Not today on Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Taransay

March 18, 2017 6:40 AM

Feeling glum? by Professor Taransay

It had been a little over a year since Rory had started working at Sonora, and in that time his life had changed quite a lot. Meeting Amelle had, at the time, been one of the best things that had happened to him. Their relationship had quickly become serious, with Rory thinking it was definitely long-term, if not forever. Spending the summer mostly apart, with Rory doing research for a book in East Africa, had been hard for him. In fact, he had been planning on proposing to Amelle, when she had announced that she was leaving Sonora for another job. He wasn’t quite sure where that left them. Obviously, he was still in love with her, but how could they make a marriage work when they didn’t live together? All Rory’s dreams of a family, of a future with Amelle and their children, seemed to be more out of reach than ever, just after he had realised quite how badly he wanted it.

Problems in his love life meant Rory had thrown himself into preparation for the new term with even more enthusiasm than usual. After sending out various owls, he’d managed to make arrangements to start off the academic year with a practical lesson for his intermediates class. After all, who wanted to sit in a classroom when they could have hands-on interactions with a magical creature?

“Hi all, welcome back!” he greeted his class, perhaps slightly less cheerfully than had been his standard last year. Still, Rory was capable of mostly hiding his feelings, not wanting his students to suffer a miserable lesson. They had been told to meet him outside. “Today we’re going to meet one of the creatures that we’re going to be studying: the glumbumble.” How appropriate, his brain thought, but he shut that part up for now.

“So, can anybody tell me what glumbumble treacle is used for?” he asked, not expecting the third years to know, but hoping a fourth or fifth year would remember from their extra reading the year before. He picked the first raised hand he saw, and moved on to the next question once he had the correct answer.

“And can anyone tell me the dangers of the treacle?” he asked, choosing a different person to answer this time, and awarding points for the two answers as appropriate.

“So, in each of the hutches we have here are a couple of glumbumbles. Working in pairs or threes, I’d like you to ensure that they have enough food, and to start collecting the treacle that they have produced. Remember, glumbumbles can fly, so make sure you don’t give them the chance to escape.”

The hutches were reasonably large, with small patches of wire mesh to allow a little light in. However, they were still fairly dark, so as to provide a more natural habitat for the glumbumbles. Rory had provided tools and buckets, for use in removing the treacle, and was ready in case there were any glumbumbles that decided to make a run for it. He had also prepared a large pile of nettles, for the students to feed the creatures. This would largely distract them whilst the treacle was being removed, and Rory also suspected that the animals would keep to the corners of the hutches, away from the noisy students.

“Oh, and don’t forget to wear gloves when handling the nettles!” he reminded them. Nettle stings were easily cured, but it was always easier to just wear gloves in the first place, and he didn’t trust all his students to remember.

OOC: Normal class rules apply. Anyone mistreating the animals will find Professor Taransay there immediately, as would be the case with any potential escapes. Have fun, and ask me if you have any questions (I’m usually in chatzy as Louis Valois).

Glumbumble information can be found here: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Glumbumble

Subthreads:

Not really by Fabian Brockert, Pecari with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari

I've had cheerier days. by Joe Umland, Teppenpaw with Nevaeh Reed [Aladren]

You have no idea... by Georgia Kirkly, Teppenpaw with Tess Whittaker, Pecari

Actually, no. (Tag Finn) by Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw with Finn Scott, Teppenpaw

Not today by Artemis Leithan

On the contrary by Arthur Leithan

9 Professor Taransay Feeling glum? 33 Professor Taransay 1 5

Fabian Brockert, Pecari

March 19, 2017 7:12 PM

Not really by Fabian Brockert, Pecari

So it was his fifth year. Fabian couldn't help but feel a bit of an icky feeling in his stomach. This meant CATS. CATS meant going to advanced classes and then RATS. And after that there was having to get a job and be an adult. Yuck.

Plus, he was still not sure what he wanted to take for his other two classes. Transfiguration was a definite yes and Potions was a definite no. He was super undecided on everything else. Charms was basically a class everyone continued and while Fabian didn't have to be like everyone else, nobody could deny the importance of Charms. On the other hand, he genuinely enjoyed DADA, Herbology and COMC more. If the Pecari was going to be an adult and work, he wanted to do something outdoorsy. Just because one had a prestigious last name didn't mean they had to do a prestigious job. Fabian was poorly suited to the business world, mostly because the thought of working in business or academia or something was truly sickening to him.

At least he had a....potential betrothal so that was one less thing to worry about. Well, okay, calling it that might have been a little much, but over the summer, he seemingly officially became "on the market". No announcement was made as such, but girls suddenly recognized Fabian as an "eligible bachelor" and tried to impress him. Granted, a fair amount of these had to be attracted to his last name. A male Brockert was available and this was his to deal with on his own, as the other Brockert male around his age was very very taken. Not in an official capacity, but more taken than anyone who was.

Part of him enjoyed it, part of him felt uncomfortable and a part of him felt uncomfortable about enjoying it. Of course, if they were just after his last name, then he felt less bad about it. Anyway, there was one girl,a Miss Alicia Stark, who seemed possibly genuinely interested. She seemed to follow him around an awful lot at the very least, apparently staking her claim. However, Fabian supposed he enjoyed her company enough. She didn't spend most of her time bragging about all her own wonderful qualities like some girls did. He logically got why people did that in these situations but his overall instinct was to find it as distasteful as he did normally.

Plus, the basic first words he'd said to her "Excuse me" as he'd belched and looked up to find her. So Alicia-first name basis and everything, good sign, a lot of these girls had been less than forthcoming with permission for that-had seen, er rather heard, him burp and not ran away in horror or lecture him in bad manners because of a normal bodily function when he'd assumed he'd been alone anyway.

He listened to Professor Tansary talk about the glumbumbles. Fabian knew the answer to the first question, but didn't raise his hand. He'd never previously stood out as a student and wasn't going to start now. He didn't, however, know the dangers of the treacle and had assumed it was that it didn't taste good. Thank Merlin he hadn't been called on.

The lesson itself was sort of...well, not terrible as it was hands on but he didn't know how it would be useful later. Plus, glumbumbles weren't a terribly exciting creature. And this was important to think about, as Fabian had to choose two classes to keep other than Transfiguration so basically his teachers had to impress him just like the girls who wanted to marry him did. Not that he was going to inform them of this fact, as it would just sound...bad to go up to a teacher and tell them he was judging them and their lessons and that if he was to choose their class to continue, they had to impress him. Fabian wasn't that self important and he doubted that they cared enough about him continuing their classes anyway. After all, he didn't really stand out as a student.

Anyway, it was time to get to the lesson. He walked up to the closest available person and asked. "Do you want to work together?"

11 Fabian Brockert, Pecari Not really 321 Fabian Brockert, Pecari 0 5

Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari

March 21, 2017 7:35 AM

A little by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari

Ew. CATS year. This was going to be one never ending headache, she was sure of it. Not that Ingrid found much of the material difficult, per se. She was a well-educated girl from the kind of family that had its own library, and where being ignorant was deemed worse than being rude (although both were frowned on in such severe degrees that it was a little hard to tell). She got her work done by dint of habit. Not doing it, even though she was relatively unsupervised at school, or doing it badly simply didn’t occur to her. But she didn’t live for it, the way her Aladren siblings did. She lived for Quidditch, and time spent on homework was time that she could have been flying. And the teachers were bound to go on about the exams and give them heaps extra work to do. It was just going to be miserable.

Speaking of which, their subject matter for the day was apparently the Glumbumble, a rather sad sounding animal. When Professor Taransay called on students, she raised her hand. Again, it was a habit drilled home hard by tutors and parents who cared a lot about these things - when adults asked you questions, you gave answers. Plus it was an easy way to pick up house points and she liked Pecari to win things.

“It’s used in treating hysteria,” she replied, “Especially from eating magical plants.” She couldn’t remember the specific name of the plant in question, and she wasn’t sure whether it could be used to treat non-magical hysteria as well, so she hedged her bets with the ‘especially.’ She kept her hand down for the next question, even though she knew the answer to that too, because Professor Taransay wasn’t going to pick the same person twice in a row and she didn’t want to look like a swot or a show off.

With a sigh, she set to work. She was definitely keeping Care of Magical Creatures on next year, it was easily her favourite subject, and - although some rational criticism of the idea (in that it would be difficult to achieve, not because it was dangerous) was creeping in as she got older - she still really thought she would like to be a dragon handler. She definitely wanted to work with cool and interesting creatures (and/or be a Pro Quidditch player - their careers didn’t last forever, so she could do both) and this was why this was simultaneously her favourite class and the one with the most capacity to disappoint her. She went into Potions on a daily basis expecting to be bored, and it mostly delivered. She went into Care of Magical Creatures every day knowing it could, potentially be the most awesome thing ever. And sometimes it was. Like when they got unicorns or hippogriffs. Even nifflers and kneazles were pretty fun. But some days, it just didn’t live up to her expectations. She wasn’t sure how anyone could have expected a creature with ‘glum’ in the name to sound appealing, and she didn’t particularly want to work with hysterical people, or be around them in any way, shape or form, so it wasn’t like it had some property of great value to her. Well, she guessed it reduced the number of hysterics she would have to deal with, so that was good, but even then she couldn’t quite sell it to herself.

“Sure,” she nodded, when Fabian asked if she wanted to work together. She found it weird how little she knew him even though they were housemates. He seemed… ok. She didn’t really know what else she could think about him. He was in Pecari, which suggested they had stuff in common.

She pulled on neatly fitting grey dragon hide gloves. Overkill for stinging nettles but the only kind she had, and began feeding a few through the mesh of the hutch.

“So… time to gather some goo… How much do you reckon a dose is? Like, are we stocking several hospitals with our efforts? With each person’s effort? Or do you have to have spoonfuls of the stuff? And is it the same amount needed to get depressed, or does that work differently?” Just because she wasn’t very interested didn’t mean she didn’t have thoughts or further questions. Probably another family habit - everything needed to be speculated on.

13 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari A little 322 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari 0 5

Joe Umland, Teppenpaw

March 21, 2017 8:11 PM

I've had cheerier days. by Joe Umland, Teppenpaw

Normally, Joe might have noticed a decrease in Taransay’s usual level of verbal enthusiasm, but his situation at the moment was not quite normal. Normally, Care of Magical Creatures was just another class he took. At the moment, it was John’s favorite or second-favorite class, taught by someone John had been, for John, downright enthusiastic about last year and in the early part of the summer, before everything had gone directly to Hell without passing Go or collecting two hundred dollars. John had been babbling at one point about Taransay’s connections and the bird study John had been working on since he was a first year and how it seemed possible he could turn it into the beginning of a career. That had not been entirely comfortable, Mom had clearly been forcing herself to look happy for him – if John became a Magizoologist, he would more likely than not spend most of his time traveling around the world getting into dangerous situations on purpose instead of finding a respectable, boring position at the University and staying with her forever – and that had reminded Joe of the downsides to his brother living out his dreams, but that had been nothing compared to the degree to which Mom had been faking any and all positive emotions she expressed since he’d run off.

He was not, therefore, in the best mood himself as Taransay welcomed them back for the year. He still didn’t know exactly how much trouble he was in with his parents, there hadn’t been time for the news to get to Canada and a reaction to get back to him, but his year so far had sucked and it was not improved by the news they were going to study a creature whose puke (or…other substances; Joe was just guessing it was puke because of the fact that they sometimes infested honey hives and what he knew about how honey was produced, a bit of information he really, really wished John had never told him. Joe liked honey, but whenever his brain threw that fact at him when he was eating it, it took just a bit of the edge off his enjoyment of his treat.) literally induced depression.

He put up his hand nevertheless when Professor Taransay asked if anyone knew the risks of the ‘treacle’. He had a year to rebuild his reputation as a good little Teppenpaw, which meant there was no time to waste in starting. “It can make anyone who isn’t suffering hysteria – “ he nodded to Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, who had provided the first answer Taransay had wanted – “get depressed for a while. It causes problems if they infest a honeybee’s hive and people eat the honey.” He assumed it bothered bears, too, but bears were not known for their ability to discuss their feelings. Plus, what did he know? Maybe bears had metabolisms so different from those of humans that it didn’t lower their moods at all.

Joe tried to look at the order to work in pairs as a blessing in disguise. He suspected his own Housemates were currently combinations of horrified and angry with him for the blow he had dealt to the whole House’s reputation and who knew what people outside Teppenpaw thought about it all, but pair work was a chance to prove it a freak accident and restore the student body’s opinion of him. He didn’t know if it was possible anymore, but he still wanted to be Head Boy even if prefect wasn’t on the cards. This meant his classmates had to have confidence that he was not a raving loony.

“This is a great way to start the new year, huh?” he said jokingly to one of his classmates, smiling as usual as he put his gloves on. “Want to collect sedatives with me?”

16 Joe Umland, Teppenpaw I've had cheerier days. 329 Joe Umland, Teppenpaw 0 5

Nevaeh Reed [Aladren]

March 23, 2017 2:53 AM

That seems to be a trend. by Nevaeh Reed [Aladren]

Nevaeh was less excited for classes this year than others, if only because Barnaby had moved up to the Advanced level. She still had people to work with, of course - her other friends were all in her year - but working on homework together was always a convient reason to hang out. She supposed she could still look for evenings like that, but it would be weird not working on the same things. Maybe she could ask for his help, even though she rarely actually needed it. It’d be an excuse, at least. Or she could just ask him to hang out. That was harder, though. She had sort of figured out recently that he was a boy. And not just that, he was a Boy.

Care of Magical Creatures was fun, at least, even without such a Boy. With an animal at her side twenty four hours a day, it was hard not to like creatures, even if hers wasn’t magical. Scout was still pretty cool, because even if he didn’t have magical abilities, he still did a bunch of stuff most dogs couldn’t do. Sometimes she wondered if he was even better than humans. (And sometimes he probably was.)

When the professor finished talking, it was time to pair up. She heard Joe Umland’s voice beside her, offering some light jest. That was good, considering she’d heard about some sort of altercation with him and his brother. “Sounds like an adventure,” she grinned back at him as she pulled on her first glove. “Not that sedatives are super necessary around here. Is it just me, or is everybody all bummed out lately?”

“Speaking of,” she commented as she fought with her second glove. Having one hand’s mobility slightly impacted by leather sure made it more difficult to fidget with the other. “Did I hear correctly that you got into it with your brother on the first day back?” Nevaeh’s tone was mildly curious, if not concerned. “I don’t mean to gossip, but, well… I can’t see, so what have I got to do but listen, right? Anyway, like… is everything okay?”

After working together for the fair last year, she considered the Teppenpaw a friend, and she wanted him to feel like he could talk to her if he needed to. Her tone expressed this nicely, but she added, “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine too, we can just get to work. Just.. help me make sure none of these glumbumble things flies too close to Scout, okay? I’m afraid he’ll try to eat one, and I can’t imagine that ending well for anybody.”

12 Nevaeh Reed [Aladren] That seems to be a trend. 325 Nevaeh Reed [Aladren] 0 5

Joe

March 24, 2017 4:57 PM

Are you feeling glum about anything? by Joe

Joe shook his head automatically as he answered Nevaeh’s question, even though the gesture had no real purpose in this context. “I don’t think it’s just you,” he said. “This year is…below my standards of quality so far. Maybe Taransay accidentally dropped some of this treacle into the punch at the Feast?”

Joe doubted this, somehow, but he wouldn’t be entirely sorry if he did find out that this year was entirely the fault of someone tampering with food and drink. If that was the case, none of them were at fault for anything they’d done and could therefore move on as though none of it had ever happened. Maybe. Officially, after all, they were supposed to be able to do that after going to Confession, and Joe had never really seen it work that way. He and one or another sibling had dutifully reported unkindnesses they’d done to each other all their lives, but it didn’t just magically make things between him and the sibling in question better. God might forgive and forget, but they were only human. It was easy to say he believed the right thing and a lot harder to put it into practice….

”Speaking of….” said Nevaeh, and for a moment Joe wondered if she could read minds. Then he remembered that the rumor mill had probably taken the story and run wild with it before John had even finished his song and dance routine with Brockert.

“Not least the glumbumble,” said Joe when Nevaeh asked him to help keep Scout to a non-depressing diet. “I’ll try my best. And use better, uh, tactics than I did with my brother.” That didn’t quite make sense even with context, he realized. “You heard correctly,” he said, getting the utensils to scrape out the treacle from one of the enclosures. “John – well, he decided last month to just come to America to visit one of his friends, but he didn’t bother to tell any of us he was going first,” said Joe, adapting the facts a little. “We get a two-line note from Maryland days later. We don’t even know how he got to Maryland. I promise, hitting isn’t what I usually do when I’m worried about people. John’s…hard to live with, sometimes.” He picked up a bucket. “Do you want to hold the bucket under their door or scrape and me catch the treacle?” he asked. “I’ll open the door and shove some nettles at them first either way.”

16 Joe Are you feeling glum about anything? 329 Joe 0 5

Georgia Kirkly, Teppenpaw

March 30, 2017 8:04 AM

You have no idea... by Georgia Kirkly, Teppenpaw

Georgia slouched into Care of Magical Creatures. She wondered whether it was too much to hope for that one year, just one, she wouldn’t be entering class puffy eyed on a regular basis. For the first two years, her parents increased fighting and eventual break up had been reason enough to cry. She wouldn’t have said she was exactly happy with the situation now - it still sucked, majorly and continually - but it was past the point now where it was liable to make her need to duck into the bathrooms and splash cold water on her face between classes. However, she had a new problem… Farrah was gone. Her best friend, her only really close friend, wasn’t going to be continuing her schooling here. Kellen, who she’d tentatively been getting to know, had also vanished, so she was well and truly friendless. It was pretty sad, as a third year, to be a total loner. Everyone else in their year had friends already. However hard she tried to break into a group, it was probably too late to really be a part of it. And if no one had wanted to be friends with the chubby, clueless, halfblood before, she couldn’t see why having no friends and cry face all the time was likely to improve her odds. She was doomed. She was going to be a social outcast for the rest of her time at Sonora.

And they were studying depression bugs today. Great. She already felt like she’d swallowed a whole cupful of Glum juice for breakfast. Now she got to spend an hour scooping goo out of a cage with someone who would probably rather do it with anyone but her. She hated this. She hated the fact that their lesson was gross. She hated that she had no friends. She hated that her stupid parents had got a stupid divorce. She hated that she was fat. She hated her whole life, and everything in it, and she really wanted to just go back to bed and cry again for a bit.

She pulled on her gloves, not bothering to ask anyone if they wanted to work together. If they wanted to, they could ask her. Except they probably wouldn’t. She grabbed some stinging nettles and began pushing them into a hutch, in order to give the appearance of doing something whilst putting off the moment she would actually have to deal with slime, all the while scowling. Potentially, she was setting up a very simple self-fulfilling prophecy, as her visible grumpiness didn’t exactly make her the most enticing work partner. But, with the smallness of the school and the visible absence of certain members of the class, perhaps someone would find her mood understandable…

13 Georgia Kirkly, Teppenpaw You have no idea... 346 Georgia Kirkly, Teppenpaw 0 5

Fabian

April 05, 2017 10:04 AM

Sorry to hear that by Fabian

Fabian blinked at Ingrid's barrage of questions. Okay, yes, he knew sort of what her family was like, what her two oldest siblings had been like-or what he assumed they were like being that they were both Aladren which meant he assumed they were pompous know-it-alls, which was the case with most Aladrens not closely related to him minus Louis and Leo Bennett who he found slightly more tolerable, and in the case of the latter had to tolerate based on him being Arabella's brother-in-law-and the fact that Owen's boggart last year had turned into Ingrid's older brother Theodore berating him as not good enough for Jemima apparently based on his lack of athleticism and the fact that he had asthma had given him some clues. The Wolfseithcraftes were big on sports and academics. However, while Fabian knew Ingrid was a skilled Chaser-not her fault Clark Dill had been a better Seeker than Jamie Park had been overall-and certainly didn't see her as stupid he'd never realized how...much she liked to ask questions.

Of course, Pecaris could be curious but he'd always thought of their curiosity as being displayed quite differently. Like his twin cousins were both rather curious people. Savannah-although she was a Teppenpaw, not an Aladren-was academically minded and he felt smarter than a lot of even the Aladrens but too nice a person to be Sorted there-not that Amity, his only Aladren cousin was a bad person and she was highly sensitive about being thought of as such but as Savannah had been Sorted into Teppenpaw it meant kindness overrode academic curiosity in her-and Scarlett who was a Pecari was more the sort to go stick her nose into things.

He decided to do the only thing he could in this situation. Attempt to answer her the best he could. "I very much doubt we're stocking hospitals, I mean, would you give that responsibility to a bunch of teenagers who aren't even in Advanced classes yet? That seems like an awful lot to put on us, especially considering that some of us are only third years. Plus, like, I don't think just our glumbumbles would produce enough for that. I'm not sure those of the entire class would. I think in addition to learning about a creature that's easy enough for the third years this early in the year, it's kind of busy work. Like, the goo just has to be removed and we're the labor to do so. What Professor Tansary is going to do with it later, I have no idea. Maybe we are stocking the school's Hospital Wing, though I'm not sure how we'd eat the Alihotsy leaves by mistake while at school, since I'm pretty sure that if we were studying them in Herbology, the professor would explicitly tell us not to eat them. " That was the usefulness of that class, especially for the outdoorsy types like himself. "And I'm not really sure about how much it takes to get depressed. As I don't want to be depressed, I wouldn't try and find out. I'd rather just not eat an Alihotsy leaf in the first place."

His thoughts about Herbology brought him back to his thoughts from earlier in the class. "Hey, Ingrid, um do you know what you want to take next year? Because I'm not sure..."

11 Fabian Sorry to hear that 321 Fabian 0 5

Tess Whittaker, Pecari

April 06, 2017 4:14 PM

Tell me about it? by Tess Whittaker, Pecari

Fourth year Tess seemed to be walking around with a permanent smile so far. A naturally optimistic person, the struggles and hardships of last year meant that, now everything was as okay as it could be, all things considered, her sunny side was back and in full bloom. On top of having a wonderful and healthy sister, she’d spent a glorious summer with her family, and was now back at Sonora! Back amongst her girl friends (she’d missed them so much!), back seeing Ben every day, and back as a fourth year! Something about finally being out of the youngest years made Tess feel a lot more grown-up. The first years seemed so small these days, and it was hard to believe she’d ever been that young.

Learning about glumbumbles wasn’t depressing enough to bring Tess down. Sure, the treacle didn’t sound the best thing to spread on your toast in the morning, but if you squinted slightly and thought of happy things you could just about call the glumbumbles cute. She was glad that Professor Taransay often managed to bring in animals for the class to study, as it added a nice bit of variation to the curriculum. Plus they often got to spend the lessons outside, which was always a bonus for Tess.

Given the cue to find a partner, Tess was planning to work with Nevaeh, Raine, Nat or Ben, as usual, or maybe even Tasha. She was always open to working with other people, but it was nice to spend more time with her friends. But then she spotted Georgia, who looked as if she’d had a breakfast accident involving the treacle. Tess never liked to see people looking sad, especially when they were looking sad on their own, so she changed course and headed over to the other girl’s hutch. Georgia wasn’t really giving off sociable vibes, but Tess wasn’t going to let that stop her self-appointed mission.

“Hey, mind if I work with you?” she asked, pulling on her gloves. She’d had too many annoying interactions with stinging nettles in the past to forget about gloves. She handed some more nettles to Georgia, as the other girl was better placed to put them in the hutch.

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but are you okay?” she asked, unable to stop the sympathetic question. She didn’t want to press the other girl into dwelling on not-so-nice thoughts, but Tess knew that sharing a problem often made people feel better.

9 Tess Whittaker, Pecari Tell me about it? 338 Tess Whittaker, Pecari 0 5

Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

April 07, 2017 1:45 PM

Actually, no. (Tag Finn) by Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

Other than being with Finn, Care of Magical Creatures was the only thing Juniper truly loved about Sonora. However, she wasn't sure if she really preferred being home either. On the one hand, at school, she had to constantly be around people and she really wasn't any less scared of them now then she had been as a first year. Especially now that they were with students two years older than them in class, which was more than a little intimidating for Juniper, though she was glad to have Tasha in class with her again, in case a professor made them work with someone with qualifications that Finn didn't meet.

On the other hand, she was getting older, Mother was pushing her to attend more events, as if trying to make up for the fact that her childhood had been fairly isolated. Small children did not attend balls, though Juniper had been made to go to a few birthday parties of other children, particularly relatives. She still had to go to the parties thrown by relatives, mostly Angelique, who in addition to having a ball over midterm, had decided to throw a summer one as well. Just like school, Juniper could only tolerate them if Tasha or Finn was there. Otherwise, she spent an awful lot of time hiding in bathrooms because the anxiety got too dreadful.However, while parties were wretched and her mother was always nagging at her-once prompting Duncan to snap at her to leave Juniper alone-at least she could go home at night. And at least she could be with her horse.

But now, at least she was in Care of Magical Creatures. This was her element and the only class that made her happy, though Transfiguration was imperative to her future dream of becoming an animagus. Hopefully a horse or pony animagus. How awesome would it be to be her favorite animal at times! Plus, it came pretty natural to Juniper and other than COMC, the one class where she constantly had an O.

Professor Taransay began the lecture on glumbumbles. Juniper had read about them-a lot of her freetime was spent learning about animals or sometimes visiting the Owlry-and knew the answer but naturally did not raise her hand to answer. She didn't know what precise sort of negative fallout could happen from answering but she really didn't want any attention drawn to her at all. There were some awfully mean people in her year and the fifth years-and Aladrens of all ages-might not like a third year Teppenpaw showing them up.

Once they were released to work, Juniper turned to Finn. He was normally her first choice anyway, but in Care of Magical Creatures, she...didn't really like to work with Tasha much. Tasha...well, loved animals but not in the same way Juniper did. The older girl preferred eating them so working with her in this class made the third year kind of uncomfortable. Even though Tasha probably wouldn't eat any of the creatures when they were brought into class and probably wouldn't eat glumbumbles anyway. "Would you like to work together?" Juniper asked her friend.

11 Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw Actually, no. (Tag Finn) 345 Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Artemis Leithan

April 07, 2017 10:05 PM

Not today by Artemis Leithan

Artemis was always somewhat hesitant about Care of Magical Creatures. She liked to study ahead with most of her classes. She practiced her potions work in her room to perfect her technique, which helped her grades. She had always been a studious person. She was a bookworm, and in most classes, that gave her a clear advantage. But magical creatures were so unpredictable! Each was a unique individual. They had personalities. Even glumbumbles.

Artemis listened carefully to Professor Taransay's explanation. At least, glumbumbles weren't dangerous. She preferred not to work with hippogriffs and other large creatures. Other than her skill at archery, Artemis was not particularly athletic, and archery was something she had been trained in since childhood. Wrangling large creatures was not her forte. Her twin took the lead in that department. They each had their separate interests, except for archery, which they both loved.

Artemis fought to overcome her anxiety as she approached a cage with only one other student. “Would you mind working together?” Receiving an affirmative response, she walked carefully up to the cage and put on a pair of gloves. The glumbumbles quickly clustered away from the door of the cage. As her partner watched, Artemis opened the door of the cage and extended her hand. Suddenly, a glumbumble near the door exited the cage! One had not been visible, but had been hiding near the opening. Artemis, who wasn't sure if glumbumbles could bite, jerked back from the cage with a shriek. Fortunately, no other glumbumbles escaped, and the cage door slammed shut.

0 Artemis Leithan Not today 334 Artemis Leithan 0 5

Arthur Leithan

April 07, 2017 10:33 PM

On the contrary by Arthur Leithan

Arthur enjoyed Care of Magical Creatures. He had experience working with nonmagical animals at home. His family had a small herd of sheep they used to train and work their border collies. It has been referred to, outside of wizarding circles, as “an expensive dog toy” and for the Leithans, it was more about the dogs than the sheep. Arthur had been fascinated by animals as a child, and that interest had generalized to magical creatures when he reached school. He kept what magical creatures his parents allowed him to on their farm. He particularly enjoyed it when his Care of Magical Creatures class allowed him to interact with new creatures that he couldn't keep at home. And of course, when they covered creatures he had at home, he had an advantage on grades. But still, he preferred new and, if possible, exotic.

Glumbumbles weren't something he kept at home, but they weren't particularly exotic. Still, it was new to him so he wasn't too disappointed. He was always looking to improve his skills, and getting the glumbumble to express its treacle would be a new experience. He had no idea why anyone would want to eat alihotsy leaves, but Arthur imagined it could always happen. Maybe small children get into them sometimes. Otherwise, there was no reason to want to harvest the treacle. That was why he didn't keep them on the farm.

Arthur listened politely to Professor Taransay's discussion. He turned to the student next to him and asked, “Would you like to partner up?” Receiving a positive reply, he put on gloves to hold the nettles.

0 Arthur Leithan On the contrary 328 Arthur Leithan 0 5

Finn Scott, Teppenpaw

April 14, 2017 11:51 AM

Me neither! by Finn Scott, Teppenpaw

Finn’s alarm hadn’t gone off that morning, for some reason, and he’d only been woken up by the sound of Jozua moving about their dormitory. Having to get ready in a bit of a rush had put him slightly on edge, and had started the day off on a wrong footing. He’d been a little bit later to breakfast than usual, meaning he’d had less time to eat, and he always liked to take his time for meals. Digestion was important, and it was messy to rush. He’d been clock-watching whilst he ate, but had been in time for his first class. Despite being a little distracted, nothing had gone too wrong in class, either. That was always a relief – Finn had heard stories about wizards who had accidentally blown people up, or worse, because of a slip in concentration.

His day had taken another turn for the worse at lunchtime, when he’d realised that he’d forgotten about a piece of homework due in tomorrow. Reluctantly admitting to himself that he’d be less inclined to work in the evening, Finn had quickly wolfed down some lunch before heading off to the library. He’d got a decent amount of work done, but had lost track of time, being startled when he realised that lunchtime was over. Luckily, CoMC was outside today, meaning that he’d been able to run through the grounds and (just) make it there in time.

Being almost-late meant that Finn was a little too preoccupied to answer any of Professor Taransay’s questions, although he did know the answers. He wasn’t in the habit of putting his hand up a lot, but CoMC was his favourite class, and one where he could usually be fairly confident in his response. Somehow, learning about animals made it easier for facts to stick in his brain.

Finn was paying more attention to the glumbumbles than the fact they’d been told to work in pairs, but luckily for him, Juniper was more on the ball. “Definitely,” he replied with a smile. He was always happy to work with Juniper, but it was particularly nice to work with her in CoMC. It was a class where it was always good to have a shared love of animals. Gwen was also another fun person to work with in CoMC, although she was no longer in Finn’s class. That was a shame, as he enjoyed her company, but hadn’t seen much of her out of class so far.

“Think you can handle their bad reputations?” he asked jokingly, not actually meaning it. Glumbumble treacle might have unwanted consequences, but Finn would need more than that to think badly of a creature. After all, the treacle had its uses.

Making sure to put his gloves on first, he selected a pile of nettles, picking them up and taking them over to a hutch. “Could you open the door for me?” he asked Juniper, getting ready to shove some nettles in before any glumbumbles could escape.

9 Finn Scott, Teppenpaw Me neither! 347 Finn Scott, Teppenpaw 0 5

Juniper

April 22, 2017 12:52 PM

Glad to hear it by Juniper

Juniper grinned. The combination of animals-even something like glumbumbles-and her best friend was something that made her genuinely happy. Hopefully she could forget about everyone else being around for awhile. "Great!"

She nodded. "I think so." Despite being an animal lover, Juniper did know that there were animals out there that could and would hurt her. The thing was, she still loved them... from a distance. Besides, they couldn't help it, they needed to survive. If a tiger tried to eat her for example, it wasn't done out of malice. Malice was limited to dark creatures and human beings. Not all of them, there were those like Finn and her brother who were kind and gentle nor did she consider herself malicious. Juniper might have been terrified of people but that didn't mean she wanted to hurt them, just that she was afraid of them hurting her.

None of this applied to glumbumbles though. They weren't really all that dangerous themselves and while their treacle could have negative affects, it wasn't them who had people take it. It was the person's choice. Juniper wasn't judging people who took too much glumbumble treacle, but it was definitely not the fault of the glumbumble itself when they did. It wasn't as if the creature sat on a human's mouth and deposited their by-products inside.

So basically, they were an innocent, harmless, creature and Juniper was more than happy to take care of them. Even though horses were her favorite animal, she loved most creatures and would never want to hurt one, even though she would prefer to stay away from the ones who'd like to eat her. Unless it was at the zoo or something. Juniper loved the zoo of course though she hadn't been many times. Duncan had taken her last summer though on a day when it wasn't too busy. Her brother was so much more sensitive towards what Mother called Juniper's "issues" than anyone else was and he thought she deserved something special for having to suffer through balls. He was the best big brother in the world. Juniper hoped Araceli truly appreciated him and would treat him right. Duncan deserved that.

"Of course." She did as she was asked. She always did, not ever having the will to fight back. Juniper felt that would be a pointless endeavor. Of course, in this case she didn't mind one bit. For one thing, it wasn't that big a deal generally speaking and for another, she was happy to do anything for animals and Finn. "So how's it going?" Juniper asked. While she didn't generally enjoy talking to people, it was different with her friend. Plus, she genuninely cared about how he was doing.

11 Juniper Glad to hear it 345 Juniper 0 5

Georgia

April 25, 2017 10:10 AM

Why, what's your angle? by Georgia

’Mind if I work with you?’

The words ‘Why would you want to?’ sprang immediately to mind, and came exceptionally close to being blurted out, but Georgia managed to hold them back and replace them with a mute, slightly amazed looking nod. Tess was older than her, and had a whole bunch of friends already. She was like… the super in crowd, as far as Georgia was concerned. She almost suspected this to be some kind of trick where she ended up with Glumbumble goop smeared on her books or in her hair. Tess’ house badge did little to reassure… Pecaris were “spontaneous” or some other nice euphemistic word that meant that they were the mostly likely to pull a prank on you.

Tess’ next question though seemed really genuine. Enough so to make Georgia feel guilty about her suspicions - even though she still couldn’t quite bring her guard down enough to trust the situation, which then just kept the guilt on a nice recursive loop. Luckily, thanks to her parents’ divorce, complexly fluxxing emotions that contradicted each other and created feedback loops were pretty much her default state of being, so it wasn’t like it was new.

“Some people from our year left,” she did, trying best to work out how to explain without making herself vulnerable to Tess, who she didn’t really know. “We were friends.” Ok, they had been her only friends, but she wasn’t exactly going to say that. She already probably looked like a complete tragic case without spelling it out for people, and may already have given Tess enough ammunition, if that was what she was looking for.

13 Georgia Why, what's your angle? 346 Georgia 0 5

Ingrid

May 14, 2017 1:25 AM

Eh, it'll be fine by Ingrid

“It’s not like it’s a difficult process though,” Ingrid argued back, “Sure, I wouldn’t trust the most of the potions we make, but this is putting goo in a jar. The only way to mess up is if we accidentally let the glumbumble loose, and then that doesn’t affect the end product, just our grade for this class. And given that we don’t know how much a dose is, you have no idea what scale our efforts represent - could be a useless, trivial amount, could be enough to stock a mental ward for a year. Besides, whoever owns these animals keeps them for a reason - presumably this, as they’re not good for much else - it stands to reason that they’d want this stuff back.” Perhaps, if the amount they were collecting was miniscule, or there was a high risk they were going to contaminate it somehow, in a way that wouldn’t be obvious from inspection, then it was just busy work, but that seemed illogical and deeply unsatisfying. And anyway, Professor Taransay hadn’t warned them of any pitfalls that would render the goo unusable - even if it was just busy work, they would be expected to do it properly. Ingrid smiled at Fabian. Debating was a standard family hobby. Ingrid didn’t like Fabian any less for disagreeing with her, in fact she probably liked him more, and it didn’t occur to her that he might not think the same way, or find her confrontational or to be a know-it-all for arguing a case against him.

She shrugged at his point of how they’d come to eat alihotsy leaves at school. There were definitely some things that, if told not to do, it would make her instantly want to try. If she was told a plant would make her float around the ceiling, for example. But being hysterical wasn’t on that list, and she couldn’t imagine it was on many people’s.

“This,” she responded, when he asked about classes for next year, “Probably Defence, and one other wandwork class. What are you considering?”she asked, as he’d said he wasn’t sure. Whilst they’d been talking, she had donned her gloves and gathered some nettles, plus the tools they would need for collecting the goo.

“Guess we distract him with food,” she mused, opening the hutch and hurling the nettles down to the opposite end. “Let’s get scraping.”

13 Ingrid Eh, it'll be fine 322 Ingrid 0 5