Beginner class - I Spy on Care of Magical Creatures

Substitute Professor Valson

June 22, 2014 2:41 PM

Beginner class - I Spy by Substitute Professor Valson

There was a shed that had been installed for teaching classes indoors (it had been added to the grounds since Jera had started Sonora as a student – she couldn’t remember it being there when she’d left but as she’d stopped taking the subject in her fifth year she couldn’t be certain), but Professor Valson preferred to teach outdoors wherever possible. She’d always been that strange combination of an outdoors persona with a penchant for reading, and so teaching out in the grounds of a school felt incredibly natural to her. Hopefully it would feel more normal to the beginner students now, some of whom were still in their first few months of having professor-taught classes. Jera hoped that a permanent professor for Care of Magical Creatures would be found in time for the next term; while she enjoyed teaching the subject immensely, it would be more advantageous for the younger years in particular to have a modicum of predictability.

Today, Jera was waiting for her first and second year students to arrive in the usual clearing within the school grounds. Along with the substitute professor, adorned in casual pants and a linen blouse with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, there was a large crate with edges of wire mesh that seemed to be filled with nothing but twigs and leaves, and a couple of much smaller cardboard boxes with lids. Jera waited patiently until everyone was assembled, and she took a register before beginning the class.

“The creature we will be studying this class is the bowtruckle,” she told the beginner students in a clear voice. Bowtruckles can usually be found in Western England, Southern Germany, and a select few Scandinavian forests. However, there are some of this species that live in the Sonoran labyrinth,” (Jera had seen them herself from time to time, and had often wondered whether they had been previous CoMC subjects that had escaped once upon a time and decided to live in the wild) “and a few more in this crate here,” she indicated it. “As they look just like the twigs and leaves that comprise their habitat, bowtruckles are notoriously difficult to spot,” she explained. “During the course of the class, see how many you can spot in here.” There were eight: four adult males, two adult females, and two younger trucklets. “There are some woodlice and fairy eggs in these boxes that might help coax them out into the open.”

“Your assignment today is to partner up, and each of you must write a pop quiz – ten questions long – for your partner to take in class next week. Feel free to have a good look at the creatures I have brought to class, as well as your textbooks for inspiration.” She hoped that by researching bowtruckles to create a quiz, they would learn sufficient to perform well on each other’s quizzes the following week. “If anyone has any questions to ask me, please feel free to ask away.”

(OOC: Please remember site rules when posting. Feel free to be creative, and be assured that some writing of the bowtruckles - their movements, etc. – is allowed. If you need help IC, Tag Professor Valson in the subject line. If you have OOC queries, put them on the OOC board. Have fun!)

Subthreads:

Ugh, how banal. by Sasha Sinclair, Crotalus

0 Substitute Professor Valson Beginner class - I Spy 0 Substitute Professor Valson 1 5

Sasha Sinclair, Crotalus

June 30, 2014 9:49 PM

Ugh, how banal. by Sasha Sinclair, Crotalus

Sasha was not happy about being at Sonora. He really hated it, actually. The months without the professors around had been torturous. He did not respect the Head Boy and Girl enough to listen to them and certainly held no admiration for the Advanced students to allow them to teach him anything remotely important. They tried, of course, and because Sasha was not sure of what they would tell the professors (if and when they returned), so he kept his mouth shut and his head down during that time. Oh, but he made sure to mark down everything that happened and the lack of respect the older students showed to the younger ones. Their ego grew to ridiculous heights during that time, as if they had any sort of inkling what running a school was. If the rest of the student body wanted chaos, they could have easily had it and there was nothing the Heads or Prefects could have done about it.

Fortunately for the Advanced students, the younger ones did not retaliate. Sasha suspected they were just too lazy to do such things, but that just went to the Advanced students heads. As though they had the charge. Only one student seemed to find all of it a joke and threw a prank on everyone. Sasha never spoke with anyone, so no one had heard whether or not the prank worked on him, but he did find the whole thing rather funny listening to everyone quack like ducks. It was a shame that it wore off so quickly…

When he had returned home for the holidays, his parents were outraged by what had occurred. The school was meant to protect the students and instead, it put them in harm’s way. Sasha’s father wanted to remove Sasha immediately from the school, but Great Grandfather put his foot down. For some reason, he still wanted for the Sinclairs to make further connections to these god-forsaken people. It was not enough that in their time in America that the Heir found a spouse, his sister married an Heir, and their youngest managed to marry a Carey? Great Grandfather still desired more and was forcing Sasha into it? There were so many more desirable families in Europe, why did he have to bother with this people?

Now though, he just had to deal with it until his father could convince the family Patriarch to leave America. And, now that the professors were back, Sasha no longer had to listen to the Heads or Prefects. He felt that the Headmaster should have given the student body the special attention for having to deal with those obnoxious Heads and Prefects rather than the other way around, it was clear that the Brockerts only cared spreading their name and not about prestige. It was disturbing. Sasha had even heard that the Head of the family allowed for one of their offspring to work as a groundskeeper and had Mudbloods or blood-traitors or some such filth attend the wedding. Now they ran the school. It was better than a Half-blood filth that used to run the school, but they might as well be considered Mudblood lovers to Sasha. Sasha hated his Great Grandfather for making him suffer through all of this.

Even the lessons with the professors were brutal. They had to make up for lost time, but he found them all to be dreadful and uninspiring. Like this Care of Magical Creatures lesson. As soon as he found out that their lesson was regarding Bowtruckles, he tuned out. He had seen plenty of Bowtruckles in his life, living in Europe. They were useless things and quite boring. What was the point of learning about them?

Sasha decided not to crowd around the box to have a better look, but instead chose to look through his textbook. He had no desire to partner up with anyone, but would complete the assignment all the same. After all, she couldn’t fail him for not having a partner if one did not wish to work with him. He would write up a pop quiz, what the Professor did with it after that was not his concern.

OOC: I apologize for any offenses Sasha has. He's whole being is meant to be an ugly person from the inside out. His opinions are his own.

6 Sasha Sinclair, Crotalus Ugh, how banal. 0 Sasha Sinclair, Crotalus 0 5