Looks can be deceiving (Years 3/4/5) on Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Donovan Cohen

December 11, 2010 9:49 PM

Looks can be deceiving (Years 3/4/5) by Professor Donovan Cohen

The Sonora deserts were practically brimming with wildlife, both magical and mundane. Ever since the involvement of creatures that weren’t native to the area in his Advanced lesson, Don had made a more conscious effort to study the local creatures. He was disappointed how a few of the students weren’t fond of his lesson on the Dugbogs despite all the planning and thought that had went into it. He didn’t want to use being brand new to the profession as an excuse, so he tried to figure out how he could improve classes. Wondering if it was his use of foreign creatures, Don decided it might be a good idea to have the focus of his next few classes be on creatures from the area. There were plenty of interesting options, so it wasn’t a challenge to find creatures to work with.

His plans took a turn though when a friend of his wrote to Don complaining about how his wife had told to give up his latest hobby of breeding Fwoopers. Not knowing what to do with all the eggs he had, he wondered if Don knew of any places that would take them. Not only did Don know of plenty of pet shops that could care for the birds and give them good homes, but he thought that it’d be an interesting thing to let his students get to watch the eggs hatch and also, inevitably, put them under a much-needed Silencing Charm. Though native to Africa and not Sonora, Don thought it was a good opportunity to do the lesson. Hopefully the feedback this time would be better than the mixed reactions from his older students.

The yoga-enthusiast greeted his students with a friendly smile as they entered the shed where class was held, watching them take their seats as he stroked a bird that was sitting comfortably on a windowsill beside him. “Hello everyone,” he welcomed them, “and take a seat wherever you like. Please don’t touch the eggs though until I’ve explained the lesson.” Indeed, the room was set up with two chairs at each desk, seeming a little bit cramped but Don thought it was more cozy than suffocating. In the middle of each desk were two to three eggs, each with a different pattern and color bright color scheme. The nest had been charmed to warm the eggs, which rustled every so often.

Once everyone took their seats, Don stood up to his full, towering height. This wasn’t his first lesson with the Intermediate classes, so by now he had already introduced himself and how he had been a traveling Creature Healer. “Today we’re going to be working with Fwoopers. Fwoopers are birds, the adult version looking like this guy here.” Don put his arm out and let the bird he was lightly petting jump onto his arm. “Fwoopers are easy to tell apart from other birds because of their ruffled feathers and the their bright colors. Fwoopers feather’s always include orange, green, pink, and a lime green. Their feathers can be used for quills, and some Fwoopers are used to send mail like owls are – this one here happens to belong to a friend of mine who was kind enough to lend him to me for this lesson.”

He put the colorful Fwooper on his desk so he could move his hands around as he continued speaking, a habit he had shared with every member of his family. “The Fwoopers aren’t as famous for their feathers and skills though as they are for their voice. Fwoopers have the ability to drive people to insanity, which is why, even though they can be kept as pets, a permit and monthly Silencing Charm is required.” Motioning to the desks, Don further explained, “The eggs on your desks are all healthy and should be hatching in a few moments, and when the birds come out their songs won’t be strong enough to make anyone actually crazy, but they’ll sound annoying enough to push buttons. This lesson will combine elements of Charms, because the goal here is to silence them like so.” Don turned to the adult Fwooper and demonstrated the spell, clearing saying, “Silencio.”

Noticing eggs all over the class start to rustle, Don quickly added, “There is a box with ear muffs under each chair for anyone who can’t handle the noise. If there are any problems, feel free to raise your hand and I’ll be over. Good luck!” Don cut his speech off the moment he noticed the first egg hatch and the first shrill hit the air.

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OOC: Feel free to tag away if any questions or comments come up. Also, it’d be super awesome to mention your house in the author tag. Other than that, have fun with the lesson!

0 Professor Donovan Cohen Looks can be deceiving (Years 3/4/5) 0 Professor Donovan Cohen 1 5

Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)

December 12, 2010 5:57 PM

More often than not, this is true. by Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)

Adelita had to admit that the new Care of Magical Creatures Professor was nice to look at. He was definitely far more physically built than any of the other professors or staff members that Lita had seen around the school in the five years that she had been a student at Sonora. This wouldn’t be the first time Lita had a small crush on a professor. Back in her second year (roughly), Lita had liked the young Professor Flatt. She wasn’t even sure why she had liked him because he was a bit of a geek in looks, but she had. It was a very brief crush, but that was probably due to the fact that Professor Flatt hadn’t stayed long at the school. Much like many other professors. Had Lita only ever developed crushes on much older men, she might have been concerned. But, considering she was harvesting a fully blown crush on Juri, she knew she was somewhat normal when it came to her preferences for boys.

Care of Magical Creatures was a class that Lita didn’t think much of one way or another. It was a class she did well in comparison to potions, but it wasn’t a class that she really liked, like charms. She knew of girls who absolutely squealed about Care of Magical Creatures, but Lita was not one of those girls. Actually, she didn’t think her mother or sister were either. She did have her moments. Unicorns usually brought out that girly moment in her. But otherwise, Lita just thought of this class as just another class. The newest professor was doing things differently though. Normally the lessons were held outside, which is why many students liked it at all. Fresh air. But this professor had them set up shop in a shed. A shed. It was nice when it was snowing or raining to have a roof over her head, but the shed seemed rather cramped when it didn’t have to be. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.

Adelita sat at her desk and looked down at the egg in front of her. Crap, were they going to have to play ‘mom’ to a bird? Lita didn’t have time to play ‘mom’ or have time to get attached to anything. If she did, she’d have a cat or something. She didn’t want to take care of any animals nor would her parents let her. They were too involved in things to have the quality time necessary for an animal. Adelita could feel the start of anxiety run through her chest at the idea of having to do something else on top of her already loaded schedule.

But when the lesson started, Lita was able to breathe again. They weren’t keeping the babies that were to hatch from the eggs. They were merely placing charms on them. Charms she could do. Charms was her best subject. This was an easy lesson. Knowing that she wouldn’t have to take care of a bird, a smile quickly spread across her face. Lita already knew about Fwoopers, but she had never seen one when first born and, thankfully, never heard their cries. So, at least the lesson was interesting.

It wasn’t long after the professor started talking about the eggs, her’s began to move. The anticipation started to grow. It was a little exciting. An egg hatched on someone else’s desk and the most annoying sound Adelita had ever heard began to emit from the little bird inside. Adelita clamped her hands against her ears to drown out the sound. After a moment’s hesitation, Lita pulled out the box and slipped the earmuffs on just as her own egg began hatching. It didn’t take long for this bird to start making horrible sounds too, but thankfully the earmuffs blocked out much of the noise in the room. Grabbing her wand from her bag, Adelita easily performed the Silencio charm on the bird. She had learned the spell ages ago and had used it plenty of times on her little brother, much to her parents disproval. So, it was no surprise to her when the bird was silenced immediately.

Turning to the person closest to her, Lita said rather loudly due to the earmuffs, “Easy lesson, right?”

0 Adelita Garcia (Crotalus) More often than not, this is true. 0 Adelita Garcia (Crotalus) 0 5

Edmond Carey (Aladren)

December 14, 2010 7:24 PM

So goes the world we live in. by Edmond Carey (Aladren)

Edmond had not yet quite decided what to think of the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, but the first thing he saw upon arriving at the day’s lesson made him think that he might have a chance of developing a firmer opinion by the end of the class. He had never seen one in person for the usual reasons, but a Fwooper featured in the better of the only two pictures of his biological mother he’d ever seen.

Morgaine didn’t like to talk about their parents, so it was hard to know anything specifically, but he thought he had been about nine when they told him his mother was dead. He remembered that Julia had seemed very disturbed that he was only disturbed by the news rather than completely distraught over it, and had only seemed slightly mollified when he explained that it was illogical to attach a great degree of emotion to a woman who he wouldn’t even have been able to recognize if he’d met her. He had never interacted with his father, either, but he was at least somewhat better documented, enough for Edmond to be able to confirm the comments about how he resembled Alasdair physically, but his sister had inherited the old man’s coloring. His mother – the source, apparently, of Edmond’s red hair and green eyes – though, had been all but a shade.

There was only one photograph, as far as he knew, of the whole family: a Mayday at his biological paternal grandmother’s. It wasn’t a very good shot, being too small and blurred for him to do much more than work out that there were five people in it – a big, somewhat stiff-looking man, a red-haired woman, two small girls, and a nanny – and take his sister’s word for it that the bundle the one who wasn’t a relative was holding had been him as an infant. Morgaine kept it on her desk, though, beside the other picture with Lorena in it – a black and white one, where their mother was wearing old-fashioned robes and staring at the camera as though unsure of what it was with one hand on the cage of her pet Fwooper – and a copy of an old yearbook picture of Gwenhwyfar. Since her shooting, she’d kept Andrew, Victor and Katherine Bennett, and some fellow, a little older than Edmond and vaguely familiar for all that he couldn’t place him, pinned to a bulletin board off to the side. There were no other images of her or their father. Or Edmond.

Not, considering the fates of most of the people she did deem worthy of keeping around her, that he was overly upset about that. It wasn’t overly pronounced, but there was a morbid streak in his sister’s character. He supposed it could work to her benefit as a Healer, but…

He tuned into the actual lesson, compartmentalizing his family neatly, and was disappointed by its simplicity. The Silencing Charm was, technically, traditionally considered fifth year stuff, but the rigor of combined classes meant Edmond was fairly sure that wouldn’t be a barrier for him. Taking a pair of earmuffs as soon as they were mentioned – they would look ridiculous, but he suspected the family would not take kindly to hearing of him willingly exposing himself to more dangers than he already did by playing Quidditch and attending a magical school where the Defense classes were taught by an ex-Auror – he arranged them as well over his ears as they would go and then took out his wand.

When the egg had cracked open enough for the bird to be clearly visible, Edmond didn’t waste any time. “Silencio,” he said, his voice sounding distorted to him and, though he wasn’t aware of it, coming out louder than usual because of his obstructed hearing. Displeased as he was with the altered sound quality, he didn’t remove the earmuffs. Others might not be as quick to silence their birds – there was something strange about it, but he didn’t know how to express it; expression wasn’t one of his stronger points – or might not be able to make the charms stick, so there was still danger in this. It was important that he not, to use the professor’s turn of phrase, allow his buttons to be pushed. He thought that expression referred to being made angry, and that hadn’t been permitted before Father’s retirement meant that people could, if they were so inclined, create a conflict out of something he said or did here.

He almost didn’t catch someone speaking to him, and was still squinting in confusion as the message processed when he turned to look at Adelita Garcia. After a second, though, he was able to attach meaning to the sounds and nod. “Indeed,” he said, his voice still too loud for a situation not involving earmuffs. “I suppose we can look at it as a – breather – from CATS preparation.” Not that it applied to him yet, but he believed Miss Garcia would be dealing with the issue at the end of the year, and it was the focus of the Intermediate group as a whole anyway.

0 Edmond Carey (Aladren) So goes the world we live in. 0 Edmond Carey (Aladren) 0 5

Adelita

December 18, 2010 2:08 PM

It's the sad reality of it. by Adelita

Adelita had to think hard with regards to whom she was currently talking to. He wasn’t in her year, she knew that for a fact. Adelita did have a semi large class considering there were no sixth years and the fourth years were only a handful. But Adelita knew all her year mates by name and face, even the ones with whom she didn’t actually speak too. Which meant, he was a fourth year or a third year. She had seen him around for a while, so she was certain he was a fourth year. Now all she had to do was wrack her brain to match his face to a name.

If she recalled correctly, he was from a prominent family that Adelita should probably be aware of but her family did not care at all about the politics of the Pureblood society. Her Santoro side still made the effort from time to time and her Tio Jose was married to a Dupree and they were really big on that whole scene. She actually felt a bit bad for her Tio because he was the one out of their whole family who didn’t want to live his life out in the public. He was studying to become an Architect. Which Adelita felt was the least glamorous life to lead. He wasn’t a dance like Lita’s mother or a Professional Quidditch player like her Tio Jacob, or a super model like her Tia Sofia, or a rock singer like her Tia Bella. He was just a student and he was the one who married an girl from an Elite family whose family forced them into the light.

Ah, the connection was made, he was Carey. Edmond. Adelita’s smile widened when he agreed with her regarding the lesson. She had to resist the urge to groan at the mention of CATS. She knew she would do fine in Charms, Transfiguration, and Care of Magical Creature. She would at least pass Defense Against the Dark Arts, but she would utterly fail Potions. That was fine though, she had no desire to continue on with Potions after this year anyway. Still, it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to at least try to do as best she could with it.

“Yes, we can!” Adelita shouted back, even with the ear muffs, she could hear a bit of the squall that the young birds emitted. Because of that and the distortion the muffs created, Adelita raised her voice, straining it to be heard, although she probably didn’t need to as Edmond was sitting beside her and everyone could possibly hear their conversation. Not that it was a personal conversation.

She removed the charm and replaced it just to keep herself busy. The baby bird was an ugly thing and Adelita was happily relieved that she would not have to take care of it beyond the time in this lesson. She would be horrible at taking care of anything. The poor egg probably would have been lost or worse, broken, by the end of the day. Or, if it was the baby bird, putting the silencing charm on it may mean she’d forget it was even though because she couldn’t hear it and that would be very very bad.

“I thought we’d have to take care of these things at first.” Lita explained to Edmond because he was currently the only one around her. “I’m glad we don’t have too though. It wouldn’t make it very long with me.”

0 Adelita It's the sad reality of it. 0 Adelita 0 5

Edmond

December 22, 2010 9:15 PM

This is pretty straightforward, though by Edmond

As Adelita explained what she’d feared from the lesson, Edmond winced slightly at the visual of himself being expected to look after the bird. He would do his best, but…He couldn’t see how it could go very well.

“Yes,” he said, forgetting for a moment to raise his voice further than he needed to hear himself, then corrected the error. “Yes, I doubt I’d be the best person to entrust the little bird to, either, Miss Garcia. I’d work on other things and forget to look after it, or to keep the charm on it.”

Of course, the only person who’d be in any real danger from it in the second scenario was him, as he didn’t have any roommates, but Edmond liked his mind more or less in the condition it was in. He was well aware that there were many intellects in the world superior to his own, but what he had served him well, and he didn’t think being driven to insanity would do anything to improve either his condition or that of those around him or that of the world.

He considered doing as she had done, and continuing to practice the charm, but decided it would serve no useful purpose. He could perform the Silencing Charm, and he was good enough now for it to hold for some time longer. It seemed that, while apparently a slightly less terrifying sort than the previous Magical Creatures teacher, the new professor might not fully think all of his lessons through. At least in magic classes, they were usually dealing with a new spell that would take some time to learn, or at least had an assignment to do with the spell. The usual lack of downtime even when the work was easy was why Potions was possibly his favorite, though.

“Everyone says I spend too much time reading,” he excused himself. “Though I’m told fifth year cures that inclination. Would you agree?”

0 Edmond This is pretty straightforward, though 0 Edmond 0 5

Lita

January 05, 2011 9:02 PM

It would be terrible if it wasn't. by Lita

“You can call me Lita.” Adelita advised. She felt like she was being called under her mother’s name when he said ‘Miss Garcia’. He was obviously raised to have manners, but it was actually making her feel a little bit uncomfortable. She wasn’t used to teenage boys being so polite. But it did make her feel better knowing that she wasn’t the only one who thought raising an egg or a bird was a horrifying idea. She would feel utterly guilty if something had happened to the little birdie.

Adelita laughed in a carefree manner when Edmond asked about his reading. She thought about her actions after the fact considering Edmond knew next to nothing about her (if he even knew anything at all) and might have taken offense to his laughing. That had not been her intentions. It had just been the idea of not reading during their CATS years seemed absolutely crazy. Of course, it didn’t occur to her that by ‘reading’ he didn’t actually mean textbooks and studying, but rather, reading for fun. This thought came later to her and made her feel slightly silly for having laughed at all.

Of course, to her defense, reading wasn’t what she did when she had free time. When she had free time, she danced. She had too much to lose not to dance whenever possible.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh, it just seems funny to think that being in fifth year means less reading.” Adelita explained. “All I do now is read. I mean, I’m sure you meant reading for pleasure, but I automatically thought you meant reading school books and studying. And trust me, no matter how much of an Aladren you are, the reading of textbooks will double if not triple when you become a fifth year.” It was the written part of the CATS exams that Adelita was the most worried about. The practical she could do probably well… except potions. She knew she would do abysmally in that. But the written part she was scared would ruin her chances to do anything. She was a horrid test taker, which was probably the reason why people thought she was so dumb.

Adelita looked thoughtful for a moment while studying him. It probably wasn’t really her place to say it and maybe she wasn’t even the right person to give any advice regarding anything doing with school, but she felt maybe it would help him get through whatever he needed to for the next couple of years. “Listen, if reading is something you enjoy, you should make the time to do exactly that. This all gets to be too much sometimes and you’ll feel like you’re falling apart and the friendships you have may become strained. If reading is your outlet, than do it.”

Now she really did feel silly. She was getting all serious, especially in a time like this when she felt like she was yelling and probably the whole class could hear her and find her to be an idiot. She didn’t dance just because she had high expectations of herself, she danced because during those moments, nothing else matter. She was free. She was flying. She was happy. And then when she had to stop, the real world came rushing back. All of it. It wasn’t always a pleasant sensation.

“I just mean, it’s good to keep some old habits during stressful times.”

0 Lita It would be terrible if it wasn't. 0 Lita 0 5