Lex raised an eyebrow at her. The girl's Ravenclaw logic wasn't holding up quite as well as she'd hoped. She kept her eyes on her for a moment, wondering just how serious she was hypothetically being. "Why a cord? If, hypothetically, the grindylows do show up and try taking your wand, or you and they latch on to it your hand could end up being severed. I'd like to think you have some need for you hand and wouldn't want it at the bottom of the lake?" Or not? 'Claws were an odd bunch sometimes. Logical, rational, but at the same time...not? She didn't really know. She just knew that she and Lottie knew the truth about them.

"You could use a sticking charm, that's one way to get it to stick but the ones I know are permanent sticking ones," there probably weren't any other kinds when she thought about it, "then you'd have to probably use a very painful method of removing it after. Otherwise you'll have it stuck to you and won't be able to use it. But that's just hypothetical as well." And there was another shrug.

"It's much easier to wait for it to get warm...or go swimming before it gets cold, if you ask me--that's not hypothetical, by the way." Just a suggestion.

Yeah, Tannner wanted a nap. She had just been swimming and walking skipping and jumping her way across the path, and she was getting tired. The sun was fun, but going outside all day was tiring and she wanted some sleep now. She had, after all, woken up early for this day.

Still semi- wet from the swim, she lay down on a patch of grass, throwing her shoes randomly to the left and then rolling over to look at where they landed. Thankfully, they did not land in the lake, and landed lamely to her left. Now she would feel more at peace. Good.

Sleep came quick, and so did random dreams that would make any sane person laugh. She had a dream she was being chased by the giant squid in the lake, that merpeople swam with her, and that she aced all of her classes and then did the newest American dance craze. Nope, it didn't have to make sense, apparently.

As she slept, she didn't even notice that grass was sticking to her clothes a bit, and that if she rolled too much she would look like the swamp thing. Actually, that might be funny. She could probably horrify her Pain in the Neck like that. Although it'd probably track dirt around school. She was trying to stay out of trouble this year.

Mo closed one eye, and then the other, considering what Mika might look like as a cyclops. Hilarious, that's what, but also a little disturbing. Imagine if girls just went around with one great big unblinking blue eye in the middle of their face. Mo rather thought that the eyes he liked were better in pairs.

He finished vacuuming around her neck and immediately stepped back out of her personal space. She was giggling and hopping around like a pygmy puff on chocolate covered espresso beans, and he was going to end up sucking off her lips if she wasn't more careful. DIDN'T MIKA WANT TO KEEP HER LIPS?

"Be careful, Creepy. You don't want me to suck off your face. You need it for seeing and tasting and smelling things," Mo brandished his vacuum hose at her. "Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to tickle you. And... you still have a real cute laugh, you know that? Does anyone ever tell you?"

He was embarrassed and immediately focused his attention back on the vacuum. "Vacavus," Mo tapped the hose with his wand. As soon as the vacuum started up, Mo started picking up dirt and small rocks from the ground at their feet. Dirty ground needed picking up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Mo closed one eye, and then the other, considering what Mika might look like as a cyclops. Hilarious, that's what, but also a little disturbing. Imagine if girls just went around with one great big unblinking blue eye in the middle of their face. Mo rather thought that the eyes he liked were better in pairs.

He finished vacuuming around her neck and immediately stepped back out of her personal space. She was giggling and hopping around like a pygmy puff on chocolate covered espresso beans, and he was going to end up sucking off her lips if she wasn't more careful. DIDN'T MIKA WANT TO KEEP HER LIPS?

"Be careful, Creepy. You don't want me to suck off your face. You need it for seeing and tasting and smelling things," Mo brandished his vacuum hose at her. "Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to tickle you. And... you still have a real cute laugh, you know that? Does anyone ever tell you?"

He was embarrassed and immediately focused his attention back on the vacuum. "Vacavus," Mo tapped the hose with his wand. As soon as the vacuum started up, Mo started picking up dirt and small rocks from the ground at their feet. Dirty ground needed picking up.

If it wouldn’t have been a problem for her safety and all – what with Mo vacuuming around her neck she would have cocked her head to the side at Mo and raised her eyebrow. So, since her face was newly mud-free she just raised her eyebrow at him.

Even though she was dying to know why he was squinting at her face she just stayed quiet for a minute. That stern look he gave her when she was all wiggly made her stop moving. Except to breathe since she’d never stop breathing…unless she couldn’t and if she couldn’t well – that wasn’t something she wanted to think about.

“Okay I’ll be more careful” she spoke quietly and barely even moved her lips to speak. Talent. It was all because of that creepy doll her mom had given her as a kid…Mr. Smiles; he’d come to an untimely end out of the window one day. It wasn’t an accident. Mr. Smiles still gave her nightmares. When Mo had finished vacuuming her neck-area, she was relieved really. No more wiggly giggly-laughter. “Its o-“ she stalled slightly as what he had said just registered. Her ears reddened under her hair. “kay” she finished, it didn’t even seem like she had been even slightly shocked. “I didn’t think you were it just happens…besides, I don’t go around telling people ‘Hey touch my neck and I’ll wiggle like a Mexican jumping bean’” she shrugged. He had just complimented her.

She glanced down at her feet for a moment, “ugh I really?” She asked stammering a bit. “I, no. You are officially the first person to tell me I have a cute laugh – my sister says I more cackle than anything.” She shrugged. Yeah but that was India being India.

She was still watching the ground and just raised her eyebrow at Mo when he cleaned up the mud off of the ground. “Hey! I have an idea – do you want to possibly be partners for the clean-the-school assignment Professor Flamsteed gave us? We could possibly go and clean the kitchens – and make food that’s not gross?” In other words she was slightly hungry and didn’t want to pay to go into the Great Hall cafeteria.

Teaching a gargoyle to dance? Well, maybe not.

Because she didn't want people judge her as an insane girl. She already felt that she's a little bit insane because she was talking to them. So.. No. No need to teach it dancing. Beside, she couldn't dance, that's the main reason.

Then, what should she do with her gargoyle now?

Christina just stared at her mini gargoyle and casted the spell again. "Piertotum Locomotor." Okay, how about asked it to do some acrobatic movement? Because they needed to train them for a circus right? "Can you do backflip?" She requested. Then she watched her gargoyle did a backflip. Cool! She couldn't do a backflip either, so should she felt a little bit envy now? "Then, cartwheel!" She watched her gargoyle also did a cartwheel. Seemed like it became a little bit tamer than before.

"Finite."

All right, how about some rest? Because training a gargoyle was a bit tiring for her.

Thank god the girl didn't yell at her, she was certainly not in the mood for any hostility. "Thank-you, if you don't mind, I'd love to join you." Folding her legs underneath herself, Audrey sat down next to the girls in front of the lake, the sun lightly warming her pale skin. She then turned to the girl who introduced herself. "Oh that's fine, it's nice to meet you Tora," A smile formed upon her face. "I'm Audrey Beaumont," she said aiming her introduction to both of the girls. "And you are?" She turned to the girl who had not introduced herself yet.

Okay, enough for the rest, Christina. Then she back to her gargoyle petted the gargoyle's head. At least it didn't make any weird act anymore. Looking around, Christina noticed gravel around her and suddenly she had an idea. Let's see if this gargoyle can do something with this thing. She smirked and grabbed one.

"Piertotum Locomotor." Then she put the gravel in front of it. "Can you do something with this? Maybe lift it?" She asked and waited for the respond. But the gargoyle just stood still, no exact movement. Huh? She just GLARED. Well, she still tried if it worked. "Okay, can you kick it? Yeah, kicking the gravel." She asked and waited. Perhaps it could, right? She watched again until the gargoyle moved its foot and..

YES! HER GARGOYLE COULD KICK THE GRAVEL! But...

"Ouch!" the gravel hit her forehead. Huuuuuh. Well, maybe that's enough for today. It's almost evening and she needed to go back to the common room. Christina packed her stuff (including her little gargoyle) and left this place soon before the sun set.

Dancing: Check. Star Jumping: Check.

Whilst Theo brought his gargoyle down to the lake for some more practice, he spent the whole way thinking of other things he could teach it to do, because he was having a bit of a brain fart. He arrived at the extremely busy lake and popped the gargoyle on the grass. Theo took a look around him first, surveying every person around him for security reasons, and then he pulled out his wand.

Let's DO this.

"Piertotum Locomotor!" He zapped the gargoyle aaaand... quickly! He needed a command for it. "JUMP!" Wow, possibly the most boring command ever, but it still made Theo giggle like a schoolgirl.

Could it do anything else, though? Theo held out his hand in front of the gargoyle and lay it flat on the ground. Now... "Jump into my hand." And without any fuss whatsoever, the thing jumped straight into his palm, and then it stopped. "Keep jumping!"

Don't remember telling you to STOP, hmmmm?

"I'm coming! i'm coming!" she was hollering as she ran down from the castle.. it wasn't her fault Dylan ran tryouts late and she was now like a bajallion hours late to meet with her best friend. " damn.. I'm sorry im so late.. tryouts ran late." and she was TIRED. but best friend time was Needed. " heh.. how're youuu? she sang in a way as she plopped down next to Min and fell back into the grass laying down, beads of sweat dancing on her fore head from rushing and running it was still a bit humid out and she hated it. Bring on the snow!

Theo soon got bored of the jumping, since it wasn't a very exciting trick. But this was the hard part, for him anyway. He squinted his eyes at the bopping gargoyle, pointed his wand at it, and... "Fin-ee-tay. Fin-eetay. Fin-eeeeeeetay." No, that was way too much.

He knew it, but he didn't know that he knew it.

"Fini-te!" The spell hadn't worked, and it continued to jump about annoyingly. Theo realized it was because he had hesitated a little during his pronounciation. No problem. "Finite!" The gargoyle froze mid-air, then plonked to the ground with a thump. Poor guy.

Did he REALLY want to make it do more tricks, meaning he needed to do more of that darn Finite spell?

Of course he did. This homework was for Professor Bellaire, it had to be his best efforts.

"Piertotum Locomotor!" The gargoyle sprung back to life, as he pretty much seemed to have that spell down, which was good. He watched it for a moment, then thought of something quick. "Do a back flip!" It did one, then stopped again. "Keep doing back flips." Until he said so. Mwahahaha.

Theo was TOTALLY gonna wear this thing out.

Nigel decided to go to the lake for a bit of reading. He had his bag loaded with the comic books he had forgot to read over the summer. His uncle kept him busy for most of the summer and left him with little free time. So Nigel decided to bring all the new batman and avengers comics he had because those were his favorite.

He looking around for a tree he can lean against. He did want some shade and a place to sit. Nigel did not like reading comics standing. He reached into his bag and pick out a random issue.

Now he was ready to enjoy a afternoon of reading comic books.

"Do a forward roll... and then back flips." Theo ordered, stroking his imaginary beard. Wouldn't Professor Bellaire be so impressed if he had taught his gargoyle a little routine? Was it actually teaching? Or would it all just disappear when he cast Finite? Never mind, she would still be impressed that he had learned this spell.

He watched his gargoyle obey his commands, and soon decided that he had it down and didn't need anymore practice.

"Fi... Finite." Theo pointed his wand at his gargoyle and it turned still as a statue straight away. Wow, did he really just cast it without any problems at all? Professor Bellaire would be SO proud. And maybe she'd let him keep his gargoyle as a token of his awesome spell casting. Maybe if he had the proper eye fluttering.

Theo tucked his wand and his gargoyle in his bad and skipped away from the lake.

It was FAR too crowded here. Theo hated the lake.

The Lake! Yeah that would be a nice place to do homework, yeah? Kat liked the sight of water. Like a seascape of some sort. It was relaxing and no dust because that was sort of important. The rooms in the castle, specifically the Slytherin Common Room you know, were all filthy and dusty. Kat was prone to sneezing cos of it. They needed to clean things up a bit, if that would help a lot... which it certainly would.

But now she was sneeze-free!

Kat took her gargoyle here for a 'walk' (but she carried him cause he was inanimate at the moment. Yeah. Cough.) The lake was a nice place and stuff, so why not here? Once she arrived there, she sat cross-legged on the ground and placed her gargoyle in front of her. "Piertotum Locomotor!" Kat casted it with a wave. Gary then started moving a bit. Okay... so... "Do a handstand. GO!"

And it did what it was asked. BEAM. "You're getting better and better, Gary, you know that right?" So yeah. Making momma proud. "Finite." Time to go, or else Gary would be swimming with Bartholomew Henry.

After leaving the library study area, Daichi had decided to go to the lake. He thought that the gargoyle wasn't listening to him to do a somersault because he had been practising on stone floors and maybe it just wanted a grassy area to practise.

And yes, he was aware that the gargoyle was made of stone, don't judge him.

Finding a nice space near the lake, the Slytherin placed the gargoyle down on the grass and it fell over because it wasn't as steady as a stone floor. Taking his wand, he pointed it at the gargoyle and waved. "Piertotum Locomotor!" he said and watched how the gargoyle sprung to life again.

"Hey Garly, do a somersault" he commanded and the stone rolled over its side. Seemed like it didn't mind where it was it just liked to roll.... "No, somersault over the grass like this" He steadied his hands on the grass, placed his head on the ground and rolled forward. A perfect roll! He sat upright and brushed his hair with his fingers. Woah...if only he could have done this in his first year.

"Like that, now you do it. Somersault" .....Why wasn't it moving at all? Aw man! the spell broke again. This was stupid! "Piertotum Locomotor!" the waved his wand and Garly *woke up* . "Somersault" Daichi waited and bit his lower lip as he watched the gargoyle place its stone hands on the grass and ...rolled.. like a somersault over the grass.

HA!

"Good good!" he cheered and clapped his hands. "Now bow" the gargoyle stood up and bowed waist down. EEEK can he keep him? "Okay, great job Garly Finite!" he grabbed the stone gargoyle and left the lake.

Minerva heard someone yelling, knowing the voice she chuckled as Jen came flying down the grass. Moving Flufffy to safety so that Jen wouldn't topple on her, she kept chuckling, "Take your time.. No need to run and risk falling." She wanted to make a joke about like how she fell at the feast, but she knew better being Ariana she was going to tease.

Seeing her lay down in the grass Min nodded, "Yeah I've been a bit sore from tryouts myself. I feel like I should done more strength training or something over the summer. I forgot how many muscles I use in my arm hitting the bludger." She was sore, but didn't care she loved it.

Smiling.. how was she.. Pulling her knees to her chest she leaned her head on them and looked over at Ari. "Brilliant.. amazing.. wonderful.. any of those would work." She laughed at herself, but she couldn't help it. Other then her horrible time in Astronomy and her extra work in Charms she was doing, the rest of her life was going great. "What about you? How are you?"

Before attempting to get to work properly, Sarah decided to do an experiment – could her Greg walk a tightrope? In order to do this Sarah had found a spot by the lack and stuck thins into the ground at either end of her rope length. Then she tied the rope at both ends, making sure it was taut. She then put some protective charms on so that if Greg were to hit the ground (very likely)he would not break.

Then she tested it on herself. She tried to walk it. The rope cut into her foot and soon she was on the ground yet Sarah knew it was her fault and the rope was taut enough.

“Piertotum Locomotor” she casted then she placed Greg on the starting point. He swayed with the rope. “walk on the rope” was Sarah’s command. Sarah’s brow furrowed as she worked hard on the ‘intent’ part of the job. Yet the image of Greg falling off kept coming to her mind and as a result Sarah soon heard a ‘plop’ as Greg landed on the ground. He was still whole, in one piece yet Sarah knew that the playing time must end and she needed to move on. By now a cool breeza had come on so Sara put Greg back in his box and cleaned up the play area. She wuld continue her job inside.

Mika got a slightly exasperated look. That was why he'd gone to get the vacuum cleaners, after all, and why he'd been vacuuming mud from around her person. It wasn't like he carried around a vacuum cleaner for funsies. If he did, that would make him some sort of cleaning super hero, and he'd need a cape. And a way cooler super power than making a vacuum cleaner run.

"Well. Your laugh is cute, but you are STILL dirty. I'm going to vacuum your other sleeve, and then we can go to the kitchens if you want. Although... d'you want to change clothes first, because you're still a little flakey and I'll end up following you around with the vacuum cleaner rather than actually cleaning anything." And that would be entirely besides the point.

"Vacavus," Mo turned on his cleaner with a touch of his wand to the nozzle, and he attacked Mika's other sleeve with some vigor. "Don't you dare giggle or I'll suck off your lips. You know I'll do it." There now... almost all the mud was gone and she wasn't a flaking mess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Mika got a slightly exasperated look. That was why he'd gone to get the vacuum cleaners, after all, and why he'd been vacuuming mud from around her person. It wasn't like he carried around a vacuum cleaner for funsies. If he did, that would make him some sort of cleaning super hero, and he'd need a cape. And a way cooler super power than making a vacuum cleaner run.

"Well. Your laugh is cute, but you are STILL dirty. I'm going to vacuum your other sleeve, and then we can go to the kitchens if you want. Although... d'you want to change clothes first, because you're still a little flakey and I'll end up following you around with the vacuum cleaner rather than actually cleaning anything." And that would be entirely besides the point.

"Vacavus," Mo turned on his cleaner with a touch of his wand to the nozzle, and he attacked Mika's other sleeve with some vigor. "Don't you dare giggle or I'll suck off your lips. You know I'll do it." There now... almost all the mud was gone and she wasn't a flaking mess.

Exasperated looks were so, so not needed. She just flushed a bit when he said her laugh was cute. She was still a little shocked that someone liked her laugh – seriously, it was nice because she did like laughing. And if people thought it was annoying they’d probably throw tomatoes at her to get her to stop laughing.

“Thanks, I’m glad someone likes it because I just like laughing” she smiled and when he commented about her still being dirty she just frowned. She wanted the mud off of her already. Though when he brought up following her around with a vacuum getting all of the mud flakes up she had to stop herself from laughing seriously he had kind of threatened to suck her lips off with a vacuum. So she just made a little eep noise and nodded.

“Fine I will try not to giggle…just don’t get my neck” she muttered slightly trying not to move too much as she didn’t want to accidentally get herself all ticklish again. So she just stood there.

When he had finished and she wasn’t as mudtastical she just beamed. “Thanks – and yeah I’m going to change.” She nodded "so…do you want to meet in the kitchen then? And make awesome food like toast?” she asked because that was obviously a safe and not lethal food option.

Inhaling a large gulp of fresh air had a grin spreading on this Baltazar's face. She loved the outdoors - though she loved her bed a little more. Sitting under a tree, she sprawled her legs in front of her and crossed them at her ankles. Yep. This was definitely the place to do some homework.

Taking the gargoyle from his box and setting him on a nice patch of not-yet-yellowed grass, Peyton watched it closely. They were on a hilly part of the grounds, but it'd just do. Taking her wand out once more, she said, "Piertotum Locomotor!"

This time Giles jolted to life. It had Peyton beaming at it. "Okay, do cartwheels. Lots of them," she said, carefully so it'd understand her.

Giles spread his gargoyle limbs and began cartwheeling. "Oooooooooh!" How awesome was that? Oh..."Wait!" The gargoyle seemed to have grasped her command, but due to where they sat, he began cartwheeling downhill.

"Come back to me, Giiiiiiiles." Peyton had no other choice, but to stand up and chase after the animated gargoyle.

Now salt water was another ingredient that had just come to Clement's head. He smirked to himself, as he wandered down towards the lake. At first he hadn't been too sure it would work, he had no salt. But then he figured that the kitchens must have salt. First he would go get the water though. He approached the lake, grabbing the little container out of his bag. Perfect. Bending down by the waters edge, he dipped the container into the water, and filling it about half way up. Standing back up, he put the lid on. Now just to get the salt. Now he could walk back up to the kitchens, but he was feeling a little lazy. So he was just going to accio them instead. Pulling his wand out, he pointed it up at the castle. "Accio salt jar" Now he just had to wait.

Hopefully the jar wasn't going to hit him over the head, because that just would not be good at all. Ahh. A few minutes later, and the jar was coming towards him. He held his hand out, and caught in. Squatting down, he placed both the jar and container on the floor, and opened the container, with the water in. He sprinkled some salt in, about 2 teaspoons, before putting the lid back on, and shaking it. So that the salt water could mix all together. Grinning to himself, after making sure the lid was on tight, he popped it into his bag, and wandered away from the lake.

Just find ingredients.

Well, that could be anything surely. Mud. Water.... HEH, water... Theo thought about that one long and hard but he didn't wanna start being funny with Professor Lafay, especially since she was getting pretty snarky with him lately. What did HE do wrong? Theo was a great student of this school, right?

As for the ingredients, Theo walked all the way to the lake because that seemed like a good place to start. His legs hurt, though, so it had better be right.

He got onto his hands and knees, with a little pot and looked for...

BINGO.

After shuddering a little, Theo scooped up a little spider that he had found creeping through the grass. That was surprisingly easy. He also saw a few ants and a caterpillar, but the caterpillar freaked him out like woah, so the spider would do for now. The Slytherin lifted the pot up and watched the creature jumping around everywhere.

Poor fella.

Minerva walked down to the lake in search of another ingredient. She was struggling on to what to get for her last ingredient. Knowing that the student garden and animal barn probably had everything she needed, she began to wonder why she was at the lake in the first place.

As she wondered around, stopping under a tree and trying to decide if she should turn and go somewhere else. Maybe she would look in her book first to see if there was anything here that would pop out. Sitting down she pulled her book from her bag. Skimming through different things, when she came across Acorns. Hmmm looking up at the tree she was under. Nope this was the wrong type of tree.

Standing she looked around and spotted an Oak tree. Walking over to it she looked around the ground and began gathering a few acorns. Placing them in her school bag, she was thankful that she had decided to check her book before walking clear over to the barns.

Jory hurried along the shore of the Lake, looking for the spot where he had seen those butterflies the other day. He was mighty sure he saw a caterpillar or two also.

"There it is!'' he muttered, spotting the familiar place. Yes, there were the flowers also. Like the one he had given Ronnie when she was feeling sad because she wasn't finding Oliver. He headed over to the shrubs ad carefully began to lift the leaves. "Got one!'' he said a few minutes later.

Plucking the leave with the caterpillar off of the shrub, he put it into a small ink jar, he had taken from his bag before he came down to the Lake. He had cleaned it out of course. He added three more leaves into it, before hurrying off again in search of more ingredients.

Nigel looked around for another ingredient and could not think of anything. Well there was plenty of grass. So he bent over and pulled some grass from the ground.

Well now he had his second ingredient. He put it in a test tube and put it in his bag next to the bottle of water.

Nigel wondered were he could find some awesome dirt or something else. He had no preference as to what the next thing will be.

He had not thought this through, and completely explained why on retrospective, it sounded like a terrible idea.

Which was not a difficult conclusion to draw when you'd taken off your cloak, rolled up your sleeves to your elbows, and the hem of your pants to your knees, kicked off your socks and shoes and found yourself nearly knee-deep into the lake in the middle of a Scottish autumn. Terrible idea indeed. Ezra would've admitted as much to anyone, which spoke volumes of how fantastically terrible his idea had been.

Ezra was a shivering, a little bit, which was counterproductive when anyone tried to catch a semi-aquatic frog. He was supposed to be still, he was supposed to be quiet - so he inhaled sharply, and shook violently for five seconds with his eyes closed. Then he relaxed - or tried to - and waited. There was a frog, nearby, which Ezra noted was slowly approaching him.

He knew enough about frogs to know that they were easily scared, and also knew enough about frogs to know that with patience and kindness they were easily captured, too. So when the frog was within touching distance, Ezra's hand was already in the water, and he allowed his index finger to gently stroke the underside of the frog's chin. It took a while - long enough for the rest of his fingers to join his index one -, an eternity maybe, but the frog climbed onto his hand. With some interest, he noted that its chin was white, and he felt a small stab of guilt for having captured a lady frog for potions.

What if it was a mum? Ezra tried not to think about it as he held the lady frog to his chest as he splashed his way to shore, no doubt scaring several other frogs in the process. Good. That way they'd swim away and no one else would be able to get one. Ezra muttered a small "Sorry" to the frog as he stored it in the empty jar, and quickly sealed it with the lid.

Now, back to the castle. But first he had to put on his socks and his shoes and fixed his uniform, which he did and wondered if it wasn't a good idea to just make a stop in the dorm and change before going back to the class. He was cold.