Substitute prof. Roy Snughardt
September 10, 2010 10:51 PM
Aw, Crup! [First and second years!] by Substitute prof. Roy Snughardt
Roy Snughardt enjoyed being a substitute. He didn’t have to worry about the children hating him too much. If they didn’t like him, well, tough for them. Honestly, he didn’t care. This wasn’t a permanent thing, only until Sonora arranged for a permanent professor.Until that time, Roy found himself teaching Care of Magical Creatures. Today, he was teaching first and second years, which was just ever so great, Roy sarcastically thought. Roy wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of younger children. They could be annoying and immature, and if it were up to the grey-eyed man, every human would come into this world at about twelve years old, when a human stops being a child and becomes a real human. Half of his students in this class were that age, yet for some reason, Roy still had low expectations. Though they weren’t his favorite to be around, Roy was confident that if the students behaved themselves, they could get along just fine.
Also, Roy was very glad to be substituting in Care of Magical Creatures, his best and favorite subject growing up. Plus, it gave him a chance to contact an old friend of his, Sorrell. He’d have to remember Sorrell when planning his future lessons in regards to his older students.
Soon, Roy was waiting for his students to arrive, two decent-sized cages sitting next to him with blankets over them so the creatures inside could not be seen yet. After hardly no time at all, the students poured in. Look how small they are! the nearly-fifty-years-old widower thought. They’re almost like miniature people! Oh, wait, they are.
“Good afternoon, class,” Roy said calmly, his thin, aged lips creasing. “I am your substitute professor, Professor Roy Snughardt.” Whipping off the blanket, Roy revealed the creatures of today’s lesson; Crups. “Behold! Crups!”
“Crups are very similar to Jack Russell Terriers,” Roy continued. He himself had a Jack Russell at home with Susie, his beautiful nineteen-year-old daughter, and Shiloh, his adorable two-year-old grandson. Susie was so grown up, and his family was all he really missed about home. Roy hardly remembered his life before adopting Susie about six years ago. Back then, his wife was alive…
“Unlike Jack Russells,” he said, getting back on subject in his mind, “Crups have forked tails.” Quickly unlocking one of the cages, reaching in, grabbing a Crup, pulling the barking creature out, and relocking the change in one swift movement, Roy demonstrated this. “See? Forked.”
“Also, Crups have a dislike for Muggles. No one knows why; they just do. It’s suspected, however, that Crups were bred by Purebloods to dislike Muggles purposely,” Roy explained. Giving the instructions, he added, “All right, kids! Let’s play with Crups! I think there’s half as many Crups as kids, so share, and have fun playing around! Be warned,” he added in an afterthought, “that Crups will eat almost anything, so watch your loose clothing, hair, wands, and other things with careful eyes. Now go play!”
OOC: Well, hi there, kids! Please, don’t be mean to the Crups if you can resist; I wouldn’t suggest attacking them/obliterating them/kicking them/any other bad behaviors. Standard rules, and happy posting!
Subthreads: Would anyone notice if one went missing...? by Neal Padrig, Pecari with Renée Errant, Neal
I wish I was into dogs. by Marcus Williams (Pecari) with David Wilkes of Aladren
My sentiments exactly. by Ryan O'Malley,Crotalus with Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus
Something fishy is going on around here by Kirstenna Melcher,Teppenpaw
Smart little animals (TAG Professor Snughardt) by Nova Wynn {Aladren} with Snughardt
Inconsistancy by Autumn Collins, Crotalus with Samantha Hamilton, Aladren
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Substitute prof. Roy Snughardt
Aw, Crup! [First and second years!]
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Substitute prof. Roy Snughardt
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Ryan O'Malley,Crotalus
September 15, 2010 4:56 AM
My sentiments exactly. by Ryan O'Malley,Crotalus
Due to the fact that he had rather severe allergies and hay fever, Ryan had never been much for the outdoors. Unfortunately for him, having COMC classes outside was a long standing practice at Sonora. Today's class found Ryan incredibly stuffed up, and sneezing every couple minutes.Quite frankly, Ryan did not want to be in class feeling this way. He was embarassed. The other kids would laugh at him and the teacher would probably yell at him. He couldn't help sneezing, the alternative was a potion that made Ryan feel really sleepy, but he was still certain that his teacher would yell at him. His mother did, of course, do that exactly and until Ryan was completely sure that his teachers wouldn't, he'd assume the worst.
He stood in the clearing where the COMC class was to take place. His eyes were itchy and watery and Ryan feverently hoped nobody would think he was crying. He couldn't have people thinking he was a baby the way that they did. Hopefully the constant sneezing would show them that that wasn't the case.
But sneezing wasn't good either, for one thing, Ryan was worried about disrupting the class. Some people, particularly Aladrens, might get mad if they couldn't hear what the teacher was saying because he was sneezing so loud. The teacher would get mad too and punish Ryan and when he inevitably went home-he didn't have the nerve to tell his dad that he didn't want to because Ryan was afraid of hurting his dad's feelings-he'd only get in trouble worse.
Not to mention that his classmates might think he was infectious and gross and weak and not want anything to do with him ever again. Ryan didn't think he could handle that happening, being in another place where he was completely disliked.
He desperately tried to listen to the substitute teacher, Professor Snughardt, talk to them about crups. Ryan really did want to learn about them, he loved dogs. His cousin Tristan had a puppy but Tristan was only four and not very good at taking care of it but Ryan loved playing with the dog when Aunt Alice and Uncle William brought it over with Tristan or Ryan went to their house with his grandparents.
The Crotalus started to wander over to the crups but he began to sneeze again. Ryan leaned back against a tree, hoping that his sneezing fit would soon be over and he could go play with one of the crups. He had to admit, he didn't really feel up to it but Ryan would hate to miss out on this.
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Ryan O'Malley,Crotalus
My sentiments exactly.
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Ryan O'Malley,Crotalus
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Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus
September 16, 2010 2:40 PM
I'll third the motion by Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus
Nic did not want to be here. It wasn't that he disliked Care of Magical Creatures - it honestly wasn't a bad class, really, and honestly the only thing he held against it was that it was kind of an all or nothing sort of class which made getting a perfect 80% grade next to impossible but he was holding a solid B- average (which translated here to approximately a high A where A was 'Acceptable' and two letters below O which was 'Outstanding') and right where he wanted his grades to be so he didn't look either nerdy or stupid. No, it wasn't CoMC that was bothering him. It was that it was a beginner's level course filled with, well, beginners. First and Second Years.People who were generally all significantly smaller than him after his summer's growth spurt. He felt vaguely creature like himself and he'd already had one person ask him if he was part giant. At 5'8" he was already taller than a fair percentage of adults, and the doc said he was easily going to break six feet before he was done.
Don't get him wrong - he liked being taller than everyone in his class - he just wished it wasn't by quite so large a margin. Avoiding the teacher's notice - always one of his highest goals in school - was decidedly more difficult when he stood head and shoulders above some of his shorter classmates. CoMC made this worse because the outdoor lessons tended to involve more standing than the average lecture class.
Still, he kept to the back of the class, and listened to the teacher - new guy, which meant he was going to need to establish himself all over again - and didn't take notes. Notes were for nerds. Nic did not want to be a nerd, ergo, Nic did not take notes. Nic did not want to be seen as a troublemaker, either, however, so he paid attention and committed most of it to memory.
Unfortunately, once the teacher finished talking, he was expected to go find a dog to play with. He could find a dog, that was not the hard part. He'd spent enough time bullying playground bullies in Miami (when your name was Nicodemus and your parents were fortune tellers, you learned to bark first and pick your fights) to be sure he could get any dog he wanted regardless of whether or not anyone else already had claim.
None of his classmates had done anything to deserve that kind of treatment, though, so he just collected a crup nobody else had taken a shine to yet and regarded it doubtfully.
This was the difficult part. Nic did not get on well with animals. He'd never had a pet and the animals he'd met in real life (which is to say, outside of this classroom setting) had tended to have one of two interests: they either wanted to eat him, or they wanted to eat something that belonged to him.
According to the teacher's warning about crups, this one could go either way.
Nic gave the dog thing a wary distrustful look. "I'm bigger than you," he warned. He'd read somewhere that dogs would behave if you showed them who was boss, so he narrowed his eyes and pointed at it, "And I'm watching you."
Giving it another - easier - victim would probably help, too, and maybe his 'partner' would be able to handle the 'play with it' part of the assignment, too.
Playing with terriers did not really fit into the whole tall silent and looming persona thing he liked to project.
He noticed a red-eyed red-nosed kid standing a few feet away. Perfect. Animals knew instinctively to go after the sick first. Nic approached and dragged the crup along with him by its collar. Well, he would have, but the dog seemed more than happy enough to follow along without being forced, so maybe there was something to that show-who's-boss thing after all. At least, he hoped that was what it was. He could feel reputation points falling away from him with every cheerfully eager puppy step the crup made.
Pretending he was accompanied by something somewhat more fierce-looking, he addressed the kid. "Hey, do you have a partner yet? I'm Nic."
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Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus
I'll third the motion
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Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus
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Ryan
September 19, 2010 4:20 PM
Does it pass then? by Ryan
"Ahhh-chooo!" Ryan sneezed as an extremely tall boy approached him with a crup. Honestly, the first year had been surprised to see that this boy whom he had seen around the Crotalus commons, was in the first and second year class. Ryan had assumed he was more than one year older than himself.Of course, the younger Crotalus did not express this view. Ryan was reluctant to do so, lest the taller boy be upset by his shock. He never wanted to hurt someone's feelings because Ryan knew too much what that was like. Plus the other boy-Nic, he had said his name was-was much bigger than Ryan and would be able to easily beat him up the muggle way.
Ryan shook his head. "No, no partner." He sneezed again. Really, he wanted to just make himself stop doing so, but to take a potion would make him fall asleep and then not only would he miss class, but he'd be up all night as well and Ryan had a hard time going to sleep at night as well. It wasn't that he was an insomniac, but he was a real night person. He could sleep, but he slept better during the day and was more energized at night.
Of course, his mother did not understand this-or care, even and would call him lazy if he slept in. This lead to Ryan not getting much sleep when he was at home. Plus, he was sort of afraid to fall asleep there anyway. It was better at his grandparents then there. Which was how pretty much everything was. Sonora was better than home too, so far, but Ryan still couldn't stay up late and sleep in and going to sleep in the middle of the day because of an allergy potion was going to make that worse.
There was another problem with getting a potion now too. Ryan would have to go ask the professor and the professor was kind of scary. Besides, the first year hated to ask for anything. He didn't feel like it was ever his place to want something or need something even when it was clear that he did, like right now. Ryan was never one to speak up for that.
"Oh,I'm Ryan." He introduced himself before sneezing yet again. He really did hate the way allergies made him feel. Not only was he sneezing like crazy but his eyes itched and he was starting to get a headache. But he had to stay because he feared the consequences of not doing so. The professor might get mad at him if he asked to go to the medic and hate him for the rest of the year and his classmates would view him as weak.
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Ryan
Does it pass then?
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Ryan
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Nic
September 21, 2010 12:48 PM
We've got the teacher on our side, so I guess so by Nic
Nic's nose got that uncomfortable about-to-sneeze feeling and he involuntarily rubbed at his left eye because that suddenly itched but these symptoms, he was sure, were merely a sympathetic response to Ryan's misery and not a sign that Nic himself had become inexplicably allergic to dogs. He fought off his imminent sneeze with logic and was more than a little surprised when it actually worked.And then he sneezed.
Clearly the victory had been declared too soon. He scowled a little at Ryan (it was his sneezing that made Nic respond in kind) and then scowled at the dog (it was the dog's fault Ryan sneezed) and then scowled at the professor (it was the professor's fault the dog was there in the first place) and then scowled at the dog again (because Nic just didn't like dogs and this one was worse than most because it (a) was too cute to be tolerated in Nic's company, and (b) wanted to eat him, Ryan, or something that they had prior claim to).
The dog seemed not to notice. It just barked cheerfully, walked around in a circle, and panted happily with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. Nic could swear it was giving what could pass as a doggy-grin.
Nic was not impressed. "No. You will not be eating my shirt or my bag or anything else that belongs to me. I am still watching you, and I am not fooled by your innocent act."
Then he realized Ryan could hear him talking to a dog like he expected it to understand him. He pretended like he wasn't embarrassed (which probably didn't work as well as he hoped it did) and muttered, "Crups are smarter and more devious than they look." He had no idea if it was true or not, but it was always safest to work under that assumption when dealing with animals that were known for eating things.
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Nic
We've got the teacher on our side, so I guess so
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Nic
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Ryan
September 25, 2010 2:50 AM
Oh, good. by Ryan
Ryan heard Nic sneeze as well and frowned. "Are you okay?" The first year asked the older boy between his own sneezes. He could empathize, quite obviously. Ryan was super allergic to the outdoors and felt bad for anyone else who felt the same way. Allergies could really make a person quite miserable.Wait, was Nic scowling at him? Ryan looked down at the ground. He knew logically it couldn't possibly be his fault Nic sneeze, as allergies were not contagious but he couldn't help feeling bad anyway, like Nic was blaming him. Ryan frowned, he really didn't want the older boy to hate him. The first year didn't really want any enemies. Two was enough, especially when it one's mother and sister.
Of course, if Ryan knew his distant relatives better, he'd have known that a lot of them hated their siblings. Unfortunately, he only knew his first cousins, who all seemed to like their siblings.
And why was Nic scowling at the dog and the professor? Maybe the taller boy didn't like dogs or this class. Maybe he was mad at Professor Snughardt for the fact that he'd had to work with Ryan in the first place.
"I'm sorry, I can't help sneezing," Ryan apologized. He didn't know what else could have made Nic scowl at him that way. "I have outdoor allergies but I'm not contagious." He didn't think there was anyway he could avoid telling the much taller boy this. Ryan was sneezing every couple minutes and his eyes were itching like crazy so it was pretty obvious that something was up and it was either that or he had a cold. Ryan would prefer for Nic to know it was the former."The potion for it makes me sleepy." The first year further explained.
He would leave it at that. Ryan wasn't going to go on to tell Nic that he would have been afraid to ask Professor Snughardt if he could go to the Medic and get a potion even if it wasn't for the drowsy side effect the potion had on him. Furthermore, he was afraid to go to the Medic anyway, lest she yell at him and act like there was nothing wrong with him and his classmates think he was a wimp.
Ryan sneezed again as he heard Nic speak to the dog. He doubted the crup wanted to eat Nic, or anything that belonged to him. Crups just didn't like muggles, (which Ryan thought was awful, he didn't like when people were mean to others for any reason, especially something they couldn't help, but he wouldn't hold it against the crup anyway. Crups couldn't help it either) and Nic was clearly not a muggle.
Though he might have been a muggleborn. There had been a pureblood Sawyer family-Ryan thought his great-great-grandmother had been a Sawyer before she'd married his great-great grandpa, Theron Brockert, but that family was extinct. Great Great Grandma Gwendolyn-mouthful that was-was the last one supposedly.
Granted, Ryan could very likely be wrong on both counts. He thought about asking Nic but did not want to risk sounding like a pureblood snob. Ryan was a pureblood but he was as far away from being a snob as one could get. Snobs thought they were better than everyone else, his sister was a snob, but Ryan pretty much thought the opposite about himself.
He sneezed again, missing the thing Nic had muttered but noticing that Nic had muttered something. Ryan wanted to ask what he'd said, but was afraid it was something about him.
Of course, if it was something nasty about Ryan, he would still be stuck working for the rest of the class period with someone who disliked him. As awful as that was, Ryan was not about to cause a scene.Sneezing though class was bad enough.
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Ryan
Oh, good.
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Ryan
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Nic
September 30, 2010 4:53 PM
So what's the next item on the agenda? by Nic
"It's fine," Nic said when Ryan apologized for sneezing and explained he had allergies. Nic wasn't sure why he didn't just take a Claritin or some Benadryl if the potion had drowsy side-effects, but decided it wasn't really his business. He decided not to mention his own sneeze was purely psychological because (a) it wasn't Ryan's business, and (b) it felt kind of cruel to tell him than now that Nic had sneezed once and got it out of his system, he was fine for the rest of the class. Nic didn't mind his classmates thinking he was a little scary, but he didn't want to come across as mean.Scary was so much easier to explain to teachers and parents and principals and pass off as a terrible misunderstanding.
It was also mean to mention that he teamed up with Ryan in the first place because he was sick and therefore an easier target if the dog decided to attack. So he didn't.
Besides which, the crup seemed overly cheerful and unlikely to start gnawing them to death anytime soon. Nic scowled at the dog again because if it was viciously hungry at least it wouldn't be so cute that its mere proximity continued to drain Nic of fearsome reputation points. How was he suppose to make everyone think he was dark (inasmuch as someone with medium brown hair and wearing green robes could be dark) and looming if a puppy kept wagging its tail at him?
At least Ryan seemed unwilling to comment on Nic talking to it, so maybe he wasn't completely sapped of intimidation yet.
"You think it fetches?" he asked, more because he wanted the crup to run away - if only temporarily - than because he wanted to play with it in any capacity.
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Nic
So what's the next item on the agenda?
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Nic
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