Twinkle, twinkle little star on Care of Magical Creatures

Sub. Professor Adrian Meade

November 19, 2012 6:43 PM

Twinkle, twinkle little star by Sub. Professor Adrian Meade

His stint as a substitute professor had extended indefinitely, and Adrian was having mixed feelings about it. He was having fun, but the itch to go to the wild was beginning to stir inside of him. It had been too many years living as an adventurer that the idea of a pacific, stable life was too foreign for the great Adrian Meade, but he was making it work. He had to. Deep down Adrian was slowly falling in love with teaching and that was creating internal problems for the magizoologist. He still preferred the adventures, but teaching was slowly gaining terrain.

His holidays had been quite and relaxing. His parents had died a few years ago, so he spent it with his Aunt Kristin. She was his father’s sister and she doted on him since he had been born. Aunt Kristin had two girls and always wanted a boy and Adrian had been her favorite forever. When he was little he usually went to her Aunt Kristin’s house for cookies. He had a very good childhood, and Adrian had made a lot of sacrifices for his career that it sometimes made him wonder if they had been worth it. Family was one of the most important things in life, and he had ignored that for fame in the academic world. The Substitute Professor had missed the last four Christmas celebrations due to work. It had been a nice change of things to actually relax with the people he loved.

Unfortunately, holidays were now over and it was back to real life, which meant planning his lessons for the rest of the year. Adrian had a little trouble with the beginner’s lessons because not dangerous animals were kind of boring. It was hard finding an animal that would inspire the children to want to learn about them without dying of boredom or thinking of the class as a bore instead of fun.

After a lot of consideration Adrian had settled for a clabbert. The Professor had a big tree inside a pot in the front of the classroom full with the little animal as well as his typical posters on the wall and dioramas on tables alongside the walls. The substitute loved to have those things everywhere. It was to help the more visual students.

As the time for class to begin approached, the students began to pile into the classroom. The desks were in their place, with the difference that his desk was nowhere to be seen. The tree had occupied that space.

The bell rang, and Adrian closed the door after the last ring. He hated tardiness and his students should know that by now.

“Welcome back!” his voice boomed throughout the classroom. “I hope you had a great holiday, but now is time to dust your brain and get ready for the last semester of the year.” Adrian understood how hard it could be to go back to swing of studying.

“Well, today we are going to study the Clabbert,” he said with a smile. “Since the blackboard won’t be used today I recommend you take notes or listen and then do them from your book. The chapter for Clabberts can be found on page 345,” he said before clearing his throat.

“A Clabbert is an arboreal creature that resembles a cross between a monkey and a frog. Its smooth skin is mottled green, and it has short horns and a wide grinning mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Its long arms and webbed hands and feet allow it to move gracefully through the trees. On the Clabbert's forehead is a large pustule which flashes red when the Clabbert senses danger. It feeds on small lizards and birds,” he started with his lecture. He pointed to some of the posters along the wall just to finish with the tree in front of the classroom that was twinkling with little red lights.

“The Clabbert is generally found in the southern states of America, but can now be found worldwide. American wizards and witches used to keep Clabberts to give them early warning about approaching Muggles. The International Confederation of Wizards were forced to introduce fines to stop this,” Adrian continued with his lecture while pacing around the classroom making sure the students were paying attention.

“The clabber postule is used as an ingredient for potions. It is a very common ingredient since the postule regrows after a few days of being taken out from their front. It is a painless procedure, but the tricky part is catching the little animal,” he finished with a smile.

“More information about the clabber can be found on your books. For the assignment for today is to write an essay about the Clabbert and the uses of his postule for potions. Also, you will need to draw one with its various physiological characteristics. This is a pair assignment,” he advised. The professor knew it would be easier for them to work on pairs and the quality of the work would be better. A win-win situation. “All the material you may need is in the table over there,” he pointed to a desk alongside the wall that had more books that could be consulted and drawing things.

“If you need me I will be sitting on my chair by the tree,” he finished with a grin and let the students start doing what they needed to do.

OOC: Posting rules apply. Nothing bad can happen with these creatures! Have fun.

0 Sub. Professor Adrian Meade Twinkle, twinkle little star 0 Sub. Professor Adrian Meade 1 5

Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

November 23, 2012 1:02 AM

Stars look an awful lot like Clabberts by Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

COMC was Wendy's absolute favorite class ever. Besides being in love with animals, Wendy adored the magical creatures she had come into contact with for this class. The ants had started off kind of boring, but even seeing the things that they had made had been really cool. And Aria had tried to give Wendy a different perspective on ants. Wendy tried to keep an open mind about everything, but it was kind of difficult with ants. Still, she had come to appreciate the things ants did. They were the cleaner-uppers of the world.

Wendy was looking forward to class today and when she went in, she saw a giant tree randomly where the professor's desk should have been. That was always a good sign. The rest of the class looked normal, but Wendy's greenish eyes stayed on the tree. And then she saw a creature there, what she had been looking for, and couldn't keep in a tiny squeal. It looked really weird, but Wendy didn't judge people by their outsides, especially animals. She hurriedly went to her usual desk towards the front and sat down with a quick greeting to her neighbor, eyes still focused intently on the creature.

The professor began class with his usual spiel, breaking Wendy out of her daydreaming and into her textbook. She turned to the page on clabberts and immediately started skimming over it. If there was any textbook she could actually spend lots of time reading, it was for COMC. When he said "postule," Wendy looked up and found it such an unfamiliar word that she mouthed it to herself, and then repeated it quietly just to hear the sound out of her own mouth. It was a weird word that she would have to remember. Her eyes unfocused as her mind focused on the word and on the image of removing the clabbert's postule, and then she shivered and came back to earth in time to hear that they were supposed to be doing a partner project writing an essay.

Wendy groaned, already unhappy with where this was going, but she did perk up knowing that drawing was an option. She turned to her seat partner and smiled. "Do you want to be partners?" she asked. "I can draw if you don't want to. Plus, do you think we'd only need to look at our textbook to find all the info on Clabberts?" she continued. Wendy really didn't want to go through a whole bunch of research when there was a magical creature to be drawn. She wished she could go and play with it too, but it didn't seem like Professor Meade had that in mind. Otherwise she bet the students would overwhelm the poor thing and she wouldn't want it to bite anyone.

0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari Stars look an awful lot like Clabberts 0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari 0 5

Abigail Thornton, Crotalus

November 25, 2012 12:49 PM

Twinkle, Twinkle little Clabbert! by Abigail Thornton, Crotalus

Abigail and loved being home. She loved being at school and learning, all that was nice, mostly Care of Magical Creatures (her favorite class), but her roommates were driving her nuts. Mostly McKinley really, the others weren’t too bad, though they were prissy, just not as prissy as that crazy McKinley was. Abi was not afraid of dirt, getting into something is a wonderful way of learning. Andri had told her the type of learning that was, but Abi couldn’t remember it. It wasn’t a big deal, really, but they were back at school now, and she had to deal with Miss Priss.

She was glad that this years midterm event was something as fun as a bonfire, though she was a little bit worried about what may happen if she’d have to be forced into a tent with her roommates… However… it could be fun… she thought with a little inner chuckle. Shaking her head and giggling as she walked towards Care of Magical Creatures. Abi always walked to this class with a spring in her step, glad to be going there more than anywhere else in the world. There was something about this class that made the youngest (so far) Sonoran Thornton happier than a pig in slop.

The animals.

Abi walked into the room and excitedly sat in her seat at the front of the room next to Wendy. Wendy gave her a hurried hello and Abi looked around the room. The girl was unsure about what they’d be learning about, but glad to learn about whatever animal would be the daily lesson. Inside the room there was a tree in a pot, posters and dioramas and Abi’s smile widened. She’d read as many books as she could about creatures from the time she got her letter, and though she didn’t know everything about each creature, she knew what this one was at least, the Clabbert. Their professor welcomed them back and told them what they’d be studying.

“Since the blackboard won’t be used today I recommend you take notes or listen and then do them from your book. The chapter for Clabberts can be found on page 345,” He cleared his throat and went on about the Clabbert as Abi took her notes quickly in her book. “A Clabbert is an arboreal creature that resembles a cross between a monkey and a frog. Its smooth skin is mottled green, and it has short horns and a wide grinning mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Its long arms and webbed hands and feet allow it to move gracefully through the trees. On the Clabbert's forehead is a large pustule which flashes red when the Clabbert senses danger. It feeds on small lizards and birds,”

She wrote on in her notes about the fact that the Clabbert is generally found in the southern states of the USA, but can be found all over the world now. She added the bit about how Clabberts are used as an early warning of approaching muggles in wizarding areas, but that fines stopped that now. For potions? she thought as she wondered what exactly they were used for and what problems they’d solve, as long as it didn’t hurt the poor things! After all, they are alive too! she added to herself as Professor Meade told them about the essay they’d have to write.

“For the assignment for today is to write an essay about the Clabbert and the uses of his postule for potions. Also, you will need to draw one with its various physiological characteristics. This is a pair assignment. All the material you may need is in the table over there. If you need me I will be sitting on my chair by the tree,” he finished.

Abi heard Wendy groan, guessing that meant her friend didn’t like essays too much. Abi smiled towards her, not particularly liking them either, but knowing that she could do it if she tried. It was the drawing that wouldn’t really be so good for her…

"Do you want to be partners? I can draw if you don't want to. Plus, do you think we'd only need to look at our textbook to find all the info on Clabberts?"

“I’d LOVE to! And go for it, the drawings all yours! I can’t draw, but I can color in lines…” she said with a shy chuckle. “As for looking at the textbooks, we can, but we may not have to look further than that…” she said, skimming through her notes and the pages of their textbook.

0 Abigail Thornton, Crotalus Twinkle, Twinkle little Clabbert! 0 Abigail Thornton, Crotalus 0 5

Wendy

November 28, 2012 11:58 PM

How I wonder how you nab birds... by Wendy

Wendy had decided she and Abi were going to make the best team ever. She hated the essay part of all of her classes, which was sad because that's all they ever did. Essays, essays, and more essays. Wendy wished there was a drawing class here, but there wasn't, of course. It wasn't like kindergarten where she got to draw and doodle all the time. It was comforting to know that she could just draw her heart out and Abi wouldn't feel burdened by all the research needed for the essay. She was glad that was done and went to get some art supplies.

She brought back way more than she probably needed, but Wendy wanted to draw the tree too. Just talk of the Clabbert as being native to south reminded her of her grandparents in North Carolina. Maybe there were Clabberts there that her muggle grandparents didn't even know about! That would be crazy if one of their neighbors had it or something. The thought made Wendy smile, but it also made her want to draw the big park next to her grandparents' neighborhood.

After setting down all the supplies on the table, making sure to only take up half of it, she looked over at Abi. "Do you need any help with the essay?" she asked politely, really hoping that Abi would say no. If Wendy didn't have to do any essay research, that would be the best, but of course she knew she wouldn't want to be stuck with it. Plus Abi was her friend; she didn't want her friend to feel like she was doing all the work in this partnership. Even though Wendy had asked her friend if she wanted help, her mind was already forming an image for the picture she'd be drawing. She had a vivid imagination and sometimes lost herself in her musings. Now was kind of the time that she was doing that. Abi might have said something in reply, but Wendy didn't hear.

She was too busy hearing the sounds of the birds in the forest, watching the Clabbert jump from tree limb to tree limb with its long, gangly limbs. It stopped, disappeared, and then snatched a bird out of the air suddenly. It was one of the colorful birds, like from the rainforest--were there birds like that in North Carolina?--and the Clabbert opened its mouth, his sharp teeth glinting in the southern sun, and then--

Wendy jumped, scaring herself with the image that she had almost imagined. Yech. There was a reason why watching scary movies was a horrible idea, she thought sourly. And then she remembered that she was supposed to be drawing. Or researching. Well, now she didn't know which one. "Um, did you want me to research with you?" she asked apologetically. "I was in my own world for a little bit." Not paying attention had gotten her into a lot of trouble in school before and Wendy didn't want to make it a regular occurance.

0 Wendy How I wonder how you nab birds... 0 Wendy 0 5

Abi

December 06, 2012 1:37 PM

Up above the sky so high... by Abi

Abi wished nothing more than to have had Wendy ask her to be her partner for this class. The first year was lucky enough to get her wish when Wendy asked. Abi wasn’t particularly fond of essays, but she’d do it (especially if it meant partnering to her new best friend!) and if it meant she didn’t have to draw! Her drawing skills definitely wanted for the latter of the two words…

Skills.

Abi would never ever say that she could draw, and anyone who knew her, knew that. Anyone who knew her, would also know that she’s already taken most of not all of the notes they would need. The first year had a way with understanding things that were going to be important before she even knew it herself. As she skimmed through her notes, and the book in front of her she realized that fact herself. Wow… Cool. she thought to herself, patting her back with positive attitudes and smiles. Care Of Magical Creatures was her favorite class and nobody in the world would ever convince her of anything differently.

Wendy went for the art supplies and Abi looked over her notes for the essay part of the class. When Wendy came back, practically bogged down with supplies by the looks of it, Abi giggled at her friend. She knew Wendy was excited about the ability of drawing for class, so she wouldn’t say a word against it. Abi only knew what she was going to do with all that stuff she’d brought back! The supplies her friend had brought back made the Crotalus a little confused, but she shrugged it off and let Wendy take up half the table. After all, this table is both of ours to work on! she reminded herself as she moved her textbook (open to page 345) and notebook to make it easier for her to see both and still have room to write the essay just as Wendy asked her if she needed any help.

“Not right now, but I’ll let ya know if I do, fair?” she asked her friend. When Wendy didn’t answer, Abi guessed she was in her own little world and chuckled, shaking her head as she started the essay.

The Clabbert is an arboreal creature found most often in the southern states of the United States of America. It resembles both a monkey and a frog, with smooth skin and sharp teeth, with webbed hands and feet. It has right in the center of its forehead, something called a postule sits, flashing red when it senses danger. she wrote as Wendy jumped. Wendy’s jump startled her and she jumped a little bit herself.

“What’s the matter?” Abi asked at the same time Wendy asked if she wanted any help again. Abi wasn’t too sure if Wendy had heard her the first time, or with what she’d said right then either, but she waited for her friend to speak before saying anything else. When Wendy apologized for ending up in her own little world for a while, Abi answered in kind. “It’s alright, as long as you’re alright! I was worried there for a minute when you jumped like that! And no, don’t worry about it. I’ve even gotten it started already, see?” Abi finished, pointing to the words at the top of her page and grinning.

She looked down at her page and new exactly what she should write next. Putting the quill on her page she went on writing, American witches and wizards kept Clabberts to give them an early warning sign that a Muggle was approaching them. But that is not the only thing the postule is and was used for. Pausing in her writing, she looked towards Wendy.

“What are you thinking about for the drawing?” she waited for that answer before asking, “Is that what you were thinking about when you jumped?” Abi paused in writing the essay to wait for her friend’s answers.

0 Abi Up above the sky so high... 0 Abi 0 5

Wendy

December 07, 2012 2:46 AM

Where the Clabbert cannot fly... by Wendy

It was a very good thing that Abi had the writing under control because Wendy was having a hard time getting control of her imagination at the moment. When she finally got the image of the Clabbert's sharp teeth out of her head, Abi was asking about what she was going to draw. Oh. Was her jump that noticeable? She blushed. "I was just thinking about the Clabbert's teeth. They're really sharp..." Wendy trailed off, not wanting to get into the details.

"Anyway, I think I'm going to draw the Clabbert as it is in the tree. Maybe put in the background the trees in North Carolina. I have family there so I have a pretty good idea of what it looks like." She'd only visited North Carolina once when she was a little kid, but she still had some memory of it and could fill in the blanks with her imagination. Trees couldn't be that different.

Wendy's favorite thing to draw, weirdly enough, was the sky because, in a way, she felt like she could control the weather and the colors. The sky had so many colors at different times in the day. It got to change every day which was a lot of fun to try and capture. Though the desert sky was usually kind of boring (all the time), she made up her own colors like she'd seen in pictures or movies.

She started on the drawing after she spread out a clean sheet of parchment to draw on. The sky, unfortunately, would have to come last, but Wendy started on the Clabbert itself. She sketched it first with a pencil, looking up periodically to capture certain movements of the Clabbert up in the front. She usually had a tough time focusing really well on essays and homework stuff, but drawing was one of the few things she really put all of her concentration on. That and wandwork.

It felt like forever before the Clabbert was done, but it was there holding onto branches that weren't a part of the tree yet. Its mouth was, thankful, closed, and Wendy compared it to the Clabbert in the front. It was a rough illustration, but at least you could tell it was a Clabbert. Wendy smiled. "Look!" she said, showing her skills off proudly to Abi. It had been at least twenty minutes of work and she hadn't realized how long it had been. "Whoa that took longer than I thought it would. I should put in the trees and that shouldn't take too long. Sorry for not talking." She smiled before putting the paper down nicely.

"How's the essay coming?" she asked as she began drawing tall, leafy trees surrounding the Clabbert in its tree. It was done quickly and afterwards she smiled at it proudly. All that needed to be done now was coloring it in.

0 Wendy Where the Clabbert cannot fly... 0 Wendy 0 5

Abi

December 11, 2012 2:59 PM

Twinkle, Twinkle little Clabbert... by Abi

Abi had already described in the essay what the Clabbert is as a creature, also where it was found and what it looked like before Wendy had jumped. Her friend jumping had scared her just a little bit and she’d jumped herself. She glanced briefly up at the Clabbert in the front of the room and could have sworn she’d seen its postule flash red, but she was probably just a little surprised at Wendy’s jump.

Abi worried about her friend and asked what was the matter. When Wendy didn’t answer, Abi was a little confused, but when Wendy apologized, Abi knew that she was alright and it was just her creativity that had stopped her from answering. Abi showed Wendy the start of their essay and grinned.

Quickly what should be written next came into her head and writing it fast, she added about the start of the Clabbert’s early warning system before pausing again to ask Wendy what she was thinking about. Wendy blushed and Abigail looked at her curiously as Wendy answered about the fact that she had been thinking of the Clabbert’s sharp teeth. When her friend described what she was going to draw, Abi closed her eyes to see it in her minds’ eye and shivered at the sighed she’d been getting described from Wendy. Abi heard sounds of pencil on fresh parchment and opened her eyes, smiling as she noticed Wendy was drawing. She looked back to their essay and kept on writing.

About 20 minutes passed of her writing and working out what to write when Abi heard Wendy’s voice ask her to look. Abi smiled and turned her head to look over. “That looks great Wendy!” Abi said excitedly. She was happier than she had been in the first place about their arrangement. “And its alright that you weren’t talking. I wasn’t either…” she added with a grin as Wendy put down her paper. “The essay is coming. Its actually pretty interesting to be honest…” she added as she wrote some more of her part of their class. “I didn’t know much of this… I’m glad we have our books and our notes…” she added as she put some more words onto their essay.

“Hey Wendy… Would you want to partner in other things? Like the tents or whatever at the bonfire?” Abi asked, hoping her friend would say yes. She didn’t really think that partnering with McKinley or the others would be a good plan, and she didn’t really want to partner with her sisters. Its not like I don’t see them all enough… she thought to herself, as she waited to see both what the drawing looked like and for Wendy’s answer.

0 Abi Twinkle, Twinkle little Clabbert... 0 Abi 0 5