Kurumi had...never seen one of those before. The rocket launcher things that is and she looked nervously over at Selina while Professor Burbage went on to explain a little more about what they were doing. "Explaeris..." Kurumi whispered after the ELDERLY woman had instructed them on the spell. "I suppose that is Latin?" That question was pointed at Selina, by the way. At least this incantation wasn't too hard to pronounce. Not too many hard sounds that struggled to roll off her Japanese tongue. "Explaeris...explaeris....explaeris..."

Wait...the wand movement was...WHAT? Kurumi couldn't help but cover her mouth when Professor Burbage began to literally flap her wings like a bird about to take flight. But all desire to giggle at how ridiculous that looked went away when the rocket shot up into the air, momentarily losing itself in the sun's light. Oh wow... would her's really do that?

Once they were given instruction to go, Kurumi pointed her wand inside her bottle. "Aguamenti," she commanded, waiting until the bottle was filled to the appropriate level. "Finite." She then returned her violet gaze to her best friend. "You pick the launchers." Selina was better at this whole...air thing than she was.

Alright, then, Cora thought. She wasn't sure how confident she was about her rocket, besides that its wings were spectacular. She had no idea how this would work, but excitement brought a smile to her face.

Concentrating on the task at hand, Cora filled her rocket. "Aguamenti," she spoke, and her rocket began to fill with water. "I've missed magic," she thought with a smile. She looked around to make sure she had the perfect amount of water.

Such a crowd, Cora thought. But it was okay. Her rocket would be so much fun to shoot off. She wandered a bit to find an empty launcher, and maybe a familiar face.

THIS WAS IT!!!!!!!!! Faye couldn't remember a time of ever being so excited for this moment. She wanted to launch her rocket so high in the air. Man, she never wanted this lesson to end. She wanted to just keep setting rockets off over and over again. She smiled as she came out onto the grounds and listened to the professors final instructions for this.

Okay, to fill her bottole. "Aguamenti" Faye said and watched as a steam so tiny it stopped after just a few seconds of water come out of her wand. Jeez, this was going to take forever.

"Aguamenti" Faye said again with more gusto this time and her bottle filled.....and filled.....and filled....and then poored over the top. Wow...who knew this was going to be the hardest part of the lesson!!! After dumping some of the water out so she had just enough Faye was ready for the next step.

Wisteria loved her rocket. It may not have been the best, but she worked hard on it. She practiced color changing with her wand for a bit, kept her from being bored half the time, plus it amused her family.

She took out her wand and waved it gracefully in front of her rocket, "Aguamenti" as if expecting water to come and fill it--it didn't. Huh, she thought to herself, really? She tried again, "Agumenti" water started to fill inside the rocket and she watched as the level changed and before she could stop it a water fall drenched her clothes. "Well that's one way to start the beginning of the year. She looked to the Professor and sighed.

Hannah could just smell disaster. She knew deep down that nothing good could possibly come of this when they had puffers sending things in the air. She caught Elliot's look and her thoughts seemed to mirror Hannah's. She listened to the professor explain how the muggles did things. Ugh! This wasn't muggle studies so that wasn't relevant. As the professor was explaining how they would get the rocket to go using magic Hannah listened closer. She had to get this right on the first try.


O___O They had to do what? That's it!!! This professor is mental. There is just not another explanation. Flap their arms? She seriously doubted that had anything at all to do with the spell. This was probably some sick joke. The professor most likely just wanted to make them look like fools, feel all superior. Yup! That was the only logical explanation.


She blew out air and decided to get the show on the road. The quicker she could be done flapping her arms the better. She needed to first fill her bottle. With a flick of her wand she said "Aguamenti!" and filled her bottle halfway full. Ugh! She was not looking forward to the rest of the activity.

Cassia watched curiously how the professor launched her rocket, the girl mirrored the woman's excitement. Mainly because Professor was probably more enthusiastic than the kids and it had an effect on the twelve-years old girl right away. The second-year girl's eyes glimmered with excitement when the rocket shot up in the sky.

Though she had been so many things fly and she, herself flies with a broom, it was different seeing the rocket for some reason. It was fascinating.
As the Professor gave them the signal to start, Cassia moved and headed to one of the devises which the professor just used. But when she got to the launcher she remembered that she needs to fill her rocket with water. Cassia reached for her wand but didn't find it. Oh it was in the bag.
Striding to where she left her bag, Cassia bounced back to the launcher having retrieved the wand. So where were we?

She sat near the launcher and pointed her wand at the rocket bottle, "Aguamenti," She uttered. and stopped filling it with water when it reached half way.

*bliiiiiiiink*

Flap their arms?! Sierra frowned. She just bet Marion Burbage herself had created this spell. Or maybe it was just a joke to see who was naive enough to fall for the trick? Hmm... Nope. Sierra watched the demonstration, and it was true. The bottle rocket didn't shoot to the sky until the flapping had been done.

What a load of Hippogriff dung.

Sierra sighed and set to work filling her bottle rocket with water. First, she drew her wand, and then she aimed it right toward the part of the rocket she'd need to fill with water. "Aguamenti!" she said, and the water poured out her wand. She eyed it, waiting to judge when she had enough water, and then she ended the spell. "Finite!"

There. At least that part hadn't been too difficult to do. A simple Aguamenti had been mastered in her first year, but it was actually getting the bottle rocket off the ground Sierra was starting to wonder about.

The sixth year stood wide eyed at Professor Burbage as the woman organized herself to continue on. Whatever that thing was it could not be good. And it looked like Professor Burbage was going to use it... On them. Maybe if she ran the elderly woman would not notice that she had gone missing. However, in those nifty sunglasses the woman could probably see everything. Seriously, those glasses were extremely nifty. Where could she get a pair?

But when the astronomer spoke, Selina let out a breath she did not even know she was holding. It was JUST a launcher, whatever that meant. It wasn't what she had thought it was...

Her head snapped in her best friend's direction when the older girl whispered to her. The redhead did not want to get in trouble during class, but Kurumi drew her attention to the spell. Her blue eyes narrowed, "Yep, that's Latin," she whispered back, "It's rubbish though. Whoever came up with that spell should be ashamed of themselves." Seriously, Latin was so terribly butchered in spell making. It was a sin.

She was about to rant more when all of the sudden a rocket went boom.

That.

Was.

Awesome!

She didn't care if she had to do the chicken dance to get it to work properly. It was a nifty little spell... Even it the Latin was HORRIBLE. So with a newfound excitement she drew her wand and filled the rocket with the appropriate amount of water, "Aguamenti!" Once it was done, she looked to Kurumi for her question. She knew better...? Umm ok, "Er, that one!" she pointed to a random launcher.

Cassia eyed the quantity if water in her bottle. That should do it. Professor Burbage said not more than half way and that is exactly what she did. So putting her wand aside, Cassia examined the launcher closely. It was fixed on the ground by two legs or whatever their name was. And a hole at the top of it to where the bottles lid will attach.

Reaching for the rocket bottle, Cassia stood on her knees and fixed the lid to the hole. She removed her hands but the bottle tilted to the left.

Hmmm…..Cassia pushed the bottle down a little bit until she made sure that it's fixed and won't fell or bend.

Now what next?

Cassia paused remembering the next step. Oh practicing the spell. Um…what was the spell again? Cassia rose to her feet slowly stroking her chin. The spell what was it…it started with something like Exp…Was it Expecto Patronum? Nah that was for dementors.

Sighing after failing to recall the incantation, Cassia started to walk between students around her hoping that someone will say it loudly and clearly.

Alyssa listened as the Professor excitedly told everyone what they were going to be doing...which just confirmed Alyssa's hopes...that they would be launching their rockets. She watched as the Professor showed them one of the bottle rocket launchers, before demonstrating tot hem what they needed to do in order to get the rocket launched. There was water involved, and a couple of spells. She couldn't help but giggle when she saw Professor Burbage flap her arms like a bird before she realized that she was going to have to do that herself.

'Oh well, at least I won't be the only one that looks silly. As long as my rocket launches I don't care how silly I look.' Alyssa smiled to herself.

Alyssa pulled out her journal and quill and started writing down the instructions in order to make sure that she didn't make a mistake which cause her to fail to launch her rocket.



Alyssa put down her quill and journal and picked up her bottle rocket. She was ready to start the process.

Zack stood there sleepy head. Still he couldn't find some way to get rid of his sleep. He heard that seemed like from a very long distance professor was giving them instructions about what had to be done. It seemed like Zack's eyes were open but his mind was in some playground. All he could here was everyone was laughing or giggleing. He shook his head to get rid of his sleep and then he realised that professor was flaping he arm.

OMG! Where am i? He shook his head again to see more clearly what professor was exactly trying to do? What is this? Is she trying to be some bird? and then he heard what she was doing flapping! Okay, so she was trying to launch the rocket. He saw the rocket zoom up and his sleep vanished! All he could remember was the rocket zooming up in the air. Wow that's amazing!

As the professor was done giving them all the instructions they grabbed his wand and looked at the older student what they were doing. Okay, so first they had to fill the bottle. He pointed his wand at the bottle and said "Aguamenti" and saw the bottle filling up. So that was easy. Now he had to do the next part. Lets see what the others are doing. he thought and started looking around to see what was next.

When they were walking down to the courtyard, Aidan really wasn't excited at all. Because....he had no idea what was going on. Couldn't grasp the concepts.

But after seeing Professor Burbage demonstrate.............HECOULDN'TWAITTOSETHISOFF! !!!!!!!!!!!!

And was possibly just as equally excited for everyone else to set off their rockets. He liked the noise. Plus, watching everyone flap was a good laugh. Though he might have been spotted flapping along with the Professor during the demonstration.

So, first things first, he needed water. While he actually did know Aguamenti, he knew he didn't know it. So, he rocked onto his toes to peer over (or try to) other people to see where Kurumi had gone to. "Kurumi!"

She'd just do it for him right? Heh.

Alyssa checked the steps in her journal just to make sure that she was on the right track.



'Okay first fill it up with water' Alyssa told herself. Unholstering her wand, she pointed it inside the bottle and said,"AGUAMENTI" and water starting pouring out from her wand. She continued to watch as the bottle began to fill up and when it was about the right amount as what she had seen the Professor demonstrate filling her bottle, she said, "FINITE" to end the spell and to stop the water from spilling out of the bottle.

She holstered her wand and then walked over to the rocket launcher. Now all she had to do was to fit the launcher to the bottle without spilling any of the water.

Silvia was beginning to wonder if the courtyard was really the best place to launch their rockets, being so close to the castle and all. Not that a plastic rocket would hurt the stone walls or anything; but if it were to fly crooked and bounce off the nearby walls resulting in an erratic flight, they might have to duck down. So shouldn’t they be doing this in a more open field?

Wait…WHAT? Flap their arms? REALLY? That was necessary? This was by far the strangest spell casting movement that she had ever heard of. How exactly did flapping their arms like a bird keep the air from escaping the rocket? Couldn’t they just keep their wands pointed at the bottle and focus to keep the spell's effects going? Strange indeed. Just who came up with this spell anyways? There had to be a better, less embarrassing more sensible way...

O___O

So she was being serious, Silvia thought as she watched the astronomy professor perform the spell. Okaaaay then. Moments later, however, she was distracted when the rocket was launched into the air. That was awesome! She couldn’t wait to launch her own rocket. She hoped she did a good enough job of building it so nothing went wrong.

Well, first thing; she had to fill her rocket with water. Silvia pulled out her wand and pointed it into the bottle. With an “Aguamenti,” she filled the bottle part way, making sure to leave enough empty space for the air. Now that her rocket was fueled, it was time to prepare for launch.

Aspen had been a little busy with things in the classroom, so she was more or less still haphazardly (but accurately, as Odessas do) attaching the parachute. She made her rocket BLACK. All black. In teensy letters, she'd scratched out "The Bat" on the side.

Because all rockets needed a name.

And you know what? Water was a boring fuel. Aspen had other things in mind. She had Gary on the mind still.

West was off and set, and she was still keeping BOTH eyes out for someone with weird ideas about pranks in class (color changing pants was perfectly acceptable for deserving prankees during class, but not HOLES in pants of second years little boys), but afforded the lesson a little thought too.

....without thinking TOO much on flapping. If a spell required FLAPPING, then perhaps the muggle way was preferable. Flapping wasn't discrete. Good Merlin.

She approached the Slytherin with her black bottle in tow. "Gary. How are you feeling?"

Sarah loved using spells. She took out her wand and placed her bottle before it, rather carefullly, as she did not want it to spill. Which was very likely. "AGUAMENTI" she said, and the water began trinleling in. Soon Sarah, too scared to fill up her bottle too much said, "finite". It was not fill enough. She then tried again, stopping and starting she finallly had enough water inside, "finite" she said. Then she eyed her bottle nervously. Hopefully that was not a quarter of an inch too full... it was not.

Clutching her misshapen rocket in, Eliza hustled over to a familiar face. “Hey, Cora!” she said as she stumbled closer still. She wasn’t yet used to all of this walking. This school was so enormous! She was sure to get lost at some point. “Hi…I um, well I’ve been trying to catch up to you all day,” she said breathlessly. “Your rocket looks good.” She eyed her own construction disapprovingly. “I’m not much for building things I guess.”

She pointed her wand at the soda bottle rocket and concentrated on filling it with some water.

“Aguamenti.” Nothing. “Aguamenti,” she said more firmly this time.

A small amount of water began to pool in the rocket. “Wow! That’s brilliant! It worked!” Realizing she was probably a little too pleased with herself for casting such a simple spell, she quieted back down.

Elliot was listening intently...humming a little to herself...okay, put water in, blah blah, new spell, blah blah, wand movement, blah blah-

HOLD UP JUST A SECOND.

Flapping. Their arms. Elliot glared at the professor...what in Merlin's smelly socks was this?! Make a fool out of people class? She exchanged looks with Hannah, knowing full well that her Slytherin friend was feeling the same way...because this was just ridiculous!

With a sigh, she pulled out her wand...she practiced the little circular motion that went with the new spell, but she was NOT going to practice flapping her arms. Oh no. Just because Elliot was an eagle didn't mean she had to ACT like one.

This professor was CRAZY!



She saw Cora, and sent the girl a smile. "Hey...Cora! Nice rocket..." she said, giving her friend an encouraging nod. And if she needed any help, since, you know, the girl had been absent from Hogwarts for about two years, she could just ask Elliot.

Elliot didn't bite...hard.



She then turned to Hannah, muttering Aguamenti and aiming it into her bottle...."So...Lockwood..." she smirked, using her friend's last name was always fun. She raised her eyebrows at her friend, trying to send her a signal saying THIS IS COMPLETELY FOOLISH...and she hoped Hannah would get it.

Brain waves, here, buddy.

her smirk then widened..."Hey...I bet my bottle rocket will go waaaay higher than yours, Lockwood!" yeah! Bets, anyone? Elliot stopped pouring water into her bottle when it was just above halfway, and stuck her wand back in her robes' pocket.

Alyssa carried her bottle to the launcher. The contraption looked simple enough to connect to.

However, Alyssa found out that it was not as easy as she thought it would be. She kneeled down and tried to fix the bottle to the plug but everytime she did it some water would spill out. The Professor had made it look so simple.

Alyssa sighed in frustration noticing that the water level in her bottle had dropped and so unholstered her wand again and pointing it inside the bottle, said, "Aguamenti" but this time concentrated on the amount of water pouring out. She only just needed a small trickle, just enough water to fill the bottle back to the amount it was originally at. Once the bottle was partly filled again, Alyssa ended the spell by saying, "Finite" and holstered her wand.

Slowly carrying her bottle back to the launcher, she picked up the plug and ever so slowly tilted her bottle a little and managed to slip on the plug without any mishap this time. Now that the plug was on the bottle, Alyssa was able to release the bottle as the launcher was now holding it upright.

Alyssa took out her journal and scratched off the steps she had completed.



Now to practice the spell incantation and the wand movement. She looked around to see whether anyone was doing the 'crazy dance' yet. This was going to be funny to do and watch.

Seeing how Taylor filled the bottle rocket halfway with water, it was time to put it on the launcher. She shifted her weight, trying to waste some time before having to do the weird motion for the spell. Tay went over to one and kneeled in front of it so that it would be easier. She glanced around as she slid her rocket onto the launcher. Taylor stood back up again and dusted off her clothing. Tay took out her wand and took a few steps back, preparing to practice the spell that the professor taught them to launch it. Taylor was already starting to feel the heat rise to her cheeks as she thought about how embarassing it would look when she practiced then when she actually launch the rocket. Tay sighed and did a few deep breaths, thinking about how it should be okay since all the class would have to look just as ridiculous as she did.

Alrighty, now Faye needed to attach her rocket to the launcher....well....it was probably easier said than done. Faye was having trouble with all her magic today....okay...well everyday let's be honest she was no good at magic yet.

She smiled at looked around at her fellow class mates to see what they were doing, and hoped that she could copy what they were doing. She studied both her rocket and the launcher to see how it was all going to go.

When she finally figured it out, she connected the two of them and smiled yet again. She REALLY REALLY wanted to just set it off, but there really wasn't anything she could do about it until she practiced the incantations.

Dylan followed the professor to the courtyard, hold up this was the field trip? not outside the school walls? wow this was a big let down, he was so hoping that they would be able to leave the school and do the rocket launching or whatever they were here to do. He put his bags down where the others had put their bags and he followed the professor and he instantly noticed that there were these weird little things around he wondered what they were for but he knew that they would find out soon.



He listened the professor explained that those little things were rocket launchers, and they were for the bottle rockets that they had made. He listened as the professor showed them her bottle rocket that was filled with water and told them the charm that they could use to fill their bottles with water. Muggles used these things called bi-see-kal pmps? what weird names they come up with to name things he was just glad that they would be using their wand to launch their rockets.

He listened to the incantation and had a little practice of it "Explaeris" he mumbled to himself a bit "Explaeris!" well he was glad they would be using their wands he didnt want to use whatever the muggles used. Wait! they would have to flap their arms? she was joking right? there was no way that he was flapping his arms! He then watched as the professor demonstrated how to launch their bottle rockets, he watched as she did said the incantation and did the wand movements. He then watched in horror as she flapped her arms, but she also mentioned that not flapping their arms enough would stop their rocket from launching properly.

He then watched in amazement as her rocket went and launched itself into the air. Now it was their turn? oh boy and he would have to flap his arms too in front of everyone! He then went to a launcher and stood by it, ready to practice the incantation and wand movements. He decided to practice his incantation first "Explaris" that sounded right.. right? Nope it didnt "Explaerees" nope that still didnt sound right.. no it was more like explaeris right.. yeah that was it.. "Explaeris" ok so he had the incantation done, now for the wand movements. He traced several circles over his bottle before he was ready to fill his bottle.

Now that her bottle was filled to the appropriate level she had to attach her bottle rocket to the launcher. Was there a wrong or right way to do it? Yeah she paid attention, but it still seemed like attaching a rocket to a launcher is not something that you wanted to get wrong. Somebody should definitely be babysitting the puffers, and the lions too for that matter. Was Hannah the only one that was concerned about this? Hmph.


She took her bottle rocket over to the launcher and attached it. It looked right to her, but then again what did she really know about muggle things? Nothing. Oh well. It looked exactly like the professors when she demonstrated hers. So here goes nothing!




This was stupid. Atleast she knew could count on her friend Elliot to feel the same way about such nonsense. She gave her a dirty look and let her eyes cross to the teachers so she would know that the dirty look was intended for the professor and not for her friend.

"No way. Mine is totally going higher Morganzo." Hannah glared at her bottle rocket as if sending the message to it that it better not fail her!

Sierra reread the instructions, noting that she should plug the bottle rocket into the launcher next. She approached a launcher and got ready to plug in her bottle rocket. Then a thought occurred to her, and she glanced back at the rocket. Oh, ...good. All the water was still in there.

So now all she needed to do get this bottle rocket plugged in and then place the launcher a few yards away from everybody else. She wouldn't want her bottle rocket to crash into somebody else's. Not after all that hard work she just put into it. Or worse, she didn't want it to hit anybody. It'd be sort of funny, but she didn't really want to lose any points for a short thrill.

So she quickly plugged her rocket into the launcher then moved the launcher into a pretty much cleared off spot. Almost time to go now. Sooo, what was next?

Oooohhhh, so then...those things were supposed to be used to blast her baby to smithereens...hmm...she didn't approve.

Still she listened carefully to all the Professor was saying; only for the knowledge aspect really because she wasn't very interested in making her rocket go bye bye.

Nod...listen a bit more...nod again, this all seemed simply--THEY HAD TO USE ANOTHER BLOODY SPELL?!?!?! GAHHH!!! That was it! The last straw! Wasn't anyone planning to teach them some of these charms before hand? how was she supposed to know how to conjure water inside her rocket??? ....Oh no....and another one... Lex was about to freak out when she saw that the Professor was actually explaining this one. She watched carefully to everything she did and then the launching of the rocket.

WHOOOAAAA!!! "That was so cool!" She couldn't help but comment when she saw the rocket go air bourne. Her eye drifted to her own rocket.

Ummm...yeah...this is goodbye

But first she needed to know how to do the water making spell thingy!!!!!