Lesson One - Creature Lore

[Dinah Mills]

Thank goodness it had finally stopped raining. Ahh she'd thought too soon. Small drops still fell on her head. Looking up, Dinah realized that it was merely the moisture falling from the trees' leaves. Shaking her head, she didn't want to be in comfort while the kids were soaking. However, if they wished to learn about magical creatures they'd better get used to misery fast. So she decided to join them in misery. She dispelled the water repulsion charm she had on herself, shivering a little when a drop of water slid down her neck.

She hoped some kids would show up pretty quickly. No one had yet signed up for the class but it hadn't been until the feast that any had known Care of Magical Creatures was continuing.

The afternoon sun broke weakly through the clouds illuminating the clearing where Dinah was to hold her classes. Small portable corrals were laying against the trees, she wouldn't need them this lesson. She checked the boxes behind her to make sure the creatures inside were fine. She wasn't doing anything dangerous for the first lesson. That would have to wait until she'd worked out all the kinks with her newest experiment. Maybe later in the year.

Some students began trickling in. Standing up from the boxes where she had been inspecting them, Dinah brushed off her robes.

"Good afternoon, class." Dinah smiled at them all before continuing. "I'm fairly new here. At teaching anyways. I'm Professor Dinah Mills."

She strode forward with her long legs, her dark hair and robes swirling with her stride. Once she stood in front of the assembled students she spoke again, "Today we are going to keep it simple until I know what you know. First we'll do introductions and then," She paused to scoop something from her box. "We'll study these."

She held the struggling creature gently. It was skinny and seemed to be made of bark and twigs. The two long skinny fingers on each of it's hands looked sharp and as if they could do some damage. It's brown eyes looked up at Dinah out of it's flat face. Seeming to recognize her, the creature settled down in the crook of her arm.

"Now, can any of you identify this creature?" she asked the assembled students.

((I will post the homework after a few students have joined and posted intros and answers.))

[Maeve Campbell]

Care of Magical Creatures at last! Maeve skipped out to the clearing that had been indicated on the post. It was wet still but finally starting to clear a tiny bit. The sun had broken out shooting rays of sunlight randomly around the grounds. One highlighted the small eleven year old and she grinned happily still skipping. It was so much fun going to a magical school. So far she had met so many people and had quite a bit of fun.

Oooh! She started running toward the clearing now. It was uber close to the Forbidden Forest! Maybe they would get to go in there! Maeve slid into the clearing her red curls bouncing around her back and came to a stop. Since Maeve was such an outgoing person she decided to go first on introducing herself. Thoguh she had no idea what the strange creature was. It looked like nothing more than a little stick man. Raising her hand she thought of the unopened textbook in her bag. Maybe if she'd read it she would know what the creature was.

"Yes, ma'am. My name is Maeve Campbell." Maeve spoke hesitantly. She was after all in hte woman's Herbology class as well. "I have no clue what that thing might be. A tree pooka maybe?" Maeve shrugged and stepped back into the small group of students. Maybe someone else could answer the question.

((I am going to be fair and won't ever have my own student char answer my questions...b/c Dinah gives ten points to the first person with the correct answers.)) EDIT: changed my point rules to match with the book better.

[George Knox]

George was slowly starting to get used to the idea of getting back to class. He still wasn’t too pleased with the idea but it was the whole point of attending Hogwarts. It was lucky he had taken classes he enjoyed or sitting through them would be complete torture. It had been quite a push to get out of bed that day but George had managed it and could enjoy a leisurely stroll out into the grounds while trying to locate the area where Care Of Magical Creatures was taking place. Looking out the window George was displeasured by the sight he saw, rain. Rain was fun but not while you walked to class. It wasn’t fun attending class while soaking wet.

Slipping a hoody on George pulled the hood up onto his head in hope that it would help to keep him relatively dry. He’d much rather stay in his dorm in the warm and dry but unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen. At least the lesson was about magical creatures something George was quite familiar with. Hopefully the first COMC lesson wouldn’t spoil the rest of the term for him. The chances were slim but you never knew.

As George stepped out into the grounds he realised that the rain had stopped what lucky timing he had. Reaching the clearing George noticed somebody who he guessed what the professor and Maeve. He seemed to be seeing her around quite a lot lately soon he would be branding her his little stalker. Of course she couldn’t help that they had a few classes together but nicknames were always fun. Taking his place next to Maeve George lowered his hood. Listening to the professor George found out that they were going to be doing introductions just like he had expected. He and Maeve already knew each other but if they had to do introductions then they had to do introductions, simple as.

However before they did their introductions it seemed that they would have to identify a creature. George had never seen that creature up close before but was sure that he had read about it somewhere. George reading was quite a miracle you should all be proud. George stood quiet for a moment contemplating whether or not he should answer. Eventually he decided ”Um professor? Isn’t that a bowtruckle?” His guess was probably wrong but it was worth a try and better than continuing his silence.

[Dinah Mills]

The younger student had no idea what the creature was and Dinah shook her head in disappointment. Some kids never took the time to read the textbook. Of course, it was a Gryffindor. Some of them always thought that they could get away with brawn and no brains.

Dinah looked at the ohter student who had shown up to her class. Ahh, a Ravenclaw. Her old House. Not that she had much House loyalty but she had dim hopes that this boy would actually show some intelligence.

”Um professor? Isn’t that a bowtruckle?”

Dinah bestowed a rare smile on the boy. He was a handsome fellow but apparently he had brains too not just beauty. Rare, that. A fifth year if she remembered correctly from her roster. "Correct...ten points to Ravenclaw."

Settling the little creature down on a handy tree stump she turned to face the students again. "Class today will be fairly easy and I hope you find it fun." The words came out smoothly since personally she felt that learning was fun and exciting. Which is probably why she never could keep a relationship for long.

Handing out a sheet of parchment to her students she continued, "All you need to do for class today is introduce yourself. Then draw a picture of your bowtruckle and turn it in by next class."

Figuring this was easy enough, she returned to the stump and picked up her bowtruckle. She handed this one to George and gave Maeve one out of the box.

HOMEWORK MUNDANE TERMS: first draw a picture using any medium you want and upload it onto a site. Post your char drawing the picture and include the drawing in your post. Preferably so everyone can see it but you can just link it if you want. 10 points to everyone who completes the homework.

[Maeve Campbell]

Maeve noticed George entering the classroom and nodded at him. She didn't want to take her attention away from the funny little pooka sitting in the professor's arms though.

As he got the correct answer Maeve silently groaned. That is so not fair!

Maeve really wanted to earn house points though. She could maybe be the first person in her house to earn points this term! Woot! She blithely disregarded the fact that mos tof her actions were bound and determined to cause her to lose points.

As Dinah explained what they would be doing Maeve felt really confused. She had already introduced herself but didn't want to mess up this early in the term. That would be later probably. So Maeve stepped forward to receive her bowtruckle and said once more for the benefit of the teacher, since all the students knew her. "Maeve Campbell, Gryffindor." She smiled hopefully at the slightly cool face of her professor hoping to elicit a smile.

Not getting a smile, Maeve shrugged and took the box over by a tree stump. She was hoping to complete her assignment here so she didn't have homework to do over the weekend. Sitting crosslegged Maeve took her parchment and some markers out of her bag. Carefully removing the bowtruckle from the box she grinned. This little guy was certainly cute. As he dug his sharp talon-like fingers into the tree stump she rethought her idea about cute. Maybe add a little dangerous into that as well. He seemed to be ignoring her and eating wood lice out of the tree stump.

She decided to get a move on with her drawing so she could get it done before the end of class. Carefully looking him over she realized he only had two fingers and extremely dark brown eyes. As she continued to draw she found it really hard to concentrate as the creature kept moving back and forth. Not to mention his eating habits were distracting. Giving a finishing touch to her simple drawing she took it up to Dinah with the bowtruckle safely stowed back in his box. Hopefully, this would be all right.

After handing in her homework she looked around to see what the other students were doing.

[George Knox]

The sharp fingers really didn’t look appealing the tree like creature looked like it could maul your eyes out within seconds. It seemed quite happy to sit in the professor’s arms quietly so George felt a little better about it even if his hands did look almighty sharp. He felt even better about it when a small smile appeared on the professor’s face. His guess that the creature was a bowtruckle had been correct after all. George needed to stop doubting himself so much probably something to do with that smart-ass brother of his. ”Thanks” George said in response to the ten house points he had been given.

Taking the sheet of parchment from the professor George was a little unsure what it was for but that would obviously be explained in a minute. They were going to be drawing their bowtruckle? Soon enough the professor had handed George the bowtruckle she had previously been holding. His eyes went straight to those sharp fingers again but soon forgot about it once he began to introduce himself. ”George Knox, Ravenclaw” Now that his introductions was all done George got down to the business of drawing.

George wasn’t the best drawer in the world but if he managed to drew something that slightly resembled a bowtruckle then he would be happy. Looking at the bowtruckle that was sat in his arm George decided that it wouldn’t be too hard to draw. After all it did only look like some pieces of wood with leaves, basically a tree. George started from the head and then drew the shoulders, the arms with their sharp point thingamabobs and then the rest of his body. Adding a pair of strange shaped feet George moved his pencil back up to the head and drew the branches and leaves that were coming from his head.

Noticing Maeve’s bowtruckle digging his sharp claws into the tree George certainly wasn’t impressed. Hopefully the bowtruckle sat in the crook of his arm wouldn’t do the same to him. That would be verrry painful and it was a pain George didn’t want to experience. Taking out some coloured pencils from his bag George coloured the whole thing brown and then using a dark green pencil he coloured the leaves. Taking his parchment with him George returned the bowtruckle to his box and handed his finished drawing to the professor.

[Moki Kagawa]

Moki was late. Mostly because... she had only decided to sign up for Care of Magical Creatures that morning. She felt a little stupid about that, but she'd had to go get the books and stuff and that took awhile. Oh well. The professor had seemed forgiving when she'd signed up late, so hopefully her butt wouldn't be on the line when she got to class. As she made her way into the classroom, the other students - there were only two, that was curious - were turning in what looked like drawings of sticks with eyes. She noticed little stick-like creatures on the desks and realized they must have been the inspiration for this lovely artistry. She looked at Professor Mills with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, Professor," she said. "I was getting this book..." Damn, she hoped she wouldn't get detention. Those were only fun when she'd done something to deserve them. Otherwise the other kids in detention picked on her 'cause they knew she didn't belong there and didn't appreciate her trouble-loving spirit. Blarg.

[Dinah Mills]

Dinah looked up in disapproval when her nicely smooth running class got disrupted. Her face was cold as she silently digested the fact of who this girl was. After a long few moments the light dawned and she remembered the note she had on her roster. Lifting the roster she read the note, still not acknowledging the girl.

After silently reading the note she looked up. "Yes, sorry. Almost forgot you signed up this morning. No problem, If you would like to take a bowtruckle I will explain the homework to you." Dinah gestured at one of the bowtruckles sitting next to her. She lifted it and offered it to Moki.

"The homework is fairly simple. We are studying bowtruckles and turning our drawings of them."

Turning to the rest of the class she decided to give a brief lecture about bowtruckles for the new girl's information and also for the first year who had thought they were pookas. Leaving Moki to her side Dinah couldn't tell if she had gone and sat down or not.

"Bowtruckles are winsome little creatures. Yet they are fiercesome fighters when it comes to the defense of their trees. Most live in wand quality trees. They eat the wood lice out of said trees providing a nice symbiotic relationship. Once everyone is done with their pictures just bring them up to me and you are free to leave." Dinah bestowed a smile on her bowtruckle that practically transformed her whole demeanor. She even slipped enough for the smile to transfer onto the students as she looked up.