Lawrence Marsh
October 17, 2021 10:16 PM
Say my name and I disappear. [Intermediate] by Lawrence Marsh
Sounds seemed louder for some reason. The hinge on the door that needed to be oiled, the chalk against the chalkboard, and the sound of footsteps. That last one for some reason was the loudest of all. Lawrence’s head hurt, and it was all coming in, loud and clear. He’d already taken a potion and hoped it would due the trick, but he wasn’t going to miss classes over a headache.Plus, this lesson was one that had been handed down to him in a way, and was one that subs had used when he’d been out in the past. It was in fact, it was one he rather enjoyed. Today, more so, because for the most part it was a quiet activity. Or quieter than many of his other lesson plans.
He smiled as students entered and winced a bit at the sound of the door. He really did need to oil it. Or maybe he could ask someone to do it for him.
“Hello class,” he began, “To begin today I have a question. It was once asked to me by a dear friend, and I wonder who can answer: What can bring back the dead; make you cry, make you laugh, make you young; is born in an instant, yet lasts a lifetime?"
Lawrence smiled slightly at the thought of Jorn’s first question on what Lawrence only realized afterwards was their first date. He could feel a slight throbbing in his head, but still held the smile. He called on students till one of them answered correctly.
“That’s right. Memory,” he said with a quick laugh, “Very good. Now for those who did the reading you know this week we are talking about Sphinxes. As many of you know, especially those who did the reading, Sphinxes are known for their riddles. They are known for some truly amazing ones, but I think you are all smart enough to solve some of them. So, I am passing out a worksheet with a dozen riddles on them. You can take the class to solve them, and as you can see, there are a few lines on the back of the paper for you to come up with your own. If you come up with a good one you can get bonus points. Who knows, maybe you can create one to stump even a Sphinx. Now you are free to work with others as you see fit, as long as you are not too loud. I’ll be at my desk if you have any questions.”
Lawrence sat down, hoping that the potion would kick in. He truly did love riddles and was rather hoping someone would come up with a good one.
OOC: OOC: Information about sphinxes in the HP canon can be found here. You can assume the riddle given to Harry is on the sheet, as well as the classic example of, “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?” (Man) as well as any comparable riddles you might know, invent, or find. Some of my favorite riddles are actually all here: https://kidadl.com/articles/sphinx-riddles-from-games-mythology-and-fiction (including the Memory one Lawrence uses)
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Lawrence Marsh
Say my name and I disappear. [Intermediate]
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Billy Cobb
October 18, 2021 8:48 PM
Some sort of shy ghost? by Billy Cobb
Whoo! It was time for critter class again! This was undoubtedly Billy's best and most favoriteist class! They were almost always learnin' about some sort of neat creature that he may encounter on his global explorations once he got outta this place. This was also the only class he got to early and didn't hang around in the hallway until just before class started. He grinned at Professor Marsh as he slid into a seat. Professor Marsh was by far the best professor this place had.He started the class a with an odd question. But it was one that Billy knew the answer to. It was easy, when he was called upon he called out "Magic!" 'cause that was the answer to everything 'round this place. Strangely enough, that didn't seem to be the answer that the professor was looking for. "Memory?" he muttered to himself after someone had answered 'correctly'. That didn't actually bring back the dead...oh well.
The class moved on and he had actually done the reading for the week. He liked reading about these creatures, and also thought that he may run into some key information for that other thing him 'n Oz were lookin' into. The sphinx sounded kinda cool, mostly lion but a human head, it had occurred to him that maybe it was something from some failed transformation attempt. The book didn't seem to agree, but they couldn't know everything. He wondered if Professor Marsh had an actual Sphinx here in class today, that would be amazing! He didn't see one though. Then the professor passed out some papers.
Billy blinked down at the paper. They were just answering riddles? Really? What fun was that? How was that supposed to help... oh wait. Somewhere in that reading the book had said that sphinxes could get violent if you didn't answer their questions right. Maybe the Professor was preparing them for meeting one, if not in class then in the real world. If he did meet one in his global wanderings, he would need to know how to outsmart one. How hard could that be though? Hmm.. he scratched his head at the first one before turning to her neighbor. "Hey, these are weird. You know what walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?" He paused just a moment before adding, "I don't think it's a gopher."
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Billy Cobb
Some sort of shy ghost?
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Quincy Wright
October 21, 2021 7:26 PM
That would be preferable. by Quincy Wright
Quincy was pretty much just laying low this year. He didn't want to go to the ball, he didn't want to hang out with a girl, he didn't want to do any of this stuff. It was stupid. Deidre would be her next year and she'd enjoy that stuff but he didn't. He hung out with Bertie a lot but there was only so much that even that could do for him because he was used to muggle school, where there were more kids in one grade than in the whole mansion here. It was just one of those phases where Quincy was feeling grumpy about his lot in life. Today's lesson seemed exciting until it turned out the riddles the professor passed out weren't even hard. These were the sort of things you'd find in the first few pages of riddle books, and Quincy had read a lot of puzzle books even before he'd met Bertie. He resisted the urge to make a groaning sound as one of his worst classmates spoke to him. This was going to be a long class period."Bipedal humanoids," he replied with a sigh, feeling grumpy. "Morning is when they're babies and they crawl, noon is when they're adults and they walk, and evening is when they're old and have a cane. It's stupid," he sighed again, more dramatically. "Why can't we talk about something interesting?" This was usually a class he liked a lot so he couldn't help glaring a bit in the professor's direction for picking the less interesting thing about sphinxes and then executing in a boring way too. "What's got a job and doesn't do it?" he grumbled.
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Quincy Wright
That would be preferable.
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Billy Cobb
October 22, 2021 5:19 PM
To what? by Billy Cobb
"Bipedal what?" Billy responded with just a touch of annoyance, looking even more confused. Why did some of these people have to use such weird words? How hard was it to just to say… whatever it was that he said, with normal words? Aladrens.Then Quincy went off on some tirade about these creatures growing old over the course of a day. He didn't think they'd run across any critter that only had a lifespan of a day. They used canes as well? Whatever those Bi-thing Humowhatzit creatures were, Billy was glad he wasn't one. Finally Quincy ended with something sensible at least.
"Yeah," he agreed while looking at the paper and it's weird questions. Still, he liked Professor Marsh and wanted to give the man the benefit of the doubt. "I'm hopin' this is just prep stuff so that when he does bring a sphinx in here in a say or two, we're all ready for it." He eyed up Quincy and figured he already knew the answer to his next question. "You read the book, right? Sounds like they can get awful mean if you get one of their riddles wrong. Maybe he just wants to make sure that don't happen."
As for Quincy's riddle, Billy thought for a moment. "A still when the gov'rment guys are around?" He ventured.
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Billy Cobb
To what?
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