Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Flames flickered in William's eyes as his deep, penetrating gaze reflected the fire before him. Students entered, talked at him, talked at each other, tried to sit on air, and gaped at the egg, but after about five long, awkward minutes of zero professor direction, the man leading this class snapped out of his stupor and stood up so suddenly from his stool that he nearly knocked the thing over.

Righting the stool, and blinking at the sudden appearance of students, Williamson cleared his throat and then moved his stool out, somewhat shooing them back from the converted fireplace.

"Hello, hello, hello," he randomly nodded around at the kids, not greeting anyone in particular. Of course they were ALL welcome in his classroom, so long as they took care of the creatures. And each other. Maybe.

"First things first, I'm going to need everybody to take a few BIG steps backward, that's right, and then a few more. There. Good." William chased them away from his fireplace in a nice, calm manner, until the students who had entered last nearly had their backs against the wall with the barn door. Now that they were not in any danger of catching fire, he motioned for them all to sit down.

Hmm. Where were those benches he'd meant to bring in? Ah, no matter. Must've just slipped his mind. "You all can take a seat on the floor, my apologies for, er, the lack of more comfortable seating, but I have a feeling we won't be here long. So. Thanks for coming."

He smiled and rubbed his hands, glancing over his shoulder just once more at his precious project in progress.

"While we wait for the start of the..... event that I invited you to, I would like everyone to begin by sketching what they see before them. You brought paper and pencils, right? And fireproof footwear and stuff?" Willy shot the older students looks. He was going to blame the older ones for not reminding the younguns if anyone was unprepared and got hurt as a result. Fingers crossed though, nothing would go wrong today. Right?!

He cleared his throat and his mind of such thoughts. "So yes, that's your first task of this class. Draw the ah... well I'll tell you it's an egg, but I won't tell you what KIND of egg, draw the egg in the cauldron and the fire and such as you see it. I realize it's rather dark in here, so you may use your wands as a sort of drawing light, but give me your best sketch." The professor beamed at them all happily. "All righty then? While you work on that, I just have one more thing to prepare for today's lesson."

Williamson nodded at the older students once again, sort of giving them a nonverbal cue to keep the younger kids on task, and then disappeared around the corner of the barn. Two metal buckets were just visible in his hands before the darkness swallowed his tall frame.[/color]


OOC: WHEW, lengthy post there! Sorry for not replying to you all directly, but I will reply to your drawing posts! Sketch the scene you see here as I've described it, either by hand (in real life), in Photoshop, or in Paint. The more creative you are on your own, the more points you'll get! No credit will be given to photos taken straight off the internet. I want to see what YOU can do on your OWN.

When you've finished your drawing, upload it to a photo hosting site and post it in here under a spoiler tag for grading! Class will continue tomorrow (EST) sometime (likely not for another 18-ish hours). HAVE FUN, but don't chat too much! Williamson is still within earshot. ;D

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Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Being away from the barn as he was, William did not hear the second year complaining about drawing, and even if he had, she would not have received much sympathy from him.


When William DID return from....wherever he'd gone, he was carrying one pail with sand in it and one pail with some sort of thick, smelly, reddish liquid in it. The students in the front row would probably cover their noses at the smell but Willy, having made it hundreds of times, was immune to its stench.

Once he had set his materials down and had tossed the damp sand on the fire, he suited up in his long, dark, thick fireproof dragonhide gloves, quite proud that he'd remembered to put on fireproof EVERYTHING when he'd gotten dressed this morning.

Carefully, very, very carefully, the professor removed the cauldron from the heat source and set it down on the ground, still a ways away from his captive (?) audience. He removed his gloves and tucked them into the back pocket of his pants, then walked away again and came back with a simple cardboard box.

"All righty then, those of you who are still finishing up your drawings, feel free to do so. Those of you who are finished, sit tight for a just a moment. We'll resume in a second."

--------------------------------

Now back by the cauldron and the quivering egg, which seemed to be quaking as if under great pressure. William started laying out a few other eggs from his box, lining them all up from biggest to smallest behind HIS egg. He laid out a big, but not BIGBIG, ostrich egg, then a regular chicken egg, then a tiny, foil-wrapped chocolate candy egg.

Taking a step back, the professor beamed around at the class and clasped his hands loosely behind his back. "Welcome to Care of Magical Creatures. Heh. I have to say, from the drawings I've seen, you ALL have a bright future as magizoologists one day." He smiled and took a step to the side so that everyone could clearly see the eggs.

"First things first: What in Merlin's beard did I just have you draw? Take a guess, based on the size comparisons of MY egg to these other eggs. Try to be as specific as possible with your educated guess."


OOC: don't tell me WHY you think the egg is whatever it is, just tell me WHAT you think it is. ;-)