It's like Christmas all over again on Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Kijewski, Allie St. Martin, and Geoff L.

August 29, 2009 12:36 AM

Lesson 2 for Beginners (1st-3rd Years) by Professor Kijewski, Allie St. Martin, and Geoff L.

As always, Kiva waited patiently for her students to join her in the clearing. Today would be a different day all around for everyone and Kiva was rather happy about it. She didn’t really see the reason behind why some of the Seventh Years were teaching lessons for classes that had professors, but she could respect and appreciate the sort of learning experience that can be created for all those involved. So, when she was asked by the Headmistress if she had a class available with the younger years for some of the older students to teach, Kiva offered up her Beginner’s lesson without a second thought.

Waiting quietly until the last of the students to turn their attention to her, Kiva began with her usual smile, “Good Morning. Today is going to be rather different in terms of whom you’ll be receiving your lesson from.” Kiva gestured towards the two older students standing near her. “Allie St. Martin and Geoffrey Layne will be your Guest Professors for today. You will listen to what they tell you and be respectful to them.” Kiva warned.

“Before I give the class to them, I do have an announcement to make.” Kiva took a breath before continuing. “This year is my last year as your Care of Magical Creatures Professor. I will be leaving Sonora at the end of term to pursue other options that my expertise provides for me.” She didn’t expect anything more than perhaps looks of surprised, but she felt they should know instead of being surprised when they returned after summer. “I love teaching, but I’ve decided that it’s time to move on and discover new things about the world and myself. I’ll still be reachable if you need anything, but I felt letting you all know is something you all deserve to have.

“Okay, that all said, the stage is yours.” Kiva said, moving off and out of the way to allow Allie and Geoff their time as ‘professors’.

* * * *

After Professor Kijewski gave her introduction, Allie took a deep breath of her own and stepped up. As the one without the shiny badges of intimidation, she and Geoff had figured it would be better for her to speak first. Unfortunately, she was forgetting her script. "Hi, everyone," she said. "It's good to see you all today." An important fact came back to her. "We're going to continue from right where you were with Professor Kijewski, so you'll still be ready for your exams." She knew this was a matter of vital importance to most Aladrens, and not that few Crotali. "Which is why, today, we'll look at - "

She stepped aside as Geoff, with a slight flourish, pulled the cover off a trio of cages. Each held one small, winged humanoid creature. " - Fairies," Geoff finished for her. A laugh rose in her throat at the total seriousness he spoke with, but she pushed it down. The high-pitched buzzing she had been hearing from beneath the cover ceased; the little creatures had realized they were being watched.

"Fairies," he informed the group, "aren't quite what those of you who've read Muggle fairy tales might expect." Allie nodded before she thought; she'd never read 'fairy tales', but Geoff had sort of explained what they were to her. She had not asked, and he had not volunteered to tell her, how he had come to know such information himself. "They really just serve as decoration, and not much else except as food for Auguries."

Allie picked up the thread of the lesson. "Fairies like to quarrel, but if they're called on as ornaments, they'll be incredibly docile. They're very vain. Since they come in a few different wing patterns - when you look at these, then you can see that some have transparent wings and some have multicolored ones - and can glow, wizards will use them to decorate, say, Christmas trees or garlands." She smiled at a memory. "My mother's conjured them up for parties before at home. It's really lovely, if you've never seen it."

It was Geoff's turn again. She had a feeling he was rather enjoying this; it had taken a lot of rehearsing to get the timings right. "In the wild, you can find fairies in woods and glades. They lay eggs on the undersides of leaves, and spin cocoons six to ten days after they hatch. After that, they spend a month in the cocoons and emerge as adults."

Allie racked her mind for anything they'd forgotten, but it was a blank. Hopefully, that was because they'd covered all they needed to cover. "Since they're being watched, you can come closer to study them," she said. "Just to be sure that everyone's safe, though, you shouldn't poke your fingers in the cages or press your faces to the bars - give them their space. We have examples of a clear, red-and-gold, and blue-and-green winged species in these cages." She hesitated the briefest of moments before adding, "and feel free to ask us any questions you have." They had agreed it would work much better for her to liaise with the students. There were some times when it wasn't so comfortable to be unintimidating.

OOC: Remember the standard posting rules, and have fun with the lesson!

Subthreads:

It's like Christmas all over again by Edmond Carey with Allie St. Martin

It's like a class, but better... by Jose Hernandez (Pecari) with Pippa Brockert, Jose

A question....(of course) by Quentin Melcher with Geoff and Allie

0 Professor Kijewski, Allie St. Martin, and Geoff L. Lesson 2 for Beginners (1st-3rd Years) 0 Professor Kijewski, Allie St. Martin, and Geoff L. 1 5

Edmond Carey

September 01, 2009 2:49 PM

It's like Christmas all over again by Edmond Carey

Edmond's awareness of the seventh year teaching program had come, as most of his knowledge of the inner workings of the school did, from his sister. He wasn't entirely sure it had been for his benefit more than hers that he'd been informed of this - the interrogations about his classmates and their proficiency levels suggested it hadn't been - but that made the information no less valuable. He didn't like surprises, really, and knowing ahead of time that Morgaine's peers had been put in charge of teaching him and his meant he had the time he needed to get used to the idea.

He had no problem with Morgaine teaching him at all. She'd been tutoring him all year, demanding that he learn a lot faster than the syllabi said he should, and appeared to know more about magic off the top of her head than, he felt sure, he would ever learn. Her classmates, however, were an enigma. He had never had a conversation with any of them or seen his sister do so. Nor had she ever spoken to him about them - not really.

When she'd told him about the teaching thing, though, she'd pointed out her fellow 'instructors' to him. If not for the tutorial, he never would have recognized the dark girl with the Head Boy as he approached the Care of Magical Creatures class, or known that Allie was his cousin by marriage twice over. Since he did know these facts, though, he found a bit of ground at the front to sit on and studied her curiously. He saw Geoffrey and Professor Kijewski every day, but not a previously unknown semi-relative.

Professor Kijewski's introduction, however, made him shelve his curiosity to pay attention. What he heard wasn't at all to his liking.

Morgaine had told him that professors came and went. It was sort of a joke, really. This semester, however, was showing him the ropes of it, and he hadn't taken to them. Professor Holland had left over midterm, only to be replaced by their old Potions teacher, and now Professor Kijewski felt compelled to leave, too. Since he'd liked them both and had an even stronger dislike of change, he found the change and coming change to be upsetting.

When prompted to do so, however, he turned his attention to the two seventh years once more. To his surprise, Allie was the one to take the lead. As they spoke and he wrote down a lot more facts about fairies than he'd ever really expected to know, Edmond found his head moving back and forth in the direction of the upperclassman speaking as though he'd come for a game of swivenhodge. He was starting to become dizzy.

Before it got too bad, though, the lecture part ended and a standard come-to-the-front invitation was offered. Since it was the properly Aladren thing to do (he was working with a very strong impression that it was important to be properly Aladren-like at all times while on campus), Edmond took the seventh years up on that. As he looked between the preening fairies, a question occurred to him. "Do the types all come from different areas?" he asked.

0 Edmond Carey It's like Christmas all over again 143 Edmond Carey 0 5

Jose Hernandez (Pecari)

September 02, 2009 8:53 AM

It's like a class, but better... by Jose Hernandez (Pecari)

Jose liked Care of Magical Creatures. He liked Professor K. He was really sad to hear that she'd be leaving at the end of the year, but he reasoned that it wasn't really any different than any of his other school teachers to date. He'd never had any of them for more than a year either. Heck, at least this time he'd still be in the same school next year. That was more educational continuity than he'd ever had so far.

So he took the news of Professor K's leave-taking with a philosophical shrug and turned his attention to the seventh years with eager anticipation. This was going to be good, he could already tell. Probably not as good as the Charms and Transfiguration classes Saul had told Jose that he'd be handling later in the year, but good.

He was not disappointed. The way the two seventh years played off each other was almost perfect. Jose didn't have the attention deficit problems that afflicted many in his family, but even he found it a lot easier to keep his attention on the lesson when the speaker kept switching. Dialogue was inherently more interesting than a monologue, regardless of subject material.

He had to make an effort not to applaud at the end. This was, after all, a lesson, not a performance. It would probably make him seem weird - well, weirder; nobody who wore headbands and John Lennon glasses at a magic school had any right to claim normality - if he started clapping for teachers.

Instead, he opened his notebook and slapped down a few notes on what he'd just heard for future reference. Once those had been recorded, he put away his books and joined the rest of his class at the front. He was initially a little too far off to really see anything, but he wasn't afraid of having people in his personal space (including bodily contact), so people made room for him to preserve their own space as he wormed his way through the crowd toward the front.

Reaching a spot where he could get a look at the fairies, Jose gave them a thorough examination. They didn't look nearly as much like Tinkerbell as Disney would have them believe, but some other depictions he'd seen weren't far off.

He didn't really have any questions. They'd covered the subject pretty thoroughly as far as he could tell, and he had no intention of sounding like a dork by asking how much of the Peter Pan fairy lore was accurate. He was going to err on the side of intelligence and assume it was all wrong.

So once he'd gotten a good look at the three fairies, he slipped back out the same way he'd squirmed forward, so somebody else could have a chance to see.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he asked someone who also seemed to have finished looking, or perhaps was still waiting for an opening. In either case, they couldn't see anything from where they were.

0 Jose Hernandez (Pecari) It's like a class, but better... 0 Jose Hernandez (Pecari) 0 5

Quentin Melcher

September 03, 2009 4:49 PM

A question....(of course) by Quentin Melcher

The news about Professor Kijewski leaving did not disturb Quentin. For a second year, he'd been through an awful lot of staff changes and as the grandson of a school administrator, he had seen many prior to arriving at Sonora. She was a decent enough professor, but Quentin hadn't really formed much of an attachment to her. At this point, it seemed unwise to form attachments to any professor, (even though Professor Fawcett was still Quentin's favorite.)

He pondered what Professor Kijewski was telling them about the older students who would be teaching them today. She had said "you will listen to what they tell you and be respectful to them." Now, Quentin knew that "you" was plural, meaning the entire class and that "you will" was an order, but it just seemed odd to him that it was that way. "You" should be reserved for a singular case and something like "you all" (which sounded Southern, except then with the Southern accent it sounded more like "y'all") to mean everyone. Furthermore, "you will" as an order could be easily misconstrued as someone knowing what a particular person would do, which in this case would have been presumptuous as Professor Kijewski was not a Seer and could not read anyone's mind. In some cases, it might be more fair to assume that one would do the exact opposite. The way that phrase would make sense would be if she was speaking to one particular student (likely not a Pecari) that she knew would be listening and being respectful to the guest professors.

And that was further confusing to Quentin. These were not actual professors, they were seventh year students. But if they actually taught something, they would be professors too.

This got more confusing when they actually did impart knowledge onto Quentin and his classmates.

"and feel free to ask us any questions you have."

Oh boy! He could ask them any questions he had! Quentin loved when professors or student professors or people who claimed to be professors or any person he happened to come across made that offer to him.

The second year Aladren waited until his younger housemate was finished then walked up to Allie and asked, with utmost seriousness, "What really came first, the chicken or the egg?" This was an age old question that Quentin had been wondering for a long time. He'd asked many people throughout the years but nobody had ever given him a definitive answer, as they often seemed to think he was joking, but he wasn't. This was something Quentin had been wanting to know as far back as he could remember.

11 Quentin Melcher A question....(of course) 129 Quentin Melcher 0 5

Pippa Brockert

September 04, 2009 3:14 PM

Re: It's like a class, but better... by Pippa Brockert

Care of Magical Creatures was Pippa's absolute favorite class. She loved animals. Before midterm, they'd gotten to see unicorns and last year she'd gotten her puffskien. It still bothered her a little that she'd been one of the few to take one while everyone else took the pygmy puffs. Pippa wondered what had happened to the ones they hadn't taken.

She really hadn't liked Tawny's answer. It had, in fact, quite upset her. Pippa's reaction had, in turn, egged the younger girl on and Tawny had gone on to look for the uses of puffskien fur as a potions ingredient.

Today they were going to be learning from student teachers. Pippa couldn't help but feel intimidated by both of them but Geoff in particular. He was male and the Head Boy and they were both seventh years. Unlike some, Pippa was the type who rarely ever asked questions in class and was unlikely to ask them anything anyway.

Her face lit up when she found out they were going to be learning about fairies. Pippa knew they could be dangerous but they were beautiful . She walked up to them and took a look, then stepped back so others could have a turn.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

Pippa glanced over at the person who had spoken. She had some vague knowledge of this boy. He was a first year Pecari named Jose whom Tawny seemed to like. Jose was also the boy who had encouraged Nathaniel to let metal and sumac to touch during Potions causing an accident. She hadn't really liked that. It seemed so mean spirited but he'd seemed sorry after. She gave him a friendly smile, as Pippa didn't like to be rude and Jose could really be very nice after all. "Yes, they're just beautiful." She went on, "You're Jose right? I'm Pippa." She didn't know if he'd recognize her as being Tawny's sister or not. Pippa figured he should, if he was her sister's friend.

11 Pippa Brockert Re: It's like a class, but better... 132 Pippa Brockert 0 5

Jose

September 15, 2009 4:56 PM

Wow! That's exactly what I think, too! by Jose

Jose grinned at the girl, pleased she'd caught his name. Though, really, with the way potions and he got along, and the way he shared pretty much every class with the second years, it probably wasn't really all that surprising.

"Yeah," he agreed, "Jose. Good to meet you, Pippa." The name sounded vaguely familiar, like he should remember it from somewhere else, but it was escaping him at the moment. Someone's sister, probably. Tawny's maybe? She had an older sibling. Yeah, that sounded right. He was almost completely eighty percent sure. He really had to get better at remembering names.

Looking back up to the front where their classmates were still checking out the fairies, he said, "You ever see some of the fairy art some muggles make? Dude, some of them could be wizards, they get it so close." He shrugged and added with a grin, "And some are so wrong it's obvious they
never really saw one before."

0 Jose Wow! That's exactly what I think, too! 0 Jose 0 5

Geoff and Allie

September 20, 2009 10:34 PM

For some reason, we're not surprised. by Geoff and Allie

Though he’d originally had reservations about working with one of the St. Martin twins, Geoff had come to consider himself and Allie a good team. Nothing, of course, compared to him and Anne – until this year, they had almost known what the other was thinking – but enough to get on with. Over time, he’d even come to like her; she had a rare talent for striking a balance between being polite enough to reflect how she had been raised without being too stuffy about it.

At first, their first lesson had done nothing to alter Geoff’s opinion of their partnership. The lecture went off without a hitch, as did the approach of the students. For that reason, it was several minutes late to do anything about it when Geoff realized he had omitted to tell his co-teacher about one very, very important thing:

Quentin Melcher.

Most Aladrens, to one extent or another, were crazy. He could accept that; he was the guy who sometimes sat up until three in the morning working on Potions experiments, which – as much as he enjoyed it for himself – Geoff knew wasn’t exactly normal behavior. When a bunch of smart, analytical people spent most of their time together behind an enormous library for most of the year, there was just no way that an amount of oddity wasn’t going to result. Some, though, took it a bit too far, and Geoff considered Quentin one of those who did. He still didn’t know if the kid was trying and failing to mock impressions of nerds or if he was really that dumb, but either way, he was far from what Geoff would call a credit to the House, and he was currently on his way toward Allie.

There was nothing for it: he was going to have to rescue her. He was only a wannabe gentleman, but rescuing her wasn’t only a gentlemanly thing to do; it was just the right thing to do.

Allie had a quizzical half-smile on her face as Geoff came up to them; he supposed she was wondering if she’d heard the second year right. It was a fair wonder, because who asked that in class? Maybe philosophers had seriously debated it once, but these days, it was just a way to be obnoxious. “What?” she asked, sounding puzzled.

“The chicken,” Geoff said firmly. “Which itself fell out of the sky for no reason whatsoever.” He expected the sarcasm to be lost on his young Housemate, but Allie picked up on it and gave him a reproving look. He’d explain later; Quentin Melcher wasn’t a topic he planned to go into in front of a teacher or, well, Quentin Melcher. “What Miss Allie meant, though, was that you could ask any questions you had about fairies.” He gave Allie a meaningful look. “Wasn’t it, Allie?”

Allie looked startled, but nodded. “Yes. That’s what I meant.”

Geoff nodded as well. “So, do you have any questions about the topic we’re covering today, or is – “ he almost said ‘that all’ – “or not?”

16 Geoff and Allie For some reason, we're not surprised. 72 Geoff and Allie 0 5

Allie St. Martin

September 20, 2009 10:37 PM

Deck the halls with boughs of holly by Allie St. Martin

Allie had known, in a vague sort of way, her youngest step-cousin was going to be at Sonora this year. It had been years since she had seen him, but as she looked at the first student to ask a question, it hit her that said step-cousin was almost certainly the boy right in front of her. Apart from an unfortunate head of red hair, with the matching fair skin and green eyes, he was the image of her Uncle Alasdair.

Since she couldn’t be sure, though, and he probably had no memories of her at all, she decided to act as if she didn’t recognize him. All the cousinly bonds between the grandchildren and step-grandchildren of the St. Martin matriarch had begun to dissolve after Gwen didn’t come back from her first year anyway; the only ones Allie was even vaguely close to these days were Julian and Morgaine. She hadn’t even laid eyes on a few of the others in almost as long as she had Edmond.

“That’s a very good question,” she said with a smile. “They can vary by region, since color patterns are hereditary, but wizards creating them for decorations mean that the patterns aren’t fixed to an area. Green-and-blue can be introduced to a red-and-blue area and create a hybrid strain, though it’s that’s not common.” She hoped that was an adequate answer to his question, because she really didn’t know much more and didn’t want to display that in front of ~~Geoffrey~~ the students.

16 Allie St. Martin Deck the halls with boughs of holly 76 Allie St. Martin 0 5

Quentin

September 21, 2009 1:22 PM

I'd be worried if you were by Quentin

People often viewed Quentin as being completely out of his mind or as having a smart mouth. This was not true. He couldn't help it if English was goofy language that led people to not make things clear. It wasn't really the fault of the person who spoke either. It was just a complex language.

Unfortunately, Quentin didn't speak any other, and neither did most of the people he knew so they were left with the utter silliness of this one.

He waited as Allie pondered the answer. Perhaps she didn't know either. That was all right, she was a student and not an actual teacher.

“What?”

Quentin was about to repeat the question when Geoff came over and replied

“The chicken, which itself fell out of the sky for no reason whatsoever.”

Quentin nodded. "Thank you." He accepted the part about the chicken being first but not really the part about it falling out of the sky for no reason. First of all, if it simply fell out of the sky, the chicken would have splattered on the ground which would have left it unable to produce more chickens. Had it flew down, it would have made much more sense. Still, one thing was more clear and that was that the chicken came first. Probably some evolutionary thing like they were studying in History.

He was about to mention all this to Geoff when the older boy informed him that Allie had meant that they could ask questions about the fairies and asked him if he had any. Quentin pondered this before replying "Well, you covered the topic quite nicely but as I'm given the opportunity to learn even more," He was an Aladren after all, "Does a fairy's diet affect its color at all or is it simply a matter of genetics and hybrids?"

11 Quentin I'd be worried if you were 129 Quentin 0 5

Pippa

September 21, 2009 4:47 PM

I have the worst time thinking up titles by Pippa

Pippa smiled back. "It's nice to meet you too, Jose." She wished she knew what else to say. That had been part of her training in ettiquete, of course, but this was not a formal situation. Plus, Pippa had led a very sheltered life and never had much opportunity to actually speak to anyone. It made it hard for her to lead a conversation and Pippa didn't speak to many people here at school in part because of that.

The other part was being largely intimidated by a good number of her yearmates. Pippa really desired to have friends but it was kind of hard to make them.

Granted, Tawny was not going to be pleased if Pippa became friends with the boy she wanted to be friends with. As it was, she was currently glaring at her older sister but at the moment, Pippa was focused on Jose and trying to think of something to say to him. It was rude not to pay attention to the person you were in conversation with.

Fortunately, Jose brought up topic. That was better anyway. Unfortunately it wasn't something she could speak at great lengths about. Not that Pippa really liked speaking at great lengths. "I, um, have never seen any." She admitted. The Teppenpaw had never been exposed to anything remotely Muggle. "I mean the art. I've seen fairies before."

11 Pippa I have the worst time thinking up titles 132 Pippa 0 5