Ink? Seriously? All the man was thinking about was ink??? James was about to pick up the quill and throw a full scale Lee tantrum, but his mother's words came back to him loud and clear. None of your tantrums when you get things wrong, young man. You're going to school to learn, not to be right. His blue eyes finally raised from the desk and he shoved his quill back into the ink pot as he gave the professor a very tearful THERE, HAVE IT YOUR WAY look.

He listened to the professor in silence with a very crestfallen look all over his adorable little face, but watched the stupid demonstration. He finally moved to put his wellies on after a few moments of listening to the professor's... insane chatter about gravitational pulls. Jay slipped out his wand and gripped it firmly. Wait... did he hit himself on the head BEFORE or AFTER? He blinked at his wand a few times before even attempting to say the spell. "Abraxtraxi Granita." No? Was he saying it wrong? "Aquataxi..." he trailed off after that one, sort of giggling. He was imagining a taxi made out of water... or that drove on water. Oh, he wanted to see that! WOULD IT LOOK LIKE A TURTLE OR A DOLPHIN? "Aquatraxia Granita." Yep. That had to be correct. James proudly smacked himself on the head, though he wasn't exactly... gentle.

Okay, right. Toby had cancelled the first spell he had on himself, because he didn't want to go around accidentally exploding other people's balloons. He also had a NEW balloon now, and this time it was a pink one, which was super cool and bright and he loved it. He set it on the floor, after quickly vanishing the remnants of the last balloon, and took a few steps back to try again.

"Aquatraxi Gravita," he said, firmly and decisively, and all but whacked himself on the top of the head with the end of his wand while trying to FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS on the intent of the spell.

Here goes then...

One step forward... two steps... another ste- IT MOVED.

Toby SAW it. First it twitched, then did that weird THING like had happened in Airey's demonstration. Toby was about to take another step forward, but after moving no more than an inch the pink waterballoon started rolling RIGHT towards him. SUCCESS!

... And... THE CHASE WAS ON.

It became a fun game to try and outrun the balloon, ducking and weaving around desks and people and trying not to let his balloon catch up with him. A jog, as Airey had said. Ehehehe, giggles of childish delight escaped the, uhh... almost-eighteen year old, and he carried on like that for a while.

Until he became distracted by the firstie.

The boy in question (James) was nearby, and Toby couldn't help but hear the incantation he spoke. Tobias sort of slowed to a walk, and as he passed him, he dramatically and very obviously spoke out of the corner of his mouth to the boy.

"Try 'Aquatraxi Gravita'," then he tipped him the wink, like he was a super spy or something, and was about to turn and mysteriously canter off when his balloon caught up with him and splatted him right in the ankle. "Awwwhh," Toby said in a disappointed-but-not-really tone, laying it on thick. Such a child.

The chase was over.

EEEEEEE!!!! Professor Airey had told her to keep hold of her thoughts! That meant that they were worth keeping in the first place! YAY! Grinning, and bouncing slightly in her seat she continued to listen and WRITE. Fast. Gosh, she couldn’t really write fast enough, but she hoped that she could always compare notes with Rusty and Lance… and maybe even ask one of the Prefects for their notes too… After all, she knew four of them already, one of them would help her…. right?

Of course right.

OH! WELLLLLIES

Marsha had a bright pink, leopard-print style pair of wellies, and she had to admit that she loved them. And, she thought they looked pretty awesome with her school uniform. Who didn’t like a little bit of pink to brighten up your day? Hehe.

OH! Activity. Perfect.

OH! WAND. YES! She had her wand. EEEE. Blinkblink. Wait. Although that all looked super cool, Professor Airey… WHAT was that spell again?

Blinking again, she turned around to see whomever was behind her to ask them. ”uh, excuse me? Sorry to interupt your concentrating… but, could I possibly write down that spell from your notes? I don’t know how it’s written to pronounce it properly… and my aunt Autumn told me that I need to be careful with that so I don’t do something completely different from what I mean to do…”

That made sense, right?

She looked up at the Professor, hoping that she wouldn’t get into trouble for asking another student for help. She wasn’t being a distraction was she… silently she frowned and decided that she would talk to the older girl and then concentrate on her own work so that she wouldn’t get into any trouble. Yes.

Did he really get a point for making a really really really bad joke about laundry detergent? The answer was yes. But Dante still did not believe it. Still better one point than losing one point.

So this game Professor Airey was talking about. Did it involve him jumping in the water. Because that is gravity working right there. Gravity making him fall into the water. But what he was doing was cool enough when he should what the spell would do.

"Aquatraxi.....Gravita...Aquatraxi.....Gravita.... ...Aquatraxi...Gravita......Aquatraxi...Gravita"

It sounded fancy.

First thing first she would need to practice the incantation, and Lux honestly wasn't sure how well that would go. Some of these spells were pretty hard to pronounce, and even if she was pretty good at it, that didn't stop her from sometimes worrying.

Aquatraxi Gravita... Aquatraxi Gravita... Aquatraxi Gravita..." Saying the words over and over again, she hoped it was correct. Listening to those around her, she felt like her pronunciation was a little off, so she kept working on it until she felt that everything was perfect.

The wand movement seemed pretty simple, but it was probably best to go over it a few times as well. Tap. Tap. Tap. Hah, she probably looked silly hitting her head with her wand, but Lux didn't care. She wanted to make sure that she got the spell right so that she could do the activity. Otherwise this class wouldn't be very much fun.

"Aquatraxi Gravita...Aquatraxi Gravita" Was still being repeated quietly under her breath a few more times. Now that she was a third year she needed to really keep focus, no messing about and making stupid mistakes like last term. Pronunciation, focus and determination were key right now.

Pulling out her wand from it's holder she held it lightly yet firmly in her hand. She was ready to give this a try. Eyes fixed on the green balloon a few inches away she gave herself a firm but gentle tap on the head (she wasn't going to hurt herself like she saw some others doing) with her wand while reciting clearly, "Aquatraxi Gravita."

Lowering her wand to her side and her gaze still on the balloon Hady took one step, two steps towards the balloon. Nothing at all so far, not even a jiggle.

Another tiny slow step closer.

Nothing...

Actvitiy time after Professor's looongggg explanation. Man this dude can talk. After copying some of the notes and such, he got the spells down and found it cool they were going to be forces of gravity. He copied down the spell which was called Aquatraxi Gravita. The wand movement was a simple tap on the head. Seemed easy enough. He got his wand out of his robes and put it to the side. He needed to start saying the spell first.

Bloody Merlin this was going to be a mouthful to say. He began by clearing his throat and saying, "Aquaktr...wait no..." he said and then began again. "Aquackstrazi...?" He shook his head and looked at the board. He took a deep breath and then heard others saying it. He attempted again. "Aqua-traxi" Well he got the first part right. Now onto the second part. He squinted his eyes and saw it was Gravita. He said it out loud, "Gravita." Huh...simple enough. Now to put it all together.

Holy moley. That was a whole lot of information. Norah attempted to scribble down notes at the same time as watching Professor Flamsteed's demonstration. Heheheh. Heh. The little balloons were CUTE. Like an ickle pet, except not. She glanced down at her parchment and shrugged because even though the writing was running sideways down the page it really wasn't that bad. So there. Once the incantation was written in big letters and had lots of stars drawn around it for reasons, the fourth year wiggled her toes in her purple Wellies 'cause she didn't have plain old galoshes anymore. Time to get WET, yeah? Except not, 'cause her water balloon was going to stay together for ever and ever.

She repeated the incantation under her breath as she went to get a balloon. A pink one, obviously, because pink was all sorts of fun. "Aquatraxi Gravita....Aquatraxi Gravita......Aquatraxi Gravita....Aquatraxi Gravita" THAT was a mouthful. Cradling the ballon in her hands, Norah walked back slowly and set it on the floor to pull her wand out and do the REAL spell stuff. With a sharp tap on her own head, she said "Aquatraxi Gravita" Aaaaaaaand a step towards the balloon. Nothing happened. Well, her head felt funny where she'd hit it but besides that nothing happened. Booooooring.

Well then this was certainly different. Tia observed carefully as Flamsteed demonstrated soaking himself the spell on hand. So they were going to act as a gravitational force and the water balloon was ideally going to follow them? And not burst? Ha. If they were a force of gravity, the balloon would be MORE drawn to them which meant this was clearly all part of an underlying plan to get them all soaked. And have some fun doing it.

Not that she was complaining, but nonetheless she would still make an effort at NOT having the balloon burst on her.

First things first was to know the incantation on hand. Leaving her wand in its holster - for now - the fifth year began by writing out the incantation on parchment first, Aquatraxi Gravita, sounding it out in her head as she wrote.

"Aquatraxi..." she whispered aloud, "...Gravita. Aquatraxi Gravita"

Now onto putting all the words together. He began to murmur under his breath, "Aqua-traxi Gravita......Aqua-traxi Gravita......Aqua-traxi Gravita.....Aqua-traxi Gravita.....Aqua-traxi Gravita.......Aqua-traxi Gravita.......Aqua-traxi Gravita....." Once he got the idea of it he began to put all the words together. He felt dumb for doing this but everyone else was doing it. I mean it did help and he probably needed to do this for his NEWTS.

He cleared his throat and began to say it again.

"Aquatraxi Gravita.......Aquatraxi Gravita.......Aquatraxi Gravita......Aquatraxi Gravita.........Aquatraxi Gravita"

He nodded to himself and began to practice his wand movements. He began to brandish his wand. He did that a couple of times looking foolish but whatever. After doing it a couple of times he was ready to put it all together and test out the spell.

Eden kiiiiind of had the essence of how to SAY the bloody spell down, but eh. She still felt like she needed to practice. Or maybe she'd listen to someone nearby and see if..yeah.

That was a good idea.

So she quieted down for a minute just to listen...

"Aquatraxi Gravita..." and this time when she said it aloud, it actually sounded DECENT. HOORAY! She did a little bum wiggle in her seat in celebration, and she needed to now practice the waaaaaand movement. Movements were sometimes easy...but Eden squinted at the board...um...

This wand movement was EASY PEASY. All she had to do was tap her head--

A POOR FIRSTIE NEEDED HER HELP?!?! EDEN MCGEE WAS ON THE JOB! She SMILED really big at the girl--Marsha, she thought? Benny had told her a tiny bit about Marsha. "Hiiiii...yes--look--" she scooted her notebook over so the little CUTE THING could read it. "It's kinda' a tongue twister, so you should practice saying it first...without your wand, you know?"

Didn't need any accidental BOOMS.

Philipe nodded, pretty sure he'd gotten it down and grabbed one of the balloon. He hoped this would work. He tapped his head firmly, "Aquatraxi Gravita!" He looked and frowned, the balloon not budging. He frowned, trying again... and it still didn't budge! He frowned, looking over his notes, he had everything down! He was saying it right, tapping his head with his wand... Why wasn't this working?!

He frowned and looked at the stupid balloon, "Aquatraxi Gravita!" He tapped his head as he said it and the spell worked... a little too well as the water balloon slammed into his foot, splashing water everywhere. He frowned slightly, clearly annoyed. How did others make it look so easy? Maybe he said it too firmly? He wasn't really sure. He paused, trying to think what he could do before trying with his second balloon.

Once she had the pronunciation down, Tia realized she probably ought to go get a water balloon before they were all gone. Peering into the box of balloons, she selected one at random - which happened to be a yellow one - and walked back over to her desk with it, placing it carefully on the floor under her desk and taking one step away from it.

Okay, time for some practice. And hope to not get wet. She'd already waterproofed her shoes, but just for good measure, the fifth year cast a quick impervious charm over her outfit as well.

Concentration. Firm tap on the head was that a real wand movement or was Flamsteed trying to give them all headaches? Nonetheless, Tia smacked her wand against her head, "Aquatraxi Gravita" she stated simply.

And then waited. For nothing. Because nothing happened. She didn't feel any different and the balloon remained stationary. Siiighhh.

Had he said something wrong?

He had said something wrong probably.

At least judging by Flamsteed's reaction, it sure felt like it.

Biting his lip, Kyroh stood up and made his way over to the water balloons. He probably would be really, really good at Astronomy if he studied more. About moons and stuff. But it was harder to grasp when he was reading rather than hearing it from someone else. He didn't want to be wrong. Maybe it would be better if he didn't answer again?

Grabbing a balloon he found a perfect spot in the corner before drawing his wand. Placing the balloon down he took a few steps back. "Aquatraxi Gravita" Tap on head.

And BALLOOON!.....


Or not.

Time to put the spell to action. I mean he did practice the spell and the wand movement was a simple tap on the head. I mean how easy can that be? He began to get his wandering thoughts out of his head and tried to focus on the spell at hand. He closed his eyes and then began to mumble the spell incantation. He didn't care if he looked foolish or not, this is how he concentrated. Once he got to that mind state, he got his wand out of his robes and repeated the spell.

But wait he needed to grab a balloon a first. Duhhh of course he did. He went up to the room and grabbed one and put it onto his desk. Now he wanted to do it like Professor Flamsteed did. Apparently it looked like he had a string connected to his shoe and it burst. He wondered if that would work for him. He grabbed his wand and then pointed his wand at himself and tapped his hand and began to say, "Aquatraxi Gravita!" and he felt nothing yet. He felt normal.

He began to walk towards his balloon and then it began to come near him and then it burst water at his shoes. ARRGHHH! He did not expect that soo fast. Welp at least he did it now.

Sooo.....Heather didn't exactly have galoshes, but she did have waterproof hiking boots. Which she had worn to class, so she didn't have to worry about slipping them on. But she did have to practice the spell. "Aquatraxi Gravita. Aqua-traxi Gra-vita. Aquatraxi Gravita."

And she had it.

Penelope jotted down relevant information in her notes. Oh, a practice activity? Questions, so many questions. "Will the gravitational pull affect other objects and students? Does it make everything crash into you? Or is the gravitational force to weak to attract larger objects? Are we going to be doing this on larger objects? How long do the effects last?" The last thing she needed was Professor Flamsteed coming crashing into her and knocking her over again. Note to self: Never use Carpe Retractum on people or objects larger than you that you don't want crashing into you. She definitely wasn't planning on doing anything that would cause her to get hurt. One water balloon she could handle.

Time to practice this spell. First she would say the incantation a few times to make sure that she could pronounce it correctly. "Aquatraxi Gravita. Aquatraxi Gravita. Aquatraxi Gravita." Okay, she could say it properly now. Although she still wasn't sure if this was a spell that she actually wanted to do on herself.

"I'm the moooooooon," Dot declared as she plucked a water balloon from the top of the pile. She was the moon. She made the tides ebb and flow. She was made of cheese and people said stupid things because they thought she was romantic. MOOOOON.

Her water balloon was pink, just by chance, though, because who cared what color the tide was so long as it ebbed and flowed? Dot carefully placed the balloon on the floor and took a step back from it. "Come to me, little ocean in a rubber sphere. Let me love you." She tapped the top of her head with her wand. "Aquatraxi Gravita."

The balloon rolled gently toward her, picking up speed before it rolled over her toes and flew on toward some poor sap behind her. Oops.

Once he had taken another balloon, a blue one, he walked back to the same spot he tried the incantation earlier. The mess he made was still there but he would clean it up later as soon as he completed his task successfully. He needed to get it right this time, failing wasn't the option here.

He placed the balloon down and backed away a few steps. It was supposed to follow him wherever he went right? Fine...lets do this... he thought with a look of determination etched across his face. He imagined himself as a young jedi in training () concentrating hard using his pulling force field a.k.a magic for him and tapped his head lightly with his wand again. "Master Yoda...this is for you...", he also thought amusingly.

"Aquatraxi Gravita,"he recited, his voice clear and pronounced. He watched, thrilled that his balloon was moving slightly on its own and started to roll slowly towards him. He did it! He backed a few steps away to see if the balloon still following him, oh yeahh....nice.

"Come to me... that's it!"he exclaimed excitedly. Now...how to stop it? He wasn't going to walk around all day with the balloon trailing behind him.

After retrieving a few balloons (since she'd seen what happened to Professor Flamsteed's balloon and she didn't want to have to go back and forth), Heather tapped herself on the head with her wand. "Aquatraxi Gravita." Grabbing a blue balloon, she placed it a couple of feet in front of her, then took a few steps toward it. And ended up with wet shoes. Luckily, they were waterproof.

So, one balloon down. She placed a red balloon in the same place as before, then tried walking to it. Hmmm, wet face this time. Maybe she should recast the spell....?

Zhenya's mouth literally fell open.

I mean, Professor Flamsteed just engulfed earth with WATER and it wasn't falling! She almost wanted to give him a clap, but thought better of it. Not in the middle of class. No. But Zhenya was amazed at something else. It was like a lightbulb moment. Obviously she had read somewhere about the Moon and tides, but she also thought about gravity sometimes. Why don't the clouds just fall from the sky? Why doesn't the ocean just whoosh into the air? Why do people stay on the ground, and why do balls stay still on the ground? But this was fascinating; the moon pulled the water up and down the coast, and it was as the earth was rotating! Wow.

Anyway.

Zhenya saw a lot of the information Professor Flamsteed was explaining whooshing straight over her head. She would just have to write down the plan of the lesson so that she could try and figure out a way to make sense of what he was talking about. Something just didn't click, but she would make up for it. She would. But for now; water sports. She grinned as the water balloons were revealed. FUN!

Aquatraxi Gravita, tap on the head.

She went and grabbed a green water balloon and found a space on the ground where she could put it down. She rolled the spell over in her mouth a few times. Aquatraxi Gravita. It took a few times, but she finally felt okay about it. Not unnatural. She pulled her wand out and practiced the movement by firmly tapping herself on the head. Not too hard, she didn't want a headache. After a while of practicing she decided to try it out. "Aquatraxi Gravita," she said, tapping herself firmly on the head with the wand. She stepped towards her balloon, and saw perhaps the slightest tug towards her, but it could have been her eyes playing tricks on her.

Marigold had a SYSTEM by her seventh year. Finish her notes, wand movement practice, incantation practice, then clearing her throat to feel powerful, and then BAM. End product a.k.a. the proper spell. So, the movement. A firm tap, right? She got that down. Tap tap tap. She casually tapped her wand on the table a couple times, then hummed along to the beat. Merlin, she was distracted and tired.

Yawn. "AqUAtraxI GravIta."

Zhenya tried again. She cleared her throat, rolled her shoulders and then rolled her head. "Aquatraxi Gravita," she said, tapping the wand firmly to her head. She took a breath then stepped to the side. Miraculously the balloon rolled closer to her. She took a few steps forward, trying to see if the balloon would pull towards her if she could take it for a walk. It did! She beamed at the little balloon and decided to walk back the other way, but… accidentally stepped on it and it popped. She gasped, her hands covering her mouth, until she realised it probably didn't matter. Other balloons were bursting, though perhaps not because they had trodden on their. She walked towards the collection of water balloons and grabbed a purple one.

Norah inspected her wand all over to make sure it was even working because it sure didn't seem like it was making this spell happen. Sigh sigh SIGH. The ickle balloon made it all okay though, because at least for now it didn't want to roll away from her or anything. Facing the balloon, she raised her wand above her head and gave it a (softer) tap. "Aquatraxi Gravita!" It had so worked. It had SO worked. She took an excited step towards the balloon, expecting it to go rolling away from her but instead her foot ended up LANDING on the little pink water balloon. The water splashed on her purple wellies as she squatted, a look of horror taking over her face. She was a BALLOON MURDERER. OFFICIALLY. A BALLOON MURDERER. "Nonononononono." Her balloon. She fished little pink slivers of balloon guts from the puddle, placing a little piece on her nose just so she would remember her dead balloon for and ever. Poor dude. She hadn't even named it yet.

The Hufflepuff straightened up with pink balloon guts on her nose and hidden in her pocket before going to find another balloon. She wouldn't kill you this time, little balloon. She promised. Probably. She set the bright green balloon on the floor and raised her wand up to her head again. TAP. "Aquatraxi Gravita" Yes no maybe so? Norah took a tentative shuffle in the balloon's direction and watched. It twitched slightly, but that was it. PROGRESS! SHE'D MADE PROGRESS! HUZZAH!

Enough with the incantation practice, now time to do the spell. The Korean guy took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. Just like when he had a piano recital or his stage perform.. Well, it was different. Tapping his wand to his head, Ouch. He performed the spell. "Aquatraxi Gravita!" Then he grabbed the black balloon and placed it a few inches away from his feet.

Now, let's see if the spell would work.

The balloon rolled over toward him. Okay. He took a step forward but but but... the ballon came closer and hit his feet. The water splashed around his feet, lucky that he already put on his galoshes. One more try?