Lawrence Marsh
July 02, 2020 7:59 AM
Adapting to the situation [Intermediates] by Lawrence Marsh
The pawing behind him seemed to be intensifying. Lawrence could feel the anxiousness of the animal and knew that it was only because his back was towards her. Lawrence did a scan down his body. Everything seemed to be in order, except. He realized he had his hands clasped in front of himself and moved them around towards the back so that she could see his hands. Milky Way always seemed to be more comfortable when she could see his hands. As soon as he let his left hand go limp in his right hand Lawrence could hear her calm. The pawing stopped and her breathing mellowed. Lawrence wondered what had happened to this creature in the past that she would be so anxious around wizards with their hands invisible to her.Lawrence was never one to really believe the stories that her species liked witches more than wizards. There was no reason for an entire species to be wary of one specific gender of a different species. He supposed most instances of this being recorded was due to cruel wizards in the animals past. He would freely admit the males of his species were more likely to cause harm to animals than the female. Still, the way Milky Way reacted around Lawrence made him wonder if there wasn’t something to the stories. He’d yet to have any of the witches on staff stand around with their backs to Milky Way, though he might have to in the name of science.
Lawrence smiled at his Intermediate students as they walked up to him. He enjoyed that they could spend at least one class every few weeks outside and today they were in one of the usual spots. Last year he’d introduced students to Susan, the Snallygaster, in this exact spot. Today, he was introducing Milky Way, a Unicorn, to them. He could imagine some of his students liked one more than the other. Then again some might like the reverse. The preserve where Susan had found her new flock had reached out to him at the beginning of the school year about an animal in need of help. Upon finding out what kind of animal it was, Lawrence jumped at the chance. After all, if he was going to be working with animals for a living and it couldn’t be dragons, than it might as well be unicorns.
“Hello class,” Lawrence said, speaking a bit louder than usual to make sure he could be heard over any sounds the class might be making at the start. “I’m glad you could all join me outside today. We’ve recently been talking about creatures' adaptations to their environments. We categorized their adaptations, including body parts, body coverings and behaviors. Today, I’d like you to take what you’ve learned about those adaptations and apply it to a specific animal, mainly, Milky Way,” Lawrence turned slowly so both the students and the unicorn could see him and he moved his hands to be in front of his body.
“Unicorns are special creatures, but they still follow the same principles as all others. So today in your lesson, I’d like you to work with another student and I’d like you each to note down three to four different characteristics of the Unicorn and why the animal may have adapted that. You don’t have to get the correct answer on why the adaptation occurred, as that may not be known, but I want you to be able to show me your argument as to WHY Milky Way and her kind may have that adaptation. We will be going with things you can see yourself.” Lawrence left unsaid the part about how the blood could cure almost any ill, but would lead to a cursed life. That was not something he needed to start a conversation about at this moment.
“I’ll be here at the start of the class if you’d like to come up and pet Milky Way before starting your lesson. Otherwise I’ll walk around and be here for questions.”
OOC:
Enjoy your Unicorn class. You can find out more in the following links
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Unicorn
https://www.hp-lexicon.org/creature/horse/unicorn/
If you want to know more about adaptations and how certain things in the Muggle world are explained in non Magical animals, feel free to use this lesson plan: https://www.usi.edu/media/1751789/AnimalAdap.pdf
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Lawrence Marsh
Adapting to the situation [Intermediates]
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Freddie Zauberhexen
July 05, 2020 2:17 PM
Speaking of coverings . . . [Ellie] by Freddie Zauberhexen
It was time. Today's lesson didn't help Freddie feel a bit better about the conversation he wanted to have with Ellie though, because he really just wanted the unicorn to trust him. He wasn't sure if it would, though, because the stories were widespread that unicorn only trusted people who were pure of heart. They'd talked more about unicorns as a whole in this class and Freddie knew now that some of the stories he'd grown up hearing weren't actually true, but it was hard to wrap his head round. And now he had a secret and they were talking about evolution and coverings and it just made him want to pop.He joined Ellie, who he suspected would be in a good mood with a lesson about unicorns because he was pretty sure liking unicorns was a prerequisite for being a girl, and offered her a smile. He was glad they were still friends and that nothing seemed weird - as far as he could tell - since the Ball. That would be the absolute worst! Ugh. Just the idea of going to a silly dance and hanging out and then finding out that it ruined their friendship made him sad. He was glad that hadn't seemed to have happened and that gratitude was a recurring theme of his thoughts about Ellie. She was still one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen, but she was just Ellie. She was his friend. And Anya was real pretty too, so he was pretty sure that girls just were pretty. He hadn't actually met any that weren't.
"Want you that we work together?" he asked her, smiling still. "We can do touching first, or start and not touch Milky Way. What do you want?"
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Freddie Zauberhexen
Speaking of coverings . . . [Ellie]
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Ellie Alperton
July 07, 2020 3:57 AM
Say no to TERUs by Ellie Alperton
Care of Magical Creatures was sometimes a somewhat bitter pill for Ellie to swallow. It was a class she had foreseen her brother absolutely adoring - it was practical, it didn’t have long words, and it was often outdoors - and so his absence from school stung just a little bit more in the hours she spent there. Still, that was overall lessening as the term went on and she just got used to the fact that Seth was never going to come here. She also had to admit that the class sometimes played way more to her interests than his - some of the creatures were just so cute.Today really was an Ellie class instead of a Seth one. Outside often meant bigger creatures, and sometimes that was a little scary, but today when she saw what they would be working on, her jaw dropped and she actually squealed. It was a unicorn! A real, honest to goodness unicorn! She had read about them and seen pictures, most of which even moved, but it was nothing like seeing it in real life. She had been so looking forward to this - she had looked up all the creatures she had grown up daydreaming about, and finding out about mermaids had been an unpleasant shock, whereby they were nothing like her imagination. But unicorns! Unicorns seemed to be one point where magic was going to live up to all the expectations. This one was beautiful.
Ellie also couldn’t wait to see Jasmine after class and tell her. Sure, she would have had this class herself at some point, and she lived with a bunch of flying horses, but it was still exciting news that Ellie had got to see one. She wondered with only a slight sting of bitterness whether Seth would be happy for her too, if she wrote home about it.
Still, that was later, and now it was unicorn time!
Ellie listened carefully as Professor Marsh asked them to apply what they knew about adaptations to unicorns. The main thing she could see was the great big horn. That, she supposed, was useful for gouging mean people. It was a pretty good adaptation. It was curious that Professor Marsh had mentioned only talking about things they could see, because she suspected a lot of what separated out unicorns from regular horses was magic - unicorn tail hairs could be used for wands, after all (hers had one!) so she knew they must be pretty powerfully magical. Milky Way’s tail was… pretty shiny. Did that count as magic being an adaptation she could see?
However, Ellie also recalled something she’d read about unicorns. Another thing that could not be seen. Something that had made her want to see one even more, but also had made her curious and cautious and skeptical; they liked girls better. Okay, first off did they really? Because that sounded pretty dubious given that constructs of pureness and femininity were exactly that - constructs. How could a unicorn - an elusive forest animal that avoided human contact - be so clued up on human societal norms as to pass judgement? It seemed way more likely that they preferred certain human traits like gentleness, which people then projected their own gender and behavioural values onto - only sweet virginal girls behaved in a particular and pleasing way. Amazing, how unicorns happened to prefer the exact things the patriarchy did.
Unicorns could, presumably, read human behaviour, and have preferences about that. If that was the case, then they should be fine with Ellie - she was soft, she was gentle and she was girly. It seemed unlikely that a preference could be based on biological sex. Unicorns did not have x-ray vision and just automatically hate people based on what was in their pants. Probably. Again, the trouble with ‘but magic’ meant you could never be sure about that. Reassuringly, Milky Way seemed fine with Professor Marsh, lending credit to Ellie’s ‘behaviour not biology/social constructs’ theory. Ellie was not having any truck with slut shaming, transphobic unicorns.
She watched a few of her classmates. The Professor’s instruction that they shouldn’t analyse that sort of thing leant weight to the idea of it being nonsense, but she couldn’t help but want to gather data. She just… wanted to be sure that there wasn’t going to be a visible and startling difference to the way Milky Way reacted to her if the unicorn turned out to be a massive TERF.
Before she could gather too much data though, Freddie popped up. That made her feel better, in that she always felt calmer with her friends around, and Freddie was always so cheerful. Well, usually. She thought he’d occasionally seemed a little less like his bright bubbly self this year, and wasn’t sure whether to ask if something was bothering him. But, much like talking about herself, it had been easy to put off. Somehow, after the charity booth meeting, there hadn’t been a really good moment to pull him aside. Class was really far from ideal too…
“I want to pet the unicorn,” she said, her hesitation drawing the words out, making it clear there was a ‘but’ there and this was not an invitation to go running straight up. “Do you think it’s true that they treat boys and girls differently?” she asked. She wasn’t really sure why she asked. Well, okay, yes she was - she was stalling for time. And looking for a tie breaker. Because she had read in textbooks that they did, and textbooks were normally to be trusted, but it just didn’t make sense for her that it could be true.
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Ellie Alperton
Say no to TERUs
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Freddie Zauberhexen
July 08, 2020 10:23 PM
I don't know enough English to get it but my author says that was a great title. by Freddie Zauberhexen
Ellie wanted to work together! Or at least, she didn't say no. That was the weird thing with people - if they didn't say yes but they didn't say no, then sometimes that could be taken as a yes and sometimes it should be taken as a no. That was a risky game. He wished people would be a bit more straightforward, but he decided that Ellie answering his other question and continuing to engage was probably safe to interpret as a yes."I want also to pet," he agreed with a nod and a smile. He glanced at Milky Way when Ellie asked her question. What did he really think? He considered the majestic beast and thought that maybe, if it did treat girls and boys differently, then it didn't really understand them. Girls and boys didn't have to be that different. They could be really similar in lots of ways. Sometimes boys could be mean, but girls could too. Sometimes girls could be really sweet, but boys could too. He supposed there were things he wanted to talk to boys about but he also was right here to talk to Ellie about them too, so maybe that wasn't really the case. It wasn't the difference between boys and girls, but between person A and person B.
He turned back to Ellie and shook his head. "I think that unicorn treats boys and girls same. If does not, then unicorn has . . . " He paused and waved his hands, trying to think of the word. "Unicorn has little brain. Doing this does not make girl, doing that does not make boy. Boy and girl is different, but... also they is not much different." Social construct, and not mutually exclusive it turned out, were very hard concepts to express in Freddie's second language, especially since he did not have such vocabulary in his first.
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Freddie Zauberhexen
I don't know enough English to get it but my author says that was a great title.
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Ellie Alperton
July 13, 2020 3:58 AM
*bows* by Ellie Alperton
Ellie was pretty sure she wanted to hug Freddie right now. Sometimes it was hard to tell, because his English wasn't great at dealing with complicated things. But then, that also meant he usually made them simple. She wasn't sure if that was a result of the language barrier or his personality - she somewhat suspected the latter. He was usually cheerful and direct and didn't seem to worry too much about what he was saying. She was sure she would have obsessed over nuance and precision and whether she had really said what she meant to, however few words she had available to do that with.He seemed to be suggesting that the differences between girls and boys weren't that noteworthy. She sort of agreed, in that boys could be sweet and soft and like pink, and girls could be rough and tough and like blue. She was all for a world where that was encouraged. Of course, she liked some of what she liked because it was for girls and because she was one. Everything was allowed to be for everybody, but she could still want what she wanted because of what she was. Still, at least Freddie wasn't coming out with some stiff old-fashioned nonsense.
"I think so too," she agreed, "Milky Way likes Professor Marsh - because he's gentle and kind and trustworthy. That's probably what she's looking for."
So, that was the subject of petting the unicorn and gender biases and that sounded like they were going to go up there and test that theory.
"Can I talk to you first?" Ellie asked, pulling Freddie away from the rest of the group. It wasn't like there was going to be a problem. Not with Freddie, and not with Milky Way either (Ellie hoped). But this was a good opportunity, and Ellie had sworn the next one of those she had, she would take.
"I'm sure it's gonna be fine, with Milky Way but..." but I just wanted to tell you myself on the off chance that I'm about to be outed by a unicorn? That would have to be amongst the strangest ways she could possibly finish a sentence and she almost giggled at the ridiculousness of it, which was probably a good sign. "I'm trans. Like we talked about at Dorian's meeting," she added, trying to help with that sudden topic shift, and hoping he had read some of Dorian's handouts so that word might mean something to him. "In some ways, that makes me more of a girl than other girls, cos I had to fight harder to get to be one," she explained, "I just... don't know if unicorns see it that way. Or care about it at all. Sometimes people have some very stupid opinions about it."
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Ellie Alperton
*bows*
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Freddie Zauberhexen
July 13, 2020 10:30 AM
Like the things that go in your hair? by Freddie Zauberhexen
Freddie nodded, both because Professor Marsh was the things that Ellie said he was and because that's probably why Milky Way liked him. Heck, that's why Freddie liked him. Dude was a great professor and they got to look at cool stuff but never caught fire or anything and there was some debt of gratitude the entirety of the student body owed the man for sure.He followed Ellie away from the other students, surprised curiosity adding a lowered eyebrow to his otherwise cheery expression. This was going to be his opportunity. He had said he'd take the next chance he could get to talk to her about this and this was going to be the chance. Except he'd sort of expected that he'd be the one leading them away, so did that mean that Ellie had something she wanted to tell him? Did she already know? His stomach rolled over a bit. That would suck. He wanted to be the one to tell people his own secrets. He supposed he'd sort of ruined that with Kai, since Hana hadn't actually told him yet, but that was his secret still, Hana had just been keeping it for him. Or for herself. Whatever.
Ellie said the word 'trans' and something faintly flickered in the back of Freddie's mind, but she wasn't done talking yet so he listened and then cocked his head. "I am looking around my brain to find word," he told her for an explanation. Then he found it. Trans was that thing he thought that maybe Hana thought he was because he liked to wear dresses but which he had come to the conclusion he was not, because he knew he was a boy, he just wanted to be a boy and wear dresses, not be a girl. He broke into a grin and beamed at his dear friend. She was telling him a thing and he was pretty sure this would make it way easier to tell her his thing, too. "You are much of girl," he agreed with a nod to her final comment about being maybe more of a girl. Was that why she was so pretty? She had a secret advantage because she tried extra super hard? Maybe it was just because she was pretty, because he was pretty sure she didn't do anything way bananas to make herself extra pretty. Girls just sort of were pretty, and Ellie happened to be extra pretty. He waved a hand dismissively towards Milky Way. "If unicorn think you are boy, then unicorn has no brain at all," he said confidently. "You say you are girl? Then that is right. I know I am boy, I not lie. Why you lie? No lie. You are girl." He cocked his head, a smaller, more easy smile on his face. "Thank you that you tell me," he added, recognizing nerves on her face.
"People have all opinions," he agreed, speaking hesitantly and hoping it was clear that he was trying to tell her a thing too. Was that rude? He wasn't trying to make this about him. "I want tell you, but I have worry. Now I have small worry only. I can tell you? On summer, Hana found me wearing dress. I am boy," he added, sure of that. "And I wear sometimes dresses. That is okay? Hana says not okay . . . but that is okay for you?"
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Freddie Zauberhexen
Like the things that go in your hair?
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Ellie Alperton
July 15, 2020 3:26 AM
Yes! Exactly! by Ellie Alperton
Ellie took deep steadying breaths, trying not to jump in whilst Freddie 'looked around his brain for the word.' Under any other circumstances that would have been the cutest expression. Right now, it was the wait to see whether she would have to provide explanation or receive acceptance. She tried to have faith that those were the main two options they were heading towards, even if the 'explanation' one might lead to some questions and phrasings that she was not comfortable about. She filled the time with trying to work out how she would explain, if asked. How to put it into terms that were simple, clear and direct without using phrases she disliked.He started talking and it seemed... good? Freddie was permitted to get about two thirds of the way through his reasoning before he was abruptly enveloped in a very fierce hug. She was sure he had understood and also that he... understood.
"Thank you," she replied to his thanks. She grinned happily, feeling like with friends like this she was ready to take on the world - starting with petting a unicorn.
Freddie seemed to want to talk more though, so she tried to check her excitement. He was more a do-er than a talker so if he wanted to spend time saying more things, they were probably important.
They were. And surprising. She was pretty sure that showed on face in spite of knowing that she shouldn't have let it, but this quickly rearranged itself into a frown at the mention of Hana's behaviour.
"Yes, it's okay!" she stated, her tone and her face fiercer than she had probably sounded for the whole of their friendship. Realising that might be confusing, she made an effort to soften her expression. "I'm mad that Hana said that to you. That wasn't fair," she told him, her expression sympathetic now but her tone no less certain - this was a fact, not an opinion. "It makes me want to go fight her until she listens and accepts you," she told him, picturing herself as a lady knight in sparkling armour, taking on his mean dragon of a sister. "I will, if you want me to," she told him. That felt scary. Hana was clearly not very open minded and Ellie did not want to expose herself to people like that, but she knew more about this than Freddie. She hoped that reason, logic and education could prevail, and she was well equipped to give those. "Or at least, I can help explain, if you need me to," she added, figuring that he might not relish the thought of an argument. She was glad that Freddie seemed have his own identity figured out, and that she wasn't having to explain the differences between trans and non-binary and gender non-comforming and all the rest of it or the fact that no label was perfectly acceptable too... That would have been a lot to try to do in simplified English and during class. "You are you," she tried tried to reciprocate what he had told her, "That's what matters. You decide who you are, and you be what makes you happy. We can have dress up days too!" she added enthusiastically, something of her excited smile returning as she considered the possibility of having a dresses-and-accessorising-inclined friend around once Jasmine left. She hoped Freddie would want to, and that this offer would make him happy and excited too, but she didn't want to assume when he was obviously having a bit of a rough time of things, so she tried to keep her own excitement reigned in until she knew how he was feeling.
"Thanks for telling me," she reciprocated.
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Ellie Alperton
Yes! Exactly!
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Freddie Zauberhexen
July 15, 2020 3:50 PM
Can I put them in my hair? by Freddie Zauberhexen
Freddie laughed and hugged Ellie right back when she jumped at him. He liked Ellie because she did stuff like that. She expressed who she was and she was real sweet and nice. People who make other people feel warm were good people in Freddie's book. She let go and his nerves came to the forefront as he began speaking himself. They were just there as a matter of principle, it seemed, because he was confident now that Ellie would probably still like him, and not think he was sick.As it turned out, she was all sorts of gung-ho about this. She'd been surprised for a moment, but he supposed that was reasonable. Most boys didn't wear dresses and if Ellie had been having to fight for her own right to wear dresses - at least if Dorian's charity basis was correct in thinking that was likely - then it made sense that it would be a bit shocking to her to hear this from a friend. After all, he probably would have shown more surprise at what she'd told him first if not for the fact that he had to think about it so long to remember what the word was she was using.
His eyes got a little big at Ellie's willingness to step in and fight his sister, and he glanced around to make sure she wasn't within earshot. Finding that she was not, he looked back at Ellie and shook his head, then again at the offer to argue with her or help him do as much. "Noch nicht," he said, a little desperately before settling some. "I want that I know . . . me. I want that I know me more. Then talk. Vielleicht . . . Perhaps she will then see."
Ellie offered dress up days and it was Freddie's turn to wrap her up in a hug. He thought that he might even cry if he hadn't remembered that they were in class with other students and that he did not want to cry because it was confusing feeling. "Du bist eine sehr gute Freundin," he murmured before releasing her. "We have dress up days," he agreed. "Aber first . . ." he grinned, happy to be cared about. "We touch unicorn and find brain size."
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Freddie Zauberhexen
Can I put them in my hair?
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Ellie Alperton
July 15, 2020 5:54 PM
As many as you like by Ellie Alperton
Ellie felt a strange mix of relief and disappointment as Freddie said he didn't want her to get involved. The imaginary arguments she'd already been having with Hana poofed into nothingness. Although Freddie's explanation of why made sense and gave her hope - she began repackaging the ideas in her head, as the words she would arm Freddie with to say about himself. He was still going to let her help, and those were the most important things - that he had help, and that he knew he was accepted and not alone.He also wanted to do dress up days! And the thought of them was making him so happy that Ellie couldn't help but beam.
"Right," she agreed, when he pointed out they still had unicorn investigations to do. "Let's go pet a unicorn, for science!" she grinned, fist-pumping the air.
She made her way up to Milky Way slowly, observing her behaviour as she did so. There was a variety of people nearby so it was hard to pick out any one reaction the unicorn was having to an individual, although there did seem to be some rules of crowd control in place.
When it was Ellie and Freddie's turn, she noticed that Milky Way was fidgeting a little nervously, and tried not to take it personally.
"Hi there. Milky Way?" Ellie tried softly, hoping the unicorn liked the name she'd been given. Ellie always felt better when she heard her name, but then she had chosen it for herself... "I'm Ellie," she smiled. She was still a big bundle of excited and nervous, both from the after effects of the conversation with Freddie but also about what was happening now. "I'd like to pet you, if that's okay?" she asked holding out a hand but not invading Milky Way's space until she indicated it was fine. The unicorn didn't start back but nor did she reach out to sniff Ellie's hand. Her ears twitched. "I won't touch you if you don't want me to," Ellie promised, lowering her hand a little with a sigh of disappointment. She didn't just want to pet the unicorn, she wanted the unicorn to want her to pet it. Milky Way visibly relaxed, and extended her nose slightly towards Ellie's half-extended hand. Very slowly, Ellie reached back, letting the unicorn sniff her before gently and carefully petting her on the muzzle.
"Hey, she let me!" she grinned at Freddie.
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Ellie Alperton
As many as you like
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5