Minerva took a deep breath. She stood up and closed her eyes thinking about the memory she had that lifted her off the ground. She opened her eyes and said "Ecks-PEK-toh pa-TRO-num." Not that she expected anything to happen, but Minerva was a little disappointed that nothing happened. She raised her wand again "Ecks-PEK-toh pa-TRO-num." Still nothing..

Wisteria stood, she felt fairly confident that this would work, not for any obvious reason, it just felt right. She stood up and starred out the window remembering the time when she made home-made ice cream with her mom and her dad charmed it so that the ice cream sneezed sprinkles. It was my first birthday.

She raised her wand, took a deep breath, and said, "EXPECTOPATRONUM!" She managed barely a wisp, "Well easy come, easy go, you just need more practice." She looked back out the window and thought maybe that wasn't the best memory of choice.

As usual, Ashley's first stop on the to-do list was to say the incantation a few times to himself, "expecto. patronum. expecto. patronum." under his breath, making sure he got the words right. That was important, because he wasn't in the mood to discover how to summon a nine-headed razor-faced monster by pronouncing something wrong. Though he held onto his wand, he kept it still, by his side, until he was confident the words were right.
It was only then that he raised it and pointed, making sure no one was too close to him. He didn't really expect anything to happen, but those were the directions, to make sure there was space. So once he was sure he was out of anyone's way, he pointed his wand and thought hard on the memory he'd come up with earlier, saying the words, "expecto patronum," and watching his wand for any signs of activity.
And watching some more. Watching for another moment or so, before deciding that he was right, and nothing was going to happen. Okay. It was still disappointing.
Still, he decided to try again, with another "expecto patronum!" that produced exactly the same, sad result.
That done, he looked around, figuring perhaps he'd watch some of the older students instead, seeing how things went for them. He didn't think it would help, but perhaps it could, at least a little.

Kourtney jumped to her feet and removed her wand, as instructed. This was highly advanced magic, as she had already witnessed, and though she doubted that she would be able to produce even a semblance to a Patronus...she would certainly try.

Ecks-PEK-toh pa-TRO-num. She repeated the words several times in her head, just to be certain that she had the pronunciation correct. She didn't want to utter a wrong word and have something unexpected, and quite possibly harmful, happening in the classroom. That wouldn't be good, not at all.

She glanced around at some of the older students who were waving their wands and casting the spell. Some seemed as though they were actually being successful in doing so, and Kourtney had to admit that she was impressed. The young Gryffindor watched for a few moments longer, studying the movement and then drew in a deep breath.

Happy memory...happy memory...She allowed her eyes to close as she pictured her mother dancing on that stage. "Expecto Patronum!!" She exclaimed, waving her wand as previously demonstrated as she continued to think about the dance. Her green eyes popped open and she stared in front of her. Heh. Nothing.

Okay...so she would try again. Her eyes fluttered closed again as she concentrated on her memory. Mother dancing...dancing...Kourtney feeling happy and proud. Her mother calling her onto the stage. "Expecto Patronum!!" She tried again, waving her wand a bit and then opening her eyes. Was that...? No. That was just a dust bunny floating through the air.

Blowing out a breath, Kourt lowered her wand. Maybe she needed a happier memory? The memory had worked well with the little potion, but maybe it wasn't enough to produce a semblance of a Patronus? Or was it because she hadn't practiced magic for as long as some of the students? Yes...perhaps that was it.

Once more, she raised her wand and tried again. Practice made perfect after all. Even if she managed just a wisp, that would be something.

Lexi watched and giggled as her Patronus bounded around the room and then finally disappeared. She hoped some of the underclassmen had seen it.

Smiling kindly she cleared her throat and called out, "Anyone who wants or needs help I am more than happy to assist. Don't be shy." Seeeeeee she was smiling and being kind and helpful. Hehe. Once more she raised her wand and closed her eyes before a smile spread her face and then she called out, "Expecto Patronum!" Once again the silvery lynx kitty erupted from the end of her wand and began to run about weaving in and out of the students and other Patronuses. Hehe.

Now was the moment of truth, the actual spell casting. Gideon had to admit he was one of those quite curious as to what their patronus was...when they finally had managed to cast it after much practice. And he did indeed wish he was skilled enough to actually do it having seen it enough times to awe him. However he wasn't stupid enough to think he could actually do it.

Let's just hope for a silvery mist of some sort...

Gideon stood up as the professor instructed, the boy keeping off to his own spot of the room, absently watching others attempt their patronus. A few of the oldest students sending various shapes and sizes of animals around the room. He took a deep breath and focused his mind on the memory he had settled on to try his best approach with the spell.

"Ecks-PEK-toh pa-TRO-num..." he murmered practing the incantation and working over the words. When the fourth year was ready as he could think he could be, he raised his wand prepared to cast. "Expecto Patronum!" Gideon finally cast with his focus purely on the memory, the boy nearly holding his breath as he awaited the response. And when he was greeted with a silvery mass he was more then a little excited which unfortunately broke his focus and the airy non-corporal patronus faded off into oblivion causing him to frown.

That was a start I guess.

While Arya's attention was on the little Puff practicing, she couldn't help but notice a few other patronus cast that were bounding about the room much like her's had done before dissipating with her memory. They all were very impressive, just the sight of them all making her even happier. Her eyes went back to the badger. "You can close your eyes, a lot do." She twirled her wand slowly. "Do whatever it takes to help you focus on your strong memory, don't forget to focus on the charm too." She added helpfully.

The prefect stood by and watched the young girl practice, and finally manage the smallest of whisps. She grinned. "You did it!" Arya was so proud of the little Puff. "Keep up the practice. It'll be a few years before you can cast a stable non-corporeal patronus, but if you keep practicing, you'll have it in no time." Encouraging, she was good at it. It was her turn to cast again, wasn't it?

"Expecto Patronum." Wand aimed in front of her, mind focused on the charm and memory, she watched the little hummingbird erupt from the end of her wand and fly about her and the girl before zooming around the classroom. It lasted longer than the last, dissipating only when her focus was once again turned back to the little Hufflepuff.

She flicked the end of her wand at the girl. "Your turn again, see if you can get another small whisp. Also, I don't know your name."

Yay. They're finally going to try to produce a Patronus Charm.

Victoria is actually half excited, and half nervous about this part. First of all, she had never tried to produce a Patronus Charm. Second of all, what if she made a fool of herself? And can produce nothing but a wisp of silver air? What if...

Then, Victoria reminded herself that she was a fifth year, not an eight year old. She should be able to produce a non-coporal Patronus.

At first, Victoria looked around to see what others are doing. Some have actually produced pretty awesome Patronuses, and Victoria wishes that her fox will be just as cute.

Victoria took out her wand and pointed into nothingness - in the first few feets. Think of a happy memory! Think of a happy memory! In her head, Victoria pictured once again her best Christmas eve and her best memory she had been practicing with the blue potion. Now all she have to do...so to say the incantation. "Expecto Patronum!" A silvery, but thin light shot out of the tip of her wand, then vanished quickly.

To Victoria, that was pretty good for her first try. Sure it was just a thin, silvery line, and probably wouldn't protect her from anything more than a fly, and definitely not travel across Europe to send a message to her mother. But it was something!

William tried the spell again Willaim called out "Ex- Pa- Tron- Um" He said the spell again "Ex- Pa- Tron- Um".

Alyssa didn't realize that she hadn't introduced herself to the Arya. "I'm sorry, I thought that I had before. My name is Alyssa. Again thanks for letting me learn from you. I know that I won't be able to produce a patronus like you just did again, but I'm more than happy to try again especially after that last attempt where I managed to at least create a small shiny dustlike ball,"Alyssa told Arya, grateful for the older girl's encouragement and feedback.

So Alyssa rolled her shoulders to help herself relax, then taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes again and focused on the memories that had helped create the little whisp on her last attempt. She recalled the day that she was told by the Head of House that they needed her to play in their Quidditch team because they were short of players due to the flu bug. She recalled the moment when her team managed to beat the other team despite the fact that they only had 4 instead of 7 players. She recalled when after the last snitch was caught, how she and all the other players just screamed, jumped for joy and hugged each other. She recalled returning to the House Common Room to see that the other students, some that she didn't even know, had put up banners and had organized a party to celebrate their victory. She recalled that very day, when those same students came over and hugged her and told her that she had played very well. She recalled how Simon and Aaron came stomping back into the Common Room wearing their house mascot suits and how they kept bumping into each other and faling over backwards on the ground before getting up and bumping into each other again.

She started laughing when she recalled that scene all over again. Feeling that same sense of joy and happiness, Alyssa opened her eyes, pointed her wand and as she said the incantation to the charm, she concentrated on the charm itself and what it did, "EXPECTO PATRONUM", Alyssa called out, pooling all her joy, happy memories and energy into the charm she was casting.

The tip of her wand started to glow and a whispy substance started flowing from it. A thin glowing whispy thread continued to flow from her wand as Alyssa concentrated really hard on the memories, trying to hold on to the feelings of happiness for as long as she could. She laughed out in joy and amazement and called out to Arya, "Arya look! I think it's working.". She wanted the older girl to see what she was seeing before it disappeared again.

Minerva watched everyone else do the spell for awhile. Then she lifted her wand again. She had her memory right on her mind it was easy since the memory included someone in that very room. "Expecto Patronum" She thought maybe she saw something, but then decided that it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. Oh well just try again she thought.

Will closing her eyes help? Maybe it will boost her concentration. But that didn't mean she could produce a Patronus just yet judging from her young age and lack of experiences. Nevertheless, Slytherin's greatest virtue is determination. Therefore, she shouldn't give up so easily. Maybe some elder students will be able to help. No?

Aiden closed her eyes, thinking of a very happy memory. A strong one too. Suddenly, an image of flash red light cross her mind. She could here a man screaming in agony and another male voice laughing. The laughing voice sounded familiar to her...

Eyes wide open, her whole body trembled and she knelt down. Her face was paler than usual and she was panting heavily. Cold sweat running down her back. What was that she saw? Did she concentrated too much? No... That laughing voice was... Her father's.

Tiffany watched other senior students doing the spell. They were all good at that but could she? She took out her wand and closed her eyes.

Her happiest memories...She could think of one before but now she was too nervous to do so. It was hard for her to find one and it was hard for her to say the spell out loud. Her mouth was shut. What was happening?

She opened her eyes. Gasped, looking confused.

Still the happy and...intense memory in his mind, Josh's dark brown eyes followed the silver and large draft horse as it galloped around the classroom between and through people. It seemed to be surprisingly light and agile for a muscular draft horse. Eh it was a patronus after all, not a real horse, otherwise there would have been a huge chaos in the classroom by now.

Then upon hearing someone talking to him, someone with a very familiar voice, the Gryffindor boy turned away to face the person who was no one but the Pretty Prefect Princess, and the patronus horse first became a mist then vanished.

"Kurumi!" the boy exclaimed cheerfully. The memory still had its effect on him after all. And of course her question caused the grin on his face to grew into a bigger one. Lowering his wand, he moved to face the younger Gryffindor properly. "It's not just focusing actually. Choose your happiest and most satisfying experience and simply try to live it again inside your mind. Close your eyes if you think the stuff around is distracting."

Giving her a little smile, he closed his eyes and pointed the hazel wand at her, living the experience again of course. "Expecto Patronum!" and again the mist amde its way out of the tip of his wand, formed the large horse and ran through the prefect girl. "See? Do not forget; try to feel the emotions again."

Witsy stopped after a while to watch some of the other students and see if they're were making some progress. She was hoping this would be easier, but she wasn't the only one having trouble. After a while of watching the others, she picked up her wand once more and tried again, "Expecto Patronum!"...still nothing, I don;t even think I saw a wisp in that one. She took her wand and inspected it like there was something wrong with it, seriously, come on, she thought to herself. After being frustrated she repeated the incantation faster and faster out of frustration and SPLAT!!! An energy force sent her crashing to the ground... this is a common thing with you, you need to work on that. She got up and tried again.

Selina was having a lot of trouble with this who expecto patronum thing. She knew because of her age that she was not supposed to even produce anything, but it was somewhat frustrating. However, not everyone was Harry Potter. He was the only thirteen year old she could think of that had every successfully produced one, but he was the chosen one. Surely there were different rules for a wizard of his caliber.

So she shrugged her shoulders and decided to head over to the snack area. It was not like she was going to kill herself over this. As the years passed she would learn how to produce one, but as for now snacks sounded good. Besides, maybe she needed a better memory and that would only come with age and experience.

Ariana watched as the 7th year's patronus pounced around her and back to it's owner. Ariana Approached the 7th year.. "Your Patronus is very cute!" Ariana smiled at the girl. "im unable to produce anything." Ariana told the girl a little disappointed "Mind helping me out? i think im doing something wrong?"

Oh yeah. Tori was totally ready for this. Totally. She was like, gonna make the best evil dragon patronus pop out of her wand everrrrrrr in like... 4 seconds. Yup. Here she went. Ready. Set.


"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Tori bellowed like a walrus in mating season. She flicked and pointed her wand and scrunched her face up real tight as she concentrated on her happiest memory --- winning the last Quidditch match! YEAHHHH!


....and nothing happened. The redhead sighed and finally exhaled the breath she had been holding. She glared at her wand and shook it a few times til it emitted sparks. Well. It SEEMED to be working, but the spell was not. Lame.

Time to try again!

This time, Tori chose a different memory, the one where she had met Paulie and won herself a kiss from his lemonade-tainted lips. Hehee. That had involved romance AND fun AND she had been all clever and princessy and whatnot.


"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" the girl commanded again, though much more sternly. She jumped up and down as the tiniest, thinnest silver stream of something came trickling out the end of her wand and then promptly disappeared. "DID YOU SEE THAT?" Tori hollered around at no one in particular. "HOW COOL AM I?"

Minerva pulled her wand up again. She was starting to get tired. She thought hard about her memory and said the words again "EXPECTO PATRONUM" still nothing. She decided she needed to sit down and rest for a bit.

Kurumi blushed a bit and played with her wand idly in her hands when Josh acknowledged her silly an naive question. She did blink at him with a small cock of the head to the left showing her confusion about what he had just said. "It's....not?" she asked, a slightly shocked expression on her face. Kurumi knew that she was a much more by the books sort of witch. Show her a page in the textbook and she could memorize it and immitate the wand movement to a T. It was becoming clearer to the young Gryffindor that this was a field of magic that was something she needed to tap into another side of herself. One that she was pretty sure that she had yet to discover.

When Josh explained a bit more, she nodded slightly, showing that she understood what the seventh year had told her. What if you don't know what your happiest memory is? But before she could voice this, Josh had conjured his patronus again and it ran right through. The good thing was that it didn't feel like how it did when a ghost went right through you. That always made Kurumi feel a bit queesy and weird. When a patronus ran through you, it sort of made you feel giddy and for a brief moment Kurumi thought that she shared Josh's happiness. "Wooooow..." she whispered aloud.

See? Yeah...she saw, but Kurumi didn't feel any more confident about producing her own patronus. "Um...thank you Josh. I'll...certainly try." There was a reason why this spell was so advanced and she was pretty sure that as a fourth year she was a hopeless case. Which made her feel more awkward since people were probably expecting her to be able to produce one... maybe she was over thinking all of this? Kurumi popped the rest of her chocolate in her mouth and allowed it to melt on her tongue before closing her eyes again and focussing on a single memory this time. She remembered the sound of the piano, the blush on her cheeks, the... she stopped heself there as the warmth of the memory filled her. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" she sort of whispered shouted. If nothing happened this time, then there probably was just no patronus producing for her today.

She opened her eyes again and looked at her wand. Nothing. Feeling slightly defeated, Kurumi sat down on the ground and crossed her legs. Yep, time for another break.

Lillian watched the upper years do the spell and some of them were really great. She grabbed her wand and started to think of her happiest memory. However, she couldn't focus enough because she was bothered by the fact that she won't be able to think of any or she won't be able to do the spell correctly.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Expecto Patronum!"

The tip of her wand elicited a spark. But, that was all. She sighed to herself. "Maybe this is just not my time."

She sat back down and just continued watching the others.

Lilly tried again, slowly. 'Expecto Patronum,' she murmured, thinking of her happiest memory easily, but still unsuccessfully. There wasn't even a wisp this time. Her blue eyes watched all the upper years make perfect ones. Well, she was only first-year.

''Expecto Patronum.''Ryan said under his breath.Nothing came out of his wand.He looked around,everyone in the older years had perfect ones but him....... and alot of the first years.''Expecto Patronum.''Ryan said under his breath.Nothing.Just keep trying he thought.

Sierra nodded once in reply to what the professor had said to her. She didn't make any comments, though, because the lesson seemed to be moving on. Was she ready to give a go, though? Of course she was. Outside of the lessons she was receiving at Hogwarts, Sierra had a private DADA tutor, and so she was a little more confident when it came to this subject than she would be otherwise.

She stood from her seat, although she didn't hold her wand out just yet. Maybe making sure she had the incantation down pat first would be better. Yes. She thought so. "Ecks-PEK-toh pa-TRO-num," she said, listening carefully to the way she said the word. "Ecks-PEK-toh pa-TRO-num!" Hmm. That sounded right. "Expecto Patronum!" As she said the last incantation, she flicked her wand out into her hand and got ready to actually practice.

Lexi made her Patronus go near the girl who was speaking to her. It wove it's way around her and looked like it was meowing or something as it looked up at her and then slowly disappeared. Hehe.

Smiling Lexi then nodded her head. "I would be more than happy to help you. It's not a matter of you doing something wrong, actually. It's a difficult spell to master." Yep. It had taken her a while to produce a corporeal patronus. "The key is to find a memory that is VERY happy. The happiest you have ever been. You have to focus on it and let it fill you up. And the incantation has to be spoken clearly. Try the incantation by itself first. Expecto Patronum." She then smiled wider and nodded once reassuringly for the girl.