Oh, I'm the king of the swingers... on Care of Magical Creatures

Sub. Professor Adrian Meade

October 05, 2012 10:53 PM

Monkey Business [Intermediates] by Sub. Professor Adrian Meade

The Substitute teacher had known from a very young age that his career path would include animals and that was highly documented by a lot of photo albums. His mother had always told him that he was the child that always sought the company of the animals in the farm they owned. He had become the shadow of the veterinarian that worked with his parents when it came to anything animal related. In fact, he had learned a lot from Josh Amos in his years before he started basic schooling back in Texas. After that, the magizoologist enrolled in the prestigious magical University of Texas to pursue his love for animals with a lot of help from scholarships.

Adrian was always the child with a boatload of pets that he constantly took care of and giving them the love and nurture animals needed. He had come a long way since he was a child and now he could pop to his family’s farm from time to time. It wasn’t the ideal plan, but he had work to do and an unending passion for his profession.

The Magizoologist had one of his pets for this lesson. Chester was a magical squirrel monkey that he had adopted a few years ago. He was as cute as button and pretty tame in comparison to his wild counterparts. He petted Chester and waited for the class to begin.

The classroom was as it had been always; the desks were ordained in lines looking up at the front of the room. Posters of the squirrel monkey were along the walls with little info about them. Adrian liked posters.

“Welcome,” he greeted the students that were starting to enter the room while Chester was comfortably eating some fruit in his shoulder. The monkey looked up at some of the new arrivals and continued to eat. He was very much uninterested about the whole scenario in front of him.

After everyone had sat down he stood up and addressed the class, “Today we are going to study squirrel monkeys.” The Professor cleared his throat, “The magical kind of course,” he finished with a smile.

And without further a due he began with his lecture, “They can be found in Central and South America around the layer canopy, but the magical kind has black fur with a small circle of white fur in their chest unlike his muggle counterparts that has a more yellowish tinge.” Adrian began pacing along the room with Chester still on his shoulder, “Like Chester, here.” He pointed at his pet. At the mention of his name Chester looked up from his snack and moved up from his shoulder to Adrian’s head. He chuckled and continued on

“Now, this type of monkey is very aggressive in the wild, but Chester was born in captivity and is quite tame. The reason they are aggressive is because the small circle of white hair is a very powerful magical substance and they protect it from any danger.”

Chester moved down to his shoulder and then to his arm and found a new resting place in a desk. He was finally curious about the new people in the room. “There are very few domesticated squirrel monkeys and most of them have been milked from the magic by greedy wizards or witches and because of that they are listed as an endangered species.”

“Don’t be afraid of Chester, he won’t do anything to anyone,” he said before leaving him there and going to the front of the classroom and brandishing his wand in the direction of the board where a lot of information about the monkey’s appeared.
“Today you need to research about the squirrel monkey and next class I will bring more specimens for you to study them,” he said. He knew that theory wasn’t the most exciting thing, but they needed to know it before going against the real thing. “You can work on pairs on the essay and Chester will probably want to play with some of you during the class.” Most squirrel monkeys didn’t trust too easily.

“You need to have finished the essay for next class in order to play with the other. You have been warned! Use your textbooks and I have more books on top of my desk if you want or need them,” he finished with a smile. He really loved animals; there wasn’t really anything else that could make him talk with such a passion.

OOC: Usual posting rules applies and Chester is nice and won't kill or maim or try to.

Subthreads:

I don't find it very funny by Henny B-F-R

Oh, I'm the king of the swingers... by Michael Grosvenor

0 Sub. Professor Adrian Meade Monkey Business [Intermediates] 0 Sub. Professor Adrian Meade 1 5

Henny B-F-R

October 11, 2012 3:14 PM

I don't find it very funny by Henny B-F-R

Henny had checked her timetable for Care of Magical Creatures several times before going to bed the previous night and at regular intervals throughout the morning. It clearly stated that they were studying monkeys today. It had not magically morphed to say that they were going to be fed to Chimeras, nor had she managed to misread it the last twenty times. But she liked to be sure. Having the schedule for the term was one of the ways in which she coped. She could always know what was coming. Anything that presented her with undue anxiety she could discuss and attempt to come to a rational way of thinking on. She did also have the right to refuse. Had the timetable, for example, said 'Chimeras' she would have known that no amount of calm discussion was going to make her capable of facing that. The arrangement was that she would attempt to attend all classes. If she needed to leave, it would be understood why, although she would try to return once she had a moment to get her nerves under control. If there was anything that, ahead of time, she knew she would be unable to cope with, she could request library work instead. Monkeys though, were not on that list. She knew she would not enjoy this but the prospect of a monkey was not so terrifying that she would refuse to face it.

She entered the classroom. Just being in a classroom made her feel better. It was calm and orderly. Classrooms were her territory. Studying COMC outside had contributed to the feeling of it being wild and uncontrolled. This was not wild. This was science. She took her habitual seat. In every other class, this was at the front row. In COMC it was the one nearest the point of exit. In the old days, that had meant the edge of the clearing, furthest away from the Professor and whatever they had brought with them. Here, in this safe and orderly classroom, it was simply the seat in the back row nearest the door. She kept her eyes fixed on the Professor's shoulder, very uncomfortable that he had a wild animal utterly free and unrestrained. She breathed deeply and told herself to be logical. The professors were not crazy. They did not put the students in undue danger. If the professor had the creature loose, it was because it being loose was safe. She was reassured very little by his lecture. The creature, by his account, would normally be attempting to viciously claw out all their eyeballs. Only he'd taught this one to be cuddly. She did not really believe it was possible to change an animal's fundamental nature. There might be a veneer of civility but underneath, that monkey was still savage, just waiting for the wrong thing to happen to set it off. And goodness only knew how it would react to being in a noisy classroom, being prodded and examined. She leaned as far away as possible when they Professor paced towards her desk with the thing. She counted calmly to ten in her head, telling herself that by ten he would have changed direction. Fortunately, he did.

She was relieved when the task for the class proved to be purely theoretical. Although why he had had to bring that thing in here when they were just writing essays, she did not know. It kept glaring at her. She knew that sounded crazy but every time the monkey looked her way, it had a hostile expression on its face. As an Aladren, her instinct was to prove that she could write a decent essay during the time constraint of the lesson. However, the “reward” for doing so would be playing with squirrel monkeys next lesson. This one, by the professor's own admission, was an exception. Did that mean that he would be bringing a cage of the scratchy, bitey kind next time? If she was still writing her essay and thus could not play with them, that was no great loss, as far as she was concerned. But could she deliberately not put her all into an essay? Never mind what her therapist would say about not being the right kind of attitude.

She rummaged in her bag for her textbook. She looked up to check that the monkey had not made any sudden moves towards her. She found her quill and ink. She looked up to check on the monkey. She opened the text book to the index. Whilst flipping through a few pages to get to 'M,' (assuming she needed 'monkey, spider') she kept an eye on him. She consulted the list and marked the right entry with a finger whilst she gave him a quick, suspicious glance. She turned to the required page. Between practically every sentence, she was compelled to look up to ensure that the monkey had not moved away from the desk and was not coming any closer to her. It seemed that she had solved her own moral dilemma, or rather it had ceased to exist; working at her usual speed was not going to be a viable option anyway.

13 Henny B-F-R I don't find it very funny 211 Henny B-F-R 0 5

Michael Grosvenor

October 12, 2012 3:18 PM

Oh, I'm the king of the swingers... by Michael Grosvenor

Michael liked COMC. Apart from the written work, it had proved fairly difficult to screw up. The Professors didn't bring in animals that were easily broken by a marauding bunch of slightly clueless teenagers, nor did they bring in animals which would break them. Sometimes you pretty much just got to pet a cat or something and then you passed. He sincerely hoped the shift from an informal outdoor environment to an actual classroom did not reflect an increase in strictness or standards from the Professor. What with Professor Weekly-Essay-Harsh-Marker Olivers joining the mix, and making them work in stupid groups, he felt the school had enough pushy professors. His fears were pretty much immediately quelled when he walked in to find the professor with a monkey on his shoulder. Up tight people didn't generally do that kind of thing.

He listened with interest as the professor talked. One of the things that genuinely sparked his curiosity was the overlap between the Muggle and the Magical World. Dragons and stuff were cool but the idea that there were two species of a type of animal, separated out only by one being magical, was pretty cool. The somewhat obvious parallel with human beings escaped his musings as, like many people, he forgot that they counted as an animal. He wondered how it worked having a magical species so similar to a Muggle one. How it avoided being mistaken for the wrong kind and ending up in a zoo. He wondered whether magical animals had ever ended up in Muggle zoos and what had happened. Did they mind? Maybe they just sat chilling out, not really noticing or caring about the difference. Or maybe they plotted their escapes and weird stuff happened. He didn't follow the news avidly but he reckoned he'd remember if there had been a report about a cage full of monkeys exploding or something.

He was disappointed when they were set an essay for the class. Why bring a monkey if they couldn't play with it? Luckily his position in the front row afforded him a good, close up view of Chester. He wished he had some raisins or something in his bag to feed him, although that was probably frowned upon. He dug around in his bag, pulling out a pen and some parchment. He doodled a monkey on the corner of his page. He noticed, as he did this, that Chester watched the end of his pen move back and forth. He rummaged in his bag for a spare and held it out, curious to see what the monkey would do. He watched as the little hands, so like little human hands, reached out and took the object from him. Michael watched, fascinated by Chester's fascination, as the monkey turned the pen around a few times in his hands. He banged it against the desk. It clunked a little but nothing of real interest occurred. He bit it. Luckily it was a sturdy pen and did not crack. On finding that it didn't taste of anything much, the monkey lost interest and cast the pen aside, returning his gaze to the students and leaving Michael with no real excuse not to get on.

Spider monkeys are curious about stuff and try to eat it. he wrote. He also jotted down some notes on Chester's physical appearance with a little arrow to the doodle, in the hope that it would look like a serious illustration of his point.

13 Michael Grosvenor Oh, I'm the king of the swingers... 199 Michael Grosvenor 0 5