That. Thing. Was. Uggggggggggly. It was like a white yeti with giant sheep horns. Mitchell continued to stare at the picture wondering how that thing moved. Did it run on two feet? Four? Four and the horns? Maybe it just rolled around?

... and why were they studying it? What exactly did Teach mean by "until now." Ominous. Veryyy ominous.

And fire or ice didn't stop it. Noted. Not that his first reaction would be to light something like that on fire. He wasn't crazy. You tie things like that up and make a run for it. Oh. Sweet. That was the proper response too.

Now it was time for the practically part. Mitchie obviously chose really good times to space out. He casually aimed his spell towards his shoes. Sideways candy cane flick. Seemed simple enough. He tried out the wand movement a few times before saying "Henshu."

Now. Were they going to be given an ice rink to test the spell out on? Because that would be fun.

Bay listened and learned that they weren't going to learn to leg locker spell, oh well he couldn't wait to get started.

Planting his feet he took out his wand and twisted in the air as the Professor Romanos did.. like a weird sideways candy cane. "Henshu" Bay Practiced. "Professor am I doing this right?" he asked while swiping the grey hair away from his face.

"Henshu" that has to be right… right...

Sander had to admit that he had thought of suggesting the Stickfast Hex spell but after the younger Hufflepuff had provided the same answer he was going to suggest himself, he didn't want to sound like he was copying the younger lad.

But that was alright, he had at least given another possible answer. But it was now time to practice the new spell. He quickly wrote down the incantation and the wand movements into his journal.



First he practiced saying the incantation, "Henshu....Hen..shu...Hen...Shu....Henshu"

Then he practiced the wand movements. Taking out his wand, he made a quick twist, followed by a horizontal flick. He practiced it over and over again until his wand movements became fluid and smooth.

Tessa watched closely as the Professor performed the wand movement, practicing it a few times on her own as the Professor kept talking. She wanted to get it right. As they were allowed to practice, she quickly scribbled down a few notes on the spell and how it was performed before turning away from the parchment to do the fun part- practicing!

"Henshu," she murmured to herself, making sure the pronunciation was correct. "Henshu. Hen-SHU. HEN-shu... Henshu." Finally comfortable with the spell wording, she did a few more twists and flicks with her wand, making sure her wrist was properly warmed up to the motion before she tried the spell.

"Here it goes," she murmured, looking down at her left shoe. It wasn't leather, but she hoped it would still work. She made a note to invest in some leather soled shoes. "Henshu," she cast, performing the proper movement of the wand. Now, to test out her 'new' shoe!

So she hadn't even been close in her answer to the question. Now that she thought about it, this spell made a lot more sense since a quick getaway from an evil demon was a good thing. The Chort would be haunting her dreams tonight, that was for sure.

With her wand, she made a sideways candy cane motion with her wand while saying, "Henshu." She repeated the spell over and over again to practice as she tried to keep her head as clear as possible; if a Chort ever came near her, she wanted to be able to get away quickly.

Sideways candy cane motion. "Henshu." Sideways candy cane motion. "Henshu/" Sideways candy cane motion. "Henshu."

After a little while of practicing it in the air, she decided to try it on her shoes. Sadly, they were not leather, but they would have to do. Looking down at her feet, she cast the spell on her shoes. Hopefully it would work.

Henshu? It didn't sound like a Latin base, which would normally interest Mo at least a little. Not at the moment, though, because he was busy staring at his shoes and thinking about whether or not he wanted them to be grippier. Plus, he was thinking about running away, and about casting the spell correctly.

He had a very busy brain.

And sideways candy canes made him really hungry. Mo practiced the motion again and again before pointing at his left shoe. "Henshu." Did it work?

West did the candy cane again, and this time put it with the incantation. "Henshu!" And at his shoe of course. Just one shoe. He stood up and compared them, trying to work out if the bespelled boot was in fact more grippy. If he'd done it right.

... it FELT like it was... maybe?

He was less aware of the slickness of the floor at least, so that'd help with balance definitely. Maybe the other boot too then, see how it went?

See he WAS at least TRYING in here, even if he had bones to pick and all.

"But that's not defensive!" Gwen blurted automatically. She felt bad right after. She didn't want to lose her house points, but really! Running away was cowardly. Besides, what if they were in a situation where they couldn't run? How were they supposed to defend themselves against this demon? It wasn't fair, preparing them to be helpless.

"Sorry," she apologized. "But what if we're on mud, or sand? It won't matter how much traction our shoes have got. They'll stick to the ground right beneath us and that's it, right?" Didn't anyone else see the problem with this?

Oh? An eyebrow twitched upwards momentarily.

"Quite right." Despite the girl's troubled thoughts, Medea didn't particular understand where the girl wanted to go with this. "And I'll be hoping, as smart as you students are, if you're in a situation vhere you are stuck in a deep muddy or deep sandy areas, you'll know that this spell vould be quite pointless." Because they WERE smart students. Not ones to make excuses for everything and not think out of the box.

"There is not a spell out there that has universal effects, Miss Jensen. There vill be parts you vish a spell had, and doesn't. It's frustrating, I know. That is vhy, ve must take time to study all options. Vhich you can do on your own, or vait and hope that vot you vont to learn vill show up in your lessons." Which could take a long time or not at all. "Today though, ve are learning Henshu."

She took a moment before her attention was turned to Victor. The spell's incantation she heard, but the movement she had yet to witness. YET. "Your pronunciation is vonderful." she smiled lightly and nodded to the fifth year. "Let me see the vand movement."



None of them slipped getting up so far, sooooo...

Good. Good progress so far. They were using their senses at least.

"Try and skate upon the floor." she suggested, glancing out across the class. "If you can't, than you know you've done the spell right. If you're too stuck to the floor vhere you can't move, than a simple 'finite' vill reverse the effects. Same goes for reversing the effects of this spell in general."

Gwen wanted to argue more. The class was called "Defense Against the Dark Arts." This was hardly any form of defense at all. But she had done enough arguing for one class. Besides, the teacher seemed to have the sort of air that told her if she tried to argue more she would certainly lose, and Gwen didn't like losing.

Time to try the spell. Gwen looked down at her ragged cotton shoes. Certainly not leather. And she was a little bit afraid that if they stuck to the ground they would come off of her feet. Well, that wasn't the point, apparently. The point seemed to be that she learn the spell, no matter what reservations she had against it. She processed the thought bitterly, careful to keep a smile on her face. Ever the lawyers daughter.

"Henshu," she tried, mimicking the wand motion and ending with the wand pointed at her right shoe. Experimentally she slid her foot forward across the ground. Nope. No traction. It was because it lacked intent. She had been here long enough to know that intent was half the battle. For a moment she imagined that they were learning actual defense. She wouldn't want to slip in the middle of a fight. "Henshu!" Again. This time it was more difficult to slide the foot, though jumping clearly wasn't a problem.

This class was useless and Gwen was angry at it. Why didn't anybody else have a problem with the fake defense? She supposed she could do research on her own, the way the professor had suggested, but it wasn't as easy for Gwen. She didn't understand that it would take Gwen an hour to misread a page, or she would have to convince another student to read it to her. She'd learned quickly that audio books didn't exist at Hogwarts.

Now the left shoe. Done. This was easy and pointless. Smile, nod, do as you're told, and study by yourself later, she instructed herself carefully.

Okay it was time for him to try the spell on himself. Knowing how slippery the floor had been for his leather shoes earllier, Sander was eager to see how it felt after he had cast the spell on his shoes.

With a quick twist and a horizontal flick of his wand, he pointed it down at his shoes and concentrating on what he wanted the spell to do, he said the incantation,"Henshu!".

Now to see whether the spell worked. Sander slowly moved one foot and another. He could actually feel the soles of his shoes grip the floor better than it had done earlier at the beginning of the class.

Then he heard the Professor's suggestion. Skate? Sander began to grin. Why hadn't he thought about trying out the spell that way. So he first ended the spell, pointing his wand at his shoes and said,"Finite."

Then he let fly as he moved his feet in the way he did when he skated every day during ice hockey practice. Keeping clear of the other students, Sander skated across the room. He moved his feet in a semi circular motion to come to a stop.

Now for the spell. With a quick twist and horizontal flick of his wand, he pointed it at his shoes and said, "Henshu".

Now to try skating again. He tried to slide his shoes across the floor like he had earlier done but this time he could feel the friction of the floor against the soles of his shoes. Sure he could still move across the floor but it wasn't as slick as it had been a minute earlier.

The spell did indeed work.

Wand movement down it was time to give the incantation and finally the spell a shot. This would explain why the floor was so slippery. It would make the difference much easier to tell. Like if the floor was still normal she'd never know how good the grip on her shoes were. Made sense. Mhm.

"Henshu...hen-shu...hen-shuuuu." It wasn't even that hard and there was no need to stick to it until she got the pronunciation. It was pretty basic afterall.

Now which shoe would she be trying it on first. Hmmm...she'd go with the right. Twist and horizontal flick. "Henshu!" There was the light from the wand and all but she needed to know if it actually worked or was a cheap shot by her darling wand. Alexa took one step with the left, noting the slippery surface then a step with the right.

There was a difference. She could tell. This would come in handy when trying to outrun a chimaera. Nevermind that it was still faster and would get you anyway, at least you'd know you didn't die because you tripped!

Bright side?

A spell for better traction.

That was a interesting one and certainly would have been useful when entering the classroom at the beginning of the lesson with the slippery floor. But then the floor was likely made that way on purpose in connection with the spell after all. Something to try it out upon once they had learned it. Whatever the case, the professor verbally pulled Ben from his musings, giving both the incantation and the wand movement for the sticky...for the traction....for whatever the spell was called since if it had been said, he obviously had missed it.

"Henshu...." he said quietly almost to himself as he wrote it down into his notes as well as the directions. "Hen-shu...hen-shu...henshu." Was it him or did it not sound like Latin which he had thought he had learned most spells had some root in? The Gryffindor shook his head as he absently moved his hand in the demonstrated movement...without wand for now.

Twist and horizontal flick.
Twist and horizontal flick.
Twist and horizontal flick.

She'd been on the right track, great. Of course, Bev had watched her brother use the gripping charm more than once. He even went as far as telling her a professor here at Hogwarts had taught it to him and about a flag game that involved it.

Listening to professor Romanos, Bev thought this spell would be great against Kennedy's silly trick of icing the floor when they raced down the manor halls. Well, if only she could use magic outside of school.

Shrugging the thought off Beverly moved on to the next step. The spell. "Heeen - shuuu." Sounded about right. "Heeenshuuuu." Not bad. "Henshu." More forceful. Yup. That's how it was done.

Beverly repeated it a few more times, feeling more comfortable as she went. As for the wand movement. She tried the twist and horizontal flick several times. Huh. It WAS like a sideways candy cane. All she need was the actual candy cane.

Sweets later, spell now. She pointed at her black Chucks, and for a moment she wished she had worn pants instead of the uniform skirt. Oh well. All she had to do was not fall. GULP.

"Henshu!" She didn't feel anything change, nor a tingle on her feet. Did it work?

Beverly raised her foot, or at least attempted to. It felt as if she'd stepped on gum. That was a good sign. INNER BEAM.

Marigold sighed and stretched out her arms before putting her notes down. FINALLY, the activity. Not that she couldn't handle sitting still for that long buuuuut... activities were fun. And one that you could try on yourSELF!!! That seemed interesting. But she had never even heard of this spell. Was this a bad thing?

It probably was a bad thing, considering her goal of 12 OWLs. But it was okay, she could recover from this by learning it, RIIIIIGHT? Sideways candy cane swish. Cracking wrist. But she could do this.

"Henshu," she said slowly, ending the flick part of the candy cane at her feet. She tried moving her foot front and found it immensely difficult, even if it wasn't impossible.

...

That was progress, yeah?

No? Aw. Pity. Maybe some other time.

Alice tried to clear her thoughts of explosions and the searing pain in her knee as she focused on Romanos' words. This definitely wasn't as cool as blasting off feet, but she could deal. Bending down a little to scrawl down a couple more notes on the spell, and nearly crying out at the way her knee bent when she did, the seventh year moved on to practicing the incantation.

Henshu. Hen-shu. "Henshu."

Fairly easy, yeah? Movement next.

West experimentally moved the charmed foot again and found he could move it but it didn't slide all over the place. So that meant it worked? His other foot was having trouble keeping purchase on the slide-y floor. He sat and did the candy cane movement with his wand.

"Henshu."

So... in theory both feet would be stable on the slippery floor yeah?

......... why were they learning charms again?

Merlin forbid she ever experience this kind of agony again, because her knee. Alice made a couple of pitiful faces at nothing in particular, and then silently cursed more sons of garden gnomes when she dropped her wand. How... how was she meant to bend over again and.... reach.... stretch.....

Yes! Wand. And all it cost her was a cracking back and more pain in her leg. Lovely.

This spell was rather dumb, she decided. All it encouraged was running away and being a coward, so Alice wasn't putting too much effort into it anyway. But she was attempting to distract herself from her knee pain with practicing the movement for the spell, putting as much effort into the sideways candy cane as she could muster. Twist and a horizontal flick. Twist and a horizontal flick.

They were learning how to stick their feet to the floor? Michael didn't get it. Especially not after they had just been discussing an apparently very smart and very fast demon. But he did not wish to do anymore theory so he picked up his wand and began practicing the movement.

Like a sideways candy cane.

The movement was awkward and it took him a dozen tries to before he had it down pat. And then he sounded out the incantation.

"Henshu." It sounded so weird.

Michael was just about to try the spell on his shoe when he noticed Little Bunny a little away from him and she seemed to be doing a pretty good job. So he moved over to her and tapped her gently on the shoulder. "Hey can you show me how you did that?"

She practiced the twist and horizontal flick in the air a few more times before trying to slide across the floor. The pain in her knee was starting to subside- it came and went- so it wasn't too hard to move. Alice could easily tell how slippery the floor was, in case she'd forgotten what it had been like entering class, but this spell was going to change that. Or it would if she performed it right.

"Henshu." Sideways candy cane. Her wand had been directed at one of her shoes but it didn't seem to be any different on its own, so Alice cast on her other foot as well. "Henshu." After the second spell was done, she tried moving again, and the traction was clearly evident.

Not that this spell was helpful or anything, considering all that it helped with was running away. And sticking you to the floor so you couldn't escape and died.

But at least she could do it.

Noooow they were talking!! WOOOO!! New spell! And even better, a CHARM spell! WooooooooooooOOOOOooooOOOOOoooooOOOOoooooo!!!

Happy Sophie was oh so very happy! EEEEEEEEE!!

Right, spell time. "Henshu!" WOOP! Easy enough!

The seventh year pulled out her wand with a bright smile on her face and did the movement. Twist and horizontal flick. Nice! It felt alright as well. Twist and horizontal flick!

Flick! ...Sophie didn't know why she had done that for. Maybe she was just way too happy now.

She tried to concentrate. "Henshu." Her tone was now more focused. "Henshu." And she tried the wand movement again.

KAY! She was READY!

"Henshu!" Twist and horizontal flick. Sophie almost tapped her shoe with her wand. Gah! For some reason this spell reminded her of the Gripping Charm and she actually almost performed the latter. FOCUS, Sophie! "Henshu." Twist and horizontal flick at her other shoe. Without the almost-tapping motion this time.

.........Did it work?

The Hufflepuff got up, not as slowly as she should, and was able to stand up alright, without slipping or tripping or sliding away on the floor. OhWOOOOOO!!!! Charms! Super effective!

WOOP!

Running away from something fast was their best defense? That was reassuring.

... ...Not.

Ella wasn't going to question it, though. Especially since she'd never even heard of this creature before today. Romanos was the expert in the room and so she was going to give her instructions her full attention. Henshu. Easy enough to say. It wasn't something she'd used before but with the image of a candy cane in her head and thoughts of Sir Treyen and Miss Ellie, Ella was ready to practice.

"Henshu...Henshu...Henshu..."

Now for the wand movement.

Twist and a horizontal flick. Twist and a horizontal flick.

Okay, she could do this. Maybe.

Spell time.

Henshu. It sounds like Ah chew to him. "Focus Messer, its Henshu not Ah Chew." He mumbled. He repeated that incantation several times in his head before he was sure that he got it.

"Henshu. Henshu. Henshu." Sounds good enough.

Now, the wand movement. The Professor said its like candy cane. He pictured a candy cane in his head. Yum. Candy cane sound delicious. Gah. Focus! He did the movement with his wand. Twist and a horizontal flick. He could do this! As long as he's not losing his focus. YEP!

Ian had carefully tried to watch and listen to all that was going on. The professor had said that leg-locking wasn't the way to go so they were going for a traction spell. Seems like an awful lot of work to go about for what she said was a rather fast creature. He still thought apparating was the way to go, but he would try and do what she instructed.

Hen-SHU!...HEN-shu....HEN-SHU!...hen-shu....Hen-SHU! Ian worked one the pronunciation a few more times before working the wand movement. [i]Twist and horizontal...twist and horizontal[/b] Then he raised his hand. Does it matter which direction we twist and go horizontally? He didn't want to perform a different spell when he should be gaining traction. Maybe this spell would help him to walk better.

Time to direct this spell at her shoes.

Ella was having some trouble with this as bending or twisting in any way sent pain shooting up her back but she bit down on her lip, ignoring it as best she could. She still wanted to ask Botros to borrow one of his canes, honestly. Or at least duplicate it. The only problem would be how much attention this would attract and she doubted Kaiden would let her play if she was hobbling around on some hunk of wood so yeah, no cane. She'd stomach the pain. RAW-owie.

Ahem.

Wand trained on her left shoe, the blonde focused her mind and said clearly, "Henshu." Then with a sideways candy cane-esque motion, she was ready. Scuff. Scuff. Scuff. Seemed like added traction to her.

Moving on.

Right shoe was the object of the spell this time around. "Henshu." Twist and hoizontal flick. Scuff. Scuff. Scuff.