Ew, ew, ew! on Care of Magical Creatures

Prof. Adrian Meade

August 20, 2013 4:15 AM

I spy with my little eye or something [1-2 years] by Prof. Adrian Meade

Christmas holidays had come and gone, and the COMC professor was back at Sonora resuming his duties as the shaper of the younglings minds. The dark-haired middle-aged man smirked at the memories of his winter holidays before grabbing his notes to start his beginners class. After the long days of family and community events it was nice to be back to the school routine where his sole responsibility was his students and nothing else. Adrian liked the fact that he didn’t have to cook or do his laundry since the praire-elves were nice enough to help him with those tasks that he never been particularly fond of. If he thought about it, it wasn’t that much of a hassle since magic did everything, but the idea of keeping a tight shop in his apartment was foreign to him. He swore that if the praire-elves didn’t help out he would be living in a mountain top of dirty socks.

Adrian yawned as he made sure everything was set in his classroom for the children. While he put together his class he came across a small creature he had completely forgotten it existed. It wasn’t dangerous, but it was necessary for them to know every kind of creature the magical world had to offer.

After a few minutes of Adrian mulling over his class, the students began to pile in. The beginner´s were by far his largest class, so it was important for them to follow the rules of it. It was for their well being, of course, but some students tended to do things without thinking. It was part of their age range, he supposed, but safety was always first. He didn’t even want to think what could happen if one was injured during his class. The mountain top of paperwork involved was already giving him a headache, and Adrian hadn’t even begun to think how the Headmistress would react to such an accident.

“I hope you had a good winter holiday!” he greeted them with a smile on his face like it was customary. Adrian had never been a grumpy man and it showed on his facial expressions. He waited until the last student sat down. For the class he had arranged all the desks in a circle with an enlarged Aquarium filled with sand and some pieces of some old cauldrons and even broken wands. Adrian had provided each desk with a magical magnifying glass. The creature they were about to study was very small, a parasite.

“Now that everyone is here and willing to jump-start your brain again let’s start with today´s lesson!” he chirped with a laugh. “The creature that is entrapped on the Aquarium is called Chizpurfle.” He waited for the information to sink on their young minds.

“Now, for you to see them you will need the magnifying glass on top of the desk, but before you can observe them let me tell you something real quick about these pesky parasites.

“A Chizpurfle is a type of very small parasite. Crab-like in appearance, they are up to a twentieth of an inch with fangs. Magic attracts them and they are commonly found in the fur and feathers of Crups andAugureys

They attack magical objects like wands and cauldrons, gnawing through to the magical core or gorging on the last remnants of potions. In the absence of magic, Chizpurfles attack Muggle items powered byelectricity. This explains the sudden failure of various new electrical goods.

Chizpurfle infestations are usually easily handled by patented potionson the market, but more severe infestations need to be dealt with by the Pest Sub-Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures”

Adrian smiled as he finished his own lecture. “I want you to work in teams to create a realistic drawing of the Chizpurfle and show every part of their body along an essay on it. You know the drill by now, you can look at them make notes on it and work the rest of the class on your assignment. I am always here if you need it.”

Adrian knew that he might get bored of this, but they needed to understand the theory before going any further, besides the more advanced classes weren’t as tedious as this group…or so he hoped.

OOC: Posting rules apply. Have fun! If you need Adrian tag him. Also, PLEASE be super nice and add your house next to you name to make things easier for me when its time to count points!

Subthreads:

Something beginning with A (tag Adam) by Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren with Adam Spencer, Pecari, Adam Spencer

Ew, ew, ew! by Julian Umland, Teppenpaw with Keme RunningBear, Aladren

Feeling very grown up (and a little grossed out) by Ji-Eun Park, Pecari

Something not cute! by Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus with Dimitri Porter. Teppenpaw, Ginny

"Or something" indeed by Malcolm Carey, Pecari

0 Prof. Adrian Meade I spy with my little eye or something [1-2 years] 0 Prof. Adrian Meade 1 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

August 20, 2013 1:39 PM

Something beginning with A (tag Adam) by Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

Francesca was elated at her team having won at her debut match but she had been relatively quiet about it, outside of any Aladren parties. Adam, Ann and Ann were her friends, and had been tough competition. Any chance she got to give them the credit they were due, she did. Given that Clara had managed to knock herself out – not even managed to get knocked out by a Bludger, but knocked herself out by doing her assigned role – it would have been easy to snigger. She wasn't above using it to undermine the girl's confidence in a future match, if she had the chance, but she wouldn't let the rest of Pecari's team be dragged down with her, and put in a positive word about their chasers wherever she could.

She had given Adam a bit of space immediately after the match. She'd still smiled or said hi if she saw him, but she hadn't tried to force her company on him. She hoped he took the whole thing in the right sort of spirit, but everyone still liked to win, and felt disappointed by losses. About a week after the match, she decided it was time to check in with him, so took a seat next to him in Care of Magical Creatures.

“I enjoyed playing you the other week,” she smiled, hoping they'd get a couple of minutes to chat whilst the rest of the class got settled. She'd thought carefully about what she was going to say. She didn't want him to think the only reason she'd enjoyed it was because she'd won, and that she was rubbing it in. “I always think it's most fun when your counterparts are tough,” she added. 'Opponents' would have sounded a lot less weird but, thanks to Clara's little stunt, it had the potential to sound sarcastic, as not everyone on the Pecari team had given them a run for their money...

Once everyone else was settled, she turned her attention to Professor Meade. She had heard of Chizpurfles, though luckily not from detailed first hand experience. They were curious little things, in that they possessed an innate ability that humans did not – a sort of ability to detect magic. The book chapter had skimmed over the uses to which this had been put, or theoretically could be, such as testing wand potency or detecting squibs. Unfortunately, in the case of the latter, the only way discovered so far was to see how long one of the parasites could feed off a wand for, which was counterproductive at best. In the latter case, no reliable method of interpreting the creature's behaviour had been discovered. Yet. She was looking forward to examining these issues in more depth in her essay, though for now she had some sketching to do. She would be able to do a passable diagram, she suspected, but her shading and ability to create realism were not up to much.

“Do you, by any chance, share your sister's artistic abilities?” she asked Adam, “I seem to remember you offering to help if she went down the painting route for the fair...”

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren Something beginning with A (tag Adam) 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren 0 5

Julian Umland, Teppenpaw

August 21, 2013 11:09 PM

Ew, ew, ew! by Julian Umland, Teppenpaw

Julian had indeed, aside from one squabble when John spilled orange juice on both a new white coat and a book and he’d insisted she’d overreacted since Mom had been able to sort it out in just a few minutes, had a pleasant Christmas break and smiled back enthusiastically at Professor Meade when he said he hoped the class had done so. Truth to be told, his class wasn’t her best – she spent outdoor lessons in the spring sneezing on and off, and wasn’t well-coordinated enough to really be good at handling creatures which moved faster than Flobberworms – but she did her best, and liked her professor of the past year and a half very much. Professor Meade’s enthusiasm couldn’t help but cast a better light on his chosen subject, no more than Julian could help being more enthusiastic in an attempt to keep up.

Today, she couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about the classroom décor – one too many issues with magical objects going out of use around the house when she was little, she guessed – but trusted the school not to throw them into anything more dangerous than they could really handle. Injuries were inevitable, there were waivers and all because they could hardly learn Defense Against the Dark Arts without getting jinxed a few times and other classes were going to have accidents and things, but nothing fatal. Killing too many of the students…sort of defeated the purpose of a school, really. Dead kids didn’t make very productive citizens.

When she heard what the thing they were going to look at was, though, she wrinkled her nose. Bugs in general didn’t bother her that much – one too many brothers for that one, she guessed – but anything which could be called a parasite did. It just made her skin crawl, as though just hearing about it or seeing it, or even a picture of it, could allow it to get on her somehow. She scratched her arm as the assignment was given, sliding her hand beneath the sleeves of her robe and her shirt to get to it.

Looking through the magnifying glass, she looked around for a bit before she saw what she was after, or thought she did, at the edge of a cauldron. “Ugh,” she said, sitting back very fast when it moved. “Ew, ew, ew, I don’t like it,” she complained to her neighbor.

16 Julian Umland, Teppenpaw Ew, ew, ew! 254 Julian Umland, Teppenpaw 0 5

Ji-Eun Park, Pecari

August 24, 2013 1:43 PM

Feeling very grown up (and a little grossed out) by Ji-Eun Park, Pecari

Ji-Eun usually found something to smile about most days but today was extra exciting. On her birthday, the twelfth of December, her mother had allowed her to allow her to get her ears pierced. This had made birthday and Christmas present shopping for all of her family relatively easy. Her parents had got her some nice earrings, which she was saving for best, and Ji-Won had got her a colourful assortment of every day ones. They had been sitting on her bedside table, calling out to her for the six weeks which she had to keep her piercing studs in. Today was finally the day! She usually enjoyed choosing her cute and quirky accessories, and they put a smile on her face - having cheery earrings to add to the mix just made it all even better. She had changed her mind about which ones she would wear first virtually every day in the run up to wearing them but had eventually plumped for little rainbows. Her hair was done up in high plaited buns in order to make sure her ears were clearly visible, and she was wearing the 'Happy Clouds Floating' t-shirt that she had worn for her first Quidditch lesson, to compliment the weather theme (even if it was fairly well hidden under her robes). Feeling excited and proud, she had set off for the day's classes.

Care of Magical Creatures was very much a class of two halves for her. She enjoyed it, so long as what they were studying was cute. She appreciated that many other animals were useful, for things like Potions, but then she'd rather read about them as an ingredient – it didn't necessitate seeing them in the flesh. Today's class seemed like it wasn't going to even have that level of appeal. Not only was the creature beyond not cute but it wasn't even useful – in fact, it was a pest! No one would, she was sure, ever want to care for them. Exterminate them, possibly. Care for? Not so much. Perhaps they had some uses in Potions or medicine and people cultivated them under controlled circumstances but that definitely wasn't a career she was going to be looking into, though the possibility made the thought of writing an essay about them more appealing.

Carefully leaving her wand in her bag, far away from the tank, she moved closer, armed with a quill and parchment. She had no real problem with bugs when they were dead and being thrown into a cauldron but these made her uneasy. Not only were they alive and wriggling (making the back of her neck tickle) but they were magic thieves. She peered through the magnifying glass, adding a few strokes to her parchment as she roughed the outline of the bug.

“Can you make out it's body properly?” she asked the person next to her. “It's got a kind of... jointed thing going on. But I can't quite make it out,” she added, showing them what she had so far on her her sketch. “Something about this just isn't quite right.”

13 Ji-Eun Park, Pecari Feeling very grown up (and a little grossed out) 268 Ji-Eun Park, Pecari 0 5

Keme RunningBear, Aladren

August 24, 2013 6:13 PM

I see you like them! by Keme RunningBear, Aladren

Keme’s time at home had been well spent. Much of the holiday he had spent with his friends outside playing games in the snow. He also helped out his parents whenever they needed him and spent time with the Chief during the ceremonies. Keme was not to be the next Chief of the tribe or any future Chief of the tribe. That belonged to the eldest son of the eldest son, which was his much older cousin. This did not bother Keme. Sometimes, people would ask Keme if he was ever jealous of his cousin, but Keme would simply ask why would he be? If it was not his cousin, then it would be the first son of the second son, which Keme was not. That was his other cousin. Keme was the first son of the fourth son, so there were plenty of people before him to take the place, therefore, Keme never thought the seat was his to begin with. Besides, Keme did not like the idea of running the tribe. He saw how complicated it was and how weary his grandfather had become after taking the seat. Keme did not want that.

Now back in school, Keme was back to his quiet self and just taking in the scenery. He was still trying to get used to the students at this school. They were all so very different than his friends back home. What they did for fun didn’t really fit in with what he did. What they were tutored in was not at all what he was tutored in. His tribe had ceremonies and traditions that were upheld, spiritual enlightenments, rites of passage that someday he would take. These were things that he could not share with the others here. They had their own ceremonies and weird rites of passage, but it did not hold the same validity as he felt his tribes did. Not that he tried to compare. They were simply, apples and oranges.

The Care of Magical Creatures professor was always excited about his job, which always made Keme interested in what he had to teach. Even something as trivial as a parasite. Keme knew these Chizpurfles could do terrible with magical items, but he also understood the need to learn about them. By being able to identify the parasite would be useful in case anything were to happen to his wand or cauldron or a number of other magical items.

After taking the appropriate notes, Keme put those aside and pulled out a new sheet of parchment for the assignment. Taking his magnifying glass up to the tank, Keme found a spot that was adequate enough for him to see the creatures and do his work. He studied them carefully through the glass and took detailed notes of what he saw in order to be able to accurately do the lesson. He was about to start the sketching when the girl beside him, Julian, sat back quickly and indicated her dislike for the things. This reaction amused him a little, but he tried not to let that show when he looked at her. “They are in a tank, they cannot hurt you.”

6 Keme RunningBear, Aladren I see you like them! 0 Keme RunningBear, Aladren 0 5

Julian U.

August 26, 2013 12:37 PM

I say "Eee! Pretty!" when I don't like things. by Julian U.

At the sound of reason and good sense from Keme, Julian made a face. “Yes, I know,” she said. “But I don’t like things with pincers. And since I can only see them through the magnifying glass, now I’m going to think they’re secretly everywhere and trying to eat my wand or something.”

Reason and good sense, of course, suggested that this was not terribly likely, as the school was reasonably clean and she didn’t remember hearing the story of such a calamity befalling anyone here in the year and a half she’d been a student, but when they were right there, and some of them, undetected by normal eyes, might slip out somehow at any second…well, maybe some people could help thinking about it, but Julian didn’t think she could. She just wasn’t that reasonable.

“I hope I didn’t just make you start thinking of that if you weren’t already thinking of that,” she added, since he had seemed unbothered by the idea of them attacking his wand before that. Aladrens were supposed to be logical, but she wasn’t sure if that would involve thinking of this kind of thing or not doing so, given the circumstances and what it was chizpurfles did.

One thing was for sure, she was going to scour her cauldron as soon as she got back to it and had a chance. It was clean anyway (it was, she thought, impossible to live too long with her mom and not pick up a desire for things to be clean, or at least shame if they were not; her older brothers might make a mess when Mom was out, or socks on the bathroom floor overnight once in a while, but they could almost always be seen furtively picking it all up again soon, looking embarrassed as they did), but the thought of gigantic, potion-engorged chizpurfles made her want it to be so clean she could sell it as new and no one ever know the difference. Not that she’d ever do something so dishonest, of course, that was practically stealing in a way, but that wasn’t the point. That cauldron was going to sparkle in the light like a diamond one by the time she was through with it, and her wand was going to be polished to an equally brilliant gleam, as though it were made of gold instead of just birch wood.

She wondered if this squeamishness and inability to get the image of the chizpurfles out of her head would last until she went home for Easter. If so, she might briefly end up the most popular member of the whole family, or else the one who annoyed everyone else most. Better to see if it really lasted her all the way back to the dorm, though, before she started planning for any of those eventualities.

16 Julian U. I say "Eee! Pretty!" when I don't like things. 254 Julian U. 0 5

Adam Spencer, Pecari

August 27, 2013 12:57 PM

Not to be confused with the other A somethings by Adam Spencer, Pecari

Getting over the Pecari loss hadn't been too difficult if only because Adam knew this was his first real match. He didn't like losing in front of his peers, but who did, really? What kept his spirits up was the Quaffle he had snatched in the beginning and the somewhat successful pass he had made, though Francesca had distracted him. Her antics had reminded him that, though they were mates outside of Quidditch, the pitch was a completely different world. It was all very black and white there and Adam had to keep that in mind. He didn't hold anything against her, but he didn't exactly seek her out either as he was mulling all this around in his head.

A week afterwards Adam was finished dwelling on Pecari's loss. There were so many other things to be happy about, like his sister's success in social interactions and the mates he had made both on and off the pitch. His team simply had to train harder and be more unified like the Aladrens were and perhaps one year they could win. It was something to work towards. Adam was actually quite proud of his performance in his first match and Quidditch now had some interest for him that hadn't been there the year prior. If nothing else he could gain some muscle.

He was early to COMC today and Francesca sat by him almost as soon as he sat down. Adam smiled at her, this being their first interaction in about a week. She mentioned the match immediately, but Adam didn't mind it. He didn't usually think the worst of people, especially his mates. Francesca didn't seem to be the soft sort of witch he was used to dealing with, but it was refreshing. He liked a witch who could play Quidditch well which made his friendship with the Anns all the more interesting. Adam had always tried to get Charlotte to play, but his sister was obsessed with being perfect; that meant no scars or bruises or putting herself in harm's way. It was all right, though; he loved her as she was and he always had someone to laugh at his jokes even when they were terrible.

Adam was about to congratulate Francesca, but she continued on to compliment him. He had thought Clara was a bit…new to the sport, but he wanted to think the best of everyone, her included. He wasn’t inclined to think Francesca was meaning her in a sarcastic manner, however, and he smiled. “Congratulations on your win,” he replied. “I enjoyed playing with you as well, though we were on opposite teams. Aladren’s tough, that’s for sure.” He was in a good spirit and didn’t hold anything against her. He knew none of it was personal.

The class began and Adam frowned. He knew of these sorts of creatures, horrible as they were. He had never come into contact with Chizpurfles himself, but he had mates back home who owned crups. Crups, it seemed, attracted these parasites like no other. He was lucky he lived in the city and only had dogs at home. Adam wasn’t squeamish about anything yet, but parasites still weren’t exactly his favourite subjects to study. The only pleasant thing about all this was the sketching bit. Though Adam would never be as good as Charlotte, he could hold a pencil and he could sketch something well enough to be recognised. Whether or not it was museum-worthy was up to interpretation. He paid close attention to detail, since he had grown up having to read people’s expressions and notice the small things to keep his mother happy.

The essays, on the other hand, would take a bit longer for him to think on. “I’m actually not bad,” he said with a smile, “though I would trust myself much more with a pencil than a paintbrush. Don’t tell my sister, but I’m half-glad she ended up not going with the painting booth.” He wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead. “Have you got an idea for the essay?” If they only needed to turn in one for each, they could work together on it if she didn’t mind.

0 Adam Spencer, Pecari Not to be confused with the other A somethings 0 Adam Spencer, Pecari 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

August 28, 2013 11:24 AM

Such as All the Aladrens by Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren

“Thank you,” she smiled, when Adam congratulated her on their win. He sounded pretty genuine and she was glad that there were no hard feelings. She hadn't thought there would be but she found a little weight had lifted now that she was really sure. “Maybe we could have a pick up game sometime, where we're not?” she queried, when he mentioned the fact that they were on opposite sides to each other. “You, me, Ann and Ann - I spent quite a lot of time with at least one of them in Charms last year,” she added, as a means of explaining her choice. “Though I'm not sure I fancy pitting myself against just them... They use secret psychic twin powers as well as what you learn in training, right?” she asked with a smile. Facing the twins together was probably a recipe for being beaten but she doubted that they could be realistically convinced to play against each other when they didn't even give the school a clear shot at knowing which was which.

“Probably the better medium for this as well,” she acknowledged, when he stated that he was better with a pencil.

“Did she decide on something else or..?” she cut herself off, a little embarrassed, not wanting to really suggest out loud that Charlotte might have bottled on the idea altogether. She would have used kinder words than that, and it did not seem like an entirely unreasonable thought to have, given Charlotte's nature, however, that didn't stop it from being an unpleasant thing to say about someone.

“I thought it might be interesting to read up on why and how they're drawn to magic and what good that could do. People have proposed harnessing that property for various uses – it mentioned them briefly in the chapter of our books, and it certainly piqued my curiosity. It would be more fitting as well, as this is Care of Magical Creatures, to focus on why someone might want them to stay alive. It's a bit of a niche area though, and I don't know that there will be that much on it, so it may have to be the usual habitat, food sources, what makes them thrive, what kills them...” she sighed, rattling off the typical essay contents of the subject.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren Such as All the Aladrens 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte, Aladren 0 5

Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus

August 29, 2013 7:24 PM

Something not cute! by Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus

Ginny enjoyed Care of Magical Creatures. She thought animals were fun and adorable. She wasn’t so naïve to believe that all animals were made this way or that even cute ones were harmless, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to look at them. Of course, Ginny was an excitable person by nature, so it didn’t really matter what she was studying, she tended to find the positive in it and was perpetually happy.

When Ginny had entered the room (sad that it was still too chilly to have it outside), she noticed both of her friends, Francesca and Adam, were already seated together and that there weren’t any additional seats directly near them for her to sit in. A frown appeared on her freckled face. She didn’t like to be set aside from them, but she didn’t seem to have much choice. Walking over to a free seat, Ginny settled in and tried not to pay any attention to her friends. This was, of course, very difficult for Ginny to do as she did not like not knowing what was going on with people. Her mind began to make up questions of what was going on. Were they better friends with one another than with her? Did they often hang out together and not invite her along? Were they angry with her about something?

The lesson started and Ginny was forced not to think about her friends anymore. She wrote down what she could about the lecture, her frown deepening when he mentioned what they would be working with that day. A bug? Or rather, a parasite? The kind that her mother constantly checked and rechecked their magical items against? She knew that it was important understand all creatures, but this wasn’t making her feel any better. Plus, she couldn’t draw! This was unfair to those who had no talent and an advantage to those who did.

An unusually grumpy Ginny left her seat with a fresh parchment, magnifying glass, and a self-inking quill and made her way up to the tank where the parasites were situated. She found herself a seat by the tank and began to examine inside in search of one of the little creatures she needed to study. As she looked around, grumpiness began to fade away. The adventure of the search took precedence over anything she had been contemplating before that moment.

Ginny leaned in close to the tank while she looked around, her heat thumping happily in anticipation of spotting her bait. Finally, she saw it. The tiny crab like creature, so small that she would never have seen it had it not moved. “Ooooh!” Ginny squealed under her breath. “Found you!” She exclaimed with excitement. She had moved so close to the tank that her nose squished against it and she blocked the person nearest to her from being able to see probably.

“Whoops, sorry!” She commented with a grin as she leaned back from the tank to allow them room. “Those little things are not cute.” She commented while she attempted to draw what she could remember of it, her mood already back to the usually bubble-gum happy that she tended to remain in.

6 Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus Something not cute! 0 Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus 0 5

Keme

August 29, 2013 10:05 PM

That makes total sense. by Keme

Although it was not necessarily within his nature to do so, Keme found himself chuckling a little at Julian. He hadn’t meant to and he hoped that he didn’t offend her, but it found it amusing that it was only after coming face to face (per se) with one of the parasites that she feared they were everywhere. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that they were likely to be everywhere. Especially since this was a magical school. Magic was what drew them to places, a school would be an obvious place. Of course, he was sure their groundskeeper kept up with keeping them out as much as he could just as he would any other pest, but there were bound to get a few that bunkered down here.

“We had an infestation in the tribe before. It’s not completely strange for places of large populations of magical beings to get them. They were easy enough to rid of as the Chief was able to figure out what the issue was and it was taken care of before it became too much.” Keme told her, seeming unimpressed by the story he told. “I wouldn’t worry too much at this point. They would have means to protect against the parasite and if there happened to be any around, the necessary equipment to get rid of them.”

Keme was probably talking too much and not being helpful at all to her woes of the situation, but he just didn’t see the reason to be so disturbed by the things. People slept on beds that had bugs on them that were naked to the eye. As long as they were washed regularly, which the school beddings were, then the bugs would be killed and the bed free until the next herd made their way in. He would not mention this to Julian though out of fear he would keep her from sleeping peacefully for the remainder of her life.

“Are you going to write about how disgusted you are with them as living creatures?” Keme asked in all seriousness. He didn’t really see what the purpose of these creatures were to the world any more than he could understand any other parasite’s purpose, so writing an essay on them would be a challenge for him. If he knew their reasons or helpfulness, he’d be able to easily write something. But, these things were just pests and so, he wasn’t sure if he could find enough about them to write a great paper on them.

6 Keme That makes total sense. 0 Keme 0 5

Julian U.

August 30, 2013 2:48 PM

So why does it always make people look at me funny? by Julian U.

Julian couldn’t help but laugh, too, when Keme clearly found her ridiculous. She even knew she was being ridiculous, it just didn’t bother her because, well, life was ridiculous. Everything about it. According to her dad, life only happened because God had a sense of humor.

Admittedly, Dad had probably not meant that God intended for her only to think about things when they were shoved in her face, as with the chizpurfles – more likely, she thought, her parents would take the opportunity to point out the theological implications of only thinking about unpleasant things when it couldn’t be helped, and instruct her to do better in future, which she would…probably not do, but at least feel bad about when it did occur to her – but the point stood, she thought. It was just silly. Gross and unpleasant and the kind of thing that made it hard to sleep once in a while because it felt like her whole skin was crawling, but silly. Might as well laugh about it as do anything else.

“Of course,” she agreed. “I know it’s not, like, a whole nest of ashwinders in a wood house or anything.” Those had occurred in her home once, though thankfully they’d noticed quickly enough, and didn’t live in an overly-woody house. The basement wall had gotten a little scorched before Dad got to the last one, but it was stone anyway. Dad had gotten yelled at anyway, though, since he’d been the one who’d left the fire unattended after making potions in the first place. “It’s just sort of gross to look at.”

Julian wasn’t sure what his tone meant, exactly, about his stance on whether or not it was acceptable to write about being disgusted by things as living creatures, but shook her head. “No,” she said. “They’re not my favorites, but I’m sure there’s something good about them, why they exist. Everything has.” She noticed she’d said that a bit firmly and moved on before she blushed. “Besides, if my brothers found out about it – and I know they would – they’d never let me live it down about being such a girl,” she added with a laugh. “Do you have any siblings, Keme?”

16 Julian U. So why does it always make people look at me funny? 254 Julian U. 0 5

Dimitri Porter. Teppenpaw

August 31, 2013 1:37 PM

Are any parasites cute? by Dimitri Porter. Teppenpaw

Dimitri walked into the COMC classroom feeling a bit tired. He had fallen asleep in one of the chairs in the Teppenpaw Common room while studying for Charms class and woke up with a kink in his neck. He went up to the dorm to try and sleep in his own bed, but the pain in his stiff neck made sleeping difficult. He woke up that morning feeling grumpy and very sore. He glanced around the classroom and when he could readily spot Ava he took a seat near Ginny. He recalled seeing her at the start of the term and in classes, but hadn’t really had the chance to work with her since she was always working with one of her own friends (so it seemed). When he spotted her alone he thought she might not mind a new partner to work with. He found that despite his normally quiet nature that he actually enjoyed working with new people. It gave him the chance to get to know people while in the guise of school work. That way he was able to determine what kind of personality someone had by how they reacted to working with someone they normally wouldn’t. In a way it was kind of a nice way of spying on people. Dimitri took the seat closest to Ginny and put his book bag down. He gave her a polite wave and a small smile before turning his attention to Professor Fawcett. He found himself intrigued by the days lesson. He wasn’t aware that their course of study would include parasites and bugs. Not that he minded that prospect…it just wasn’t what he expected.

Dimitri frowned curiously as the Professor went on to explain that the type of parasite they would be studying for the day was one that fed on magical items. He made a mental note to leave his wand at his desk when he went to examine the little devil. Better yet, in his book bag. He didn’t want to take any chances. He pulled out his sketchpad and a pencil and made his way slowly up to the tank, standing directly behind Ginny. He hadn’t meant to stand behind her, but that was where he ended up. He chuckled to himself when she sounded slightly excited. It took him a second to realize that she sounded excited about finding the little bugger in the first place. He chuckled again when she commented on its lack of cuteness. It soo sounded like a comment his sister would have made. He never did understand the need for something to be cute. Creatures were creatures, plain and simple. Cute or ugly they just were. He smiled and politely waved off her apology when Ginny apologized for blocking his view. “It’s quite alright,” he assured her. “I’m actually glad you got to see it first. Maybe you can give an idea of where to look for the little blighter.” He stepped up along side her and peered into the tank. Once he had an idea of where to look he nodded in agreement.

“You’re right,” he told her chuckling slightly. “They are rather unpleasant looking, aren’t they?” He glanced briefly at her face just then and could almost swear that she appeared to be in some sort of discomfort. “Kind of hard to draw and study them at the same time isn’t it?” he asked politely. “Maybe we can help each other out. If you don’t mind just looking at it, I can draw what you tell me it looks like. That way we’re knocking out two birds with one stone. Sound okay to you?” he asked offering her a friendly smile. “I’m Dimitri. It’s a pleasure to officially make your acquaintance. You’re Ginny right?” he asked, curiously. He waited for her to confirm or deny the information before he continued. “I would have tried working with you before now, but you always seemed to be working with one of your friends and I didn’t want to be rude and intrude. Guess their loss is my gain today,” he smiled encouragingly at her. He knew she hadn’t officially said yes to working with him yet, but he was optimistic that she would. “So, what do you think? Partners?” he asked curiously, holding out his free hand.

0 Dimitri Porter. Teppenpaw Are any parasites cute? 0 Dimitri Porter. Teppenpaw 0 5

Adam Spencer, Pecari

August 31, 2013 4:54 PM

Or All the Americans by Adam Spencer, Pecari

Friendly matches were sometimes more fun than real professional matches, Adam had found. There was something a bit odd about the Anns. He almost never found one without the other, but if that was how they wanted to live that was fine. They were a mean team together so Adam had no reason to complain. "I wouldn't put it past them," he agreed. "A pick up game sounds fun." That was as far as he got before the class began.

Adam nodded in agreement to Francesca's claim about the pencil being a better medium. An entire canvas and paints were not provided and it wasn't like they had time for real art in this class period. Francesca asked about Charlotte's booth then and Adam went on to say, "She joined the Art Club and the president has a booth for the club already. She put on one of her paintings to be hung up at the booth, so she's content with that. That means there's seemingly no need for a painting booth." It was lucky; otherwise Adam wouldn't have been able to go along with his game booth that Ginny had so nicely volunteered to help out with.

The essay was not on the forefront of Adam's mind, but he listened to Francesca's ideas and tried to make sense of it all. Researching on why this creature was drawn to magic seemed like an ambitious project. "If I draw, would you want to work on the essay? We can certainly think of the essay topic together if you'd like." If she gave any notion that she didn't like the idea, Adam was more than willing to work on both.

Once Francesca had agreed or disagreed, Adam looked over at the creature itself. He picked up the magnifying glass. "I suppose we ought to take a look at this creature now," he said. "We can get a better idea of its disposition and, for the drawing bit, its form." Adam didn't want to copy an old photograph in a textbook, but he wanted to draw the real thing. "Shall we go together?" He handed her the magnifying glass. "Ladies first."

0 Adam Spencer, Pecari Or All the Americans 0 Adam Spencer, Pecari 0 5

Keme

August 31, 2013 7:22 PM

They probably do not agree. by Keme

Keme agreed, Ashwinders would be far worse than a nest of Chizpurfle in a house. Thankfully, they had never had any sort of Ashwinder catastrophe happened in the lands. They were very careful about making sure the fires were out at night before anyone went to sleep. If they had an infestation, they could lose their entire livelihood and then what would his people do? At least magical items could be replaced if Chizpurfles were around. Their livelihood would take decades to rebuild again.

“I agree, they are unpleasant to look at.” Keme said when he studied them again. He didn’t think they were the worst thing to look at, but they certainly weren’t unicorns. Girls went crazy over unicorns. He wondered if that lesson would ever come around and, if so, how these girls would react to them. He feared that it would be both amusing and annoying to witness. Something to look forward too, he guessed.

If she figured out their purpose, he would be surprised. The only thing he had ever heard about them was how they were attracted to magic and destroyed what they could when they found the magical core. They were exactly what they were labeled. Pests. Parasites. Nothing more. He could not fathom a purpose for them. But, Julian was right, everything had a purpose.

“I do.” Keme commented. “I have an older sister, KoKo. She goes to school back home.” He told her. KoKo had been fourteen when it had been decided that some of the children would leave the land to go to school, she had already passed the age of eleven and so was safe to stay on the land. She was dating a boy from the land too, so the adults were pleased with her. Keme and KoKo got along just fine. It was only every so often that they fought and less so now that they were both teenagers.

“Your brothers would make fun of you for writing an assignment on finding Chizpurfles disgusting?” Keme asked her while he worked. Keme couldn’t remember any time that he or his sister made fun of one another over something as simple as an assignment and an opinion. Especially an opinion that was held by the majority of the student body. “Do your brothers go to school here too?” He asked her. He didn’t know any of the older students save for those he had been on the challenge team with.

6 Keme They probably do not agree. 0 Keme 0 5

Malcolm Carey, Pecari

August 31, 2013 9:58 PM

"Or something" indeed by Malcolm Carey, Pecari

As soon as he entered Care of Magical Creatures, Mal stopped walking, eyeing the circle of desks with the sort of distrustful expression most would have reserved for the sight of an unexpected bevy of somber-looking officials backed up by Aurors waiting in his sitting room. He was reliably told this had actually happened to his great-grandfather once, though they had really just been there to tell Edwin his older brother was dead and ask if he’d killed him, nothing more serious than that. A circle was, Mal thought, probably not as bad as being asked by the law if he had poisoned Andrew, but it still wasn’t a formation he liked the looks of, either.

At least it was too large for them all to be expected to talk to each other. Mal took a desk which at least put his back closer to a wall than to the door and wasn’t hideously difficult to get in and out of and looked through the magnifying surface at what looked to him like a tank full of useless, if potentially dangerous, junk, wondering what on earth Meade was planning to spring on them from all this.

Retroactive wishes for his winter holiday made him scowl for a moment. His holiday had not been at all nice, and he did not appreciate being reminded of how people thought they could just take his things and give them to the Brockerts whenever they wanted at all, especially by someone who was about to make him work with some vermin or the other. He bit down on the side of his littlest fingernail, hovering right on the border of a good sulk after the harmless comment even though he knew it wasn’t really the time or place for it – vermin, after all, sometimes had teeth, which required attention to manage.

As he heard more about today’s specimens, however, he gradually began to look brighter, then to lean forward in interest, even taking some haphazard notes. This was good; this was whole new territory for revenge plots, when he felt like them, and he might even be able to make this one work someday for real without having to worry about somber-looking officials backed up by Aurors in the sitting room after he did it. When they were set to work, Mal looked with more eagerness than he had done anything in this class in almost two years, already imagining the wonderful day when he carefully dropped about twenty of them on Evan Brockert’s wand at the same time and then let them do their work. See how much Lu liked her big fish then, when he was just waving around a stick which was no longer a functioning wand!

He grinned as he spotted one of his nasty little future friends in the tank, just picturing it. He’d like to see the family give his sister to someone like that. Eventually, of course, they would figure out what was going on, but by then, Evan would have made a great fool of himself, and then there would be no more talk of the Brockerts – of some second-string Brockert, specifically – taking Lucille away from him. She would stay at home, where she belonged, and they could take Andrew for one of their third-string girls or something if they insisted, Mal didn’t care that much about his brother, Andrew was really mostly Stepmother’s and was sure to want to kill Mal as soon as he was old enough anyway if he wasn’t packed off to the frozen ends of the earth to establish his own fiefdom somewhere first. The Brockerts could have him, but Lu was Mal’s.

Squinting through the magnifying glass, he spotted a bug. “Look at the fangs on that one!” he exclaimed to his neighbor, pointing toward one of the bugs before he realized that this was probably not helpful unless his neighbor already happened to be looking right there. “Over there, beside that wand, the dark one – the sort of reddish one,” he added quickly by way of clarification. “I wouldn’t want that near anything of mine, would you?” He assumed this was a rhetorical question, but then, people were strange.

0 Malcolm Carey, Pecari "Or something" indeed 0 Malcolm Carey, Pecari 0 5

Ginny

September 01, 2013 11:36 PM

Maybe? I haven't seen them all to know. by Ginny

The person she had been blocking was Dimitri Porter. He was one of the new Teppenpaws. Ginny remembered him from roll call, but she had never spoken to him before. He was one of those people who seemed to be involved in everything and she was pretty sure he was on the Teppenpaw Quidditch team. Quidditch scared her and after watching everyone play, as excited as she was for her friends, she knew it was not something she could ever join them in. Not in the least the fact that she could barely ride a broom.

At his request, Ginny pointed out where the parasite she saw happened to be, but she wasn’t sure if it was at all helpful to him until he gave her a nod. Ginny was aware that there were ugly things in the world, but she hadn’t really ever been exposed to them. Her mother called Ginny her ‘Little Doll’. She was told she was pretty and thus believed it to be true. She thought her friends were wonderful and did not see any ugliness in them. Her family and the staff back home, they made Ginny so happy there was no way that any of them could have an ounce of ugly in them. Ugly things existed, but they did not tend to exist in her life.

“I do not draw.” Ginny answered him. “So, either way, it would be difficult for me to do.” She said with a smile. She didn’t know how to answer his question about working together. She was not a very good speaker and she didn’t know if she could give a detailed description for him to accurately draw the parasite. Nor did she understand how they would be ‘knocking out two birds with one stone’ as he said. They were supposed to draw, label, and write an assignment. Her describing the parasite to him while he drew was only one bird. Not that she minded him drawing the thing as she had no talent in that. She just felt like maybe he was confused about the assignment.

“Indeed I am.” She said with a polite curtsy. She was surprised to find that he had thought about working with her before. Considering how much things he was involved in, she would have thought he was content to work with his own crowd of people. Ginny glanced over at her friends. They were happily working together. Probably never once even had a moment of thought towards her and how she wasn’t working with them. “Well, it’s nice that you’ve wanted to work with me before. We can be partners for the assignment today. I cannot guarantee that my description of the thing will be of any use to you, but the labeling and assignment shouldn’t be too horrible.”

6 Ginny Maybe? I haven't seen them all to know. 0 Ginny 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte

September 02, 2013 2:35 PM

There are an awful lot of those by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

“That sounds really great. I'm glad she found some like-minded people,” she smiled, when he told her about Charlotte's involvement with the art club. The booth she was being part of sounded a little different to the one she'd had in mind, but she could see why she'd just choose to be a part of that one instead of setting up something similar by herself. “I'll be sure to go along and look for her picture,” she added.

“Excellent plan,” she nodded, when he volunteered to sketch. She could have a look at the bug, just to say she'd seen it, and then start to hit the books provided in the classroom whilst Adam sketched. If they didn't get everything finished in class, they could meet up and do it as homework.

“Ever the gentleman,” she commented, with a slight smile and twitch of her eyebrow as he offered her first go. Given that the task in question was examining a vile little parasite, she wasn't sure it was a great privilege. Taking the magnifying class, she peered into the tank.

“They're good at hiding...” she commented to Adam, after it felt like she'd been peering for an eternity. “Oh, there – well, I'm sure it's mother loves it,” she commented, holding out the magnifying glass for him to take a turn. “Fangs are always such an endearing characteristic, don't you find?” she added drily.

Whilst Adam studied the creature in more detail, she collected some of the resources available in the classroom. A brief appraisal of them mostly indicated the more negative characteristics of the chizpurfle.

“Apparently the most positive thing that can be said of them is that they're useful when dead. Chizpurfle fangs are an ingredient in some potions, mostly dark ones which repress magic...” she read out loud, not entirely sure how positive her positive point was. “And the technical term for something that feeds of magic is a thaumavore.” That was a good dinner party fact but probably not enough to build an essay around. She turned the page with a slight sigh.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte There are an awful lot of those 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Julian U.

September 03, 2013 6:28 PM

Silly people. by Julian U.

"They would," she said, nodding. "Well, John and Joe, the younger ones, anyway. I'm the only girl in the family, so they would say it was because of that." Julian smiled, momentarily mischievous. "Of course, John would probably scream like a girl if one of the big ones got out and came anywhere near him, so I can always think of that."

It no doubt helped that Julian herself wasn't much of a princess, since teasing the only sister had to lose a lot of its fun if she was normally turning over rocks or flooding sandbox cities right along with them, but she was glad she had been blessed with brothers who weren't too likely, on the whole, to drop bugs down her back or anything. They could be jealous over her having her own room and argue over silly little things, but they all basically got along, having enough of both the same tastes and dislikes and the abilities to not get too worked up over it when they did not, though Julian never would understand how on earth Stephen could really go a whole year and only read one book. She was too emotional for an Aladren, she guessed, but she didn't think her parents could have done a much more thorough job of passing on the love of reading if they had been her birth mother and father, and Stephen really was Dad's cousin somehow. She, as far as she knew, wasn't a blood relative of anybody's.

She and the other boys were, she thought, really very lucky. With bloodlines and families and inheritances being so important to a lot of people in the magical world, even her Dad's family thought he and Mom were sort of odd ducks for how they'd handled not being able to have children the usual way themselves (actually, Mom's family thought she was weird, too, but they were Muggles and it had more to do, Julian thought, with Mom getting a Master's degree in medieval literature and then marrying a sports journalist, though she had heard Aunt Jessica say a few times that she was sure it wasn't like really having kids and Nana was sure at least one of them was going to go wrong someday and break Mom's heart because bad blood would come out). Stephen, the logic went, was family anyway, it was one thing to take him in, but the rest of them?

"No, " she said, shaking her head about her brothers. "Stephen's finished now, and Paul goes to school at home." The same thing Keme had said about his sister; Julian wondered if KoKo was a Squib, too. There was nothing wrong with being a Squib, of course, but it wasn't what people always just talked about with people they barely knew. Julian would never say so to Paul, she was sure, but she didn't really like talking about it at all, even when she had to. "And Joe and John aren't eleven yet, so they're at home, but John might come here in a few years. Joey's just five, so there's no telling what he'll do." She kept talking as she looked at the chizpurfles again, finding a little distraction helped with being un-disgusted enough to notice the details she had to draw before the class was over. "We live in Canada, but Dad's mom is American, so we're sort of all over the place," she explained. Then, her tone not changing in the slightest as she failed to notice she was abruptly changing channels, "I wish I knew enough about bugs to write about how their thoraxes compared or something."

16 Julian U. Silly people. 254 Julian U. 0 5

Adam Spencer

September 03, 2013 6:59 PM

Only fitting for America, I suppose. by Adam Spencer

Adam nodded, agreeing with Francesca's sentiment. He had been worried about Charlotte finding her niche here, but she seemed to be fitting in just fine. It was relief, not having to worry about her social life all the time. In their childhood he had always brought mates to her to interact with and talk to, but it was never the same. They had befriended Adam first and had wanted to stay mates with him even if that meant foregoing their friendship with his sister. She wasn't exactly the most exciting person to hang out with to the public, though Adam couldn't agree with that personally, but perhaps being away from home and away from their mum's eagle eye was good for her.

"At your service," he replied with a nod of his head and a grin to her gentleman comment. Francesca went ahead to the tank and he prepared a bit of parchment to begin his sketch on. He labelled it and made a rough shape of the creature's body. Tiny living creatures were difficult to draw, but he would manage somehow. The creature had to be interesting enough for Francesca to spend such a long time looking at it, but he didn't mind. Perhaps there was some hope for even parasites to be interesting to second years.

"They're good at hiding," said Francesca and Adam looked in himself. He could hardly see a thing. She finished and he grinned. "All the better to bite with, eh?" he retorted before peering through the magnifying glass himself. They were difficult to spot at first, but he caught one gnawing on one of the broken magical pieces. At least it looked like it was gnawing. There were fangs like Francesca had told him, and it was brown and looked, well, like any other insect.

Well, he would try and make the best of it. If he couldn't find a good angle for this creature, hopefully Francesca's essay would. He went back to her and found her reading aloud to herself. He caught the last bit of her sentence and didn't understand it, but he trusted she knew what she was doing. "Find anything notable in the last three minutes?" Had he really been looking at the parasite for that long?

The rough sketch Adam had begun was filled out with the specific body parts before he forgot what it looked like. With this he would have to go back to the creature at least once or twice to get the details right. The parasite's body was simple enough and with fangs dominating most of the creature's body, he didn't think it would be as difficult as he had originally figured. Perhaps drawing the Chizpurfle gnawing away at a wand's core would earn them extra marks.

40 Adam Spencer Only fitting for America, I suppose. 257 Adam Spencer 0 5

Keme

September 09, 2013 7:45 PM

Tricks are for kids. by Keme

Keme listened to Julian with great confusion. She had a lot of siblings it seemed. He didn’t think there was a family on his land with more than four children and that was usually rare. Most just had two or three. It also noticed that most of them had ‘J’ names except for apparently the two oldest of the family. He wondered why that was. Second family perhaps? Him and his sister had similar names, but he didn’t think his parents did that with any purpose. He was named Keme as it meant Thunder and they wanted him to be strong. Giving him a name that was about power somehow offered him that strength. He really wasn’t sure why they named KoKo that. It meant night and he had no idea how that was to help her grow.

“Oh, did your family decide that you should be the first to leave the lands?” He asked her, curiously. If her older brothers (assuming Stephen went to the school Paul was currently attending) were at another school closer to home, then they must have wanted a reason to have Julian come here instead. “The Chief wanted us to learn the ways of others. Spread our wings, so to speak, so myself and a couple of others who turned eleven that year were chosen to attend school off the lands.” Keme explained as though he and Julian now had something in common.

She shifted conversations quite suddenly back to their task at hand. Keme had forgotten his assignment momentarily while they were conversing and realized his error. Keme returned to his work while he figured out what she was saying. “Thoraxes are for animals and bugs, correct?” Keme asked for confirmation. “This is a parasite. Do parasites also have thoraxes?” Keme did not know much about parasites or bugs for that matter. Animals he was still studying and learning at home to help with his tracking, but he didn’t really learn their anatomy, he learned about their behaviors.

Keme returned to drawing the creature in front of him. “May I ask about your names?” Keme started. “Only the two oldest brothers had names that did not start with ‘J’, why is that? Did they decide they liked the letter after?” It could have been a simple coincidence that three of the five children had ‘J’ names, but he was curious all the same. Perhaps it was not appropriate to ask now that he thought about it. It might have been a personal decision her parents made and not his place to ask. It was too late now though to take it back. “I’m sorry if it was not my place to ask. I was curious and might be crossing personal lines that I should not.”

6 Keme Tricks are for kids. 0 Keme 0 5

Julian U.

September 12, 2013 2:17 PM

They're always after me lucky charms. by Julian U.

Julian contemplated his way of describing her border-hopping and translated it into her own idiom as best she could. “Mine was finally up to me,” she said. “Mom and Dad wouldn’t have sent me here if I hadn’t wanted to come – really, Mom would have just as soon homeschooled all of us instead of sending us to school at all – but my oldest brother was unhappy at his school, and he thought I would be if I went there, too.” She shrugged. “Dad’s sister was here, years and years ago, and she said it was a nice enough place and the snobs usually just ignored everyone else, so after we all discussed it, looked at all the options, we decided to give it a try, that’s all.”

She blushed when she realized she had wandered back into chizpurfles. “I don’t really know,” she said. “I was assuming they are some kind of insect – they’ve got something called a carapace, because that’s in some potions, but I don’t really know about a thorax. I was just talking. I never paid enough attention when Mom taught us science.” She turned the end of her quill around and around on the edge of her page, then, still feeling embarrassed, tucked her hair back and looked up again. “I’m sorry for just jumping around subjects like that, I wasn’t really thinking.”

Her family was used to putting up with this tendency, which many of them shared, but others were not, and it had surely looked like she was just abruptly changing subjects out of a clear blue sky, which was very rude, even though that had not been her intention.

Julian hesitated for a moment when Keme asked about her siblings’ names and then had to wave it aside when he apologized for doing so. “No, it’s all right,” she said. “Well, Stephen was born on St. Stephen’s Day, and Julian of Norwich – who’s a girl, too – is Mom’s favorite author,” she said. “The others….” She shrugged, deciding to be matter-of-fact about it. “Well, their birth mother named them, and John and Paul don’t like it at all if anyone talks about her, so I don’t really know,” she said. “One time, Paul made a joke about me and Steve being named for saints – which isn't quite right, but that wasn’t the point – and him and John being named for Beatles, but I don’t know if that’s actually why,” she added, probably very unhelpfully. "Do you mind if I ask the same about you and your sister?"

16 Julian U. They're always after me lucky charms. 254 Julian U. 0 5

Keme

September 12, 2013 10:13 PM

They're Grrrrrrrrrreat! by Keme

Keme listened with great interest as Julian explained her reasonings for leaving Canada and coming to Sonora. He didn’t really spend much time talking to his classmates, but Julian was proving to be interesting and he did not regret initiating the discussion with her. He hadn’t even took much time to speak with his challenge team mates last term and he had spent the better part of a year with them. Keme really needed to try harder to fit in at this school if he was going to manage to live here for the full seven years.

Keme’s mother was too busy handling most of the sales in their shops to bother with homeschooling, but he knew that she had a hard time with him being away. She was honored, of course, that he was one of the few chosen to leave, but she was still his mother and she worried about him. For that, he could understand Julian’s mother not wanting her children to leave home. At least she had a small connection here at the school instead of just falling blindly into it as he had. “What is considered a ‘snob’?” Keme asked her, unsure of what she considered as that. He knew what he did on some aspect, although it wasn’t something he necessarily called ‘bad’ as he was supposed to associate with them more, but he didn’t really like them either. He hoped no one really thought of him that way as it was not his intention.

“Oh, it’s alright.” Keme commented easily, still working on his assignment. “It reminded me to start working, so it wasn’t a terrible thing for you to do. If it helps, I do not know much about any of this either. I can name a bug if I needed to, but identifying its body parts is not something within my knowledge at this time.” Apparently, this would change based on the professor’s methods, but he’d rather prefer to learn about the animals more so than the bugs. Or, in this case, parasites.

Birth mother? Her siblings were adopted? He gathered from her comment that they were of the same mother as well, so he wondered what that meant. “Beetles? They were named for bugs? I think being named after Saints is a much better deal.” Keme commented, looking confused by such a comment. “My parents wanted me to have a powerful name, Keme is the Blackfoot name for Thunder. Thunder is about power and strength. The Chief approved of it. I don’t really know why KoKo was named what she was. It means ‘night’ in Blackfoot. I do not know what my parents intended for that with her. I never thought to ask either, to be honest.” Keme admitted without shame.

6 Keme They're Grrrrrrrrrreat! 0 Keme 0 5

Dimitri

September 13, 2013 5:59 PM

Neither have I by Dimitri

Dimitri smiled at Ginny’s acknowledgement that he had been correct in his assumption of her identity. He was fairly decent with names and tried to pay attention whenever they were said. He was glad that she didn’t object to being partnered with him during this particular assignment. He frowned slightly at the confession she made about not being able to draw. It seemed kind-of unfair to ask that they do an assignment for class where you couldn’t do part of the assignment. He wondered how she would feel if he offered to draw the pictures for both of their papers. He could only hope that she wouldn’t take offense to his offer. He gave her an encouraging smile and made his offer. “That stinks kind-of, but I’m more than happy to draw two pictures of the little bugger if you’d like so that way we both will have a picture to label and stuff if you’d like,” he offered kindly. “If you could at least try to describe it to me I’m sure it should go fine.” He tried to sound as encouraging as possible.

He put his pencil and sketchpad in front of him and began sketching out a rough outline of the parasite that he could remember from seeing it briefly. He listened carefully for whatever information about it Ginny could give him and took a peek or two back at it himself to see if he could add anything to what she already said. He glanced down at the sketch and gave it a quizzical look, studying his handiwork. He flipped the page around that he had so far and showed her what he had. “Does that look about right do you think?” he asked showing her his rendition of the icky little thing. He hoped that he got the likeness close enough to the real thing. He was pretty sure though there might be a few details he missed, but all in all it looked fairly close. “I can start drawing the other picture if you want to start the writing part of the assignment,” he told her. “I can even put little label boxes in so we can label the thing when I’m done if you’d like to do that before the written part,” he offered cheerfully. He waited for her reply before he pulled the first sketch off the pad and after adding the label boxes, he began working on the second picture.

Once he finished the second sketch he handed her one of them and turned towards the other paper in his hand. He was a little unsure of how to go about labeling the thing and asked to see if she had an idea. “Do you have any idea how Professor Meade would like us to label this?” he asked her, hoping that she would have a better than idea than he had. He wasn’t bad at labeling things, he helped his mom label stuff at their shop all the time, but somehow he had a feeling that it wasn’t really quite the same thing.

0 Dimitri Neither have I 0 Dimitri 0 5

Julian U.

September 16, 2013 7:34 PM

Snap, crackle, pop - how bugs sound when stepped on. by Julian U.

“Well…” Julian said, embarrassed again as she realized she had used imprecise, uncharitable language. Not inaccurate, maybe, but probably not the word she should have used. “I guess I mean – people who think, or act like, I guess, since we don’t really know what people think, like they’re better than everyone else,” she said. “People who – well, they wouldn’t like people like my family, because we haven’t, um, got a lot of money, and because we’re not purebloods, as far as I know….”

She shrugged slightly. “Stephen’s had an awful time with that sort,” she finished by way of explanation. “We’ve all dealt with them, it’s probably the hardest on Mom since she could be like that if she wanted to in the Muggle world but it’s all different on this side, but Steve had to live with them at school, and I know Mom and Dad were worried he was going to get in real trouble with one of them sooner or later. So we were really hoping that people at Sonora hadn’t stopped just ignoring people they don’t like in the past twenty years.”

So far, she hadn’t had any problems, though goodness knew she had been nervous enough when she’d first met Willow and Gemma. Julian, however, had a very different personality from her older brother – she was a lot better at not sticking out. So she didn’t really know, but was just glad she didn’t have that problem, at least not yet.

“My older younger brother probably could, if he was here,” she said of identifying bug parts. “John loves that kind of thing – in books, anyway. I never got the knack of it, though. It’s too much Greek for me.” John and Julian were almost the intellectual opposites of the family; they both liked Tales from the Odyssey, but beyond that, if she found something interesting, he was likely to find it dull, and vice-versa. Mom and Dad had had to remind them more than once that one way wasn’t necessarily better than the other – it was just different.

Sometimes, Julian wished her parents didn’t have quite as much of a knack for making theological or social points out of everyday incidents like John and Julian arguing (why they did so, Julian had no idea, considering that liking the same books would have been more of a problem, as they only had so many and, given that they also only had so much space, not many redundant copies of things) over books, but it was pretty funny when Stephen or John, who were clever in that way, then turned the tactic back on their parents when they argued or were lazy or anything.

“Still, we’ll find something to do without him,” she added cheerfully. “There has to be something to write about, um, about these things.”

Keme confirmed that the Beatles had not translated. “Well, yes, but the Beatles – B-e-a-t-les, it’s a pun – were a Muggle band,” she said. “Since John Lennon and St. Stephen were both killed, I think Paul and I might have done the best.” She was pretty sure Paul McCartney wasn’t dead, anyway, and while Julian of Norwich wasn’t officially a saint, she had recovered from the illness in which she had her visions. Ghastly things, at least some of them; Mom said she wasn’t old enough to read it yet, but she had sneaked the book, a modern English version, once, and had had nightmares. The text hadn’t been illustrated at all.

The idea of someone other than Keme’s parents having to approve of his name was strange to her. She knew there was a list of names for Muggles in France, or at least thought she had read it once, but even then…however, by the sounds of it, his community was far more, well, communal than any Julian was familiar with. The very idea of her parents’ families trying to tell them to do anything was ludicrous; if it hadn’t been, Mom never would have married Dad in the first place. “Well, there are good things about night,” she offered. “If you’re not afraid of the dark, anyway.” Joe still was, but he would probably outgrow it soon enough.

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