Looking around, Violet saw an older girl who seemed to be offering to help younger students. Since she didn't know that much about Patronuses, she thought she might as well go over and take her up on it, so she crossed over to the other side of the room and sat near her.

"Hi, I'm Violet P. Blackthorne, first year, so obviously I can't do a Patronus charm yet. I'd appreciate any help, if you know anything more about them."

In all fairness, MJ did have a go at casting a Patronus, but she didn't have much luck. She wasn't expecting to though, as even half the Fifth Years could only manage a small amount of silvery stuff and even then, it never lasted very long. Instead, MJ looked through one of the books to see if she could find a good estimate of what her Patronus might be. The little eleven year old looked around at some of the others. Lots of people seemed to be choosing animals they liked or just opening the book at random. A few were going through more carefully, trying to find the description that best matched their personality before looking at the animal. There was one creature in particular that MJ had a special connection to. She chose to go with that one first and was quite stunned by what she found.

MJ sat up abruptly, a loud "Oh!" slipping out before she could stop it. She looked franctically around the room briefly, then went back to the book, her mouth still hanging open.

Alyssa quickly browsed through the books that the Professor had passed around."Wow! there were so many possible animal spirits. I wonder what mine is." Alyssa thought to hersef. "Hey Penny want to try it out and see. Chances are it won't work for me but maybe it'll work for you. I guess we think happy thoughts huh?"

So Alyssa thought of the time when she first played Quidditch for her house and their team had won despite only having four players on the team. That was definitely one of the most happiest times of her life. Concentrating on it, she picked up her wand and said "Expecto Patronum!!" She peeked to see whether anything appeared. Like she expected nothing did.

Nate stood up, stretched out, and pulled his wand. "Expecto Patronum!" he yelled, thrusting his wand out in front of him and thinking of when he kissed Pam, his eyes shut tight. When he opened them, NOTHING HAPPENED "Ok then, maybe not yet," he said to himself, and decided to look through his textbook and reread about the totems. "I read this part a week ago..." he mumbled to himself as he lazily flipped the pages.

Scanning the book Professor Schirmer had passed around, Erin looked up for the meanings associated with the cat. Heh. She remembered her cat, Louisa.



Analyzing the meanings of the cat Patronus, Erin was sure, some parts of it wasn't her. She couldn't see the unseen and most of all, she didn't have the guts and the spunk to fight when conered. She would probably cry in a situation like that. However, she was full of love just like what was written in there and she was independent too.

Trying it out on her own, Erin muttered in a low voice, 'Expecto Patronum..."

"Five points from each of you. Nobody was given permission to attempt any magic." Althea regretted having to take points, she'd hoped she wouldn't have to at all but there you go.

ooc: Witchlight27 and EastonianNW I edited your post to remove a result because a first year won't be able to get any result at all. Be realistic.

While Kurumi was waiting for William to answer, her mind began to wander a bit more to her father and his opossum patronus. She could remember a conversation the man had with her older brothers after one of them had conjured his first patronus. Takashi, always quiet and very bookwormish, had expected that he conjure something like a mouse, so he had been very shocked when a silver Komodo dragon came out of his wand. Everyone had laughed when her father had told them that his own surprised him, but that magic worked in such deep levels, connected to our consciousness and subconsciousness in ways that are beyond our understanding, so speculation on your patronus was very difficult. Still, Kurumi had to admit that it was fun to pick their personalities apart and try to think of what animal form the silver mist could take.

Kurumi was lost in thought when...

o_________________________O

Wait, had she missed something while thinking about a potential corporeal Patronus that she had missed instructions on HOW to cast the charm properly? Kurumi glanced up to the front of the room to see that the Charms-now-temporarily-DADA professor was standing there looking rather expectant and no drawing on the board with a wand movement or incantation.

While Kurumi rationalized with herself, ANOTHER young Ravenclaw had tried her luck with the spell. MERLIN!

Kurumi swiveled around on her bum to face them, her eyes widened in shock and fear - this woman's wrath could rival Dragon Lady's to be sure. But before she could say anything, the professor had swooped in and taken away points.

MEEP! At least none of them were Gryffindors?

Nate looked up for a second or two after Professor Schirmer had taken points from him. Five points? Not worth arguing. "Blast..." he said under his breath, "Sorry Professor!" Nate then looked back into the book, skimming over the material on totems and spirit guardians.

Points off? Like a prey sensed the presence of it's predator, Aiden looks up at those who lost their hose points. Much to her relief, there aren't any Slytherins. Poor first years. Professor Schirmer is sure one strict woman! Albeit, she is grateful that none of the first years attempting to produce the Patronus Charm (which is clearly impossible) didn't gouge out someone's eye.

Getting back to the Patronus characteristics, who else should she look for? Lets see... A lynx, former Minister Shackebolt's Patronus. She has no idea how the characteristics relates to him except one; movement through time and space. Moving through space, she is sure he could apperate...

Althea smiled. "Perhaps the Wizarding and Muggle worlds, Miss Bunbury."

"Can you hypnotise them too? Like Athanasius Kircher?"

"Likely it was a stag, but not because Harry's was. Actually because we know his animagus form, and historically speaking, the animagus form always matches the patronus form, as both are indicators of personality."

As for the second one. "Yes an animal or less frequently a magical creature."

"Not necessarily." She smiled at the girl. "My parents don't have the same patronuses as I do for instance. I suppose it depends how similar you feel you are to your mother. Its possible, just not guaranteed."

"Don't do it again." Professir Schirmer answered. "If you pay attention and work hard you'll earn that back and more during this lesson."

Nate looked up again as he as addressed, a look of slight intimidation on his face, and nodded. He then returned to his book, but this time something caught his eye. "The ram..." he mumbled as he studied the page.

Noooo! Ten points combined from Ravenclaw. All the points she had earned earlier were now gone. Shame. Erin said it in a low voice but still, the professor noticed it? She should be more careful in following instructions from now on.


Getting back to the back, something caught her attention. Porcupine.It suited her personality better than the cat had.

" I thought it was appropraite to apologize" William told Kurumi." Yes, it does seem all speculation" William agreed with Kurumi." I will not rule out any optons, trust me" William said to Kurumi. My mom's patronus is a rabbit and my dad's patronus is a horse" William explained to Kurumi.

Tiffany nodded as the professor was answering her question."Thanks, Professor Schirmer,"she said cheerfully. Smiling, she took more notes down. She deiced to find an animal that would be suitable for her personality.

Sierra gave the professor one quick nod then angled herself toward the Puffer. Whatever the girl's name was. She hadn't heard the girl mention, but then again, if Sierra was a Puffer, she'd go anonymous, as well.

"Okay, I'm not angry at you," ...whoever you are, "but I'm a little annoyed that I continue to get hugged for no apparent reason. I'm not an unhappy child. I'm just not very playful and overly-happy." ...and she didn't need or want hugs. Right. She should probably say that. "...and I'm not really comfortable with the idea of a hug. I'm just not much of a people person either."

She sighed, although it was more in a manner to collect her thoughts and less because she was frustrated. She was actually feeling a little better about the situation, truth be told. "...but it's okay. Really," she continued. "We'll just forget it happened and move on." The corners of her lips may have even edged upward into a very tiny smile, which meant her good deed for the year was done.

...and it also meant that if the Puffer did it again, Sierra would hex her head off. This had been her fair and final warning.



With all that out of the way, Sierra collected a book about animal spirits and cracked it open to the first page. She began by listing a few traits she had and then seeing if it matched up with anything she saw.

Traits
Cunning
Serious
Ambitious
More comfortable in the night or in dark areas like the dungeons

Hmm... A jaguar seemed sort of appropriate for her. She wouldn't know for sure right now, though. Maybe in another year or so. She peered through the book in search of other animals. Oh, a praying mantis! She knew of somebody who had that patronus! Hmm... Female warrior energy... Attack strategy... That fit. She smirked and flipped through the book some more.

Oh right. That made more sense. Tori's hand popped back into the air as the professor addressed another student, however.

"So would it be possible to have an animagus of a crazy complicated and exotic animal, like say..... a dragon?"

Because that would be TOTALLY BOSS.

Alyssa almost stopped breathing and felt like her heart had stopped when she heard that she had lost 5 house points. She had worked so hard for every point that she had earned and started to tear up knowing that because of her stupidity she had lost them so easily. But Alyssa quickly stopped herself from crying by taking deep breaths. She wouldn't make a fool of herself again. She had to admit that it was her fault for not listening carefully to the Professor's instructions."I'm sorry, Professor. I promise to be more attentive in your class from now onwards."

Then Alyssa saw Sierra raise her hand, and she closed her eyes waiting for the axe to drop.

Alyssa was totally surprised that Sierra had said what she did. She smiled up at Sierra and nodded her head to show her that she had understood what Sierra had done for her. She respected Sierra for what she had just done.

Alyssa felt that she was given a reprieve and now she had to move on and concentrate on the lesson at hand. She browsed through the books again and tried to associate some of animal spirits with the historical figures mentioned earlier, "yes even some of my family members,"Alyssa thought to herself.

She then came across the traits of the deer or hart

"Okay, ability to listen, I definitely need to improve on that, but the others I believe I have. I wonder whether my patronus is a doe. Now that would be so awesome" Alyssa thought to herself.

"Very polite and understanding of you, Sierra. Three points for your maturity and good manners despite your discomfort." Professor Schirmer told the Slytherin girl.

She addressed the Hufflepuff next, giving the girl a nod. "We'll hear no more of it then. In future do respect other people's personal space, and I'm sure you'll make up your lost points in no time." Alyssa did seem to apply herself to her school work with great industry, something Professor Schirmer appreciated. She smiled at the girl encouragingly.

The interruption dealt with, Professor Schirmer scanned the class and listened to the discussions. It was nice how enthused and on task most of them were.

"I've not heard of an animagus form taking that of a magical creature, I suspect if it was possible, it would be without the magical associations of that creature. Perhaps have a chat to your Transfiguration professor and see if she's heard of it happening." Althea mused over it for a moment. "But a Patronus can be a magical creature of course." So in theory it was possible.... just highly unlikely.

Little Bunbury was full of good questions wasn't she? Questions were good. Althea always preferred people to ask rather than stay quiet and misinformed.

-------------------
Time for the next step. Professor Schirmer addressed the class.


"We know you need a strong happy memory, as well as strong focus and intent, but also sometimes the environment you are in will effect how well you manage a Patronus. Like here you are safe, its warm and light and pleasant, so it stands to reason that it would be easier to actually summon up that happy memory than it would be when faced with a Dementor or Lethifold. We are going to work on our Patronuses today but most of you won't be able to cast one. That's okay though, one day, if you work hard enough, you'll be able to."

But before that.

"I want you to think of your happiest memory. Something strong enough that you can focus on it easily, maybe something that makes you smile. It doesn't have to be relating to love. If you have more than one, lucky you! You can experiment to see which is best. You don't have to share it if you don't want to, but feel free to put your hand up and share if you do."

ooc: we'll continue in about 12-18 hours (depending on how many people post) so you have plenty of time to share or just have your charrie think about a happy memory.

Hmm... Katrina's happiest memory. That's hard. How about the time her sister said she loved her after the longest argument they ever had...nah, too touchy.

Aha! Finally... the firstie raised her hand.

"My happiest memory is the time my mother stopped rejecting me as her daughter when I was four. She apologized and... it was the best thing EVER."

Elise smiled. Her happiest memory? That was hard. There were too many to choose from.

After a few moments of inner debate, she found it. The time she and her sister had organized a surprise party for their mom. Her mom's happiness was catching, and El couldn't help but laugh at the memory of her mom with cream of her nose.

She didn't want to share it, though. It was personal and meant a lot to her. Maybe she'd share a different memory.

Eino became a little anxious when the professor announced that they would work on their patronuses today. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to know his patronus or not because it would most likely reveal something about him he knew he didn't want to know. He began fidgeting as the professor continued to speak, and then she instructed them to share a happy thought. This put him at easy. Thinking of happy thoughts made him happy, naturally, but he still wasn't as eager as the rest of the students. As for a happy thought, he raised his hand. "I had the most wonderfully delicious slice of cauldron cake this morning. I must say, it put me in quite a nice mood, too, because I couldn't find my bellybutton when I woke up this morning. I suspect my cat ate it." Just thinking about it now, he wanted another slice of that, and to find his bellybutton. Plus, it was very recent so he would be able to think about the memory with no problems. Hmmm, cake.

They were on about Corporeal Patronus already ? Beezus stifled a yawn as she fumbled with pages of her book. She got to admit. She was never a fan of those guys who had powerful Patronuses.

Resting her head on her arm that was placed on her desk, she tried searching for an animal that would likely suit her. Until...

"A cheetah," she muttered as she started reading its characteristics. Afterwards, she took note of it and thought it suited her.

Happy memory? Hmm...

Keefer thought about it. He usually focused on his first year when Hufflepuff had won the Quidditch Cup and Keefer had been a Beater. They had worked so hard all season and overcome so much to get to that point.

He scribbled down his memory and went back to thinking. Perhaps he had a stronger one in the back of his mind that would create a stronger Patronus.

Penny had been paying close attention and gasped a little when Alyssa had lost five points - she was extremely grateful that she had been reading at the time - otherwise, she, Penny would have lost points too...and Hufflepuff couldn't afford to lose any more points..

Then thinking about what Professor Schirmer had said - she would have to remember a really happy memory...

And then it hit her - Her Happiest memory was arriving at Hogwarts for the first time - that was definitely one of the happiest she's ever been..

Penny wondered if that was a strong or happy enough memory to produce a Patronus.

Schirmer. Put. A. BOOK. On. Her. Desk.

At first, it received glares. Ellie had a close eye on it so it wouldn't try anything funny. After a few moments, when the fifth year deemed it safe, her glares were averted back to Schirmer. Evil woman.

And, you know, since he was on her mind, the Ravenclaw decided to look for Little Professor's Patronus.

Chimaera....Chimaera....

Did...PFFT. The book didn't even have magical creatures in it! PFFFFFFFFFFT.

And Schirmer got another LOOK.