The Letter of the Law (Careers Class - All Years)

Jake had come to Victoria in the holidays with the proposal from the Assistant Headmaster in respect of her taking a class at Hogwarts in the Fall Term. Victoria hadn't known what to say to begin with -- to talk to a bunch of kids about the law, and the careers in which you could find yourself in didn't sound like the most enjoyable of classes (to Victoria, it was, but she was not so silly as to believe that everyone loved to learn about everything like she did). Still, after a few moments of thought, Victoria nodded her consent to her brother, who'd pulled her in to a hug with a thank you.

Victoria, today, however, was somewhat anxious about her 'lesson'.

Public speaking was not something she was scared of. Merlin knew she'd stood before more juries than she could count now, recounting the innocence of her clients, or holding meetings with stiff upper lipped individuals who wanted to take her down. Talking about her job to a room of children couldn't be that hard.

And, yet, the young witch was trembling lightly as she sat in the Alchemy classroom, waiting for students to arrive so that she might try to inspire them. The board denoted Victoria's full name, and her choice of lesson title.

Miss Victoria Newbury
The Letter of the Law

The Headmistress had given Victoria leave to give out house points, if she saw fit, so Victoria was simply hoping she could entice people in with her choice of lesson title.

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Guest

Well, there was this new lesson to thought something about the law. She knew very little about it and she didn't really plan to go into law career but she still could check out what it was about. Maybe she could even find a law interesting after this class, who knows really.

Anyways her school year so far had been okay. She just tried to get through it so good as she could. She even tried to do her job as perfect so good as she could. Even if she barely knew even what she was doing nowadays. Everything was so much different. Ther had been a lot happening over summer and some things she didn't really wanna talk about.

Sasha walked into the classroom, trying to seem happy to be here. "Hello, Miss Newbury," she said with a small smile while she was looking at the board behind her, where was her name written down. She took a seat and also took out her notebook and quill out of her back. So she can write things down when it's needed.

Enough was enough, Mimosa was finally tired of being surrounded by people. At first it had been fun to see how everyone hung on to her words and treated her like royalty but the novelty of it all was now wearing off, reminding Mimosa of the not so great things she had to put up with.

Like a shared dormitory. There were three other girls sleeping in her room and this morning, one of hem had the nerve to tell her not to leave her dirty uniform on the floor. How would her uniform get cleaned otherwise? You left your laundry on the floor and it returned a while later clean and warm and nice smelling, it was how laundry worked. How could Emily not know that?

But it wasn't just her laundry, apparently the girls had a problem with her listening to her music into the night, dictating letters to Michelle and Jacques, Constance had even said something about Mimosa taking too long to shower. How could a shower be too long? And if Constance wanted to bathe, she could always go out and find another bathroom instead of waiting for Mimosa to finish using her own.

All in all, the girl was getting pretty annoyed with her fellow Slytherins, to the point where she'd actually considered grabbing her sleeping bag and going off to seek refuge in the boy's dormitory. But then she'd realized they probably had cooties o she'd changed her mind. Maybe she could sneak into Gryffindor tower later and sleepy with Mercy. If Mercy's bed was as big as Mimosa's, there would be plenty of room.

The class explaining something about law was meant for older students, so the younger Slytherins hadn't really paid it much mind, which was why Mimosa had decided to give it a try. Getting out of bed early, she had grabbed her stuff as quietly as possible before sneaking out, only to find Bushrah already out there and waiting. The American child suppressed a groan. A few moments of polite chatter later, Mimosa firmly sent Bushrah ahead, saying she would catch up, before turning for the stairs and running up as fast as ehr little legs would carry her. Luckily she didn't have to go all the way to the seventh floor to bump into Mercy.

Together, the two walked into the fourth floor classroom only for Mimosa to see yet another familiar face. "Victoria!" the child squealed, sprinting to the front and dragging Mercy along with their linked arms. Upon reaching the pretty lawyer, she finally let go of Mercy and hugged the adult witch. "I haven't seen you in ages! How'v you been? This is Mercy! She's my best friend! Mercy, Victoria is awesoem, she wins at everything and her name means "winner'!"

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The Letter of the Law (Careers Class - All Years) Rsz_mi10

The Letter of the Law (Careers Class - All Years) Rsz_ja12

The Letter of the Law (Careers Class - All Years) Rsz_rs13

Guest

If you wanted to break the law, you first had to know what it was.

That was a principle that Delia had learnt early on. If she didn't know something, she was given more leeway than when she knowingly disobeyed orders. "You know you weren't supposed to do that!" was something she had heard often, as opposed to "Let me tell you why you shouldn't do that in the future". Of course, there was also a benefit in knowing the rules, and that was how to break them better.

She'd learnt easily and quickly enough that if she was caught duelling someone, all they needed to say was that they were practising spells in order to not both get detention; fighting wasn't allowed, whereas practice was encouraged. The real world, however, often perplexed Delia. Classrooms and schools she could deal with. But hardly did she learn about the world. Sure, she knew the Pureblood world, but that was vastly different.

So when she heard that Hogwarts was getting in a lawyer for a bonus subject, her eyes had gleamed as they usually did before she did something illegal, and she'd signed up for it at once.

Stepping into class, she took in the person standing there. The word 'soft' came to mind, along with 'don't mess'. There was a certain tenacity about those that appeared soft, Delia knew. Besides, lawyers worked with -- and often were -- some of the worst assholes. Nobody truly soft ever lasted long, which told her that either 'Victoria Newbury' was fated to soon have her career die out or she was stronger than she appeared. Delia did not want to test that, not yet.

She slipped into the class, raising an eyebrow at the child there. The Clement, she recalled vaguely, from the sorting. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but the young girl seemed far too immature for her liking. Instead, not wanting to babysit a first year -- or anyone, for that matter -- Delia moved to a seat in front but away from everyone else, took out a notebook and a few coloured pens, and waited for class to start, flashing a smile and a nod towards the new teacher, but not saying anything at risk of interrupting the young girl and being dragged into conversation.

Guest

Mercy rushed down the stairs toward the fourth floor, remembering to jump over the vanishing step, and feeling rather pleased with herself when she ended up in the right location. After a full year of navigating the Hogwarts staircases, she was finally getting the hang of it.

She didn't know much about the lecture she was attending, only that it was about the law, and someone had said Jake's sister was teaching it. She hadn't even known that Jake had a sister, but now that she was aware of it, she definitely wanted to meet her. Oh, and she was fairly certain Mimosa would be there, which alone was reason enough for Mercy to attend as well.

As she strolled down the fourth floor corridor toward the classroom, she spotted Mimosa running up the stairs from the other direction. And for once, the girl was alone. Mercy grinned brightly, and greeted her friend with a hug before linking arms and entering the classroom.

She was momentarily surprised as Mimosa ran up to the woman at the front of the classroom, clearly recognizing her. Mimosa seemed to know everyone. Mercy smiled at the older witch, spotting her name on the board, which confirmed that she was indeed probably related to Jake. As Mimosa declared Mercy to be her best friend, she felt strangely warm, and her smile widened. It was weird, but for some reason, even though she knew it already, it was good to hear Mimosa confirm it. The younger girl had spent so much time surrounded by other people recently, it was kind of reassuring to know she hadn't been replaced or forgotten.

"Hi!" she greeted Victoria, Mimosa's excitement rubbing off on her. "Are you really Jake's sister? You look a little bit like him, but prettier."

Guest

When Reienne had heard that there would be a guest speaker at Hogwarts to teach a lesson on law, the 5th year had been a bit wary of the content. Surely, since this was an all ages lesson, the guest speaker would surely be able to only touch upon basic subjects.This disappointed her, as the brunette had lately been wanting to delve deeper into the world of wizarding law. She did not want to be a lawyer or anything like that, no, but Reienne wanted to make sure that she knew the rights and regulations of herself and those around her. When you were planning to help someone, it was crucial to have all of your Is dotted and Ts crossed.

Entering the classroom with a bounce in her step, Reienne noticed that the class had already been mostly filled. It was a good thing she hadn't been late! She saw two younger witches, she seemed to remember them being Gryffindors, speaking with who must have been the guest speaker. They seemed to know each other; Reienne was often impressed by how small the world seemed to be.

On the Board, the young brunette guest had written "The Letter of The Law." Reienne wondered what that could mean. Obviously, "L" was the letter of the law... Either way, the young girl took her spot and waited for the lesson to begin.

Victoria smiled warmly at the first student who arrived in the classroom, the young witch greeted her rather formally, which didn't matter to Victoria, but something that threw her for a moment, because she'd forgotten (momentarily) that she'd written her name on the board. "Good morning," Victoria replied to the witch, not knowing her name, but deciding she would get to that shortly after.

Besides, her attention was taken by the arrival of the next two students. Both quite young, and not particularly what this class was aimed at, but more than welcome in Victoria's eyes. "Mimosa!" Victoria greeted happily, opening her arms for the young witch and giving her a small squeeze.

"Mimosa, gosh you're getting big!" The older witch replied, taking Mimosa in with a warm smile on her lips. "I know! It was... last summer?" Victoria asked, shaking her head at the time. "I'm very well, thank you, and you, you're doing well? Ah, Mercy, lovely to meet you! I hope you're looking after each other around the school?" Victoria asked, but it was rhetorical, the young witches looked like they were inseparable with the way they'd come in to the class.

Mercy's comment, however, made Victoria laugh softly. "Yes, I'm Jake's younger sister. Prettier? Oh... I wouldn't know about that! After all, Jake was the one who landed a modelling career after leaving Salem!" The witch confided in a staged whisper. Jake would, in all likelihood, not be too happy with this information being spread around, but Victoria knew he would forgive her for it eventually.

"Now, go take your seats." Victoria insisted to the two, not wanting them to miss a good space in the classroom.

With the others that came in to the room, Victoria replied to their greetings in a similar fashion, before moving around to the front of her desk and leaning lightly on it -- in truth, it was a little too tall for her to perch on, so she didn't.

"Right, good morning everyone. My name is Victoria Newbury, yes, I am the sister of your Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and, no, I won't be answering any questions on that." Victoria explained, clearing up any curiosity quickly so that they wouldn't need to repeat anything else.

"I've been asked to come to Hogwarts today to try to entice, or, possibly open your minds, to a career in law." Victoria explained, looking around the faces in the room with a small smile on her lips. "Now, I know, many of you might just have switched off to this entirely. After all, law is dull, to you all, I would imagine?" Victoria asked, looking once more across each of the faces before her and seeing the reaction. She expected, as a whole, for the consensus to be that Law was dull, and that was okay.

Stepping away from the desk carefully, Victoria moved through the middle of the desks, to the back of the room, drawing her wand in that moment, before she turned back to the board. With a simple incantation, the board changed from her name and the subject, to show instead a court room. But, not just any courtroom. The courtroom on the board was the courtroom that had shown the sentencing of one Nathaniel Brookshire for his crimes in America over a decade ago.

"Now, many of you might not be familiar with American history, but over ten years ago there was a group called The Black Widows. They went around America, and even branched in to Europe, causing chaos in their wake." Victoria explained, bringing up a couple of pictures that brought back some very harrowing memories for herself. There was a pause, under which Victoria collected herself, before she turned the screen back to the courtroom that had been there to start with.

Making her way back to the front, Victoria turned her attention back to the room.

"The law might be deemed black and white to many, but I can assure you it's not. Learning law does not limit you to being a lawyer, either." Victoria explained. "You can take up a career with the Aurors, processing information that they bring back from their cases, you can work with the Ministry to design new laws and regulations for this country, or any country in which you may end up residing in when you're older. Many people believe that your career can only go one way, but I can assure you that isn't true."

Victoria paused, because she was not overly sure on how this was being taken in that moment.

"However, today, I would like to look as a single piece of law, and create a discussion around it." Victoria explained, hoping this was going to do well. Her wand flicked towards the board, and behind her an image of a Hippogriff came in to view. It stood looking proudly out at them all, before scuffing the 'ground' with it's paws, it's head moved, and the majestic creature seemed to come to life.

"From your studies in Care of Magical Creatures, you may already know of the Hippogriff, the beast is a very proud one, but also they can be quite dangerous. The Ministry currently classifies this beast as an XXX -- which means they should not be any trouble to competent wizards.

"The scenario is as follows: In 1993 a professor brings forth a Hippogriff for his students to study. The beast is magnificent in every manner, of course, and the class is wowed, on the whole. Except for one boy. One boy, whom we shall call Tom for this lesson, thought it would be wise to approach the beast without the proper etiquette, and ended up getting harmed by the beast.

"The question I pose to this classroom, and one that we will open up to a debate on who or what you believe to be the faulted party, and how you would regulate this, is what we shall do. Is it the beast's fault? Is it the professor's? Is it Tom's? How would you ensure the safety of future classes? What measures would you take?

"This is how laws are brought to being, with a problem being posed, and precautions being implemented to keep people safe. But, can you tell me what the right thing to do in this situation is?" Victoria posed, hoping this would be a good show for how rules and laws could be made.

Of course, there were already laws and regulations in place, some of the older children might be aware of them, but Victoria hoped they would enjoy this exercise nonetheless.

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Guest

Reienne listened intently as the witch spoke. The style of teaching was simple, yet direct; it was something that would assure that any student could understand what the guest professor was saying. The woman spoke of laws and regulations, how black and white would be an incorrect term to use when it came to the manner of the law. The way that she spoke was interesting. It might have been her lawyerly vocal practises, but Reienne latched on to her words as a call to arms for her and the others in the room to approach the grey areas of a problem before deeming it to be one thing or another.

The witch moved onto discussing different jobs would could have under an education in law. Reienne knew she was not being called out in particular for being narrow-minded towards the field, but she couldn't help but wonder if the professor had read on the Hufflepuff's face that she'd thought all law-majors were lawyers. With the further information, Reienne was less sure that lawyer would be permanently off of her list, but she knew more or less that it still was not something she'd be interested in as a career. Her mind was not so meldable that her opinion could be changed in a single class.

When Guest Professor Newbury brought up a case study regarding misunderstandings and cruel intentions towards Hyppogriffs, Reienne's face grew hot. How could someone approach such a sensitive beast with no couth and expect it so greet back with open wings? No, Hyppogriffs were defensive creatures. It was protecting itself. Reienne wanted to say that the boy was in the wrong. He shouldn't have egged the Hyppogriff on. But why had he?

"I know we're not supposed to have in-depth information on the boy," Reienne began, hand raised and voice open at the same time. Her voice was quiet, but firm.
"But I'd like to know if it was his intention to upset the beast, or if it was a moment lapse of error where he hadn't thought of the outcome. Or, uh, let me know if I'm stretching this too far please, but maybe the boy had a hard home life. Was he lonely or did he have a strong support system? Some people do things like that because they feel a need to appear in charge at all times in order to keep appearances and to retain a group of followers led by fear and a desire for a connection.

But it gets messy because he wasn't the only one hurt in this situation. He hurt a creature who had done no wrong to him and that is in no way alright. But still, I can't help but wonder if he had been using his actions as a cry for help." What had she just said? Reienne hoped the teacher would be able to decode the word vomit that had erupted from her mouth. She tucked her hair in front of her face and crouched down into her seat.

Victoria looked to the young Hufflepuff who had looked quite... unaware of the different areas one could head in with a law degree. Victoria had named but a few, she was well aware of a number of other routes you could go, but it was best not to overwhelm those who did not understand all of this.

"Actually..." Victoria replied to the young witch, a warm smile on her lips in that moment. "You've possibly landed on the best point..." Victoria explained, waiting a moment to find the witch's name.

She supplied it after a moment, and Victoria smiled at Reienne in that moment.

"Reienne has provided us with a very good point here, everyone." Victoria explained, addressing the class as a whole. "We need to establish as much information as possible on each and every case. And, to do that, we have to ask questions. Important questions, which tell us more about the individuals in the spot light. Not so that we can give them the benefit of the doubt, but to ensure we can accurately access the mind of the individual."

The explanation was almost giddy, Victoria was impressed with the line of question and was more than willing to play this game with the girls before her.

"It is believed that Tom was trying to make a point. That Hippogriffs are not dangerous creatures, and did not need to be approached with the caution the professor was explaining to them. He wished to prove to the group that you could just walk up to the beast, and not come away with any harm." Victoria explained, because these were the facts that were always clear in the testimonies from the case that she'd read.

"As to his home life, I could only offer an opinion." Victoria explained, making sure to emphasise this point, without saying how an opinion could be biased. "Tom was from a wealthy Pureblood family, a family that is rumoured to have been in leagues with Lord Voldemort during his reign. At the time, however, Voldemort was not a threat to the world. Tom was an only child, though. You can use this information how you see fit."

Victoria then considered the final point Reienne had made. "If you believe it to be a cry for help, then, in that mind set, how would you work to protect man and beast?" Victoria posed the question, but it was not necessarily Reienne would had to answer, it was open to the whole class.

OOC: Permission to GM Reienne giving Victoria her name given by Haylen <3

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"I'm ten now!" Mimosa replied to Victoria's comment of her getting big. Holding up both her hands, she child proudly showed off all ten digits. "Nearly a grown up!" The child model was about to ask a follow up question when Mercy claimed the older witch was prettier than a Jake but the class was filling up and the children were told to make for their seat. Mimosa held on to Mercy's hand once more, dragging her friend to the second row because she didn't want to sit too far back in her other friend's class.

When Victory began, talking about the law and what kind of jobs it could get you, Mimosa stared in confusion. Did everyone need to find a job? Didn't they just have one like she did? It sounded like there were lots of jobs out there but none of them really felt like Mimosa's thing. Victoria kept using big words which only translated to the first year as "lots of reading" and she knew she wouldn't want a job where there was reading or writing of any kind. It was why she always turned down acting positions. Memorizing two lines for a commercial was okay but reading a whole script sounded just wrong.

The little brunette was starting to worry that she wouldn't like this class, which felt like a betrayal of Victoria's friendship, when the lawyer lady posed a problem, a problem that had the little American's brain cogs working. It wasn't going to be a "read this, do that" class. This was going to be a real, honest, problem solving class. Mimosa grinned, she got this.

unfortunately, some other student got this before her, a Hufflepuff going by the badge on her uniform. Mimosa waited semi patiently for the Hufflepuff and Victoria's interaction to end before raising her hand. The girl had also had a similar idea, of asking questions. But her line of questions was directed towards the teacher in charge of this lesson a hundred years ago.

"Umm... why did a teacher bring a kind of dangerous creature into class? Didn't he know that someone always messes up? Or was it an only time, like had he brought the hippo... hoppi... hippopotomus into class lots of times before and only this time it went wrong?" It made sense if the professor was well experienced and knew students well enough to know everyone would be safe.

"Like, I'm really responsible and know how to operate my boat using my phone. But Grandpa doesn't allow me to go out on my boat alone, even though there are lots of safety features and he knows at all times where I am. But he still says I have to go with an adult. So even if big students can deal with the animal, why not take care anyway? Maybe show them the animal in a zoo where it can't hurt anyone?"

That was more words than she had expected to come out of her mouth and the girl dropped her hand, her cheeks a slight pink. The dropped hand found Mercy's beneath the table, squeezing it softly in case she'd just said something really wrong.

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Come Plot With Me <3

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