P.A.D Joint Lesson :: Moon phases, Potions, & Werewolves..OH MY!

[sweetpinkpixie]

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/28w1cmr.jpg.png
The sun has disappeared beneath the horizon and the sky dotted with countless stars shining brightly against its dark canvas. Arguably the brightest object in the sky this evening is not the stars, but the moon itself as its full moon glow dances through the windows and paints the floor in its heavenly, but eerie, light.

As you enter the dimly lit the room off the Great Hall, you find it is organised just like another classroom: there are desks with burners and empty cauldrons upon them and an empty blackboard up in front. Despite their best efforts, there are still cobwebs clinging to various spots along the stone walls and draped across some windows. The desks, mostly cobweb free, are positioned in a semi circle and there is a big vacant space in the front of the room whose purpose shall remain a mystery for now. The professor's desk is pushed off to the left with three chairs squished behind it. Professor Culloden is sitting on one of them, mulling over some sort of deep thought, while Professor Dakest stands leaning against the desk with one hand on it and his other idly twirling his wand between his fingers with a placid look about his features. Only Professor Flamsteed stands in the middle of the semicircle of desks where the glow of the moon pouring in from the outside seemingly forms a spotlight in which he stands.

The overall atmosphere is somber yet ethereal and leaves you feeling both comfortable and uneasy as you make your way towards your seat.

So come on in and take a seat. The lesson will begin shortly.

☛Lesson Progression
▸ ASTRO question 1 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11766921-post27.html) :: what phase of the moon is this and what do you know about it?
▸ ASTRO question 2 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11767413-post57.html) :: what comes after a waxing crescent and before a full moon?
▸ ASTRO super mini activity (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11767818-post84.html) :: cookie moon phases and wrapping up moon-on-a-stick bits; transitioning to Potions
▸ POTIONS question 1 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11767930-post94.html) :: what do you know about werewolves or Wolfsbane Potion?
▸ POTIONS Explanation and beginning of the potion (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11768322-post114.html)
▸ POTIONS Last steps for now! (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11768514-post128.html)
▸ DADA question 1: (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11768826-post150.html) How do you trap a werewolf?
▸ DADA Answers and Mini Activity: (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11769256-post168.html) Manus Invisibilis (the invisible hand), paralyzing/binding spell
▸ DADA Continuation of mini activity (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11769563-post200.html); activity responses
▸ MAIN ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11769877-post219.html)

OOC:

Please be sure you are familiar with Professor Culloden's rules (http://www.snitchseeker.com/potions-classroom/rules-and-expectations-95971/), Professor Dakest's rules (http://www.snitchseeker.com/d-a-d-a-classroom/rules-and-expectations-100898/), and Professor Flamsteed's rules (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-and-space-navigation-92057/) BEFORE you post in this lesson. We will know if you haven't read them! All SnitchSeeker site rules (http://www.snitchseeker.com/faq.php) apply.

Class will officially begin in approximately 14 hours from the time of this post. You may post your character arriving and greeting the professors, but please try to keep chit chatter to a minimum <3
This lesson has officially started! Please do not announce your character arriving late and just pretend like they have been in class all along. You are free to jump in any time and should use the lesson progression links to keep up.

[Sararara]

Norah hugged her bag to her chest as she entered the room, squinting a little in the low light. She was in the right place, yeah? It didn't look like there was a whole bunch of people here but there WAS cauldrons and those probably didn't hang out places for no apparent reason. Unless they did. It wasn't very fair of her to judge what a cauldron did and didn't do considering she'd never been one of them before. Good thing, too, 'cause their lives sounded awfully uncomfortable. Poor dudes.

She walked past Professor Culloden first, giving him a wave and a bright "Hello!" before getting to Professor Dakest. She was very thankful for the dim light because her cheeks went about 50 million shades redder as she passed him for who knew why. The fourth year let out a soft "HiprofessorDakest," and hugged her bag even closer to her chest before speeding up to get to the last Professor. "Hi Professor Flamsteed." Norah gave the Astronomy Professor a quick salute, taking a seat right at the front of the semi-circle thing they had going on. This was weird. Three entire classes at one time? Very weird. And the funny glowy light thing. That was weird too. So much weird, so little time. Could they get going, pretty please? She was going to have to start humming to herself if things didn't get un-weird soon, and nobody wanted to hear that.

[Symphora]

What was this? Why was he early to class this week? Hmm... oh well...today was a special class to be taught by three Hogwarts professors.It was the first time he intended this joint lessons so it must be very interesting indeed.Hopefully it wouldn't be a long duration one though. Three different subjects in one lesson...fuu..already his brain started to feel weary.Henric walked carefully into the classroom. Woahh....why everything so dark in here? The professors were already there waiting for the students to arrive. Professor Flamsteed still looked grim as ever, he had heard what happened to his beloved pet rock.Unfortunate...really. He wondered if they ever found Pebbles yet.

"Hello professors, and nice to see you again, professor Flamsteed...umm..."he stopped himself from speaking, he didn't want to upset professor Flamsteed further by asking if he had found pebbles yet. Instead he went to find a seat near the front of the classroom.He wondered what were they be learning today...were they making polyjuice potion for some reason...it was his best guess so far.But wasn't it hard to make that? He didn't know if it was illegal too...

[hermionesclone]

Duuude. DUUUUUUUUUDE! Potions, Defence AND Astronomy. MAN. What a combination! The subject selection, that is. The professor selection was lol-worthy because of their personalities and whatnot. Nevertheless, this was bound to be an interesting lesson and Grayson was all up for it.

And his favourite subject of the three? Potions. There was no competition.

So, Grayson half-walked, half-strutted into the room, a small smirk spread across his face. Why? Merlin knew. And he was early and all, which was new. Jeez, way to look like an eager beaver, Whitty. He readjusted his grip on his bag as he headed up towards a seat near the top of the semi-circle. A seat that would give him a good view of everything in case anything interesting happened. Gotta be prepared and all.

"Heeeeeey Professors Culloden, Dakest and Flamsteed," he said, giving each of them a 'sup nod as he took a seat.

And Culloden got a big smile. Obviously.

[FearlessLeader19]

The whole room about no food in the classroom kind of spoilt the whole thing about Adi distributing cake or chocolate frogs for his birthday. Oh, well. At least he had gotten to see some of his friends earlier that day but not all of them. And everyone knew he had a ton of those. The birthday boy happily shuffled into the Room off the Great Hall just before seven PM.

Say! It was kinda dark in here! That meant there was no need for specs. Cool! The Hufflepuff removed the things and stuck them in his pocket. He could still see cobwebs. Eeek! He would stay away from those. He had had quite an unfortunate experience of walking right into a set of the things in front of the Hufflepuff barrels.

"Hello, Professors!'' Adi grinned at each of the men, though he wasn't sure if Culloden heard him. The man seemed lost, yo. "Hey, Norah!'' he greeted as he passed her. "Grayson! Sup, dude?'' And there was Henric. The now of age guy took a seat purposely next to him. "Hiiiii, Henny!''

[Expecto-Penguin]

A night class. This was the classes Kace liked a lot. He grinned and was most excited for this lesson. I mean this was a joined lesson after all. As he made his way to the great hall after getting his necessary supplies, he opened the doors and saw he wasn't the only one here so far. He saw his fellow puffs Norah, Henric and Adi there. He gave them all a friendly wave and a "Hello!" Then he noticed Grayson and he got the cool kid head nod. He gave him the sup notion and saw Professor Flamsteed was there. He gave him a polite nod and turned towards him. "Hello Professors.." he said noticing Professor Dakest was here too. "I am interested in what we are going to be learning today." he told them both honestly. After giving them their greetings, he turned around and began to walk to find his seat.

He found an empty one in the great hall and reserved it for Emmy incase she was in the mood to come to class. He began to look around and wondered what on earth they were gonna be learning today.

[Roselyn]

Lancelot had a healthy respect for evening and night classes, sure. They were exciting and COOL. What was UNcool was that it involved practically his three worst subjects. Ever. But, then again, (cool) night classes. Sooooo... that. He was at a crossroads about the whole predicament.

Gripping the strap of his satchel tightly, the young lad slowly entered the room he'd seen all the other students enter, still pondering whether to stick this out or take a get out of jail free card and call in sick. Still pondering as he smiled and gave a little wave to all the professors in the room. Even more pondering as he plopped down in the first empty seat his feet guided him too.

Stiiiill pondering.

Still wanting to go home too.

[Daydreamer11]

Now this was bound to be an interesting lesson. Janelle had spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how the three classes could possibly be combined into one lesson. She had yet to come up with a reasonable idea. Aside from the fact that the three professors were as different as they could possibly be, the subjects weren't exactly close relatives.

As she approached the toom off the Great Hall, Janelle was surprised at the absence of the lint roller. Hmmm. Interesting. Entering the room, she extended her greetings. "Hello Professors. I can't wait to see what you have planned for us." Then she gave a quick, "Hello all", to her classmates. Janelle found a desk that was to her liking and took a seat. She would amuse herself by observing the students as they arrived. That would make the wait go faster, she hoped.

[Symphora]

The whole room about no food in the classroom kind of spoilt the whole thing about Adi distributing cake or chocolate frogs for his birthday. Oh, well. At least he had gotten to see some of his friends earlier that day but not all of them. And everyone knew he had a ton of those. The birthday boy happily shuffled into the Room off the Great Hall just before seven PM.

Say! It was kinda dark in here! That meant there was no need for specs. Cool! The Hufflepuff removed the things and stuck them in his pocket. He could still see cobwebs. Eeek! He would stay away from those. He had had quite an unfortunate experience of walking right into a set of the things in front of the Hufflepuff barrels.

"Hello, Professors!'' Adi grinned at each of the men, though he wasn't sure if Culloden heard him. The man seemed lost, yo. "Hey, Norah!'' he greeted as he passed her. "Grayson! Sup, dude?'' And there was Henric. The now of age guy took a seat purposely next to him. "Hiiiii, Henny!''

Henric waved back to Kace and grinned back at Adi who sat beside him again. Ehh...he didn't mind having him as a partner, he wondered if his bestie llia arrived yet. Anyway,It was Adi's birthday today, he hoped he wasn't too late giving his wishes. What friend would he be if he had forgotten Adi's birthday,right? He patted him on the back and whispered,"Happy birthday man...'I've got something for you...here..."Henric reached into his satchel and took out Adi's small giftbox he had been meaning to give him, inside laid a custom made hippogriff design quill specially ship in by his owl this morning. It just cost him his precious dragoncard and part of his pet babysiting money to buy it but Adi did not need to know that.

"Here you go, mate...for you, hope you like it,you can open it later,"Henric smiled to Adi. He hoped it would cheer him up from whatever happen with Benny and him.

[Holmesian Feline]

Today was soooo not a good day for Benny.

Like his life hadn't been crazy and filled with a wide range of emotions lately already. But he knew the triple-threat class was that evening after dinner. A subject he managed to do well in...the surprise success of potions and Defense which was his weakest of them all. And in the upset of things with Adi, Ben certainly hadn't been practicing like Professor Dakest had told him to do.

And on top of that, he had found the beautifully wrapped gift he had bought for Adi's 17th birthday in his trunk while he had gathered all the supplies he would be needing. So much for giving him it today like originally planned.

Major sigh.

So when he wandered back down to the Great Hall he was clearly distracted. Ben didn't care how the room was situated or what rules he had looked over to be ready for the lesson. He vaguely registered the three men there waiting on them the students to arrive. "Hello Professors..." he greeted, including them all together before turning to look for a seat. Against his wishes, his gaze found his best friend, as always seated besides Henric.

Double sigh.

The sixth year shuffled to a random seat near the back and plopped himself down in the chair. His limbs almost moving robotically as he took out some supplies to be ready for the lesson to start.

Could this be over before it began?

[kayquilz]

....Eden didn't want to come. Astronomy=WHOOH. DADA=WHOOH. Potions=..........um.

She was nervous. She hadn't dabbled in potions in awhile, since she didn't take it after OWL level, and she just...ugh. Seeing Culloden would make her nervous. WHAT IF HE HELD AN ENORMOUS GRUDGE AGAINST HER FOR NOT TAKING POTIONS ANYMORE?

Gosh.

She was majorly claw!overthinking this. She waved to all the professors, didn't say anything, and slipped into her seat.

Right. Here we go, McGee.

[Jessiqua]

This was such an exciting class to be coming to, for many reasons. Obviously it involved her favourite subject, one of her most challenging subjects, and the subject taught by the Professor who taught her how to cast a patronus! But it was also Adi's birthday, his SEVENTEENTH birthday. So, in Zhenya's pocket was a small something and a card for the birthday boy. She walked into the Great Hall, and the smile sort of wavered. All three Professors were there, but Zhenya was a bit confused as to who to say hello to first, how loud she could be, or if she should sit down and just acknowledge them. But that wasn't in her nature, she'd have to say hello. So she did the rounds.

Walking up to Professor Culloden, who looked deep in thought, Zhenya felt a bit like she were intruding. She didn't want to do that, so she just quietly said "Hello Professor," so that he might acknowledge someone had spoken to him or not, but she wasn't rudely pulling him from his thoughts. She hoped anyway. He could be onto something, like a great world breaking potions formula or something. She didn't want to interrupt that.

Professor Dakest was next, and she decided to say hello to him too. "Hello Professor," she said, still quietly. She just felt a need to be rather... quiet and peaceful. It didn't bother her, she liked quiet.

And then in the middle was the fabulous Professor Flamsteed. "Hello Professor," she said with a big grin. "What lovely lighting you have," she commented, looking up. Would they be playing with water and tides today? She couldn't see how they would tie in nicely with Potions or Defence against the dark arts, so perhaps they wouldn't be. But still, it was lovely.

Zhenya turned to look for a seat and decided to just sit in a random one, but first - THERE WAS ADI!

The whole room about no food in the classroom kind of spoilt the whole thing about Adi distributing cake or chocolate frogs for his birthday. Oh, well. At least he had gotten to see some of his friends earlier that day but not all of them. And everyone knew he had a ton of those. The birthday boy happily shuffled into the Room off the Great Hall just before seven PM.

Say! It was kinda dark in here! That meant there was no need for specs. Cool! The Hufflepuff removed the things and stuck them in his pocket. He could still see cobwebs. Eeek! He would stay away from those. He had had quite an unfortunate experience of walking right into a set of the things in front of the Hufflepuff barrels.

"Hello, Professors!'' Adi grinned at each of the men, though he wasn't sure if Culloden heard him. The man seemed lost, yo. "Hey, Norah!'' he greeted as he passed her. "Grayson! Sup, dude?'' And there was Henric. The now of age guy took a seat purposely next to him. "Hiiiii, Henny!''

Not wanting to make a fuss, Zhenya walked up to Adi and gave him a big hug, "Happy Seventeenth Birthday Adi," she whispered to him, not wanting to draw attention. Well, not too much, anyway. She didn't want to disturb the Professor's or the moon. "Here," she said, handing a chocolate frog, which was wrapped and inside a gift bag, and a card, "Don't open it here." As long as he didn't open it here, hopefully it didn't matter. It was wrapped, anyway, and surely Adi wasn't silly enough to eat it in class. Besides, she hadn't seen him today to be able to give it to him, and she couldn't just hand deliver it to the Hufflepuff common room.

[feeheeheeny]

Well... this was... most certainly... going to be... an interesting lesson, to say the least.

There was Dakest, who people supposedly believed to be a Dark wizard and to be brainwashing students, particularly her. There was Culloden, who believed the article and seemed to think Dakest was trying to brainwash her. And there was Flamsteed, who sympathized with her and seemed to agree that everyone was being wrongfully accused.

Her three favorite classes, and her three favorite professors minus Javy. Tensions were high between at least two of them, though, and she wouldn't have been surprised if Culloden ate the new Defense professor alive before the class was over, considering the way he'd talked about him before.

And, as she entered the room, Sophie faltered. And... just kind of looked at the three of them.

...This WOULD be interesting, wouldn't it?

Crossing deeper into the room with her necessary materials for class, Sophie nodded at them and offered a polite, "Gentlemen," in greeting, and she was going to leave it at that, but as she went to take a seat, she turned to address them again and added a pensive, "This is a weird combination." Of classes, she meant. Just so they knew. "But it's interesting, 'n m'glad it's with three of my favorite professors." She looked POINTEDLY at Dakest and Culloden now at the desk, as she'd been primarily addressing Flamsteed in the middle of the semicircle before, and gave them a very uncertain, apprehensive look, almost as if to say you're all my favorites so please get along. It was mostly to the Potions Master, though. He would behave and not step all over Dakest's toes, wouldn't he? And this whole thing would PROVE to him that Dakest wasn't brainwashing anyone, and that he was actually a very good professor?

Riiiiight?

[Cassirin]

So dilemma. Dot was totally star-struck by THREE of her most favorite professors all in one lesson, and she didn't know which of them she was meant to say hello to first. Or all three of them?

Or maybe none of them, because maybe there would be a variation to her hello and Professor Best Friend would feel slighted or Professor HandsomefacePatronus would be miffed or Professor StarMan would cry. He looked like a crier.

"Hello, professors." She looked about to explode out the top of her head, and she hadn't even hugged anyone yet. "Nice night for class." She was so disappointed in herself.

[WhittyBitty]

Lux was forward to this lesson. Her favourite subject combined with two other favourites. Could potions be added to every lesson?

Entering the classroom, she smiled at each Professor in turn. "Hello, Professors! I hope you are all doing well."

Spotting Adi, Lux made a beeline towards him. "Happy Birthday! I am so jealous that you are 17 and I'm not." Hehe. She would have to wait for the start of June for that to happen. "I have a present for you, but it can wait until class is over." This wasn't the time or the place.

Taking a seat she waited for the lesson to begin.

[Deezerz]

The moment Beverly walked into the Great Hall she was filled with a somber, yet calm feeling. Maybe it was the cobwebs still lingering about, or maybe it was the moon's silver light pouring in. Whatever it was, she felt the need to be extra quiet. The few greetings of her classmates sounded extra loud or was that her?

Shaking off that feeling, she proceeded, glancing at each man in charge and shot them a polite nod. "Professors."

Taking her seat, the Slytherin rested her wand and hands on her lap. Yep. She was ready. Call her paranoid, but she hardly put her wand away since last term. It made her feel more at ease knowing it was in her grip, ready.

[Weasley174]

Angel was totally looking forwards to this lesson, she so wanted to know what was going to be involved in this lesson since three professors were going to be involved in this lesson. "Hey Professors." Angel smiled, this was going to be an awesome lesson, she could tell. "How are you all today?"

[RandomRaven]

Back when he was in Kirin, he'd rarely heard about two lessons were joined in one class. And today, he's gonna get three lesson in once: Potions, Astronomy, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. After getting some meals (yeah, he always managed himself to get meals before the class so he's not gonna get hungry), the Korean guy walked to the great hall with curiosity. Seriously, a three totally different lessons were joined together? He didn't have any idea what would they gonna learn today but he hoped it would be interesting. So far, these three professors were great and fun and he enjoyed their lessons.

Entering the lesson, Jackson noticed that the Professors were already there. He's not late, was he? "Err... Hello, Professors." He smiled and bowed politely to all of them. He spotted Adi was already there and looked very happy. He did notice that Henric, Zhenya and the other puff girl (Lux) congratulated him. Wait... it's his birthday today? He didn't know about that. "Adi hyung, it's your birthday today? Happy birthday, mate! Sorry that I didn't bring anything for you because I just heard." He congratulated him and grinned sheepishly. He decided to take a seat at the back row behind the birthday boy, hehehe.

[Stormdancer]

Lancelot had a healthy respect for evening and night classes, sure. They were exciting and COOL. What was UNcool was that it involved practically his three worst subjects. Ever. But, then again, (cool) night classes. Sooooo... that. He was at a crossroads about the whole predicament.

Gripping the strap of his satchel tightly, the young lad slowly entered the room he'd seen all the other students enter, still pondering whether to stick this out or take a get out of jail free card and call in sick. Still pondering as he smiled and gave a little wave to all the professors in the room. Even more pondering as he plopped down in the first empty seat his feet guided him too.

Stiiiill pondering.

Still wanting to go home too.
Marsha was bouncy. Unlike Lance, Marsha loved Astronomy, Defence and Potions. Sure, her wand was still being iffy with her and they were still learning to work as a well oiled pair rather than pulling at each other to compromise - but it was slowly getting better… which meant that she had to ask for less help which made her feel better and meant that she was happier with learning.

Hehe. With a wide smile on her face, she waved at her Head of House, before turning to look at Professor Dakest who also was greeted with a smile. ”Good evening, Professors.” She hoped that Professor Culloden would look up in time to see the wave that was aimed for him. ”I hope you are all happy and having a good day today.”

Yup, she was ridiculous, awfully happy. Sorrrryyy! Wheeee.

Following Lance, she sat down next to him and poked his side slightly. ”Cheer up. I’m here… what could go wrong?” Giggle grin. Sooo much could go wrong with a pair of first years, everyone knew that.

[Felixir]

Tobias was a lot more fidgety than usual today. It wasn't altogether surprising, at least not to him. He'd deliberately neglected to take his usual potions today, in a misguided attempt to... well... he wasn't entirely sure what it was he was trying to do. Just... be more like his old self, perhaps. Because things had been OFF recently and he wanted them to NOT feel OFF and that meant taking matters into your OWN HANDS. At any cost.

So he entered the Great Hall with a strange sort of jittery bounce to his step, not really needing the atmosphere of the room to put him on edge. As ever, he twirled his wand as he moved along, in what had become an almost perpetual action these last few weeks.

Toby eyed each of the professors, considering saying his hellos to each of them. It would be polite, but he'd by now noticed the tone of the room, and felt a little conflicted, so he stayed quiet. Also, he was pretty sure that if he opened his mouth just to say hi, he might get stuck in the 'on' position and never shut up again. Sooooo instead, Toby just nodded at them all and went ahead to go sit by Soph, where he continued twirling his wand (just like Dakest, he'd noticed, which had actually made him falter for just a moment, but not enough to make him stop). As he sat there, he jiggled his legs and hummed as quietly as he could in an attempt to keep moving and appease his brain but hopefully not bother anyone.

Gotta keep moving, gotta keep moving, lalala. Maybe he should have gone for another run before the class, mhmm mhmm mhmm.

[ArianaBlack]

Zander wasn't actually quite aware of his own feelings towards the joint lesson. He did like Astronomy and he wasn't too bad at it. Then there was Potions, which sometimes freaked him out but otherwise tended to go well. Defense was another story all together because he was terrible at that. Then if you take the Professors into account... Culloden was... A strange one. Zander was always torn between feeling completely intimidated, but otherwise respectful. Professor Flamsteed was great, but Zander had to be on his best behavior around him ever since the tidal wave stuff. And then there was Professor Dakest who was absolutely brilliant, even though Zander had only visited him for a very short amount of time.

So all in all, feelings were mixed.

This would be very interesting, he was sure.

The Gryffindor walked into class, a little apprehensively, taking note of where everyone sat before walking towards his Professors. "Hello, Professor Culloden..." Where did Potions fit into this? Erm. "Good evening Professor Dakest." For the record, Zander DIDN'T think he was evil. 'Cause normally he'd eat that stuff up or be very skeptical about it but the Prophet's number one mistake was including Sophie Brown 'cause there was no way she was evil. Just sayin'. Then making his way towards his Head of House, the Gryffindor gave him a bright smile. "Hi, Professor Flamsteed, the moon looks amazing tonight, huh?"

And then he took a seat. 'Cause what the heck would they be doing in an Astronomy, Potions, Defense joint lesson?

[SlytherinSistah]

He saw this class as a challenge and it seemed to the growing hellion that most of his professors thus far understood his favourable response to this. The only exception being Botros, whom Cutty did not like. Carrying his items needed for the class, Cutty entered and gave man!nod greeting #34 to Professor Culloden and Dakest firstly. "Good evening Professors Culloden, Dakest and...Nice light magic, Professor Flamsteed. Gettin' the moon to spotlight yer." Cutty assumed it was done on purpose.





Professor Flamsteed was not what the natives would call a shy man.



The moment Beverly walked into the Great Hall she was filled with a somber, yet calm feeling. Maybe it was the cobwebs still lingering about, or maybe it was the moon's silver light pouring in. Whatever it was, she felt the need to be extra quiet. The few greetings of her classmates sounded extra loud or was that her?

Shaking off that feeling, she proceeded, glancing at each man in charge and shot them a polite nod. "Professors."

Taking her seat, the Slytherin rested her wand and hands on her lap. Yep. She was ready. Call her paranoid, but she hardly put her wand away since last term. It made her feel more at ease knowing it was in her grip, ready.

He pulled up along side his prefect and took a seat next to her nudging at her arm lightly, almost tenderly for a boy known to be quick toward chaos, in greeting.

[DuckyLinJi]

This class was going to be a DISASTER! He just knew it. For one thing, he was horrible at potions , like, do not even get him near a cauldron horrible, he did not care about astronomy ,not sorry...but he guessed he was pretty good at defence class so maybe big maybe it wouldn't turn out so horrible as he saw it in his minds eye.

This of course did not mean he hadn't read as much as he possibly could about the subjects for his owls. Mostly on Astronomy because he never had that subject before back at his old school and he now had to do an exam in it. But it was going alright so far. He only had 4 mental break downs so far which was ..normal he heard..

He hadn't had realised that he had entered the room off the great hall already and it was only when he heard the chatting around him. Now, where were the professors? a quick look around and he spotted them. "Hiya sirs" he waved before taking a seat and grabbed his chapstick to use.

[nanyjj]

Leah entered the dimly lit room, rubbing her eyes to adjust to the lighting. It was already late evening, couldn't the light be brighter? At least the moon was bright. Eerily bright. So... cauldrons and wands and the moon. What a combination. Naturally, Leah was EXCITED.

She walked past all three Professors, giving them waves. "Hello Professors Flamsteed, Culloden and Dakest." Then she moved on to look for a seat when she saw THE birthday boy. "Happy birthday, Adi!" she grinned, handing him a small box of joke objects from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Holy Hippogriffs, Adi was SEVENTEEN now. He was old. Hehe. Leah took a seat right next to Angel and gave her a friendly wave. Hello, best friend!

[Hey Ju]

Once again, Agatha looked like she had just sniffed a pile of dragon dung. This time, it wasn't because of the people around her, but the situation. THREE lessons in one? Three topics? Three professors to stare at her as she gets things wrong?? Three adults to call her attention? Three different subjects, all at the same time? How? HOW?

This was madness and Agatha did not appreciate it one bit. She didn't even want to come, but she guessed that wasn't an option anymore. So she came. Not looking happy at all, but she came. She stared at professor Flasmteed for a second as a 'greeting' and glanced towards the other two before turning away.

The creepiness of the classroom - it did look creepy to her - didn't help her mood and she took a look at the students that had already arrived. If she couldn't avoid the lesson, at least she would sit near normal people who would potentially help her. Or not. If they could look like they knew what they were doing, Agatha could always copy them or at least pretend to be doing so.

"Beverly. Cutty." She greeted her two friends as she sat next to their female prefect as well. She had her wand out, which made Agatha even more uneasy. Was there a reason for that already? The sixth year looked around but couldn't spot anything in particular. .......She did draw her wand out as well, just in case.

[Casey O]

Marigold was very apprehensive about this. She was reasonably good at Astronomy and Potions and dreadful at Defense, but she wasn't quite sure how this would work. Plus, three professors? This was going to be TOUGH. Like, emotionally aND brain wise.

"Hello, professor Culloden." Pause. "Professor Dakest, professor Flamsteed."

[sweetpinkpixie]

The astronomer could feel his skin crawling already, and not just because of some of the more hair raising portions of the lesson. Although those thoughts did not help much. No, what had the man standing there as though he had ants in his pants until the first few students began trickling in through the door was the fact that he had neglected to bring down the table holding his lint roller. Students were going to walk in her with lint and Orion knows what else!

... "Hi Professor Flamsteed." Norah gave the Astronomy Professor a quick salute, taking a seat right at the front of the semi-circle thing they had going on.
Ceasing his awkward dance for only a few seconds, he nodded his head towards Miss Kittredge. "Good evening."
...
"Hello professors, and nice to see you again, professor Flamsteed...umm..."he stopped himself from speaking, he didn't want to upset professor Flamsteed further by asking if he had found pebbles yet. Instead he went to find a seat near the front of the classroom.He wondered what were they be learning today...were they making polyjuice potion for some reason...it was his best guess so far.But wasn't it hard to make that? He didn't know if it was illegal too...
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuum?

Oh. Apparently that was all? WAS THERE SOMETHING ON HIS SUIT?!

He began to check himself over instead of returning a greeting to the Hufflepuff. What? WHAT?!
...

"Heeeeeey Professors Culloden, Dakest and Flamsteed," he said, giving each of them a 'sup nod as he took a seat.

And Culloden got a big smile. Obviously.
Finding absolutely nothing wrong with his suit, the Astronomy professor would have to continue to wonder what that 'um' had been about as Mr. Whitlock entered the classroom. "Hay is for horses, Mr. Whitlock." Did he know?

Har har.

He almost made himself laugh at that.

Pebbles would have enjoyed that joke.

Cue some manly lip quivering.
...

"Hello, Professors!'' Adi grinned at each of the men, though he wasn't sure if Culloden heard him. The man seemed lost, yo.
...
Lamenting over the loss of Pebbles, Airey failed to hear the birthday congratulations Mr. Rehman was receiving. Perhaps if he had heard he would have offered to sing to him...or perhaps not. SOME people did not appreciate his tenor stylings. He did, however, manage a small salute to the prefect before he sat down.
He gave him the sup notion and saw Professor Flamsteed was there. He gave him a polite nod and turned towards him. "Hello Professors.." he said noticing Professor Dakest was here too. "I am interested in what we are going to be learning today." he told them both honestly. After giving them their greetings, he turned around and began to walk to find his seat.
"You'll find out soon enough," he assured Mr. Lecium. Literally. No beating around the bush this time. They had a lot of ground to cover this evening.

...
Gripping the strap of his satchel tightly, the young lad slowly entered the room he'd seen all the other students enter, still pondering whether to stick this out or take a get out of jail free card and call in sick. Still pondering as he smiled and gave a little wave to all the professors in the room. Even more pondering as he plopped down in the first empty seat his feet guided him too.

Stiiiill pondering.

Still wanting to go home too.
Mr. McWitty received a polite nod of the head as he entered, which also reminded the Head of House he needed to speak to the boy about some unfortunate odors he had received complaints about coming from his side of the room.
...
As she approached the toom off the Great Hall, Janelle was surprised at the absence of the lint roller. Hmmm. Interesting. Entering the room, she extended her greetings. "Hello Professors. I can't wait to see what you have planned for us."
...
"Good evening, Miss Guidry," he greeted the Ravenclaw while taking nervous glances towards his sundial watch to check the time. "Hopefully you will find the subject matter to be...really something to sink your teeth into."

Medea would have appreciated that one.

And now it was time for some more manly lip quivering.
...

So when he wandered back down to the Great Hall he was clearly distracted. Ben didn't care how the room was situated or what rules he had looked over to be ready for the lesson. He vaguely registered the three men there waiting on them the students to arrive. "Hello Professors..." he greeted, including them all together before turning to look for a seat. Against his wishes, his gaze found his best friend, as always seated besides Henric.
...
Uuuuuuuuuuuuh...this Gryffindor was oozing with teenage angst. The professor may be rather socially inept, but it was written all over the boy's face. Sabel could handle this one should, er, the need arise.

"Hello, Mr. Atreyu."
...
She was majorly claw!overthinking this. She waved to all the professors, didn't say anything, and slipped into her seat.

Right. Here we go, McGee.
He managed to return the wave to Miss McGee and even mustered a welcoming smile. It was the least she could do after all that pet rock publicity from earlier in the term.
...
And then in the middle was the fabulous Professor Flamsteed. "Hello Professor," she said with a big grin. "What lovely lighting you have," she commented, looking up. Would they be playing with water and tides today? She couldn't see how they would tie in nicely with Potions or Defence against the dark arts, so perhaps they wouldn't be. But still, it was lovely.
That was quite the spectrum of greetings just now. Quite amusing, really. And what was it with so many students, the majority female, getting all quiet and squeaky when addressing Sabel? Why not himself or Cogsrach? Peculiar...very peculiar...

"Thank you, Miss Burton," he replied, all anxious wiggle dancing ceasing entirely at this point. "The moon certainly has a way of transforming the mood of things, don't you agree."

Har har.

...
Crossing deeper into the room with her necessary materials for class, Sophie nodded at them and offered a polite, "Gentlemen," in greeting, and she was going to leave it at that, but as she went to take a seat, she turned to address them again and added a pensive, "This is a weird combination." Of classes, she meant. Just so they knew. "But it's interesting, 'n m'glad it's with three of my favorite professors."
Flattered, he was. Smile, he did not.

Although the words were well received, Miss Brown. Your Astronomy professor is still being a bit of a stick in the mud about his missing pet rock. Lessons were a stellar distraction, however.

"I think you will find that it is not weird at all, Miss Brown," he winked. "And hopefully have a howling good time when you do realize this."

HAR HAR.
...
"Hello, professors." She looked about to explode out the top of her head, and she hadn't even hugged anyone yet. "Nice night for class." She was so disappointed in herself.
"Hello, Miss Wojack," he greeted the Slytherin. Perhaps he should hire her out to use a lint roller on all these cobwebs sometime. She was, as he had finally come to learn, rather proficient with rolling up spiders and other unwanted debris with it. "It certainly is. No better night this month, in fact."
..
Entering the classroom, she smiled at each Professor in turn. "Hello, Professors! I hope you are all doing well."
...
"Well is rather subjective," he grumbled. Physically speak, yes. Just peachy.
...

Shaking off that feeling, she proceeded, glancing at each man in charge and shot them a polite nod. "Professors."
...
"Wayne," he replied simply as he returned the prefect's nod.
Angel was totally looking forwards to this lesson, she so wanted to know what was going to be involved in this lesson since three professors were going to be involved in this lesson. "Hey Professors." Angel smiled, this was going to be an awesome lesson, she could tell. "How are you all today?"
He really couldn't help himself. "Hay is for horses," he hummed, opting to ignore Miss Valentine's question because that would just not end well for anyone.
...
Entering the lesson, Jackson noticed that the Professors were already there. He's not late, was he? "Err... Hello, Professors." He smiled and bowed politely to all of them.
...
Bowing, right. The astronomer instinctively returned it, having become somewhat accustomed to doing so on the occasional business trip to Asian countries, but neglected to actually say anything back to the Gryffindor.
...
Hehe. With a wide smile on her face, she waved at her Head of House, before turning to look at Professor Dakest who also was greeted with a smile. ”Good evening, Professors.” She hoped that Professor Culloden would look up in time to see the wave that was aimed for him. ”I hope you are all happy and having a good day today.”
"Good evening, Miss Hanover," he nodded. Again, going to ignore the 'good day' sort of rhetorical questions. Things were hard without Pebbles around...on top of everything else.

...
Toby eyed each of the professors, considering saying his hellos to each of them. It would be polite, but he'd by now noticed the tone of the room, and felt a little conflicted, so he stayed quiet. Also, he was pretty sure that if he opened his mouth just to say hi, he might get stuck in the 'on' position and never shut up again. Sooooo instead, Toby just nodded at them all and went ahead to go sit by Soph, where he continued twirling his wand (just like Dakest, he'd noticed, which had actually made him falter for just a moment, but not enough to make him stop). As he sat there, he jiggled his legs and hummed as quietly as he could in an attempt to keep moving and appease his brain but hopefully not bother anyone.
...
Mr. Toby sure was twitchy....and doing a lot of staring at himself and his colleague. Almost like he was too shy to ask something...OH! The astronomer recognized what was going on here.

"You still have time, Mr. Toby. Loo is just down the hall to your left."

...
Then making his way towards his Head of House, the Gryffindor gave him a bright smile. "Hi, Professor Flamsteed, the moon looks amazing tonight, huh?"
Airey did manage to soften his expression a little while greeting Mr. Adair. "Certainly does." It certainly does...
... "Good evening Professors Culloden, Dakest and...Nice light magic, Professor Flamsteed. Gettin' the moon to spotlight yer." Cutty assumed it was done on purpose.
...
Airey ventured a look out the window towards the moon. Light refracting illusions were really all the rage these days, didn't they know? Without saying anything, the professor just winked at the Slytherin before turning to his sundial watch again.

Just a few more minutes...
...
He hadn't had realised that he had entered the room off the great hall already and it was only when he heard the chatting around him. Now, where were the professors? a quick look around and he spotted them. "Hiya sirs" he waved before taking a seat and grabbed his chapstick to use.
Glancing over at Sabel and Costrach, his eyes sending a silent message to his colleagues that he was ready to get started, Airey turned his head towards the Gryffindor as he approached. "Good evening, Mr. Hyland."

Sir. Ugh.


She walked past all three Professors, giving them waves. "Hello Professors Flamsteed, Culloden and Dakest."
"Evening, Miss Abbot," he saluted the Hufflepuff. A small salute, mind you.

...
This was madness and Agatha did not appreciate it one bit. She didn't even want to come, but she guessed that wasn't an option anymore. So she came. Not looking happy at all, but she came. She stared at professor Flasmteed for a second as a 'greeting' and glanced towards the other two before turning away.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.....hi?

Airey was not sure if Miss Hapgood was trying to start a staring contest or not - something he would gladly take up as a distraction outside of the classroom, for the record - but the stare was...okay. He just was not going to make eye contact and stare at his sundial watch instead.

Marigold was very apprehensive about this. She was reasonably good at Astronomy and Potions and dreadful at Defense, but she wasn't quite sure how this would work. Plus, three professors? This was going to be TOUGH. Like, emotionally aND brain wise.

"Hello, professor Culloden." Pause. "Professor Dakest, professor Flamsteed."
Half distracted by his watch, Airey offered the Hufflepuff a halfhearted wave.

********

Giving one last glance towards his colleagues, he firmly nodded his head and removed his wand from the holster tucked away in his enchanted breast pocket.

"Good evening, everyone. Please take your seats and get situated. Welcome to PAD - a Potions, Astronomy, and Defense Against the Dark Arts joint lesson," he announced as he turned his back briefly towards the class to enchant the chalk on the board to write one word in very large print:

WEREWOLVES

"Allow me to put your minds at ease at just what will be the focus of today's lesson," he said, now turning back towards the class. Although he thought the topic was rather obvious given the three subject, but perhaps it was the approach that the three professors were taking that would surprise students more. "Werewolves. Before we get into them specifically, let us all back up to what is arguably the most important aspect of these beings, the Moon. More specifically, the lunar cycle."

Yes, he knew. Boooooo BRING ON THE WEREWOLF TALK! But logistics first, Hogwartians. They would get to the real meat of things soon.

With a flick of his wand, Airey summoned some supplies (http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/Photo-Jan-07-9-29-40-PM-e1357671599459-358x480.jpg) from the box on the desk and levitated them towards each of the students - and his fellow professors. "As we have been discussing in Astronomy so far this term, the Moon plays a key role in relation to our planet, Earth. It primarily controls the tides, it helps regulate our climate by slowing the Earth's rotation and creating our 24 hour days, nights would be MUCH darker without it, and it helps maintain our axial tilt. Now, these are all very large scale things. Perhaps so large that, for some of you, it is difficult to grasp just how influential. But, as you are all aware of, it doesn't just influence the natural world...but it plays a key role in many aspects of the magical world."

With all the props not floating in front of the faces of students, Airey conjured a MASSIVE bluebell flame that spun itself into a floating sphere - he had become quite partial to them this term - and left it floating in font of the semi-circle of desks.

"If my colleagues will allow me this brief introduction," which, well, they didn't really have too much of a choice because here he went. "...a werewolf is a human being who, upon the complete rising of the full moon, becomes a fearsome and deadly near-wolf. To quote your textbooks." Because that was the extent of his knowledge. Mostly.

"What I would like you all to do now is to pluck your Styrofoam ball on a stick and stand by your desk with it," he instructed. "We will be going over the moon phases with a brief demonstration to start." Waiting a moment until everyone was out of their seats with their moon-on-a-stick, he waved his wand again to put out any other light in the classroom. Even the shine from the moon outside seemed to have dimmed and he no longer stood in a spotlight. For now, at least, the only real source of light was the giant floating bluebell flame.

"Now, we can only ever see half of the moon from earth. This is because the other side is always turned away from us. As the moon orbits around the earth, we see different fractions of the same face of the moon as it is lit by the sun. Please lift your moon-on-a-stick up and hold it between your face and the floating bluebell flame, please. Your head is acting as the earth. The bluebell flame, the sun. There is no light falling on the part of the moon you are looking at. Who can tell me what phase of the moon this is or share a fact slash bit of fun trivia about this particular phase?"

OOC: class will resume in approximately 17 hours from the time of this post.

Please note your character DOES NOT have to answer the question, but it is imperative for participation points that they follow Professor Flamsteed's instructions with what to do with your moon-on-a-stick <3 Just don't try to poke each other's eyes out with them, okay?:xd:

[Casey O]

Marigold's jaw dropped.

WEREWOLVES?!?!?!!?!???!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

Duuuuuuuuuuuude. This TOTALLY changed her state of mind. They were learning about WEREWOLVES. This was SO COOL. SO. COOL. She snapped to attention as Flamsteed started talking. OHHHH, that was why they had been learning about the moon so much. That makes sense.

She stabbed her Styrofoam ball with the stick and stood up. Ooooh, it got DARK. Okay, the ball was in front of her face. No light on the visible part of the moon, which me meant that it was slightly "invisible." She raised her hand.

"Is it a new moon, sir?"

[Kolyander]

Interesting. That's the thought that came to mind when Hady realized this was going to be a three lesson joint class today. As she had made her way into the classroom she wasn't sure how she was feeling about it or just what would occur from it. The third year wasn't sure at all how Potions, Astronomy and DADA went together.

However that was quickly changed the moment Professor Airey began to speak. Werewolves. It all made more sense now really with each word he spoke. She didn't really get to think about it though as they were being given instructions already on what needed to be done. Picking up the styrofoam ball she examined it for a brief moment before pushing it firmly down onto the point of her stick without poking herself.

Getting to her feet Hady remained beside her desk and raised her 'moon' up to her face effectively blocking out the bluebell flame thing. Raising her hand she gave an answer, "I think it's called the new moon." She wasn't entirely sure but it sounded right to her.

[Daemon]

Astronomy, Potions AND Defence?!

This was one lesson he would most certainly not miss. Which was why he'd spent the entire day relaxing and clearing his mind so that he would be able to focus tonight. He might hate relaxing but he did begrudgingly admit that it was useful at times.

Like now, for instance. Now he could summon up ALL his energy and be excited about WEREWOLVES.

... Or the moon. You know. That too, he guessed. Lifting up his moon stick, Benzi put it between his face and the flames. Ah yes - now he couldn't see it. Very clever Professor Flamsteed.

Up went his hand. "It's a dark moon sir, when the moon is completely invisible from earth... it lasts between one to three days I think, and the new moon happens sometime in the middle of that."

Yes, he might have studied on Christmas break. He'd had a LOT of free time.

[RandomRaven]

What's going on with Flamsteed? He didn't look hyper as usual and he barely greeted nor bowed back to him. And he just replied the others' greeting in short way, not like usual. His head of house sometimes could act veeeery strange and The Korean boy could see that he's not... really in a mood for teaching. Was this because his pet rock still missing? Hmm...

Back to the lesson topic.

Werewolves... Ah! So they're gonna learn about moon that caused the human transformed into werewolves then... Pretty sure that Dakest would teach them how to handle it and Culloden would teach them how to brew wolfsbane, perhaps? Maybe. Picking up the Styrofoam ball, Jackson observed the moon-like ball. "It's a new moon, right Professor?" The Korean boy answered as he raised his hand. "I heard that people in Saudi Arabia use Lunar calendar for religious purpose and new moon means start of the new month."

[DuckyLinJi]

Werewolves! of course! it all made sense to have these classes as a joint one now. First of the werewolf is a dark creature so thats the defence against the dark arts bit, next was the moon that changes the human in to a werewolf and its related to astronomy and last the wolfsbane potion. BRILLIANT!

He grabbed the Styrofoam ball after it was levitated towards his desk by Professor Flamsteed , who looked the same as in his office, gloomy, and used the stick to press and hold it. He then got up from his seat after a quick look around to see what the others were doing. He held the styrofoam ball or the moon to his face and faced the bluebell flame. Almost immediately some students began to answer the question and Yoongi did not even bother answering. Not...not that he did not know the answer ..ahem... No, he was simply wondering if there was a reason to hold a werewolf class, was someone a werewolf?! THAT WAS SO COOL! WHO?

Don't mind him, just suspiciously looking around at y'all

[kayquilz]

...Werewolves. Cool. Eden thought the subject was interesting..and now that she thought about it, it made sense...with the three subjects squished together in this way. She smiled because maybe they wouldn't be doing TOO much potion making.

That was her hope.

She pushed the stick into the styrofoam and winced at the awful feeling and noise...she did NOT like it. But she did it, and stood up, too, as Professor Flamsteed said. She lifted up her styrofoam against the light of the flame and squinted. So..it was a full moon? There apparently was a more technical name for it, since everyone was using "new moon." Right.

Eden just cleared her throat and remained quiet for now.

[FearlessLeader19]

Yay! A salute for him from Flamsteed! Adi of course returned a rather smart one to the man. Errr... no hard feelings from the class when the Hufflepuff had mistakenly offended the man and his voice, yeah? Nah. Professor Starman was too cool for that.
...................
Settling back happily in his seat as he retrieved his parchment, textbook, quill and ink, Adi called back a greeting to Kace but his attention was diverted by Henric. Ohh, more birthday wishes! And a present! Whaaa! Adi was mighty curious as to what Henric had gotten him so he took an enthusiastic peek into the box. His eyes widened at what he saw. “This is so cool! Thanks, man!’’ Weren’t these the expensive type of quills? He knew all about Henric’s life and knew this might have been a bit out of his budget but that made Adi appreciate the gift all the more. Adi’ll keep it forever… just like how he planned to keep the MU badge.

The sixth year looked at the Room’s entrance at that precise moment when Benny walked in but he looked away. His seventeenth birthday was supposed to be special for another reason because it would have meant practicing his Transfiguration over the summer at Benny’s. For the first time since their misunderstanding, Adi felt a pang of sadness. Luckily, there was another distraction in the form of a hug… from Zhenya! Ohh, she had gotten him something too! Adi grinned and sniffed at the bag. “I smell chocolate,’’ he whispered as he hugged back his friend then stashing her gift in his bag. Nothing edible here, Professors. Nope. “Thanks, Zhenya!’’ And there were even more birthday wishes! “Thanks, Lux!’’ He laughed. “You’ll get there someday.’’ She had a gift too? “Is it a cucumber sandwich?” Also, hiiii, Jackson! “Dongsaeng! Thank you! Don’t worry about that.’’ Nope, nope. A wish was enough for this content Puffer! But if he was so content, why did he feel as though something was missing?

Great Hippogriffs! Leah had remembered too! And there were more presents for him as well. “Hey, thanks a ton, Leah!’’ He grinned and took the box. Joke stuff! Adi could see the WWW on it. His Puffer friend knew him well! He grinned happily. He had some awesome friends.

"More like PADADA,'' Adi thought in amusement as the class began and his eyes shifted to the board. WEREWOLVES! HOW EPIC! Did this mean they were going to learn to defend themselves against werewolves and brew the Wolfsbane Potion? :x3: Cue even MORE excitement on his part!

But first... there were things floating in front of him. The Puffer grabbed the stick and the ball, whacking Henric in the process of sticking the ball on the thin thing (by accident, of course. But with Adi, who could tell if it were accident or not? :shifty: ) "Woops. Sorry, buddy.'' He jumped up, enjoying the giant flame in the room but the view quickly vanished when he did as instructed- hold the stick-ball between his face and the flame.

Adi raised his hand. "It's a new moon also called the dark moon. This moon is the most difficult to see and I think this is when the moon is starting it's cycle.'' If he remembered what he had read correctly, then he was on track.

[Felixir]

Still have time? What? Toby blinked at Airey, still rather fidgety, very confused as to what he was on about for a moment. But then, ohhhh. "Oh no, I'm fine, Professor Airey," he assured him, not even embarrassed about the misunderstanding. "Just, y'know." JUST KEEPING ON MOVING. Yeah. And then an afterthought occurred to him, so he lowered his voice conspiratorially even though there was no need. "I know where bathrooms are, too. Been here nearly seven years." Y'KNOW. SEVEN? Wasn't it CRAZY? Hard to believe, he knew, as he still ACTED more like a first year and... sort of had the baby-face of a third year, but SEVEN YEARS. Toby thought that was crazy. He nodded impressively. Seven. Years.

He might have gone on to talk about how totally crazy that was, but Airey had moved on, and then the lesson was starting, which meant they had to stop talking and listen and pay attention and learn and probably he should stop spinning between his fingers now but it kinda helped him focus so he didn't.

WEREWOLVES, huh? That was pretty cool. Though Toby had actually figured as much. Because WEREWOLVES were related to the moon AND there was a potion for the transformation AND there was a chapter in their DADA textbooks, and it had been the only overlap Toby could think of. SO THAT WAS COOL. Yeah.

While Airey went on about the moon and stuff, Toby did as instructed, setting his wand down on the desk before getting one of those sticks and impaling a styrofoam ball with it. Huzzah, he held the MOON. It was a lot more difficult to twirl THAT between his fingers, but you better believe he still tried. When it didn't work out so well, Toby brandished it around randomly. "Bibbidi... bobbidi... BOOP!" he said, bopping Soph on the head with it, before quickly getting up and standing by the desk as instructed as though nothing had happened, smiling like BUTTER WOULDN'T MELT.

Ahem, yes, anyway. What was happening? Toby stood there, bouncing on his toes in a manner remniscient of when he had been a first year, bopping himself on the head with his moon now and trying to focus on what Airey was saying. Hmkay, so... they had to hold it out (he did so) between their faces and the flames, so they were looking at the dark side of the moon (WHICH, by the way, IMMEDIATELY got a song in head head, which was very distracting yes right okay).

People were saying words about things, but Toby had another factoid. "It's SUPER COLD there, Professor," he supplied, raising his hand and extending up onto his toes, while turning to face where he thought the professor was but still keeping the styrofoam moon in front of his face. "Super cold and MYSTERIOUS and stuff."

Mysterious aaaaas the dark side of tHE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.

[Holmesian Feline]

Oh look at this...Flamsteed was starting the lesson.

Ben briefly wondered if there was a reason for that, other than the fact Astronomy was the first alphabetical. Or that the astronomer was the first one hired and as a head of house had special priviledges. However as the man began spouting information, including the revelation of the topic of the class, the Gryffindor didn't have the time to think further on the matter.

Not that he really cared.

Titling his first sheet of parchment, WEREWOLVES, he began listening and jotting down anything important, especially stuff he hadn't previously known. Watching at the sphere sticks floated to each of them on the professor's wordless instruction Ben managed to avoid getting hit by one in his distractions. Now that would have been bad, not that he would have cared about being hurt physically while he was struggling emotionally.

He slowly, almost reluctantly, got up to his feet as instructed, taking a position beside his desk. Ben would be a quiet, unhappy earth as he raised the rod infront of him, the pseudo-moon moving with it to block his sight of the bluebell sphere while the rest of the lights went out around him. The Gryffindor heard the first question but was beaten out from answering with what came to his own mind.

New moon sounded right, but there was no point in repeating it as a bunch of the other students had already given it. So he simply stayed in his position, quietly awaiting the new directions to be given.

[lazykitty]

Wait......what?

That had to mean that the Wolfsbane Potion would be the topic of the Potions portion of class, right? Also, why even bring up werewolves unless......oh Merlin, there was one in their midst wasn't there? Okay, who was it? Better not be a Gryffindor. Needless to say, Heather was watching her classmates very closely for any indication that they were the wolf.

Unless it was a professor......

She was so consumed with these thoughts that she'd nearly missed Professor Flamsteed's instructions. Casting another look around the room, plucked the ball-on-a-stick from the air and hurriedly stood up with it between her face and the ball of light. It obviously represented the new moon, but people had beat her to the punch with the answer, so she stayed silent and continued staring around the room. Looking around the room for the potential werewolf.

[Sararara]

Hold up. Werewolves? Norah's eyes widened as she pulled some parchment out of her bag and laid it on her desk, then wrote the word in big letters at the top. Yeah, this was a night for sparkly ink. The dim light and weird eeriness that was going on made sure of that. She tuned out of Professor Flamsteed's introduction to concentrate on her quill, which was adding a pair of eyes, ears, and a big nose to the 'W' on her page. There. Now her little wolf was cute. She didn't have to worry about it as much anymore, no? Cute stuff wasn't as scary...usually. That was the hope, anyways.

She looked up from her parchment to see a white squishy ball thing and a stick floating in front of her, which she reached out to take with eyes still wide 'cause what was this supposed to be? Stupid wolf doodle. Who did it think it was, distracting her from whatever she was supposed to do with this thing? The Hufflepuff looked around at the other students and mimicked them as they stood and held the ball-on-a-stick in front of the big blue thingy which would've been AWESOME if she'd been paying attention to what it's supposed to be. It looked kinda invisible from where she was standing, though, 'cause all the light was on the other side. Was it broken? Norah inspected it closely, coming to the conclusion that it was kind of impossible for the thing to be broken, so maybe she was broken.

Oh. OHHH. A new moon. Mari had said it and Mari was a prefect so obviously it was right. She watched the white sphere with renewed interest. Why'd he choose this foam stuff when he could've used cheese? That'd look a bunch more realistic AND would make for a nice snack. She'd need to recommend it for next time. Ahem. Class. Right. Norah stood still holding her moon up, not sure what to add to the conversation considering she'd only found out it was called a new moon about a minute before. Why was it called 'new' anyways? It didn't look new, it looked like nothing.

[ArianaBlack]

Werewolves. Oh.

That made LOADS of sense. Huh. The topic hadn't really crossed his mind come to think of it, but now that Professor Flamsteed mentioned it... Did make TONS of sense. 'Cause werewolves and full moons, so Astronomy. Werewolves and wolfsbane for Potions. And werewolves and-- well, werewolves were dangerous, so Defense. Heck, they probably could've thrown Care of Magical Creatures into the bunch as well if they wanted to. Though PADCoMC sounded a little ridiculous, so maybe this was for the best.

Anyways, what were they doing now? Moon-on-a-stick. Oh, okay sir! Zander followed instructions and grabbed a stick and plucked it into his Styrofoam ball. Then he got up by his desk to do whatever it was they were doing now. Oh, they were doing a demonstration. The Gryffindor held up the moon-on-a-stick and followed instructions to show that there was no light on the moon that he was facing.

Instead of answering the question though, he chose to stay quiet as there were already plenty of repeat answers. Anyways, was it just him or did the moon look a bit dimmer? Hm. Interesting.

[Deezerz]

Looking over at the person next to her, Beverly smiled faintly at Cutty, whispering her usual greeting to him, as well as returning the nudge. They were soon joined by Agatha, who received a greeting nod as well as a smile. Beverly noted her friend take her wand out. Good girl.

One never knew at Hogwarts, that much she's learned.

Werewolves.

Well...that was interesting. Her sharp gaze fell upon Professor Dakest...he didn't have any relations to them, yeah? There was sketchy stuff said about him, and if the Daily Prophet got word he was teaching about werewolves they'd probably come up with a story of how he was now, not only a cult member, but a werewolf. Wouldn't that make a story for her dad.

First off was the cycle of the moon. Of course. Astronomy was part of the lesson too. Although this wasn't her best subject, the Prefect found herself engaged in what Professor Airey was saying.

Standing from her seat and taking the moon-on-a-stick, she raised it up so it was between her face and the bluebell flame. This might not be her subject of expertise, but she grasped what he was doing. This was a new moon, yeah?

[MudInMyBlood]

Werewolves! This had potential to be considered a favorite lesson of hers. Adi was lucky that such a cool lesson was taking place on his birthday. Lucky duck. He was get showered in gifts too. Mr. popularity over there. Hopefully all this love didn't go to his head or else AJ would be glad to deflate it. Of course if he got loads of sweets she could take some of those off his hands too. There definitely was benefits to dating a popular dude that loved sweets as much as she did.

Whyyyy did Airey have to go first? AJ didn't have anything against him, but the man could talk and out of the three subjects, he definitely had the most boring one. Blah, blah, blah. Bring on the werewolves. She didn't care about the moon. Although, it was looking pretty marvelous right about now. That was as far as her caring went though. Phases... PPFT. yawn city. The flame her head of house made was mad wicked, and Airey actually redeemed himself a bit with that one. Still wasn't a DADA professor though.

Put a ball on a stick? She could do that! AJ stuck the ball far enough on the stick so that it wouldn't fall over in mid orbit or whatever crazy thing it was supposed to represent. Now that would be silly. She stood beside her desk for good measure too. The brunette had to admit it was pretty cool looking, but as far as his question went.... yeah, she had nothing. She continued to stare at her ball and the flame.

[Weasley174]

Leah entered the dimly lit room, rubbing her eyes to adjust to the lighting. It was already late evening, couldn't the light be brighter? At least the moon was bright. Eerily bright. So... cauldrons and wands and the moon. What a combination. Naturally, Leah was EXCITED.

She walked past all three Professors, giving them waves. "Hello Professors Flamsteed, Culloden and Dakest." Then she moved on to look for a seat when she saw THE birthday boy. "Happy birthday, Adi!" she grinned, handing him a small box of joke objects from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Holy Hippogriffs, Adi was SEVENTEEN now. He was old. Hehe. Leah took a seat right next to Angel and gave her a friendly wave. Hello, best friend!

Angel smiled as her best friend came and sat down next to her, she could already tell that this was going to be amazing and she hoped that Leah was ready for the questions that would be happening after this lesson because she had a feeling that her best friend, had a male admirer and she wanted to know how Leah felt about it.

Now, we can only ever see half of the moon from earth. This is because the other side is always turned away from us. As the moon orbits around the earth, we see different fractions of the same face of the moon as it is lit by the sun. Please lift your moon-on-a-stick up and hold it between your face and the floating bluebell flame, please. Your head is acting as the earth. The bluebell flame, the sun. There is no light falling on the part of the moon you are looking at. Who can tell me what phase of the moon this is or share a fact slash bit of fun trivia about this particular phase?[/B]"

Angel blushed as the Professor said about Hay being for horses, she nearly retorted and for Donkeys but she managed to hold her tongue and once more he had totally ignored her, when she had asked how he was, that wasn't very nice was it now.

Angel then got what the Professor told them to and she put the ball on the stick, that was easy, she was glad that her head of house was going first, she loved Astronomy and this was going to be interesting she could tell. She made so the ball was far enough on so it wouldn't fall off though she didn't put it on fully.

Angel stood beside her desk and raised her stick making sure it was between her face and the flame. Angel raised her free hand after struggling for a minute before she spoke. "Professor, I'm not sure but is this called a total eclipse?" Angel had heard the saying before, on an advert when someone had eaten a Jaffa cake.

[feeheeheeny]

A howling... good... time? "Howling" was not an adjective she had ever heard Flamsteed use, even though he used plenty of weird ones, so that rose some suspicions there. Howling...?? Must've had something to do with the lesson, then. The man thought he was so funny, didn't he? He was also a giant nerd, just like the Hufflepuff boy who sat next to her. So silly, the pair of them.

And there it was: werewolves. Lunar cycles, yes, she could then see the point of all of that being involved in this class about werewolves... and what about potions and defense against the dark arts? Would they be brewing the wolfsbane potion? Was that the potions component? And was there a REASON they were studying this? Was Dakest not a Dark wizard, but a werewolf? Was THAT what was weird about him? But then... surely Culloden would've known this about him, right? Wouldn't Dakest need some access to his store room? So then Culloden would know he wasn't a Dark wizard, and he wouldn't be so suspicious of him. So... there went that theory.

So maybe this was just an everyday, normal lesson. Mega lame. But it DID make sense, these three classes combined now. Flammy was right.

Soph fidgeted with the stick and ball until Flamsteed gave them the instruction to create their moon-on-a-stick, and she followed his instructions, combining the two items and moved to stand beside her desk with it... when BONK! came Tobes' moon colliding with her noggin, and Soph tilted her head to give Tobes a lopsided, goofy grin of amusement. "You dork," she accused quietly, bopping HIM on the head with HER styrofoam moon, too, and giggling shortly thereafter.

Two could play that game, nerd.

She stood tall when Flamsteed went along to give more instruction, but she was distracted, keeping an eye on Tobes to make sure he didn't try to retaliate again - because she would very shamelessly bop him over and over again. These professors wouldn't yell at her or be truly upset with her, she just figured they'd give her a light reprimand. Totally worth it, if the occasion called for it.

[Govoni]

Gabriel had been so ready for this lesson, ever since seeing the announcement on his notice board. No, he wasn't the biggest fan of Defense right now...but Potions and Astronomy were his jams. And...with a Flamsteed and Culloden present, the Ravenclaw felt like he could be...better? More comfortable. More...receptive to learning and retaining the material. Yes.

Smiling in a covert way at two of his most favorite professors, a more respectful nod was offered to the third. He hadn't felt as bonded with Professor Dakest...but the man knew his stuff. So, that deserved respect. #RavenclawLogic

Anyway, werewolves: the subject matter of the day. Gabe was already seated comfortably; notebook, his favorite quill, and post-its out and at the ready. He didn't know if it was because of the particular teachers involved with the lesson or not, but he found himself anxious; in the good way. Strange.

Hand already flying over parchment, Gabe took in everything being explained. The Lunar Cycle. That was an obvious important factor in wolf transformation from what he'd read beforehand. Pre-lesson study. NBD. And yes, they had had that lesson. In fact, Gabe had to wonder now if it had been in preparation for this class...or was it simply a coincidence?

Near-wolf. Gabe snorted. Punny.

...and a demonstration. They were doing one...

Abandoning his notes, he did as instructed with his Styrofoam ball and stood quietly by his desk. With the bluebell flame casting strange shadows over everything, Gabe thought the mood had definitely been set. Very mysterious. A+ for atmosphere. If he wouldn't have been surrounded by professors, he would've been nervous. Or...well...he was STILL a bit nervous, but that was only because that's what Gabes did.

...and yes, it was a new moon, described as the moment when the Moon and the Sun have the same ecliptical longitude, if he wasn't mistaken. But...in the spirit of adding information and participating..."The beginning of a single lunation is marked by the new moon."

[Cassirin]

On command, Dot GASPED LOUDLY and clapped her hands on her cheeks when the StarMan said werewolves like that. WHAT OH NO WEREWOLVES THE HORROR. He was asking for a big reaction with how he revealed the topic, so it was basically just the rest of the class not playing along. Lame.

She popped to her feet and took up the ball on a stick, not bothering to answer since everyone had already answered. New moon. Got it. Wait. Was lunation even really a word? Was Gabe making up words? COULD THEY JUST MAKE UP WORDS? Or was that a strictly Ravenclaw thing?

She bopped him with her moon. "Lunation. Turned you into a moon. Boom. Poof. Magics." Oh, also, StarMan? She was totally the earth and blocking the light from her moon. "Last class, I was the moon... so next class, I'll get to be the sun."

[Jessiqua]

Zhenya was super excited to get started with this lesson, but for some reason she was having a mental block. She couldn't actually figure out what the lesson was about, combining potions, astronomy and DaDa together. Until it became quite obvious in written letters. Werewolves. OH MERLIN, Zhenya shook her head, how could she not have connected that? Well, anyway, werewolves! Perhaps they would be learning about the astronomy of the moon in connection to werewolves, how to brew a wolfsbane potion, and then how to defend themselves against werewolves? Not that there was much of a way to do that, but perhaps there were some defensive tools or spells to use.

Zhenya listened to Professor Flamsteed speak about the moon and werewolves, saw that a ball on a stick had been put in front of everyone, and they were then instructed to hold it and stand behind their desks. So, Zhenya stood up beside her desk as instructed to do, and Zhenya held up her moon in front of her face, or the earth, with the other half facing the bluebell flames, or the sun. Cool, this was already interesting.

Now what was that about what phase of the moon this is? The clue was when Professor Flamsteed said there was no light on the part of the moon they were looking at, which was the earth. So, basically the earth couldn't see the moon? Well, Zhenya remembered that bit immediately from those astronomy books Mr. Kitridge had lent her. But just as she was about to say what phase of the moon it was, others started saying it. What facts did she remember about it? Zhenya raised the hand that wasn't holding the styrofoam moon, "The new moon is hidden from earth during a new moon, except for during a lunar eclipse when you might be able to see the outline of the moon," she said. Although that was about all she knew about the new moon phase, she was already mentally writing notes based on what Professor Flamsteed had said, as well as the answers from her classmates.

[SarcasticStrawberry]

Werewolves

O_____________O

Oh, well this was going to be interesting. Was one of the professors a werewolf? Nah that was a ridiclous idea. Anyway when you think about it Werewolves were really the only thing that could tie the meaning of this lesson up in a a little bow altogether. Werewolves.

Sticking the Styrofoam ball on her stick she stood up by her desk. Listening to Professor Flamsteed as he told them the instuctions. Phases of the Moon. Fun. Hey, who turned out the light? It was competely dark. Except for a blue flamey light. Ohhhh. Head toward the lightttt. Oh no, not really. Cinna moved the "moon on a stick" in front of her face. Between the flame. Hello earth she would have done some weird waving to her at this point but no. Serious time. Hmmmm


As it was already clear this was the new moon as already mentioned. The sixth year, just sit back and twirled her moon on a stick between her figures.

[Anna Banana]

Kate turned her attention to Professor Flamsteed as he kicked off the lesson. Werewolves. The moon. Right. She followed all that. She scooped up her styrofoam moon and plucked it on a stick. Pushing herself out her seat, she stood with her moon!stick and listened to the next set of directions. When the lights dimmed, she focused on the bluebell flames, the only source of light she could see.

Kate lifted her moon!stick and fixed it in between her face and the bluebell flames. She tried to keep up with what roles her face and the flames were playing. She knew exactly which phase this was---"This is the New Moon phase, right?" she asked, raising her hand. It was when the moon couldn't be seen, because it was directly in between the Sun and the Earth. Or, at least, this is how Kate pictured things with her face being the Earth, and the flames being the Sun.

[Expecto-Penguin]

Bloody merlin this lesson got a whole lot cooler when Professor Airey mentioned Werewolves. This was gonna be a wicked lesson he could tell. He heard Airey doing the necessary teaching explanations and what not. He got out his notebook and began to scribble down some notes. He was so excited about this topic it was like no joke. As he heard Flamsteed mention they needed to put a stick into their white foam ball, he found them on his desk and he poked them. He saw Cinna twirling hers and he chuckled. He did the same thing she was doing. I mean he heard the other students mention the New Moon phase so why bother repeating it. He kept quiet and admired his new toy for now.

[Daydreamer11]

Linty astronaut professor say whaaaat? Werewolves? Janelle had not seen that coming. Should she be scared? Well, they were just learning about them, not hanging out with them.......right? Janelle decided that she would focus her thoghts on the moon part of it rather than the werewolf part of it, for now. She took notes, then it was time to go to work.

Janelle picked up her ball on a stick and did as she was instructed. She held her contraption and stood in front of her desk. The lights went out and there was only the bluebell flame to guide them. Janelle held the foam ball and stick in front of her face. Then she positioned herself in front of the bluebell flame so that the ball was in the middle.

As for the Professor"s question, Janelle listened as most of classmates her classmattes seemed to vote for the new moon. She could not argue with that answer so she decided that she needed to come up a fact about the new moon. Unfortunately, Janelle could not think of anything at the moment........nothing that hadn't been said already anyway. She tried to come up with something while waiting for the next set of instructions.

[Govoni]

On command, Dot GASPED LOUDLY and clapped her hands on her cheeks when the StarMan said werewolves like that. WHAT OH NO WEREWOLVES THE HORROR. He was asking for a big reaction with how he revealed the topic, so it was basically just the rest of the class not playing along. Lame.

She popped to her feet and took up the ball on a stick, not bothering to answer since everyone had already answered. New moon. Got it. Wait. Was lunation even really a word? Was Gabe making up words? COULD THEY JUST MAKE UP WORDS? Or was that a strictly Ravenclaw thing?

She bopped him with her moon. "Lunation. Turned you into a moon. Boom. Poof. Magics." Oh, also, StarMan? She was totally the earth and blocking the light from her moon. "Last class, I was the moon... so next class, I'll get to be the sun."
.

.

Dot, pls.

Gabe bopped her back, however, pulling a silly face to undercut the serious nature of the lesson. "I don't think you were fully committed to that spell. Poor form, Wojack." Whisper, whisper...Yes, it was teasing. Lunation wasn't a spell. It was simply a fancier term for 'lunar cycle'.

He bopped her a second time for good measure.

[Symphora]

"No problem,"Henric smiled. Adi seemed to like his gift,that was a relief. He glanced over to where Benny was seated and couldn't help feeling bad for them both. He sighed mentally inside and wished they could just make up and resolve their problems soon. It wouldn't be good for them all if they keep being like this.But his sad thoughts flew away when everyone else came to wish Adi happy birthday as well. Henric silently gave each of them a smile because he already knew most of them...well...except for Leah. His face fell at the sight of her so he turned away quickly and pretended to be busy taking out his notebook from his bag.If she didn't want to talk to him, then...y'know...fine...he would be an invisible to her like she treat him to be.:(

Class starting now and Henric forced himself to listen intently to Professor Flamsteed lecture. He was silent throughout until they were instructed to make a moon-stick thingy? Why were they making the moon? Was it for the werewolves? Alright then...he grabbed a piece of stick and poked through the ball. He was doing pretty well so far until clumsy Adi 'accidentally' smacked his own moon-stick thingy onto his forehead. He slightly narrowed his eyes at Adi."Yeah right...but I'm going to let it go this time,birthday boy,"he told Adi, rubbing his forehead in the process. Oooh...the room getting more darker and the only light source he saw was this ball of fiery blue flame in front of him.Woahh...nice....

Oh right...the question! Hmm..he was going to go along with Adi's answer because honestly, he had no idea. New moon? Was was this..the Twilight Saga? Hahah...alright that wasn't funny...but it had to be said.

[Roselyn]

Yup, she was ridiculous, awfully happy. Sorrrryyy! Wheeee.

Following Lance, she sat down next to him and poked his side slightly. ”Cheer up. I’m here… what could go wrong?” Giggle grin. Sooo much could go wrong with a pair of first years, everyone knew that.

WHATWASTHAT!?

He flinched before squirming in his seat after Marsha poked him, trying hs very hardest to keep his side blocked off my his arm. Not cool, Marsha. Not cool. No doubt be feeling that ticklish feeling all lesson now.

However, that didn't stop him from grinning back at the Gryffindor. "You know what."

Giving one last glance towards his colleagues, he firmly nodded his head and removed his wand from the holster tucked away in his enchanted breast pocket.

"Good evening, everyone. Please take your seats and get situated. Welcome to PAD - a Potions, Astronomy, and Defense Against the Dark Arts joint lesson," he announced as he turned his back briefly towards the class to enchant the chalk on the board to write one word in very large print:

WEREWOLVES

"Allow me to put your minds at ease at just what will be the focus of today's lesson," he said, now turning back towards the class. Although he thought the topic was rather obvious given the three subject, but perhaps it was the approach that the three professors were taking that would surprise students more. "Werewolves. Before we get into them specifically, let us all back up to what is arguably the most important aspect of these beings, the Moon. More specifically, the lunar cycle."

Yes, he knew. Boooooo BRING ON THE WEREWOLF TALK! But logistics first, Hogwartians. They would get to the real meat of things soon.

With a flick of his wand, Airey summoned some supplies (http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/Photo-Jan-07-9-29-40-PM-e1357671599459-358x480.jpg) from the box on the desk and levitated them towards each of the students - and his fellow professors. "As we have been discussing in Astronomy so far this term, the Moon plays a key role in relation to our planet, Earth. It primarily controls the tides, it helps regulate our climate by slowing the Earth's rotation and creating our 24 hour days, nights would be MUCH darker without it, and it helps maintain our axial tilt. Now, these are all very large scale things. Perhaps so large that, for some of you, it is difficult to grasp just how influential. But, as you are all aware of, it doesn't just influence the natural world...but it plays a key role in many aspects of the magical world."

With all the props not floating in front of the faces of students, Airey conjured a MASSIVE bluebell flame that spun itself into a floating sphere - he had become quite partial to them this term - and left it floating in font of the semi-circle of desks.

"If my colleagues will allow me this brief introduction," which, well, they didn't really have too much of a choice because here he went. "...a werewolf is a human being who, upon the complete rising of the full moon, becomes a fearsome and deadly near-wolf. To quote your textbooks." Because that was the extent of his knowledge. Mostly.

"What I would like you all to do now is to pluck your Styrofoam ball on a stick and stand by your desk with it," he instructed. "We will be going over the moon phases with a brief demonstration to start." Waiting a moment until everyone was out of their seats with their moon-on-a-stick, he waved his wand again to put out any other light in the classroom. Even the shine from the moon outside seemed to have dimmed and he no longer stood in a spotlight. For now, at least, the only real source of light was the giant floating bluebell flame.

"Now, we can only ever see half of the moon from earth. This is because the other side is always turned away from us. As the moon orbits around the earth, we see different fractions of the same face of the moon as it is lit by the sun. Please lift your moon-on-a-stick up and hold it between your face and the floating bluebell flame, please. Your head is acting as the earth. The bluebell flame, the sun. There is no light falling on the part of the moon you are looking at. Who can tell me what phase of the moon this is or share a fact slash bit of fun trivia about this particular phase?"

OOC: class will resume in approximately 17 hours from the time of this post.

Please note your character DOES NOT have to answer the question, but it is imperative for participation points that they follow Professor Flamsteed's instructions with what to do with your moon-on-a-stick <3 Just don't try to poke each other's eyes out with them, okay?:xd:




His smile slowly died down as the lesson began, blue eyes trained on the giant words 'WEREWOLVES'. So, okay, that was a really cool topic. Maybe he wouldn't fall behind in this class after all- no, nope that...that didn't work. He didn't expect the sudden dive into an astronomy lesson with the moon so soon. Difficult to grasp how influential the moon was?

He was having a hard enough time grasping the concept of any of his studies...

The young Gryffindor fiddled with the objects on his desk somewhat as he tried to pay attention to what was being said. Though he was proud of himself for understanding the definition of what a werewolf was. Everyone knew that though, right? Eager to stand up however, he shimmied out from his seat and put together his makeshift moon stick thing which was kinda fun to just wave around and poke Marsha with it. You know, pay back...for poking his ticklish side.

BLUE BALL OF FLAME WHAT.

That was cool.

Holding the moon in front of his face, he stared at the side facing him... only to end up slowly moving it closer and farther from his face, eyes crossing each time he did so. "Has anyone ever seen the other side of the moon?"

[WhittyBitty]

Lux was pleased to see Adi in such a good mood but then it was his birthday. She had noticed that things seemed strained with Benny lately though she hadn't been sure if she should ask about it. Even if they were close, it wasn't exactly her place to intrude on their business. She was still there for them both.

The comment about her being 17 soon got a smile, and she was about to comment on the cucumber sandwich comment when Professor Flamsteed started speaking. Someone didn't seem to be in the best of moods and Lux wondered if it was related to poor Pebbles. Giving Adi a wink, she listened as the lesson began. Werewolves, huh. Sounded pretty interesting if not creepy. She wasn't really a fan but so long as she never encountered one she would be fine. Professor Dakest probably had a lot to say about them as well seeing as he taught the subject dealing with DARK CREATURES.

Notebook at the ready, Lux made sure to record everything important even though she already knew about the moon cycle. Never hurt to be thorough.

Flammy was covering the transformation, Dakest would be covering the creatures themselves, so...what would Culloden be teaching about? Unless...

O________O

Was someone here a WEREWOLF?!

Shuddering, Lux hoped to sweet Merlin she was wrong. At least she had a moon on a stick to distract her from unsettling thoughts. Task completed in a few seconds, she stood up and held her little moon between her face and the bluebell flame. Raising her hand, she said "this is a new moon. It is the first phase of the moon!" Hence it being called NEW.

[Tazenhani]

At first, Sabel wasn't sure what the turn-out for the lesson would be, given the hour and the tendency for food to make the brain sluggish. There were already a few bets riding on the lesson, one of which he was surely going to lose as the first students started trickling in, each looking rather bright-eyed and bushy tailed. The wand twirling slowed enough to accommodate more of his attention being focussed on the arrivals.


She walked past Professor Culloden first, giving him a wave and a bright "Hello!" before getting to Professor Dakest. She was very thankful for the dim light because her cheeks went about 50 million shades redder as she passed him for who knew why. The fourth year let out a soft "HiprofessorDakest," and hugged her bag even closer to her chest before speeding up to get to the last Professor. "Hi Professor Flamsteed." Norah gave the Astronomy Professor a quick salute, taking a seat right at the front of the semi-circle thing they had going on.
The first one was Kittredge, who seemed a little more jittery than he remembered. The young girl got an arched eyebrow albiet with a pleasant return greeting. "Evening Miss Kittredge."

And before he could advise her to slow down for worry of tripping over her words, she was gone. In the blink of an eye, it seemed she had moved from the doorway to her desk. Right then.

"Hello professors, and nice to see you again, professor Flamsteed...umm..."he stopped himself from speaking, he didn't want to upset professor Flamsteed further by asking if he had found pebbles yet. Instead he went to find a seat near the front of the classroom.He wondered what were they be learning today...were they making polyjuice potion for some reason...it was his best guess so far.But wasn't it hard to make that? He didn't know if it was illegal too...
And yet another rather awkward turned greeting. Nicolei got a nod of the head from Sabel, while Flamsteed got a sidelong glance. Apparently, when there was nothing to follow through, silence was a safe bet.

His wand got an extra flick, twisting around his fingers with renewed speed.

So, Grayson half-walked, half-strutted into the room, a small smirk spread across his face. Why? Merlin knew. And he was early and all, which was new. Jeez, way to look like an eager beaver, Whitty. He readjusted his grip on his bag as he headed up towards a seat near the top of the semi-circle. A seat that would give him a good view of everything in case anything interesting happened. Gotta be prepared and all.

"Heeeeeey Professors Culloden, Dakest and Flamsteed," he said, giving each of them a 'sup nod as he took a seat.

And Culloden got a big smile. Obviously.
Ah at last. A proper and full greeting of an enthusiastic and unawkward nature. Sabel caught his wand and returned a hearty nod. "Good evening, Mr. Whitlock."

"Hello, Professors!'' [/B]Adi grinned at each of the men, though he wasn't sure if Culloden heard him.[QUOTE]
Maybe it was just the nerves of the being the first to enter a dark room where classes weren't often held. Confidence came in numbers in uncertain circumstances. Seemed the students grasped that concept, even if by a subconscious nature.

"Mr. Rehman. Patronus going well?" He wondered if the boy had made any further progress since he had last spoken to him on the bridge.

[QUOTE=Expecto-Penguin;11766423] He gave him the sup notion and saw Professor Flamsteed was there. He gave him a polite nod and turned towards him. "Hello Professors.." he said noticing Professor Dakest was here too. "I am interested in what we are going to be learning today." he told them both honestly. After giving them their greetings, he turned around and began to walk to find his seat.
Being interested in a lesson? Well, that was....good. Good to have interested students. He imagined the uninterested ones wouldn't show, but kept such thoughts to himself. Lecium got a acknowledging nod, Flamsteed doing well to take care of the conversation.

Gripping the strap of his satchel tightly, the young lad slowly entered the room he'd seen all the other students enter, still pondering whether to stick this out or take a get out of jail free card and call in sick. Still pondering as he smiled and gave a little wave to all the professors in the room. Even more pondering as he plopped down in the first empty seat his feet guided him too.

Stiiiill pondering.

Still wanting to go home too.
And speaking of uninterested students....

Sabel watched McWitty quietly as the boy made his way to his seat without a peep. They had a runner. A glance at the other Professors. Did they notice? The kid that might scamper away at any second. That, or melt under his desk.

He caught his wand, tempted to send his patronus over to give the boy some sort of reassurance, but refrained. This was hardly the class for fancy, unassociated magic. Instead, he settled for a word or two of acknowledgement. Harder to leave once you'd been addressed. "Evening Mr. McWitty."

As she approached the toom off the Great Hall, Janelle was surprised at the absence of the lint roller. Hmmm. Interesting. Entering the room, she extended her greetings. "Hello Professors. I can't wait to see what you have planned for us." Then she gave a quick, "Hello all", to her classmates. Janelle found a desk that was to her liking and took a seat. She would amuse herself by observing the students as they arrived. That would make the wait go faster, she hoped.
"Good evening Miss Guidry." And any further greeting or words were abruptly halted by Flamsteed's own greeting. Sabel blinked and sort of stared blankly. Was this the type of night it was going to be?

Merlin help him if it was.

The young girl got a smile and an agreeable nod. Enjoyable. Hopefully. Teeth sinking? Hopefully not.

So when he wandered back down to the Great Hall he was clearly distracted. Ben didn't care how the room was situated or what rules he had looked over to be ready for the lesson. He vaguely registered the three men there waiting on them the students to arrive. "Hello Professors..." he greeted, including them all together before turning to look for a seat.

The sixth year shuffled to a random seat near the back and plopped himself down in the chair. His limbs almost moving robotically as he took out some supplies to be ready for the lesson to start.

Could this be over before it began?
So far, Sabel had thought that a lot of the drama and moodiness had been left in the morning and patronus associated classes. There had been more than enough of that in that lesson to last him a year of teaching. But, kids were a never-ending source of emotional distress, and it seemed evening classes were no different.

Except that this time, it had nothing to do with happy thoughts. Perhaps low blood sugar levels? Did Atreyu not eat dinner? Sabel's wand started twirling the other way.

"Mr. Atreyu."

She was nervous. She hadn't dabbled in potions in awhile, since she didn't take it after OWL level, and she just...ugh. Seeing Culloden would make her nervous. WHAT IF HE HELD AN ENORMOUS GRUDGE AGAINST HER FOR NOT TAKING POTIONS ANYMORE?

Gosh.

She was majorly claw!overthinking this. She waved to all the professors, didn't say anything, and slipped into her seat.

Right. Here we go, McGee.
Increase the count of runners to two. The quietness of this one had him glancing at his colleagues, wondering if the light made them look intimidating or something. Sure, they could have used a bit more light in here, but he was beginning to understand Flamsteed's interest in a dramatic flair.

That, and he had to admit, it added an intriguing essence to the pre-instruction atmosphere. McGee got another glance and a return wave-salute of some sort.

She walked into the Great Hall, and the smile sort of wavered. All three Professors were there, but Zhenya was a bit confused as to who to say hello to first, how loud she could be, or if she should sit down and just acknowledge them. But that wasn't in her nature, she'd have to say hello. So she did the rounds.

Walking up to Professor Culloden, who looked deep in thought, Zhenya felt a bit like she were intruding. She didn't want to do that, so she just quietly said "Hello Professor," so that he might acknowledge someone had spoken to him or not, but she wasn't rudely pulling him from his thoughts. She hoped anyway. He could be onto something, like a great world breaking potions formula or something. She didn't want to interrupt that.

Professor Dakest was next, and she decided to say hello to him too. "Hello Professor," she said, still quietly. She just felt a need to be rather... quiet and peaceful. It didn't bother her, she liked quiet.

And then in the middle was the fabulous Professor Flamsteed. "Hello Professor," she said with a big grin. "What lovely lighting you have," she commented, looking up. Would they be playing with water and tides today? She couldn't see how they would tie in nicely with Potions or Defence against the dark arts, so perhaps they wouldn't be. But still, it was lovely.
And the point was adequately proven by the next face to enter the room. Though, it looked more like Burton had walked directly into a wall, rather than a classroom.

Her scale of greeting was something of interest too. From one to the next, it seemed her confidence and her voice increased. The lighting by far got the most renown.

Sabel was sorely tempted to burst out in the most energetic greeting he could muster, but he feared doing so would frighten the young Slytherin right out of her shoes. So he settled for a simple "good evening."

And, as she entered the room, Sophie faltered. And... just kind of looked at the three of them.

...This WOULD be interesting, wouldn't it?

Crossing deeper into the room with her necessary materials for class, Sophie nodded at them and offered a polite, "Gentlemen," in greeting, and she was going to leave it at that, but as she went to take a seat, she turned to address them again and added a pensive, "This is a weird combination." Of classes, she meant. Just so they knew. "But it's interesting, 'n m'glad it's with three of my favorite professors." She looked POINTEDLY at Dakest and Culloden now at the desk, as she'd been primarily addressing Flamsteed in the middle of the semicircle before, and gave them a very uncertain, apprehensive look, almost as if to say you're all my favorites so please get along. It was mostly to the Potions Master, though. He would behave and not step all over Dakest's toes, wouldn't he? And this whole thing would PROVE to him that Dakest wasn't brainwashing anyone, and that he was actually a very good professor?

Riiiiight?
Then there was Brown. A less energetic and more reserved Miss Brown. Eyeing them. Eyeing....he glanced over his shoulder at Culloden, noting that there was nothing significantly different about the man than when he had last checked. Soooo, what were the stares for then?

"Miss Brown." She got a nod and an arched eyebrow, as if to ask why all the gaze-fuss. But then he was promptly delivering said fuss to Flamsteed. What was....were these types of jokes normal?
Righty-o then.

Or maybe none of them, because maybe there would be a variation to her hello and Professor Best Friend would feel slighted or Professor HandsomefacePatronus would be miffed or Professor StarMan would cry. He looked like a crier.

"Hello, professors." She looked about to explode out the top of her head, and she hadn't even hugged anyone yet. "Nice night for class." She was so disappointed in herself.
His attention was drawn from Flamsteed by what sounded like a rather repressed greeting from Wojack-Gusey. The young girl got a warm smile from Sabel, as well as a curious look. "Good evening Miss Wojack-Gusey. Good to see you."

Now why did she look like she was about to burst at the seams?

Lux was forward to this lesson. Her favourite subject combined with two other favourites. Could potions be added to every lesson?

Entering the classroom, she smiled at each Professor in turn. "Hello, Professors! I hope you are all doing well."
"Miss Carrington, good evening." He nodded at the Hufflepuff. "I have some chocolate and marshmallows about to go off. You wouldn't know of anyone who wants s'more supplies, would you?"

Flamsteed got a side eye for his less than enthusiastic response. A stark contrast to his jokes, and Sabel found he much preferred said jokes.

Shaking off that feeling, she proceeded, glancing at each man in charge and shot them a polite nod. "Professors."

Taking her seat, the Slytherin rested her wand and hands on her lap. Yep. She was ready. Call her paranoid, but she hardly put her wand away since last term. It made her feel more at ease knowing it was in her grip, ready.
It seemed the somber mood wasn't lost on everyone, and even had a few students a little jumpy. Sabel noted the wand already out and in Wayne's grasp. Constant diligence? Or paranoia? Or were they the same thing?

He returned the nod. "Good evening, Miss Wayne."

Angel was totally looking forwards to this lesson, she so wanted to know what was going to be involved in this lesson since three professors were going to be involved in this lesson. "Hey Professors." Angel smiled, this was going to be an awesome lesson, she could tell. "How are you all today?"
Trust Valentine to bring the mood back up to a more pleasant tone. "Well, thank you Miss Valentine."


Entering the lesson, Jackson noticed that the Professors were already there. He's not late, was he? "Err... Hello, Professors." He smiled and bowed politely to all of them.
Err? Sabel blinked, glancing at Hwang. He couldn't tell if the kid held some reservations to the appearance of the class, or perhaps three Professors or if, like some of the other students, he was simply having a hard time trying to figure out how to address them all.

Hello was a good choice. Sabel nodded both in greeting and approval, not familiar with the bowing himself. "Evening, Mr. Hwang."

Hehe. With a wide smile on her face, she waved at her Head of House, before turning to look at Professor Dakest who also was greeted with a smile. ”Good evening, Professors.” She hoped that Professor Culloden would look up in time to see the wave that was aimed for him. ”I hope you are all happy and having a good day today.”
And yet another student he could always count on to raise the energy levels of any confined space. "Good to see you, Miss Hanover."

So he entered the Great Hall with a strange sort of jittery bounce to his step, not really needing the atmosphere of the room to put him on edge. As ever, he twirled his wand as he moved along, in what had become an almost perpetual action these last few weeks.

Toby eyed each of the professors, considering saying his hellos to each of them. It would be polite, but he'd by now noticed the tone of the room, and felt a little conflicted, so he stayed quiet. Also, he was pretty sure that if he opened his mouth just to say hi, he might get stuck in the 'on' position and never shut up again. Sooooo instead, Toby just nodded at them all and went ahead to go sit by Soph, where he continued twirling his wand (just like Dakest, he'd noticed, which had actually made him falter for just a moment, but not enough to make him stop). As he sat there, he jiggled his legs and hummed as quietly as he could in an attempt to keep moving and appease his brain but hopefully not bother anyone.

Gotta keep moving, gotta keep moving, lalala. Maybe he should have gone for another run before the class, mhmm mhmm mhmm.
Truth be told, he had been wondering whether Fuller-Thompson would show up for the class. Or any of his classes again, combined or not. So he didn't mind being proved completely wrong when the young man showed up. There was something different about him this time, perhaps the lack of a patronus topic had him in a less flighty, albeit more fidgety mood.

The kid got a nod of acknowledgement for a greeting, given he didn't seem to be in the mood to converse and well, Sabel wasn't interested in saying something to scare him right back out of the room. He'd leave that tactic up to Flamsteed.

The Gryffindor walked into class, a little apprehensively, taking note of where everyone sat before walking towards his Professors. "Hello, Professor Culloden..." Where did Potions fit into this? Erm. "Good evening Professor Dakest." For the record, Zander DIDN'T think he was evil. 'Cause normally he'd eat that stuff up or be very skeptical about it but the Prophet's number one mistake was including Sophie Brown 'cause there was no way she was evil. Just sayin'. Then making his way towards his Head of House, the Gryffindor gave him a bright smile. "Hi, Professor Flamsteed, the moon looks amazing tonight, huh?"

And then he took a seat. 'Cause what the heck would they be doing in an Astronomy, Potions, Defense joint lesson?
Another hesitant one. It seemed that the presence of three Professors was a occasion not normally encountered and not easily addressed. So far, however, most tongues and brains were handling it relatively well.

Including Mr. Adair who held none of the stutter he had displayed in his office a short while ago. "Good evening, Adair."

He saw this class as a challenge and it seemed to the growing hellion that most of his professors thus far understood his favourable response to this. The only exception being Botros, whom Cutty did not like. Carrying his items needed for the class, Cutty entered and gave man!nod greeting #34 to Professor Culloden and Dakest firstly. "Good evening Professors Culloden, Dakest and...Nice light magic, Professor Flamsteed. Gettin' the moon to spotlight yer." Cutty assumed it was done on purpose.
It was the first time that Sabel took to eyeing one of the students warily. Mordaunt had hit his radar since the first lesson he held, and hadn't left yet. Still, no reason to be rude or offstandish, and so the young man got an affable nod. "Mordaunt."

He hadn't had realised that he had entered the room off the great hall already and it was only when he heard the chatting around him. Now, where were the professors? a quick look around and he spotted them. "Hiya sirs" he waved before taking a seat and grabbed his chapstick to use.
Hello. Hi. Hey. Hiya.....

"Howdy, Mr. Hyland." And yes, he would be ignoring any looks from his colleagues. It made greetings interesting, to try and mix them up a bit. And a 'hiya' was practically an invitation for such a thing.

Leah entered the dimly lit room, rubbing her eyes to adjust to the lighting. It was already late evening, couldn't the light be brighter? At least the moon was bright. Eerily bright. So... cauldrons and wands and the moon. What a combination. Naturally, Leah was EXCITED.

She walked past all three Professors, giving them waves. "Hello Professors Flamsteed, Culloden and Dakest."
This one looked like she had just woken up from a nap. Or was debating a nap. And the atmosphere was definitely conducive to such an activity. However, the young girl's chipper tone dispelled some of his concerns.

He gave her a warm smile. "Evening, Miss Abbott."

Once again, Agatha looked like she had just sniffed a pile of dragon dung. This time, it wasn't because of the people around her, but the situation. THREE lessons in one? Three topics? Three professors to stare at her as she gets things wrong?? Three adults to call her attention? Three different subjects, all at the same time? How? HOW?

This was madness and Agatha did not appreciate it one bit. She didn't even want to come, but she guessed that wasn't an option anymore. So she came. Not looking happy at all, but she came. She stared at professor Flasmteed for a second as a 'greeting' and glanced towards the other two before turning away.
And then there was Miss Hapgood, who appeared to have discovered something highly unappealing. Judging by the stares they three were getting, Sabel surmised it had something to do with them. A quick glance at his colleagues showed that once again, nothing had changed. Culloden wasn't face-first drooling onto his papers, Airey wasn't dancing in the moonlight and as for himself he hadn't the opportunity to ruffle his appearance.

The young woman got a raised eyebrow in response to her stare.

Marigold was very apprehensive about this. She was reasonably good at Astronomy and Potions and dreadful at Defense, but she wasn't quite sure how this would work. Plus, three professors? This was going to be TOUGH. Like, emotionally aND brain wise.

"Hello, professor Culloden." Pause. "Professor Dakest, professor Flamsteed."
Another bundle of nerves. Another bought of hesitation. But an actual greeting. One which was promptly returned. "Evening Miss McAlistor."

Merlin the three of them weren't that intimidating were they? Thoughts back to some of the meetings he had held with students brought one firm reminder. Points and grades. They cared about those, almost more than the content of the lesson it seemed, in many cases.

Sabel caught the glances spared by Flamsteed to himself and Culloden, giving a return nod to the man in the spotlight. Whenever he was ready. There were no more students trickling in through the door, and so it seemed about time.

Catching his wand in his hand, Sabel deftly returned it to its holster on his forearm as he pushed away from the desk and went to close the door as Flamsteed kicked the lesson off.


Giving one last glance towards his colleagues, he firmly nodded his head and removed his wand from the holster tucked away in his enchanted breast pocket.

"Good evening, everyone. Please take your seats and get situated. Welcome to PAD - a Potions, Astronomy, and Defense Against the Dark Arts joint lesson," he announced as he turned his back briefly towards the class to enchant the chalk on the board to write one word in very large print:

WEREWOLVES

"Allow me to put your minds at ease at just what will be the focus of today's lesson," he said, now turning back towards the class. Although he thought the topic was rather obvious given the three subject, but perhaps it was the approach that the three professors were taking that would surprise students more. "Werewolves. Before we get into them specifically, let us all back up to what is arguably the most important aspect of these beings, the Moon. More specifically, the lunar cycle."

Yes, he knew. Boooooo BRING ON THE WEREWOLF TALK! But logistics first, Hogwartians. They would get to the real meat of things soon.

With a flick of his wand, Airey summoned some supplies (http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/Photo-Jan-07-9-29-40-PM-e1357671599459-358x480.jpg) from the box on the desk and levitated them towards each of the students - and his fellow professors. "As we have been discussing in Astronomy so far this term, the Moon plays a key role in relation to our planet, Earth. It primarily controls the tides, it helps regulate our climate by slowing the Earth's rotation and creating our 24 hour days, nights would be MUCH darker without it, and it helps maintain our axial tilt. Now, these are all very large scale things. Perhaps so large that, for some of you, it is difficult to grasp just how influential. But, as you are all aware of, it doesn't just influence the natural world...but it plays a key role in many aspects of the magical world."

With all the props not floating in front of the faces of students, Airey conjured a MASSIVE bluebell flame that spun itself into a floating sphere - he had become quite partial to them this term - and left it floating in font of the semi-circle of desks.

"If my colleagues will allow me this brief introduction," which, well, they didn't really have too much of a choice because here he went. "...a werewolf is a human being who, upon the complete rising of the full moon, becomes a fearsome and deadly near-wolf. To quote your textbooks." Because that was the extent of his knowledge. Mostly.

"What I would like you all to do now is to pluck your Styrofoam ball on a stick and stand by your desk with it," he instructed. "We will be going over the moon phases with a brief demonstration to start." Waiting a moment until everyone was out of their seats with their moon-on-a-stick, he waved his wand again to put out any other light in the classroom. Even the shine from the moon outside seemed to have dimmed and he no longer stood in a spotlight. For now, at least, the only real source of light was the giant floating bluebell flame.

"Now, we can only ever see half of the moon from earth. This is because the other side is always turned away from us. As the moon orbits around the earth, we see different fractions of the same face of the moon as it is lit by the sun. Please lift your moon-on-a-stick up and hold it between your face and the floating bluebell flame, please. Your head is acting as the earth. The bluebell flame, the sun. There is no light falling on the part of the moon you are looking at. Who can tell me what phase of the moon this is or share a fact slash bit of fun trivia about this particular phase?"

OOC: class will resume in approximately 17 hours from the time of this post.

Please note your character DOES NOT have to answer the question, but it is imperative for participation points that they follow Professor Flamsteed's instructions with what to do with your moon-on-a-stick <3 Just don't try to poke each other's eyes out with them, okay?:xd:
Once the doors were closed, Sabel made his way back to the desk, getting there in time to retrieve the floating ball and stick from the air. He put the two together, half-listening as he leaned backwards, eyeing whatever it was that Culloden seemed to have been so immersed in. Difficult to see in the dimly lit room, even more so when the lights were killed and all that was left was the firey glow of Flamsteed's demonstration.

With a final twist, the styrofoam ball was on the stick and he was back on his feet. He moved quietly around the gathered students, hands clasping the stick and ball behind his back as he walked around the circle, making sure that no one was going to trip, fall or otherwise break something in the dark.

Which meant that he got plenty a good look of the suspecting and suspicious expressions lacing some of the students faces. And the stares, some of which seemed to be directly honed at him. Those that were got a toothy grin in return. Just because he could, and well, the lighting was perfect was it not?

[griffin]

Penelope had been staring at the light from the full moon since she had entered the room. There was something about the full moon that she found very alluring. It was so beautiful... She could hear Professor Flamsteed talking, but her eyes remained fixated on the window and the moonlight. When the bluebell flame sun appeared and dimmed the light of the moon in the room, Penelope snapped out of her trance like state. Had she missed anything? This was somewhat worrying. She was usually able to stay focused on the lesson and keep caught up with notes. It seemed like the lesson today would be about werewolves, with the astronomy portion of the lesson focused on lunar cycles.

Grabbing her moon on a stick and standing up, Penelope held it out between her and the sun as Professor Flamsteed had instructed. Yes, you could only see half of the moon from earth. "We always see the same half of the moon from earth." Penelope looked at her moon on a stick. This phase of the moon was the new moon, when the moon was not visible from earth. Penelope moved her arm to the right so that more light illuminated the half of the styrofoam ball that she could see. The amount of light that you could see on the moon depended on what angle you looked at it from. When she reached the point that her styrofoam ball looked more or less like a full moon, she held it there and looked at it. The full moon was beautiful.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Werewolves! of course! it all made sense to have these classes as a joint one now. First of the werewolf is a dark creature so thats the defence against the dark arts bit, next was the moon that changes the human in to a werewolf and its related to astronomy and last the wolfsbane potion. BRILLIANT!

He grabbed the Styrofoam ball after it was levitated towards his desk by Professor Flamsteed , who looked the same as in his office, gloomy, and used the stick to press and hold it. He then got up from his seat after a quick look around to see what the others were doing. He held the styrofoam ball or the moon to his face and faced the bluebell flame. Almost immediately some students began to answer the question and Yoongi did not even bother answering. Not...not that he did not know the answer ..ahem... No, he was simply wondering if there was a reason to hold a werewolf class, was someone a werewolf?! THAT WAS SO COOL! WHO?

Don't mind him, just suspiciously looking around at y'all

...Werewolves. Cool. Eden thought the subject was interesting..and now that she thought about it, it made sense...with the three subjects squished together in this way. She smiled because maybe they wouldn't be doing TOO much potion making.

That was her hope.

She pushed the stick into the styrofoam and winced at the awful feeling and noise...she did NOT like it. But she did it, and stood up, too, as Professor Flamsteed said. She lifted up her styrofoam against the light of the flame and squinted. So..it was a full moon? There apparently was a more technical name for it, since everyone was using "new moon." Right.

Eden just cleared her throat and remained quiet for now.
Oh look at this...Flamsteed was starting the lesson.

Ben briefly wondered if there was a reason for that, other than the fact Astronomy was the first alphabetical. Or that the astronomer was the first one hired and as a head of house had special priviledges. However as the man began spouting information, including the revelation of the topic of the class, the Gryffindor didn't have the time to think further on the matter.

Not that he really cared.

Titling his first sheet of parchment, WEREWOLVES, he began listening and jotting down anything important, especially stuff he hadn't previously known. Watching at the sphere sticks floated to each of them on the professor's wordless instruction Ben managed to avoid getting hit by one in his distractions. Now that would have been bad, not that he would have cared about being hurt physically while he was struggling emotionally.

He slowly, almost reluctantly, got up to his feet as instructed, taking a position beside his desk. Ben would be a quiet, unhappy earth as he raised the rod infront of him, the pseudo-moon moving with it to block his sight of the bluebell sphere while the rest of the lights went out around him. The Gryffindor heard the first question but was beaten out from answering with what came to his own mind.

New moon sounded right, but there was no point in repeating it as a bunch of the other students had already given it. So he simply stayed in his position, quietly awaiting the new directions to be given.

Wait......what?

That had to mean that the Wolfsbane Potion would be the topic of the Potions portion of class, right? Also, why even bring up werewolves unless......oh Merlin, there was one in their midst wasn't there? Okay, who was it? Better not be a Gryffindor. Needless to say, Heather was watching her classmates very closely for any indication that they were the wolf.

Unless it was a professor......

She was so consumed with these thoughts that she'd nearly missed Professor Flamsteed's instructions. Casting another look around the room, plucked the ball-on-a-stick from the air and hurriedly stood up with it between her face and the ball of light. It obviously represented the new moon, but people had beat her to the punch with the answer, so she stayed silent and continued staring around the room. Looking around the room for the potential werewolf.

Hold up. Werewolves? Norah's eyes widened as she pulled some parchment out of her bag and laid it on her desk, then wrote the word in big letters at the top. Yeah, this was a night for sparkly ink. The dim light and weird eeriness that was going on made sure of that. She tuned out of Professor Flamsteed's introduction to concentrate on her quill, which was adding a pair of eyes, ears, and a big nose to the 'W' on her page. There. Now her little wolf was cute. She didn't have to worry about it as much anymore, no? Cute stuff wasn't as scary...usually. That was the hope, anyways.

She looked up from her parchment to see a white squishy ball thing and a stick floating in front of her, which she reached out to take with eyes still wide 'cause what was this supposed to be? Stupid wolf doodle. Who did it think it was, distracting her from whatever she was supposed to do with this thing? The Hufflepuff looked around at the other students and mimicked them as they stood and held the ball-on-a-stick in front of the big blue thingy which would've been AWESOME if she'd been paying attention to what it's supposed to be. It looked kinda invisible from where she was standing, though, 'cause all the light was on the other side. Was it broken? Norah inspected it closely, coming to the conclusion that it was kind of impossible for the thing to be broken, so maybe she was broken.

Oh. OHHH. A new moon. Mari had said it and Mari was a prefect so obviously it was right. She watched the white sphere with renewed interest. Why'd he choose this foam stuff when he could've used cheese? That'd look a bunch more realistic AND would make for a nice snack. She'd need to recommend it for next time. Ahem. Class. Right. Norah stood still holding her moon up, not sure what to add to the conversation considering she'd only found out it was called a new moon about a minute before. Why was it called 'new' anyways? It didn't look new, it looked like nothing.

Werewolves. Oh.

That made LOADS of sense. Huh. The topic hadn't really crossed his mind come to think of it, but now that Professor Flamsteed mentioned it... Did make TONS of sense. 'Cause werewolves and full moons, so Astronomy. Werewolves and wolfsbane for Potions. And werewolves and-- well, werewolves were dangerous, so Defense. Heck, they probably could've thrown Care of Magical Creatures into the bunch as well if they wanted to. Though PADCoMC sounded a little ridiculous, so maybe this was for the best.

Anyways, what were they doing now? Moon-on-a-stick. Oh, okay sir! Zander followed instructions and grabbed a stick and plucked it into his Styrofoam ball. Then he got up by his desk to do whatever it was they were doing now. Oh, they were doing a demonstration. The Gryffindor held up the moon-on-a-stick and followed instructions to show that there was no light on the moon that he was facing.

Instead of answering the question though, he chose to stay quiet as there were already plenty of repeat answers. Anyways, was it just him or did the moon look a bit dimmer? Hm. Interesting.

Looking over at the person next to her, Beverly smiled faintly at Cutty, whispering her usual greeting to him, as well as returning the nudge. They were soon joined by Agatha, who received a greeting nod as well as a smile. Beverly noted her friend take her wand out. Good girl.

One never knew at Hogwarts, that much she's learned.

Werewolves.

Well...that was interesting. Her sharp gaze fell upon Professor Dakest...he didn't have any relations to them, yeah? There was sketchy stuff said about him, and if the Daily Prophet got word he was teaching about werewolves they'd probably come up with a story of how he was now, not only a cult member, but a werewolf. Wouldn't that make a story for her dad.

First off was the cycle of the moon. Of course. Astronomy was part of the lesson too. Although this wasn't her best subject, the Prefect found herself engaged in what Professor Airey was saying.

Standing from her seat and taking the moon-on-a-stick, she raised it up so it was between her face and the bluebell flame. This might not be her subject of expertise, but she grasped what he was doing. This was a new moon, yeah?
Werewolves! This had potential to be considered a favorite lesson of hers. Adi was lucky that such a cool lesson was taking place on his birthday. Lucky duck. He was get showered in gifts too. Mr. popularity over there. Hopefully all this love didn't go to his head or else AJ would be glad to deflate it. Of course if he got loads of sweets she could take some of those off his hands too. There definitely was benefits to dating a popular dude that loved sweets as much as she did.

Whyyyy did Airey have to go first? AJ didn't have anything against him, but the man could talk and out of the three subjects, he definitely had the most boring one. Blah, blah, blah. Bring on the werewolves. She didn't care about the moon. Although, it was looking pretty marvelous right about now. That was as far as her caring went though. Phases... PPFT. yawn city. The flame her head of house made was mad wicked, and Airey actually redeemed himself a bit with that one. Still wasn't a DADA professor though.

Put a ball on a stick? She could do that! AJ stuck the ball far enough on the stick so that it wouldn't fall over in mid orbit or whatever crazy thing it was supposed to represent. Now that would be silly. She stood beside her desk for good measure too. The brunette had to admit it was pretty cool looking, but as far as his question went.... yeah, she had nothing. She continued to stare at her ball and the flame.

Werewolves

O_____________O

Oh, well this was going to be interesting. Was one of the professors a werewolf? Nah that was a ridiclous idea. Anyway when you think about it Werewolves were really the only thing that could tie the meaning of this lesson up in a a little bow altogether. Werewolves.

Sticking the Styrofoam ball on her stick she stood up by her desk. Listening to Professor Flamsteed as he told them the instuctions. Phases of the Moon. Fun. Hey, who turned out the light? It was competely dark. Except for a blue flamey light. Ohhhh. Head toward the lightttt. Oh no, not really. Cinna moved the "moon on a stick" in front of her face. Between the flame. Hello earth she would have done some weird waving to her at this point but no. Serious time. Hmmmm


As it was already clear this was the new moon as already mentioned. The sixth year, just sit back and twirled her moon on a stick between her figures.
Bloody merlin this lesson got a whole lot cooler when Professor Airey mentioned Werewolves. This was gonna be a wicked lesson he could tell. He heard Airey doing the necessary teaching explanations and what not. He got out his notebook and began to scribble down some notes. He was so excited about this topic it was like no joke. As he heard Flamsteed mention they needed to put a stick into their white foam ball, he found them on his desk and he poked them. He saw Cinna twirling hers and he chuckled. He did the same thing she was doing. I mean he heard the other students mention the New Moon phase so why bother repeating it. He kept quiet and admired his new toy for now.

Linty astronaut professor say whaaaat? Werewolves? Janelle had not seen that coming. Should she be scared? Well, they were just learning about them, not hanging out with them.......right? Janelle decided that she would focus her thoghts on the moon part of it rather than the werewolf part of it, for now. She took notes, then it was time to go to work.

Janelle picked up her ball on a stick and did as she was instructed. She held her contraption and stood in front of her desk. The lights went out and there was only the bluebell flame to guide them. Janelle held the foam ball and stick in front of her face. Then she positioned herself in front of the bluebell flame so that the ball was in the middle.

As for the Professor"s question, Janelle listened as most of classmates her classmattes seemed to vote for the new moon. She could not argue with that answer so she decided that she needed to come up a fact about the new moon. Unfortunately, Janelle could not think of anything at the moment........nothing that hadn't been said already anyway. She tried to come up with something while waiting for the next set of instructions.

"No problem,"Henric smiled. Adi seemed to like his gift,that was a relief. He glanced over to where Benny was seated and couldn't help feeling bad for them both. He sighed mentally inside and wished they could just make up and resolve their problems soon. It wouldn't be good for them all if they keep being like this.But his sad thoughts flew away when everyone else came to wish Adi happy birthday as well. Henric silently gave each of them a smile because he already knew most of them...well...except for Leah. His face fell at the sight of her so he turned away quickly and pretended to be busy taking out his notebook from his bag.If she didn't want to talk to him, then...y'know...fine...he would be an invisible to her like she treat him to be.:(

Class starting now and Henric forced himself to listen intently to Professor Flamsteed lecture. He was silent throughout until they were instructed to make a moon-stick thingy? Why were they making the moon? Was it for the werewolves? Alright then...he grabbed a piece of stick and poked through the ball. He was doing pretty well so far until clumsy Adi 'accidentally' smacked his own moon-stick thingy onto his forehead. He slightly narrowed his eyes at Adi."Yeah right...but I'm going to let it go this time,birthday boy,"he told Adi, rubbing his forehead in the process. Oooh...the room getting more darker and the only light source he saw was this ball of fiery blue flame in front of him.Woahh...nice....

Oh right...the question! Hmm..he was going to go along with Adi's answer because honestly, he had no idea. New moon? Was was this..the Twilight Saga? Hahah...alright that wasn't funny...but it had to be said.

Was it just him, or were students actually making all sorts of curious and accusing looks around the room? Well, from what he COULD see through the dimly lit area as his eyes adjusted to the new environment. But no, really. Suspicious much? Particularly towards himself and his colleagues? Particularly towards Sabel who was only encouraging their speculations with that look he was wearing about his face. Sweet solstice...he had some shiny white teeth, didn't he?

Oh Professor Dakest, what white teeth you have!

Excusing himself, and his muffled chuckles, he squinted out at the semi-circle of desks with his own moon-on-a-stick held up in front of his face to help demonstrate. You know, in case instructions were confusing. Or something.

No one was going to nod off during all this...right? RIGHT?

...and his eyes were finally adjusting enough now that he could see a few raised hands. Enough to at least point in their general direction so as to allow them to speak.
....

Angel stood beside her desk and raised her stick making sure it was between her face and the flame. Angel raised her free hand after struggling for a minute before she spoke. "Professor, I'm not sure but is this called a total eclipse?" Angel had heard the saying before, on an advert when someone had eaten a Jaffa cake.
He had to wait until the hand spoke before he was able to figure out just who he had called on, but it took no time at all to know the voice belonged to Miss Valentine.

"Not exactly, Miss Valentine," he said with a small shake of his head. "A new moon occurs whenever the Moon is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun, like we have right now with your moon-on-a-stick right now, but it may or may not be on a level with the Sun. And because the Moon's orbit is inclined with respect to the Earth's orbit, it will not always line up perfectly like it needs to for an eclipse. THAT being said, a new moon is necessary for a total solar eclipse and are quite rare." He paused for a moment to smile softly into the darkness. "Stellar inquiry, Miss Valentine. Take a point."

Still have time? What? Toby blinked at Airey, still rather fidgety, very confused as to what he was on about for a moment. But then, ohhhh. "Oh no, I'm fine, Professor Airey," he assured him, not even embarrassed about the misunderstanding. "Just, y'know." JUST KEEPING ON MOVING. Yeah. And then an afterthought occurred to him, so he lowered his voice conspiratorially even though there was no need. "I know where bathrooms are, too. Been here nearly seven years." Y'KNOW. SEVEN? Wasn't it CRAZY? Hard to believe, he knew, as he still ACTED more like a first year and... sort of had the baby-face of a third year, but SEVEN YEARS. Toby thought that was crazy. He nodded impressively. Seven. Years.

He might have gone on to talk about how totally crazy that was, but Airey had moved on, and then the lesson was starting, which meant they had to stop talking and listen and pay attention and learn and probably he should stop spinning between his fingers now but it kinda helped him focus so he didn't.

WEREWOLVES, huh? That was pretty cool. Though Toby had actually figured as much. Because WEREWOLVES were related to the moon AND there was a potion for the transformation AND there was a chapter in their DADA textbooks, and it had been the only overlap Toby could think of. SO THAT WAS COOL. Yeah.

While Airey went on about the moon and stuff, Toby did as instructed, setting his wand down on the desk before getting one of those sticks and impaling a styrofoam ball with it. Huzzah, he held the MOON. It was a lot more difficult to twirl THAT between his fingers, but you better believe he still tried. When it didn't work out so well, Toby brandished it around randomly. "Bibbidi... bobbidi... BOOP!" he said, bopping Soph on the head with it, before quickly getting up and standing by the desk as instructed as though nothing had happened, smiling like BUTTER WOULDN'T MELT.

Ahem, yes, anyway. What was happening? Toby stood there, bouncing on his toes in a manner remniscient of when he had been a first year, bopping himself on the head with his moon now and trying to focus on what Airey was saying. Hmkay, so... they had to hold it out (he did so) between their faces and the flames, so they were looking at the dark side of the moon (WHICH, by the way, IMMEDIATELY got a song in head head, which was very distracting yes right okay).

People were saying words about things, but Toby had another factoid. "It's SUPER COLD there, Professor," he supplied, raising his hand and extending up onto his toes, while turning to face where he thought the professor was but still keeping the styrofoam moon in front of his face. "Super cold and MYSTERIOUS and stuff."

Mysterious aaaaas the dark side of tHE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.
A howling... good... time? "Howling" was not an adjective she had ever heard Flamsteed use, even though he used plenty of weird ones, so that rose some suspicions there. Howling...?? Must've had something to do with the lesson, then. The man thought he was so funny, didn't he? He was also a giant nerd, just like the Hufflepuff boy who sat next to her. So silly, the pair of them.

And there it was: werewolves. Lunar cycles, yes, she could then see the point of all of that being involved in this class about werewolves... and what about potions and defense against the dark arts? Would they be brewing the wolfsbane potion? Was that the potions component? And was there a REASON they were studying this? Was Dakest not a Dark wizard, but a werewolf? Was THAT what was weird about him? But then... surely Culloden would've known this about him, right? Wouldn't Dakest need some access to his store room? So then Culloden would know he wasn't a Dark wizard, and he wouldn't be so suspicious of him. So... there went that theory.

So maybe this was just an everyday, normal lesson. Mega lame. But it DID make sense, these three classes combined now. Flammy was right.

Soph fidgeted with the stick and ball until Flamsteed gave them the instruction to create their moon-on-a-stick, and she followed his instructions, combining the two items and moved to stand beside her desk with it... when BONK! came Tobes' moon colliding with her noggin, and Soph tilted her head to give Tobes a lopsided, goofy grin of amusement. "You dork," she accused quietly, bopping HIM on the head with HER styrofoam moon, too, and giggling shortly thereafter.

Two could play that game, nerd.

She stood tall when Flamsteed went along to give more instruction, but she was distracted, keeping an eye on Tobes to make sure he didn't try to retaliate again - because she would very shamelessly bop him over and over again. These professors wouldn't yell at her or be truly upset with her, she just figured they'd give her a light reprimand. Totally worth it, if the occasion called for it.

On command, Dot GASPED LOUDLY and clapped her hands on her cheeks when the StarMan said werewolves like that. WHAT OH NO WEREWOLVES THE HORROR. He was asking for a big reaction with how he revealed the topic, so it was basically just the rest of the class not playing along. Lame.

She popped to her feet and took up the ball on a stick, not bothering to answer since everyone had already answered. New moon. Got it. Wait. Was lunation even really a word? Was Gabe making up words? COULD THEY JUST MAKE UP WORDS? Or was that a strictly Ravenclaw thing?

She bopped him with her moon. "Lunation. Turned you into a moon. Boom. Poof. Magics." Oh, also, StarMan? She was totally the earth and blocking the light from her moon. "Last class, I was the moon... so next class, I'll get to be the sun."

The thing about his position in the classroom was that, with his back to the massive bluebell flame, he was seeing a bunch of full moons bobbing about the classroom. So he saw ALL of that! Just wasn't entirely sure WHO was doing what.

Although he was positive that one of the moon bopping students was Miss Wojack - who had displayed perfect tact in 'ooh-ing' and 'awe-ing' in all the right place - and recalled where her particular seat was.

"Please, everyone, can you keep your Moons to yourselves?" he scolded gently. He supposed he really could only blame himself for that one. He hadn't said NOT to hit each other with them.

Teenagers. You give them an inch, they swim all over you.
...
Holding the moon in front of his face, he stared at the side facing him... only to end up slowly moving it closer and farther from his face, eyes crossing each time he did so. "Has anyone ever seen the other side of the moon?"
"Back in 2020 (http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/21/asia/china-moon-exploration-dark-side/), China had hoped to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, but these ambitions never fully came into fruition. Likewise, NASA (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1332892/Astronauts-sent-far-moon-time-40-years-pre-Mars-mission.html) has had some plans for exploration as well, but the window of opportunity only comes once every 25 months," he explained to the first year. "One day soon, I imagine, this will happen and humans will step foot on its -280° Fahrenheit surface."

Since Mr. Toby had mentioned it being COLD.

...
Grabbing her moon on a stick and standing up, Penelope held it out between her and the sun as Professor Flamsteed had instructed. Yes, you could only see half of the moon from earth. "We always see the same half of the moon from earth." Penelope looked at her moon on a stick. This phase of the moon was the new moon, when the moon was not visible from earth. Penelope moved her arm to the right so that more light illuminated the half of the styrofoam ball that she could see. The amount of light that you could see on the moon depended on what angle you looked at it from. When she reached the point that her styrofoam ball looked more or less like a full moon, she held it there and looked at it. The full moon was beautiful.
"Indeed," he nodded towards Miss Wright. Something he had already said, but still an important bit of information. "Just a moment, Miss Wright. Let's not get ahead of things just yet," he winked at her - not that she could really see - in a casual tone. They would get to making full moons here in just a moment.

What's going on with Flamsteed? He didn't look hyper as usual and he barely greeted nor bowed back to him. And he just replied the others' greeting in short way, not like usual. His head of house sometimes could act veeeery strange and The Korean boy could see that he's not... really in a mood for teaching. Was this because his pet rock still missing? Hmm...

Back to the lesson topic.

Werewolves... Ah! So they're gonna learn about moon that caused the human transformed into werewolves then... Pretty sure that Dakest would teach them how to handle it and Culloden would teach them how to brew wolfsbane, perhaps? Maybe. Picking up the Styrofoam ball, Jackson observed the moon-like ball. "It's a new moon, right Professor?" The Korean boy answered as he raised his hand. "I heard that people in Saudi Arabia use Lunar calendar for religious purpose and new moon means start of the new month."

Marigold's jaw dropped.

WEREWOLVES?!?!?!!?!???!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

Duuuuuuuuuuuude. This TOTALLY changed her state of mind. They were learning about WEREWOLVES. This was SO COOL. SO. COOL. She snapped to attention as Flamsteed started talking. OHHHH, that was why they had been learning about the moon so much. That makes sense.

She stabbed her Styrofoam ball with the stick and stood up. Ooooh, it got DARK. Okay, the ball was in front of her face. No light on the visible part of the moon, which me meant that it was slightly "invisible." She raised her hand.

"Is it a new moon, sir?"

Interesting. That's the thought that came to mind when Hady realized this was going to be a three lesson joint class today. As she had made her way into the classroom she wasn't sure how she was feeling about it or just what would occur from it. The third year wasn't sure at all how Potions, Astronomy and DADA went together.

However that was quickly changed the moment Professor Airey began to speak. Werewolves. It all made more sense now really with each word he spoke. She didn't really get to think about it though as they were being given instructions already on what needed to be done. Picking up the styrofoam ball she examined it for a brief moment before pushing it firmly down onto the point of her stick without poking herself.

Getting to her feet Hady remained beside her desk and raised her 'moon' up to her face effectively blocking out the bluebell flame thing. Raising her hand she gave an answer, "I think it's called the new moon." She wasn't entirely sure but it sounded right to her.

Astronomy, Potions AND Defence?!

This was one lesson he would most certainly not miss. Which was why he'd spent the entire day relaxing and clearing his mind so that he would be able to focus tonight. He might hate relaxing but he did begrudgingly admit that it was useful at times.

Like now, for instance. Now he could summon up ALL his energy and be excited about WEREWOLVES.

... Or the moon. You know. That too, he guessed. Lifting up his moon stick, Benzi put it between his face and the flames. Ah yes - now he couldn't see it. Very clever Professor Flamsteed.

Up went his hand. "It's a dark moon sir, when the moon is completely invisible from earth... it lasts between one to three days I think, and the new moon happens sometime in the middle of that."

Yes, he might have studied on Christmas break. He'd had a LOT of free time.

Gabriel had been so ready for this lesson, ever since seeing the announcement on his notice board. No, he wasn't the biggest fan of Defense right now...but Potions and Astronomy were his jams. And...with a Flamsteed and Culloden present, the Ravenclaw felt like he could be...better? More comfortable. More...receptive to learning and retaining the material. Yes.

Smiling in a covert way at two of his most favorite professors, a more respectful nod was offered to the third. He hadn't felt as bonded with Professor Dakest...but the man knew his stuff. So, that deserved respect. #RavenclawLogic

Anyway, werewolves: the subject matter of the day. Gabe was already seated comfortably; notebook, his favorite quill, and post-its out and at the ready. He didn't know if it was because of the particular teachers involved with the lesson or not, but he found himself anxious; in the good way. Strange.

Hand already flying over parchment, Gabe took in everything being explained. The Lunar Cycle. That was an obvious important factor in wolf transformation from what he'd read beforehand. Pre-lesson study. NBD. And yes, they had had that lesson. In fact, Gabe had to wonder now if it had been in preparation for this class...or was it simply a coincidence?

Near-wolf. Gabe snorted. Punny.

...and a demonstration. They were doing one...

Abandoning his notes, he did as instructed with his Styrofoam ball and stood quietly by his desk. With the bluebell flame casting strange shadows over everything, Gabe thought the mood had definitely been set. Very mysterious. A+ for atmosphere. If he wouldn't have been surrounded by professors, he would've been nervous. Or...well...he was STILL a bit nervous, but that was only because that's what Gabes did.

...and yes, it was a new moon, described as the moment when the Moon and the Sun have the same ecliptical longitude, if he wasn't mistaken. But...in the spirit of adding information and participating..."The beginning of a single lunation is marked by the new moon."


Yay! A salute for him from Flamsteed! Adi of course returned a rather smart one to the man. Errr... no hard feelings from the class when the Hufflepuff had mistakenly offended the man and his voice, yeah? Nah. Professor Starman was too cool for that.
...................
Settling back happily in his seat as he retrieved his parchment, textbook, quill and ink, Adi called back a greeting to Kace but his attention was diverted by Henric. Ohh, more birthday wishes! And a present! Whaaa! Adi was mighty curious as to what Henric had gotten him so he took an enthusiastic peek into the box. His eyes widened at what he saw. “This is so cool! Thanks, man!’’ Weren’t these the expensive type of quills? He knew all about Henric’s life and knew this might have been a bit out of his budget but that made Adi appreciate the gift all the more. Adi’ll keep it forever… just like how he planned to keep the MU badge.

The sixth year looked at the Room’s entrance at that precise moment when Benny walked in but he looked away. His seventeenth birthday was supposed to be special for another reason because it would have meant practicing his Transfiguration over the summer at Benny’s. For the first time since their misunderstanding, Adi felt a pang of sadness. Luckily, there was another distraction in the form of a hug… from Zhenya! Ohh, she had gotten him something too! Adi grinned and sniffed at the bag. “I smell chocolate,’’ he whispered as he hugged back his friend then stashing her gift in his bag. Nothing edible here, Professors. Nope. “Thanks, Zhenya!’’ And there were even more birthday wishes! “Thanks, Lux!’’ He laughed. “You’ll get there someday.’’ She had a gift too? “Is it a cucumber sandwich?” Also, hiiii, Jackson! “Dongsaeng! Thank you! Don’t worry about that.’’ Nope, nope. A wish was enough for this content Puffer! But if he was so content, why did he feel as though something was missing?

Great Hippogriffs! Leah had remembered too! And there were more presents for him as well. “Hey, thanks a ton, Leah!’’ He grinned and took the box. Joke stuff! Adi could see the WWW on it. His Puffer friend knew him well! He grinned happily. He had some awesome friends.

"More like PADADA,'' Adi thought in amusement as the class began and his eyes shifted to the board. WEREWOLVES! HOW EPIC! Did this mean they were going to learn to defend themselves against werewolves and brew the Wolfsbane Potion? :x3: Cue even MORE excitement on his part!

But first... there were things floating in front of him. The Puffer grabbed the stick and the ball, whacking Henric in the process of sticking the ball on the thin thing (by accident, of course. But with Adi, who could tell if it were accident or not? :shifty: ) "Woops. Sorry, buddy.'' He jumped up, enjoying the giant flame in the room but the view quickly vanished when he did as instructed- hold the stick-ball between his face and the flame.

Adi raised his hand. "It's a new moon also called the dark moon. This moon is the most difficult to see and I think this is when the moon is starting it's cycle.'' If he remembered what he had read correctly, then he was on track.

Zhenya was super excited to get started with this lesson, but for some reason she was having a mental block. She couldn't actually figure out what the lesson was about, combining potions, astronomy and DaDa together. Until it became quite obvious in written letters. Werewolves. OH MERLIN, Zhenya shook her head, how could she not have connected that? Well, anyway, werewolves! Perhaps they would be learning about the astronomy of the moon in connection to werewolves, how to brew a wolfsbane potion, and then how to defend themselves against werewolves? Not that there was much of a way to do that, but perhaps there were some defensive tools or spells to use.

Zhenya listened to Professor Flamsteed speak about the moon and werewolves, saw that a ball on a stick had been put in front of everyone, and they were then instructed to hold it and stand behind their desks. So, Zhenya stood up beside her desk as instructed to do, and Zhenya held up her moon in front of her face, or the earth, with the other half facing the bluebell flames, or the sun. Cool, this was already interesting.

Now what was that about what phase of the moon this is? The clue was when Professor Flamsteed said there was no light on the part of the moon they were looking at, which was the earth. So, basically the earth couldn't see the moon? Well, Zhenya remembered that bit immediately from those astronomy books Mr. Kitridge had lent her. But just as she was about to say what phase of the moon it was, others started saying it. What facts did she remember about it? Zhenya raised the hand that wasn't holding the styrofoam moon, "The new moon is hidden from earth during a new moon, except for during a lunar eclipse when you might be able to see the outline of the moon," she said. Although that was about all she knew about the new moon phase, she was already mentally writing notes based on what Professor Flamsteed had said, as well as the answers from her classmates.

Kate turned her attention to Professor Flamsteed as he kicked off the lesson. Werewolves. The moon. Right. She followed all that. She scooped up her styrofoam moon and plucked it on a stick. Pushing herself out her seat, she stood with her moon!stick and listened to the next set of directions. When the lights dimmed, she focused on the bluebell flames, the only source of light she could see.

Kate lifted her moon!stick and fixed it in between her face and the bluebell flames. She tried to keep up with what roles her face and the flames were playing. She knew exactly which phase this was---"This is the New Moon phase, right?" she asked, raising her hand. It was when the moon couldn't be seen, because it was directly in between the Sun and the Earth. Or, at least, this is how Kate pictured things with her face being the Earth, and the flames being the Sun.

Lux was pleased to see Adi in such a good mood but then it was his birthday. She had noticed that things seemed strained with Benny lately though she hadn't been sure if she should ask about it. Even if they were close, it wasn't exactly her place to intrude on their business. She was still there for them both.

The comment about her being 17 soon got a smile, and she was about to comment on the cucumber sandwich comment when Professor Flamsteed started speaking. Someone didn't seem to be in the best of moods and Lux wondered if it was related to poor Pebbles. Giving Adi a wink, she listened as the lesson began. Werewolves, huh. Sounded pretty interesting if not creepy. She wasn't really a fan but so long as she never encountered one she would be fine. Professor Dakest probably had a lot to say about them as well seeing as he taught the subject dealing with DARK CREATURES.

Notebook at the ready, Lux made sure to record everything important even though she already knew about the moon cycle. Never hurt to be thorough.

Flammy was covering the transformation, Dakest would be covering the creatures themselves, so...what would Culloden be teaching about? Unless...

O________O

Was someone here a WEREWOLF?!

Shuddering, Lux hoped to sweet Merlin she was wrong. At least she had a moon on a stick to distract her from unsettling thoughts. Task completed in a few seconds, she stood up and held her little moon between her face and the bluebell flame. Raising her hand, she said "this is a new moon. It is the first phase of the moon!" Hence it being called NEW.

"Stellar," he applauded each student's answer. "This first position here is indeed the phase known as a new moon and is the first phase of the lunar cycle. It is, as you can see, when the side of the moon facing the Earth is not illuminated by the Sun and we therefore have zero visibility of it from our perspective here on Earth."

Clearing his throat and turning his back to the class, he held up his moon-on-a-stick once again and continued. "Now, if you all could please rotate yourselves slowly to the left while continuing to hold your moon in place," he instructed as he began to do so himself. "You will see that light begins to shin on your moon, growing little and little from the right side of the sphere. This is known as 'waxing,' a term which means growing, and is used to describe the moon as it grows from new moon to full moon. This first sliver of light you see here is known as the 'waxing crescent'...and if you keep rotating yourself you'll see what is called the 'first quarter,' or literally, when the moon has completed 1/4 of its orbit around the earth. But, for us, this will look as though the Moon is a half-moon - half illuminated and half not. Please continue to rotate until the surface of your sphere is entirely illuminated."

He paused for a moment to rotate himself around so that he was now facing the class again...and all their backs now to him. Hurrr....hadn't thought this through so well, had he? Awkward.

"Who can tell me what terminology is used once we pass the first quarter moon phase? It is no longer a waxing crescent, but a what?"

Yes, not the most riveting of exercises nor discussion at the moment, but Cosgrach would be handed the reigns soon...and he was hoping students would forgive him once he started, despite it going against some of his classroom rules, a special surprise to everyone. Nothing like bribing through the stomach, right?

It sort of worked on the astronomer. Sort of.

OOC: class will resume approximately 24 hours from the time of this post.

I apologize for the clear cut questions, but your characters actions in participating in the demonstration are more important <3

[StarShine]

This lesson was going to be interesting, not because of the topic (although it was one of the most interesting in magical world) but because of the man sitting next to him who, quite interestingly, was twirling his wand. It was the icing on the cake after the Daily Prophet and the conversation with Sophie yesterday. The students wouldn't be the only one Cosgrach was going to observe today, although he knew far better than to show this to Mr. Possibly Cult Member.


She walked past Professor Culloden first, giving him a wave and a bright "Hello!" before getting to Professor Dakest. She was very thankful for the dim light because her cheeks went about 50 million shades redder as she passed him for who knew why.
The certainly-not-in-puberty Norah.

Cosgrach didn't really greet her, but just nodded, because that was what adults did.


"Hello professors, and nice to see you again, professor Flamsteed...umm..."he stopped himself from speaking, he didn't want to upset professor Flamsteed further by asking if he had found pebbles yet.
"Hello," Cosgrach said simply, since the boy wanted to ask Airey something - but then he didn't. Okay.


"Heeeeeey Professors Culloden, Dakest and Flamsteed," he said, giving each of them a 'sup nod as he took a seat.

And Culloden got a big smile. Obviously.
His good ole Grayson, smiling extra big at him. HEHEHE. Cosgrach saw his past self in the boy, to be honest. Same arrogance and charm. Ah, to be young again! Grayson was the boy to distract him from his thoughts as he greeted back with a "Welcome!" Good to see him here, really.


"Hello, Professors!'' Adi grinned at each of the men, though he wasn't sure if Culloden heard him. The man seemed lost, yo.
Cosgrach did hear him, but since the others greeted the boy, he didn't say anything but just smiled back.

...

Cosgrach was too busy greeting the other students to notice people were congratulating his birthday, but had he known, he would have totally embarrassed the boy.


"Hello Professors.." he said noticing Professor Dakest was here too. "I am interested in what we are going to be learning today." he told them both honestly.
Cosgrach smiled at the boy genuinely. "Welcome, Kace" he said.


Stiiiill pondering.
Since this tiny man didn't greet anyone, Cosgrach preferred to just nod at him once. Did he see it? He didn't think so. Oh well.


"Hello Professors. I can't wait to see what you have planned for us." Then she gave a quick, "Hello all", to her classmates.
Cosgrach smiled at her. Janelle. Of course she was here.

"You'll find out soon enough," he said amiably. Hehe.


"Hello Professors..." he greeted, including them all together before turning to look for a seat. Against his wishes, his gaze found his best friend, as always seated besides Henric.
"Hello Ben," Cosgrach greeted the boy, and absent-mindedly followed him to -

Wait, not next to Benny? What was wrong? Why weren't they sitting together? Should... Cosgrach ask? He'd think about it later.


Right. Here we go, McGee.
Oh, a student Cosgrach never saw in his class. What was she called? Ugh, he forgot her name, because she didn't even take potions.

Oh well... here's hoping she didn't make a mistake, because he wouldn't hesitate to address her as 'YOU, GIRL!'.


Walking up to Professor Culloden, who looked deep in thought, Zhenya felt a bit like she were intruding. She didn't want to do that, so she just quietly said "Hello Professor," so that he might acknowledge someone had spoken to him or not, but she wasn't rudely pulling him from his thoughts. She hoped anyway. He could be onto something, like a great world breaking potions formula or something. She didn't want to interrupt that.
Cosgrach wasn't that much in deep thought, so he saw and smiled at Zhenya.

"Hello there," he said. It was nice to see his good students here.


Crossing deeper into the room with her necessary materials for class, Sophie nodded at them and offered a polite, "Gentlemen," in greeting, and she was going to leave it at that, but as she went to take a seat, she turned to address them again and added a pensive, "This is a weird combination." Of classes, she meant. Just so they knew. "But it's interesting, 'n m'glad it's with three of my favorite professors." She looked POINTEDLY at Dakest and Culloden now at the desk, as she'd been primarily addressing Flamsteed in the middle of the semicircle before, and gave them a very uncertain, apprehensive look, almost as if to say you're all my favorites so please get along. It was mostly to the Potions Master, though. He would behave and not step all over Dakest's toes, wouldn't he? And this whole thing would PROVE to him that Dakest wasn't brainwashing anyone, and that he was actually a very good professor?
Ah, Sophie. Cosgrach nodded at her and caught her look. Pfffft, they would still SEE about Dakest. But he wouldn't make a scene, of couse. He knew far better than that.


"Hello, professors." She looked about to explode out the top of her head, and she hadn't even hugged anyone yet. "Nice night for class." She was so disappointed in herself.
It was only fitting that Dot entered right after Sophie. Cosgrach smiled at the girl - but wait, why weren't they sitting together? Huh. First Adi & Benny, then Sophie & Dot. What was happening in Hogwarts?


Entering the classroom, she smiled at each Professor in turn. "Hello, Professors! I hope you are all doing well."
Well, 'well' was a very subjective term, so he just nodded at her.


Shaking off that feeling, she proceeded, glancing at each man in charge and shot them a polite nod. "Professors."
Beverly. "Hello," he said to her. Nice to see her here too.


"Hey Professors." Angel smiled, this was going to be an awesome lesson, she could tell. "How are you all today?"
"Hey Angel," Cosgrach greeted her. At least she would sit with Benny, yes?


Entering the lesson, Jackson noticed that the Professors were already there. He's not late, was he? "Err... Hello, Professors." He smiled and bowed politely to all of them.
Ah, Jackson the Asian. It even rhymed, hehe. "Hello," he said, and bowed from where he was sitting. Excuse him, he was sort of squeezed here so he couldn't get up.


”Good evening, Professors.” She hoped that Professor Culloden would look up in time to see the wave that was aimed for him. ”I hope you are all happy and having a good day today.”
Again, 'good day' was subjective. "Hello Marsha," he said simply and smiled. Hopefully, the girl would enjoy this class. She looked like a very bright young witch.


Sooooo instead, Toby just nodded at them all and went ahead to go sit by Soph, where he continued twirling his wand (just like Dakest, he'd noticed, which had actually made him falter for just a moment, but not enough to make him stop).
Cosgrach nodded back. He didn't know why Toby didn't verbally greet them, but the boy didn't look especially sad, so he didn't question it much.

...well, okay, maybe it was better for Dot to give the couple some alone time. Cosgrach was glad Toby sat by Sophie, because they rarely did that, so it was nice.


"Hello, Professor Culloden..." Where did Potions fit into this? Erm.
Cosgrach snapped out of whatever he was thinking to grin at Zander.

"Hello, Mr Adair," he said. He didn't know why he still intimidated the boy, but he did, and it amused him further. HEHE. Funny boy, he was.


Carrying his items needed for the class, Cutty entered and gave man!nod greeting #34 to Professor Culloden and Dakest firstly. "Good evening Professors Culloden, Dakest and...Nice light magic, Professor Flamsteed. Gettin' the moon to spotlight yer." Cutty assumed it was done on purpose.
"Welcome, Cutty." The man bowed at the boy.


"Hiya sirs" he waved before taking a seat and grabbed his chapstick to use.
Cosgrach remembered his face from his class, but he couldn't remember his name, so he just said "Hello," at him.


She walked past all three Professors, giving them waves. "Hello Professors Flamsteed, Culloden and Dakest."
Ah, Leah came too. "Welcome," he said and smiled at her.


She stared at professor Flasmteed for a second as a 'greeting' and glanced towards the other two before turning away.
Agatha... was especially hostile today, wasn't she? Cosgrach eyed the girl while she wasn't looking at him, and tried to remember how HE had been when he was her age.

Teenagers were weird.


"Hello, professor Culloden." Pause. "Professor Dakest, professor Flamsteed."
"Hello, Ms Prefect." He suddenly remembered that it was her last year and... well, sad, wasn't it?


On command, Dot GASPED LOUDLY and clapped her hands on her cheeks when the StarMan said werewolves like that. WHAT OH NO WEREWOLVES THE HORROR. He was asking for a big reaction with how he revealed the topic, so it was basically just the rest of the class not playing along. Lame.
Cosgrach gasped at Airey too when he revealed werewolves! like that. The man sure knew how to impress! But upon close inspection, it looked like only he and Dot gasped and, well, it was lame.

Well, at least Dot had a sense of humour.

Airey was moving on, though, so Cosgrach listened to him...

Well, he used to h a t e Astronomy back in the day, but Airey's class actually looked pretty cool. Huh. Astronomy ought to be boring, not enjoyable!

He made a mental note to compliment the man later.

[FearlessLeader19]

Adi just kept grinning at Henric. Really, it had been an accident but he would let Henric think it was not. It was more fun that way. Hehe.
....................

Yay! New moon! Adi had read and remembered correctly. Was this how it felt to be a Ravenclaw who was confident about their answers because he sure felt like one right now. Okay, moving on! The sixth year started rotating sloooooowly though with MUCH enthusiasm to the left as instructed by The Suit. Wheeeeee! This was fu- woah! He got a little feet tied there in his giddiness and almost crashed into Henric. TOO MUCH ENTHUSIASM! But luckily he managed to keep his balance. His Housemate might not be so forgiving if he took him down even though it was the older boy's birthday.

Anywaaaayyy, Adi righted himself, the 'moon' in front of his face and continued rotating, noticing exactly what The Suit had said about the light growing from the right side. FASCINATING stuff this was! He wished he could right it all down for reference but on second thought, this was much more fun.

The Puffer kept his eyes focused on the moon until the entire thing lit up. Cool! And there was Flamsteed with another question, his voice floating over to the class as Adi realised that they were all backing the man. Had this been set up on purpose? But! Onto the question. Gibbous. He thought the answer had to do something with gibbous. Hand up, he said to the room in front of him. "The Waxing Gibbous, maybe.'' Er... should he shout that answer? Could Flamsteed hear properly with since the class was facing the other way?

[Felixir]

So, Soph had gotten him right BACK with a bop on the head, and Toby was quite prepared to keep the back and forth going for as long as necessary. He'd just looked over and raised his moon to return the favour again when Airey's voice rang out telling them to keep their moons to themselves. But Toby, who usually did evERYTHINGHEWASTOLDBYPROFESSORSOMGRULES!!!11!1!!ON E!!, was feeling ESPECIALLY fidgetyandimpulsiveandmischievous today, and super quickly whapped Soph on the head just ONE LAST TIME. Hehe. Last hit. Hehehe.

Okay. He was done now. Promise. Ahem. "Sorry Professor Airey," Toby whispershouted, just for good measure.

But he couldn't keep his moon still, because he was Toby, so instead it ended up being carefully brandished about again, occasionally throwing the light from the bluebell flames onto his face. Lalala, don't mind him. Oh, but... they were supposed to be doing things. Rotating. Right. Toby did that too, rotating on the spot so more of the light could hit his styrofoam moon until he basically had a full moon... before using it to write his name in the air, just 'cause. That was until the question was asked and he raised his hand... the one holding the moon, and waved it around.

"Waxing gibbons. GIBBOUS. Waxing g i b b o u s. Don't wax gibbons." He fidgeted on the spot and bounced on his toes, before looking over his shoulder to see what else was going on that he was missing because he wasn't looking.

Then back at the moon, all lit up. "Full moon," he said to himself, before lowering it down so his body blocked the light and couldn't reach it. "Total eclipse." Hehe. Toby looked over his shoulder so he could see Airey again. It felt rude to stand with his back to him, even if they'd been told to.

[SlytherinSistah]

Chssh!

The little foam sphere became a moon as Cutty stabbed it with the stick and held it up to his face blocking the light from the bluebell flame casted expertly by Professor Flamsteed. No wandwork required. Happygoody should be glad. As the Astronomer Royal related the phases of the moon to their little foam samples it gave the tactile learner a better sense of a thing he'd seen described many times in many ways in books.

He lifted a heel out to the left and took a step, the foam sphere moon took on some light on the right side. The crescent. A familiar sight. He inched again to his left to see the first quarter, which had to appear as half of course for being half of the half of the moon they could see. Standing there in the dark, he then began to shift his moon to the right and to the left giving himself the visual of all of it's phases. A part of him wished for Headmistress Truebridge as he would've liked her input on what Flamsteed was saying earlier about the effects of the lunar phases great and small.

"Gibbous. The Waxing Gibbous moon, sir." To the riiiiight. To the leeeeeft went the little foam moon.

[Symphora]

Henric sneaked a glance at Professor Dakest..rumour has it that the DADA professor might be ...a...a...werewolf!? If it was true...Henric would find it supercool. A werewolf professor teaching in Hogwarts...man...how epic was that?! Of course... he wouldn't want to meet one in real life, uh uh..no. He bet Professor Flamsteed was probably expecting a scary reaction from the students too but...y'know after experience three years of weird happenings and tragic loss of a housemate...he was pretty sure most of them were immune to it by now so...it was not surprising in a way...? Anyhuu....Henric thought this lesson was still going to be a brilliant one...indefinitely, he mused.

He held his moon-stick up right in front of him and moved his head slightly to the left, oh wait... were they supposed to go around it? Ohh...oops...left rotate around Henric....rotate...slowly now. There! He saw it! That waxing crescent! Woaah...what a beautiful sight that was....he couldn't help feeling amazed. Adi seemed to try really hard containing his excitement, He chuckled at the older puff boy, Adi being all Adi again.Yup.

Urgh...the rotating was making him dizzy so he stopped after seeing enough of the new moon transition. Cool.
Question time...again...he had no idea on how to answer Prof.Flamsteed.

[griffin]

"Indeed," he nodded towards Miss Wright. Something he had already said, but still an important bit of information. "Just a moment, Miss Wright. Let's not get ahead of things just yet," he winked at her - not that she could really see - in a casual tone. They would get to making full moons here in just a moment.

"Stellar," he applauded each student's answer. "This first position here is indeed the phase known as a new moon and is the first phase of the lunar cycle. It is, as you can see, when the side of the moon facing the Earth is not illuminated by the Sun and we therefore have zero visibility of it from our perspective here on Earth."

Clearing his throat and turning his back to the class, he held up his moon-on-a-stick once again and continued. "Now, if you all could please rotate yourselves slowly to the left while continuing to hold your moon in place," he instructed as he began to do so himself. "You will see that light begins to shin on your moon, growing little and little from the right side of the sphere. This is known as 'waxing,' a term which means growing, and is used to describe the moon as it grows from new moon to full moon. This first sliver of light you see here is known as the 'waxing crescent'...and if you keep rotating yourself you'll see what is called the 'first quarter,' or literally, when the moon has completed 1/4 of its orbit around the earth. But, for us, this will look as though the Moon is a half-moon - half illuminated and half not. Please continue to rotate until the surface of your sphere is entirely illuminated."

He paused for a moment to rotate himself around so that he was now facing the class again...and all their backs now to him. Hurrr....hadn't thought this through so well, had he? Awkward.

"Who can tell me what terminology is used once we pass the first quarter moon phase? It is no longer a waxing crescent, but a what?"

Yes, not the most riveting of exercises nor discussion at the moment, but Cosgrach would be handed the reigns soon...and he was hoping students would forgive him once he started, despite it going against some of his classroom rules, a special surprise to everyone. Nothing like bribing through the stomach, right?

It sort of worked on the astronomer. Sort of.



Penelope returned to the position that made a new moon when she heard Professor Flamsteed telling her not to get ahead of things. Slowly turning to the left when the professor told them to, Penelope looked at the waxing crescent. She continued to move until half of the sphere was illuminated, the first quarter. Now was the time for making a waxing gibbous, and then a full moon. Penelope stared at her full moon. It wasn't quite the same as the real full moon, but it looked like a full moon. She listened to Professor Flamsteed's question, keeping her eyes fixed on her full moon on a stick. "After the first quarter moon is the waxing gibbous moon, and after that is the full moon." Penelope didn't look away from her styrofoam ball moon while she answered the question. Was she getting too far ahead? The waning gibbous moon came after the full moon, then the third quarter, the waning crescent, and back to the new moon. The lunar cycle. It took about 27.3 days for the moon to complete a lunar cycle. Fascinating. The moon was one of her favorite things to study in astronomy, especially the full moon. She could stand here all night just staring at the moon.

[Daemon]

And they were moving again. Doing as told, Benzi swiveled around on his foot until his back was to the flames and the little moon was... dark. Not what the professor was talking about at all. This was what is known as an eclipse, where his head was much too big to let any light illuminate the ball.

Stretching his arm out far, he grinned when the silhouette of his head appeared on his little moon. A semi full Benzi eclipse. BUT, okay, he'd play with the rest of the class and get to the full moon, lifting his arm and therefore eliminating his shadow from the white ball.

Hello full moon.

And as for the question... Toby and Cutty and others had already answered it so he just nodded and continued to mess around with his moon. Of course, he was nodding at the wall since they were now facing away from the professor but whatever. Flamsteed would see an inverse nod from the back of his head.

[Casey O]

Marigold followed along, turning her ball on a stick with Flamsteed. She made a solar system out of styrofoam balls once, in muggle primary school. They did it every year, actually. Did they think the planets were so easy to forget? My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Viva Pluto or whatever.

"Waxing gibbous," she said, even though others had already said her answer. "Professor, this may be a stupid question, but for the moons of Jupiter and other planets, are the phases the same? Or, because the distance from the sun is different, do they act differently?"

[Sararara]

Norah added all the moon stuffs to her notes in sparkly ink which was TOTALLY fitting even though she hadn't even been thinking of glowing moons when she'd chosen her ink color for the class. Man. She was totally a seer. A seer of INKS. If only Professor Cassie was a part of this three way class thingy, she'd be so proud.

The Hufflepuff fiddled with a strand of hair as she thought about the next question. She KNEW this, right? She'd learned the moon stuff before with her dad but she'd already forgotten about the new moon so really who even knew what she knew. Uh. So there was the full moon and the new moon (apparently), and then there was waxing stuff and waning stuff and crescents and quarters and gibbous. She knew that bit, but how was she supposed to know about the order? Was gibbous even a real WORD? It sure didn't sound like a word, if you asked her. Gibbousgibbousgibbous. She didn't even know what it sounded like, but it sure didn't sound like a real word. Biting her lip, Norah stuck a hand in the air, figuring she could at least take a shot at the answer. She just had to mix 'n match some of the words she knew, right? Just like she did with her socks in the morning 'cause matching socks were a total waste of two perfectly individual feet. The opposite of waxing was waning and the opposite of crescent was gibbous so she'd just go with that, yeah? It was worth a try, anyways. "Is it a waning gibbous? What does gibbous even mean?" she asked, hand in the air.

Well. She hadn't exactly answered the question but she'd asked two of her own which had to count for something, yeah?

[kayquilz]

They were spinning. Eden wanted to dance. She paid attention to her styrofoam moon, though, and did try to take note of the way the light played on the ball...it did look like a legit moon. Cool. She was dying to take notes, though. ugh. She'd have to jot everything down once they got a chance to sit. Or...should she try to scribble some notes down right now.

Ugh.

The woes of being studious.

...but as for the terminology, Eden wasn't sure. Hmm. Waxing. How odd to call the moon phases....waxing. It reminded Eden of cleaning a car. Hmph. She still had no idea, but she quickly set down her styrofoam to JOT DOWN ALL THIS STUFF BECAUSE DEAR MERLIN EDEN WAS PANICKING ABOUT NOT REMEMBERING IT TO WRITE IT DOWN.

[Deezerz]

Beverly made mental notes on what Airey was saying, but she was sure it was on their textbook considering that's where she had read about the phases of the moon. Rotating as he suggested, Beverly's brow rose. That was the waxing crescent. Rotate, rotate. And this was the first quarter.

Neat.

Rotating happened once more, she tilted her head at her moon-on-a-stick, her hand slowly going up into the air. "A waxing gibbous moon..." Yeah. That was after the first quarter happened. She remembered her textbook saying that.

[MudInMyBlood]

Blah, blah, blah... they could start rotating themselves. Yeah, that was all she got out of the latest rant. In fact she was SO excited about being able to do something that required movement that she missed the tid bit about going at it slow. AJ wanted to be the BEST moon spinner ever so she began to twirl around in warp speed. We're talking olympic moon spinning here. Everything was a blur because she was going THAT fast. So naturally she missed the whole "everybody else was spinning like a sane person slowly" thing.

Whhhhheeee. It was lots of fun... you know, the first couple of minutes. The wind on her face and the way her hair fell behind her was magical.

Then...

That unmistakable watery feeling in the back of her throat happened. Vomit was coming and she was too far in. Immediately she stopped spinning, but the world was still moving around her. Stumbling a few paces, she actually managed to get closer to Airey that she previously was.

"MMM... crescents." Trying to play off this whole little situation here. He asked something about crescents which was kind of weird. What did those buttery rolls of goodness have to do with the moon?

No mattered how many times she swallowed something was coming up. It was happening. Oh no.

BLEEEERGH...

A huge puddle was right at Airey's feet. His shoes most likely got splattered a bit, but she wasn't paying much attention to that at the moment. Her stomach was still turning and she was trying to keep the remainder of her food in her stomach.

Just as she was feeling better, her moon ball fell off of her stick, and rolled right into the vomit. Of course it did. Talk about adding insult to injury. Whoops. She had forgotten to hold her stick the right side up while she heaved in front of everybody. Honest mistake when you were moon spinning.

"ERM... sorry about that." Professor head of house sir.

[feeheeheeny]

...Tobes was absOLUTELY asking for it, BOPPING HER EVEN AFTER FLAMSTEED LIGHTLY REPRIMANDED THEM. Sophie WRINKLED HER NOSE playfully at her best friend, grinning all the while, and debated her options - she could bop him back again, or... oooooorrrrr... hehehehehh. HEHEHEH. Yes. That would do just fine. But she had to bide her time first and STRIKE WHEN HE LEAST EXPECTED IT.

Very innocently, Sophie tuned back into Flamsteed's instructions and obediently rotated slowly to the left, still holding the moon out in front of her. This activity was simple and kind of boring, but effective for demonstrative purposes, so it was okay. Aroooound she went slowly, turning even more as the professor spoke, and stopped when the surface of the moon was fully bathed in light.

Tobes had a weird answer to Flamsteed's question, and then he was murmuring alternative names to himself for his full moon - and that was when she made her move, reaching her hand not holding her moon-on-a-stick and - as to not disOBEY Flamsteed and she WAS keeping her moon to herself - she lightly dug her fingers into Tobes' side and tummy and tickled him for a few long moments before stopping.

That was proper retaliation and a sure win. Boom. GOT HIM.

[Felixir]

He hadn't been expecting it. Not for one second. Not THAT. Not from SOPHIE BROWN. Whom he TRUSTED.

Toby was still looking back over his shoulder, then leaning right back instead so he could watch Airey all upside-down and everything. Hehehe. Hi Flamste-

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The effect was immediate. Toby was deathly ticklish, and it took only the slightest touch to the ribs to send him into hysterics. But with the angle he was at, and having not expected it at all, Toby let out a strange mixture of a GASP, a SQUAWK, and a SQUEAL. The tickling didn't last for very long, but it was long enough for Toby to collapse into weird gasps of laughter, trying VERY HARD not to be OBVIOUS whilst LOWKEY BABBLING AT SOPH TO STOP.

"ASKHDskksdkshkSOPhaAHEHEHEE!" Oh. OH. SHE HAD ALREADY STOPPED. Oh. Oh. Okay. He could breathe. Doing that now. Okay. Just... gonna stand back up again, and... ahem. Nothing to see here. Only Toby was definitely gonna get Soph back for that. Later.

As for right now, he kept his arms PINNED to himself in case of further attack, and gave a shudder. Merlin.

[WhittyBitty]

SNORT.

Professor Dakest's comment about the s'mores supplies almost had Lux putting her little moon right in the fire. That wouldn't be good at all but fortunately she managed to save herself. Crisis averted. Raising her hand, she silently told him that she wanted them without interrupting Flammy's lecture. See, she was a good student.

...And now she wanted s'mores.

Soooooowly rotating herself to the left, Lux held her moon in place and watched as the light began to shine on it. Oooh, how pretty. Her moon was waxing. Smiling, she kept her eyes on the growing light on the right side of it.

Oh, another question. Lux raised her hand. "It's called the Waxing Gibbous." Nod.

[Govoni]

.

.

This seemed like a very awkward dance, in hindsight...but Gabriel did as was instructed, paying close attention to how the bluebell flame first appeared as a crescent and then grew. And after it reached the halfway mark, it seemed to swell out further.

...which was what the Gibbous name referred to: swelling, bulging, or convexed.

Gabe almost answered the question...when someone had asked...but he couldn't make out the owner of the voice and alas, it wasn't his place. That, and he wasn't facing anyone...and it was strange to talk with your back to people.

So, he remained silent this go around.

[Anna Banana]

A correct answer--WOOT!

Kate began the awkward transition of rotating slowly to the left while trying to keep her moon in place. It was awkward, because she found herself eyeing the moon, trying to keep it still, while also trying to move another part of her body. Kate had remembered studying the moon phases when she was being homeschooled by her mom. The moon always seemed like it was growing, even though it wasn't.

Then there were times when the moon seemed like it was shrinking, or waning she should say. "Is it the waxing gibbous?" she asked, her hand raised. It was the phase where the moon was almost full but not quite.

[ArianaBlack]

Holding his moon as still as he could was starting to become quite the task. You know, he never realized how hard it was to stand still up until now. Merlin's pants this was hard. Especially since the moon depended on it, y'know? But anyways, he was still. SUPER still and SUPER concentrated. New moon. Got it.

Man, Flamsteed sure knew how to talk.

Which he only noticed 'cause he was trying to stay really still.

Alright, finally time to move. The Gryffindor moved as slooooowly to the left as he could, still holding the moon in it's place. And yeah, the light was starting to grow on the right side. Huh. Waxing. This was much more interesting that the wave stuff from last term. Constellations were fun though. But this demonstration was better. At least, in Zander's humble opinion.

He continued to follow along with the demonstration, doing his best to follow along as Professor Flamsteed moved about. Again he chose to stay quiet when the next question was asked, realizing that the same answer had been repeated just about a million and three times. No need to make it a million and four, y'know? He did notice Sophie and Toby though and couldn't help but snicker. This was too good. OOPS.

[SarcasticStrawberry]

See she was right. IT WAS THE NEW MOON. She just didn't raise her hand and answer the question out loud. She was still twirling her moon-on-a-stick. Oppps she should really stop doing that right?

When she seen the professor hold up his moon-on-a-stick. The sixth year did the same. Listening to his instructions she stood straight up again. She held her moon-on-a-stick out in front of her and rotated herself around it slowly as she was instructed. She moved around to the left. She listened to Professor Airey as he explain what this was. It was waxing. Clearly not the waxing she was thinking about. She knew all around this moon quarters and waxing rotating around the orbits. She kept listening to the professor. "Waxing gibbous, professor." She stopped once she was at the first quarter of the orbiting the moon-on-a-stick.

[hermionesclone]

Hay is for horses. Hay. Is for. Horses.

Airey Flamsteed was the biggest freaking nerd alive.

Grayson couldn't help but be embarrassed as well as thoroughly amused by the pun. Embarrassed for the guy but man, his timing had been on point, he was gonna give him that. Hey is for horses. SNORT.

Before he could comment on it, the lesson had gotten started and they were learning about...........

HOLY.

FREAKING

MERLIN.

WEREWOLVES! FREAKING WEREWOLVES, MAN. Grayson was dead chuffed at this news. Werewolves were kinda interesting and all, you know? They weren't the kinda creatures that were gonna skip around throwing rose petals. They were dangerous and deadly and therefore Grayson loved them. Probably not as much as he loved dragons but eh.

Being all too excited about this, the seventh year didn't end up answering the first question. He simply carried out the task at hand so that, before long, he found himself standing there with a makeshift Styrofoam moon on a stick in his hand. He tilted his head, his eyes staying glued to the object he was holding. Huh. This was useful, actually. But the dim light was gonna end up making him feel kinda sleepy. Or, as if he wanted to be sitting near a campfire and roasting some marshmallows. Both options sounded great, you know.

And the second question? Not answered either. He did, however, move around towards the left, trying to keep the makeshift moon held in place. The bluebell flames illuminated more and more of the moon and he was starting to find that this visual demonstration was helping a lot. Uh huh.

But LOL. Waxing. Interesting choice of word there.

[Kolyander]

Yeah Hady was slowly getting lost in this topic. Even if her first answer was correct it didn't mean she was keeping up all that well without taking her usual notes. Not to mention she was supposed to be doing what?

Blinking up at Professor Airey several times it took a few moments for everything that had been said to finally click into place in her brain cause good gosh way to much was being said! The third year had no idea what the next phase of the moon was called though she had a feeling once the correct answer was told she'd want to kick herself for not knowing it. However right now she focused her attention on holding her arm with her stick straight out in front of her while slowly moving to the left in a circle. She watched closely as it went from darkness to light. That was pretty cool and much easier to understand what you were seeing it.

[Holmesian Feline]

Benny wasn't getting the connection that some of his classmates had come to...that werewolves were among them. Much less that the new defense professor was one of the troubled creatures. He was beginning to think on how the subject connected with the other two subjects which made him concerned. Either seemed to be a cause for difficulty, especially given the fact that wolfsbane wasn't exactly an easy potion to brew. If they were in fact leaning in that direction.

And him without his potions helper...sigh.

He missed the various comments Professor Flamsteed made while his gaze briefly fell in the direction of Adi...and Henric. Pulling himself back when the next instructions were given. Ben slowly as instructed, yet almost forcibly turned to his left, keeping the fake moon upright and relatively still in place. The 'waxing crescent" appeared as he moved and watched it while the astronomy buff described it. Would you look at that.

Then they were at half-moon. As for the terminology, Ben had the feeling it was still Waxing since it was still increasing, but the second term always got him lost. Not the others as a few had answered. Waxing Gibbous. Ben continued his journey with his sphere until it was fully illuminated as Flamsteed had asked and paused in step.

[Cassirin]

"Gibbons?" Dot asked loudly, since she was super duper busy turning sloooooowly to the left to make her moon turn from new to crescent to waxing monkey butts. Or... no, that didn't seem right. "Ribbons?"

Dot kept turning, and it took all her energy NOT to bop anyone with her moon. But Starman had seen her, so she wasn't allowed to bop again. BUT LOOK! Sophie was doing it! "Lunation is happening. Lunation." And it was against the rules. StarMan said.

[Jessiqua]

Zhenya wrote down a mental note in her head; New Moon = first phase of lunar cycle. Because, after all, she DID want to remember everything, and pass her exam. And now they were moving around their moon. OOoooo000ooooooooo. Zhenya slowly rotated to the left, as Professor Flamsteed had instructed, and she observed the changes to her styrofoam moon. Cool, it was actually interesting SEEING it for herself, rather than just seeing pictures. Even if the pictures were really good.

Waxing - growing of the moon.
Waxing Crescent - the first sliver of moon visible
First Quarter - obvious; first quarter of the moon's orbit around earth
Half Moon - obvious

Zhenya made mental notes of all of the positions in her head, so that she could lock 'em in there. And finally, she found herself rotated to see the half moon. What was the phase after the first quarter moon? Zhenya swivelled around to look at Professor Flamsteed and raised her free hand. "Er... the Waning Gibbous?" she asked. Okay, so she shouldn't be answering a question with a question, but she could never remember what order the Gibbous moons went in. Waning, Waxing, Wicked, Whomping, Weasley...

[laurange]

The styrofoam balls were a very cool touch. And the walking around in circles. Though it was a little bit awkward that he was listening to Professor Flaminghorse talk about lunar cycles when they were facing their backs to him. Eh. For the sake of some semblance of respect, he twisted his body around enough to hear about three quarters of the question. So what stage was it when he could see the entire thing lit up?

OH OH HE KNEW THIS ONE! He actually knew this one and he didn't even really have to think about it to think about or even figure it out. It was an EASY ONE. BONUS MARKS! "The full moon, professor!" he said, hand in the air and kinda bouncing because it wasn't often that he knew the answer. "And it's weird because we can't actually SEE the whole moon but it's really just half, so even though it's technically a half-moon, the name's taken by what is actually a quarter moon."

Wait, that made more sense in his head. Oh well.

[Weasley174]

Angel was trying not to laugh as her sister span so fast that she knocked something over, she was trying her hardest not to laugh at all but she failed and started to laugh a bit.

Angel managed to stop after a bit and she did as the Professor instructed turning herself around until she was in the position the Professor had asked them to get into.

Angel raised her hand and smiled at the professor as she spoke. "Is it something like The Waxing Gibbous!" Angel wasn't sure but she thought that it was worth a guess.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Henric sneaked a glance at Professor Dakest..rumour has it that the DADA professor might be ...a...a...werewolf!? If it was true...Henric would find it supercool. A werewolf professor teaching in Hogwarts...man...how epic was that?! Of course... he wouldn't want to meet one in real life, uh uh..no. He bet Professor Flamsteed was probably expecting a scary reaction from the students too but...y'know after experience three years of weird happenings and tragic loss of a housemate...he was pretty sure most of them were immune to it by now so...it was not surprising in a way...? Anyhuu....Henric thought this lesson was still going to be a brilliant one...indefinitely, he mused.

He held his moon-stick up right in front of him and moved his head slightly to the left, oh wait... were they supposed to go around it? Ohh...oops...left rotate around Henric....rotate...slowly now. There! He saw it! That waxing crescent! Woaah...what a beautiful sight that was....he couldn't help feeling amazed. Adi seemed to try really hard containing his excitement, He chuckled at the older puff boy, Adi being all Adi again.Yup.

Urgh...the rotating was making him dizzy so he stopped after seeing enough of the new moon transition. Cool.
Question time...again...he had no idea on how to answer Prof.Flamsteed.

And they were moving again. Doing as told, Benzi swiveled around on his foot until his back was to the flames and the little moon was... dark. Not what the professor was talking about at all. This was what is known as an eclipse, where his head was much too big to let any light illuminate the ball.

Stretching his arm out far, he grinned when the silhouette of his head appeared on his little moon. A semi full Benzi eclipse. BUT, okay, he'd play with the rest of the class and get to the full moon, lifting his arm and therefore eliminating his shadow from the white ball.

Hello full moon.

And as for the question... Toby and Cutty and others had already answered it so he just nodded and continued to mess around with his moon. Of course, he was nodding at the wall since they were now facing away from the professor but whatever. Flamsteed would see an inverse nod from the back of his head.
They were spinning. Eden wanted to dance. She paid attention to her styrofoam moon, though, and did try to take note of the way the light played on the ball...it did look like a legit moon. Cool. She was dying to take notes, though. ugh. She'd have to jot everything down once they got a chance to sit. Or...should she try to scribble some notes down right now.

Ugh.

The woes of being studious.

...but as for the terminology, Eden wasn't sure. Hmm. Waxing. How odd to call the moon phases....waxing. It reminded Eden of cleaning a car. Hmph. She still had no idea, but she quickly set down her styrofoam to JOT DOWN ALL THIS STUFF BECAUSE DEAR MERLIN EDEN WAS PANICKING ABOUT NOT REMEMBERING IT TO WRITE IT DOWN.
.

.

This seemed like a very awkward dance, in hindsight...but Gabriel did as was instructed, paying close attention to how the bluebell flame first appeared as a crescent and then grew. And after it reached the halfway mark, it seemed to swell out further.

...which was what the Gibbous name referred to: swelling, bulging, or convexed.

Gabe almost answered the question...when someone had asked...but he couldn't make out the owner of the voice and alas, it wasn't his place. That, and he wasn't facing anyone...and it was strange to talk with your back to people.

So, he remained silent this go around.

Holding his moon as still as he could was starting to become quite the task. You know, he never realized how hard it was to stand still up until now. Merlin's pants this was hard. Especially since the moon depended on it, y'know? But anyways, he was still. SUPER still and SUPER concentrated. New moon. Got it.

Man, Flamsteed sure knew how to talk.

Which he only noticed 'cause he was trying to stay really still.

Alright, finally time to move. The Gryffindor moved as slooooowly to the left as he could, still holding the moon in it's place. And yeah, the light was starting to grow on the right side. Huh. Waxing. This was much more interesting that the wave stuff from last term. Constellations were fun though. But this demonstration was better. At least, in Zander's humble opinion.

He continued to follow along with the demonstration, doing his best to follow along as Professor Flamsteed moved about. Again he chose to stay quiet when the next question was asked, realizing that the same answer had been repeated just about a million and three times. No need to make it a million and four, y'know? He did notice Sophie and Toby though and couldn't help but snicker. This was too good. OOPS.

Hay is for horses. Hay. Is for. Horses.

Airey Flamsteed was the biggest freaking nerd alive.

Grayson couldn't help but be embarrassed as well as thoroughly amused by the pun. Embarrassed for the guy but man, his timing had been on point, he was gonna give him that. Hey is for horses. SNORT.

Before he could comment on it, the lesson had gotten started and they were learning about...........

HOLY.

FREAKING

MERLIN.

WEREWOLVES! FREAKING WEREWOLVES, MAN. Grayson was dead chuffed at this news. Werewolves were kinda interesting and all, you know? They weren't the kinda creatures that were gonna skip around throwing rose petals. They were dangerous and deadly and therefore Grayson loved them. Probably not as much as he loved dragons but eh.

Being all too excited about this, the seventh year didn't end up answering the first question. He simply carried out the task at hand so that, before long, he found himself standing there with a makeshift Styrofoam moon on a stick in his hand. He tilted his head, his eyes staying glued to the object he was holding. Huh. This was useful, actually. But the dim light was gonna end up making him feel kinda sleepy. Or, as if he wanted to be sitting near a campfire and roasting some marshmallows. Both options sounded great, you know.

And the second question? Not answered either. He did, however, move around towards the left, trying to keep the makeshift moon held in place. The bluebell flames illuminated more and more of the moon and he was starting to find that this visual demonstration was helping a lot. Uh huh.

But LOL. Waxing. Interesting choice of word there.

Yeah Hady was slowly getting lost in this topic. Even if her first answer was correct it didn't mean she was keeping up all that well without taking her usual notes. Not to mention she was supposed to be doing what?

Blinking up at Professor Airey several times it took a few moments for everything that had been said to finally click into place in her brain cause good gosh way to much was being said! The third year had no idea what the next phase of the moon was called though she had a feeling once the correct answer was told she'd want to kick herself for not knowing it. However right now she focused her attention on holding her arm with her stick straight out in front of her while slowly moving to the left in a circle. She watched closely as it went from darkness to light. That was pretty cool and much easier to understand what you were seeing it.

Benny wasn't getting the connection that some of his classmates had come to...that werewolves were among them. Much less that the new defense professor was one of the troubled creatures. He was beginning to think on how the subject connected with the other two subjects which made him concerned. Either seemed to be a cause for difficulty, especially given the fact that wolfsbane wasn't exactly an easy potion to brew. If they were in fact leaning in that direction.

And him without his potions helper...sigh.

He missed the various comments Professor Flamsteed made while his gaze briefly fell in the direction of Adi...and Henric. Pulling himself back when the next instructions were given. Ben slowly as instructed, yet almost forcibly turned to his left, keeping the fake moon upright and relatively still in place. The 'waxing crescent" appeared as he moved and watched it while the astronomy buff described it. Would you look at that.

Then they were at half-moon. As for the terminology, Ben had the feeling it was still Waxing since it was still increasing, but the second term always got him lost. Not the others as a few had answered. Waxing Gibbous. Ben continued his journey with his sphere until it was fully illuminated as Flamsteed had asked and paused in step.

Yeah....he should have thought this through a bit more. Thank Merlin he had his own prop to distract himself. Glancing out of the corner of his eye as he rotated a slowly left to right where he stood in front of the class, his eyes glazed over those who had not raised there hands but were still very much actively participating in the little demonstration.

Hats off to all of you. Literally...because no one was actually wearing a hat in the classroom. Against the uniform policy, after all.
Blah, blah, blah... they could start rotating themselves. Yeah, that was all she got out of the latest rant. In fact she was SO excited about being able to do something that required movement that she missed the tid bit about going at it slow. AJ wanted to be the BEST moon spinner ever so she began to twirl around in warp speed. We're talking olympic moon spinning here. Everything was a blur because she was going THAT fast. So naturally she missed the whole "everybody else was spinning like a sane person slowly" thing.

Whhhhheeee. It was lots of fun... you know, the first couple of minutes. The wind on her face and the way her hair fell behind her was magical.

Then...

That unmistakable watery feeling in the back of her throat happened. Vomit was coming and she was too far in. Immediately she stopped spinning, but the world was still moving around her. Stumbling a few paces, she actually managed to get closer to Airey that she previously was.

"MMM... crescents." Trying to play off this whole little situation here. He asked something about crescents which was kind of weird. What did those buttery rolls of goodness have to do with the moon?

No mattered how many times she swallowed something was coming up. It was happening. Oh no.

BLEEEERGH...

A huge puddle was right at Airey's feet. His shoes most likely got splattered a bit, but she wasn't paying much attention to that at the moment. Her stomach was still turning and she was trying to keep the remainder of her food in her stomach.

Just as she was feeling better, her moon ball fell off of her stick, and rolled right into the vomit. Of course it did. Talk about adding insult to injury. Whoops. She had forgotten to hold her stick the right side up while she heaved in front of everybody. Honest mistake when you were moon spinning.

"ERM... sorry about that." Professor head of house sir.
............

............

............

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a few moments absolutely no sound came from the Astronomy professor despite his face being contorted in the most horrible of ways and his mouth hanging wide open. It was as though someone had cast a Silencing Charm on him to prevent the entirety of the class from having their eardrums ruptured from the high pitch shriek that tended to come from the man when his suits were in grave danger.

If this had been the case, however, the charm had worn off.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!" he howled at the moon. His entire body quivering, the man finally stopped shrieking after a full minute - of which he had carried the same shrill note the entire time - and STARED at Miss Valentine.

Count to 10, Flamsteed. Just count to 10...

"Wa’ ... cha’ ... wej ... loS ... vagh ... jav ... Soch ... chorgh ... Hut..."

Nothing like counting in Klingon to settle the nerves and regain some perspective, right?

"10 points," he barked, only his attention suddenly snapped around to the entire class, but especially on Miss Valentine's fellow Gryffindors. "From all four houses. You all should be ashamed of yourselves and your disregard for another's well being." camaraderie and companionship were special things. Ask him about it sometime. He had lost his best friend and beloved pet rock.

"I trust you know the proper spells to fix this...situation, Miss Valentine?" he said, eyes narrowing and not daring to actually look down at his own shoes right now. "And an additional 5 points will be deducted from Gryffindor for your inability to follow instructions."

Pausing for a beat to catch his breath, although his nostrils were still flaring like a bull's, he exhaled and spoke again. "Are you alright now? Or shall I dismiss you to go see the Healer?"

Norah added all the moon stuffs to her notes in sparkly ink which was TOTALLY fitting even though she hadn't even been thinking of glowing moons when she'd chosen her ink color for the class. Man. She was totally a seer. A seer of INKS. If only Professor Cassie was a part of this three way class thingy, she'd be so proud.

The Hufflepuff fiddled with a strand of hair as she thought about the next question. She KNEW this, right? She'd learned the moon stuff before with her dad but she'd already forgotten about the new moon so really who even knew what she knew. Uh. So there was the full moon and the new moon (apparently), and then there was waxing stuff and waning stuff and crescents and quarters and gibbous. She knew that bit, but how was she supposed to know about the order? Was gibbous even a real WORD? It sure didn't sound like a word, if you asked her. Gibbousgibbousgibbous. She didn't even know what it sounded like, but it sure didn't sound like a real word. Biting her lip, Norah stuck a hand in the air, figuring she could at least take a shot at the answer. She just had to mix 'n match some of the words she knew, right? Just like she did with her socks in the morning 'cause matching socks were a total waste of two perfectly individual feet. The opposite of waxing was waning and the opposite of crescent was gibbous so she'd just go with that, yeah? It was worth a try, anyways. "Is it a waning gibbous? What does gibbous even mean?" she asked, hand in the air.

Well. She hadn't exactly answered the question but she'd asked two of her own which had to count for something, yeah?

Zhenya wrote down a mental note in her head; New Moon = first phase of lunar cycle. Because, after all, she DID want to remember everything, and pass her exam. And now they were moving around their moon. OOoooo000ooooooooo. Zhenya slowly rotated to the left, as Professor Flamsteed had instructed, and she observed the changes to her styrofoam moon. Cool, it was actually interesting SEEING it for herself, rather than just seeing pictures. Even if the pictures were really good.

Waxing - growing of the moon.
Waxing Crescent - the first sliver of moon visible
First Quarter - obvious; first quarter of the moon's orbit around earth
Half Moon - obvious

Zhenya made mental notes of all of the positions in her head, so that she could lock 'em in there. And finally, she found herself rotated to see the half moon. What was the phase after the first quarter moon? Zhenya swivelled around to look at Professor Flamsteed and raised her free hand. "Er... the Waning Gibbous?" she asked. Okay, so she shouldn't be answering a question with a question, but she could never remember what order the Gibbous moons went in. Waning, Waxing, Wicked, Whomping, Weasley...

Still huffing and puffing and ready to blow someone's house down, Airey found enough composure to call on a few raised hands. FINALLY.

"Not quite," he said, his tone still very much carrying an unwarrented hint of annoyance as he spoke to Miss Kittredge and Miss Burton specifically. "Waning gibbous is indeed one of the phases of the Moon, but it occurs after a full moon...which you will see in just a moment." His tone was now somewhat back to normal, for the record, as class seemed to get back on track. "Gibbous, in astronomy, means to have the illuminated part greater than a semicircle but less than a circle. If you reference a dictionary, however, you will also find that it also means convex or protuberant."

LIKE HIS EYES HAD BEEN JUST A MOMENT AGO!

...Tobes was absOLUTELY asking for it, BOPPING HER EVEN AFTER FLAMSTEED LIGHTLY REPRIMANDED THEM. Sophie WRINKLED HER NOSE playfully at her best friend, grinning all the while, and debated her options - she could bop him back again, or... oooooorrrrr... hehehehehh. HEHEHEH. Yes. That would do just fine. But she had to bide her time first and STRIKE WHEN HE LEAST EXPECTED IT.

Very innocently, Sophie tuned back into Flamsteed's instructions and obediently rotated slowly to the left, still holding the moon out in front of her. This activity was simple and kind of boring, but effective for demonstrative purposes, so it was okay. Aroooound she went slowly, turning even more as the professor spoke, and stopped when the surface of the moon was fully bathed in light.

Tobes had a weird answer to Flamsteed's question, and then he was murmuring alternative names to himself for his full moon - and that was when she made her move, reaching her hand not holding her moon-on-a-stick and - as to not disOBEY Flamsteed and she WAS keeping her moon to herself - she lightly dug her fingers into Tobes' side and tummy and tickled him for a few long moments before stopping.

That was proper retaliation and a sure win. Boom. GOT HIM.

He hadn't been expecting it. Not for one second. Not THAT. Not from SOPHIE BROWN. Whom he TRUSTED.

Toby was still looking back over his shoulder, then leaning right back instead so he could watch Airey all upside-down and everything. Hehehe. Hi Flamste-

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The effect was immediate. Toby was deathly ticklish, and it took only the slightest touch to the ribs to send him into hysterics. But with the angle he was at, and having not expected it at all, Toby let out a strange mixture of a GASP, a SQUAWK, and a SQUEAL. The tickling didn't last for very long, but it was long enough for Toby to collapse into weird gasps of laughter, trying VERY HARD not to be OBVIOUS whilst LOWKEY BABBLING AT SOPH TO STOP.

"ASKHDskksdkshkSOPhaAHEHEHEE!" Oh. OH. SHE HAD ALREADY STOPPED. Oh. Oh. Okay. He could breathe. Doing that now. Okay. Just... gonna stand back up again, and... ahem. Nothing to see here. Only Toby was definitely gonna get Soph back for that. Later.

As for right now, he kept his arms PINNED to himself in case of further attack, and gave a shudder. Merlin.
"Gibbons?" Dot asked loudly, since she was super duper busy turning sloooooowly to the left to make her moon turn from new to crescent to waxing monkey butts. Or... no, that didn't seem right. "Ribbons?"

Dot kept turning, and it took all her energy NOT to bop anyone with her moon. But Starman had seen her, so she wasn't allowed to bop again. BUT LOOK! Sophie was doing it! "Lunation is happening. Lunation." And it was against the rules. StarMan said.

AND WERE DOING AGAIN! AIREY LEIGHTON FLAMSTEED HAD GIBBOUS EYES.

EYES THAT WERE STARING AT MISS BROWN AND MR. TOBY AND THERE INAPPROPRIATE DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION IN THE CLASSROOM!

He probably would not have noticed it had it not been for everyone standing, therefore making it MUCH easier to notice these sorts of things.

His blue eyes briefly flickered over to Miss Wojack, who seemed to be confused on the definition of lunation actually meant. "Lunation, Miss Wojack, is actually precisely what we are demonstrating right now, the period of time from one new moon to the next," he explained through gritted teeth. "What we are NOT doing, Miss Brown...Mr. Toby, is precisely what you two are doing. Just did. THAT!"

His arms were waving wildly in their general direction with some wiggly finger movements meant to represent tickling. But, really, the man just looked like he was trying to imitate Bartholomew Henry - and doing a very poor job of it.

"I will speak with both of you after class. Do not leave this classroom without doing so. And please trade seats with someone so you are further apart from each other to prevent further temptations."

They could stew on that for the rest of the lesson.

And he heard that laugh, Mr. Adair.

Adi just kept grinning at Henric. Really, it had been an accident but he would let Henric think it was not. It was more fun that way. Hehe.
....................

Yay! New moon! Adi had read and remembered correctly. Was this how it felt to be a Ravenclaw who was confident about their answers because he sure felt like one right now. Okay, moving on! The sixth year started rotating sloooooowly though with MUCH enthusiasm to the left as instructed by The Suit. Wheeeeee! This was fu- woah! He got a little feet tied there in his giddiness and almost crashed into Henric. TOO MUCH ENTHUSIASM! But luckily he managed to keep his balance. His Housemate might not be so forgiving if he took him down even though it was the older boy's birthday.

Anywaaaayyy, Adi righted himself, the 'moon' in front of his face and continued rotating, noticing exactly what The Suit had said about the light growing from the right side. FASCINATING stuff this was! He wished he could right it all down for reference but on second thought, this was much more fun.

The Puffer kept his eyes focused on the moon until the entire thing lit up. Cool! And there was Flamsteed with another question, his voice floating over to the class as Adi realised that they were all backing the man. Had this been set up on purpose? But! Onto the question. Gibbous. He thought the answer had to do something with gibbous. Hand up, he said to the room in front of him. "The Waxing Gibbous, maybe.'' Er... should he shout that answer? Could Flamsteed hear properly with since the class was facing the other way?

So, Soph had gotten him right BACK with a bop on the head, and Toby was quite prepared to keep the back and forth going for as long as necessary. He'd just looked over and raised his moon to return the favour again when Airey's voice rang out telling them to keep their moons to themselves. But Toby, who usually did evERYTHINGHEWASTOLDBYPROFESSORSOMGRULES!!!11!1!!ON E!!, was feeling ESPECIALLY fidgetyandimpulsiveandmischievous today, and super quickly whapped Soph on the head just ONE LAST TIME. Hehe. Last hit. Hehehe.

Okay. He was done now. Promise. Ahem. "Sorry Professor Airey," Toby whispershouted, just for good measure.

But he couldn't keep his moon still, because he was Toby, so instead it ended up being carefully brandished about again, occasionally throwing the light from the bluebell flames onto his face. Lalala, don't mind him. Oh, but... they were supposed to be doing things. Rotating. Right. Toby did that too, rotating on the spot so more of the light could hit his styrofoam moon until he basically had a full moon... before using it to write his name in the air, just 'cause. That was until the question was asked and he raised his hand... the one holding the moon, and waved it around.

"Waxing gibbons. GIBBOUS. Waxing g i b b o u s. Don't wax gibbons." He fidgeted on the spot and bounced on his toes, before looking over his shoulder to see what else was going on that he was missing because he wasn't looking.

Then back at the moon, all lit up. "Full moon," he said to himself, before lowering it down so his body blocked the light and couldn't reach it. "Total eclipse." Hehe. Toby looked over his shoulder so he could see Airey again. It felt rude to stand with his back to him, even if they'd been told to.

Chssh!

The little foam sphere became a moon as Cutty stabbed it with the stick and held it up to his face blocking the light from the bluebell flame casted expertly by Professor Flamsteed. No wandwork required. Happygoody should be glad. As the Astronomer Royal related the phases of the moon to their little foam samples it gave the tactile learner a better sense of a thing he'd seen described many times in many ways in books.

He lifted a heel out to the left and took a step, the foam sphere moon took on some light on the right side. The crescent. A familiar sight. He inched again to his left to see the first quarter, which had to appear as half of course for being half of the half of the moon they could see. Standing there in the dark, he then began to shift his moon to the right and to the left giving himself the visual of all of it's phases. A part of him wished for Headmistress Truebridge as he would've liked her input on what Flamsteed was saying earlier about the effects of the lunar phases great and small.

"Gibbous. The Waxing Gibbous moon, sir." To the riiiiight. To the leeeeeft went the little foam moon.



Penelope returned to the position that made a new moon when she heard Professor Flamsteed telling her not to get ahead of things. Slowly turning to the left when the professor told them to, Penelope looked at the waxing crescent. She continued to move until half of the sphere was illuminated, the first quarter. Now was the time for making a waxing gibbous, and then a full moon. Penelope stared at her full moon. It wasn't quite the same as the real full moon, but it looked like a full moon. She listened to Professor Flamsteed's question, keeping her eyes fixed on her full moon on a stick. "After the first quarter moon is the waxing gibbous moon, and after that is the full moon." Penelope didn't look away from her styrofoam ball moon while she answered the question. Was she getting too far ahead? The waning gibbous moon came after the full moon, then the third quarter, the waning crescent, and back to the new moon. The lunar cycle. It took about 27.3 days for the moon to complete a lunar cycle. Fascinating. The moon was one of her favorite things to study in astronomy, especially the full moon. She could stand here all night just staring at the moon.

Beverly made mental notes on what Airey was saying, but she was sure it was on their textbook considering that's where she had read about the phases of the moon. Rotating as he suggested, Beverly's brow rose. That was the waxing crescent. Rotate, rotate. And this was the first quarter.

Neat.

Rotating happened once more, she tilted her head at her moon-on-a-stick, her hand slowly going up into the air. "A waxing gibbous moon..." Yeah. That was after the first quarter happened. She remembered her textbook saying that.

SNORT.

Professor Dakest's comment about the s'mores supplies almost had Lux putting her little moon right in the fire. That wouldn't be good at all but fortunately she managed to save herself. Crisis averted. Raising her hand, she silently told him that she wanted them without interrupting Flammy's lecture. See, she was a good student.

...And now she wanted s'mores.

Soooooowly rotating herself to the left, Lux held her moon in place and watched as the light began to shine on it. Oooh, how pretty. Her moon was waxing. Smiling, she kept her eyes on the growing light on the right side of it.

Oh, another question. Lux raised her hand. "It's called the Waxing Gibbous." Nod.

A correct answer--WOOT!

Kate began the awkward transition of rotating slowly to the left while trying to keep her moon in place. It was awkward, because she found herself eyeing the moon, trying to keep it still, while also trying to move another part of her body. Kate had remembered studying the moon phases when she was being homeschooled by her mom. The moon always seemed like it was growing, even though it wasn't.

Then there were times when the moon seemed like it was shrinking, or waning she should say. "Is it the waxing gibbous?" she asked, her hand raised. It was the phase where the moon was almost full but not quite.

See she was right. IT WAS THE NEW MOON. She just didn't raise her hand and answer the question out loud. She was still twirling her moon-on-a-stick. Oppps she should really stop doing that right?

When she seen the professor hold up his moon-on-a-stick. The sixth year did the same. Listening to his instructions she stood straight up again. She held her moon-on-a-stick out in front of her and rotated herself around it slowly as she was instructed. She moved around to the left. She listened to Professor Airey as he explain what this was. It was waxing. Clearly not the waxing she was thinking about. She knew all around this moon quarters and waxing rotating around the orbits. She kept listening to the professor. "Waxing gibbous, professor." She stopped once she was at the first quarter of the orbiting the moon-on-a-stick.

Angel was trying not to laugh as her sister span so fast that she knocked something over, she was trying her hardest not to laugh at all but she failed and started to laugh a bit.

Angel managed to stop after a bit and she did as the Professor instructed turning herself around until she was in the position the Professor had asked them to get into.

Angel raised her hand and smiled at the professor as she spoke. "Is it something like The Waxing Gibbous!" Angel wasn't sure but she thought that it was worth a guess.

Could he continue teaching now? Yes? Good.

Nostrils, and a vein pulsating in his large forehead, he nodded his head and counted to 10 once more in Klingon - silently this time - before addressing the class.

"Waxing gibbous is correct," he replied with a stale tone. "To build upon previous information, the term waxing is used any time after a new moon but before full moon. The term gibbous is applied rather than crescent when more than half of the moon is illuminated from our perspective here on earth."

"Waxing gibbous," she said, even though others had already said her answer. "Professor, this may be a stupid question, but for the moons of Jupiter and other planets, are the phases the same? Or, because the distance from the sun is different, do they act differently?"
"An excellent question, Miss McAlister," he saluted, feeling a little better already now that the focus was back on astronomy. "The short answer is yes, they most certainly do, these phases are not exclusive just to satellites, but planets and other objects orbiting in space experience them too. I suggest you look at page 693 (http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/74944.aspx) in your textbook for a quick read about the subject when you have the time."
... "The full moon, professor!" he said, hand in the air and kinda bouncing because it wasn't often that he knew the answer. "And it's weird because we can't actually SEE the whole moon but it's really just half, so even though it's technically a half-moon, the name's taken by what is actually a quarter moon."

Wait, that made more sense in his head. Oh well.
"Indeed, a full moon is when the entire face of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun." And he did understand what the boy was saying, but he had already brought that up previously so the professor simply nodded at the Hufflepuff and moved along.

"Alright, you all should be a full moon position now," he continued, falling back into stride with things and not having flaring nostrils. "Keep on SLOWLY turning to your left. You see how the light is beginning to disappear from the left hand side? This is known as 'waning,' which means shrinking, and is used to describe the moon as it gets smaller from full moon to new moon. If you keep turning...you'll soon arrive at the last quarter, where the moon has completed 3/4 of its orbit around the Earth and once again looks like a half moon to us from out perspective. Keep on going and you will find yourself right were we started, at a new moon." His back now to the classroom again, Airey took a deep breath and then, with another flourish of his wand, the massive bluebell flame vanished and the torches along the walls became ablaze once more. "What we just did in approximately 15 minutes takes the Moon approximately 29 days to complete. Although, for those looking for more specifics, a lunation varies from 29.26 to 29.80 days because of the effects of the Sun's gravity on the Moon's eccentric orbit."

Setting his prop back down on the professor's desk to the left of the room, Airey looked around sheepishly at the students.

"So....he said anxiously. I'll be handing things over to Professor Culloden now, but before I do I have a little treat for all of you," he said while clapping his together nervously behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his heels. His wand out once more to summon individual packages (http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/oreos-1.jpg) of cookies for each student. Levitating those towards everyone, including his colleagues (hehe), the Astronomy professor tore into his own package for demonstration purposes.

"Now, I know my rules state no food in the classroom, but I would like you all to try a training exercise I did when I was learning these things." Taking out one cookie, he carefully twisted off the top to perfectly leave all the cream on one side of the cookie while the other was completely void. "New moon...full moon," he chirped, setting both bits down on the desk. Taking another cookie, he twisted off the top and began using his teeth to scrap the cream off until there was only a sliver left on the left hand side. "Waning crescent!"

Did they get the picture?

"Go ahead and make your own Cookie Moon Phase chart (http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/oreo_cookie_moon_phases1.jpg) on your desk and, yes, you may eat the cookies. Be mindful of any and all crumbs and please clean up after yourselves."

Trust him, you won't regret it. There was nothing like learning through doing, yes? Especially with said doing gave you an appropriate little pick-me-up.

OOC: class will resume when StarShine has the time to post.

Thank you all for the laughs during the Astronomy portion <333 even if Airey was less amused, I appreciated it all and it made my day! (which was pretty bad until I read through all your replies so thank you <333)

This little cookie moon activity can all be done in 1 post, but you may take more if you wish. I think the package says there are 8 cookies in it, but let's just pretend there are 10 in case your character snaps some in half or something.

IC Professor Culloden is aware that there may be some cookie nibbling going on while he does his initial lecture^_^

[Felixir]

.....

..........

...............

*wibble*

After the yelling Airey had done at that Gryffindor girl, and the points he'd taken from, uh... everyone, perhaps Toby should have expected a less than favourable response from the man. But he hadn't expected it at all. So when Airey... Professor Flamsteed... had got all upset at him and Soph, it was a bit of a nasty surprise.

Toby stood there, lower lip trembling slightly (though hopefully the dim lighting in the room would conceal that), looking at Airey as the man wildly gesticulated before instructing them to see him at the end of the lesson. He... he'd never upset a teacher before. Other than Piers that one time, and that had been different in the end, because it had been Piers. Toby stared wide-eyed at the professor before him now, feeling his wonderfully silly mood brought to a very sudden and screeching halt. He felt completely and absolutely ashamed of himself.

Toby's head went down as he directed his gaze to the floor, looking very much the chastised student. "I'm sorry, Professor Flamsteed," he whispered, the wibbly-ness making it to his voice, too, before collecting his things. Not looking at Soph (he'd got HER in trouble TOO), he moved off to find a different seat. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 galleons. He sat right down, not bothering to finish up the Lunation thingy, either.

Nope. Just sat there, staring miserably at the desk through misting eyes, biting frantically at his nails and not daring to look at ANY of the professors. Also, why. WHY was it that EVERY time Toby made a spectacle of himself and got upset, Dakest was there. RIGHT THERE. First the patronuses and now this. Not to mention the fact that Culloden thought he was such a good student, and Airey had always been awesome to him.

Even when the cookies arrived, Toby pointedly ignored them at first. He understood the premise of the activity but...

...

... Tobias didn't deserve cookies.

*sniffle*

[FearlessLeader19]

Oh Merlin! AJ had barfed all over Flamsteed's shoes! Yeah, Adi had turned when he heard that barfing sound. "AJ! Are you alright?'' He stepped out the formation to rush over to his girlfriend. Well, of course she wasn't alright but maybe the barf had helped her unsettled stomach feel better? Whatever, whatever. He was CONCERNED, man. Oh, Airey's shoes. Right. "Scourgify!'' There! One pair of clean shoes, Professor! Adi repeated the spell for the rest of the floor until it was AJ- barf- free."She wouldn't need to, Professor. Maybe I should say she wouldn't want to.'' The Hufflepuff knew the Gryffindor well. His girl was stubborn and tough.
....................

After ensuring AJ was alright, Adi resumed his stance next to Henric but he was still keeping an eye on his girlfriend. Alright, time to resume rotating sloooooowly to the left. Yesh, he could see everything Airey was describing to them.
... and just like that he was back where he started! COOL! And nope, he was not looking for specifics. Twenty nine days would be just fine, thank you very much. Hehe.

Adi watched The Suit do his thing involving oreos. He couldn't believe it! FOOD was actually in the classroom despite the Professors having rules against it. WHEEE! Did the mean he could eat whatever choclatey goodness Zhenya had given him? Anyway, he headed back to his seat to grab his belongings. "Henny, I'm going to go sit with AJ.'' Henric would understand, the sixth year was sure. With that, he headed over to the Lion. "That food obsessed stomach of yours back to normal?'' he asked cheerfully because he knew AJ would hate to be treated like an invalid or anything. He plopped his bag and cookies down on the desk next to hers. Whoever had been sitting there had better buzz off because right now he was the majorly concerned boyfriend and he wouldn't mind abusing his prefect power this one time to have his way. Meh.

The Badger knew it was best to keep on going as though nothing had happened so he began making the cookie thingy Flamsteed had shown them. The very first oreo he pulled from the packet went directly into his mouth. Come on! Who was going to ignore the chance to eat this deliciouness in a CLASSROOM? Adi chewed while he would conspicuously as possible looked in AJ's direction ever so often.

"New moon, full moon,'' he said aloud as he followed the demonstration that was done earlier. "Waning Gibbous, first quarter.'' Omnomnom! The cream was the best part of this cookie! "Waning Crescent, waxing crescent.'' More cream went into his stomach. "Last quarter, waxing gibbous!'' Woops! That waxing crescent seemed to have less cream than it should have. It seemed Adi had eaten too much off. Hehe. Oh look! He had an extra cookie or two! Yay!

Adi nudged AJ with his shoulder. "Come on. Make your cookie moons. And I know you want to eat those cookies more.''

[Govoni]

Being that his back was to the professor and his focus firmly not on his peers, Gabriel missed all the commotion...and most importantly, the vomiting. So, without any context or warning, the loud SHRIEK! that suddenly resounded behind him (in a classroom that was DARK, thank you, save for the moonlight and that bluebell flame....CREEPY ATMOSPHERE) caused such ALARM, that the Ravenclaw hit the floor...quickly darting beneath his desk.

O___o!

Were they...under attack?! It sounded as if someone was being mauled to death...

.

Of course, the fact that he was overreacting, VASTLY, became only too apparent just moments later...when the screeching finally ceased and the lecturing began. Someone had...thrown up on Flamsteed. Well...that explained that, then. Blushing brightly, Gabe retook his spot...albeit more cautiously than before...and kept his eyes on the scene. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE VOMIT, because he was firmly holding his breath, as well as NOT looking down. Gabe was a sympathetic vomiter. One whiff or sighting...and he was going to follow suit. It was not pretty.

Moving forward, through the blanket points loss, Sophie and Toby getting reprimanded, and the indepth explanation to the previous question, Gabe remained silent. He didn't really have anything to offer...and if he spoke, he worried he might accidently breath in the puke stench...Man, Gabe didn't want to risk that. So...

.

Accepting his cookies, he sat back down and concentrated on making the BEST oreo moon phase chart ever seen...sorta. Professor Culloden was going to pick up his portion of the lesson soon, Potions, which Gabe excelled at. He was basically just ready to keep moving forward. That was all.

[Symphora]

OH MY WORD....Did his eyes see correctly in the darkness? AJ just puked onto Professor.Flamsteed shoes!! His face contorted at the sight...oh dear...he was going to be sick too but he forced himself not to throw up not now Henric...urgh...the horror.And before he knew it, Professor Flamsteed was screaming at the top of his lungs! Whhaaa- his eardrums felt like bursting out from his earholes! Instinctively, Henric reacted by shielding his ears tight with his hands.That was the first time and hopefully the last he heard such a scream in his life.

He didn't care if they lost housepoints for it.More importantly, he hoped AJ was alright? He glanced at Adi and back at her, then back to Profesor Flamsteed...he could tell the professor was fuming by the look of his face. He should go help too...

-------------------------

Momentarily forgotten about what just happened earlier, he tried his best concentrating toward the lesson.Taking down notes while he listened intently to Professor Flamsteed explanation about the new moon and the waxing gibbous. He continued rotating as instructed with his moon stick until he got to the last part of the exercise. Brilliant! He just completed his moon phase cycle...hooray. Now the best part, Professor had given them each a package and not just any other package..."Oh merlin! OREOS?!! wHat..even..what...YAass."....(:woot:)

"Thank you professor!"he chirped. They were going to make moons out of these!! YEY! Immediately, he set to open it roughly and started to twist and lick the parts of the cookie, using his teeth to form the shape.Yumm..wish there was milk to go around. LOVE THIS.

[VRSCIKA]

Ilia had been minding her own business, quietly watching the professors and taking notes. She hadn't decided to pipe up in class yet as everyone seemed to be doing a good job of getting the answers right, she wasn't much feeling being vocal today. She had a present for Adi that she had planned on giving him after class was over. It was just easier that way as she had figured it. She was following directions, slowly. The banter and excitement and quick turning of the other students was not something she had wanted to be involved with. She didn't have much of a choice however when the girl close to her twirled ever closer to professor Airey and................oh Sweet Circe that was disgusting. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand and swiftly moved to her seat. That was just........straight up vile. Poor professor....but wait what!? Why did ALL of the houses get points off? She looked around and saw how many of her classmates were acting silly.............never mind. She saw Adi motioning the sick girl back to her seat.....near her.....and plopping his things on her occupied desk. Was Adi seriously going to sit on her?

She recognized the sick girl who she really didn't want to be around now anyways as his girlfriend AJ who she had yet to have a formal introduction with. Standing and collection her things and cookies , brushing aside from Adi. She silently reached into her satchel and pulled out a charmed present wrapped in blue with a big ribbon on it. His birthday present, she hoped that he liked it at least. It was a full case of chocolate frogs, a pack of dragon cards, a plush hippogriff , and a miniature carved whomping willow as a token of adventures. "Happy birthday Adi." She said very quietly as to not disrupt the class. Looking at the previously sick girl she nodded. "Feel better."

--------------------------------------
Off she walked, sitting next to her best friend now in place of Adi. She offered Henric a faint smile and pulled out her cookies to start her Moon Phase chart. After the spectacle she had just witnessed......she seriously did not want cookies. Nope nope nopeity nope. Food was NOT appealing now. Regardless, she took her first cookie and..................accidently snapped it in half....down the center..... Whoops........that was that way that cookie crumbled......attempt number two. She couldn't say as she had really ever had many of these muggle type cookies so her experience with them was.....regrettably lacking. Her second cookie, she tried applying a little less pressure to, but unfortunately cracked one half. (>_<) OKAY.............try number THREE. Third time was a charm right? She slowly, delicately, barely touching the Merlin forsaken thing, twisted the cookie. Slow....super delicate...and....FINALLY!!!!!!! Her cookie came apart without breaking. She repeated separating all of the cookies........until the final one. She had become far too confident in her new found skill. Perhaps it wasn't delicate enough, perhaps not slow enough..........but she cracked it........the last cookie that she needed and she had CRACKED it! Exasperation..........pure exasperation, but she would figure this out. She took a file out from her satchel and gently began scrapping the necessary amount of cream off of the cookies, setting it all collectively to one side of her little tray with the damaged cookies. Once the appropriate amounts had been removed, she took her last cracked one. The most whole of them. This would be her full moon. Carefully.....ever so carefully.....she took the set aside cream and added it. She pasted the crack with the cream like some sort of twisted cookie cement and pasted the Merlin forsaken thing back together. TADA! Unless he picked it up by the end, the thing would hold. Cookie chart complete!

[Anna Banana]

Kate grinned a little at the slight chaos in the room. This class was literally always full of some kind of chaos. It made things interesting, sometimes too interesting. What were they talking about again? Oh, right. Waxing Gibbous. Or...something else now. Kate began slooowly turning to the left. She still thought this as an awkward way for her to be turning her body. She watched the makeshift moon as she moved.

She traveled around and around until she'd reached the point where she was right back where she started. And there was a treat, too! ...OREOS! Kate did a little inner cheer as she took a package. "Thanks, Professor!" she said. HA, COOL! They got to eat them, too. Sure, they had to make moon phases out of them, but that was a really fun and awesome activity. Kate chomped away on her cookie moons while she waited for Culloden to get things started.

Kate twisted off the top of the first Oreo. She looked down at all the delicious cream and suddenly wanted to eat it all in one bite. Moon phases, Kate. Moon phases. "Full Moon," she said, looking at the full serving of icing. She carved a sliver off the side and ate it. "Waning Gibbous...First Quarter," she said, naming the phases as she ate. Now her cookie had half the icing on it.

"Waning Crescent," she said, eating enough icing to have only a sliver. Then the fun part! Kate ate ALL the icing, since it was a New Moon. That was suddenly her favorite phase of the moon. She ate nearly all the icing on the next cookie, leaving a sliver on the opposite side than the other sliver she had. "Waxing Crescent." ... "Last Quarter," she said, eating exactly half the icing. Then finally, she ate a tiny sliver, making a Waxing Gibbous.

Okay, Culloden. You can teach now.

[Sararara]

Norah's eyebrows disappeared into her auburn curls as Professor Flamsteed yelled. Well then. The vomit WAS capital G Gross, but he was such a nice dude, when'd he get so snippy? She nodded quickly at his response to her wrong answer, ducking her head to record notes on the waxing gibbous. And the gibbous itself, which was still a funny word but she didn't think Flamsteed would be very happy if she giggled right now. Shame, really, 'cause he sounded like he could use a few laughs.

She did grin at him, though, when the sleeve of cookies landed on her desk for very obvious reasons. COOKIES. CHOCOLATE COOKIES. Man oh man, she may have been apprehensive about this class but now she was pretty sure it was the best thing that had ever happened. Twisting the first cookie open, she ate one of the chocolate parts and put the other down with all its icing still on. Full moon, ta da! Next to it, she put the next half cookie, with a tiny sliver of icing licked off. That was the hardest part 'cause only a little bit of icing was TORTURE. And there was her waning gibbous. The next cookie was twisted open a little too enthusiastically and broke in half between her fingers. The fourth year put the entire thing in her mouth. Oops? Heh. The next cookie had half the icing licked off for the first quarter, and the next was the bestest one. New moon! She licked all the icing off and put the other half of the chocolate cookie in her mouth, pausing to chew it all down 'cause if she talked with her mouth full her mum would probably find out in the way mums just knew everything. It was weird how they did that. Next came the waning crescent, so she licked almost all of the icing off except for a tiny sliver, which proved to be even more torturous than the waning gibbous. She ate half the icing off the next one, then just a sliver on the one after that and TA DA! A whole entire moon cycle and she had a cookie left and everything.

The fourteen year old held her remaining cookie up to her nose as she looked up at the Professors again. Could she eat her moon cycle yet? One more cookie just wasn't enough, y'know.

[feeheeheeny]

In all reality, Sophie Brown thought Flamsteed would've been a lot less angry with her and Tobes if that Gryffindor girl hadn't thrown up all over. Sure, he might've been a little irked and the same "see me after class" would've followed, but with a lot less fury behind his voice, she was certain of that. So when he suddenly WAS yelling at them and it looked like his head was going to explode with anger, she was caught off guard, and just a little embarrassed - not because of what she'd done, because frankly she had no regrets in being playful with Tobes, but because of how mad they'd made him and how disappointed he was. That was not a good feeling, and... her face showed it.

Of all the professors in the school - maybe besides Botros - Flamsteed was the last person that Sophie ever thought would be yelling at her.

Her cheeky smile that had been put in place after Tobes spazzed out from the tickling was wiped clean and her cheeks and ears were tinted slightly pink. A "seeing after class" sentence meant they could talk it out, though - it wasn't like he just took points or sentenced them to detention... though all things considering, she personally thought those would be highly unreasonable punishments. They were both two of his best - and favorite, ahem - students, and they'd never once gotten in trouble before. Never once. So wasn't there like... a warning system in place? Like a, "Mr. Toby, Miss Brown, I love you both like the children I never had, and you're stellar students. You should know better, and I expect you to know better moving forward." That kind of heart-to-heart would've been more effective with both of them than a loss of points or detention, she knew, and she wondered if Flammy would have the same line of thinking. He'd known how down in the dumps both of them had been over the last months, right? Wouldn't he know their goofing off was highly out of character and a rarity these days?

She could only hope. Not even for her sake - she would be okay with losing points or detention, personally, but... considering the way Tobes looked like his life was over, he wouldn't survive. No, even something as small as a points loss would kill his spirit - even more than it already currently was, just from a verbal punishment - and in that moment of watching him walk to sit at another desk, she knew she was going to have to fight for him if they got more than just a talking-to. And she would, too.

There was no shame in pleading and begging to let them off with a warning. She would debate their side of having a clean record till the end of time.

"Sorry, professor." Her eyes and tone were genuine when she said it, and then her gaze flickered to try to catch Tobes' once he was situated at the other side of the room from her. Sorry, she mouthed to him, too, because... well. Realistically, he HAD started it, but she should've known better to end it, right? She was supposed to look out for Tobes when boundaries were crossed and when he didn't know when to call it quits. It wasn't his fault - it was his brain, right? So... she should've been looking out for him. In reality, this was her fault, and she knew it. That made their potentially impending doom a million times worse. Because if Flamsteed did take points or give them detention or something, Tobes would undoubtedly have a full-blown breakdown... and it would be all on her shoulders. All her fault. Piers and Javy would be upset with her for not looking out for him, and... maybe she'd never deserved to be his girlfriend at all, if she didn't know well enough to look out for him after all this time.

...How were they supposed to sit through the rest of a class now? Class had hardly begun, and Dakest and Culloden hadn't even gotten to talk yet - they had to sit through TWO MORE professors teaching them things before class would be over, and they were still expected to... learn and focus and how could she do that when Tobes' well-being was on the line? She wanted to leave and go to the bathroom and take the time to breathe and recharge and gather her thoughts like she did in Dakest's class, but the astronomy professor said they couldn't leave the classroom until they had their talk.

Was it getting hot in there, or was it just her?

Much like Tobes, Sophie didn't want the cookies. She didn't deserve cookies. Her somber eyes lingered on Flamsteed when he demonstrated their little activity, but every now and then, she couldn't help but check on Tobes over yonder. The more she did so, the more tears threatened to pool in her eyes. He was sad. So sad. Her fault. Now she'd really done it and he'd want to break up from being best friends, too. It was all over. The end of the best four years of her life.

Sniffing back the moisture that was forming inside her nostrils as a result of the tears stinging at her eyes, the Ravenclaw twisted the tops from her eight cookies and used her fingernail to dig into the frosting and trace the white filling into the shapes they needed to be. She wasn't going to eat any of it.

For perhaps the first time in her life, Sophie Brown was rejecting food.

[Holmesian Feline]

Ben heard Flamsteed's yelling before he even registered what had happened as AJ hadn't been sitting or standing anywhere near him. Oh....that was bad. He closed his eyes and winched slightly as the forty points were claimed from the houses...then an extra five fro, Gryffindor house. Poor AJ. Perhaps he wasn't to be the only lion to be having a bad today of all days. He sent a supportive look her way in case she could see it in the shadows, catching Adi moving to be next to her and causing the sixth year to quickly turn away.

He took a deep breath to gather himself before moving as Flamsteed directed, carrying himself and his moon from Full Moon position to a Waxing Half-Moon and then a Waxing Cresent and finally back to a new moon. Were they done with this portion? So it seemed before Flamsteed had recovered from his outburst and demonstrated an activity for them...with food?!

It was odd for the man yet Ben watched albeit somewhat reluctantly. The Gryffindor then proceeded to mimic the professor's actions to make a chart of his own as instructed. But no eating for him. Puking and a bad mood didn't do much good for one's desire to snack on cookies. Plus they would be moving onto potions and his nerves were starting to appear at the notion.

[StarShine]

. . .

Please, this'd better be a dream . . .

Cosgrach could only STARE at AJ as she completely vomited all over Airey - well, maybe not all over, but even a molecule of vomit was enough. He didn't mind the smell, because he was used to terrible ones. No, he was more grossed out by the whole situation and his heart was filled with sympathy for Airey.

Yep yep, totally saw that shriek coming, so Cosgrach wasn't suprised. Instead, he studied the class as best as he could in the dim light - which would be bright again to avoid a potions disaster. Cosgrach didn't care much for the points, because ten from all still meant the same in the race.

Wait, Ms. Brown and Mr. Toby?

Cosgrach looked at them as Airey reprimanded them. He couldn't believe it - that, such great students would be so childish and disrespectful. He frowned to himself. What was wrong with these two today? Or had they become one of those people who took advantage of goodwill?

Please not.

Luckily, Airey seemed to be calming down, so Cosgrach listened to him intently again. After some more information, he seemed to be done and kindly introduced the potions part. Cosgrach got up as he explained the cookie stuff, caught his package and set it aside on the desk to be eaten during Mr. Dark Wizard's Sabel's period and stood a little bit behind him to let him finish what he had to say. Once the man was done, he smiled at him - Adi had thankfully cleaned him - and got his wand out to turn on the lights. Sorry to ruin the romantic atmosphere, but he wanted them to see their cauldron and ingredients.

"As you can guess by now," he said as he started to walk slowly out of habit, but after the second step, he realised there weren't any proper aisles to walk in, so he halted abruptly and continued talking only after a moment, "today we'll learn how to brew the Wolfsbane Potion. Yes, it's extremely hard and I honestly don't expect any of you to get it right." he involuntarily looked at a few of the best students as if to say 'It really is okay,' "but I still want all of you to try your best, and learn from your mistakes." Because experience was the best lesson and all that jazz.

"Before we start, however, tell me one thing about either werewolves or the Wolfsbane Potion."

He would wait for them to have some cookies down first before really expecting an answer. He was that nice.

OOC: Please say only ONE fact about werewolves OR the Wolfsbane Potion (your character can make it up ^__^). We'll continue 20-24 hours later.

[WhittyBitty]

O_________O

...

HOLY HIPPOGRIFFS. AJ had just THROWN UP right at Professor Flamsteed's feet.

Lux didn't care about the shouting or points loss; she was a lot more concerned about her friend. Glancing at the younger Lion with concern, she hoped that everything was okay with her. Thank goodness for Adi checking on her but then he was her boyfriend so that was to be expected. After sending AJ a supportive look, she turned her attention back to the lesson at hand.

Sloooooowly turning more towards the left, Lux watched as the light began to disappear from the left hand side of her moon. These demonstrations always made things easier to understand. They were also pretty cool. Her moon traveled allllllll the way back to being a New Moon as Flammy kept talking.

YAAAAY!! They were going to move on to the POTIONS part of the lesson. AND THERE WERE COOKIES!! Did Professor Flamsteed know how awesome he was??? Science and food should be combined all the time because it just WORKED. Excitedly Lux tore into her package of cookies and may have placed the first one in her mouth. "New Moon and Full Moon, she said as she pulled the top off of a cookie. Each piece was placed in proper position for her COOKIE CHART. Cookies should be used in charts ALL THE TIME.

Lux grabbed another cookie and pulled the top off before adjusting the cream. "Waning Gibbous... First Quarter." Happy, she continued to eat as she worked. "Waning Crescent... Waxing Cresent." More cream ended up in her mouth. And finallllly: "Last Quarter... Waxing Gibbous."

DONE! Now could she eat everything???

... Nevermind. Professor Culloden was starting on his part of the lesson.

And of course they would be learning the Wolfsbane Potion; that much had been obvious to her since the topic of the lesson had been revealed. Swallowing the last bit of cream, Lux raised her hand. "It's important to brew Wolfsbane Potion properly because the main ingredient is wolfsbane - also known as monkshood. Monkshood is a VERY poisonous substance."

[feeheeheeny]

As if things couldn't get any worse... they were brewing a potion that Culloden didn't expect "any" of them to get right. Which meant her. Which meant he didn't believe in her, when he should've KNOWN that Sophie Brown could brew any potion she put her mind to. But maybe this whole thing that just happened made him not believe in her... and maybe he didn't see potential in her anymore. Maybe he thought she wasn't good enough to be able to brew the Wolfsbane Potion.

Maybe she wasn't, then.

But maybe he'd changed his tune on believing that she could do anything when they just got scolded because he KNEW she wasn't going to be in a right headspace now. AND, deep down, SHE knew just how impossibly difficult this potion was. It was undoubtedly one of the most difficult to brew potions out there, wasn't it? Hm? Could that have been it? The possibility briefly crossed her mind, but then she was back to assuming the worst - that he didn't think she'd succeed, so she wouldn't succeed. She wasn't good enough. She wasn't a good enough best friend to be what Tobes needed and she wasn't a good enough potioneer to do what needed to be done.

...The door was becoming more and more of an option. What would Flamsteed do if she left? Would he follow her? Would he yell at her again or make her shoes stick to the spot? But did he REALLY want to deal with a crying Sophie Brown? No, the only professor capable of calming down a crying Sophie Brown in this room was Culloden, who was currently teaching the class. Dakest wouldn't know what to do, probably, and Flamsteed would probably have his own breakdown or something. So... maybe he'd let her leave. But what kind of example would she be setting for the rest of the class? Walking out of a class was not something she wanted other people to think they could do whenever they wanted... but what if she needed to leave? Wouldn't it be even more of a distraction to be sitting there in tears than she and Tobes had been with their moon-bopping? People would be staring at her. There was no way she could let that happen either.

So she had to be brave.

She was finished with the carving of her moon-cookies, so Sophie pushed them forward on her desk and sighed softly, rubbed her forehead in frustration, and ended up raising a hand to half-heartedly offer up to Culloden's question, "The potion doesn't cure lycanthropy, it just eases the symptoms." That's all she had.

And back to sulking.

[MudInMyBlood]

No man shrieking was happening just yet and that was a good sign. Right? RIGHT?

WRONG.

So very wrong.

It was happening and for a moment AJ wondered if he was merely demonstrating what a werewolf sounded like, a girly, shrieking werewolf and he has missed the vomit that was right at his feet. She was reaching for the stars here, yes she was.

Wa? Cha? Was he speaking in tongues? Had she broken her head of house? Seemed like this very well may be the case. AJ scooted the tip of her shoe across the floor forgetting about the vomit for a second and almost slipped. Whoa. That was close.

10 points were taken and she wasn't even upset about that. Yeah, she thought it was a bit harsh when all she was trying to do was be ONE with her moon ball. Like, excuse her if she was getting 'all up in' Astronomy. See if she put forth her all next time, Airey.

From all of the houses?

"But sir..." This didn't seem like an ideal time to argue considering his nostrils were practically blazing. His face seemed stroke level red, but she couldn't be sure with the lighting and all. "Please don't take away points from the other houses. I take full responsibility for leaving the contents of my belly juice on the floor in front of you." So, don't punish everybody else, kay? Not that she intentionally caused harm like some others that still had points. Ahem.

"Yes, sir. I--" 5 more points? For puke that never even actually touched his precious suit? This was totally unfair and if AJ wasn't trying to not vomit again, she would protest. And she really didn't need to lose more than 15 points in one go.

Oh, so now he cared. Yeah, she was just FANTASTIC. "I'm fine. I don't need to see the healer." There was no way she wasn't going to see this werewolf lesson to the end. Nope. She would take a sprite though? Too much to ask for? AJ eyed Airey for a moment. Yup, too soon.

She was just about to pull out her wand to clean up her mess when her handy dandy super prefect of a boyfriend came to her rescue. Airey's shoes were as good as new, and there was no more puddle of vomit... so those hiding under tables and holding their breath could rest easy now. "Thanks," she replied to Adi as he got a half hearted smile. Goodness... he was smother mothering her right now. The thought was sweet, and she appreciated it. Really she did, but it was only vomit and not a plane crash. AJ would live. "I'm fine, really."

The Slytherin girl (Ilia) got a smile for her well wishes. "Thank you. I feel better all ready." There was something about emptying your stomach that was sort of refreshing. It still was turning, but it was much better now. AJ missed Henric's, Benny's, and Lux's show of concern as she was losing all of her precious house points. Sigh.

Could she move on now?

AJ picked up her vomit soaked moon ball and stuck it back on her stick. "Scourgify." Should have done BEFORE picking it up. Oh well. You live and you learn. Or in her case you really didn't.

Concentration wasn't really happening for her right now, but she SLOWLY turned to the left and continued looking at her ball. 29 days something happened and WERE THEY GOING TO GET COOKIES?

Her attention was fully back on the professor and believe it or not her belly began to rumble. She watched as Airey showed them the different moon cycles? That was the technical phrase for them, yes? Once she got her bag, she smiled at her boyfriend. "Oh you know I'm going to eat these." First, she made her own chart of the different cycles. Only a few cookies broke, and those cookies got eaten.

No more vomiting happened and that was about the only good thing that was going for her at this point. Happy Birthday to you, Adi.

Then Astro went to Potions in a blink of an eye. This couldn't have come at a better time for Airey. Maybe he could cool down and realize that taking all those points had been a moment of weakness for him. He was mad, she got it. But, he could see reason once he cooled down. AJ had faith.

Hmm... her mind still wasn't really and truly here. What could she say about either of the things the professor asked about? "You could get poisoned if you brew it incorrectly." And more vomiting would ensue. And she didn't even notice that Lux had already mentioned this little tid bit.

[Felixir]

Toby sat there, anxiously biting his nails and torn between trying NOT to think about the sadness that was creeping in but also feeling like he absolutely deserved it and wasn't MEANT to be ignoring it. The inner turmoil and back and forth kept him busy for some time, and Toby didn't realise quite how much his eyes had pooled up until he blinked and a tear fell away.

He froze. No. NO. No. Crying in class was one great big giant NOPE. Toby remembered promising to himself in DADA once that if he EVER cried in class he'd simply get up and drop out of school on the spot. But that wasn't exactly, uh, practical at the moment. Toby hurriedly brought up a hand and tried to look as though he was just rubbing his face in general as he wiped his eyes, hoping to Merlin that nobody noticed.

In any case, he wasn't about to look up to check. Toby kept his head very firmly lowered, not daring to risk looking up and seeing disappointment on anyone of the professors' faces. He was trying very hard not to think about it.

As for the cookies, he'd had found a way around that. Having opened up a packet, Toby quickly used his wand to scour the stuff off the cookie halves, to make them look like the moon phases and stuff. He didn't want to eat them, wasn't very hungry at all.

When he heard Culloden talking, Toby still didn't look up. He KNEW he didn't want to look at the man's face and see the disappointment which he thought would absolutely, definitely, without a doubt be there. He felt his lower lip tremble again at the thought, and his eyes refilled with tears. Uhhh... double nope. Toby simply folded his arms on the desk and buried his face in them. He just... just needed a moment. Just a moment to concentrate on how he felt simply awful for disrupting Airey's lesson and angering the man in such a way that Toby was sure he'd not seen him react like that to anyone at all except when he was Hooksteed. Airey, of all people...

Of course, Toby STILL had all that energy in him. That hadn't gone away at all, and so under the desk, his feet just kept incessantly bouncing and jiggling away, like they hadn't gotten the message that actually no, brain was sad now. Fun was over. No? Well... okay. Fidget.

[Casey O]

Marigold's eyes grew REALLY WIDE when someone threw up all over Flamsteed AND he yelled AND Toby and Sophie Brown were being yelled at AND he thought her question was a good one. She kept her head down through all the drama, writing down notes painstakingly, but once he announced cookies she caught Sophie Brown's eye and blew a kiss. A supportive kiss. An "I got u" kiss. There ya go, Sophie Brown. :loved:

Oreos though. Man, GOOOOOOD memories. She twisted them apart like a seasoned professional, a well-oiled machine. Full moon, new moon. She opened another one just like a first one, but used the new moon half to turn them both into crescents, both waning and waxing gibbous.

She ate a cookie quickly, then dropped her jaw. THE WOLFSBANE POTION?!?!???! No flipping way. THAT WAS SO HARD. DUUUUDE THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!

"Adding sugar will render it useless." She heard that somewhere.

[AlwaysSnapesGirl]

....Well that was eventful.

Jenna had just been quietly taking notes at her desk for most of the lesson so far, but then all that had happened, and she was sitting there in her seat wide-eyed and motionless.

Mer...lin's...beard.

Blinking a few times at the package of Oreos that now sat before her, she took a deep breath to steady herself then carefully opened the package, not feeling particularly hungry but deciding to try the moon phases thing with a few of them.

Carefully pulling one cookie apart to be the full and new moons, she looked up as Professor Culloden began his part of the lesson. This seemed like a good time to start participating a little more too - it'd probably help distract her. So she raised her hand. "The potion helps the person keep their head and maintain control of themselves while in wolf form." Certainly a good thing, so they weren't forced to do something they'd regret afterward.

[ArianaBlack]

Woah. A lot of things just happened.

1) AJ threw up?? EVERYWHERE. Zander didn't even have time to react because he was so busy trying to figure out HOW the heck that could happen. And WHY the heck that would happen. And wait a minute, they were getting points deducted??? But it's not like she could control being sick. Well, granted, Zander hadn't really been paying attention to what AJ was doing. But STILL. Flammy had quite the sensitive stomach apparently. Or maybe it had something to do with how protective he was over his suits.

2) Flammy was yelling some more about something else, apparently.

And Zander was still chuckling over Sophie and Toby to realize that Flammy was yelling at them. Oh. Oh man. The Gryffindor quickly put an end to the snickering, instead looking at the two in trouble. oh no. They both looked horribly sad and it made Zander feel terrible too. Flamsteed sounded genuinely angry. Of course it probably had to do with the unfortunate turn of events all at once, so it was probably worse because of the vomit situation. But still.

Still, he was listening to his Astronomy Professor, turning with the moon in hands to demonstrate the next few phases. But in between doing so, Zander tried to make eye contact with the two of them, maybe to let them know it'd be okay? But man, they both looked really, really bummed. Maybe the cookies would cheer them up? Food always seemed to do the trick for Sophie. He only took his eyes off of her when they were told to go ahead and do the cookie chart. And he took only a few moments to make his own, stuffing bits of extra cookie in his mouth as he did so.

But after sparing a few glances towards Soph, the Gryffindor Prefect noticed she hadn't eaten hers. Oh man, this was even worse than he thought. Of course Sophie was really good at pretending like she was okay, so Zander probably would've have even realized had it not been for the cookies. Sophie Brown always wanted food. This was way out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, he was too far from her to say anything, so again he tried sending her reassuring looks. Man, this was difficult.

It wasn't long before Culloden stepped up though, and Zander had to again take his eyes off of the Ravenclaw and look towards his Professor. OH OH OH, Zander knew things about Werewolves. And that Wolfsbane stuff, for that matter. "Normally when a Werewolf transforms, they can't really control themselves 'cause they aren't in a proper state of mind. But, Wolfsbane works by letting them keep their human thoughts, so they're less dangerous."

[Anna Banana]

So now they were going to brew a potion that they would probably fail at. Marvelous. What a waste of potions ingredients, Kate thought to herself. Maybe somebody would get it right, though, and the potion could at least be used by somebody somewhere. Kate was torn between trying to form an answer to the question the professor and asked and eating the rest of her Oreos, even though they were shaped just like the phases of the moon.

Prying her eyes and thoughts away from the cookies, Kate listened to what her classmates were saying. She knew she should come up with something new, so she waited, her hand still by her side, until she could come up with something to say. Suddenly, her hand extended into the air. "After the potion is taken, most werewolves go somewhere and just sleep through the whole transformation," she said. Powerful potion, it was.

[Jessiqua]

What was with the yelling? AND 10 POINTS FROM ALL HOUSES?!

Zhenya turned to see... eww, AJ had vomited on Professor Flamsteed. Well, not ON him but... near him. Near his SUIT. Did she HAVE a death wish? But it was kind of funny... in a... in a few weeks when we all look back at this it will be funny.

Hmm... so NOT a waning gibbous. A Waxing gibbous. That was all good, she mentally made a note next to WAXING GIBBOUS, and crossed out Waning Gibbous.

Waning Gibbous - AFTER a full moon.
Gibbous - Illuminated part of the moon is greater than a semicircle, but less than a circle.

And uhhohh more trouble... Zhenya just kept on ignoring that...

Waning Gibbous - AFTER a New Moon but BEFORE a Full Moon

Right, now back to being a Full Moon with the styrofoam moon. Zhenya continued in her slow orbit to the left, and she observed as the light started to disappear from the face of the moon facing her. And there's the WANING; shrinking, disappearing. Yes, because the light and illumination was shrinking, disappearing. It all made sense. Still orbiting, Zhenya noted the stage of 'half moon' or, really, 'quarter moon' at the 9 and 3/4 mark. Eventually, she was back to the beginning, with no light on her moon. New Moon.

Moon Orbit - 29 days
Lunation - 29.26 - 29.80 days due to gravity from the Sun and its effects on the Moon's orbit

Now that the lights were on, her eyes quickly adjusted to the newly bright lights. But wait... what? They were getting TREATS? After he'd just been used as a vomit bowl? AWESOME!

COOKIES!

Zhenya let the cookie packet come towards her, and she reached out a hand and grabbed the packet. AND they were allowed to EAT THEM?

This was actually SO awesome!

Zhenya sat down, pulling all of her cookies from her packet and stacking them up. She grabbed the top one, twisted it open, and saw the delicious white stuff inside. She pulled it up to her nose to sniff it, resisting the urge to lick it. No, she'd get to scrape some of it off in a moment. That was the full moon, and she put that down in the top left corner. The other bit of the cookie could be her New Moon, so she put that one down on the bottom left. There, full moon and new moon. The next one she opened, she did what Professor Flamsteed had done and scraped some of it off with her teeth. Oh YUM! She put her Waning Gibbous moon down next to her Full Moon. Next was the first quarter/half moon, so after shoving the spare new moon into her mouth and eating it, yum, she scraped half the icing off with her teeth. Delicious again. Before she had eaten all the icing, she put the next new moon into her mouth, mixing the cookie and icing together. She placed the first quarter down next to the Waning Gibbous. The next cookie was her Waning Crescent, so she opened the cookies, ate most of the icing, and placed it next to the first quarter, and ate another New Moon. There was her already placed New moon, so she just had to continue from there. Opening another cookie, she ate the spare bit and scraped most of it off with her teeth; Waxing Crescent. That went next to her New Moon. The next cookie she scraped half of it off, again, for the last quarter. And then finally the Waxing Gibbous. She scraped just a little off. Making sure all the spare bits were safely in her mouth, she lined the icing up the right way to make sure it was all correct. Yes, it was. And there as her cookie moon phases. How awesome, having it all in front of her like that, as well as the practical activity of orbiting the moon, it was all making more and more sense to her.

[kayquilz]

So Flamsteed was giving them cookies. Eden liked cookies. And to be specific, they were Oreos, so Eden REALLY had no complaints. She was about to like the cream in the center off when he told them to make a moonchart...well then. FINE. At least they still got to eat them, or else that'd be a very big waste of perfectly delicious cookies.

She made her little moon chart, licking off the right amount of cream with each cookie, eating the cookie parts that she wasn't using, the parts not connected to the cream. Ugh. SO GOOD. Eden wanted water now, though...poop. It was pretty simple to do. She left one cookie with ALL the cream on, and eyed it..yeah, she was COMIN' FOR YOU IN A MINUTE, COOKIE! DON'T THINK YOU'RE SAFE. A liiiiiittle bit scraped off the second one....this one also got a squint from Eden. She went on and on until the chart was done...and then Professor Cosgrach was speaking and Eden wanted to SINK.

SINKING.....NOW.

Maybe if she slid clean under her desk she could skip the potions portion of things. Her confidence level was SO LOW for this subject....she wanted to eat her cookies in peace. Ugh. But right before she was about to sink underneath her desk, she sighed and sat back up. He had asked a question, and Ravenclaws couldn't just IGNORE a question unless they didn't know the answer. And Eden did know...something about the wolfsbane potion.

"Well...wolfsbane potion is ACTUALLY made from the wolfsbane plant, the leaves, which are suuuuuuper toxic, you know." She nodded. She had done research on this plant for one of her Quill articles. That article...really had helped her learn stuff, what d'ya KNOW!

[Cassirin]

Oh no. OH NO. Dot was pretty sure that if the professor hadn't turned to explain to her what LUNATION meant, he never would have seen the flirty happenings between Sophie and Tobes. It was ALL her fault. All of it. Everything.

She was going to hug Sophie right now. And Dot did, ninja attacking the older girl for a hug before turning her attention to the cookies. Scrape and nibble and... okay, that cookie was just gone. What happened? Oops.

Culloden started his lesson, and Dot methodically used her fingers to scrape and shape icing as he talked. WEREWOLF POTION. Something they would NOT be testing. "Wolfsbane Potion has to be taken for a whole WEEK before the full moon, sir! That's like... if you just forget one time, then you might as well not bother."

[Jessiqua]

And there was Professor Culloden, here to teach them how to successfully brew a Wolfsbane Potion. Or... maybe not. Zhenya was hopeful. The lights went on and Professor Culloden commenced his section.

Wait..

They WERE going to learn how to unsuccessfully brew the Wolfsbane Potion! Zhenya clapped her excited hands over her excited mouth, which had just dropped open. OH YAY! YAYYAYAYAYAY! This was an amazing potion! Not amazing in that the poor folk who were bitten by werewolves HAD to take it, but its effects. Like pain relief, obviously doesn't cure the pain, but who wouldn't want the pain symptom relieved? It was a helpful potion, allowing the werewolf to maintain their capacity to THINK which in turn helped the community by not having the werewolves animal instincts running throughout the streets.

But what? He didn't expect any of them to get it right? But... but... that... an unsuccessful potion? Zhenya hated those. But he was right, even an unsuccessful potion wasn't a waste. Lessons and things. She lowered her hand from her mouth, which was closed again. She had been brought back to earth.

And now it was suggestion time. Zhenya kept quiet a while, listening to the facts her classmates were giving about werewolves and wolfsbane. She had a fact on Wolfsbane potion, so she raised her hand to share it. "The creator of the Wolfsbane potion was Damocles over 100 years ago, and HE was in the Slug Club." How cool was that? He was a hugely intelligent and accomplished potioneer.

[Sararara]

Norah switched to purple ink as Professor Culloden began to speak, hoping that maybe color coding her notes would make them magically stick in her brain more. It was worth a shot, right? He was the one who'd said she had to concentrate or whatever. Speaking of concentration...CHOCOLATE. they both started with a C, it was totally relevant. She took the full moon cookie from her moon cycle diagram and put in her mouth as she added the name 'wolfsbane' to her parchment. A HARD potion? Aw, man. She' deem kind of not stinking at potions recently and he rewarded her with a hard potion that she was going to get all wrong? That wasn't very nice, y'know. She ate two more of her moons for consolation reasons before putting a crumb-covered hand in the air. "If you get bitten by a werewolf you become one on every full moon, except I'm not really sure how the first werewolf happened if there was nothing to bite them." Who knew what the potion thing was, though. Well, some people did but not her so she was just going to stick to the cookies because that's what SHE knew about.

[RandomRaven]

That Gryffindor girl (AJ) just threw up at Professor Flamsteed and he thought it was... hilarious. Well, he knew that it was an accident and she didn't mean to threw up, right? *Insert positive thinking in here*

But seriously, it was funny and he didn't really care about house points.

And now moving on to the next activity. Oooh, oreo cookies! Jackson loved this muggle cookies because... It was delicious, okay? He grabbed one and munch at it. Nomnomnom.... Well, it's not for your snacks, Jackson! Back to the activity. So... He grab another one, twisted it open and tried not to lick the white cream. So, this would be the new moon and full moon, right?

Next, he grabbed another one and twisted it again. Now he took half of the white cream to make the half moon. Well, he could eat the other half but then he decided to place it to the other cookie so now he already had two half moon phases. Neeeext... The crescent and gibbous moon phases. He grabbed four more cookies, twisted it and shaped the cream into crescent and gibbous phase. Finally he arranged the moon phases and.. DONE! There are some cookies left, could he take them please? Hehehehe...

Finished with the Astronomy activity, now it's time for Professor Culloden. The Korean boy wondered if they're gonna brew wolfsbane potions because... It seemed like the theme of this class today was werewolves. But maybe not because it takes long time to brew that, right? "One of the ingredients of wolfsbane potion itself is the aconite, or wolfsbane." He raised his hand and answered the question.

[FearlessLeader19]

So intent was his focus on AJ that Adi failed to notice he was about to practically sit on Ilia. It wasn’t until he accidentally brushed his upper arm against her as she got up that he looked around. “Ilia!’’ He looked down at her belonging s on the desk. Woops. It seemed as though it were his friend’s desk he was snagging. “Sorry, I hadn’t realised you were sitting here.’’ If he had, he would have asked her permission but she seemed to figure out why he was unceremoniously butting in. And yet… she was giving him a present :x3: “Thanks a ton, Ilia!’’ He grinned at the Snakette, wondering what she had gotten him. There seemed to be an awful lot of things under that wrapping. Man, this was turning out to be a memorable birthday! Adi watched Ilia go to take over his old seat next to Henric. Now he didn’t feel so bad about ditching his friend.
...................

With AJ seemingly back to normal, Adi relaxed a whole lot. He wouldn't show it because AJ hated anyone to be fussy over her even if the person was him. But he couldn't help it. She was one of the persons he cared the most about. And the House points didn't matter. They all lost the same amount of points so it's not like the lead was going to change even if the Lions lost and extra five.

Anywayyy, Adi set Ilia's wrapped gift neatly to the side of the table, poking it slightly. Man, he was SUPER CURIOUS to know what was so squishy in there. Buuuuut the part of the lesson he was most looking forward to was starting! WOOT! And seeeeeeeee? He had been right! It was the Wolfsbane Potion they were focusing on!

Why was Culloden looking at him like that? Adi had this potion down, no biggie. Yup! He was THAT confident. It was always best to be positive and confident, yes? Adi raised a hand. "A gobletful of the potion should be taken each day of the week before the full moon.''

[Weasley174]

Angel looked over at her sister, she would check up on her later, she felt really bad now for not going straight over and she looked at her best friend before whisper to her. "I'm terrible aren't I." Angel pouted and then she looked back at the Professor as he talked about Oreo's. That was good Angel hated the things with a vengeance and why couldn't they use Jaffa cakes like she had when she had been learning.

Angel started to scrape of the cream on the Oreo's that she had to, she wanted to make sure they were right and then she put the cream somewhere closer to Leah than herself, she just didn't like them sorry Professor nothing personal.

"Professors." Angel raised her hand. "What do you do with the cream if you don't like Oreo's?" Angel wondered if the Professor had thought about that as she pointed at the cream that she had put near Leah a nice pile was starting to form as she made sure that everything was perfect with her chart, though she was never eating an Oreo so the mess was staying there until she got her answer.

Angel then looked at the Potion Professor as he spoke about an amazing potion. Angel raised her hand "Professor it can go BANG if you get it wrong." Angel had thought about adding on like Professor Flamsteed had just done but she had a feeling this wasn't the time since if she did in his current mood her head of house probably would take like a million points of her.

[DuckyLinJi]

Oh boy, AJ just puked all over the Professor’s shoes. This was GOLD! And red considering that she was a Gryffindor… Yoongi started to laughed but quickly shut his mouth when their Head of House face was contorted with rage and he coughed in his hand. Nope, he wasn’t laughing right now…eventhough he was in his mind.

Yoongi wanted to fold his arms over each other but it was kinda difficult as he was still making that new moon thing that he was holding in his hand. So instead he rolled his eyes. Honestly, the Professor needed to get some meditation classes, he knew a good muggle zen place in London! Anyways, AJ just puked she did not die. Well, at all houses lost points so it was even. But seriousy sir, get some yoga classes.

Standing in the full moon position, Yoongi turned slowly to the left and saw that the light on the left side began to disappear. He made a mental note to write down waning and its meaning for later. He kept turning until he was at the last quarter and at the beginning where he started. It was over? Finally. Now was it time for Defence cla---COOKIES! Okay nevermind, Astronomy part can stay for a bit longer.

He opened the package of the cookies, it looked like ones he saw in muggle stores but never had them before. He placed the ten cookies in front of him and twisted off the top of the first one so that the cream was still stuck on the bottom. He placed this on the left side corner of his desk. The full moon. The other end of the cookie was placed below it, the new moon.

Grabbing another cookie, Yoongi twisted the top off and scraped off some of the cream with his finger and placed it next to the full moon. Waning Gibberious or something like that… whatever. Next he made the waning half by eating a part of the cream and letting the other half stay and then he… POTIONS PART ALREADY?! But he wasn’t finished yet! Well, since the other Professor started talking it was rude not to pay attention right? So he stuffed his face with the cookies and chewed on them with a big mouth full while staring at the old man. He was pretty old, he had gray hair.

Oh great, an extremely hard potion to brew today, yay. He couldn’t even brew a simple cure for boils potion. Guess he had to pay extra attention now. The question however he could answer. “Wolfsbane potion has a faint blue smoke when it’s completed, sir” Just because he was HORRIBLE at the subjects(s) did not mean he couldn’t read.

[VRSCIKA]

She had finished the cookie chart begrudgingly and set aside her unused cookies aside, placing them closer to Henric. He seemed to like these odd muggle cookies and she had no desire to try and taste anything after what happened with poor AJ. Next professor......What did she know about werewolves or wolfsbane potion......It seemed that most people were opting for facts about the potion. She didn't want to repeat anyone else and decided to speak about the afflicted beings themselves. She raised her hand politely and upon her turn replied. "Any bite or scratch from a werewolf whether in wolf or human form will leave a permanent scar that no magic can heal. However, if the victim is bitten or scratched while the werewolf is in human form, they will only have the scar and gain lupine tendencies such as a craving for raw meat rather than actually being afflicted with lycanthropy." She wondered if in that case it would almost feel more like you were a crup or a dog. Eating raw meat, howling.......the list went on in the young snakes mind, but she decidedly kept it to herself.

[Symphora]

Henric blinked at what his bestie was doing, he couldn't talk to her because his mouth was full of cookies. Why hadn't she had any of the deliciousness? Well...if she didn't want any, he would gladly take one of her unwanted fallen pieces of Oreos for her. Oh she seemed to not mind if he did take one...or two for himself. Yey!He nodded happily and stuffed more into his mouth. Giving her two thumbs up when he saw her completed work. Unlike his whose moon phase cookie chart was never quite finish thanks to his unhealthy love for cookies and cream. He couldn't help it even if he tried.

Wolfsbane potion? Oh he read about them before...very interesting stuff..yup...really...he just couldn't say it right now...again...he was still munching on his cookies. Henric was impressed at llia's knowledge about the werewolves....how did she know all that? Had she encountered one before? Henric stayed quiet and listened to the other's answer too.

[StarShine]

This was uncomfortable for Cosgrach, because he was used to walking in the aisles OR sitting down; but there were no aisles and his chair was trapped behind Mr. Dark Wizard Sabel. So, he had to stand in the middle. How did Airey look so natural, again?

He listened to all of the answers and there was no wrong ones, so he was happy that they had an idea about it. He noted the silent ones too and hoped that didn't mean they didn't know... but everyone had an idea about werewolves, so more like they were too shy to talk or something. Oh well.

"Professors." Angel raised her hand. "What do you do with the cream if you don't like Oreo's?"
"You can vanish it, Angel," he said to the girl before addressing the whole class:

"A werewolf is a human who becomes wolf-like when it's full moon. They forget all their human memories and they become deadly. They have absolutely no control of themselves and no choice not to transform. So," he began to walk in the open slowly area because WOW standing still was weird, "they have traditionally been cast out by societies. Although they are harmless otherwise, people still think they can pass on this condition by merely talking." His face showed his opinion about such people. He used to be one of them and believed werewolves had to live far away, but his opinion had drastically changed, and for good. "The only way this can pass is through the contact of a transformed werewolf saliva and human blood. Even then, if the scar isn't sealed by silver and dittany, the victim will die. Muggles can't even survive it. If a werewolf bites someone while human, the victim only gains lupine tendencies such as preferring raw meat.

"Back to the memory thing. I said they don't remember who they are, but they do remember what they did when they transform back to their human form. This is essential, then: if they can remember who they are, they wouldn't attack. Which is practically what Wolfsbane does. It relieves some pain and allows the werewolf to hold their human mind. This is one of the biggest discoveries in our society, so a huge thanks to Mr. Damocles who invented it after the mid-1970s." He paused to let it sink in, because he didn't want them to miss the nest part about Wolfsbane.

"As some of you have said, its main ingredient is wolfsbane, a.k.a. aconite, another a.k.a. monkshood. Since aconite is very poisonous, an incorrectly brewed potion is as well. The werewolves say it tastes terribly but adding anything else will make it ineffective. It's also unique in that the werewolf must drink a gobletful for a whole week before the full moon. If they miss even one day, they'd better find a safe place to pass the night, because it won't be effective. It's because the curse, or magic, or whatever you call this condition is very strong. Remember: there's no cure yet, this just eases the symptoms. The werewolf still transforms, but they keep their human mind."

PHEW. That was some explanation, eh? At least it was done now - until Sabel added more about werewolves - and now they could start brewing!

He tapped his wand on the board. Airey's WEREWOLVES got smaller and the ingredients appeared.

1 glass of regular cow milk
1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
14 Jobberknoll feathers
7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
7 aconites' roots

"Like I said, this is a delicate potion, so it can only be brewed with a brass cauldron." He gestured at the cauldrons by everyone's desk. If they had a different type, they were welcome to use them.

"Please heat the glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame seperately. Fill your cauldrons fully with water in the meantime and add the milk. Set the cauldron on low flame."

The start was EASY and if anyone got it wrong, it wouldn't be nice for them. They'd BETTER clean their hands before starting not to get any cookies in the water, too. So, this was a test to see who embraced potions brewing and who came to class just to pass.

1 glass of regular cow milk
1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
14 Jobberknoll feathers
7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
7 aconites' roots

Heat a glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame (seperately)
Fill the cauldron fully with water and add the milk
Set the cauldron on low flame


OOC: I'll post again 12 hours later.

[FearlessLeader19]

Notes, notes, notes! So MANY words, yo! Adi was not able to get everything but he got a great deal. At least he made sure to get the essential parts of the potion down. But FINALLY all the talking was done. He stared at Culloden. Did the man need a drink of water now? Surely his throat was parched.

BUUUUUUT onto the brewing! WOOOOOOT! This was what Adi had been looking forward to. He turned his head in Benny's direction. He usually helped the Gryffindor out during the lessons but it looked like he would be flying solo today. Adi focused his attention in double checking he had a brass cauldron. Yep.

"Scourgify!'' Cauldron cleaned CHECK! Next, he measured out a glass (also Scourgified) of cow's milk. Gosh, this would go really good with those cookies right now. Hehe. Anywayyy, Adi set the milk to be heated on medium flame, taking note of the time on his watch. While that was being done, he filled his cauldron with water.
.....................

Annnnnnd three minutes were up! In went the hot milk, joining the water. Lastly, the Puffer adjusted the burner so that it was now on low. Yaaaaay! First steps DOWN!

[Felixir]

Toby hadn't been taking any notes at all. How could he, with his head still buried firmly in his arms? Maybe he'd remember it. Maybe he'd just have to add this to the extra reading and studying he needed to do in his own time. Maybe maybe maybe.

He didn't bring his head up again until the very end of Culloden's spiel, and even then he only looked up to see the list of ingredients on the board in order to copy them down, his eyes suspiciously red-rimmed and puffy. Even the mention of a cow in the list didn't make Toby as enthusiastic as it might usually have done. It just made him miss his cow friends. He wanted to go home.

The brass cauldron was already there, and Toby mumbled a simple cleaning spell as he pointed his wand to the inside of it, and then the glass. Once the glass was full of milk he lit a fire and set it up to do its thing, on medium. Or something.

"Aguamenti," Toby murmured, just wanting to stay as quiet as possible and blend into the background for the rest of this class. A stream of water emitted from the tip of his wand, filling up the cauldron. Once the three minutes (maybe three minutes, anyway... Toby wasn't really paying attention or counting, his mind was elsewhere) was up, he switched the glass for the cauldron, to allow it to heat up in its place. He poured the milk haphazardly into the cauldron, set the glass down heavily, twiddled his wand at the flame to set it to low. Then he sat back in his seat again, back to chewing fitfully at his fingernails and staring unseeingly at the his warped reflection in the brass cauldron.

[WhittyBitty]

Turning her notebook to a new page, Lux made sure to copy down all the information that Professor Culloden was giving them. Even though she had read a lot about the Wolfsbane Potion it never hurt to be extra thorough - especially with something so potentially dangerous. Honestly, she was super excited about this part of the lesson and not just because POTIONS. The extra challenge it presented would really test her skills even if she had already brewed advanced potions in the past.

Time to get started!!

YAY!!

Lux made sure to clean her workstation AND hands before setting her equipment down on the table. Everything got a thorough cleaning with Scourgify including her BRASS cauldron. She was so happy that she had bought the right kind.

Donning clean gloves, Lux measured out a glass of cow's milk. Shame she couldn't dunk the Oreos in it, but she had a feeling Professor Culloden might not approve. Hehe. Placing it on medium heat, she made sure to note the time before filling her cauldron with water.

When the three minutes were up, Lux added the milk to the cauldron before adjusting the burner to low heat. Okay, first step done.

WOLFSBANE POTION

Ingredients:
1 glass of regular cow milk
1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
14 Jobberknoll feathers
7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
7 aconites' roots

Procedure:
Heat a glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame (seperately)
Fill the cauldron fully with water and add the milk
Set the cauldron on low flame

[MudInMyBlood]

What? Vanish the cream? The best freaking part of the cookie. AJ would take it, she would. Only considering that she had JUST vomited everywhere... maybe that wasn't the best idea. When had she ever followed THAT rule though? She had been able to nom on her cookies and her tummy wasn't threatening to expel any more of its contents, soooo...

No. She wasn't going to chance any more point loss right now. Not after she JUST lost her own house 15 of them. Not really in a note taking mood, AJ stored the information in her head because that was a good idea. Yeah, right. No need to worry about her oreo hands because there wasn't a spec of chocolate on them. Like AJ would leave behind any remnants of chocolate. Brass cauldrons were important for this potion. Got it. "Scourgify." There. A nice and clean brass cauldron. With a CLEAN glass, she measured and heated the milk.

While she waited for the three minutes to pass she filled her cauldron full with water. "Aguamenti." Once the three minutes had passed she added the cow's milk to her cauldron. Her cauldron flame was on low. So far so good.

[ArianaBlack]

That was a lot to remember. Sweet. Merlin.

Zander wasn't even going to bother taking notes, hopefully he could ask to borrow Adi's or something at one of their Prefect meetings. Besides, his mind was elsewhere at the moment.

He wasn't even sure if his cauldron was a brass one, but since it sounded special he figured he only had copper or something. Pewter maybe? He wasn't quite sure. So he opted to use the one sat out in front of him, best to be safe. Especially since this potion was apparently real temperamental or whatever. That also meant he probably wouldn't get it right... But he had hope okay? He was trying to remember that stuff that Professor Q had told him. Ahem. Being confident. That's what he was doing.

Before doing anything, the Gryffindor took out his wand and began scourgifying basically any surface near his cauldron, including the cauldron itself 'cause that was always vital. Plus, he didn't know where this brass one had been before 'cause it wasn't his. And knowing Culloden, he probably didn't clean them just so he could make a point. "Scourgify," he also had to make sure his hands were clean as well, because man Zander had learned the hard way, okay? Overly cautious now. That's what.

"Incendio," he heated the glass of milk on a medium flame, checking his watch in the mean time. While he waited for the three minutes to elapse, he decided to do the rest of the steps. Multitasking 101. Zander Adair has got this, mhm. "Aguamenti!" He filled the cauldron up with water and casted a quick, "Finite," just as it was done. Then again, he checked his watch. Fifty. Fifty five. Sixty secoooonds and THREE MINUTES. Bam.

He didn't want to touch the glass, seeing as it was hot hot HOT, so he levitated it over the cauldron to add in the milk. Then pointing his wand he whispered, "Incendio," again to heat the milk/water/cauldron up on a low flame.

[Holmesian Feline]

Taking the hint from Professor Culloden's answer to Angel's question, Ben opted to vanish his moon phase cookies. Eating was the last thing he wanted to do...besides brewing wolfsbane potion. He knew enough about it that it was far from easy and while he had passed his OWLs with flying colors, to his surprise, the Gryffindor was nervous about it. He listened to the man's description of it while taking notes, finally copying the ingredient list in with everything else.

Ugg...he didn't have his brass cauldron on him.

Must be in his trunk with the present.

He tried to discretely make his way to the table where the extras were, taking one and making his way back. The Gryffindor tried not to look at anyone, especially not his usual potions helper as he went back to his workstation. Cue sigh under his breathe as he worked on calming himself and getting to work on the beginning steps.

Relax Atreyu...the start is easy.

First there was the glass of cow milk. He scourgified the glass before measure it out and then set it to be heated, the flame on medium. Checking his watch, Ben took note of the start of the three minutes before getting to work on the water. Another "Scourgify," cleaned the cauldron as well and then an "Aquamenti" to start the stream of water flowing freely into the cauldron. The sixth year had just ended it and glanced at his watch to notice the time was almost up.

He just waited half a minute til it was before exchanging glass for cauldron and adding the milk. Then he lowered the flame to low heat and waited. He had done it correct....right?

[hermionesclone]

What in the name of........

Disgust. An expression of pure and utter disgust spread itself across Grayson's face as he STARED at the sight in front of him. The sight of AJ throwing up on Flammy. Jeez, man, did she hate the topic that much or what? Or maybe she hated the fact that Flammy was such a nerd. Was this a case of personal revenge? HMMM?

Whatever the reason, lol, he did not envy Airey Flamsteed right about now.

And then things got even more interesting when Flammy went ahead to tell Toby and Sophie off. He didn't really care for Sophie that much but TOBY?! Dude was more innocent than a baby unicorn. What in the name of Merlin? Was this a moment to be proud of Toby being a possible rebel or defensive over the guy? Merlin knew, man.

Talk about an interesting lesson.

But they had to continue with the learning portion of it all. MAN. Trying to think about the werewolves part, Grayson continued to move around the moon-on-a-stick until he was viewing the waning process as well. Just to get an idea of it and all. To be honest, it didn't seem as interesting as it had been before.

That was, until the food came in.

Why? Because freaking oreos, man!

The Slytherin immediately lit up as if he was a little kid who'd just been let loose in a sweet shop. Be mindful of crumbs? What. EVER! He was gonna enjoy eating these cookies. Taking the first Oreo out, Grayson twisted it until he got cream on one side and a nearly blank bit of biscuit on the other. Alright. There was the New Moon, then. The blank bit of biscuit was placed on his desk for the activity or whatever it was.

He continued with the activity until he had eight bits of biscuit, some with different amounts of cream on them. All part of the moon cycle.

AND THEN IT WAS THE POTIONS PART. FREAKING YEEEEEEEEES!

THIS was what Grayson was looking forward to. He was immediately paying a LOT more attention and there was less of an internal sassy monologue going on. Full attention on Culloden as he talked about the Wolfsbane Potion. The WOLFSBANE Potion. MAN! Talk about an interesting potion to make.

But onto the brewing part. Taking a glass, Grayson Scourgified it before measuring out the cow's milk. That was then gonna get transferred to a separate, clean beaker and then heated up on a medium flame for Potions reasons. Three minutes were ticking by while the seventh year went ahead and scourgified the brass cauldron near him before filling it up with water. Simple. It was kinda weird to be filling it up all the way up to the top but whatever.

Alright. Three minutes. Why was it taking so freaking long to tick by?

This was practically torture. Jeez, man.

Tick....... tock.......... tick......... tock.........

And that was three minutes over! Taking his glass of now warm cow's milk, Grayson added it to the water in the cauldron before lighting a low flame beneath the cauldron. There. Done, yo.

[Anna Banana]

Kate focused her attention on the brass cauldron in front of her. She couldn't believe she was about to attempt to brew Wolfsbane Potion. ATTEMPT, because according to the professor, they'd all likely fail. Kate still wanted to know what kind of loss the potions supply cabinet would suffer after the entire class using all these ingredients and then likely tossing out whatever they brewed.

Kate cleaned her cauldron and the materials she'd be needing right this moment, and then she measured out a glass of milk. Setting it to heat on a medium flame, she read over the next set of instructions. Remembering to keep track of the time as she worked, Kate pointed her wand toward the cauldron. "Aguamenti!" she said.

The cauldron filled with water, and when she'd ended that spell, Kate collected the heated milk and added it into the cauldron. Then with a low flame under the cauldron, Kate stood back and looked over what she'd done s far.

[Cassirin]

Brass cauldrons? Why in the world were they supposed to use brass ones? Dot had a perfectly good pewter cauldron, and her dad had paid for it with his hard earned galleons, and it was apparently NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU PEOPLE. She smirked quite happily at her own silliness as she cleaned out the borrowed cauldron, the glass for milk, her stirring sticks, and knives... oh, her shoes! They were filthy!

She'd have to owl her daddy later and tell him about the brass cauldron and see if he ranted like she was sure he would. For now, though, she had to heat a glass of milk (very tricky, very tricky) and keep time on the flame, AND she had to fill her cauldron with water. Multi-tasking was a thing in Potions class. Did StarMan know how good they were at multi-tasking? Was he super duper impressed? "Aguamenti," she filled her cauldron with water, added the milk, and lit the flame nice and low.

[feeheeheeny]

People were being very nice - Marigold's blown kiss got a small smile out of Sophie Brown, and she halfheartedly returned Dot's hug. It was just... too much. All of it. The whole class. Zander's gaze didn't help either - it actually made her want to cry more. So... she kept her gaze firmly on her notes in front of her. Not the professor who was lecturing, not Tobes anymore - no one. Just her parchment.

Notes were all that mattered right now. She was channeling all her feelings into this - just writing down whatever she heard Culloden say. Her handwriting was pretty much completely illegible as she tried to keep up - honestly it was a pretty ridiculous thing for her to be doing anyway as she already knew most of what was being said - and when she heard him tap his wand on the board, she looked up to study the list of ingredients.

Cow milk, huh? Cows - Tobes - big ol' nope, she quickly jumped along to the next items. A tame dog's neck fur? That was... oddly specific. The other ingredients weren't SUPER out of the ordinary, though she was almost certain this was the first time she'd ever needed Runespoor egg. And... well... all things considering, this was bound to be an interesting brewing session.

Her sixth year supply list had included one stone cauldron, standard size 1, and one copper cauldron, standard size 4. There had been no requirement for brass, so... looked like she'd be using the provided one. But... as the first set of instructions were being given, Sophie just... wasn't... feeling it.

She couldn't do it. She didn't want to. How could she when Culloden expected her to fail, Flamsteed undoubtedly demoted her from his secret list of favorite students, and she was about to lose Tobes forever?

Somberly, Sophie copied down the instructions to brew the potion, including details about only using a brass cauldron. But then she just... kind of... sat there. Staring at her cauldron blankly. Contemplating her impending doom with a surplus of moisture in her eyes, her expression otherwise blank.

She was just going to sit there.

[Casey O]

Marigold was taken aback by the sudden jump, right into potions. Taken aback, she took out her wand and pulled the borrowed brass cauldron towards her. "Scourgify" took care of the cauldron, along with an added "Aguamenti" to fill the cauldron fully with water.

She put some milk into a glass, which she put over the flame, turned to medium. As she waited for the three minutes, she realized Sophie Brown wasn't doing anything. She was just SITTING THERE. Oh no oh noo. Marigold flapped her hands anxiously, then nervously bit her lip and checked to see that the professors weren't looking. She switched cauldrons out with Sophie Brown, hers filled with water and clean, so that Sophie Brown could be okay. Yes. Sophie Brown was going to be okay if Marigold had anything to do with it.

Another minute until she needed to add the milk to her cauldron, but she had a dirty, empty, Sophie-Brown-old cauldron now. She did her spells, "Scourgify. Aguamenti!" and then added the milk, quick as she could, after the three minutes were up. She set the cauldron on a low flame and waited it out.

[Jessiqua]

That was a LOT of information, but it was ALL going onto a piece of parchment that Zhenya had set up in front of her. Even though she knew some of it already, and her classmates had said it all, it was still good hearing Professor Culloden speaking about all of it, clumped together, and it just made sense.

The ingredients appeared on the board, and Zhenya wrote them down onto a separate piece of parchment. If she didn't get this potion right this time, by Merlin, she was going to practice it.

Ingredients
1 glass of regular cow milk
1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
14 Jobberknoll feathers
7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
7 aconites' roots

Hints
MUST use brass cauldron - very delicate potion

Method
1. Heat a glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame (seperately)
2. Fill the cauldron fully with water and add the milk
3. Set the cauldron on low flame


Right - Zhenya wanted to get it right. She would aim to get it right. She went to wash her hands thoroughly before they started, what with the cookie particles and all, surely they contained sugar. Going back to her desk, she reached for her wand and cleaned her cauldron. "Scourgify," she said, swirling the S shaped charm into the cauldron. Well, best do that again. "Scourgify." Okay, clean cauldron. Now the next two steps they could do pretty simultaneously. She had to hear a class of milk for three minutes on a medium flame. There was the glass of milk, which she reached for, and she lit her flame. "Incendio," she said, twirling her wand to shape out a flame. There was a medium flame and Zhenya started her timer as she placed the milk near the flame to hear it. At the same time, she could fully fill her cauldron with water. "Aguamenti," she said, pointing her wand into the cauldron. She stopped when the cauldron was full, by which time there was still ages to wait for the milk to hear up.

After waiting, staring at her timer so that she could remove the flame as SOON as it hit 3 minutes, she quickly removed it and lowered the flame for the cauldron, which she moved on top of the flame. All set for the next steps, but knowing this was going to be a very difficult potion, she was starting to feel a bit flustered.

[Weasley174]

Angel smiled at the Potion Professor, but then the memory of the big smile came back into her head and she looked over at her head of house, maybe he could ask the Potion Professor for her, she had tried but he had gone from being so nice to snapping at her which she didn't like. Angel would corner them both later and ask for answer that was the best bet right. Angel then vanished the cream that had been piling nicely on the desk.

Angel had to borrow a cauldron since hers wasn't a brass one, "Scourgify! Angel cleaned out the cauldron and then she made sure her hands were clean, she then looked at the instructions.

"Aguamenti!" Angel did the wand movement and made sure the cauldron was filled up, they had to do that right? She wasn't so sure but decided to give it a go.

Angel heated the milk separately, on a medium flame for 3 minutes, she was very confused as to why she had to do this and she was sure she was already getting lost.

"Incendio!" Angel put the cauldron flame on a low flame, then she added the milk into the cauldron, was she doing this right?

[StarShine]

Cosgrach studied them as they did the first 3 steps. He missed Toby's carelessness, as he wasn't going to count the 3 minutes with every single student. Sophie worried him more anyway, because she wasn't doing anything. He frowned to himself. This didn't look right. If she couldn't even handle a RIGHTFUL warning... he decided to give her a few more moments, because he didn't want to believe she was that sensitive...

And the next moment, she had filled her cauldron! Good. He was relaxed, and turned to update the blackboard.

4. Chop the fluxweed well and add it
5. Stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer
6. Sprinkle the dog fur evenly (in about 10 seconds)
7. Wait for exactly 7 days (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)

"Please chop the fluxweed and add it, then stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer. Sprinkle the dog fur evenly in approximately ten seconds, but just for this step you don't have to be so precise about the time." But he expected excellence otherwise. "Once you're done sprinkling, please note the exact hour and minute, because you have to wait for 7 full days before moving on." He paused for them to finish these steps BEFORE he answered any possible questions...

...

After enough time had passed, the rest of the recipe appeared on the board.

8. Add 7 of the Jobberknoll feathers
9. Wait for exactly 7 days again (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)
10. Add the other 7 of the feathers
11. Set the burner on medium heat
12. Add the Armadillo bile one tea spoon at a time
13. Stir 7 times counter clockwise with a metal stirrer
14. Add the Runespoor egg
15. Wait for 7 minutes and 7 seconds
16. Cast 'Recordo'
17. Add the aconite roots one by one
18. If done correctly, it will exude a faint blue smoke

"Don't worry about copying this all, let's just practise the spell 'Recordo' without your wands. Repeat after me: ré-core-DOH. Recordo." He listened to the class intently. Did anyone have a problem with the incantation? Hopefully not? "The wand movement is very straightforward: you draw a circle over the potion to symbolise the full moon." Easy to remember, yes? Still, he demonstrated it. "You can try too, without the incantation." To be honest, he didn't really look closely because it was a very easy movement and he expected everyone to get it right. "And lastly, before casting it, you have to come up with a strong memory, either sad or happy. It just have to be a vivid one you remember. Then, you combine all: you'll think of the memory, draw a circle over the potion and say the incantation. We won't do that today because we're not at that step yet." And obviously, they wouldn't be able to tell if they got it right or wrong without trying it on the potion. He just wanted them to hear and see.

"We're done with the potions part of this class." That had been quick AND EASY, HUH? All of them got it right, yes? "Completing the potion is your homework. I'll announce the details and the full recipe later, so don't try to copy it now. Just listen to Professor Dakest if you're done."

With that, he turned to sit down on his chair once again, unless someone stopped him with a question.

OOC: The potions part is done at the end of this post, so if your character has a problem and/or question, you can still RP it and we'll answer as if it's before Cosgrach finished his part. ^_^
You can catch up as always!
Thank you for participating!
The class will continue when Tazenhani posts.

[Jessiqua]

More instructions!

Ingredients
1 glass of regular cow milk
1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
14 Jobberknoll feathers
7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
7 aconites' roots

Hints
MUST use brass cauldron - very delicate potion
Recordo
Pronounced: ré-core-DOH
Wand movement: draw a circle over the potion, symbolising the full moon
Important note: Must have a happy or sad VIVID and strong memory in mind before casting the spell

Method
1. Heat a glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame (seperately)
2. Fill the cauldron fully with water and add the milk
3. Set the cauldron on low flame
4. Chop the fluxweed well and add it
5. Stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer
6. Sprinkle the dog fur evenly (in about 10 seconds)
7. Wait for exactly 7 days (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)

Oh this was getting tense. Literally, her eyes felt like they would snap. She had to put her glasses on, or she was going to get a roaring headache soon. She cleaned them and put them on, pushing them right up. Ahh. Much better.

Okay, so time for chopping. So far it was pretty easy, well... black and white, really. Heat the milk over a medium flame for 3 minutes. But now it was chopping, and no matter how good you were at chopping, there was never going to be a precise chop to ALL of the ingredients. You just had to do your best. So, Zhenya pulled her wooden chopping board and her knife. "Scourgify," she said to both of them, pointing her wand at them separately, cleaning them twice each. Now, she had to chop the fluxweed WELL. She gathered one measure of the fluxweed and put it on her chopping board. She took a few deep breaths in to steady her hands, and she began chopping it well. There, it looked pretty well chopped to her. Before she added it to her cauldron, she got her metal stirrer, "Scourgify," she said, cleaning it before it went anywhere near her potion. In the fluxweed went, and she counted seven careful stirs; clockwise. She even double checked with the clock that she was going in the right direction. Couldn't be too careful.

Next was the dog fur. One handful of a tame dog's neck fur. With her handful, she slowly-ish sprinked it in, adjusting the sprinkle speed to get it all into the potion in 10 seconds. Done. Success. HUZAH. As soon as the last fur was in, she looked at the time and wrote it down exactly, onto her parchment. And next... wait, 7 days?

Well, she couldn't do anymore. She looked at the rest of the instructions and was interested to see that it was all in lots of 7. Why was that, she wondered? She could ask later. But for now they were going to practice the spell. Right, not together of course, that would be silly. Not for another two weeks!

"ré-core-DOH," she said, slowly and carefully. "ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH, ré-core-DOH," she repeated, again and again to try and make it all click. Now she could practice the wand movement. She decided to do it without her wand for now, so picking up an invisible wand, she moved it in a circle; a full moon. Awesome stuff. She would try to come up with a memory, but she was fairly certain she knew which one she would use already. Very sad.

[nanyjj]

... Leah just stared at the Professor for a moment before she began taking notes. You wanna know something about a Joint Lesson? There was a LOT of information to take in. She quickly wrote down things about werewolves, their human memories and the main ingredient wolfsbane. Phew - now he had finished his explanation. Time to start brewing!

Yes, she had a brass cauldron. This WAS brass right? It definitely wasn't pewter… everybody else had a cauldron like hers, so yep she was on the right track. "Scourgify," she cleaned her BRASS cauldron and a glass cup. She filled the cup with regular cow milk. Then she heated the milk on medium flame with her watch set for 3 minutes. "Aguamenti!" she conjured a jet of water into the cauldron while this was happening. When the cauldron was full, she eyed her watch, counting the seconds until her 3 minutes were up. She added the warm milk into the water, frowning slightly as she knew what water + milk tasted like. Ewww. Leah changed the flame to low and set the cauldron over it.

Soon, the blackboard was updated. WHEEE chopping! Leah cleaned her knife and chopping she did. The fluxweed was well cut out before she knew it. It went straaaight into the cauldron. After cleaning her metal stirrer, she stirred 7 times clockwise with an eye on her watch for the next step. This almost made her stir one extra time, but she stopped herself just in time. The Hufflepuff then looked for her supply of dog's neck fur. Hopefully no dog died giving its fur because that would terrible. While she thought about animal cruelty, the ten seconds were up. Maaaybe a half second more but it did not matter much for this step. She sprinkled bits of the fur around the edge of the cauldron, then some in the middle and others at the side. Once she was done, she quickly bent down over a spare piece of parchment and wrote down the current hour and minute with a note Do the next step on January 24th! scribbled along the margins.

As Leah took a seat again and started copying down the rest of the recipe, the Professor instructed them to practice the spell they needed to cast in step 16. "Ré-core-DOH," she said, imitating Professor Culloden. "Ré-core-DOH. RécoreDOH. Recordo!" That sounded right. It was not a difficult incantation to remember. She stood up, looked at her cauldron's contents and practiced the wand movement. She opened her mouth to say the incantation along, but shut it immediately at the possibility of blowing up the cauldron. Didn't want that to happen, nope. A circle over the potion. She drew a circle with her wand. And another. And another. A circle was still a circle. Easy enough. The strong memory though… why did potions all need a memory of some sort? But this time it did not require an emotion. So the Fifth Year chose her first day at Hogwarts. It was a vivid memory and she could remember it as if it was yesterday - the train ride, the Sorting, the Start of Term Feast - everything.

And now they were switching to DADA. WEREWOLVES. She turned to Professor Dakest, wondering if she should clean her station right now.

[Felixir]

Toby wasn't sure what it was that was pushing him on with this potion, even as careless about it as he was being. Some sort of weird, Hufflepuff need to keep on keeping on, perhaps? Being set on autopilot? His twitchy fidgety-ness needing some sort of outlet? Something to focus on? Perhaps all of the above? Whatever it was, the seventh year continued with the brewing process, though paying nowhere near as much attention as he should have been, and making no notes as he went but still doing it. Just... distracted. Or something.

The more time went on, the more fidgety Toby got (a mixture of anxiety about what might be coming at the end of the lesson and his overpowering energy), but the more faraway his expression would become. At the mention of fluxweed, he simply grabbed a handful and added that to the potion. He missed the stirring step completely, absentminded as he was, and by the time he'd thrown the dog fur in there too, Culloden had started saying all those words that weren't making much sense to Toby. It was a LOT of information, and his brain immediately rejected all the things. A THREE in one lesson on top of worrying about things was enough to make his brain basically implode. He was pretty sure it had already happened.

Without noting anything down, or practicing any spells, Toby lay his arms back down on the desk and brought his head down to join them, burying his face in the crook of his elbow. And, of course, his feet still jiggled and bounced and tapped incessantly under the desk. He was trying so, SO hard not to be too fidgety, to be quiet and still and blend into the background like he didn't even exist. But holding the energy in was taking all his concentration, and he felt fit to burst. He needed to get up and run away, but there he sat, because he'd been told in no uncertain terms that he was to stay.

Turned out, being scolded for something you blatantly DID do was about 45874683 times worse than when you didn't really deserve it, that's what Toby had come to realise. He felt so ashamed of himself (perhaps disproportionately so, though he wouldn't have agreed with that assessment), and so guilty. Somehow, he'd unleashed a barage of self-loathing thoughts that overpowered everything else. He knew he deserved the reprimand, though, and anything that was coming his way, and felt very much like he didn't deserve to be able to just shrug it off like he'd seen other kids do in the past. It had been selfish to mess about in Airey's lesson, after how awesome the professor usually was was him, and though Toby didn't know what had come over him in that ridiculous mood, it was no excuse. Airey was right to be furious with him. Toby was furious with himself.

Would anyone notice if he just... slid under his desk? And stayed there forever? Would that just make matters worse? Could things get worse? Toby was definitely considering it, depending on how things went from here, but it wasn't like he had a marvelous track record in DADA this term, either.

[RandomRaven]

So. much. information.

The Korean guy just kept silent and listened to Culloden's explanation and now... brewing time! Quickly he wrote the ingredients and the steps.Since his cauldron was pewter, so Jackson decided to use the brass cauldron that the Potions master had provided. First, he needed to cleaned it. "Scourgify." Then he added the water into the cauldron. "Aguamenti." Then, what's next? He looked down at his note. Taking a glass of milk, he heated it separately for three minutes in medium flame. "Incendio." After the milk was heated, he added them into the cauldron and then set the low flame. "Incendio."

Whoaaaaa... Next steps were already written at the board. Quickly he copied down into his note and did them.

Grabbing the fluxweed, he chopped them with a clean silver knife that he had cleaned before. Chop chop chop. Then he added them into the cauldron. Then he grabbed a metal stirrer, cleaned it, and used it to stir his potion. He stirred them 7 times clockwise. After he had done with stirring, Jackson grabbed a handful of dog fur and sprinkled them evenly every ten seconds. And then... DONE? Nope, they had to wait for 7 days.

Now it's time to practice the incantation of the spell. "Recordo. ré-core-DOH. ré-core-DOH. ré-core-DOH." He repeated it multiple times. Then using his wand, he drew a circle over the potion. Now it's time to move on to DADA.

[VRSCIKA]

Henric blinked at what his bestie was doing, he couldn't talk to her because his mouth was full of cookies. Why hadn't she had any of the deliciousness? Well...if she didn't want any, he would gladly take one of her unwanted fallen pieces of Oreos for her. Oh she seemed to not mind if he did take one...or two for himself. Yey!He nodded happily and stuffed more into his mouth. Giving her two thumbs up when he saw her completed work. Unlike his whose moon phase cookie chart was never quite finish thanks to his unhealthy love for cookies and cream. He couldn't help it even if he tried.

Wolfsbane potion? Oh he read about them before...very interesting stuff..yup...really...he just couldn't say it right now...again...he was still munching on his cookies. Henric was impressed at llia's knowledge about the werewolves....how did she know all that? Had she encountered one before? Henric stayed quiet and listened to the other's answer too.

Ilia had to suppress a laugh as Henric stuffed a few more of her cookie bits into his mouth. When he nodded his acceptance of the cookies and she was certain that she no longer needed the 'chart' of the Merlin forsaken muggle sweets, she pushed them over to Henric. He could eat all of them because after snapping a few and poor AJ fresh in her mind, there was no way she was taking a bite. She was pretty sure if she had just vanished it away as the professor had suggested poor Henric might be sad. He really seemed to be enjoying these things.
-----------------------------------

Potions time, after giving her best friend the cookies she "Scourgify" cleaned her area and her own hands. If she got crumbles from those things in her potion she would be infuriated. Who knows what they could do to it? Especially since he said that it was a delicate potion. She doubted that Professor Culloden would be to thrilled with 'oreo' wolfsbane.

She took the milk and a smaller cauldron, incanting the heat on under it and adjusting it to medium. Since she had to wait for three minutes, she kept note of the time but set up her brass cauldron. Filling it with "Aguamenti" clear water until it was almost full. She needed to leave enough room for the heated milk. "Finite" She incanted the heat under this cauldron now and set the flame to low.

Now that it had been three minutes she added the milk into her water base. Okay, time for fluxweed. She "Scourgify" cleaned her cauldron that she had used for the milk and began chopping. Once it was well chopped, she added it in evenly and began to stir. Clockwise 1, clockwise 2, clockwise 3, clockwise 4, clockwise 5, clockwise 6, clockwise 7. Stirred and it seemed to be fine.

Okay.....dog fur. She wondered if any dogs had naked necks because of the amount that had been collected for all of the students. Maybe it was just from shaggy, shedding dogs and there weren't any naked necked dogs.....Who thought of this stuff....seriously Ilia. She took her handful of fur and sprinkled it evenly across the surface fairly swiftly but not all at once.

Wait seven days......well they weren't going to be in class that long even for a joint lesson so she presumed that they were done for now. Taking her notebook for potions, she marked down the precise time and date under her notes. Alright......what next she wondered.

[Govoni]

Gabriel was fully invested in his Oreos by this point. Whatever else was going on around him, due to the vomiting episode, was being blatantly ignored. Especially after his own overreaction.

Of course, after allowing several moments to pass, Gabe realized they were firmly into the potions portion of the lesson; glancing around quickly, trying to gauge just how much he'd missed. Culloden must've just finished giving all the information...because people were cleaning their cauldrons and preparing to start brewing. How strange...He usually didn't space out like that.

.......and they were working with BRASS?!...That was different.

Not owning a brass cauldron himself, he would be using the one provided. And it wasn't that Gabe had anything against brass. He didn't. Not really...but there had never been a reason for him to use that particular material. But this was intriguing...and he tried to think about what this would mean for the utensils that needed to be used...and the nature of the ingredients. It did explain why milk was being implemented as a base. It didn't heat as fast as water....and brass couldn't withstand high heat.

Ahem, anyway...Gabe got his things into position; ingredients from his own kit and those provided for the lesson specifically. First things first, he took the time to clean the cauldron carefully, checking for weak spots. There weren't any, of course. Professor Culloden must've checked them all beforehand. He was a brilliant man. Completely...but it didn't hurt to be diligent in these matters. It could've been a test, you know? To see who was planning to take this seriously moving forward. And no one could say Gabe wasn't serious. In fact, he was TOO serious.

As he heated the milk separately, setting the alarm on his watch for three minutes, he got his notes in order. This was supposed to be a hard one...and he didn't want to fail too drastically. Even being as adept as he was...Gabe wasn't perfect. So...he had to really focus here.

When the milk finished heating, it was removed; the brass cauldron replacing the cup, and water being added. Filled to completion, as the instructions stated. Carefully pouring the milk in with the water, Gabe adjusted the heat to low. Then, it was time to update his notes.

[Weasley174]

Angel was totally enjoying this lesson and she was going to make sure she did this right, it seemed her first part of the potion had gone right and now she wanted to continue with doing the rest right. She grabbed a knife and them made sure that it was clean before she started to chop the fluxweed up, she then added them in one by one before she grabbed hold of the Metal Stirrer and she stirred the potion seven times clockwise.

Angel then got hold of the dog fur and started to sprinkle it over the potion making sure that it went it properly, she hoped that they wouldn't be testing these potions because well it was really hard to get right.

Angel looked at the Professor the next step would come now right. Wrong? They had to wait Seven days before they did it, okay she wasn't sure this potion was for her to make, she hated waiting and how come the person who invented it waited so long, if nothing happened after a few days she would have thrown the stupid potion out.

Angel then decided to practice the spell. "Recordo!!" Angel said, this sounded easy enough. "Recordo! Recordo! Recordo!" Angel then practiced her wand movement with her hand, that was easy enough, just tracing a circle over the potion.

Angel then waited to see what was going to happen with the DADA part of this lesson.

[FearlessLeader19]

What next, what next?

Adi shifted from foot to foot, watching Culloden's every move. Come on! Let's get back to more instruction. Hehe. Super hyper, wasn't he? Then Culloden was turning to the board, adding more instructions. Excellent!

Time to re- focus! The Puff took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed every ounce of his concentration about him. He magically cleaned his knife before chopping the fluxweed and adding it to the cauldron. "Scourgify!'' With the metal stirrer cleaned, the stirring started. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven! All in a clockwise direction.

Next, the dog fur was grabbed. He ensured that it was all sprinkled in after ten seconds but less than about fifteen seconds. Adi mad sure it was all sprinkled in as evenly as he could get it. And now the waiting with the exact hour and minute. Gosh, it was like Felix Felicis. Hehe. The Puffer LOVED it! He was good with being precise.

Alright! Onto practicing this spell. "Ré-core-DOH... Recordo... Recordo...'' That was easy enough to practice. Now for the wand movement which was even easier- a circle over the potion. Done!

Adi listened to Culloden explain more stuff. A memory, huh? He had plenty of those. He involuntarily looked over at Benny, wondering how he was getting on and various memories of them hanging out going through his head. He turned away quickly, poking Ilia's gift again to distract him as he waited for Dakest to get started.

[ArianaBlack]

Zander was still concerned about Sophie Brown, but he had to turn his attention back the Culloden, so he didn't even notice that she hadn't done anything to her potion at all. He was too busy being COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED by all the new steps they had to do??? WHAT THE HECK.

Man. Zander HATED joint lessons. They always went by too fast. There was just so much to do. He wasn't prepared for this okay. No amount of Notice Board updates could keep him on his toes for this kind of thing. Man. This was the worst.

Quickly cleaning his knife, he went ahead and chopped the fluxweed before adding it into the cauldron. Then he took his clean metal stirrer and began stirring it clockwise. Clockwise and NOT counterclockwise. Apparently this kind of stuff was important. Zander knew. Been there. Done that. Never again. (Please). One.... Two..... Acouplenumbersinbetween... Six... SEVEN. Bingo. He then looked back up at the board, taking a deep breath as he did so 'cause there were still so many steps left!! Now the sprinkling stuff came next and man. SEVEN FULL DAYS?

They were going to have to sit here for SEVEN FULL DAYS?

Man. The notice board said nothing about this.

He did, however, glance over at his watch before jotting the time down on his parchment. And this was gonna be the perfect time to glance over at-- WHAT? Professor C was STILL GOING??? Sweet Merlin. "Re-core-DOH," he repeated. "Recordo." Recordo. Record. Recordo. Not bad. He wasn't even going to practice the wand movement because it was so simple. But he was going to sit here and think about what his memory would be. Uh. Zander had no clue. This would be very time consuming, he could already tell.

Oh wait, so they weren't going to sit here for seven days? Well that was a close one. Though... The mention of homework did make him feel slightly sick.

[MudInMyBlood]

AJ took a second to clean all of the equipment that was needed before she moved on to the first step. The lion always loved making potions because it was easy to her. It was pretty much fail proof. Follow the directions and you wouldn't have any problems. Simple.

Chopping of the fluxweed happened. She added it to her cauldron. Her metal stirrer was already cleaned so she began to stir the contents of her potion in a clockwise motion. Seven stirs in, she was done with that part. See how easy this was? How could anybody mess this up?

Time to sprinkle some dog fur. AJ wondered why dog fur was used and not werewolf fur? She raised her hand. "Professor, is there dog fur in the potion because dogs are considered tame in comparison to a werewolf?" Was she making sense? "I mean I was wondering why werewolf fur wouldn't be used. It is because this potion is supposed to help with not turning into a rabid werewolf soooo a dog is like a metaphor sort of to a tame werewolf?" Wow, that was kind of deep. In a confusing kind of way.

After the ten seconds had passed, she began to sprinkle the fur evenly.

7 full days? That was SUCH a long time, and didn't these professors know that she wasn't the patient type? Still, it wasn't as if she could change the rules of the potions so she made note of the time and date on the corner of a spare piece of parchment.

Recordo. Easy enough to pronounce. "Recordo...REcordo...Recordo..." Got it. The wand movement was pretty cool considering the subject was on werewolves. Did the plan the full moon trace before the spell was invented orrrr was it mere coincidence? Either way it was bloody brilliant. Picking up her wand she gave the movement a few tries. Not that she really needed to practice that much. Easy peasy.

[feeheeheeny]

...There was a new cauldron in front of her, and her cauldron was being taken away. Sophie lifted her gaze from the point it had been fixated on in front of her to see Marigold's retreating back... and the Ravenclaw propped her head up on her chin, her elbow on her desk, and went back to staring at the new cauldron now.

Grateful, she was, that someone was looking out for her... but she didn't deserve it. And as class went along, she continued writing down the steps until all eighteen of them were in her notes... and then she processed what they said and what Culloden had said: they had to wait seven days. There were only a few steps they had to do today.

...Well. She could... probably... catch up, yeah? Maybe? Just get the first few steps done now? It wasn't like she had to brew the entire POTION now. Just a few steps. She... could muster up the will for that, couldn't she? Yeah... yeeeah. All right. Fine. She'd do it, but she wouldn't like it.

Visibly distressed as she did so, Sophie set the medium flame, heated the milk over it in a clean container, and checked her watch. Three minutes would fly by before she knew it, so she got her other things ready - cleaning her cutting knife, metal stirrer, and gloves with Scourgify, and then chopping the measure of fluxweed, too. The further into the three minutes it got, the more comfortable she felt - potion-making was kind of therapeutic, wasn't it?

When the three minutes were up, Sophie added the heated milk to her cauldron and used, "Incendio," to set her burner to a low flame, then added her already-chopped fluxweed with a clean-gloved hand. With her metal stirrer clean, too, she dipped it down into the cauldron, and hesitated to make sure she went in the right direction before stirring seven times clockwise. At the last stir, she lifted the stick from the cauldron and cast, "Scourgify," on it so the potion didn't drip all over her desk when she took it all the way out.

Then the dog fur. Still the weirdest part of the potion, she thought, and she re-cleaned her gloves again before taking a handful of the tame dog's fur - it had been about ten seconds anyway since she stopped stirring - and sprinkled the handful into the cauldron, trying to evenly coat the surface.

...Phew. She actually felt a little better now. Funny how productivity brightened the mood, wasn't it? She didn't feel like practicing the incantation like everyone else - instead, Sophie looked over at Marigold then and tried to catch her eye - and when she did, the sixth year gave the older girl a genuine smile and a thumbs-up.

[Casey O]

Marigold breathed easier when she realized that the cauldron switch had gone unnoticed. GOOD. She went back to focusing on the potion - Sophie Brown would surely continue by herself.

She chopped the fluxweed for a while, then dropped it into the milky potion. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven" times clockwise (with a "Scourgify"-ed metal stirrer), then sprinkled the dog fur as evenly as she could. She wrote down the date, hour, and minute. Yay.

[Anna Banana]

Kate cleaned her knife and stirrer then began chopping the fluxweed. Adding it the brew, she stirred seven times clockwise, making sure to keep count, so she couldn't stir too much or too little. After the seventh stir, Kate sprinkled the dog fur until the count of ten. She wasn't sure how precise she'd been on that one, but according to the professor, that didn't really matter anyway.

SEVEN DAYS?!

Dear Merlin. Kate noted the time, even writing it on top of her notes. She started copying the remainder of the instructions, but the professor wanted them to move on to practicing a spell instead. Mmkay. Kate held her on to her wand as she listened to the professor. "Recordo. Recordo!" she repeated. Not hard at all. Kate drew a circle with her wand without saying the incantation. Such an easy spell for such a difficult potion.

There was a memory added in to the steps, too, but they were closing out this part of the lesson. So that left the Defense part of the lesson before things wrapped up. Ready for you, Dakest.

[DuckyLinJi]

Oh boy, Potions part. Well, here it goes.

Yoongi swallowed the last bits of the cookies as he grabbed a brass cauldron at the side of his desk. He placed it in front of him before taking out his wand. He checked the blackboard and saw that the WEREWOLVES that Professor Flamsteed had written was shrinking in size and the ingredients had appeared. Taking out his hand wipes to clean his hands without magic, he grabbed his wand and pointed it carefully at a pit. “Incendio” he said and when the fire was on a medium flame he placed the glass of cow milk down.

While that was boiling, he pointed his wand at the brass cauldron and with the aguamenti charm he filled it with water and set the flame to low under it. These parts of potions was easy because he had to use charms. And well, he was good at charms. And even he could add the milk to the cauldron after 3 mi---wait…HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?! Panicking, Yoongi threw the milk in to the cauldron and PRAYED it was added at the right time. Mweh he hated potions.

Carefully looking inside his cauldron, he was pleased that it hadn’t exploded yet. He grabbed a knife and cleaned it before chopping the fluxweed in to pieces before adding it.

Next he grabbed a metal stirrer, forgot to clean it, and immediately began to stir , 1, 2 3 4 5 6 7 times! Look at THAT! He had done i---THE WRONG WAY OF STIRRING. Physically facepalming himself, Yoongi looked at his getting worse potion. Well, it was too late to go back now. Perhaps he would invent a new potion! With new determination in his eyes, Yoongi set to work again. But that quickly died out when the Professor told them they had to wait for 7 days. Great. And why did he had the feeling he missed something?

Wait, spell work time? FINALLY! Yoongi repeated the word over and over until he got it right and then pointed his wand at the cauldron. He drew a circle over the potion while thinking about his family. Yeah yeah, it was cheesy, but they were his source of inspiration. “Recordo!” …done now? This was a disaster! But at least his potion didn’t explode. He just wondered how he was going to get away with this for seven days….

[Govoni]

Waiting for the next set of steps, Gabe allowed his mind to wander a bit, thinking about things. Particular things. Very particular things. Happenings...

Cheeks tinged pink, he drew a small biohazard symbol in the corner of his parchment. Science all the things...and this potion seemed serious enough to warrant it. Though, it wasn't hazardous. Or so he thought.

Hmm? They were moving on.

Now, to chop the fluxweed...but how well was well? Moving the bundle so it lay directly in front of him, Gabe set about doing this with a clean stainless steel blade. There hadn't been anything specific about the type of metal that needed to be implemented. So, he assumed this was okay. After five minutes, he double checked the board and then added it in. Carefully. Just to make sure none of the pieces spilled out of his hands and fell to the floor. It was a crime to waste ingredient. ANY ingredient.

Now, for a metal stirrer.

Fishing one out of his case, Gabe paused only to cast a quick cleaning spell on it...and then dipped it down into the concoction. Clockwise stirring. Seven times. That...was it? It interested him that it was seven...but then marginally made sense as seven was the most magically adept number. Or so it was stated in every Arithmancy text he'd ever read. So, it had to be true...

After taking care of the seven clockwise-stirs, he removed the metal utensil and cleaned it. It wasn't needed again for this lesson. So, it was neatly placed back in his case. Also, there had been some reading ahead, and Gabe had seen that they would only be doing one more step for today. One that involved the dog hair. Merlin...it the smell was awful. He was mildly allergic...or had been as a small child...but he'd read somewhere that as a person got older, the things they were allergic to could changed. Every seven years...or something. His recollection was sketchy on the details.

Heh.

Taking a big step back, he held his hand out and began sprinkling; breath held. Instead, Gabe focused on silently counting to ten. The limit had been ten seconds, correct?

After finishing that up and updating his notes, he peered back towards Culloden....and yes, he'd went ahead and jotted down the following steps. It was only appropriate to have them all in one collective place.

[WhittyBitty]

It seemed that everyone had done the first few steps correctly since Professor Culloden hadn't called anyone out or vanished any potions. That was always a good thing because Lux didn't like to see anyone do badly.

With a clean knife, she began chopping the Fluxweed. She had no idea when it had been picked but hopefully it had been during a full moon. Once it had been added, she stirred the potion 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... times clockwise with a clean metal stirrer. The dog fur was added as evenly as possible while staying within the 10 second time-frame. Her focus turned immediately to the clock, and she made a note of the EXACT time for when she came back to the potion in a week.

Now onto the spell practice. "Recordo... Recordo... Recordo..." With her wand she drew a few circles over her cauldron. Pretty simple.

WOLFSBANE POTION

Ingredients:
1 glass of regular cow milk
1 measure of fluxweed (picked on full a moon)
1 handful of a tame dog's neck fur
14 Jobberknoll feathers
7 tea spoons of Armadillo bile
7 grams of a well-whisked Runespoor egg
7 aconites' roots

Procedure:
Heat a glass of milk for 3 minutes on medium flame (seperately)
Fill the cauldron fully with water and add the milk
Set the cauldron on low flame
Chop the fluxweed well and add it
Stir 7 times clockwise with a metal stirrer
Sprinkle the dog fur evenly (in about 10 seconds)
Wait for exactly 7 days (note the hour and minute and do the next step at the exact time)

[sweetpinkpixie]

Airey had been sitting, grumbling and muttering to himself, while staring out the window at the full moon while the Potions Master spoke to the class. He was doing his best not to make eye contact with either Mr. Toby or Miss Brown - which was a little more difficult now that they were almost both on either side of his peripheral vision and eye catching since he felt like a proper black hole.

Meaning, he felt like a fun sucker.

He had also noticed the way the Hufflepuff prefect had moved, without permission and then promptly sat on another student, but since Cosgrach was lecturing and didn't seem to mind...Airey just sat and stuffed the rest of his oreo cookies into his black hole of a mouth. Not a fun sucking one this time. Oreo cookie sucking one.

Anyway...

Once potion brewing began, the astronomer figured it was now safe to get up and walk around the room while still chewing on a mouthful of delectable chocolate and cream - different from the sort that students had been munching away on as they would find out soon enough, HEHE - paused in front of a student's workspace with a rather uncomfortable itch creeping up his nose. He tried to hold it in, really, but when one's eyes were watering and you felt a sneeze coming on, well...it was hard to hold back.

"ACFOOUUU!" he sneezed, bits of oreo cookie shooting out of his mouth and on to the desk and student in front of him...and perhaps a little bit also going into the cauldron. Purely on accident. Promise.

Oops?

The Astronomy professor rubbed his nose and glanced nervously over his shoulder. Professor Candy Cauldron hadn't seen that, right? He shot a sheepish look towards the student.

"Sorry!"

[Sararara]

Holy BANANAS. One second she was eating a cookie and the next there were five hundred billion thousand steps on the board. He'd said this was going to be a hard potion, but he didn't say the entire thing was going to be over in 2.5 seconds of learning. Brushing a few curls behind her ears, Norah picked up her wand and cast "Scourgify!" on the brass cauldron, then again on the glass for the milk. With one more "Scourgify!" for each of her gloves, she deemed everything clean enough to start this whole shindig before she grew a beard or something. That'd already proven to take more than 14 entire years to happen. She set the clean glass of milk over a medium flame, glancing at the clock before bending over to record the notes Professor Culloden had put on the board. La la la steps, steps, and more steps. It took almost all of the three minutes to scribble down the information, and that was even in her bad handwriting....or worse handwriting. She cast "Incendio" to light a low flame on her burner, then "Aguamenti" in her clean cauldron, before pouring the warmed milk to the clear liquid. Good? Goooooood? Good.

The fourth year leaned over the notes she'd scribbled down. Fluxweed. Cool. She cast a quick "Scourgify!" on her knife before starting to cut her fluxweed into even pieces. Well...even-ISH pieces which were really the best you could expect from somebody who was rushing. Especially a Norah who was rushing. She added the pieces to the cauldron, then cast "Scourgify" again on her metal stirrer which she placed in her cauldron to stir the seven times. Clockwise. Not to bad, right? She picked up the handful of dog fur next, sprinkling it in as she counted to ten under her breath. Nextnextnext? Wait. What. Wait SEVEN days? That might as well have been an entire YEAR.

Norah squinted at her notes and then back at the board again. Was that really what it was supposed to say? SEVEN days? What a rip off. A whole entire hard potion and she had to do it in two parts. Man. She pulled off her gloves and left them on the desk as she repeated the new incantation with the rest of the class. "Recordo.....recordo....recordo." Circle-y movement bla bla bla. Was Professor Dakest going to talk yet?

[Holmesian Feline]

No comments from Culloden?

That meant everyone had done it right, at least he hoped so. The next set of instructions was pasted on the board and Ben paid attention as Culloden explained them one by one. "Scourgify," he cast first, cleaning his knife before setting to work at chopping the fluxweed. He did it as well as he thought seemed right and added it into his cauldron before switching to stiring. Another cleaning spell was used on his stiring rod in preparation.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven times clockwise.

It was clockwise...right?

Ben gave a sigh of relief when he glanced at the board and saw he was right. Direction was one of those things he always had to be concerned about getting wrong. The Gryffindor had mixed it up enough times over the years for his liking. Moving on, the sixth year grabbed the dog fur and was about to sprinkle it into his potion when Flamsteed let out a loud sneeze as he walked infront of his desk.

Both fur and cookie bits going everywhere...

...including in his cauldron.

"Oh no..."

[Cassirin]

Sophie was being so sadfaced, and Dot wished that she could do something to help the older girl. Chop her fluxweed or clean out her cauldron or SOMETHING. But Soph was better at Potions, and super quick too, leaving Dot with no way to express her empathetic sadness.

Dot was sad 'cause Soph was sad.

Her knife was already clean, but Dot still had to really really focus on her fluxweed chopping. Much as she'd like to pay attention to those around her, or to watch Flamsteed spit cookies in people's cauldrons, or whatever. Fluxweed into the cauldron, and then her stirrer went in for careful clockwise stirring. EXACTLY 7... was she more focused today just because she was trying not to be distracted? Weird.

And seven. Dog fur went in next, and Dot declumped the fur across her gloved palm before any sprinkling happened. It was hard to put fur in evenly, just like it was hard to put sprinkles on ice cream evenly. They just wanted to move together, y'know? She did a fair job of sprinkling the fur evenly, although it really WAS impossible without laying the fur out hair by mathematically calculated hair. And she only had the 10 seconds.

And now... SEVEN DAYS? Dot glanced at Culloden to see if he was JOKING or something, but he looked dead serious. Seven days. Okay. Sure, made sense, since you had to drink the potion for seven days too. "How many servings does this make, sir? Exactly seven?"

[Casey O]

OHHHH. Duuuuuh. Marigold was wondering why she felt like she was forgetting something. "Recordo," she said hurriedly, waving her wand in a circle. Was it going to be ruined because she had forgotten that step? Well, it had been thirty seconds at most…but was that a different minute? Like, say it was at 40 seconds, 40 + 30 = 1 minute 10 seconds, would that record like a different minute? GAHH. She ruined her chances of PASSING THIS CLASS with ONE BAD MOVE. Garrrr.

[Tazenhani]

It was truly amazing what happened when lights were dimmed, props were given and students started turning in circles. Vomit was summoned, Professors gained the vocal capacities of five year old girls, tickle-wars were instigated, points dropped like altitude from a ripped parachute, desks became safe places of cover and moods plummeted faster than the temperature in the arctic. The only sure thing that could be counted on, was the oozing excess of teenage emotions, angst and drama. It was nice to see that some things, at least, were predictable and constant. Albeit still concerning.

As the lights came back up, and it was revealed that all traces of vomit had been cleaned up, it was as good a time as any for Sabel to return to the desk. Those students with the concerning attitudes got an extra glance on his way, Brown and Fuller-Thompson especially, though Wojack-Gusey's less than enthusiastic mood got a second glance.

Once at the desk, the Defence Professor once again perched on its edge, taken to spinning his wand between his fingers as he listened to, and watched Culloden. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't fully keep the grimace from his expression as the Potions Professor delved right into the thick of Wolfsbane. It was all too clear a reminder as to why it was far from his favorite subject. So many specifics, based on so subjective of measurements. Who was to say everyone counted the same way? Or had the same size of pinches?

It made his head hurt just thinking about all the steps and little details. Each student in participation got his full admiration. In many ways, they had more courage than he did.

For him, his courage would extend to munching on the cookies, trying to remember and recreate the lunar cycle Flamsteed had just gone over. Needless to say, Oreos were distracting to any sort of intention regarding purpose other than consuming them. And consume he did.

"ACFOOUUU!" he sneezed, bits of oreo cookie shooting out of his mouth and on to the desk and student in front of him...and perhaps a little bit also going into the cauldron. Purely on accident. Promise.

Oops?

The Astronomy professor rubbed his nose and glanced nervously over his shoulder. Professor Candy Cauldron hadn't seen that, right? He shot a sheepish look towards the student.

"Sorry!"


Ben gave a sigh of relief when he glanced at the board and saw he was right. Direction was one of those things he always had to be concerned about getting wrong. The Gryffindor had mixed it up enough times over the years for his liking. Moving on, the sixth year grabbed the dog fur and was about to sprinkle it into his potion when Flamsteed let out a loud sneeze as he walked infront of his desk.

Both fur and cookie bits going everywhere...

...including in his cauldron.

"Oh no..."
While cookie munching didn't require much in the way of concentration, between Flamsteed's muttering and Culloden's mind-numbing instructions, there was some mental relief when the former decided to put his energy towards movement of more than just his lips. Sabel watched the man curiously as he made his rounds.

It took every effort to bite his tongue and swallow the laughter that threatened to bubble up at the man's sneeze and unfortunate look on the closest student's face. He absently wondered if he should grant Atreyu the ability to remove five points from the Professor, for unsantizing his sanitization. After all, weren't sneezes and vomiting one in the same of involuntary reactions?

Best to keep such thoughts to himself. And now was as good a time to delve into his part of the lesson as any.

"We're done with the potions part of this class." That had been quick AND EASY, HUH? All of them got it right, yes? "Completing the potion is your homework. I'll announce the details and the full recipe later, so don't try to copy it now. Just listen to Professor Dakest if you're done."
With that, he turned to sit down on his chair once again, unless someone stopped him with a question.
Stuffing the last cookie in his mouth, Sabel gave Culloden an affable nod of acknowledgement and wordless thanks for the transition. A few chews gave students a few moments to catch up, yes?

Swallowing the last of his snack, Sabel caught his wand and rested it across his knees. The potions instructions were left on the board, for those slow of writing or memory imprint. "So, werewolves."

Should he flash another grin at those more skeptical students he had picked out? Perhaps later.

"Named so for similarities to their wolf brethren, but distinctly different. It is important to remember that werewolves retain distinctive features that are essential in identifying, tracking and trapping them successfully.

If you are ever in doubt, and have the time, you can identify a werewolf by its shorter muzzle, a tufted tail, distinctively human eyes and their unwavering desire to eat you. Unlike their wild cousins, they are not afraid of humans and will give no second thought to attack or consumption, regardless of prior relations or friendship. Hence, as Professor Culloden explained and some of you touched on, the need for the wolfsbane potion."

His eyes tracked over the students, all thought of joking around gone. "And the need for trapping those who, for one reason or another, were unable to receive the benefits of the potion. This, is a focus and priority within the ministry, both for the safety of the general community, and the individual infected themselves."

The wand got another spin, the class another once-over before he hopped off the edge of the desk. "So, what are some ways that the Ministry, or yourselves, could trap or retain a werewolf both safely and ensuring no harm to yourselves or the subject?"

------------------------------------------------
OOC: Howdy all! If your character decides to answer, please provide only ONE suggestion/method. Feel free to be creative with your answers! (The ministry could always use new suggestions ;) )

Also, if you are still finishing up potions, please go right ahead! Sabel knows students are still working away :)

We will continue in approximately 20-24 hours. Possibly sooner depending on RL schedule and activity/response volume :)

[Felixir]

Toby still hadn't moved. This position, with his face buried in his folded arms, seemed like the safest possible position he could be in. He couldn't see anyone and no-one could see him. Or... no-one could see his face, at least, and considering he couldn't trust his face (his eyes in particular) not to give away his emotions, that was all he really needed. Honestly, if he stayed like this for long enough, he could pretend that nothing upsetting had happened. Of course, that only happened for as long as it took before there was an uncomfortable tug of guilt in his stomach which sent him tumbling back to sadness.

The dominant voice in the room changed from Culloden's to Dakest's, and in a completely subconscious move, Toby drew himself in even more, while his fidgeting feet moved faster still. He was SORT of listening... except not really. He acknowledged that words were happening, at least, and tried best to pay attention to them, but it was difficult. Probably he'd need to add THIS to his list of extra studying too. Find someone who had actually written all this down, maybe ask them to go through it with him or just borrow their notes. Go through the textbooks for all the subjects. Maybe visit the professors an-... no, okay, maybe not that. He'd catch up in his own way. Didn't really deserve for them to spare the time to help him out when it was his own fault he'd fallen behind.

Toby tuned back in in time to catch the tail end of the question, but he didn't make a move to answer, though he found himself wondering if Animalis Fidelis would work. It didn't matter that werewolves weren't technically completely creatures; hadn't Piers used the spell on Javy in that one lesson that felt like so long ago? The question really lay in whether the "dark" nature of the werewolf would allow it to work, if the spell was strong enough. He wanted to ask now, had made himself curious, but the need to keep himself to himself and to dissolve into the background of the lesson was a lot stronger. Toby simply hoped that someone else would raise the topic, so he didn't have to say it, but resolved to look it up if they didn't or go back and ask later when he didn't think he would burst into tears the moment he opened his mouth to speak. His head remained resolutely lowered.

[Jessiqua]

Zhenya had just finished her last step when she heard a sneeze. It was such an awkwardly loud, then silencing sneeze, which was why she looked up, a few seats down. Oh, Merlin. Zhenya's eyes widened in shock. Any other time it may have been funny, but not now that cookie fragments had been sprayed into Benny's wolfsbane potion. Zhenya was quite sure she would had tipped the cauldron and contents over Professor Flamsteed if it had been her potion, rather than vanishing it. Zhenya was about to stand up and see if she could help him, when Professor Dakest started speaking. She didn't want to be rude to the Professor's portion of the class, so she stayed where she was, guiltily.

She listened about all the werewolves and had a think about how they could capture the werewolves. Assuming the werewolves had NOT taken their wolfsbane potion. Zhenya raised her hand, not agreeing with harmful capturing of animals, human or other. "Professor do the werewolves have animal instincts like..." don't get embarrassed Burton, "like mating instinct? If they did, the Ministry could try and lure them into an animal friendly enclosure with another werewolf who had taken the wolfsbane potion. So they could just follow their other werewolf friend into the enclosure, be happy in there, and not harm anyone else." Similar to what they did in the zoological parks, luring in the animals based on a mating compatibility with the other animal. It could work... could it? Or were the werewolves far too interested in biting people?

[FearlessLeader19]

GOSH! What a sneeze, yo! Adi's head snapped around to see in to time to see Flamsteed sneezing all over Benny... or his potion, rather. Eeep! Flamsteed germs and who knows what else were all over his potion! Uh oh. That wasn't going to affect the Lion's potion, right? Not that Adi cared (he lies), it was just that it was always a pity to see a potion and one's effort go to waste. Benny should take forty five points from the man, by the way. Hehe.

But they were moving on! Adi focused his attention on Dakest, the latest cool Professor. Sorry, Culloden, you're still cool though. He made his notes, most of the things he already knew due to all that studying from last year. He thought of an answer of the question, looking for an outside of the box answer before he raised his hand with the quill still clutched in it. "Since werewolves attack humans, we could use a dummy that looks really life like, probably it's been enchanted to even move like a human, so that the werewolf can be lured and caught where it can be. Maybe in a cage.'' There would be no harm to anyone nor the werewolf. Except possibly to the dummy. But Reparo could fix that.

[Sararara]

Norah pushed her potions materials to the side and brought her notes back in front of her, changing to plain old boring black ink this time because she hadn't brought enough cool colors in her bag this time. It was okay, though, 'cause Professor Dakest was interesting enough to make up for the boring color. Ahem. Anyways. She watched him closely as he introduced another question about werewolves and all that, holding her hands to her cheeks because they were doing that dumb thing where they went all red again which was totally unfair because she hadn't told them they were allowed to do that. Werewolves werewolves werewolves. She was obviously paying attention to those. Obviously.

She put a hand in the air, but not until she'd rearranged her curls to cover her exposed cheek because they were still horribly red. So red she could FEEL them being red, mostly because it felt like the dark room had gotten five hundred million thousand degrees hotter. Huh. Weird weird WEIRD. Maybe she needed the hospital wing, 'cause last time she checked just looking at somebody wasn't supposed to make you blush. This was a serious issue. Probably even more serious of an issue than a werewolf attack because people were already brainstorming ways to deal with that but the fourth year couldn't think of any cure for all this blushing except for moving to Antarctica. That wouldn't be too bad, though, if it meant penguin friends. KITTREDGE, CONCENTRATE. WEREWOLVES. RIGHT. She squinted through the hair that was covering one of her eyes and began to answer. "I bet you could get the werewolf to get into a comfy cage if you lure it with something much yummier than a person. Something so yummy that it can't resist, like even better than a chocolate frog is for a person." Werewolves didn't like chocolate, right? Their loss, really. "Then you could bring it somewhere safe to be until they turn back into a person again." She brought her hand down to her cheek again. Ta da! That wasn't too bad, right? Plus, Professor Dakest was a nice dude so it didn't even matter if she wasn't right. He was practically the nicest. That newspaper had had it all wrong.

[Daemon]

He knew the lunar cycle pretty well, but Benzi wouldn't object to eating cookies ANY time of day. Even if technically his appetite should be shot because some girl had vomited on Flamsteed.

Eh. Cookies were more tempting than vomit was gross. Tearing open his cookie packet, Benzi did the full moon one first because it was the least fun, and then the two half moon, laying them on his desk neatly. Then he twisted the next cookie and began scraping his teeth on it, going for the waxing gibbous formation, and then the identical waning gibbous. He was leaving his new moon for last.

WANING AND WAXING CRESCENTS NEXT. He was going for the eating the least to eating the most order, if no one could tell. He was also leaving the empty sides for later, as there was potions and defence still to go and he needed sustenance. Grabbing the last cookie, he twisted the cap off and grinned as he easily scrapped off ALL the white goodness and placed it in the empty spot of his moon phases chart.

ALL DONE. Reaching into bag, Benzi grabbed his water bottle and drank a bunch. He always got thirsty after eating a lot of sugar. RIGHT. Next!

Wolfsbane.

Benzi drew a line on his parchment, signalling the end of Astronomy and the beginning of Potions. He wrote down 'Wolfsbane', then 'qualities' and then waited for his classmates to start spewing out information. They hadn't studied werewolves OR wolfsbane back in his old school, so Benzi only knew the things that everybody knew. He'd had a werewolf in his class but the girl had been really quiet and kind of weird, so they hadn't talked much.

The sixth year wrote down everything that the Professor said and copied the ingredients off the blackboard. ... Was the potion hard or just collecting the ingredients? Those were some crazy specific things. Moving his notes away from what would soon be a flame, Benzi got up to quickly wash his hands and came back to just as quickly clean the cauldron and his utensils.

Wouldn't want to ruin this potion from the get go. Filling up a glass container with milk, he placed it on a medium heat flame and eyed his watch. Filling up the brass cauldron with a quick "aguamenti", he waited for the milk to heat up and as soon as the three minutes were up, added the milk to the water. Leaning back, he twiddled with the burner to turn the one under the cauldron to low heat.

After chopping his fluxweed, Benzi dropped it into his cauldron and picked up his metal stirrer, stirring it one.. two.. three.. four.. "five.. six... seven" times clockwise, counting under his breath. Then he sprinkled in the dog fur - weird ingredient - timing in roughly ten seconds between each sprinkle.

... A WEEK? Okay that was a long time. "Recordo," Benzi muttered to himself, but passed on practicing the wand movment. He was pretty sure he could do a circular motion, thank you very much. This wasn't the difficult bit of the potion, clearly.

Right.

Going to wash his hands again, Benzi hurriedly returned to his seat and waited for the best part DADA to begin.

HA. Flamsteed. Benzi couldn't help the bubble of laughter at the sneezing into a student's potion incident, but quickly looked away to stop the laughter from continuing. Flamsteed was on a point docking mission and he didn't want to be the next target. Ravenclaw was abysmally low on points as it was.

How could they trap werewolves?

Well that was an excellent questions.

"A well timed 'incarcerous' spell?" he half said half muttered to himself before taking a moment to think of something less dangerous. "The ministry could employ Animagi," he raised his hand, and nodded to the Slytherin girl (Zhenya) who had a a similar idea, "if they don't want to employ actual werewolves. ... Or is there some sort of spell that tracks werewolves? Though even if you find them you'd still need an animagus and/or a wolfsbaned wereworf to make sure you weren't eaten..."

All in all, not his best answer.

[StarShine]

Would anyone notice if he just... slid under his desk? And stayed there forever? Would that just make matters worse? Could things get worse? Toby was definitely considering it, depending on how things went from here, but it wasn't like he had a marvelous track record in DADA this term, either.
Toby... wasn't doing it right. At all. He didn't look like himself in the first place, and Cosgrach didn't even know what to do. However, he knew he shouldn't call it out, so he pretended like he didn't notice and would see to it after Airey was done talking to them.


Time to sprinkle some dog fur. AJ wondered why dog fur was used and not werewolf fur? She raised her hand. "Professor, is there dog fur in the potion because dogs are considered tame in comparison to a werewolf?" Was she making sense? "I mean I was wondering why werewolf fur wouldn't be used. It is because this potion is supposed to help with not turning into a rabid werewolf soooo a dog is like a metaphor sort of to a tame werewolf?" Wow, that was kind of deep. In a confusing kind of way.
Ah, Cosgrach nodded at her. "Both are in Canidae family in the scientific classification," wow Culloden big muggle words there, "but dogs are tame, like you guessed."

Pretty cool stuff, huh?


"ACFOOUUU!" he sneezed, bits of oreo cookie shooting out of his mouth and on to the desk and student in front of him...and perhaps a little bit also going into the cauldron. Purely on accident. Promise.
. . . no . . .

Cosgrach HEARD that, but he couldn't do anything to Airey now, could he? So, he tried to replace his anger with - well, whatever was appropriate to feel right now, and HOPED none of the potions were contaminated - and that it any was, Airey would have the common sense to say so. Just pretending like Airey had sneezed inside his hands, not all over the class.

---------

And Sabel was beginning.

Cosgrach returned to his seat, and started to watch the young man. His gaze was completely casual, but in truth, he was looking for a sign that might suggest Sabel wasn't innocent.

[feeheeheeny]

...Did Flamsteed really just sneeze all over Benny? Had her misbehavior not only disappointed and upset him, but MADE HIM SICK, TOO?

Ugh. As Dakest took over the class, Sophie worked on cleaning up her workstation, feeling more and more small as time crept along. Once her area was clean, she switched back over to note-taking, jotting down some of the tell-tale signs of a werewolf versus a regular wolf. Good stuff to know, but then he posed a question to the class and Sophie avoided eye contact.

It wasn't that she didn't know or have some hunches on how to retain a werewolf, because she did. A couple defensive spells they reviewed last term in Truebridge's class came to mind, as did the Animalis Fidelis charm she used last term in her OWL exam for Care of Magical Creatures. But none of those things seemed good enough to mention. What if he told her they wouldn't work or be effective? What if he made her feel even smaller by shooting down her suggestions?

No. She was going to stay silent and pretend to be very engrossed in her note-taking, thank you, and go back to contemplating her forthcoming death by Flammy.

[Anna Banana]

After the whole sneezing startle (because Kate had jumped just a little), the lesson took on a serious tone. Kate decided that she was really afraid of werewolves, even more so than she had previously thought. She knew the basic, random facts about them, but hearing how they compared to wolves made things seem much darker.

Ways to trap a werewolf? Hmm. Kate guessed that tricking them into a trap while still in their human form was out. She listened to other suggestions, particularly two that she had questions about. "Would a werewolf be attracted to a human dummy, though?" Kate politely pointed out with her hand raised. "Isn't it our blood and scent the werewolf is attracted to? Also, I'm not sure about the whole cage idea with. I once read where werewolves will attack themselves if no other humans are around..."

She sighed. "Having said that, I don't have any better ideas," she added. And truth be told, she could be dead wrong about her assumptions. "Adding to their ideas, though, if we did use a human dummy and trap, couldn't we add our scent to the dummy somehow? I'm still not sure how we could prevent the werewolf from attacking itself, though." The Wolfsbane Potions was out. That would have had to be taken days ahead of the full moon.

[Weasley174]

Angel raised her hand, she hoped the Professors wouldn't be cross with her answer. "Professor, we could give the werewolf to a zoo and ask them nicely to put it somewhere safe." Angel thought that would be a good idea.

[ArianaBlack]

Zander was only momentarily distracted by Professor Flamsteed's cookies sneeze, but Professor Dakest started only a few minutes after that fiasco, so there wasn't really anytime to think about poor Benny's potion. The Gryffindor had looked pretty down lately as well. Poor bloke. Zander made a mental note to go talk to his dormmate after class or something. Or maybe at night? Bro it out in the Sixth Year rooms or something. After all, Benny had been there for him last term. Time to return the favor, Zander supposed.

Anyways.

Werewolves. The Prefect quickly began jotting down the difference between werewolves and regular wolves. Just as Professor D said, incase he ever needed to identify one. Which actually, why would he ever have to identify one? Werewolf or just regular wolf, Zander wasn't just going to stand there and try to figure it out. He'd have to do something, 'cause just standing there was a perfect way to get killed. Shouldn't the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher know that!?

But anyways, question time. Zander was much proactively trying to participate. He was trying to prove to Professor Dakest that he was taking this whole improvement thing to heart. "Wasn't the whomping willow planted to help protect a werewolf?" you know, after five years of sitting in HoM classes, Zander had actually managed to absorb something after all. How nice. "Could we do something like that to keep them away from harming people during transformations?"

[sweetpinkpixie]

No comments from Culloden?

That meant everyone had done it right, at least he hoped so. The next set of instructions was pasted on the board and Ben paid attention as Culloden explained them one by one. "Scourgify," he cast first, cleaning his knife before setting to work at chopping the fluxweed. He did it as well as he thought seemed right and added it into his cauldron before switching to stiring. Another cleaning spell was used on his stiring rod in preparation.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven times clockwise.

It was clockwise...right?

Ben gave a sigh of relief when he glanced at the board and saw he was right. Direction was one of those things he always had to be concerned about getting wrong. The Gryffindor had mixed it up enough times over the years for his liking. Moving on, the sixth year grabbed the dog fur and was about to sprinkle it into his potion when Flamsteed let out a loud sneeze as he walked infront of his desk.

Both fur and cookie bits going everywhere...

...including in his cauldron.

"Oh no..."
Oh...sweet...SOLSTICE.

Airey was sure by the expression Sabel wore that he had seen it...and it was fairly positive that the scowl the Cosgrash Candy Cauldron had had flicker across his face that he had noticed things too - remind the man to make a RUN for it once the lesson was over, yeah? So, the astronomer casually remove a Star Trek handkerchief - one with Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy comic book face printed all over it - and began to wipe bits of cookie from Mr. Atreyu's desk. As he did so, he leaned in a bit, as if there was an especially difficult to remove bit a little further back on the desk, so that he could whisper a little something to Mr. Atreyu.

"I trust you took diligent notes on the process?" he whispered nonchalantly. The Gryffindor was always diligent with his work...don't let him down now!

Totally listening to you, by the way, Professor Dakest. Toooooooooootally listening.

"Eyes on Professor Dakest," he instructed, now finished with the pretend wiping of the back of the desk and slooooooowly folding up his Scourgify'd handkerchief.

Nothing to see here. Nope. Ahem.

[SarcasticStrawberry]

Eww... Now Cinna normally didn't get grossed out over things but that was gross. Yep. Just the noise was ugh. Let's not go there. Which ever Valentine girl that was needed to take that mess to the loo with her or something. She couldn't keep up with those three girls at all. The sixth year sat rolled her eyes.Kiddos these days. And to make it worst the younger girl had lost points. Oh well.

Cinna continued slowly moving to the left. To the left, to the left taking the orbit moving to the left. Seeing the rest of the moon phases. And finally she came back around full circle right back to where she started from.

When the lights came back on Cinna took her seat again and started taking notes. She scribbled down a few more notes before looking back up at the professor again. Oh boy, they were moving right along to potions now. Okay.

but not before snack time? No not yet, apparently. Now that she knew what to do she ripped open the bag of cookies and placed all of them out on her desk. She twisted the first cookie open and placed it out in front of her. Full moon. She opened up another cookie and nibbled off a little bit of the icing on the right side of the cookie. Wanning gibbous Taking a third cookie she nibbled of half of the icing off on the right side, Half quarter. Twisting open the fourth cookies she scraped off all but a quarter of the icing off. Wanning crescent.

The next cookie she twisted open and eat all of the icing off of it. NEW MOON! The next cookie she left a quarter of the icing on the left side. Now she was working on the waxing side of the moon. The next cookie got half of the icing on thew left side taking off. Waxing half. That was eaten. Yummy! The last cookie well not really since there were ten in the package the sixth year scraped off just a little bit of the icing on the left side. Rearranging the cookie where they were in a circle going around so the cookie moon diagram made more since to her.

Now could she nom on the cookies before Culloden started the potions part of the lesson.



Wolfbane potion? They were going to be making that? Wasn't that like a really REALLY hard potion to make? Like really hard. That was it she was going to die now. No question about it. The sixth year was so nervous about it that she didn't even get to answer the question. She stuck her quill in her mouth. Pooah. Oh that was not a sugar quill. Opps. That was awful. She started scribbling down notes in her notebook though.


Now for the fun part of this lesson, or could she just beat her head against the desk while the others worked on their potions, that seems less painful.

Ahhh okay okay.She would do the potion. It was cool. might as well, she supposed. She was going to be totally serious about this though. With a very big sigh she got a glass casted a quick. "Scourgify." Into the glass. Then fulled it with the cow milk. Next she had to heat up the milk.She stuck it under the flame. Keeping the milk there for three minutes. In the mean time she cleaned up the brass cauldron. Good thing these were provided. You know since this potion could only be brewed in a brass cauldron. "Scourgify." She cleaned the cauldron and got back to work. Filling the cauldron with water, as usual. The she added the cow milk. Moooo.

Hey, who said that?

She set the flame under the cauldron to low. Okay so now she had to chop up the fluxweeds. She cleaned her knife and chopped up the fluxweed. Chop, chop , chop, chop, chopchop. Okay looked good and chopped up now. She cleaned the metal stirrer and stirred the potion, clockwise seven times.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...

She waited about ten seconds to add the dog fur. Looking back at the notes for the next step. WAIT SEVEN DAYS??? A week, To the exact time it was now. She wrote the exact time so she would have that recorded somewhere for her own notes. She also copied down the rest of the steps too. You know to study for later or whatever. Even though she didn't need them, yet.


So Wereewolves, yes?

She was just going to continue to take notes on this. As the professor spoke about werewolves and the differences between them and their plain Jane everyday wild wolves. Basically she was writing away,

TRAPPING A WEREWOLF?

That was a joke, right? Why in the world would you want to trap one? Oh, Those were some good reasons. She supposed. Safety above all, haha this was Hogwarts right. She was have half tempted to answer the question by saying The best way to catch a werewolf is to not catch one. Yeah. Not trying to catch one seem to her the best way. She kind of smiled to herself as she didn't answer the question.

[Casey O]

Lots of things were happening, and Marigold's mood diminished a tad. Trapping werewolves…what, was there a werewolf somewhere that they had to catch for the NEWTs? Because otherwise, if Marigold ever saw a werewolf, she would RUN and then APPARATE AWAY and then GET THE MINISTRY involved. Yes.

"I know that unicorns can run away from werewolves and survive." Something like that.

[WhittyBitty]

LOL! What a sneeze.

Lux was torn between trying not to laugh at the situation and feeling bad for poor Benny whose potion was probably full of cookie bits. Professor Flamsteed seemed to be on a mission to dock points, so best to keep her mouth shut.

As Professor Dakest took over, she began cleaning up her work area. Of course she was paying close attention to everything the man was saying because the information could prove to be important. It was also rude to ignore people. Once her area was clean, she went back to writing notes.

As the next question was asked, Lux decided to remain silent; her classmates had it covered.

[Cassirin]

Dot was still very intently studying her potion, in spite of the fact that it wasn't meant to do anything for the next 7 days. It was very... potiony looking. Dot was absolutely a Potions genius. Apparently.

They were moving on, though, and Dot was ready to turn her attention back to the class. Sure. Werewolves... should she do the GASP-SHOCK-WHAT thing again, because StarMan had liked that so much. Or... ok, the first question was already out there, so no time for the gasp-shock-what. Her hand shot up. "What about a really big net? Really humane."

[Holmesian Feline]

Too intent on the occasion of Professor Flamsteed's sneeze and the ruined potion that Ben wasn't even aware there was now a ton of people paying attention to him. To both of them actually. He hadn't even registered the first apology his head of house had first given, perhaps before he had registered who had been on the other end of scattered cookies...and dog fur.

No but he was drawn back to the man as he leaned in and whispered while supposedly cleaning. Detailed notes....well sort of...but that wasn't the point. Ben not only didn't have his usual potions partner to help things or at least keep an eye out for trouble, but he had failed in brewing a potion that wasn't anywhere near finished. It had been the EASY portion of the brewing that had gone wrong! With that the case, how was he supposed to deal with the rest?

--------

He certainly wasn't paying attention as Professor Dakest started his portion of the lesson a few minutes later. Instead Benny was trying to decide what best to do, his gaze switching between Flamsteed and Culloden. There was a part of him strongly wanting to try and make a quick escape from the room and just leave it all behind.

No...too cowardly.

Instead he simply cast a silent finite on the burner to turn of the head. No point cooking this potion now and moving on. He'd have to start over from the beginning because there was no telling what damage was already done. He certainly didn't want to poison anyone. With that done, he obeyed Professor Flamsteed, turning his eyes on the defense professor.

But really....could he just curl up and hide? Or turn invisible?

Anybody with and invisibility cloak?

[Govoni]

.

.

Gabe was still practicing the Recordo! spell when Professor Dakest stepped forward, beginning the last phase of the lesson...Or...prehaps not the last, as they still needed to finish brewing a week from now...but certainly the THIRD. Third and final? for the day...?

Wiping his hands a last time, and slipping his gloves off, Gabriel went about updating his notes with all the information being provided. Werewolves were interesting, in that they were mutated, usually, rather than a born species. And that raised the question of how the 'wolf gene' was passed along. Through bites and claws, yes...but what about through reproduction? Gabe didn't know much about werewolves...So, perhaps that would come up in the discussion...without him having to ask. Embarrassing, uncomfortable questioning...

In the interest of science and experimentation, however, he could understand why they would need to be caught with minimal damage.

"Through runic magic? It's implemented by Magical Law Enforcement to trap criminals..." The Ravenclaw blushed. Hadn't Professor Dakest worked there? Before coming here?

[Tazenhani]

Toby still hadn't moved. This position, with his face buried in his folded arms, seemed like the safest possible position he could be in. He couldn't see anyone and no-one could see him. Or... no-one could see his face, at least, and considering he couldn't trust his face (his eyes in particular) not to give away his emotions, that was all he really needed. Honestly, if he stayed like this for long enough, he could pretend that nothing upsetting had happened. Of course, that only happened for as long as it took before there was an uncomfortable tug of guilt in his stomach which sent him tumbling back to sadness.

The dominant voice in the room changed from Culloden's to Dakest's, and in a completely subconscious move, Toby drew himself in even more, while his fidgeting feet moved faster still. He was SORT of listening... except not really. He acknowledged that words were happening, at least, and tried best to pay attention to them, but it was difficult. Probably he'd need to add THIS to his list of extra studying too. Find someone who had actually written all this down, maybe ask them to go through it with him or just borrow their notes. Go through the textbooks for all the subjects. Maybe visit the professors an-... no, okay, maybe not that. He'd catch up in his own way. Didn't really deserve for them to spare the time to help him out when it was his own fault he'd fallen behind.

Toby tuned back in in time to catch the tail end of the question, but he didn't make a move to answer, though he found himself wondering if Animalis Fidelis would work. It didn't matter that werewolves weren't technically completely creatures; hadn't Piers used the spell on Javy in that one lesson that felt like so long ago? The question really lay in whether the "dark" nature of the werewolf would allow it to work, if the spell was strong enough. He wanted to ask now, had made himself curious, but the need to keep himself to himself and to dissolve into the background of the lesson was a lot stronger. Toby simply hoped that someone else would raise the topic, so he didn't have to say it, but resolved to look it up if they didn't or go back and ask later when he didn't think he would burst into tears the moment he opened his mouth to speak. His head remained resolutely lowered.
If there was one thing that Sabel knew for sure, it was that hiding oneself in sullen silence did nothing for improving ones own situation. Be it grades, relationships or life in general. Nor did it allow some magic osmosis from the desk's many predecessors to its current one. He had a mind to say so as well, but there was a fine line as Professor. A fine line between being constructively critical and detrimentally so.

For the moment, he settled for giving the top of Fuller-Thompson's head an unsettling frown. Perhaps the roots of his hair would feel the weight of it, and get the drift?

...Did Flamsteed really just sneeze all over Benny? Had her misbehavior not only disappointed and upset him, but MADE HIM SICK, TOO?

Ugh. As Dakest took over the class, Sophie worked on cleaning up her workstation, feeling more and more small as time crept along. Once her area was clean, she switched back over to note-taking, jotting down some of the tell-tale signs of a werewolf versus a regular wolf. Good stuff to know, but then he posed a question to the class and Sophie avoided eye contact.

It wasn't that she didn't know or have some hunches on how to retain a werewolf, because she did. A couple defensive spells they reviewed last term in Truebridge's class came to mind, as did the Animalis Fidelis charm she used last term in her OWL exam for Care of Magical Creatures. But none of those things seemed good enough to mention. What if he told her they wouldn't work or be effective? What if he made her feel even smaller by shooting down her suggestions?

No. She was going to stay silent and pretend to be very engrossed in her note-taking, thank you, and go back to contemplating her forthcoming death by Flammy.
HIs eyes drifted along to the next silent one, the partner in crime as it was. Slightly more alert, slightly more productive but contrastingly quiet to her usual self. No answer to the question? Not even an idea?

Sable's brow furrowed even more. These children were going to give him wrinkles.

So Wereewolves, yes?

She was just going to continue to take notes on this. As the professor spoke about werewolves and the differences between them and their plain Jane everyday wild wolves. Basically she was writing away,

TRAPPING A WEREWOLF?

That was a joke, right? Why in the world would you want to trap one? Oh, Those were some good reasons. She supposed. Safety above all, haha this was Hogwarts right. She was have half tempted to answer the question by saying The best way to catch a werewolf is to not catch one. Yeah. Not trying to catch one seem to her the best way. She kind of smiled to herself as she didn't answer the question.
At least there were some in the class who, while they elected silence over suggestion, seemed to be paying right attention to what was going on. It was the light in Bayless eyes that told Sabel she had a thought, but one perhaps best left unvoiced?

He knew that mindset all too well, and settled for a silent, arched eyebrow. He wouldn't ask, but really, he was curious.

LOL! What a sneeze.

Lux was torn between trying not to laugh at the situation and feeling bad for poor Benny whose potion was probably full of cookie bits. Professor Flamsteed seemed to be on a mission to dock points, so best to keep her mouth shut.

As Professor Dakest took over, she began cleaning up her work area. Of course she was paying close attention to everything the man was saying because the information could prove to be important. It was also rude to ignore people. Once her area was clean, she went back to writing notes.

As the next question was asked, Lux decided to remain silent; her classmates had it covered.
Carrington was surprisingly quiet too. Perhaps what she was doing with her potions work required serious thought. Perhaps multitasking with speech was not only difficult, but dangerous? He wasn't too sure. Potions confused him.

The Potions Professor confused him too. A sudden gratefulness he wasn't a student in this class. Carry on potioneering Miss Carrington. Carry on.

He certainly wasn't paying attention as Professor Dakest started his portion of the lesson a few minutes later. Instead Benny was trying to decide what best to do, his gaze switching between Flamsteed and Culloden. There was a part of him strongly wanting to try and make a quick escape from the room and just leave it all behind.

No...too cowardly.

Instead he simply cast a silent finite on the burner to turn of the head. No point cooking this potion now and moving on. He'd have to start over from the beginning because there was no telling what damage was already done. He certainly didn't want to poison anyone. With that done, he obeyed Professor Flamsteed, turning his eyes on the defense professor.

But really....could he just curl up and hide? Or turn invisible?

Anybody with and invisibility cloak?
While he couldn't fault Atreyu for his chosen silence, given Flamsteed's most recent upset to his personal space, the boy looked like another dangerously close to the edge of an internal struggle. And that was even after Flamsteed seemed to set things right with handkerchief and whispered words. Unless said whispered words were the instigator of the struggle. Or perhaps he needed to focus a defense class on protecting oneself against one's own mind. Merlin.

But it wouldn't be teenage years without it, now would it?

She listened about all the werewolves and had a think about how they could capture the werewolves. Assuming the werewolves had NOT taken their wolfsbane potion. Zhenya raised her hand, not agreeing with harmful capturing of animals, human or other. "Professor do the werewolves have animal instincts like..." don't get embarrassed Burton, "like mating instinct? If they did, the Ministry could try and lure them into an animal friendly enclosure with another werewolf who had taken the wolfsbane potion. So they could just follow their other werewolf friend into the enclosure, be happy in there, and not harm anyone else." Similar to what they did in the zoological parks, luring in the animals based on a mating compatibility with the other animal. It could work... could it? Or were the werewolves far too interested in biting people?
It was the first, and hopefully absolute last, time that the first response out of the gate got a blank, deadpanned stare from the Professor. For a long, uncomfortable moment, the capacity to speak was lost within the turmoil of mortified thoughts. Had she just.....was she....why would.....be happy in there? Well, that was one way to word it.

Realizing that his mouth was hanging open just a little bit, Sabel abruptly snapped it shut. A brief grind of the teeth around how he was to word his answer delicately, and admittedly consideration of flat out ignoring the inquiry, and then a breath. "One could argue that humans have animal instincts too....."

Ahem. Yes.

"But it is important to remember that werewolves are still human. They are to be treated ... humanely." Merlin he prayed there would be no overtly diligent Ravenclaws analyzing that statement. "The point is to try to keep them subdued. Not add extra....intrigue."

Any of the other Professors want to jump in and help him with this one? Should they perhaps contact Professor Thompson? No. Right then.

"They would still be a danger to the other werewolf and themselves."

But they were moving on! Adi focused his attention on Dakest, the latest cool Professor. Sorry, Culloden, you're still cool though. He made his notes, most of the things he already knew due to all that studying from last year. He thought of an answer of the question, looking for an outside of the box answer before he raised his hand with the quill still clutched in it. "Since werewolves attack humans, we could use a dummy that looks really life like, probably it's been enchanted to even move like a human, so that the werewolf can be lured and caught where it can be. Maybe in a cage.'' There would be no harm to anyone nor the werewolf. Except possibly to the dummy. But Reparo could fix that.
Rehman got a look for that answer. An unreadable look, because really, Sabel wasn't entirely sure what to think of that answer. Not one he had even considered. "I suppose it might work, if the dummy was covered in human scent. But keep in mind, these are not mindless beasts."

His gaze went around the class, words coming deliberately. This was important. "Werewolves are highly intelligent," or at least in-so-much as their human form was, "and like any creature or person you are dealing with, should under no circumstances be underestimated. Or assumed to be simple, minded. Doing so, could be a fatal error."

Did they get it? Make big, underlined notes in their books? Hopefully.

His gaze went back to Rehman. "But assuming that you took the precautions to make the dummy seem like a human, do keep in mind you are encouraging the behavior of attacking humans. And, there is still the issue of the werewolf not being subdued." Perhaps he should have mentioned that? His bad....

Angel raised her hand, she hoped the Professors wouldn't be cross with her answer. "Professor, we could give the werewolf to a zoo and ask them nicely to put it somewhere safe." Angel thought that would be a good idea.
This one got a very interesting look. He could appreciate that were-wolf gave the impression of some wild beast, but there was a distinction he felt was rather crudely missing. "I'm sure the zoos would be happy to help out, Miss Valentine. However, keep in mind that as a werewolf is just a human in an alternate form, it would be akin to putting a person in a zoo. Like putting an animigu in a zoo."

That's what jail cells were for was left quietly unsaid.

"Those institutions, however, have been instrumental in helping us to understand werewolves a bit better, even if it is through research into their wild cousins."

Norah pushed her potions materials to the side and brought her notes back in front of her, changing to plain old boring black ink this time because she hadn't brought enough cool colors in her bag this time. It was okay, though, 'cause Professor Dakest was interesting enough to make up for the boring color. Ahem. Anyways. She watched him closely as he introduced another question about werewolves and all that, holding her hands to her cheeks because they were doing that dumb thing where they went all red again which was totally unfair because she hadn't told them they were allowed to do that. Werewolves werewolves werewolves. She was obviously paying attention to those. Obviously.

She put a hand in the air, but not until she'd rearranged her curls to cover her exposed cheek because they were still horribly red. So red she could FEEL them being red, mostly because it felt like the dark room had gotten five hundred million thousand degrees hotter. Huh. Weird weird WEIRD. Maybe she needed the hospital wing, 'cause last time she checked just looking at somebody wasn't supposed to make you blush. This was a serious issue. Probably even more serious of an issue than a werewolf attack because people were already brainstorming ways to deal with that but the fourth year couldn't think of any cure for all this blushing except for moving to Antarctica. That wouldn't be too bad, though, if it meant penguin friends. KITTREDGE, CONCENTRATE. WEREWOLVES. RIGHT. She squinted through the hair that was covering one of her eyes and began to answer. "I bet you could get the werewolf to get into a comfy cage if you lure it with something much yummier than a person. Something so yummy that it can't resist, like even better than a chocolate frog is for a person." Werewolves didn't like chocolate, right? Their loss, really. "Then you could bring it somewhere safe to be until they turn back into a person again." She brought her hand down to her cheek again. Ta da! That wasn't too bad, right? Plus, Professor Dakest was a nice dude so it didn't even matter if she wasn't right. He was practically the nicest. That newspaper had had it all wrong.
And there was another one with the cage idea. A comfy cage, no less. What was comfy to a werewolf? He doubted it's definition was the same as Miss Kittredge's.

"Not much yummier to a werewolf than a human." A bit gruesome? Perhaps. But he wasn't standing at the front of the class to sugar-coat things. "And again, you have the issue of how it will handle its own frustration and killing instinct while alone in a cage for that period of time."

That thought's completion was derailed by the note of color on the young girl's cheeks. He blinked, paused and wondered if the moonlight was playing tricks. "Are you feeling alright, Miss Kittredge?" His eyes flicked to the cookies on her desk. Surely not yet....

HA. Flamsteed. Benzi couldn't help the bubble of laughter at the sneezing into a student's potion incident, but quickly looked away to stop the laughter from continuing. Flamsteed was on a point docking mission and he didn't want to be the next target. Ravenclaw was abysmally low on points as it was.

How could they trap werewolves?

Well that was an excellent questions.

"A well timed 'incarcerous' spell?" he half said half muttered to himself before taking a moment to think of something less dangerous. "The ministry could employ Animagi," he raised his hand, and nodded to the Slytherin girl (Zhenya) who had a a similar idea, "if they don't want to employ actual werewolves. ... Or is there some sort of spell that tracks werewolves? Though even if you find them you'd still need an animagus and/or a wolfsbaned wereworf to make sure you weren't eaten..."

All in all, not his best answer.
Rider got a solid nod from Sabel as he listened, though his gaze was still fixed on Kittredge. She didn't seem to be sick, so....

"Not bad ideas. But the goal is to keep casualties and injuries at a grand total of zero. By putting an animagi into play, you do risk injury to them. Werewolves will go for other prey than humans, if it's available."

He waggled his wand slightly at the boy. "Tracking spells are very helpful if you are trying to find a werewolf on the run. Just a general spell, or tracking skills, which unfortunately we don't have time for today." Maybe an out-of-class lesson?

"Out of all, incarerous would be your best choice of defence. Ropes aren't quite strong enough to keep a werewolf at bay, but you are on the right track with securing them in such a manner."

After the whole sneezing startle (because Kate had jumped just a little), the lesson took on a serious tone. Kate decided that she was really afraid of werewolves, even more so than she had previously thought. She knew the basic, random facts about them, but hearing how they compared to wolves made things seem much darker.

Ways to trap a werewolf? Hmm. Kate guessed that tricking them into a trap while still in their human form was out. She listened to other suggestions, particularly two that she had questions about. "Would a werewolf be attracted to a human dummy, though?" Kate politely pointed out with her hand raised. "Isn't it our blood and scent the werewolf is attracted to? Also, I'm not sure about the whole cage idea with. I once read where werewolves will attack themselves if no other humans are around..."

She sighed. "Having said that, I don't have any better ideas," she added. And truth be told, she could be dead wrong about her assumptions. "Adding to their ideas, though, if we did use a human dummy and trap, couldn't we add our scent to the dummy somehow? I'm still not sure how we could prevent the werewolf from attacking itself, though." The Wolfsbane Potions was out. That would have had to be taken days ahead of the full moon.
Sabel turned to Addison, snapping his fingers in enthusiasm. That, that right there, was probably what he should have tacked onto his spiel before his question. "Very correct. Very, very correct, Miss Addison."

Tucking his hand in his pocket, Sabel gave his wand a twirl with his free hand. "Unfortunately for werewolves, if their hunt proves unsuccessful, they will take out their....frustration on themselves. This is why they are both a danger to others, as well as to themselves. And why cages won't exactly work, on their own."

Dot was still very intently studying her potion, in spite of the fact that it wasn't meant to do anything for the next 7 days. It was very... potiony looking. Dot was absolutely a Potions genius. Apparently.

They were moving on, though, and Dot was ready to turn her attention back to the class. Sure. Werewolves... should she do the GASP-SHOCK-WHAT thing again, because StarMan had liked that so much. Or... ok, the first question was already out there, so no time for the gasp-shock-what. Her hand shot up. "What about a really big net? Really humane."
Ah and there it was. "A very good option, Miss Wojack-Gusey. Avoids the necessity of utilizing bait and keeps the werewolf from injuring itself." He tapped his wand to his chin. "It would have to be a strong net, made out of chain or thick, thick rope, given werewolves have a tendency to...destroy things."

.

.

Gabe was still practicing the Recordo! spell when Professor Dakest stepped forward, beginning the last phase of the lesson...Or...prehaps not the last, as they still needed to finish brewing a week from now...but certainly the THIRD. Third and final? for the day...?

Wiping his hands a last time, and slipping his gloves off, Gabriel went about updating his notes with all the information being provided. Werewolves were interesting, in that they were mutated, usually, rather than a born species. And that raised the question of how the 'wolf gene' was passed along. Through bites and claws, yes...but what about through reproduction? Gabe didn't know much about werewolves...So, perhaps that would come up in the discussion...without him having to ask. Embarrassing, uncomfortable questioning...

In the interest of science and experimentation, however, he could understand why they would need to be caught with minimal damage.

"Through runic magic? It's implemented by Magical Law Enforcement to trap criminals..." The Ravenclaw blushed. Hadn't Professor Dakest worked there? Before coming here?
Banner got an equally affable nod for his suggestion. "Runes are a very good tactic. And yes, they are used by the MLE. While werewolves may not be criminals, the same principles of ... apprehension can be utlized."

As to what runes exactly could be used? Perhaps it should have been an 'all Professors lesson. "I would recommend speaking to Professor Botros if you have questions as to which combinations of runes may be useful. For the sake of time, this will not be a topic we are covering today."

Zander was only momentarily distracted by Professor Flamsteed's cookies sneeze, but Professor Dakest started only a few minutes after that fiasco, so there wasn't really anytime to think about poor Benny's potion. The Gryffindor had looked pretty down lately as well. Poor bloke. Zander made a mental note to go talk to his dormmate after class or something. Or maybe at night? Bro it out in the Sixth Year rooms or something. After all, Benny had been there for him last term. Time to return the favor, Zander supposed.

Anyways.

Werewolves. The Prefect quickly began jotting down the difference between werewolves and regular wolves. Just as Professor D said, incase he ever needed to identify one. Which actually, why would he ever have to identify one? Werewolf or just regular wolf, Zander wasn't just going to stand there and try to figure it out. He'd have to do something, 'cause just standing there was a perfect way to get killed. Shouldn't the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher know that!?

But anyways, question time. Zander was much proactively trying to participate. He was trying to prove to Professor Dakest that he was taking this whole improvement thing to heart. "Wasn't the whomping willow planted to help protect a werewolf?" you know, after five years of sitting in HoM classes, Zander had actually managed to absorb something after all. How nice. "Could we do something like that to keep them away from harming people during transformations?"
And as quickly as the on-target suggestions came, they were gone again. Sabel found himself, for the second time that night, blinking at the student who had spoken. Whomping...willows.

"I suppose....if you had a werewolf compound and community, you might be able to utilize them." Wasn't exactly an immediate fix, now was it? And a baby whomping willow....well that was just an adorable image.

"But werewolves are widely scattered and diverse in their ranges. It would be ... difficult to enforce an effective strategy with the willows."

Lots of things were happening, and Marigold's mood diminished a tad. Trapping werewolves…what, was there a werewolf somewhere that they had to catch for the NEWTs? Because otherwise, if Marigold ever saw a werewolf, she would RUN and then APPARATE AWAY and then GET THE MINISTRY involved. Yes.

"I know that unicorns can run away from werewolves and survive." Something like that.
The bafflement wasn't over, it seemed. His tolerance for it, however, was slimming. McAlistor got what was a strange mix of unimpressed amusement. "Unless you've figured out how to gentle them equally as quickly, Miss McAlistor, I'm not sure how that would help."

Please don't tell him she kept a mini-pet in her pocket. It would be slightly more understandable than a pet rock, but only slightly.
The class got a once-over of consideration before Sabel clapped his hands together, albiet louder than necessary. For those who seemed to have zoned out into their own world, or possibly fallen asleep on their own desks. "So, as your classmates mentioned, cages are a good way of containing a werewolf, but not subduing or protecting against their violent tendencies."

He made his way into the center of the classroom. "Werewovles can, and do, go a little stir-crazy if they don't have a prey to take their hunting tendencies out on. But even with this carnal instinct, it is of the utmost importance to remember that werewolves are humans and need to be treated as such. A fact that can easily be forgotten when facing one."

How easy it was to forget about what was behind the physical mask.

"As some of you mentioned, binding spells such as incarcerous and a net would work in restraining the werewolf. It is important to remember that these transformed humans are ridiculously strong, so stronger material would need to be used. Chains, in place of ropes. Steel cages in place of wooden ones. So on and so forth."

He twirled his wand once before catching it. As if to try to remind them...they were wizards and witches after all. "Useful spells include impedimenta, a tripping, freezing, binding and knocking jinx. Or petrificus totalus, which renders the whole body immobile while conscious. Locomotor mortis, the leg locker curse, can also be useful though one has to remember to mind the arms and the teeth. All of these can be used to detain or at least slow down a werewolf, until other sufficient means or help can be obtained."

His eyes roamed around the room. Were the note-takers doing okay with a lack of scribbles on the board? Were their brains going to explode? Too much blood going to the buttox from sitting?

"I'd like you all to clear away your potions and stand behind your desk." He waved them up, and as each student stood, transformed their desks into a wooden dummy, with movable arms and legs that wobbled and flapped in the shifting air of the room. Distracting? Probably.

"Manus invisibilis, or the invisible hand, is a binding curse which is similar to petrificus totalis. The difference lies within the amount of movement granted. With totalis, the whole body is paralyzed and the caster has no control over altering this. With manus invisibilis, the caster may choose which portions of the body remain mobile, simply by way of will and intention. This is especially useful if you need to restrain extremities, but say keep the mouth and jaw mobile so as to administer medication or curative. Manus invisiibilis also allows you to bind a subject to an object or a surface, such as a tree or wall. Be mindful that the more powerful your intention for the spell and its results, the more will you have behind it, the stronger the binding will be on your subject."

As with most defensive spells, fear could either be a wonderful motivator or terrible complication.

"The wand movement itself is simple. It's a twist to the right, like unscrewing a cork, followed by a thrust forward towards the subject you intend to bind." He made the movements with his own wand as a demonstration, being careful to keep the incantation off both lips and mind. Last thing this class needed, on top of moon-bopping and spewing cookie chunks was a paralyzed student.

Straightening, Sabel tucked his wand back into his holster, motioning at the dummies now in front of each student. "I'd like you to practice the spell on your dummies. As there is no light from the casting, you'll know that you have it right when the legs, or arms stop moving."

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OOC: This is a mini-activity. Each student's desk has been turned into a dummy with moving arms and legs. Aim is to use the manus invisibilis spell to stop the movement of one, two, three or all four of the limbs.

Minimum of 2 posts if your charrie decides to participate, though you are welcome to do more :) Any questions, just ask. Sabel will circulate.

Class will resume in 18-20 hours :)

[Jessiqua]

Zhenya felt her face flush when Professor Sabel was addressing her suggestion. For a moment there, she thought he was going to penalise her for her suggestion. She didn't see anything wrong with it, and felt herself shrinking down a tiny bit. Although she saw what he meant by keeping them subdued, rather than... you know. It was hard to imagine the werewolves as humans and imagine treating a werewolf who hadn't had wolfsbane potion, who was looking to attack someone, as a human. It seemed a balance of ethics. Animal rights and human rights. To treat an animalistic werewolf as a human. It was tough, and Zhenya was struggling with the concept. She had always seen werewolves who hadn't ingested wolfsbane as a threat to the community during the full moon, and hadn't actually been able to join the human and werewolf together. A werewolf who HAD ingested the potion, though, it was easy to remember they were human. She also understood what he meant; even if the wolfsbane wolf she had been talking about had successfully lured the werewolf into a safe enclosure, the non-wolfsbane werewolf might be of great risk to the other. She hadn't thought about that. She put her index finger into her mouth and started chewing on her nail, suddenly quite deep in thought about the ramifications of trapping a wolfsbane and a non-wolfsbane werewolf into an enclosure. All she was picturing were two werewolves running around happily together, in an enclosure which suited them during their transformations. Keeping them away from society. Big big big ramifications. Where to make a balance between containing and subduing. You could subdue without a cage but could you subdue with a cage?

And then other responses were being given and she suddenly snapped out of her deep thoughts, trying to catch up with all the other suggestions and answers. She could think about these later, with or without discussions from Professor Dakest and/or Professor Thompson. Though the thought was deeply embedded into her immediate thoughts. Later, brain.

But the thoughts would have to wait, because it was time to get up and move on to the practical aspect of the defensive section. Zhenya put her wand into the pocket of her robes, and put her potion away, making sure it was safe from sneezy Professors and their crumbly spray, and stood behind her desk. But it wasn't a desk anymore; it was a wooden dummy. The dummy had moving arms and legs. Eh!?

Zhenya needed to practice this new spell before she tried to cast it. "Manus invisibilis," she said, just as Professor Dakest had. "Manus invisibilis, Manus invisibilis, Manus invisibilis," she said a few more times to get a feel for it. Once she felt comfortable with that, she pulled her wand out. As she was a bit slow with non-verbal spells, she wasn't too worried about accidentally casting it non-verbally. But just to be safe, she turned around where there was nothing in her path, and drew her wand out. She twisted it to her right, then thrust it forward. She did it a few more times before turning back to her dummy.

"Manus invisibilis," she said, twisting her wand to the right, and thrusting it. She had the left hand in her mind as she said the spell, and aiming the wand towards that limb, which immediately stopped moving.

[Symphora]

Henric listened intently about the discussion on werewolves. Was it possible to trap a werewolf? Apparently so. Professor Dakest mentioned about all of the binding spells that can be used to defend one self against an attack from a werewolf. He took down everything that was being said into bulletpoints and who knew, it might possibly be one of the questions that would come up in their end of year examinations.

They were then told to clear away their potions and stand behind their desk. For a moment, Henric was a little taken aback by the quick transformation of their classroom which was now turned into a fighting arena? Look at that dummy waving its arms and legs in the air! He had to stand a few paces away from his dummy to avoid getting punch or worst...kicked in the...urgh...nope...not going there.

Henric practiced the wand movements several times before staring back at his dummy. So what he was about to cast was a binding charm just like 'petrificus totalis' but they would get to choose which part of the body to bind? Now that was incredibly useful for interrogation, he mused. He made a stance in front of his 'enemy' dummy and raised his wand. He cleared his mind and narrowed his focus on his target's arm and legs. He wanted them to stop from flailing about so dangerously. It could accidentally hurt someone if they do not stop immediately. He aimed at the dummy's arms first."Manus invisibilis!"he shouted determinedly. He watched amazed as one of the arm stopped in mid-air, preventing it from moving any further.

"Brilliant!"he exclaimed excitedly. On to the next flailing arm!

[FearlessLeader19]

Soooo. His answer hadn't been so brilliant after all. But there was one part that got to him... "No, I'm not encouraging attacks on humans, Professor. I'm just er, highlighting? the fact that since werewolves attack humans so often, it might be a good idea to bring them down at their own game.'' Yeah, that's what he meant. Anywhooo, back to the note taking!
....................

When the Puffer was finally done with writing his notes, (gosh, it seemed he would have an entire book on werewolves by the time class was over) he stood behind his desk, cleared his potion like Dakest had required then watched wooden, flailing dummies take over the world class. COOOOOOL! And the spell sounded a lot cooler!

"Manus Invisibilis, Manus Invisibilis, Manus Invisibilis,'' muttered Adi, keeping his wand out of his hand for now. Some more practice of the incantation had him satisfied before he grabbed it to practice the twist to the right followed by a forward thrust. Yep, he got that. Let the practice begin!

''Manus Invisibilis!'' The sixth year focused as much as he could on the right leg of the dummy and twisting his wand to the right before thrusting it forward. The dummy's leg stopped wobbling. Hehe. It looked so funny wobbling on one leg and flailing its arms that Adi couldn't help but grin. He would aim for the right hand next. Yep.

''Manus Invisibilis!'' Cue the wands movement along with the silent spell! It was never too much for him to keep working on his abysmal non verbal skills.

[DuckyLinJi]

Wow, so many things were happening at the same time. Or rather…one big thing. And that was Professor Flamsteed sneezing over one of the students at the front. And he just got to say sorry and all was well while AJ lost points for throwing up , that seemed unfair to him but he didn’t want to cause any more trouble for Gryffindor so he let it slip. Instead, he focused his attention to the Defence Professor which then brought his mind to wonder if the man was a dark wizard pretending to be …light or if he was simply wrongly accused. Well, the Headmistress trusted him enough to let him teach here.
He silently made notes on his notebook about werewolves and before he knew it he heard the magical words. Clear away your potions. WOOHOO!

He pushed his BADLY made potion aside and stood up behind his desk . But first he need to use his chapstick, his lips were getting too dry in this potions damp. While he was busy applying it he watched as the desk in front of him turned in to a wooden dummy and he just stared. Which spell was that? Whatever it was, he did not want to get hit by those flapping arms so he took a step back. He just hoped the man WASN’T a dark wizard and would turn the dummies against them all…

Practising the spell without wand at first, Yoongi grabbed it when he got the incantation and pointed it at the dummy or desk…dummy desk..? He twisted his wand to the right and then thrusted it forward to the left arm that was flapping around like crazy. It was difficult to get an aim at it. He closed his eyes, remembered his lessons back at Charms School about breathing and control and after a deep breath he struck. “Manus Invisibilis!”

There was no light and the arm continued to flap around. He kind of knew this would happen. It was the first time he tried this spell. Only if he did not get it after a day or so he would get annoyed. He pointed his wand at the arm again, twisted his wand to the right and thrusting it forward. “Manus invisibilis!” The arm continued flapping for a split second and then it hang still at its side.

One limb down, three to go.

“Manus invisibilis!” he casted the spell with a bit more ease now but while he had been pointing at the left flailing leg , it did not stop flailing. He focused his breathing, concentrated on getting it right and casted the spell again. This time, although he could not see it, he knew he had hit it and his feeling got confirmed when the leg stopped moving. How far were the rest of them doing? He decided to look around at the others for a short moment. See what they're doing.

[WhittyBitty]

Sooooo much information.

Shaking her wrist to loosen a cramp, Lux was trying her hardest to make a note of everything Professor Dakest was telling them. It was good to know about werewolves and quite frankly she wasn't the most well-versed when it came to this topic. Werewolves gave her the heebie jeebies so she didn't like reading about them much. This lesson was very useful in case she ever encountered one in real life - which she hoped would never happen.

When she was finally done writing notes, Lux stood behind her desk. Time to get some practice in, and the spell sounded pretty cool. It would probably have some handy uses beyond werewolf restraining.

Staring at the dummy in front of her she began practicing the incantation. Fortunately it wasn't particularly convoluted. "Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis..." Right twist followed by a forward thrust. Repeating the wand movement a few more times, Lux felt ready to try it out on the dummy.

[Jessiqua]

The left arm of the dummy had stopped moving as soon as she had cast the spell. It was a success! But she had three more limbs to pin to the dummy, so it was time to get started with those limbs.

She looked at the dummy again, circled her shoulders and rolled her neck. Just reset before you go again, she thought. Taking aim at the right leg this time, which would surely stuff up the balance of anyone, though perhaps not a dummy. "Manus invisibilis," she said, twisting her wand to the right and thrusting it forward. Some of the leg found itself bound to the dummy, but the bottom bit was still flapping about. Silly stubborn foot. "Manus invisibilis," she said again, looking at and picturing the foot, twisting her wand to the right and thrusting it forward. The foot stopped moving as it found itself finally bound to the dummy.

[RandomRaven]

Talking about werewolves, the Korean boy just stay silent and listened to Dakest's explanation about this creature. Sometimes he wrote down some important notes that the Professor had said perhaps that's gonna be on his exams. And of course he thought it's very possible to trap a werewolf. They could use full body binding charm and also, a big courage for that.

As Professor Dakest instructed them to clean their desks from potions, Jackson carefully put down his potions equipment and then he stood back from his desk. Then he watched the Professor transfigure the desks into a dummy with movable arms and legs. Cool. They're gonna practice a charm that would be useful to attack somebody or something, like werewolves. Lucky that the incantation of the charms wasn't that difficult for him. "Manus invisibilis." He murmured, practicing the incantation. He kept muttering the incantation until he thought that he's confident enough. Then next, he tried the wand movement. He made a twist movement to the right with his wand. Twist to the right, twist to the right...

Okay, now let's try the spell.

Facing the dummy, Jackson aimed his wand to the right leg first then twisted it to the right "Manus invisibilis!" He shouted the incantation clearly. The right leg of the dummy then accidentally stop moving. Great, Jackson. Just in one try, huh?

[FearlessLeader19]

Adi blinked once, twice, thrice.

GREATMAJESICHIPPOGRIFFS! Were his eyes deceiving him? :x3:

The right hand of his dummy had actually stopped moving! Forget about the dummy wobbling on one leg and flailing one hand, Adi had just succeeded for the first time when it came to a non verbal spell! "I did it, I did it!'' he sing songed to himself and doing a little dance. Nobody mind him. He is and always will be cray- cray.

But YAY for non verbal spells! Wheeeee!

Buuuuut it was time to get back to the task at hand. Calm down, Adi! "Manus Invisibilis!'' Cue the twist to the right and the forward thrust. Okay, so that didn't go as planned. "Manus Invisibilis!'' With more focus and intent, he repeated the wand movement at the other hand... which stopped moving promptly. This got the Puffer practically jumping. All that practice he had been doing earlier in the school year was FINALLY paying off!

There was just one more joint to aim at. "Manus Invisibilis!'' The same steps were repeated for the left leg. Now he had a completely still wooden dummy. And the world had an extra, extra happy Aditya Rehman.

[Jessiqua]

With the dummy sufficiently off balance, even though it was a dummy and had plenty of balance, it was time to sucker in the other leg and arm. Which one first? Arm first. See how it hobbles along on one leg; ha. Zhenya shook her arms out and repositioned herself with her feet hip width apart. She raised her wand, pointing it at the other arm on the dummy. "Manus invisibilis," she said clearly, twisting her wand to the right and thrusting it forward. An immediate response again; the second arm of the dummy stopped moving. Mua-ha-HA.

Next was time for the other leg. She wasn't sure why she had to try twice to get the other leg bound onto the dummy, why the 'foot' didn't immediately stop with the rest of the leg. Perhaps being a leg, being slightly bigger, made the difference, though it wasn't... it wasn't THAT much bigger. She pointed her wand at the dummy, "Manus invisibilis," she said clearly, twisting her wand to the right and thrust it forward, with might, at the direction of the leg. HUZZAH the entire leg stopped moving as it found itself bound to the dummy.

[Sararara]

Didja hear that? Didja HEAR THAT? A real live Professor Dakest had asked if SHE was alright. Man, this was probably the most historically important day ever. Norah beamed at him from behind her hands and nodded. "I'm alright, Professor." Asdfjdflkjdhfakjsfd okay MOSTLY alright, 'cause if he kept looking at her she was going to fall off her chair or something horridly ridiculous like that. She let out a long breath as he turned to the next student, and smiled at her parchment as she began to write down the words and words and WORDS of new information. So. Many. Words. But really all the word weren't that bad 'cause by the time she was finished with all her notes her cheeks felt like they were less on fire, which was always good.

The Hufflepuff stepped back from her desk!dummy thing and began to mime the wand movement just like Professor Dakest had, with all the twisties and the jab it was kind of cool. Like a sword! "Manis invisibilis. Manus invisibilis. Manus invisibilis," she repeated, then raised her wand. Alright, dummy arm. You're goin' DOWN. With a twist and a jab of her wand in the direction of the dummy's left arm, she cast, "Manus Invisibilis!" and watched carefully as absolutely zero things happened. Uh. Excuse you, dummy. She focused again on the invisible hand thing making the arm stop moving just like Dakest had described, and tried again. "Manus invisibilis!" TWISTANDJAB. She squinted at it. Was it just her, or was the arm moving slower than it had before? She squinted harder. Maybe? The mean old thing was still moving, though, which meant another try. Come ON just freeze up so it looked like she could actually do stuff, yeah? It was the least it could do for her. Well, maybe it wasn't but it WOULD be nice, okay? "Manus Invisibilis!" Once her twist and jab were finished, she let her arm hang to her side 'cause guess what! It wooooorked. The once-flailing arm was not paralyzed and boring, just like she'd told it to be. So there.

[Holmesian Feline]

Ben should have expected it.

Should have known for anything defense related they needed to have more room to move around and partipate in than what they currently had. Didn't mean the sixth year wanted to move from his perch again. Or do any movement at all thank you. After finishing up his notes for the moment, he reluctantly obeyed the request to clean up their potions stuff. "Evanesco!" he cast, vanishing his potion since there was no use in keeping the ruined work when it wasn't going to be used to continue anyway.

The Gryffindor had just managed to grab his remaining supplies in one hand to put into his now empty cauldron and moved back from the desk when the furniture in front of him started to change. Benny jumped back in reaction nearly stumbling with the items in his grasp. Sighing, he gathered himself, and his belongings to set aside hopefully safe and sound so he didn't have more trauma in the class today.

And now he was trying to pay attention to what Professor Dakest was saying about the spell they needed to learn and practice using. Manus invisibilis. A binding spell other than petrificulus totalus. "Manus invisibilis...Manus invisibilis...Manus invisibilis" This spell he needed the practice on as his tongue went over the He did his best to focus on it and not the flailing dummy in front of him. And then the wand movement...a two-point step that didn't sound like something that was quick if one was in immediate danger.

Corkscrew...point. Corkscrew...point.

[Daemon]

Was Professor Dakest hinting that he should come to him for lessons in tracking? SIGN HIM UP LIKE, YESTERDAY. Nodding along, Benzi took in this information like a sponge and smiled a little at the sort of backhanded little compliment Dakest had give him. Or at least, he was going to take it as a compliment and there wasn't much anyone could do to stop him.

Carefully putting away his potion things - this was going to be their homework after all, he didn't want to start over from the beginning - Benzi grinned when his table was transformed into a dummy. Ah, finally. His comfort zone.

First he practiced the wand movement, liking it immediately. It felt natural and.. right, somehow. Like it fitted. Next came the incantation. "Manus Invisibils... manus invisibilis, manus invisibilis," he repeated a few times over, getting comfortable with it.

Okay. He was ready.

[Weasley174]

Angel looked at the Professor as he spoke about what she had said and she felt like saying so, but decided against it. She was sure a nice zoo would work well for the werewolf.

"Manus invisibilis!" Angel did the wand movement a twist and a jab right. well that was good nothing was happening and she didn't like it. "Manus invisibilis!" Angel said the spell again. Once again nothing happened. "Manus invisibilis!! Manus invisibilio!" Angel sighed as she started to lose her composer as she fail with the spell, she really wanted to know what was going wrong.

[hermionesclone]

EXCUSE YOU?!

Grayson, who was just reaching over to grab his silver knife, stopped and stared up at Culloden and then at the board. WHAT?! The potions part was OVER?! No. This was his favourite portion and was the part of the lesson he had been looking forward to the most and now it was almost OVER?! Dude was NOT happy about this!

Grumble grumble freaking grumble.

Turning back to his potion, the boy took up his silver knife again and gave it a magical clean before starting with the chopping process. See, chop it well was kinda a vague set of instructions. Chop it well. It was kinda about perspective and all. He did try to make the pieces as even as possible just for the sake of it.

When the fluxweed was all chopped up, Grayson added it to his cauldron before picking up his metal stirrer. "Scourgify!" There. Clean. One......... two....... three....... four........ five....... six........ and SEVEN stirs clockwise. Done. Easy peasy. Taking up the dog fur, the boy tried to sprinkle it over the potion as evenly as possible. It kinda irked him that it probably wasn't perfectly even due to the time limit and the fact that, you know, he couldn't be bothered to sit there and place the hair perfectly onto his cauldron. That required too much effort, ma--

LOOOOOOOOOOOL.

What in the name of Merlin, Airey Flamsteed?! Poor Gryffindor, man. If the Astro Professor had sneezed into his potion, the guy would be livid. Nothing would stop him from bursting out into a tangent of swear words and general anger towards the Professor. But seeing as he wasn't the victim here, the Slytherin was just snorting and laughing silently to himself.

Er. Yeah. Spell. Recordo. He completely missed the question and didn't really have anything to add sooooo Grayson was just gonna sit there and chant the spell to himself. Recordo. Re-core-DOH! The wand movement sounded dead easy so he wasn't gonna bother practising it. Nah! He was just gonna clear up and wait for the next set of--

HOLY FREAKING MERLIN WHAT THE ACTUAL--

Everything was all cool, fine and dandy or whatever and then, outta the blue, Dakest went ahead and TURNED HIS DESK INTO A FREAKING DUMMY THAT WAS WAVING ITS ARMS AROUND LIKE SOME SORT OF FREAKING WOODEN DEMENTOR.

Right. Fine. Breathe. Whatever. It was just SHOCK, mkay?

"Manus Invisibilis," he muttered under his breath, "Manus Invisibilis....... Manus Invisibilis......." Merlin, could the demented dummy stop freakishly waving its arms around for like two seconds? It was kinda distracting and all. Not to mention dead weird. "Manus Invisibilis..... Manus Invisibilis........ Manus Invisibilis....."

Manus Invisibilis!" That last cry was much louder and came with a twist to the right of his wand and then a thrust forward towards the dummy.

And the result? Lol, nothing.

[Daemon]

"Manus Invisibilis!" Benzi cast, twisting and jabbing at the target's spazzing left leg. Nothing.

Oh wait he needed to think for it to work. Right. Again. "Manus Invisibilis!" he did the wand motion, focusing intently on making that left leg stop flapping about uselessly like that. ... Well, it ALMOST stopped. "Manus Invisibilis!" he cast for the third time on the leg, drowning out the noises of the classroom and really focusing on his target. The twitching limb froze completely.

"Nice!" he grinned to himself, and tapped the immobile leg with his foot. Yup. Frozen solid. Very cool. Now for the other leg.

[WhittyBitty]

Wand at the ready, Lux stared at her target. There were a few places that she could hit, but maybe she would start with the right hand. Best to start small and work your way up.

LOL at the dummy's flailing around. Now that the practice part was out of the way Lux could just let herself be mesmerized by the movements. Maybe she could do a little flaily dance of her own because they were so much fun. Somehow she didn't think Professor Dakest would be impressed by that and she DID want to do well in Defence Against the Dark Arts; it was an important subject both for potioneering and general safety. Best to leave it all for a victory dance.

Pointing her wand at the right hand, Lux focused really hard on the intent. Twist to the right followed by a forward thrust. "Manus invisibilis!" What do you know...it actually worked. BEAM. Her spell work was a lot better now than it used to be though she still needed help with the whole non-verbal thing.

Smiling, she watched as the dummy continued to flail while the right hand stayed still. It was actually kinda funny. Giggle.

[DuckyLinJi]

Well, looking around proved to be quite a boring activity seeing as nothing special happened. Something he had been wondering when it would. Yes, not if, when. So Yoongi set his mind back at his own task of paralysing the desk dummy.

He aimed his Phoenix wand at the right leg, Turned it to the right and thrust it forward while saying"Manus invisibilis" No light. But the leg stopped flailing around though not completely. It had stopped for a few seconds and then it started flapping again. Sighing loudly, the Gryffindor hated it when he would succeed so easily one moment and the next he failed. He re-pointed his wand at the leg , did the same motion and incantation. But it failed a second time.

But he wasn't giving up! He determindly pointed his wand again. Turn it to the side and thrusted it forward while saying "Manus Invisibilis!" The leg flailed around, then stopped completely. A bit skeptic about this, Yoongi counted to five in his head and when it was still paralysed he woohoo'd in his mind.

A proud grin spread across his face as he pointed his wand back at the dummy. This ime its last arm. Casting the spell, he watched the invisible light of magic as it was casted against the arm and it stopped flailing immediately.

Ah, wasn't he a prodigy?

[feeheeheeny]

There was a looooot of information about werewolves being thrown about and Sophie was taking avid notes on the various ways to contain or subdue a werewolf. All the while, she was glancing at Tobes and Flamsteed every now and then, and she was disappointed that the Animalis Fidelis charm hadn't been mentioned, so she didn't know whether or not it could be useful.

Disappointing, really, but... maybe it was her own fault for not mentioning it.

Doing as she was told when Dakest requested that they clear their desks and stand behind it, then jumped slightly when he transfigured it into a DUMMY. Merlin, professor, NO WARNING?

Manus Invisibilis. a twist to the right, like unscrewing a cork, followed by a thrust forward towards the subject you intend to bind. Seemed simple enough, really - except that this was a highly mental spell, which did not work in her favor, considering her compromised mental state. So... she would just... take it easy for now.

"Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis..." she repeated aloud to herself over and over, getting the pronunciation and stress on syllables down before moving on to practice the wand movement. A twist to the right, then a forward thrust of the wand. She repeated this for awhile, letting her eyes wander - how was Tobes doing over there? Was he okay?

[Casey O]

Marigold was taken aback because DADA moved into the activity WAAAAAAY QUICKER than she was expecting. Wiggling dummies, okay. She could deal.

"Manoos Invisiblus? MANus InvISibilis." She chanted the incantation a couple times in her head as well, before moving to the wand movement.

Twist to the right resist the urge to sing the Time Warp and a jab forwards, right? Well, right as in correct, not right as in left... anyway. Kind of like she was turning a key into a lock, and then pushing a door forward. She repeated the movement a couple times as well.

[Felixir]

The beauty of keeping his head down on the desk was that Toby could remain oblivious to any looks or frowns or whatever that was directed his way. He missed the frown that Dakest directed at him, perhaps for the better, judging by his reaction to the frown in the patronus lesson? Never could really be sure with this one.

He remained that way for as long as he could, doing his best to process the information that came their way, but ultimately failing. Mostly it made him feel sad (more sad), because werewolves were humans, but also creatures (they had dual status as Beast and Being, he knew), and he hated the way they were being spoken about in this lesson. Rationally, he might have understood that it was a necessary topic, but Tobias was not a rational person, a lot of the time. Some of this stuff just... just affected his delicate Hufflepuff tendencies.

And then the instruction came, the one to get up and stand behind the desks. Toby didn't really want to, but he wanted to disobey a professor (uhh... again) even less. After a looooooooong pause... Toby finally brought his head up, though he kept his eyes down. He knew they'd be a dead giveaway, all red and puffy. But because of hayfever, y'know? That... that mid-winter hayfever. Totally.

Toby cleared his potions stuff away, avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone, and stood back behind the desk. When it transformed into a flailing dummy, he only stared at it through tired eyes, and with an impassive expression. That was how he remained as Dakest walked them through the next step, back to idly but halfheartedly twirling his wand through his fingers. Oh, it was time to start? Well. Okay then.

Flipping his wand into spell-casting position in his hand, Toby eyed the dummy for a little longer, almost mesmerised by the flapping limbs. It felt soothing to watch something so random and mindless when his own thoughts were getting all tangled and messy in his head. After a good minute, Toby blinked, remembered where he was, and quickly rubbed at his face to wake himself up a bit.

Right. So. What had Dakest said? The wand movement was a twist... and then a thrust towards the target. Toby eyed those nearby him for a moment, to make sure he was remembering that right, then looked back at the dummy. Saying nothing, he held up his wand, gave it a twist to the right, and a half-hearted shove forwards to the dummy. Nothing happened, but he didn't expect it to. Just practicing the wand movement, y'know? Now he needed to remember the incantation, which had already totally slipped his mind.

Toby stood where he was and listened to his classmates. They would be using the incantation too, after all. Forgetting it was no major problem; happened to Toby all the time. He just had to keep his ears open until someone jogged his memory.

[Casey O]

Okay. Now Marigold had to actually do it. She felt pretty good about this, since the wand movement was what she usually had trouble with, and she nailed this one.

"Manus Invisibilis," she said strongly, rotating her wand and thrusting it. Nope. Didn't work. She tried again. "Manus Invisibilis," she said again, and this time, an arm stopped moving. YAAAAY.

[Felixir]

Manus Invisibilis.

That was what it sounded like to Toby, and he could hear a bunch of different people saying it if he listened closely enough, so he was inclined to believe that that was the incantation. It wasn't exactly ringing any bells, but then Toby's memory was sort of... like a sieve. A sieve that was riddled with holes, sometimes.

Point was, he knew the incantation now. That was all he needed.

"Manus... Invisibilis," the Hufflepuff mumbled to himself, not wanting to speak too loudly, worried that he might somehow end up disturbing someone else. "Manus Invisibilis." Sigh. "... Manus Invisibilis."

The last time, he'd added the wand movement, aiming it at the dummy. But, again, he didn't expect anything to really happen. Every time he learned a new spell, Toby had to really think about what he was trying to do, so that then he could visualise and understand it and everything, and only then would it work for him. But despite trying to listen earlier, he'd not really processed the instructions. A lot of the information had floated through one ear, wafted tantalisingly around his brain where he couldn't quite reach it to pin it down, then straight back out again. It was infuriating, but again, he felt like he deserved to be finding the lesson difficult.

It wasn't so easy to listen to people and just hope they repeated everything Dakest had said, verbatim, though, so in the end Toby just had to sort of... stand there, watching the person nearest to him practice the spell and see what happened. He wanted to sit back down and put his head on his desk again, but that was sort of impossible, as said desk was currently flailing around in front of him.

Maybe he'd try the spell again. Watching other kids succeed in the spell was giving him an idea of what he was supposed to do. So... maybe...?

... Or maybe not. Toby's heart wasn't really in it. Shocker.

[Cassirin]

Her answer was basically right, see? This spell worked just like a magical net, of sorts, and that was definitely one of the most humane answers given. Which meant that Dot was... a saint. An angel baby, probably, and her wings just hadn't come in yet.

The spell was interesting, though, and Dot was willing to focus on it. A charm, which Dot was particularly good at, although not one that she figured she'd use much outside of this class. The motion was easy enough, just that little twist and jab motion, so Dot moved on to practicing the incantation. "Manus invisibilis. Man-us in-vis-i-bilis."

Easy peasy. Should she try it?

[ArianaBlack]

Man.

That was a LOT of information. Zander had been attempting to keep notes, but without a blackboard it was kind of hard to do so. Y'know what, he'd just find a Ravenclaw with good notes afterwards. He wasn't all too chummy with Gabe, but seeing that they were both Prefects... Maybe he could catch up with the Claw during a meeting or something and ask to see his notes? Sure Gabe wouldn't mind sharing. Especially 'cause Zander WAS making an attempt. He just wasn't wasn't as good with this note stuff as other people were. His arms were cramping. And also his head was on the verge of exploding.

Ahem.

Anyways, seeing as they were moving on to an activity portion of class, Zander quickly got up from his desk, moving to clear away his potions supplies when HOLY MOTHER OF MERLIN the desk transformed into a dummy??? Man. You'd think these things would come with a warning. Professors here really were all about that constant vigilance stuff.

Either way, he wasn't about to try it on the dummy right away 'cause these things took practice. So before he went ahead to do that... "Man-us in-vis-ibil-is," the manus part was easy, but the second part was a bit wonky. "Manus invisibilis... Manus invisibilis... Manus invisibilis..."

[Holmesian Feline]

Okay so maybe he actually had to try the spell in its entirety now...on the dummy. The same one that was currently mocking him with its movements in front of him. Like he needed anything else on his mind to keep him focused on the task at hand. Ben swallowed as he tried to focus, not really good at the whole casting while being distracted. Perhaps that had been why he hadn't done that well in DADA and Charms, both requiring him to act suddenly and be able to cast on his feet. Yet he managed to handle himself alright in dueling Adi and Angel.

Nah....that wasn't it.

More movement and mocking came at him and the Gryffindor stealed himself. A glance at a certain Hufflepuff getting it, well BOTH of them getting it pressed him forward. Ben focused on the left leg since the bottom limbs didn't seem to be doing as much as the arms were. "Manus Invisibilis!" He said the incantation sounding right, and the wand movement in the correct direction, at least he thought. But nothing happened. Not even a slow down of the dummy and its leg.

Fail.

Cue sigh.

[Cassirin]

Ahem. That was enough practicing, and Dot really needed to get around to the actual casting part. She twist-jabbed her wand a few more times to make sure that the feel of the gesture was familiar, and then focused on the dummy.

He was an ugly thing, wasn't he? And the flaily limbs... poor thing. She imagined that he was a werewolf, not in control of his impulses and trying to attack her. Bite her. Make her a fuzzy nightmare too. EEK. "Manus invisibilis."

The aim seemed right, but none of the limbs stopped moving. Sigh. Where had she just CAST and was it going to cause any unfortunate problems for someone else? "Manus invisibilis." Better aim this time, and the legs stilled in their flailing. More intention next time, perhaps?

[feeheeheeny]

Well... no, by the looks of it, Tobes was not doing okay, based upon the fact that he wasn't looking at anyone and seemed to be secluding himself from the group as much as he could without actually moving. That was incredibly discouraging and a reminder of their forthcoming doom of point loss, detention, loss of favorite student status, and the breaking of a best friendship.

At this point, she just wanted to get it over with. Throw in the towel and be done with the class so they could just go forth and face the music.

"Manus Invisibilis," she murmured to herself once more, now adding the twist to the right and thrusting wand movement to go with it, but without intent. She was just getting a feel for the move - all the while with somewhat of a scowl on her face - and eventually, she summoned up great feeling - a sudden burst of anger, an outsider would think - and envisioned all of the flailing limbs of the dummy freezing as she cast, "Manus Invisibilis!"

The arms stopped on the spot, and both legs' movement slowed... but their movement did not cease.

Whatever, dummy. Whatever.

[SarcasticStrawberry]

Cinna still had the same grin on her face. It grew even bigger as she took notes on this spell or curse or whatever it was that they were going to be working on today. In all honestly she found this curse pretty interesting. Hehe. So she was pretty eager to learn it. She quickly cleared off here table and watched as it transformed into a mummy. Cool.

She took her wand and practiced the wand movement. It was fairly simple. Which was good, but every now and then a challenge was fun. Just a twist to the right and thrust toward the object. Lucky for her today was not a challenging day. She should also practice the incantation as well. "Manus Invisibilis.... Manus Invisibilis." So that wasn't incredibility terrible

Hmmm now what was she going to do first. How about a arm. The sixth year pointed her at the left arm, doing the wand movement "Manus Invisibilis!" She watched as the arm stopped wiggling. Woohooo She did it.

[Sararara]

Norah pushed a curl behind her ear and eyed the dummy with its one arm still and the other limbs all flaily. It was kind of funny looking, if you didn't think about it too much. She aimed her wand at both legs this time. Y'know, bind two legs with one spell? Heh. Heheheheh. She could so be one of those saying-maker-upper-people. Just wait, she was gonna be FAMOUS. "Manus Invisibilis!" she cast, twisting her wand and jabbing it in the direction of the dummy's moving legs. The leg on the left ceased its movement, but the other kept on flailing away just like before. Well. This was why she was going to be a saying-maker-upper instead of a dummy binder. Half the limbs wasn't that bad though, right?

[WhittyBitty]

Lux decided that her next target would be the left arm of her dummy. It was going to look even more funny with one limb and one hand staying still and everything else flailing like crazy. Even though this was a serious lesson she could have some fun with it!

Too bad the brewing part was over though, because that had obviously been her favourite.

Pointing her wand at the left arm of the dummy, Lux made a twist to the right and then a forward thrust. "Manus Invisibilis!" The am went completely still. Look at her be a total pro at this spell already. Hehe. If she ever came near a werewolf she would have a much better idea of how to deal with it.

Next she decided to target the right leg. She focused all her energy on what she wanted the spell to do. "Manus Invisibilis!" And success!! Look at her go. Happy, Lux did a little victory dance because she had managed to make every spell hit its target

[Anna Banana]

So he wanted them to just clear their potions away? Just like that? Kate looked down at her work from earlier, thinking about how she had probably one minute tops to get it all packed up and put away. Kate got everything put away in its rightful place before turning her attention back to the lesson and moving to stand behind her desk.

It was a good thing she got up when she did, too, because the next thing she knew, her desk was a wooden dummy. She looked at it just bobbing there, like a limp baby doll or something. Now she had to cast on it, but first, she wanted to do a bit of practicing. "Manus Invisibilis," she said, saying the incantation. "Manus Invisibilis." The wand movement didn't seem so easy, though. Kate twisted to the right and thrusted forward. It turned out to be a lot easier than she thought, so with another look at the dummy, she decided to get started.

[Tazenhani]

Zhenya felt her face flush when Professor Sabel was addressing her suggestion. For a moment there, she thought he was going to penalise her for her suggestion. She didn't see anything wrong with it, and felt herself shrinking down a tiny bit. Although she saw what he meant by keeping them subdued, rather than... you know. It was hard to imagine the werewolves as humans and imagine treating a werewolf who hadn't had wolfsbane potion, who was looking to attack someone, as a human. It seemed a balance of ethics. Animal rights and human rights. To treat an animalistic werewolf as a human. It was tough, and Zhenya was struggling with the concept. She had always seen werewolves who hadn't ingested wolfsbane as a threat to the community during the full moon, and hadn't actually been able to join the human and werewolf together. A werewolf who HAD ingested the potion, though, it was easy to remember they were human. She also understood what he meant; even if the wolfsbane wolf she had been talking about had successfully lured the werewolf into a safe enclosure, the non-wolfsbane werewolf might be of great risk to the other. She hadn't thought about that. She put her index finger into her mouth and started chewing on her nail, suddenly quite deep in thought about the ramifications of trapping a wolfsbane and a non-wolfsbane werewolf into an enclosure. All she was picturing were two werewolves running around happily together, in an enclosure which suited them during their transformations. Keeping them away from society. Big big big ramifications. Where to make a balance between containing and subduing. You could subdue without a cage but could you subdue with a cage?
-----------
Zhenya needed to practice this new spell before she tried to cast it. "Manus invisibilis," she said, just as Professor Dakest had. "Manus invisibilis, Manus invisibilis, Manus invisibilis," she said a few more times to get a feel for it. Once she felt comfortable with that, she pulled her wand out. As she was a bit slow with non-verbal spells, she wasn't too worried about accidentally casting it non-verbally. But just to be safe, she turned around where there was nothing in her path, and drew her wand out. She twisted it to her right, then thrust it forward. She did it a few more times before turning back to her dummy.

"Manus invisibilis," she said, twisting her wand to the right, and thrusting it. She had the left hand in her mind as she said the spell, and aiming the wand towards that limb, which immediately stopped moving.
------------------
With the dummy sufficiently off balance, even though it was a dummy and had plenty of balance, it was time to sucker in the other leg and arm. Which one first? Arm first. See how it hobbles along on one leg; ha. Zhenya shook her arms out and repositioned herself with her feet hip width apart. She raised her wand, pointing it at the other arm on the dummy. "Manus invisibilis," she said clearly, twisting her wand to the right and thrusting it forward. An immediate response again; the second arm of the dummy stopped moving. Mua-ha-HA.

Next was time for the other leg. She wasn't sure why she had to try twice to get the other leg bound onto the dummy, why the 'foot' didn't immediately stop with the rest of the leg. Perhaps being a leg, being slightly bigger, made the difference, though it wasn't... it wasn't THAT much bigger. She pointed her wand at the dummy, "Manus invisibilis," she said clearly, twisting her wand to the right and thrust it forward, with might, at the direction of the leg. HUZZAH the entire leg stopped moving as it found itself bound to the dummy.
----------------------
The left arm of the dummy had stopped moving as soon as she had cast the spell. It was a success! But she had three more limbs to pin to the dummy, so it was time to get started with those limbs.

She looked at the dummy again, circled her shoulders and rolled her neck. Just reset before you go again, she thought. Taking aim at the right leg this time, which would surely stuff up the balance of anyone, though perhaps not a dummy. "Manus invisibilis," she said, twisting her wand to the right and thrusting it forward. Some of the leg found itself bound to the dummy, but the bottom bit was still flapping about. Silly stubborn foot. "Manus invisibilis," she said again, looking at and picturing the foot, twisting her wand to the right and thrusting it forward. The foot stopped moving as it found itself finally bound to the dummy.
At first, Sabel was concerned that the face-flushing and absolute silence was going to add yet another student to the collection of 'moodies'. It was a great release of worry then, when Burton took to the practical side of his lecture like a fish back to water.

Determination and concentration. He liked it. And the results were showing. The deliberate limb-by-limb method might make for difficulties in actually subding a werewolf, but experience told him that practice versus practical were two completely different things.

Not wanting to disrupt the young girl, Sabel moved by quietly, nodding in approval.

They were then told to clear away their potions and stand behind their desk. For a moment, Henric was a little taken aback by the quick transformation of their classroom which was now turned into a fighting arena? Look at that dummy waving its arms and legs in the air! He had to stand a few paces away from his dummy to avoid getting punch or worst...kicked in the...urgh...nope...not going there.

Henric practiced the wand movements several times before staring back at his dummy. So what he was about to cast was a binding charm just like 'petrificus totalis' but they would get to choose which part of the body to bind? Now that was incredibly useful for interrogation, he mused. He made a stance in front of his 'enemy' dummy and raised his wand. He cleared his mind and narrowed his focus on his target's arm and legs. He wanted them to stop from flailing about so dangerously. It could accidentally hurt someone if they do not stop immediately. He aimed at the dummy's arms first."Manus invisibilis!"he shouted determinedly. He watched amazed as one of the arm stopped in mid-air, preventing it from moving any further.

"Brilliant!"he exclaimed excitedly. On to the next flailing arm!
This one looked particularly engaged in a silent, mental conversation with his dummy. Really taking the 'will' to heart. Sabel couldn't say that he minded. It seemed that talking about will was less explosive than suggesting one think of happy thoughts.

A grin took hold as the boy celebrated his success. And because why not, Sabel held out his hand for a high-five as he passed.

Soooo. His answer hadn't been so brilliant after all. But there was one part that got to him... "No, I'm not encouraging attacks on humans, Professor. I'm just er, highlighting? the fact that since werewolves attack humans so often, it might be a good idea to bring them down at their own game.'' Yeah, that's what he meant. Anywhooo, back to the note taking!
....................

When the Puffer was finally done with writing his notes, (gosh, it seemed he would have an entire book on werewolves by the time class was over) he stood behind his desk, cleared his potion like Dakest had required then watched wooden, flailing dummies take over the world class. COOOOOOL! And the spell sounded a lot cooler!

"Manus Invisibilis, Manus Invisibilis, Manus Invisibilis,'' muttered Adi, keeping his wand out of his hand for now. Some more practice of the incantation had him satisfied before he grabbed it to practice the twist to the right followed by a forward thrust. Yep, he got that. Let the practice begin!

''Manus Invisibilis!'' The sixth year focused as much as he could on the right leg of the dummy and twisting his wand to the right before thrusting it forward. The dummy's leg stopped wobbling. Hehe. It looked so funny wobbling on one leg and flailing its arms that Adi couldn't help but grin. He would aim for the right hand next. Yep.

''Manus Invisibilis!'' Cue the wands movement along with the silent spell! It was never too much for him to keep working on his abysmal non verbal skills.
Sabel paused between desks-turned dummies and offered a frown to Mr. Rehman. "I could suggest the MLE use the same mindset against Dark Wizards, but how do you suppose that would turn out?" Merlin he hoped the boy didn't think it was a brilliant idea. "Sometimes, the best way to eliminate a threat is to do so a simply as possible. Games, will get you killed."

And here he was, hoping that there were none in the class who would take that ubber liberally. He would just, leave that where it was.

He spared a few moments to watch the boy, pleased with his success with the spell. "Good job, Mr. Rehman."

He pushed his BADLY made potion aside and stood up behind his desk . But first he need to use his chapstick, his lips were getting too dry in this potions damp. While he was busy applying it he watched as the desk in front of him turned in to a wooden dummy and he just stared. Which spell was that? Whatever it was, he did not want to get hit by those flapping arms so he took a step back. He just hoped the man WASN’T a dark wizard and would turn the dummies against them all…

Practising the spell without wand at first, Yoongi grabbed it when he got the incantation and pointed it at the dummy or desk…dummy desk..? He twisted his wand to the right and then thrusted it forward to the left arm that was flapping around like crazy. It was difficult to get an aim at it. He closed his eyes, remembered his lessons back at Charms School about breathing and control and after a deep breath he struck. “Manus Invisibilis!”

There was no light and the arm continued to flap around. He kind of knew this would happen. It was the first time he tried this spell. Only if he did not get it after a day or so he would get annoyed. He pointed his wand at the arm again, twisted his wand to the right and thrusting it forward. “Manus invisibilis!” The arm continued flapping for a split second and then it hang still at its side.

One limb down, three to go.

“Manus invisibilis!” he casted the spell with a bit more ease now but while he had been pointing at the left flailing leg , it did not stop flailing. He focused his breathing, concentrated on getting it right and casted the spell again. This time, although he could not see it, he knew he had hit it and his feeling got confirmed when the leg stopped moving. How far were the rest of them doing? He decided to look around at the others for a short moment. See what they're doing.
--------------
He aimed his Phoenix wand at the right leg, Turned it to the right and thrust it forward while saying"Manus invisibilis" No light. But the leg stopped flailing around though not completely. It had stopped for a few seconds and then it started flapping again. Sighing loudly, the Gryffindor hated it when he would succeed so easily one moment and the next he failed. He re-pointed his wand at the leg , did the same motion and incantation. But it failed a second time.

But he wasn't giving up! He determindly pointed his wand again. Turn it to the side and thrusted it forward while saying "Manus Invisibilis!" The leg flailed around, then stopped completely. A bit skeptic about this, Yoongi counted to five in his head and when it was still paralysed he woohoo'd in his mind.

A proud grin spread across his face as he pointed his wand back at the dummy. This ime its last arm. Casting the spell, he watched the invisible light of magic as it was casted against the arm and it stopped flailing immediately.

Ah, wasn't he a prodigy?
There was one thing about the practical portion of DADA combined with young students, as he imagined there was for every single other class with pratical portions. Frustration and discouragement seemed to come after only a few short minutes of trying. The sensibility that spells, and magic, took years to master seemed nullinvoid in the face of youthful determination. Only a problem, when said determination ended up in hands thrown in the air and a refusal to continue.

Something he suspected Hyland would be doing in short order. Sabel made his way towards the boy, already thinking of several things that might be encouraging, or at the least motivating. As it was, the kid didn't seem to need any of that, and Sabel found himself wondering if he could ask him to lend some of his energy to his classmates.

As it was, he gave the boy an approving nod as he passed. "Nice work."

Staring at the dummy in front of her she began practicing the incantation. Fortunately it wasn't particularly convoluted. "Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis..." Right twist followed by a forward thrust. Repeating the wand movement a few more times, Lux felt ready to try it out on the dummy.
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Wand at the ready, Lux stared at her target. There were a few places that she could hit, but maybe she would start with the right hand. Best to start small and work your way up.

LOL at the dummy's flailing around. Now that the practice part was out of the way Lux could just let herself be mesmerized by the movements. Maybe she could do a little flaily dance of her own because they were so much fun. Somehow she didn't think Professor Dakest would be impressed by that and she DID want to do well in Defence Against the Dark Arts; it was an important subject both for potioneering and general safety. Best to leave it all for a victory dance.

Pointing her wand at the right hand, Lux focused really hard on the intent. Twist to the right followed by a forward thrust. "Manus invisibilis!" What do you know...it actually worked. BEAM. Her spell work was a lot better now than it used to be though she still needed help with the whole non-verbal thing.

Smiling, she watched as the dummy continued to flail while the right hand stayed still. It was actually kinda funny. Giggle.
-----------------
Pointing her wand at the left arm of the dummy, Lux made a twist to the right and then a forward thrust. "Manus Invisibilis!" The am went completely still. Look at her be a total pro at this spell already. Hehe. If she ever came near a werewolf she would have a much better idea of how to deal with it.

Next she decided to target the right leg. She focused all her energy on what she wanted the spell to do. "Manus Invisibilis!" And success!! Look at her go. Happy, Lux did a little victory dance because she had managed to make every spell hit its target
And then there were those students that couldn't be dampened by anything. The ones that would dance in a downpour and make angels in the midst of a snowstorm. Carrington seemed to be one of those special students, grinning like she was at the dummy.

He tried to see what she found so enjoyable about the wood representation, but could only shake his head. The giggle made him grin, and it took a good reprimand of his own thoughts to remind himself that she was allowed to giggle. That this, was not yet real life, where no giggling would happen in a situation where such a spell was warranted.

He gave the young girl a thumbs-up as he passed.

As Professor Dakest instructed them to clean their desks from potions, Jackson carefully put down his potions equipment and then he stood back from his desk. Then he watched the Professor transfigure the desks into a dummy with movable arms and legs. Cool. They're gonna practice a charm that would be useful to attack somebody or something, like werewolves. Lucky that the incantation of the charms wasn't that difficult for him. "Manus invisibilis." He murmured, practicing the incantation. He kept muttering the incantation until he thought that he's confident enough. Then next, he tried the wand movement. He made a twist movement to the right with his wand. Twist to the right, twist to the right...

Okay, now let's try the spell.

Facing the dummy, Jackson aimed his wand to the right leg first then twisted it to the right "Manus invisibilis!" He shouted the incantation clearly. The right leg of the dummy then accidentally stop moving. Great, Jackson. Just in one try, huh?
It was heartening to see so many students getting the spell. Didn't leave time for questions of abilities and admittedly, made the next step much much easier.

"Good work, Mr. Hwang." Now, could the kid manage to do more than just a leg?

Didja hear that? Didja HEAR THAT? A real live Professor Dakest had asked if SHE was alright. Man, this was probably the most historically important day ever. Norah beamed at him from behind her hands and nodded. "I'm alright, Professor." Asdfjdflkjdhfakjsfd okay MOSTLY alright, 'cause if he kept looking at her she was going to fall off her chair or something horridly ridiculous like that. She let out a long breath as he turned to the next student, and smiled at her parchment as she began to write down the words and words and WORDS of new information. So. Many. Words. But really all the word weren't that bad 'cause by the time she was finished with all her notes her cheeks felt like they were less on fire, which was always good.

The Hufflepuff stepped back from her desk!dummy thing and began to mime the wand movement just like Professor Dakest had, with all the twisties and the jab it was kind of cool. Like a sword! "Manis invisibilis. Manus invisibilis. Manus invisibilis," she repeated, then raised her wand. Alright, dummy arm. You're goin' DOWN. With a twist and a jab of her wand in the direction of the dummy's left arm, she cast, "Manus Invisibilis!" and watched carefully as absolutely zero things happened. Uh. Excuse you, dummy. She focused again on the invisible hand thing making the arm stop moving just like Dakest had described, and tried again. "Manus invisibilis!" TWISTANDJAB. She squinted at it. Was it just her, or was the arm moving slower than it had before? She squinted harder. Maybe? The mean old thing was still moving, though, which meant another try. Come ON just freeze up so it looked like she could actually do stuff, yeah? It was the least it could do for her. Well, maybe it wasn't but it WOULD be nice, okay? "Manus Invisibilis!" Once her twist and jab were finished, she let her arm hang to her side 'cause guess what! It wooooorked. The once-flailing arm was not paralyzed and boring, just like she'd told it to be. So there.
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Norah pushed a curl behind her ear and eyed the dummy with its one arm still and the other limbs all flaily. It was kind of funny looking, if you didn't think about it too much. She aimed her wand at both legs this time. Y'know, bind two legs with one spell? Heh. Heheheheh. She could so be one of those saying-maker-upper-people. Just wait, she was gonna be FAMOUS. "Manus Invisibilis!" she cast, twisting her wand and jabbing it in the direction of the dummy's moving legs. The leg on the left ceased its movement, but the other kept on flailing away just like before. Well. This was why she was going to be a saying-maker-upper instead of a dummy binder. Half the limbs wasn't that bad though, right?
He was just gonna...believe Kittredge. That was what he decided. Because he didn't know what else to believe. She was still...acting a little strange. "Uhm...good."

Yup. That was good that she was...okay. No more sick students then. Right? Right.

Still, he kept a wary eye on her, in case she had it in her head that she might lose points for being sick and was simply trying to save face. That didn't seem to be the case either, though, as she took to the mini activity with enthusiasm. So, that left him back at square one. Not questioning.

"Well done. Well done." A nod as he passed by her dummy-desk.

Ben should have expected it.

Should have known for anything defense related they needed to have more room to move around and partipate in than what they currently had. Didn't mean the sixth year wanted to move from his perch again. Or do any movement at all thank you. After finishing up his notes for the moment, he reluctantly obeyed the request to clean up their potions stuff. "Evanesco!" he cast, vanishing his potion since there was no use in keeping the ruined work when it wasn't going to be used to continue anyway.

The Gryffindor had just managed to grab his remaining supplies in one hand to put into his now empty cauldron and moved back from the desk when the furniture in front of him started to change. Benny jumped back in reaction nearly stumbling with the items in his grasp. Sighing, he gathered himself, and his belongings to set aside hopefully safe and sound so he didn't have more trauma in the class today.

And now he was trying to pay attention to what Professor Dakest was saying about the spell they needed to learn and practice using. Manus invisibilis. A binding spell other than petrificulus totalus. "Manus invisibilis...Manus invisibilis...Manus invisibilis" This spell he needed the practice on as his tongue went over the He did his best to focus on it and not the flailing dummy in front of him. And then the wand movement...a two-point step that didn't sound like something that was quick if one was in immediate danger.

Corkscrew...point. Corkscrew...point.

-----------------------

Okay so maybe he actually had to try the spell in its entirety now...on the dummy. The same one that was currently mocking him with its movements in front of him. Like he needed anything else on his mind to keep him focused on the task at hand. Ben swallowed as he tried to focus, not really good at the whole casting while being distracted. Perhaps that had been why he hadn't done that well in DADA and Charms, both requiring him to act suddenly and be able to cast on his feet. Yet he managed to handle himself alright in dueling Adi and Angel.

Nah....that wasn't it.

More movement and mocking came at him and the Gryffindor stealed himself. A glance at a certain Hufflepuff getting it, well BOTH of them getting it pressed him forward. Ben focused on the left leg since the bottom limbs didn't seem to be doing as much as the arms were. "Manus Invisibilis!" He said the incantation sounding right, and the wand movement in the correct direction, at least he thought. But nothing happened. Not even a slow down of the dummy and its leg.

Fail.

Cue sigh.
This was one of those silent ones he had to watch out for. All it looked like it would take was a nudge in the wrong direction, and Atreyu would be joining Brown and Fuller-Thompson in their state. Sabel let out a breath as he caught the young boy eyeing his classmates, and unsurprisingly, being disappointed with his own results.

Making his way over to the kid, Sabel clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder and leaned in to offer some confidential advice. "Don't worry about anyone else but yourself." Not normally the advice he would give, but, there it was.

Poor kid. Two professors giving confidential advice in the span of a few minutes.

Was Professor Dakest hinting that he should come to him for lessons in tracking? SIGN HIM UP LIKE, YESTERDAY. Nodding along, Benzi took in this information like a sponge and smiled a little at the sort of backhanded little compliment Dakest had give him. Or at least, he was going to take it as a compliment and there wasn't much anyone could do to stop him.

Carefully putting away his potion things - this was going to be their homework after all, he didn't want to start over from the beginning - Benzi grinned when his table was transformed into a dummy. Ah, finally. His comfort zone.

First he practiced the wand movement, liking it immediately. It felt natural and.. right, somehow. Like it fitted. Next came the incantation. "Manus Invisibils... manus invisibilis, manus invisibilis," he repeated a few times over, getting comfortable with it.

Okay. He was ready.

-----------------------
"Manus Invisibilis!" Benzi cast, twisting and jabbing at the target's spazzing left leg. Nothing.

Oh wait he needed to think for it to work. Right. Again. "Manus Invisibilis!" he did the wand motion, focusing intently on making that left leg stop flapping about uselessly like that. ... Well, it ALMOST stopped. "Manus Invisibilis!" he cast for the third time on the leg, drowning out the noises of the classroom and really focusing on his target. The twitching limb froze completely.

"Nice!" he grinned to himself, and tapped the immobile leg with his foot. Yup. Frozen solid. Very cool. Now for the other leg.
Sabel wasn't entirely sure what he had said that would make Rider grin like that, but he was just...not going to question that one easier. He'd take the grins over sulking or scowling.
And the nice thing about that grin? It came with progress. "Good work, Mr. Rider. Keep it up."
Practice made perfect after all.

Angel looked at the Professor as he spoke about what she had said and she felt like saying so, but decided against it. She was sure a nice zoo would work well for the werewolf.

"Manus invisibilis!" Angel did the wand movement a twist and a jab right. well that was good nothing was happening and she didn't like it. "Manus invisibilis!" Angel said the spell again. Once again nothing happened. "Manus invisibilis!! Manus invisibilio!" Angel sighed as she started to lose her composer as she fail with the spell, she really wanted to know what was going wrong.
Sometimes, disagreement was clear, as it was on Valentine's face. Sabel didn't press it though. If she wanted to talk about it, they could do so at a later date. For now, the important thing was the lesson, the information and well...the practice.

"You've got the movement and spell right." Sabel observed as he stopped nearby. "Try willing one of the arms or legs to stop. Focus hard on it, see it in your mind's eye. Or, all four limbs if you're feeling ambitious."

The grin he spared her was telling. This was one of those spells where frustration could be channeled to successful results.

HOLY FREAKING MERLIN WHAT THE ACTUAL--

Everything was all cool, fine and dandy or whatever and then, outta the blue, Dakest went ahead and TURNED HIS DESK INTO A FREAKING DUMMY THAT WAS WAVING ITS ARMS AROUND LIKE SOME SORT OF FREAKING WOODEN DEMENTOR.

Right. Fine. Breathe. Whatever. It was just SHOCK, mkay?

"Manus Invisibilis," he muttered under his breath, "Manus Invisibilis....... Manus Invisibilis......." Merlin, could the demented dummy stop freakishly waving its arms around for like two seconds? It was kinda distracting and all. Not to mention dead weird. "Manus Invisibilis..... Manus Invisibilis........ Manus Invisibilis....."

Manus Invisibilis!" That last cry was much louder and came with a twist to the right of his wand and then a thrust forward towards the dummy.

And the result? Lol, nothing.
It seemed, desks-turned-dummies were a rather unexpected turn of events. Just keeping everyone on their toes and awake. Couldn't have anyone dozing off into their potions, now could they? Hmmm.

And by Grayson's energetic shout, they were most definitely awake. "Good form Mr. Whitlock." He'd avoid saying anything about more conviction or umph, the kid had that in spades at the moment. "Have another try."

There was a looooot of information about werewolves being thrown about and Sophie was taking avid notes on the various ways to contain or subdue a werewolf. All the while, she was glancing at Tobes and Flamsteed every now and then, and she was disappointed that the Animalis Fidelis charm hadn't been mentioned, so she didn't know whether or not it could be useful.

Disappointing, really, but... maybe it was her own fault for not mentioning it.

Doing as she was told when Dakest requested that they clear their desks and stand behind it, then jumped slightly when he transfigured it into a DUMMY. Merlin, professor, NO WARNING?

Manus Invisibilis. a twist to the right, like unscrewing a cork, followed by a thrust forward towards the subject you intend to bind. Seemed simple enough, really - except that this was a highly mental spell, which did not work in her favor, considering her compromised mental state. So... she would just... take it easy for now.

"Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis... Manus Invisibilis..." she repeated aloud to herself over and over, getting the pronunciation and stress on syllables down before moving on to practice the wand movement. A twist to the right, then a forward thrust of the wand. She repeated this for awhile, letting her eyes wander - how was Tobes doing over there? Was he okay?

-----------

Well... no, by the looks of it, Tobes was not doing okay, based upon the fact that he wasn't looking at anyone and seemed to be secluding himself from the group as much as he could without actually moving. That was incredibly discouraging and a reminder of their forthcoming doom of point loss, detention, loss of favorite student status, and the breaking of a best friendship.

At this point, she just wanted to get it over with. Throw in the towel and be done with the class so they could just go forth and face the music.

"Manus Invisibilis," she murmured to herself once more, now adding the twist to the right and thrusting wand movement to go with it, but without intent. She was just getting a feel for the move - all the while with somewhat of a scowl on her face - and eventually, she summoned up great feeling - a sudden burst of anger, an outsider would think - and envisioned all of the flailing limbs of the dummy freezing as she cast, "Manus Invisibilis!"

The arms stopped on the spot, and both legs' movement slowed... but their movement did not cease.

Whatever, dummy. Whatever.
While Brown and Fuller-Thompson most definitely did not need further berating, Sabel was inclined to offer Miss Brown a few, selective words about focussing on her own situation rather than her friend's. Something about some conviction behind her intention.

And then, she all but yelled. Sabel paused, looking between her and the dummy. Almost a full paralysation and she looked like she had just got a finger to stop waving. Sabel's own frown took over. "Impressive work, Miss Brown." Now, if only she would have the gusto to try again....

Marigold was taken aback because DADA moved into the activity WAAAAAAY QUICKER than she was expecting. Wiggling dummies, okay. She could deal.

"Manoos Invisiblus? MANus InvISibilis." She chanted the incantation a couple times in her head as well, before moving to the wand movement.

Twist to the right resist the urge to sing the Time Warp and a jab forwards, right? Well, right as in correct, not right as in left... anyway. Kind of like she was turning a key into a lock, and then pushing a door forward. She repeated the movement a couple times as well.
---------------------
Okay. Now Marigold had to actually do it. She felt pretty good about this, since the wand movement was what she usually had trouble with, and she nailed this one.

"Manus Invisibilis," she said strongly, rotating her wand and thrusting it. Nope. Didn't work. She tried again. "Manus Invisibilis," she said again, and this time, an arm stopped moving. YAAAAY.
Moving on from Miss Brown, with high hopes that the young girl would try again, he was pleased to find enough determination for two students in the eyes of McAllistor. And it most certainly paid off.

Grinning, Sabel offered her a high-five. "Smooth!" Because 'stellar' was already taken.

The beauty of keeping his head down on the desk was that Toby could remain oblivious to any looks or frowns or whatever that was directed his way. He missed the frown that Dakest directed at him, perhaps for the better, judging by his reaction to the frown in the patronus lesson? Never could really be sure with this one.

He remained that way for as long as he could, doing his best to process the information that came their way, but ultimately failing. Mostly it made him feel sad (more sad), because werewolves were humans, but also creatures (they had dual status as Beast and Being, he knew), and he hated the way they were being spoken about in this lesson. Rationally, he might have understood that it was a necessary topic, but Tobias was not a rational person, a lot of the time. Some of this stuff just... just affected his delicate Hufflepuff tendencies.

And then the instruction came, the one to get up and stand behind the desks. Toby didn't really want to, but he wanted to disobey a professor (uhh... again) even less. After a looooooooong pause... Toby finally brought his head up, though he kept his eyes down. He knew they'd be a dead giveaway, all red and puffy. But because of hayfever, y'know? That... that mid-winter hayfever. Totally.

Toby cleared his potions stuff away, avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone, and stood back behind the desk. When it transformed into a flailing dummy, he only stared at it through tired eyes, and with an impassive expression. That was how he remained as Dakest walked them through the next step, back to idly but halfheartedly twirling his wand through his fingers. Oh, it was time to start? Well. Okay then.

Flipping his wand into spell-casting position in his hand, Toby eyed the dummy for a little longer, almost mesmerised by the flapping limbs. It felt soothing to watch something so random and mindless when his own thoughts were getting all tangled and messy in his head. After a good minute, Toby blinked, remembered where he was, and quickly rubbed at his face to wake himself up a bit.

Right. So. What had Dakest said? The wand movement was a twist... and then a thrust towards the target. Toby eyed those nearby him for a moment, to make sure he was remembering that right, then looked back at the dummy. Saying nothing, he held up his wand, gave it a twist to the right, and a half-hearted shove forwards to the dummy. Nothing happened, but he didn't expect it to. Just practicing the wand movement, y'know? Now he needed to remember the incantation, which had already totally slipped his mind.

Toby stood where he was and listened to his classmates. They would be using the incantation too, after all. Forgetting it was no major problem; happened to Toby all the time. He just had to keep his ears open until someone jogged his memory
------------------------------------
Manus Invisibilis.

That was what it sounded like to Toby, and he could hear a bunch of different people saying it if he listened closely enough, so he was inclined to believe that that was the incantation. It wasn't exactly ringing any bells, but then Toby's memory was sort of... like a sieve. A sieve that was riddled with holes, sometimes.

Point was, he knew the incantation now. That was all he needed.

"Manus... Invisibilis," the Hufflepuff mumbled to himself, not wanting to speak too loudly, worried that he might somehow end up disturbing someone else. "Manus Invisibilis." Sigh. "... Manus Invisibilis."

The last time, he'd added the wand movement, aiming it at the dummy. But, again, he didn't expect anything to really happen. Every time he learned a new spell, Toby had to really think about what he was trying to do, so that then he could visualise and understand it and everything, and only then would it work for him. But despite trying to listen earlier, he'd not really processed the instructions. A lot of the information had floated through one ear, wafted tantalisingly around his brain where he couldn't quite reach it to pin it down, then straight back out again. It was infuriating, but again, he felt like he deserved to be finding the lesson difficult.

It wasn't so easy to listen to people and just hope they repeated everything Dakest had said, verbatim, though, so in the end Toby just had to sort of... stand there, watching the person nearest to him practice the spell and see what happened. He wanted to sit back down and put his head on his desk again, but that was sort of impossible, as said desk was currently flailing around in front of him.

Maybe he'd try the spell again. Watching other kids succeed in the spell was giving him an idea of what he was supposed to do. So... maybe...?

... Or maybe not. Toby's heart wasn't really in it. Shocker.
He had taken his time in making his way to Fuller-Thompson, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt that he would pick the pace of his energy and enthusiasm up. So far, he hadn't elected to find a wall to slide down, but that didn't mean it wasn't working. By the time Sabel did stop behind Fuller-Thompson's right shoulder, the kid was doing little more than standing and watching. That was fine and all, save for the lack of conviction in his gaze. No determination, no nothing. The attempt he had seen had been half-hearted at best.

"You'd be a right tasty meal by now." The words were quiet enough, private enough. No sense in embarrassing him further. But a point still needed to be made. "And I daresay, a willing one at that."

The look he gave the kid was both challenging and imploring. "Remember, this is for your benefit." And the benefit of others. Not to mention, it was already a sore insult to Professor Culloden that the kid hadn't even tried the potion. But that, would be for the Professor himself to say.

Anyways, seeing as they were moving on to an activity portion of class, Zander quickly got up from his desk, moving to clear away his potions supplies when HOLY MOTHER OF MERLIN the desk transformed into a dummy??? Man. You'd think these things would come with a warning. Professors here really were all about that constant vigilance stuff.

Either way, he wasn't about to try it on the dummy right away 'cause these things took practice. So before he went ahead to do that... "Man-us in-vis-ibil-is," the manus part was easy, but the second part was a bit wonky. "Manus invisibilis... Manus invisibilis... Manus invisibilis..."
Moving on to leave Fuller-Thompson with his own thoughts, it was heartening to see that Adair had taken up some enthusiasm with the activity. Much different, and a much better improvement, from the patronus lesson.

The kid got a strong nod of encouragement. "Looking good Mr. Adair." Good enough to try it on the dummy.

Cinna still had the same grin on her face. It grew even bigger as she took notes on this spell or curse or whatever it was that they were going to be working on today. In all honestly she found this curse pretty interesting. Hehe. So she was pretty eager to learn it. She quickly cleared off here table and watched as it transformed into a mummy. Cool.

She took her wand and practiced the wand movement. It was fairly simple. Which was good, but every now and then a challenge was fun. Just a twist to the right and thrust toward the object. Lucky for her today was not a challenging day. She should also practice the incantation as well. "Manus Invisibilis.... Manus Invisibilis." So that wasn't incredibility terrible

Hmmm now what was she going to do first. How about a arm. The sixth year pointed her at the left arm, doing the wand movement "Manus Invisibilis!" She watched as the arm stopped wiggling. Woohooo She did it.
All in all, it was a very encouraging class. Seeing so many students succeeding with the spell. Even if it was just a limb or two.

He had to say, he was intrigued that no one had really tried to bind the dummy fully, taking to a single limb or two at a time. Small steps, he supposed. He wondered what method they would use next...

"Good work Miss Bayless."

So he wanted them to just clear their potions away? Just like that? Kate looked down at her work from earlier, thinking about how she had probably one minute tops to get it all packed up and put away. Kate got everything put away in its rightful place before turning her attention back to the lesson and moving to stand behind her desk.

It was a good thing she got up when she did, too, because the next thing she knew, her desk was a wooden dummy. She looked at it just bobbing there, like a limp baby doll or something. Now she had to cast on it, but first, she wanted to do a bit of practicing. "Manus Invisibilis," she said, saying the incantation. "Manus Invisibilis." The wand movement didn't seem so easy, though. Kate twisted to the right and thrusted forward. It turned out to be a lot easier than she thought, so with another look at the dummy, she decided to get started.
Sabel had a good feeling about this one. It was the look of determination, the concentration, the will. The lack of interest in what anyone else was doing or thought.

"Good form Miss Addison. Very good form."

Her answer was basically right, see? This spell worked just like a magical net, of sorts, and that was definitely one of the most humane answers given. Which meant that Dot was... a saint. An angel baby, probably, and her wings just hadn't come in yet.

The spell was interesting, though, and Dot was willing to focus on it. A charm, which Dot was particularly good at, although not one that she figured she'd use much outside of this class. The motion was easy enough, just that little twist and jab motion, so Dot moved on to practicing the incantation. "Manus invisibilis. Man-us in-vis-i-bilis."

Easy peasy. Should she try it?
--------------
Ahem. That was enough practicing, and Dot really needed to get around to the actual casting part. She twist-jabbed her wand a few more times to make sure that the feel of the gesture was familiar, and then focused on the dummy.

He was an ugly thing, wasn't he? And the flaily limbs... poor thing. She imagined that he was a werewolf, not in control of his impulses and trying to attack her. Bite her. Make her a fuzzy nightmare too. EEK. "Manus invisibilis."

The aim seemed right, but none of the limbs stopped moving. Sigh. Where had she just CAST and was it going to cause any unfortunate problems for someone else? "Manus invisibilis." Better aim this time, and the legs stilled in their flailing. More intention next time, perhaps?
The one thing that he didn't consider, which he probably should have considered, was the prospect of mis-fired spells. That, and misfired, non-light-bearing spells.

That reminder was given promptly and without warning as he made his way towards Wojack-Gusey. It came in the form of his right hand suddenly going completely numb, his wand falling from his grasp and skittering somewhere back towards his colleagues. He paused in midstep, looking down at the limp digits with mild amusement. Well then....

A poke and he watched each finger sway like a wet noodle. Well, clearly someone had gotten the incantation right.

"Well executed Miss Wojack-Gusey."

And with that, it was time to return to the front of the class. And find his wand...

Once back at the front of the room, Sabel spent a moment searching for the wand that had escaped his grasp. He found it resting against the table leg of the desk Culloden had reclaimed. Picking it up, he cast a finite on his hand, breathing out a sigh of relief as life returned to the digits. There was some tingling, but nothing unlike a limb that had fallen asleep.

"We'll practice for a few more minutes as we...make some space adjustments. Try focussing on binding the whole body, and not just one or two limbs. Or try several limbs together at once. Remember, if your target still has means of movement, especially if it's a werewolf, it will use them."

And who knew, perhaps some of the students would find the full body binding easier than focussing on each individual limb.

As for his colleagues, he turned to them with a smile, spinning his wand deftly between his fingers. "Gentlemen, could you give me a hand in a change of scenery?"

If the students thought the desk dummies were surprising, they were in for a treat. Or a mini-heart attack. Who really could tell until the moment had passed?

--------------------------------------------
OOC: Alrighty everyone! Bit of change in time-plan. Please feel free to continue practicing/interacting.
The lesson will resume/continue in approximately 18-20 hours, depending on RL and activity level. :)

[Felixir]

For some reason, Toby hadn't been expecting Professor Dakest to end up standing right behind him. Which was stupid, really, because Dakest was the kind of professor who always did rounds around the classroom to watch everyone. Perhaps Toby had just convinced himself he really was part of the background, now, and that nobody would notice him. That seemed likely, as Toby was a pro at convincing himself of things that blatantly weren't true. In any case, Dakest spoke, and Toby started in surprise. He'd been miles away.

... It took a lot of restraint to hold back the response that Tobias wanted to say, but he knew it would be unwise, and later he would thank himself for keeping quiet. Instead, the seventh year finally looked up at Dakest, his expression a mix of all the things he was feeling. Doubt, despair, defeat, guilt. And... something else. He looked suddenly away from Dakest again, and back at the dummy. The look on the man's face had confused him, as it always seemed to do, and his words had struck a chord, as usual.

Toby stared at his desk-turned-dummy, still flailing around in front of him. His mind was racing, thinking about this disaster of a lesson, how he'd messed around in Airey's part, and made the Astronomer actually really quite angry. About how he'd completely screwed up the potion in Culloden's segment of the class, and barely even tried. And now, with Professor Dakest teaching, he was messing it up all over again. And it was all his own fault, and he knew it. He was being ridiculous and selfish and unfair and childish and he knew it and yet couldn't seem to stop and his emotions were all out of control again and there was nothing he could do about it and the guilt was REAL, and suddenly Toby felt a surge of anger, white-hot and directed only at himself and his own idiocy, and he gripped his wand tight as tears sprang unbidden to his eyes and his brain felt like it was going to explode and he didn't know what to do and-...

And the flailing dummy in front of him BURST INTO FLAMES.

O______________________________O

Now it was flailing AND on fire and Toby wasn't sure what had happened. He'd been losing control of his emotions a lot more recently, sure, stressful time and everything, but it had been a LONG time since he'd accidentally set something on fire. And he'd not even cast a spell. Merlin. Merlin.

"A-aguamenti!" Toby cast, realising the dangers of the fire being close to so many other flailing wooden desk!dummies, and knowing it was a matter of urgency and safety to put it back out at once. A stream of water shot at the flames, but it was slow in extinguishing them, and Toby let out a noise of desperation.

"Immobulus!" Okay. At least it was still now. That was something. He could focus on putting the fire out. Though if that really hand been a werewolf, it didn't bear thinking about.

Accident. It had been an accident.

[Govoni]

.

.

.

What?

Gabe had barely had time to get his potion to safety...before his workstation disappeared, only to be replaced with a very alarming dummy. First things first...the Ravenclaw wasn't a brave person. He often had anxiety about the strangest, most obscure things...and while this wasn't among the more odd things to happen, it was still startling.

.

.

Right. Practice first.

Swallowing thickly, he removed his wand and held it out, not focusing on the incantation for now. The motion was always more difficult to perfect for him...with pronunciation being the easiest, which was odd. It wasn't that way for most, most likely. That was probably because his hands had this nasty habit of shaking and throwing him off. They always did that with spells like this. It made no sense.

Twisting his hand...in what he thought was the right way, Gabe then followed it quickly by a quick jab. Was a jab different than a thrust in practice? He didn't think so...but technically speaking...there might've been something he missed. Repeating the series of motions, he followed through with a more forceful jab...or...thrust? Thrusts were more forceful, right?

Odd right-twisting turn...and forceful jab...thrust.

...His hand was shaking a little...

WHY?...Gabe tried to relax with calming breaths.

[Felixir]

Toby couldn't get the water spell to work half as well as he needed it to. Which was frustrating because usually he had this spell on LOCKDOWN. No doubt it was his emotions going haywire on top of his jumbled up brain that was making him so liable to screw up today; if ever Toby needed a reason to make sure he took his potions every day, this was it. He'd probably managed to get on the bad side of all three professors in the space of... what? An hour? Less?

"Aguamenti," Toby cast again, shooting water at the fire, which was, at least, dying down, though still not out.

He supposed it could have been worse. The dummy could have been blasted into smithereens. Toby would be lying if he said he'd never accidentally made that happen before.

[Hera]

He'd been keeping to himself this lesson, and was perhaps more focused than he'd ever been - and with good reason - he had a standard to uphold, apparently. Astronomy and potions had passed with not so much as a hiccup from him, and to say he was delighted by the oreo delights was an understatement. A solid lesson, a solid lesson indeed. Three of his favourite subjects all pulled into one.

Thrilled with his desk being turned into a dummy, Zeke positioned himself in front of it, wand at the ready.

BUT.....

Ahem, practice before potentially breaking things, yeah?

"Manus invisibilis, manus invisibilis... manus invisibilis" he repeated, and then of course, the wand movement. Right twist and forward thrust, right twist and forward thrust.

It felt as though it was an easy enough spell to perform, and he was itching to demonstrate his abilities, and relish in his success... so, he'd best hop to it, right?

[MudInMyBlood]

Ah, Cosgrach nodded at her. "Both are in Canidae family in the scientific classification," wow Culloden big muggle words there, "but dogs are tame, like you guessed."

Pretty cool stuff, huh?

Ohhh... so she was right. Pretty wicked. Even cooler was that Cosgrach understood what she was trying to say even though it was pretty much a tongue twister.

AJ nodded her understanding and turned her attention to the DADA professor who looked like he was just about to start. Now came the fun stuff... she just knew it.

The wand got another spin, the class another once-over before he hopped off the edge of the desk. "So, what are some ways that the Ministry, or yourselves, could trap or retain a werewolf both safely and ensuring no harm to yourselves or the subject?"

Safely. That was the word that was throwing everything off for her. Her ears perked up and waited for the Ravenclaws. Those guys probably had a plan. A SAFE plan. Oh, AJ had a plan all right, but safety was exactly involved in that. Actually it wasn't involved in that at all.

Still sort of off because of the puke and point thing, the lion listened and made mental notes rather than trying to answer anything. Look at her. Maybe she could play things safely after all.

"We'll practice for a few more minutes as we...make some space adjustments. Try focussing on binding the whole body, and not just one or two limbs. Or try several limbs together at once. Remember, if your target still has means of movement, especially if it's a werewolf, it will use them."

Oh yeah. This was the part of the lesson she had been looking forward to the most. DADA always came through for her. Please say that once they got this practice thing down that they would be able to capture a real life werewolf? After all, what better way to practice than hands on? It made sense to her anyways.

First though, she needed to get this spell to work for her or how else could she convince the professor that she was ready for the real thing? Manus invisibilis. At first AJ thought that sounded like a pretty easy spell to say, but the more she thought about it, she figured it was more of a tongue twister.

"Manus invisibilis." Ummm, yeah. This wasn't just going to flow freely off of her tongue. "Manus invisibilis... INVISIBILIS." Was she pronouncing all of the freaking I's in there? She really hoped so. This lion was ready to practice on some dummies.

[Hera]

His thoughts wee locked on the dummy's legs. The legs because he wouldn't much mind watching someone stumble and fall. There was an element of comedic relief to it, not to mention it was dead useful when being chased.

Gripping his Larch wand lightly, and taking in a deep breath, Zeke pointed his wand in the direction of the dummy's legs. Then, he went to speak the incantation while right-twisting and trusting his wand at his target. His intentions LOCKED on binding the dummy's legs.

Only... the one thing he couldn't get right, was the incantation. Instead of saying Manus Invisibilis, as he had practised already... he had said, "Manus Invisisibilis." Which was perhaps a syllable or two longer than it ought to have been. The dummy jolted backward before toppling over.

...

Whoops?

Thankfully he hadn't hit anyone, so all was well, right?

Right?

Scratching his chin, Zeke considered the blunder before righting the dummy.

"Invisibilis," he said once more cautiously.

He could do this. And he WOULD do this, or else he name wasn't almost Ezekiel RogersBrowne.

"Manus Invisibilis," he stated the incantation as he repeated the wand movement at the dummy, intent focused solely on binding the dummy's legs. And this time, he was much more successful. The dummy's legs were forced together by an unseeable force, which left this third year grinning.

[ArianaBlack]

Alright. So he was pretty sure that there wasn't a need to keep practicing the incantation. How hard could it really be to say without screwing up? Manus invisibilis. It was easy. The wand movement was sort of complicated though. Well, complicated in comparison to the ones that just called for a simple point or a flick of the wand.

So Zander made sure to practice twisting his wand to the right and thrusting it forward towards the moving dummy. Not bad. But now it was time for real practice. Plus, the dummy was starting to get on his nerves with all the moving about. Kind of annoying when he was trying to focus on a spell. Hmph. Ruuude.

"Manus invisibilis," he tried turning his wand to the right and thrusting it towards the dummy's whole body. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zip. "Manus invisibilis!" he tried again, doing the same wand movement. Still, nothing. Merlin what the heck was going on here?!

Maybe trying to do all four limbs at once was biting off more than he could chew? Though why he'd try and chew a dummy was beyond him. So instead, he decided to focus on the dummy's left arm. "Manus invisibilis!!" concentrating hard and imagining what he wanted the spell to do and HEY IT WASN'T MOVING!! It worked! Well on the left arm. The rest of the dummy was still going. Anyways, he was meant to stop the whole dummy right? Maybe now that he had a feel for what the spell was supposed to do...

"Maus invisibilis!" Tada. Finally.

[FearlessLeader19]

Maybe it was because Adi was stubborn in thinking there was nothing wrong with getting into the heads of the bad persons to think like them to bring them down (who knows, it might actually work quickly if precautions are taken) or because he was just having a great day and night but he merely gave Dakest a cheery, ''Everyone should be open minded, Professor.'' Uh huh. New ideas were not always a bad thing. But about his spell work... "Thanks a ton! Sometimes some spells are easier than others and this one is one of those that's easier for me.'' He grinned.
...........................

The Hufflepuff got his dummy moving again, all set to go about continuing his practice on it but with more than one joints at once. ''Manus Invisibilis!" His focus was on the two flaily arms and wobbly legs. He was going to get these together! YEP! Determination. He had it.

Uh, he didn't have enough determination apparently. Just the right leg ceased it's movement. Heh. After making it move again, he refocused. ''Manus Invisibilis!'' Gosh. This time NO joint stopped moving. "You're for some reason mocking me,'' he said and playfully poking the dummy in the chest. "It's because I made you unable to move before, right? This is revenge for that?'' Haha. Of course Adi knew this was not true. It was all on him.

Right! Enough chit chat with the dummy. ''Manus Invisibilis!" He was saying a loud this time because non verbal use seemed to be more of a challenge now that he was aiming at all the joints. Anyway, with a twist of the wand to the right and a thrust forward and a WHOLE LOAD of concentration, Adi had the two arms stop moving.

Bummer.

[MudInMyBlood]

She was going to make a dummy stop dead in his tracks... you just watch. AJ was in the zone because she so wanted to be able to try this out on a real werewolf, and she was going to prove that she could handle it. The lion had even took the time to practice the spell. AJ didn't waste time practicing the wand movement because that was simple enough. If you needed to practice twisting a fake cork... well... you didn't need to be capturing werewolves.

Without further ado...

"Manus Invisibilis." The dummy was still moving. How could that be? Did it not here cast the spell? Could it not feel her intense concentration? Hmph.

"Manus Invisibilis." Extra emphasis on the wand movement. HA! A leg was completely still. She did it, and it didn't even take her one hundred tries. It was the intense concentration, she just knew it.

[RandomRaven]

The Korean guy smiled when Dakest said he did a good job. "Thank you, Professor." He said. Then back to the dummy. He had managed to bind one leg and now he had to aim the spell to the other leg. Pointing his wand to the dummy's left leg, he twisted his wand to the right and shouted the spell clearly and loudly.

"Manus invisibilis!" The left leg then suddenly stopped moving and paralyzed. Good job, Hwang! Two legs had been paralyzed but still, Jackson needed to try the spell since the dummy was a werewolf so two legs weren't enough. For now, he tried to cast the spell to both of the arms at once. It's quite hard but he was confident enough that he could do that. Focus... concentrate... and GO! "Manus invisibilis!" He shouted as he pointed his wand to the both arms and twisted it to the right. But it failed. Damn it, it's quite hard to paralyze two arms in one time.

Let's try again, Jackson!

Still pointing the wand to both of the arms, he made a twist movement to the right and shouted the spell clearly. "Manus invisibilis!" And... Now both of the arms had paralyzed. YEAH! He threw his fists to the air.

[Govoni]

.

.

No, no...Gabriel's wand hand was still shaking. Not as bad as it had been moments before...but enough to cause the motion attached to the spell to be wonky.

Quickly looking around the room, he glimpsed several others having success in their attempts.......Had Toby just set his dummy on fire?.......Gabe tried not to fret too much. It was just magic...and THREE professors were in the room. Male ones. No girls...save for his peers. It wasn't as threatening an environment as it could be, essentially. They...could've been outside...in the Forbidden Forest...and it could've been really bad.

Really...VERY bad...

His mental pep talk hadn't helped much, but Gabriel found himself pointing his wand up towards the flailing dummy, minimal determination in place on his face. He looked quite pale and nauseous, actually...but it could've been worse. That was true. So..there was really no reason for him to be freaking out. None at all.

"M-manus...Invisibilis...."...Was...he really back to stuttering?!...Frustrated and mildly appalled at himself, Gabe twisted his wand perhaps TOO forcibly, thrusting almost angrily at the dummy. "Manus Invisibilis...!"....and nothing. Nothing was happening. Hands still trembling somewhat, he tried to get whatever was wrong under control...Not that he understood what was wrong. He'd been doing so well in this lesson thus far. Flamsteed and Culloden were being amazing...and all the sense making. This wasn't Professor Dakest's fault, either...

Trying to shake it out, he took some breaths and STARED at the dummy again...He'd never been good with defensive magic. NEVER...and there was some intimidation because of it. "Manus Invisibilis..."...The wand movements were repeated with the shakiness still a factor. The target seized up, just for a moment...but then the spell broke. Feeling his frustration peaking once more, Gabe put addition force into the wand action, more than necessary, and all but shouted the incantation. While there was no light or physically evidence to show that the spell had work, something did hit his dummy with MOMENTUM, knocking it backward and several of the spazzing arms off into the floor.....

Er.

O.O

[Weasley174]

Angel smiled as the Professor spoke to her, she had started the year not wanting to like this professor but he was just so cool and nice and she was starting to think he might just be as good as Professor Romanos. Angel looked at the dumpy and smiled.

"Manus Invisibilis!" Angel did the wand movement and tried to get the dumpy limbs to stop but at the minute nothing seemed to be working and she totally didn't like it.

"Manus Invisibilis!" Angel did it again, but nothing happened.

Angel took a deep breath and decided to give it one last time before she would throw the dummy in the bin.

"Manus Invisibilis!" Angel concentrated an then did the wand movement and then she waited would anything happen?

Angel was happy when the spell worked and so she decided to do a little jig.

[MudInMyBlood]

Having just one leg stop moving wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. The entire dummy had to be completely still before she would consider this to be a total success. Clearing her mind once more she thought of nothing else but a dummy that couldn't move.

"Manus Invisibilis." Nothing. Not one thing stopped moving. Grrr.. AJ was going to turn into a rabid werewolf herself and then everybody could practice immobilizing her. Heh.

Taking in a deep breath, she shouted... "MANUS INVISIBILIS." Because she was super serious about this spell. RWAR! Cork twisting wand movements happened. Two legs weren't moving. Could this mean...

...No.

Of course not.

The arms were still moving. This was definitely better than her first attempt, but not where she wanted her skill level to be at. Meep.

[feeheeheeny]

While Brown and Fuller-Thompson most definitely did not need further berating, Sabel was inclined to offer Miss Brown a few, selective words about focussing on her own situation rather than her friend's. Something about some conviction behind her intention.

And then, she all but yelled. Sabel paused, looking between her and the dummy. Almost a full paralysation and she looked like she had just got a finger to stop waving. Sabel's own frown took over. "Impressive work, Miss Brown." Now, if only she would have the gusto to try again....

Once back at the front of the room, Sabel spent a moment searching for the wand that had escaped his grasp. He found it resting against the table leg of the desk Culloden had reclaimed. Picking it up, he cast a finite on his hand, breathing out a sigh of relief as life returned to the digits. There was some tingling, but nothing unlike a limb that had fallen asleep.

"We'll practice for a few more minutes as we...make some space adjustments. Try focussing on binding the whole body, and not just one or two limbs. Or try several limbs together at once. Remember, if your target still has means of movement, especially if it's a werewolf, it will use them."

And who knew, perhaps some of the students would find the full body binding easier than focussing on each individual limb.

As for his colleagues, he turned to them with a smile, spinning his wand deftly between his fingers. "Gentlemen, could you give me a hand in a change of scenery?"

If the students thought the desk dummies were surprising, they were in for a treat. Or a mini-heart attack. Who really could tell until the moment had passed?
...Impressive work? He'd thought SHE had done impressive work, even after she'd just only paralyzed the dummy's arms? Couldn't he TELL that she'd been trying to do the whole thing, and thus she'd FAILED?

Offering the man a disappointed look - in herself, not him - she shrugged. "I can be kind of awesome sometimes," she deadpanned, being entirely sarcastic - though she also knew that if a select few heard her, they'd agree wholeheartedly and think she was serious. But the fact of the matter was that she had not been awesome just now, nor for the entire class. She'd ruined everything and--

TOBES HAD SET HIS DUMMY ON FIRE. THAT WAS HER FAULT, TOO.

If she had just put an end to their antics at the beginning of class he would've NEVER done something like that, and she'd made him lose control of his emotions and thereby his magic. Her. Fault. And she was too scared to even go over and help him, out of fear that Flammy would scold her even more severely for interacting with Tobes again. So she just stood there and watched, her eyes wide as Tobes worked at putting out the flames.

...Wibble. The end of class was inevitably really drawing near now, and they were going to have to face the music. In another burst of emotion and frustration at everything, she gave her wand another twist to the right and a thrust at her dummy and cast, "Manus Invisibilis!" The remaining limbs on the dummy in front of her stopped flailing now, and she stepped back, ready to be done for the day. No. She didn't want to keep going.

Her eyes were drawn to the Astronomy professor, then, and lingered there sadly.

She was too cute and full of potential to have her life fall apart at seventeen.

[Daemon]

"Manus Invisibilis!" Benzi gritted his teeth and cast AGAIN, and that bloody leg FINALLY stopped wobbling.

Gah. Okay. No biggie. He was getting better. Yup. Just those flappy arms and he was done. Perhaps he'd group 'em together? The sixteen year old was pondering how exactly he'd go about getting both arms to stop moving at the same time when Dakest strolled by him and his back stiffened.

Okay, THAT he could DEFINITELY take as a compliment. "Thank you sir," Benzi nodded to the professor and immediately went back to his target. He had a mission you see.

... Whole body. OH. Okay first arms and then that second idea. Breathing in and out, he adjusted his grip on his wand. He was focused. Only him and that ridiculous looking dummy. If it had a face it would be really fu- No. No, Rider. Focus.

"Manus invisibilis!" he cast, and was satisfied to see that while the arms hadn't stopped moving completely they'd been reduced to only a slight twitch thing. HA. He was getting better.

And so to finish up the job, Benzi twisted his wand again and focused on those arms. "Manus Invisibilis!"

[hermionesclone]

It seemed, desks-turned-dummies were a rather unexpected turn of events. Just keeping everyone on their toes and awake. Couldn't have anyone dozing off into their potions, now could they? Hmmm.

And by Grayson's energetic shout, they were most definitely awake. "Good form Mr. Whitlock." He'd avoid saying anything about more conviction or umph, the kid had that in spades at the moment. "Have another try."

'Good form Mr. Whitlock'

And........... there was that smug little smirk on his face. Sure, the spell hadn't worked and the dummy was still being a freaking nutcase but heh! Good form. Good form indeed. He was doing something right, it was just the dummy being freaking difficult. "Thank you, Professor," he said in his most politest -- and still quite smug -- voice ever.

Have another try? Psh, like he was gonna give up so easily. Ha! "Manus Invisi--"

Wait, hold the freaking phone. Gabe had failed a spell? Gabriel Banner?! Has the world gone CRAZY?! And Toby had set his dummy on fire?! What in the freaking name of Merlin?! Tobias Fuller-Thompson, you're hot enough already, do not get yourself set on fire, mkay? Grayson DID keep his eyes on Toby, though, mainly to see if the guy was in any real danger or not. Kinda didn't want him getting hurt and all, even if that was something Grayson wouldn't admit out loud.

He cast a wary eye over towards the Professors before turning back to his own dummy. Alright. "Manus Invisibilis!" he cried again, with a bit more intent behind both his words and his wand movement.

YOOOOOOO! Look at the dummy with its arms that were no longer moving around. THAT was more like it.

[WhittyBitty]

...Was that a thumbs up from Professor Dakest?!

Wow. Just wow.

A former AUROR was giving her a thumbs up. A guy who faced Dark Wizards approved of her spell casting abilities. Lux felt proud just like she did whenever Professor Culloden praised her potions abilities. Professor Dakest was a genius when it came to Dark Creatures/Wizards and he thought she was doing a good job!! This whole practicing thing was really paying off for her. She'd so be telling Bay that she learned how to restrain a werewolf.

Happy, she ended the spell so that she could attempt to paralyze ALL the dummy's limbs at once. Pointing her wand at the target, she was about to cast when --

...

O_____________O

HOLY HIPPOGRIFFS HAD TOBY JUST SET HIS DUMMY ON FIRE?!?!

Transfixed, she watched as he somewhat managed to extinguish the flames, hoping that he wouldn't get hurt in the process. Thank Merlin there were three Professors around to help out if it was needed. Poor boy wasn't having a good day. Maybe she could give him a hug and a Chocolate Frog later.

For the moment she was going to turn her attention back to the task at hand. Maybe it was best to try to freeze two limbs simultaneously before building up to four. Yep. That sounded like a plan!! Lux focused REALLY hard on what she wanted the spell to do, picturing two arms standing perfectly still. That image in her head, she used her wand to twist to the right before making a forward thrust. "Manus invisibilis!" While the arms didn't stop moving COMPLETELY, they were only twitching slightly.

Not bad at all.

[DuckyLinJi]

Yoongi had seen the Defence Professor walking around and eventually walk his way as he was having trouble. One thing he did not like was getting help when he KNEW he could do it. It made him feel like a baby. And he was fifteen! Luckily, the man just complimented him and he grinned. Compliments he could have.

Also, remember when he thought that he wondered WHEN something would happen? Not IF? …Well, that thing happened . In the form of Toby setting his desk dummy on fire.

Yoongi watched the scene as he was already done with his dummy. The hufflepuff seemed to be controlling the fire with the water spell so he didn’t help. One thing a teenager did not like , was their pride being squashed by someone helping them when they try to get things under control themselves. At least that was how he felt about situations like that so he assumed that Toby thought the same. So he did nothing but kept an eye on him just in case. Although, now he thought about it, there were three Professors teaching this class today so he decided to watch the others practising the incantation on their dummies.

Which was kind of amusing.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Promising himself that he would seek out Mr. Atreyu in the common room later - he would have said after class, but that time was now dedicated to speaking with Mr. Toby and Miss Brown - Airey had opted for hanging towards the back of the classroom rather than sitting at the professor's desk. Pacing back and forth while he helped his colleagues transfigure and enchant the classroom to look like a misty forest, he watched students practice the spell that would become vital in just few minutes, the Astronomy professor squinted at a few nearby students and couldn't help but smirk.

Judging from the hair that the majority of students were now growing all over, that time was sooner than later.

Clearing his throat as the finishing touches were made, the astronomer mad his way back to the front of the classroom and clapped his hands together loudly. "ALRIGHT! Time to put your practice to use!" he announced, barely able to contain his laughter as he levitated some more sweets from the box and handed them out to every student. The candies, a faint blue in color to mimic the color of smoke for the Wolfsbane potion, may have looked familiar to those in the muggle know and were a personal favorite of both Professor Dakest and Professor Flamsteed: Pop Rocks.

Once all the candies had been distributed in their clear drawstring bags, including some for the professors, the astronomer moved to stand by his colleagues. "Each of you will be given the chance to practice safely restraining someone who has transformed into a werewolf. Sort of." He threw an especially amused glance towards Cosgrash for assisting him with this complicated preparation. "There will be two teams, werewolves and trappers. Just who will be on what team to start? Well...that has already been decided. The Oreo cookies most of you ingested have been modified with a potion to change the drinker into a werewolf-LIKE state. Meaning that," he paused to point at most of the students. "...you will grow fur and sport a charming pair of canine teeth while showing MILD aggression and a MILD increase in agility and speed to your movements but also remain fully aware that you are yourself. Know that this potion is very weak and completely harmless."

Sweet solstice they were not trying to poison anyone. Just giving them a real inside look into what it was like to actually BE a werewolf and lose control over ones actions, therefore giving this activity a double purpose.

"Those of you who did not eat the cream inside the cookies, you will not notice these changes on your person and will start out the activity as trappers. Trappers are to use the methods and techniques Professor Dakest described to try and detain your werewolf classmates and administer this cure," he continued, waving the little bag of blueish Pop Rocks in his hand. "As was explained Manus invisiibilis allows for mouth and jaw mobility, so one you have your classmate trapped, you can give them a couple of these fizzing muggle candies to change them back to their human form and join Team Trapper. A reminder that Wolfsbane potion will not do this in real life, giving it to a werewolf after the fact. This is purely for illustrative purposes."

Symbolism and metaphors and all that fancy talk.

"Werewolves, you CAN turn trappers into werewolves by two handed touch," he nodded towards all the fury students. Little perk of that whole ordeal that had happened with Old Man River a few terms back. "I reiterate, the ingested potion and you all switching back and forth between these two 'forms' is HARMLESS and COMPLETELY safe."

Mist seemingly growing in the classroom, shrouding all three professors in a grey haze and making it a little more difficult for students to see each other, the transformation of the classroom was now complete and could have easily been mistaken for some of the deeper quarters of the Forbidden Forest with the light from the full moon still flooding through the classroom windows to help create an extra eerie atmosphere.

"ENGAGE!" the astronomer announced, his voice coming from some unknown direction. Which, as students who participated in his lessons knew, meant that the game had begun!

Now...which student should he target first...hmmmmmm...

OOC:
▸ All students start as “werewolves” and professors plus those listed below will be “trappers”

According to our stalking, Felixir, feeheeheeny, Holmesian Feline, Harry174, and VRSCIKA are the only ones who did not eat the cream, meaning that EVERYONE else are now werewolves. If we have missed you or listed you here by mistake, our apologies as it was not intentional.

▸ the potion that has “transformed” you into a werewolf is VERY weak and will only cause MILD aggression and a MILD increase in agility and speed to your movements. You will, however, become hairy all over and have a charming set of canine teeth.
▸ werewolves CAN transform trappers into werewolves by physical touching a trapper. NOT BY BITING.
▸ “trappers” can cure a “werewolf” by successfully binding and restraining a “werewolf”, and administering the candy (Pop Rocks), which will dissolve instantly within the “werewolf’s” mouth.
Note: the most effective way is through use of the newly learned spell, manus invisibilis, however please do feel free to be creative. Other methods of restraint as discussed may be utilized. “Werewolves”, please accept the candy once restraint/capture has been successful. Please be realistic.
▸ No, you cannot cure yourself by eating the candy your character is carrying. Don't be a party pooper!
▸ it takes two posts to cure a “werewolf” : 1 capturing it and 1 administering the cure candy
▸ “trappers” can only RP ONE action per post - casting the spell to capture a werewolf, dodging a werewolf’s attack, and administering the cure to a werewolf.
▸ “werewolves” can only RP ONE action per post - dodging a capture attempt or attacking a “trapper”
▸ overlap WILL happen (IE being attacked while dealing with a restrained werewolf), it would be best if you picked one action to be "successful" - either administering the candy to your classmate or the werewolf's attack). Just use your best judgement and RP realistically <3
▸ If you cast a spell towards someone (trapper) or attempt to touch someone (werewolf), you MAY NOT RP the outcome. That is for the other RPer to decide.
▸ Please be realistic. No superhuman OMG I CANZ DODGE ALL THE SPELLS AND CURE ALL THE WEREWOLVES EVER! sort of RPing please. No one likes a Mary Sue.
▸ you may switch between “trapper” and “werewolf” several times during the activity. There is no limit to how many times, so have fun with this!
▸ if you choose to participate in this activity, please wear the appropriate avatar ::
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/werewolf.jpg http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/cosmicgryffindor/SS_SchoolRPG/Astronomy/Lessons/trapper.jpg
▸ you do NOT have to have been in the previous parts of this lesson to participate. If you are late joining us, please assume the role of a “werewolf”
▸ you need at least 4 posts to receive full participation credit for this activity
▸ you will have at LEAST 60 hours (2.5 days) to complete this activity
▸ if you have any questions please do not hesitate to send a VM or a PM to one of your professors and we will try to respond as soon as we can
▸ most importantly....HAVE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

[Jessiqua]

Once Zhenya had completed binding all of the limbs onto the dummy, she stepped back to observe others, when Professor Dakest brought their awareness to him for a moment. She listened to what he was saying, and was sure she should have tried to challenge herself more than she had. So, she decided to give it another go.

"Finite," she said, twirling her wand in the familiar shape. Once again, the limbs of the dummy were all moving around. Okay, Burton, concentrate on binding ALL of the limbs to the dummy at once. Zhenya concentrated as hard as she could on it; she saw the limbs moving, and pictured them suddenly binding to the trunk of the dummy, becoming immovable.

"Manus invisibilis!" She said with great force, twisting it to the right and thrusting it forward with as much energy as she could muster. She was sure her face looked comical with concentration, but it worked. three of the four limbs were suddenly mound to the trunk of the dummy. They had stopped moving. Even though there was still one of the legs to go, she had still succeeded in binding three in one go. That was an accomplishment.

"Finite," she said again, reversing the effect of the spell on the dummy so that she could try again.

[Holmesian Feline]

"Manus Invisibilis...Manus Invisibilis...Manus Invisibilis"

Ben was practicing the incantation again in hopes to approve hus chances in a second try on the dummy. he had just made the decision to switch to a practical attempt when he felt a clap on his shoulder. It was only his subdued nature at the moment that kept him from jumping in surprise to the action, his gaze moving as his head turned to take in the defense professor who had apparently noticed what had happened.

"I'll try..." was all he could think of replying. And all he could really do in the long run.

Taking a deep breath and trying to push everything else aside, the Gryffindor cast again. "Manus Invisibilis!" he said firmly, aiming the corkscrew and point at the arm this time. There was some change so he repeated it all over again. "Manus Invisibilis!" A bit more force was behind it and the arm finally was bound by the invisible entity that was called upon by the spell working. A sigh of relief escaped but it was short lived.

------

They were moving on and Ben didn't like the sound of what Dakest was implying that he and the other professors were up to. Too distracted by his practicing and following the defense professor's instructions to tune everyone else, he hadn't noticed any of the changes taking place to most everyone around him.

That was until Professor Flamsteed explained it all as well as distributing some kind of candy to them all. His eyes widdening in reaction and his hand unconsciously gripping tighter around the hilt of his wand.

WERWOLVES...the whole bunch of them!

For once his mood had saved him from all that trouble for he hadn't eaten any of the creme. And from his recollection...Angel hadn't either. So that was what...TWO or maybe a few more out of the whole class that were trappers. Following the professor's point, he couldn't help but take in the likes of Adi and AJ...Henric and Lux...Zander and Zeke...all sporting fur and sharp teeth if their mouths happened to be open enough to see. And he was frozen in place right now as he swallowed trying to make sense of it all.

[DuckyLinJi]

He couldn't remember if he had eaten the cookies or not until he began to change. A part of him thought it was cool because he was a werewolf with a human concious. Though, after seeing the fur on his hands, Yoongi made a noise of disgust as he looked at them.

As he looked around at the students changing, he noticed a few who didn't. The trappers and that Toby guy was one of them ...yeeaah he was gonna stay clear of him...didn't want to get set on fire... then the scene changed and he realised that the classroom had transformed in to a dark forrest with eerie mist. Hearing the Professor 's voice saying engage, Yoongi grinned and stepped back in the mist, planning to sneak behind one of the trappers.

He just hoped his plan worked....

[Sararara]

Norah raised her eyebrows at Professor Flamsteed as he spoke again, tearing her eyes away from her dummy which still had one arm waving around. It was only when she reached out to take the bag of muggle candy when she noticed the coarse hairs that had sprouted from her pale arms. What. WHAT. It took five hundred million percent of her effort to look up from the hair and focus on Professor Flamsteed, but she couldn't just miss out on the rules of the GAME. That'd be a disaster. COULD SHE GROW A BEARD WITH THIS NEW HAIRY-NESS? 'CAUSE THAT'D BE A DREAM COME TRUE. Ahem. Rules. Riiiiight.

Part werewolf, eh? Did the professors know that this was the COOLEST thing that had ever happened to her? Because it was. She'd even forgotten to be all shy around Professor Dakest as she BEAMED at all three of them. Man. These dudes were so creative they could win a prize. At the sound of his signal, Norah began waving her arms and weaving through student!werewolf!things. RAAAAAWR. Could she growl? Would that be okay? Maybe? "Grrr" That was GOOD ENOUGH. She didn't even pause to check who looked werewolf-ish to try and target them, oh no. She just ran, which was extra fun because apparently she wasn't just hairy, she was FASTer. And apparently arm waving wasn't exactly the best way to keep a hold of things, because only a few seconds of sprinting resulted in both her bag of blue candy AND her wand to end up on the floor. Uh. Oops? The fourth year crouched down to pick them up, catching sight of her hairy arms again and staring at them before remembering she had a MISSION. Well, she had a half-mission. She was RUNNING. RIGHT. She straightened up again and returned to her sprinting and weaving through the other students. RAAAAHHH

[Anna Banana]

Kate never had time to actually practice Manus Invisibilis. She hoped that really matter and that she'd succeed when the right time came. The professors were quickly moving on to something new, and the room was also being transferred into a misty forest. Kate couldn't decide whether she wanted to feel scared or excited, but she guessed it was a mix of the two.

Wait...

WAS THIS FUR ON HER BODY?!

Kate wanted to shriek in horror, but she refrained. Nobody else was shrieking, so she'd feel a little strange being the only one. Instead, she breathed in deeply to try and calm that nervous feeling creeping up on her. Then Professor Flamsteed explained the whole deal about the Oreos, and Kate understood this was planned ahead of time.

SNEAKY!

As that realization settled in, Kate began to think this was a little on the awesome side. When else would she get to be an actual werewolf? Granted, this was a completely harmless transformation. Those thoughts quickly left her mind, though, as she suddenly got very angry at a few of her classmates. She couldn't explain why, but she just felt this sudden, built up anger boil inside of her. She dashed to the other side of the classroom, where a few of those said students were.

She may have even growled a little under her breath.

[Cassirin]

It was VERY upsetting that they'd all been poisoned. Very. Upsetting. You give someone a cookie, and she eats it because she trusts that man, and it turns out there is a potion in there. You know what this made the now-ginger-colored-wolfgirl feel like doing?

EATING AN ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR.

In fact, wereDot might have been growling a little under her breath as she stalked the professor. She might even bite him. He'd deserve it, and it wasn't like they could argue that it was her fault. It was his OWN fault, on account of him POISONING her.

[Symphora]

Henric happily returned the high five back to professor Dakest, he never thought he would earn his DADA professor's approval for his first successful attempt.Cool! He moved on to concentrate fully on binding only both his target's legs next. He was about to do just that when suddenly his housemate Toby accidentally set his dummy on fire! Henric eyes widened at the scene, how in the world did he manage to set it ablaze?! Seriously though, would you look at that raging inferno! It looked wickedly amazing if you asked him. Too bad the show only lasted a few seconds before the professors came just in time to extinguish it. Aww...

After the fire was dealt with, Henric continued practicing with his own dummy."Manus Invisibilis!"he shouted with determination as he repeated the exact wand movement and aimed it on the dummy's legs. He did it! He managed to stop them from moving! Great, he would practice this over and over again until he was confident he could do it in his sleep.

----------------------------------------------------

WHAT!? They spiked their OREO cookies?! Oh no, Professor Flamsteed did not just say that. He glanced down onto his arms while touching the sides of his face. Thick brown coloured fur started forming up rapidly all over his body as they speak.No..no..no...he ate practically almost half of his OREO packet including llia’s! Did it mean he would get EXTRA fur on his body! Nooooo~~”W-What is happening to me...”he stuttered. It was getting mightily itchy with all this fur inside his uniform. Henric couldn’t help himself, he was already scratching everywhere. The feeling of agitation began rushing into him, he was not pleased with this. Not pleased at all. And Oww! He bit himself! Oh merlin, his perfect-lined teeth has got fangs now too?! Holycrickets! He was really turning into a werewolf!

Everything happened in such a blur. Their classroom scenery had changed into a mystical dark forest, his classmates turning into werewolves as well and they were supposed to run away from the trappers?! Wait a minute, llia was a trapper! He turned to her and stared at her for a second.“Grrrrrrrr…..”he growled at her which really he didn’t mean to. His transformed body simply reacted defensively against her, that was all. Henric quickly back away with his newly agile speed. His anger rising every second….which was again...not his fault. Hopefully, she would recognise this as the potion side-effect when all of this was over.

[WhittyBitty]

Before Lux had the chance to try the spell out again, Professor Flammy called for their attention. She had no idea what the man was talking about, but CANDY!!! Eagerly she reached out to grab a bag when --

-- OMG WHY WAS THERE HAIR ALL OVER HER ARMS!!

She was gross now. Hideous. Lux wanted to cry, and it was hard not to. The Professors had transformed her into a horrible monster. HOW COULD THEY DO THAT?? How could CULLODEN do that? He was her favourite Professor.

It wasn't until things were fully explained that she began to calm down. The activity sounded like a lot of fun actually...but why was she not happy anymore? Instead she was feeling anger towards her classmates and she couldn't understand why.

She let out a growl.

[VRSCIKA]

Ilia had been practicing the motion for the potion spell , when they were asked to stand away from their desks. When said desks became moving dummies however, she was rather surprised. They had some interesting classes and she knew to expect the unexpected but......this was certainly different. She eyed the dummy for a moment, before even considering practicing the spell on it.

She practiced the motions, then the words separately. Mentally prepared, she was now ready to give it a shot.............until she saw someone's dummy ignite. Flaming dummies were not exactly what the girl was expecting. It didn't seem like part of the lesson.......it just looked like the boy had lit his own dummy on fire for some reason. At least he was extinguishing it.........Did that other boy lop his dummies limbs off? Her classmates were dangerous.......

Ilia was glad she was closer to the back of the class and away from the dying dummies. Time to try her own hand at it. She concentrated her intent, not to be harmful but to have complete control. "Manus Invisibilis" She seized control of her dummy, all but its head was rendered immobilized. She was serious, this would come very much in handy for her intended profession.

Her concentration was afforded only to her practice..........until she heard the astronomy professor began to speak. He.............spiked their cookies!? At least she didn't eat any..............Holy Hippogriffs! Henric had, he certainly had eaten the cream. He had his cookies and some of hers. She was suddenly wishing that she didn't give him extra....He began to stutter and grew fangs as the hair erupted over his body. Her best friend had just become a pseudo werewolf and growled at her. When he backed away she felt pain. It wasn't real, but it hurt. This must be but a fraction of what one would feel if a loved one truly became a werewolf. He didn't have control over it, or at least she told herself this. She wasn't the only trapper thankfully and maybe she could increase their numbers if she helped her best friend. She determined that he would be the first she tried to change. "Manus Invisibilus" She spoke with conviction as she aimed for her best friend , now wolf. Would she able to do it to him?

[Holmesian Feline]

Norah raised her eyebrows at Professor Flamsteed as he spoke again, tearing her eyes away from her dummy which still had one arm waving around. It was only when she reached out to take the bag of muggle candy when she noticed the coarse hairs that had sprouted from her pale arms. What. WHAT. It took five hundred million percent of her effort to look up from the hair and focus on Professor Flamsteed, but she couldn't just miss out on the rules of the GAME. That'd be a disaster. COULD SHE GROW A BEARD WITH THIS NEW HAIRY-NESS? 'CAUSE THAT'D BE A DREAM COME TRUE. Ahem. Rules. Riiiiight.

Part werewolf, eh? Did the professors know that this was the COOLEST thing that had ever happened to her? Because it was. She'd even forgotten to be all shy around Professor Dakest as she BEAMED at all three of them. Man. These dudes were so creative they could win a prize. At the sound of his signal, Norah began waving her arms and weaving through student!werewolf!things. RAAAAAWR. Could she growl? Would that be okay? Maybe? "Grrr" That was GOOD ENOUGH. She didn't even pause to check who looked werewolf-ish to try and target them, oh no. She just ran, which was extra fun because apparently she wasn't just hairy, she was FASTer. And apparently arm waving wasn't exactly the best way to keep a hold of things, because only a few seconds of sprinting resulted in both her bag of blue candy AND her wand to end up on the floor. Uh. Oops? The fourth year crouched down to pick them up, catching sight of her hairy arms again and staring at them before remembering she had a MISSION. Well, she had a half-mission. She was RUNNING. RIGHT. She straightened up again and returned to her sprinting and weaving through the other students. RAAAAHHH

Alright so the changed to the room seemed to have finished taking place and Ben was adjusting to the misty forest that had developed around him. And his fellow classmates. It was an eerie envireonment only made worse by the occasional growl or sound that didn't quite sound human entirely. Was that the effect of the potion or was some of the 'werewolves' really getting into their new roles? The Gryffindor sixth year didn;t really care all that much at the moment as he had registered he should probably be paying more attention to their location to avoid being 'bitten'.

All of a sudden a vaguely familiar younger Hufflepuff was running his way. Not directly, just in his general direction and Benny finally got moving. However he knew that wasn't what he was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be using the new spell to trap. Swallowing, the sixth year tried to gather his focus and intent, willing himself to cast on the student nearby him now.

""Manus Invisibilis!" he cast at the girl.

Please work...but be kind.

[Felixir]

Why. Wasn't. This. Fire. Going. Out.

Toby had taken to batting the last of the flames out, in the end, incessant as they were. He couldn't really tell if he had them all, though, because soon Airey was talking, and Toby had to turn his attention to him. Reluctantly, though, because obviously he had not forgotten what had happened earlier in the class, and he'd been avoiding looking at the man since then. Also... what the heck had happened to the classroom?

Wait... why was everyone all... hairy. Toby blinked around at his classmates, supremely confused, before checking his hands and feeling at his own face. No hair there. Uhh...

But soon it all became clear, and as Airey made his explanation, Toby's eyes got wider. He staaaaaaaared at the astronomer in disbelief as the details of the task before them became clear.

Oh no. Ohhhhh nooooooo. Toby was worried. Had he not just accidentally set FIRE to something? He didn't want to risk doing that to another STUDENT. Didn't want to cast at another student at all, really. And as for the werewolf part... he wasn't sure he liked the sound of adding extra aggression to the cacophony of emotions he was already feeling, but it looked like he didn't really have a say in the matter.

"I don't want to play this game," he whispered, mostly to himself.

Or maybe Toby did have a say. He'd not eaten the cookies. He was fine. A thought occurred to him that if he could just... leave, just get out of here... he'd not have to cast at anyone OR be an aggressive werewolf. THEN he wouldn't risk hurting anyone. It was sort of worth Airey being more angry with him for stepping outside the door to wait out the activity if it meant Toby didn't have to worry about accidentally hurting someone.

It was harder to see in the room now, but he remembered roughly where the door was. Toby threw his wand down with the rest of his things but clutched tight onto the drawstring bag in case he might be able to turn kids back by simply throwing candy at them and it went in their mouths. He didn't currently trust himself with magic. Turning on his heel, he ran straight towards where he thought the door was, leaving his smoldering dummy behind.

[sweetpinkpixie]

It was VERY upsetting that they'd all been poisoned. Very. Upsetting. You give someone a cookie, and she eats it because she trusts that man, and it turns out there is a potion in there. You know what this made the now-ginger-colored-wolfgirl feel like doing?

EATING AN ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR.

In fact, wereDot might have been growling a little under her breath as she stalked the professor. She might even bite him. He'd deserve it, and it wasn't like they could argue that it was her fault. It was his OWN fault, on account of him POISONING her.
The Astronomy professor was seriously contemplating climbing up a tree and hanging out up there while letting the others run around wildly. He had to keep a look out for certain things to ensure that he won the little standing bet he had going on between himself and the other professors. He even had one hand on a tree and a foot against the trunk when he heard a low, but arguably adorable sounding, growl coming somewhere from his left.

Peering through the mist, he was just barely able to make out the fiery shape of someone approaching. That was ONE advantage he had right now, the vibrant red hair against the cool backdrop of the forest did make it easy to spot.

If only he hadn't been distracted by trying to climb a tree.

Turning to make a run for it, the professor fumbled around with his enchanted breast pocket for his wand, all while making a nose that resembled yodeling as he ran - his attention only half paying attention to what was in front of him - through the forest and leaving swirls of mist in his wake.

"MR. TOBY! SAVE MEEEEEEEEEE!"

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNING.

[WhittyBitty]

Why. Wasn't. This. Fire. Going. Out.

Toby had taken to batting the last of the flames out, in the end, incessant as they were. He couldn't really tell if he had them all, though, because soon Airey was talking, and Toby had to turn his attention to him. Reluctantly, though, because obviously he had not forgotten what had happened earlier in the class, and he'd been avoiding looking at the man since then. Also... what the heck had happened to the classroom?

Wait... why was everyone all... hairy. Toby blinked around at his classmates, supremely confused, before checking his hands and feeling at his own face. No hair there. Uhh...

But soon it all became clear, and as Airey made his explanation, Toby's eyes got wider. He staaaaaaaared at the astronomer in disbelief as the details of the task before them became clear.

Oh no. Ohhhhh nooooooo. Toby was worried. Had he not just accidentally set FIRE to something? He didn't want to risk doing that to another STUDENT. Didn't want to cast at another student at all, really. And as for the werewolf part... he wasn't sure he liked the sound of adding extra aggression to the cacophony of emotions he was already feeling, but it looked like he didn't really have a say in the matter.

"I don't want to play this game," he whispered, mostly to himself.

Or maybe Toby did have a say. He'd not eaten the cookies. He was fine. A thought occurred to him that if he could just... leave, just get out of here... he'd not have to cast at anyone OR be an aggressive werewolf. THEN he wouldn't risk hurting anyone. It was sort of worth Airey being more angry with him for stepping outside the door to wait out the activity if it meant Toby didn't have to worry about accidentally hurting someone.

It was harder to see in the room now, but he remembered roughly where the door was. Toby threw his wand down with the rest of his things but clutched tight onto the drawstring bag in case he might be able to turn kids back by simply throwing candy at them and it went in their mouths. He didn't currently trust himself with magic. Turning on his heel, he ran straight towards where he thought the door was, leaving his smoldering dummy behind.

GRRRRRRR.

Stalking the classroom, Lux's eyes landed on Toby as he tossed his wand. Well, that was silly: now he couldn't cast the spell on her. What was he going to do? Jam pop rocks down her mouth?

Smiling, she moved closer. Maybe he would like being a werewolf. It wasn't so bad once you got used to the excessive hair and growling.

As he ran, Lux chased after him, swiping away and hoping that she would make a direct hit.

[FearlessLeader19]

Ehhhh... what was The Suit on about? O__O

Adi had been distracted by the awesome setting of the classroom so he had no really been paying attention to any of his Professors until Flamsteed mentioned something about their oreos being spiked. He hurriedly looked down at his hands immediately seeing the hair sprouting on them. A quick slap to his face told him that his face was also being taken over by the thing. And his teeth! HOLYHIPPOGRIFFS! He felt like that kid who transformed into a werewolf from one of his favorite rock songs 'Waking the Demon'. :x3:

THIS WAS COOL!

A growl escaped from him as he heard that familiar voice who had hurt him. WerewolfAdi growled again and bared his fangs, scrambling in the direction of Benny's voice. Revenge on you, ex bestie! For hurting him like that. Gonna make you a werewolf too! :evil: Adi got close enough to Benny, the mistiness less thick as he drew nearer.

Hi, Benny.

SWIPE, SWIPE, SWIPE.

Would his hands touch the other guy?

[Symphora]

Hen-werewolf-ric just kept growling at llia, baring his teeth to show he wasn't afraid to face her head on. His protective instinct had probably tripled the amount now, thanks to the effects of the potion in his system. He knew the trappers were outnumbered in size and if he didn't change llia into a werewolf this very instant, she might get injured by other student werewolves too. He didn't want that, after all they had blindingly sharp razor set of teeth and speed that he could only imagine. He would just need to make her one of them. He howled and began running straight towards her. He would only touch and she would be one with the pack, right?

But llia was quick to cast the binding charm at him and he fell forward,crashing onto the ground right in front of her. He glanced down and growled menacingly, frustrated that his pair of legs were useless to him now. His blood boiling in anger at llia for trapping him. No matter! He turned his body around and crawled using his still movable arms.
"Unbinndd me nowww!!Grrrrrr!"he growled at her, his voice unnaturally hoarse and deeper than normal.

[StarShine]

Cosgrach didn't even know what was wrong with Toby.

Yes, Airey DID criticise him, but rightly so. The man bet it taught Toby a lesson, so why was the boy not himself? Why did he set the dummy on fire without even uttering a spell? He didn't know, but it was... not good to see Toby like this, the ever-happy and kind boy. Depending on how Airey's talk went, Cosgrach may speak to him too,and he'd be speaking to Sophie for sure.

But now, it was time for the main activity, so he got up to help his colleagues with the decoration of the room. And once Airey was done with talking, he lifted his wand to cast the spell and save a soul from the fur.

"Manus invisibilis!" A little twist to the right, and thrust forward.

Who was the lucky guy?

[Daemon]

Benzi was two seconds from succeeding to pin his dummy to the wall - that's his story and he's sticking to it - when he smelled fire. Fire?! Confused, the sixth year did a sweep of the ever transforming room before his eyes landed on Toby and his smoking dummy. ... He looked like he was handling it, no help needed there.

Then Flamsteed told them to stop but his dummy was NOT YET attached to the wall so he paid the professor little attention, twisted and jabbing his wand outward as he began to cast the recently learned spell for what felt like the fiftieth time when the sight of his hand stopped him cold.

o_O There was way too much hair there. And... why was he feeling tingly? Everything was strangely warmer now. But there was mist? Why did his clothes feel weird? Perplexed, Benzi tuned in to Flamsteed just as he was explaining about the cookies. The professors had SLIPPED THEM SOMETHING. Note to self: never eat anything innocently offered by Professors. Especially cookies. Especially from Flamsteed, Culloden or Dakest. Specifically Dakest. And of course Culloden, he was the Potions professor. C'mon Benzi. Should have seen this coming.

Okay so according to Flamsteed he'd be getting mildly more aggressive and mildly more agile which essentially meant that he'd just be himself, but mildly pumped up. Cool. Testing out these new powers abilities, Benzi put his wand back in his new wrist holster and bounced around for a bit, getting the feel of the fur - surprisingly, he found he rather liked said fur - and the new found springiness. Not too bad. He could get used to this.

Now for a target. His sharper eyes did a sweep of the room and found four students who were still bald and human-like. And the three professors. One of whom was running and screaming... to Toby. Both of which had wolves hot on their heels. Looked like a party to him!

Using the mist to his advantage, Benzi ran through the shadowy bits towards the Astronomy professor, intending to JUMP!ATTACK him on his way to Toby. In his excitement, Benzi MIGHT have almost collided into a tree on his way. Good thing he had heightened reflexes.

When he was close, Benzi smirked and almost surprised himself when his throat emitted a low growl. Ooookay, werewolf Benzi. Raising both his hands, Benzi stayed low and SPRINTED FORWARD, heading towards a FULL ON collision course with Flamsteed.

[Jessiqua]

Zhenya had just managed to bind three of four limbs together on the dummy, when Professor Flamsteed brought the class to his attention. But first, the Great Hall started to change; it was a misty forest. And then he pulled out some... small rock things. They were playing a game of werewolves and trappers? That was awesome. Fun!

Hang on...

He said that the oreo cream had been tampered with? When he paused and pointed at them, Zhenya looked down. She let out a delightful laugh as she looked up and saw other students around her; they were HAIRY! And Zhenya started to feel... different somehow. There were only a small amount of people in this room who weren't hairy... and Zhenya felt a desire to go over to them and... touch them. Ahh so those small rocks were actually candy? If she had known it was candy a few seconds ago, she would have thought Flamsteed was spoiling the class for being so good, but now she knew different. The realisation still got a giggle from the newly hairy girl. So the aim was for the trappers to cast the binding spell on the werewolves and give them the 'wolfsbane' candy, and the aim for the werewolves was to try and put both hands on a trapper to move them over to the hairy side? Okay, Zhenya could do that. Hopefully she'd be able to try the binding spell on someone else, too.

RIGHT; ENGAGE!

Zhenya was just about to turn around and try and find some delightful mundane human to bring over, when there stood Professor Culloden. Zhenya's limbs snapped to her body and she lost balance, toppling over somewhat gracefully, considering she couldn't use her limbs.

She felt SO WEIRD. She was laughing, delighted, but also felt quite mad that this mundane had caught her. She started rolling herself like a log to get closer to him. Even though she couldn't actually put her hands on him to change him to werewolf, her mind was telling her to do it... do it...

[Felixir]

Oh no. Oh no. Ohnooooooooo. WHERE WAS THE DOOR? HE'D LOST THE DOOR.

HOW DID ANYONE MANAGE LOSE A DOOR?????

The trees in the room were enough to mess with Toby's perception of the layout, and the mist made it even harder to remember where things were. It was easy to forget they weren't actually out in a forest somewhere, surrounded by werewolves (especially when you had a suggestible brain like a CERTIAN HUFFLEPUFF) and Toby had very quickly become disoriented.

The sound of his name being squealed hollered made Toby automatically look back, because that was AIREY and he needed HELP. Even though Toby was full to the brim with PANIC and DREAD (not that he would admit that), he could never turn down a plea for help.

Of course, when he looked, Toby saw not one... not two... but THREE student!werewolves. He couldn't be TOTALLY sure who they were, given 1. the mist, 2. the werewolf hair, and 3. the fact that he was running for his life everyone's safety. The POINT WAS that the student closest to him was taking a swipe.

Toby gave a HIGH-PITCHED YELP and darted out of the way. He had nothing he could really do, being sans wand AND exit route. But he DID have the candy. And Airey DID need help. So Toby, in a moment of pure panic, did the only thing he could think of doing and grabbed a handful (aka, most of the contents of the bag) before chucking it right at the attacking werestudents. #SUPERTOBES TO THE RESCUE.

Only... he realised how that may have been a stupid and potentially useless (not to mention sticky) move about a second after it had happened. But it was just... the candy was the cure, and so therefore it was a defense, and SO THEREFORE he'd just... thrown it at them.

It had made sense at the time.

Um. OKAY. SO. HE WAS JUST GOING TO. ATTEMPT TO CLIMB THIS TREE AND WAIT THERE AND NOT CRY OR PANIC. YES. Where was Airey. Toby looked around for him. THEY COULD SCALE THE TREE TOGETHER. STAY UP THERE. LIVE AS NON-WEREWOLF TREE FOLK. IT WOULD BE OKAY. *PANICKED BREATHING*

.......... Still he braced himself as he scrambled at the trunk of a nearby tree, trying to climb it, certain of his imminent demise. Any moment now, a werestudent would surely slam into him and change him into a werewolf, and then it would all be over.

[RandomRaven]

He was about to try again but then suddenly he felt sick. Wait... Did Flamsteed just said that those oreos had been poisoned with some potions? What a........ Then his arms were full of hair, his jaw too. He didn't mind if he start growing face hair but this was TOO MUCH! Lessons learned: never accept ANY kind of treats from anybody.

Jackson also had desire to attack the Professors and the other students too. Well, this was fun. He started howling and growling like a real werewolf. Once the Professor said engage, the Korean boy started chasing the other students who didn't turn into werewolf.

[Hera]

When Professor Airey started addressing them once more, Zeke gave the man his FULL attention. This was a fascinating lesson. Truly. His mind was working over time with EVERYTHING that was going on, not to mention he felt, energised.

As it so happened, he was a werewolf?

Neat.

A hand swiftly met his face in search for hair... and sure enough, there was some there. COULD HE FINALLY SHAVE?!

Ahem.

AND... he had teeth, not boring human teeth, but ripping out jugulars teeth. Awesome.

Grinning to himself, Zeke was ready to play the game. Running and lunging forward to test his speed, he reached out with both hands on the off chance he'd manage to clasped his hands on a trapper. Nasty trapper out to ruin his fun. He was POWERFUL, and FAST. They wouldn't dare take this feeling from him.

[ArianaBlack]

Whut.

Zander hardly had anytime to process whatever Professor Flamsteed was saying past the fact that he just ate POISONED COOKIES. WHO DOES THAT!? Zander trusted his Head of House. Who the heck poisons cookies??? Cookies should be OFF LIMITS. If anything, they should've offered poisoned broccoli because that stuff was evil to begin with.

But Zander could never eat another cookie again. IT WAS RUINED. All it takes is one bad cookie to ruin all cookies forever and always.

Why must bad things happen to good cookies? They never wanted this. They were so innocent.

Man. No wait, not man. Werewolf. 'Cause he was becoming a WEREWOLF????

Oh uh yes, that's what Flamsteed said would happen. But Merlin, all this fur was kind of itchy. How did his crup deal with this kind of thing?? Also. This hardly seemed fair. The class was split like five million to five. No way the trappers even had a chance. Also, the Professors were going down for this.

Just uh, were was he supposed to start?

... Maybe by sitting here on all fours and watching that whole Flamsteed, Toby, werewolf situation. Did werewolves eat popcorn?

[DuckyLinJi]

It was kind of sad how much of a disadvantage the trapper team has since there were more werewolves. But this also meant that he had to search for them instead of seeing them everywhere. One thing other than his faster speed was that he also heard better. He heard the twigs under him break as if they were snapped right beside his ear , the rustle of the leaves , the ………..very loud voice of professor Flamsteed apparently running around screaming like a mad man for one of his trappers to rescue him.

A part of him wanted to join the fun and he growled. This shocked him because he did not think his voice would have changed as well. But he had to hide behind a tree because nearby he heard a few voice shouting incantations. The trappers were close but in which direction? He was not used to his super hearing and he did not dare get up and out of the mist which provided enough cover for him to hide in. He looked around a tree , thought he saw no one of the opposite team and ran to another tree and another…

He just wanted to turn at least one trapper! His wolf-like instincts were screaming for it.

[MudInMyBlood]

Fist bumping the air happened because this was even better than she could have ever imagined. THEY were going to be the ones to turn into a werewolf. Well, those of them who had sense enough to eat the blasted cream filling in the oreos. Let that be a lesson to everyone. If you didn't all of your sweets, you were going to have a bad time. Being a werewolf was loads better than being a trapper. AJ hoped she could keep the trappers off of her long enough to enjoy her furry body and long teeth.

There were way more werewolves than there were trappers. They should devise a wolfy plan. Better yet, she would probably work better by herself. Every wolf for themselves kind of thing. Nothing personal, but AJ did NOT want to get trapped.

"AAOOOOOOO!"

You know, just getting herself pumped a bit. Engage was the magic word. AJ got down on all fours for good measure and took off behind a tree to gather her surroundings and wait to attack an unsuspecting trapper. Perhaps professor crabby patty aka Airey would like a nice bite hand touching.

[Holmesian Feline]

Ehhhh... what was The Suit on about? O__O

Adi had been distracted by the awesome setting of the classroom so he had no really been paying attention to any of his Professors until Flamsteed mentioned something about their oreos being spiked. He hurriedly looked down at his hands immediately seeing the hair sprouting on them. A quick slap to his face told him that his face was also being taken over by the thing. And his teeth! HOLYHIPPOGRIFFS! He felt like that kid who transformed into a werewolf from one of his favorite rock songs 'Waking the Demon'. :x3:

THIS WAS COOL!

A growl escaped from him as he heard that familiar voice who had hurt him. WerewolfAdi growled again and bared his fangs, scrambling in the direction of Benny's voice. Revenge on you, ex bestie! For hurting him like that. Gonna make you a werewolf too! :evil: Adi got close enough to Benny, the mistiness less thick as he drew nearer.

Hi, Benny.

SWIPE, SWIPE, SWIPE.

Would his hands touch the other guy?

It appeared Ben didin't seem to have time to wait around to see if the spell took hold in one form or another. For no sooner had he cast that he heard more growls through the mist. The Gryffindor quickly looked in the direction he was hearing it from but the mist and forest were obsuring things at the moment. Wand raised he backed up, eyes widdening as Werewolf-ADI made an appearance so close to him as things cleared a little . The ex-best friend clearly hunting for him.

"No Adi...please," he remarked....still slowly backing up as he appeared to be debating something. The other boy in question, swiping at him as if to attack. Benny didn't care if the poisoned cookies didn't totally change him, or that he supposedly still had his senses. He still looked angry and out to get him. Maybe moreso than just simply 'changing' him like was the task of the 'werewolves' of the class. Adi had already elbowed and yelled at him without being made 'mildly more aggressive.'

And the younger sixth year just couldn't gather the focus to try and cast something....anything.

[Tazenhani]

There were some 'mild' concerns bouncing about in his head at the wisety of all this. Of course, plans had been set in motion, students were becoming hairy and nothing could really be reversed, but he still found himself worrying. Over a few particulars. The one that had decided to turn his dummy into an inferno, for instance. Something which, he only caught the tail end of given he had his back turned, addressing the other Professors and well, working on putting the room in order.

That concern, changed to mild amusement as pure chaos started reigning order. In particular, Flamsteed's shrill scream echoing through the fog. The man certainly knew how to have fun, didn't he? Or had he suddenly remembered a deathly fear of all things fury and canine?

Or maybe all things student-turned canine? That could be a cause for concern.

Cosgrach, on the other hand, seemed to be handling things like a boss. One weredent down. A whole class to go.

Speaking of, it was only a turn and a few steps before Sabel found himself in the midst of an pack of three. Judging by the strangely turned features in the mix, it looked like it might have been a Miss Valentine and Mr. Hyland peeking out from behind....trees? And was that a Mr. Adair just standing about? Then again, there was always the chance he was wrong. Hairy-child features and all that.

And who were the two darting about through the mist?

For a brief moment, Sabel was sorely tempted to take up Flamsteed's tactic. Maybe he could...just shrink back into the mist? Find a lone wolf....?

[Sararara]

Alright so the changed to the room seemed to have finished taking place and Ben was adjusting to the misty forest that had developed around him. And his fellow classmates. It was an eerie envireonment only made worse by the occasional growl or sound that didn't quite sound human entirely. Was that the effect of the potion or was some of the 'werewolves' really getting into their new roles? The Gryffindor sixth year didn;t really care all that much at the moment as he had registered he should probably be paying more attention to their location to avoid being 'bitten'.

All of a sudden a vaguely familiar younger Hufflepuff was running his way. Not directly, just in his general direction and Benny finally got moving. However he knew that wasn't what he was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be using the new spell to trap. Swallowing, the sixth year tried to gather his focus and intent, willing himself to cast on the student nearby him now.

""Manus Invisibilis!" he cast at the girl.

Please work...but be kind.
There she was, WEREWOLFIN' AWAY and MINDING HER OWN BUSINESS which was running, because that was werewolf business for sure, when all of a sudden....no more running? Norah wrinkled her nose and balled her hairy hands into fists as she tried to wriggle around and continue her running. As if she was trapped by a big hand, she was stuck in place, unable to move her legs to go any further. DUDE. MANNERS. THAT WAS SO UNCOOL. Only one of her arms remained un-restrained, so she carried on waving that one, resisting the sudden urge to make a rude hand gesture because werewolf or not, that'd just be MEAN.

"HEY! WHO DID THAT?" She tried to squirm again, narrowing her eyes at all the students around her. Grr. GRRRRRR.

[FearlessLeader19]

It appeared Ben didin't seem to have time to wait around to see if the spell took hold in one form or another. For no sooner had he cast that he heard more growls through the mist. The Gryffindor quickly looked in the direction he was hearing it from but the mist and forest were obsuring things at the moment. Wand raised he backed up, eyes widdening as Werewolf-ADI made an appearance so close to him as things cleared a little . The ex-best friend clearly hunting for him.

"No Adi...please," he remarked....still slowly backing up as he appeared to be debating something. The other boy in question, swiping at him as if to attack. Benny didn't care if the poisoned cookies didn't totally change him, or that he supposedly still had his senses. He still looked angry and out to get him. Maybe moreso than just simply 'changing' him like was the task of the 'werewolves' of the class. Adi had already elbowed and yelled at him without being made 'mildly more aggressive.'

And the younger sixth year just couldn't gather the focus to try and cast something....anything.


Why was he even bothering to waste his time on Benny?

REVENGE, duh.

Sure, his anger had vanished a while ago but the hurt was still there, man. He had worked so hard to keep his own insecurities in check even though he still dreaded that Angel would one day make Benny forget about him but here he was apparently stealing Adi's insecurity. Yeah, well he didn't care about that right now because the once bestie had chosen to ignore his explanation that he wasn't trying to replace him.

Werewolf Adi bared his fangs again, growling louder than before. SWIPE, SWIPE! Come on, Benny! Let's make you one of us! Mwahahaha! There was no way he was going to give up at this. The Gryffindor would have to cure his current form if he wanted to stop it all.

As his once bestie backed up, Adi moved forward, still swiping both of his hairy arms.

[RandomRaven]

Growling and howling, the Korean boy looked around and then realized that almost students in this class turned into werewolves. Almost. There were a few who still stayed as human, Wow, could they capture all the pseudo-werewolves here? Let's see.

Maybe he should chase one of the trappers and his chocolate brown eyes spotted the DADA Professor who wasn't that far from him. Hohohohoho... He was the one who teach them the spell, so let's see if he could manage to paralyze him just at once. Walking towards Professor Dakest, Jackson was about to say Watch out, Professor... But things that came from his mouth was just the growling. Oops!

[MudInMyBlood]

You know what this werewolf wasn't going to do? Hide. That was lame werewolf business and she wasn't about that life. There were like what? Five whole trappers? Probably more, but you know... werewolves had this in the bag. She wasn't going to get to convert any of them to the dark side sitting behind a tree, now was she?

AJ lunged out from behind the tree and growled deep. Yeah, the potion was mild, but AJ was in complete character. They could thank Glendower for all of her lessons.

"GRRRRR..." Airey caught her eye. Somebody had him running and ---

Yodeling? It definitely wasn't the normal girly man screeches. Whatever noise was coming out of his mouth she cared nothing about. Wanna take 15 points from her and her house? Well, then you were going to get werewolfed! Her super canine-y teeth were bared and she was still running on all fours because that was expected of a werewolf. AJ used to play crab soccer in primary school so she was actually quite speedy.

She was gaining on him. Erm.. umm.. she needed her hands since biting was most likely frowned upon. Right? Right. Definitely should keep her canine teeth to herself.

Standing up again like a sane person (as sane as you could be with fur and dog teeth) she started to swat in his direction. Slow down. It was hard work trying to turn a moving target into a werewolf, okay?

[ArianaBlack]

So you know, maybe just sitting around wasn't such a good idea if he was gonna WIN. And y'know this whole poison cookie thing really brought out his competitive side. THEY RUINED COOKIES. So naturally, the Professors were going down. Speaking of going down... It looked like those guys already had a handle on Professor Flamsteed.

And Culloden was busy taking down a member of his pack. Oof. That's some rotten luck.

Which meant there was just one Professor left. Man, what a shame. Professor Dakest was actually pretty cool. Too bad Zander was gonna have to turn him into a werewolf. Zander did see that one guy (whoever he or she or uh.... y'know werewolf was) and decided to join him on the whole 'taking Dakest down train'. 'Cause that's what that guy (Jackson) was gonna do right?

And oh, Zander was nearing the Professor now. And growling. Waiting to make his move and POUNCE. Watch out, Professor. Heh.