'People only play it as an excuse to kick things.' Like accidentally kicking people. Heehee, maybe this class will be fun after all.

Allison wasn't bored but she knew one thing, the class wasn't for her. She had to focus her eyes on the professor's shoes as to not roll her eyes as well. She wasn't annoyed she just found it very odd how students were so ignorant about things concerning muggles.

Sighing Allison sat up and looked around for Arya. Spotting her, she slowly crawled over and gave her a smile.

Kylie felt a tad betrayed, she'd already partially answered this. Although, she had done so without being asked. She'd answered the question asked of her but also had added things that were horribly out of context. She sighed, raising her hand again, determined to get a point in class this term.

"Well, in soccer, there are two teams with eleven players each. The objective is to score more points than the other team in the amount of time given per game. The amount of time per game is variable. Younger children game's often go for only forty-five minutes to an hour. But, in more professional games, it can go for about two hours. A team scores by kicking the ball into a goals net."

She wanted to talk about penalty kicks and such as well, but she figured it'd be a little bit out of context.

"I think the object of the game is for the player to get the ball to the opposing teams net. Each team has someone guarding their net trying to make sure the ball doesn't get in sort of like the Keepers in Quidditch keep the opposing teams quaffle from entering one of the rings. I think the team who gets the most balls in the opposing teams net wins. There is a time limit in the game like Quidditch. Soccer also doesn't have a snitch that can be caught to end the game early."

Soooooo like... why were they learning about this Soccer thing anyway? Cela had read a bit, not so much about the game part, more about the history of it, but would they get into that stuff? The interesting stuff? She was keen to try playing too. She tugged on her skirt and tucked her feet underneath herself.

Sneakers were comfy.

"What happens when nobody makes a goal?" Celandine asked curiously, hand up. Obviously with Quidditch the game just kept on going.

He looked over to the Ravenclaw Prefect and he didn't feel alone "Yes, That I don't under stand either, like I know quidditch like the back of my hand, and we go to a set amount of points and then the game stops or if the team hes the snitch, do they have a set amount of goals they need to score? does this game go on forever, because if they are on foot it must be a very long game" Brant was spitting out questions faster then his brains could work his mouth "Sorry Sir, Im just really confused on this sport" He looked down to the grass and started to pull a peice and he played with it in his hand.

Evelyn spun around when she heard some students who were confused, "There is a time limit. They have to score as many goals as possible in ninety minutes," Evelyn smiled sweetly.

"You can have a game end in a tie or you can go into overtime."She spoke in a matter of fact way without going into details with the sport as she looked at the older students.

Iris listened to everyone answer the questions that were being asked, not seeing much point in answering Lawsons question as everyone else had already gotten it right; and then listened to the two older students, whom she knew to be a prefect and a Quidditch captain. She raised her hand slightly and explained to them what was confusing them, "If they don't make a goal, then nothing happens, really - the score just stays the same. Football games last for 90 minutes, and sometimes have 'extra time' at the end. That's why the score at the end of the game will usually be about 3-1. It's pretty uncommon to get more than 4 or 5 goals from one team in a game." Iris tried not to look at Lawson as she spoke. Just because he wasn't the DADA teacher anymore didn't mean he will have possibly forgotten her 'PDA' from last year.

"Mmmhmm, thought you might." Lawson gave the Slytherin a small smirk as he wondered off around the field. He would have to remember to keep his eye on that one.

"There is no difference Jake but some countries chose to call it soccer so that they wouldn't confuse it with other football games. Such as in America there is the NFL and in countries like Australia, New Zealand, some of the islands and parts of Europe have have football games called Rugby League and Rugby Union." Lawson gave Jake a wink as he walked passed him.

"When the game is over and if nobody has scored then it is called a 'draw.' It's not like Quidditch where the game continues until the snitch is caught. In soccer/football they have an allotted time for the match."

Lawson continued to walk amongst the students as he spoke, "Now I have awarded you all one point for your answers. Now as I stated there are more rules in the game of soccer but I'll think I'll leave that for your homework." Because Marcus of course would rather get into the fun parts but first...

"So when did the first game of soccer/football come about?"

Once the professor walked away, Pierre almost rolled his eyes, but stopped himself at the last moment. He really wanted to roll his eyes and mimick the Professor's smirk, but he thought it best to cooperate right now. After all, this professor was in charge of his marks.

Pierre raised his hand to answer the question. "The first game was played in 200 A.D. in China, sir."

"Probably the first mention of a game where a ball is kicked around a field was in Japanese history about 1004 B.C. A book has been found that mentions a game between the Chinese and Japanese in 50 B.C. The ball used in this game was made of leather and filled with hair. Another Japanese history mentions a game like soccer being played in Kyoto about 611 A.D. Romans played a type of soccer game. Two teams were pitted against each other. Each team had twenty-seven players on the field at one time. It must have been a very rough game. It was written that thirty-six of the fifty-four players had to have medical treatment after one game." he said rattling it off without hesitating.

Oooh this was the part Cela liked. History!

She raised her hand. "Mid nineteenth century sir. Just like Quidditch it existed in varying forms before that but it wasn't like... standardised and stuff with rules and all that until the Mid nineteenth century."

For this one, Evelyn had no idea. She'd seen her cousins play and she'd watched matches on her dad's beloved TV, but she wasn't a big fan. But Evelyn answered anyway, just because she felt so comfortable talking in this class, "I'd say it's from somewhere in Europe, maybe the UK. And I would guess that it's at least a couple of centuries old. I don't know. I'm sure they've been playing games like soccer for thousands of years."

Evelyn listened to hear if someone knew the proper answer. She would write it down later.

Arya sat and listened to the awnsers the other students were giving. She had no idea when the sport started nor did she care. Leanig back on her hands she wished she had a piece of gum.

"Sir, I believe that the first game of football/soccer was play in the mid-19th century about 1863 in England." Kay said with her hand up.

Oyye, that was so confusing. Muggles were weird, even if Jake did grow up as one. At least he'd only heard one side of the muggle culture.

"I duhh-don't ggget why thhhey have ttto cuhh-call it different thuhhh-things," he murmured, balling up a fist and rubbing his eye. This game hurt his head.

At least Quidditch was Quidditch.

Oh jeez, how were they supposed to know THAT one?

Jake raised his hand. "Errr... ten yyyears ago?"

Now that, was something Evelyn had no clue on. Like she needed to know what year soccer, or football...came around. Wait what? "There is more than one game called football? How do you not become confused then?" Like she was right now. If you were talking about football, how would you know which game the person is talking about? And what in the world was Rudny? Is that what he said? 'Muggle Studies...is still the same. Even with a different professor. Ugh.'

Something, something...something. It seemed like everyone had different answers. Sighing, she flopped down on her back, feeling the grass tickle her neck while staring at the ceiling. Soccer was more complicated than she thought.

Raising her hand Marie said "The first international game was played in 1872 between England and Scotland." Okay, so maybe he didn't ask for the first international game, but that was all she remembered from the reading she had been doing about the game.

Ian had to admit of being thoroughly to surprise to see people SO well informed about football. Hadn't mum told him that most kids wouldn't be familiar with muggle things? And yet, the entire classroom was answering questions.

Oh, well.

"It was played for the first time like a long, LOOOONG time ago. In Asia, I think." Probably even before Professor Lawson and the rest of the staff had been born. Maybe.

Ian could not be sure.

Hah.

Cadence hand slowly raised in the air. She didn't really know the answer to this question, but she thought she'd make it up and see if she got lucky. But then another Hufflepuff boy answered who looked about a year older than herself. Her eyes widened. Wow... he was really smart... and really cute.

After she heard his response, she simply smiled in his direction and put her hand back down. Anything she came up with would sound silly compared to his answer.

Lorcan scratched the top of his nose trying to remember. He thought that he liked Lawson as the Defence teacher best.

Raising his hand, he gave a rather uncertain answer. "Sir, I think it was from medieval Europe, but all the rules and stuff that they have now come from England and other countries have changed it to suit themselves, I think." He shrugged. He preferred Rugby League.

Raising his hand once more Damon said "Professor might this sport have begun to be developed in between the 1st or 5th centuries." It might have been later then that but Damon had read up on it at one point in a book.

Emily was dumbfounded... She knew about soccer and all that but not all the interworkings of it. To be truly honest she hated muggle sports... Except swimming, figure skating, and badminton... now those she could get into. "Well I'm not really sure about when it started but i do know soccer is really big in Brazil... not to mention europe of course" Emily didn't know what to say so she said what she knew...

Man, Brant knew he had to start connecting to the muggle world, from last years lessons on muggle studies. "Sir, Im not quite sure but, around early civilization?. and thats just purely a guess" Man, so far he felt so bad for not knowing anything, This was a first for Brant, he looked over to the Ravenclaw Prefect "psst, Do you think you can help me out like during the weekends on this stuff?, Im a lost cause here" he asked quitely for he didn't want interupt the class conversation.