Dima shrank back a little when Quigley noticed his panic, but he was smarter than to argue or disobey. Immediately, he started casting in the area around his desk. Moving his wand in the shield-type motion associated with said counter spell, he voiced a chorus of "Finite" until his jar seemingly appeared out of nowhere, back to its original size.

Did he have to make it tiny again? Point. "Diminuendo." Whew. He also muttered a "thank you" in the professor's direction before sitting again. But only out of politeness.

And... NOW what was going on? Kevin was losing points and getting detention (Quigley was getting more short-tempered by the minute, though the fact that kids were blatantly disrespecting him was undeniable). And Dante was going to get kicked out for... breaking a jar? Was someone keeping a tally of how many points this guy had taken?

She was definitely excited, and Zeke couldn't blame her. Everything in your first year seemed grand, all the small accomplishments. To him, it was just another charm... but a dead useful one at that. "Awesome work, really," he nodded, grinning.

As for him being a good charm caster, he shrugged, "I do alright for myself," he replied. Though charms definitely were more up his alley than other things.



There were loud noises, he could hear them... and he wished he hadn't. Bloody Kevin losing points again, points he was working so hard to gain. Idiot. If you were going to cause trouble or whatever, do it properly and don't get caught, or at least, if you get caught don't make it any worse than it already was. Could he be extradited to the Puffers? Please?

He turned back to Hady, the humour in his face lost. He had to lean in again to hear what she was saying - especially now that noisy people were being noisy. But wait, she DID trust him? And on top of that, he was one of FOUR people she trusted? So... assuming that he was the fourth most trusted, he only had three other people to beat! Because everything was a competition, apparently. His grin returned, but softened to a warm smile instead. "Good, cause I wouldn't let you down."

And with that he pulled away and sat upright at his desk, taking his TINY jar and balancing it on his finger tip. Could the lesson get going please? He wanted to know what the jars were actually for.

Domino blushed red with embarrassment as the professor came around before he could repair the jar. She then turned to her jar.
"Sorry," She muttered to her fellow Slytherin. It's okay, they were in the negative anyways but still. Domino shrugged. It was just the beginning of the year anyways so...it was okay she guessed. She then turned to her jar again.
"Diminuendo!" She shouted as she pointed her wand at it.
She smiled as the jar got smaller. She caught it when it tried to fall though. She put it back on the desk. "Stay," She said to the jar accidentally pointing her wand at the jar. Ironically, it made a big block of ice around the jar. Domino sighed. The professor was already frustrated and here Domino was being careless.

His jar had shrunk probably to about half the size it had been before. Any other time Kyroh would have rejoined because LOOK he did a CHARM ON THE FIRST GO. But not this time. Like Gabe had said, it was an easy one. So what was there to be proud off? All he had to get down the the simple wand movement, the only slightly difficult incantation and maintain and level of concentration. The last one being the hardest considering the madness that had erupted.

Like Kevin being Kevin and Dante breaking his jar and getting yelled at, Dima doing SOMETHING and Dot- was her hand stuck in a jar???

And of course point loss.

Point loss like crazy.

He was even starting to feel bad for challenging the Charms man before. What if he had started all this insanity? The thought alone made him stomach squirm.

As Gabe spoke, the smallest of smiles appeared on his face. "I know that. I can help you if you need help. But, it's not hard." Only teasing.

Pointing his wand at the jar again he repeated the spell. "Diminuendo" And now it was a quarter of the size! Or half of half.

Like this class. Half crazy. Half sane. Half jars. And half apples.

.

.

.

Gabriel was staring at the surface of his desk, trying not to draw anymore attention to himself. Of course...OF COURSE....the Professor had heard him whispering to the Slytherin boy...even though he'd been SO far away.....Transfiguration was a weak subject for him, but...Gabe would bet it had something to do with the cat being his animagus form. Since cats themselves had such sensitive hearing. He colored brightly, realizing that if he'd heard THAT, than he'd most likely heard the bit where Gabe had told Kyroh the charm was easy.

Even though it was truthful...he hadn't meant to be rude...if it was rude.

Hearing a quiet 'Thank you' from the Slytherin he'd saved from being expelled from the lesson, Gabe just nodded, turning back to Kyroh. They were all sorted over here, thanks. Just doing their work. Nothing to be concerned about....

.....and that included the whole....Kevin Hirase thing....Nope. He was helping enough people...He wasn't putting himself in the line of fire. NOPE. Too much shouting. Too much antagonizing...


Kyroh's light teasing DID help. In fact, Gabe latched onto it, half-smiling/half-cringing at the room chaos. There was too much going on in the room for him to be comfortable...in all honesty...Next time, he would remember his ear plugs. They didn't block out everything, but they did a good job of muffling the louder sounds.

...and with both of their jars as shrank as they could be, they were done with this portion. "Har har..."...was the only thing he could say in response...but he WAS smiling. So, it was clearly meant to tease back...Of course, the partial relaxation was short lived....as he'd JUST seen someone create ice.....around their jar...

.

Oh, no.

Welp, Gabriel had done what he could...Helped who he could. Quigley wasn't going to like THAT.

He STILL wasn't sure if Gabe was here cause he was doing his Perfecting duties or because he was his friend. And Kyroh didn't really like that feeling at all, but he managed to give the boy another smile.

Gabe was cool anyways so maybe it was a bit of both?

He pointed his wand once more at his jar before QUICKLY turning it to Gabe's. "Diminuendo!" Annnd the other boys jar shrank. "See. I'm a big help!" Yup. No big deal just teaching a Prefect how to do stuff n'all.

Puck gasped when she heard Professor Madman’s threat. She was glaring at the Professor right now, glaring so hard at the thought of someone else having to be locked in a closet…sure he might have deserved it or she just thought he did cause he’d just LAUGHED when she was locked in a closet last term.

But really she didn’t want to go and get help from Healer crankypants or anyone really. "Excuse me Professor madman Quigley, but what right do you have to knock Mr. Hirase unconscious, bind him, silence him, and lock him in a closet?" She asked as sternly as possible.

This Professor was even more mad than Hooksteed had been…didn’t anyone see that? He looked as grumpy as the one and only Grumpy Cat…heck, that was what she was going to call him from now on. Professor Grumpy Cat.

“No one should be threatened with being locked in a closet” she snapped angrily. Yes, she was mad, heck she was seething.

Okay so he had had some success but not all that much. Benny was certainly in need of more practice. The fifth year opened his mouth to try it again when the conversation the professor had going with other students got louder and more animated catching his attention. One leaving...another losing a lot of points. Gryffindor points. Ones they didn't even have in reserve to lose as it was so early in the term.

Sigh.

Why did Kevin have to be a lion?

Ben took a deep breath to attempt to ground himself, knowing it was no good to do anything but try to ignore the troublesome situation. Not his issue at the moment. Giving himself another minute or two, he focused on his jar again and cast "Diminuendo!" This time the object managed to shrink a little more. Well it was a start.

A start followed by a certain lion prefect getting into the thick of things.

Oh joy.

Cilla had to agree with the Gryffindor Prefect. Cilla was claustrophobic and the idea of being locked up in the way that Professor Quigley had mentioned to Mr Hirase was a horrific thought to her. Surely, loss of house points and a detention would suffice. However, she dare not say a word.

Speaking of noise, the deafening noise was getting to her. Cilla liked peace and quiet. Tears were filling in her eyes as she placed her hands over her ears and began hyperventilating. The bad memories of a childhood event had gotten to her.

So, he was pretty sure that he was done practicing saying a term that he'd been saying since he was five, so he was going to try the wand movement. Was it a tap? He was pretty sure it was a tap. Brian checked the whiteboard anyway, though. Just in case.... it was a tap. See, he had pretty good memory. The memory of an ELEPHANT. Speaking of which, could they potentially shrink an elephant and keep it as a pet? That'd be cute, but probably a bit cruel. Elephants were cool in the wild.

Brian tapped the jar lightly with the tip of his wand. TAP. It was a very elegant tap if he said so himself. We don't want to tap too hard and shatter the thing, do we? Nope. Professor Feline was already looking pretty angry. We didn't want to anger him any further, nope. Points were being lost left right and center and Brian did not want to be the one to lose them for Hufflepuff.

SCARY PROFESSOR MAN WAS SCARY.

Almost as an afterthought, he tapped his jar with his wand again. Nothing really could go wrong with tapping a jar, could it? Was it really that difficult?

With the Gryffindor seemingly in check, Maddox allowed his attention to be occupied by what might have been the most curious Hufflepuff he'd ever met.

That....was a lot of questions. Admittedly he had to run through them again in his mind before they made sense and he could make an attempt--no doubt thanks to the Gryffindor and the conflict he was now trying to forget. "Yes, they will get smaller." To begin the answer. "And how small they get is dependent on the intent when casting. You could do multiple casts to see the size that suits you in the event you aren't sure how small you'd like it on first casting."

For a moment he thought that had been all but it seemed there was another question. Not surprising he supposed. "Casting to make something only a little smaller goes back to the intent as well. You will need to focus on how small you want the item before casting if you don't want it completely shrinking." Hopefully that answered her questions because a glance at the clock told him they had to be moving on.


...Did he have a question or not?

Maddox watched the boy's hand. Up, then down...back up...perhaps this one was a little confused. There were supposedly potions for that, but he wouldn't know so he'd just...stand here staring until something happened--but not for long because they would be moving on now.

Op! But a question was asked and so began the struggle to keep his face from falling back into a scowl. Right. There were first years that didn't know how to end an incantation. "I'll be addressing that in a moment, Mister Kyle." Maddox replied, with a solemn nod. It wasn't a part of the class but he wouldn't give them further reason to frustrate him.

Nope.

But then....and it just....so you see...and really he was....but it wasn't.

SIGH.

Let's all forget the fact the girl had been shouting despite that being the first rule and the reaction of, "3 points from Slytherin, no shouting." No, the Professor was more fixated on the fact this one had somehow managed to use a shrinking charm to freeze a jar. HOW even and WHY??? Maddox stared long and hard at the Sixth Year trying to keep it in but Merlin these students. "Now then, Miss Emery....how did you manage to freeze the jar?"


Before he could receive an answer, he found himself being yelled at? Really? Seriously? Was this something that everyone was into. Yell at the Professor Day? See who could lose the most points hour?

To make it worse, it was a Prefect. This day just kept getting better didn't it? The Professor rubbed his hand over his face in a tired gesture before sighing in exasperation. Had he not just told himself he'd had enough from the last Gryffindor? What was this day? Once his hand was lowered he scowled at the LOUD girl who probably hadn't read the rules either.

Was this what student leaders were expected to do these days? Rather than help stem the chaos, this one insisted on making it worse and it only strengthened his resolve to keep his wand on the desk and out of his grasp. "That will be another 10 from Gryffindor and you've also earned yourself a detention Miss Greyvson. I'll be speaking to your Head of House about this matter later. I'm sure he'd like to know how his student leaders behave during lessons. You call that leadership?" The chill in his tone had sent in by now. "I am appalled by your behaviour and will not allow you NOR anyone else to delay my lesson any further."



He turned to face the classroom once more. "I have just about had it." He informed them. Taking a moment to stare them each in the eye. The good. The bad. The indifferent. "I am the Professor, something some of you seem keen to forget." Another glance at those who'd lost points or been given detention. "Some of you think this behaviour is acceptable and I don't know how the other Professors do their classes but let me make it clear that I do not tolerate noise, I do not tolerate disrespect, I do not tolerate being challenged in my own classroom. This is not how students are expected to behave."

There was a long pause, where all he seemed to do was more staring and some controlled breathing.

Once he was calm enough, Maddox took his wand into his hand. There was a lesson to be taught. "You will not have to suffer my presence much longer, so I ask that you cooperate so we can get through this." Then he could dismiss them and be done with it. Ugh. It wasn't meant to end this way. One disaster after another and his mood was crushed. Seriously harshed vibe and he just wanted to walk out but he had another half an hour or so and the class needed to go one.

"It might not mean much, but I'm sorely disappointed." And there it was. "Now if you're all ready to behave like civilized human beings. Please unshrink your jars. For those that do not know how," He wasn't even going to give them the chance to ask for help and botch that up. "Simply cast 'Finite'. It's a point." Something they all seemed bloody good at.

Maddox gave them all a moment to do so before banishing the chairs and desks then pointing his wand to the ceiling, removing the illusion placed over it thus revealing an even higher ceiling and a couple dozen gigantic spiders. The moment the charm was removed the spiders began making their way down to the classroom.

"It would seem there's been some infestation problem at Hogwarts. You lot, will have to shrink these." He said, gesturing to the descending arachnids. "And put them in the jar you've been practising on. Two to three should suffice." In another life with a well behaved class he may have joked about the spiders being charmed to attack but this was no longer the case and he didn't want them annoying him further so he'd offer the reassurance. "They will not hurt you; quite friendly bunch actually. All you have to do is cast the charm then get them into the jar. Feel free to work in pairs or alone, I really don't care anymore." So simple not even THEY could mess it up.

"Begin."

This is the final activity everyone and you'll need a minimum of 5 posts in order to receive full credit for this portion. Like the Professor said, the spiders are NOT harmful so there should be no injuries--none from the spiders thanks. Like always if you need help just title the post. I'll be closing ending this lesson at dismissing the class On Monday around 11 pm GMT -5 ^^

Kate thought Zeke had moved on to some other conversation, so she hadn't been expecting him to reply back to what she'd said. She was glad he did, though. Kate was going to introduce herself to his friend. She looked to be close to her age. "You do," Kate agreed, "and you give awesome assistance, too." Because he'd been right there encouraging her when she couldn't get the spell right the first few times.

She looked toward the girl he'd been talking to. "Hi, I'm Kate," she said to her. This girl was a Slytherin, Kate noted, but she seemed nice, which went against everything Kate had concluded about Slytherins so far. Her gaze flickered back to Zeke, and she watched as he balanced his tiny jar on his fingertip. "I'm not brave enough to try that," she told him. She'd probably drop it. "I do need to try that incantation again, though." If she didn't, she'd probably forget it come time for whatever else was next.

"Diminuendo," she said. "Diminuendo."

-----



Kate was officially scared.

Not of the spiders. She hadn't seen those yet. It was the PROFESSOR. Little eleven-year-old Kate was a brand new Hogwarts student in her very first class, so she concluded that this must be what most everyone was like. Then she happened to catch on to the introduction of the activity and saw a rainfall of spiders begin to descend from the ceiling. WHAAAAT. WHY?! Infestation? Couldn't they just banish them into the nonexistance?!

Oh, right. Potions ingredients.

Well, in that case...

Kate dodged a few spiders that were trying to land right where she was standing. She didn't like spiders. They were creepy and crawly, and she didn't even see why the Earth even needed them. Especially descending upon them in a classroom. What was the charm to reverse her teeny tiny jar again? Oh, right..."FINITE!"

Things would have gone just fine had Kate remembered to use her wand, too, and actually cast. Oh, right. She needed to do that, too. O_O.

She didn’t call what Professor GrumpyCat was doing teaching that was for sure. Oh he was looking at her now and she just gave him a look, she was tempted to roll her eyes when he mentioned how students were expected to behave. Surely this wasn’t how a Professor was expected to behave…threatening the people they were charged to teach?

She wasn’t really that bothered by losing points because she would prove to Professor Flamsteed that Madman was a madman. Pointing her was indignantly at her jar she snapped a cold sounding “finite” out all while still looking at the Professor as if challenging him to ask if she was thinking of ending him and his reign of terror. Oh look…madman was a madman. “Spiders? Seriously?” She sniped before pointing her wand at the spider nearest her.

“Diminuendo” oh look…it was nearly the proper size…if only she could just make those giant spiders land on top of the madman and not near any of the students…

Evie watched the several events in the charms classroom unfold with the ever-growing temptation to hide under her desk. The students had no discipline. They were unruly. She was 15 and she had never seen anyone her age act as terrible as her classmates had. The professor was slightly frightening, but she supposed he had every right to be upset as he was. Holding as still as possible, so as not to draw attention to herself, Evie merely observed everything that happened.

Well. This was interesting.

And then they had direction to move on. Evie was okay with that. She knew that spell pretty darn well, as she should, so she got out her wand and cast "Finite," and the jar returned back to its normal size. Her attention perked back up when the professor mentioned an infestation problem at the school. Her eyes rose up to the ceiling and she suddenly saw tons of spiders crawling, hanging and swinging from the ceiling. Did they bother her? She wasn't sure yet. Spiders weren't her favorite, but they obviously weren't vicious.

Domino grunted at him. At this point, she decided that she didn't care. Slytherin was well into the negatives by now. She knew she would probably come off as an...annoying person, for lack of a better eord but, so what. She's always been standoffish before. Why not now?
"I wasn't shouting professor," she said to him.
"I was simply trying to use force to cast the spell, because I tried the incantation with out 'shouting," she put shouting in air quotes
"And that didn't seem to work. As far as the freezing, it must have been because I said 'stay' as I was still holding my wand. And it is shrunk," she said thumbing at her small ice cube trying not to sbout at him.
"So why can't you be happy about that?" She asked.

HOLY HIPPOGRIFFS.

What was going on here?!

It seemed like in no time the class had disrupted into chaos with point loss and detentions being dished out like mad. Even PUCK got in trouble. Her favourite House was now in the negatives and it made Lux sad; Gryffindor needed to win the House Cup.

Professor Quigly was rather scary when he was angry, though she did feel bad for the man; this was a lousy first lesson he was having. Too bad she had only brought one apple, or she might have given him another since it might help cheer him up.

It was time to move on to the main activity, so fingers crossed she wouldn't mess up and get into trouble. Almost lazily she reverted her jar back to normal size again. Shame, because it had been so cute. The giant spiders definitely WEREN'T cute, however. Good thing Lux wasn't afraid of them though she was sure loads of her classmates were.

Right, time to get down to business. If Bay was here she would definitely want to work with him, but that wasn't possible anymore. If she couldn't work with her boyfriend, she would be working alone.

At least she's proud of herself since she DID shrink the jar into a vial size. Hehehehe. Simply Bianca casted the counterspell "Finite." Then the jar was back to its original size. She wondered what should they do next.

O__________O

SPIDERS?

SERIOUSLY???

Bianca was afraid of little creatures like insects... Well, spiders weren't insects.. They're arachnids and they're worse than insects. Conceal, don't feel scared, Bianca. They are just tiny little useless creatures. She muttered to herself. She took a deep breath and tried to shrink the spider.

One.. Two.. Three

"Diminuendo!"

Toby was just chilling out, sitting on his hands, minding his own business... which turned out to be incredibly smart of him because WHAT on EARTH was happening? MADNESS. Points were being taken and detentions meted out left, right and centre, sweet mother of Merlin.

So, not wanting to get on Quigley's bad side, Toby remained where he was, quiet and probably more still than he'd been in a lesson in... well... ever. Still fidgety of course, but... slightly stilled. By fear.

WHen they were instructed to UNshrink the jars, Toby wasted absolutely no time at all in UNsitting on his hands and grabbing his wand and UNshrinking the jar with a "Finite" and a point of his wand. He saw no reason to incur the wrath of the catman, thank you very much. His eyes followed the man's pointed wand up to the ceiling, then, where he now saw...

O______________________________O

No.

Toby had a lot of rational fears. Dementors, for one, were something he considered himself to be scared of for good reason. Abandonment was another, and so was sadness (it was rational in HIS mind, okay). SPIDERS were a phobia of his; they filled him with no small level of terror, even though he KNEW there was nothing to be afraid of. Toby didn't HATE spiders or want to kill them. He loved them, and hoped they were okay. But... far, faaaaar away from him.

Spiders. Giant spiders. On the ceiling. And they had to shrink... and... not die... because spiders. And... okay.

Wide-eyed and full of fear and staring straight up, Toby raised his wand again and pointed in nowhere in particular other than at the general moving mass on the ceiling. Attempting to ignore the nausea, he... tried to cast the spell.

"D'mm'nuen-... no..."

WHAT AN AWFUL ACTIVITY. But Toby didn't want anyone to SEE how not-happy he was and he was trying to CONCEAL DON'T FEEL but... but... spiders.

C'mon, Toby. Come ON, you can DO THIS.

Puck turned her attention to the descending spiders from the ceiling and really wanted to just cast a locomotor spell on them and drop them on Professor Quigley….or Banner’s head…either really. But she didn’t do it.

“we can do this” Puck not-so-loudly spoke to the people around her, yes they could and they would defeat Professor Madman’s test. Pointing her wand she took a deep breath and waited until she felt steady.

“Diminuendo!”

Kate grasped her teeny tiny jar in her hand, all the while noticing she had starting to shake in fear just a little. Well, who wouldn't shake in fear just a little, or a lot?! She tried not to worry about her fears, because she knew they were completely rational. What she did need to worry about, though, was actually casting finite. She'd forgotten a little object called a wand last time.

She quickly pointed her wand at her jar and said, "Finite!" The jar thankfully did what it was supposed to do, and Kate opened the lid on it with the hopes of putting a few spiders inside.

There were still spiders everywhere, so Kate decided to try her luck at decreasing the size of some of them. Kate pointed her wand toward her target again, this time the spiders, and with all her might said, "Diminuendo!" She'd heard something about intention once before, and she knew she was supposed to really give this some intent.

A spider zapped into a shrunken size, and Kate jumped in excitement. Now to catch the little creeper.

Professor was telling everyone to unshrink their jars already? AND THERE WERE SPIDERS CRAWLING TOWARDS THEM?! How long had he spaced out? Goodness. Okay, he was going to do this thing really quickly and then he would unshrink it really quickly. Maybe if he was lucky, already angry Professor wouldn't rip his head off.

"Diminuendo," he said, tapping the jar and fully hoping that it was going to shrink immediately. Nope. It just sat there and gave him a defiant sparkle. So he tried again. Twice. Nothing. Brian was getting really frustrated, too. Any second now, Professor Angry Quigley was going to turn around and see that he hadn't shrunk his jar yet and he was going to be kicked out of the classroom for not being able to follow instructions. He was not going to let that happen.

One more shot. The glass was going to shrink. It was going to become about half its size. Brian could see it in his head, he could. "Diminuendo," he said, tapping the thing. PHEW. Finally. It shrunk. Now to reverse it so he could address the black eight-legged things making their way to him.

"Finite," he said, with a simple point at the jar. There. All better. Fingers crossed that the professor hadn't noticed that he was a little bit behind.

Puck noticed a rather unhappy looking students around her and stood up and walked closer to where Toby and Bianca where. “Okay we’ve got this…if you need to close your eyes before casting…” she nodded and looked around for anyone else that needed protection because she was actually a good person that was what she was doing when Kevin was threatened.

Pointing her wand she took a steadying breath before casting the spell again. “Diminuendo!” there got it right in its big spider butt!

*Wow... what was with all the students at this school?! Why were they all so disrespectful and... felt entitled to stuff that, from what he saw, they hadn't even earned. He was starting to feel glad that his family was a little strict. He hated the rules that his dad and aunt Marie always put in place but now he knew why.*
"Pfft show some respect people..."

*He mumbled that bit to himself. The professor was their elder, meaning that he automatically got the respect of his students. Looks like the students at this school hadn't figured that out yet.

Looking down at the half sized jar he pointed his wand at it and said Finite making the jar go back to normal size. He was starting to feel bad for the professor with all of the rude students. But then he looked up and saw the spiders. Noah wasn't afraid of spiders, but he did find them annoying. It was a sign of uncleanliness and laziness in his mind. The school had elves didn't they? How could they let the place get so bad? Letting out a long sigh he set his wand on a spider and got ready to start a lovely spider collection...*

Bleu couldn't believe some of these students and the way they were treating this professor. It was so rude and so completely uncalled for. He was doing his job and what was the point in disobeying and losing their houses all these points. She was so glad no one in her house was causing problems. Probably because they were Hufflepuffs.

Then the worst thing of all worst things happened. The ceiling opened...giant spiders. "shhhhhhuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh," Bleu couldn't move. She had arachnophobia. She was having a minor panic attack at the moment. She couldn't move. But she knew she had to at least try.


"Di....miiiinnnnu.....eeendoo...." SHe whispered at the spiders.

Finally, a professor who could exert some power over CERTAIN students. Marigold wasn't quite sure if she like the almost-threat, but to be honest, everyone was being crazy. Was it like this with all new teachers? He was JUST trying to TEACH, guys.

Anyway. Marigold had stayed silent once she shrunk her jar, making the best of her small stature and shrinking in her seat.

Oh. Spiders.

Marigold wasn't afraid of spiders as much as a little grossed out by them. So making them smaller was in her favor. She cast a quick "Finite," at her jar, then quickly looked around. Okay, no partner then. Fine.

She pointed her wand at a particularly nasty one, clearing her throat. "Dim-diminuedo."

It didn't work.

Okay, maybe she was a little afraid of spiders.