Paris raised her hand. "And then you have fly fishing and then catch and release fishing." She said. "But then there are different types of surfing too. You can body board as well as surf." She loved surfing. It was so much fun especially when you had a bunch of cute guys watching you.

Emiliano raised his hand to answer. "Well...there is fishing, considered a recreation and economic activity. Depends on what purpose people have towards it. Then also surfing, recreating fun...and I shall say a dangerous sport if you don't train well enough." He said all he knew, well...not all. He just knew that around Australia, the best surfing waves existed.

Wonder if he would ever go there...hmm...

Antonio nodded. "Yes, surfing and fishing are both two very popular activities with muggles. So, as we can see, there are many different sports involving the water that muggles do enjoy. And it really seems like the muggles are fascinated with vacation spots near the water, and many of them are drawn to live near the beach or the ocean. What do you suppose the reason for this could be?"

Hmm...great question Professor Dumont did. Em raised his hand, hoping to give at least a good or so answer. "Well...the beach always has a warm, yet nice and windy climate, which we all enjoy. Also, there can be circumstances, such as health; My grandmother has a heart disease, and her doctor adviced her to live near the beach, enjoy the low altitude and fresh air..." He commented, lowering his hand slowly.

Hmmm, why would Muggles like the beach?

OOOOH! He knew!

Jack raised his hand. "Well the beach is often the hot spot because Muggle girls, and probably a few witches too, enjoying tanning on the beach and oogling all the cute guys. In fact, it probably goes both ways," he added, cause didn't some muggle guys tan too? "But that's the younger folk--I think the other reason would be that there is SO much to do there...like all those sports we mentioned. That creates endless hours of fun! Then the air around the beach is nice and refreshing as wel."

Paris giggled at Jack's answer. She remember how he was staring at them in that little swimming hole the Headmaster had created for them. The boy really needed to get out more. "Well sir it could be several reasons. Not every coastal country has beaches you can swim in. In Chili the water is too cold and turbulent but people still flock to it. There is just something about watching the sun set on the ocean that makes us feel connected with the earth." She said dreamily. "Or it could be because everyone else wants to be there. You know how no one wants to eat somewhere no one else is eating at. It could be the same with oceanfront property." she smiled.

Daniel raised his hand and said, "Professor, muggles are enticed by the beauty of the sea in many reasons. First, in early times it is a center for trade and commerce between different countries. Muggles from one country make trade of their products to those of others countries by means of the sea. Second, muggles were once hunters that hunt on mountains for deers and wild boars, but when the supply went scarce they resort into fishing in the sea as a means of sufficing the need of the community."

Abby raises her hand. Perhaps it has something to do with water being the source of all life. 65% of our bodies are made of water. Personally I think it has something to do with the water being fun. There's also something for everyone to do on a beach. The children can play in the shallow water and make sandcastles. The teenagers and adults can walk the beach and sun bath. Then there are the new water crafts muggles can ride in the water. There is so much fun to be had in the water."

"ICE-CREAM?" Miles asked with his hand raised. When muggles go to the beach/seaside, they usually ALWAYS get ice-cream. It's like ... muggle law or something." Miles thought of other reasons why muggles go to the beach. "They also like to walk bare feet in the sand." He giggled in a girlish tone.

Alice was still debating over whether to eat that salt-water taffy or not. The wrapper seemed tempting. But she was not sure of the taste since prof. said something about salt-water. She rolled the taffy on her palm, focussing on the lesson instantly.

She raised her hand. "They are simply attracted by its utilities like fishing, boating and travelling followed by its beauty and the clamness the waves and other water bodies gives to human" she took a small breath and added, "And everybody likes to play with water. It's a human nature too" she simply said.

Thomas raised his hand even though a lot of students have answered the question and said," Some of the reasons that Muggles enjoy living near the sea is because the seaside is a calm place, and it is a great place to meet people."

"Those are all excellent answers," Antonio said. "All of you have presented excellent reasons for why the muggles love being close to the water so much. Unfortunately, there are some occasions when the water isn't so welcome, somewhat like the situation we are experiencing here at the castle this year. Does anyone know what some of those situations might be?"

Victoria put her hand up "Professor, what about if the water has dangerous creatures in it like sharks and in the lake is the giant squid."

Kiri raised her hand. "Do you mean during, er, water sports? If it's in the sea, I guess they could... be swept away by a wave? Or their diving equipment could stop working?" She nodded sagely. Muggle apparatus often malfunctioned. "Or they could get eaten by a shark?"

"FLOODS!" Miles' arm was waving in the air once again. He didn't know what had come over him, maybe it was just because muggles were so interesting to him? "Icky, murky water in places it shouldn't be. Like houses and other buildings. You can also get tidal waves and Tsunami's, which can reach the height of some skyscrapers!" Scaring himself a little, Miles withdrew his hand from the air and sank in his seat a little. He was scared of natural disasters.

Thomas thought about the question for a moment and after two minutes he raised his hand and said," There could be a tsunami attack and the sea might be full of dangerous creatures."

Garret twirled his wand around and around his fingers as he stared vaguely in the direction of the professor, his mouth slightly agape. He was thinking about surfing and what he would look like had he been a professional muggle surfer person. Lyra Noir would definitely fawn and fangirl over him then...

Merlin... Lyra Noir on the beach!

What an image!

Anybody looking at the fourteen year old boy at that moment could clearly see that his consciousness was nowhere near the classroom or the discussions being held in that room.

Satine shot her hand up in the air, "Well, how bout Hurricane's? I once visited Galveston in Texas and hurricane hit...wow it was scary...." she felt herself shiver with the mental images that thought brought back.

Em raised his hand. "Well, there are hurricanes, tsunamis...always followed by floods. The season on which they appear, lots of Muggles have to leave their place, their home to protect themselves and end up with their possessions destroyed, most of the time. " He just shivered at the thouoght of people having to do so.

Abby raises her hand. "Water spouts, there kind of like tornados that occur over the water, are dangerous. They would definitely cause harm."

Raising her hand, Anna said, "Being close to water can be dangerous during certain weather conditions. Take, for instance, a hurricane. Hurricanes begin far out in large bodies of water and lots of times end up traveling closer to shorelines or actually onto the land. The devestation caused by a hurricane is far worse for those near the large bodies of water when the hurricane hits. Those strorms have been known to take out large cities and cause lots of destruction. I definitely feel like the water would be very unwelcomed during a hurricane...or any other type of major storm, at that."

Jack raised his hand. "Well, as everyone has answered already, water conditions can make being in the water very dangerous. Sometimes there are things IN the ocean that make it unsafe as well--like sharks and jelly fish and lobsters!" he answered. "And sometimes, giant storms can actually make these creatures wash up on shore and make it dangerous in that way as well," he added.

"Floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, monsoons, tidal waves and tornadoes, yes, they can all cause extremely damaging flooding and sometimes quite rapidly. A bit like what has happened here at the castle." He laughed nervously. He really didn't think the flooding was very funny and hadn't understood until now why their spells didn't seem to have any affect on the water. It was because they understood so little about the spells the merpeople were using and had no way to counteract the damage they had done. Even now, Antonio knew the water had reached the ceiling of the first floor and that everything he held dear was now completely ruined.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to bring many props to this class," Antonio said, having lost his train of thought for a moment. "I had planned on having surfboards and things, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get any of those out of my office before the flooding started."

Antonio thought a moment. "I'm going to assign homework in just a little bit, but do any of you have anything else you'd like to discuss regarding the muggles and their love of the ocean before I do? I would just briefly like to touch on the image the muggles seem to have of merpeople, one quite different from the reality. We know what the merpeople look like, and yet the muggles perceive them as looking like this -



Antonio shuddered. To him, there was nothing attractive about the merpeople in any way, yet the muggles insisted on showing them as the beautiful people. Most interesting.

"The muggles idolize the merpeople, particularly the merwomen, and make movies and commercials featuring them, always very attractive. Does anyone know some of the muggle products or movies these overly attractive merpeople have been featured in?"

Chris looked at the picture Professor Dumont had showed the class of the muggle-version of merpeople. He really didn't like the real merpeople that much, but would tolerate them if he had too.

Muggle things with attractive merpeople in it? Ooh he had one. "Professor Dumont, when my father and I went to America one summer we came across this odd movie, like moving pictures that the Muggles watch one tv's for entertainment," Chris wasn't up on all the muggle inventions and lingo. "in a muggle store that depicted a red-haired merwoman that talked to fish and stuff. I think it was called the Little Mermaid" he shrugged he hoped it was something that the Professor meant.

Jack raised his hand. "Well, there is that one muggle movie called 'The Little Mermaid' that tells the story of some mermaid named--Pearl or something, I dunno, and she has a beautiful singing voice and wants to marry a human prince. Something like that," he said with a grin.