Morgana, professor Flamsteed was dramatic. Agatha had gotten annoyed at that silly Ravenclaw for getting pumpkin everywhere - including her BEAUTIFUL her - but the man had gone mental.

Hmph. Ravenclaws. Neve getting things right as if. Agatha turned back to her pumpkin with a frown on her face and placed her wand near the stem again. ...She had already forgotten the incantation. Urgh, great. Just great.

The fact Zander had already gotten his spellwork right didn't help either. The Slytherin side-eyed his cut pumpkin and kept frowning at her own. Stupid thing. Stupid spell.

Then he did it. He offered help. "Yes, do it for me." She didn't think twice and immediately got her wand away from the pumpkin in front of her and gave enough space for Zander to work on it. Go, Zander. Do it now. Quick before they have the chance to be told off.

...Although there was no reason to be told off because he was simply helping her by casting the spell for her. Simply helping.

And those elves again? At least now they had a proper task and weren't there out of stupidity lik ethey had done at their table during the Feast.

Toby... had still not made a move to carve into his beloved pumpkin. He was still staring at Airey (oblivious to any issues with the pumpkin gunk that had been flung around the classroom), and now Airey was staring right back. When he realised he had the professor's attention, Toby quickly put his hand in the air.

"Professor Airey," he said, before the man wandered away to go pounce onto someone's desk or something. "Could I get another pumpkin? Please? Maybe? Because, I just, um... well... I mean..." Toby lowered his hand and subconsciously placed it protectively on top of the pumpkin before speaking in a more measured sort of way, as though he was totally trying to be logical about this whole thing. Which he was. "Does it hurt them?" The pumpkins, that was. Super serious question here, and a super serious sombre expression to match. He trusted Airey to tell him the truth, but Toby didn't think that cutting the pumpkins open and pulling out their guts was going to leave them feeling very healthy. BUT if Professor Airey said they'd be fine, Toby wouldn't need a new pumpkin at all. Though now he was just in a weird headspace altogether.

... Which he seemed to suddenly realise, because at that moment Toby suddenly beamed at the professor, in that well practiced cheerful manner of his.

Text Cut: PUMPKIN GUT VICTIMS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hey Ju

She looked at the person who was sitting right next to her to see how he was doing with his pumpkin. She'd get Zander to do the spell for he--

Agatha suddenly felt something in her hair again. She turned her head at once to see a Ravenclaw flapping her hand around after just taking goo from inside her pumpkin. "Watch it, Ravenclaw!!" The ballerina snapped angrily, shooting the girl a glare.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole black

EEP.
There was something cold, and slimy sliding down the side of his neck, cold slimy and smelling of… Pumpkin? Hastily, Damien swiped at the gunk, getting it off his neck as quickly as possible lest it slip beneath his robes and leak onto his hidden suit. Turning his blue-eyed gaze he spotted Evie Shacklebolt throwing her pumpkin guts all willy nilly. “Hey, Yoooo, Evieeeeee… You trying to ruin my skin?” Damien half laughed, pointing to his neck where the residual stain of the gourd guts remained.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

Finished for now, Lux took the opportunity to magically clean her hand because if Professor Flamsteed expected her to continue with pumpkin guts on her skin he was sadly mistaken.

There. Much better.

Since she was finished everything required of her for the moment, she took the time to start looking around to see how her other classmates were faring...some clearly doing better than others. Eh, Damien was talking to her, and Lux turned her attention to her friend. Oh, gosh. A square lid. That was funny and cute. "I like it. Gives your pumpkin some style! It's not conforming to the standard pumpkin shape." Obviously he hadn't done this on purpose, but maybe that would make him smile. "I'm sure that Professor Flamsteed won't mind in the least." Like come on...he wasn't Bellaire.

At that moment it started raining pumpkin guts. "Ewww!! My hair!! Damien, please get it out of my hair!!" Flaaaaail.

Well, Evie had hoped that the pumpkin guts didn't go far, but apparently they did. First she was called out by a slytherin. A very sassy slytherin with an attitude. Geez, it was just pumpkin guts. Nothing that couldn't be scourgifed. "Sorr-yy," she said back in a not-so sincere tone. Chill.

And then another voice called her out, but he was MUCH nicer about it. And he knew how to take things lightly. Maybe because they were friends. Evie laughed at Damien.... and then the girl next to him, who was apparently too girly to get pumpkin goo out of her own hair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

You know in those muggle movies when something dramatic happens and everything slows down and overly dramatic music begins to play? It typically involves the hero jumping to catch something valuable from falling to the floor or the hero catching their partner/love interest before they completely fall to their doom? This was one of those moments...except Airey Flamsteed was no hero, but his suit could arguably have been his love interest. The doom? That came in the form of pumpkin guts being flung about the room.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he roared as he dove to the floor to avoid the little flecks that had come his way. Just barely missing them, the hit the blackboard with a dull SMACK-ing noise and clung to it.

"WHO?!" he barked for the floor - and partly into the floor for fear of more gunk coming his direction.

..... Uh oh.

Evie raised her head just in time to see the professor diving off to the side to avoid getting hit by pumpkin guts. Who? Err... Evie was frozen and staring with wide eyes, so perhaps he could tell it was her. She was getting the idea that perhaps he was a germaphobe. The lint roller by the door and now this? Hm.

"Sorry," she mumbled. It was kinda funny, but she was sorry. Kind of.

After Kace was done cutting into the lid of the pumpkin, he saw all the fabulous gook in there. Hmmm it smelled good. He always loved the smell of pumpkins. Plus this reminded him of fall so he was really happy to be doing this activity. He reached into his pumpkin and pulled out all the slimy goo. He even saw the pumpkin seeds. Well doesn't this feel great.

He put it to the side and he saw a lot more gook in there. He reached in deeper and deeper and managed to get some more out. Eeeghkkk....now this is the part he didn't like. He felt his hands all slimy. He saw a house elf named Tippin and he said, "Hey Tippin....here is some gook for ya to take care of." he smiled towards the little guys. He thought they were good little workers. He heard Lux call out to Toddles so he wanted Tippin since the little guy seemed busy.

He heard the Professor move onto the next activity and they could carve a constellation into it. He grinned and looked on the board and decided on which one he wanted.

Okay, so Professor Flamsteed said they needed to pick a constellion, one of them and carve it into the pumpkin. Not something Margo has ever done before, usually she picked ghosts and cats and such to carve. But this could be fun right.......now only if she could actually decide which one she wanted to do. Thinking back to the answers students gave, the RIGHT answers that is.....because Margo had been very wrong, ugh, she was suppose to be good at this. She hated that her favorite subjects at home was turning out to be her worst by far.

Margo thought and decided that carving the Pegasus Constellation would be best. She loved those winged horses, so why not do that constellation!!! Okay, well step one was done....the Pegasus.

Examining her pumpkin trying to decide which was her 'flat' side of the pumpkin and the carving would look the best on, Margo turned her pumpkin around and readied herself to begin.

Marigold pet her pumpkin sadly. "Sorry, Punk, but I'm gonna have to stab you in a little. Hope we're still a-okay with that afterwards." Yes, she named her pumpkin Punk because SHE SAW THE CHANCE AND TOOK IT. Okay. She adjusted her wand on top of the pumpkin and said clearly, "Punktumus." Except, when she pushed her wand down, it slipped off the pumpkin and hit the table. OH NO. OH NOOOOO. It just rebounded, but it was SCARY. Okay. Time for try #2.

"Punktumus!" She carefully made a slice, then continued around the stem for a circle and removed the lid. Now for gross part, right? She dipped her hands into the goo and ZOMG IT FELT SO COOL ON HER HANDS! She wiggled them around, then dumped the seeds onto her desk and continued until the inside was clean. Whee.

And she was going to do the little dipper, because she suggested it. And it was mainly straight lines. Hmm, which side should she do?

POP!

Nimma is here with the buckets, yep, yep, just like the Master wanted! Nimma smiles gently at all the studentsies around and curtsies to each of them as Nimma hurries to join Tinka, Tippin, and Toddles because Nimma LOVES the studentsies. Nimma wants to help all the studentsies and clean the orange mess from their desks!

"Nimma helps the studentsies. Nimma loves the studentsies. Nimma clean it all up. Yep. Yep." Nimma scuttles from one desk to the next, using a rag in Nimma's tiny elf hands to slide the orange goops right into Nimma's bucket. Nimma scrubs the desks after the orange mess is gone. Nimma smiles at the studentsies. Nimma is happy to help!

So... they were moving on. That was good but the bad thing? They had to use magic for the carving. Yay! That should be fun. That was very much sarcasm, actually. Adi had a feeling he was going to be struggling again because he had gotten all broken up again thanks to AJ. There was that nagging thought that she might want to break up with him still nagging in his head.

Forcing himself to look at the list of constellations he had made a note of, he selected Gemini... for AJ & Angel. Sure there was Abby but she didn't look like either of the other two and in Adi's head his girlfriend? and little sister were twins.

Gemini it was.

Ohhh looky! It was another elf! Adi had looked up from his book at the popping sound. Were there going to be more elves too? Tippin? Toddles?

Huh. So they weren't allowed to fly around on Hallow's Eve? Tia wondered at that moment if Professor Flamsteed had ever done such a thing. Given his eccentric, hyperness, she'd bet on yes. Her attention shifted away from thoughts on illicit Statute behaviors when the professor seemed to come to a halt in his responses and picked on Zander's mispronunciation. The fourth year wasn't laughing at Flamsteed's correction of the word Uranus. She really wasn't. But it WAS rather amusing seeing the Gryffindor Prefect flushed with embarrassment.

Moving on though. They were carving pumpkins? Intriguing, for sure. Definitely better than using a telescope. She wasn't opposed to scooping out the pumpkin guts like some of her classmates seemed to be although she was maybe slightly nervous on using her wand as a knife... but surely Flamsteed wouldn't have them complete the task if it would ruin their wand's magical properties?

Glancing around, she decided she should get started, murmuring 'punktumus' a few times under her breath to get the pronunciation down, before delicately holding her wand at the top of her pumpkin. "Pumpkintus" she muttered which oddly enough, nothing happened. "Pumpkintus. Pumpkintus."

Still nothing.

So he had correctly identified the constellation he was seeing.

Pegasus...the flying horse of mythology that held some connection to the winged creatures found in the wizarding world today. Benny copied it down onto his parchment as well as the other items Professor Flamsteed either confirmed or added to in the list of things seen in the night sky around Halloween. Nineteen different constellations in total as well as a handful of of other celestrial objects identified as star clusters and planets by the list written on the board. He might just need it later on, especially for the upcoming OWLs.

But then it was time for some actual pumpkin carving. Magical pumpkin carving that undoubtedly needed less force than the muggle equivolent, even if he didn't doubt the so-called kits could likely provide more control in some extent since it actually came in contact with the vegetable. The skin of a pumpkin just didn't seem to be that thin or fragile to make it easy on the carver. The Gryffindor listened intently as the professor described the process with both incantation and wand movement, adding it too into his notes for future reference.

"Punktumus...Punktumus...Punktumus..." Ben murmered, practicing the words for the spell since the movement was quite simple. The wand and magic acting like an invisible knife in and of itself. Now for the first carve, a cut-out top of the pumpkin. Resting the tip of his wand on a fixed point on the orange orb, the fifth year took a breath to focus before casting for real this time. "Punktumus!" Then moving his wand, he proceeded to drag it around in a rough circle, finding it cutting quite easily to his benefit and relief.

Step one done.

Ohh, carving a pumpkin with her wand?! This sounded like an awesome idea for a brand new firstie just starting to learn how to cast her own magic! Kate looked down at her pumpkin with eyes wide in excitement. She couldn't wait to start carving it! But first, she needed to catch up, because in all her excitement, she was starting to fall behind. There were directions being given left and right, and she was starting to feel a little lost.

Deciding to quickly get started before she forgot everything she was supposed to do, Kate gripped her wand in her hand and got ready to cut the lid of her pumpkin. Pumktumus had to be one of the coolest sounding incantations out there. So perfect for pumpkins. Kate touched the top portion of her pumpkin with her wand. "Punktumus!" she said. Kate started to guide her wand around the surface of the pumpkin like it was a knife doing the carving. Things would have gone perfectly had the wand actually started cutting the pumpkin. Kate pressed down, but nothing happened.

She frowned at her wand, as if she blamed his all on the wand itself. Oh, come on!

*When he first saw the pumpkins he had hoped that they would get to carve them. His dad had him do it every year. Sure he acted like he hated it but he really did like it and find it fun. Pulling his pumpkin closer to him he put his wand to the top and said,
Punktumus

At first nothing happened. His dad always had them use knives and a part of him wished that he could use one now. If he snapped his wand he was pretty sure his dad was gonna send him a howler. Taking a deep sigh he said
Punktumus
again. Thankfully it worked this time and he started cutting a hole on top of his pumpkin. Once done he smirked and dug his hand inside. Normally he hated anything messy but this was different. Back home his sister and him would always end up chucking pumpkin guts at each other until their dad told them off.

Pulling out the last of the gunk he looked up at the broad trying to pick the constellation he wanted to carve.*

"Hmm... Might as well go with the swan."

What was that spell? Dot hefted her pumpkin back to the middle of her desk and got down on eye level to give it very serious consideration. Trapped in the pumpkin was the soul of... a constellation. Maybe Orion, because he was brave and fought for people, and she'd... no, she wasn't a stupid Gryffindor. Maybe Taurus, because she'd like to go charging off into battle against a stupid Gryffindor.

Cue the side eyes to the Kettleburn.

But first, she had to scoop the pumpkin. What WAS that spell? "Pumpatumpakus." She dented the top of her pumpkin with her wand, which was NOT what was supposed to happen. That wasn't it. Ermmm.

"Punktumus." Her wand slid through the top of the pumpkin like a hot knife in fresh bread, and Dot patted it solidly with pleasure. Good pumpkin. Good wand.

Argyle was ready to help clean up in Professor Flamsteed's class, yes she was! The house elf appeared in the classroom with a POP! alongside her fellow house elves, ready to collect up the pumpkin insides. The studentsies could do their learning and the elfsies would keeps their classroom lovely and shining clean.

"Argyle will get to cleaning this mess," the elf cried as she hurried over to the blackboard. Oh this would not do, would not do at all. Argyle snapped her little elfy fingers, removing most of the mess from the board. But she didn't scrub it, as Professor Flamsteed's writings was still up there after all. Not wanting to waste a second of cleaning time, Argyle went scurrying around the classroom, collecting up the many pumpkin guts.

Eden was SO EXCITED FOR THE FUN PART OF THE ACTIVITY. Getting all of the CRUD OUT OF IT! Eden didn't know WHY she loved it, but she DID. It felt so gross. It was really awesome.

AWESOME.

And so she began to scoop the innards of the pumpkin out with her hands, and she hummed cheerfully as she did. Dean the Pumpkin would be niiiiice and neat by the time she was done with him. She resisted the urge to throw the innards at people. Sigh.

SIGH.

How awesome would a pumpkin gunk fight BE though? Like REALLY. She had a BIIIIIG pile of it on her desk, and she spotted a few of the house elves littering around--probably to help with the innards. Eden waved at one of them to try to get them to come over--"I need these guts put in the trash--I don't think I can carry it alone--" she'd litter the floor with the pumpkin guts and she did NOT think Flamy would much appreciate that at all.

Awesome, it was time for them to move on to the carving part...but Lux was disappointed that she couldn't make her pumpkin look like Ariel. Did Professor Flamsteed know that he was ruining her fun?? He SHOULD.

Since she had to do one of the constellations on the board, the obvious choice would be Gemini. Her reasoning was: 1) she couldn't do Cancer and 2) she WAS a Gemini. Looking at the poster she tried to find it but was having a hard time so in the end she began flipping through the textbook.

Everything would be SO much better if Bay was still at school with her, but these distractions were nice. She missed him so much.

They were carving the pumpkins know? Like with knives? Oh, they were just using their wands. That was okay. She couldn't get hurt carving a pumpkin with her wand... Could she? Penelope didn't want to find out. She positioned her wand at the top of the pumpkin, ready to carve it. "Punktumus." She made a circle at the top of her pumpkin and took out the top. Ew. Did she really have to stick her hand in the pumpkin to get all of the goop out? Penelope really didn't want to do that. Not only was it disgusting, but she was getting a headache. Her headache was only getting worse. The smell go the pumpkin goo seemed to be making it worse. There was no way that she was going to be able to concentrate on her class work with a terrible headache. Penelope did not reach into the pumpkin to scoop out goo, but sat there with her elbows on the desk and her forehead resting on her palms. Was this lesson going to be over soon? This headache wasn't getting any better.

The top of the pumpkin came off easily enough, and then Dot was staring down at the messy interior with a kind of horrified look on her face. Nope. No way. Not doing it. It was messy and she was wearing her school robes and she didn't think it smelled quite right. Her pumpkin had gone off, obviously.

But if she didn't... then she couldn't carver the pumpkin anymore. And she'd fail. And that seemed like an acceptable risk, but not if she wanted to stay on the professor's good side. Dot sighed dramatically and stuck both hands into the pumpkin, all the way up to her elbows.

"GROSSGROSSGROSSGROSSDISGUSTINGEWGROSS," she wasn't being quiet. In fact, her displeasure was well broadcasted across the classroom, up to the point she dropped the gunky inside mess on her desk top with a squishy plop. "Wicked."

"Punktumus!" Kate called out again, with her wand at the ready. When the incantation had been said, with much force and intent mind you, Kate began tracing around the top portion of the pumpkin once again. This time, she could actually see progress! The outer surface of the pumpkin began to split away from the rest of the pumpkin as Kate traced around the area with her wand.

She watched as the wand cut the pumpkin like a knife. So cool! She watched her wand carefully, wanting to trace as precise of a line as possible. When the wand reached the point she'd started at, Kate slowly retreated her wand and lifted the lid of the pumpkin. "Awesome," she mumbled to herself.

Just then, Kate heard the sound of a pop, and she looked over to see a house elf had appeared. It quickly got to work, promising to clean up all the mess in the room. "Thank you, Argyle," she said, picking up on the elf's name. "I'll try not to make a big mess."

So while she waited for some help for her GUTS to be cleaned up, Eden decided she'd try and decide WHICH constellation to do. Hmm. She flipped through her book--and looked at LOTS of pictures. This was very serious business.

Serious. Business.

She had to pick the PERFECT one, okay?

Well a few of them were MILDLY interesting. But the one that she was drawn to was...CANIS MAJOR. SHe liked dogs. She had had a dog up until last Christmas. And she had a cruppy--so. Yeah. She thought they were great animals. Anddddd the constellation was just so FREAKIN' CUTE. Using a pencil, she sketched it out first in the notebook---just to get all of the shapes and stuff down. It was...a lot of work, since Eden was no artist. Not that constellations were HARD to draw--mostly lines--Eden knew she'd mess up, a lot, and so she thought she'd practice. It was kind of like..wand movement. You had to practice that before getting it right?

And so...she draw it..over and over again on her paper...she had a bit of time. No Worries.

So the reason she could see a bunch of random stars and why everyone in her family seemed to keep star journals was because there wasn't a lot of pollution in the country? Well that sounded like something her mother would try to teach them in lessons, though Ophelia was probably not paying attention at the time. She never paid attention when it came to the homeschooling lessons. It was mostly Newton and her mother blabbering about girly things while the child looked longingly out of the kitchen window.

And the pumpkin? Ophelia knew there was a reason for them to exist in the classroom. Flamsteed was all about them details for the lessons. It would be just like the twelve year old's childhood Halloween's, except for the fact that she would actually get to CUT the pumpkin this time instead of drawing a face on with permanent marker and scooping out the guts and then throwing said guts around the kitchen. She was a gross child. Which reminded her.

Taking her curly blonde hair in her hands, Ophelia quickly tied it back in a makeshift bun, knowing that she was somehow going to end up in a mess. Things that the second year did often ended up with dirt or something on her face and her mother yelling that she had to clean the house yet again. But she would try to not mess up one of her favorite Professors rooms because Flamsteed never got mad, and getting him mad would make everything stink.

Anyway, pumpkins. Pumpkins. Pumpkins.

Now it was time to pull out the guts of the pumpkin, something that honestly didn't bother Kate. She felt like a kid who'd just received a bucket full of Play-doh that she was about to mash and splat with her own bare hands. She put her wand back into her holster then dipped her hand into the pumpkin. The guts oozed through her fingers as she gripped a handful of the mixture and pulled it from the pumpkin.

Splat!

Kate plopped the first of her gatherings onto her desktop, just as Professor Airey had told them to. Then she dipped her hand in a second time and squeezed another handful into her hands. She plopped the guts next to the first pile she'd made then started the whole process all over again. Pretty soon, she'd gathered all there was to gather and was only left with a smooth inside.

Mmkay, so what now?

Pulling out her wand, the blonde got to work. It was time to get all pumpkin gutty up in this class. which, by the way, had to be the only Professor EVAR to let his students carve a pumpkin. And scoop out pumpkin guts with their hands. Maybe she could make some pumpkin seeds and have a nice and healthy snack for her and Austin and Greggy? 0_o. No? Probably no. MaYbe she'd kindly attempt this later, or kindly attempt to ask the House Elves to make them for her.

"Punktumus!" Okay, maybe pumpkin carving was harder than she thought. Or maybe Ophelia really needed to work on her upper body strength. The curly haired girl had read the Incredible Hulk, could she possibly Incredible Hulk this? Or attempt again? Or MAYBE BOTH? Both was good. Both was great.

"Punktumus!" Groan and sigh. Stupid angry pumpkin that really REALLY didn't want to be carved. Dumb pumpkin. No wonder her parents always did it for her. Because who wanted to deal with stabbing a pumpkin and hoping for the best? One more try and then the second year was giving up and smashing it on the ground. She wanted to get to the funuuuuun part. The part that involved pumpkin guts and pumpkin seeds.

"Punktumus!" Stabbing and cut. VICTORY! This pumpkin would no longer have a top by the time Ophelia was done with it. She was the five food tall careful pumpkin destroyer!

The second step was bound to be a little messy, as evident by the orangy pulp that was already speckling parts of the classroom. Besides the desks of the students as instructed by Professor Airey. Some had even gotten close to the man in question, which he certainly wasn't happy about. Meh...it was an end to a means and certainly not the nastiest thing they had had to deal with over the years at Hogwarts.

Animal dung and bubotuber pus in Herbology anyone?

Plus there was the sudden addition of house-elves in the room to clean things up that would likely make things easier. Grabbing a hold of the stem of his pumpkin, Benny gingerly lifted the top off so he could get inside. And then it was all in the palm of his hands...literally...and he reached inside and began scooping out the innards of the pumpkin, careful not to get it all over his notes and things as he deposited it all in a pile on his desk bit by bit. Handful by handful until it was emptied out to the best of his ability.

There...that was done too.

O____o Wow, that was easy. He had thought with Agatha being, well, Agatha, that she wouldn't admit to needed help at all... Especially not from Zander. So this was weird. And unexpected. And all sorts of surprising? So yes, okay may he did give her a bewildered stare for two point five seconds. But then he quickly caught himself doing so and changed his expression into something less... surprised? "Oh-uh sure, give me a second," and with that he turned back to his own pumpkin to finish cutting off the top.

Then, when he was done with that, he reached over to her pumpkin, noting the extra space she made for him. Hm. This was so weird. How come Agatha accepted the help? Hm. And you know, that kind of distracted from the fact that she was basically asking him to do all the work for her. Yeah, he actually didn't even realize that because so much focus on being the hero, you know? Plus the girl must've had a rough day or something. AND maybe this would put him in the good books and get her to stop the staring thing.

Pointing his wand at her pumpkin, and carefully jabbing it a little as he did so, "Punktumus!" he called out looking to her with a big smile on his face. See, he was doing it on the first go. Was she impressed? 'Cause he was impressed with himself. Mhm. Anyways, right. Cutting away at the top of the pumpkin. It wasn't even all that hard, how come Agatha was struggling with it? Surely she was a bright witch. Hm.

AND TADAAAA! The top of the pumpkin was all detached-- very nicely might he add. Actually, hers even turned out nicer than his own. Awh. But whatever, he was a hero. "Okay so now we've just got to empty out the insides?" She didn't need help with that too, did she? All they had to do was use their hands and pick out the guts. Not that bad. Not too hard. Yup. And that's what he was going to do now. Sticking his right hand in his own pumpkin he-- ew. It was mushy.