Care of Magical Creatures: Lesson One - Thestrals (All Years)

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A new term, which meant new students, to an extent. Others came back with new attitudes, and then again, others were the same as they had always been. Daniel understood most of them, truth be told, though he hoped today that the children would find the subject of class interesting.

Not all of his students would be able to see the creature in question, but... Daniel hoped they would appreciate it anyway.

Standing in a paddock with a bucket of meat, Daniel fed the creatures carefully, enjoying their enthusiasm. Some people might find the creatures morbid, but Daniel liked them. They were reassuring... in a creepy way. Patting the nose of the one closest to him, Daniel looked up towards the castle in the hope of sighting the first student to his class for the term. Not that there were any prizes for that, of course, he just wondered if the first would be a Ravenclaw eager to learn, a Gryffindor filled with excitement, A Hufflepuff bringing with them the caring nature many creatures needed, or whether a Slytherin would be coming down to find out the advantages of the creatures, and what they could do for them.

The thought brought a fond smile to Daniel, and he bet on a Hufflepuff being first.

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Mackenzie had been sorted into Hufflepuff and when she'd written back to her parents, they had been so happy for her. She had forgotten what Houses they had been in, but they wouldn't judge her for not being in their Houses anyways. Mac smiled as she got ready for her first class. Fortunately for her it was Care of Magical Creatures and she was far more excited than any other student likely would be.

Mac found herself racing out the castle a good twenty of so minutes before class was due to start and eventually she reached the far side of the grounds. Hogwarts was huge and though she had practically lived here before, she didn't remember it being so big. Mac approached where she assumed the class would be meeting and waited after giving a small wave hello and greeting smile to the Headmaster/Professor.

She was excited at what the class would be about, though she likely knew whichever creature the professor would talk to them about, however nonetheless she was ecstatic. She hoped it was about dragons but she didn't see anything so maybe it was threstrals or maybe even they were going into the forest. The girl shoved her hands in her pocket, it was a nice day and soon it would be chilly and then it would be her birthday and that made her really happy.

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This year, Alberi was planning on being more active in class than last year. Mostly because he didn't want to lie and tell he was in each class of his - somehow, no matter how much he read and how much he tried to lie to his mother, she always caught him. And there wasn't a difference this year - it was enough that he couldn't read more than two books a week, when she learnt that he had chossen to simply skip and only go to as much as he needed... Well, he had a few brilliant weeks without even one book. And for Alberi, that was one of the things that were torture, especially when he just wanted to get away from this world. At least, his sister did help with that, though he did get into thoughts after his talks with the little idealist and optimist.

Walking towards Care of Magical Creatures, he wondered what could possibly be out this time. Last time was good - he could only take notes and watch the strange dog thing. Though he disliked dogs, it was another thing to examine them from a distance while other people dealt with them. In fact, it was much better for Alberi himself, at least he was as far away from them as he could be.

As soon as he got outside, he took out a book. He was going to try and read as much as he could and pay up for what he had missed during the summer vacation. He walked towards where he remembered were classes were held, glacing up from time to time to be sure he was, in fact, walking the right way. When he felt that there were standing silhouettes around him, he knew he had arrived. Looking up from his book, he almost froze in spot.

In front of him was a winged horse. A horse that, in fact, looked like a walking skeleton with scales.

The boy felt as his face paled, staring into the white eyes of one of the creatures. What the hell was that? From when did they learn about monsters here! Feeling his hands get into firm fists, he stepped back, still keeping his gaze on the thing. He thought about taking out his wand though went against it - there was no way he could fight against a thing he knew nothing about!

"Professor, is that supposed to be here...?" he asked, not even caring that he probably sounded like an idiot. Perhaps later he would and he would be hitting his head about that but now... He hardly even acknowledged that he said that, more interested in the bloody thing in front of him! 'And I can swear that at least one of them is staring at me...' he thought, taking a few more steps backward, just to be sure. He didn't even feel as the book he was holding on to fell from his hand.

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Lux exited the school building and walked out into the sunshine. Care of Magical Creatures. Ugh she thought with disgust. So far, they'd studied useless animals, animals over which the annoying younger years cooed over and got their entire being excited over. It was pathetic. Needless to say, it was one of the classes she did not like. Not one bit. But she still had to attend it so she dragged her feet to the class.

It had been quite a surprise for her to win the student of the year thing, though it meant nothing to her - in fact, she hated it because of how good it made her sound. But she couldn't revoke the title that was given to her and had to tolerate it until some unlucky son - or daughter - of a bachelor got it next year.

She spotted the small group of people already there and slowed her steps, wanting to drag out attending the class as long as possible. But as she got nearer, she saw the animal they would be studying and completely stopped in her tracks. She knew that animal. Thestral. A small part of her was rejoicing that they would be learning an interesting animal for once but a larger part of her didn't quite know what to think about seeing the animal.

Their appearance did not disturb her, since she was used to more eerie and disturbing sights. But seeing them, it was too much memories for her. The images of the Carter's dead burnt bodies, of their lifeless eyes staring back up at her, it threatened to overwhelm her. She hadn't thought about them in ages and seeing these animals was a like a time machine, transporting her back to that horrific night she'd witnessed as a seven year old.

Sure, their death wasn't the only one she saw. She'd seen plenty other deaths at the orphanage she was in, usually babies who couldn't survive in the kill-or-be-killed environment of the orphanage. But it was the Carter's death that affected her the most and the childhood memory she was most unwilling to recall.

Lux closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself down and putting on that practiced mask of indifference before strutting to the group. Ignoring the breaking dam of memories, she stared straight at the animals, almost daring them to break her. She wouldn't let them. She was stronger than that.

Guest

Elleon made his way to the area set aside for the Care of Magical Creatures class, his steps light and excited. Besides potions, CoMC was the other class he could keep up with and he loved the animals they studied about. They were so different from the usual cats and dogs of the muggle world and it fascinated him to learn about these creatures. He carried a conversation with Jelena as they walked, talking about the summer they had and the things they did.

As they arrived at the group, Elleon paused in his conversation to look for the animal they would be learning about. But he saw nothing. With a puzzled frown he turned to Jelena. "You see anything?" he asked and received a shake of the head and a 'no'. He looked around. A few of the other students seemed to be staring at something but no matter how hard he looked, he saw nothing.

He walked up, a little hesitantly, to the professor. "Um. Excuse me, sir. I don't see anything," he said, Jelena interpreting for him. He knew his ears did not work but last time he checked, his eyesight was perfect. So why couldn't he see any animal?

Guest

School had started again and Mei Xin was glad. She'd spent the entire summer working at The Leaky Cauldron and though she earned more money than she usually did during school days, she missed studying. Sure, she continued her studies by herself, revising everything she'd learned as well as skimming through the next year's material. That wasn't the only thing she studied though. She had to study the Malaysian school syllabus as well and as much as she loved expanding her knowledge, she couldn't help but find that it paled in comparison to the things she learned at Hogwarts.

She made her way through the building and out onto the grounds of the academy. She was getting accustomed to the weather here and found it quite pleasant to be outside the walls of the building. It was very different from the heat and humidity that was constant back home and she enjoyed being able to be outside without sweating bucket loads.

Mei Xin joined the group of students already there and greeted the professor with a warm smile. She wondered which creature they would be studying about. She couldn't see anything yet but perhaps the professor would bring the creatures out later.

Guest

Mackenzie was still trying to work out the lesson for today and whether or not they'd be venturing into the forest because quite frankly, she would enjoy that. She knew she was never to wander into the forest alone lest she'd be rendering her House to the removal of House points, yet the forest interested her and she hoped the headmaster would take them in so she could marvel at the beauty that was nature.

Mackenzie found herself staring off into the trees as she waited for the lesson to start and soon, she could hear other students approach and one had a very odd question. He could see something and she couldn't and immediately, she knew what it was. She had seen the creatures in a book before but you could only see them if you've seen and accepted death, which she had not seen. It was sad really that such young students could see the skeleton horses but she supposed that not everyone had the best life. The girl smiled a bit and under her breath, she whispered the word "Threstrals." She wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear her but that was okay because she was a Hufflepuff and it wasn't her job to be a know it all.

Guest

She hated classes because she had to actually wake up and get out of bed to go to it. Brooklyn was in her robes and she even skipped breakfast because she really wasn't in the mood to deal with people especially in the mornings. Brooklyn usually always skipped breakfast because she just hated the taste of it, but sometimes she'd eat toast and maybe some meat but today was definitely not one of those days for her. The young Slytherin walked into Care of Magical Creatures and saw people there already.

She sighed and made sure she was towards the back because she hated being around others. She was just hoping that no one saw her and she stayed hidden until she was needed in the class. It was how she got through the first and second year of Hogwarts and she was planning on getting through the rest of the school year and the other school years in just the same manor. She took interest in her shoes. It was a pair of shoes that she liked, even went on to have her grandmother put her name in beautiful letters on the side of her shoes. She knew it was a little too much but none of that mattered to her.

Guest

Skipping down the path, Kayle stopped to take in the sights every so often, excited to be back in school. Perhaps it was rather Ravenclaw of her to love learning as much as she did, or perhaps it was just her inquisitive nature, but whenever she was in school, she was always just constantly excited. Classes were sometimes boring, of course, and she sometimes (okay, often times) zoned out in History of Magic and Potions, but with things like Care of Magical Creatures or DADA or Charms, there was always just this constant flow of sheer energy that ran through her.

Reaching the paddock, she grinned at the Professor. "Hello! How were your holidays?" she asked, before turning to look at the creature near him.

It was almost scary, and looked like a horse with wings that had died and come back to life, but Kayle tried not to judge things by how they looked, and so, while a bit cautious, didn't fear them entirely just yet. There was a name for horses with wings, she was sure, and Kayle frowned a little. "Pagai... Pegu... Pegasus!" she thought aloud, although saying it quietly to herself, having learnt to somewhat control her volume by now. Turning back to the professor, she asked, "Is that a zombie pegasus?"

She had, of course, read about thestrals, but knowing that they didn't appear to people who hadn't witnessed death, this thought never crossed her mind; she didn't think she had witnessed death, although it was a concept she understood fully, since her grandparents had passed away in an accident when she was only 9. It was something she accepted, but she didn't know that there was more to the story than met the eye.

Guest

There was something fascinating about magical creatures of all kinds - from the big to the minute; from the aggressive to the naive - and Nico was quite curious as to what the first animal he would officially learn about was. Or, rather, what creature. Stepping towards the designated area, he noted that many students were already there. Taking in the scene, he noted the bucket of meat, the odd looks being sent towards an empty field, and the confusion on the faces of others.

It was obvious that some of them were looking at something. Perhaps they were hidden by a trick of light? He slowed down, pretending to sidestep a stone to get a different angle, and still saw... absolutely nothing. It was as though they were watching something invisible, something he couldn't see.

And then, it hit him. Thestrals! It was the only animal that made sense - the meat, the fact only a few could see them, the fear in some of their eyes... His heart sank a little. Death. It was the only thing that made some of them able to see the creatures, and he wondered what they looked like; did they match the pictures he'd seen in his textbooks?

As he neared the area, an idea struck him and he grinned to himself. This was the perfect set up. "Hello, Professor," he greeted, as he finally stepped up to the area. Following the gaze of one of the people, he pretended to study the animal that he couldn't see, but was sure was there. "They look so cool," he commented. Let's see how long I can keep this up, he thought to himself, fighting a cheeky grin at the idea.

» Care of Magical Creatures: Lesson Three (All Years)
» Care of Magical Creatures - Lesson Two (All Years)
» Care of Magical Creatures - Lesson Three (All Years)
» Care of Magical Creatures- Lesson 2 (all years)
» Care of Magical Creatures - Lesson Two (All Years)