They are children. They can't hurt you. They are children. You've dealt with worse. They are children. You are a full grown wizard! No monsters only children.
Lawrence kept repeating this to himself as he was preparing for the intermediate lesson. He had been trying to figure out how to get the students interested in animals from around the world. He understood it was hard. He'd once been a young man in school, though not this one. He'd read and dreamed of far away places. Places that were even more magical, places filled with romance and mysteries. He unfortunately had visited those far away places. Though some were beautiful, like the Fire Crab reserve on Fiji, some were less so. Danger and pain surrounded them and his memories of those places.
His experiences had led him first to the Billywig Sting during some Australian outback work, then Euphoria Elixer, and then… well, lets just say a magizoologist out about in the world can find some fairly good things, and some he didn’t remember thanks to their properties. Still, when Selena found him and offered him this job, he was one year on the mend.
So now here he was, trying to figure out the best course of action for his Intermediate students. Something to get them excited and yet, something that would not allow them to get into an altered state. So he’d decided on the Bowtruckle. Though sometimes dangerous, he’d taken the precaution to have goggles and only a few young bowtruckles in the class.
As the students came in he smiled at each underneath his beard and handed them their goggles while trying to say each of their names. Once he believed most where in he walked up to the chalk board that he’d prepared for the lesson.
“Hello. I hope you are all ready to have an adventure today. It’s not everyday we try to befriend a magical creature, and yet today in groups of two to four that is what we will try to do. At every other table you will find a small crate. Once everyone is ready and with their goggles we will open them and behold the Bowtruckle.”
The white board behind him the chalk wrote out the word Bowtruckle.
“Can anyone tell me about the Bowtruckle and why we wizards might want to befriend one?”
Lawrence called on the second student that raised their hand. The chalk wrote out the main points the student raised.
“Very good, points for your house.”
“If you open your books to the Bowtruckle you will find a lot of information. The author seemed to enjoy time with them. That being said, they ARE protective and thus,” he said putting on the goggles himself, “the eye protection. Now, the assignment today will be two fold. The first will be to merely find the Bowtruckle in the small tree that your group has been assigned. The second will be to get it to give you a leaf. Nothing more. There are different things you could possibly use up at the front of class to use in trying to get the Bowtruckle on your side. Once one or more of your party do befriend it. Please try to write out as many descriptors as you can. Your homework will be to write a brief paper, using your book or the lovely library we have here, on Bowtruckle conservation or how to care for a Bowtruckle not in the wild like these all are. Any questions? Please feel free to ask me and flag me over if you have any concerns or issues.”
With that Lawrence brushed his hands together as if to say, I’m all done talking to his students. He smiled at them. For the most part they seemed harmless, these students of his. But if his history had taught him anything, it was that the harmless things could also be the most dangerous.
Professor Marsh was no longer brand new, which meant some of the scariness had worn off. He had not done anything to invite Dorian to think he was particularly threatening, but nor had he done much to become someone who he thought of as warm and fuzzy. He just existed, which was fine. He taught Care of Magical Creatures, which meant that he was kind to animals, at least, as was Dorian, so there probably was no reason for them to have any kind of problem with each other, so long as Dorian turned in all his homework (which he always did) and looked after his projects well (which he always did). He was not especially encouraged by being handed goggles and being told they would be having an ‘adventure’ but looking around the room, he noticed there were crates at the desks, so presumably it was an adventure that involved staying right here… He hoped it was merely hyperbole on Professor Marsh’s part therefore, and was more like an adventure in studying. Those he could get on board with.
Bowtruckles made sense, and weren’t too bad. Admittedly, they could attack, but pretty much only if you were being a jerk, and he didn’t plan on being one. It was a little like being afraid of a Kneazle - sure, they had sharp claws, but all you had to do was be honest. The Bowtruckles were less cuddly, of course. He wasn’t sure he would want to hold one - it’d be all tickly and he might drop it or squish it or something. He could quite happily look for one in a box though. He didn’t volunteer the answer about wand wood, even though he knew it, because Dorian wasn’t one for drawing a lot of attention to himself in class. He contributed whenever he felt he was in danger of being regarded as stupid for not having put his hand up in a while, or felt that he wasn’t pulling his weight in terms of gathering points for Teppenpaw, but on the whole he was quiet in class, preferring to shine via his homework, which was always thorough.
When the discussion was over, he snapped on his goggles, tugging out the strands of his dark brown fringe that had got caught underneath them, and made his way over to one of the observation desks. He peered into the crate, which had a small sapling inside and… Well, he knew the point of a bowtruckle’s appearance was to camouflage it but he had expected that to be a defence against other animals. He had somehow thought that, with his human eyes and human brain, he’d have been able to pick out the thing that wasn’t a real twig, just something pretending.
“I guess maybe, suddenly seeing all us, it is staying still,” he commented to his neighbour, “Do you see it?”
13Dorian Montoir, TeppenpawSo far, I don't show much evidence of that1401Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw05
Bowtruckles were really weird, and Evelyn fell in love with them immediately. She was usually much more interested in Herbology than in Care of Magical Creatures, but these little guys were just so precious! She'd cooed over the pictures of them in her textbook when she'd thought to open it, and now she was really going to get to see them. Of course, she couldn't actually see them.
How fitting.
Evelyn tied her blonde hair into a bun, noting with some disgust that she hadn't done her due diligence in brushing it out recently, before getting her goggles on. When she arrived to find an empty tree, she was reminded that magical camouflage was much better than Muggle versions, and that she really should've studied more recently. She was pretty sure she hadn't had any homework to turn in this week, but who was to say?
Blinking her tired eyes and trying to search as best she could, she wondered whether it would be cheating to try and coax it out. If part two was going to be to try to get it to give her a leaf, why couldn't she start things off on the right foot? At the same time, she didn't want to assume what the little dude would want. Maybe it was hungry, maybe it wanted a friend, maybe it just wanted to know that she wasn't going to disappear right after beginning a relationship.
It was a tragedy waiting to happen and Evelyn could hardly handle another one of those. Since she was much smaller than her peers at this point anyway, she wasn't too worried about the space she took up or didn't, and she allowed the weight of everything to push her to her knees on the ground as she searched for the bowtruckle, her chin resting on her arms on the edge of the crate.
"Anyone home?" she whispered to the seemingly empty box. "I bet I can get a nice juicy bug for ya. Would you like a bug?"
Her attempts were interrupted by the approach of another student and she looked up to find them looking back at her.
22Evelyn StonesBowtruckles are my spirit animal. 1422Evelyn Stones05
Professor Marsh was a bit odd. There was nothing Parker could put his finger on exactly, but there was something that seemed off about the new Care of Magical Creatures professor. Marsh was amusing at times and seemed to enjoy handing out interactive lessons. There was still a feeling that the Professor didn’t feel quite at ease around them. As if one of the students might bite him.
Though that could just be a normal sense of preparedness from someone who dealt with crazy creatures for a living. Still when the professor handed him eyewear, Parker took it and gave a short smile and went to a table in the middle of the room.
Digging around his bag he found a pencil and a notebook. Parker could just have it float out of the bag, but there was something nice about physically doing it.
Parker had a broad smile on his face. Bowtruckles. This was a topic he knew a bit about from the gardening club. Though they didn’t necessarily have Bowtruckles in the gardens, he had been made aware of them multiple times, by seemingly multiple people. Plus the fact that they liked to climb and hide in trees was something Parker could relate to.
Parker went to the front of the room and picked up some wood lice. “Always good to make friends through food,” Parker thought. He snapped his googles on as he walked up to the closest tree and looked in. He couldn’t see anything at first. Like nothing at all but a faint grey haze. He took off his goggles which had fogged up and spit into them and rubbed them a bit. Then he put them back on his face.
Parker smiled at the girl whispering next to him at the box. She reminded him a bit of Cleo and a bit of Lyssa with her hair up.
He moved his bowl of wood lice towards her. “When coming to someone’s house, it is always a good idea to bring gifts no? Though maybe that’s just humans.”
41Parker FitzgeraldYou have a Spirit Animal?1402Parker Fitzgerald05
Only in the lay sense; say no to cultural appropriation.
by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn had met Parker through Gardening Club, but she'd mostly worked with Cleo when she'd gone and she'd only gone a few times. As it had turned out, there was very little that interested her about being social and gardening; she preferred to do it on her own and had taken to walking the grounds when she might've otherwise spent time as part of a club. Still, it was nice to see a reasonably friendly face, even if she was trying to recover from the shock and weirdness of the fact that she and Parker were in the same classes now.
"Thanks," Evelyn said, no hint of a blush on her cheeks. Her engagement with animals and plants was something she was not ashamed of, even if it was a little odd to others. The girl with every color lipstick was hardly known for being "normal."
"I'd invite people over a lot more if they'd bring me food every time," she added. "I think this is probably the key to the universe." She had some doubt that this was just a human phenomenon as most species were guided even more strongly by food than humans were, but she was pretty sure Parker was teasing and it wasn't a conversation worth getting into. Although, she did wonder about the grey area. "Do you think vampires and elves and goblins and things would like food when they have visitors? Although, I'd be a bit afraid that I would become the food if I went to visit a vampire."
22Evelyn StonesOnly in the lay sense; say no to cultural appropriation.1422Evelyn Stones05