Another day...another class on Elective Hall

Professor Dione

May 17, 2005 10:44 PM

Class Dismissed tag Asher by Professor Dione

After the rest of the class had left the classroom, Dione took a seat at her desk and directed Asher to sit in a chair directly in front. Her expression was still the same stoic façade, even though behind it, the wheels in her head were turning, thinking over the options. She could just take points away, have her clean the room, and let that be it, or perhaps lines, though that was ineffective most of the time, and far overused. Or perhaps something more creative was in order.

However, Asher’s confession, though her story was an obvious fabrication, put the brakes on her train of thought. She was willing to take all the blame for the parchment fight in order to protect her friends from punishment, instead of point at someone else for the blame. That had to be worth something.

“Well, Miss Tallow, you know why you’re here, so let’s get down to the business at hand. What do you think would be a reasonable punishment for such behavior?”\n\n

Subthreads:

No punishment at all, of course! by Asher Tallow with Samantha Hamilton, Professor Chambers

I said reasonable. by Professor Dione with Derry Four, Professor Chambers

To lie or not to lie, that is the question... by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

Are you there, Freud? It's me, David. by David Wilkes

Inter-branch cooperation by Arthur Carey, Aladren with Professor Dione, Jane Carey, Teppenpaw, Megan

0 Professor Dione Class Dismissed *tag Asher* 0 Professor Dione 1 5

Asher Tallow

May 18, 2005 2:58 PM

No punishment at all, of course! by Asher Tallow

Asher gave Laura a small nod as her friend left the classroom and promised to wait outside. She watched as her classmates gathered up their belongings, some chattering about the lesson, others scrambling to exit as fast as they could. She watched as eventually even Laura's blond head disappeared out the doorway, and then, quite suddenly, there was just her and Dai Oni. Alone.

Dai Oni gestured to chair at the front of the classroom, and with a grimace of dislike, Asher slowly tripped up to the designated seat. She plopped down, attempting to feign indifference, and stared at a spot to the left of Dai Oni's pale face. The spot happened to be a moving poster of a star cluster, so at least it was something interesting.

The silence stretched and Asher could feel Dai Oni's strange eyes on her face. She's probably wondering how best to abuse me without leaving bruises, she thought with a mental sigh. When Dai Oni finally spoke, however, Asher practically fell out from her slouch in the chair. Was Dai Oni serious? She was actually letting Asher choose her own punishment?

Oh, this was good news indeed. Asher quickly put on an unhappy air and fumbled with her hands, trying to appear guileless. "I suppose you could just have me do what my old teachers normally did- memorize parts of the rule book or text and recite it."

She inobstrusively crossed her fingers behind the crook of her elbow. Memorizing would be a piece of cake for her, a literal snap of the fingers.\n\n

0 Asher Tallow No punishment at all, of course! 1466 Asher Tallow 0 5

Professor Dione

May 18, 2005 9:57 PM

I said reasonable. by Professor Dione

Dione leaned back in her chair a bit and pondered the idea. Of course, she knew Asher would recommend something that she could do well; she had noticed that one of the questions was a direct quotation from a book. Simple citing would be simple for Asher, hardly a punishment at all. However, there had been no real harm done to the classroom, and the last thing she really wanted to do was assign a detention on her first day of actual teaching.

As always, she carefully weighed both sides of the situation, leaving a dreadful silence to permeate the air like a toxic gas. Her expression stayed exactly the same as Asher threw out her suggestion, and stayed the same even now as she debated the idea in her head. There was no nod of acceptance or a scowl of rejection of the idea. That same enigmatic stare and seemingly impenetrable silence answered Asher until…

“Very well. Read the homework assigned for next lesson, and before class, you will recite two unique characteristics of each of the jovian planets by memory.” After stating this, she quickly added, “Don’t think I don’t realize how easily you are getting away with this. I was lenient with those who were late to class, so it wouldn’t be too fair if I was not a bit easygoing with you as well. Now, you may go. Try not to cause too much trouble from now on.”\n\n

0 Professor Dione I said reasonable. 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Asher Tallow

May 20, 2005 9:58 AM

Reasonable is subjective. (She bought it, Laura! Whoot!) by Asher Tallow

Asher's mouth nearly fell open. Holy cripes but Dai Oni had given her the easiest punishment ever! Recite two unique facts- ha! This was no punishment at all, but Asher was not about to let Dai Oni know this. She kept her smug satisfaction hidden behind a dejected sigh and instead replied in an effected, drawn out voice.

"Yes, Professor Dione." She bowed her head, tucked the chair back into place, and then made a bee-line for the exit.

The faster she was out of there, the sooner she would be free from Dai Oni suddenly wising up and sticking her with cleaning duty or something. Once the door was closed firmly behind her, Asher turned to face Laura who was waiting as promised.

"I got off with nothing- I only have to recite some factoids next class. A piece of cake."

She grinned widely, and switched her shoulder sack to the other arm. "I mean really, I thought Dai Oni was going to have me scrub the floors or something with a toothbrush. Maybe she's one of those all bark, no bite kind of teachers..." she added in a wondering tone. "Anyway, what class do we have next?"\n\n

0 Asher Tallow Reasonable is subjective. (She bought it, Laura! Whoot!) 1466 Asher Tallow 0 5

Professor Dione

May 20, 2005 10:18 PM

Don't get too confident. I knew what I was doing by Professor Dione

Dione watched with a barely noticeable smirk as Asher attempted to sound miserable…poorly. Asher had been the one to mention the form of “punishment”; it would have been very strange if she would have recommended something that would have been in the least bit unbearable.

As she threw away the remaining parchment balls that were still lying about the floor, she came to the realization that perhaps she didn’t let Asher off so easily just because she protected her fellow combatants. Her mind replayed the scene of her casting an acrid remark in the student’s direction for her comment on the pretest. Looking back on it, even she would admit that it was a bit harsh. She could remember herself at that age, not knowing everything there was to know in class, and being so frustrated with the new material, that she marked it off as being unneeded. Besides that, the few insults she had thrown back were justifiable, not demeaning the way she taught, her breeding, or even something as trivial as her choice in clothing. However, she pitied anyone who would misbehave enough to deserve a detention from now on; after this lesson, mercy was not an option.

At least her first lesson was over, she thought, and now she knew what to expect. And now that peace was restored to her room, she could start on her next lesson. After pulling a thick tome about Jupiter from one of her bookshelves, she returned to her desk and returned to her work.\n\n

0 Professor Dione Don't get too confident. I knew what I was doing 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Laura Keaton

May 21, 2005 11:06 PM

mouth drops open in surprise You came out alive! by Laura Keaton

Laura was wondering just how long Professor Dione would be keeping Asher in her undesirable clutches, when Asher emerged from the Astronomy classroom grinning widely. Laura’s mouth dropped open as her friend informed her that her punishment was to simply recite facts for the next class. Professor Dione had seemed such a strict, no nonsense type of woman, who would eagerly give them hours worth of hard labor for detention. Instead, she seemed to have gone soft when it came to punishments. Perhaps it was a clever ploy, Laura mused. Asher’s easy punishment was sure to get around the school, gossip always did. Maybe Dione wanted everyone to think she was a softie at heart, so when they started trying to push the limits of her class, she could enjoy their shock when she came down extra hard on them. Asher echoed Laura’s initial thoughts as she vocalized that perhaps Dione was all bark, no bite.

“Somehow I don’t think she will stay as soft on second time offenders,” Laura warned her friend, but stopped there. She had been just as involved in the paper war as Asher, so it would be incredibly hypocritically for her to harp on proper behavior in class. “We have the best type of class next,” she continued, responding to Asher’s question, “no class. It’s lunch time, and I think we have two paper war starters to track down.” Laura shifted her backpack as she prepared to navigate toward Cascade Hall, hopefully without getting lost. From inside, she could hear her arsenal of paper balls jostle around. Perhaps they would come in useful for chucking at the preps back in their dormitory; after all, it would be a waste of perfectly good parchment to just throw them out.
\n\n

0 Laura Keaton *mouth drops open in surprise* You came out alive! 0 Laura Keaton 0 5

Professor Dione

January 02, 2006 7:44 PM

Lesson Two: The Jovian Planets by Professor Dione

Dione was relieved that classes were to start again, but it didn’t subtract from the massive amount of information she would have to get through if she wanted to finish the solar system by the end of term. They had not even started on the jovian planets; it was going to be a long lesson. She looked from her notes, which looked to be about twenty inches of parchment, to the board where she had started copying information on Jupiter. At least classes are back on schedule, she reassured herself. Though this certainly didn’t solve the more recent problems.
Having a classroom in one of the towers had its advantages and disadvantages, but with all the weather troubles, it seemed that it was nothing but a hassle. It was just about destroyed by the mud storm. Now with the drop in temperatures, it felt like Absolute Zero had been achieved in her classroom. Her wool cloak couldn’t fully shield her from the bitter cold and her fingers were still numb inside her winter gloves. If only that sun in the mobile could create heat as well as light. Not much could be done about the cold weather but bundle up and deal with it.
After finishing her work on the board, she waited a few moments for students to enter before starting class. “Open your text to the chapters on the jovian planets. I understand that with the current weather difficulties at Sonora, the room is a bit uncomfortable. Make sure to bring warm clothing to class until this is all sorted out. The main problem at hand is with all the class cancellations, we are far behind in the material. So, we will spend this class period catching up. Now, who can tell me about our next planet, the fifth from the Sun?”
Her eyes scanned across the classroom, awaiting an answer. For their sake, they’d better have one. After all, they had so much time off from classes; the students had plenty of time to skim over the jovian planets. With all the work that had to be done, there was no time for slacking. Tempest fugit.\n\n

0 Professor Dione Lesson Two: The Jovian Planets 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Dalila Bastet

January 04, 2006 4:33 PM

Are we on Pluto or something? Brrr... by Dalila Bastet

Dalila hiked the staircase that led to the Astronomy tower, thankful that this, her favorite cclass had finally started up again. But when she reached the top of the steps, all her happiness was swept away by a draft of frosty air.

"What the--" she started, but then realized it was most likely the freakish weather that was causing the cold. Dalila instantly thank her grandmother for making her a new jacket for Christmas; bright orange: her favorite color.

She walked stiffly into the classroom and sat down in her usual seat in the middle of the room, taking out all her notes and books while trying to keep her hands balled up inside her sleeves.

So...jovian planets? That was a piece of cake. She had read all about them in that book her mother sent to her the first birthday she was in Egypt. Dalila's hand shot through the air and without waiting to be called on answered quickly.

"That's Jupiter, Professor Dione. It's the biggest planet in the solar system...like a thousand times bigger than Earth and it has 28 moons, or is it 27? No, 28...anyways, it's made of mostly gas and uh...I can't remember anything else."

She said this all in rapid succession and began taking deep breaths and trying to smile at the same time. Then she looked down, opened her book up the appropriate chapter and fell to doodling on the moving pictures of Jupiter.\n\n

0 Dalila Bastet Are we on Pluto or something? Brrr... 60 Dalila Bastet 0 5

Tally Adams

January 04, 2006 6:46 PM

Another day...another class by Tally Adams

Tally walked through the school with her winter clothes piled on her thin body. When was the school going to fix this darn weather fiasco? She was FREEZING! Okay, so she didn't mind it so much when there was a roaring fire or something to keep her warm, but when she was stuck walking the halls or sitting in certain classrooms, Tally wanted nothing more than the weather to be right again.

Astronomy was one of those classes where she preferred the weather to return to normal. Especially since she could see her breath. She sat huddled into her cloak, hat covering her ears and gloves keeping her hands warm. Occassionally a set of shivers would run the length of her body until she got it under control again.

She flipped through her textbook until she came upon the appropriate chapter and sat there listening to the Professor (who she still wasn't quite sure if she liked or not) explain how far behind they were. Like it was their fault, Tally thought miserably, huddling lower into her chair.

At the question, Tally lowered her eyes to her desk. She knew the answer was Jupitor, what idiot didn't? But she was in a grouchy mood for the weather and didn't necessarily want to talk. Thankfully, Dalila answered the question and Tally was allowed to remain quiet for another few minutes.\n\n

6 Tally Adams Another day...another class 41 Tally Adams 0 5

Asher Tallow

January 04, 2006 8:36 PM

Looks like Earl got his snow. . . by Asher Tallow

Asher found that she wasn't in the least bit homesick. In fact, she was as far from homesick as was humanly possible. Even more in fact, Sonora felt so much like home that she almost wished she was homesick, if only because it would mean that she would be warm. Sonora, for being in a desert- a desert for Merlin's sake!- was ungodly cold. Snow drifts were normal in Montana, as was frost, cold-burnt noses, icicles, three layers thick gloves, and ear muffs. In Arizona, however, Asher was fairly certain such things were not at all normal.

But then again, whenever had something involved with magic been normal?

Currently, she was decked out in what was considered normal wear when tredging through two feet of snow back in Waxonberry: thermal stretch tee, turtleneck, sweater, thermal leggings, jeans, knee high wool socks, gloves, knit cap, and scarf. The coat was absent as someone had apparently thought it cute to "borrow" it from her trunk. The school was cold. Teeth-aching cold. Nose-numbing cold. And never before had Asher been thankful for the trek up to the Astronomy tower.

By the time she had reached the classroom at the top of the tower, she no longer felt the need for her scarf or cap. Her cheeks glowed with that gut-filling mix of rushing blood and chilled skin. Her fingers tingled and when she exhaled, her breath left a long trail of whitened fog behind her. Asher stepped into class with a crooked grin, and slammed down into her chair with obvious relish.

Her grin slipped once she was reminded of her class's instructor: Dai Oni. The professor's appearence seemed remarkably appropriate considering the irregular weather. Asher promptly ignored whatever it was Dai Oni began saying and instead began tinkering with the puzzle box her father gave her for christmas. It was charmed to present a different puzzle for each day of the year, and she still had yesterday's puzzle to work out. She jiggled the red triangle loose while tentatively working in the rectangular blue piece.

Dai Oni mentioned something about jovian and cancellations. She tugged on the orange trapezoid that was wedged in between the red triangle and the blue rectangle.

". . .like a thousand times bigger than Earth and it has 28 moons, or is it 27? No, 28...anyways, it's made of mostly gas and uh...I can't remember anything else."

She looked up briefly and recognized the speaker as a girl from the quidditch scrimmage. Asher could quote the book verbatim if necessary; she had read it after all. But that didn't mean that she was about to actively participate in class or anything. Jupitor was boring anyway.

"No point in remembering boring things, anyway," she repeated aloud, her voice purposely kept low. Her volume grew, however, when the trapezoid fell into place and the puzzle box gave a pleasant chirrup of congratulations. "Go me!"\n\n

0 Asher Tallow Looks like Earl got his snow. . . 1466 Asher Tallow 0 5

Professor Dione

January 04, 2006 11:14 PM

I'm going to get some more participation, one way or anothe by Professor Dione

Dione was surprised; she had expected the awkward silence that comes with students who were either tired, bored, or could care less about the material, not the almost immediate and voluntary answer. She was almost regretful that she had to mention the numbers were completely off target. Still, she deserved some credit for being first to answer.

“You are correct in the fact that Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and that it has many moons, but the exact numbers are incorrect. I’m sure there is someone in the class that knows…”

Dione quietly meandered through the desks, looking at each student as she passed by. She stopped abruptly in front of Asher’s seat just in time to see the trapezoid fit into the now-completed puzzle. Leaning down to meet the student’s eyes, it didn’t take a Leglimens to tell that the professor was more than a bit annoyed at how Asher was using her class time. “Miss Tallow. You were supposed to closely study the information to relay to the class. Tell us how large Jupiter is compared to Earth and how many moons are in its orbit.” Before moving back to the front of the room, she picked up the puzzle and examined it, paused, and put it back on the desk. “And put this away. If it continues to be a distraction, I’ll have to keep hold of it until the end of class.”\n\n

0 Professor Dione I'm going to get some more participation, one way or anothe 0 Professor Dione 0 5

Dalila

January 05, 2006 4:06 AM

Harumph! by Dalila

Dalila sat frozen in her chair and not because of the cold. The numbers incorrect? She was so sure about it! Quickly flipping through the chapter, Dalila found the section on Jupiter's moons. The book seemed to disagree. But the book could be wrong.

Just over break, Dalila had read an article on the internet about more moons being found. Maybe the professor didn't know it yet.

Dalila waited until Professor Dione finished yelling at that one girl, she recognized from the impromptu Quidditch match, but couldn't remember her name before speaking up again.

"Um, Professor. Are you sure? because I just read something over the break that said that scientists had found more moons around Jupiter..."

She decided not to say any more. For one thing, it wsa too cold to move her lips too much, and another thing was that the professor didn't look too happy. She didn't know whether it was the girl with the puzzle thingy or the cold or something else, but Dalila did know when to shut up.\n\n

0 Dalila Harumph! 0 Dalila 0 5

Sam Bauer, Crotalus

January 28, 2012 11:10 PM

To lie or not to lie, that is the question... by Sam Bauer, Crotalus

Here, on the other side of midterm, the end of the year seemed a lot closer than it had before the holidays. To, no doubt, his mother’s disappointment, though, Sam still wasn’t thinking of anything in terms of the CATS. Instead, he had started kind of dwelling on the thought of going to Advanced classes.

It was weird, that thought. Sam didn’t really know what to do with it. It wasn’t the growing up thing, or at least, not mostly. It was just the thought of being shut away in the tiny classes, which would be fewer in number and kind of focused – or so he imagined. He couldn’t say he knew a lot about them from firsthand experience, despite his state of semi-familiarity with Rachel and frequent contact with Marissa. He thought it didn’t seem like a completely illogical conclusion, though, and he was pretty sure it was going to be weird, having his classes really have an edge of reality to them, rather than just being what the school required him to take or he’d signed up for for whatever reason.

Divination was one he was, assuming he had the test scores for it to be an option, still on the fence about keeping or dropping, but he usually liked it well enough, and had liked the librarian’s way of teaching it last year well enough to nod to her in a friendly enough way as he concluded she was either guest-lecturing or subbing for the day on his way to his usual seat. Divination could make him a little nervous these days, on the off chance he might actually figure out something about his future and then it would be something he didn’t like, but usually, it was a pretty good class.

Usually. Today, he wasn’t sure if he liked the topic or not, by which he meant that he didn’t like the topic at all. For one thing, he didn’t remember a lot of his dreams in any level of detail, didn’t remember most of them at all, and for another…Merlin, telling people about stuff his brain came up with when he was pretty much completely checked out of the operation? That sat wrong with him. And then she had to remind anyone who hadn’t already gone straight to that very point that it was personal stuff they were going to be dealing with?

Sam began to evaluate his own skills as a liar. It was just sounding better altogether to him to make something up. The question was, what, and how did he make it sound like an actual dream? Maybe he could remember something innocuous, maybe from years ago or something, since he couldn’t really remember any recent dreams at all.

For now, a partner. “Hey,” he said, spotting a decent-looking potential to work with. Here was hoping things didn’t get personal just to spite him, making it necessary for him to never speak to that person again in this life. “Want to work together?”

16 Sam Bauer, Crotalus To lie or not to lie, that is the question... 163 Sam Bauer, Crotalus 0 5

David Wilkes

January 30, 2012 6:27 PM

Are you there, Freud? It's me, David. by David Wilkes

For a moment, seeing the librarian in Divination class, David stopped short in surprise, his mind going momentarily blank as he wondered if he had mistaken his year and just dreamed moving on into fourth year and getting a new teacher, but then he said, “Oh, hey, Professor Diaz,” and went to his seat, accepting that the old teacher was, at least for the day, in the new teacher’s layout. It was honestly probably one of the less unnerving things he’d ever see in this classroom, after all.

At home, he had never read a horoscope on his own, or visited a palm reader, or fooled around with cards or anything like that. He had been the perfect skeptical, science-minded student of his generation. Secretly, though, he had always secretly and a little nervously wondered if some of it, amidst all the cons and crazies and other assorted not-very-reputable stuff, might work, be real. When he’d gotten to the Wizarding World, he hadn’t thought of assuaging his curiosity about that right away – he had been too overwhelmed with everything else, trying to learn everything there was to know about a complete society with millennia of history all its own all at once – but he had run across it in history books, tales where a prophecy played a big part in events, and had taken that as confirmation that the stuff was real.

In light of that, he still wasn’t completely sure why he was in the class, because finding that out had been seriously unsettling. He could only think he’d done it just from not wanting to not miss an experience in the magical world, because sometimes, he was now creeped out by the vaguely right-sounding horoscopes his mother sometimes read aloud from Woman’s World.

Still, thus far, he had avoided any major prophetic trances that he knew about, so if he made it into the history books, it didn’t seem likely to be as a footnote as the guy who made a prophecy which triggered something big and probably Aeschylus-level tragic. That would kind of suck. Happily, then, today’s lesson was one where that not happening didn’t sound so much unlikely as it did downright impossible.

“My last dream was about my parents and the Super Bowl,” he remarked as they lesson broke up into group work. “I was looking at the TV guide, and it said the game wasn’t coming on until 11:22 at night, and my parents were annoyed ‘cause they couldn’t stay up to watch it, and my older sister was making fun of them for liking football.” Which was kind of weird on two levels, since for one thing Annabeth no longer lived at home and for another she had always done a better job of hiding how unimpressed with the cult of football than he did, but that was irrelevant. Merlin knew she was no fan, just someone who’d played the cultural game because being well-liked was part of getting the honors that would get her scholarships, which were her way out.

His sister had been the perfect child, and he didn’t envy her one bit. Anna had spent many years dancing as fast as she possibly could, trying to impress everyone, running on that treadmill every day, and over midterm, she had come out and finally told the family that she’d been in counseling all the way through college and was now on four separate prescription medications, including an antidepressant and an anxiety pill – and she no longer even cared about what she’d spent her whole life on, anyway, and so it all seemed a little pointless. In light of that, he thought it was okay that he was pretty okay with being the weird child instead of the perfect one.

“Pretty sure there’s not much prophetic about that. Too bad, really. I could have made a fortune betting online, split the profits with the sister for running it for me while I’m here.” It never occurred to him, at this specific moment, that he was using one Muggle term after another and not offering any explanation of what they were or even where they came from. He usually noticed that kind of thing, but sometimes he forgot about it.

16 David Wilkes Are you there, Freud? It's me, David. 169 David Wilkes 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

February 02, 2012 11:20 AM

Not according to Shakespeare by Samantha Hamilton

Being thrown by an unexpected teacher was, Samantha thought, excusable. It helped that the librarian had taught the class before, and that Samantha knew her quite well from classes and volunteering in the library, so the fifth year Aladren took a seat and set about taking notes on the class as usual. She wasn't enamoured by the content; it was always difficult for her to accept the more imprecise methods of divination. She still wasn't entirely convinced by even the more mathematical means of prediction, like astrology and arithmancy, but her logical mind could, at least, appreciate the mental challenge they presented. When all there was to divining was looking for an interpreting symbols, Samantha was tempted to give the entire practice up as hocum. Yet she still had an exam to pass in the subject before that pleasure was available to her, so she did her best to channel her efforts towards being productive.

While she was still contemplating whether or not she actually had a sufficiently good memory for dreams, Samantha was drawn from her thoughts by Sam Bauer asking to be partners. She drew the conclusion that working with someone you knew fairly well would minimise the risk of them making fun of you, and probably be less awkward than sharing personal details with someone you didn't know very well. Admittedly, she couldn't claim that Other Sam was her soulmate or anything, but after four years of sharing classes and a name they got on well enough for her to consider him as one of the least objectionable partners in the room. "Yeah, sure," she said, rallying some limited enthusiasm at the relative contentment found in the partnership as she pulled her textbook towards her.

"I'm struggling to think of a recent dream, though," she admitted, leaning her elbow on the table and her chin on her hand. "I know there was something about being in a video game - there were possibly lightsabres involved - but I doubt that's prophetic." Unless there were hidden meanings within her actions in the game, but as she couldn't really remember them vividly enough to recall them in detail, she couldn't see how that would be helpful for the purposes of the class, either. "I'll keep thinking," she promised. "How about you? Any subconscious desires presenting themselves in your sleep recently?"

0 Samantha Hamilton Not according to Shakespeare 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5

Derry Four

February 03, 2012 10:10 AM

My name is Derry, not Freud. by Derry Four

Derry had decided to take Divination for two reasons. The first was that Derry Three had for as long as Salem had offered it. He knew that because Wesley had ridiculed the subject and used Three's interest in it as proof of its pointlessness. It would have been a better argument, Four thought, if he had invoked Berta's name more often than Three's or, even more compelling, if someone other than Wesley had said it.

The other reason he was taking the class was much more straightforward: he'd heard it was pretty easy to pass.

So here he was, sitting in one of the little alcoves, wondering why the librarian was taking Professor Mather's place. She explained that and the day's activity in short order. He took a few sporadic notes for form's sake but the few words would be little more than a cryptic mystery if he (or anyone else) ever tried to reconstruct the lesson from them.

Then Aladren's new Keeper and Assistant Captain began speaking in tongues, and Derry couldn't help but wonder if David Wilkes had just gone into a divinator's trance right in front of him.

There was enough English in there, though, that Derry thought David thought this was not the case. Derry took a few seconds to blink at him and try to make guesses using context and his recent visit to Three's muggle home to sort out possible interpretations. This proved beyond his ability so he made a confused face (in truth, he had been wearing one for most of David's comments so this did not require much effort) and tried to ameliorate his understanding by summarizing, "You dreamed about watching people play Quodpot with a foot and your parents were sad they missed it? And somehow you could have gotten rich off this?"

1 Derry Four My name is Derry, not Freud. 189 Derry Four 0 5

David Wilkes

February 04, 2012 11:02 PM

That's probably for the best. by David Wilkes

David supposed it served him right when, in his turn, he had a moment where he had to think very hard to figure out what on earth Derry Pierce was talking about. The word ‘Quodpot’ was one he’d run across reading a few times, but it wasn’t one he used often enough for it to jump to the forefront of his magical vocabulary as quickly as it might have.

Once he put together the idea of people throwing around an exploding chopped-off foot, though, he realized something pretty important. “Not exactly,” he said. “I think I started speaking Muggle again. Football’s a different game. A bunch of guys bigger than Edmond Carey run around knocking each other down trying to get something like a Quaffle into different parts of the field to get points for their team, then kick it over this other thing for an extra point. After an hour, the one with the most points wins.”

Examining his analogy, David was willing to concede that he’d missed a lot of the finer points and had started talking too fast during the middle of the long sentence, but that this way of putting it was probably adequate. Feeling well-pleased with himself, he went on. “The Super Bowl’s kind of like the – is there a Quidditch national championship or something? Only people sit up all night watching it, and I think they bet on who’s going to be the winner. So if you predicted who the winner was….” He shrugged. “Dishonest, yet effective, yeah?”

Then, lest it be assumed that he was well on his way to the beginnings of a gambling problem rather than just someone with a sense of humor derived entirely from his family Christmas events and mother’s issue with her in-laws, he quickly added, “Pure speculation, of course,” in his best Aladren tone. “You wouldn’t actually do something like that.”

Well, in theory, anyway. “Anyway, I think I’m generally pretty lacking in prophetic dreams,” he concluded. He guessed the odds had been pretty against it, considering that he was already doing well to have magic genes at all, never mind Seer ones. “You?”

16 David Wilkes That's probably for the best. 169 David Wilkes 0 5

Derry Four

February 04, 2012 11:52 PM

Yeah, that's a weird name. Derwent is much better. by Derry Four

"Ah," Derry said as David began translating the Muggle-ese he'd been using to describe his dream. He'd been kind of under the impression that most of the Aladren team was pureblooded but clearly David was not if he dreamed in muggle. Of course, Derry supposed he might start doing that eventually now that his branch affiliation was a much more questionable thing.

"World Cup," he offered immediately when David searched for a term for a Quidditch Championship that people changed their sleeping habits for and bet money on the results of. "And I think the California branch does make a killing by having their seers bet on it." He kept judgement out of his voice, showing neither censure nor approval for the practice. Aside from Berta, who was kind of crazy, and dead now besides, the New Hampshire branch hadn't really had any seers. They frowned at the California branch for the practice but Derry wasn't so sure the Eastern lots wouldn't have tried the same if they had the ability. They might limit it to financial markets instead of sports arenas, but the effect was the same.

"Even in the wizarding world, people don't take seers seriously enough to think that isn't gambling. I mean," he shrugged and waved back toward the librarian, "this whole lesson is about how people have trouble telling the difference between normal dreams and prophetic visions."

"Mine," he added, "are almost certainly regular old dreams. I mean, I'm pretty sure Demelza Eagle is not ever going to meet my mother's aunt, and if she did, I don't think they're going to be cooking chili together while skiing with the Teppenpaw crowd. And from how Reggie described it, I don't even think skiing is anything like how my dreams interpreted it. We were all on this mountain, and you stood on two brooms - one strapped to each foot - and you jumped off a cliff and tried not to die. It was very exciting, but most people needed to have Coach Pierce catch them with levitation charms before they crashed into the rocks at the bottom. And don't ask me how a person cooks chili while falling straight down a cliff, even with a magical fire under the cauldron but Demelza and Aunt Lauren were trying very hard. I think they were cheating by actually sitting on their brooms, though. I don't remember that part very well."

1 Derry Four Yeah, that's a weird name. Derwent is much better. 189 Derry Four 0 5

Sam Bauer

February 18, 2012 9:59 PM

Ah, but who needs him when you've got me? by Sam Bauer

Sam listened as Sam Hamilton began to talk about vague memories of a dream where she’d been doing something with lightsabers. He was going to have to think more about that one, even though he’d spent enough time in the Muggle world, going to school when he was pre-Sonora, to understand the references she’d made.

He was distracted, though, by the idea of his crazy subconscious desires. Sam couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “Nah,” he said. “At least, not unless I’m going to get crazier than I thought, since I don’t really think I’m ever going to want to rob a fabric store in the dark.” There had been something about Greta Ballard in there, too; she’d been wearing a tan-colored ballgown and clown make-up and pulling her jewelry out of a little drawstring bag and lining it up on the edge of one of the big shelves covered in bolts of fabric. Had his mom had a really big pair of cloth scissors, too, or was he making that part up? It was hard to remember, but he wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was embellishing here and there as he tried to make some level of sense out of that one himself.

Weird dream, but then, he thought most of his dreams were pretty weird, on the occasions he remembered them. Generally, he had a sequence of disconnected fragments to work with; he wasn’t sure if this made them seem more or less weird than they would if he had all the context for the images that stuck out to him, but they were weird more often than not either way, and he suspected no amount of context could have made them start to look not weird at all.

He snapped his fingers. “Hey, I’ve got it for yours, though. You’re gonna be an Auror, but you’re also gonna have trouble telling your Muggles because to them it all kind of sounds like something out of a video game. How’s that?” Probably not very good, since he was making it up completely off the top of his head and as he went along, but hey, he didn’t think Sam Hamilton was taking the class too seriously, either, and it might be a start toward stringing something together that they could pass off as good enough for professorial consumption in a while if they needed to.

16 Sam Bauer Ah, but who needs him when you've got me? 163 Sam Bauer 0 5

David Wilkes

February 18, 2012 11:09 PM

Of course. by David Wilkes

David was not, himself, a pureblood, but even if he’d never read a word on the history of magical America or paid a lick of attention to the interactions his classmates had all around him, he would have still spent several years, now, playing Quidditch with the rest of the Aladren team, and it seemed to him inevitable that anyone who did that these days would gain a certain amount of familiarity with the concept of branches. When Derry mentioned that ‘the California branch’ did in fact use Divination to predict who would win the Quidditch World Cup, then, he just nodded, though it was disappointing to hear that this was still considered gambling. He didn’t suppose it really mattered, since he lacked real Seer abilities, but making a killing that easily did sound nice….

His parents both made plenty of money, but his father was uncannily good at losing it, usually either helping out his loser friends, helping out the relatives the rest of the family denied being any kin to, or trying to make more money in the stupidest ways possible. Therefore, money and what she thought should be done to people who squandered it had been one of his mother’s constant themes throughout David’s early childhood, when she had her three kids as a captive audience during car rides; until Annabeth pointed it out to him, David had never really realized that they actually had everything they wanted, more or less, and were not going to suddenly wake up one morning too poor to afford books. He had always thought his mother should get a job as one of those people who spoke in schools about all the things that could ruin a young person’s life, or better yet make a set of videotapes and market them to every school in America for twice the rate, because she made a terrific prophet of the apocalypse.

Derry Pierce also had the subconscious of a born cartoonist, if David was any judge, though he guessed he shouldn’t make calls like that when apparently the whole thing came at least partially from not knowing what skiing was. “Yeah, tough one,” he agreed about cooking chili while falling straight down a cliff, even with the aid of magic. “But I’m pretty sure you’re right about that not being how skiing works. I’ve never been skiing, but I’m still pretty sure that’s not how it works. Shouldn’t the brooms have flown or something, or were they regular brooms?”

16 David Wilkes Of course. 169 David Wilkes 0 5

Arthur Carey, Aladren

February 20, 2012 9:01 PM

Inter-branch cooperation by Arthur Carey, Aladren

He had long since come to largely disregard it, but Arthur still, in the back of his head, had a vague feeling that his presence was somehow incongruous to the atmosphere of the Divination classroom. There was something about the contrast between him, with his dark suits and little reading glasses and shiny shoes, and the professor, who had been known to come to class with stained clothes and a not-quite-beard, which made him deeply uncomfortable, even more than being a self-respecting Aladren male in this class did.

Because this was not, as far as he could tell, the general course for someone of his social conditions to take. It was an imprecise branch of magic at best, a joke at worst; usually, it seemed to fall somewhere in the middle, more toward the first if he was lucky, and sometimes he was not. That was one reason why it was often frustrating for him. He went on, though, because he was curious, and because he simply did not want to miss an opportunity he might have to learn.

Normally, he could figure out if there was potential to a class or if it was just a joke pretty quickly, and seldom found cause to revise his judgments once he made them, but today, he found himself deciding to make up his mind later, once he’d had some time with the lesson. This wasn’t one he felt prepared to judge by sound alone. He was going to have to delve into the assignment and study it more thoroughly before he pronounced judgment on it, at least a minimum of study before a preliminary judgment. If he saw a glimmer of potential in what he was doing, he would retreat to the library later to examine it more thoroughly than his textbook and a single session with one of his classmates could permit.

First, though, he had to pick a classmate to work with. Looking around, he saw one figure, hesitated for a moment, and then thought, almost lightly: why not?

Quite a few answers to that question occurred to him, but Arthur still moved over, ignoring his brother’s startled look, to sit across from their very distant cousin Jane Carey. She looked almost as surprised as Arnold had, but he ignored that much as he had his answers to his question. It was a bit late to worry about it now, and besides, the family was encouraging closer relationships among its more distantly related members these days. He was doing what he was supposed to.

“Good day,” he said. “I wanted to offer my congratulations on your betrothal – I’m sure you’ll make a marvelous Mrs. Smythe. Would you like to work together?”

0 Arthur Carey, Aladren Inter-branch cooperation 0 Arthur Carey, Aladren 0 5

Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

February 20, 2012 9:04 PM

That's one way to put it by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

Jane smiled at Miss Diaz as she came into class, hiding her curiosity about why the now-usual Professor Mathers wasn’t here as far as she could tell, and shook her black hair back as she sat down.

Divination was usually a good class, something which at least provided things she hadn’t heard of since her brother had never taken it and which often entertained her by giving her things to interpret. She enjoyed the challenge of trying to pull together coherent meanings from all the bits and pieces, at least sometimes. The fact that it was often a little vague was part of the charm in a way, when the problem she had lately with the things where there were clear rules was how easily and quickly things worked themselves apart for her.

If there was ever to be a lesson in Divination that had that problem, though, it wasn’t going to be today’s. Dreams were very strange sometimes, anyway, and she could never remember quite as many details of any of them as she knew there had been. Forgetting something might completely skew the meaning of something, or they might get on a roll before someone recalled or revealed a detail that changed everything….

She turned the tip of her quill against a bit of parchment a few times, watching the curving line produced thicken here and thin out there for a moment. She couldn’t rule out the chance that there would be some deliberate holding back, either. She couldn’t even rule out the possibility of being the one who held back. Her dreams lately hadn’t – usually – listed among the worst she’d ever had, but some of them had still been…unusual, not pleasant. A lot of things about her mother, and empty houses….

She shook her head slightly, then looked over at, of all people, Arthur as he came over to sit with her and offer his congratulations. “Of course,” she said to his offer to work together. “But marvelous? What do you know about me, Arthur?” she asked, amused by his prediction she’d make a good wife. They had, she thought, a recognition of an unspoken similarity between them – the brighter siblings of heirs, themselves excluded from power for one reason or another, affectionate parents, academic curiosity – but they were very different in many ways, and since she occasionally had the feeling he avoided her above all others, they had never exactly become close.

0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw That's one way to put it 0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw 0 5

Derry Four, Teppenpaw

February 26, 2012 9:49 PM

If that is sarcasm, Derry misses it entirely by Derry Four, Teppenpaw

Derry nodded hurriedly as David asked for clarification on the purpose of the brooms in his dream-skiing. "Oh, yeah, that was what made it tricky to stand on two of them. See, they didn't fly at the same speed. So sitting on one of them while it gently descended is how Demelza and Aunt Lauren were cheating."

He didn't think he had explained it well enough yet, so he continued, "Everyone else with two brooms strapped to their feet were trying not to loose their balance as one fell faster than the other or one broom tried to go forward as the other went backwards or to the side or something. Something about how the broom magic works makes it difficult to adjust one independently of the other so if one was flying left and the other forward, when you tried to stop the one going left the other started going right and it was all really difficult."

He nodded a couple more times to emphasize the difficulty, then shrugged as he refocused on the assignment. "So I guess we need to find symbolism as if they were prophetic dreams, even though we're pretty sure they're not, right?"

He frowned thoughtfully, "Maybe your big game playing so late that you don't want to watch it could be a sign that you're going to not be watching out for something and so you'll miss something important."

1 Derry Four, Teppenpaw If that is sarcasm, Derry misses it entirely 189 Derry Four, Teppenpaw 0 5

Arthur

March 07, 2012 10:32 PM

There's usually a few ways to put things by Arthur

Arthur hesitated at Jane’s unorthodox response to his congratulations, not quite sure what to do for a moment. That was not on script, and while he was the last one to have a right to really complain about that, he still didn’t know what to do with it, where to go now that he’d been called out on using the usual lines too well.

“Well,” he responded after thinking about it for a moment, “you’re very bright, and if my understanding of the situation is correct, you are beginning from a position of strength.”

Now he had to see if he’d seemed to know too much, or if he’d offended her. Ordinary human emotions, as he had spent most of thirteen years learning, were simply not things he was capable of understanding in a normal way; perhaps Jane really was very fond of Smythe. He knew for a fact that much stranger things had happened even in the recent history of their family, however incomprehensible it might seem to him. What was comprehensible to him might not be to her, either; Teppenpaws were supposed to be kind, and that was something he couldn’t understand, either.

He was not cruel, he was reasonably sure of that, but Arthur did not suppose he was especially kind, either. He felt he was sort of blank on that issue. He found it easy enough to like his brother, but then, deep down, he did have some respect for Arnold. No matter what happened to Arnold, how often or how forcefully he was knocked down, he always got back up again and never seemed to notice anything had happened. Arthur was fairly sure that if he were Arnold, he would not have handled it so well. People he was truly indifferent toward, though, much less the ones he actively disrespected as well as lacking respect for…How should he like them, much less go to pains for them? He did not understand it.

Unless, of course, he was looking at it from the wrong perspective, and Smythe had all sorts of skills and virtues he chose not to share with the general population but had revealed to Jane, but Arthur did not think so. He suspected Jane’s life was going to be about as miserable as…as his was likely to be, actually.

Really, though, they should have offered classes in how to decipher feelings alongside the ones about deciphering the future. Those were as mysterious as anything else most of the time.

0 Arthur There's usually a few ways to put things 0 Arthur 0 5

Jane

March 07, 2012 10:34 PM

So there are by Jane

For a moment, Jane studied Arthur, not quite sure what to make of his remark. Then she shrugged and decided to simply be amused by the viewpoint he was expressing. She did not really see Arthur as someone who was going to be much to her in any way, and who was not very likely, despite his intelligence, to be anyone of great importance in their family, either. This conversation was as insignificant as every other she was in.

“For a gentleman, maybe,” she conceded. “But sometimes it’s different for us. They tell us that husbands don’t like it when their wives – begin in a position of strength.”

This cousin did have an unusual way with words, she’d give him that. He almost reminded her of how Edmond used to talk all the time, but he had an air that suggested, to her, more of an effort to come across as a tough adult than Edmond ever had. Her brother had almost always seemed to lack affectations and pretensions, where Arthur seemed almost more like his life was just a role he played on some poorly-defined stage.

Unless she was just projecting some of her own tendencies and feelings onto his stiffly controlled manner, of course. That did seem entirely possible, though she hoped it wasn’t true. The concept of using other people as her mirrors, seeing other people as mirrors made to reflect what she wanted to see back at her, was unsettling; she didn’t like it. Better to be a mirror than to use one. More ethical, definitely. Safer, certainly. The two combined made for a difficult argument to overcome.

She closed her eyes firmly for a second and decided to turn the topic back to Divination, before this got unseemly or they just got caught chatting about oddities and got into trouble. She was sure neither of them wanted that. It might make the day more interesting, but her father and his mother wouldn’t be impressed, she imagined. She didn’t know Lorraine personally, but she had seen her at a distance a few times, and she looked much more…formidable…than Anthony VII.

“Anyway,” she said, dismissing their previous topic. “So that you know, Arthur, I don’t always remember my dreams very well. I might get things all mixed up, or remember things half of the way through, or something like that which will mess everything up. And I’m not sure if any of them mean anything, anyway.”

0 Jane So there are 0 Jane 0 5

Arthur

March 07, 2012 10:36 PM

Our family has a knack for that by Arthur

Arthur was a little surprised by Jane’s response, and then by her quick change of the topic, before he could respond to the idea she had just presented him with – the one under which she was a girl, more or less. Now that he looked at it, he did seem to exempt an awful lot of women from the status they were supposed to have. But he had better not get distracted again; he’d momentarily forgotten what they were actually supposed to be doing here, until she spoke about her dreams. He was tired today, it seemed, more than he’d thought. He needed to concentrate on concentrating.

Her saying she didn’t remember her dreams surprised him. “Really?” he asked. “I remember a great deal of mine.” Arthur had concluded that this was because he had to take sleeping potions so often, though, because his dreams were always extremely vivid and detailed when he did take those potions and then he remembered them more easily, if they were interesting enough for him to concentrate on keeping them in his memory when he first woke up.

He didn’t see the need to mention that, though. He preferred to keep how often he needed medicine of some kind for some problem quiet, where he could. “The last one I recall was about three nights ago. I remember dreaming about my family – my brothers and my parents – in a boat. It was raining, and I was watching the boat. They didn’t seem to be wet at all, and I’m not quite sure I was really there, though I think Mother was looking toward me.”

Another thing he wasn’t going to admit was that the dream had really been a little unsettling. He hadn’t liked it, and hoped it hadn’t meant anything. He couldn’t derive meaning from it, or at least not any meaning that fit with the actual facts, but who knew? Divination was a complicated subject when it was at its best, and even if it wasn’t magical somehow, part of a discipline, it might be his own mind telling him something. He just hoped that if either was the case, it was something less ominous than it felt when he thought about it.

0 Arthur Our family has a knack for that 0 Arthur 0 5

Samantha

March 13, 2012 8:38 AM

Modesty is not a sin by Samantha

She was already beginning to wonder quite how detrimental it would be to her CATS scores if she gave this class up for a lost cause and just spent it chatting with Other Sam, instead, considering neither of them seemed to have experienced dreams that were anything near prophetic. His interpretation of her potential predicament did make her laugh, though, and gave her the incentive to at least stay on topic, even if their discussion might turn out to be less than strictly academic. "I wouldn't currently place any bets on my becoming an Auror," she replied, contemplating his interpretation with a smile, "but then maybe this dream is more prophetic than even I can realize." Career plans were still in the hazy distance of sixth year, but Samantha was at least getting an idea of certain things she wouldn't like to do, and spending all her time keeping unruly wizards in check wasn't an especially appealling option.

"Now, as for yours," she hesitated a moment to think about what stealing fabric in the dark could mean. "Well, you obviously have something to hide," she surmised in a tone of voice that left no room for argument. "That's why you need fabric, to cover something up. And that's why it's in the dark, so nobody can see you. And... oh, you're stealing it because you don't want anyone to know," she concluded with a nod. "So what is it you're hiding?" she asked with a chuckle. Admittedly, dream interpretation might not be her strong point - or Sam's - but nobody could deny their creativity, for certain.

0 Samantha Modesty is not a sin 0 Samantha 0 5

Professor Chambers

June 14, 2013 10:58 AM

Advanced Class: Batter up! by Professor Chambers

Lydia was ecstatic when she received the invitation to teach at Sonora. She had just gotten her teaching degree from San Francisco State University the year before and was eager to start working. She thought that by applying to Sonora she would be making both herself and her parents happy at the same time. They wanted her to come back home and be amongst her own kind again and she wanted to start her teaching career. Sonora Academy gave her the best possible compromise as far as she saw it. She would be amongst some of her own kind again and she would get to teach. Seemed perfect to her. Lydia had applied for the Muggle Studies position mostly because it allowed her to share her curiosity of the Muggle world with others who were just as curious.

Lydia debated on what lesson she would start with for her first class. Since her first class would consist of advanced students she decided that a practical lesson was in order. How better for her students to learn about Muggle life than to do a few things on their own as Muggles must. She decided that she would teach the kids how to play a muggle game called “Baseball”. She had studied the game of baseball while she was in college. She knew of no other way to get the children involved in something both physical and fun than a good game. She left notices for the students attending her class that they were to meet in the MARS sports room for the lesson. She also instructed them to dress comfortably. She arrived early and set up a mock baseball diamond complete with bases and pitching mound. The room seemed to know what she wanted and set it up accordingly complete with extra equipment. She also brought with her a few baseball bats in a large burlap bag, a couple of batting helmets, and about 15 gloves for both right and left hands. She also made sure to bring out the bucket of baseballs she had brought for the lesson.

She set out one of each piece of equipment and set them down next to the bucket of balls. She just finished setting everything up when the first of the students arrived. She waited until the rest of them arrived before she began the lesson. “Good morning class,” she greeted them all, gesturing for them to have a seat on the grassy field. “Let me be the first to welcome you all to Muggle Studies. My name, as you all heard at the opening feast, is Professor Chambers. You may call me Professor or Professor Chambers,” she told them. “For today’s lesson we are going to play a game that muggles play. It involves NO magic whatsoever and is one of the more entertaining past times for muggles.” She walked over to the items she had lying on the ground and picked them up one at a time. “The game I’m going to teach you is called Baseball. As you can see behind me it involves what called a Diamond, bases and a Pitcher’s Mound.” She indicated with her free hand to the objects behind her. She then turned to the ones in her hand. “This first object here in my hands is called a Helmet. It is worn on the head to protect it should any accidents take place.” She placed the helmet upon her head and snapped the chin strap in place.

She was glad she had left her short brown hair down for this exercise. She unsnapped the chin strap and pulled the helmet off, handing it to one of the students to try on. She then picked up the next item and held it up for everyone. “This item is called a Bat. It is used to hit a ball which will be thrown towards you. You swing at said ball with the bat trying to hit it. If the ball hits you, then whomever is pitching isn’t very good at it. You swing the bat like this and within the Batting Box I have drawn for you to stand in.” She took up a batting stance to demonstrate what it should look like. “The batting stance should look like this,” she told them. She planted her feet on the ground spreading her legs only slightly, her left foot ahead of her right. She bent over slightly holding the bat at its base one hand over the other. She took a couple of practice swings to show them how it was done. She handed the bat to another student to study and test out. “Make sure when you swing that item that you’re standing away from other people,” she advised moving on to the next two items. “These next two items are called a Baseball and a catching glove,” she explained holding both items up for the class to see. She slipped the glove onto her left hand and held the ball in her right. “This is used to catch the ball whenever it is thrown or hit by the bat,” she explained. She tossed the ball straight up into the air and caught it in the glove. She took off the glove and handed it with the ball still inside it to another student to look at.

“Now that we’ve gone over what the items are and what they do…we will now cover the bases on the diamond. Those are first, second and third base. The spot where you hit the ball from is called the Home Plate. Once the ball is thrown to home plate your job is to swing the bat and hit the ball as hard as possible across the field. Once you hit the ball, you run to first base. For this first part of the class we’re only going to go over the rules for the game and I’m going to have you all take a turn at trying to hit the ball. The second part of this exercise will be an actual game where you will try batting and running the bases. Now for the rules…if you fail to hit the ball its called a STRIKE and if you get three strikes you are OUT and its someone else’s turn to try to hit the ball. The other two ways you can get out we will cover when we actually play the game. For now you only have to worry about the strikes.”

“Alright everyone let’s get started,” she told them. “Everyone line up over there,” she indicated where they were to stand. When everyone was in place she began their game. The first student stepped up to bat and she picked up one of the balls from the bucket. “Okay…here we go. Make sure you put the helmet on before you take your place to bat,” she called setting up the first pitch. She tossed the ball as fast and far underhanded as she could aiming for the spot above home plate once she saw the student had the helmet on and was in position. She hoped that the students were paying attention on where she told them to stand. “Ready and swing!” she instructed the first student after letting the ball fly from her hands. She just had to hope that her instructions had been clear enough and that she didn’t just bean her first student with the ball. She’d just have to wait and see what happened.

OOC: Participation in these exercises is not entirely mandatory, however, it is greatly encouraged. Have fun with your posts and be as creative as possible with them. The usual posting rules apply and the posts should be no fewer than 200 words. The teacher will be keeping a sharp eye on all activity, however, it should be noted that it is not uncommon for someone to get hit with a bat or ball while playing this sort of game (I.e. the pitcher misses the plate and throws it too close to the batter or the batter after hitting the ball throws the bat down instead of dropping it on the ground, thus whacking a couple of ankles). This lesson will also be taking place in two parts so please be sure to post in the first part of the lesson before moving on to the second unless you are planning on solely being one of the 4 catchers and not batting, then posting in the second half of the lesson only is completely acceptable. I have no problem with the assumption being made that I have thrown a pitch to you and have given you a simple instruction following said pitch if you wish to write it as such, however, no other god-moding will be allowed so please watch your postings carefully. If there are any questions, comments or problems please feel free to tag me in your post and I will be happy to be of any assistance.

0 Professor Chambers Advanced Class: Batter up! 0 Professor Chambers 0 5

Professor Chambers

June 14, 2013 11:02 AM

Advanced Class Part 2: Let's play ball by Professor Chambers

Lydia was enjoying watching her class’ progress as they attempted to hit the baseballs she pitched to them. Despite it being something brand new the kids were doing very well with it. Better than she did her first time being taught how play. She laughed to herself as she thought about that first time she had tried to hit the ball. It was a disaster. She revved up for the last practice pitch and launched it across the plate. After the last practice pitch she decided it was time to move to the next step. She called everyone together and went over the rest of the rules for the mock game they were about to play. “Alright everyone…gather round please.” Once they had all gathered she moved on.

“Now that we’ve had a chance to get a feel for hitting the ball we are going to move on to the next part. We are now going to play the bases a little so you understand the rest of the rules I had mentioned.” She moved to where she could show them the bases on the diamond. “What we’re going to do now is not only try and hit the ball, but you’re now going to run and try to make all four of the bases as well before you are tagged by someone with the ball. If the person holding the ball manages to tag you before you reach the base or tags the base before you do, you are OUT and must leave the field and have a seat. That’s another way you can be out…the last way you can be out is if the ball you hit is caught by someone before it hits the ground. If its not caught and it hits the ground you can keep trying to run the bases until someone picks it up and throws it either towards the pitcher or runs for the base you’re running towards before you get to it.” She had to wonder if she was cramming too much into what she was explaining.

“I would like for everyone to have the chance to try running the bases, but that may not be feasible. So what I’m going to ask right now is that if there are a few of you who would prefer to stand on the bases and try catching the balls that are hit by the ones actually batting. If so, please find a mitt that fits whichever hand you will be catching with and pick a base to guard. The rest of you please stand back where you were when you were batting and get ready to try and hit the ball and make it to a base. Once you hit the ball, drop the bat by home plate and head straight for first base. Once you get to first base try to run to second without getting caught, then third then home plate. If you get caught and tagged by someone with the ball you’re OUT and must go sit down.”

She glanced around the students to make sure they understood what she was saying. Once she was satisfied that they seemed to get it, she continued. “Only one person to a base at a time so if you see your chance to move to the next one…TAKE IT.” She turned now to the catchers. “For those of you who will be guarding the bases your job will be to try and catch the balls that are hit and to try and tag out the ones running the bases. You can get them out by having the ball and either tagging the runner with the ball in your hand or by tagging the base before they do again with the ball in your hand. You can immediately trap any runner on their base by throwing the ball immediately to the pitcher.” She took a moment to catch her breath and to give the class a moment to absorb her instructions.

As she put her straight chocolate brown hair up into a tight ponytail she smiled at her class. “Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t the chance to bat or if you get out somehow…remember this is just for fun. You’re only going be graded on your participation, not whether or not you make it across home plate.” She placed her hands on her shapely hips and gave them a determined look. “Alright…now that we’ve gone over the rest of the rules lets try them out and have some fun.” She watched as the kids took their places either batting and running or catching and took her place on the pitching mound. She waited until the first batter stepped up wearing the helmet and standing within the batter’s box before she released the first pitch. Once the ball left her hands the game had begun.

0 Professor Chambers Advanced Class Part 2: Let's play ball 0 Professor Chambers 0 5

Professor Chambers

June 14, 2013 12:12 PM

Wrong room...do not post here please (nm) by Professor Chambers

0 Professor Chambers Wrong room...do not post here please (nm) 0 Professor Chambers 0 5

Professor Chambers

July 08, 2013 3:51 AM

Intermediates 3rd-5th: Television Anyone? by Professor Chambers

Lydia had been very pleased with how her first class here at Sonora faired. Barring a few mishaps which she was sure would happen, the class went swimmingly well. She knew that she wanted to do something both interesting and entertaining for her Intermediate class and spent a few weeks toying with different ideas. It was while she and her niece Libby were both home for one weekend that she got her idea for her next lesson. She was fairly certain that very little of the students she would have for her next class would be familiar with Muggle television. She decided for her next class that she would show them not only the television itself, but a couple of Libby’s favorite videos. As she rifled through Libby’s growing collection of video tapes Lydia couldn’t help thinking about all the things she had gone through to get her niece back after her sister and brother-in-law had died. Poor Libby had spent most of her life in foster care including the time it took for Lydia to be able to adopt her. Once the adoption went through, Libby came to live with Lydia permanently. Since then Lydia had both magical and muggle influences in their home. Thanks to Libby (and Lydia’s for that matter) fascination with muggle television, Lydia starting buying all kinds of things for the two of them to watch. There was soo much to choose from that Lydia wasn’t sure what to bring. By the time Monday rolled around and they were both back at school, Lydia had made her choices.

Lydia carried the small-ish television set with the built-in vcr to her classroom and set it on her desk so that the class could see it. Despite the fact that there really was no electricity running through any of the walls within the school, there was still an outlet in her room from the first Muggle Studies professor. Lydia smiled slightly at the ruse she was about to create for the children. Since the outlet existed without any electricity and operated on charms alone, that fact was hardly common knowledge to the students who attended her class. For all they knew her room could be the only one with electricity for the sake of educational purposes. Most all muggle appliances ran on electricity if they didn’t use batteries so having a “working” electrical outlet in the room for that purpose didn’t seem so farfetched. She plugged the item into the wall and pressed the button to turn on the power. She cast a charm quickly on the item to power it up and make it seem as if it being plugged into the wall was what was powering it. A bright blue screen appeared for everyone to see with a white set of numbers in the top right hand corner. A couple of video tapes sat on the desk next to the tv. She had decided on one of her niece’s Smurfs tapes and Fraggle Rock. She could not wait to see the looks on the kids’ faces when she explained what they were watching to them. She also decided that she was going to have them write a short essay on what they just saw.

She wrote her name and the class name on the blackboard as the first of the students entered the room. Her soft brown eyes twinkled a bit as she smiled to each of the students who entered. Once everyone had arrived and was seated she introduced herself, stepping from around the back of the desk. “Hello everyone,” she greeted. “My name, as you may already know, is Professor Chambers and I am your new Muggle Studies teacher.” She leaned against the edge of the desk and crossed her arms over her chest. “In this class, it is my job to help you all understand how Muggles survive without the benefits of magic. Behind me on the desk I have brought with me a few items that Muggles use for entertainment purposes.” She moved out of the way so the students could see the television set and the video tapes. She reached across the screen of the tv to the spot where the tapes were and picked one up. She kept it in her hand as she turned towards the tv/vcr. “This first item you see in front of you on the desk is called a Television Set. Muggle families use these devices to watch things called Programs. The television is powered not by magic which all of our things are, but instead by a power source known as Electricity.” She indicated to the power cord that was conveniently plugged into the wall behind her. “This particular set is particularly special because it had built within it an item known as a V.C.R. which stands for Video Cassette Recorder. That means that this machine not only plays the video cassette tapes you can buy for them, but it also records things you want to watch later on the cassettes if the cassette is blank.” She unfolded her arms and held up the video tape in her hand.

“This item is called a Video Cassette Tape. These usually contain a program on them that the Muggles would find entertaining. Some of these are actually sold with nothing on them so that way the muggle can put a program of their own on it to watch later.” She walked over towards the tv and placed the video into the slot on the front towards the bottom. “I have a treat for you all today. I have with me today two different programs that muggle children find incredibly entertaining. Once I’m done playing these for you I would like you all to write a short essay for me on what you saw and why you think the program was entertaining to yourself and a muggle child. No less than 500 words per essay and I would like them turned in before you leave class today.” she slipped the video into the player and pressed the play button on the front. The blue screen faded and suddenly a bright colorful cartoon filled the screen. The cartoon was about tiny blue people who lived in mushrooms that mimicked houses and were constantly being pursued by an evil wizard with a nasty cat that was always trying to eat them. Once that video ended she pulled it out and slipped the second one in. This one showed an old man and his dog who have fuzzy “people” with tails who live underground inside a hole in their shop wall and were always chased by a large giant family if they ventured out of their caves to the giant’s garden for a vegetable known as Radishes. It also showed little creatures that also lived in the caves that continuously built things that were always being eaten the fuzzy people.

When that tape was finished playing she hit the rewind button and turned back to the class. “Okay class…now I would like for you to start on your essays. The first cartoon you watched is called “The Smurfs” and the other show is called “Fraggle Rock”. Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves as you write up your essays and please feel free to ask any questions you like about what you’ve just seen. I will be roaming around the room should you need any assistance.” She passed one of the cassette tapes to one of the students to check out and pass around before she started her rounds. She couldn’t wait to read their essays.

OOC: Usual posting rules apply. Post must be a minimum of 200 words. Please do not hesitate to tag me in a post if you have any questions or concerns. Have fun with your postings and make try to make them as creative as possible.

0 Professor Chambers Intermediates 3rd-5th: Television Anyone? 0 Professor Chambers 0 5

Megan Brownbriar

July 17, 2013 1:39 PM

You too?! by Megan Brownbriar

Megan had tried to keep to herself this year, apart from Prefect Duties, that was. Even though her father had told her that she was to spend all possible time with Cepheus, she still wrote him that she did. However, the Teppenpaw wanted nothing to do with the Crotalus boy. Especially not now. She had seen him around Theresa Carey before and not like she particularly cared, not really...

Okay, I care… I care that he’s supposed to be my betrothed and he’s running around after another girl who isn’t his betrothed, though I don’t care about him as a person at all. she thought to herself as she walked into Muggle Studies class. She wanted a place that she most likely wouldn’t find a family member or anyone that would tell on her for being there.

Muggle Studies Class was the perfect escape.

She walked into the room and smiled when she saw a small box in the front of the room with what looked like glass on it. Meggie had her guesses on what it was, but she couldn’t be sure. She was pureblooded, though she wished that she wasn’t. Pureblood girls were supposed to be polite all the time, walk like a lady, be a lady… Megan hated that in so many ways that it wasn’t funny.

Continuing her glance around the room, she spotted Rupert sitting there. Part of her wanted to go right over to him, because he was the one person she’d hoped to find there. However, the other part of her wanted to hide, far away from him. What if he told Cepheus that she was taking the class? But that would give him away for the same thing and his parents would hate it as much as Dad would if he knew… she thought to herself as she walked over to him.

“H-” she started to say to him, when Professor Chambers spoke to them. She welcomed them and introduced herself. There was something about the young woman that reminded her of a very special person in her life who had passed on and she felt her hand move automatically towards her locket around her neck. With a soft sigh, she tried to focus on what the teacher was saying to them and took her notes on what the professor said.

When the young lady told them she had a treat for them, Meggie turned her head sideways in slight confusion as she waited, hearing Professor Chambers say they were going to watch two different Muggle Children’s programs. She smiled at the thought and shrugged at the mention of an essay. Couldn’t be too hard. she thought to herself as the player was turned on. The screen wasn’t blue anymore, now it was bright and full of colors. The tiny blue people lived in mushrooms and were being chased over and over again by a wizard named Gargamel with a nasty cat he’d named Azriel. As odd as the idea was, she was entertained by the funny blue creatures and wanted to see more of this television thing. That cartoon ended and Meggie frowned, wanting to see more. But then another video was put into the player and it turned on with a song that was so addicting that she even bopped with it for a moment before she realized what she was doing. She stopped and watched the tiny Doozers and slightly larger Fraggles, then the Gorgs came in, trying to chase the Fraggles which were eating the buildings the Doozers were making. “Muggles sure do watch some crazy stuff, don’t they?!” She whispered to Rupert, as the second video ended and Professor Chambers spoke again to them. The young woman asked them to start on the essays and Meggie turned to Rupert, smile on her face.

“Fancy meeting you here…” she said with a wink. Trying to get away into another world like I am, huh?” she asked. “And I liked them, didn’t you?” she added, to answer his question to her.

0 Megan Brownbriar You too?! 0 Megan Brownbriar 0 5

Rupert

July 19, 2013 7:01 PM

Of course! by Rupert

There was a bit of smug pleasure in seeing the Prefect badge on Megan's robes and not on Cepheus's. Though Rupert loved his brother, he thought he still deserved a couple blows to his pride to knock him down a notch. He smiled at Megan who had approached him. She had been interrupted by the professor, but Rup knew there would be time to chat later. He had felt a little bad for her during the summer when she'd been forced to spend time with Cepheus. It was all messy business, really, but at least they could pretend to like each other. There was nothing Rupert could do, however, so he simply pretended it didn't exist.

The crazy stuff Megan had whispered to him about Muggles was completely true. But Rupert thought witches and wizards did maddening things as well such as marrying their children off to complete strangers for power. Rup didn't know much about Muggles and their history, but he didn't think they would be mad enough to do such things. They were supposed to be more sane and the muggle-borns he had met had seemed quite sane.

It was a bit strange seeing such a completely different side to Megan than the one Cepheus saw. His grandfather had lectured him once about the principles and values their family upheld, one such value being loyalty to one's family. He knew the only reason Grandfather had lectured him was to remind him to not only stay loyal to his family, but to his kind: the pure-bloods. The whole idea of prejudice against others who were different had never really made sense to Rupert who loved getting to know the cultures of others. He really enjoyed talking to people like Aria, though she didn't seem to like his background much, and Wendy, who was a muggle-born. They were different and so interesting.

So when Megan talked of this being an escape to another world, Rupert didn't know if he could agree. It was true; this was a place safe from pretentious pure-bloods, but Rupert had long ago realised there was no escape from the world he lived in. He simply wanted to learn and experience and that was why he was here. It was just sad that Megan had to take courses like these to escape and he felt sorry for her. It was terrible the ordeal she was forced to suffer through. Rup didn't know what was happening with Cepheus and his brother's love interest, but he hoped nothing for Megan's sake.

Rup smiled at her. "I really enjoyed them, yeah," he replied. "I'd like to know how they come up with these ideas. I wonder if these cartoons are based on real events. Muggles must have a very diverse history." There was no question as to how these moving pictures came to life. Magic, of course. "But if Muggles don't use magic, how did they get these pictures to move?" he asked, frowning. "Which one did you think was most entertaining?"

0 Rupert Of course! 0 Rupert 0 5

Megan

July 25, 2013 7:54 PM

That's what I thought by Megan

Megan had been glad that she’d sat next to Rupert. She liked the younger boy much better than his older brother and she was to be stuck with Cepheus her whole life if her father had any say in it (which in her life, he did). She hated that idea.

Rupert was entertaining and understanding, which was just what she needed. Megan Brownbriar hated not only being a pureblood, but right now she wasn’t keen on being a Brownbriar with all these rules that she didn’t think were so smart. The idea of taking Muggle Studies was, to her, an absolute escape from her reality. An escape she needed.

Badly.

Meg mentioned that she was trying to get away into another world and basically asked him if he was going the same thing. She wanted to see what he would say watching him, wondering. She added that she liked them and asked what he’d thought about the programs as well.

“From what I understand, they do have a diverse history. Then again, Wizarding kind does too. As for how they come up with these ideas, if you think about it, we do the same thing… I mean, think of Beadle the Bard… How did he come up with those stories? Right?” she asked, wondering if that even made any sense anymore.

“As for how they make the pictures move, I have no idea… Maybe we can ask?” she shrugged as he asked which one she thought was more entertaining.

“Personally. I liked both of them, but I think it was a little bit funny to see how they perceive Wizards as bad guys. We’re not all bad… Sure, there have been some bad Wizards, but there are more good ones, yes?” she asked. “What did you think was more entertaining and fun?”

Megan was genuinely curious. Rupert fascinated her, and she wondered more about him.

0 Megan That's what I thought 0 Megan 0 5

Professor Chambers

August 02, 2013 3:03 PM

Adv. Muggle Studies: Who's hungry? by Professor Chambers

Lydia sighed as she packed up the box full of small appliances she would be having her class use for their next lesson after the break. She had very muchly wanted to travel home for the break, but with her busy schedule and Libby not getting out of school at the time they had anticipated it made traveling back home to England a tad difficult. So she instead went out shopping and turned their apartment into a winter wonderland. She would admit that she may have gone a tad overboard on the decorations and the gifts, but Lydia felt she had a lot to make up for where Libby was concerned. Besides it was their first official holiday together so Lydia wanted it to be extra special. She covered the apartment in strings of colored lights and garland. She found a cool little piece of mistletoe and had hung it up in the entryway of the kitchen. She hung a gaudy wreath on the outside of the front door and found a pre-lit Christmas tree. She bought all kinds of bulbs and candy canes to put on the tree and she and Libby went nuts decorating. By the time they were done it looked like Christmas had puked all over their apartment. Lydia smiled as she watched Libby open all of her gifts and ran around like a small crazy person. The girl was 10 years old after all. During the break Lydia wracked her brain for the perfect lesson for her advance class. The idea came to her while she was making breakfast for herself and Libby Christmas morning. A wide smile crossed her face and as soon as breakfast was over with and Libby was playing with her presents, Lydia got to work putting together her lesson plan.

Since she had already shown the students what some of the smaller Muggle appliances looked like that they could find in the kitchen, Professor Chambers took that idea one step farther. She carried her small box of supplies into her classroom and began setting up everything for their lesson that morning. She cast a glamour around the room to make it appear as though the students were actually standing within a Muggle’s kitchen, complete with mock cabinetry and sink. During their last class session, she had introduced the students to a toaster and electric skillet. She had also shown them a blender and a juicer. They had gotten to practice making juice during that lesson. She decided that for this class session she was going to have a review quiz of sorts. She was going to reintroduce the students to the kitchen appliances, but with one difference: this time they were actually going to use them to make themselves breakfast. She set up the cooking utensils they would need to cook with by each skillet and toaster along with any mixing bowls and measuring items they would need for some of the recipes. She included at each station a chefs hat and an apron for each student. She had brought in three toasters and three skillets and set them up around the mock kitchen. She took all the ingredients they would need to cook with and set up an ingredient station on the desk behind her. The prairie elves had been kind enough to supply her with items from the schools’ kitchen for her lesson. She had bacon, eggs, bread, butter, cheese, syrup, powered sugar, regular sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, milk and salt and pepper. She set up on the other side of the cooking ingredients paper plates, silverware, napkins, cups and beverages.

Before the students arrived, Professor Chambers donned herself a chefs hat and apron to cover her nice clothing. She wanted to look the part along while making it fun for the students. As they began entering the room she smiled to each of them and gestured for them to gather around her desk. “Good morning everyone,” she greeted them cheerfully. “I certainly hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and got some rest last night because we’ll be doing something very hands on for class today,” she told them. “I hope that all of you were able to complete the extra credit project I gave you to do over the break. If you recall, you were to find 5 other appliances other than those we discussed in class and tell me, in your own words, what you discovered they did. It was to be a minimum of 500 words. If you completed the project please turn those in now. If not, it doesn’t count against your grade, but it doesn’t help it either.” She waited until all of the completed projects were turned in before she continued. “If you haven’t been able to guess by my swanky attire,” she did a little spin for them to show off the hat and apron, “We are going to be using the appliances today that I introduced you to last class. Today we will be using them to make breakfast,” she explained. “Behind us you will find a mock kitchen with REAL appliances in it. I have three stations set up to cook in so I’m going to ask that for today’s lesson you all pair up. The first six students will choose their recipe (there are three to choose from: bacon, eggs and toast, French toast and bacon/cheese omelets with toast), gather up you ingredients and take them to one of the pre-set cooking stations. Once you have everything you need and you are set up I will give you further instructions.”

Professor Chambers watched the first six students choose their recipe card, gather up their ingredients and head over to a station. Once they were all where they should be she walked over to the first cook station. “Now, I am going to show you how to prepare one of the recipes in question just to give you an idea of what the dish should look when you’re finished cooking it. I’m going to show you how to make French toast,” she told them gathering up a few ingredients for herself from the ingredients table and bringing them back over to the cooking station. She turned on the skillet to 350 degrees and let it warm up while she made the French toast dip. “Okay, now for those of you who have never cooked before this is a fairly simple dish. First, turn on your electric skillet and set it to 350 degrees. There are numbers and an arrow on the dial so that you know where to stop. Next, crack two eggs and separate them from the shells like so into an empty mixing bowl,” she instructed, showing them how to crack and separate the eggs. “Next, pour a teaspoon each of sugar, vanilla and cinnamon into the eggs. Next, add a ¼ of a cup of milk using the measuring cups and spoons I have provided you with. Then, take a whisk,” she held one up for them to see, “and beat the ingredients together until the eggs have been completely blended. About two minutes at most. It should look a yellowy-brown color. Your next step is to take a small amount of butter and drop it into the skillet until it completely melts. While its melting take three pieces of bread from the bread package and one-at-a-time dip them into the mixture until both sides are completely coated. Then place them face down into the skillet and let them cook until they are golden brown on one side. While they are cooking, take a moment to wash the egg mixture off of your hands. Don’t worry, your partner can watch the food while you do so. Then taking a spatula,” she picked up that one next and showed it to them, “You flip the piece of bread over so it can cook on the other side. It takes about 3-5 minutes per side. Once both sides are golden brown, remove them from the skillet with the spatula and place them on a plate. Then you can top them with butter, powdered sugar and syrup,” she told them, handing the plate of finished French toast pieces to one of the students not cooking.

“The recipes on the cards are precise so it should be easy to follow. If for any reason you are having any trouble with it, please do not hesitate to ask me for assistance. I will be standing close by should you need my assistance.” She turned then to the other students who weren’t cooking just yet. “For those of you not cooking at this time, this would be a great time to get a head start on your homework assignment that will be due by the end of the week. I would like for all of you to think of a dish from home that you really enjoy and I would like to see you write up a step-by-step, detailed recipe for the dish in question. Please include a full listing of ingredients for the dish and precise measurements on how much of each one to use.” She turned back to those who were cooking. “Alright everyone, we went over these appliances in the last class so this is a review on how to use them. Be careful and have fun. Remember, I will be close by should you need any assistance. You may begin,” she told them.

OOC: Standard posting rules apply. Posts should be no less than 200 words each. Be creative with your postings and keep in mind that an electric skillet cannot burn you unless you stick your hand directly onto the HOT, metal surface. The same goes for the toaster. Please tag me if you have any questions or require any assistance. Happy posting everyone!

0 Professor Chambers Adv. Muggle Studies: Who's hungry? 0 Professor Chambers 0 5

Amira Thornton, Pecari

August 16, 2013 5:17 PM

I'm always hungry! by Amira Thornton, Pecari

Amira was very focused on Pecari’s Quidditch Team and a hopeful win for them. She wanted nothing more than to show herself and her house that they were winners. They weren’t just always going to be the underdog. They’ve won before, and they can win again. Best thing about it was if and when they did, they’d be playing Teppenpaw. The two underdogs would be a nice Final Game for a change. She smiled in her focused planning and glanced at the time. Her mouth fell and realized that she was almost late for Muggle Studies Class!

She rushed around, grabbing her books and went to class. She snuck into the room right at the time it started and followed the others towards Professor Chambers’ desk as she seemed to have requested of them. Having gotten there, she took a moment to glance around at her surroundings. It looked almost like they were in a Muggle Kitchen. “Hm…” she thought aloud as she looked to the Professor who started talking at that time. Amira had done the project, even though her oldest sister was to be married, any extra credit was a good thing to her. Anything to make her grades look better! She handed it in neatly to the professor and wondered what exactly they would be doing in their hands on class. The young Muggle Studies professor had even dressed the part. Amira wondered what was up with this lady, but she shrugged it off. It wasn’t important, after all.

Though the Pecari wondered why she’d dressed up, she didn’t ask, but she also didn’t have to. The young lady told them all moments after the 6th Year wondered. Right… We’re pairing up and cooking breakfast… she rolled her eyes slightly. This will be the easiest good grade ever… I do this all the time… she added as she went over to one of the set up areas. She didn’t care if she made anything complicated, she’d done it all before and she’d do it all again.

Amira looked around her as students seemed to split into groups and she looked at those who had joined her. “Okay… What recipe do we want to use?” she asked them, as Professor Chambers came up to their group and told them that she would show them how to make French Toast. Amira wanted to tell her she didn’t have to, that she knew how to make French Toast, but she didn’t want the new teacher to have a bad opinion of her. The Pecari Captain just kept quiet and watched both the professor and her classmates to see any reaction from any of them.

When the finished French Toast was placed before them, she smiled and took in the scent. She loved that smell. Any smell of fresh, homemade cooking, really. Maybe that’s why I like Baking Club so much? she thought, making a note to tell Waverly thank you for starting it, as she looked at her partner(s) and said, “Well, ready?” she asked.

0 Amira Thornton, Pecari I'm always hungry! 0 Amira Thornton, Pecari 0 5

Michael Grosvenor

August 17, 2013 4:54 PM

Me too! by Michael Grosvenor

Muggle Studies was cool. The extra credit work had only been five hundred words (which turned out to be about half a page) on stuff he already knew about. Admittedly, he had still left it until the last minute and done a rush job on it that probably wasn't as good as it could have been but he'd never even had extra credit before. His mood only improved when he actually got to class and discovered that they'd be getting a second breakfast out of it. Professor Chambers had not made the best first impression, with enforced sporting activities, but easy homework and food were definitely the right ways to win around a teenage boy.

He stepped up with the first group. He normally wouldn't have been so keen but when the choice was food or looking at books, it was a pretty easy one, even if he would have to do the homework on his own time. It wasn't like it would be hard. Though really, he probably should push himself to find out something complicated like how a microwave worked. After all, getting a smattering of science, especially when it came to how technology worked, was really why he'd joined this class. He kept meaning to but then he never had to, and then always ended up needing to do his actual classwork of feeling like he'd already spent quite enough time in the library for one week.

“Bacon and eggs sounds good,” he commented, when Amira asked, what recipe he'd like, for the joint reasons that it was simplest and also featured bacon. The French Toast looked complicated, and was more cooking than he'd ever really done. Usually his mum did anything like that. And nothing was better than bacon.

“Does the card specify what kind of eggs? I'd usually go for scrambled, personally,” he commented. He felt more confident in this class than most others. It was one where he was naturally within his depth the vast majority of the time, and thus he was far more comfortable with voicing his opinion, even if it was only over something small, like what eggs he liked. Scrambled also had the additional benefit that they were mildly more complicated than fried so that might make their efforts more impressive. He would be doing the harder version of the task. Though on the easiest meal, so he doubted Professor Chambers would be bowled over.

“You cook with magic at home, right?” he asked Amira, trying to gauge her depth of knowledge. He knew she came from a magical family, so that made sense to him. He didn't want to patronise her by telling her things she already knew, nor did he want to leave her lost and confused. He thought he usually hit the second of those more frequently, though entirely by accident. It just all seemed so obvious to him. He had to remind himself of when he'd been a first year, and how new and strange everything had seemed to him, even though it was normal for lots of other people. That didn't always help him know which bits he needed to explain, or how detailed to be about it, but it reminded him to slow down and to try to be helpful.

13 Michael Grosvenor Me too! 199 Michael Grosvenor 0 5

Professor Chambers

August 30, 2013 10:30 PM

Intermediates: Home-made movies by Professor Chambers

Lydia had enjoyed the looks on her students faces soo much during their last class that she wanted to continue with the topic of Muggle Entertainment. She had shown them several cartoons from her childhood and some that she hadn’t seen since childhood. A couple of the programs that she had shown them that her niece positively loves were ALF and Dinosaurs. Having to describe the shows ideas to her class was challenging because it was clear that some of them (herself included) had a hard time understanding why the shows were amusing. She had grown up in a magical environment her whole life and it wasn’t until she had gone away to college that she had been introduced to Muggle Programs. She, herself, had some difficulty understanding why some of the things she watched with her Muggle friends had been entertaining and was glad that they were patient enough to try and explain it to her. While some of the programs needed explaining, others didn’t, their humor being openly apparent. Two of the programs where the silliness in them was completely apparent was the shows she had shown to her class. The difficult part about them was trying to explain how the “actors” were able to work with a character that wasn’t really alive (ALF) and how Muggles like Jim Henson were able to make ancient prehistoric creatures such as Dinosaurs come to life (as it were) with the help of something called “puppeteering”. Even she had a hard time understanding that part, but she found the concept fascinating and entertaining just the same. She had made it a sort of obsession to collect every movie she could find where the art of puppeteering was used. She had every movie Jim Henson and his company had a hand in doing and found them to be truly fascinating. She had considered showing more of them to her class, but a better idea came to mind. She decided that her Intermediates were going to make their own movies as opposed to watching another one of hers. She wanted to see where their imaginations would take them while giving them a taste of what Muuggle filmmakers and cartoonists feel.

Lydia walked into her classroom that afternoon and despite the time for her class being close to dinner break for everyone, she was very optimistic that she would have no trouble keeping her students attention. At least for the class time anyway. She put her supplies bag on her desk and pulled small, blank sheet notebooks out of it, leaving them in a pile on her desk. She pulled out packets of pencils that she already sharpened and placed them on her desk as well. Finally she removed the marking pens and colored pencils she had brought for the assignment as well. She placed a notebook, pencils, colored pencils and markers on each desk before returning to her own. Her own sketchbook sat upon her desk with an example of their assignment already drawn inside. She had left the video camera that she had shown the students during their last class upon her desk. It too was going to be used as part of their assignment. She waited for the students to pile into class and take their seats before going over their lesson for the day.

“Good afternoon everyone,” she greeted them pleasantly. “I know that you’ve already had an interesting day with the other classes and for most of you this is the last class of the day, but try and bear with me okay.” She gave them a sympathetic smile and continued with her lecture. “Since we’ve been discussing the subject of Muggle Entertainment, I decided that it might be fun if we made our own little movies today,” she told them. She walked around to the front of her desk and picked up her own sketchbook. She walked back to the front where she was facing everyone and held up her own book. “Your assignment for class today is create your own little “flipbook movie”.” She demonstrated what she meant by opening her own sketchbook and showing them the little flipbook movie she had drawn herself. “As you can see, the flipbook movie consists of small pictures drawn in a particular order that when the pages are flipped, hence why its called a flipbook, they create a moving series of pictures or mini movie if you would.” She showed them page by page how the sequence of pictures from her own example seemed to spring to life right off the pages. The flipbook movie she showed them off the pages showed a “mailman” walking down the street when he encounters an angry dog. The dog chases him and then the pictures ended with the dog biting the mailman on the rear. The mini movie was meant to be humorous.

Once she finished going over the example so the class had a good idea of what she was talking about. She continued with her lecture. “You may work alone or in groups of two to create your flipbooks. Once you have the drawings completed, which do not have to be perfect, I would like you to bring them up to my desk where we will be making them into your own little actual mini movies. Using the video camera located on my desk,” she indicated to it. “Which we discussed during the last class, I will be video taping you flipping your flipbooks. I would like to hear you tell the viewer what is happening during your mini movie, funny voices and all. Once all the flipbook movies are completed and video taped we will be viewing them during our next class. Before you get to work, however, I would like all of you to turn in the homework assigned during last class. If you all recall, I asked that you try and write at least five different questions about things you may have heard, seen, or read about the Muggle world that you had always been curious about, but were afraid to ask. Once those are turned in, you may begin your assignment. As you can already see I have supplied you with the items you will need to make your flipbook movies.” She smiled encouragingly at her students. “I will be walking around the room so please don’t hesitate to flag me down if you have any questions or you are having any problems. Remember, once you are done with your drawings bring them up to my desk for video taping. Have fun everyone and be creative.”

OOC: Posting rules apply. Creativity and silliness are a bonus. Please tag me if you have any problems or questions.

0 Professor Chambers Intermediates: Home-made movies 0 Professor Chambers 0 5

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