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Well! The school wasn't as soft as Georg had assumed it would be. While he found the classroom rather dull and drab, he'd cheer it up with his belongings over the weekend; since most of it hadn't arrived yet the classroom was rather bare-bones. The birds certainly cheered it up, even if they were noisy.

Oh well - the classroom was well designed for his purposes and the previous professor had left behind plenty of notes on the students and their homework. In the case of the first years, however, he was worried - few of them where showing any stunning promise. In fact some of them were the exact opposite; whomever this Miss Antonopolus was, he was worried about giving her a wand, especially in the presence of other students.

Still, after yesturday he hoped they'd all be keen to pay attention in class; he'd recongnised some of the faces in the squealing crowd as the ones in this class, including the unfortuneate, screaming child.

Ah, well. School, eh? Still, Ignan'd be down and out of commission for a bit while he settled in.

The quiet classroom was currently filled with tweeting, which was jarring him from trying to doze off again. Ah, but the joys of being employed; he couldn't snooze at his liesure anymore.  The arrival of the students and their confused faces got him up from the podium, walking stick clickiing on the floor. On each of their desks sat the doves on stands, tweeting and chirping at each other.

"Good morning," he said. "Take your seats quickly. You will find a dove at each of your desks." One was on his podium; he reached his hand out to it and it hopped onto his fingers.

"I will introduce myself properly once you're all seated. No chattering or roughhousing, please."

"Hello, Professor Kirchlehner!" She beamed at the new professor when she walked in, hoping she'd pronounced his name correctly. Eirene had practiced saying it over her breakfast, because she could relate to the pronunciation problem that came with having a long, foreign last name. Plus, she wanted to impress him.

She left a banana on his desk, as was her custom, and took a seat in the first row, looking at the dove with a politely interested expression. Eirene read the first half of the board, set out her supplies, and glanced up at the board again just as he began to speak.

She frowned at the notice about O.W.L.s and raised her hand high in the air. "Professor?" Eirene waited for him to look at her. "I'm Eirene Antonopoulos, and I was just wondering if that note about the O.W.L.s was written for the first-years? Because if it is," She paused, looking confused. "I'm very happy to hear we're on schedule!" Eirene gave him her most sincere smile.

Four years in advance! That was important, wasn't it?

Serenity Lee was among many, she was sure, that were ready for the weekend. She hurried from breakfast munching on the last piece of toast that was left, chewed and swallowed on her way up the stairs, and, pausing outside the doorway, gave a wide yawn before she entered. The ever-present veil of dark brown hair kept her face from view as she hurried along her row to take a seat near the front with her fellow Ravenclaws.

Momentarily, she wiped a strand aside to be able to see the board better. Sure enough, there was a note about O.W.L.s posted on the board as Eirene had pointed out. Serenity felt a nervous tension about those exams because she was watching some of the older, more experienced students going crazy studying over them. She wasn't sure she wanted to feel that stressed out just yet. Almost immediately after Eirene had said her piece, Serenity Lee let her hair fall back into her face and leaned over towards her approving housemate.

"I don't think that was meant for us, Eirene," she whispered. "I think that's for the fifth years."

She was leaning back when something caught her eye. The tiny Ravenclaw sat with her gaze transfixed in curious horror at the stuffed dragon dangling from his ceiling. An involuntary gasp became audible from her, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from it. It was so scary and yet it was also amazing, bewildering, magnificent...

"Professor," she spoke up without raising her hand, "what kind of dragon was that?"

"Antonopoulos," he said with a curt nod to Eirene, resting one of his hands on his walking stick. As the students settled, he gathered his thoughts, eyes-half lidded. He glanced sharply to the girls as they spoke.

"Indeed. It's for the 5th years." He didn't use the board much; it was easier to just set it to a general message and leave it. Anything they needed to know, he could tell them, really.

He looked to Serenity and then up at the dragon. "A juvenile Hungarian Horntail," he said, and his strict tone slipped slightly as he spoke. "Died of natural causes, in his case - a friend in Romania gave it to me as a gift." He paused for a moment and grunted. "Haven't had any luck finding a place for it until now, sadly."

Realizing he was going a bit off subject, he cleared his throat and looked at the birds; the one in front of Eirene looked nervous.

"As you have been made aware, I am Professor Kirchlehner," he said. "Like your Professor Storm, I am a Durmstrang alumni; you may find our style of teaching similar." He paused and the faintest hint of smug smirk flitted across his features. "Though not the same, I daresay; I'm far less likely to get you killed." He snapped his fingers sharply together. "Now then - I expect the lot of you to do your best. If I catch you slacking when I know you can do well I will be most displeased. As for those of you who are worried about a lack of...talent...we will have to work on that issue."

He raised the hand that had the bird on it and the dove spread its wings to balance itself. "For today, we will be covering a simple spell; the Color-Change charm. This should not be difficult for most of you." He raised his wand with a practiced hand.

"The incantation is Abeo Umbra," he said. "Ah-bee-o-um-bra." He looked at the bird and raised his wand. "The movement is a simple tap, like so-" He gently placed the tip of his wand on the bird's head and spoke the spell; the bird nearly instantly turned bright blue.

"As you speak the spell, imagine the color you wish in your mind - clearly. Decide on a color before you try the spell."

It had taken Noriko a full five minutes to work up the courage to enter into the Charms classroom.  Even after the other first years had filed inside, she continued to linger nervously in the doorway, shooting anxious looks at the malevolent-looking artifacts that were now strung around the room.

She scrambled inside to find a desk just as the new Professor looked to be starting class, thanking Merlin for the fact that there was always at least one empty desk next to Eirene.  As Professor Kirsh- ...Kirk- ...K-something introduced himself, Noriko tried to sit there attentively, but she couldn't help shooting a suspicious look up every so often at the Hungarian Horntail that hung suspended overhead.  If it moved at all and looked like it was going to eat her, she was determined to hit the floor quicker than it took to mispronounce the new professor's last name.

The explanation of what they were going to be covering in the lesson drew her attention to the bird sitting on her desk.  Noriko eyed it suspiciously, even as it stared dubiously back at her and then began to clean its feathers.

Nervously, she drew her wand, sneaking a glance at Eirene to make sure that her friend was aiming her wand at the bird on her own desk and not anywhere else, particularly at someone's bum.  "What color are you going to try?" she whispered, turning her attention back on her dove as she tried to determine whether or not it would try to peck at her if she moved her wand closer.

Xander had filed in and taken his seat like a good boy, but he was having a really hard time staying there. This was because their new professor had redecorated. Not that Xander was at all interested in interior design or anything. But the stuff on the shelves and hanging from the ceiling? It was so neat. He was having to sit on his hands to resist the urge to jump up and go poke everything, give it all close inspection.

Instead, he turned his attention to the dove on his desk. Xander liked animals, he always had. He leaned forward and rested his chin on top of the desk, to be at level with the bird. Color changing charms, huh? That would be cool. He wondered how the bird felt about having its feathers dyed, though. Or were birds color blind? He wasn't sure. He didn't think so, cause didn't some of them collect shiny objects of select colors? He made a mental note to look that up later.

Right now, it was time to practice wand work. Xander wasn't as good at that as he was at the book work, but it was fun, and he figured he'd improve in time. He'd only just started being a wizard in September, after all! As for color choices, after a minute of mental debate, Xander decided to go with green. He'd thought about red, but that was bright and attention grabbing. He didn't think the bird would appreciate being a more noticable target for hunters. Green would provide it with better camouflage. Provided, of course, that this spell was even permanent. Hmmm.

Xander sat up straight again, sticking his hand in the air and attempting to attract Professor Kirchlehner's attention. "Professor? How long does the spell last?"

As the students began to eye their birds and quietly talk amongst themselves, he stepped down from the podium and began to walk along the desks, eying their wand work critically. The blue dove sat on his shoulder, Georg having taken it with him to use to demonstrate again, if need be.

When Xander spoke, he looked up and cocked his head to the side a little bit as he thought for just a moment. "The effect will wear off on its own, Mister Perdue," he explained. "Many spells - the color-change charm being one - will wear off over time; but the amount of time it takes depends on the amount of power the spell was cast with. In the case of most of you, the effect should last between 1 to 3 hours; for an advanced caster, this type of spell could last a full day or longer." He smiled at Xander, his smile thin and quick. "The effect can also be removed via other spells - but as that's a higher level of magic, we will not be covering it today."

Eirene nodded at Serenity as if she'd known that the announcement was for the fifth-years all along, though her face reddened a bit. She listened to the professor's introduction, eyes widening in alarm and interest when he said he came from Durmstrang, the scary place that spit out very stern professors indeed. Her gaze shifted to the walking stick, where she imagined he hid a blade, or maybe the severed fingers of all of his victims.

He explained what they'd be doing today, and she perked up, mouthing the spell 'Abeo Umbra' after he'd said it. She watched him turn the bird blue, and a sudden idea hit her.

Her mind raced ahead of the assignment, as it was prone to do, and Eirene was already envisioning the cheers and praise she'd receive after she amazed the new professor with her skill.

When Noriko piped up very quietly, Eirene realized that she'd chosen to sit next to her, and sent her a grin, not minding at all this time that her friend had interrupted her thoughts.

"You'll see!" Eirene whispered back. "It's a surprise!"

With that, Eirene turned to her dove, which twittered nervously and edged away from her on its stand. She didn't notice its reluctance, and very gently tapped the dove, pronouncing the spell clearly and confidently.

The dove slowly turned a mottled, ugly mixture of green, blue, and brown. After a second, the bird glanced down, flapped its wings in horror, and then flew to the professor's podium, where it hopped about in distress and upended a few papers. Eirene gasped, face crestfallen. She'd imagined peacock feathers, and now the dove looked like someone had barfed all over it!

"Oh no!" she breathed, sending the professor a panicked, guilty glance.

Georg looked at the upset bird with his eyebrows raised, lips curled into a frown. He walked back to the podium and stretched his hand out; the bird obediently hoped onto his finger.

"This," he said to the class as a whole, "Is why I specifially stated that you must choose a color before starting." He drew his wand and said a quick spell, and the bird returned to its normal white state.

"Miss Antonopoulos, is it?" he asked as he strode back to Eirene, letting the bird hop down onto the perch. "Try it again; remember, picture the color you desire clearly in your mind." He eyed her face, which was bright red. "Like so..." he placed the end of his wand gently on the bird's head. "Abeo Umbra," he said, and the bird turned bright orange.

"Try again, Miss Antonopoulos," he said as he dispelled the dove's color.

Farther back in the classroom Cyhirae sighed. It was becoming almost routine in their classes, Eirene attempts to show off and it then backfires on her, though this time it was no where near as spectacular as the Noriko rear inflation debacle.

Turning back to her own bird she frowned, debating what color she should choose. Rummaging through her book bag for inspiration she happened upon a small, barely used tube of lipstick. Georgiana had gotten her the lipstick, along with the rest of the required make up, last Christmas. She must have stuffed it in her bag after the dance some how. However it got there it made for a great color reference. Uncapping it  she wound it up so that the entire tube of pigment was exposed. Misfit was the color on the label, though the rum raisin in parenthesis underneath indicated the real color of the lipstick.

Focusing on the lipstick's color she turned back to the dove, "Abeo Umbra." Her concentration was rewarded when the dove turned the soft red color of her lipstick.

There were many colors that Serenity liked and could choose from, but the thought of blue appealed to her most of all. She remembered the shade her bedroom had been painted in, raised her wand, and paused when she changed her mind. The Ravenclaw blue was pretty, too, but for a second time, she hesitated on turning her bird the color. She glanced up at Professor Kirchlehner.

"This is why I specifially stated that you must choose a color before starting."

She stared at Eirene's bird and when he repeated a demonstration for her classmate, Serenity Lee watched closely. Her mother and sister were excellent at Charms. She seemed to be better in Herbology than anything else so far and Defense Against the Dark Arts was proving to be absolutely disastrous since she was unable to bring herself to harm another person, or hex them. Slowly, her hazel eyes swiveled around to stare at her own dove and gazed intensely at it as if the bird would change color of its own accord.

'What would happen if I made it striped?' she pondered.

This time, like her classmates, the little Ravenclaw decided on a color and firmly placed it in her mind. Mentally, she counted down from three to prepare herself for trying the spell. Just as she reached one, however, the image of sky-blue eyes inches from her own burst forth into her mind. The color was vivid enough that by the time finished muttering "Abeo Umbra" aloud, the bird's wings and tail became tipped in the blue. She gasped.

"Sorry, sorry!"

She bit her lip, counted mentally from three to one again, and once more, the image of those sky-blue eyes exploded.

"Abeo Umbra," she said a little more loudly than she had meant to.

This time, only the beak and eyes turned the color of the eyes she was imagining. Her curtained face grew heated and a deep red hue conquered her freckled cheeks. Why did those eyes keep popping up into her mind? Her sessions with Keegan had been going great, but if he noticed that her bird was turning the color of his eyes specifically, he might not want to teach her anymore. After all, there were enough rumors going around about her and the adventurous first year anyway.

"S-sorry, Professor," she muttered quietly and set her wand down on the table in front of her as if she'd just done something seriously wrong with it.

Pax did try to remain optimistic about Charms-- the new teacher seemed quite interesting, at least, even if he was from the same School of Scary as Professor Storm-- but it was getting a little difficult to remain upbeat when he was simply not up to the same standard as the rest of the class. He worked hard because it was all he could do to try to keep up, but there was only so much one could do to compensate for a lack of natural magical aptitude. He gave Eirene a sympathetic, but also somewhat encouraging look as her dove turned a hodge-podge of different colours, as if to say, Well, at least it changed colour! Pax was lucky if his spells had any effect, intended or unintended.

Turning his attention to the dove perched on his desk, he gave a small sigh through his nose and drew his wand. Considering the bird, who in turn was watching him with glistening, beady eyes, Pax wondered if the exercise might go smoother if he had the dove's cooperation. 'Hello Dove,' he said quietly, hoping that no one would notice over the various enunciations of Abeo Umbra. 'I'm going to put a charm on you, okay? It's shouldn't hurt, and it'll wear off quickly.' Pax found hgimself quite grateful to Xander for ascertaining that knowledge. Xander struck Pax as a thoughtful, considerate type, which Pax liked about him.

'You'll just be this colour for a little while,' Pax told his dove, holding out his tie. The dove cocked its head at it. 'Hufflepuff yellow. It's the best colour,' he added in a conspiratorial whisper, not wanting any students from the other houses to hear and take offense.

'Okay then. Stay still, okay?' Bracing himself as if for the worst, Pax took a deep breath, recited the incantation, and tapped the dove on the head. However, he was so focused on the pronunciation of Abeo Umbra and on visualising the precise shade of yellow he wanted the dove to turn, that he managed to misjudge the distance between his wand and the dove, and tapped it rather harder than he had been intending.

The dove stayed resolutely white as it cooed indignantly and flapped into the air, away from Pax. 'No no no! I'm sorry Dove! Please come back!' Pax stumbled out of his chair, trying in vain to catch the bird before it disturbed any of the other students.

Eirene nodded when the professor asked her name, so embarrassed she could barely meet his eyes. She'd really wanted to impress him! And now, like many of the other professors, he probably thought she was silly, or worse, dumber than the other students! He explained the spell again, and after a jealous glance at Cyhirae, and a hopeful glance at Serenity (who had also begun with some trouble), Eirene pictured the color gold in her mind, and tapped the bird.

Unfortunately, another student's dove flew right over her head at that moment, and her own dove ended up with one large, gold patch on its belly. The rest of it remained orange.

Eirene spun around, about to scold whoever had distracted her, but changed her mind as soon as she saw Pax.

"Come back! Come back, dove!" Eirene commanded his bird, pointing at Pax as if the creature had forgotten whom it was avoiding. Her loud voice only alarmed Pax's dove more, and her dove shifted restlessly on its perch, looking ready to join the revolt.

Georg witheld a sigh. Hopeless, the lot of them - though he nodded curty to Cyhirae.

"For those of you getting only partial coloring, focus harder on the spell as you cast," he said evenly. "Willpower is everything in spellcasting; if you do not truly put your mind to it, the spell will not work properly." As he spoke, he watched Pax's dove fly away towards the rafters. This time, he did sigh.

"Accio dove!" he said, and with a surprised squawk the dive flew into his hand. He held the dove gently once he had it, smoothing its feathers as the animal calmed down, gently running his fingers along its back.

"Failure is a natural conequince of learning, students; keep trying. Not succeeding the first time does not mean you are doomed to never master the spell." When the dove seemed calmer, he walked over and returned it to the perch in from of Pax.

"Right - back to work, all of you. Trishna, well done - remember class, it can help if you have a visual aid for the color. Use your house scarves, books, or something else - with as inexperienced as you all are with these spells, having a clear image in your mind will aid you immensely." He rubbed one of his temples. "It will also help with avoiding multiple color splotches."

Dahlia had entered the room with a curious glance at the new decor. It was obvious before she even saw him that they had yet another new Professor. She wondered what had happened to Professor Fleetfoot. He was actually a very nice Professor and knew his subject well. She was sad to see him go and wondered if this new man, who had obviously been teaching for much longer by the looks of him, could measure up.

She took a seat between Xander and Pax sticking with the other Hufflepuffs for the lesson. She leaned forward to smile at the dove while she listened to the lesson. The colour change spell? Well that was easy. Surprisingly enough she had learned it from Ayla (who was apparently really good at charms) as the older Collins girl was fond of changing the colour of her clothes to save herself money on a new outfit.

She hesitated in starting though. Her blue green eyes travelled around the classroom curious as to how her fellow students were fairing. She smiled as she watched Serenity turn her dove several different shades of brilliant blue. Something struck her as familiar though. The brightest of the blues that kept popping up on her dove seemed to have her flustered and Dahlia couldn't help thinking that she had seen that colour before. She kept looking around the room as if she was going to find it when surprisingly she did. Her eyes had instinctively gone to the group of Gryffindors and she noticed that the brilliant blue of Serenity Lee's dove was the exact shade of Keegan's eyes.

Dahlia lowered her own eyes to stare at her dove as an uncomfortable and unfamiliar sense of anger washed over her. She took a few calming breaths trying to wash the feeling away before she looked back up. Without realizing it she had adjusted her view ever so slightly so that when she looked up again she wasn't looking at the brilliant blue of Keegan's eyes but the smoky grey of Tynan's. Dahlia smiled softly to herself and decided to get back to work. She could analyze her strange behaviour later.

As the rest of the class became distracted with Pax' runaway dove Dahlia decided it was the perfect time to perform the spell. She concentrated and tapped her dove gently on the back, "Abeo Umbra." A wide smile crossed her face as not only had the spell worked but it had worked a lot better than she had expected. The dove sitting in front of her was now a beautiful shade of Hufflepuff yellow striped with solid black matching her own striped tie. She sat back in her chair watching the other students and hoping none of them had noticed. Afterall Dahlia didn't like being a show off.