Tabitha Brooding-Hawthorne

June 24, 2020 2:21 AM
It had been awhile since Tabitha had done anything fun with her classes. With the state she’d allowed to get herself into last year, she hadn’t trusted herself to capably handle a class of students to run rampant through one of the MARS rooms, shooting spells at each other. Practical lessons had been confined to her classroom and little more than shooting at targets or demonstrating the strength of their shields. She had definitely erred on the side of caution, keeping most of her lessons theory based towards the end of the year when lack of sleep and good nutrition had really taken its toll. Today, she had come up with a lesson for her Intermediate class that would hopefully be much more interesting. She had been planning for some time, wanting to make sure it was as good as it could be. That and lessons on this scale took longer to plan these days as it wasn’t uncommon for her work to be interrupted by the needs of a small boy who was insistent on calling her ‘daddy’. She was getting used to that title, especially since he no longer wanted to call her anything else.

Tabitha had sent memos to each of the House notice boards, stuck another one on her classroom door and, just to be on the safe side, one on her office door to remind her students to meet her outside the Mirage Chamber. The inside only normally witnessed by those who won the House Cup, she hoped that her students would be buzzing with excitement about being let into the magical room.

When they were all assembled outside the room, Tabitha told them of today’s lesson.

“Good morning, class! I hope you’ve all had a good breakfast and have plenty of energy this morning. You’re going to need it,” she said, with an excited grin. “Today’s lesson is going to test the things that you have learned in my lessons in a real-world environment. I can’t take you outside the school so this will do. I would like you to pair up because I would also like you to use teamwork. The goal of this lesson is a simple one - it’s an obstacle course. You will enter through the portrait and all you have to do is reach the finish line at the other end of the room. There are, of course, prizes.”

It sounded like a simple premise but Tabitha hoped that her Intermediate students wouldn’t be fooled by the easy-sounding premise. “Of course, it’s not just as simple as running through the room. Although, if you wish to choose that strategy that is up to you and your partner. The forest is also filled with obstacles. How do you intend to get across the river should you find it? And how will you deal with a nest of cornish pixies? What will you do when you encounter another team? Just to list a few examples.”

For a moment, her smile faded and she adopted a serious face. This was the important bit. “Nothing you will find in the chamber will harm you more than a light stinging hex. The obstacles will annoy and hinder and will only disappear or be overcome if you adopt the right approach but you cannot be severely harmed. This is still only a simulation of a potential environment you might find yourselves in one day. If you end up duelling with another team which is perfectly allowed, limit yourselves to the minor hexes and jinxes. I will be watching and anybody found to use a curse to severely harm will be punished. This is supposed to be fun and is meant to be approached with that in mind.”

With that said, Tabitha politely asked the portrait for entrance and Tavarius Mims obliged and swung open to allow the class entrance with Tabitha leading the way. She smiled a little, pleased at how the room had turned out. It was clear that the students could choose which way to go. To the left was a thick and dense forest, with lots of trees. To the right, it was more open with fewer trees. A river ran straight through the middle of these but Tabitha knew that it wouldn’t stay straight, it would wind and bend to cross both sections. The pairs would have to choose which way they wanted to go. There were advantages and disadvantages to both and it would be interesting to see and hear their reasoning for doing so in their next lesson when they evaluated their actions.

Regardless of which path they chose, there was still their fair share of obstacles. Nests of cornish pixies, groups of imps, a few red caps. Hinkypunks were hidden throughout the forest and grindylows were hidden in the water. Nothing too challenging but enough to cause problems if her students couldn’t remember their lessons. It would also be interesting to see how they behaved when encountering another pair. Duelling was certainly an option which could prove interesting but Tabitha had never said that it was something they had to do. That was the point of this room and the lesson. The students had to make the decisions.

“You know you will have reached the finish line when you find the House flags flying. Good luck and you may begin.”

OOC note - normal posting rules apply! Feel free to be as creative as you like with your responses. Duelling other students is, of course, allowed but use minor spells that are more for amusement than harm (unless you wish to do something more harmful but this will involve Tabitha and repercussions for doing so). You can have your students reach the end at any point but I would like to see the response to at least two obstacles (with one of those being a creature). Any information to deal with these creatures is available on Harry Potter wiki, which I have checked to make sure that an Intermediate class could handle them. Physical landscape obstacles can include things like the river, fallen trees, anything naturally found in a forest that would cause problems.
Subthreads:
20 Tabitha Brooding-Hawthorne Intermediate DADA - Choices, choices, choices... 1417 1 5

Allegra Brockert

June 24, 2020 6:37 PM
Allegra felt like she couldn't breathe as Professor Brooding-Hawthorne began explaining the lesson. She wasn't all that great at Defense to begin with, she could do spells and theories okay, but had a tendency not to be the best when it came to anything that would require gross motor skills. The Crotalus was simply terrible at anything physical.

Besides, today's lesson brought back memories of the Challenges which had been disasterous for her. She had completely sucked and made her team get second to last place because of it. Nobody was going to want to be her partner and it was truly awful feeling to be that person one got "stuck with".

It only got worse when dueling, something that had not been part of either the obstacle course or the survival challenge, was mentioned.First of all, Allegra was awful at it to start with and secondly, Topaz was in this class and specifically out for the Crotalus's blood! Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had just basically given the Aladren permission to harm her! Never mind what would happen if Allegra did better than the other fifth year, but then she really didn't see that happening.

It was not really comforting when the professor mention punishment for severe harm either. Topaz had a way of talking herself out of trouble. Or scaring her victims into silence. Then again, they were working in partners so that might prevent the Aladren from misbehaving.Of course, if either of their partners tattled that Topaz had seriously hexed Allegra, Topaz would probably be vowing revenge on that person as well, but their classmates didn't necessarily know that.

Nor would it benefit her to have a partner who was so good at this kind of thing that they would make up for how bad Allegra was. First of all, it hadn't helped during the Challenges and there had been four of them-though she hadn't really got the impression that any of them were super athletes either-and secondly, the kind of person who excelled at this sort of thing was the exact sort most likely to mock or get mad at her or otherwise judge her harshly for not being good at it.

Allegra was really starting to feel sick to her stomach and a bit dizzy. Sweat dripped down her face. Her heart was pounding and she felt like she might pass out. She really hoped not because that would be truly humiliating. At a bare minimum, Topaz would torment her for it, but she was certain that her cousin wasn't the only one who'd look down on her for doing so. Even though for all they knew, she was actually sick.

She didn't know what to do. She wanted to leave the room but she didn't want to get in trouble but the alternative was going to have to go in there and risk humilation and worse. Allegra could possibly go to the Hospital Wing, as she really didn't feel good now,but she'd have to tell Professor Brooding-Hawthorne who might think she was faking to get out of doing something that for her was honest to goodness horrible. The professor had already demonstrated a lack of sympathy by allowing dueling. Not to mention others might think the same thing even though Allegra was completely pale and shaky. Plus, she'd have to make up the lesson somehow and she couldn't guarantee that would be theoretical. Professor Brooding-Hawthorne seemed to think they needed this lesson despite the fact that this was a situation that Allegra would never find herself in outside this class.

Before she could do anything, someone else approached her. The Crotalus would have been shocked that anyone wanted to work with her but she was too panicked to think about it.

11 Allegra Brockert And none of them good 1426 0 5

Freddie Zauberhexen

June 24, 2020 10:57 PM
Freddie was feeling better. Much much better. That didn't mean everything was all hunky dory but he had taken Jean-Loup's thoughts to heart and come to the conclusion that even if he was in the wrong, Hana was at least as much so. There was even the possibility that he wasn't wrong, in which case his sister was super in the wrong. It was heartbreaking, but at least he wasn't a problem all on his own, and he was slowly coming back around to being himself. He still hadn't told Ellie or Anya what had happened but he was feeling like he was ready to do so soon. Today, however, there was an adventure to be had.

Excited as he was, Freddie was well aware that his feelings on the matter weren't unanimous and some of his classmates looked downright terrified. Or sick. He understood the combined feeling well, if for different reasons, and approached an older girl that was maybe a prefect if he remembered right, because she looked like she was feeling terrible.

He thought often of how kind Ellie had been to him at the Ball and sought opportunities to pay it forward. There hadn't been any signs of anything more date-like happening again in the near future and Freddie found that he was glad. Nice as it had been to go to the Ball as Ellie's date, they didn't know each other too terribly well, and he didn't want to date anyone right now anyway. He was just a kid still. He was pretty sure Hana wanted to date Kai when she wasn't being a sour pickle about everything and he didn't really want to deal with that either. In any case, it wasn't an interest in dating that brought him to the girl, but an interest in making people feel at least half as seen and validated as Ellie had made him feel.

Dipping his head politely, Freddie looked up at the older girl and grinned. She was easy to grin at because most people were easy to grin at when Freddie was feeling up to grinning, and she was nice if he remembered that correctly too. "You are doing nerves?" he confirmed, cocking his head curiously. "It is nice that we are going together?"
22 Freddie Zauberhexen We will do all good. 1452 0 5