Fallon had hardly been paying attention. This subject just didn't interest her. She was busy doodling some pretty flowers on her parchment when she felt eyes on her. She looked to see the Gryffindor prefect that Lawson had left in charge. She smiled and was glad that she'd figured something out to teach the class about. "Of course I'd still like to take over." She hoped that whatever his name was was almost done. Fallon was really excited about teaching this.

Gold gave Fallon a pretty, little smile. "You're up, now," she said. The last round of Patroclus's game was over, and that meant the stage was now ready to receive a new, temporary teacher! The concept still tickled Gold, though the fun was marred by the fact that Professor Lawson and Eli hadn't returned yet. The Slytherins had.

Sure, Professor Lawson could take care of himself, but Gold was still worried. She wanted him back in class.

"Thanks for the amazing lesson, Professor Hudson," she said, beaming up at Patroclus. "I enjoyed the way you chose to present the material you had, in mind. Unique."

"Yeah, that was a really great lesson, Patroclus! Certainly a lot of fun!" Emmy beamed, she hoped that this Fallon person would be as good...

Fallon returned Gold's smile and pushed herself up from her super comfy bean bag chair. She was kind of glad that Lawson wasn't back yet. Less random questions for the time being. She hoped that people would find this interesting. She thought that it would be best to see what the class knew about what she was going to talk about. It would make her lesson so much easier. "Hello class. I'm Professor McCarthy." That felt so weird to say. "Today we are going to be learning about motion pictures. Otherwise known as movies or even as films. Does anyone know anything about how they were created?" She hoped that someone knew something.

Motion Pictures? Interesting choice of topic. Gold raised a hand. "It would be like Ben 10: Alien Force, only bigger, wouldn't it, Professor?" She asked, a smile playing around her lips. You could tell she had a soft spot in her heart, for that old, old cartoon. Ben 10: Alien Force.

Of course, the comparison came with a variety of differences.

"They were basically created with the help of drawn or camera-taken photographs - and now, with modern animation techniques. Two-dimensional drawings in motion became possible in the nineteenth century, and then the development of the celluloid film and motion picture camera allowed further progress, until the concept advanced into what we have today."

"I think."

Cheerfully, she lowered her hand.

Not 'Ben 10: Weird Alien Thingy' again! Xylon lazily raised a hand. "I have a question ma'am," he said. "If what Gold says is right, and a motion picture is indeed a story of that kind, what's the difference between it and 'Ben 10: Alien Guy Dudes'?"

The question was genuine.
Honestly!

"Well motion picture itself was first created in the 1600s in it's most primitive frorm by putting a small hole in the lense in of the outside of a a primitive camera which can be projected on a screen of of moving animation and it was discovered by and first projected by Giambattista della Porta". Yes being a muggle cwho went to muggle school certainly pays off sometimes.

Fallon smiled as Gold was the first to raise her hand. "Yes movies are like longer telvision shows." She then listened to the rest that she had to offer. "Great answer Miss Laksh." The only reason she remebered this girl's name was because she'd taught a lesson.

Fallon smiled at Xylon. "The main difference is the length of the movie, but there are many others as well." She would get into those later.

Fallon smiled at the girl who had given her this very good answer. She wished that she could remember this girls name. "Great answer."

She then looked around the class to see if anyone else knew anything. Fallon didn't see anyone else's hand so she decided to go on with the lesson. "As was already stated, in the 1600s there was a simple version of movies. The first actual film was made it 1878 by Eadweard Muybridge. It was made by using multiple cameras and then the images were combined into a set of moving pictures." Fallon paused for a moment to see if she had any questions so far.

Alex rose her hand, "Why are movies called movies and TeeVees caleld Teevees?" Alex asked slightly amused, she always wanted to ask this question.

Arya was sucking on a sugar quill when the next professor began her lesson. The only thing she knew about movies was how to watch them, so the young girl couldn't answer any questions. But she was curious as to how movies were made. Raising her free hand high and wildly waving it around, she pulled the quill out of her mouth. "What was the movie called? Was it in color? Did Eadweard Muybridge make mooore movies?" She stuck the quill back into her mouth, eyes still focused on the professor.

Fallon smiled as another girl rasied her hand. She had to admit it was kind of hard to think of an exact answer, but she was going to give it a shot. "Well 'movies' is a shortened term for 'motion picture' and they were called this because, well, they were pictures that moved. And 'television' was dubbed that by Russian Constantin Perskyi at the 1900 World's Fair."

Fallon smiled at the student who must have had a lot of sugar because she started shooting questions off rapidly. Fallon caught everyone and was prepared to answer them. "It was called The Horse in Motion. And no, it was not in color. Color films didn't come around until 1908. And yes, he did make a few more movies after the first one."

"Any more questions before I move on to the early 1900s?" Fallon looked around the room to see if anyone else's hands were raised.

Were there any more questions? Of course she had more questions!! Raising her hand again, still waving wildly, she pulled the half eatin quill back out of her mouth. "The Horse in Motion, was is about horses? It didn't have color, but it had sound riiiight? What was the first color movie called? And about?.....And who made it?" Aaaaand back to the quill sucking.

Patroclus returned to his seat, quite pleased with himself.

'It had been a great lesson,' he smiled internally.

He now turned his attention to Fallon and her lesson on Movies! Patroclus personally found this subject to be quite close to heart, especailly as he was considering it as a future career.

Fallon smiled at the really hyper girl raised her hand again. She listened to the barrage of questions, making note of every single one. They all seemed to be fairly simple to answer. "Yes. It was a series of images taken from different cameras of a horse galloping. No. The first sound movie wasn't released until 1927. The first movie in full color was called A Visit to the Seaside and it showed people doing activities at the beach. The movie was directed by George Albert Smith." That was all of her questions answered. Now to move to the 1920s when film really started to take off.

Fallon smiled at the rest of the class. "We're going to skip a few years to move on to the 1920s, which was a time that movies really started to take off. During the 1920s, almost 800 films were released a year up until the year 1930. Until the first movie with sound, or 'talkie' as it was called back then, they were silence films. As I stated before, the first talkie was released in 1927 and it was called The Jazz Singer."" That was plenty of information to give them for now. Or at least that's what Fallon thought. She would wait for questions before elaborating. She wanted to teach what her students wanted to know.

Silent films. Gold had read about these. From what she knew, they were more a part of art than routine muggle entertainment, now. She took plenty of notes, thinking why this could have been, and then raised a hand. Fallon would know. She had broached the topic, after all.

"Did the 'talkies' throw the silent films out of 'business-as-usual', Professor?" She asked curiously.

Eirian raised her hand carefully as she listened to the girl she had seen perhaps once before. Fallon.. Sounded familiar. Eirian wasn't much of an expert on movies. In fact, she had only seen three... the Toy Story series. But that was because Jayce had wanted her to see them, and... Well, they were interesting. "Excuse me," she murmured, calling attention to her hand. "'Ow did zey record ze sound for zese 'talkies'? Was it a simpler form of microphones, like zey used for broadcasting sound?"

Arya had more questions, she did. But they had been pushed to the back of her mind as she frantically searched her pockets and school bag. She was OUT OF CANDY!!!! HOW did this happen!?! She could have sworn that she stashed enough candy in her pockets to last her the whole class period.

The class had lasted longer than she planned though, and she had been shoving candy in her mouth since class started. Pouting as she searched her pockets once more, she sunk into her bean bag, her sugar high already starting to diminish, as she decided to turn her attention back to the lesson.

Fallon smiled at Gold as she asked a question. "In a way. People wanted to stick with the new inovations they had made and sound films were probably more enjoyable because you could hear everything that was going on on screen." Simple enough answer.

Fallon smiled at the girl she somewhat recognized from somewhere. "For sound in 1927, they used discs that they played and as time went on, they just recorded them right onto the film. Both versions used some sort of microphone."

She looked around to see if there were any more questions before she went on.

Yep. Simple enough, that. "Right, Professor McCarthy," Gold said, politely. "The few silent films I've seen are actually more aesthetic or complex - or both - than the movies I've had a chance to watch. I suppose one of the reasons that the talkies are more popular, now, could be that the masses prefer entertainment to art, in general?"

Perhaps even subconsciously. Gold guessed the stressed-out man or woman would look forward to a tension-relieving movie, rather than a meaningful one. That would make sense.

She dipped her quill in PINK! ink, taking a few notes as she waited for ze professor to continue her lesson.

Xylon was starting to get bored. Sure there had been a few recent 'mishaps' in this class but that didn't mean everyone needed to stop having fun. So he raised a hand high in the air.

"I have a question ma'am," he said quite seriously.

.......

"Do you like chocolate?"

Patroclus raised his hand, "Professor, the film 'Singin' in the Rain' effectively shows the transfer from silent to 'talkies' also it's just a great film!" Patroclus had grown up watching films, muggle and Wizarding alike.

"Whats your favourite film, Professor McCarthy?"

Fallon smiled at Gold. She definately knew her stuff about movies. "Yes, as time went on, a lot more people started to look for an escape from their everyday stressful lives." Stress was just not fun and people needed a way to relax.

Fallon looked at the boy, waiting for him to ask a question. She thought his name was Xylon but she wasn't one hundred percent sure. Then he asked if she liked chocolate. Not the kind of question I was expecting, but I guess I should answer it. "Um...yes. Why do you ask?"

Fallon smiled at Patroclus. "I'm going to have to agree with you on that one." That movie was just great. Then he asked a question that was probably a lot harder to answer than the rest of them. "Hmm...that's a difficult one. I'd have to say a film from the 1980s, The Breakfast Club." Yep. That was a great movie, but anyways...on with the lesson!

"During the 1930s, movies in America really started to take off. It is commonly called 'The Golden Age of Hollywood' because of the many advancements in sound and color technology. There were also a variety of film genres to choose from ranging from news reels to horror and even comedy. A lot of the genres stayed the same from then on." Fallon thought a brief overview of everything was better than a bunch of detailed stuff. If they wanted more detailed information, they could ask her or look it up later. She smiled around the room, waiting to see if anyone had anything to say.

Gold nodded, at Professor McCarthy's answer, as she took a few more notes. Golden age. That sounded funnn. Because of course, it was the Golden age. Golden age, get it?

Bwaha.

"Professor, which genre do you think has been the best received, in the recent past?" She asked, raising a hand. Because yes, Gold was curious. Statistics like that could probably help an aspiring script-writer decide what he wanted to write about, which topic he wanted to work with. "Or do you agree with people who claim well-executed avant garde pieces are actually a far safer bet, than mainstream?"

Gold had her own opinions, on that matter.

Most of them, conflicting.

She wasn't supposed to ask him a question in return!

"Because I wanted to disrupt the class, ma'am," Xylon said, hand still in air. "It was starting to get too much like a real class." Pause. "I only like specific brands of chocolate. Like Godiva." Those muggles had a knack for confectionaries. Though you couldn't have beaten Honeydukes if you had tried. "What kind is your favourite, professor?"

He leaned over to whisper to Gold.

"Pssstttt."

Gold looked up, surprised when someone whispered close to her ear. Oh, it was Xylon. What was he up to?

"Hi," she said, giving him a polite, little smile. It looked like he was in the mood to do something fun. Well, as long as whatever he was up to didn't end in a full-on chaotic disaster like the one that had caused Professor Lawson to tow four students out of the class [he still hadn't returned. Gold wondered when he would], Gold was pretty fine with it.

.....

She wanted chocolate.