"How about you try first?" said Allie.

Laylee really liked this lesson! Professor Callie was very fun and creative. Water balloons! Classic!
She had sat throught the class with suspense at a pair of students close to her age demonstrated the charm. Laylee knew she would have no trouble with this, she had learned haw to do it early in her first year. But, it was still great to review! Nothing got old when doing magic.
Laylee still didnt have a partner and everyone seemed to be paired up or in groups. So, Laylee sat there with her balloon on her desk. She finally decided to pair with herself. Laylee grabbed her wand and pointed in at the water filled balloon. "Wingardium Leviosa!" She proclaimed. The balloon lifter easily from the desk top, its watery contents sloshed slightly at the movement. Laylee carefully edged the balloon over her own head. As she waited there, she started finiding it hard to concentrate on the balloon above her. Her mind wandered to things she hadnt thought about in a while. Chandan... Jackie... Will. She aslo thought about her family... But, she had Maura, that made her smiled suddenly to herself, when just a split second later she was drenched in freezing water. "Oh!" She said. Then she laughed at herself. Her curls were soaked and sticking to her face, her robes were clinging uncomfortably to her body. She shook her head, water flinging from the tips of her hair.
Laylee blushed as she remembered that she was in a room filled with students. How embarrasing. They woud think she was an incapable witch, that couldnt even levitate a balloon! She sat, her mind boggled, trying to remember the drying spell, but she was too distracted. Laylee blushed deeper as she sat trying to ring the wettness form her hair and robes.

''Hmmm..." She looked around again. "Well you could take one with you, maybe you'll bump into him in the corridors" she grinned

"Hey can you levitate two at a time?" she wriggeled her eyebrows

Quite great. Melinda now didn't have a partner. She looked around, they had already started practicing the levitation charm. She began to correct her pronounciation, while she waited for someone to practice the charm with.

Chris looked around, he still didn't have a partner. He saw Melinda didn't have one either. He went up to her. "Hey Mel do you want to be my partner?" He asked her and smiled.

Lizzie glanced at the leg. "Oh, I see what you mean. Walking around with a muggle plaster would be much more cool, right?" she grinned at Nate. Boys always wanted attention, and breaking a leg was a perfect way of getting that. She knew, she had an elder brother and he was just the same.
"Well, actually I'm kind of working on my own, haven't really found anyone familiar around yet. How about you?" She looked at Via and her friend for a second, and turned back to Nate. "Are you three working together or do you also need a partner?"

"Natka! Wow it's great to see you again!" Lizzie had spotted her friend at a table and now waved excited at her. "How are you? Everything's fine?? She smiled at Natka and showed her how she once again managed to get the balloon to rise about ten cm, and then fall down on the bench with a splash! She laughed and turned to Natka. Suddenly her face was serious. "Did you hear about Erica? I had to bring her to the Hospital Ward, cause a bump on her head started to bleed all of a sudden. She got really bad, pale and dizzy and everything." She though Natka would want to know, since the three of them hade met on the Hogwarts express, and Erica was Natka's friend as well.

Melinda turned around. She had been mispronouncing. What was wrong iwith her tongue now? So many years, speaking perfect Spanish was not doing any effect on this. Back to the story. It was the sweet voice of Chris that had made her turn around with a wide smile.

"Hmm..." She hesitated, teasing, of course. "Sure..." She said and smiled.

Kairi sat on her own, she'd been listening and seeing but her mind did tend to wander. She focused on the teacher, her sleepy eyes drooping, but she listened and made notes, she wasn't going to loose points already. She coughed and rubbed her aching head. She'd come down with a cold, which made all the vibartions especially shaky. She coughed again, her throat seared with pain.

"Hi Kairi, how are you? You look a bit down. Are you getting a cold or something? I've met about a thousand people today with a cold. I think to many might have been outside yesterday." She focused on her attempts to make the balloon rise more than ten cm.

Chris chuckled when he heard her teasing him. "Alright so do you want me to go first or do you want to?" He asked her taking his wand out of his belt loop.

Freya noticed Kairi, sitting a short distance away by herself, she looked a bit under the weather too. "Hey, Kairi, hello. You don't look too good, maybe you should visit the Hospital Wing to see if they can give you something. It figures that my medical case is in my trunk the one time I need it for something." Freya said quietly so as not to disturb the other students too much, 'Like that's going to happen.' Freya thought, 'They're all talking anyway.' She went back to her balloon, and began to toss it in the air rather quickly, up and down, with a very slight flick in her wand. Freya wasn't worried about it that much, she'd done things like this a thousand times before.

Kairi jumped as Lizzie talked to her and gave her a small grin, "It's a different type of cold, Lizzie, it's a cold only I get," she said, her voice perfectly normal. Normally your voice goes funny when you have a blocked up nose, but Kairi didn't have a blocked up nose, she had something she liked to call: Cold Feet. She managed to rise her balloon to 25cm, a small smile on her face.

"Hey Freya, naa, they wouldn't be able to cure my cold, it's a different sort of one to what you get," she said, with a small grin, raising her balloon to 30cm above the table. "How are you anyway?"

"You go first...I need to practice my pronounciation a bit..." Melinda answered, taking a few steps back to make room for their practice. Win-gar-dium Le-vio-sa....Melinda repeated herself over and over again inside her head.

"Ahh, I see." Freya said thinking to herself. "That's too bad, I rarely get sick, but when I do, it's usually really bad." She watched the balloon she was controlling fly up and down in the air, "I'm doing alright, a few scrapes here and there, several letters from home, but nothing I can't handle that's for sure. How are things your end? Everything going alright?"

Livvy watched it all happen and just shrugged. She then just sat there as everyone got into groups and glanced at Kairi, Freya, and a girl. She got up and walked towards them. "Hey."

Kairi nodded at Freya, "It's been ok, as you said, a few scrapes here and there, but no letters from home, wasn't expecting any anyway, and I lost a chocolate frog in the black lake," She pulled a sad face, then winked and popped a cough sweet into her mouth.

She turned at the sound of Livvy's voice and grinned, "Hey, Livvy, you look very enthusiastic,"

Astrid smiled and took a deep breath. Thankfully this was a charm that she had used before. "Are you sure?" she asked, giving Allie one more chance to change her mind. "Okay, wish me luck. Here goes nothing."

Please let this work, she thought to herself.

Having Nico standing just a few desks away was not helping. The key to staying focused here would be making sure NOT to look at him before she started. She sighed, that would be hard. It was always so hard not to look at him. Hmmm, maybe just a peek. NO! That would be the end of Allie's dry hair for sure. Okay....focus Astrid! She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else, anything else......

Suddenly she had the perfect image. Cale's wet hair. Haha, that was priceless. Okay, that's better, enough stalling.

She took a few steps back, cleared her throat and pointed her wand at the first balloon. "Wingardium Leviosa" she said clearly. She carefully brought it up, over Allie head and paused.

She furrowed her brow in concentration and started to count. 1, 2, 3, 4 oh, I wonder if Nico is watching, NO! Focus! 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Thank goodness! She watched the balloon make its slow return back onto the desk. She hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath but as soon as it landed, she let it out all at once. "Whew! Did it!" she said. "Your turn, Allie." And with that said, she flipped her hair and turned to give Nico a smile. She deserved that look and was pleasantly surprised when her returned her smile.

Demetria had been writing notes. She got up and saw Livvy and Hannah with two other people. Profesor Hawkins said 2-4 , but I don't think she would mind if we had 5..... She walked over to them and said "Hi Hannah, Hi Livvy. Can I work with you guys?"

"Hey to you too, Livvy." Freya said as the girl walked up to them. Freya continued to toss her balloon in the air with her wand, she was rather enjoying herself. Freya thought better of it after a moment though, no point getting into trouble.

"Aww," Freya said with a small grin, "Well, maybe I'll buy you another one if we ever get to Hogsmeade. I owe you."

Livvy cracked a smile and shrugged. "Eh," was all she said as she gripped her wand tightly. "I've been missing so many classes, it's not even funny," Livvy said, making a face and then pulled up a chair to Kairi's desk and sat down.

"Umm alright." He said. He pointed his wand at the water ballon. "Wingardium Leviosa." he said nice and clear. He made the water ballon levitate or her head. And counted in his head. 1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. 5.. 6.. 7..8.. 9.. 10.

Yes! Chris was so happy he didn't get Melinda soaking wet. He lower the ballon back down.

Her wand was out and so was her resolution, or at least part of it. However, Daphne Hopton was lacking a partner and all those who had at first been familiar were now occupied and the only possible solution to this was to randomly go up to a student and asked kindly to pair up with him or her.

Daphne snorted and then chuckled. That was really funny.

Melinda watched as Chris had made the charm work so well. She smiled and clapped her hands with a sweet giggle. "Now, it's my turn..." She said and stood up staight, cleared her throat and began to concentrate. "Wingardium Leviosa..." She casted the spell and it worked, it actually worked. The balloon had lifted slowly and now was over Chris's head.
She began to count. 1...2...3..4...5...6...7...8...9...and 10. Melinda sighed and slowly, let the balloon go back to the table.

She almost danced for her victory, but of course, this would seem a little, exaggerated and ridiculous.

"I did it..." She whispered to Chris and smiled wide.

"Yes, I'm sure." said Allie. "Just don't get my hair wet!"
As Astrid lifted the baloon above her head, Allie saw her glance at Nico.
Oh God....Please don't get me wet...
Allie closed her eyes, preparing herslef for icy cold water, to make contact with her head but it never did. As soon as she heard Astrid tel her she was done, she opened her eyes slowly. There was the water balloon, sitting there on the table un-popped.
She was so relieved, she didn't even notice Astrid smile at Nico, something she would have normally rolled her eye's at.
"Okay, here goes nothing."
She her wand at the water balloon, waving her wand like the teacher showed she said, "Wingardium Leviosa" nice, and clearly.
To her surprise, the water ballon floated above Astrid's head.
1,2,3
Then something wierd happened, she must have moved hr arm or someting, because the balloon went flying away from the top Astrid's head, and landed on some Ravenclaw's head, by the looks of it, that French boy she had met at the airport.
"Oh I sooooo sorry." said Allie, actually feeling sorry about it, although she did find it amusing too.
She turned back to Astrid.
"So let's try this again."
She pointed her wand at another balloon, and said the ncantation. This one barely lasted a second in the air, because she was so nervous that the French boy would come over and kill her, she couldn;t consentrate. It landed right on top of Astrids head. She giggled a little bit, as she saw Astrids face scrunch up from the cold water dribbling down her head.
Allie blushed a little bit.
"Sorry..okay I'll get it this time."
And for the third time, she pointed her wand at the balloon, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa" as clearly as possible.
1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8910
She brought the balloon down, carefully putting it back on the table.
"Yay! I did it!" she cheered. "Are you okay, Astrid? The waters not too cold, is it?"

Jillian, having been lurking in the dark corners of the room, snuck up behind Daphne, trying not to burst out laughing.

"HEY DAPHNE!" she said when she was finally behind her friend. Jillian took out her wand and pointed it to Daphne's wand. "Wanna be partners?"