History of Magic was something that he'd gotten a fondness of over the summer's, merely for the fact that when he wasn't avoiding all things magic it was the easiest thing to study given the fact no magic was needed to read about the history. It was one of the classes where Evan could feel most prepared, as no three or so months off every year in which he could forget important information. It was a class he now actually found himself almost looking forward to so far, and Professor Holden was thus far decent as well.

Heading towards the classroom, Evan entered through the door way, robes adjusted to look best right outside the door and book bag over his shoulder, and he nodded and gave a small smile - something he was still working on - at the Professor. "Good morning, Professor." He paused briefly to look at the covered easels, curious if they'd be covering some type of art, before making his way to a desk and sitting down to set up his notes.

He was still glancing at those easels, his curiosity piqued.

Claudine i miss Reccard as History of Magic professor. However, while she’d been attached to Schmoe and still had trouble with the fact that he was no longer at Hogwarts, she wasn’t having such a bad time adjusting to Professor Holden. “Hi, good morning, Professor,’’ the Snakette greeted with a smile. “Hope you’re well.’’ She was about to wade through the seats to find one that she wanted but stopped suddenly.

Oh.

Were they doing something artsy today? If so, then this was right up her alley. Claudine was somewhat happier to be in this lesson now. “Hi, Evan.’’ The Ravenclaw received a smile from her too as she slipped into the seat beside him.

Did Professor Holden know he was handsome? V was sure he did, and she certainly wouldn't be telling him. He probably had the cutest family ever, cutest cuteness EVER. And he was nice even if his class was BORING. She would suffice herself to just...doodle away in class so she wouldn't fall asleep. She couldn't disappoint Professor Holden!!!! THAT WOULD BE TERRIBLE.

"Good morning, Professor!" she said with a littttttle more eagerness than she meant, and she probably came off BUG-EYED rather than excited. "Hi Evan," she whispered, trying to get over the embarrassment of all...that. And taking a seat nearest the door.

"Good morning, professor." DID EVERYONE HEAR THAT? She said 'good' morning. Progress! Ash was in a pretty radiant mood today. Meaning... she smiled a few times! That was noticeable, right? Right? Right? She sat down next to Evan and near Claudine, giving them both a small smile and wave so that they'd KNOW how happy she was. LOOK AT HER. She was SMILING. Because she was HAPPY!!! And everyone needed to know about it.

Ah sweet pumpkin pasty a class she wouldn't die in. Or possibly die in. She liked the mundane not gonna die of this class. Although passing in through the threshold of the door hair bouncing, she felt invincible. The easels gave off a could be dangerous vibe. But come on just how treacherous could a painting be. NO wait don't think that.

Sighing she shoulder forward. "Morning Professor" her voice was loud enough to be heard but not rattle the windows, courtesy you know. "Claudine, Ash, Evan, Hey" She recognized their faces but was less familiar with the younger student (Victoria) but gave her a small wave before taking a seat.

A couple of weeks into the term and the situation was just as promising, just as dire, just as normal as it had ever been. Nem entered the History of Magic classroom without a word, as usual, and took up a place where they were best able to watch everyone else in the room, again as usual; this time it was as simple as claiming the desk in the back corner of the room. It was also possible - probable - likely - certain that the mild 'dragged backwards through a hedge' vibes were still in play.

Nem dropped into their seat, hooked a foot around the leg of their desk, and tilted the chair back a couple of inches. From their pocket they brought out a regular muggle pen, the extent of today's supplies, and turned it over in their fingers.

Phoebe would have preferred being outside, to be honest, if only because she wanted to enjoy every last minute before the weather turned on them and fall turned into an ugly Scottish winter. But if the professor insisted on being an absolute normal about things, she could deal.

She marched herself and picked a seat in the middle of the room, giving the professor a little wave as she settled her things. "Good morning, Professor. Lovely day to learn about an ancient war or some sort of goblin rebellion. Or both. Could we do both?"

In the back of the room, Phoebe spotted an Upstead in the midst of being particularly Upsteady. Leaning back in her own chair, Phoebe made a grab for Nem's pen. "Pssst. Why are you like this?"

Valentina entered the classroom, really not all that excited for this lesson. She didn't exactly find History of Magic boring per se but it was pretty dry.. and she always felt like she was lacking in this subject somehow. Anyway, she was going to try to take more of an interest this term onwards, especially if she wanted decent grades.

She greeted the professor with a bright smile. "Good morning, professor." She took a seat somewhere near the front, super ready for class to begin.

Thrilled to be here. Thrilled. Over the moon. Ruari had hustled in after all the other kids, his wand behind his ear and his lips split wide into over-enthused grin. He didn't like history but he loved being in class so maybe he would like history this time around, okay? Plus, Plus Hogwarts history was cool, and not at all lame like other history.

Humming, he grabbed a seat near the front desk and settled all his things nice and tidy so the professor would know just how excited (and how cool) he was. "Hey, Professor Holden. Nice day, huh?" Ruari said, his tone totally (not) calm. he had not practiced that greeting, absolutely not. it was off the cuff, as natural as breathing. His quill was a deep crimson and it glided elegantly across his parchment as he wrote his name down in the upper right hand corner, his scrawl just untidy enough.

Glancing toward Lucky, Ruari gave his older brother a big, cheeky smirk. Yeah, they might have been in competing houses but they were still a team and he was sure he'd impressed the elder Fuller-Thompson with just how cool he was being.

It was still sort of a damp in her mood that her former Head of House wasn't the History of Magic professor anymore. Serena wasn't the type to grow attached to people (she hardly did), but it was more in a sense of routine. Although she very much adored adventure, when it came to academics she thrived on structured routine.

She was here, though. A sigh leaving her lips as she stepped inside. She still didn't know how to feel about Professor Holden.

"Good morning, Professor." She was polite, though. After her little...incident in Africa...Serena had promised her parents she'd be an angel. As much of an angel an evil spawn could be. So really, there was no promise. It had been something to put them at ease.

Serena Baltazar-Dos Santos was no angel.

On her way to a random desk, she waved at her friends and sat down, her satchel landing on the table with a firm THUMP.

History of Magic wasn’t Ollie’s favorite class, but it wasn’t her lest favorite either. She still found some of the material interesting but she was never a huge history buff. She entered the classroom and gave a small nod to Professor Holden and gave a small wave to her friends before finding herself a seat. She wondered what they’d be covering this term whilst she got her books ready.

Eden wished she could drop this class. It was worse than a boring old study hall, where she could at least read what she liked. It was worse than staying up late to look at the sky in Astronomy. It was worse than a two foot long Herbology essay. That last one was a real statement if you knew Eden, because plant care and were two of her LEAST favorite things.

Still better than the emotional-turmoil, sleepiness-inducing-boredom, no-magic-usage minefield that was History of FREAKING Magic. She'd pay 100 galleons to just read some books and take an exam at the end of the year.

It wasn't the new (or old) teacher's fault, really, it wasn't - but the fact remained that Eden was a lost cause.

"Good morning, Professor," the girl spoke as she walked past, straight to the back of the room. She took a spot a few desks away from Elder James and Creepiest Upstead (totally not planning on eavesdropping or anything, and totally not preemptively trying to get a close-by seat to any classroom interruptions, of course not) and took out the notebook she used for both History of Magic and Herbology. It was mostly filled with scribbles unrelated to either subject. She had taken the time before class to part her hair into two loose pigtails so that she could fidget-braid throughout the lesson.

History of Magic was objectively the worst. No flying, no doing anything exciting, just learning about old people, usually dead, and the things they'd did. Done. She did not like it, but Professor Holden was okay. He was nice, at least.

And he liked to be outside, even if they had to have class inside.

"Good morning, Professor Holden," she said as she surveyed the room, looking for a good place to sit. Was it okay if she sat in the back? She'd probably be able to see over people's heads. But...she decided not to risk it, and took a seat near the front next to Val instead.

Quinn flounced into the classroom, feeling pretty good about things in general, which was not something that used to be normal for her; but this summer was somewhat of a turning point, it felt like. She had some answers to questions about herself that plagued her for a long time, questions she'd been too scared of to look for answers. But now that she had figured some things out, or was at least on the way to, she felt like a weight had just been lifted off her shoulders. That combined with trying to be more open with her friends was a recipe for not stressing out about everything all the time. And since she was able to stay at her Gram's for most of the summer, she didn't have to deal with her parents and could actually talk with her friends. Were things....actually looking up? For once?

Well....so long as this term actually turned out to be normal... everything would be just about perfect.

She wore her pink bracelet on her wrist to make sure everyone was aware of the pronouns she was currently using—much easier than having to be asked and offer an answer every time they changed. "Good morning, Professor!" she said with a smile, scanning the seats. She made a move to go sit by Eden, but sighed upon seeing who she was sitting near. She pursed her lips and gave Eden a look, but still made her way over to the seat next to her. Quinn made a point of having her nose upturned from Upstead, flicking the hair she had been growing out as she sat (the hair wasn't too terribly long yet, but it was a fair length for being grown out for about half the summer).

As Quinn sat facing the front of the class, she was totally not checking out the professor or anything like that. You know, just... casually watching. Rather intently. But not, you know, weird or anything!!!! Hahahahaha... not weird. Just a little pink in the cheeks.

Kinsay had liked Professor Recard for the most part. Except for all those times when she got mad at Emm and didn’t answer Kizzy’s questions and sometimes had lessons that made Kiz feel sleepy. But! But she liked other things! Like. Um. Like that one time she saved Phoebe’s face and… Oh! Her sense of style and that one lesson about the triwizard tournament - Kins remembered paying attention during that one in particular. So it was just a little weird that she wasn’t teaching anymore.

Kins was open to the change though, believe it or not. And it especially helped that their new Professor was so pretty. Sometimes Kinsay liked to stare at him instead of answering questions… Though usually she stared at him and asked her own questions, which was kind of a win-win. For Kizzy. In any case, his pretty face made history less terrible and Kins appreciated that lots. So, thanks!

She walked into the classroom only ~somewhat~ sleepy and unwilling to learn about ancient old men that she wouldn’t ever care about (no offense to them, but when would they learn about feminist history!) - but all that changed as soon as she saw the covered easels. Her face lit up like a whole Christmas tree as she looked from one easel to the next. "Hi Professor.” She really, really, really hoped they’d be getting to do art today. "Are we painting?” Because. "It’d be so fun to paint epic scenes from history, don't you think?" She quickly added this as an afterthought in hopes of changing his mind in case the answer to her original question was “no”. She wasn’t trying to be tricky or anything! Just covering her bases.

Um. Anyway. Now for the most important part of any lesson: choosing the right seat.

Evan and Claudine had good spots, so Kins briefly considered sitting by them. But. Ash was there too and … no thanks. She didn’t want to sit by the door like V because sometimes it took her a long time to pack up all her things and then there’d be a crowd and she’d feel rushed at the end of the lesson. She couldn't sit next to first years (sorry, Ruari) or people she didn't know (no offense, Serena and Ollie) or Charlie because ... actually she didn't have a reason not to sit next to Charlie, but she just didn't want to. Phoebe’s seat was dangerously close to where Eden and Quinn were sat, so that was a big no. Huge no. Hugest no. And she couldn’t very well sit in the back, she needed optimum hand visibility for any inevitable questions.

But. Also. Was Nem okay? He was looking kind of funny lately. But not a good funny. Kind of a bad funny. But not in an ugly way - he's still handsome. Just a ..... worrisome way.

Kins didn’t mean to look as concerned as she did when she looked his way. But. But sometimes her face just happened. Things needed to be felt. She couldn’t help it! Um. Quickly realizing that she had been standing for far too long, Kinsay opted for a seat near Mamie and Val (saving the empty seat beside her for Emm, of course) (besties).

Listen, Teddy may have only gotten an Exceeds Expectations on his History of Magic OWL, but ever since Professor Holden showed up, the seventh year had never cared so much about getting the highest of high marks. It was all important, it was their history, lots of his own family was even significant, yadda yadda yadda, but whew, was it nice to show up to class and experience the bewitching allure of the History of Magic professor. He was nice to look at and listen to (that accent) and admire, you know? Teddy knew, and he knew he wasn't the only one who was enamored by their new professor. That helped, that he knew lots of them were harboring a silly crush. Who could blame them?

"Hey," was Teddy's uncharacteristically timid start to a greeting toward a professor, which he recovered with a charming smile to add, "the assigned reading was cool."

The. assigned. reading. was. cool. So articulate.

Still sporting a smile, the Ravenclaw trudged over to sit near his rock, Phoebe. It was fine. He was fine. His cheeks weren't flushed with color, that was just the lighting.

Rain always left everything looking so clean, in Gracelyn’s opinion. She’d even chosen to go for an early morning run just to experience it, that sensation of after a rainstorm. Of course, she had changed before heading to the History of Magic lesson, so she wasn’t tracking in any dampness. Just in case that didn’t fly with the new professors. There was still a learning curve going with figuring out how they worked, after all.

Professor Holden seemed relatively simple to adapt to his methods. Maybe a bit particular, but that was expected. Lots of Hogwarts professors had particular proclivities. “Good morning, Professor Holden,” she greeted the man, giving him a smile before considering her seating options. “Are we learning art history today?,” she added, with a glance toward the easels before making her way over to a seat near the James twins. And Nem, it seemed. They all got a smile too, while she prepared herself for the lesson.

The weather was gloomy, in her opinion, so a warm-ish classroom gave her a cosy feeling inside, and generally put her in good spirits for class. Although History of Magic was not a very high esteemed subject for her, she still looked forward to scrutinizing everything about a new professor to judge whether they were cool or not. Remy entered the classroom, pocketed her hands into her robes and had a look to see who had arrived before her, her eyes lingering on Evan Nam for a moment before finding Ollie who she ultimately took a seat beside. "Moooorning." She said quietly to her friend as she organised her work space.

The Gryffindor finally smiled at the professor. "Good morning, Professor Holden." She greeted, then looking at the covered up easels. Nothing exciting about that so far. Remy held her quill and started to doodle as she waited for class to start.

Something about the rain always gave Maya an extra pep in her step. It was relaxing, cleansing and her ideal weather since there was no reason to go outside. Plus, History of Magic was one of her favorite classes even if she felt that if everyone would read up on history more often there would be no point to the class. She entered the classroom with a smile on her face that grew even brighter to see the very ordinary classroom set up.

Maya was a big fan of ordinary. "Good morning, Professor Holden," Maya said politely, scanning the classroom and trying to figure out where she should sit this class. She saw Evan, Ash & Claudine sitting together and gave them both a smile and nod. That seemed to be the obvious direction to go in, however, the Slytherin found herself a seat towards the front of the classroom where Valentina, Kinsay & Margaret were already sitting. After the tutoring from the summer with Margaret, she just wanted to make sure her notes were easily accessible if needed.

"Good morning, ladies," she greeted before pulling out her notebook. There was nothing quite like starting the day off as normal. Even if there was time for the class to go disastrously wrong since the contents of the easels up front remained hidden.

Here we go to history of magic - Blake couldn't say it was his favorite subject - but he didn't dislike it either. He had after all learned some very interesting things in it, now if he couldn't remember all of them for his NEWTs that would be better.

"Hello Professor" Blake added

Taking a seat and looking around to see who was near him, he wanted to know if he recognized any of the people.

Holding his History of Magic textbook in his arms and against his chest, Daniel entered the classroom. He stopped at the doorway for a split second to see the arrangement for today and was a bit disappointed that it looked like a normal classroom.

"Good morning, Professor Holden" he greeted the man as he walked past without looking but then before he went to find a desk to sit at he turned around and gazed at him. "Did you mean it back then?" he asked before realizing that he should elaborate on his question for him to understand. "That I can borrow some books from your office?" 'cause the reading material he took with him from home was getting thinner and the library only had so many books about detective stories.

On the bright side, by now Christian was back on a school time routine. No more sleeping in until noon, up running in the mornings, breakfast on time when you are actually suppose to have it, and morning classes. He was back in the swing of things now.

History of magic was by far, the gyffindor's least favorite subject. To his relief as in most history lessons the classroom was well a normal classroom. However he did not recall it being an art classroom.

The professor who knew his parents, wasn't bad either. "Hello Professor Holden." As he passed the front of the classroom. Perking around the easels before taking a seat in the back of the room.

Aries was here. He didn’t want to be, but he was. Looking bored out of his mind, the thirteen year old made his way into the classroom- barely looking up as he greeted the professor, “morning” He wasn’t being rude or anything - he just did not like history of magic. AT ALL.

So - he was just going to rely on Atlas getting him through this class. That was the only way.

Speaking of…. where was his twin???

Not seeing him right away, Aries found himself right at the back. Easy to not be noticed there, yes?

Midway through September, and it still felt odd to walk into the HIstory of Magic classroom and not see Professor Recard! Heath had nothing against Professor Holden, of course. Although it took him a while to warm up to new people, the man hadn’t done anything to make him dislike him. It was just… Recard had been his favorite professor, and he never thought she’d leave Hogwarts before him. Never mind… it was what it was.

Heath shook his head to clear his thoughts as he stepped inside the room. The first thing he noticed was the normal-looking classroom setup which, based on everything he’d seen of this class so far, was unusual in and of itself. Then his eyes fell to the easels at the front of the room. Hmm… he wondered how those would come into play, but he supposed he’d have to wait and see. After eying the easels with curiosity for a moment, his gaze turned to the professor. “Good morning, Professor Holden,” he greeted, giving a polite nod in acknowledgement.

Dark eyes scanning the room, he beelined for a seat near Evan, Claudine, and Ash. “Hey, Evan, Ash, Claudine,” he greeted, nodding to each person in turn, and there may have been a slight smile for the girlfriend. He slung his bag over the back of his chair and retrieved his supplies, neatly arranging them on the desk in front of him as he waited for the lesson to begin.