Lexi pouted in her seat when she saw the bucket of WORMS. Really? Was he trying to make her vomit in his classroom? 'Cause he was well on the way to it. She looked around to see if she could convince a macho guy to go get her a hand full of worms so she wouldn't have to touch them. She looked around and spotted Salander she did the whole PSSSSSSSSST thing in his direction trying to get his attention.

The Slytherin lad looked up from his immobilized worm, hearing a strange hissing sound Are there snakes to be transfigured too? he wondered, then set his eyes on the Gryffindor blonde "Hi Lexi! " he whispered back "Whats wrong?"

Lexi smiled REALLY sweetly at Salander and then gave a little bit of a pout. Leaning forward she whispered, "I don't like worms... they are super gross. Would you be a dear and go get some for me so I don't have to touch them? PLLLLLEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE" Her last word stretching out and sounding more like a hiss than her initial try at getting his attention.

Jenny quickly tried to pick a few worms from the bucket before heading back to her desk. This had to be the most awkward lesson she ever had. Not to mention her brother swallowed a worm in front of her once. (Ew.)

She pointed her wand at a slightly blackish worm near the edge of the desk. "Tacque!" Oh that was not bad...but the end was still squirming! Frustrated, Jenny pointed her wand again. "Reverto!" The blackish worm was about to fall off the edge so quickly Jenny closed her eyes and pointed her wand.

"Tacque!" There. It became an immobile black nail, but it was so close to the edge that it fell off. Jenny quickly scrambled to pick the nail up when she noticed that her other two worms were sliding towards the edge too.

"No!" Jenny quickly got back to her desk and pushed the worms closer to the center. She quickly picked up her hand, filled with worm slime now. Ew.

"Oh... uh sure, not a problem." he smiled then stood up to get another handful from the bucket. He returned and unloaded the worms onto her desk. "There you go." he said, flicking away the worms crawling up his sleeve. "You're good to go?" he asked giving her a thumbs up

Lexi tried to hide the look of sheer HORROR on her face when Salander reached his naked hand into the bucket and brought the worms to her. She swallowed hard to try to keep from vomiting all over the place and nodded her head. "Yeah, thanks... that is so gross," she said absently as he flicked at the worms on his sleeve. Giving him a very fake grin she returned the thumbs up hoping she didn't look too green around the gills.

Preston raised an eyebrow at the squeamish ones in the bunch. "Remember that this year's theme is survival. Not anything pleasant about that."

He considered them some more before sighing. "If you didn't bring your school gloves, remember that I taught you how to conjure some last lesson."

Arms crossed over his chest he was pointedly NOT touching any worms.

Worms?!! They gonna transfigured worms?! Ewwww..That's sooooo gross..!! Freya put her gloves on before walking to the buckets where Professor Kingsley put the worms. She looked at the bucket. Ewww..That's a lot of worms. She took a deep breath before grabbed a few worms and returned to her seat. "Okay now the incantation and the wand movement." she took out her wand and flicked it "Tacque!" nothing happened. The worms still worms and it's still squirming.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine a nail in her mind. She took a breath before flicking her wand "Tacque!" the worm turned into a nail before she could even blinked her eyes the nail turned to worm again.

Placing her gloves on Di got up to fetch her some worms. She wasn't squeamish (not yet) but for the sake of a grade..
She positioned her first worm and concentrated. With a flick of her wand she muttered, "Tacque."
Next thing she knew the worm was gone and was replaced by a nail. How's that for trial number 1? "Reverto." and the worm was back.

Alex had to prove herself this time She was sitting in the corner terrified by what professor was telling Though he instructed not to get scared she was really very scared.
Alex did not loose more points..
She put her gloves and stared at the worm for a moment. It was yuck!!
Then she placed her wand in position in order to transfigure.
" Tacque" with one shot again as that of last lesson she was done and a nail that she thought of appeared.
Professor was observing so she thought of practicing it again.
With another flick of wand she made the worm reappear and practiced again..

Vashti had to pick up the worms? Ewwww... She dug in her bag, praying that she'd brought some gloves, but no luck. She'd have to actually touch those icky little things with her bare hands.

With a sigh, she went over to one of the buckets and reached in to grab a worm - ewwwww - then went quickly back to her desk so she could set it down. Ew ew ew ew ew ew. Merlin, that thing felt so gross. It would look and feel so much better as a nail.

"Tacque!" she said with a flick of her wand. The head - she assumed it was the head anyway - of the worm changed into the head of a nail, but the rest of it was still a worm. That wasn't right. "Reverto." And the gross little worm was back to normal.

Let's try again. "Tacque!" Second time's the charm apparently, because this time the worm turned fully into a nail. Appearance-wise anyway. She wasn't going to touch it to see if it was still slimy or anything. It didn't look like a slimy nail, so she assumed it wasn't.

Seriously? Worms? Poor things didn't want to be turned in rusty nails by her, surely. Sighing Sarah took note of the professors comment on gloves, but just shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't bothered about getting her hands dirty to be honest. There were worst things than some wriggly worms.

Walking up to the bucket, she dunked her hand in and pulled some out, before making her way back over to her desk. Plopping them down, Sarah stared for a second as she absentmindedly took her wand out of it's holster. Ta-kay, taaa-kay, tA-kaaaay. She went over the spell in her head as she rolled her wand between her fingers, still eyeing up the worms. "Right."

Separating one from the group, Sarah pointed her wand and flicked it. "Ta-kay!" *poof* "Ooooh, hello." The worm was now a nail. A bent one, and a little blunt looking, but still a nail. It's a start.

What? Really? He had no idea that 'survival' was the theme. Like, when did anyone mention it? And if it was mentioned, then where was he and why wasn't he listening?

Probably doing the same thing as right now, because he stopped listening whatever the Professor said about gloves. Haha. He'd learned, you know, and even if it wasn't cold his gloves were always in his bag. Magical Creatures and Transfiguration had taught him that.

Either way, the boy walked, fast, towards the worms, but only brought back one of them. No point in trying to transfiguring them all, right? That's why he placed it on his desk...er, nothing will happen to it, right? Chicken girl won't eat it, right?

His eyes were scanning the room for that Slytherin girl, but she was nowhere close. Good.

Now, the boy breathed, and immediately closed his eyes, he knew that worked. "Tacque!" he said, and flicked his wand, but the flicking didn't go so well, since his eyes were closed then he didn't notice how exaggerated his flicking had been and he'd cut the worm in half!

Eyes slightly widened, the boy sort of sighed. All this time concerned about the worm's safety and he'd been the one to kill it.

aww poor little worms i hope they don't get hurt she thought as she picked up a small pink worm and set it on the desk "Tacque!" the wriggling worm was now a rusty old nail that was bent in a few places. the spell had worked just not quite as expected "Reverto!"*Poof* it was back to being a squiggly, wiggly, little worm. i'd better try that again, she thought as she looked at the cute, squirming, pink creature

Lexi wrinkled up her nose at the squirming nastiness that was all over her desk and raised her wand and cast, "Immobulus, Immobulus" over and over trying to make sure ALL of the worms quit moving around. Once she had gotten as many of them frozen as she cared for she cleared her throat and flicked her wand a few times in practice. Then setting her wand aside she said the incantation a few times. "Ta kay, Ta kay, ta kay," she nearly chanted. Smiling to herself when she thought she had done well enough she raised her wand and flicked it at one of the immobolized worms and said, "Taque." Not to her surprise the worm like half Transfigured so that its tail... or maybe it's head... was a spike and the rest was the nasty worm. Meh.

Ughhh. Worms? She'll plead the 'harming of animals'. But would it get her out of the assignment? Probably not. Therefore she'd have to touch them anyway. So, she walked up to the pail, slipped on her gloves, and took a handful of the squirmy, icky, spineless critters. Blech.

She dropped them on her desk and sat back down. Right, so, tacque? Tacque. "Tacque. Ta-kay. Tak-ay. Tacque." She practiced the pronounciation out loud a couple times. It usually helped.

Then she applied it to the worms. "Tacque." Flick. Nail?

No. No nail. Again. "Tacque." Flick. Nail? Hah! Nail!

Okay. Next worm...

Luna was a bit grossed out by touching the worms even if they had gloves on. Anyway, why would we ever need a spell that turns a worm into a worm. See, some spells were just stupid, but if they had to learn them, then maybe they would come in handy. She picked up one of the disgusting wriggly worms and carefully placed it on the desk. She took out her wand. "Tacque," she said pointing her wand at the big pink worm. Almost at once it was replaced by a nail. "Eew," Luna grimaced. Well, this was certainly a spell to turn one gross thing into another gross thing. She shuddered. "Reverto," she recited and the worm was once again on her desk. Luna did it three other times up until she nearly felt like throwing up. Too bad she couldn't squish the worm, it would just duplicate!

Lexi wrinkled her nose and looked down at the nail/worm and shook her head. Closing her eyes she concentrated a bit harder and flicked her wand at the thing as she opened her eyes and said, "Taque!" To her surprise the worm turned completely to the nail. Smiling a satisfied little smile and the worm she stuck her tongue out at them. Take that nasty worms!

Since he no longer had a worm who was either alive or in one piece, Treyen went over to the front to get another worm, only this time he brought like five along, just in case.

And after placing those things on his desk, the boy decided it was time to try out the spell again, but without cutting a worm in half, they had plenty of worms but this was just a waste if he'll cut them all in half.

Deciding against keeping his eyes closed, his wand went up and "Tacque!" he said, flicking it again. Nothing. The same worm over there. Siiigh, he didn't want to close his eyes! Okay, so, he'll need to focus even more, no problem. Breathing in and out, eyes open, wand pointing at the worm, "Tacque!" flick.

Dun, dun, duuun.

NAIL!

Win. Smile.

"Reverto!" haha, the worm was back. He could this all day, you know.

Arya didin't feel like she need to practice the wand movement since it was a simple flick. So when she finished pronouncing the incantation, she separated one of the worms from the others and concentrating on a mental image of a nail.

A nice shiny nail.

"Tacque." She flicked her wand, and watched as half the worm slowly turned into a nail. The other half vehemently wiggle around. Creepy. A frown crossed her expression as she quickly flicked her wand again. "Reverto."

This time she took longer to let the image of the nail sink in. More to get rid of the image of the worm!nail, and to let the worm she was working on get a little break from being transformed. After a moment she was sure she would hold on to the image, she flicked her wand again. "Tacque."

The worm almost immediately transformed into a shiny silver nail. Picking it up with her free hand, a satisfied grin on her face, she inspected the nail to make sure it had transfigured completely. Didn't want a squishy nail.

It was completely transfigured.

Placing the nail back on the desk, she reverted it and continued to practice transfiguring the worms into nails.

Preston observed the class before ducking behind the curtain once more. Emerging, he levitated a pile of wooden boards and settled them down in the middle of the room.

"You're all doing quite well, even those of you who managed to sever your worms," he said, giving a pointed look. "If you haven't gotten it yet, you can still keep working, but I'd like to interuppt you for a moment so those who have been successful can continue."

Picking up a board, he placed it on his desk, before levitating a worm from the bucket. "Tacque," he said softly, turning the worm into a nail. "I'm going to teach you a spell now that utilizes your wand like a hammer. The incantation is malleus and the movement is just as you would tap with a hammer."

Picking up the nail, he held it against the wooden board before intoning, "Malleus," and repeating the motion several times, as if he were hammering the nail. Between his fingers, the metal slid into the wood smoothly, though the wand did not touch it.

"Please take care with this spell. I don't want to send anyone to the hospital with smushed fingers. Gesture lightly as if you were tapping lightly. The force you use with your wand would be like the force of the hammer."

Holstering his wand, he gestured to them. "When you think you have the nail right, come and get a board and see. If you focused too much on appearance but not on structure, your nail will smush when you try to hammer it."

Treyen couldn't believe what he was hearing. The wand as a hammer?! That was pretty wicked!

Forget about the transfiguring a worm into a nail, a smushy nail his was, so he'll have to keep on working on that for a little while, but the hammer thing was the most important thing from the class. "Professor, I have a question" he said, arm and hand in the air, "With the spell...the wand works as a hammer...for everything? I mean, does it replace the hammer completely?" yes, he had an example, wait up, "Like, say, we encounter a troll, then we could hit it with our wand but it'll feel like a hammer, right?" aha, encountering a troll was way better than hitting a random person, no?

Preston raised his eyebrow at the boy. "Well, I suppose. But you would need to be up close. It isn't like you can hit them across the room."

He made a mental note, as he looked around the room, to let the Healer know to be on the look out for any hammer-shaped welts.

Haha. Perfect!

Not that he was planning on doing anything like that, but at least he knew that his wand could have other purposes when it came to defense. Or whatever. Like cracking nuts.

Treyen nodded at Professor Kingsley and then moved over to practice with the worms. "Tacque!" he said, while flicking his wand towards the worm, which instantly became a nail, but it wasn't as hard as a real nail. He reversed him to his true form and went to work with another one of those five worms, wouldn't want the worm to be suffering so much from being transformed, right?

"Tacque!" again, but with a different worm. Aha! There was his real nail! Win! The boy had a smile on his face, he was more than ready to go on and practice the hammer spell.

Eino wasn't ready for the next step, he was still trying to successfully turn his worm into a nail and not a coin, a rubber band, a pebble, or a paper clip. Frustrated, he flicked his wand hard enough and said "Tacque!" He did it! The worm was now a thin, metal nail. He smiled proudly and decided to take a few more worms to continue his practice in order to master this spell before moving onto something else. After successfully turning all of the worms into nails, although two were bent and rather useless, he took a board to begin practicing the next spell.