Lesson 1 for Intermediate (4th and 5th Years) on Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Kijewski

June 22, 2009 8:01 PM

Lesson 1 for Intermediate (4th and 5th Years) by Professor Kijewski

Kiva put the foal back out of sight for her next group of students. She was going to be giving this group more news than she had given the last and she really hoped they would be excited for the news. But, it seemed that the longer Kiva taught, the more obvious that what made her happy didn’t make teenagers happy. It was something she had accepted quite some time ago, much to her surprise.

It didn’t take long for her next class to arrive and Kiva found herself grinning at her Fourth and Fifth years. “Good morning class.” Kiva greeted, still grinning. “I hope you all had a very fun summer, but we must get back to work and prepare you all for your C.A.T.S. exam. I know, I know-“ Kiva commented against some of the groans heard by the students. “You all have been hearing quite a bit about these exams, but they really are important. This year will mainly be a review for the Fifth years, but we will also be covering new material.” She paused for a moment before continuing. Most of the students ought to know by now what was in store for them.

“This year is the Winged Horse Ranch Retreat and, I’m happy to announce, that we will be opening up this retreat for the fourth years as well.” Kiva glanced around at the students hoping that this news brought about some ounce of enjoyment. She wanted to know that she wasn’t wasting her time or energy with this, especially by extending the invitation to her younger students. “However, fourth years will have to get parental permission before you are allowed to go on the retreat. Your safety is what matters more than anything. So, send letters home and once I get approval, I will mark you on the list.”

She waited a moment for everyone who was actually excited about the future tip to settle in before she actually got on to the lesson. “Alright, settle down, we have to actually learn some things. Today we will be learning about Unicorns.” Kiva announced with a wide smile. “Unicorns are the purest creatures on Earth. Unicorn foals are pure gold. They turn silver when they're about two years old. They grow horns at around four. They are considered fully grown around seven years old, and turn pure white and have golden hooves. Now, it is said that they are so white that when compared to snow, the snow looks grey. Pretty white, right?” Kiva had seen Unicorns before on her travels and had always been taken aback by the beauty the Unicorns gave.

“Unicorn horns and tail hair are often used in potions or wands. How many of you have Unicorn hair as the core of your wand?” She nodded at those who raised their hands before continuing. “Unicorn blood is said to give a person immortality, but it would be at a price. Slaying of a Unicorn is a terrible crime. You will live if you taste the blood of a slain unicorn. But it would be a half-life, a cursed life. Meaning, your life would not be worth living in the long run.” She doubted any of her students actually ever intended to harm a Unicorn, but incase that thought ever did pop into their heads, she hoped her warning was enough to throw them away from such a crime.

“Now, I do not have a Unicorn adult with me, but I was able to obtain a Foal for us for the day.” Kiva advised her students. She walked out of the clearing for a moment and returned with a golden foal trailing behind her. “Unicorns, in general, are skittish around humans, and more so around males, but foals are more trusting and will allow humans of either gender to be in their presence. I want you each to count off to 4 and then whatever number you are that will be your group. In your group, I will call you up so that you can spend time with the foal. Ready?” Kiva asked, before pointing to a student. “You start.”

OOC: You guys can decide whatever number you wish to be. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves, but be sure to visit with the Foal as well. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Remember that your posting rules still apply. All posts should be at least 200 words with detail. Also, parents’ permission will be posted above for your characters to respond to.

Subthreads:

Holly Rating: Best Class EVER!!! by Holly Greer with Cecily Smythe

Speechlessness. by Grayson Wright

0 Professor Kijewski Lesson 1 for Intermediate (4th and 5th Years) 0 Professor Kijewski 1 5

Holly Greer

June 24, 2009 10:01 AM

Holly Rating: Best Class EVER!!! by Holly Greer

Danny mocked her. First, he'd gotten a pygmy puff and she wouldn't have if he hadn't pawned his off on her. (Princess Aurora was safely housed in Holly's Pecari room in the large castle Daddy had gotten for the precious little bundle of purple fur to live in.) Then, today, Danny had caught her in the halls and told her that he'd gotten to see and touch a unicorn foal earlier. She'd been nearly green with envy, assuming that the same lesson for the first and second years would not be taught to the older students.

She arrived at the classroom clearing in a bad mood. She sat down on a stump and crossed her arms in a huff. Professor Kijewski hated her. That had to be it. Danny got all the cool lessons, while she was stuck with awful jarveys and completely uncuddly (and yet oddly beautiful) fire crabs. Not to mention, the Horse Ranch was closed to her for no good reason that she could see, even though she'd asked nicely, done a lot of extra research, and her father would have totally said she could go.

So she sat on her stump and sulked until class began. Who knew what kind of monster she'd be subjected to today when she knew there was a unicorn foal on the school grounds.

As Professor Kijewski called for their attention, Holly looked up, attentive but still unwilling to forgive the atrocity that was about to be inflicted on her. Her cross disposition only magnified as they were told - again - how important these CATS things were, and she huffed under breath as she was further taunted by mention of the Horse Ranch retreat. The woman hated her, hated her, else she wouldn't rub that in her face like that.

But then she said something Holly wasn't expecting. Holly sat up, her eyes widening, her spirits lifting, and she couldn't hold back a joyful and entirely unladylike whoop. She beamed, nearly glowing, and forgave the lack of a unicorn in today's lesson. She could go to the ranch! She could go to the ranch! Daddy would write the permission slip. Mom would be so happy for her. She was going to see winged horses!

She nearly bounced in place, excitement and happiness coursing through veins. She was going to go the horse ranch! The horse ranch! She looked over at Cecily, who she knew also loved horsed and beamed at her.

She very nearly missed the part where Professor Kijewski started talking about unicorns. Fortunately, she was attuned to the word, so her attention came careening back to the topic at hand: Unicorns! She squeaked in delight, only barely managing to hold back another loud whoop.

Transfixed, she memorized every word Professor Kijewski said about them, and then held her breath as the little golden foal came out for them to see. It was adorable.

"One," she counted off in breathless awe, barely audible.

She walked up to the foal, following all the ingrained rules she knew about approaching equines in general, and reached out carefully to stroke the soft mane, so much smoother than Wendy's coarse hair. "You're gorgeous," she whispered, desperately in love with the magical creature.

1 Holly Greer Holly Rating: Best Class EVER!!! 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Grayson Wright

July 08, 2009 8:12 PM

Speechlessness. by Grayson Wright

Gray had never enjoyed being outdoors. Until Anne, who had all of his missing energy as well as a full measure of her own, had moved in and figured out which buttons to push to get him to go out with her, Gray had spent entire weeks of his childhood entirely inside. Even now, anyone who wanted to find him would do well to search Aladren first, as that was where he was most frequently to be found. If he wanted an adventure, he read about one. He didn't go screw up his sinuses tromping around the Gardens in search of disaster.

In spite of all this, however, he had always counted Care of Magical Creatures as one of his favorite classes. He'd never like the outdoors part, but the actual substance of the subject was fascinating to Gray. Plus, a good bit was also good material. If his talent ever became better than that of a precocious and moderately imaginative six-year-old, he could potentially do something with this. So each week, he took his allergy potion and went to the clearing classes were held in without complaint.

He did wish, though, that fifth years could have a class to themselves, because he was starting to feel panicky when he heard about their CATS. He was supposed to have half a year left before he started feeling the need to get up at two in the morning to study first-year Charms notes, and he didn't appreciate having those precious six months taken away from him.

Professor Kijewski's next announcement wasn't much better, because it provided Gray with a major conflict.

A year ago, the answer would have been clear-cut. He would have written to his mother, who would have written back to let Professor Kijewski know she was not about to allow her only child anywhere near something that flew and which the professor expected him to ride. Now, however, he knew that blaming things on overprotective parents would be lame and didn't know exactly what his feelings on the actual matter of going or not going were. Doing one stupid thing - being on the Quidditch team - was quite enough for one year, but what would it look like for an Aladren to not do something everyone else could?

Of course, having thoughts like that made him think he was losing his mind. He had never been outdoorsy in his entire life, and just because he couldn't sort out what he really thought of anything anymore did not mean it would be smart to start throwing central tenets of his self-definition to the dogs.

So preoccupied was Gray with this crisis that he almost let the lesson pass him by. His eyes snapped back to the front, intrigued, once he heard something about snow looking gray, and he didn't look away again after he figured out what was going on. They always had an example of the animal they had under study in class, which implied...

Not implied. Meant. Unless his ears and his glasses were in one accord about tricking him today, Kijewski had located a unicorn and brought it to class. Gray was officially rather impressed. And mildly stunned.

Normally, he could come up with some story to spin about a creature. He also had a habit of naming them, regardless of whether or not someone else had already done that. Now, he was just sort of awestruck. This was above his meager talent with words.

"Two," he said when the count got to him and rather wishing he had stood just a little further to the right. If he had, he would have been in group one, which got first access for the day. As it was, he got to wait, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. He didn't even know why he was so eager to interact with the unicorn, but he was.

For this reason, he did something he almost never did after group one moved away and lead the way of something. Once in the unicorn's immediate vicinity, Gray could do nothing but stare. "Oh, wow," he muttered. "Oh, wow." How was he supposed to write home about this?

16 Grayson Wright Speechlessness. 113 Grayson Wright 0 5

Cecily Smythe

July 11, 2009 3:06 PM

Whoop! Whoop! by Cecily Smythe

Although Cecily's favourite class had never yet failed to impress or amuse her, she was starting to yearn for some of the more beautiful creatures the textbook had been promising. It seemed as though magical creatures were becoming increasingly ugly and pointless. So it was that Cecily wasn't quite as close to the front as usual for the care of magical creatures class. In fact, there might have been a whole four people closer to the professor. Cecily took out her notebook and quill, waiting to take notes on whatever disgusting creature would be presented today.

Yet no creature was forthcoming. Instead professor Kijewski made a delightful, wonderful announcement! Fourth years were allowed to go to the horse ranch! Cecily sought out Holly, and shared her friend's beaming smile. This was fabulous!

Oh wait, it got better. Today wasn't a disgusting creature after all. It was unicorns! Cecily would barely contain herself. Breathless, she paid little attention to what number the professor gave her, and immediately rushed along with the 'number one' group to the unicorns. After reaching out to stroke the beautiful beast's nose, Cecily smiled widely at Holly, both girls in equal rapture. "This is wonderful," she said in a hushed voice. "And we get to see flying horses!"

0 Cecily Smythe Whoop! Whoop! 122 Cecily Smythe 0 5