Mamie nodded along to Heath's hair dryer ideas. It was really not that hard to make electronics useless. It was the extension of that to making them harmful that required both creativity and...emotional numbness. She scribbled down make air go in, not out as their blow dryer idea. Gee whiz, she was lucky that she had partnered with somebody so smart. "I like the sucking hair in idea," she agreed. There was no way she could top that.

And...they were moving on, evidently Mamie supposed if they just severed some electrical connections in the lamp, that would make it pretty useless. Muggles could get by just fine without electricity during the day, but at night...? They would need candles if all their lamps broke.

...

Mamie was pleasantly surprised to find herself in a familiar looking kitchen, though her own family's home did not have as many countertop appliances. The Turov household didn't even have a toaster, just a microwave and a stand mixer. Somewhere, her house had a blender, too, but it was not as fancy as the one in this kitchen.

She looked up at the fancy lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. Well, it would be easy to make it hard for the Muggles to see, at least. She raised her wand, pointing it at one lightbulb after another. "Bombarda!" she said, doing the careful triangle for each one. She held her free arm aloft, too, to protect her face from any glass shards.

Aboli could see how painful this was for Minjae. There was no time to feel pain with those hooded men nearby. She wanted to pinch Minjae and remind him to remain firm. Like stone. "No. Not good enough. I want the alarm to actually BE their cries. I'll have to do research on how to record sounds using magic. I'm not sure...it's done that often," she said in a frustrated tone, running a gloved hand through her blonde hair. Her brown roots were beginning to show lately, and she was reminded she needed to touch them up. Or...let it grow out. Whatever she felt like.

Glancing at his hair dryer, she sighed. "The obvious route would be to use their invention of electricity against them. But my brain is going scary places....using the heat." She gave her head a shake. Maybe she was too good at this sabotaging thing. Not that she wanted to hurt muggles....but thinking of ways to potentially do it? She already had so many creative ideas to sabotage items. She blamed her father's influence, his genes, entirely on this. That stupid, dark man.

She nudged Minjae, though, when Schmoe began to speak again.

This did not sound fun, but Aboli had a horrible feeling once immersed in the daydream, she might get into it. It was scary to think about....

***

Aboli felt her feet touch the floor, and upon further inspection, it looked like an office. She could smell the coffee. What a foul liquid. Her first thought was to make it more foul. She opened the fridge and sighed, seeing it full of...stuff. What to do first...there was so much potential. Her previous idea of pretending she was harming the hooded figures?

Yeah, that was gone.

She was focused on the goal at hand. Ruin whoever's office this belonged to's day...perhaps even life. How dark did she want to go? She found her eyes roaming over to the sharpies, then back at the coffee. She pulled a handful of sharpies from the person's desk and used magic to untwist the caps, taking the markers apart. She then used her fingers to squeeeeeeeeze the sharpie liquid out and into the newly made pot of coffee. The liquid hardly looked darker...since coffee was already dark. Once she had emptied the contents of six sharpie markers into the coffee, she threw marker cases into the rubbish bin and replaced the coffee pot under the coffee maker. Cool. Sharpie markers would be bad to ingest, right? She seemed to enjoy a sneakier approach rather than an outward explosion of ruination.

Yes, she really DID think it wasn't an N before.

But no need to voice those thoughts aloud!!!! Bernadette was far less oblivious than she had been when she was young Quil-- er, Quinn's age!

"Well," she nodded slowly, "Schmoe did say we could, and you can trust Schmoe." Even now. "Perhaps we can take some ha----"

Ope, they were moving on already. Well well, Bernie had TRIED to mentor a little firstie. She hoped her dear darling professor had noticed. She nodded to Quinn that they should listen ironic coming from this one, amirite?? and turned so she could hear the directions. Bernie had really upped her listening skills since a bunch of threatening thugs had come to observe every lesson, hadn't she?

She sucked in her breath a bit, just because this whole premise was so sad and obviously unlike anything Schmoe would have come up with on his own. "Well, good luck with this part," Bernie nodded to little Quinn, standing up since now they had to move on, and finding herself dropped into...

Oh! An OFFICE! Oooooooooooooh. Bernie tried to rein in her giddiness. She'd always wanted to work in or even VISIT an office, like the ones on TV, but no one in her family had a profession. (Except her mum, a nurse, but that was very different from an office job?!) "Cool," Bernie murmured to herself, moving over to sit in the leather spinny chair.

She gave it a few experimental spins, genuinely smiling and enjoying herself before she recalled the...... uh, purpose of this activity. And the people watching her, no doubt. So. Right. Sabotage. The word of the day. She swallowed the lump in her throat and stood up from the chair, taking another look around the place. She could... make a few of the wheels disappear, so when someone sat down in it, it would be unbalanced and TRULY awful for them? And they'd fall out of it? And maybe... hit their head on something??

Bernie scratched her chin as she thought. How could she use magic to do this? She'd learned how to vanish things but she wasn't very good at it... still, she could give it a try, since they were allowed to use magic in this class now. Bernie closed her eyes to visualize two of the wheels on the chair disappearing, just the two diagonal from each other, and then steeled herself to actually make them go away with a wave of her wand.

There. Thump. The chair resettled itself, but it was kinda at an off-angle now. WELL this was a pathetic effort but it was a start. Bernie nodded and moved over to inspect the coffee pot and fridge area next.

Claudine looked up from her notes. The lesson was moving alone, which was fine with her. She wasn’t keen on building prototypes, you know. This stupid planning activity was enough. Not that the other activity was any better. And it came as no surprise to her that they would be required to use magic. None at all.

Was she ready? Not in the least but the lesson must move on, right?

The Snakette suddenly found herself in what appeared to be an office. Coffee hit her sense of smell as she turned slowly on the spot, taking in the general setting. There were all sorts of muggle contraptions that would need destroying. The little fridge intrigued her so Claudine walked over to it, pulled the door open and peered in. Why not let the muggle starve?

Her dragon heartstring wand was already in hand. The contents were hopefully vanished with a simple utter of “Evanesco.’’ As for the fridge itself? “Reducio.’’ Accompanying that was the V like wand movement.

Claudine thought it was clever to want to make the mini fridge… minier.

The music box shatters the window and moments later the tune stops and you hear a crash...

The flames are rising, dancing around on the bed you just set alight. You turn when you hear a distant cry. "Mummy, mummy! I want to show you my toys!" Moments later you hear the sound of footsteps. They sound like they are getting closer. And then you hear someone just outside the door. What do you do next?

BOOM! BANG! ZPP-PP-P-!

Each light bulb shatters one by one, down the row. Tsssssssssssssssssssssssssss. What was that? Looks like the water in the kettle has reached a boil.

There's plenty left to sabotage, but what will you do next?

While you squeeze liquid out of the sharpies, you can hear voices coming from outside. From the chatter, you can tell that the conversation is coming to an end. Did this office belong to one of them?

What do you do next?

You hear idle chatter coming from the other side of the door. Who is Dwight and what is this about beet farms? The voices seem to be getting louder... You better hurry.

What do you do next?

The fridge shrinks with a POP! There are voices outside and... Was that the door nob moving? You'd better make quick work of what you're planning to do here.

What will you do next?

oh no. Children. How awful. At least the bad music was over. Ash utilized the time before the people entered the room to set the door on fire. Run, child. Before you burn too. Then she blasted a hole in the wall for good measure. Maybe it was a load-bearing wall. Who knew? Ash sure didn't. Maybe the roof would collapse and kill them all. Parents, children, Ash, etc. They should all die together. then none of them would be sad. Or alone.

Ugh, this was UPSETTING. Phoebe made puppy dog eyes at the Professor up until the moment he dropped her into a scene, and then she made puppy dog eyes at the kitchen where she found herself. Cooking food. Cupboards. A big window overlooking a rather nice day.

It seemed a shame to ruin it, but that's what they were here for, right?

Phoebe was determined to use magic as much as possible to inflict damage, since that was really the point of this exercise. She turned up the stove and stuck the knobs in place, then turned the same charm on the cupboards. Stuck. Everything was STUCK. But the kicker here was that she cast a gentle Bombarda on the wall supporting the cupboards. Someone was going to give those a solid pull and bring the whole thing down on themselves.

Now, something with those overhead lights. And maybe the window.

Momentarily pleased with her ability to smash lightbulbs, Mamie was wildly distracted by the sound of boiling water. Should she do something about that? Make it cold? Errmmm...she wasn't sure how beneficial or harmful that might be.

Still, there was lots of glass in the cabinets. Broken glass was not useful for storing things, plus sharp edges were dangerous. Sticking with the familiar spell, she targeted one wall of cabinets. "Bombarda!"

The boiling kettle was verrrrry obnoxious, though, so she did not make it to the remainder of walls of cabinets. Instead, she turned back to the stove and cast a freezing charm on the kettle of boiling water. Hah. Try making tea with that.

What to do, what to do next! Bernie could had wring her hands right now. She heard the voices and was SO EXCITED to hear more from them. She was actually hoping to meet them?! Was that too much to hope for?!? Office workers? Maybe they were planning an office party?!!

No, no. She had to stay focused. Bernie winced but pointed her wand at the coffee pot, muttering a gentle, "Bombarda." She watched it burst and spill hot coffee all over the floor, then carefully levitated some of the glass off the ground and onto the seat of the chair. If someone wasn't careful, they wouldn't see it and would sit down, right?

What else??!?? Oh, she could open the file cabinet and things and put glass in there... Bernie sighed but applied herself to this task too, yanking open drawers with no hesitation and throwing files on the floor and all around. She had to keep telling herself that this was NOT real, that she was JUST MAKING A MESS and no Pam or Erin or Andy was going to have to clean this up later. Nope, not at all.

"Thanks," Dahlia smiled brightly. "Okay, most everyone does." It was shorter and easier than constantly saying, 'Dahlia'. At least she was being called the correct name and not one of her sisters names.

There was no way at all that she was going to go against Cece's suggestion. It was safe but effective and she liked it. Lia nodded in agreement. "Uh-huh. It's the surprise element that usual does the trick." If no one got hurt that made it all the more better in her eyes.

"Be right back." Hoping up off her seat, she hurried up to the front of the room and grabbed a hair drier, bringing it back to her own desk. "Got it! Only problem is... how do we make it blow freezing cold air?" She hadn't learned any of those charms yet but she was more than happy to learn one now.

~~~~
Before she had even gotten to start working their idea on the hair drier, Professor Schmoe was moving the lesson on. Sigh. She wasn't ready to move on. And as the man explained the next activity, Lia knew she wasn't ready. A muggle environment? Wha-...

One second she was sat at her desk and the next she was dropped right into what was very clearly a small girls bedroom. From the bed, to the huge pile of stuffed animals, the toy chest and the music box... it all reminded her of what her own bedroom had looked like. What it STILL sorta looked like still. It made her think Lily and Luna's things too. Of all of her nieces and nephews rooms. Rooms that belonged to small children. How could she ruin a small child's everything?!

Dahlia stared around the room silently trying to figure out how she could mess things up without doing to much harm. How could she turn everything into a prank? Flexing her fingers around her wand she aimed it at the music box first. Only nothing at all came to mind.

You hear a scream from outside. "What was that mummy?" But the flames inside of the room are a growing concern. Literally. It's getting really hot in here. Are you sure you don't want to do something about that?

There's something in the pots on the stove and they're reaching a mighty boil... It looks like your sticking charms have worked. With your attention on the tasks at hand, did you hear the footsteps coming from the floor above?

Your spellwork seems to be doing exactly what you intend. The frozen kettle is frozen for now and the glasses shattered.

... Did you hear footsteps?

As you carry on with your destruction, the voices continue to get louder. One voice in particular. What's this about pretzel day?

Did you see the door nob jiggle or is your mind just playing tricks?

Aside from the whistle of the wind and the music from the box, everything is quiet. Too quiet. If you concentrate hard enough.... You just might hear the sounds of a family dinner taking place in the distance. You'd better hurry.

OOC: At least 48 hours left of this activity! Plenty of time to jump in if you haven't already!

The voices! Aboli felt her heart RACE as if this were a real thing. She quickly pressed her wand to the top of her head and disillusioned herself so she would appear invisible, hopefully....

Looking around quickly, she made her way to the corner of the room to hide in plain sight, so to speak, trying to think of another way to sabotage this man's day. What if he didn't drink the coffee? She needed another way to cause discomfort, harm, or DEATH. Uh uh uh uh UH.

AH!

She grabbed the tin of tacs from the desk and threw them across the floor and across the seat of the cushioned chair. THERE.

It was getting hot in here. Ash was starting to sweat. She unbuttoned the top of her collar. It was SO hot. It occurred to her that she didn't want to die. She shot a powerful jet of water on the flames nearest to her, leaving the door burning. HA. This way, there would be fire damage AND water damage. She shot some water to the ceiling too, just because that wasn't where water should be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

The fridge shrinks with a POP! There are voices outside and... Was that the door nob moving? You'd better make quick work of what you're planning to do here.

What will you do next?

Claudine felt oddly satisfied by her success thus far. Time to move - uh oh. The door! She spun around to look at it, raising her wand in the process. “Alohomora.’’ Hopefully that was enough to keep the Muggles out. They were Muggles, right?

Now, her attention was diverted to the desk. “Bombarda, Bombarda.” Twice she made the triangular wand movement to correspond with each incantation. There was nothing like an Exploding Charm to cause a little mayhem to the contents on the desk. Then the fifth year pulled open the draws. “Diffindo.’’ Draws that contained papers had that Charm cast upon the contents.

Oddly enough, the girl was enjoying herself.

And she was in an office.

Cece didn't ever want to work in an office, did Schmoe know? It was too stuffy, too boring, too clean. It offered up a lot of ways to sabotage, starting with chair. One couldn't very well sit at their desk and do paperwork without one, so she could mess with that first. "Diffindo." She sliced into the beautiful leather, leaving a large gash across the seat. She immediately felt bad. Like, it was probably a really expensive chair. "Diffindo." Another large slit, this time diagonally across the back of it. By the time she was done, the small layer of stuffing beneath the leather upholstery was poking out all over the place. Almost like a lion had used the thing as a scratching post or something. Not a pretty sight.

And then...then she turned her attention to the mini-fridge. The whole goal was to keep things cold, right? Well, that gave her an idea. Pointing her wand at the machine, she tried not to feel too bad as she uttered a, "Glacius."

If this had been any class but Muggle Studies, Mamie would have been very proud of her spellwork. She was three for three on attempts and successes, much better than her usual track record. She supposed it might have to do with using spells she already knew, instead of something new.

She spun around to face the door, hair wild and wand at the ready. Footsteps? Someone was coming? She looked around the kitchen, for anything else to destroy.

The refrigerator?

She'd made the boiling kettle cold, so maybe...she could make the contents of the fridge and freezer hot. Did she know a spell for that? She thought she remembered how to do a heating charm. She took the few steps to reach it, then flung the refrigerator doors open. Brrr, that was a well functioning cold box. Not for much longer, though.

"Calefacio!" she cast the heating charm on the contents of the refrigerator. Spoiled food could be dangerous, if the Muggles chose to eat it...she did not think there would be much harm in melted ice cream, though. Only sadness.

OH NO! THEY WERE COMING! THEY WERE EATING German foods AND THEY WERE COMING!!!! The door knob was JIGGLING!

Bernie was in a panic, making a right mess of the room. What should she do? START A FIRE? Turn... turn the door knob on fire? Yes, that was it! Maybe if the Muggles touched the door knob and felt that it was warm, they wouldn't come in here and get hurt. That might mean falling the assignment but Bernie was extremely emotionally invested in this office scene at this point, and felt very underprepared for any sort of confrontation with these darling workers, so....

She hurried to the door and kneeled down by the knob, casting the hot air charm on the handle. It was taking FOREVER to get warm. Maybe she should just make a real fire, huh?

She got up and hurried back to the desk, grabbing the trash can beside it. "Incendio!" Bernie cast, watching a small but intentional fire start up. She ran with the trash can back to the door yikes, she ran with fire and set it right under the knob. Maybe some thick smoke would roll off it too, go under the door, and would REALLY warn the Muggles to stay! Away!!! IT WAS NOT SAFE HERE!!!

Phoebe tilted her head at the sound of footsteps on the floor above. THE MUGGLES AWAKE! So that gave her a limited amount of time to finish boobytrapping the kitchen, and she needed to make her last few minutes matter. This was a game of attrition, of exhaustion and fear. You didn't just make the whole place explode in one big fireball. You made everything go WRONG, step by step by step.

Phoebe turned her attention to the sink and window above, sending freezing charms at the pipes bringing in water, and then the glass of the window. The pipes would be fun - maybe just no water, maybe they'd burst. Who knew? The window... the cold should make the glass susceptible to breaking easily... but again, who knew?

What else? Something quick. Something... oh! Snipping charms to all the exposed wires on the machines on the counter. Not all the way through, but enough to give someone a solid JOLT before giving up completely. Was she out of time?

Oh no, they would have to actually sabotage things now? It wouldn’t be real though, right? Devin was not at all prepared to do any sabotaging, but it was too late. He had found himself in what appeared to be a little girl’s bedroom. Looking around, he took in the scene that he had to work with. His heart nearly stopped as he noticed all the stuffed animals. ”Natalie.” It reminded him far too much of his little sister Natalie and her attachment to that teddy bear of hers, Waffles. There was no way he could destroy it. He wanted to go home to Mum, Dad, Nicole, Natalie, and Deanna. All thought of the class activity had been forgotten; Devin was stuck in his own daydream within the daydream. He imagined sitting with his whole family around the table, eating a home cooked meal while smiling and laughing together. Dad was telling him all about the cool dragons that he worked with, and the twins were showing off some art project they had done. Any outside observers may have noticed a tear or two roll down Devin’s cheek as he thought about being home with his family.

Okay, final activity of this lesson...and they were going to be in an imaginary Muggle room that they had to sabotage. Made sense with the rest of the lesson.

Ivy drew her wand to get ready, since he'd said they could use magic, and waited for the scene to begin.

It wasn't long until the environment unfolded before her eyes. Princess sheets, toys, a lullaby... This was a child's room. A place that was supposed to be safe and comfortable for them. And she had to destroy it.

Really, it shouldn't have surprised her or unsettled her the way that it did. She should've been used to it. And yet...

It was just imaginary though. It wasn't real. That was what she had to keep reminding herself of.

She moved around the room, looking over everything, trying to shake off the discomfort she felt. What to mess with first?

The stuffed animals? Yeah. "Diffindo," she said, aiming her wand at each one, slicing off the cute little plushies' arms, legs, ears, head, whatever could be ripped or torn off. The stuffing inside of them was now exposed, and the mountain of stuffed animals looked...really sad now. Ugh.

Nem was no electrician, having had no interest in the way muggle items and technology worked, so rewiring the lamp to overheat the bulb and not simply stop working was not a simple feat. It ended up being partly based on what they knew of electricity and wiring from the textbook, part general deduction, and a couple of useful spells specifically designed for nefarious purposes such as sabotage. They had moved on to the switch - more complicated, as they wanted to to blow up and maybe take a few fingers upon being turned on - by the time the attention of the class was called for the next activity.

After using a few moments to seal the lamp back up, good as new, and then add another little spell to the entire thing to make the metal behave more like wood, as planned, they set it aside.

Within minutes, they had entered a simulation. Daydream Charm? Without agreeing to enter it, just putting that out there. For schmoe shame.

So then, an office. For a few moments, Nem stood looking around, getting an idea for the place. A lot of paper in here. Wood too. Kindling, in other words. But Nem would get to that in good time. First thing's first, the door. Nem had a good curse for that, a recent acquisition which they were up for putting into practice.

"Flagrante." They'd just see if that worked. This was a simulation, so who knew. It wouldn't take a genius to know how to use the doorknob after the initial searing burn, but that first burn was the whole point.

That done, Nem crossed over to the desk chair, and hit the leather seat and back with, "Epoximise," ready for the next person who tried to sit in it.

Something a little more fun now. Nem rooted around in the drawers and located all the different office supplies, and got to work enchanting each of them. Pens, staplers, even paperclips would do the trick, once the ends were straightened out. Just a simple little spell to make them hostile and attack the next person who happened along and opened the desk drawers, into which Nem now dropping all the charmed supplies into. All but the sticky notes.

The conversation begins to dwindle until it comes to an end. Was the doorknob jiggling? Or were you just seeing things? Best hurry up.

Fortunately your aguamenti keeps you from burning with the flames.

As you busy yourself with watering the ceiling, you hear something coming from outside. Perhaps it is an unfamiliar noise, or maybe you recognize the sputter of a fire extinguisher. Either way, the door won't be standing there for very long.

Alohomora? Was that the spell you meant to use? Because it did nothing but unlock the door, making it easier for the person on the other end to step inside. "What the--"

They take one look at you before grabbing the coffee pot. "What are you doing to my office!?"

As you make quick work of freezing the fridge, you hear voices coming from the outside of the door. What are they talking about?

Do you stop to listen or do you carry on with your work?

The footsteps grow louder and louder. Is someone coming or was that your imagination?

Your spells seemed to work though! So that's nice.

Fortunately, you moved quickly and the doorknob had heated up a significant amount so that the person on the other side let out a loud YELP!

Carry on, your work here is not quite done.

The footsteps seem to grow more frantic, but before you see the person you hear a voice.

"Daddy? Daddy? Is that you?"

Hmmm..... Are you really going to stand there and cry?

Can you hear the distant chatter over the sound of your own whimpers?

As stuffing spills over the bed, you hear footsteps from below. Maybe you even hear the faint voices.

"Jimmy, c'mon, I have to show you my new toy!"

What was that? Voices coming from outside? If you listen closely maybe you pick up on some of their conversation.

Sounds like someone is scheduled for a meeting in this very office.

For a moment, Heath worried that he’d confused or scared Mamie with his hairdryer ideas, so he was relieved when she agreed with him. He quickly jotted down his ideas and was about to ask her if she had any ideas for the lamp when Professor Schmoe moved on to the next thing. Apparently they were putting the concept of sabotage into practice now. He listened to the instructions with a mixture of disgust and resignation. At least it was just a simulation, and no muggles would actually be hurt, right? That was the only silver lining he could find to this. It wasn’t real. He was just an actor playing a part… or so he kept telling himself.

As the simulation began, he found himself in a muggle kitchen complete with a stove, cabinets, and practically every counter appliance known to man. A sudden pang of sadness gripped him as he looked around and realized this looked a lot like Granny Jones’s kitchen. He shook his head, trying to block out the thought of her or his grandpa walking into this room to see what he was about to do. It’s not hers, he reminded himself. It’s not real…

Heath’s dark eyes landed on a toaster, and an idea formed in his mind. Drawing his wand, he aimed a sticking charm at the toaster handle. “Adhaero!” If the handle was stuck in one position, the trays it was attached to couldn’t move either, so no bread could go into or come out of the toaster. No toast for you, muggles!

Then he noticed a blender near the toaster. This would be easy! It was similar to his idea to immobilize the hair dryer’s fan. He lifted the lid off the blender, aiming his wand at the blades inside. “Immobulus!” If the blades can’t turn, the blender can’t blend. Now what should he sabotage next?

It was so quiet. So clean. So perfect. She really didn't want to mess this room up. Upset some small little child when they came upstairs to play. This really wasn't fair. It reminded her of DADA all over again. Only this time there were no people in the room.

No people. Lia might not see anyone but... was that voices that she heard? Oh, Merlin, no. Please don't let that be voices...

Her young heart once again sunk as she listened even harder to what was without a doubt, family somewhere in another room of the house.

She had to do something. Just like before, this was all make believe. None of it was real. It was a horrible cruel dream and the faster she reacted like she was supposed to, the faster it would all be over.

Grasping her wand tightly, Lia aimed it at the music box. "Engorgio," she cast at it, waving her wand in the almost circle type shape. The music box grew larger and larger and larger, toppling off the dresser and onto the floor with a loud 'Thud'. That didn't make her stop though, she kept the spell going until finally it exploded, bits of it flying everywhere. Lia lifted her arm to shield her face.

She couldn't stop there. That likely wouldn't be enough to make this all go away. Trying not to think about what she was doing, Lia pointed her wand at the stuffed animals. "Diffindo," she cast on each one in turn, causing large slashes to appear, stuffing falling out of the stuffed animals onto the bedroom floor.

Staring around the room made her want to cry. There was much worse things she could have done but this was horrible enough. Could this be over now, please?

If Nem was alarmed by the voices outside, or even at all concerned by them, it was not evident on their face, or the way they went about the activity.

Currently, they were considering the filing cabinet, mulling over the idea of rigging it above the door in such a way that when the door opened, it would trigger a tripwire spell and send the heavy filing cabinet crashing down on the muggle entering. Total wipe out.

But then the rest of their efforts would go to waste, and that was no fun. Plus, they'd not brought the desired element into it just yet. Nem did make for the filing cabinet, but instead cast a quick little Incendio (nonverbally; Nem could do this spell without a spoken incantation with ease by now) on the files in each drawer, before closing them again. The flames would die out without more oxygen to keep feeding them, but the files would be ruined (not that this should matter soon) and the smoke contained and under control. If only Nem knew how to cast Fiendfyre - Gubraithian Fire wasn't quite right for this, and they couldn't do that yet either - this whole thing would be that much more interesting, but... well. Future things.

Even if they could do those spells, a Muggle Studies activity did not seem the time or place to reveal that kind of ability. Akin to playing a King against a Joker.

Trusting that the cursed doorknob would delay the daydream muggles outside the room for at least a few extra moments, Nem turned to the desk and chair once more. Careful not to touch the upwards facing leather of the chair, they nudged it around with a foot, making it a little more inviting for sitting in, and then turned their attention to the wheels. "Immobulus," they muttered, after a moment of mulling over options, pointing their wand at just one of the wheels, so that the chair would still move, but not so easily. Good sport, if the occupant thought they could still get away, not to mention that completely sticking the chair to the floor might be a tip off that something was awry before anyone sat down properly

Which was necessary for the grand finale. It had been barely any time since Nem had first heard the muggles moving around beyond the door, and they were still listening to their voices now, ready for the moment they were about to step inside - this part would go better if it was set up at the last possible second in any case. Once they heard the reaction to the burning doorknob, Nem would allow themselves about fifteen seconds to finish up.

In the meantime, they started tearing up one of those sticky notes into three sticky strips.