Hermy raised her hand. "St Patrick's day is celebrated on 17th March. It is associated with Ireland - of which St Patrick is the Patron Saint, the colours green and gold, shamrocks, luck and prosperity." She smiled, and brushed a hand through her hair.

Kate turned around in her seat to listen look at the girl who had just answered.She was a little older at her,any doubt,she smiled at her and turned back to the front

It was stupid, being the only boy in the class. He looked around at the girls. All he knew about St Patricks Day, was that alcohol was involved.

"Goodness. Saint Patty is old, right?" Lainey laughed. "Very old indeed. Does anyone else know anything about him? Perhaps... was he a wizard or a muggle?" Lainey's sly glint sparkled in her eyes.

Juniper raised her hand. "He was probably a wizard, right?" she said.

Cassandra smiled. "Well, St. Patrick was known for banishing snakes from Ireland... so I'm guessing he was a Parseltongue, and a dark Wizard at that, to make muggles think he was a Saint."

"I reckon he was a dwarf," Marco shrugged, "Just to be different."

Ellie raised her hand again."Saint Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing christianity to Ireland and he is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped.Hum.. I think he was a wizard.

"He was neither... he was a saint," Amelia said, twirling her quill between her thumb and forefinger. She was clearly not focused today.

"Banishing the snakes from Ireland? Well, if he was a wizard. he obviously was no Slytherin..." Xana commented.

Alysia added to what had already been said "It became a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early part of the 17th century, and is a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland" and then blushed, placing strategically the book in front of her again. She had just spoken what she had been thinking without noticing.

Cassandra looked over at Ellie. "There are 'snakes' everywhere, Bluebell," she smiled, "Whoever tell you differently is either lying or trying to sell you something. The muggles didn't want to believe the snakes were there, so they altered the legend to have the serpents symbolize the pagans, the druids... anyone non-christian."

"I definitely think so."

Lainey laughed. "That was last lesson, right, Marco?" Lainey gave him a wink and moved on.

Lainey shrugged. "I don't about the logistics of snakes, to be honest with you. But, I can tell you what my studying has uncovered. You might be surprised what the muggles do to cover up magic.."

Lainey raised an eyebrow. "Riiiiight...." Someone was off today... odd.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, Xana." The mischief was back.


"Ah ha." Lainey's eyebrows went to town with wiggling. "Exccccccccellent," Lainey hissed, her best impersonation of Parseltongue she had. "Excellent indeed, Miss Cassandra."


Lainey got the shifty eyes and changed strategies. "Keep that in mind and let me switch gears for a moment here. Tell me what you all know about leprechauns?"

Ellie stopped tapping her quill on the table and turned around in her seat and looked at Cassandra while she heard what the older girl had to say.
Somehow Cassandra was right and Ellie knew it.
"You might be right Trelawney." she told her with a smile then turned her eyes to the professor.

Ellie raised her hand.. again. "In Irish mythology, a leprechaun is a type of male faerie said to inhabit the island of Ireland."

Cassandra smiled. She raised her hand again "Leprechauns are the most well-known elves of Ireland, they live in the large grassy hills, wild areas and in the forests of Co.Antrim. The leprechaun is an ugly little creature with pointed ears and is about two to three feet tall who avoids having any contact with humans or any other leprechauns or fairies. He lives alone and puts all of his energy into his passion of shoemaking as he is well known as a fairy shoemaker. Because they are a kind of faery, leprechauns are often invisible, they may pass in a swirl of dust and in times gone by men would raise their hats and woman would curtsey. Most of the time a leprechaun can be found with a shoe in one hand and a hammer in the other, he also is quite fond of a smoke from his tobacco filled foul smelling clay pipe which is never too far away from his reach.

They have a mischievous glint in their eyes and tend to hide behind bushes and hedgerows and their bodies despite their stubbiness can usually move very fast and is nearly impossible for a human to catch!

They Usually dress in grey or green colored coats red trousers, studded leather apron and a red or green wide brimmed hat. They carry two leather pouches in which he carries in one, a silver shilling and the other, a gold coin to buy his way out of a tight situation.
They have been know to be fond of a mug or two of the very strong Irish drink called poteen and can be found in an intoxicated state a lot of the time.

In the old days to keep in with them , people would leave out a dish of milk or some fresh water at night, they would also leave the dregs in their glasses when going to bed, and many other little feasts to keep them content. That so few people nowadays take the trouble this is probably the cause of endless bad luck which might otherwise be happily avoided.

Leprechauns have been known to ‘adopt’ families and move in with them, though this is now rare. When a Leprechaun has moved in the first sign is that things start to go missing, or appear again in unexpected places. Furniture may have been moved around the room, and the whiskey or milk will be found to have gone down overnight, and then to have been topped up with water ( especially the whiskey! ). If all this begins to happen the family involved will know they must start leaving out presents of food and drink and anything else to keep the little cheeky chap happy, and then with any luck, instead of doing mischief the leprechaun will go round the house and barns at night finishing off jobs that the big people have had no time to do.

It is believed that Leprechauns will drown in a light rain, float away in a breezy day and can get buried in a snowstorm.

AND they are the Mascot of the Irish Quidditch team."

"Yep it sure was Ma'am," Marco smiled, "Oh and leprechauns are green and shiny. I have seen them at quidditch games. My father takes me."

Juniper raised her hand. "Leprechauns supposed to be extremely wealthy and like to hide their gold in secret locations, which can only be revealed if a person were to actually capture and interrogate a leprechaun for its money. Also, leprechauns are said to be ill-natured and mischievous, with a mind for cunning," she said.

Kate raised her hand."They have alot of gold..?"she asked,with a smile.Her Mother told her that the little Irish men had a lot of gold over the rainbow,but that was when she was a little girl

Amelia listened to the long drawn out speech by Cassandra. Giving her a glare, she half wished the girl wouldn't have said so much because then it would give the others room to add something. Sighing, she looked back up to Lainey, "Uh, they're supposed to be incredibly lucky and well, do you think they could perhaps be - Gnomes?"

Claudian smiled over at Juniper...well, smiled more at her chocolate than anything. Having already put his piece of chocolate in his satchel, he eyed Juniper's with curiousity.
"Are you going to eat that?", he asked the young Ravenclaw girl.

Claudian didn't take his eye of the chocolate, but for a second as he raised his hand and gave an answer. "Their name literally means 'lucky charm', Professor."

Hermy rolled her eyes at the lecture from Trelawney. Hermy had a limited knowledge of leprechauns compared to that, but decided to add her own, smaller contribution. She leant her head on her right and hand, and said thoughtfully, "They are meant to hide gold at the end of the rainbow if I remember correctly, but the main thing about their gold is that it disappears."

Juniper glanced at the Slytherin boy. Oh, good, someone finally wanted her chocolate. Without a word, she motioned for him to take it from her desk. There was no way that she was going to touch the chocolate again.

What a pig... Cassandra thought glaring at the mountain troll sized Slytherin... Wasn't the behemoth big enough already?

Gratefully, Claudian took the unwrapped piece of chocolate and dissolved it onto his mouth. A small satisfied smile appeared on his face and he looked rather like a fat and happy kitty cat as he ate the chocolate. He gave Juniper a happy and grateful nod.

Lainey waved her wand and two quotes from Miss Trelawney's plethora of information appeared on the board behind her.

Lainey jotted down several more snippets of information that caught her ear on the board. "Amelia.. you still think gnomes?" Lainey grinned. "Tell me class.... what do leprechauns remind you of?"