Happily, Lux started bouncing on her feet as Tessa moved her boats to the side and told her she was doing a better job. She was proud of herself, since she had never Transfigured anything in her life and now she had managed to make two boats.

At Tessa's question, she bit her lip, considering what she wanted to do next. After a moment, she had made up her mind that she wanted to move on to something new and attempt the rope. "I want to try with the vine." Nod.

"You're big trouble," Mo made a face as he returned to his desk and straightened out his vine again. Ahem. No distractions this time. He was going to cast the spell for real now. Mo jabbed his wand and opened his mouth before turning around and fixing Sophie with that grumpy face again. "Good job with your spell."

Double ahem. Mo really did jab his wand this time, and he spoke the incantation clearly, "Vinea Funiculus." Like Sophie's vine, Mo's turned from a rather frail piece of vegetation into a sturdier rope. Good for tying up little Ravenclaws when they misbehaved.

Vine to rope, wood to boat, simple steps. She had this in the bag! Or should she say boat. Yeah, she should probably not say boat, that was lame.

Shoulders back, wand at the ready, she turned to the boat first, because despite trying to be a good student, she wasn't paying attention to whether or not the teacher said to do a certain thing first. And everyone seemed to be doing the boat first sooooo...

"Lignum Navicula!" Okay, that was a boat if you squinted both eyes really hard. Or closed them. It was all the same. She huffed and but her lip, wondering what she was doing wrong. Patience, and concentration, and something that The redhead wasn't listening to.

"Reverto!" Okay, now it was game time. She concentrated as hard as she could, and told herself to be patient if it went wrong. She WAS a firstie after all. There was no reason to expect it to be well. At least that's what she was telling herself.

"Lignum Navicula!" And presto! She had a pretty good boat. It looked like it could float and hold people. And that's what a boat did. Now she just had to practice a few times. And by few she meant like twenty times.

Glad he knew it.

"Uh huh." Sophie leaned off to one side to peek around Mo as best as she could from her own desk and prepared to watch him do his thing. But... then he was looking back at her with an expression that reminded her of Ira and she giggled again. "Thanks." BEAM.

She watched him successfully perform his spell, and even though she wasn't all that impressed because duh sixth year Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain Mo could transfigure a vine into a rope, she clapped lightly from behind him, grinning all the while. "You're so good."

There was only the sliiiiiightest hint of sarcasm there. She was mostly sincere this time because he WAS so good. Her favorite role model. Even a little more than Cat. Not that she'd ever admit that aloud.

Leaving the poor guy alone for the time being, Sophie laid out her rope nicely in front of her and untied the knot to undo the hoop. Then, she scooped her wand into her hand and cast a quick, "Reverto." Almost as soon as the rope had changed back into a vine, she was determined to change it right back - she envisioned the vine changing back into a rope, maybe even bulkier and sturdier this time. She was determined and focused and ready - point, tap, "Vinea Funiculus!" Whoooosh. VINE GONE ROPE. WOOP. This was the first Transfiguration lesson Sophie had ever done so well in - she wasn't sure if the spells were easier or if she was just more focused or she was just lucky today, but it felt good.

And of course Bellaire wasn't even there to be impressed by her successes. Pfft.

That was enough spell practice, right? Since Alice was already blurring the line between taking her time learning the material and just not doing any work while Bellaire wasn't there to see her, she decided it would be good to move on. The seventh year twirled her wand between her fingers again as she whispered the spell under her breath a few more times.

"Lignum Navicula." Navicula. Boat-shaped algae. Knew this. "Lig-num Na-vi-cu-la. Lignum Navicula!" Point.

... why wasn't there a boat in front of her? Uh, time to panic.

Now that she was fairly sure that she had the incantations down, Lily realized that she should actually try the spells out. Professor Bellaire would probably be back soon, and she didn’t want to be caught with her vine and wood completely left alone. Not when most of the rest of the class had apparently gotten at least one, if not both of the spells to work, including those who were younger than her. There was enough of a competitive spirit in her that she didn’t want that to happen. She didn’t want anyone, especially the professor, to think that she couldn’t do something. She’d glanced over at Astrid once, just to see how she was doing with the practice, and then returned her attention to the objects on the desk in front of herself. Okay. Here goes, she thought, deciding to start with the rope spell. That would likely be the most difficult for her, only because she still didn’t see why they needed to turn the vine into a rope when as far as she was concerned, they could just use the vine as is.

“Vinea funiculus,” she said, pointing at the section of vine lying on her desk and trying to focus on what she wanted. It wasn’t difficult. The vine was supposed to transfigure into a rope. That should be easy, since really, the two weren’t very different. Except that was the part her mind kept stumbling on, since there was that idea that they were so similar that the spell shouldn’t be needed. Because of that, the vine only seemed to half turn into a rope. At least it looked ropelike, but it was still decidedly green and she could see little leaves sticking out of the twist at various locations. That wasn’t right. She was tempted to leave it and move on, but she knew it wasn’t good enough. She needed to focus. “Reverto,” she cast, returning the vine!rope to its original form. She wanted a real rope, not a hybrid. Only then would she allow herself to move on to the other spell. “Vinea funiculus!” Please let it turn into a rope.

Tessa giggled as the younger student bounced. "Perhaps," she looked around to make sure the Professor wasn't about to come in the door. "We can practice this and race our boats across the lake, what do you think?" she asked, looking first at Lux and then grinning toward Bay. That would be a blast.

"Alright," Tessa said, sitting back. "Start by pronouncing the word..." And this time, she joined Lux. "Vinea funiculus" she said, and repeated it with Lux to make sure she had the correct pronunciation. "When you're ready..." she moved the vine in front of Lux. She couldn't wait to see how the girl did.

Tessa, seeing another person attempting the spell, leaned over to the older girl. "Were you doing Lignum Navicula?" she asked the girl, glancing at the piece of wood in front of her. "For this spell, you need to tap the wood- it's the vines that you simply point at," she explained with a warm smile. That is, if the girl even wanted help.

Using reverto told her he wasn't the hopeless sort of case that you sent back to their own desk and prayed the Professor would get back to help them so you wouldn't have to. That was good. She could deal with that and waited for him to give the vine another go. It wasn't a bad cast at all given his previous outcomes. By all standards--except maybe Bellaire's--he was making progress!

Lex noted the deep breath he took and gave a small nod of approval. It said he was trying to focus more and that was one of the keys to intent.

This time as it twitched, she watched with a level of detachment in case it didn't work again. No need getting her hopes up if it wasn't gonna work. Such a waste that would have been--Oh! But no waste at all. Lex grinned at him. "You did! And without shouting too. Knew you could." Everyone could, it just took a bit more for some than others.

"You should do that a few more times to cement it but I think you're all set now...unless you needed help with the wood too?" If he did he could tell her while he was still standing over here instead of having to make a second swalk over. And while she waited on a response she took aim at her vine again. This would be the last time on this. "Vinea Funiculus." Such nice rope.

Adi was still gathering his wits after his epic fail to change the wood even in the tiniest of way when he heard a girl speak. He looked around and found the girl was addressing him. And she had this nice smile that made him like her immediately. "Hello!'' he responded and smiling too. "Yes please. I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong.'' He frowned. Or was he just not concentrating enough? Anyway, maybe this nice girl would help him.

The thought of racing the boats made Lux's eyes widen and she bounced on her feet even more. "Yeah, I want to race boats with you and Bay." It would be so much fun even though she knew that she would lose since her boats were not as nice. "But I used your wood, Tessa. That means you will make another boat, right?" She felt a little bad for using Tessa's piece now.

She began repeating the Vinea Funiculus spell over and over again with Tessa until she was sure she was ready to actually try it out. Imagining a rope in her head, she pointed her wand at the vine and said the spell one more time.

"It looks like a viney rope..." It was still green for one thing, and there were some leaves on it. Meh.

Now it was time to put this one together. Yeah.

"Lignum Navicula," Tobias cast at the block of wood in front of him, tapping it and doing the same process as with the vines, where he tried to properly imagine the wood changing into a little boat. A row boat. Nothing too intricate or complicated.

But... nothing happened.

Toby wasn't exactly surprised by this. None of his spells ever worked on the first try, with the exception of a couple he'd learnt in Herbology. So his spirit wasn't dampened, not that it ever was really.

He shut his eyes, did the visualisation thing, for a few moments, and then tried again, really REALLY willing the wood to turn into a bout.

"Lignum Navicula!" Tap.

...

...........

.................... *squint*

Tobias leeeeeeaned in super close and peeeeeeered at the block of wood. Had it... changed at all? He wasn't sure, but be though it might have become slightly more curved in places, or was his mind just playing tricks?

He wanted to try again, but if it HAD worked, Tobias wasn't sure if the spell would be any could on a block of wood that had already been slightly transfigured.

"Reverto," the Hufflepuff cast, just to make sure, and set about trying again.

Took her a little longer than she had anticipated but it was a two hour class so she made it back with time to spear. She had woken Ben up given him breakfast and got him ready in record time. But everything could be done in record time with a little magic.

The toddler was still munching on an apple slice as he toddled in behind his grandmother, who's eyes roved the room as soon as she entered, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Alright I'm back." She looked at the headboy and girl and stared them in the eyes in turn. "Did anyone misbehave?" She wanted details.

"Also is everyone getting on okay Does anyone need help?" Particularly the younger students.

Robin shyly raised her hand, embarrassed to admit she still hadn't gotten the spells.
"Miss I don't think I'm doing it right, is there anything I have to do besides saying the words and tapping?
She was feeling really frustrated

"Lignum Navicula. Lignum Navicula!" With each try of the spell, Alice's voice grew more frustrated and frantic. Why wasn't it working? She had the incantation right, and she was pointing, yeah? This was embarrassing. First years all around her were getting this spell right while she sat there and made no progress.

"Lignum Navicula!" Poi- oh, wait.

Had she been pointing? As she looked back at her notes, the lioness located the spell to transfigure the piece of wood into a miniature boat, eyes landing specifically on the part that stated the movement: a tap. That explained it.

Did he need help with the wood? Did he need help with the wood? Of course he did didn't. Did Alexa not know him yet. She should know he wasn't going to just ask for help that easy. HA!

"I got this.." He grinned before turning back to his own vine, but then he stopped and turned. "Thanks for the help though." See he wasn't rude.. see book boy people. He gave her one last nod of thanks and went back to his vine. Now Vine or well rope at the moment. Pulling his wand up "Reverto" At least he was confident in one spell.

Now to make this Vine a rope again. Closing his eyes he visualized it again. Yes he could do this think.. think.. think.. rope.. swinging on ropes.. swinging on ropes with monkeys.. swinging on ropes in trees. Wait what was he thinking about again. The second year blinked and looked around. Oh right spell time.


"Vinea Funiculus"

TAP

The vine didn't take as long this time and turned into the rope. His face lit up as he felt awesome about doing it yet again.

As bored as she was, Sophie was enjoying these two spells. They were practical and useful and she was actually GOOD at one of them. Her wonky boat was less than admirable, but she felt pretty good about her progress thus far nonetheless.

Still, she was determined to have a better boat to show Bellaire when she returned. At this point, she wasn't anticipating a great improvement from her current boat, but she cast, "Reverto!" on it anyway, changing it back into its sad, natural state of being a log. Pursing her lips, she cleared her throat purposefully, closed her eyes, and focused hard on picturing a better version of the boat she just had in front of her. Maybe more boat-like and less log-like would be good. Probably. Taking a slow, deep breath, she opened her eyes, pointed, and tapped the log with her wand, "Lignum Navicala!" Just as Bellaire walked in, Sophie's log changed into a slightly nicer-looking canoe kind of boat than her last attempt. Good enough.

...Had anyone misbehaved?

Sophie, the face of innocence, turned curiously to see what Ella and Alec would say.

Caleb had gotten the vine bit down, but not so much the boat part. He smiled at the professor as she came back in. That had been relatively painless, no one had blown anything up. He wondered where she had gone...

"Lignum Navicula!" he exclaimed, tapping the wood board again. This time it shaped more like a boat this time, but it still wouldn't save him in the wilderness.

"Lignum Navicula!" he exclaimed again, tapping the board again. There, it was better this time! It was finally starting to take shape into a real boat.

With one of the spells mastered, or at least accomplished, Sophie was ready to move on to the second spell. She glanced again at her new boat and wondered what they'd end up doing with them. between this class and Potions, Sophie was starting to think they needed to learn survival techniques for one reason or the other.

Did the professors know something they didn't know? Hmm...

Sophie placed the vine in front of her then backed up a few steps. She aimed her wand forward then tapped the vine. "Vinea Finiculus!" she exclaimed.

...and of course it didn't work. BAH HUMBUG.

The piece of wood spun like the needle of a compass, then stopped. It stopped and DIDN'T TRANSFORM. Bev gaped at it as if the wood had insulted her...which it sort of felt like it to the third year. She'd given it a command and it refused to follow through.

Had she been slightly delusional, Bev would have gone off on the piece of wood and told it off for being stupid. As it was, she had brains and understood the piece of wood wasn't a sentient thing.

Calming her frustration, she willed herself to picture the wood transfiguring into a boat. Like a triangle shaped bowl. She willed herself wanting it to transfigure. When she felt she was ready, Bev tapped the piece of wood with her wand again.

"Lignum Navicula!"

The stick twitched again, but this time it expanded so it looked like an elephant had stepped on it flat. Then it curled upward, merging itself like a boat should. IT TRANSFIGURED.

Blink, blink.

Why did it look like a round, wooden cereal bowl?

Tessa gave the boy a reassuring smile. "Let me see what you've done so far," she said with a smile. "Just remember, when you do the spell, you need to clear your mind and focus just on the spell that you're casting, and what you want the results to be," she told him. "Go on, give it another go!"

Tessa laughed at Lux's excitement. "We can definitely do that," she told the girl. "And, it will give you more practice," she added with a sly smile. "Don't worry, look!" She pointed her wand at the wood and cancelled the spell's effects, returning the wood to its original state. "See? Besides, I'm sure we'll be able to find more wood near the lake," she pointed out.

"Great!" she said, leaning forward to look at the almost-rope! Give it another go! You're definitely getting the hang of it!"

Oh yay. Hehe. They were gonna have so much fun at the lake later racing their boats. She was excited already! "I hope to be able to do it as well as you and Bay later on," she admitted as she watched Tessa revert one of the boats back into a piece of wood. "How did you do that?" She was weak with spell work, so she did not know how to return things back to how they were before.

Happily, Lux looked at her rope. "How do I turn it back into a vine again?"

See? It all came down to concentration. That wasn't too hard for Adi but Transfiguration always made it seem that way for him. "Okay,'' Adi said with a grin. "I'll give it a go and you can tell me if maybe it's my pronunciation of the incantation. I might be doing that wrong.'' He positioned his wand over the wood. "Oh yes, I'm Adi.'' He smiled at the nice girl and quickly tried to clear his mind, concentrating on the wood and picturing Professor Bellaire's boat. ''Lignum Navicula!'' Adi tapped the wood. Nothing.

He looked, crestfallen, at the girl.

Hazel was a bit confused, but it seemed simple enough. Lignum Navicula turned the wood into a boat, Vinea Finiculus turned the vine into the rope, right? Clearing her throat, she tried the first step.

"Lignum Navicula!" she said, tapping the wood. There was a small look of hope in the little second year's eyes, but it soon turned to disappointment.

"Lignum Navicula!" she tried again. Nothing happened.

"Lignum Navicula!" It moved! Oh, she just knocked it with her wand when she tapped it. Oops. She'd get it eventually.

Now that Professor Bellaire was back, Sander wondered whether he could help the other students if they need help or would the Professor take offense and think that he was trying to do her job for her, and that wasn't his intention.

But he just couldn't stand by and watch the younger Hufflepuff fail at her attempts. So he walked up to her.

"Hi I'm Sander. I noticed that you're having problems with casting your spell. Believe me I know how frustrating it can be. If you don't mind I would like to help you with the spells we're doing." Sander explained to the girl.

"First of all your pronunciation of the incantation is correct. So that's not the problem. Maybe if you try this exercise, the spell will work better for you." Sander suggested to her.

"First picture in your mind what you want the boat to look like. Keep concentrating on that image in your mind. The most important thing when casting a spell is knowing what you want the spell to do and have an idea of what you want the object to change into." Sander paused to allow her time to process what he had just told her.

"Then once you are ready to cast the spell, concentrate as hard on the image you have in your mind as well as what you want to happen, the moment you say the incantation." he finished up his explanation.

"Why don't you give it a try?" Sander encouraged the young Hufflepuff.

Oh! So he wouldn't be needing that help afterall. Good good. Lex gave him a solemn nod and gestured for him to get back to his seat and keep working on it. Now that she'd helped him she could help herself and she would start with the wood.

Just as Lex got set to try her luck with the wood the Professor strolled back in--bjdskfbvsdf with THAT thing. The Gryffindor made a point of being especially scarce on the off chance the kid saw her and decided he needed even more candy. Her bag was still mourning its easlier loss!! Oh but he looked fed and stuff and she was willing to bet content at the moment so....nothing to worry about there...hopefully.

It was back to practising incantations for her.

"Lignum Navicula...Lig-num Nav-icu-la....Lignum Navi-cula..." Had to make sure it rolled off the tongue easy enough for when she was ready to start her casting. "Lignum Navicula." And on that note, she wondered how big her boat would end up. The others in the class didn't look that promising. She'd never survive with one of those!

Maybe some practice now.