Well, that was different. on Care of Magical Creatures

Kerry O'Shaunasey

December 17, 2011 2:20 AM

Intermediate Care of Magical Creatures Lesson by Kerry O'Shaunasey

Today was one of Kerry’s favorite lessons. He loved horses and horse-like creatures. They were his favorite animals as a species. He wasn’t sure how this group of students would enjoy the lesson, so far he was pretty sure his students hadn’t been happy with his lessons. That was disappointing. Kerry loved teaching and had thought he was decent at it, but he was starting to have second thoughts on that matter. So many of his students seemed so… prissy. Apparently it was a pureblood thing. Or at least a pureblood thing here at this school. He’d know a couple of pureblood students, when he himself was one, that were so formal, but he’d thought they were the anomaly not the standard. Maybe today’s Intermediate group wouldn’t have quite so many of them. Kiva had said they mellowed out a bit as they settled in at Sonora. Either way, he wasn’t about to change his lesson plans to deal with the students peccadilloes.

Kerry stood in front of the three subjects of today’s class, two rather handsome thestrals. Well, admittedly, ‘handsome’ in comparison to others of their breed. Thestrals possessed their own beauty to horse lovers and lovers of the species in general, but they weren’t the most aesthetically pleasing creatures. He stroked their noses and spoke to them in a soft soothing voice as his students joined him in the clearing. To many, it probably looked like he was caressing and cooing to thin air. Thestrals typically only were visible to people who had witnessed death. He had something to remedy that though.

Kerry was dressed as he was for every class, in muggle jeans and boots, which was a matter of function over form, though admittedly it was also what he was most comfortable in. He wore a button down shirt in sort of a cadet blue. He always tried not to clash with his obscenely red hair, and blue was usually a safe bet. Over his muggle clothes, he wore simple black wizards robes, worn open. His hair, a violent red unmitigated by brown despite its dark color, was long and worn in a loose ponytail at the name of his neck.

In the clearing there were weatherproof cushions for his students to sit on if they chose, and the option of both sun and shade to sit on. There was a high stool and a reed basket and little else. Kerry hadn’t bothered with his portal blackboard today, he had nothing of import to write. When the time came, he gave the thestrals a gentle pat and turned to his students.

“Hello everyone, welcome to Intermediate Care of Magical Creatures. My name is Kerry O’Shaunausey, and I’ve been hired to replace Kiva since she is now the headmistress.” He smiled to his students. He had a friendly boy-next-door sort of face, a light smattering of freckles on his pale skin. “Please just call me Kerry, and I will call you by your first names.” Kerry took moral issues with using titles, taking his Quaker upbringing quite seriously. Or at least as seriously as he took anything.

“Today, we’re going to be learning about Thestrals. I would guess that most of you aren’t able to see them right now, only people who have witnessed death can see thestrals. I have special glasses here,” he said, holding up a basket that had been near his feet, “That will allow everyone to see them. I understand that this may be a rather sensitive matter for some. Anyone who can see the thestrals, please feel free to wear the glasses as well, they won’t effect how you see the thestrals.” That way no one would have to be singled out. He knew very well and very personally that admitting one could see thestrals often led to awkward questions, especially at a young age. Kerry handed the basket of glasses to be passed around to his students, waiting until everyone had them to continue. He himself didn’t don a pair.

The glasses certainly weren’t a fashion statement, black plastic frames with straps of elastic to keep them on students faces without concern of them falling off. The glasses were a bit large in order to compensate for any students who already wore glasses. They’d settle over them without too much problem. Once donned, the glasses gave the world sort of a sepia tone, but brought the skeletal thestrals into clear visibility. There were currently three of them standing near to Kerry. They were wearing halters on their slender heads, each of them brightly colored, though invisible to the naked eye of those who hadn’t witnessed death. One had a bright blue halter, another a bright green, and the third was hot pink.

When everyone who wanted or needed the special glasses had them, Kerry continued with his lesson. “As you can see, we have three lovely thestrals joining us today. The one in the green halter is Whisper, the one in the blue halter is Legolas, and the one in the pink halter is Surefoot. The halters are enchanted so they are invisible like the thestrals because invisibility is a thestral’s main defense. These three have been good friends of mine for many years,” Kerry smiled, not at all embarrassed to describe animals as his ‘friends’. “Thestrals are very gentle and even tempered animals. They aren’t harmless though. Even a mundane horse is dangerous because of his size, and size alone also makes thestrals somewhat dangerous. If they kick you, or step on your foot, it will hurt and you probably will break something. Their wings are very powerful, and despite the frail appearance compared to something that looks more like a horse, they can carry riders at great speeds.” Kerry thought they looked frail anyway, despite having a certain dragonish look in their faces. Normal horses were very solid animals, and thestrals were so slender, with all their bones protruding.

“The idea that thestrals cause bad luck or are bad omens is utter nonsense. Because of their less then adorable appearance, that they are all a uniform black in color, and because only witches and wizards who have witnessed death can see them, they have been associated with death and bad luck. They also happen to be attracted to the scent of blood, but this is at least partly because they are themselves carnivores and are probably looking for a meal. I haven’t found any scientific evidence on the matter, but in my experience and from other anecdotes I’ve heard, thestrals seem to be very empathetic animals, so they may approach wounded people and animals out of a sense of empathy.” Kerry moved among the three animals as he spoke, petting each of them.

“They are very shy by nature, but once they trust you, they are very sweet and docile animals. Today, I’d like to give you a chance to get to know these three thestrals and earn their trust. Form small groups and pick a thestral. Please go to them and do not try to lead them over to where you want them. If someone you didn’t know came up to you and grabbed you by the face and tried to drag you off, you probably wouldn’t appreciate it either. You’ll notice that they aren’t hobbled or tethered in anyway. This is for a couple reasons. First and foremost, its actually for your safety. If a thestral is upset or feels threatened, fleeing is its first response. It will only behave aggressively if it is trapped. Secondly, as I mentioned, I’ve known these three a long time, and they will stay in my general vicinity without too much prompting, like a dog who doesn’t need to be on a leash to stay close. When you approach them, always approach them like you would a horse, which would be from the front. It doesn’t have to be dead front and center, but so that they can see you approach.” He moved away from one of the thestrals, Whisper, and re approached her demonstrating as he spoke. “Hold out your hand and let them get acquainted by smell, then you can pet them. If you want to move around them, keep a hand on them at all times,” he said, running his fingers lightly along the thestrals side and wing, then rump, as he slowly rounded the animal. “This is so they know you’re there. If you come up from behind unexpectedly, they may kick you. I’ve been kicked by a thestral and I don’t recommend it. Don’t crowd them. I know you’re working in small groups, but especially at first, approach one at a time. Once you have become acquainted with your thestral, I want you to work on earning its trust. Talk to it, pet it, let it sniff you. I have some grooming supplies in this bucket here, mostly soft brushes. Then I’d like you to work on getting the thestral to lift its hoof for you.”

“What you do,” he said, “Is run your hand slowly down its leg, to just above the hoof, and give a little tug,” Kerry demonstrated, running his hand down the thestral’s foreleg and giving a gentle tug at the lower part of its leg. Obediently, the thestral shifted its weight and lifted the leg, bending it at the knee. “It’s the same as with horses, they will only let you have their hoof if they trust you,” well, or fear you, but Kerry wasn’t about to mention that, not wanting any of his students to decide intimidation was the better route to go. “And if they don’t trust you, you can pull on their leg all day, and nothings going to happen. You can’t force them to give you their hoof, they’re too big. The reason they are trained to do this is a practical one, its so their caretakers can clean out their hooves. For today, though, we’re just doing it for the sake of learning to work with the animal.”

“Now remember, they are shy, so keep your voices down, behave in a gentle peaceful fashion, and you will have better luck. Common sense applies, don’t poke them, hit them, pull on their ears, or anything like that. Treat them like you would like to be treated. Also, I don’t want to see anyone try and mount them. That’s not what we’re doing today, and I’m assuming most of you don’t have much, if any, riding experience. If you’re particularly interested in learning to ride, talk to me after class and we’ll see what we can do. If you have any questions, just raise your hand,” Kerry smiled to his students. “good luck.” He turned them loose, letting them pick and approach the thestrals, which were spaced a bit apart, having meandered a few feet in different directions as Kerry spoke.

((OOC: standard site rules apply, 200 words, tag Kerry if you need him, have fun!))

Subthreads:

Managing pleasantly by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

Well, that was different. by David Wilkes, Aladren

Seeking Someone Else. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

Cool. by Russell Layne, Aladren

I'm as Intermediate as it gets. by Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

0 Kerry O'Shaunasey Intermediate Care of Magical Creatures Lesson 0 Kerry O'Shaunasey 1 5

Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

December 18, 2011 1:31 AM

Managing pleasantly by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

As Jane walked into the clearing for Care of Magical Creatures, she looked around, spotted what the professor was patting, and nearly stumbled on her step before she caught her balance again with a slightly outstretched arm and went on, schooling her face back into the slight smile she’d had on before she saw the thestrals. After taking a moment to look them over, she picked a cushion and settled herself on it, twisting her legs to the side the way she might at home after casting a handy charm she’d picked up in the library on her long skirt to make it repulse dirt and acting as if she’d seen absolutely nothing.

Last year, at the ranch with Professor Kijewski, she’d gone as white as a wedding dress when she spotted the thestrals. By the time the man who’d very nearly killed her father, who’d tortured her father while she closed her eyes like a child and tried to pretend it wasn’t happening, who’d threatened to cut her throat if her father and brother didn’t play along with him not three hours before his own daughter did as much for him, had finally died not ten feet from where she was standing, she had been too numb to be much affected by it, but seeing the thestrals last year had stunned her. Somehow, finding out that the time she’d thought Edmond had killed him hadn’t been real had insulated her from the reality of knowing she had seen a death a short time later. Now, though, she’d had a year to adjust to that, and she still had the story she’d had last year to explain it all away, so while it was not something she’d expected, it was something she could manage.

Sometimes, she still wondered if she’d spend her whole life managing things – her wedding, whenever that was, and the births of any children she had being overshadowed by the absence of Mother, those same things in Edmond’s life being overshadowed by the absence of Mother, her father’s health, stupid things like this – but she tried not to think that way more than she could help. If there was anything she knew she could be sure of, it was that her mother would have had no patience for such self-pitying internal monologues, and would have set her a page about why it was a vice and what virtue she should try to cultivate to replace it or something like that to translate into and then back out of every language she’d ever studied, just to make sure the message got across, if she’d found out about it. Jane was more than half-inclined to impose that on herself, now that she thought of it, even though she was sure her French was far too rusty to allow her to finish properly.

How she was going to deal with the lesson was…an interesting question. Did she admit to it or did she not? There was a perfectly coherent story she’d come up with last year – she had been in the living room with her mother, sewing, when her mother suddenly had an aneurysm and fell over dead in her arms; it was already the official story that her mother had died that way, anyway – but she disliked the sympathy when people first found out her mother was dead, and a professor who looked like more of a boy than her brother and called himself by his given name might be the kind who’d…she didn’t even know, but she didn’t want him or the third years to know if they didn’t have to, or didn’t already.

She took the glasses things he passed around and held them in her lap, fidgeting with them before finally shoving them on with everyone else for the lesson. Even the ones who knew she had a dead mother might not think she’d been in the room at the time – which she hadn’t been, she’d been in the middle of being abducted – and anyone who’d noticed last year could mind their own business. There was no one in this class Jane especially wanted to impress.

But there was also no one she really wanted to offend, either, so she smiled as she looked around for people to work with. Mother had always taught her to be smiling and pleasant, no matter what she was feeling; if it was possible when feeling smiling and pleasant just wasn’t for some reason, she should try not to really feel much of anything. It wasn’t too difficult today. “Good day,” she said, finding someone who looked like a good candidate. It was a good enough day, anyway. There was nothing wrong with it, at least for her. Not really. She hoped not for them, either. “Shall we work together?”

0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw Managing pleasantly 0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw 0 5

David Wilkes, Aladren

December 27, 2011 9:28 PM

Well, that was different. by David Wilkes, Aladren

David looked at the new guy, recognizing him from the Opening Feast, and then looked around for a creature, and then looked for the catch. His guess was that a professor, a new guy, wouldn’t go simple or conversational with the first class. That was when he’d make an impression, and the guys who taught Care of Magical Creatures were by their very natures creatures unlike, say, Professor Fawcett. A Care of Magical Creatures teacher who was a professor type would be just weird.

Like everyone else who’d taken a class so far, he kind of forgot about the lesson for a second in the surprise of hearing a professor refer to himself by first name. Sure, Professor Kijewski had mentioned the option, but he had never known of anyone taking her up on that, and he’d be really surprised if anyone had ever thought of doing so. There were just…kind of lines between teachers and students, and it wasn’t done to cross them too much.

Or so he’d thought. He’d observed weirder things in the magical world than maybe that line not existing once students got to a certain age. The magical world ran on generalized weirdness, which affixed itself to everything from social constructs to beverages, though really, he thought the social structures might translate far better to the Muggle world than the pumpkin juice did. He’d read histories and biographies from the library in which the weirdness of the pureblood families was a factor and, more than once, thought that if the money was taken away, they wouldn’t look entirely unlike his family, from the petty greed to the personality disorders.

It was enough to make him interested in Professor Fawcett’s sociology books and Advanced study thing, but not much help in Care of Magical Creatures. That was a whole different order of weird, and this lesson, in particular, was a whole fun mess of epic weird. He shrugged uncomfortably at the thought of thestrals, though he’d heard of them before. He knew Annabeth, by virtue of getting a migraine on the exact wrong day, had been there when their maternal grandfather died, and she had not taken that very well at all.

He, however, had been at school at the time, and for forty minutes afterward, so he saw absolutely nothing until he put on the weird little 3D glasses-that-weren’t that the professor handed around. They weren’t terribly attractive things, he had to say, though he was more interested in what it was about death that changed the way the eyes worked, and in how someone had figured out how to replicate that. Had they cut open the eyes of someone who saw someone die or something, and analyzed it? He hadn’t thought the wizarding world was that…science-y. So maybe there was a magic analysis answer, and it had something to do with latent magic in the air surrounding the wizard and the creature, or coming from them, and not with the eyeballs at all. Or there were wizard scientists, and either he hadn’t heard of them or they were just very quiet. Like, secret quiet.

He amused himself for a moment by imagining ganging up with a few people, mostly other Aladrens, to form the Most Secret and Illegal Order of the Scientist-Wizards and so missed a little of the lecture, but not so much that he didn’t pick up that they were to group up and work with the thestrals. Well, that was good. Just what he wanted, to interact with the death horses. Though, no one in the class seemed to have fallen over yet, so he guessed he could dismiss the superstitions.

Still, when he caught someone else’s eye (harder than usual to do, with the glasses, but still doable, he discovered; he’d never worn glasses in real life, not even sunglasses, so it was a little disconcerting to get used to), he grinned and gestured them toward the nearest thestral. “After you?” he asked, pitching his voice up to make it a question so they could seek other company, or make an excuse about having some, if they wanted to. Only polite. He just hoped he wasn’t made to approach first.

16 David Wilkes, Aladren Well, that was different. 169 David Wilkes, Aladren 0 5

Sam Bauer, Crotalus

December 30, 2011 3:08 PM

Seeking Someone Else. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

Four full years at Sonora wasn’t a long time, he had only even hit his halfway mark half a year ago, but it was enough that Sam was pretty well used to professors coming and going. It seemed, though, that Care of Magical Creatures was particularly cursed, since he’d started out with Professor Dakin, there had been Professor Cohen, then the Deputy Headmaster, then they’d moved on to Professor Kijewski, who became the Headmistress, and now it was on to Professor O’…something-or-other, it was a long name. He though that the guy probably should not agree to take Coach Pierce’s chair, though, since he thought Dakin might have been Deputy Head, too, and that therefore meant the new guy would very soon end up either getting Professor Kijewski’s seat or end up leaving the school.

Bad logic, of course, but it amused him. So did the very red hair on Professor O’Irishname, and the way he appeared to be talking to thin air. So long as he kept his amusement to himself and was not attacked by a crazy person, Sam reckoned it was all right. He watched the show, wondering what the catch was.

Thestrals. Well, then. At least the new guy – well, he had a name now; Sam’s inner Crotalus muttered something about it, but he tamped it down in favor of how much easier ‘Kerry’ was to say than the guy’s extended surname – at least Kerry didn’t start ‘em off with anything too boring or anything like that. Admittedly, there had been that trip with Kijewski last year, but that was all right, and he hadn’t been able to see anything them.

Also admittedly, he wasn’t that sure he wanted to see anything now – what if it, like, made someone close to him die or something? He’d always wondered how many superstitions happened for a perfectly good reason, he blamed it on the number of Muggle ones he’d heard of which came from their incomplete knowledge of the magical world – but there wasn’t much of a way out of it, so he chose to look on the bright side, wherein he saw something cool that he hadn’t seen before.

If he happened to, once he had the glasses on, still squint a little rather than looking directly, just at first, well, he wasn’t used to having something on in front of his eyes, and the way they’d been made so they were big enough for people who wore glasses made them not quite sit right on his head. Yeah, that was it. Gradually, however, he opened his eyes far enough to see more than fuzzy horse-shapes.

He looked at what was up there. So that was a thestral. Those were…thestrii? He didn’t know, didn’t guess it really mattered that much. Anyway, he could see why people thought they were kinda creepy, even beyond the death thing. If he had hadn’t known any better, he would have put his money on the things not being fed regularly. Which wouldn’t be cool. Even the death horses deserved adequate hay, or liver, or whiskey, or whatever it was they lived off of.

As long as it wasn’t his liver. But that wasn’t, he thought, a matter that was under discussion. He was safe for the moment, though he did plan to keep them at arm’s length, literally, and be ready to jump further at a moment’s notice until he saw someone else not get their abdomen ripped apart for approaching more closely.

Which meant, of course, finding a someone else. “At least the new guy’s not boring,” he said to the first someone to catch his eye. “Want to work together?”

Belatedly, he remembered his prefect’s badge. Here went hoping that people wouldn’t assume that this meant he was a strong, responsible leader figure who should be the one to risk life and limb in another’s place. He was a Crotalus, for Merlin’s sake; of course that wasn’t his role. Since he couldn’t really say that, though, he just embraced probably looking utterly ridiculous in his thes-shades and hoped that would do the trick for making the badges not be so noticed, since now that he thought of it, he remembered that there were two of them.

16 Sam Bauer, Crotalus Seeking Someone Else. 163 Sam Bauer, Crotalus 0 5

Russell Layne, Aladren

December 30, 2011 3:27 PM

Cool. by Russell Layne, Aladren

When he first saw the new professor, a young-looking, violently red-headed man, petting nothing in particular and talking to it, Russell blinked hard and then turned around to see what he’d glimpsed in passing again, thinking he must have seen it wrong. When the same sight presented itself to him again, though, he shrugged and went to find a cushion, favoring one in the shade. He didn’t like to stand out too much, much less put himself in a spotlight. Better to just be quietly over here and observe, at least for now.

The rest of the class came in, and Russell divided his attention between them and the professor, wondering how things were going to go with yet another new guy. He had heard a little about this one from Mellie, whose class had already met, and she said he was kinda weird, told them to call him by his first name and all, but that she’d enjoyed the class. He was hoping that was a good sign, that this was going to be a pretty good lesson and a pretty agreeable guy and that, if he really was that informal, that the purebloods in the class (a group which made up a whole lot of the class, and which, while they could be less formal as they got to know you, were still pretty darn formal.

Hopefully, they would just go along with it, but who knew. Maybe they’d go along, maybe they’d revolt, or maybe they’d settle for just influencing the guy by osmosis. Merlin knew they could rub off on a person after a while. Collective exposure to his roommates had finally driven him the final step over into a wardrobe largely composed of khakis, since he just didn’t feel right wearing jeans in public anymore. Not as formal as them – the day Arthur was both not playing Quidditch and not wearing a tie at the same time was going to be a very weird day indeed – but more formal than he had been just a few short years ago.

Hearing that the topic for the day was thestrals was enough to explain the talking to thin air – he had never seen one, but he had read about them – for which Russell was very glad. It was also enough to interest him, and he took notes carefully, glancing up now and then at the empty air and the professor before going back to his paper, recording everything in small but neat handwriting.

Then, he began looking for a partner. That involved leaving his shade, but that was okay, and he smiled agreeably at someone soon enough. “Hey,” he said. “Do you have a group yet?” Which would lead, of course, to asking to form one or if there was room for another in it; this was all procedure. He almost liked that at times. Having routines like that left him free to think more instead of thinking about what to do so much, which was good.

16 Russell Layne, Aladren Cool. 183 Russell Layne, Aladren 0 5

Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

December 30, 2011 8:13 PM

I'm as Intermediate as it gets. by Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw

Yet another new professor. Kate could hardly wait. She was a little curious, but not too much so, because she had noticed that people didn’t tend to stay in this position very long, at least not since she had started at Sonora. For all she knew, the new professor, Professor O’Shaunasey, might be gone by the time she returned after New Year’s.

Or she could just be in a rotten mood today and not have a clue why. That, too, was entirely possible. She didn’t know, and, at the moment, as she took a seat in the sun in the hopes that the light would do something to lift her mood, she certainly didn’t care. She just kind of wanted to get through the lesson and then go bury her face in a pillow until she either felt better about it all, whatever ‘it’ actually was, or just fell asleep.

That, too, was an attractive prospect. Maybe she was just disliking getting up, though she hadn’t really slept in that late over the summer. She usually got up to go run in the mornings, and have some time, while Rachel was sleepy and Alicia was already fluttering around Momma or a tutor or something, when she didn’t feel like she was being scrutinized at every turn. She liked mornings, at least at home, but she did get up a little later there, and not have classes all the time since she definitely wasn’t her little Aladren sister, and she had been in a bed that wasn’t really familiar anymore after the summer, so maybe she was just a little grumpy because she was drowsy.

The lesson, unfortunately, wasn’t on the most cheering subject ever. Kate wasn’t superstitious, but there was something a little…eerie about things that only people who had actually seen someone die could see. Of course, she thought there was also something a little creepy about how…Alicia Alicia could be sometimes, but no one else really seemed to notice that, so maybe it was just in her head, but it was still enough of a reason that she thought they ought not be too much discriminated against because of that. It wasn’t their fault or anything.

Well, that she knew. He was saying they were smart, but as far as she knew, nothing existed that could change its own chemistry to that extent, to change something intrinsic about itself. Though, again, what did she know? She’d seen a few Big Books of animals when she was little, but that and her classes here were about as much as she knew on the subject.

At the end of the lecture, as everyone broke up into groups, she heard someone speak to her and looked up from her cushion with a smile, tilting her head back so her ponytail fell over her shoulder. She guessed it was physically impossible to grow up in her mother’s house and not learn to smile when she didn’t really mean it sometimes, plus she just didn’t see the point in making other people uncomfortable, maybe, just because she was having a bad mood kind of day. It wasn’t like it was anything anyone here had done, or like she had any kind of good excuse for acting like a jerk whatsoever. “Group?” she asked, squinting a little against the sun and raising a hand to her eyes, shading them against the light so she could see who it was. That was kind of one of the downsides of sitting in too much light, she guessed, the way it could be hard to see clearly.

16 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw I'm as Intermediate as it gets. 170 Kate Bauer, Teppenpaw 0 5