrats Lux!" she said, holding up her hand for a high five. "Ready to try again?" LEaving Lux's piece of wood there as motivation, she brought over her reverted piece. "Try on this one," she urged with a warm smile. "Think clearly and don't let yourself be distracted by anything."

Tessa glanced around and saw that another student appeared to be having trouble. "Would you like some help?" she asked, offering the boy a warm smile.

Okay, so it couldn't be that hard to transfigure a piece of wood into a boat, could it? It was the first time, but that was beside the point. Sophie was a second year, and she usually did have to repeat a new spell to get it right.

She straightened the piece of wood in front of her again then took a step back. She examined the wood and imagined it turning into a boat. Not a huge boat, because this was a classroom. Not an ocean, nope. She raised her wand and firmly tapped it against the wood.

"Lignum Navicula!" she said.

The wood began to twist and morph its shape, giving Sophie a newfound hope. There was a tiny POOF and before her was a nice, wooden boat! WOOT!

The vine didn't change form, earning itself a right glare from Beverly. She poked it with her wand, straightening its ends. Maybe the vine was supposed to be super straight in order to...no. She wasn't concentrating enough on it, nor focusing too much on intent.

In fact, she didn't feel herself putting any effort in this at all. And she knew why; she was afraid of getting it wrong. But she wouldn't know if she did it wrong if she didn't try, right?

Gripping her wand firmly with purpose, Beverly pictured what she wanted to accomplish in her head. She pictured the vine slowly changing colors, like a gradient from green to brown-ish -- whatever color ropes were. She tapped the vine once more, her voice with a lot more resolve than last time. "Vinea Finiculus!"

The vine squirmed like an earth worm. As it did that it gradually changed texture and color. In a matter of seconds, instead of a vine, sat a rope on Beverly's desk.

SHEDIDIT. :3

Grinning, Lux felt more confident once she had managed to actually do something with her piece of wood. Next time she was going to try even harder like Tessa was encouraging her to, and maybe hers would end up looking as good as the Professor's had!

Closing her eyes for a moment to picture the boat in her head again, she proceeded to tap the wood with her wand while saying, "Lignum Navicula!"

Eagerly she watched as the wood twisted and changed shape into something that looked more like a boat than the last one had. "Tada!"

Sophie had a cute little canoe-kind of boat thing and a nice long rope. Excellent. What was the spell to change it back into its original state again? She... wasn't entirely sure. Verto? Reverto? Something of that nature, she thought, but she wasn't entirely sure. Too prideful to ask another student, so she started flipping through her textbook in search of the answer.

Reverto. Good.

Despite how proud she was of it, she changed the boat back to its original state. With a focused point-and-tap and imagining the shape the log was just in, she cast, "Lignum Navicala!" The wood morphed less swiftly this time, but it was still a mildly successful transformation nonetheless. At least SHE thought it looked like a canoe. So that was cool.

Growing bored with this task already and wondering when Bellaire would return, Sophie sighed and examined the small boat in front of her before picking up the long rope and fidgeting with it. She spied Mo a few feet ahead hard at work. Too focused. Too serious. In dire need of fun.

So Sophie started making her rope into a lasso, making a wide hoop with one end and tying a knot to secure the loop to itself. So it wasn't really a lasso - more like a rope with a loop at the end, but she wasn't sure how to make a better knot. So this would suffice. She leaned forward as far as she could onto the desk, awkwardly fumbled with the makeshift lasso to get a proper grip on it, then tossed it forward, aiming for it to go right over Mo's torso - but it fell short, hitting the ground with a PLUMP! Unfazed, she reeled the rope back in, shot a look at the doorway to make sure Bellaire hadn't returned, and tried once more, throwing the lasso higher into the air this time - RIGHT ON TARGET! Well. Mostly. The loop landed awkwardly on Mo and hung from one of his shoulders, but she giggled in delight anyway and whispered ahead to him, "Gotcha."

Now that he had finished practicing this spell, Mo was ready to put it to practice. He laid his stretch of vine across his desk top and jabbed his wand at it more gently than he'd ever been in practice. Too much intent might set something on fire.

"Vinea Funiculus," he murmured, just as a rope lasso'd his wand arm. He jerked, sending the spell willy-nilly across the room, and Mo hoped that wouldn't cause anyone harm.

AHEM. Slowly, slowly, Mo turned and fixed Sophie with a stern LOOK. "Soph." Just that. Just her name. Plus he gathered her rope into his hands and gave a sharp tug.

Heh. Heeeeh. Whoops. Offering Mo an innocent grin at his spell going elsewhere, Sophie let go of the rope. He could have it. "Hi Mo. I did it, d'you see? I made my vine into a rope. It's a present. For you." Heh. Heheheh.

..."Sorry," she whispered, only about half sorry. "Keep up the good work, champ." She offered him the biggest, cheesiest, toothiest grin she could muster, a bit in jest. She could work on making the log into a boat again for the rest of the time. No biggie.

"Yeah, good work," Mo grumped as he finished raveling up her rope in his hands. She probably needed a lesson, right? Especially since the professor wasn't back in the room yet?

He stepped back to her desk and dropped the loop over Sophie's head, letting the loop sink down to her waist and then tethering the other end to her chair. It was REALLY easy to untie herself, but... sort of game the semblance of punishment.

"Now you can't get in any trouble while I'm not watching you. I'm going back to my desk to practice my spell now, ok?"

Heeeeeheheheheh. Was she allowed to keep laughing at his grumpiness? Because she was going to keep giggling till it stopped being funny.

Which was when he walked over and loosely attached her to her chair.

Point taken.

"I'm not trouble," she defended, trying to fight the smile that would make her still lingering amusement apparent. "I thought you'd be proud of me for succeeding with my spell." And for having great aim, though he didn't need to know she missed on her first try. "Yeah, yeah, go back to work. Y'almost had it." See? She could be helpful and encouraging and stuff. Because he probably did almost succeed at transfiguring his own rope into a vine. If... she hadn't had miraculous timing. She waited till his back was turned to wiggle the rope off of her and went back to giggling to herself. Hehehheheh.

His face had still been funny.

All she needed was to get the piece of wood to transfigure into a boat. Should be less complicated now that she had her thinking cap on and wasn't being such a grump about...what was she even grumping about?

Right. The vine hadn't done what she wanted it to do. Bev scowled at the piece of wood, as if warning it that it better turn into a boat or she'd set in on fire. The professor wasn't here, so she could blame it on a not so bright person. She could pick a few.

She repeated the earlier procedure. This time she even closed her eyes, letting her hair fall in front of her face like a curtain, and concentrated on what she wanted to do. She pictured the wood expanding and make a bowl-shaped form like a boat. Beverly opened her eyes and tapped her wand on the wood.

"Lignum Navicula!" NOW TRANSFORM.

... Apparently, Astrid's first attempt in transforming the piece of wood into a boat wasn't exactly a boat. Well, yeah... it was a boat, but only half the piece of wood was turned into a boat. The brunette staaaaaaared at what she had done. Uhm, that wasn't really supposed to happen, right? No? She needed the whole piece of wood to transform into a boat, and not just half of it! Uhm... okay. She could still fix that little bit, right? Of course. There was still time to fix her half-boat into a full-boat. Or something like that. "Reverto!" Astrid said and her half-boat became a piece of wood once again.

Concentration. Intent. Stuff like that. Astrid thought that she only needed to improve in those areas so that her spellwork wouldn't fail again. There was no difficulty on the hand movement or the incantation now because it was easy and she practiced the pronunciation a lot earlier. There was no doubt she'd get her tongue tied anymore. So, concentration and intent. She got this. Yeahhh.

Astrid focused on the piece of wood in front of her, picturing a boat made of wood in her head. Lignum Navicula. Alright. Let's do this. "Lignum Navicula!" the Slytherin said and tapped the wood. The piece of wood slowly transformed into a boat. Astrid kept staring and hoped that the wood transformation wouldn't stop half way. Go. Go. Gogogo!

And... BAM! Wood-to-boat spell, check! She got it right. Boo yeah. So... yeah. She was the ultimate Transfiguration boss now, wasn't she? Well, she did succeed in it! So, what to do now? Now that was something she had to think about. When was the nameless Transfiguration Professor coming back? Astrid wanted to show to her that she totally didn't fail.

"Vinea Funiculus." Point! ROPE! "Reverto."

Lather, rinse and repeat.

Every time he cast the spell, the ropes he managed to transfigure out of his length of vine looked stronger and much more like an actual rope. It helped when he started trying to channel the thought that he really needed this, but it was exhausting to do every time.

Still, eventually both he and his wand got used to the spell, and casting it became a lot easier than when he started. Tobias felt reassured in the fact that, were he ever in a situation where a rope was required but there were only vines available, he'd have it covered.

At this point, the Hufflepuff moved a now very strong, trustworthy looking rope to one side and pulled the block of wood to the middle of his desk instead, effectively switching the two over.

Now then, first things first. Incantation aaaaaaaand wand movement.

"Lignum Navicula... Lig-num? No... Lign-um... Nav-ic-u-larrr. Lignum... Navicular... Lignum Navicula." Once more, with feeling! "Lignum Navicula!"

Ah yis.

Okay, so that was the incantation, and again it seemed like the wand movement would be a pretty simple one. But again, good to practice before actually trying the spell. Just a tap, wasn't it? The Hufflepuff checked his notes. YEP. Just a tap.

He looked to the block of wood, wand raised again aaaaAAAANNNNDDDDDDD...

Tap.

Tessa clapped as Lux showed her the much improved boat. "Excellent! You're definitely getting it, Cucumber," she said, giving the girl a pat on the arm. She moved the two boats to the side, out of the way. "Are you ready to move onto the next one?" she asked, indicating the vine that the girl had also picked up. "Or, would you like to continue practicing making the boat?"

She was happy to see that Lux was getting it. She hated to see a friend struggle, especially if she was able to help them out. She was just glad that she could help. Seeing her friend's success just warmed her heart.