It WAS a game. It totally was. At least the way that she and her friends played it. "Oh boy can I!!!" It just so happened that AJ had quite the imagination. In fact, ever since she realized she was a witch certain things came to mind all the time when it came to improving things with magic. The possibilities were endless, really.

"A self jumping rope. That way you can do all sort of sweet tricks without having anybody hold the rope. That way everybody can jump at once... make it more of a challenge. We could even make it more fun by eliminating anybody that touches the rope." Or a little magical shock. Too much?

An interesting question. Well, AJ had a pretty straightforward and easy answer. "Because some games are boring.com... only those that are super cool can stand the test of time." She figured she would be countered with something along the lines of "what one person likes might not be the same for the next person" Yeah, she got it. But, lame games without any excitement were well, lame.

"I play games that get my heart pumping. My attention needs to be grabbed and I need to be totally engrossed. I'm very competitive by nature though." So, she wanted to win even at the lame games.

Oh. So muggle games didn't count, then? Good thing she hadn't mentioned any of the games she and her brothers had made up, 'cause those would probably be even less relevant. It was a shame, really, because those were the best ones. Norah recorded as many of the magical games whose names she could catch, before setting her quill down so she wouldn't be distracted while she thought about the next question. She put a hand in the air and, when she was called on, said, "I know people grow out of games just in their lifetimes so maybe as whole entire groups of people, like the entire wizarding community and stuff, grow and change, their interests in games changes too. Like the whole society grows out of it or something. Some of them stay, though, just like when you grow up I think there are things you don't grow out of liking just like there's stuff you do grow out of liking." Yeah, she was never going to grow out of liking chocolate frogs. No WAY.

So...were they going to play said games? Apparently not, they headed towards more discussion. One that Beverly didn't mind because it opened up to a broad subject. Why did they play games? There was a lot that contributed to that. Beverly had a crazy thought. She raised her hand.

"I sometimes think that some games are like fairy-tales. They originated in a more dark and violent setting and over generations they have been tamed down. I think games have a familiar history. Some have evolved, becoming less dangerous and more fun." That depended on what your personal definition of fun was. "As to why we play, it could be, like it was mentioned, because of boredom. Sometimes it can also be comfort. A familiar game that remind a person of the great times from their youth or something." The spectrum went on and on.

For a minute there, it looked like the professor had no idea what game Kate was referring to. Then realization dawned on her, which Kate was grateful for, since she didn't really know enough about it to explain things any further. Kate nodded along when the professor mentioned that it was a good game to play when you didn't have anybody else to play a game with.

Having thoughts on the next question, Kate raised her hand again. "I think it's because over time, our interests change as the world around us changes. For example, muggles have had lots of development in technology over time, so a lot of their games have moved to computers or other systems that use technology," she said. "I also think it's because we make improvements over time, and everything becomes bigger, better, and faster."

Or safer..., like some of the broom-related games.

Janelle took notes as her classmates talked about various games. Some she had heard of and some she had not. Most of the muggle games were familiar to her, but not quite all of them were.

Then more questions were asked about magical games and Janelle raised her hand to respond. "I think we play games because they're fun. They help us let off steam and if you're competitive like I am, it satisfies your need for competition." What could she say, Janelle liked to win.

The next question was not quite so easy to answer. Why did some games become outdated? Hmmmm. Janelle was not so sure about that one. "Maybe the games that stay popular are the ones that are easy to learn and play.......and.......that aren't related to anything from a particular time period," Did that make any sense? Janelle had a little trouble trying to explain exactly what she meant on that one.

Make an entrance. She always tried to come up with some ah-mazing idea to making her entrance. She normally just done a lot of flips and cartwheels. One time she even walked into the classroom on her hands. She wanted to one up those ones and do something that no one would expect from her. Which that was hard. Who knew what to expect from her really?

Making the trek down through the cobwebbed filled halls she headed into the history of magic classroom with a big grin on her face.

[size="3"]"Gooooood morning, History of Magic!!!." and Jazz fingers. Hehehe. She looked around and blinked. Craaaap. Or not. She was late? How was she late? She turned to Professor Glendower "I'm so sorry, professor Glendower." Maybe she got the time wrong on the lesson.

The sixth year flopped into the closest empty desk. Great way to make an entrance, Bayless. Now where were they in the lesson? What were they learning today?

Angel listened to what the Professor said, well she was muggle and had never been to a party with wizard games, the Professor would invite them to one soon right.

"Professor I love playing musical chairs because well everyone can take part and you can have loads of fun though sometimes people spoil it by cheating and trying to take the chair." Angel giggled as she thought about a few time she had played the game when she was younger. "I hated pass the parcel, because you never knew what is in the thing and you might not get anything at all." Angel was sure wizard played that game right, it was a game for everyone and you could wrap anything up, she thought it might be cool if you put a wand in there and the winner played with it for a day.

Lux listened to Professor Glendower as she continued to take notes. She was really curious as to what the main activity would be because there were so many games to choose from. Hopefully it would be something fun like capture the flag!

At the next question she raised her hand. "Like others have said, times change and games can get boring. I think a lot of the games that remain popular are ones that make social or cultural impacts. Different cultures have their own games, so they would remain popular within that demographic." If that made sense. She tried to think of any examples, but none were coming to her at the moment.

Major fail.

Nessa really enjoyed a good discussion, almost as much as the activity part of class, and she thought today's was especially fun. Goodness, students had such good, insightful answers. And as this was more of an opinion-based discussion, no one was really incorrect. She more wanted to see what they thought and get them thinking and interacting with each other's answers.

"Wonderful thoughts, everyone!" She beamed at the class as a whole. "Just to sum up some of the answers, some of the reasons why we like to play games might simply be for entertainment or as a boredom-buster, it can be a great way for social interaction or to make new friends, and some games lend themselves to problem-solving or allowing us to open our minds to new ideas. Some people play games to be more physically active rather than intellectually active, but then there games that challenge both! It all depends on personal preference." And that was one thing that she liked about games, there was such a variety to choose from. There were probably other reasons to play games, but these were great thoughts and they could probably end there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saraie

"Gooooood morning, History of Magic!!!." and Jazz fingers. Hehehe. She looked around and blinked. Craaaap. Or not. She was late? How was she late? She turned to Professor Glendower "I'm so sorry, professor Glendower." Maybe she got the time wrong on the lesson.

The sixth year flopped into the closest empty desk. Great way to make an entrance, Bayless. Now where were they in the lesson? What were they learning today?

She was about to open her mouth to continue when a loud voice at the door caused her to turn her head sharply. Oh dear. Poor Cinna must have overslept as she thought it was still morning and was rather late for class. But she did rather like her entrance and gave her a small smile. "It's alright, dear," she told her after she apologized, being able to tell that the girl was a bit embarrassed. "Might want to have your alarm clock checked though." Looking over at the students nearest to where she sat, Nessa asked, "Could someone please help Miss Bayless catch up?" Maybe share their notes or something so that she knew what they were talking about today.

Now.. where was she? Oh, right.. reasons why some games died out while others grew in popularity. "Good reasoning about why some games flourish while others fade, also. We have come a long way as a society over the years - changing and evolving - and many of our games have as well, either for safety reasons or just our idea of fun. What your great-grandmother thought was a good time when she was a teenager, might not be the same thing you think is fun today. And, unfortunately, sometimes the way to learn about what safety measures to include is for someone to get hurt. Some of the more dangerous games might have evolved to include some safer alternatives or have completely died out altogether." Or like Toby mentioned, Quidditch now included a ball instead of a bird to preserve its existence. "Typically people in general like things that can grab your attention and keep it. Please keep that in mind for later when we begin our main activity. Also note some of the things your classmates have said about incorporating magic into games and toys that don't normally have it." Maybe she wasn't being forthcoming just yet, but they'd understand soon enough.

Using her wand, Nessa uncovered half of the boxes and sent them towards the center front of the room along with the half dozen flying brooms she had brought to class today. The rest of the boxes remained covered and against the front wall for now. "In these boxes," she started, gesturing to the ones now uncovered. "You will find a wide variety of magical games - exploding snap, gobstones, wizard chess, wizard skittles, among other things in there." She couldn't quite remember what all she had put in there. "Oh and there are a few brooms since there are quite a few flying games. But do be careful if you try out one of those. Don't kick anyone in the head. Go ahead and try some out. Play one of your favorites or try something you haven't before. Take a little time to get into a game playing mindset before we move on to our main activity for the day."

Eden nodded and listened to all of that STUFF that Glendower was spewing out at them--she was writing furiously in her notebook. It reminded her of the summer, of working with the snidgets, especially when Toby mentioned them. HEHE.

And what the heck was Cinna doing walking in all late and stuff? Eden tried to meet her gaze, and held up her notebook. "China...I'll let you copy my notes after class..." she whispered softly, to her...friend? She considered Cinna a friend, yes, mhmm. And she was trying to be helpful and stuff.

But she had to acquaint herself with a game...hmm...Eden wanted to try her hands at wizards' chess. She was lousy at regular chess, so chances were...she was SUPER lousy at this. But it seemed fun and borderline VIOLENT, which was what the Ravenclaw was in the mood for. SO. Chess it was.

She sifted through the box to find a set and took one out...hmm. HHMMM. Time to...uh...get familiar or whatever.

Notes, notes, notes.

Not much to make here since so many of the stuff here were common sense answers but that didn't mean that Adi didn't make any. His classmates' replies were all jotted down in point format in his book.

Ohh! So that was what Glendower had in those boxes! Adi wasted no time to make his way to the box to hunt through them. Why not go for something he hadn't tried before? Wizards Chess was perfect. He had never found the urge to play the game since it confused the heck out of him but hey, at least he could get to converse with the little people! Sort of. Hehe. Adi took the set back to his seat. "Do you know anything about this, Benny?" The bestie never had mentioned much about chess before.

Henric preferred listening to his classmates answers. He could totally relate because he used to get bored too after playing the same game over and over again. He agreed, some non-traditional games were just too outdated and people tend to forget them over time.He continued listening to the professor explanation about games throughout history while taking bullet-point notes at the same time. He glanced over at the boxes and wondered what wizard games were available for him to choose from. He wasn't a wizard game expert anyway. He turned to llia,"What do you want to play?"he asked.

Ilia didn't think that she had anything useful to add that her classmates had not as to the whys and finer points of game playing. As the professor spoke she jotted some notes down for later. She was a little surprised however, when Professor Glendower passed boxes of games out. That was different, playing games for class. Maybe this would be an interesting class.

After a moment she heard her best friend's voice. What did she want to play? Most games that she played were on a broom, but she didn't know how much she trusted doing that in the classroom. "I know a lot of games on brooms......" Her hesitation in playing them in their current setting was not hidden from her voice. "Have you played Wizard's Chess?" From what she could tell, it was very close to the muggle version so maybe Henric would have an easier time with it.

Pausing a second from her continuous note taking Hady lifted her head just in time to see boxes and brooms flying towards the front of the room. Apparently inside were a bunch or different games they could play. This sounded like a good time to the brunette. Playing games during a lesson would never get an argument from her.

Rising to her feet Hady made her way to the boxes and shuffled through a few looking for something she hadn't played before. There were so many different ones she had no idea what to choose. Maybe it would've just been easier to find someone to enjoy the game with and let them decide on what to play. Since she was up here though...shuffle....shuffle. She carefully moved some of the games aside to check the other ones having no clue what she was looking for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Notes, notes, notes.

Not much to make here since so many of the stuff here were common sense answers but that didn't mean that Adi didn't make any. His classmates' replies were all jotted down in point format in his book.

Ohh! So that was what Glendower had in those boxes! Adi wasted no time to make his way to the box to hunt through them. Why not go for something he hadn't tried before? Wizards Chess was perfect. He had never found the urge to play the game since it confused the heck out of him but hey, at least he could get to converse with the little people! Sort of. Hehe. Adi took the set back to his seat. "Do you know anything about this, Benny?" The bestie never had mentioned much about chess before.

So his answer and that of a few others wasn't what she wanted because they were muggle? Even Adi's answer of his friend's favourite came up with a questioning response. Had he missed something? Benny didn't remember Professor Glendower limiting it to magical games and one couldn't just assume because of the lesson they were in that that was what she wanted without saying. Whatever he supposed, guess he'd just be going along with what had been accepted.

When they had been released to try out games on their own, Benny hadn't been quick to move. However Adi apparently had, bringing back a wizarding chess set and placing it at the desk. "A little bit," he answered, though admittedly it wasn't something he played really. Its not like you could have a wizarding chess competition out in the open where muggles might see.

"How about you?"

There was a lot of listening going on about games. Zhenya wrote a few dot points down, but most of it she thought was common sense and she would remember.

Until she mentioned games.

In the box...

In class!?...

Zhenya got up and went to the box and saw EXPLODING SNAP! YAY! She drew the deck of exploding cards out of the box and took them back to her desk. She started taking them out and building a card house with them, knowing that at any moment... they might explode!

Yes, she had to agree. It was a fun discussion. Usually AJ wasn't really up for debated mainly because she didn't care, but they were talking about games and she happened to be very opinionated about that.

Did she say flying games and brooms in the same sentence? Sweet baby unicorns!!! Her time was finally here. She had been wanting to fly on a broom at the phrase "you're a witch, Aubrey." Of course she had rotten luck and hadn't been able to at Hogwarts which was really weird. Wasn't broom riding like witch 101?

Anywho...

She had a broom to mount. Out of my way. Don't make me use my elbows people. Okay, so it wasn't like there was a mad dash to the brooms, but this was a big deal for her. A little humoring would go a long way.

If there was an actual game that went with this, she didn't care. It was just her and her broom. AJ picked one up and threw her right leg over. "How do I make this baby go?" Oh, and a better question. "Does anybody wanna play with me?" Because she was five years old right now.

Yes, Adi suspected Benny might know a tiny bit about this game while he knew zilch. Momentarily, his attention was diverted to his girlfriend and her broom. Haha. She was such a kid like him sometimes! It made him love her even more. Anywhooo...

Back to the other bestie!

"Nothing at all.'' The Hufflepuff set up the board so that he got the black pieces and Benny got the white. "Hiiiii, little people of the chess world,'' he said to the pieces. This was the main reason why he had took this set... so he could speak to the pieces. LOL! And wait! Adi did know something about chess! "I think the white always play first so it's your move, Benny.''

In the meanwhile...

"How does it feel to be a chess piece?'' Adi asked one of the bishops on his end.

Game time.

At that, Beverly gladly stood from her seat to go check out what game she wanted to play. She wasn't much of a gamer. She was more an outside person. Anything that involved jumping off trees, running. Basically, anything that had her moving and feeling free. But she did enjoy knocking things down, aside from people's dreams so Wizard Skittles it was.

Taking the game back to her desk, she set the little pieces in place. Get ready to go down, skittles.

Hisss.

SPOILER!!: Hippogriff

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Yes, Adi suspected Benny might know a tiny bit about this game while he knew zilch. Momentarily, his attention was diverted to his girlfriend and her broom. Haha. She was such a kid like him sometimes! It made him love her even more. Anywhooo...

Back to the other bestie!

"Nothing at all.'' The Hufflepuff set up the board so that he got the black pieces and Benny got the white. "Hiiiii, little people of the chess world,'' he said to the pieces. This was the main reason why he had took this set... so he could speak to the pieces. LOL! And wait! Adi did know something about chess! "I think the white always play first so it's your move, Benny.''

In the meanwhile...

"How does it feel to be a chess piece?'' Adi asked one of the bishops on his end.

Okay so they were going to learn and relearn the game respectively on their own. Benny could do this, he just had to think back on the last time he had seen someone play the game in front of him. His father and a friend of his if he remembered correctly. The sixth year let his friend hand out the pieces and deciding who played what color set, thankfully it all being set up on its own due to the magic within the wizarding chess set.

Yeah, he remembered that too, but he wasn't going to point that out readily and insist that he go first as Adi gave him the white set. It all worked out in the end anyway and Benny could demonstrate he supposed as he played. "Well then..." the Gryffindor almost moved his piece before remembering he had to speak his movement to get the pieces to move on their own. "King's Pawn One," he instructed, trying to remember any sort of guidelines as Adi awaited an answer from the bishop.

That seemed to work.

Nessa watched with a smile as students began to get up and sift through the boxes to find something to play for a little while. It seemed like Wizard's Chess was the initial favorite. Interesting. It was never one she was able to wrap her head around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

Zhenya got up and went to the box and saw EXPLODING SNAP! YAY! She drew the deck of exploding cards out of the box and took them back to her desk. She started taking them out and building a card house with them, knowing that at any moment... they might explode!

She actually wouldn't mind playing herself if someone needed a partner or assistance. Why let the students have all the fun? She could do better than just watch anyway. Nessa gave Aubrey a beaming smile as she found one of the brooms. "There should be some balls in one of the boxes too," she called over to her. Or at least she thought she put some in one of them. She hoped anyway. If she wanted to play that sort of broom game, that is.

Walking around a little more, Nessa noticed Zhenya with a box of Exploding Snap cards. And, ooh! She was making a house with them! "What a fun idea!" she exclaimed, stopping next to her desk. "My brothers and I used to play different kinds of games with these cards when we were kids." Standard Exploding Snap of course, but other games as well. "Our houses were never so elaborate though. Couldn't get the balance just right, I guess.." But she kept her eyes focused on the card house, just waiting for it to explode and all fall down.

llia told him that she knew a lot of games on a broom, he wondered what kind of games they played besides Quidditch of course. "Oh really, what kind of games that can be played on brooms,llia?" he asked,interested to know. He remembered pressing his face up onto the Quidditch's shop window pane just so he could take a closer look...ahh...good times..good times. Henric couldn't afford those fancy brooms up in those Quidditch shop displays anyway,so he would sometimes borrow a broomstick from the Hogwarts game room and fly around with it. Henric wasn't particularly good at playing Quidditch either due to his lack of practice, he much preferred playing football on the ground than up in the air.

Wizard chess? He shook his head,"No...I haven't really...but its fun watching them knock each other out,its far more brilliant than plain old muggle chess,"Henric replied, grinning.Seemed like to him she had played them before and might be pretty good in it. "Alright then, let's have a go...I bet you know all the killer moves, already..I can tell..."he accused playfully, suspicion etched across his face for a moment, but he wasn't sour at losing like someone in this room...*eyeing Benny*,"...still...you can teach me how to play at the same time,bestie,"he chuckled before getting up to bring in a set of wizard's chess. At the corner of his eye, he saw Adi and Benny had decided on the same game too.Oh well..good for them. Not particularly concern about those two...especially when Benny's around. Whatever...he just wanted to start playing and watching how these chess pieces destroy each other. Hehe.

Once the wizard chess been set down and arranged accordingly to their sides,he looked back up at her again,"How do we start?"

GAAAASSSPPPPPP AGAIN.

Those WERE flying brooms, AND THEY WERE ALLOWED TO FLY.

Toby made a mad dash for the front of the room as soon as Professor Glendower said to get started, and got his hands on one of those brooms. He'd been considering trying out one of the wizard chess sets, as he'd never actually played chess before, even in the muggle world, but the opportunity to FLY was far too good to pass up. Sure, it wasn't exactly flying on the brand new top of the range broom that Ella had got him for christmas, but sometimes a broom was a broom was a broom. After so long being grounded (literally speaking), Toby would take anything.

He didn't waste a whole lot of time either, hopping onto the broom and immediately nipping around the perimeter of the room. It occurred to Toby to maybe see if there was a Quaffle in one of those boxes, but for now he was quite content to zoom around the room, being careful not to accidentally kick anyone.

Nyooooom.

He saw a Gryffindor girl on a broom, too, and slowed slightly to speak to her as he flew past. "Hey, you wanna chuck a ball around with me?" Toby was pretty confident that he'd not even hit anyone or anything. This was his THING.

Benny was making his first move. Adi honestly had no idea if it was a legit move or not but he would go with it. At that exact moment, his Bishop chose to give it's reply.

"I'm stuck in a box and have listen to commands from dumb humans who know nothing about Chess. How do you think I feel?''

Blink, Blink!

A sassy Bishop!

Ahahahaha! Adi liked this!

"I can imagine it's a rather boring life. But I bet you black pieces have won many games. How about you moving to F4?'' he replied.

"How about you learning the game first? Bishops move only diagonally.''

Adi EYED the Bishop. Smart mouthed little... "Fineeee. H4 then.'' He thought he heard little mumblings as the Bishop took off to the designated square. GOSH! This game was complicated! He looked up at Benny. "I have no idea what I'm doing but it's your move.''

Angel was nervous, she didn't play many wizards games, she had played with a few friends but that was like exploding snap, but most of the other games was new to her, she loved her muggle games, truth and dare... Make Overs... and all those things like that, now though she had to find a game to try and someone to play it with.

"Anyone want to play a game with me?" Angel asked, seriously she would settle for a game of O and X at the minute if it meant someone would play a game with her.