Oh! Looks like he was really getting the hang of this class, when the Professor said he nailed the idea of what the spell was for. Also when he confirmed that the spell can be used at a distance, the Curly Top made a low-key fistpump. He was liking this spell more and more yup.

It wasnt long after the Professor demonstrated how to do the spell that he suddenly gave the signal to start a snowball fight. But but but Ace had more questionssssss--

-- Oi was that a snowball flying through the air? Wow kiddos arent wasting time are they? His Gryffindorian instincts was making him scoop up some snow, ball it up right quick and send it flyiiiiiiiing across the way. Buuuuuut what a time for his Ravenclaw side to be all incessant on questions ALL the QUESTIONS!

In a strange dance-dodge-chase after the Defense Instructor, Tenacius did the wandstroke while casting Protego Munio, and with each attempt the snow-shield grew from a flimsy, plate-sized thing in the air to something with a bit more density that grew wider with each attempt. "Professor Hirsch! I still have questions..." he huffed and puffed and was partly covered with snowballs that have gotten through "Professor how sm--" snow!shield block "-- how small should things be for the spell to work? Like you said it will work for snow and sand but what about things like pebbles or marbles or-- " whoah there was a snowball that went right through his shield! Casting another stronger oneee-- "-- or or detritus like leaves or twigs? What about nuts and bolts? Seeds? Grapes?"

Snowball fights were fun. She honestly didn't know why people would want to sit down. Snow didn't always happen in the UK, especially when she was at home. So she was going to take all the snowball fight she could get. It was also pretty good for practising. it was a safe environment where she wasn't really going to get hurt. Or not that badly. So she knew it was good. She just hoped she wouldn't get hit with ice. That would be bad. But she was having fun and that was all that mattered really. Having fun, and learning. That was what school was all about right?

She hummed, bending down and making some more snowballs, throwing them at various class mates. She noted though, that it began to make holes in her shield. That wasn't too good, and it kind of made her dislike the shield a little. What was the point of having a shield that had holes in it. It wouldn't be any good if it had holes in it.

Shaking her head, she threw a few more snowballs, before saying Protego Munio again and redoing her shield. Great. No more holes.

WHACK

Kye had been hit in the shoulder with a snowball from ??? someone??

"Protego Munio!"

YES! FINALLY! Three tries in and the snow was building itself in front of her, thank Merlin. This would be one she needed to get a little more of a hang on. Kye kept practicing the spell, letting one more snowball swing by her face before a much stronger shield formed.

Yes. This was much better. She finally starting feeling like she understood what the professor had been explaining to them earlier. Kye was definitely a learn-by-doing kind of person. While her shield was sturdy, Kye practiced her non verbal by creating snowballs at her feet. She was getting tired of bending so much to be honest... What, was she supposed to start stretching before class?! Nah, non verbal was the way to go.

Kye managed to make a little pile of snowballs, almost mini snowballs, aiming them in all different directions. They probably weren't very dense, but she was still on offense!

"Protego Munio," she demanded. Ah. Yes. By George, she'd gotten it.

She was protected from all sides, and as she made another pile of snowballs in her little personal fort, she realized that she was about 8 years old today.

Uhhhhh........... Really Professor Hirsch?! You were encouraging a snowball fight? The last time there was a 'fight' in a lesson, was muggle studies and it was one-sided, which she got annoyed at Stewart for and lost points along with Ronan. But at least this time, it was two-sided and they could defend themselves. And there was no Peeves.

And yet, still, Skylar was feeling very uncomfortable about this whole lesson which was why instead of focusing on the camouflage bit of the exercise and putting up her spell, the sixth year instead was struck. Not once, but twice. Thanks Hattie and Kye. Shaking her head to try and clear her thoughts and focus on the task at hand, she bent down to make a snowball but didn't throw it. Instead, she moved swiftly toward a different spot in the room. The corner. Maybe she could make a snow fort of sorts with this spell?

"Protego Munio" she cast once. And again, the particles moving up to safeguard her in the corner. No throwing that snowball because that would reveal where she was concealed.

SPLAT!

A snowball right to the back of the head. One to her back and just all over. This was the issue having ones back turned to a snowball fight had. Surely she was covered in snow which was making her cold and shiver ever so slightly. This might be enough to deter others into giving up but in truth this was what was partly fueling the small fire burning inside her.

She was cold, damp and shivering. The only way to make the onslaught of snowballs stop was to get this spell to work. And to get it right meant she HAD to keep trying. There was another sweeping vertical line upwards followed by a flick at the end with her wand, "Protego Munio." Once again not the result she had needed. So she tried again and again and AGAIN. Over and over.

Heart and Soul. Focus. Intent. Picture the shield in her mind. Want the shield to form. Need it to happen. Heart AND Soul.

"Protego Munio!" Rylee cast again putting everything she had into it. Her eyes going wide in amazement as snow particles began to mold themselves together into a shield around her. "I did it!" she exclaimed giggling excitedly jumping up and down. Yeah, she really didn't care who might have been looking her way because this was a very exciting moment for her. "Finite," she cast a few moments later dropping the shield to see if she could do it again.

Turning around so she was actually able to see the chaos that was flying snowballs around her she was ready. "Protego Munio!" Once again the particles of snow formed a shield around her. Clearly it wasn't anywhere near as strong as the older kids but the fact that it was there was enough for her. With a wide grin she knelt down behind her shield and began making several snowballs which she kept lined up at her feet.

One snowball was tossed at random. Now it was time to join the fun!

Wow, she didn't really expect that the Professor agreed on her answer so when Professor Hirsch said that it was a good thinking, the badger couldn't help but smiled. She also wrote some of her classmates' response and the professor's explanation on her journal before they're going to do the main activity. Hold on, there's no practicing the spell first? How could she manage to cast this charm if she didn't practice? But well... maybe it could be done while in the middle of... snowball fight. Yeah, that sounded fun.

But before Diandra had an opportunity to practice protego munio, someone (Rylee) had thrown a snowball and hit her shoulder. Okay, maybe she needed to just... do it and no need to practice at all because apparently there's no time for that! Grabbing some snow, Di formed a ball and tossed it randomly. Hehe... This was more fun! She made some more and throw all of them.... Wait, she needed to build the defense shield first! "Protego munio!" She vertically swept her wand in upward direction and flicked it in the end. Okay, first time was not the charm apparently since there was no snow wall happened. Right, let's just try it again. "Protego Munio!"

And still..... Nothing happened.

It took her several more tries until Diandra succeeded the snow shield charm (or particle, but since now it's made from snow so let's just call it that.) And once the shield was formed, she threw a couple of more snowball in random direction.

Patrick was scurrying around chucking the last of his eight snowballs that he had already made up. He was relatively sure that Hanna could use a friend, he had met her in Hogsmade and figured a friend would be great. “Hey Hanna, want to team up to beat these guys?” He wasn’t sure if she would want to but he decided he needed to protect himself again. “Protego Munio” he said as he felt the wall build up and stashing his wand back again.

Working quickly he began to form snowballs and placed them at his feet. If Hanna didn’t want to team up he had to get a few good snowballs in on some of his fellow classmates.

A snowball fight???

H YEAH!!!!!

Zoryn was ready since before the lesson even started, as seen by the impromptu everyone vs Théo that had happened earlier. Hehehe. Though to be fair, Derf was the instigator. Zoryn was just trying to protect her dignity, y'know?

ANYWAYS. Snowballs and shields. Zoryn knew this activity was meant to teach them how to do the shield, but throwing snowballs sounded like much more fun!! So with all of that in mind, the Gryffindor began building up her ammunition. Hopefully she could stay ~lowkey~ enough to dodge any incoming snow.

Once she had a couple of snowballs prepared, the fourth year sprung up into action!!!!! And her first target would obviously be Théo!!! Jk. He had enough earlier. Zor was all about ~sharing~ the love. READY, AIM......... GOING FOR PATRICK!!!!

HUZZAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

Whatta arm. Whatta dude.

Emmalyn was quickly regretting her location in the room. She found herself in a spot where she was being pelted with snowballs from all sides. She was returning attacks as quickly as she could pack the snow, but it was time to either move or figure out Protego Munio.

Holding up her wand with a determined look on her face, she commanded “Protego Munio” while performing what she thought was the proper hand motion. Nothing. She had to be doing something wrong. If only the snowballs would stop long enough for her to practice a few more times. It was quite distracting being slammed with snowballs, especially those coming from the bigger boys. They could throw hard.

Eyeing a spot along the wall, Emmalyn hunkered down and dashed across the open space, getting hit several times along the way. Once at her new location, and only being attacked from one side, she held up her wand again to try the spell. “Protego Munio” she commanded. This time she could see the faintest of movement before her. A whisper of a shield was starting to form. Before it could grow to any size, it simply faded away.

He wasn't surprised that there were some students who didn't want to participate. It was completely normal and something he was expecting, if he was completely honest with himself. So, he didn't say anything on the matter but he did cast a shield charm - a normal shield charm, at that - around those that wanted to sit the activity out. They might not appreciate getting pummelled by snow-

Oh?

Hirsch turned around and blinked at the snow-covered Head Boy who was approaching him, trying to make out what he was saying around all that pausing and shield-casting. He had to hand it to him: the boy was very vigilant. Sure, there were still some snowballs that were getting through the shield but he seemed to be aware that he was a target which was impressive on its own.

Anyways. He had a question.

"They need to be tiny," he started, "Very small. Anything larger than a grain of salt would be almost impossible to do because of the size of the particles themselves, which would require a lot of strength behind them. So that's why we work with tiny particles that are easier to manipulate."

Pause. "Creating a wall of nuts and bolts would be interesting, I have to say."


OOC: EEEEEEEE LOOK AT YOU GUYS GO

This is just a note to tell you that you've got a little under 48 hours left! ^^ Keep it up! *thumbs up*

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

From the sounds of it, Jessa was less and less sold on using this spell over another version of protego. Your spells would make holes in the shield and it would water down anything you cast? She'd take her chances without a shield, her spells working at full force. Would they have the opportunity to test them side by side before the lesson was over? If not she'd likely test it out on her own up in the Room of Requirement or something.

It was interesting they'd get to go back to the snowball fight that had started earlier, the one she hadn't been much up for because of how locked on the dummies she was. Now, with the knowledge they wouldn't actually be using the dummies, she could fully focus on the task at hand.

....Or on her friend sitting off from everyone.

"Protego Munio." She cast, pulling up the shield. This time she opted for the incantation. Having not had too much practice with this particular spell before now and her focus set on getting across this war zone to her friend, it was just easier than attempting a non-verbal. A few stray snowballs pelted at the shield but the wall of snow she'd created did a good job of keeping them off until she got to Nat. "Not feeling the anarchy today?" Her tone was light as she took in the girl. Was she alright?

Honestly, she kind of just wanted to go back to her dorm and take a nap. At this point, she didn't have the energy or will to try and learn a new spell. Unfortunately, she was at the front of the classroom and Hirsch would probably notice if she left. So, instead she aimlessly waved her wand and warily watched the other students fling snowballs at each other, making sure none of them were coming towards her.

What was coming towards her was one Jessa Cambridge. Not unwanted company, but she briefly wondered if she was hiding some snowballs in her robes. Thankfully not...

She shrugged. "Not really," she replied quietly, her wand hand dropping to her side. She watched the snowballers have fun and felt very little desire to join them. But this seemed like something Jessa would enjoy. "Aren't you going to play?" she asked gesturing to the snow war.

So the first attempt had been atrocious. Lack of focus, perhaps? Not surprising, since there were snowballs flying around. So Finn turned his back on the fight and faced the wall. Wand aloft, he performed the necessary movement and spoke the incantation.

Well there was definitely a bit of a fuzzy mist-looking cloud in front of him now. Progress! Finn tried again, same motion and same words. This time, however, a full-blown snow wall appeared in front of him. "Solid!" Okay, bad pun.

After a few more similar successes, he finally felt ready to join the fight. Watch out, world.

What an interesting spell. After recovering from her awkwardness about the mountain comment (really?), Night decided to join in the snowball fight. She stood in a corner of the room with snowballs piled high, giving her extra ammo, and extra materials for the spell. "Protego Munio."

She hadn't expected anything to happen on the first try. She certainly hadn't expected for a snowball to come up and hit her in the face, knocking her glasses up. Looking around the room, she knew that the mistake had been her doing and not a direct hit from another one of her classmates.

Oh, wait. It wasn't "pro-TEE-go," it was "pro-TAY-go." That helped somewhat. She tried again, being sure to pronounce the spell correctly. "Pro-TAY-go MOO-nee-oh!" A couple of snowflakes hovered toward her. Progress, or just residue from someone else's snowball?

Suddenly, a snowball came flying at her. "Protego Munio!"

Snow swirled around her. She was sure she hadn't done it right, and then SPLAT! She looked around, realizing she had blocked the snowball, and the noise had come from snow hitting her barrier.

"Professor," she called. "I did it!" A sense of power overcame her. "I did it! I did---SMASH.

So much for getting cocky.

Okay… Merlin Snowballs were going everywhere. This was almost as chaotic as the dummy battle. Minus the spells. At least it was just snowballs this time. Everyone seemed have jumped into this part of the lesson quickly. And she was stand there as a open target.

Seeing a rogue snowball flying toward her she ducked out of the way. Wow that was close one. Good thing she was paying attention to what was going on around her. She didn’t even have her wand really. The fourth year went ahead made a snowball and randomly threw it. ”Incoming.” Yes people watch out. She pulled her wand out. Now she was ready for this Protego Munio.

She probably should practice it a time or two. But there was snowballs sailing through the air left and right. Who had time for that? Ducking yet another snowball. Geez people let her catch up here.

Skyler tried her hand at a spell on the fly. She waved her wand.
"Protrgo munio!" She shouted. Nothing. Instead because she wasn't paying attention, she got hit in the bead by a snow ball thrown by Juni.

SPLAT!!!

Hanna was still practicing a spell that DID NOT WORK, when her new friend asked if she wanted to team up. Hanna made her way over to Patrick, who had perfected the spell, and was making lots of snowballs.

"Definitely!" She said, and started to helo by making her own snowballs to add to the pile. "Did you learn that spell easily?" Hanna was feeling like a fraud. She pulled her wand out again, casting "Protego Munio," and drawing her wand upwards with a flick. She thought something was happening, something looked a bit cloudy right in front of her eyes, but then it was gone again.

Letting herself rest for a moment, now that she had a decent shield up, Kye had a chance to look around at other's progress. This was the most fun class of the year so far, and it seemed everyone was enjoying themselves overall. Nearest her was Finn, who seemed to have been working on his defense a bit like she had just done. When she saw the full blown wall, she couldn't help but compliment.

"Nice!! That wall looks very well done, Finn!" she remarked. "Ooh, can I test it??" She started bewitching snow again, making an at-least-better-than-her-last-ones pile.

"I can play from right here!" She said, an easy grin slipping into place despite the girl's obvious lack of enthusiasm. To demonstrate, she flicked her wand and a wad of snow rose from the ground. It spun and spun until it was in the shape of a perfect snowball....one about the size of her head--but a snowball nonetheless. Another flick sent it flying toward the larger group of overzealous classmates. [b]"See? Easy as that.

She jumped at the sudden feel of something cold whacking against the side of her head, belatedly remembering that constant vigilance was still meant to be a thing. "Never really been one for the whole running around bit." Between her asthma and her other interests, there was just no appeal. "We should partner up."

The Ravenclaw wiped the snow away, thinking about warmer thoughts.

"You shield and I'll fire. Or I'll shield and you'll fire." Either way, with them firing through the shield, someone was gonna need to be patching it up again.

Emmalyn was feeling much more confident in her current position. Being pelted from only one side had increased her concentration, plus it gave her a better vantage point over the rest of the class.

After tossing out a few more snowballs into the chaos, she readied her wand again. She held it purposefully and stood with firm resolve. She would cast the spell. “Protego Munio!” she called out with an upward motion and flick at the end. Much to her surprise, the snow before her started swirling and formed a thin, but effective barrier. “I did it!” She shouted, dropping her wand on the ground in front of her. After quickly picking it up, and hoping no one saw her drop it, she stood and waited for an attack.

Sure, it had taken her most of the class and too many failed attempts to count, but she was finally able to produce a spell that mostly formed a protective barrier. It was quite exciting. DADA, as well as most of her other wand requiring classes, had proven to be much harder than she ever thought.

Hirsch knew, from the moment he'd planned this activity, that it was going to be nothing short of chaos. Sure, it wasn't as bad as the activity in the beginning - no one was crying this time, thankfully - but there were still a large number of snowballs flying around and it was hard to keep track of which one was thrown by whom. A part of him silently wondered whether this was a good idea or not and if he should've gone for something a little less....... chaotic.

But then again, a simple lesson in a simple classroom setting just wasn't in his style. How boring would that be?

The man stood off to one side, protective shield around him in case any flying snowballs came flying in his direction. You could never be too careful; after all, someone might still be resenting the activity in the beginning and was planning on 'accidentally' taking their frustration out on him. It was possible.

He sighed and glanced down at his watch before saying, "Five minutes left! Just the five minutes!" And then they were free to leave the snow and go to break.


OOC: Just a note to say that you've got roughly 24 hours left ^^

Patrick saw the snowball coming in, it looked like it was coming for his face he turned and tried to dodge just taking the snowball in the leg. Grabbing one from the ground where he had laid them, picking one up he grinned, "Right back atcha Zoryn." he whispered chucking one aiming directly for her shoulder hoping it would hit.

Patrick looked over his shoulder hoping that his wall would keep Zoryn from hitting them again. Turning back toward Hanna he paused. Was it easy? "Honestly, it just kinda happened." Shrugging his shoulders he looked back down to the ground, "usually I'm not the first one to get a spell in here, so take it and run with it today." He chuckled as he tossed a snowball over his wall.

Finn was proud of his wall. The Great Wall of Hogwarts, or something like that. The Ravenclaw bent down and crafted a snow ball, then chucked it at his wall. The barrier held, though you could definitely see where it had made impact. Now ge was feeling fairly confident that he could replicate it in the heat of snowball battle, and he decided he would head on over to the chaos. But then he heard someone address him.

"Oh, thanks a lot!" But.. what exactly did she mean by 'test' it? "Er, sure. Test away!" Unsure, he headed over and crouched behind his shield.

Yeah, Night had let herself get cocky, and her classmates took notice. But snowball after snowball, she shielded them. For some reason, she knew exactly how to move her wand. That was new. Now, she had to work on actually making her own snowballs, something she was absolutely terrible at.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2111jen

Skylet tried her hand at a spell on the fly. She waved her wand.
"Protrgo munio!" She shouted. Nothing. Instead because she wasn't paying attention, she got hit in the bead by a snow ball thrown by Juni.

SPLAT!!!

Oppps. Juni had gotten to get a glance of where her snowball had gone. She looked the girl over, maybe she could help her. Or they could help each other. ”Do you need some help?” She looked around to make sure it was safe from snowballs to go over to the girl.

She approached the younger girl and smile. ”Let me show you…. Protego Munio.” Doing the sweeping motion upward vertically and a flick at the end. Mmm that was actually the first time she had tried it out with both the wand movement and incantation together.

Which actually worked out to her advantage, considering that Jessa’s large snowball was flying her and the younger girls direction. How did Jessa make such a big snowball? Could she show her how to do that? The snowball hit her shield with big….

SPLAT!

Uhhhh... right. Yeah. Sure. Totally thought all of that answer through. Absolutely wasn't just thinking out loud and saying the words as soon as they came to him. Not at all. Abra nodded at Hirsch's response, and broke into a smile at that last part. Even when loads of other kids got similar compliments of 'excellent thinking', he couldn't help but be sort of pleased with himself because he had got the very specific Excellent comparison to runic magic. Jaddi might even have been proud of that answer. Abra dared to dream.

....... Okay. Never mind about daring to dream. Because, as it happened, he'd also been dreaming and hoping that some time soon Hirsch would get rid of the snow and warm the room up or something, and bring in some new substance to practice the shields with - honestly, who set up a classroom full of snow and didn't warn the students to dress warmly? Hirsch, apparently - but something frankly hideous was announced.

Snowball... fight...

Abra's eyes widened. If there was something worse than having to stand around in a room of the cold stuff, it was being pelted with it on top of all that. Sure, it wasn't QUITE as cold as an actual snowy winter's day or anything, but Abra couldn't make that distinction; all he knew was that he was very uncomfortable and that he did not enjoy the chill. The frigidness. The deep freeze.

Well... what better motivation to perfect a shield than to be thrown immediately into an unpleasant (yet not intense) situation that required fending off multiple freezing cold projectiles? As soon as the activity was declared underway, Abra quickly retreated even further away from the main group of students - he was already by the wall near the door, so his retreat mostly involved backing into the corner of the room, where he would at least be protected on two sides - and raised his wand.

What had Hirsch said about the new shield charm? He'd said a LOT of things actually and most of the information had rattled around Abra's head for a minute before basically just... disappearing. He did not retain information. He was not an information-retainer.

Trying to stay READY so that he could just throw up a regular shield charm if necessary, Abra tried to watch some of the others in the class, not only to keep himself informed of who was throwing snowballs but also to try and copy the movements of someone who could remember the mechanics of the spell better than he did. He'd give it a go once or maybe even twice, and then default to there regular old shield charm he was much more accustomed to. The best part was that this plan was perfectly in keeping with the guidelines of the activity. Abra would be just fine... providing nothing hit him.

Merlin.

A snowball fight.

Hirsch was out of his mind.