First Years - Lesson 4

[marvin]

Ahh, so it had finally come. The final lesson of the year for the youngsters of Hogwarts and there could not perhaps of been a more boring topic for the lesson to be on. Having directly covered witch burnings recently the subject was a rather large change in events for the youngsters. However to bring the light back to the small childrens eyes, upon every desk of the classroom happened to be sitting a chocolate frog. Each one rigged to contain only one kind of chocolate frog card. Morgana Le Fay. However the question remained of 'Did Professor Atwood actually consider the consequences of giving 11 year olds sugar? Or does the crazy Hufflepuff Head of House really have as much of a death wish as it seemed?'

The door to the classroom was open, revealing again to the secluded world of the young minds a sight which few of them would ever really understand. The walls were covered with pictures of castles and knights in shining armour and the perhaps deranged Professor had even gone to the effort of 'borrowing' Sir Cadogan's portrait for this particular lesson. Along the back of the classroom remained the dull black curtain that tended to sway with the wind when the windows to the classroom were opened, but which never revealed the wonders which were sure to be withheld behind it. On the floor in the doorway of the classroom was the skin of what looked perhaps like a leopard, and upon closer inspection, was. Yet the skin had been shaped into what looked much like an apron, and again upon closer inspection, was.

A few portraits around the wall showed foxes, while others revealed photo's of Morgana herself, flittering around in the pictures upon the wall, brewing potions and turning the occasional person into a frog. To join the chocolate frogs on the tables of the youngsters were also muggle plastic toy swords. Another intelligent move from the deranged professor? Perhaps. All questions of sanity aside however Professor Atwood sat upon his desk, idly humming the tune of 'Old Macdonald Had a farm'. This simple tune was mixed with the occasional yell of 'Pay attention and fight me ye yellow bellied dog' and the occasional hoof sounds of a fat little pony running away from the similarily shaped knight. To add to this already humerous scene was the large, fluffy, red hat which sat upon Professor Atwoods head. Its tail wrapping around to make the rim, the fox skin hat seemed to somehow match the environment.

Such was the intensity of any one of Professor Atwoods lessons, and yet, the question still remained. Did he have a death wish? Or was he perhaps just having a dull day?

[Jeremy Taylor]

Jeremy made his way to class, stopping short at the door. The leopard skin on the floor, while not really looking like an actual animal, was still kind of creepy and he wasn't sure if he was supposed to walk over it. He chose to play it safe and slipped through the doorway, keeping as close to the wall as possible.

The room deocrations weren't a big surprised. Everyone in Ravenclaw said Atwood was off his rocker... or at least everyone he was related to did. Drew also said that it didn't mean Atwood didn't know his stuff, but Jeremy wasn't sure if his cousin actually meant it, or was just trying to make sure he paid attention in class.

What was a surprise was the candy and the sword. He wasn't too keen on swords in the hands of his classmates, especially when Trixie and Elizabeth were there, and the chocolate made him suspicious. He decided to wait for someone else to open and eat the frog before he did.

[Claire Desrosiers]

Strolling up to history of magic class, Claire was not surprised to see the room decorated once again for the day's lesson. Portaits around the walls and tables with plastic swords and...chocolate frogs! Alright sugar! That was exactly the type of boast the firstie needed. If Trixie was in class, Claire was a little afraid of what the combination of candy and swords would do. However before heading over to a table a strange portrait with a knight on a fat pony. "Who dares trespass upon the lands of I?" the little man demanded once Claire looked at him.

"Your lands? This is a classroom you crazy...knight...I think." she replied "Professor, who is the in the portrait?" At this the little man seemed to get offended and started wiping around a sword that looked much to heavy for him and started shouting about a fight. What a wierd little thing...

[Jeremy Taylor]

Jeremy hadn't noticed the portrait much. It wasn't a surprise, considering he prefered to keep mostly to himself. But when that Slytherin girl mentioned it, he looked up at it curiously. The portraits at his Grandmother's house talked too, and there were a couple of nutty ones, but none seemed to be as loony as this knight.

He decided he didn't like that portrait and he was going to stay as far away from it as possible.

[Brenton Douglas]

once again, Brenton found himself at the mercy of chasing nobility. He'd missed her again! How could he have allowed such beauty to pass by him without another glance? Why was she so insistent on slipping through his fingers? So, she didn't really know that he wanted to walk to a class with her, any class with her, but that didn't mean she couldn't see that he wanted to. Weeks upon weeks he'd been trying to gather up the nerve to ask if she wanted to walk to class with him, and he'd never managed to get such a simple task done. He should just hang his head on the wall of shame and get it done with.

Breathless after running up the flight of stairs, Brent sauntered into History of Magic, not surprised to see odd things all about. But this time, oh this time, he felt right at home.

Knights, castles, brave men! It was all about Brenton! How could it not be? The place looked just like his "home" did. The skin on the floor (did it just move?), the knights surrounding, keeping watch over things, it all fit so well. And Hannah, well, she should feel just fine in this class, snug as a bug. She'd be safe with all these knights around to keep her from harm, such was that of the evil witch and wizard. And Claire. Oh, Claire should feel right at home too.

Such nobility was she that she shouldn't feel disconnected from the world.

The candy didn't even distract the boy when his eyes laid sight to such beauty. Now all he had to do was find a way to have a real conversation with her... without sounding too... desperate, needy, complicated, crazy, any of those things.

"Hiya Jeremy" greeted, walking right on by the boy and instead focusing his attention on the portrait. If it dared to call Claire anything more, it would have to pay. "Hi Claire!" Brent said a bit over-excited.

[Jeremy Taylor]

"Hullo..." Jeremy mumbled back, putting his head on his desk, cradled in his arms. The chocolate from was tempting, but still, he refused to even unwrap it until someone else did it first and made sure it was safe. For all he knew, it was one of those trick candies that tasted like fire or buzzed like an angry bee when you opened it.

But what if the profesor had just given Jeremy the bad candy? With his luck, the first year was sure of that possibility.

[hannah]

Last time Hannah had been in History of Magic, she had been, well, cranky. The young Ravenclaw hadn't really taken that much notice of what was in the room that time, but reaching the door of the HOM room and walking into the room this time, out of the corner of her eye, she had thought she had seen a leopard print apron.

Stopping and doubling back to the entrance of the door, what she had thought she had seen, had turned out to be right, the question in her mind remained, was it real or was it not? While Hannah had wanted to actually touch the leopard apron to find out, she was afraid that if it was a real leopard, it might actually bite and growl at her and Hannah way liked both of her hands being at the end of her arms where they were.

Curiosity subsided for the meantime, Hannah walked away from the leopard apron and her eyes dubiously scanned the portraits on the walls of the classroom. The portrait of Morgana was the one that scared her the most and Hannah made sure to avoid that portrait on her way to find a seat, she didn't much like the idea of turning into a frog either.

Hannah had however, walked around the back of the classroom and had just noticed the black curtain swaying in the room. The Ravenclaw hadn't noticed that curtain the last time she had been in class and the first year wondered if there could be an actual fairy land behind that black curtain. It wouldn't hurt to take a peek behind the curtain right? Hand stretched out, Hannah went to touch the curtain, but then decided against it, hearing her Father's voice in her head. "Never touch anything in my classroom or any classroom, Hannah. You never know what it could do..."

Those words being heard in her head, Hannah reluctantly bought her arm down beside her and tore her eyes away from the black curtain, walking away from the curtain finally, taking a seat next to Jeremy. "Hello" Hannah said, somewhat absentmindedly, all the while turning her brown eyes back at that black curtain, not seeing the chocolate frog and sword in front of her.