Professor Rowan Dakin

April 22, 2010 10:54 PM
Professor Rowan Dakin stood by the door of a large stone building by where she usually met her students. For one of first times that she could remember it was down pouring in Arizona. She waved her first and second years over to the classroom. Once everyone was gathered, she led them in. This was the first time either year had stepped foot into the building, she had only used it once with her intermediate students. The once Dragon Keeper wore a pair of black jeans and a forest green t-shirt that showed off the many scars she had received from the dragons over the years.

“Robes off ladies and gents.” The Dark haired woman said. “Welcome back my second years glad to see you survived the summer. For my first years welcome to Care of Magical Creatures class, I am your Professor Rowan Dakin.” She paused for a moment allowing everyone to settle down.

“Just a few ground rules for my first years and second years it never hurts to be reminded. You will always take your robes off when coming to my class, no dangling jewelry or shiny things. Long hair must be tied back. Do not hurt my animals or you’ll be serving month long detentions.” She nodded for a moment glad that part was over. “Now that the serious part is over let’s have some fun!”

She walked over to the chalk board and tapped it and magically the word, Billywigs appeared. “That’s right my kids we are studying Billywigs today.” She paused looking to see if anyone reacted. “Billywigs are insects native to Australia and are rated Triple X. They are around half an inch long and vivid sapphire blue.” She said as she help up a glass box with one in it. “They have wings attached to the top of their head. They rotate the wings extremely fast allowing the Billywig to fly.”

She paused as she walked around the classroom allowing everyone to see the bug up close. “The Billywig is among the fastest animals on the planet. This causes them to be rarely noticed by Muggles, and witches and wizards usually only spot it after they have been stung.” She grinned when she said stung.

“Now this is the coolest thing about the billywig. One sting from the billywig causes the person stung to suffer giddiness, followed by levitation. Can you see why they have a triple X rating?” She laughed for a moment. “Too many stings can cause the victim to hover uncontrollably for days, rarely victims will suffer from an allergic reaction and permanent floating may ensue.”

She paused again ready to shock her students. “Today we are going to allow ourselves to be stung. I have antidotes just in case anyone has too many stings or an allergic reaction. Now once you are floating up in the air your going to be the happiest you’ve ever been but I want you to try and think about the ground. The more you think about the ground the faster you’ll come down.”

“Now lets make this a game so the first one to come down gets to keep Billy the Billywig.” She said and set out a large stuffed billywig that if you pressed his wings it flew into the air. She had founded it at the Billywig market and thought the first and second years would think it was cool better then a teddy bear at least in Rowan’s mind. “The second one to come down gets to keep this.” This time she pulled out a plastic whine up toy. If someone twisted the wings on the head of the Billywig it shot into the air giggling. “The third person to come down gets a billywig bag. And everyone gets a billywig quill with sapphire ink.”

She waved her wand and boxes of billywigs appeared on the tables in front of the students. “Now these are charmed boxes they can tell who’s already been stung therefore no one can get stung more then once and the billywigs cannot escape. So what are you waiting for reach right in and get stung!”

OCC: Ok guys let’s have some fun! Minimum posting length the more you post the more points you get for your house! Allergic reactions are few and far between so if you feel like your student does have one tag me.
Subthreads:
0 Professor Rowan Dakin Beginner Lesson (Years 1&2) 0 Professor Rowan Dakin 1 5

Marian Parker (Aladren)

April 24, 2010 6:14 PM
It was raining outside, and Marian was disappointed in herself for not being able to work out the spell to conjure items on her own yet. She made do with using a teal umbrella outside, though she felt a little silly having one when everyone else seemed fine with letting themselves get soaked to the bone. In the classroom, she felt even sillier trying to fold it up on her own as she took off her robes as quickly as possible (she felt like she was undressing in front of everyone and was extremely uncomfortable about it). She neatly folded her robes into her gray bookbag and smoothed out any wrinkles in her light blue summer dress.

She took diligent notes in what the Professor said, though she had already read briefly about Billywigs and already didn’t like them. Not only was it an insect, but it was one that left people with plenty of horror stories. She almost fell out of her seat when the Professor wanted them to get stung. She was pretty sure if her teachers in a muggle school ever held a lesson like this, child labor las and suing would come into the picture fast.

She nervously pulled her curly golden hair out of her face as the students went to get stung. She watched with her large glacial blue eyes watering, already scared of any pain she’d feel after getting pricked. She liked taking notes so much more. And she really didn’t want to have any sort of allergic reaction…

Marian was already telling herself to keep the ground in mind as she tucked her arm in the tanked and recoiled it when she was stung. She shuffled on her feet waiting for something when the strangest thing happened, she felt good. She giggled a bit then uncontrollably as she rose up in the air. She barely paid attention to her dress, but when she remembered she was wearing one she laughed. Hope no one is under me, she thought. Not that she had to worry since she was barely hovering a foot, the wild child. She was so giddy she didn’t notice she bumped into a body. She swirled around and put a hand to her lips. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. But while every other moment she’d be struck quiet with nerves and shyness she was all radiant smiles and outgoing streaks. How odd. “Are you alright?”
41 Marian Parker (Aladren) Feeling the sting 1402 Marian Parker (Aladren) 0 5


Jane Carey

April 24, 2010 7:07 PM
In her novels, girls caught in the rain ran a lot, laughing as they did, with their friends toward the nearest shelter, but since Mother didn't consider that kind of behavior very dignified, Jane had to settle for walking quickly and doing her best to keep her hems from getting soaked. She'd be far more comfortable with them wet than her socks, but that was irrelevant. Wet hems did not look good, and Jane had a very large family to represent to the best of her ability. Carey family mystique didn't concern her much, but not making her parents and Edmond cross with her did.

In theory, Jane knew that boys were supposed to be the ones who were educated and assertive while girls were pretty and submissive, but she'd never fully worked out how to go from theory to practice. Even her parents weren't sure how she'd gone from 'learning from Edmond's tutors' to 'learning what Edmond learned from Edmond's tutors,' but by the time she'd realized she shouldn't, the damage had been done: she could hardly set a table or embroider a sparrow to save her life, but knew almost as much as her brother about most things he had to learn as the future patriarch of the Savannah Careys and was actually better than him at mathematics. Edmond did not seem to mind, but Jane's mother insisted that it wasn't ladylike behavior.

Jane didn't like ladylike behavior. It didn't seem fair to her that Edmond, who seemed happiest when things were very consistent and dull, could do whatever he wanted with life until his father died while she had to get married as soon as possible and spend the rest of her life laying a beautiful table. She wasn't as smart as Edmond in wizardly things, but she was even worse at being a proper witch, so why couldn't she do things she was at least a bit good at?

A rhetorical question, of course. The answer was that doing so wasn't proper.

Once she was inside the stone building, Jane took off her rain cloak and blinked, shocked, at the order to take off her robes. That wasn't....that wasn't decent! She thought she remembered Edmond telling her the professor was 'most immodest' in that way, but she had thought it was a joke. Edmond's sense of humor did usually manage to be a little better than that, but...Oh, dear, now she was in a lot of trouble, because if she didn't do what the teacher said then she'd get detention and if she did and the news made it home, her mother would never let her head the end of it. She might even make Edmond tell her off while they were still here. Since Mother was a more remote evil than the professor, though, Jane reluctantly took her robe off and folded it neatly, trying to cover as much of her arms as she could with her hands.

She had never heard of Billywigs, but Jane had, on a few occasions, been giddy, and she knew it wasn't dignified. Mother told her off severely when she got in that state. Ladies were to be in perfect control at all times, so it was easier for them to notice what the men needed and do that to make things run smoothly. Again, though, she had little choice but to consider that Professor Dakin would notice her disobeying orders before Mother noticed she'd followed them, so she stuck her hand in the box.

There was a sharp pain in her index finger, not much worse than getting a splinter in when she turned too fast around a chair at home, and then she started to giggle. It took a moment longer for her to begin laughing out loud.

She managed to cut that off when she bumped into someone in midair, but it was only a few seconds before she started to giggle again. She had to get herself in hand, Mother was going to be so cross with her..."Oh, yes," she said. "I wasn't hurt at all." She was forgetting something...She had to do....Oh, yes. "I'm Jane Care - oh, I'm sorry, I can't - I just can't stop laughing! I'm Jane Carey, of the Virginia Careys."
0 Jane Carey It's not so bad, is it? 160 Jane Carey 0 5


Marian

April 25, 2010 7:30 PM
When the girl said she hadn’t been hurt, it was like she granted Marian permission to go into a fit of giggles. Oh, how silly was she to assume a little tap would leave anyone injured? It was completely ridiculous! But even in the giddy state she found being confused was as bad as it was pre-Billywig bite. Marian apparently never liked to be at a loss over anything, be it she’s giddy or normal.

The fact the girl introduced herself wasn’t weird, even through the laughter she had a harder time controlling than Marian it seemed. What was confusing was why she said the state she was from. Was that something wizards did? But… but none on the people she met had done that. Maybe it was because she was so silly, she said something silly?

Of course, that was it. And why was Marian thinking so much about it anyway? It didn’t matter! All that mattered was the floating and the great feeling that came with it.

So, being polite, Marian nodded back to her and laughed at her silly over thinking. She bowed slightly, feeling it was necessary for some reason. The girl had this vibe of royalty about her – it was all so very weird, but she’d play along. “Pleasure to meet you!” she laughed, putting a hand over her mouth like her mother had always told her to do. “My name is Marian Parker, of the Massachusetts Parkers, though some of my family lives in Ohio, but they’re from my mother’s side.” Really, this was such a silly way to introduce herself, but for the meantime she’d have fun with it. At least before she got her wits back. Speaking of wits…

Ground, she thought to herself, remembering in the mist of her giddiness that’s what she should be thinking. Hopefully her thoughts would work this time…
0 Marian It's great for the time-being 0 Marian 0 5


Jane

April 28, 2010 7:41 PM
"It's a great pleasure to meet you!" Jane said happily once Marian Parker, of the Massachusetts Parkers, had introduced herself. Not having to deal with the awkward issue of blood added real happiness on top of the venom-induced euphorias, since non-purebloods weren't Families and therefore did not use branch titles - or so her etiquette tutors said. Marian had realized that mothers' families weren't very important, too; Jane barely knew any of her mother's relatives because they weren't Careys. "My family's very spread out - there's five kinds of us, you know."

Family history fascinated Jane. She knew all of the names - even the women's - by heart, and many of the stories. She'd often been corrected for starting to talk about the ones on which she'd stumbled at the dinner table; Edmond, after his first year and a half at school, had told her they did that because lots of people didn't like the Careys and would see her talking about their history as a threat. Admittedly, an incredible number of the stories - especially the ones from his branch - involved blood, but still, wasn't that how all families were to some level?

Of course, she was also sure that most families didn't have five schisms in less than two hundred years...or try to act the confederation after they had grown into five medium-to-large independent families. The Careys were a little unique in that way. It was part of what made them interesting.

"Edmond's going to tell me off for this," she said, and it crossed her mind that she should sound less happy about it than she did. "But I don't really care right now. He's not much fun now. Maybe I should trick him into coming down to this building and let him use the Billywigs some of us - " she pointed vaguely toward the protestors - "won't. But he is very tall, so he might hit the ceiling, especially if a thing goes wrong and he gets stung too much. Wouldn't that be awful? To hit the ceiling while you're happy?"
0 Jane Let's just hope it isn't terrible later. 0 Jane 0 5


Marian

April 29, 2010 4:50 PM
It was great to be floating around with Jane-from-Virginia-Carey. She seemed perfectly nice, which is a trait anyone would like to find in someone they were in the air next to. It made her happier, and she spun around with a smile. She’d always wanted to spin, but never had ballerina grace, but now was the perfect time to do it. She felt just like a real dancer.

A nagging voice insisting she start trying to go to the ground made her stop. It also made her pay more attention to Jane than to her twirls. “Edmond’s going to tell me off for this,” she told Marian, a chipper sound to her voice that made Marian wonder why it was a good thing to be told off by anyone. More importantly, “Who’s Edmond?” Marian didn’t know enough people for her to be throwing names around! The stress of not knowing something made her giddiness wean and she practically felt herself drop an inch or two.

Jane seemed to not have heard her question since she kept talking. Then Jane pointed to the people sitting out and she couldn’t believe they weren’t doing the lesson. The disappointment dropped her another inch. And Jane’s last comment about the possibility of hitting her head while floating had Marian on the ground in seconds. Still, she didn’t think the Billywig venom was completely out of her system. Sure she stopped floating, but she still felt giddy and outgoing. “Hey, you look really tall from down here! Watch your head!” she warned, pretty sure she was still feeling the effects of the Billywig still since she told Jane this with a smile in place.
0 Marian There aren't any bad side-effects yet 0 Marian 0 5


Jane

May 06, 2010 7:38 PM
Jane's smile faded a little at the mention of her height. It was silly, she knew, but she had always felt too tall. Almost all Carey girls were very dainty - Edmond's sister Morgaine had just turned nineteen and was shorter than he was - and it bothered her to stick out whenever they were forced to attend family reunions. It wasn't like a family reunion was insufficient punishment by itself for all her other failings; there were a lot of Careys, even when the gathering was just for the Virginia Careys, and Jane kept much better track of the degrees of relationships between people when they were on paper than she did when right in front of them.

But...she looked tall from down there. Which meant that it wasn't really a comment about her at all. She was back to her original smile at once. "I'm trying to," Jane said, then giggled. "Oh, I really should come down now, this isn't proper - "

She drifted closer to the floor, but her feet weren't quite there yet. "I hope I don't have an allergy," she said, once more without as much worry as should have been included for that kind of statement. "Edmond would tell me off without a letter from Mother if I started floating permanently."

Of course, she could always distract Edmond by pointing out that being upset with her for something she couldn't help - a flaw in the blood - was illogical. Edmond had trouble any time he was asked to think outside of straight lines, which was why he and their last mathematics tutor had gotten into such rows. Mr. Dickins liked "real-world situations" in his problems, and Edmond got frustrated - one of the few times, really, that Jane had ever seen him demonstrate emotions at a time when doing so was inappropriate - when the people in them didn't act or the problem didn't resolve logically. At the end of the summer, when she had heard Mother talking to Mr. Dickins about coming back next summer, Jane had started to draw some conclusions about logic that she did not think her foster-brother would like.

Since people were starting to come down more regularly, she also drew some conclusions about what the professor might - soon, if not immediately - not like. Jane forced her brain, much as she might have with an especially tricky problem in a topic she didn't much like, to focus on the ground, and a few seconds later, her feet hit it. She wobbled, but didn't fall, which she was glad of. Falling this early in the year would make a very bad impression.
0 Jane Living in the moment sounds good, then. 0 Jane 0 5