Lesson 3 & 4: Unicorns Vs. Thestrals

[Dinah Mills]

Dinah led the class deep into the forest. After about fifteen minutes, she paused. She waited for the class to stop milling around in confusion before speaking.

Setting two large parcels on the ground she straightened up to face the class, "Today we will be discussing thestrals and unicorns. As always I have a couple of extra credit questions to get your brains moving and to get you involved in the class."

Dinah waved her wand and bright yellow letters appeared in the air.

Why can only some people see thestrals?

Whose touch does a unicorn prefer?

"Now while you students answer the questions, I will set out the meat in this clearing and set out the unicorn bait in the other clearing." Dinah swiftly bent down and laid the meat at the edge of the clearing the class was standing in. Picking up the other bundle she went and laid the sweet feed and honey over in the other clearing. Unicorns were attracted to sweetness.

[Moki Kagawa]

Moki was ecstatic. She loved unicorns. It was one of those things about having a Muggle parent. You grew up hearing "when I was your age, unicorns were mythical creatures," pretty much. So when her mother had first seen a unicorn at the age of 25, she was smitten forever. Moki loved the things because she'd always been around an enthusiast. She didn't know much about thestrals - they didn't interest her too amazingly much because she couldn't see the damn things. Yeah, it might be cool to pet something you couldn't see, sure, but to anyone who didn't know it was there you'd probably look a wee bit psycho stroking the air. Oh well. She supposed that was better than the alternative - she'd never watched anyone die, and didn't particularly want to. Oh. That was kind of the answer to Professor Mills' question about thestrals. She didn't know the answer to the unicorn one, though. Unicorns really seemed to like her, and her mom too, but she figured that was probably only because they were so uber-obsessed with the beasts. Who knew. That was what class was for, if you knew it all there'd be no reason to go.

[George Knox]

George finally decided to drag his butt to class after much procrastinating of weather he should go or not. Ravenclaw’s were supposed to be intelligent and enjoy class. George enjoyed class once he got there but the whole idea of getting up early kind of put him off. However it was time for Care Of Magical Creatures class which was his favourite class so that helped to spark some interest. Stepping out into grounds George made his way to the clearing. At least the weather was relatively nice and not too cold even if autumn and eventually winter were in a few months. All the weather was alright it wasn’t warm enough to wear just a shirt so George had slipped his school jumper on as well. It managed to keep him nice and warm as he walked down to the clearing. Reaching the clearing George noticed that the professor and Moki were there but there was no Maeve. George was lucky to have two of his good friends in his class it made things all that more enjoyable.

Standing next to Moki George walked as questions appeared in big yellow letters in the air while the professor went off to set some bait for both creatures. George had been unfortunate enough to experience death so he could see thestrals. His uncle who he had once been close to had died of some kind of disease. George had never been told what it was and if he was honest he didn’t really want to know seeing his uncle die was quite enough information as far as he was concerned. Looking at the questions George thought he knew the answer to both but he decided he would only answer one. Once the professor got back from setting the meat and bait George spoke up ”The answer to the second question is females, unicorns prefer the touch of a woman, I think” George had been lucky enough to see a unicorn once or twice and had managed to touch one. George had also seen thestrals a few times and had even fed them a couple of times.

[Moki Kagawa]

Moki's eyes widened at George's answer. Oh. Well, so that was why unicorns liked her. It was one of those bang-head-on-wall answers you thought you should have known all along. Good old George, leave it to him to solve the mysteries of life.

"Oh, yeah, and Professor, I think you can only see thestrals if you saw someone die. I haven't, but um, once some friend of my dad's showed my family one and I was really confused because I couldn't see it. So that's what they told me. It was really kind of morbid, actually." She giggled at her own long-windedness, shooting a smile at George. Go people who knew stuff. Where was Maeve today, anyway?

[Maeve Campbell]

Maeve stumble dinto the clearing. She'd taken a short cut and wound up right in Peeve's way when he decided to throw Dung Bombs. It had taken about twenty minutes of fast talking to escape the caretaker's clutches. Now she was late. Grumbling under her breath and wishing that Peeves would take a long walk off a short pier, Maeve had arrived at the clearing.

"Sorry, Miss. I got held up." Maeve hated excuses but it was true. The caretaker had quite literally lifted her up on accident when he grabbed her arm. It was tough being so small.

She had arrived just in time to listen to George and Moki give their answers. Figuring they were doing unicorns and thestrals Maeve piped up. "Thestrals used to be considered bad omens if oyu could see them right?" She figured she had to contribute somehtign instead of sitting like a lump.

Smiling at George and Moki, Maeve leaned over and whispered, "Is she mad I'm late? Peeves tried to get me in trouble for Dungbombs. I wouldn't have taken so long but I actually had a few on me so it was tough to wriggle out of that situation." Maeve flashed the two a grin before snapping her attention back to Dinah.

[Dinah Mills]

((Im extending this class another lesson so you guys can have fun with it...))

As the students answered her questions Dinah nodded. "That's correct George and Moki. five points to both Houses." Dinah was starting to get the hang of this teaching thing. She also felt that maybe she could even like the students she taught. Moki and George seemed to enjoy the magical creatures and Maeve was at least learning. More or less.

Speaking of Maeve she trotted into the clearing. Dinah shook her head but the little mite at least apologized. Deciding to forego punishment this time, Dinah figured it would be ebst to continue with the lesson.

"Ok class, I would like you to decide which creature to interact with and go to it's respective clearing." Turning Dinah pointed toward the clearings. One was filled with one gold and two white unicorns who were nibbling the sweet feed and looking anxiously toward George. The other clearing was brim full of black skeletal horses with wings tucked alongside their bodies, if you could see them at all that is.

Dinah approached George, "I'm sorry, George but you won't have a choice. You will need to approach the thestrals. If you were a first or second year you might have been able to approach but as you are getting older it would be difficult." Dinah smiled apologetically at him. Hopefully he wouldn't mind.

"Homework today is just to interact with these specimens and then write a paragraph giving the differences between them."

((HOMEWORK: post interacting with them and then PM or post with three differences between thestrals and unicorns. (color, appetities, and physical differences are fine. If your homework is included in your post please specify in an OOC posting))

[George Knox]

George nodded silently when Dinah mentioned that he would have to go to the thestrals. Interacting with the unicorns would have been nice but he understood why he couldn’t. It was probably a good thing that he could see the thestrals, as it would have otherwise been an incredibly boring lesson. When it was time to go George headed over to the thestrals would seemed quite happy eating the meat that had been provided for them. Although the skeletal horse like creatures looked a bit daunting George was quite happy in their presence. They were a little dazed by George’s approach at first but soon went back to eating the meat.

All the meat was nearly gone so George went over to the pile and brought across some more for them. George assumed they appreciated it as they looked up at him with their dark eyes before starting to eat again. Slowly approaching them even more George rested his hand gently on one of the thestrals neck hoping that he didn’t shock it. With his touch the thestral didn’t even flinch but George knew that it was aware that he was there. The feel of them was quite a lot different that George had imagined. He still wasn’t too keen on the feeling of the bones though it made him shudder a little as he ran his hand over the body of the thestral. The ribs were certainly the worst part as far as he was concerned.

Was it weird that George found the creatures beautiful? Actually he felt they were more magnificent that beautiful but you get the idea. Their appearance looked quite evil but their personality was quite the opposite. They seemed totally placid and weren’t bothered by George’s presence what so ever. If George hadn’t seen them look up he would have believed that they hadn’t seen him at all. Taking a seat a few metres away from the thestrals George pulled out some parchment and began his homework, which was to write down a few differences between unicorns and thestrals. Once he was finished George went back to interacting with the Thestrals.

[Homework has been PMed to you]

[Maeve Campbell]

Kicking her feet a bit as she sat on a stump, Maeve watched George walk away into a different clearing. she was definitely going to go see the unicorns. Maeve could see thestrals but honestly even though they were neat looking she didn't want to be reminded of why she could see the bloody things. As a young child she'd witnessed a horrible fight between two men, one had killed the other. Shaking her head to clear them of memories she instead concentrated on the here and now. She was good at that.

Looking over at Moki she wondered if she would be following her to the unicorns. "You coming, Moki?" Her brogue had thickened a wee bit and she smiled apologetically, hopefully the older girl could still understand her. Following the direction that the professor had pointed Maeve walked into the other clearing. She approached the foal carefully and quietly. She assumed it was a foal, her book had specified that foals were gold, then unicorns became silver and ifnally white when full grown.

Maeve stooped and picked up a handful of sugar cubes that lay on the ground. Approaching the creature quietly she held out her hand. The foal looked back at one of the unicorns as if asking permission. Turning it's head back to Maeve it lowered it's head and began nuzzling her hand to eat the sugar cubes. Maeve lifted her hand and began gently petting the creature. It was so beautiful! Finally finished with the sugar cubes the baby unicorn lifted it's head and lipped her ear before turning and joining it's parents again. Maeve stepped back in awe, filled with a kind of peaceful joy. She looked over to see how Moki was getting along with the unicorns.

[Moki Kagawa]

With a grin at Maeve directed towards the thick Irish brogue that she had begun to lapse back into, Moki quietly approached the unicorns. She knew they weren't real big fans of sudden movements; it was a sacrifice she had to make to play with her favorite animals. She gazed into the eyes of one of the creatures - a silver female. There was no distrust there, and she eagerly reached out a hand and stroked its head. The unicorn snorted, and Moki giggled. With a bright smile, she held out a sugar cube to the animal, which ate as though it was ravenous. Moki pretended to be surprised by the action. "Hungry?" she asked in Japanese; like Maeve, when she was not thinking about it, she would occasionally lapse into her first language. It was her experience that the unicorns didn't seem to mind, though; if anything, she thought they seemed a little more at ease with the flowy, soft-toned words. She spoke a little more to the silvery female, which bowed its head allowing Moki to scratch behind its ears, before becoming aware of eyes on her. She probably did seem a little strange... she looked back over her shoulder and met Maeve's gaze with a toothy smile. Shrugging, she commented, "Guess you're not the only one with a bit of a language barrier." The unicorn whinnied.