Isis Carter-Xavier
January 19, 2020 6:16 PM
Riddle me this [Intermediates] by Isis Carter-Xavier
Isis arrived in the Care of Magical Creatures classroom a bit earlier than was strictly necessary - this wasn’t a course she could recall filling in for much, so she wanted the extra bit of time to familiarize. It was a weird position, being a substitute. She had to know a little of this and a little of that: enough of everything to at least understand the topic the actual professor was currently on.It was weird, too, filling in for her coworkers. Isis wasn’t as close with her fellow staff members (barring her husband, of course) as she used to be. A lot of personal issues had sort of limited her with the current group, and she had long since said goodbye to her former gang. Several years ago, she had fallen into a fun little group of young professors. Being in Rory’s old classroom brought all that back to mind: Rory, Amelle, and…. Well, for the sake of her sanity, she did her best not to think too much about Alfie. Of all of Isis’s personal tragedies, she thought she had made her peace with that one the least.
But there was no time for grieving now, as the third, fourth, and fifth years poured in. She offered a friendly smile, doing her best to shove those thoughts of Alfie as far away as she could manage. “Welcome, everyone,” she greeted. “I’m afraid Professor Marsh couldn’t be with us today, so I’ll be filling in. I see you’ve been talking about sphinxes this week. Can anyone give me a brief description of what a sphinx is?”
Isis waited for an acceptable answer and awarded points appropriately. “Good. So as I’m sure you’ve noted in your discussions, sphinxes are known for their riddles. These worksheets I’m handing out now have several riddles along the sort of thing sphinxes would generally ask. Take the class to try to find the answers to these riddles, and if you have time, for bonus points, there are some lines on the back of the page for you to come up with your own riddles. You can work together as long as everyone turns in a paper and you keep your volumes at a reasonable level. Please go ahead and get started.”
OOC: Information about sphinxes in the HP canon (limited) can be found here. You can assume the riddle given to Harry (included in the article) is on the sheet, as well as the classic example of, “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?” (Man) as well as any comparable riddles you might know, invent, or find online. Tag Isis or find me on chatzy if you’ve got any questions. Have fun!
Subthreads: I'd really rather not right now by Bridget Ferguson with Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
This is child's play by Topaz Brockert
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Isis Carter-Xavier
Riddle me this [Intermediates]
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Bridget Ferguson
January 24, 2020 8:21 AM
I'd really rather not right now by Bridget Ferguson
Bridget did not want to be in class right now. Maybe if it was Potions or Transfiguration, the classes she excelled at, she wouldn't mind. Or at least Herbology since Professor Xavier was her favorite teacher even if she didn't like his subject as much as Potions and Transfig.Unfortunately, she was in Care of Magical Creatures which was rather hit or miss. Bridget didn't dislike animals but there were some she'd rather not get up close and personal with and hoped would be strictly theoretical. Or only at the advanced level when she'd probably drop the class. Plus, it wasn't a class the Teppenpaw particularly excelled at and she kind of thought Professor March might hate children/teenagers. Which made Bridget wonder why he was a professor in the first place but then again, she got the impression that the Headmaster didn't like young people either so it didn't surprise her that there would be people hired who felt similarly.
Anyway, the reason Bridget didn't feel like being in class today had nothing to do with the subject or the temperment of the professor, who wasn't even there today, Professor Carter-Xavier was substituting.
It was just that her mother was in the hospital again and Bridget was worried about her. She hadn't been well when the Teppenpaw left for school this year and now she was worse. Mama had double pneumonia and Bridget was beyond worried. She was terrified and it was basically all she could think about. Which was why Care of Magical Creatures was just not going to hold her attention the way Potions and Transfig might have.
Still, the third year forced herself to pay attention to what the professor was saying. She sighed to herself when it turned out they were going to be doing worksheets with riddles. Honestly, it might have been better if they were literally caring for a magical creature. Riddles would take more brain power than Bridget had the ability or interest to put out right now.
She looked down at the sheet. The first riddle was
I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Bridget sighed again. She literally had zero idea. Maybe it would help to work on it with someone else but she didn't really....have any friends except Sophia and maybe Jezebel who wasn't an Intermediate.
Honestly, she had been surprised last year when the Crotalus had asked her to share a tent. Bridget was rather accustomed to being treated like she was some feral thing who lacked structure. Mostly by her step-grandmother who resented the fact that Mama existed but others often looked at her as if she were strange or someone to be pitied. Bridget had been certain that her general...family structure, which she'd been forced to allude to, had singled her out as a freak and scared others away. Plus, she and Jezebel had disagreed on what to do for their meal even though they'd ended up going with Bridget's idea and she hadn't even cared that much about it anyway though they had done well with it. She had rather expected the second year to want to share with Zara if any of them since the other Teppenpaw was more personable than Bridget was. And oh yeah, not a freak.
She wondered if she should go ask Sophia for help on this assignment. Her cousin was an Aladren and Bridget found her to be fairly good at things like riddles. She was just about to go talk to the other third year when someone approached her and spoke
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Bridget Ferguson
I'd really rather not right now
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
January 25, 2020 12:01 PM
Ich brauche alle Hilfe, die ich bekommen kann. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Johana Leonie looked at her paper with a sense of panic. She usually did alright in most of her classes now, she could usually refer to her German textbook when she struggled. If that didn't work or wasn't available, she could use her German-English dictionary. Today, though, the words were important. These riddles might not work at all in German because of the little nuances that go into language. The idea made her feel temporarily hopeless and she turned to the person next to her, expecting Hilda. The two usually worked together in such situations as these. However, Johana Leonie had forgotten that she'd opted to sit with her roommate instead, hoping to take advantage of a class that was usually more hands on to be able to chat and build up that relationship. It wasn't that they weren't close, but they weren't really close.Unfortunately for Bridget, that meant Johana Leonie had made too much eye contact to back out and would now need help. Johana Leonie felt sorry about that, but couldn't exactly just sit and struggle in silence either. Besides, Bridget seemed nice - she wouldn't be in Teppenpaw if she was terrible - and she knew that Johana Leonie's English wasn't so great, so she might not mind. Johana Leonie hoped she wouldn't mind.
She'd taken to doing her hair up with a little more care since her picnic with Jessica and some of the other German speakers (or almost German speakers) at the school, and she normally was glad she had for Care of Magical Creatures. Today, her curls were pinned into a soft, flat bun and a braid wrapped from the top of her head around the back and around the bun. It felt elegant to her, but was also plenty practical should this class have been exactly as hands on as she had hoped. Unfortunately, she almost wished it were down to provide her something to hide behind instead.
"Do you want to work together?" Johana Leonie asked timidly, having long since mastered that question in English. "I don't--" She gestured at her page and grimaced. "Ich verstehe nicht. I don't know . . Words. Where start? Ist das okay? When you me help?"
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Ich brauche alle Hilfe, die ich bekommen kann.
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Topaz Brockert
February 05, 2020 12:00 PM
This is child's play by Topaz Brockert
Topaz had had a very annoying summer. She was once again downright irritated at her older sisters. Emerald's upcoming nuptials had been a frequent and boring topic of conversation and Ruby had beaten her at the Challenges. That wasn't supposed to happen. There were a lot of people that were not supposed to best her-nobody was really but there were specific people that she needed to assert dominance and superiority over more than others-and her siblings (and Allegra) were top of that list. Well, actually, Snotti-Ness was at the top of the list but her siblings (and cousin) had been there longer.The thing was, previously, Ruby was someone she had written off as a silly girly-girl. And she'd been on a team of even sillier girly-girls. So, while the Teppenpaw was not quite as pathetic as Allegra or Sapphire, it was confounding. Topaz wished she could blame Winston, because he was currently irritating her in a different respect, but she blamed her other former Challenge teammates more. Okay, Slimey and Loren were Pecaris, and thus not really capable of great intellectual feats but given that the first two events had had a physical component there shouldn't have been a problem. And Jeremy was just...a little twerp. He could have put forth more effort and listened to her. Plus, he was a pureblood and a Crotalus and so, no excuse. Therefore, while Winston could have been more useful-like saying what he wanted for his wedding aside from Emerald -Topaz had to grudgingly admit that he had been more so than the others.
There had been only one way to deal with this situation and that was to make Ruby's summer as miserable as possible. Topaz had had lots of practice over the years tormenting others, and that was for no real reason then that they were there and it was fun for her. When she was motivated , it was so much worse for her victim.
Speaking of which, she hadn't forgotten what her roommate had done last year either. Even if that graffiti wasn't about Topaz and was written about one of her sisters....well, nobody got to torment her siblings (or cousins) but her. However, the Aladren was still pretty sure it was about her, because what reason would Snotti-Ness have to go after one of her sisters specifically. Other than them being Topaz's sisters, purebloods and pretty girly. Besides, there were so many reasons to go after the other Aladren anyway.
Anyway, she could plot later. Now it was time for Care of Magical Creatures. Of course, the fourth year had very little interest in caring for magical creatures or anything else for that matter. She preferred stuffing and mounting animals, making them move with her magical stuffing and freaking out Snotti-Ness. Still, Topaz liked learning in general. How could she know more than anyone else if she didn't learn things?
Besides,today's lesson was on the sphinx. The Aladren was pretty sure nobody was going to care for one of those. She wondered what it would be like to stuff one though she felt it would be pretty unlikely that she'd ever get the chance. It would be so much fun though. Topaz did sort of admire them as a creature. They were intelligent, capable of human speech and got mad when someone didn't answer their riddles correctly. She could respect that.
That said, riddles were today's lesson. She wasn't sure whether to be bored by how simple this would be or to be thrilled that she could finish quickly and show how she was smarter than everyone else. Plus, that latter would give her time to read her book.
Topaz received her worksheet full of riddles. Within fifteen minutes, she was done. Most of them were riddles she was fairly familiar with already. She took out her book and began to read.
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Topaz Brockert
This is child's play
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