So his second answer wasn't any good either? Merlin. What did it even take to get this Caretaker to like him!? The apples. He'd definitely have to count on the apple delivery then. Just needed a little umph. Maybe this was a good thing though? Surely with all the out-of-the-box answers, Mr. Caretaker would remember his name and pass it down to the real Professor Charms. But just to be safe... He'd have to deliver apples to the guy. Not this guy. To the real Professor. Except, wasn't it a bit rude that the Caretaker was eating all of the apples that people brought for the Professor? Unless... Maybe the Caretaker had added that rule to the list? Okay. This was confusing. Whatever. He was still going to deliver a bucket of hours. Purely to ensure a good grade on his OWLs.

Now, uh. What were they doing?? OH YEAH. In all that time he was sat there trying to figure out this whole game, he had completely missed the fact that everyone seemed to be running around grabbing jars. Right. Doing that now then, ha ha ha. Oops. The Prefect quickly got up and out of his chair and made a break for the jars. Picking up and inspecting a few-- as a perfect jar was almost as big of a decision as picking a seat-- he finally found one that looked a lot shinier than the rest. Which meant cleaner. Which meant less spellwork, right?

Right. Jar in hand, he walked right back up to his seat and took out his wand. "Scourgify," now what?

Bleu wrote down the word of the spell so she didn't have to keep looking at the board. She didn't like the way some of the students were treating the teacher. He was new...give him a break. She said nothing though. It wasn't her battle to fight.

She quietly practiced the incantation to herself. "Diminuendo. Diminuendo. Di-min-u-end-o." Did that third year boy really think that was appropriate behavior? So. Rude. She shook her head and continued practicing. "Diminuendo. Diminuendo. Di-min-u-end-o. Diminuendo."

Geez, the claws definitely weren't being wise this year. A third year...of all people a third year eagle...was backtalking the Professor. That kid was wanting to sign himself up on the Professor's Detention List, or was just plain out dumb...but...why would he be in Ravenclaw then? He surely wasn't showing the traits of one, that was for sure.

Anywho, back to the spell.

Cracking his knuckles the boy started to practice pronouncing the spell "Di-min-uen-do. Di-mi-nuen-do. Di-min-uen-do. Di-minuen-do. Di-minuendo! Diminuendo! Diminuendo! Diminuendo" That reminded him of a very old American movie he once saw. It was called 'Beetlejuice'. Apparently to summon that ethereal being you had to say his name three times, 'Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice!' But instead of saying that he was saying 'Dimuendo, dimuendo, dimuendo!' So far so good for now on his progress.

Next came the hard part. Actually casting the spell.

.

.

Well, even if they broke the jars, Repario would fix them. So, the warning wasn't that necessary. Unless someone accidentally broke their jar and then, still accidentally, fell down and hurt themselves.

.

Point well made, then.

Focusing on his notebook for now, Gabriel went over the incantation and motion; something the Professor seemed to be getting more annoyed with by the second. Spell motions, anyway. However, it didn't get more simple than a 'point'. So, he switched his attention to working out the pronunciation. Gabe didn't know Italian...but he did fluently speak Latin, so that helped in forming the vowel sounds with his mouth.

"Di...min...u...en...do..."

Gabe had clearly missed Zahra's blushing and shrugging...as he had tuned/zoned out to focus on the task at hand...but...he DID hear the bit about Kyroh...And upon looking up to access the situation, Gabe didn't even need to have heard what Kyroh said to know it was especially sassy and....rude. Yes, clearly rude.

Headdesk.

"........Seeing as he's said it TO a Professor....." Stuffing his housemate with a sock or not, Professor Maddox probably wasn't going to take too kindly to whatever Kyroh had said. What was going on with the Ravenclaws this term? Gabe didn't remember them being this...off the wall last year......

Going back to his own work (for now), but keeping an eye on Kyroh, he continued mumbling the incantation...Perfecting it the best he could.

Cilla decided to go through the correct pronunciation of the spell in the head first.

"Di-min-u-en-do," Cilla said in her mind three times and then she said under her breath. "Dimuendo."

Cilla was glad that the wand movement was very simple. She was not a fan of complicated wand movements. To her, it was like the ribbon routine in gymnastics. Too flamboyant.

Zhenya, whose insides felt hot with pure embarrassment and shame, for getting a spell wrong for Merlin's sake, was starting to feel a bit better. If possibly slightly bad for the Professor, having to correct everyone. Though maybe he enjoyed correcting people? At least others had been doing the spell wrong, it wasn't just she that was a failure of magic. She was trying not to listen as other students were saying silly things, and Professor Quigley was telling them off for said things, but she couldn't help it. It was just… THERE. She snapped out of it when he addressed the entire class.

So they had to practice? On the jars? She was curious as to why the jars had to be clean before they did the spell. Did it make the spell more accurate? Would the specks of dirtiness, perhaps minuscule bugs or dead skin cells, cause the spell to have a different effect? She didn't want to have to put her hand up and ask, in case the answer was TOTALLY obvious. And she had already made a fool of herself in front of the veryhandsomegoodlookingcuteProfessorQuigley. She didn't want to do it again.

"Di - min - u - en - do," she said, slowly, speaking each syllable. "Di - min - u - en - do, Di - min - u - en - do, Di - min - u - en - do, Di - min - u - en - do, Di - min - u - en - do," she repeated, and repeated, aaaaand repeated.

He'd been wondering if this one would eventually get up to collect a jar with his peers but if he didn't, what did it matter to Maddox? The boy would simply be at a disadvantage during the activity. Not his fault and nothing he would be held accountable for.

The boy's sudden disappearance however...that you could blame him for, though he would adamantly deny it.

Always the Ravenclaws, always. Things hadn't changed much since he graduated. Good to know. Maddox sighed heavily, crossing his arms and fixing his gaze on the boy. Was he being for real? Perhaps the boy was running a fever that made him more delirious than the average 'claw. Whatever the case, he'd pardoned him the first time but he chose to continue. The Professor scowled, finding he'd lost the majority of his patience by now. "I did state, Mister Scabior, that this would be the spell we are covering in class. I cannot be held accountable if you did not listen and I will not tolerate the blatant disrespect that you insist on showing." Once was...eh; kid's had their moments but this one was persistent.

"I do not know what your obsession with dictionaries is all about but surely it's something we can uncover together during detention." Because he now had one. "And that will be 5 points from Ravenclaw."

Did he have anything else to say? If not, Maddox suggested he get to the spell work before they moved on again.

The man needed a nap.

o_______________o

Toby could only STARE and let out a very quiet "nooooo" as he watched Kyroh become a walking entity of sass up there when addressing Professor Quigley. If Ky had been sitting at his desk when he'd said it, Toby might have interjected and spoke over him and called the Ravenclaw over to sit by him or SOMETHING, but Kyroh was RIGHT UP THERE by Quigley and oh Merlin pleased. Toby wanted to wail in despair, but before he could do anything he was distracted by the sound of a jar smashing.

His jar.

Which had fallen to the floor, thanks in part to a combination of Kyroh's distraction and Toby's fidgety jar-holding hands.

"Sorrysorrysorry," the Hufflepuff said quickly, mainly to the professor (could that be counted as an apology for Kyroh too, please?), scooting his chair back and waving his wand at the broken glass on the floor. "Reparo." Once the glass had mended, Toby quickly picked it up and repeated the cleaning charm that he'd just done, and pulled his chair back up to the desk again.

Now setting the jar on the table, where there was no further risk of dropping it, Toby decided it was... probably a good idea to get on with the activity. By this point Kyroh had lost points and all, so yeah... Toby thought it best not to risk annoying the professor further.

"Diminuendo," the sixth year murmured to himself, trying to get the incantation quite correct. "Diminuendo. Dimiiiiiinuendoooooooo. DiiiiiimineeEENdo." He... was getting a bit carried away, distracted by watching others in the room rather than his own incantation practice. "Diiiiiimiiiiinuendo. Dimin. Uendo. Yeah." One would be forgiven for thinking it sounded like Toby was having a conversation with himself, but replacing all the words with 'diminuendo'.

This class was going WELL.

Kate was just feeling confident enough to maaaaaybe perform the charm on the jar, when the voice of another Ravenclaw, Kyroh Scabior, happened to be overheard. Merlin, the students here were really outspoken toward their professors, weren't they? In the short time since Kate had gotten here, people seemed to rebel left and right. She was starting to wonder if something had happened last school year that made things a little tense. She didn't know, but she wasn't brave enough yet to stand up to the professors.

She got a better grip on her wand then turned to face the jar. Okay, she could do this. Maybe. She could also blow up the jar or banish it across the room or something else like that, too. They should have tried this charm on apples instead of jars, because if Kate caused an apple to blow up into a million little pieces, she kind of thought the professor would be happier about that than a million pieces of glass.

Kate drew in a deep sigh then firmly pointed her wand forward. "Dimin--...!" ... Wait? What the incantation again? "Diminimendo!" Was that it? The jar wobbled from left to right, and Kate waited to see what would happen.

Zhenya was doing everything she possibly could to keep her eyes ON HER JAR. But she couldn't do anything about her ears, which were taking in everything flowing between the Ravenclaw boy and Professor Quigley. Everything. In her mind, she couldn't remember if this was common for first days of school, houses losing points this quickly. If it was, then whatever, but if not… maybe the houses were at some kind of competition as to who can lose the most? Or which Professor can take the most? Or which student loses the most? Who knew… she just hoped Slytherin would be in +ve points sooner rather than later.

But back to her jar…

"Di - min - u - en - do, Di - min - u - en - do, Di - min - u - en - do," she repeated, letting her ears wander off to other people to make sure they were pronouncing it the same way she was.

Next she picked up her wand and practiced the wand movement, which was funny because it was almost the same as the incorrect way to cast Scourgify. Point at object. Point at object. Point at object. Silently of course, she wasn't event thinking of the incantation of fear she would surpass herself by casting a silent spell.

So... the incantation was down. Now came the time to actually cast the Charm? Should be too hard, right? Adi felt he had improved with his spell work over the past year. Hopefully, that would continue this year as well.

"Diminuendo!" Adi confidently pointed his wand at the jar which was directly on the table in front of him. He raised an eyebrow as the jar remained in it's normal size. "Diminuendo!" he tried again. This attempt failed, also. "Diminuendo!'' Heh. So much for hoping his improved spell work would stay.

Sitting to attention, Zeke listened to the next set of instructions. Practice. Booooo... he just wanted to get right into the thick of things and shrink SOMEONE! Yep, tis what he wanted. Yep.

But alas, he'd give the practicing thing a go, especially cause the incantation was funny sounding, like, complex, like... domino, or cinnamon.. or... STUFF.

"Diminimendo," he started, eyes on parchment. Of course he was wrong, he ADDED letters. But it sounded NORMAL that way. Ugh. "Dim-in-u-endo"

"Dinimuendo!"

Had he done it? ... No.

Finger on parchment, he followed the words again.

"Dim-in-u-endo... diminuendo."

"Diminuendo!"

HE SAID IT!... "Diminuendo!" He said it again! Totally nailed it. Now, how to actually perform it, hhhhmmmmm?

OOOF.

Five points from Slytherin all because of the silly little third year. This was harsh. Granted, his own house got deducted 30 house points, got 2 people in detention, and one person, whom certainly wasn't Gregoire , got in a fight. All on the first day back to Hogwarts too. That was exciting...not. The points were mainly caused from a new Slytherin fourth year. Her name was Rorrie, and she had the loudest hair in the world! The other ten points was caused by a sixth year from snogging someone...typical.

FOCUS! Gregoire thought to himself. The Snake really needed to help earn back those house points by doing the best he could in class. That meant he had to focus, and practice, practice, practice! Concentrating he raised his wand, and cleared his mind. Pointing at the jar, the French fourth year thought the incantation in his head. Diminuendo! He just kept repeating that process.

Point Diminuendo! Over...

Point Diminuendo! and over...

Point Diminuendo! and over again.

To any ordinary person, it would look like he'd be pointing a carved wooden stick at a jar with his eyes tightly shut. But nobody hear at Hogwarts was ordinary, so he didn't look like a fool!

Austin looked over at his fellow eagle who had just lost them 5 house points. They were already in the negatives due to the little spat that happened at the start of term feast, and they didn't need any more lost! What was this person thinking?! Then again, what was Austin thinking when he straight out punched a Slytherin. Speaking of snakes, he took a moment to glance over at Gregoire again, just to keep him in check. He didn't need the snake charging at any other prefects. Turns out he was just as preoccupied with the Ravenclaw as he was.

You have no reason to judge, He thought. Your house is also in the negatives. He sent the slytherin a glare, and turned back to his work, hoping not to be bothered with him any more this class.

The next thing to do on the list of charms, was to practice the wand movement. But thankfully there really wasn't one. All he had to do was point his wand at the object and say the word. Which was fantastic. Easy, right? Well, one would think. He decided to test it out a few times. He confidence was key when casting a spell or charm. Otherwise your wand would know you're wussing out of stuff.

So he sat up straight in his chair, placed his jar far enough away on his desk to where it was at arms reach, and pointed his wand at it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Diminuendo." When he opened his eyes, he could have sworn his jar shrunk. But he wasn't watching when it happened. To be honest, he was just happy the jar didn't burst. Glass shards everywhere was not going to help gain them house points.

Cilla could not believe the rudeness of that Ravenclaw boy. Nobody talked to teachers like that when she attended school.

Now it was time to try and do the spell. She picked up her wand and pointed it at the jar in front of her as she said, "Dimuendo."

Nothing. Cilla picked up the jar to see if anything had changed. Not a single thing. Cilla folded her arms and pouted. Her concentration might not be working all too well. After all, a lot was on her mind and she had not been sleeping too well lately.

She raised her hand.

"Professor, I think I need some 'elp,"

Eyes widening, Lux stared back and forth between the Professor and Kyroh. The Ravenclaw seemed to have a thing about dictionaries and it was no surprise to her that he landed both a detention AND point loss.

Head shake.

On to practice now. Hopefully the main activity would be fun because she was rather curious what they would be doing with the jars. Just as long as she didn't end up shrinking, Lux was all good. Since the wand movement was so simple all she needed to do was practice the incantation. Fortunately it didn't seem like a mouthful to say. "Dim-in-u-en-do... Dim-in-u-en-do... Dim-in-u-en-do... Diminuendo."

.

.

Was this was the Headmistress meant...about anticipating the actions of his housemates?

Honestly, he didn't know what Kyroh's reaction would be to the Professor's detention/point reduction...but Gabe didn't wait to find out. Collecting his things, he stood and moved to the seat just next to his housemate; once again positioning the lot in his usual OCD manner. Notebook opened and tilted to align with his hand for quick note-taking; quill just off to the side...It was also a sign that he was out of his depth here and trying.

Gabe got especially particular when he was nervous.

......What should he say? Uhhh?

"I could....demonstrate...the charm for...?" Throat clearing. "It's not difficult." He whispered that last bit; not wanting to offend the angry Professor. Gabe wouldn't deal well if he turned that sass in his direction.

Throwing up and/or fainting...has been known to happen....

People seemed distracted by something, but not him. Nope. Totally focused, which you had to be for Charms.

Looking over his notes, and the instructions on the board, Zeke took his wand into his hand, holding it lightly, and stroking the handle part with his thumb. He really liked his wand, it was all sorts of cool beans. And then, since all it took was a point, Zeke braced himself.

POINT! "Dinimuendo!" he said, casting at the jar... it rattled, but nothing. Wait, did he say it properly? He thought he had that down pat. Boo.

Point!!! "Diminuendo!" he cast again. This time the jar DID shrink, kinda, just a little... though it was still big enough for him to use.

"Okaaayyy then..." he mused, picking it up and putting it back down. Try again.

Echo was so glad that Lux said that she would help her, "Thank you" she beamed at the older girl.. okay so she was supposed to be making a "S" shape with her wand and say "scourgify" luck for her she was pretty good at saying hard words.. Echo made the "S" shape and said "scourgify" as she saw her jar become clean. This was her first time doing any kind of magic on purpose and she was so proud of herself.. "look Lux, I did it" she could jump up and down if she didn't think it would get her into trouble.

Now it was time to practice the other spell.. "Lux could you help me with the pronunciation of this spell?" it was a bit harder than "scourgify" "and thank you thank you thank you for helping me." if she could only tell the older girl how much she appreciated it. "What I think it sounds like is...Dam-in-u-n-do... is that right?" she hoped so.

Deeeeeep breath!

And time to try this again!

"Diminuendo!'' Annnnnd point the wand at the jar. Come onnnn, jar! Shrink! Adi eyed the object which refused to get a move on with the shrinking. "Stubborn, aren't you?'' he muttered as if it were the jar's fault. "Diminuendo!'' Keeping his concentration up, he tried again. But still nothing. "Diminuendo!" The jar stared back at him, still in its original size. Hmph.

The Hufflepuff took another deeeeeeep breath before trying again. You know, to shake the feeling of frustration that had already starting to creep up. Shake it off. Yep. Now, to try once more.

"Diminuendo!'' Cue the maximum concentration and wand pointing. Oh looky! Things were happening! The jar was shrinking! Woot! It was about time! A significantly smaller jar now stood before Adi and the Puffer picked it up to have a closer look.

Bleu smirked as the third year boy got the punishment he deserved. So. RUDE. She averted her eyes back to her own work and continued to practice. This time with the wand movement.

The board said all you had to do was point directly at the object. Shouldn't be too hard. She took her wand pointed directly at the jar and said, "Diminuendo!" Nothing. Happened. O___________O She was usually quick to learn these things. Maybe she was flourishing too much with her wand. She pointed directly at the jar as sharp as she could, "Diminuendo!" The jar shrank an inch! But that's not as small as it needed to be. What was she doing wrong?

Eden was sure he was either going to get TICKED that she drank the dirty water--or--no? Okay. Well. Good. Because she didn't want to lose points like....Kyroh. Seriously. Eden wanted to nudge him to be quiet. HE was being funny, and Eden wanted to laugh, but no.

Ravenclaw NEEDED THOSE POINTS.

AND WHAT WAS THIS.

ONE OF HIS PRECIOUS APPLES.

EDEN ALMOST DIED.

She smirked up at him, plans already forming in her head as she looked quiiiiiiiite pleased with herself. "Well, thank you, sir--I'll cherish it." And probably literally cherish it--the entire time she ate it. Mhmm. She was already eyeing it like the deliciousness it was. She appreciated it. And....was leveling up Professor Quigleycoolpants as her number one professor. Morgan was up there, too, since she gave out hot chocolate. Hmm.

Basically, one of two ways to Eden's heart....was food.

Anyways, they were doing the practice thing. She eyed her jar and ...yeah? They were shrinking these? Or what? His directions were vague. So she kind of just sat back and waited for other students to start--just to take the hint from them. Right. Maybe she should practice saying the spell first....her jar was....

Squeaky clean.

She took a QUICK bite of her apple with a CRUNCH and smirked as she chewed, doing the wand movement. Which was...quite simple. Just...point. POINT. She grinned. Okay. Charms was cool this term so far.

There, that should do it for practice.

Happy, Lux was ready to try the spell out but then she heard Echo manage to clean her jar. "Awesome job! Way to go!" BIG SMILE for the First Year as well as a thumbs up. This was the first spell her little friend had managed to perform in class and it was a very important spell at that, especially when it came to Potions.

"Sure! We can practice together!" Didn't matter that she'd already got some in; never hurt to get more practice and she liked to help people. "Very close, Echo. It's DIM-in-u-en-do." So it was only the first part that was off which was very impressive for a first lesson. "Dim-in-u-en-do, she said again before waiting for Echo to give it a second go.

Maddox turned to the Slytherin admittedly before she'd called for his help. It was the fact she'd said the incantation wrong that initially got his attention and made him all the happier that he'd asked them to practice. This wouldn't have gone so well during the activity and it would only prove to be another anchor in his day.

The Professor made his way to her, figuring he could walk off a little of the annoyance, even with the walk not having been that long. "We'll start with the incantation, Miss Ascroft. Remember, it's Diminuendo." Not...whatever she'd said a moment ago. "Di-min-u-en-do." He repeated a second time albeit slower so she could catch the correct pronunciation.

"After that, it's a simple point and..." He point to her jar. "Diminuendo!" Instantly the jar caved in on itself, shrinking smaller and smaller til it was about the size of a thimble. "I'd like to see you try that." Saying this, he ended the incantation allowing the jar to return to actual size. Go on then.

Kate looked at her jar in disappointment. Why had it just wobbled? She'd practiced the incantation a few times and was sure she was saying it right. The wand movement definitely wasn't the problem. A point toward the object was just about the easiest wand movement out there. There had to be something else she wasn't doing right.

She picked up her jar for no reason at all, almost as if she thought something might come to mind. That was when she heard a voice that was kind of familiar. She glanced over to see the boy she'd rode the train with. The second year. What was his name again? ... Zeke! She hadn't seen Zeke since the train, so she smiled and waved. "Hey, Zeke! What was that incantation again? I'm not having much luck," she said. She put the jar back down and frowned at it. "I just got a little wobble out of it.