Just in the nick of time Adi had gotten that Henshu spell right. Of course he'd need to do more practice until he fully got the hang of it but for now he would leave that alone as they continued onto the new spell.

This one sounded...dangerous. Dangerous in they way that if the chains were to hit anyone...Adi would need to keep his eyes open for any stray chains that might head his way. Anyway, it was time to start practicing again, starting with the incantation. ''Ligatenous...Ligatenous...Ligatenous...Ligatenou s...'' The Puffer paused before continuing. He seemed to have no problems with this incantation. ''Ligatenous...Ligatenous...Ligatenous...''

Professor?
 

Sander paused midway through casting the first spell when the Professor told everyone to pause while she demonstrated the second spell. The wand movement was a simple point and the spell incantation was Ligatenous.

Sander practiced the incantation, since pointing was something that came naturally to him. "Ligatenous...ligatenous...ligatenous," Once he was familiar with the incantation he walked over to the dummies at the back of the arena, to begin practicing the spell.

So instead of ropes it would be chains. Sander found that intriguing. What spell would be used to break the chains?

So before he started to actually cast the spell, he raised his hand,"Professor would we still use Diffindo to break the chains or would Relashio work better?" Sander knew he was running ahead of the class but he was really interested to know.

Plus if his spell worked in the dummy, he needed to know how to get the chains off. Would just terminating the spell work just as well?

Looked as though he had perfect timing. Michael did his utmost best not to laugh at her predicament but he couldn't stop his lips from twitching as she grabbed hold of his arm.

"Not a problem." He was happy tp help out. And then he watched as she demonstrated how to do the spell and he had to marvel at how effortless she made the wand movement look. For some reason he couldn't get the twist right.

As for the incantation and the intent, he had no problems with that but he listened carefully anyway. And then she was looking at him and Michael did laugh this time. "Maybe you should think about being a teacher."

He chuckled again before giving his wand a twist and then horizontal flick towards his shoe while adding an incantation to the mix. "Henshu." He waited a moment before trying to lift his shoe and found that it was kinda stuck but there was still some slight movement. "Oh well, I'm still not going anywhere in a hurry." He grinned at Little Bunny just as the Professor was instructing them on the next spell.

"Do you know how to get out of this?" He whispered to her.

She grinned with a single laugh and shook her head at his suggestion about being a teacher. "No way. I don't have very good Karma in that department." Not after sending off more than a handful of tutors swearing they'd never come back to the manor. Heh.

Oh look! He got it. Sort of.

"It's better than nothing." Or too much. Ahem.

When professor Romanos explained the second spell, her first thought was trying it on Train Boy here. He was the closest, obvious, no? Her eyes flitted to him briefly, then back at Romanos. Yep, good target. Unfortunately, the spell was not to be used on students.

Turning back to him, she nodded. "You cast Finite," she whispered back. Pointing her wand at her own feet she did just that. "Just...careful not to slip." Because of that same reason she was staying as still as a snowman before attempting the next spell.

No. Sudden. Movements. Wayne.

Lex had stopped practising long before the Professor interrupted to move them into the next spell. Both her feet were making peace with the floor, leaving her not slipping and breaking what might possibly be a fragile back. She didn't know what to expect anymore. Her joints seemed to be going out of sorts and after Professor Airey's performance, she wasn't too keen on being the encore.

The next spell sounded much cooler than incarcerous. Chains? How freaking awesome was that?? Of course the girl was already mentally choosing victims but all hopes died and she became deflated the moment she heard they were practising with the dummies.

Sigh. It was probably for the best. Her shield charms had improved but she wasn't sure by just how much so unless she was practising with a younger kid--which she would pass on thanks--it might not end so good. Dummies it was. "Ligatenous...Lig-at-en-ous....Li-ga-te-nous.....Lig-a-tenous...."

So pumped for chains.

Oh? This quiet girl had a fiery streak? "You're going to have to tell me more about this bad Karma later." He laughed while wiggling his finger at her. That would be interesting to see.

Eh, if he really wanted the spells to work, Michael knew that he could, he probably knew more spells than the average third year thanks to his parents but he lacked the motivation when he was at school. Not to mention the distractions.

He smiled at Little Bunny. "Thanks." He flicked his wand at his foot, "Finite." And just like that his foot was free, not that it had really been stuck in the first place.

Alrighty onto the next spell. Chains. Now that sounded more like the stuff he wanted to learn. He tried out the incantation first. "Ligatenous...Liga...tenous." That wasn't too hard.

He looked over to Little Bunny and grinned. "Ladies first."

Kace understood the spell. They were gonna learn the spell, "Henshu..." He wrote it down and it seemed foreign to him. But apparently it made your shoes glide. He couldn't wait to start the spell. Now onto pronouncing it first. He pronounced it, "Hen-sh-u....Hen-sh-u....Hen-sh-u...Henshu....Henshu....Henshu...." He got that down. Now onto the wand movements. He did the movement like a sideways candy cane. He got that down. Now onto practicing it for real.

Kace felt confident and knew he can do the spell. He did the wand movement of the sideways candy cane and said, "Henshu!" and then he pointed at his shoes and then it worked. He tried moving his shoes and he felt like he was gliding. He knew his feet needed to be stuck to the ground. He said, "Finite!" and then re did it again.

He did the sideways candy cane and then said, "Henshu!" and pointed at both of his feet. Then he felt his feet stick. He wasn't gliding anymore. He pumped his fist in victory.

Now he had to practice the second spell. This one involved chains? That shall be interesting...

Bart was still getting frustrated he hadn't done the spell yet and then his focus was taken by the professor. She was moving them on, but he didn't even have the first spell yet. Clearly something was wrong with his shoes, because he should be able to do this spell easy. He glared down at his shoes, stupid shoes. He moved watching the others as they started on the new one. As he was watching he saw someone do the other spell and watched their wand movements.

Hmm had he been doing them wrong? It seemed like it didn't it. He turned and did the candy cane shape movement with the horizontal flick instead of the vertical he was doing, "Henshu" He tried to slide but stopped. It worked did they see his shoe was sticking. This was cool.

Alrightey then. Adi was definitely ready to have a go with this spell. Pointing the wand was simple enough so no need to practice that. Eagerly, he turned to face the dummies which were at the back of the Arena.

''Ligatenous!'' Adi exclaimed and pointed his wand at a dummy. Nothing happened. There was no chain shooting towards the dummy. ''Ligatenous!'' Still nothing happened. ''Ligatenous!'' Point! ''Ligatenous!'' Point! ''Ligatenous!'' Point!

Still not a thing happened.

Beverly rolled her eyes playfully at Train Boy. Okay, why not? It probably seemed odd that she could be a menace. Tutors, they just knew how to grind her gears and, well, she wasn't a Wayne for nothing. They were known for their silent temper.

Making sure she wouldn't up and slip out of nowhere, Beverly grinned. "No problem." It felt nice helping someone else. Maybe this would even out said Karma.

While he practiced the spell so did Beverly. "Li-ga-te-nous," she pronounced. This is where language lessons came in handy, though it hadn't been one of her main focuses, but it made pronouncing easier.

"Ligatenous." She nodded to herself. Yep, sounded about right.

He had to be a gentleman. Not a bad thing, but if either were to mess up, she wouldn't mind if he did first. It was okay, though. She had to practice confidence.

"Okay, sure." She pointed her wand at one of the dummies. "Ligatenous!"

Thin chains spouted from the tip of her wand, zooming toward the dummy with purpose, but instead of wrapping around the dummy, the chains fell to the ground and disappeared. Oh Merlin.

"Don't laugh." THE SHAME.

Sander looked around for guidance. He knew that Professor Romanos would get back to him after she was done guiding the other student, so he decided that he would see how the others ended the spell. But no one was actually trying to cast the spell yet. Looking at the dummy and then at his wand, Sander shrugged.

It wasn't like he was going to help the Chort escape from the chains that bound it. So figuring out how to break the chains was actually a moot point right now. However, if somebody accidentally cast the spell on him, he wanted to know how to break out from it.

But that was jumping the gun, right now, Sander knew that he had to first master casting the second spell. Concentrating on what the spell was supposed to do, Sander pointed his wand at the dummy in front of him and said, "Ligatenous".

He watched for the chains to come flying out from his wand, but nothing did. He frowned and brought up his wand to see whether the chains had somehow gotten stuck in there. No nothing there. Sander sighed and ended the spell saying,"Finite" just in case the spell was working slow. He didn't want chains to come out flying without any warning.

Then he pointed at the dummy again. He concentrated harder and blocked out everything else that was going on around him. Pointing his wand, he said, "Ligatenous"

This time he heard a clinking sound before chains flew out of his wand and wrapped itself around the dummy. "Yes" Sander punched the air with his fist before going over to examine the chains.

Tobias had been practicing, sure. After his answer had turned out to be correct, that lifted his mood a little. The third year was stood a little way out to the side of the arena, all nice and spread out. If he was to fall, there was be very little chance of falling into someone else.

So he'd been practicing the spell; the incantation, the wand movement, and then the two together. Then he'd watched those around him, to see if they were successful, and if there was anything else he should be doing.

When Professor Romanos mentioned moving on, that reminded Tobias that he still sort of needed to actually try out this spell so he could move on to the next part which was............ chains.

Okay.

Pointing his wand down at his left shoe, as that was the first one his right hand naturally aimed at, Tobias did the weird sidewards candycane movement and said, "Henshu!"

And then he tried to scoot that one foot where he stood, very gently because one or both feet could still slip on the floor.

Had it worked?

Oh. So now they got to do something other than being cowardly? Alice approved.

"Ligatenous." The incantation seemed easy enough, but she said it a couple of times just to get it rolling off her tongue right. "Lig-a-ten-ous. Ligatenous." If she knew Incarcerous, did that mean she wouldn't have any trouble with this one? Since Romanos had compared it to a familiar spell and the movement was so simple, she didn't plan on wasting too much time practicing it before actually casting.

A point at the intended target. Scouring the arena for a free dummy, she pointed her wand.

Movement down.

Chains were better than that foot grip one for sure. A tiny bit better. At least something that you could use in a duel. Be pretty painful on your opponent wouldn't it? Chains were heavy. And OBVIOUSLY West was going for a dummy not the wall. That wouldn't help with practicing aim after all.

But since it was a conjuring spell his confidence was pretty high, Transfiguration being his easiest wandwork subject and all.

He went over and claimed a dummy, examined it closely, and then took several paces away from it so that he could turn and aim. Ligatenous? He repeated it.

"Ligatenous." Okay. Ligatenous. And a point. With intent. He could do that.

Simple, then. But really, Alice's intentions weren't at all focused on the spell. Her mind was in a million different places at once- focusing on her still throbbing knee, wondering if Romanos was actually going to let them utilize these spells, Quidditch, explosions (lots of attention on this).... really, the lesson today just hadn't captured her attention.

So when she voiced a "Ligatenous!" and pointed at her dummy, nothing happened. Missing intent, missing results.

.... this was stupid. Hmph.

Michael took a couple of steps away from her so that she had some room to move and he watched her carefully as she took aim at the dummies and let fly with the spell.

His gaze went from her to the chains laying at the dummy's feet. "I'm not going to laugh. For a first try that was downright awesome." She had managed to produce chains from her wand and they had hit the intended target, it was just the last part that had failed. "I think you may have lost focus halfway through. I know how that is, you kinda get excited that you actually produced something that you forget that there is more you need to do."

He gave her an encouraging smile before turning to face the dummies and he raised his wand pointed it at the middle dummy. "Ligatenous." Chains flew from his wand, headed straight for the intended dummy and wrapped around it's head and shoulders but then seemed to lose momentum and hung limply.

Turning to Little Bunny, Michael shrugged his shoulders but there was a grin on his face. "I guess my mind was elsewhere too." He tipped her a wink before trying again.

Okay, so that foot was well and truly henshu'd, and now Tobias was regretting the fact that he hadn't gone 'skating' around the arena first. Except not really, because he just wasnt feeling it. Like right now, what was stopping him from doing the skating thing like he was on a skateboard? But he didn't do it. Instead...

"Henshu!"

And weird sideways candy cane movement.

That done, Tobias took a few tentative steps, trying to glide his feet across the floor a bit. But they only scuffed, so that was that spell done.

Next up, the chains.

Conjuring was easy. And satisfying. He felt comfortable with the incantation, and he was pretty good with incarcerous so he was confident he could manage this too.

He focused on the Dummy and put all his irritation at all this so-called Defense stuff into it as he cast with a strong point of his wand, "Ligatenous!"

The chains burst forth and wrapped around the dummy.... twisting into a knot of chains and locking tight.

Vesper is so pleased with herself! The first spell had been a success, obviously. With it being a Charm, the confidence had been there...and that probably helped with the efficiency a bit. Was the whole 'Staying positive' thing real? With casting spells? It would make sense if it were...

Stepping around some more, Ves paused to strike a yoga pose. Being able to do this on the slick floor proved her spell's success further and she was ready to move on. Professor Romanos looked like she was about to give more instructions so...perfect timing was perfect?...and perhaps Vesper had been too eager to hear the next instructions because when she did...she actually toppled over.

Conjuring...?

Oh, hell.

Rubbing at her wrist that had just made hard contact with the floor, she peered around curiously at those in her class. There might have been some wincing, too, but she wasn't a whiner...and didn't intend to make a huge deal out of it. Dora would fix her later...but yea. Back to those instructions. A CONJURING SPELL. Like...........Transfiguration...conjuring...Ugh. The Ravenclaw could already feel sweat gathering on her forehead and her palms getting clammy.

She....couldn't do transfiguration. No matter how hard she tried, it never seemed to work out for her. What...was she going to do? AND WHY DID SHE FEEL LIKE CRYING?! What was this?...Embarrassment. Already. Yep.

Shakily moving towards one of the practice dummies, Ves raised her wand. She...of course, was going to try. The steps weren't hard. Point and say the spell. That was literally it...right? "L-Ligat...Ligatenous." The heat in her face could only mean that she resembled an inflamed tomato at the moment...GOSH, Transfiguration had been dropped for a reason. "Ligatenous!"...

Clear head. Clear head. Focus on the dummy. Picture the chains. The gray chains. Like the color everyone's hair was, except maybe their locks would be white soon, was that the new trend? Alice most definitely didn't want to jump on the bandwagon and dye hers like all the people participating in this fad were, 'cause it was weird and she very much liked not resembling a hag. Speaking of hags, were they ever going to learn about those in cla-

.... right. Focus. "Ligatenous!"

The links appeared out of nowhere, and in the blink of an eye, her dummy was wrapped up and locked into a bundle of steel.

Could she sit down now?

He was pleased with his results but not surprised. Transfiguration had always clicked for him, its logical approach meshed with the purely creative element of conjuring just worked right with his mind. The chains on his dummy kept on tightening for as long as he was focusing on it. Cool. Splintering wood would happen any second the way this was going... except he looked around, dropping his attention from the chains in favour of looking at Ves... who looked a little.... uncomfortable. He casually went over to her.

"Hey Ves." And quietly, because... y'know, didn't want her to get embarrassed in front of everyone. "You're overthinking it. Psyching yourself out. You can do it. Just relax okay? Forget about everyone else... and focus. K?" He gave her a quick smile and then hummed the beginning of a particular song, one he knew she'd recognize. Use the music, Vesper. Focus.

Vesper was doing a fantastic job not acknowledging the fact that others could be potentially watching her fail. She was never one to try and stand out, anyway, or be too seen. So, she'd relaxed somewhat...and had even been able to frustratedly laugh off the failure...

That was...until West stepped into her line of vision. Was she blushing again...? The heat in her face seemed to tripled and she couldn't quite meet his eyes. "Hey, West.".....And...if it were possible, she felt more embarrassed now than she had earlier. The professor would've been fine. It was in her job description to see her students fail and help them...but West was going to help her...

Vesper didn't know whether to be extremely happy, cry (from embarrassment), or...ermm...hide (from confusion and embarrassment)...and they were whispering sorta. She was grateful West seemed to understand her need for some semblance of privacy. He was sensitive to that sort of thing..."I can never seem to get these types of spells worked o-...."

Was he humming The Chain to her? O.O

"W-what helps you focus?" Yes, Ves was forcibly pushing her mind into a different direction. No going near dangerous territory. Nope...and really, it was hard to use the music...with how the music was...being presented to her.

He stopped humming and tilted his head to one side.

"Music does. A lot. The creative process in general. Especially for conjuring, y'know? Its like anything.... drawing... singing..." C'mon, she was good at those things yeah? "Conjuring is creating, so its like it comes from inside you, you have to feel it." As much creativity as logic in West's eyes.

He bit his lip and watched her. He WAS trying to help y'know.

Post 1-Ligatenous
 

Not on each other? But...but...teamwork?

It wasn't bad, though. Chains were not bad. Especially if they came in handy where other spells for subduing failed. I mean, a last resort, but a resort nonetheless.

Cutty moved over to where the dummies were kept toward the back of the room. Perfectly aligned. Perfectly disposed. He gave the wave movement a go, once...twice...for the sake of aim, then uttered the spell, "Ligatenous!". A spool of metal chain seemed to be unwinding from the end of Cutty's wand flying towards the dummy. It hit, but quickly spilled off, having no grip.

Vesper was listening. Carefully, too...on a laser-focused level. Every word he'd said was being processed and thought about further...Maybe that was the Ravenclaw part of her, come to think about it. Ves had to either think about things until they were fully worked out...or until she was stupidly confused. Either or...

She was trying to calm herself down some, though...because this wasn't that big of a deal, in retrospect. They spent loads of time together. They were in a band...An actually really talented band, despite Ves' loathing in thinking about Ascanius' noise as anything other than noise. That didn't mean he wasn't amazing at them, of course. She and West were friends, though. Friiiiiiiiiiiends. Just friends.

Ves couldn't understand why the thought made her sad.

She had to feel it. Right...She needed to see it as creating something new...like when she wrote sheet music...or drew the topiary garden. Okay, since he wasn't basically singing to her...which no girl was immune to on the best of days, Ves went ahead and closed her eyes.

"Ligatenous..." Frown.

She was getting it yeah? That's... what the silence meant, yeah? West smiled encouragingly and made sure he was well out of the way.

... yeah that was the incantation.

"Okay, give it a go. Its alright if you don't get it right away you know. We can practice together later if you need to." C'mon Ves... you can do it.

"If the creative thing doesn't work.... imagine the dummy is someone you'd wanna chain up."

...And there he was again...being supportive. West really was a great friend...and she was so lucky, too. Not a lot of people had friends like him. Also, because of the last couple of words he'd said, Ves finally looked at him and stared for a few long moments.

What....an interesting theory.

Usually, Ves would fuss at him because she was grievously opposed to violence of any kind. Chaining someone up obviously fell under those terms...but maybe...just maybe...

Her gaze involuntarily sought out Alice.

She pointed her wand and tried again. "Ligatenous." Chains instantly jumped from the end of her wand...but fell short, recoiling back only a few seconds later. Ves stared...amazed that she'd FINALLY gotten some kind of reaction from a Transfiguration spell....

"Did you see?" Obviously it wasn't a complete success but...a little something was better than nothing, right? She did a small dance in place...but then remembered where she was...and who she was standing with...and proceeded to continue blushing.

...?

Well? Was she... getting it? West was patient enough that he wasn't bothered by the long stares. She was just absorbing things anyways yeah?

... and she did it! Sort of. Yes!

"I did! See, I knew you could do it." Was West bothered by the little victory dance? Nope. Not at all. He joined in, shamelessly doing a silly little dance of his own.

Of course, after stopping her own stupid dance, West had done some sort of silly dance...and well, it made her laugh...And not like normal people laughing because Vesper had been known to snort during the laughter. The dancing wasn't even that funny, really. She'd just been feeling pretty heavy lately and obviously needed to laugh...or something.

Yay! for small successes.

Feeling some momentum, Vesper figured she should probably try to perform the full spell now. She had plenty of time to flail about it later. So, trying to recreate the moment from before, she'd squint-glared a glance at Alice before aiming again. "Ligatenous." She got what West meant about the creating aspect, too...because she'd pushed a little bit of that behind the spell this time. The chains lashed out quickly...and stayed a bit longer, actually reaching their target but not fully latching on.

This was going to take practice.

BEAMING at West, Ves refrained from pouncing on him to give hugs. "Thank you!"

That was better. Laughs and smiles and success? West grinned back. "I knew you had it in you, Ves." Yup. He pat-patted her shoulder, entirely unawares of her Alice-inspiration.

"I don't mind helping." Shrug. At least, he didn't mind helping friends. Random others... not so much.

Adi was all set to try again. Oh yes. He was always determined to get the new spell right. He raised his wand a pointed it at his dummy target. ''Ligatenous!'' No chains. ''Ligatenous!'' Another point and still no chains. ''Ligatenous!'' Point! And out flew the chain! It shot straight for the dummy and wrapped itself around it! Woot!

Adi grinned to himself. He should practice this some more ,yes?

Once she was over repeating the incantation to herself a couple times Lex was ready to move on to the dummies. Spells like this typically took a lot of aim and concentration. Both of which she had learned to be in control of in all her years of casting hexes and such. She figured if she was trying to stay out of trouble she'd still be using incarcerous, you know, on the off chance the chains hurt like Circe knew what and might injury the potential victim that she'd then be forced to take to the hospital wing.

Lex stepped further away from the rest of her classmates so they wouldn't get in her way and she wouldn't get in theirs either. Misfiring was a thing, it happened, but she was trying to minimize that for all involved.

Eyes on the dummy, she was completely focused. Lex gave a forceful pointing jab at in the direction of the dummy, already knowing what she wanted and expected to happen. Intent, it was needed too. "Ligatenous!" A string of chains shot from her wand almost instantly and wrapped around the dummy, pulling it to the ground. The Gryffindor beamed.

That was actually easier than she thought. Most spells learned in this subject were.

Oichi was kind of glad in her current state to be moving on from something involving physical movement of the whole body. She also felt rather excited to learn a new version of incarcerous but with chains, I guess its needed sometimes but I hope no cheeky students try using this on others or worse myself after class. But for now it was time to practice. "Finite", Oichi said pointing the wand at her feet. She then walked in front of one of the targets. She pointed her wand and concentrated a bit at it, "Ligatenous", chains came out of her wand but they did not wrap around the target, they just fell to the floor. Ugh, well at least its a start, I can do this, I just need to contrite harder.

Post 2-Ligatenous
 

Cutty looked over the dummy, it's blank and limp form staring back at him from it's safe little perch near the wall. In his imagination he could already picture the dummy wrapped up in the chains. The whole chain and run strategy was not floatin' his boat, but he could think up a few other ways in which this spell might be useful (much to my surprise they didn't even involve other people).

So there he stood, wand in hand, prepping to aim straight. "Ligatenous!" The spell sent the chain flying out once more and this time they hit and stayed. Cutty smiled calmly at his work and approached his incarcerated dummy. His two fingers reached out and he immediately began tucking between the dummy and the chains testing for tautness.

Sophie was getting behind, but she was determined to catch up. Henshu. Right. She could at least practice this one a few times before moving on to the spell that had just been introduced. "Henshu." she said aloud. "Henshu." She whipped her wand in that sideways candy cane movement demonstrated by the professor.

She tried to skate on the floor but quickly found that the grip on her shoes was incredible. Oh, good. It had worked. The last thing Sophie needed was to get more and more behind. Now she could at leave move on and catch up.

Now--Ligatenous.

Sophie decided to practice the wand movement and incantation first. "Ligatenous," she said. "Ligatenous." She pointed her wand forward--the simplest of wand movements.

Post 3-Henshu
 

The chort. Merlin! That things venom must've captured a beyond nice price on the market. He wondered what he, himself could do with even a jigger of the stuff. It was for this reason, that the traction charm did not appeal very much to him when dealing with the Chort. The idea of running away from it and all of it's useful bodily sellables was like, literally running away from profit for Cutty. Nonethless, Romanos wanted them to practice the spell, so practice the spell they were gonna. "Henshu!" Candy cane and horizontal motion were directed at the left foot Cutty had stuck out. When he tried to drag it back toward the other foot making that squeaky sound that shoes sometimes made when they were rubbed across the surface of flooring.

Alexa cast a finite on the dummy and watched the chains disappear then the dummy right itself. That was one of the things she liked about the dummies, the self fixing properties that came in handy when she'd been teaching herself bombarda. No matter how many blows they had taken, they bounced right back. There were people like that in real life..unfortunately they bounced back.

As much she'd just gotten the spell a minute ago, she needed to make sure it wasn't just beginner's luck. It wasn't that she doubted her abilities as far as this class was concerned but it was like with Bellaire, you didn't master something until you can reproduce it a couple more times.

[b]"Ligatenous!" Jab.

Just as before, the chain lunged forward and wrapped tightly around the dummy. A sign of a spell gone good right there. Without taking ending the spell she quickly turned to another. "Ligatenous!" And another. "Ligatenous!" In rapid succession. It wasn't nearly as blowing something up in rapid succession but it was still neat.

Post 4-Henshu
 

Still uncertain if his attempt at the spell had worked or not, Cutty took up a short running start, then attempted to stop himself via a sharp turn. Squeak!

Inconclusive. Best give it another go. Cutty again stuck out his left foot, performed the candy cane and horizontal wand motion and casted, "Henshu!" There. He had said it a little bit more clearly this time and maybe that would make all the difference. He did a bit of a quick run, then ended it with the same sharp turn as before. Cutty had nearly tripped over his own foot, because it had stopped a lot quicker than it's twin.

Time to give it one more go. And with that idea in mind, he'd stuck out his right leg and aimed with the candy can gesticulation followed by the horizontal motion. "Henshu!" He tested both shoes with a foot dragging. Now that both of this feet were more firmly grounded, maybe he'd give that chain spell another try.

Post 5-Ligatenous
 

Back to the dummy at large, which was still wearing it's chains Cutty had fashioned for it with his twelve year old magic. Deciding that he was going to try this out once more, though, Cutty removed them with his wand and practically in the same breath, he casted. "Ligatenous!"

The chains again came spurting out of the end of Cutty's nine and a half inch Aspen wand, from which they proceeded to fly at their intended target. The clanky metallic noise was loud, but short as they wound around the dummy's shoulders and torso not unlike a great metal python. The dummy itself seemed to sit more erectly as the chains rested snugly around it. This satisfied the boy.

Finally! Something defensive! Gwen brightened for the first time since learning that they would be running away. She stepped in front of the dummy and focused, imagining chains wrapping themselves around it, trapping it where it stood. "Ligatenous!" And nothing happened. The shoe bit had been so easy. This was clearly a more difficult spell.

Gwen stepped back for a second, carefully observing all of the other students. She noted what the people who got it right were doing, and what the people who got it wrong were doing. Suddenly she realized her mistake.

She had been thinking about the dummy wrapped in chains, but where did she expect those chains to come from? Logical conclusion, she conjured them and shot them at the thing with just the one spell. She hadn't been thinking about the conjuring part. Or how useful this would be when she got into an argument with a sibling. Imagine just tying Grey or Zeke up with a flick of her wand.

Gwen grinned, stepped forward and focused one more time. "Ligatenous!"

This spell seemed pretty dangerous. I mean... CHAINS. Chains to be cast AT things? That could really hurt someone.

Tobias had always more or less bluffed himself into believing that this class wasn't really useful, because there were no Dark Arts or creatures that wanted to hurt people or really any bad things in the world. He'd always just pretended that stuff wasn't real, but now he was getting older (fourteen, now) it was much harder, and downright stupid, to play pretend about these things. But as soon as that thought arrived in his head, Tobias tried hard to push it away again. Just because.

"Ligatenous. Ligatenous. Ligatenous," Toby mumbled to himself, looking around at those who were practicing the spell successfully already (which was most people). The wand movement was just a simple point, which made life easier. But to practice the movement and eventually try out the spell, Toby needed a target.

The Hufflepuff took a few steps into the middle of the arena, and looked around for a free dummy. He caught sight of one that looked recently abandoned, a set of chains on the floor around it. Vaguely wondering how people got the chains off again, Tobias started going through the motions of the spell without the intent. Just as practice before actually trying it out.

"Ligatenous." Aaaaand point at the dummy.

Trying not to give in to the temptation of distraction and stare around at others practicing the spell, Tobias continued practicing the incantation and the wand movement a few times.

Pondering the question momentarily, she somewhat walked towards the Hufflepuff before speaking. "Diffindo von't vork, but relashio...it's probably the safest spell to use. You can use other spells such as defodio but...vell, you probably vouldn't vont to." Regardless of what the chains were on. "Good question."

Watch watch stare watch.

Medea smiled and moved onward after Vesper seemed to get the basic hang of it.

And made a mental note about a certain Mister Odessa.




Goodness Merlin, just where does the time go, hmm?

"A few more minutes everyone!" She called out, eyeing the time upon her watch. "Then ve'll head into our class activity before ve end the lesson. Keep practicing until you're confident enough. Both spells. You're going to need them. If you haff any questions or need help, please don't hesitate to ask."

Conjuring chains now? COOL.

Something about using chains instead of ropes just felt more...intense, y'know? And Ella didn't dare consider what this meant in relation to the Chort and its strength if chains were needed cause the thing was already pretty frightening as it was. Instead she focused on getting the spell down so she'd have little trouble performing it later.

"Ligatenous...Ligatenous...Ligatenous...Ligatenous ."

Not too hard to say, thank Merlin. The wand movement was simple enough as well so there was no need to practice that. Now she'd just need to clear her mind and focus on chaining up one of those dummies.

Breathe in, breathe out, focus.

Kace got the hang of Henshu and now he had to go on and practice the Ligatenous spell. Hmm...and this one was supposed to conjure chains. But them had to aim at the dummies? That should be simple and he just had to point his wand.

He practiced saying the spell first. "Lig-a-at-en-ous-......?" Yeah that sounded about right. Nope nope...not compared to what he wrote down. He tried again.

"Lig-at-en-ous...Lig-at-en-ous....Lig-at-en-ous....Lig-at-en-ous...Ligatenous....Ligatenous....Ligatneous....Li gatenous....." he smiled when he was getting the hang of it.

He decided it was time to put the spell in action. He walked over towards the dummy. He pointed his wand and felt confident. He pointed and said, "Ligatenous!" very clearly and then he saw little chains appear out of the wand but didn't reach the dummy. But at least it worked right?

Stumbles if anyone wants to be bumped.
 

Okay so next spell he could do this. He did the Sneezing sounding one so now it was time to do this one. He watched the others and was really annoyed he couldn't hit someone with the chains. That would have been cooler than the dummy but for now he would have to deal. At least they weren't lecture lecture lecture. So this one Professor Chaos would be on the alright list.

So he looked at the dummy and pointed his wand, "Ligatenous!" Nothing.. Really this again. He could do this spell it couldn't be that hard other second years were doing it. His mind left the spell as he thought about who'd he would use the chains on when he realized he wasn't doing the spell again. Sighing at his own focus he turned and pointed, "Ligatenous" Still nothing..

He kicked his foot forgetting he never took the grip charm off and tripped stumbling into someone.

*snags Bart*
 

Okay, she was ready.

Eyes narrowed and focused on the dummy that was across from her, Ella raised her wand and aimed directly at the chest area. Her mind was clear as she said, "Ligatenous!"

She knew before she saw it that her spell had worked, could feel the power of it even before she witnessed the chains wrap around the dummy. It was amazing, magic was. Especially when you managed to do it correctly, yeah? The eighteen year old was going to thank all the practicing she'd been doing lately.

NEWTs really were a blessing and a curse.

And she was going to go again, just to be sure that wasn't luck.

Wand pointed again after shaking out her arms a bit, Ella focused all her attention on the dummy and what she wanted knew was going to happen. "Ligatenous!"

....And she was going over.

Oh Merlin.

SQUEAK!

He wasn't laughing, that was good. Beverly gave him a grateful grin. She wouldn't cry if he had. Just gotten a bit grouchy with him, but she didn't want to be grouchy with him. He was pretty chill.

"I guess," she said, trying not to sound so disappointed. Maybe it was the load of homework or the fact that she tried finishing it all in one day, but she was oddly tired. She needed sweets. "I concentrated more on the dummy than in the spell," she admitted, rubbing her forehead.

Grinning sheepishly, she watched as he took a go at the spell. Her eyes brightened when the chains Train Boy produced wrapped around the dummy. Limp, but still there.

At the wink she playfully rolled her eyes at him. "You say it like it's a good thing," she said. "Okay, my turn again."

This time she felt a bit more confident. Not like Gryffindor here, but more than a few moments ago. She pointed her wand at the dummy next to Train Boy's. "Ligatenous!"

As chains sped toward the dummy, she concentrated on her goal. She wanted that sucker trapped and chained. The chains hit the dummy square on its face, toppling it over. Well...

"That...was better." It made some damage and the chains hadn't just poof'ed like before. Improvement, yeah.

His turn. :3

Sander looked up when Professor Romanos responded to his question. He nodded his understanding. 'Okay, so it'll either be Relashio or Defodio, to break the chains. But what about now. Do I leave the chains on the dummy?' Sander thought to himself. He glanced over at the dummy before looking at the Professor before turning back to the dummy. Then he shrugged. Since this was his practice dummy for now, he decided that he would practice casting the spell again.

He looked at the dummy, pointed his wand at it, concentrated on what he wanted the spell to do and then said the incantation, "Ligatenous". Chains flew out of his wand and wrapped itself over the dummy, clinking against the ones that were already there.

Now to practice the first spell again. He pointed his wand at his feet, and said, "Finite" ending the spell. He then moved around to make the spell was removed before he cast it again.

Concentrating on the spell and with a twist and a horizontal flick of his wand, he pointed it at his feet and said, "Henshu.". He then tried out the spell by walking around. The floor didn't feel as slippery as it had been earlier.

Thud

He was on top of someone. "I'm sorry.. I forgot to take the spell off my shoe before starting the next spell." He quickly got up and offered the older girl or umm the head girl his hand. Oops he had knocked over the head girl. He noticed the badge and stared at it a bit.

He looked to make sure she was alright, but still tried to act cool, "So sup" He nodded a bit, "Getting these spells pretty good?" He pointed his wand wanting to impress now. "Ligatenous" The chains went out but his wand was pointed high so the chains flew way over the dummies head.

"Oh well I meant to do that. Just going towards the dummy is kind of boring need to spice it up." yeah, because that sounded like the cool thing, right?

Welp.

Ella wasn't sure what had happened or how she had ended up on the ground with a first year on top of her but considering everything going on lately, this didn't seem that strange. Her luck had boarded Oakey-status and this was just one example of that.

"S'okay," She mumbled as she fought the urge to cry out at the pain that was currently shooting up her side. Merlin, what had she broken her hip? The blonde accepted the boy's hand and noted that he was the Gryffindor. The loud one who had been rude to Airey. Oh, ho, ho. Looks for you, little one. At least he'd apologized.

Sup? The eighteen year old smoothed her uniform once she was off the ground and raised her eyebrows slightly. "Just, y'know, practicing spells." Cause class and all. Yeah. She would have answered his question about how her spell work was coming too but then the boy was shooting a wild spell at the dummies and Ella did all she could not to laugh. Cause laughing would have been really mean.

"Spice it up, right." The kid got a grin from the badger who was amused at his antics. "Just be careful, yeah?" Seriously.

Seeing the slightly stressed look on her face, Michael gave her an encouraging smile. "Hey, don't worry too much about it. You almost had it. Just gotta practice is all."

Just like him apparently. He had done managed this spell before, well okay not this spell exactly but he had conjured ropes before and chains weren't really that different so this should have been a piece of cake.

Except that his mind had been elsewhere. He hadn't been lying when he had said that to her. "Well it's certainly not a bad thing." He flashed her another smile before turning towards the dummy to see how she went this time.

He probably should concentrate more on the spell they were supposed to be doing than how pretty he thought she was. There were far too many girls at Hogwarts. No wonder he couldn't pay attention properly.

Seeing the chains hit the dummy and then knock it over, Michael gave her a slightly surprised look before applauding her efforts. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Merlin!

Michael turned back to the dummies and raised his wand, took a deep breath and focused on his intentions. "Ligatenous." Just like before, chains flew out of his wand and flew straight at the dummy.

This time they managed to wrap themselves around the dummy AND stay there. He turned back to Little Bunny and grinned. "Of course it's easy to hit something that is stationary."

Okay, so with the wand movement and incantation pretty much down pat, Sophie should really focus her attention on those dummies in the back of the room. Sophie traveled across the room and stood before a dummy. So she needed to pretty much attack it with chains, right?

Right.

Sophie raised her wand again and simply pointed it toward the dummy. "Ligatenous!" she called out. A poof of pure smoke shot forward and surrounded the dummy. Well, if she was trying to run him out the room, she would have been in luck. Unfortunately, there were no chains involved in the attack.

Ian felt himself lifted up and he took a few minutes to try and stretch out his legs. He continued working on the spell until he was sticking to the ground. It took some time and work with the amount of wand swishing he had to do, but he made sure he could do it ambidexterously.

After he'd 'mastered' Henshu, he began working on the next spell, trying to ensure that he was well of other students whom he might inadvertently hit. He was a little skittish after the affair in the treehouse.

Of course he was spicing it up. Totally meant to do that yep. He wouldn't say anything else about it. "Careful? Oh of course I'm careful always careful." Sure why not. He was sometimes careful it worked right? He looked over to the dummies and thought about trying again. "Well have fun." He turned and went to walk away but tripped and fell on his face again.

OUCH

Stupid shoe he pointed his wand, "Finite" There now his shoes wouldn't stick again. Getting up he gave the head girl a I'm cool.. I'm cool look.

Now it was time to practice again, pointing his wand, " Ligatenous" The chains flew out again and just missed the dummy.

Well he got the spell to work that's what counted right?

Link here for everyone!
 

With a final round to observe the students, she paused near the Slytherin, watching her attempt at the spell. Oh, so close. "You're pronunciation, Miss Newell." she said, moving to stand by the girl. "Even though it's instinct to do so, you haff a little too much emphases on the 'a' sound. Try and lessen it."




They couldn't wait another minute. Time was running out.

"Alright! Everyone! Stop vot you're doing!" Slowly moving back to the front of the class for a final time, she waited until they settled down before speaking. "Ve're at that time for our little house competition. Ve'll take a ten minute break beforehand so I can set up. Feel free to sit and chat. Relax. Those of you who von't be participating, you may sit upon the stands."

Just about to head out to grab a few things for the activity, the professor clicked her tongue and turned back to the class. "You may continue practicing the spells if you so vish, as vell."

Now...onward to get all the things!

OOC: Hello everyoooone! Still here? Goodness to Merlin, you guys are amazing! Got a little long, didn't it? Don't worry, class will be over shortly after our lovely competition type activity thing. Head on over HERE where we'll be starting sooooon.

Practice was really all she needed. Maybe a bit more, but definitely getting better. If she couldn't capture someone with chains the least she wanted to do was knock them over real good. Beverly grinned at him, letting him know that he was right. Practice, practice.

Not a bad thing? How can having your mind elsewhere not be a bad thing? It meant loss of focus. If he'd meant it that way, she didn't know, but that's how she saw it. So she simply narrowed her eyes at him then grinned.

Merlin. Such a smiley guy, wasn't he?

She couldn't help it, she laughed at his reaction to her knocking over the dummy. "I doubt that could ever happen," she mumbled. He was always happy and stuff, how could someone like that get on her bad side? Or anyone's at that.

He did it!!

"Take a bit more credit, that was a good one." She grinned. The chains were STILL there, definitely the best shot between the two so far.

Taking a step forward to give it another go, the professor spoke up. Oh. Right. She'd forgotten about the house competition. Looking over at Train Boy she raised her eyebrows, conveying something close to: We'll have to face each other. She wanted him to be on her team.

"Want to keep practicing?" she asked after Romanos was done. Or he could take a break while she practiced.

What wasn't to smile about? He was actually learning something in one of his favourite classes for a change and he was talking and joking around with a pretty girl. Not to mention that when he had met said girl that he couldn't get more than a few words out of her. Now they were having full on conversations and she was laughing and smiling just as much as he was.

"We've only just met." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I might do something to annoy you in the future. My best friend is annoyed with me right now." And he was pretty sure that she would love to knock him out with a bunch of chains.

He shrugged his shoulders again,trying to be nonchalant about it but he was quite pleased with her compliment. "Thanks." He didn't know what else to say.

Apparently though he didn't have to because the Professor was announcing the competition thing she had been talking about earlier. Michael looked over to Little Bunny and smirked. They might end up going against each other but he hoped that they didn't.

"I'll watch you." He rubbed the back of his neck and gave his legs a bit of a shake. His muscles were starting to feel a little tired.

Brynn looked up as she heard the professor's voice next to her. Oh.. was she doing it wrong? She listened to the advice and nodded, giving a small smile. "Thanks Professor," she said quietly before trying again. "Henshu," she said, pointing the wand at her right foot as she tried the twist flick a little more fluidly. And then the same at the other foot.

She was about to try it out when she heard the professor speak again. What.. another spell? She wasn't sure she had this one down yet. Ligatenous. That seemed like an interesting one. She listened to the instructions but wanted to make sure she had the shoe one done right before she started on it so she just committed it to memory for now.

Brynn slid one tentative foot forward and then the next. Had it worked? It did seem a little different and she took another, more confident step. Yes, she thought this was more secure footing now and she took a couple more steps. Now for the other one. She walked a little further so that she was near the back of the arena and in front of one of the dummies. Just point? Brynn pointed her wand and commanded, "Ligatenous." Nothing.

She was about to try it again when she heard the professor talk about some competition? Yeah.. she'd be one of the ones sitting in the stands. But since she had a few more minutes, she might as well practice this spell again anyway.

Bart was still practicing he had gotten both of them so now it was time to get a little creative. He did the candy cane weird movement, "Henshu" He scooted his foot to see if the grip was working and it did. Jumping to slide his body stopped and he almost fell again, but didn't. Now time for the fun.

He was a Jedi ninja didn't they know? So he took a few steps did some ninja looking spin stopped on his gripped shoe and pointed his wand, "Ligatenous" but nothing came out. Huff.. what! He did the steps again and pointed his wand, "Ligatenous" The chains came out and hit the dummy.

Sweet Jedi Ninja in the house! His eyes focused on the professor as she talked. Competition? Could he be in it? He was totally going to be in it.

That much was true. They've only just met, but not just anyone would be as patient as he was with her. There was Silver, but girls banded together easier than guys and girls, no? OR...it was a Gryffindor thing. The only people she'd only ever had real conversations with were lions.

"If you get close, I'll let you know." He didn't look too happy about his best friend though, and she couldn't just not say anything. Friendship went both ways. You give and take, right? Well, if he wanted to be her friend.

Inching closer to him, she whispered, "It'll get better, with your best friend, I mean." That was as much as she was going to touch about that subject. First, they were in class. Second, she was supposed to practice. Third, she didn't want to seem nosy.

With a nod and a small grin she faced the dummy. Train Boy's spell had worked, which meant if she didn't get the spell this time, then he'd have an advantage in the game. Meaning the odds weren't in her favor, and if they weren't then nor was Slytherin's. Gah! She was over thinking it. Spell. Right.

Taking a deep breath, she pointed her wand at the dummy. "Ligatenous!" Chains shot out of her wand, heading toward the dummy with momentum. They wrapped around it, securing the target in a tight grasp. Beverly beamed, actually really beamed.

"I did it." DID HE SEE?

Yes, Alice was still working close to Vesper, considering they'd been near each other the whole time and her knee's issue today didn't really encourage moving. Yes, she could hear tiny tidbits of her conversation. Yes, she noticed the glare before she chained up her dummy each time.

... and was kind of confused as to why she was on the receiving end of them, but the seventh year just shrunk a little and went to go find a dummy farther away from that particular Ravenclaw until Romanos gave them further instructions.

When she did, Alice was tempted to go take a seat in the stands, but in case the winning house got points... yeah. Okay. She'd participate. Whatever.

"That would be good." The workings of girls minds was still a mystery to him. He was new to this after all. But he thought he had his best friend worked out though. Apparently not.

Michael raised an eyebrow as Little Bunny sidled up to him and her words made him feel a little better. "I hope so." He murmured, "Because I miss her." They had never gone this long without talking to each other and he found that he didn't know what to do with himself at times. It was probably lucky that he was busy with classes.

They were a good distraction. Little Bunny was a good distraction too.

And yes he did see! Michael gave her another round of applause and bent over a couple of times. "I bow to your awesome wand skills." He tipped her another wink before reaching out and pulling on her sleeve. "Come on, lets go check out this activity thing."

Ian was just getting to the point where the chains were coming out and he struggled with his aiming and consistency. The professor had said they would have a competition between the houses. He looked around as she left the room and then began to try a bit more. Ligatenous! He watched with a measure of satisfaction as the chains headed toward the dummy, but didn't quite get them far enough as they landed harmlessly in a heap on the floor.

If they were moving on, Tobias really needed to practice this spell. That activity sounded like it could be good.

"Ligatenous!" he cast, pointing his wand at the dummy, but focused more on hurrying up so he could finish practicing. Perhaps it was focusing on the idea of the activity and not on the spell he was casting that made it not work out so well, because chains DID appear and they DID fly at the dummy.............. but fell short, landing on the floor half way between the dummy and Tobias with a great series of clanks.

The Hufflepuff stared at them for a moment, but then looked up again and focused on the dummy and imagining the chains wrapping all around it, making it impossible for it to move if it were that way inclined. He raised his wand.

"Ligatenous!" this time when he spoke it was louder and more enthusiastic. The chains flew forward and hit the dummy at full force, wrapping themselves around it. Tobias grinned; he wasn't too bad at this, even though it was technically a Transfiguration spell, Transfiguration being the subject he found most difficult.

Ideally he would have practiced over and over until it was perfect every time he tried it, buuuuuuuuuuuut there was an activity and he wanted in, so off he went to join.

Sweet they were moving into the activity? Lex glanced over at the dummies she'd restricted, casting a finite to get rid of the chains. No telling what the activity was but she was SO pumped, even if her joints weren't. They would have to deal with it given she'd begged to be allowed to participate in what was happening.

With the Professor needing to set up Lex decided to do a few finishing casts. Had to be up to par when the activity started.

"Ligatenous!"

Lookit the way the chain skillfully wrapped around the dummy again. Precious. The girl could almost see it being wrapped around other people too but it was supposedly bad form now with this badge so she'd keep such thoughts to herself and such actions to the dummies.

"Ligatenous!"

Sophie had just raised her wand to try the spell again, when she heard her name--coming from the professor, no less. Uh oh. What had she done? ... She turned to face Romanos with an expectant look on her face.

Oh. She'd just used the incantation the wrong way. Or, mispronounced it. No wonder. "Oh," she said, "thanks, Professor." She said the incantation aloud a few more times, being sure to lesson that a sound. She raised her wand to try again, when...


Oh, the house competition! WOOT!

Sophie could use this time to practice the spell a few more times while she waited. Hopefully by then, she'd have it mastered.

Tessa heard the change in spell and began to practice her pronunciation first. "Ligatenous," she repeated until she was sure she had it. ONce she was sure that she had the pronunciation correct, she walked over to a dummy. Taking a breath and clearing her mind, she repeated the spell a few more times so that it was easy and fluid. Focusing on the target, she cast "Ligatenous!" The chain shot out and wrapped itself around the dummy. Tessa pumped her fist into the air in celebration, before ending the spell.

"Practice makes perfect," she murmured to herself and cast one more. This one did not happen so quickly, and Tessa ended it immediately. She had let herself get distracted. ONce she had refocused on the spell, she cast once more. It wrapped around the dummy once more. Just in time for the Professor's next announcement.

Competition? She was in.

She grinned at her friends and quickly stretched during the break. She was looking forward to whatever this competition was!