Professor Rowan Dakin
November 19, 2009 4:37 PM
Beginner Lesson (1-3 years) by Professor Rowan Dakin
To say that Rowan Dakin was nervous was an understatement, she was down right fearful. How could she be nervous of students who were so young, after all she had faced in her past? After ten years of being a Dragon Keeper she needed a change in pace but why was she so fearful of the students? They were just children; they didn’t blow fire at her, nor try to claw her eyes out.The short Professor made her way to the large fire pit where the fire was still going strong, perfect for her little friends that crawled all over the logs. She bit her lip nervously as she swept her short dark hair out of her face as the students began to gather. They seemed to be a calm bunch but one could never tell at the start of a class, that she remembered from her time in school. They were calm till they had tested the Professors patience.
Finally they were all settle and she smiled at them. “Welcome to Care of Magical Creatures, I am Professor Rowan Dakin.” She paused as she stepped out of their line of sight so they could see the blaze that held the Salamanders. “The first things we will be studying are salamanders. Come sit down on the logs I have arranged for you around the fire.”
She watched as the students took seats and she walked over to the fire. “You may want to take notes.” She said with a nod of her head and waited for the students to take out their writing equipment. “In here are salamanders, a fire dwelling lizard.” She smiled and rocked on her heels looking at the bright blue and red salamanders. “They are born out of flames, and live as long as the flames that they are born of are still going.”
She paused as she put a pair of gloves on and reached into the flames. She grabbed one of the salamanders and held it out by his tail for the class to see. “These guys feed on the flames or when out of the fire, on pepper.” Rowan set it down on a table a bit further away. She laid out some pepper and salamander munched on it. “They can last out of the fire for six hours as long as you regularly feed them pepper. Salamanders are known for their regenerative properties, and are used in many potions but these guys are for you to enjoy.”
Rowan waved her wand and tables appeared all around the fire. “Please pair up and come get one salamander. Please do not reach in the fir, allow me to get them for you. Once you get them you can feed them pepper and study them.” With that she clapped her hands and began to hand off the Salamanders to the partners.
OOC: Normal posting length, the more creative you are with your salamanders the more points you earn! Also there is a quick homework lesson if you do it I’ll add 5- 10 more points!
Subthreads: So I should forget what I learned in muggle school? by Demelza Eagle with Theodore Manzana, Theo Manzana, Demelza Eagle (Pecari)
This class doesn't agree with me. by Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren with Edmond Carey, Aladren, Veronica
Oooh, fiery! by Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari with Jose Hernandez (Pecari), Delilah
Setting the woods on fire. by Rachel Bauer with
Setting the woods on fire. by Rachel Bauer with Tobar Brishen, Tobar
I'm not a fan of fires. by Marissa Stephenson with Starbuck Gregory
It's gonna be hot, hot, HOT! by David Lancaster [Teppenpaw] with Daniel Nash II [Aladren]
Content in being alone by Juri Dahlgren, Aladren with Charlotte Abbott
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Professor Rowan Dakin
Beginner Lesson (1-3 years)
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Professor Rowan Dakin
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Rachel Bauer
November 25, 2009 1:40 PM
Setting the woods on fire. by Rachel Bauer
When it came to Care of Magical Creatures, Rachel had made up her mind to hope for the best and assume the worst. The word 'liability' had entered her vocabulary almost as soon as Jeremy and Momma had gotten married, and it meant that, unless she was very lucky, Care of Magical Creatures would be boring as sin.Odd phrase, that. She'd never really thought about it - she had picked it up from Momma, whose speech had suffered from the combination of growing up Layne and growing up in South Carolina - but 'boring as virtue' really sounded a lot more logical. Other than shopping, all of the behaviors her Most Common Guardians approved of bored her silly.
The presence of a fire suggested, though, that terminology might not matter at all. It was September; unless a professor who happened to be part snake had been recruited from Merlin alone knew where, a fire was not necessary for warmth, which meant it had something to do with the lesson at hand. Since dragons probably weren't an option, she had some fun trying to think of what the professor might throw at them before she was slightly disappointed to learn that it was just salamanders.
Next time, she was sitting up front. That way, if it was a relatively mundane something again, she'd notice that well before the lesson began.
She took notes in her loopy, sloppy handwriting, handling a nagging desire for it to have turned into an elegant script like Alicia's by the simple expedient of pretending it had. There was nothing too shocking revealed, though she had not known coming in that salamanders could be kept alive, for a while, with pepper; she'd never heard of trying to keep one alive instead of dicing it up quickly for its blood and all the other useful bits it contained. She'd been hoping for a bit more excitement and new knowledge, but she could still, now, say that she'd learned something today.
She hoped there was something else to be learned through an observation period, because she had trouble seeing what was enjoyable about watching a lizard crawl about and eat a bit of pepper every now and then. A naturalist she was not; her interests had never extended far beyond personal advantage, and playing with bugs had stopped being one before she even stopped wearing pigtails. Just watching something for a few minutes wasn't exactly a challenge, either, so she couldn't see how it would even be vaguely entertaining.
It was official: she hated being a first year.
Masking her impatience with difficulty, Rachel went to the front and collected a salamander. Veronica seemed to be in the process of snagging a boy for her partner, which put a major dent in the number of people Rachel felt she could - within limits - trust not to be psycho. Seeing no better option, she simply went to sit down and allow someone to come to her. Going around asking people to like her wasn't really her style, anyway.
She was distributing pepper in small clumps when a shadow fell over her. Glancing up, she saw another student. "Hi," she said, deciding to be polite..ish. "Can I help you?"
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Rachel Bauer
Setting the woods on fire.
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Tobar Brishen
November 27, 2009 8:26 PM
Why stop at the woods? by Tobar Brishen
Tobar had practically danced to Care of Magical Creatures, his family often worked with magical creatures in fact his Uncle Brwie had been a Dragon Keeper until he rejoined the family. The visits to Romania had always been enthralling to see Dragons that close had been amazing. He hadn’t worn his robes as the weather was nice and he was outside, the Professor should be glad he had worn a cut off shirt instead of a vest leaving his chest exposed.When he saw the bonfire he really wanted to hear music and dance around it like they did at home. Right now home was in Florida his sister Gianelly had wrote to him expressing how much everyone missed him. He was the next leader of their small gypsy tribe but his position was in danger the longer he was away and he knew it. For the next seven years he would be judged harshly by the ones who wanted them to stay in the dark ages, where the children weren’t associated with others of the wizarding world.
He grinned when Professor Rowan spoke about the Salamanders. He was excited he couldn’t wait to get his hands on one. As he joined the line of students to get one he noticed that there was one girl sitting by herself and feeding a Salamander. She seemed lonely so Tobar made his way over once again almost dancing in his steps. He couldn’t help it he was a musical gypsy and he had moving this way since he first heard that magical music as a child.
He was about to open his mouth when the girl said. “Hi Can I help you?". Well at least she was blunt. Tobar grinned as he pulled on his earring and in his odd accent of a mix of Romanian, German, and English said. “Would you like to partner with me? I’m Tobar Brishen, first year Teppenpaw.” He said holding out his hand.
He liked long introductions when he met other gypsies he was often introduced as ‘Tobar Brishen the next leader of the Brishen-Molecome tribe.’ So the mouthful of name, year, and house was nothing to the young boy.
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Tobar Brishen
Why stop at the woods?
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Rachel
November 28, 2009 4:32 PM
Because I have to go paint the whole town yellow. by Rachel
OOC: Since a number of characters, including both of ours, referred to Charms as the first lesson of the year in that thread, I'm assuming that Rach knows who Tobar is, as they worked together there. BIC:Rachel bit her tongue hard when she finished looking up and recognized Tobar, who'd saved her from spending at least an hour of the first class day looking like an Abominable Snow-witch. Not that getting close to snappish with a new person was any better, but if she couldn't make friends, the least she could do was not turn people who she established decent relations with against her at the first opportunity. If her mouth didn't succeed in blowing her cover, nothing would.
What came out of it next did nothing to relieve her of that impression. "I know," she said. "Do I really look that much better with my hair down?" It sounded like she was flirting with him. How great. She'd always wanted that thought in people's heads, and before Momma wrote her about the people she'd met so far at that. Forget a cover; if her mouth didn't get her killed, nothing ever would. She could blame it on him for confusing her, but that would fix nothing.
She honestly didn't know if she should be offended by his failure to recognize her, though. On one hand, he could be one of those people with no head for names: annoying, but unable to help it and so not deserving of real rebuke. On the other hand, he could just be implying she was boring, average, and generally forgettable, in which case she had to do something very impressive very fast to correct him. What, exactly, that could be, she didn't know, so she was hoping he was just really bad with names and would recall their earlier meeting in a minute.
"You can work with me again if you want, though," she added graciously. She still had a point to prove with him that it would be hard to prove right now, but there was no real way to be sure she'd never require saving from Yeti-dom or some greater horrors in future. Rachel was determined that she'd save herself next time, but...One never could tell. Momma's doctrine on Divination was that not even Seers could see an entirely clear picture of the future, which was why all the rest of them needed to be especially careful. "I'm not sure how much work there is for one person, though. I think that they just want us to socialize."
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Rachel
Because I have to go paint the whole town yellow.
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Tobar
November 29, 2009 1:47 AM
I thought it was paint the town red? by Tobar
Tobar was oblivious to the fact that to the others in the class Rachel’s comment would be misconstrued as flirting. The only people he had interacted wit besides his family had been the people who they preformed for, and none of those girls had dared flirt with him when their parents were close. “It’s not that, it’s just I didn’t recognize you because I didn’t see your face.” He smiled it wasn’t a lie; he really hadn’t seen her whole face just the top of her head and the side of her face, not enough to identify after one charms lesson together.He smiled when she said that they could work again. He picked up a bit of pepper as he held his hand up to the salamander that quickly licked up the pepper. He laughed the tongue felt a bit odd on his hand. “I think there just wasn’t enough for all of us to have our own salamanders so we have to pair up. Do you think in every class we are going to have to pair up?” He asked as he took the salamander into his hands. He smiled apologetically at Rachel but he loved animals, he sat on the ground and let the animal crawl up his arm until it was perched on his head.
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Tobar
I thought it was paint the town red?
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Rachel
November 29, 2009 10:45 PM
I like to be different. And have no memory for song lyrics. by Rachel
"Well," Rachel said, sounding slightly at a loss, when her query got what she thought was supposed to be a polite-ish answer. If she squinted at it just right, he could've just said that she actually looked worse than she had in Charms, which would not make her happy at all. She'd spent ages doing her hair this morning, and the idea that it had no impact on her audience whatsoever was more than a small bit on the discouraging side. "All right, then."He proceeded to have a reasonable answer to the question of why they were in pairs for a simple assignment. She thought her answer still had validity, but his probably came closer to the official reasoning. She watched as he let the little lizard crawl on him. Maybe she didn't mind animals, but for one to be on her head, where she couldn't see it...
She shook that thought aside. "I think we'll probably do it a lot," she said, glancing around at all the couples in the area. "It's practically inevitable in Defense." Rachel gave him an almost mischievous smile. "Would you want to duel me when we get there, Tobar?"
If the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor decided she was a fan of friendly cooperation, Rachel thought that she might scream. She had trouble seeing the point of anything academic that didn't involve a contest, but taking the one subject that had competition at the center of its theory and turning it into a series of Aesop stories about how no man was an island would drive her nuts. She had no objection to the idea of friends and intended to make some, but everything had its place and time. Things that involved concrete achievements were not in that place and time.
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Rachel
I like to be different. And have no memory for song lyrics.
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Tobar
December 02, 2009 3:50 PM
Different is always good by Tobar
Tobar grinned as the salamander came down to his hand where the pepper lay to grab some before it scurried back up to the top his head. Would you want to duel me when we get there, Tobar?” . She had asked. Making Tobar’s grin even wider, he had dueled a couple of times before.He nodded slowly. “Sure I would duel you. I’m not scared of girls.” He teased with a wink and a laugh. He had dueled his sisters before when they had gotten a hold of the elders wands. That had earned them a week of extra chores and work. That was the one thing he liked about being here at Sonora, no chores, no work. Though he missed his family like crazy.
“Do you think they are going to let us Duel each other?” He asked as he tugged on his earring. “I mean this year at least a lot of the muggleborns wouldn’t understand the finer points of a wizards duel, that at least what I think.” He picked up the salamander and held it out to Rachel to see if she wanted to play with it for a few moments.
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Tobar
Different is always good
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Rachel
December 03, 2009 6:24 PM
Well, I wouldn't say <i>always</i>... by Rachel
Rachel laughed, too, when Tobar asserted that he wasn't afraid of girls. Not surprising, really; she had never met a boy, with the possible exceptions of Terry and Jeremy, who were afraid of girls. They, however, were often a bit surprised to discover that she was no more afraid of boys than her tomboyish sister Kate was. Maybe less "Oh, yeah?" she said lightly. "I could do something about that."Whether or not that was true was up for debate. She had, of course, practiced in secret in her room from the day she'd gotten her wand and textbooks, but the last actual fight she'd had, where she'd been trying to accomplish something through action, had been with Kate two years ago. She'd honestly thought Momma, high-wired as she was about propriety, might have a stroke, which was why they kept it to insults these days. Since this was just a teasing match, though, it didn't really matter. Besides, even if they'd been mortal enemies (which she didn't think they were), neither of their powers should have developed well enough to do any real damage.
That was the major problem with being young. She knew about all sorts of things she'd be able to do years from now, but there didn't seem to be much of anything she could do right now. Some things she was going to be learning now were practical, some not so much, but from what she'd put together, it all boiled down to letting them dabble their toes in the water for a year or two while they waited to become strong enough to actually do something she might find interesting. To her surprise, Tobar brought up a similar point.
"Formally? No," she said, taking the salamander and letting it balance on her upturned wrist. It was not getting on her head, but she wasn't going to shrink from contact. That was wimpy. "I don't even know all the fine points, and I think it, like, varies cross-culturally or something." That was more of a guess than anything, but it seemed that every other thing under the sun did, so she figured it was a good one. "My stepfather's brother was a professional for a year or two, and he says there's all sorts of little sub-rules a normal person never finds out about." Matt had taught her a few things on the sly, mostly to annoy Jeremy, who felt she was way too far from her proper place in the Future Trophy Wives of America as it was.
Good guy, Matt Douglas. After the clothes and the nice room, getting him as a sort of uncle was easily the best thing about her mother's second marriage. He was way cooler than Dad's brothers (she'd never met Momma's little brother to make a comparison to him; if he was like the two little half-sisters he'd grown up with, she didn't want to), and sometimes, when he was around, she could almost forget about missing Dad. They were a lot alike in some ways.
"But they have to teach us something, and they have to let us aim at something else. Otherwise we'll just be shooting random spells around the room, and that would turn into a disaster." Rachel said that part with confidence. She had never seen anything like a classful of eleven-year-olds aiming at nothing, but she did remember the way Kate had kept losing control of her powers during their parents' divorce - something to do with stress. It had not been pretty. Turning one Kate into fifteen did not seem likely to make it prettier.
The salamander started to scurry up her arm, so Rachel turned it and brought the other one up level, allowing it to cross her hands like a bridge onto the other arm. "I think it likes me," she said, just about the time it jumped off. "Or not."
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Rachel
Well, I wouldn't say <i>always</i>...
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Tobar
December 07, 2009 1:51 AM
I would say always by Tobar
Tobar let out a healthy laugh when Rachel said she could do something about him being afraid of girls. She had obviously not met gypsy girls before, his mother’s and aunts’ spankings had always been worse then his father’s and uncles’ were. His sisters and girl cousins were also rougher on Tobar then his brother and boy cousins. Then again the males new Tobar was the next leader and they were to respect him, the females of course treated him like any male, next leader of not he was still a boy and boys were dealt with in only one way, force.“I’m sorry, but I do not think you could change my mind about being afraid of girls. I’ve lived in a whole tribe of them yacking my ear off day after day.” He grinned at her. “And my sister Giannelly can hex us faster them mama and daddy can see.” He tugged once again on his golden hoop and bit his lip as she talked about her stepfather and what she thought the school would teach them about dueling. He really didn’t care about dueling though it was something he may have to do one day. He still remember when Daddy had to do it to save their tribe from being swallowed by another larger one. Tobar himself would do the same thing to save the tribe and he knew he had to learn how to duel.
When the salamander jumped off Rachel’s arm Tobar jumped up and chased after it for a few moments before finally catching it. He sat down with a grin and placed it back on his head grinning.
“I think it likes hair, and I bet seeing your stepfather duel would be cool.” He said it because that was what was expected he was sure the girl wouldn’t know he said it halfheartedly.
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Tobar
I would say always
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Rachel
December 11, 2009 12:25 AM
Even if 'different' equals 'totally amoral'? by Rachel
"Giannelly," Rachel repeated, trying the name out. "Nice name. Is she going to come here, too?"She thought Kate and Alicia and most of her cousins would be following her here over the years, though really, no one ever knew what Uncle Isaac might do. Her mother had always gotten along swimmingly with him, to the point that she'd named Rachel's half-brother after him long after her divorce from his brother, but even she didn't really trust him. Rachel thought she just had a thing for manipulative, power-hungry men; it would explain why she and Dad had not worked out on several different levels. And then there was the problem of not knowing if everyone was magical; Naomi, at least, was Muggleborn, Papa had a fair bit of Muggle in his ancestry, and her uncles weren't picky when it came to wives. Squibs were likely.
Yet another thing she'd have to worry about...There were a few days, scattered out though they were, when Rachel felt losing the perks of status would be worth losing the order to play pureblood. It was going to be hard enough, if some of her Bauer cousins did show up here, to explain that she would have to near-kill them if they mentioned anything about where she actually came from.
"Not really," she said with a shrug, dismissing Tobar's odd mistake of 'stepfather's brother' for 'stepfather'. Jeremy, for his part, traded in the Potions market. Or so he said - Rachel had her suspicions about how else he and Momma could have as much money as they did, but if he was smuggling, it was none of her business until the Aurors showed up. That, of course, was the point at which she grabbed her sisters, Flooed to Dad's, and pretended none of them had laid eyes on their mother in years. She did not want all the gossip here to be that Rachel Bauer got questioned by the cops, and she was not about to let her sisters go through that. Kate wasn't tough enough for it, and Alicia was the baby. It was her job to look after them. "A pair of suicidal glory hounds going at each other? I'm not going near that with a ten-foot pole. Not unless I'm a lot older and have an Auror's certificate, anyway.
"And I'm sorry as I can be - " another borrowed phrase of Momma's; when she relaxed, she sounded more like her mother than her mother did these days - "but that thing is not getting anywhere near my hair." She spoke lightly again, a hint of a smile on her face, but meant it absolutely. "It takes, like, twenty minutes to fix it every morning, and I am not letting a lizard make me skip lunch."
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Even if 'different' equals 'totally amoral'?
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