Is it a plant? Is it a mammal? No, it's... [Beginners] on Care of Magical Creatures

Professor Rory Taransay

November 06, 2018 11:55 AM

Is it a plant? Is it a mammal? No, it's... [Beginners] by Professor Rory Taransay

Today’s Care of Magical Creatures lesson was outside, and Rory had made sure to prewarn his class beforehand, so that no one had a good excuse for going to the wrong place. They met by a grassy enclosure that contained just over 10 mushroom-like creatures.

“Good morning, everyone,” Rory greeted his beginners class, as enthusiastic as ever. There were still a few weeks of term to go, and he wanted to get in some more content lessons before everyone went a little holiday-mad. Rory didn’t really mind that – who wasn’t excited for the holidays?! – and always made sure his last few lessons were fun ones. However, doing that meant he had to make sure he’d covered all the content beforehand.

“Today we’re going to be looking at Horklumps,” he announced. “Now, your homework was to read up on these creatures, so can anyone tell me why they are useful to us?” He picked on raised hands until he got the correct answer, giving house points for it.

“As you should have read, Horklumps are not native to North America, but they are found in Scotland, which is where I’m from. I brought this lot over with me, and have carefully cultivated them here. Can anyone tell me why bringing a new species to a country can be dangerous?”

Again, he picked on hands until he got his desired answer mentioning how they can overrun new places and outcompete the local creatures.

“Well done, you can have five house points! Today we’re going to be working in pairs or groups of three. I’d like you to choose a Horklump, and feed it. I’ve got earthworms over here, freshly gathered for you. Once you’re sure your Horklump has enough to eat, your task is to draw it.”

Rory liked to get his classes into the habit of drawing the animals they studied. Having such a representation was always useful, for revision as well as for learning the specific details of the creature they were looking at.

“If anyone has any problems, just ask me. Off you go!”

OOC: Normal class rules apply. Ask Rory if you need help. As ever, he will stop any animal cruelty he sees. Information on the Horklump can be found here: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Horklump

(If this lesson looks familiar, that's because it had no original replies so has been recycled!)

Subthreads:

An invasive pest. by Ness McLeod, Aladren with Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Where is the other one? by Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren

9 Professor Rory Taransay Is it a plant? Is it a mammal? No, it's... [Beginners] 33 Professor Rory Taransay 1 5

Ness McLeod, Aladren

November 12, 2018 8:35 AM

An invasive pest. by Ness McLeod, Aladren

Ness peered at the Horklumps, trying to feel enthusiastic. A combination of growing up in the magical world and being the kind of student who spent a lot of time reading the textbook meant that the first year had recognised them immediately. Recognition and excitement were not the same thing though. Horklumps did not seem very fun or appealing. Sure, it was wrong to judge based on appearance, but… well, they didn’t really do much either. So, they were probably going to spend a lesson looking at not-particularly-appealing-to-look-at squishy mushroom things.

The most exciting part by far was when Professor Taransay asked them questions. Ness’ hand shot up to identify the creatures but the Professor called on someone else. This turned out to be one of those days where that was a blessing in disguise. It was always hard to know whether to put your hand up for the first question because it was almost always disappointingly easy and a better question followed. But if you didn’t put your hand up, it looked like you either didn’t know or didn’t care, and sometimes there weren’t any bonus questions. Professor Taransay had three questions today though, and Ness got to answer the third one, about why introducing new species was dangerous.

“Species that are non-native may have advantages such as having no natural predators in the new environment, or being a predator to an existing species which doesn’t know that it needs to avoid them. Additionally, human activity can be disrupted if farmers don’t have methods in place to protect their crops from a given species. There have been instances in both the Muggle and Magical worlds where non-native species have decimated local flora and fauna, and caused significant damage to agriculture. Horklumps would be particularly problematic in this way because they can be very difficult to control even within their native environment,” Ness explained, not really considering the fact that some students lacked English as a first language, or that even those who had it might not routinely use words like ‘decimated.’

Ness liked to answer questions in class, and especially in Care of Magical Creatures. It wasn’t the first year’s favourite subject (although anyone who said it was unacademic clearly wasn’t paying attention to the broader issues raised such as species decemation and conservation, which were both important and complex), and Professor Taransay had had to be demoted to being Ness’ second favourite teacher after Kir had shared the story of Professor Hawthorne teaching the intermediates all about human sexuality. But he was still head of Aladren, and thus impressing him mattered a great deal. Plus he had a really nice Scottish accent. He was also good looking in a really pretty boy conventional way that was not Ness’ type and that totally wasn’t part of why answering his questions well mattered. Except that, underneath the stereotypical adventurer exterior, he had to surely be in touch with his sensitive side if he took care of animals all the time, so maybe it was ok to fancy him just a little bit… So long as it was for that, and not how he looked.

Ness approached the horklumps with a tray of earthworms. Although the first year was vegetarian, this sort of task was not a problem. Horklumps weren’t vegetarian. Things in nature ate each other. That was just how it was. How they were meant to feed the horklumps was an issue though. Ness was well aware of how horklumps ate, but getting the worms to the relevant part of them was going to be a challenge. Ness was still thinking about this when someone moved close enough that it seemed like they might be going to speak to Ness.

“I’m working out how best to get the worms underground,” Ness explained. The last thing the first year wanted was someone pointing out that they needed to do that, on the assumption that Ness was standing there puzzled because of not knowing that. Ness did know that. “The horklump feeds using tentacle root-like structures,” the Aladren added, in case the other person didn’t know, “We could dig up some earth and put the worms down, but they might burrow away when they sensed a predator nearby. It seems unsporting to stun them though. I’m guessing that earthworm species are not vastly different by continent, or that these are at least local to Sonora because if they weren’t, Professor Taransay would have given us stricter instructions on not letting them get away, so that’s probably not a concern. I say we dig up the soil, place them in the small trenches we create so that we can observe whether they horklumps catch them, but don’t stun them because it’s just mean. Though I suppose knowing you’re being eaten isn’t a pleasant experience. If they were stunned, they wouldn’t know. But they also wouldn’t have a chance to escape. What do you think?” the Aladren asked, starting to feel a pang of sympathy and discomfort over feeding one live creature to another. Sure, it was how it was in nature, but normally Ness didn’t have to be involved. It felt a lot more like murder to be the one actively putting the earthworms in with the horklumps.

13 Ness McLeod, Aladren An invasive pest. 1419 Ness McLeod, Aladren 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren

November 13, 2018 5:13 PM

Where is the other one? by Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren

Heinrich recognized the Horklump immediately. His mom had dealt with an outbreak of them in her garden one year. They weren’t unknown in Germany, having spread through most of northern Europe, though that was the only time he’d ever seen them in person before.

More impressively, he also recognized their name. Not all creatures covered in this class were called the same thing in Germany as they were here in America, but this seemed to be one of the times that both languages agreed on a designation. The pronunciation wasn’t perfectly aligned, but the spelling was, so that was close enough for him. The rest was just accent, he supposed.

He did not volunteer to answer any questions. Not because he didn’t know the answers, or even because he couldn’t express those ideas in English (though the fact that he couldn’t do so in clean grammatically correct English certainly played a part), but rather because he was disinclined to draw attention to himself in Professor Tarnasay’s class. The man was Scottish and, like Professor Hawthorne, might have heard the news over the summer that the German assassins who also happened to be Heinrich’s parents and therefore shared a surname with him were convicted of their crimes.

So he kept his hands down and contented himself with frowning at the first year who used unnecessarily difficult English words in her answer.

He collected two earthworms from the supply, figuring he could be polite and offer one to his partner, whoever that turned out to be, but when he found a viable candidate, he interrupted his own offer to to partner them when he realized one of the worms wasn’t in his hand anymore.

“Would you like to -“ he started looking around in concern and confusion. “I was with you share worms. I had two. Where is the other one?”

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren Where is the other one? 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren 0 5

Evelyn Stones, Pecari

November 15, 2018 9:24 PM

I'm proud of your brain, friend. by Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Evelyn did not know what horklumps were and she did not particularly feel privileged to be finding out. At the same time, Care of Magical Creatures was a favorite class of hers and she was as happy to dig round in the mud as anything else, maybe even a little happier. She would also get to draw, which was a positive.

Hearing Ness answer the professor's question made Evelyn distinctly aware of how lucky she was to be friends with such smart people. And caring people. And nice people. Ness was a good people. Evelyn shook her head, confusing herself for all sorts of reasons, and refocused. Working with the Aladren sounded good today, particularly when it was on something that Evelyn wouldn't be wholly disadvantaged at, so she approached from a healthy distance to provide ample sightline before saying anything. The last thing she wanted to do was be creepy, although greeting Ness with a hug sounded better.

"Hello, Friend," Evelyn said, smiling as she approached. "Good job on those questions. You're so smart!" There was no hint of the usual jealousy in this comment, just admiration. "I think that makes sense. We could . . . well we could kill them first?" She didn't like the idea but understood if Ness wasn't comfortable feeding live creatures to other live creatures. "I don't know. Is there any benefit for the horklump in eating a live creature? Like is the hunt important or just the nutrients? I can put the worms in there and watch for you if you aren't comfortable." The Aladren was sensitive too. How did Evelyn possibly get so lucky with friends like this?

22 Evelyn Stones, Pecari I'm proud of your brain, friend. 1422 Evelyn Stones, Pecari 0 5