Sara leaned forward in excitement. This was going to be good; she could feel it in her bones...but what charm was Prof Ashby going to perform on the gameskeeper?

'That was a patronous?' Evelyn looked up a the groundskeeper as he walked in. 'Cool, wonder what mine is.' smiling, she leaned forward on the desk, and waited for the professor to continue.

Zoe raised her hand again, hoping to catch the professor before he began the demonstration. "Excuse me sir. So if you have a harder time concentrating normally does that mean that you won't be able to cast spells as strong as other people?" This question concerned her greatly since she was known for her wandering mind and lack of ability to concentrate no matter how hard she tried.

"Sir, is there a spell or charm that can help a person concentrate. Once that maybe someone that could concentrate really well could put on a person that might have a tad more difficulty with it" she asked hesitantly.

Sky settled back into her seat, thinking about her older sister's patronus, a falcon, and her mother's, an eagle. She wondered if her's would be a raptor of the sky, too. But maybe she'd prefer a more docile bird, like a robin. She jotted down notes vigurously, almost upsetting her ink bottle.

"wow that was a patronus" Bella told to herself it was quite a cute one she thought and smiled. and she continued to listen to professor when the groundkeeper entered.

LouAnn perked up when a misty-like panda shot from Professor Ashby's wand. "Oh, cool---a patronus!" she thought to herself, watching it as it headed out the classroom, no doubt delivering a message from its caster. A few moments later, Mr. Masterson entered, and LouAnn smiled and waved at him as he joined the class. He was the first Hogwarts staff member she'd met---way back in Diagon Alley at some point over the summer. It'd be interesting to see what would happen next.

"Nice... panda," Ella said slowly, still taking in the fact that it was the professor's Patronus. She wondered what hers was. Hmmm.

Her mind almost wandered off, but she stayed in control. She took notes and ended up doodling. Heh.

"Professor, are non-verbal spells harder to learn than verbal ones?" she asked curiously. She hoped she was good at one of them, at least. She held in the urge to roll her eyes. Magic was sort of complicated.

A patronus. Kay had only seen her grandmother's, which was a horse. Kay couldn't believe that the professor start with advanced magic. Non-verbally magic was going to be fun. "Professor? Are you going to show us how to do the patronus as well?" Kay asked when she put her hand up. "I have never seen a red one before." Kay couldn't wait to try. Her grandmother wouldn't let her do non-verbally magic.

Sky raised her hand.
"Excuse me Professor Ashby, but may I comment on Kay's question? Thank ou. I am sure you are eager to learn how to perform a Patronus, but might I say that this is not Defense Against the Dark Arts," she said pleasently to the Hufflepuff.

Kay rolled her eyes. Who did she think she was? I knew what class I was in. The Professor did do the patronus with non-verbal magic so why not ask if we could try. Kay would write her grandmother to ask why the patronus came out red. Her whole family could do the patronus charm and all of them were bright white. Maybe The gryffindor was worried she couldn't do one. She was just a first year like myself.

Sigh. Non-verbals.

She wasn't that good with Charms, and non-verbals were not going to make a difference for sure. Unless it was a Memory charm...that could work...but let's wait and see what Professor Ashby has in stock for them.

Mr. Masterson? What's he doing in a Charms lesson? Yes, he could be expected in a CoMC one, or a Herbology one, even in one of those Flying lesson Professor Vindictus hosts....but Charms? That's like having him in Potions...

Still...Kaika waited to see what this was all about.

Nice panda, by the way.

'A patronus'? Marie thought to herself. She had heard of this but never really seen one. She was rather relieved hearing Sky's comment to Kay, at least she wouldn't have to worry about trying to get an animal to come out of her wand right now. 'But what could the professor be teaching us that he would need Mr. Masterson for'? This was going to be intersesting she thought.

Jack wasn't so sure if he was ready for non-verbal spells. Sureee, he was expecting it--after all, he was in his sixth year now and that was generally when people started to learn spellwork without uttering a word but...still.

Masterson was here now? What on Earth was the groundskeeper doing in CHARMS? Jack shouldn't have been surrpised by now, to be honest--Masteron showed up in the most random places sometimes.

He waited for Ashby to continue, trying to mentally prepare himself for the non-verbal stuffs that would be coming up shortly. Gulppppp.

So, Non-Verbal spells, eh? Charms was actually one of her strong suits, but she wasn't sure if she was at THAT level yet. She could hope, though...

However, for now, it was note-taking time. Sighing rather reluctantly, Melanie got out a piece of parchment from her bag and scribbled down some notes on non-verbal spells, using her favorite ink (color changing, of course ;]). Then she turned her attention back to Professor Ashby, and Mr. Materson at the front of the classroom, wondering briefly why the groundskeeper was here anyway. Odd.

Melanie squirmed in her seat a little, curious for whatever they were going to do next... Whatever they needed to be ready for.

Ready? Lucille needed a minute.

She grabbed onto the sides of her chair, so as to make sure she couldn't fall off it again. Thankfully her previous fall seemed to have gone unknoticed.

"Ready," she said, wincing slightly and expecting the worst.

Chris watched excitedly as Professor Ashby produced his patronus and had it leave the classroom, undoubtly delivering a message. He loved to see others Patronuses he thought it was facsinating to see the forms they took. While he was thinking he almost didn't notice as another staff member entered the room. He nodded to Professor Masterson with a smile and turned back to the front of the class eager to see what happened next.

Lucy sat dumbstruck at her desk, she had no idea what a... Patronues? was that what Prof. Ashy had called it? Well, whatever it was called, it had been amazing, and Lucy longed to see the silvery beauty of the panda again.

Why was the thing panda-shaped anyway? That was even stranger, and why was the very attractive Groundskeeper in the classroom? Not that Lucy minded, she was just feeling a little unsure about where exactly this lesson was going.

Lucy nodded as the Professor asked them if they were ready and poised her quill for action.

Once she was done writing, Reese looked up from her notes just in time to see Professor Ashby non-verbally sent a patronus out the door. Hmm. She wondered where that was going to. Moments later, Professor Masterson walked into the classroom and a smile formed on her face. She always like Professor Masterson. He was cool.

She placed her pen next to the sheet of paper and listened as the Professor asked the class if they were ready. Was Reese Upstead ready for non-verbal spells? Not really. Instead of saying that, she slowly nodded in her head in reply.

As she watched the Professor's Patronus fly out of the room, Satine knew her jaw was hanging wide open. She was so excited to be working with non verbal spells and to top that off maybe they were going to mess with Patronuses. She wasn't sure what hers would be and couldn't wait to perform the spell so she could see. She scribbled down a couple of notes and waited in anticipation.

"Did I just see a floating panda?" Tori asked herself lifting her head from her notes she had taken throughout the class. She apparently had been missing more than she realized when she saw the other teacher in the room.

Fallon grinned at Ashby's patronus. Panda's were awesome! She was rather shocked, though, to see Mister Masterson entering the room. Everyone else was wondering the same thing from what Fallon gathered from the looks on everyone's faces. She looked up at Professor Ashby and couldn't wait to see what would happen the rest of the lesson.

Having no problems with non-verbal spells or whatsoever, Willow had grown distracted playing with a strand of dark chocolate hair of hers, when out of the sudden ... there was a Panda in the classroom. A Panda.

Forest Green Eyes locked on the creature.

What. The. Hell? Was this Care of Magical Creatures NOW? Nevermind that the Panda was no magical creature (that she knew of) or that the animal was most likely going to be part of the lesson.

Willow Kovac did not appreaciate Pandas or any kind of animal/creature for that matter.

Her eyes narrowed and did not even bother to look at Mister Masterson when he showed up.

UGHPANDA

What? Floating panda!!! She then remembered the misty features of it was reminded her of the class she first learned about patronuses in her first year and the panda had the looks of one from what she could remember. Wow, Herminny thought, the Charms teacher was good. He managed a patronus without saying incantation which was one of the tougher spells even saying the ncantation. She looked toward professor Ashby in astonishment knowing this class was going to be amazing.

"Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case, however, a wandering mind shouldn't serve too much of a problem...providing that's what you were asking about. You may have a harder time, but it certainly shouldn't hinder you completely." If only he knew how much of an attention span Ian was when he was younger. He wasn't nicknamed 'The Gerbil' for nothing.

"As far as I know, no such spell exists, but it doesn't mean that it's an impossible spell to create. Perhaps that could be your claim to fame in the future!"

Aaaaaaaand back to the demonstration?

Nope. "I don't mean to scare you, but yes. While they're not necessarily as hard to learn, per se, because the theory behind charms is not as difficult as people make it out to be, but mastering the spells will certainly serve to be a more difficult task. I assure you, though, the most complicated part of the spell I will be demonstrating, and offering to you today, is the wand movement." Ian twirled his wand around between his fingers. Heh...

"A patronus? In charms? No, that's more Professor Lawson's territory. I was simply using my patronus to summon Mister Masterson, here."

Ian cocked an eyebrow. "Child, are you color blind? That was no red patronus. All patronus figures are white."

OOC: Red panda

"Thank you," Ian said, "but I assure you that I can handle my class and clarifying the material myself. However, you are correct."




"So if there are no more questions or comments, to the demonstration!"

With that, Ian twirled the wand through his fingers and swished his arm upwards. Once he finished passing the wand through his fingers, he immediately sliced his wand downward. At the same time, Mister Masterson's pants fell to the floor.

"Consider it my own little practical joke, kids," Ian said, chuckling. "And thank you, Mister Masterson."

I hope he doesn't get too embarrassed... Ian thought. Perhaps payback was in order?

Tibi watched in horror as Masterson's pants fell to the ground. Never mind the fancy wand work. Tibi was having flashbacks to being pants'd in the hallways at school and then stuffed into lockers.

Were they going to.. PRACTICE that spell? Tibi was mortified. Even worse, an entire classroom of students was going to learn how to do that. No where would pants be safe!

Tibi sighed and scribbled down a few notes, averting his eyes to give Mr. Masterson his privacy.