Professor Taransay
November 18, 2016 7:36 AM
Catch me if you can! [Advanced class] by Professor Taransay
“Good morning, class,” said Rory Taransay, grinning as his students were greeted by the sight of him leaning against the fence of an empty paddock. “Say hello to today’s creatures.” He gestured to the empty area, which was roughly the size of a large pond, surrounded by a narrowly-woven fence.He had to hand it to them. His latest acquisitions (sadly, only temporary) had perfect timing, all deciding to embrace the concept of invisibility just as the advanced students arrived.
“Now, contrary to appearances, I haven’t flipped,” he continued, amusement evident in his Scottish voice. “What we have here are Demiguises, from a farm in Texas.” Demiguises were a creature he’d covered recently with his class, in one of their slightly rarer theory lessons, and he was glad to be able to provide his students with the opportunity to see yet another fascinating creature in real life. If they’d ever re-appear, that was.
“I’m expecting you to remember most of what we discussed in class the other week but, for house points and glory, can anyone think of a reason as to why wizards would farm Demiguises?”
Just as he asked the question, several Demiguises decided to reject their state of invisibility, quickly followed by the rest of the troop.
“Once you get to Advanced classes, things get rather serious,” Rory continued. “Seventh years, your exams are coming up faster than a galloping unicorn. Sixth years, you shouldn’t be relaxing either. So, with that in mind, we’re going to spend today’s lesson trying to catch Demiguises.”
Rory was not a neglectful teacher. He did realise that the RATS were very important exams for his students, and he liked to think that he was fully preparing them. True, he did love a good practical lesson, but he was of the opinion that, if you could relate a list of dry facts to the actual creature, things became a lot easier to learn. And, every once in a while, it was important to just have a bit of fun, because that was what COMC was really all about. Today’s lesson would be of some benefit to the students, but would also let them have a less serious lesson, which he was sure they’d be glad of.
“Normally, catching Demiguises requires a lot of training and, trust me, it’s bloody difficult. However, these Demiguises have been pre-dipped in a special potion. This means that, when you use the spell lumos dissignandi, you should be able to see where they are.”
Lumos dissignandi, also known as the Tracing Charm, really was a very handy spell. Working in a similar way to lumos, it sent out a narrow beam of light, sort of like one of those muggle tracer bullets. When working out which potion to use, Rory had checked with Edward as to what he could feasibly expect his students to do. Luckily Edward had assured him that the tracing charm was well within their capabilities. The potion that he’d finally chosen made the Demiguises visible to humans when caught in the beam of light.
“You can work in pairs or threes – or even on your own, although that would only make things harder. Once you’ve caught a Demiguise, you can put them in this sectioned-off area of the pen. Just remember that, although these creatures are pretty peaceful, they are wild to a certain extent. Have fun, but if a Demiguise starts getting too stressed, leave it and move onto another one.”
Rory was interested to see how his advanced students handled this. On the face of it, the lesson might seem a little basic, especially as the invisibility problem was partially solved. However, Demiguises also had precognitive sight, so the students would have to think on their feet rather than come up with a plan. He wasn’t sure he was expecting the students to have much success, but hopefully it would be a nice de-stressing class for them!
OOC: Information on Demiguises can be found here: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Demiguise It would all have been covered in a recent class. Normal posting and class rules apply, and Rory is on hand to help if asked or needed. If the instructions are a little confusing, you can catch me on chatzy as Louis Valois!
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Professor Taransay
Catch me if you can! [Advanced class]
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Professor Taransay
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Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw
November 26, 2016 8:14 PM
I think I'm up for the challenge by Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw
Care of Magical Creatures was one of the few lessons that Aiden felt like he didn’t have to struggle too much in. Creatures were complicated, so he wasn’t saying that the class was easy by any means, only that he could pay attention and enjoy what he was learning instead of feeling overwhelmed by everything that he had to get done for that particular lesson. He wasn’t really sure if it had to do with Professor Taransay style of teaching or the fact that creatures were fundamentally more entertaining than that of boring lectures and long essay writing. Either way, he was definitely less stressed about this course than he was with any of his others. He was even thinking about dropping some of his other courses because it was just getting to be too much for him to handle.Aiden stared into the seemingly empty fenced area to figure out what they were studying that day. His first thought was Threstals since they were still invisible to him. But he didn’t see anyone looking horrified (there had to be at least one person in his class who could see them), so he doubted it was them. Of course, they did have that recent lecture regarding Demiguises, so there was a chance it was that. He did recall that they had the ability to become invisible. Aiden felt rather triumphant when the Professor confirmed his suspicions. Even though he knew what the creatures were based on past lessons, he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself by trying to answer the question. He’d let a smart Aladren answer that instead.
He resisted the urge to roll his hazel eyes when the Professor started to lecture them about their exams. He knew all this already! Every dang Professor had to constantly tell them about how important these exams were. He just finished completely the CATS exams last year and had to listen for those three years about how important those exams were. Why anyone ever enjoyed school was beyond his comprehension.
The lesson seemed like a fun one even though Aiden knew that the actual trying to catch the creatures was likely to be anything but easy. Nothing in this school was ever really easy.
Aiden looked around to try to find a partner. He probably could have worked alone, but since he was a Teppenpaw and enjoyed the company of others, he found no issue with working in groups. Besides, if one person could make the demiguise appear, the other person can then wrangle them into the pen. He’d seen it done at a sheep farm once; it was probably similar to that, right?
Smiling at someone who could potentially be his partner, Aiden meandered his way over, “Hey, just how difficult do you think catching one of these will actually be for us?” He asked.
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Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw
I think I'm up for the challenge
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Tobi Reinhardt
November 26, 2016 8:34 PM
I don't know if I'll ever be, but here's to trying... by Tobi Reinhardt
Care of Magical Creatures was the only RATs class that Tobi was looking forward to taking as an Advanced student. He was in Charms only because he knew Father would be upset if he wasn’t, but his true passion was with animals. He just like being outside with no one to bother him. The class for the day, while entertaining, kind of bothered Tobi. He had never been for capturing wild animals and he kind of felt for the poor demiguises who had been taken out of their natural habitat to be roughed and rounded up by a bunch of teenagers who probably didn’t know the first thing about catching animals.Tobi wasn’t a vegetarian or a vegan and he used animal parts in potions because he knew about the circle of life and knew that without predators prey would become outnumbered and the entire ecological system would be thrown out of balance. However he didn’t like catching animals for sport or using them for profit or frivolous things. He supposed there could be valid reasons for catching demiguises, though, and he certainly didn’t want to fail COMC, not when the mark could be used against him—he still planned on standing up to his father one of these days about what he wanted to do, and so he resigned himself to partnering up and participating. At least this way, he wasn’t doing something he didn’t necessarily believe in alone.
Happily it was Aiden, someone who Tobi felt comfortable with, who asked to partner up and he gave his roommate and friend a smile and a shrug. “I dunno, it depends on their mood, I suppose,” he said quietly and looked out at the semi-empty looking field. “I just hope the spell doesn’t really harm them,” Tobi thought it was kind of sad and was certain they had turned invisible out of fright. “We’ll have an easier time of it, no doubt,” he added, his eyes clouding with worry for the demiguises who he was sure would feel threatened from the crowd of teenagers pushing against them with their spells.
Was what they were doing even ethical? How much psychological damage would it cause the creatures? Tobi couldn’t be sure and he was afraid to find out. “Ready then?” he asked, his voice uncertain. He was starting to feel really guilty for what he was about to do.
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Tobi Reinhardt
I don't know if I'll ever be, but here's to trying...
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Tobi Reinhardt
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