Elijah arrived in the courtyard behind his fellow students, excited to be setting off his rocket. This had been a pretty cool lesson thus far except for the law talk and he was excited to finish it on a BANG!

He watched as Professor Burbage demonstrated the spells that they had to use and the one that would pump the rocket up and send it flying involved... um, flapping? Now, it was amusing to watch the older lady flapping about like someone who belonged on the fourth floor in St. Mungos, but Elijah was NOT going to be flapping. It was highly unattractive and someone as gorgeous as him did not, simply, FLAP.

"Oi you!" he said, spotting the firstie Gryffindor from the opening feast. "Come here! I need you to flap for me!" When in doubt, bribe a firstie, "I promise there'll be a reward..." he whispered this last bit so the Professor wouldn't here. He didn't imagine even Burbage would be happy with him bribing fellow students.

So there he was standing around with his precious bottle rocket in hand and looking around at the bottle launcher contraptions. His brows began to knit together--where are the pumps?

But his attention quickly shifts back to the Professor when she started giving out instructions. He watches her in silence as she demonstrated about filling the bottles with water.....

............
.......
...

.... is that what they're supposed to do to build the pressure in the bottle?

The Ravenclaw's gaze shifts around uneasily as the batty Professor kept flapping around like a chicken. There has got to be some kind of muggle air pump around here right?...

Yeah wishful thinking.

He watches the rocket shoot up into the air. Well at least that got him to smile for a moment. But when he realizes it was his turn now he cringed and stooped down to take a bottle launcher.

Well first things first. Fill up the bottle.

He unscrewed the cap and dipped the tip of his wand into the opening "Aguamenti" he uttered and water began pouring in....

Taylor stepped back from the launcher and sighed. Tay glanced around the courtyard, seeing if she knew anyone that wasnt taking astronomy and was just walking about. She took out her wand and did a circle in the air then started to flap. Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! Okay this is stupid AND tiring... Tay stopped the flapping and rubbed her arms. That part was easy. Tay had felt stupid flapping her arms around as if she was a chicken. She glanced around with a blush of embarassment. Now she needed to practice the incantion then she needed to do them both on the rocket and launch it but first things first, she needed to finish practicing... the movement was down, as embarassing as that had been and now onto the incantion!

For a while Lex just stood, staring down at the rocket. Maybe it was easily intimidated and staring at it long enough would produce some wonderful results...

STARE.

It didn't seem to be working...

Just then a voice broke into her already poor concentration. She turned slowly, realizing just how familiar the voice sounded. She scowled when she saw that it was only the nutcase from the feast. The one who promised to help them with their boy troubles--as if. She raised an eyebrow at him when he asked her to flap for him but her expression completely changed when he mentioned a reward.

The fact that he whispered that part told her that it was some pretty shifty business so she walked over to him. "Reward huh? Well in that case I'll want 6 chocolate frogs." BEAM--"Oh and I want you to fill my rocket with water." She might as well had put the air-head to use.

Taylor had felt really stupid flapping her arms that she didnt want to do it again but she had to do it a little bit later but not right now... no right now she had to practice the incantion. Tay sighed and put her wand up just in case. "Explaeris! Explaeris! Explaeris! Explaeris! Explaeris!" She sighed and rubbed her head. Tay glanced around and fingered her wand. Tay decided to practice the incantion five more times, "Explaeris! Explaeris! Explaeris! Explaeris! Explaeris!" The ten times of saying the same thing had grown tiredsome so she decided that it was time to finally do them together and make the rocket launch. Taylor took out her wand and stepped up to her rocket, preparing to do the incantion and the movment together to cause it to blast off.

A quick glance at the instructions told Sierra that the most ridiculous step in the process was next. She inwardly rolled her eyes at the very thought. WHYYYYYY did they have to flap their arms? What was wrong with another swirl or twirl of the wand?

LE SIGH.

Sierra picked up her wand and traced a circle with it. "Explaeris!" she said, and then she began flapping her arms. *FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP* Oh, MERLIN, she felt ridiculous.

Okay, one more try at practicing things, and then she'd move on and try to actually get her bottle rocket in the air. Again, she traced a circle with her wand, imagining that she was actually tracing it over her bottle rocket. "Explaeris!" she said, and then she began flapping her arms again. *FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP*

O_o

Dylan was now ready to start filling his bottle rocket with water, so he started practicing that spell too since he had never used it before. "Aquamenti?" no that was not it.. hearing a few others he tried it himself "Aguuaamentii" yeah that sounded like it and he stuck his wand inside the bottle "Aguuaamentii" a tiny spurt of water came out but then stopped, well that certainly wasn't right cause at that much he would be here for ages.

No the spell they were doing was producing more water than his little spurt, so there had to be some sort of error in his casting that he wasn't getting too much water. Mmm another try should do it "Agguaamennti" he said before he knew it he was thrown to the ground with the force of the water that had come out of his wand from saying the incantation wrong again. He shook himself from the water that he was now covered in, he slowly got up and looked for his bottle rocket

He saw that it was near some other students that were working on their bottle rockets, he went and collected it before returning to his launcher and trying his hand again at filling the bottle again.. he tried variations of the incantation on his bottle until he found the right one "Aguamenti" concentrating on what he wanted done he managed to fill his bottle halfway. There he had done that now finally! it had taken him quite long that he was sure many rockets must have been launched by now.

Harvey followed everyone out to the courtyard where their field trip was going to be, he saw some of the disappointed looks as some of the students realised that this was where their field trip was. What? did they think that they would be leaving the grounds and actually launching these rockets in the middle of muggle towns, what little kids didnt even know that. He then put his bag with others and listened as the professor demonstrated what they were supposed to do to get their bottle rockets launched. Well he didnt like the look of that part he actually had to flap his arms like that.. like a fool to get his rocket up into the air? why couldn't they just use a bicycle pump he knew how to launch a rocket with that. But he knew he was at Hogwarts and at Hogwarts there were no muggle items except if you were in Muggle Studies. So he went and stood by a launcher and started practicing the incantation and the wand movements. He created circles over his bottle several times before he was sure that he had that perfected, now it was time for the incantation. "Explaeris" he practiced "Explaeris, Explaeris, Explaeris, Explaeris" well that was done he knew that incantation and the wand movements now onto the next part, filling out his bottle.

Now it was time for Alyssa to practise the incantation and wand movement for the spell to launch the rocket.

First she practised the incantation. Slowly pronouncing every syllable to make sure that she had it right.

"EX-PLAE-RIS...explaeris...explaeris...explaeris."

Alyssa kept repeating the incantation over and over again until she was sure that she had the words right. Now it was time for the wand movement.

Trace a circle over the rocket and then flap your hands. Alyssa laughed tracing a circle over the rocket was the easy part. Trying not to look like a BIG BIRD trying to fly was another.

'But a wand movement, was a wand movement. Time to start practising it for real' Alyssa thought to herself. Using her hand as if it was her wand, Alyssa practiced tracing a circle over her bottle rocket, said the incantation,"Explaeris" and then looking around hoping no one was looking at her, started flapping her hands like they were big wings.

FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!

FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!

'Okay that's enough practice.' Alyssa laughed to herself. Now let's see whether we can get you flying.[/i]'Alyssa pointed to her rocket.

Cora smiled at Eliza, who Cora already owed for finding her book, which would have been a HUGE problem if she went without.

Cora blushed a bit when Eliza complemented her rocket. "I hope it works," she said, a bit doubtful. "Oh, I don't know about that. Your rocket has quite a bit of character." Cora said with a smile. She liked Eliza's rocket, and really, it didn't matter what it looked like if it worked. She watched Eliza attempt filling her rocket with water, and was about to offer help when Eliza did it! "Hooray!" Cora said. "Now for the rest of the steps."

Cora focused on her list.

filling your bottle rocket with water. done.
attaching your bottle rocket to the launcher. Okay, time for that.

Cora clumsily dropped her rocket when attempting to attach it, but she picked it up and it was few. She took a deep breath and more carefully this time, attached it to a launcher.



Cora spun her head around and beamed at Elliot. "Thanks, Elliot. Your rocket is AMAZING." Of course Elliot's rocket would look wonderful. Elliot was closer to being done then Cora, but that was okay. Cora was taking her time. "I just hope this works," she said, partly to herself.

Cora consulted the list again:

filling your bottle rocket with water. done.
attaching your bottle rocket to the launcher. done.
practicing the incantion (Explaeris) & wand movementt (tracing a circle over the bottle and FLAPPING YOUR ARM).

Cora's wand arm shook as she tried to practice the new spell. "Explaeris!" she called out, and attempted to imitate the silly motions. This felt ridiculous. AND, more importantly, it didn't work. Hmmmm. Cora turned to Elliot, who would definitely know what to do. "Any suggestions?"

"Explaeris, explaeris, explaeries..." Awar repeated several times. "Explaeris." Okay, that was good enough.

Now time for some arm flapping. She began flapping her arm. This reminded her of a play she did at her old muggle school. She was cast as the ugly duckling -__- FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP. Not long after her arms started to ache. OW OW OW OW. Okay, that's enough. She rubbed her arms and shoulders.

Tay sighed as it was time to do the stupid looking movement and incantion. She took out her wand, did the circle on her rocket, "Explaeris!" Taylor flapped her arms as she stepped back. Flap... step back... Flap... step back... Flap... step back... Flap... step back... Flap... step back... All the way until she reached the spot where they stood to watch it launch. With one loud noise, the rocket blasted off. POOOOOOOOP after a few seconds it was followed by SHOOOOOOOM! Tay watched in awe as her rocket shot up into the air. Taylor smiled then after it fell back down, she waited for the next set of instructions.

Okay, that was way more than enough flapping for the time being. Only, Sierra knew she'd have to do it all over again in a few minutes. It was time to try the spell for real this time. She knelt down beside her bottle rocket, which was plugged in to the launcher. Or, she hoped so, at least. She better check things one more time before attempting the big liftoff.

Sierra leaned in closer and checked to make sure the bottle rocket was firmly plugged in. If it was loose, it might not even take off. Or it'd take off, but it'd shoot sideways or something. UGH. Why was she getting so worked up about this? Oh. Right. She loathed failure, especially when it was her who was doing the failing.

Everything checked out just fine, and the water was still in place, so it was time for the big liftoff now!

Harvey then went onto the next step which was to fill up his bottle rocket well that was easy seeing as he had used this spell many times in the past, he stuck his wand inside the bottle "Aguamenti" now he knew that he was only supposed to fill the bottle halfway. But somehow he got distracted in looking around at what everyone else was doing and not realised that his wand was still gushing water into the bottle. He only realised what had happened when the water started overflowing onto his shoes and got them wet "Oh no! Man.. now I got wet shoes" he said to himself fustrated. He then emptied the bottle and did it again, he stuck his wand inside "Aguamenti" this time he sure that he wasn't distracted and that he filled the bottle to halfway. There now he had finally done that without making himself wet anymore.

Alyssa looked around to see whether anyone had successfully launched their rockets yet. She saw Taylor had successfully launched hers and was anxious to see whether hers would do the same.

Unholstering her wand, Alyssa walked up to her bottle rocket and looked at it. In her mind she spoke to it It's time to fly....up up up to the sky' Alyssa then walked around the launcher to make sure everything was still intact.

She closed her eyes and imagined her rocket flying. She then concentrated on the spell to launch the rocket. When she was ready to cast the spell, Alyssa opened her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out. Pointing her wand over her rocket, she traced a circle over it, said the incantion,"EXPLAERIS" and began flapping her wings arms as hard as she could.

FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!...and took a few steps away from the bottle rocket, while continuing to flap her arms.

FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!.FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!.

Then something amazing happened. She heard the loud sound of rushing air coming from where her bottle rocket was standing. Alyssa continued to flap her arms more vigourously now.

FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!.FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!.FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!.FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!

.....and PPPPPOOOOOOSSSHHHHHHHH!!!! her bottle rocket was thrust up away from the launcher and into the air. Alyssa watched as it soared up high into the sky. Then when it started to lose thrust it began to arch and make it's quick descent down. As Alyssa watched, she saw the top part of the bottle disconnect from the bottom half of the rocket and the plastic bag inside it unfolded like a parachute, slowing down the bottle rocket descent, as it slowly glided down back to her.

Alyssa held out her arms and caught it before it hit the ground. It felt a little warm to the touch, so she quickly lay it gently down on the ground for it to cool down. She felt exhilarated watching her rocket's launch and couldn't wait to see the other students launch theirs.

Elijah could tell the girl hadn't been happy with the way he had shouted her over, but he genuinely couldn't remember her name and surely it would have been more insulting had he referred to her under a false one? Either way, as soon as a reward was mentioned, the girl changed her tune and Elijah grinned. No need for him to look like an idiot flapping around, then.

The girl put forward her demands and Elijah saw them as reasonable. She wasn't even asking for money, which surprised him, but who was he to force on gold to someone who didn't want it? "You got yourself a deal," he held out his hand for her to shake.

With protocols over and done with, it was time for Elijah to fill up both rockets with some water. Aguamenti was a spell Elijah was familiar with and he had, in fact, soaked the DADA Professor in one of the Charms lessons with that very spell...

He pointed his wand to each of the rockets in turn and filled them just under half way up, hoping that it would be enough to give each rocket the big boost they needed to make this whole exercise worth it. "What do you think? Do you think that'll be enough?" he asked of the firstie, as if she'd even have a clue. It was nice to make her think that he actually cared what she thought, though, right?

Kurumi really wouldn't know if a spell was rubbish or not, so she sort of just smiled and nodded at Selina. "If you say so..." Kurumi knew nothing about Latin, obviously. Besides, spells weren't always perfect translations of Latin words anyway, right? They had had that discussion in Charms one term if she remembered correctly. Which made her miss Professor Schirmer...a lot.

Swirling the contents of her bottle a bit, Kurumi followed Selina's extended finger towards a launcher. "Alright, you take that one and I'll take the one next to it," she nodded, practically dragging her friend towards that area of the courtyard. Kurumi then crouched down and picked up the launcher, turned it upside down, and then sort of just...snapped the bottle on to it. Was that how it was supposed to work? Turning the device right side up, Kurumi nodded when there was no water leaking.

"So...now we...flap?" Kurumi said, looking at Selina out of the corner of her eye.

Or not. Hold that thought.

"Hey Aidan," Kurumi said, waving at the Ravenclaw as he came close. She eyed his empty bottle and then went back to looking at him. "Do you...want me to show you the Aguamenti Charm?"

Lex didn't remove her gaze from him until he agreed and the terms of her agreement were considered and accepted. Smart boy. It wasn't like she had asked for very much either, just six chocolate frogs and a spell. Eating six chocolate frogs would no doubt have disastrous after effects but she didn't care...all she could think about was the chocolatey goodness squirming in her mouth right before she ripped the head off...so goooood.

She stepped back, placing her bottle next to his and watched him get some water in them.

Hmmm....

Lex picked up her bottle and inspected it from every angle; turning it up-side down, all vertical like and even horizontal, you know, had to make sure pretty boy did a good job before she wasted her time and energy flapping.

"Good." She said, placing it next to his once more. "Now do the spell on both bottles and I'll start the flapping." It was pretty obvious that she didn't know either of the spells so he couldn't have expected anything less than a last minute addition to the deal.

Once Awar finished soothing her arm, she proceeded onto the next step. She knelt down next to her awesome (or so she thought) rocket.

She pointed her wand into the bottle. "Aguamenti" Her half of the bottle started filling up. She meant to stop at 2/3 of the bottle, but for some reason her wand wouldn't stop spilling out water. She tapped the wand, only causing it to gush out even more water, drenching her completely.

Frustrated and her wand having stopped after it went berserk on her, she scavenged through her bag for her spell book. She pointed her wand at herself, "Tergeo" The water dried up from around her.

In all the commotion, she kicked over her bottle. She sighed and rolled her eyes. She filled back up her bottle and sat on the ground. Just a little break.

Elliot shot a grin back at Cora..."Thanks..I do try, you know, it's not too hard being this wonderful, though..." She told her smugly with a smirk. Eyebrow raised, and her eyes were lit up with enthusiasm..yep...

She attached the bottle rocket to the launcher..which wasn't too hard, but well...that didn't mean Elliot hadn't gotten it wrong. She very well could have.

she watched Cora do the wand movement...oh Merlin...she sooo didn't want to do that..."Try to do a circle movement with your wand...while saying the spell," she suggested, noticing that Cora had somewhat NOT done that. Just a friendly tip...from an all-knowing Ravenclaw...*snort*

She had already practiced..but then again, practice couldn't hurt, right?

Heehee. Sending glares to the professor was always fun. Especially when accompanied by the ever lovely Hannah Lockwood. She chuckled, and then did the wand movement...she still refrained from doing the flapping.

"We shall see...what do I get if I win, hmm?" she asked slickly, smirking in an evil fashion at her friend...MUAHAHAH!

Elliot was sooo going to win...

She glanced around...some people had started flapping...oh Merlin. Elliot stuck her wand inside her pocket, and flapped, but only mildly...She shot a look at Hannah..."Is this right? No I should flap more when I actually do the spell..." Yep. But Elliot didn't WANNA!

Marion walked around, clanking her heels against the stone while she laughed and clapped as students prepared their rockets and got to flapping. "Very goooooooood darlings," she called merrily as she scurried along. "Keep flapping! Just keeping flapping! Flaaaaaaaaaapping!" she sang, giving her own arms a little bit of a flap as she did.

As she approached a pair of students, Marion felt her foot somewhat slip on something. Oh? A piece of parchment? Must be a student's notes from her lesson. She turned it over to see if there was a name on it when she saw what the parchment truuuuuuuuuuuuuly was. Her eyes RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN down the parchment, eyebrows furrowing and mouth clenching so tightly that suuuuuurely it would cause her to wrinkle prematurely.

"WHOOOOOO WRITES THIS RUBBISH?!" she shouted as she THRUUUUUST the parchment into the air.

Whoever it was was about to be sent into orbit. She was going to shrink them down, attach them to a bottle rocket, and up up UP AND AWAY they would go!

Elijah watched as the ickle picked up her bottle and began turning it in all these different angles, inspecting his work. If she was anything she was thorough... and weird. Thorough and weird. Yep.

When she seemed quite satisfied that his masterful spellmanship was adequate enough for her, she placed her bottle back down next to his. "We'll try it one at a time," because Elijah was unsure if he could do transfer-flapping if he was the original caster of the spell... Although he did have plans if it did fail...

Holding his wand above the ickles bottle, he rotated his wand around the top of the bottle and cast, "EXPLAERIS!!!"

"GO!!! START FLAPPING!!! FLAP WHAT YO' MAMMA GAVE YA!!!"

SPOILER!!: Burbz

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marion Burbage

Marion walked around, clanking her heels against the stone while she laughed and clapped as students prepared their rockets and got to flapping. "Very goooooooood darlings," she called merrily as she scurried along. "Keep flapping! Just keeping flapping! Flaaaaaaaaaapping!" she sang, giving her own arms a little bit of a flap as she did.

As she approached a pair of students, Marion felt her foot somewhat slip on something. Oh? A piece of parchment? Must be a student's notes from her lesson. She turned it over to see if there was a name on it when she saw what the parchment truuuuuuuuuuuuuly was. Her eyes RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN down the parchment, eyebrows furrowing and mouth clenching so tightly that suuuuuurely it would cause her to wrinkle prematurely.

"WHOOOOOO WRITES THIS RUBBISH?!" she shouted as she THRUUUUUST the parchment into the air.

Whoever it was was about to be sent into orbit. She was going to shrink them down, attach them to a bottle rocket, and up up UP AND AWAY they would go!

In the process of giving some motivational SHOUTING to his ickle slave helper, he almost jumped out his skin as the Professor started screaming. He noticed the parchment in her hand and he could only guess what it must be she was reading.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his own copy of Aparecium and saw the updated article appear. The first paragraph was enough to understand WHY Burbz was angry, but he was shocked to see his OWN mention in the latter ones. "Don't worry, Professor. I'm not too young for you. There's hardly an age difference between me and your wonderfully young self," he said, winking and hoping his charm would help calm her down despite the nastiness of the article...

But, anyway. Who WOULDN'T be fond of Elijah? He WAS afterall a 'studmuffin'...

So what did she have to do now? Practice the incantation and wand movement. Simple enough, she thought to herself. Oh wait...she almost completely forgot that part of the practice that she was about to do included arm flapping. She looked around just to make sure that this wasn't some cruel joke to make her look like a fool. Sure enough other students were doing it, and she also spotted her house prefect doing it so surely there wasn't going to be any getting out of it.


Deep breath! She managed to keep all of the ugly thoughts to herself so that was an accomplish right there. She practiced the wand movement by tracing a circle over the bottle. That was easy. She really didn't even need to practice that. Then she started practicing the incantation. "Ex pla eris!" That's right Lockwood feel the word out. She didn't want to go and make a fool of herself and say it wrong and have a disaster happen to her. "Explaeris...Explaeris...Explaeris." There she had that down pat.


There was no more avoiding it...she would have to move on to the arm flapping now. Still did she really need to practice that? Just in case the professor was keeping a close eye on her she decided to go ahead and flap! Gross. Flap, Flap, Flap, Flap, Flap! She felt ridiculous and she had a scrowl on her face just daring somebody to say something to her or look at her wrong!



Hmm...what would you wager when you have everything? Then her mind turned evil...of course. "Whoever loses has to go up to a puffer and tell them how much you like them and tell them how much you wished you were put in their house." Ha! That would be good. Hannah's rocket had to go further! Then she questioned if she was doing it right. Who knew when it came to flapping. "Your guess is as good as mine. Less flap is always good in my opinion." Heck, what did she know though? She never would have guessed that they would be flapping like fools in Astronomy!

Oooo pretty parchment. Lex watched the Professor throw a parchment in the air and watched it fall to the ground. Well...she seemed really upset. Reaching down she picked it and scanned the contents on the page for a moment.

O_____O

She looked from the parchment to the Professor then over to pretty boy. "You....the Professor...I don't think I understand!!!" She waved the paper in his face--because she couldn't do that to the Professor-- "Explaiiiinnnnn this!!!"

She stopped ranting for a moment when he suggested they would do one bottle at a time. Of course, being the smart 11 year old that she was she didn't want to end up being tricked by another older kid. They could be pretty cruel when they were bored.

Oh! But he was offering to let hers go first. Hmm....so Pretty Boy wasn't so bad afterall. She nodded then watched him cast the spell.

And now it was her turn. Flap flap flap flap. Nothing seemed to be happening so she tried flapping harder. FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP.

Elliot shook her head at Hannah..."You're on, Lockwood. And the winner gets to the pick the puffball..." added to the challenge...yep. more at stake, the more Elliot was inclined to try.

So she better start practicing...LIKE NOW.

Less flap...Elliot disagreed, but she didn't say that...sure, Hannah, think that...and then I WILL BE THE VICTOR. She quickly took our her wand and did the little circular motion...okay, okay...and then..

FLAPFLAPFLAP. She flapped her arms a bit...and the rocket began to take off...but she only wanted to practice! So she quickly stopped, and then the rocket fell back to the ground...okay. So she was doing it right...good.

And now...to beat Hannah...