Any purple horses? on Care of Magical Creatures

Lawrence Marsh

January 04, 2020 7:54 AM

Classification of children is hard. [Beginner] by Lawrence Marsh

Breath in, Breath out.

Lawrence had now been teaching for a while. Still, dealing with children, and the beginners class indeed were children, at the beginning of terms still seemed the most challenging part of his tenure. Most creatures could be found to have some sense of predictability if you were around them enough, but these students. Lawrence shook his head. These students were anything but predictable. He could deal with Classification four and five creatures, but these children. Maybe they were classification six.

And though he tried to keep classes exciting, he knew some of his students were probably bored out of their minds. And boredom would make them even more unpredictable. Today might be one of those classes. The first lessons of the semester were rarely an engaging time. Still, he hoped he could do something engaging.

Before the students came in, he waved his wand and sent the envelopes flying to the desks. He made sure that the categories were written clearly and that there were adhesives on his desk for those students who were still new enough that they might not have the skills to get things magically stuck to walls.

As the students came in, he recognized some of the first years, well now second years, from the previous year. He nodded to the actual first years and put on his best, I' m-a-nice-man.-A-nice-man-who-is-here-to-help smile.

Lawrence made notes of students he remembered and liked from previous lessons. He'd try to give a chance to the other students, but the ones he like helped keep him at ease. As the students got seated, he took a deep breath.

"Good morning, class. I hope you all did your basic reading on the classification because we have a quiz today," Lawrence paused, waiting for groans he knew that his older students would emit at this point.

"Don't worry, though, it will not be too difficult of a quiz and will be an open book. As some of you have noted, there is an envelope in front of you." Lawrence pulled the example envelope off his desk with his wand.

"When I tell you to, you will open the envelope and four creatures inside. Some of the creatures may be easy to understand," Lawrence pulled out a card that read Wizard in big letters and showed it around. He then walked to the board. Across the top was written Being, Beast and Spirit. Going down the side were numbers 1 through 5.

"Your task is to place this card correctly on the board in front of the class. Since I have a Wizard, this creature, like Witches and Muggles, is a Being. They are "a creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws." It is rated four or five on the danger rating since we wizards can be dangerous to each other if not treated right."

"There is enough information on the back of the card for you to be able to determine where the creature you have belongs, but just in case you need help with classifications, you may have your textbook open to the first page."

Lawrence stood up a bit straighter. There was one "creature" he wanted to do in front of the whole class.

"Let's do one as a class, and then you can open your envelopes and begin to work ok?"

Lawrence pulled out Half-Veela's card and took a breath. He might get some owls from parents, maybe even a screamer or two, but this was going to be worth it in the long haul.

"Alright, class, where does this creature belong on our board?"

Lawrence called on one of the hands raised. "Why do you put a Half-Veela there?"

"Exactly, points to your house. Half-Veela's are beings, just like other witches and wizards and though they can be dangerous, their danger is similar to how a wizard can be dangerous. Very good."

Lawrence stuck the card next to Wizard. Making sure the whole class could see Wizards next to Half-Veelas.

"Ok class, you can open your envelopes now and try to figure out the classifications of each creature. If you are still lost as to what the creature is, please feel free to ask me."

Breath out. "Ok.", thought Lawrence, "Survived this encounter with the level six being."

OOO: Each envelope will have three beasts and one Being or Creature in it. You can choose which ones you want for yourself. If you need a list of creatures or how the classification system works, please use this great resource: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Creature

Subthreads:

Any purple horses? by Alexander Pierce-Beales with Theo Spurn

So is understanding what's happening by Sadie-Lake Chalmers with Sapphire Brockert

41 Lawrence Marsh Classification of children is hard. [Beginner] 1462 1 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

January 08, 2020 10:50 PM

Any purple horses? by Alexander Pierce-Beales

As the term had gone on, Alexander had done what he had been sure was impossible: settled in. Part of his surprise lay with the fact that he'd never actually gotten to settle down anywhere before, but the other part was that whole thing where he was in a school to be magic. At this point though, he either was going to die of whatever put him in this coma, or it was real. He preferred the latter option and so he figured he'd take the whole thing in stride. Barnabus still came to classes with him, but usually remained tucked inside his bag rather than in his pocket. It was a bit of a relief not to have the side of his robes bulging.

Because now Alexander was used to things like doing magic, wearing robes, and, apparently, discussing half-human creatures as one of the most normal examples for a test. Great.

His need to find a network had changed almost imperceptibly into the need to find friends. It actually seemed possible now, which was good. But his deeply ingrained survival instinct and habit of following directions to please others' expectations meant he wasn't the most outgoing student in his classes. By a long shot. Leonor De Matteo came to mind, but there were other students too that just sort of filled up a room by being in it. Some people took up more space than he did - not that that was a high bar to hit - while others probably would have become invisible if they could do such a thing through sheer force of will. At least there were some of each in both the first and second year groups. Somehow that made everything seem a bit more normal.

Without the exciting, outgoing personality to make himself standout though, Alexander had turned to manners. If nothing else, he could out-polite most of his classmates and that was probably pretty effective. It hadn't been so far but maybe it would be at some point.

Manners dictated that he should not immediately grab onto someone to be his partner, but instead wait until everyone was satisfactorily partnered up and then happily accept whomever it was that was left without a partner, or whomever wanted to work with him. After all, he didn't want to put anybody on the spot or make anyone feel awkward for turning him down. They didn't have to turn him down if he didn't ask.

When a student did approach him, Alexander used an expression he'd developed over the previous weeks to be more friendly. He still couldn't just go for it with a smile like someone of his classmates, but he didn't have to be a stick in the mud either. He'd developed a sort of flat-mouthed pulled expression that sort of looked enough like a half-smile to pass as one and it made his dimples come out which was usually a convincing factor for people to feel like he was smiling. It would have to do, because his classmate was opening their mouth to say something.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Any purple horses? 1475 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 12, 2020 12:48 AM

So is understanding what's happening by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Classes were, more or less, going well. Sadie was measuring that by the pretty simple metric of Professor Wright having kept his word and passed on her preferred name to the teachers, meaning that no one had roll called her as Sadie-Lake, which would have ended her chances of a social life before they had even begun. The classes themselves were... different. Care of Magical Creatures was still a class concept that Sadie was trying to get her head around. Flying was kinda like gym class. Potions was kinda like chemistry, maybe? It had gross smells and didn't make much sense, so it definitely had that in common with science. Other classes were harder to fit into the boxes she knew though. Care of Magical Creatures was like vet school. But for eleven year olds. And with stuff that could set you on fire. So... like... yeah. #WhatTheHeck.

To be fair to the #HipsterChic professor, who would not have looked out of place drinking #HandDrip #ColdPress @OmbreCoffee (one of her mom's #FavoriteSpots for #CoffeeDate, #LALife, #RealCoffee) he had not yet given them any assignments that tried to set them on fire. It was just the fact that could that had her #FreakingOut. Today, in fact, it was a much more familiar terror. #PopQuiz, #UhOh. To be fair, she had studied. Or, like, she had read the pages he had set. She had, going into the task, vague memories from elementary school that classification was like... whether a thing was a mammal or a mushroom. Apparently, wizards did it differently, and it was by how dead it was able to make you. Ranging from like... not at all to #YouAreSoDead, #Literally.

Apparently, they were going to be able to have that information open during their test, and Sadie had to hope that it came together in some slightly more concrete way now they actually had a task to do. They were also dealing with classification by labels, rather than Xs. Sadie opened her textbook to the page they were told they could reference, and sure enough, there were the 'beings, beasts, and spirits' listed at the top. She had forgotten about that part of what she'd read after the whole #ThingsThatWantToKillYou part.

The beings, beasts and spirits bit had seemed kind of simple. She thought it basically said there were people, animals and ghosts. It was still a headspin that ghosts were real, but those categories made sense. At least, until Professor Marsh pulled out a card with something on it that she didn't recognise and started telling them all very firmly that whatever this was, they were people too. Okaaay. Sadie wasn't going to argue. She wasn't fully sure if this meant 'being' meant something other than 'people' (he had said a bunch of stuff but none of it had sounded like it didn't mean people until he got to 'half-veela') or whether... 'people' just meant more than she had realised. After all, it divided into magic-users and Muggles, so it seemed like maybe there could be other subtypes. Though she couldn't imagine what else that might cover.

"Do you know what that is?" she asked her neighbour quietly once they were allowed to start work, nodding her head towards the board.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers So is understanding what's happening 1480 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

January 16, 2020 1:19 AM

I know that feeling by Sapphire Brockert

Care of Magical Creatures was a class that Sapphire had mixed feelings about. She liked cute and furry creatures and pretty creatures but it was a class that she was always afraid they'd do something scary in. The second year was afraid of a lot of things. Dragons, spiders, seizures, public humiliation...Topaz. Actually, aside from the seizures, her older sister was the reason why Sapphire was afraid of all the other things she was afraid of. Well, maybe not the public humiliation either, that also had to do with having epilepsy since the main way that the Crotalus thought she'd be publically humiliated was to have a seizure. Not that her seizures were the kind that made a big spectacle. She didn't drop to the ground and shake, she merely spaced out. However, Sapphire still worried that a grande mal seizure could happen.

However, when Professor Marsh announced their assignment for the day, she didn't feel all that relieved. Even though they weren't facing a dangerous creature, a quiz was almost as bad. The Crotalus did not consider herself smart at all. She had done the reading, but had trouble absorbing and remembering things. At least school things. There were things Sapphire could never forget but they certainly wouldn't help her pass a quiz.

At least it was open book. That was good, it meant she wouldn't have to remember things exactly. Plus, it involved things that were logical enough even for her to figure out. Professor Marsh had even specifically said what made a creature a Being, though Topaz would say that Sapphire herself did not fit that definition. That she didn't have "sufficient intelligence". The fourth year would also likely the same thing about their mother. Of course, Emerald would say that Topaz was a Beast.

Still, all the second year had to keep in her mind was what Professor Marsh had said with regards to classification. A creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws. . Sapphire repeated it over and over in her head.

She was just about to open her envelope when Esme's roommate asked her what a half-veela was. For a moment, the older Crotalus felt a bit of panic. However, she realized that she did know this one. "Veelas are these human-like creatures that are really pretty and irresistible to men. A half-veela is the offspring of a veela and a human."

11 Sapphire Brockert I know that feeling 1459 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 16, 2020 4:10 AM

I would like that! by Theo Spurn

Care of Magical Creatures was deeply fuzzy. They were going to meet all sorts of soft things here! Theo could hardly wait for pygymy puffs which were just little balls of pure fluffness and he just wanted to bounce whenever he thought about them. He was unsure about beards. He had the general impression that beards were scratchy bad things. The hair in them looked very coarse. But Professor Marsh was such a soft person who brought them all the fuzzy things that Theo was wondering whether he might have a magical soft beard too. He had come very close to asking a couple of times and had hovered near the professor to get a closer look once or twice but that was off topic so he hadn't yet. Plus Professor Marsh often brought definitely-nice-to-stroke things, and when he didn't Theo had his velvet lined sleeves to play with, which reduced the need to risk a Maybe texture. If it had looked definitely soft, he would have been up there by now. The point at which they had to do Flobberworms was probably the point at which Theo would lose ability to resist because those were Definitely Ick and even though he would probably not have to touch them, going and asking questions - even/especially off-topic ones - was going to be preferable.

Today was not that day though. Today they had a pop quiz. Or something that was called a pop quiz even though it didn't. The envelope just made a normal ssshhhrunch as it was opened. Professor Marsh then made a very big deal out of half veela being beings. Theo tilted his head and rubbed one of his velvet lined sleeves across his nose.

As they opened their own envelopes, nothing very interesting tumbled out of his. Nothing that needed to be up next to 'half veela' quite so much as something else did... He suspected this lesson was less about classification and more about not being a jerk. He thought he might try asking Professor Marsh whether that was indeed the point and, as he understood it already, whether there was something he could pet instead (beard??). But there was one thing he wanted to make sure of before that. He tried a couple of classmates, asking them all the same question but receiving only negative responses, and bouncing away again.

"Hello," he tried again, heading to someone who was hanging back, "Do you have werewolf? It goes under being."

13 Theo Spurn I would like that! 1476 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

January 18, 2020 6:15 PM

Only if you promise not to get him dirty. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander hadn't opened his envelope yet, but the boy who approached him sort of reminded him of when kids used to ask if he had Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and he never did. One time, somebody gave him a Pokemon card, but it wasn't the same and no one wanted to play with him. Another time, some of the older kids in school were playing Magic the Gathering and had been swapping cards from their starter decks. They had a stack of cards that none of them wanted or needed and when one of them saw Alexander watching, he held out the cards for him. When Alexander went to approach, though, the older boy tore up the cards and threw them in his face with a laugh. He still hadn't ever played Magic the Gathering although it sort of seemed like his memoir might have the same title at this point.

"Uh . . " He turned his attention to the envelope in his hand and ripped it open to reveal that he did indeed have a werewolf. He held it up for the boy's inspection. "You're Theo, right?" he asked. He was usually pretty good with names and was almost totally sure that this boy's name was Theo, but people sometimes thought he was weird if he just came out with stuff like that, so he tried not to. "I'm Alexander." He paused, desperately wanting to say something else but not sure what to say. What would keep this bouncy person here? "Do you . . . uh . . . what other ones do you have?"

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Only if you promise not to get him dirty. 1475 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 18, 2020 10:06 PM

Of course by Theo Spurn

"Yes, I am. And yes, you are," Theo acknowledged with a smile when Alexander stated who was who. He had clearly had his net at the ready in classes because he had caught Theo's name without them having been introduced. Following his conversation with Anya, he had made more of an effort to be well equipped and fast enough to catch other people's names. Mab's name was Mab, he had learnt.

"Ooh, good," he smiled, glad to have discovered where the wolf in the room was hiding. He took the card, flipping it over to see what Professor Marsh had said about them.

A werewolf is a human afflicted with lycanthropy. Untreated, werewolves can be very dangerous. The Wolfsbane Potion allows a werewolf to maintain their human mind during tranformation, meaning they are no more dangerous than their usual self.

Theo smiled at the acknowledgement of the werewolf's human side, and that the condition could be perfectly harmless if managed correctly. He was not too surprised, given his theory that this was mainly a class about not being intolerant jerkbags, but it was still pleasant and reassuring to see it written there.

"Hm?" he asked, as Alexander mentioned other cards, "Oh. I think I left my own on my table. They weren't very interesting. So, shall we change the front to make sure it specifies it is a werewolf taking medication, and then put it up at the same level as wizard?" he asked.

13 Theo Spurn Of course 1476 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

January 18, 2020 10:32 PM

Oh, good. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

CW - Ableist comments

Alexander cocked his head, not sure what to make of Theo's response. Still, he got the card out for him and let Theo take it to read the back. Alexander didn't know a thing about werewolves except what he'd learned in this class and what he'd learned from Twilight and stuff like that. He was realizing that his pop culture knowledge definitely surpassed his knowledge of the magical world. That was probably not a good thing especially since his education was apparently now riding on "real" werewolves and not on fantasy books from his own world.

He leaned forward to read the card with Theo, happy for something to do with his eyes. It was so hard to make eye contact for prolonged periods of time and just hope that it was going to work out. Finding reasons to look away was important because otherwise people assumed that you were not very smart or that something was wrong with you and then they wouldn't want to adopt you. That wasn't any good, although eye contact hadn't helped him any either. He thought it was probably just that other people preferred eye contact and not that it actually would impact his odds of getting adopted.

When Theo answered about not having his other cards, Alexander couldn't help frowning. "I thought they were all interesting," he said quietly, sifting through the cards he still held. "Have you ever seen any of these things in real life?" he asked, gesturing at the Grindylow, Nundu, and Runespoor. "They seem really dangerous."

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Oh, good. 1475 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

January 19, 2020 4:21 AM

Still a little lost by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

“Thanks,” she stated to her classmate, offering an uncertain smile. Human-like creatures. That was #SoWeird. Not that much of this school had been anything else so far but it sounded like the Velours were taking #NaturalBeauty to the #NextLevel and it was #SoExtra. She thought she had heard about mermaids a bit like that in some fairy stories. Ones that were way nothing like Ariel. She wasn’t sure if the power sounded more #RealLifeDisneyPrincess or #HouseofHorrors. She guessed it was a good thing. It was important to be pretty. Guys liked girls who were #Sexy. She saw the way girls posed on their instas and danced on TikTok. She was pretty sure she would die of embarrassment if she ever tried to behave like that. At the moment, it wasn’t really required. @CharmingChalmers was all about #WholesomeVibes and #FamilyTime. Still, people talked about her in ways they didn’t talk about boys. People evaluated her. Positive and negative. It mattered whether she looked like what they wanted to see.

Not that that was relevant. A…. (she checked the board) veela would probably not be on instagram. And they had class work. She tried to wrap her head around the rest of what her classmate had said. So… beings were not human? It wasn’t like… ‘human being.’ Maybe that was where that phrase came from? Like, everything had a two part name in science. There were homo sapiens (which always got a giggle from the class) which was a type of person and like… maybe human beings were called that because there were also other types of beings. That made sense. Right?

Sadie was not confident enough to venture this thought out loud. Whether the thought, and the fact that she didn’t know that ‘homo sapiens’ were people and that ‘human being’ was not a two part scientific name would end up inflicted on a teacher via a homework assignment remained to be seen. It was unlikely. Sadie was very much not one to venture an opinion. She was good at taking the material she’d been given and rehashing it just enough that it didn’t count as plagiarism, probably with the side effect of removing some of the sense along the way.

“Um, so what er… things,” she stated, hoping that was a good enough catch all term and hoping that it was clear she just meant it generally and not that she was calling veelas and homo sapiens and human beings and whatever else ‘things,’ “did you get in your envelope?” she asked. She wasn’t sure if the other girl really wanted to talk more about their assignment but given that she recognised substantially less than half the things they were talking about, getting some help seemed like a good plan.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers Still a little lost 1480 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 21, 2020 12:23 AM

Do purple horses like blanket forts? by Theo Spurn

"Oh, they are," Theo stated apologetically, when Alexander stated he thought they were all quite interesting. Alexander was frowning slightly which usually meant people were mad or thinking hard. Theo supposed his comment might have seemed a little mean.

"Sorry, cards, you are all very nice," he apologised, petting them all slightly even though they were only meh to touch. Not bad just not actively interesting. Still, petting was a good way to show you were sorry, at least with things and non-human animals. Theo thought it should have worked well with humans too. He certainly would have liked to be patted or stroked when people were sorry. However, this was one of the many ways in which other people didn't agree with him on expressing feelings.

"Werewolves are just... kind of a favourite, or extra interesting for me," he added carefully. Carefully was not Theo's most common way of speaking but this was more about dad than about him. The werewolf thing was one of those frustrating things where you basically needed a flowchart to understand people's feelings. Or something. He had not yet come up with a suitable diagram but it went something like this; dad's feelings about it were the most important because it was his illness. He was therefore the one that got to decide who got told what. At the same time, everyone in the family believed that it was nothing to be ashamed of. That was always true too, and even when dad didn't want to talk to someone about it, that never stopped point number two being true. It mostly meant that dad thought they were a jerk and were going to have some kind of jerky reaction, or he didn't know, or he was tired and just didn't feel like dealing with it or being the centre of the discussion. Those were all valid feelings, and allowed to be bigger than Theo or his mum wanting to talk about it because it was dad's illness, and it also didn't mean anyone was ashamed about anything. And even though that had been said already it got said a lot and that was why Theo thought of it as a flowchart. Is it you illness? Y/N Does the comment imply shame? Y/N with lots of arrows and things flowing around so that you came back to the same box again and again.

The main issue with the flowchart model was that he had things he was not sure about. There were areas of grey. There always had been with school and Theo and meeting other people and that was even more so now he was in one place without his parents for weeks on end. It was dad's illness but Theo had to decide how to handle it. Theo would have just gone with telling everyone. After all, it was nothing to be ashamed of, and also Theo didn't really not talk about the things he was thinking even if other people thought they weren't things to talk about. But dad had said it was not secret but it was private, and that meant he preferred Theo not to tell people unless it was 'absolutely necessary.' The trouble was, that was sort of vague and no one could really tell him what would constitute an 'absolutely necessary' circumstance, so that box had an arrow labelled 'don't know' which had started out wibbly and floaty because Theo hadn't been sure where to connect it. Theo and dad were different. When things were not dad's way of doing things but mattered a great deal to Theo, dad often stood up for Theo's way. And dad's way was to be private about this. And it was dad's illness. So the 'don't know' arrow had ended up plugged in back up there. Theo had thought about the flowchart a lot before coming to school, so he didn't have to go through it all in his head now, which would have taken far too long. He just had to remember that the flowchart existed and that it was dad's illness and dad liked privacy.

"Yes," he nodded, when Alexander asked if he had seen the other cards in real life, "My parents took me to the zoo a couple of times. I liked the Nifflers though, and I think petting zoos are better than big zoos because you get to touch."

13 Theo Spurn Do purple horses like blanket forts? 1476 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

January 25, 2020 11:35 AM

This one undoubtedly does. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander was surprised that Theo apologized. He wasn't really used to anyone apologizing to him and it made him feel bad that he'd made someone feel bad for making him feel bad and-- well, he supposed he should just accept it and move on. "It's alright," he said, a little lighter.

He smiled a little despite himself when Theo patted the cards. He thought it was sort of sweet. He thought it would be nice if everyone was so gentle and kind. It might not be so bad to be a square piece of paper with ink on it - or paint? He didn't know how these cards were made - if it meant some human kindness.

"Werewolves do seem interesting. Why do you like them so much?" He examined the picture again and shivered a little. There was something so sad about the idea of lycanthropy. Either you turned into a wolf and lost your sense of self entirely, only to do who knew what, or you turned into a wolf and kept your sense of self, fully aware of what you'd become and what your body was doing against your will. Either way sounded terrible. He thought it was odd that the best the wizarding world could do was the second option. He wasn't really sure if that would be better.

When Theo answered Alexander's next question, Alexander looked up at him with a dropped jaw and open wonderment on his face. "There are . . . zoos? Full of magical creatures? And you can pet some of them?" he asked breathlessly. "I've never been to a zoo, like the regular kind, but I didn't even know there were zoos with magic stuff. That's amazing."

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales This one undoubtedly does. 1475 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

January 29, 2020 11:37 AM

I'll try my best to help by Sapphire Brockert

CW-Unenlightened ableist ideas coming from someone other than Topaz. Also, animal cruelty alluded to.

As Sadie asked her about the creatures she had gotten, it dawned on Sapphire that for once, she might know more about something than someone who wasn't a small child. She had deduced by Esme's comments and the lack of recognition of Sadie's last name that the younger girl was a Muggleborn. Not that that made her stupid or anything, she probably was smarter than Sapphire was since,well, most people were but it did mean she was brand new to the magical world while the second year had grown up in it. Plus, the older Crotalus had a year of magical education on her. She felt....well, not superior, because Sapphire would never think herself better than someone but, in this case, more knowledgeable and in a position to help someone. At least for now.

Still it was a nice feeling. She was going to savor it because she didn't get a lot of chances to feel this way. To feel good about herself. Topaz, of course, was awful to her on a regular basis and Mother had expressed doubts about marrying the Crotalus off due to her epilepsy while often infantilizing her as much or more so than Amethyst, who was the actual baby of the family. Mother, like Topaz, seemed to think she was mentally handicapped.

"Um, let's see." Sapphire opened up her envelopes and shuddered. "Acromantula. These are giant spiders . They are definitely beasts even though they are capable of human speech because they eat any person who comes near them." Sapphire had had nightmares about these creatures on a fairly regular basis as a child thanks to Topaz telling her that they were lurking in the Utah deserts and could possibly escape to Salt Lake City where Sapphire and her family lived. Which wasn't true and the fourth year knew it. Their tutor Neal had set her straight about the location of where Acromantula came from, which was the island of Borneo.The Crotalus vowed never to set foot there.

Honestly, Sapphire really missed Neal sometimes. He was the tutor that had finally figured out that she was epileptic and informed her parents. Without him she never would have gotten put on medication and had seizures less often.

She took out the next card. "This one is a puffskien. They're beasts but not scary awful ones like acromantula. They're cute furry round creatures that make good pets because they're all cuddly. They don't talk or think like humans though so that's why they're beasts." She had wanted to have one as a pet except she was afraid Topaz would do horrid things to it.

Sapphire looked at her third creature which was a house elf. She showed the card to Sadie. "House-elves are beings. They're servants for wizards who are intensely loyal to their masters. They can talk and are sentient and have their own kind of magic. They aren't as cute as puffskiens but they are better than Acromantula as they help wizards as opposed to eating us."

She continued pulling out the final card. "This is a flobberworm. They're....kind of what they sound like. A kind of worm. They're gross and make this mucus that's used in some potions. But they don't eat people, just plants. And they are beasts." Sapphire felt proud of herself for knowing all this.

The second year addressed the younger girl. "So what did you get?" She asked, ready to help answer anything Sadie didn't know.

11 Sapphire Brockert I'll try my best to help 1459 0 5