What's the path to success? on Care of Magical Creatures

Maisy Wigglington

June 30, 2023 3:43 PM

Beginners- A Branch On The Rowan by Maisy Wigglington

Professor Wigglington. It was still a bizarre concept, and she’d spent her first weeks at Sonora having to actively remember what her name was. In the field, they had just called her “Wigs”. To be a Professor hadn’t been a part of the plan. Not that she actually had a plan, per se, being a very go-with-the-flow type of person, but if Maisy had guessed, she would have seen herself working with dragons, not kids.

She’d stumbled through her first lessons without much incident- nobody had been bitten, or lost an eye, so Maisy counted that as a win. The Flobberworms had been about as popular as she’d expected, that is, not very. The kids- students - were in for a real treat today, though, as Maisy had found something incredible when she was exploring her new home.

Her classroom was adjacent to the gardens, which was very convenient for mini field trips such as she was planning today. Maisy waited for her Beginners impatiently, pacing around, braiding and re-braiding her long red hair. She’d already posted the reading pages and assignments for today’s lesson on the blackboard, and ensured that she had all the supplies she needed, so all there was to do was wait.

She smiled brightly as the first students straggled in.

“Come in, come in, drop off your bags and your robes if you wish, we’re going outside today, and it’s hellacious out there.”

Hellacious was probably not appropriate language to use with students, but it was too late to suck the word back in, so she just modified it to ‘it’s a hot one’ for the next few. Maisy herself was wearing a long sleeveless robe made of linen. The summer heat hadn’t quite dissipated yet, and having sweaty pits in front of a bunch of pubescent kids was not something she wanted to deal with.

Once everyone had arrived, Maisy sat on her desk to address the class.

“So, I was on a walk the other day, and would you believe what I found? Here’s a hint- it was in a Rowan tree, which is known for its qualities in wandmaking. Five points to your House if you can guess.”

She paused for a few guesses, giving noncommittal “Could be’s” and “That would fit’s”. After everyone who wanted to answer had, she hopped up off her desk and said “Well, let’s go find out who gets points! After me!”

She marched them into the Labyrinth to the gazebo where she’d stashed her supplies.

Maisy picked up a small white box and passed out protective goggles.

“You don’t have to put these on until we get there, but you’re going to want them if you get a feisty one. Allons-y! ”

It wasn’t a far walk to the rowan tree, although the heat was stifling. Maisy donned her goggles and directed her students to do the same.

“Alrighty,” she said, “Five points to whoever guessed Bowtruckles! Like I said, I was on a walk the other day, and this is just a testament to keeping your eyes peeled when you’re out and about, because these guys are very well camouflaged. Now listen, they can be a bit protective of their home, and we aren’t planning on stressing them out, but just in case, pop your goggles on now, and we’ll see if we can’t befriend a few.”

Maisy opened her box, showing the contents to the kids. “Wood lice, such as I have here, are a favorite meal of the Bowtruckle; they dig them out of the bark with their sharp little fingers. That’s a good thing, because these little guys are considered an infestation, and removing them keeps the wood healthy. Any questions so far?”

She paused in case anyone had any questions.

“Alright everyone, split into twos or threes and grab a small handful of wood lice. When you approach the Bowtruckles, do so slowly and lead with the food. Hold your palm flat so they can just grab it. If you’ve got one with a decent temperament, you can try to lead it down onto your palm. If you find a noncooperative Bowtruckle, just move on to a different one.”

“As was posted in the classroom, I’ll be expecting a three-paragraph essay on your observations today from the first years, four paragraphs from you second-years, due next class. If you need any help during the activity, just wave me over.”

Maisy held the wood lice out as the kids came through to grab handfuls. Maybe teaching wasn’t so hard, after all.

Subthreads:

I may have an unfair advantage by Edu Alamilla with Misty Brockert

What's the path to success? by Desmond Brockert

64 Maisy Wigglington Beginners- A Branch On The Rowan 1583 1 5

Edu Alamilla

July 02, 2023 5:10 PM

I may have an unfair advantage by Edu Alamilla

Edu was liking his classes so far. The professors were all really nice. Plus it was a lot more interesting than just hanging around the school watching the students come and go. Now he could interact with them! He took a seat in Care of Magical Creatures, dropping his bag as instructed, but keeping his robe. It showed plainly that he was a student here, even if it was a bit warm.

The professor started off class with something of a guessing game, which Edu wasn't sure was much of one, for him at least. He was pretty sure he knew what she had found once she mentioned the Rowan tree, and she was the creatures professor. Having a father as the groundskeeper and knew every bit of the gardens was a bit of an unfair advantage. Once a few other guesses had been voiced, he raised his hand and stated "Bowtruckles?" It wasn't really a question, but he did intone it as such.

Edu went with the class, following the professor through the very familiar to him gardens. It wasn't to long before they stopped and he received a pair of goggles. He put them on his head and then pulled them over his eyes when indicated to do so. He had been right, and had gotten Teppenpaw five points. It was nice, but also felt a little like cheating, which wasn't so nice.

He got his handful of wood lice and found someone else in a similar situation. "Hi, want to see if we can tempt any of these critters out of the tree?"

2 Edu Alamilla I may have an unfair advantage 1579 0 5

Misty Brockert

July 18, 2023 8:07 PM

Me too! What's yours? by Misty Brockert

Misty liked that she had a new professor this year. Between not being a first year anymore and even the teacher being new to Sonora, she found that Care of Magical creatures in particular made her feel like a big girl this year. Of course, she was a big girl, thank you very much, because she was almost a real life, honest to goodness teenager! Okay, so her birthday wasn’t that close yet, but still! She liked to remind her mom in particular that she was going to be a teenager, because Mama would pretend to freak out about getting old, and they would have a great laugh together.

Her ears perked up even more when the Professor mentioned a creature in a rowan tree, which was good for wand-making. Misty’s dad was a wandmaker, and she knew she remembered him talking about stuff like that. She was totally about to guess Bowtruckles when another kid said it first. One of the new kids, she thought, so that was crazy that he already knew that!

When they got to the tree and found out he was right, she decided that she just had to know how he knew. The class was released to begin, and she made a beeline to him. He asked if she wanted to work together to tempt the little guys out, and she responded jokingly, “Okay, but only if you hold the wood lice. I’ll just do the talking.”

“How did you know it was going to be Bowtruckles?” she asked him the very next moment. “I was totally gonna say that, but you beat me to it!”

12 Misty Brockert Me too! What's yours? 1567 0 5

Desmond Brockert

August 01, 2023 6:45 PM

What's the path to success? by Desmond Brockert

Desmond could not believe his sister had actually gotten prefect. It was not as if she were the only choice. Then obviously, he would have understood. Even though Liesl was…abnormal in so many ways, she was not so unsuitable that she should have been passed over if there was nobody else. As it was, he had to wonder what was so wrong with her roommate that Liesl beat her for the position. That girl must have had some real issues.

Although, to be fair, h had never heard his sister say anything negative about Patience Reed-Fischer but to be honest, it wasn’t as if the Aladren paid a lot of attention to what Liesl had to say and she certainly didn’t confide in him . Plus, she was a Teppenpaw and so…actually did not say mean things about people. If she did, it was probably to Uncle Cory, and in all honesty, probably about Mother, Father and likely Desmond himself.. Even though all Mother and Father were doing was trying to help her succeed in the world.

The real issue, however, was that now the second year felt immense pressure to become prefect himself. He would be mortified if his older sister achieved something that he hadn’t. That…would just upset the natural order of things. It would not be right. Had she been the only one and got it and then Desmond didn’t, it would have been one thing, but as she had beaten someone, he felt like he had to attain the same honor.

However, the problem was that his roommates were actually worthy candidates. So, he had much stiffer competition than Liesl apparently had. Plus, they were his friends, and it was one thing to have friendly competition playing chess and whatnot, but to get more cutthroat to make sure he beat them in order to save face among his family and for the sake of his own pride…well, Desmond actually did not feel right about that.

Of course, he would never actively sabotage them in order to better his own chances but he certainly could put his best foot forward in order to achieve his goals. The Aladren could do things like getting good grades and joining school activities. The former was obviously no issue at all but there were some problems with the latter. Most of the current activities available did not appeal to Desmond in the slightest aside from Speech and Debate. Like, he appreciated fine arts and culture but to be honest, he was a logical, practical person and did not have a creative bone in his body so neither art club was for him. Plus, he did not see prancing around in Performing Arts club as a dignified, classy activity. Maybe if he played an instrument, but Desmond’s impression of the club was that they did a lot of puppet shows and being that it contained Liesl, Isla, and Lenny Pierce, that it was a place for oddballs. So, absolutely not for him.

Other than that, he was not one hundred percent sure what an LGBTQIA+ cafe was. A cafe was a place to eat but he did not know what those letters meant so that was deeply confusing. Was it a place where they served food, like a club where people cooked or baked-activities that he mostly thought were for house-elves-or a place where they ate gourmet food? Gourmet food didn’t sound too awful, but…what did those letters stand for? Were they for the first names of the members? It couldn’t be that since the only person at Sonora that he knew of whose name started with Q was Quillan and Desmond was pretty sure he wasn’t a member.

Maybe it was foreign cuisine from countries starting with those letters? Names of famous chefs who the members admired? The names of house-elves who were cooking gourmet food for the members to eat? The Aladren didn’t know and wasn’t going to take a chance.

Then there was the Gaming Club, he had seen them in the library playing some weird Muggle game. And he was not especially comfortable with that as it did not seem at all respectable. Mother absolutely would not approve of him doing anything Muggle , which was arguably worse than anything that Liesl had done and Desmond certainly did not want to risk her being disappointed in him. One disappointment in the family was enough and he neither wanted to do that to his parents or face being that himself.

Especially since Liesl had now actually done something right, regardless of how that confused their entire immediate family aside from Krisalyn. And maybe Father too, Desmond did not think his father thought as little of the fifth year as Mother seemed to, he just thought more highly of the Aladren than of her. Still, it would be another thing that upset the natural order of things if she not only achieved something that Desmond did not but then he also did something shameful on top of it.

Honestly, it shocked him that Gwendolyn Brockert was in that club.He could not believe that her father, Adam, the future Brockert patriarch, would allow her to do such a thing.

And, of course, despite the fact that all his friends were on the team, as well as every other second year aside from himself, Charlotte and Misty, and that it made him the odd one out, Desmond would rather swallow glass than play Quidditch. It was just such…a low brow activity and there were a bunch of completely unsavory types in it that he would prefer not to associate with, such as Leo. Besides, the Aladren preferred to use brain over brawn, thank you very much. He couldn’t believe the others had joined it when they were so much better than that.

Maybe Gardening or Dueling. Those at least had practical applications where he could get Herbology and DADA experience and possibly a boost in those classes even if gardening was another activity that Desmond tended to think was for house-elves and he would generally prefer to avoid handling dung. He might not have had quite the reaction to it that poor Alma had but it was just something that he felt was not for people of his station in life.

There was also a Ball planning committee this year, but he felt that…well, that it wasn’t a particularly worthwhile activity. It wasn’t even that Desmond considered party-planning to be the domain of women, but more that it was just so frivolous . Maybe that cafe would provide the food. Like preparing dishes from Qatar or something.

That said, he was very much ashamed of the fact that something as trivial as the Ball had been on his mind when he should be thinking about more intellectual subjects. Alexander had asked Ida at the Opening Feast and Desmond wondered if Quillan was going to ask Charlotte. And what if Nicholas got a date too? Then he’d be the only one left over and have to spend the night with nobody to hang out with. That would not really be especially enjoyable. So, if Quillan did ask the Teppenpaw, then Desmond was going to have to check in with both him and Nicholas. He did not want Nicholas to end up in the odd one out position either, that would be a crappy thing to do to him.

Which meant either he and Nicholas had to either plan to stick together or both find someone to ask to the ball. Which was where talking to Quillan came in since the best candidate for Desmond to ask was his sister Ursula and of course, he wanted to check in to make sure his friend was all right with that. And then he could encourage Nicholas to ask Alma.

Right now though he was in COMC and it was time to pay attention to his teacher. She deserved his respect and he actually did want to learn. Although, admittedly, the topic was a bit disappointing. Bowtruckles? He already knew all about them. Of course, this was often the case with Beginner classes. Desmond hadn’t been doing the spells they were learning prior to being at school-as that would have been illegal-but all the theory was basically review.

Although, this was a bit different, because he certainly never tried to befriend a Bowtruckle. Certainly, he’d never had that desire though he could actually think of worse company, interestingly enough. Still, Desmond couldn’t help but grimace as the wood lice came out. The idea of touching them was unpleasant to say the least albeit probably a step up from the dung.

Still, he went and took a handful of wood lice and approached a classmate who he considered a suitable partner. “Do you think in Intermediates we’ll finally stop having to handle disgusting things?” Desmond asked, with a chuckle.

OOC: Apologies, Desmond is a 12 year old pureblood boy with the sort of parents who are obviously not going to be teaching him about the LGBTQIA+ community. I promise that he is the one I'm mocking.

11 Desmond Brockert What's the path to success? 1572 0 5