A potentially sore subject on Care of Magical Creatures

Prof. Adrian Meade

September 09, 2013 1:44 AM

COMC Int. [3 to 5] by Prof. Adrian Meade

Today’s lesson was going to be a complete bore and Adrian knew it. There were topics in his field of expertise that even him hated but were a key part of any future magizoologist education. Alas, it had to be done. Today was going to be boring for everyone involved but that didn’t mean that his usual friendly smile was absent the second the fist student crossed the threshold to his classroom.

Adrian coughed a little and made a mental note to go visit the medic for something since he was sure he was coming down with something. He cracked his neck and waited the allotted minutes for everyone to settle down in their seat before starting. His eyes scanned the room and smiled once again before flicking his wand and making a whole lot of notes appear on the blackboard.

“Well, today is all about the theory about magical beasts. I think it was time we went over some basica history of the study of magical beasts. As you can see, we are going to start with the Wizarding Summit of 1692 where the International Confederation of Wizards agreed on the ways to conceal 27 species of magical beings to create the illusion that they never existed to prevent more fear coming from the Muggles. As you know, or should know, clause 73 was added in 1750 to the International Code of Wizading Secrecy.”

The Professor took a deep breath, “there are a few methods to conceal magical beasts that are regulated by the department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The first one is Safe Habitats. When a habitat is created the most important thing is to place Muggle-repelling charms to prevent trespassers into them or make them unplottable. More importantly, these areas are under constant wizarding supervision to prevent any escapes, especially from the more rebellious species like dragons.”

Adrian watched his students and hoped they were taking notes, “the second method is the control of selling and breeding with a strict watch on the trade and ban on experimental breeding that came into effect in 1965.”

“The third are disillusionment charms, fourth memory charms and fifth misinformation.” Adrian smiled, “Well, what is a class without you having work to do?” he laughed a little before he was taken over by his coughing.

“I want you to write an essay on why magizoologist matters, add the methods I explained right now and you need to research the last 3 that I just mentioned. It is an individual essay but you can ask for help either to me, your classmates and as always you have the books in the front to help you out to make your essay more varied.”

Adrian cracked his neck again and went to sit down on his chair. He was seriously feeling under the weather and as soon as the class was over he was going to go see Dylan for something. He didn’t like being sick and most importantly, he became a wimp when he was.

OOC: posting rules apply!!!

Subthreads:

A potentially sore subject by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Unanswered questions by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

I'm terrible at this sort of thing by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw with Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

0 Prof. Adrian Meade COMC Int. [3 to 5] 0 Prof. Adrian Meade 1 5

Henny B-F-R, Aladren

September 14, 2013 5:31 PM

A potentially sore subject by Henny B-F-R, Aladren

Care of Magical Creatures was ok. It wasn't great but it was ok. And at the end of this year, which was now so very close, she could give it up, unscathed. Nothing in the class had hurt her thus far and she was relatively confident that nothing would. She still fretted slightly, from time to time, but she could bring that under control and be rational about it. Nothing left on their practical syllabus looked too terrifying. Today, she was almost feeling good about the class. Today, it was theory. That was perfect. In theory...

She took her quill and parchment out, beginning her note taking as the Professor started speaking. As the theme of his lecture became apparent, she became quite still. The ink spread out from the nib of her quill, a steadily growing blotch appearing on the parchment until it was soft enough that the pen simply sunk through it. Henny didn't really notice. She was trying to hear what Professor Meade was saying above the white noise that had started in her ears. To calmly follow what he was actually talking about, and not to be distracted by where she was worrying that it was going.... And to breathe. Habitats. Designated protection of Muggles and.... and other ways that were used to protect them. She waited, still tensed, even though logically, if it was going to come up at all, it would have been there. At the end of the lecture, she unfroze, returning her attention to her notes. She lifted the quill off the parchment, a little embarrassed at the state of her notes.

Mechanically, she took out her book. Muggles. It was all going to be about Muggles. No mention of wizards and witches, and how they were protected – or the failures of those systems – against the more dangerous creatures. She wondered whether any of her class mates ever thought about that. Whether it concerned them or whether it was something that simply never crossed their minds to worry about. People tended to simply trust things until they were shown that those things weren't infallible. Would any of them pursue that line for their essays, she wondered – the question of how wizards were kept safe. And how detailed would the accounts be that they found? The last account of such an attack was a decade ago.... Or would it be more along the lines of The last such attack was on an archaeological research party who had arranged to excavate the area. Unfortunately, due to a lack of communication between government departments.... Or more detailed still, with names involved.... Although rare, attacks have still been made on wizards in recent decades, often due to failures of communication. One such example was an archaeological party just over a decade ago. John St. Clair, Jane and Ben Boxton, Marianne Theodori and Christos Marini had agreed to excavate a site in Greece believed to be of some historical significance to wizarding kind. As this made it an unsuitable area to allow Muggles anyway, it had been deemed a suitable place to transfer the country's problematic population of Manticores. Unfortunately, as different departments were responsible for the issuing of permits to the archaeological party and the plan to transfer the animals...' Henny knew she didn't really want to think about the subject but once her mind got onto it, it was incredibly difficult to get it to stop. To not keep rehashing it, telling herself the story again and again, in increasingly painful detail.

She stared with slightly glazed eyes at the book in front of her, which contained details of crup tail docking, and which she didn't really see.

13 Henny B-F-R, Aladren A potentially sore subject 211 Henny B-F-R, Aladren 0 5

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

September 16, 2013 6:38 PM

Unanswered questions by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Clara woke up with just enough time to get dressed and rush off to her COMC class. She had been up late the night before working on an essay for one of her other classes and fretting over the letter she had received from home. The latter really shouldn’t have surprised her given that she half-way expected it to happen sooner or later, but she hadn’t expected it to be this soon. She found herself unable to sleep thanks to the announcement and she wasn’t really sure why she was soo upset by it. Well…she did and she didn’t. She tried not to dwell on home stuff as she rushed off to class. She made it a few minutes before Professor Meade shut the door and quickly found herself a seat. Upon first glance around the room she didn’t see anything that might indicate that there was anything alive in the room that they would be working with. Clara was a little confused. She shook her head slightly and settled into her seat. She pulled out her notebook and a self inking quill pen and waited. She knew that she wasn’t completely focused, but she was going to do her best to do so. She laid the notebook and the pen on her top of her desk and waited. When Professor Meade began his lecture Clara was a little surprised by the subject matter. Clara found herself almost completely ignorant of the subject matter and frowned for it.

Clara had spent most her entire life around Muggle creatures and outside of the occasional garden pest, she had no knowledge of anything else that might roam around. The only time she had ever encountered any of the magical creatures the textbook talked about was there in class. Back home the closest thing to a magical creature that she ever caught sight of from time to time was the occasional garden gnome. Everything else she was discovering had been kept away thanks to special accommodations made by the magical government. She tried paying special attention to the things Professor Meade was mentioning and took notes as clearly as she could. She couldn’t help wondering just how many of those very methods had been used around her own home that she had never been aware of. Her father had invested a lot of time and energy into making sure her life had been as normal as he could make it despite them being magical. Thanks to her father’s efforts she had no idea that things more dangerous than her own horses and the occasional coyotes existed where she lived. She had no idea why her father wanted her to be ignorant of those things that other magical children seemed to know all about, but he did and here she was. It kind of made her feel like more of an anomaly than she already did most of the time. She merely shrugged at that feeling. She was used to it by now. She was an anomaly and she really didn’t mind it.

She glanced over her notes and read through the chapter again as Professor Meade finished up his part of the lecture by assigning their work for the class time. She wasn’t a huge fan of essay writing, but she was fairly decent at it. Her biggest complaint she ever got for them was that she wrote too much for the assignment at hand. She always tended to exceed the word limit and worried that this might be the one time she didn’t. She understood for the most part why Magizoology was important from what she read about in the chapter and from what Professor Meade told them, but she was confused by part of it. From what she could tell there was no mention of how people in the magical community were protected from those same creatures. Had she missed that part somehow? Was there another chapter discussing that part? Clara flipped through her textbook and after being unable to find what she was looking for she leaned towards her neighbor. “Did you happen to see where it talked about Wizards being protected from the creatures along with the Muggles because I can’t seem to find it?” she asked curiously. She hoped that where she failed to see it maybe her neighbor had caught it.

0 Clara Abernathy, Pecari Unanswered questions 232 Clara Abernathy, Pecari 0 5

Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

September 16, 2013 6:45 PM

I'm terrible at this sort of thing by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

Carter made his way over to the COMC classroom trying to anticipate what Professor Meade might have them working on this time around. He stepped into the classroom and found it looking like a regular classroom or as regular as regular got around Sonora. He found his way to one of the empty seats and placed his book bag on the floor near his desk. He rested his elbow on his desk and used his palm to hold up his head while he waited for his fellow classmates to arrive. His attention perked up a little when he thought he might have spotted Wendy coming through the door. He gave a small wave in her direction (assuming it was her) and pointed to the seat beside his. He hadn’t had the chance to talk to Wendy since the return feast and had been slightly bummed about it. When he saw her working with other kids from their class he gave them space not wanting to intrude upon her. He hoped that if it had been her he had seen that she might sit by him this time around. He had been soo busy trying to catch up with homework assignments so his grades didn’t slip and with Quidditch practice before their games that he hadn’t had much time for socializing.

He pulled out a pen and his notebook and began taking half way decent notes while Professor Meade gave his lecture on their assignment. Carter had a cousin who was studying Magizoology in what could be considered college, but he didn’t get to see him much so he was pretty lost on this subject. He knew that magical creatures existed (why else would they have a Care of Magical Creatures class right), he just hadn’t had much experience with them outside of class. He’d seen gnomes and stuff out in the garden at home and laughed to himself as the gardener dealt with them, calling them all sorts of things Carter was pretty certain he probably shouldn’t have. He had heard that there were other creatures out there that were far more dangerous and bothersome than gnomes and couldn’t help wondering how they didn’t run amuck amongst the Muggles. By listening to Professor Meade’s lecture he got his answer. Well, most of one anyway. Professor Meade went into enough detail to make note taking only semi boring this time around, not that his lectures were boring…Carter just never really paid much attention to the creatures part of magic. He wasn’t allowed to have any pets outside of his owl so the idea that others existed really didn’t matter much to him. His mother was so meticulous about how she kept their house and grounds that the idea of free roaming animals that required more of her attention was not something she would allow. Besides, they now had his baby sister at home and the thought of her getting bitten or mauled by some magical creature was more than his mother could bear. She already detested the fact that he had to deal with such creatures at school. She was not about to let them near her home if she could help it.

Thanks to his mother’s fears of animal attacks and other such things the subject of magical creatures was not one discussed in the Browning home. Anything at all that Carter might know about them came from the books in his family’s library including cases of Muggle attacks by magical creatures. Carter had found the subject both fascinating and ridiculous so he only read into it so much. He did find it weird, however, that out of all the material he read it never once mentioned whether or not there were any safeguards for Wizards and Witches. He had tried writing his cousin once and asking, but he never received a reply to his letter. He discovered later on by accident that his mother had intercepted his letter to his cousin and had destroyed it. He tried to ask her why she would do such a thing, but she refused to acknowledge his question. Instead she gave him some lecture on minding his manners and being a good respectable boy and left him with his tutor. The subject was never brought up again…at least until now. Now there was nothing his mother could do to stop him from asking and getting answers. She may not like that he learned this kind of stuff in school, but while he was at school there wasn‘t much she could do about it.

Carter glanced over his notes and flipped through his textbook. He read through most of the chapter concerning the ways that Professor Meade went over. If there was any additional information on the subject it didn’t appear to be in his textbook. He leaned towards his neighbor with the open book and asked if they knew something about it that he clearly didn’t. “Is there another chapter in this thing on Magical Creature containment that I may have missed and if so, do you have any idea where?” he asked politely.

0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw I'm terrible at this sort of thing 0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw 0 5

Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

September 17, 2013 12:30 AM

I kind of love it! by Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

One of Wendy's favorite classes ever was Care of Magical Creatures. There was just something about it and all the magical creatures that she loved. There were some mean ones like gnomes, but there were unicorns and cool-looking dragons to make up for it. One of the reasons why it fascinated her so was because most of these creatures had only been alive in her imagination till three years ago. It was so exciting to know that one of her favorite animals was actually real.

Her keen interest in COMC made it her best class and so, whether they were learning about tiny insects or theories, she was interested. As she made her way through the door, her hazel eyes met Carter's eye. He pointed to the empty seat next to him and she happily went to join him. It had been a little while since they'd talked. He was busy now with Quidditch and all that and Wendy had Horse Club. She had yet to actually ride a horse, but that was okay. Someday they would if they got to raise enough money! Speaking of the club, she had better convince Carter to buy a raffle ticket from her.

"Hey Carter," she greeted him with a smile as she sat down next to him. "I haven't talked to you much lately." She would ask about the raffle later, but for now she wanted to learn about some magical creatures! Sometimes Wendy wished she could have a pet at home, but she knew she would want a pet bigger than just a cat or dog. It was just unfortunate that, living above her mom's bakery, there couldn't be any risk of any animal hair anywhere in the apartment or in the bakery downstairs. Something about health codes and stuff that Wendy didn't really get.

Today was one of the boring days, but at least it was COMC. Wendy pulled out her spiral notebook and began taking notes with a pencil. Quills were a nice thing to write with when she wanted to write letters and had time to let the ink dry, but it seemed impractical to her otherwise. Ballpoint pens and pencils with eraser tops just seemed so much more convenient. Her notes were sparse, but she was getting it in her head. The essay part was less fun, but in the three years she'd been at Sonora her essay writing had been improving.

There was an incoming yawn that Wendy could not suppress, but she covered her mouth with a hand as she continued her notes. She tried to pretend she wasn't actually yawning, but it was kind of hard to control the rest of her face not covered by her hand. The yawn was quick at least and she went back to taking notes through her automatically watering eyes.

Shaking her short hair a little, she put her pencil down once Professor Meade started telling them about the essay they were supposed to do and looked over to see how Carter was doing. Maybe during the essay part they could chat a little bit. Quietly so Professor Meade wouldn't catch them getting off topic. Once he went to sit down at his desk, Wendy opened her textbook to get started. Carter turned and asked her a question and she furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't think so," she said slowly. "What were you lookin' for?" Maybe she could help him since she had read up a lot on why certain magical creatures were barred from muggles. It was fascinating reading why muggles had to be barred from the magical world in the first place and also really unfortunate.

0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari I kind of love it! 0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari 0 5