Bryony's confidence was extremely high right now and if Aryan needed her to spread some over onto him.. well she could! Did he need some sweet words of support of a gentle hand squeeze? How about a big smile and a thumbs up? He had done fantastic in turning that button into flowers.

Ooooh, it was time to move onto the next spell! She had a strong feeling this was going to be more tricky than Herbifors. Even the pronunciation was a little stranger to her. “Or-KID-ee-us." That had to be repeated several more times than the previous spell did as it kept sounding funny ever time she said it. And that wand movement.. it did kinda look like a flower, which was really cool but also very tricky! Over and over and over again she had to keep trying to get it right.

Bright blue eyes were shining when she finally got that wand movement done! Now it was time to give it a go and maybe with some luck she would end up with more pink roses! Wand at the ready, Bry started to trace the movement through the air as she visualized those roses in her head. "Orchi-"

Gag! What was that stench! Task already forgotten, the small blonde was already looking around for the source of it, her eyes widening when she spotted it.

Those ways to ooze her confidence over to him would be nice but Ary didn’t think it was a good time to be affectionate, no matter if Bry was discreet about it. In any case, he really wanted to attempt this second spell. Unfortunately… there didn’t seem to be much progress going on in that department.

“Orchideous,’’ he said softly, doing his best to bring forth that bunch of marigolds by focusing as he had earlier. As for the wand movement? It was done exactly as practised: upward line, then a counterclockwise half circle and downward curve. Yeah, there was no surprise there about the lack of flashing lights of any kind. What it did mean was that more attempts would have to be made. But…

What was that odour?

Aryan felt as though he would throw up; not to mention he was very, very distracted now.

Norman stood at the front of the room, his bluish-green eyes scanning the room, keeping a close watch on the students’ progress. Paton’s transformed pink roses received an approving nod, “Excellent work, Miss Paton!” he said. Elsewhere, Atreyu-Rehman’s practice likewise got a nod of approval. “Nice practice, Mr. Atreyu-Rehman. You certainly have the wand movement down.”

Across the room, he overheard Ackerly mispronounce Herbifors, but before he could correct her pronunciation, a terrible smell hit his nostrils. Coughing slightly, he reversed course and spotted the source of the smell on Ransom-Kruus’s desk. He couldn’t resist a slight smile. He didn’t say not to produce a stinky flower, so that was technically within the rules. “Excellent work, Miss Ransom-Kruus,” he said. “Creative choice of flower.”

Creative as it was, the fact remained that the flower left several students (Ackerly, Paton, and Atreyu-Rehman) gagging and distracted. “Nothing has died, Miss Ackerly,” he replied, giving the girl a reassuring look. “It’s only a flower; it’s supposed to smell like that. I’ll open the doors and windows to air the room out a bit.” With a wave of his wand, the door opened. Another wand wave opened the windows a slight crack, just wide enough to let the smell out but not wide enough to let the rain in.




After a few moments, he returned to the front of the room. Now seemed as good a time as any to move on to the next activity. “Attention, please,” he addressed the group, waving a hand for quiet. ‘You may continue practicing, but while you’re doing that, think back to the theory you formulated earlier. Did you correctly guess which branch of transfiguration would be more difficult for you. What were your struggles? What were your successes? Please record your findings in your notes t hand in at the end of class. You have the rest of the lesson to work.”

OOC: Sorry for the delay… been sick in bed since yesterday. We’ve reached the min i activity. For this, your student needs to think back to their theory from question 2 and record their experiences with the two spell from the main activity. Did their theory prove correct? You’ll have ABOUT 48 HOURS for this activity; you may also catch up on anything else.

The fresh air did help a lot. Ary spent a couple of moments inhaling it to clear his lungs and his head. Maybe this was what he needed to do better at the current spell. The air and the encouragement from Carton. “Thanks again, professor,’’ he remarked quietly then returned to the task of practising the second spell. Yet by the time the lesson was moving on, Ary hadn’t so much as produced a petal much less an entire bouquet. It was a disappointing few moments for him.

Perhaps another break would help? This time he would be focusing on the little written part that was just assigned. And so Ary wrote, taking time to answer all that was required: ‘Yes, I correctly guessed which of the spells would be more difficult: Conjuration. I struggled with producing everything. There were no leaves, no petals, no bouquet which was not the case with the Transfiguration spell.'

After ensuring that his name, House and year were labelled to the paragraph, Ary returned to his practise.

Was he sure? Cause Bry would happily argue the fact that right now was the perfect time for a little bit of affection. However she would always respect him and that included right in this very moment as well. No hugs. For now.

Her own attention had to remain on the progress she was making. Which according to their practice was excellent! "Thank you, professor!" Bry smiled brightly. She was also thankful now that she could also breath much easier too! Having the windows opened even just a little bit did a world of good and she didn't feel so icky in her stomach anymore. A quick glance over at Ary told her that he looked like he was feeling a little better too.

All in perfect timing too, they were moving on. They were meant to write a paragraph on which branch of transfiguration was harder. Something she couldn't do as of yet. Best get back to trying the other spell now that she was able to do so. Wand in head, mind clear and focused on pink roses, Bryony traced her wand through the air in the form of something like a flower. "Orchideous!" Everything was perfect, only it wasn't. No pink light and no pink flowers. Nothing at all.

"Orchideous!," she tried again. Then again. And a few more times. Nothing at all. No petals. No stems. This was tough! But she wasn't going to let it get her down.

Choosing to be oblivious to the cries of discomfort around her (Bubblehead Charms were free!), Sage carried on with her attempts in conjuring the same flower as she had transformed from buttons. "Orchideous." A slightly abnormally large red poppy appeared. . "Orchideous." A large red dahlia thus appeared upon her desk. "Orchideous." A large slightly unnaturally red colored calla lily appeared next. "ORCHIDEOUS." A vibrant red Ranunculus appeared. Determined, Sage continued on for a few more rounds of floral conjuration and amassed quite the mountain of large red flowers to round out her growing frustrations. Snorting and wiping her brow free from the couple beads of sweat that had formed on her brow from so many conjurations being performed in such rapid succession.

Maybe she wasn't doing as good a job at being oblivious to all the moaning and groaning about the corpse flower as she had thought...but when the professor validated her ambitions over their discomforts, it was perhaps the last push she needed to perform the conjuration proficiently. "Thank you, professor," she smiled in return to his praise. "I thought an appropriate challenge." And now with the door and windows open...she supposed that she could remove her Bubblehead Charm - which she did, but the flow of fresh air did very little for her close proximity to the flower itself. She wanted to gag...but her pride would not let her do so even if her eyes watered slightly - very hard to fight involuntary actions like that.

Also something her pride would not allow? Her to respond with complete sincerity to the professor's next minor task. Whipping out a piece of parchment, the sixth year quickly scribbled down a rather haphazard kind of answer that was very much a white lie to herself.

Quote:

Today neither I struggled with transformation nor conjuration in producing flowers. Perhaps a different more challenging conjuration spell would help to either confirm or nullify my hypothesis.

She had ever intent of diving right back into some more conjurations but she still needed a moment to recuperate a bit more. Maybe have a couple bites of chocolate for good measure.

Well yes Professor, she was aware that the smell was coming from that huge flower BUT had he considered that the plant might have been carnivorous and had eaten one of their precious pets? What kind of flower wanted to smell THAT bad?! “But.. why? Flowers smell pleasant so that they are attractive to bees and butterflies to be pollinated.” Maybe she’d have to ask Professor Phlour next Herbology lesson.

The open window wasn’t doing much to quell the rancid smell but Aurora didn’t like to be found slacking so instead of conducting a spell over herself which would’ve been so much easier, she clasped one hand over her mouth and nose and continued on with what she was doing.

“Herbifors” Came the muffled sound as she pointed her wand at the button to watch it slowly transform into a miniature sunflower. A rather wonky, missing half of its petals flower but she loved it nonetheless. She momentarily unclamped her hand from her nose to admire its odd beauty only to be quickly reminded why her hand was there in the first place as she visibly gagged.

Poor smelly flower had no chance to be pollinated.

With a couple of steps to the right away from Sage’s desk, as if the minimal distance was going to make any difference to the stink parameters, the blonde moved aside the buttons for now to try her next task. “Orchideous” Her eyes squeezed shut as she pictured a bouquet of sunflowers in her mind. Nothing. “Orchideous” she tried again. Still nothing. It was a little hard to concentrate when a sixth year was beside you producing flowers left, right and centre with seemingly no trouble at all. Perhaps she’d let her borrow one if she asked really nicely?

“ORCHIDEOUS!” she raised her voice, marginally and uncharacteristically frustrated. A bouquet appeared before her, once again not perfect but Aurora could see beauty in everything and that didn’t matter. Her frustrations immediately flew out that open window as she picked up the bouquet in her arms, floppy heads and all.

What was the next task? Oh yes.

She finished scribbling down in her notes and proceeded to tickle her nose with the quill as she observed the rest of the class’s bouquets in awe.

After numerous failed attempts at casting Orchideous, it was time to set her wand down and take a much needed break. Having no luck at all was enough to upset anyone but Bry was somehow keeping her cool today. Frustration levels were low and she was still very much all smiles.

Forgetting about the buttons on her desk for a minute, the Slytherin pulled out a sheet of parchment and her pink feathered quill. Might as well write that paragraph while she took her break and cleared her head before trying again. Quill to parchment, Bry got to writing...

'From the start I wasn't sure which would be more difficult. Transfiguration in itself is a difficult in any form. I began with a clear head and a great mood. It took several tries before I was able to transfigure a button into some pink roses. Annnnnnd when it came to conjuring those very same roses, I wasn't able to manage it at all. No matter how many times or tried. So even though I'm in a fantastic mood today, that doesn't seem to be helping me learn how to conjure these roses.' With a quick flurry of her name and house on there, Bry set her quill down and once more picked up her wand. It was time to see if she could conjure some flowers!

While Norman was not a herbologist, he knew enough to recognize a corpse flower. Had he thought it was dangerous, he would’ve reacted much differently. “That’s true, Miss Ackerly,” he said, nodding, “but a corpse flower, like that one -” He jerked his head toward the plant in question. “- attracts a different type of pollinator. It attracts insects which feed on dead animals, hence the foul smell.” Shifting his focus back to the subject at hand, he observed the girl’s spellwork with a slight smile. “Well done, Miss Ackerly!”

Atreyu-Rehman’s reply likewise received a smile from Norman. He watched from across the room as the boy paused in his practice to write something. Not wanting to break his concentration, he gave a silent approving nod. Elsewhere, he noticed Paton had also paused her conjuration practice to write. She also received an approving nod for her efforts.

Norman observed Ransom-Kruus’s practice from across the room, smiling slightly at the array of red flowers the girl conjured. He knew from their animagus training alone that the girl was not one to back down from a challenge. “Good thinking, Miss Ransom-Kruus,” he replied. “And clearly you have risen to the challenge.”


After some time had passed, Norman checked his watch again and saw that class was nearly over. “Alright, that’s time, everyone!” he called. “Please leave your findings on my desk on your way out. Your homework: come up with a list of scenarios in which transformation would be more useful than conjuration and vice versa. Include at least three scenarios for each branch of transfiguration. Class dismissed!”

OOC: Thanks for coming! I’ll leave the thread open until tomorrow morning (about 14ish hours) for anyone who wants to finish up or post their student leaving,