*posts frantically before work*
 

Vickers didn't even get a chance to respond to him before Professor Elwood came marching over. Elijah prepared himself with a whole bunch of lies to the questions that she may have come over to ask but instead she simply just stretched out her GREEDY little hands and yanked at the locket around his neck. It tugged at him at first, the chain digging into his neck before the thing eventually let loose and snapped, the locket now resting in the Professor's hands. "Are you mental!?" he couldn't restrain himself, "You could've ASKED to see my locket. What if that was worth millions!? And now you have snapped the chain! You've reduced it's value by at least a good couple of hundred thousand!"



"Precisely," Elijah said, jumping on what the Groundskeeper had just said. "It was a lost locket and *I* found it, therefore it is MY responsibility to see that it gets back to the original owner, just like I had intended," uhhh huhhh. At least he had abandoned the 'it was his Grannies locket' for now.

"Although, whoever the thing belongs to i'm sure they will love the broken chain element we've added to it," reign yourself in Elijah before you get more points docked! "The likelihood that the thing is actually cursed seems even more silly now," he said, more calmly than before with a bit of seriousness to him now.



It wasn't until she was right beside him that Elijah caught her out of the corner of his eye. He gulped. He was in the middle of a sort-of heated discussion and this was the last thing he needed to be dealing with, especially since there was a high chance he'd end up just shouting at her. But, she was apologising... gawsh. That was kind of her. It was probably just guilt though after all that her and Vickers seemed to have schemed behind his back. "Sure thing Kurumi," he said with a hurt tone of disinterest. He turned his attention back to the adults.



"Open it? Yes, that it genius Professor Williamson," Elijah probably would have opened it had it not been for... his HAND. He had forgotten all about his soon-to-be-stump-hand ever since Elwood ATTACKED him. SAD EYES. No tears, Elijah! Your hand will be fine! Hilstorm will sort it. Yep. YEEEEP. Vickers didn't know what he was talking about.



Elijah watched with (sad) intensity as Professor Elwood made to open the locket. On the inside was a picture of a rather pretty girl despite the fact she wasn't smiling. She probably should have smiled for her picture, it would have done her face a lot more justice. If Elijah ever did track down the girl whose locket this was then he would be sure to tell her that...

"1753..."

Or perhaps not. She was probably all DUSTY by now if she'd been around so long ago. "See? The locket is fine! It is just some girl's back from the 1700s who must've lost it on the grounds when she was at this school, is all. Now, since it is unlikely we will ever find an owner can I have it back..."

But NO! Kurumi had to come in with THAT little piece of information. Maybe she was just trying to get back at him all passive aggressive now. Hmph. "Just because the Professors were a little unorganised back in 17-whatever is not evidence that a random locket I found that belonged to a randdddom girl so long ago is cursed."

These people were CRAZY. Yep. Officially crazy. And thieves! Let us not forget about that part. Oh, and betrayers too. Ahem.

*flails* catch up
 

Vickers caught Elijah's reaction when he mentioned the hook and stump. The Puff looked genuinely panicked, and for a moment this Ravenclaw felt bad. It was a joke, he thought the other lad wouldnt fall for it. But he did.

And he couldnt really clear that part up right now because the next thing he knew Professor Hotstuff Elwood was stomping towards them all snappy and yanking chains. Couldnt she have just slipped that off his neck? Yeah OC-knee jerk reaction kicking in here. BUT she did say that was stupid of Elijah to just wear some randomly found locket. Cue this Claw looking at that Puff with an I-told-you-so look.

But never mind that, now Elwood opens the locket and they all peer in curiously at what it lay withing its metal folds. Pushing his glasses up again, he first spotted the date engraved on one side. 1753 He straightened up unconsciously on the recollection of the date. Kurumi verbalized exactly what was bouncing around in his head. "Yeah... the year when a lot of Hogwarts students have blinked away a year of their life." The missing year, as far as Hogwartians were concerned. "And this is an artifact from that year."

He shifted his head to check the outside cover of the locket. Amarantha. Then he peered into the locket again, this time eying the photo of the girl it held within. "So.....thats Amarantha?" he wondered aloud. Personalized lockets like this one would usually bear the photo of the owner. But given the date inscribed and the faded photo this was a really, REALLY old locket and its owner likely long gone. He was about to shrug it off as just that when something about the girl's eyes struck him. Offhandedly he gestured at the locket "Her eyes.... reminds me of that girl from the bookshop at Hogsmeade." He looked around "Maybe she's family of whoever owns this." Genetics yeah?

And now Elijah was insisting that it wasnt cursed and that he wanted the locket back "No don't." he said as he held back the Hufflepuff's with the back of his hand. "There's been some... strange occurrences happening around the school." he explained as he glanced ever so subtlety at Kurumi and Williamson, then eyed Elijah with an imperceptible shake of his head and a cautionary look Dont touch it again.

Kurumi chewed on her lip nervously when Elijah had essentially dismissed her apology. She hadn't even shouted THAT loudly at him nor cast a spell at him. She had done that with Oakey and they were still friends. Maybe she had bruised his pride? Elijah was a very confident person and when people like that had their egos bruised they became almost impossible to deal with for a time. One of her brothers was like that now that she thought about it.

So, Kurumi cocked her head to the side and threw him another apologetic smile before turning her attention back towards the locket. No sense in making a scene now, right?

Kurumi felt a bit relieved when Vickers confirmed what she thought she remembered. Seeing as her memory had bit a bit spotty recently, especially this term, it brought a small smile to her face just knowing that it seemed like her memory was back. Ever since the orb broke now that she thought of it. Hmm...weird.

"Just like...I blinked away a month of mine..." And more.

Thinking a bit on this, Kurumi snapped another few branches off nearby trees (Gorse, Blackthorn, and Apple) and then glanced back at Elijah when he said that they would probably never find the owner of the locket. Just as Kurumi was about to open her mouth to speak, Vickers did and had clearly utilized that brilliant memory of his. "Vickers, you're brilliant," she exclaimed as his words jolted her own memory. "She looks just like that shopkeeper at Tomes and Scrolls Specialist Bookshop. I didn't go inside, but I did catch a glimpse of her through the window when I peeked in." It was rather alarming actually, the family resemblance, at least from what Kurumi could recall.

Kurumi's gaze shifted to Elijah now as he continued to protest the locket and it being or not being cursed and she sort of silently pleaded with him with her violet eyes to drop it. Her attention then went to the adults present and sort of just waited for their responses to the points her and Vickers had raised.

Jory was almost done collecting the twigs. he jst had about seven more to go. Next up was Holly. He found he tree without problem and got the twig. And then the Oak. It took him some time to find the ash with all the students and the adults being distracted by some locket, they were just standing there. Not that Jory minded. It gave him tie to finish collecting the twigs as some of the others had already finished doing that.

He soon found the remaining four- willow, alder, rowan and birch.

And now Jory watched as the locket was opened.It was from 1753. "It's ancient,'' he thought as he caught a glimpse of the pretty girl's photo. He heard Vickers say something about students blinking a year of their lives away that year and was utterly confused. What did that statement mean?

Major catching up with everyone & everything!
 

As Professor Williamson arrived and instructed to levitate the wood lice and help giving them to the Bowtruckles and so did Professor Elwood instruct. Cassia left her hideout and joined the other students. She aimed her wand at the wood lice and murmured "Wingardium Leviosa!" And she moved her arm concentrating as she dropped the wood lice before one of the creatures. She rewind this action again but the older students were faster and more accurate….well they were older.



Finally getting rid of those annoying creatures ,Professor Elwood said to continue collecting sticks. So Cassia headed to the nearest tree to her left and checked the parchment that was now crumpled in her pocket. "And this is supposed to be Ivy," She said stretching out her hand slowly still expecting come Bowtruckles to jump and attack. Well, luckily she put the twig safely.




As she was heading towards another tree, Something caught the nosy Slytherin's attention. Why were the Professors gathered and what's Professor Elwood holding? Automatically ,Cassia walked towards them. Well, being short makes it hard to see standing among older and taller people. So she made her way bending down until she was besides Elwood's hand but making sure not to breath so she won't disturb her Professor.and she was Staring at the locket and the picture.

She listened to what was said about the girl's name and the year. And missing students? She never heard of this event. Well, it seemed like history and she wasn't fond of it. However, she was really curious now about the whole thing. Still looking at the picture, "What if this girl died here! And her body is here somewhere?!" The words were out of her mouth without thinking. She hoped she won't startle anyone who wasn't aware she was standing here considering she kind of sneaked. "Or maybe she's a ghost! That's why you recognized her Professor," She turned to Professor Elwood who confirmed that she knows the face. The first year swallowed slowly as she took a look around them. Could the ghost be around them now wanting the locket .Maybe it is better to get away of the locket a bit.

The first year was really excited about the turn of events at the lesson, now that's how they don't get boring, the lessons.

*whistles*
 

Now that Ella had collected her willow sample, she skipped over to the Holly and Oak trees that were closest to her, concentrating first on the Holly. Bending down, the second year combed the ground for a fallen twig and was successful in finding one right near the base of the tree. GRIN. She picked it up with a smile and then walked over to the base of the Oak tree, in search of an Oak twig for her collection. This task was a bit trickier if only because the fallen sticks around the large tree were few and far between. Luckily, as she circled the area around it, she nearly stepped on one. EEP! Bending down quickly, she ran her hand along the twig to make sure it was unharmed and added it to her inventory.

As she crossed over to where the professors and some students were talking, Ella peeked at Nessie who was probably enjoying being in Professor handsome-face's arms and frowned. She hoped her fellow puff would be alright soon. Oh! And what was that kid saying about a dead body! O__O EEP! "N-no, there couldn't be a dead body buried in here...could there?" She asked, green eyes wide. She had had enough of an adventure with the bowtruckles during this lesson, she didn't need any run-ins with some ZOMBIE CHILD from the 1700s!

Deciding it would be better if she not hear the rest of what the group was discussing, Ella sauntered over to another patch of trees nearby, making sure to look around for any possible ZOMBIES or DEAD BODIES. O__o Shiver. Luckily, none were visible. While she walked, the second year added Ash, Apple, Hazel, and Ivy twigs to her inventory, making her count seven types of wood down. Not too shabby, considering this class was turning into a crazier one than she had ever anticipated.

Now she remembers where she had seen that name.
 

Since Alyssa was already done collecting her twigs, she stayed behind with the Professor and the others as she tried to remember where she had seen that name Amarantha before. Then she gasped when Professor Elwood opened the locket. She wanted to call out to the Professor not to do it, but it was too late. The locket was open.

She looked down at the locket and saw a very beautiful young girl, but what caught her eye was the date. 1753. That was the year that had been missing from the archive logs. The year when the strange things happened. Then Alyssa remembered where she had seen that name. It was in the students roster who were attending Hogwarts that year. The year where the Head Boy was Herald Escalante.

Was she one of the students who had been affected by the strange disease that year?This situation was getting stranger and more mysterious.

So she spoke up. "If she looks like the girl in that shop in Hogsmeade, would it have been possible that could have attended Hogwarts too?" Alyssa asked Kurumi and Vickers since they had been in the library helping out Professor Scabior

major catch-up...
 

Sarah nodded sheepishly. She dutifuly returned the fairy eggs to where she had found them. She was only trying to help.


They had done it! The bowtruckles were on the retreat! They must have been hungry. She wondred if Bowtruckles were dark creature -they prbably were not. THye were just protected the trees from the students.

A locket fluttered on the retreat of one and the big headed boy put it own - claiming it to be his. Sarah knew better though - she was not said to have eagle eyes for nothing! She was said to be very perceptive and observant by her mother.



Sarah was happy when the teacher took charge. It must be very hard for ateacher to see a lesson get out of control. She decided to continue collecting the remaining ones on her list. She had not dropped the twigs when she had been told and no one had noticed. She knew the trees probably could not see her anyway due to her small petite form and she was tough. Anyways - to see all her work just go like that with an opening of a hand -unbearable.


The year 1753 jogged her memory- she had a very good one at that. The library, the year with the boy who was headboiy for two years or something and kids never went home for holidays -the year that was missing from school records...
Well now Hogwarts has a record of that year - the locket! The girl was pretty... sarah wished she was that pretty.
Nevetheless she went back to the twigs, she had ticked blackthorn off last had she not? Elder, Fir and Gorse twigs soon joined her collection.

How did this always seems to happen to them? Selina could not remember the last time she had a lesson when the healer was not called in for some last minute injuries. As of late, it seems that the only lessons have were dangerous ones. Selina tried to be as quiet as possible this whole insane lesson because she was trying to pick up on any bits of information that would help her in her outside studies in divination. So she picked up the sticks as she was told and listened to both professors ramble on teaching the lesson. But when the care of magical creatures professor yelled for them all to drop their sticks she let it drop like it was on fire.

That was when the bowtruckles appeared. Nasty little buggers. And then everyone started to talk about the locket in elwood's hand. She did not get a decent look at the thing in all the chaos, but selina did not like the sound of this ominous girl. All she could see of her was that she was a redhead. As much as she was glad of that fact, Hogwarts was a strange place. Anything that seemed suspicious usually was... And this locket was no different.

So with a little bit of volume to her voice she said, "With all sure respect professors, I think we should let the locket alone. It doesn't seem odd to you that they just handed you the locket? Especially after all of the freezings this year, I don't think we should be touching that." And that was the merlin's honest truth.

Ella was still collecting wood, ignoring the discussion on the locket purposely because she had quite a bad feeling about it...plus, now all she could think about in relation to the stupid thing was DEAD ZOMBIE CHILDREN just lurking the forest so...yeah, best to keep on task. Her wand was out and at the ready though. Y'know, just in case.

The second year glanced down at her sticks and counted that she still had seven, she had quite some work to do.



Deciding she'd better get working, the second year headed towards the tree that had the symbol for Alder and looked around the base for a small stick to add to her pile. She wandered for a few minutes, hoping to find an acceptable one, when she found what she was looking for. HOORAY! And so the second year bent down, observed the twig, and added it to the others. Another one down! Grin.

The same went on as Ella continued to walk around each new type of tree, gathering the remaining wood samples. (Birch, Rowan, Vine, Reed, Blackthorn, Elder Fir, Gorse, Heather, Poplar, and Yew). When she was finished, she wiped her brown and walked back to the center, wondering what she was meant to do now. Deciding that she didn't want to disturb the Professors' discussion, she plopped down and crossed her legs, double checking her collection.

Sarah had only a few more to go - heather. That was the name of her great, great- aunt. She went tro collect a twig from that tree and 'diffindo'ed off a twig from the Poplar and Yew trees. She then went to the container and took a vine and reed.

trying to work the stick-collecting in lulz
 

Kurumi…. called him brilliant. again

A smile was tugging at the corner of his lips as warmth started to spread throughout his face. He welcomes praises of course, but it was just different if it came from Kurumi. But yes lets not be such an obvious lovesick nerd and just focus on the task at hand…. oh look sticks!

He bent down to pick up a few twigs he found right by his foot-- he recognized two of them right away, as they were the same sticks he collected earlier-- the Birch and the Rowan, then examined the other sticks. One was a Willow he can tell, and the other Hazel wood, of which he was familiar with since he worked with it so closely last term.

His attention drew back to the locket when he heard Professor Williamson whisper-ish to Elwood through his good ear. Pocket the locket? His concern for Elijah extended towards the Divinations Maven. She touched it too when she took it from the Hufflepuff and now she was going to be holding onto it for safekeeping. Oh no….NOW he truly wished that the locket wasn’t cursed after all.

Just one more wood to get on her list- Ivy... she had also known a lady named Ivy as well. I guess there are many names named for plants... Petunia, Lily, Rose, Heather, Hazel, Rowan, Ivy, Daisy,Ashleigh, Alona... She took the Iv y from the tins and stood with all her woods in her hands

As Alyssa saw Professor Elwrood put the locket in her pocket, she breathed a little sigh of relief....until she remembered way back in history when the famous trio had a horcrux in their possession. It made them start to act weird.

She hoped that putting the locket in her pocket instead of wearing it, would keep the Professor safe from any possible magical ill effects the locket might possess.

Alyssa just wished that the Bowtruckle hadn't dropped the locket. That way it would still remain hidden and no one would have it in their possession now. She just had a feeling that something was not right about it, and that something bad had happened to its owner. She hoped that someone would be able to talk with the girl who looked like the person in the locket and find out what happened to her.

In response to all of you sexeh (not as sexeh as Elijah) peeeeeps *sings*
 

Kurumi and Vickers, the dynamic duo! The three two amigos! The backstabbing betrayers (AHEM!)! Yeah, them. They starting rabbiting off about some girl who worked in a bookshop in Hogmseade and how she looked a lot like the girl that seemed to be in the locket. "Even if it was her or a relative of hers, what are the bloomin' chances, eh? I," he made sure to make the *I* part quite clear, "find a locket and then you all automatically assume that it MUST be cursed and then start making up stories in your mind how it's some shopkeeper. You all are delusional and paranoid and when Healer Tilstorm gets here I will be generous enough to let you all see her first so she can check out your HEADS before she gives me my stump," the longer he had with his hand, the better.

Vickers' continued to ward him off the locket and sounded genuinely concerned. Then he tried to hold him back from it, which flabbergasted Elijah to no end. He had the NERVE to touch him? Ballsy, Vanderbilt. Ballsy. He almost punched the sleazy traitor right there and then before he remembered the hand he would have punched him with was currently all sore and painful and *pout*.

Williamson seemed to join in on the 'NO ELIJAH YOU CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS' parade and bluntly told him no. Well, Williamson that is rich considering the pretty stuff Elijah had recently brought you and you wouldn't let him have this!? The thing he was GIVEN to by the bowtruckle, the thing that was automatically his according to the rules of finders keepers losers weepers, section A. Sub-section A.A.? Totally ridiculous. *MORE POUTTTTINGGGG (of an attractive sort)*

It was then that Elijah overheard an ickle Slythie getting all worked up and screaming about their being a dead body in the woods. Elijah gave a small guffaw at the hilarity of it. To be honest, the boy was probably not wrong. This forest was bound to have seen it's fair share of dead bodies, Elijah was just certain that it wasn't the body of this girl everyone was obsessing over.

As he watched the Slythie ickle start to panic some other members of the class, like that Huffle over there, he managed to overhear Williamson suggest to Elwood to put HIS locket in HER pocket. THE GALL!!! Elijah was starting to suss out what was going on here. Elwood wanted to keep hiisssss preccccciooousssss all to herself! The sheer greed of her!

"Excuse me, Professors," he tried to say in the kindest way possible, avoiding gritted teeth at all costs, "But if i'm not allowed to keep the locket on my person in case it might be cursed, it may be best if Professor Elwood doesn't keep it on her person either... I'm not agreeing that it is cursed, i'm just saying that if it is, then Professor Elwood is unlikely to be anymore immune than I was when I had MY locket."

See? He was being the good guy now. He was technically looking out for Professor Elwood, right? Someone had to considering she had proven, with flying marks, that she wasn't all that capable of doing so herself.

Collecting sticks while keeping an eye out >_>
 

Still eager to know about the locket and the girl whose picture was inside of it, Cassia knew that she had to collect the rest of the sticks. Professor Elwood won't be pleased if her students dropped their duty and kept standing , making guesses and theories at the issue.

And so she decided to continue collecting but staying close to the Professors in case they found out something. Curiosity was getting the better of her….like always! And especially when Professor Williamson started to whisper..what did he say?!

Holding the so crumpled parchment now .close to her eyes. She had to squint for so many creases and folds formed in the parchment. She turned to the closest tree, making sure that she kept an eye on the adult's gathering. She stretched out her hand absently to get a twig from the tree. A sting made snatched her out of thoughts, she checked her finger, it was scratched by a branch or something. Shrugging she retrieved the twig and put it along the others. "And that would be Oak" She said crossing out this type on her parchment.

The second tree was Poplar, Cassia held out her wand and aimed at a branch, "Diffindo!" She said catching the twig. She shot a look at the group of people. She didn't seem to be missing any important thing yet. Continuing with the matter at hand , Cassia bent down to collect two twigs from the ground, she brought her parchment to her knee and crossed out, Vine and Elder.

Walking towards two trees adjacent to each other. Pocketing her wand and parchment she stretched both hands and pulled two loose twigs and joined them with the others as she crossed both, Heather and Yew.

A second or maybe a tenth glance towards the professor while heading to another tree which she almost ran into, Gorse. She crossed out. Looking far ahead she spotted few twigs on the ground she crouched to check them out. One she already collected but she found Fir and Reed.

Further to the left was a Blackthorn tree, she got a twig from it as she crossed out from the list. Mmm….not much left, she thought to herself.

No quotes. ^_^
 

Professor Elwood was ready to shout at Elijah for his back-talking about the damn locket but thankfully William snapped at him so she just settled for a glare before turning back to Vickers, Alyssa, and Kurumi confirming the thoughts her and William were touching on.

She wasn't the only one, she wasn't going crazy. "See I knew she looked familiar!" The blonde had seen the shopkeeper when she was exploring Hogsmeade during the last open weekend and hadn't entered the bookshop but had seen the woman standing out on the front stoop--she was just as pretty in the photograph. She looked to William, slight concern noticable on her features and suddenly becoming even more aware of the student presence. "Yes, we will need to," she looked at him and then Waylon a tad nervously again. "Find her and....return it." Or confront her to see what in Merlin's beard was going on.

She was ready to put the thing into her pocket when the students, including both sane and normal ones such as Selina and Vickers and ones like, well Elijah, who all agreed that wasn't the best idea seeing as it could be cursed. Well Hippogriff dung, she'd already touched it. "Everyone calm down, I will just put it in my teaching bag and then bring it to the Headmaster once we arrive at the Castle after the lesson." She would NOT give it back to the Puff boy, no matter how he tried to reason with her and she wasn't going to just leave it in the forest.

Because of the urgency of the situation now, Professor Elwood decided the lesson needed to beigin wrapping up. "Everyone please stop what you are doing and come to stand by me." Callie pulled out one of the Reed sticks and held her wand in the other. "Since there are so many things happening right now, I am going to call an end to our lesson early. Right now I am going to show you how I want you to create your Ogham Staves and then give you a few more minutes to finish up collecting your sticks." She put the tip of her wand to the top of the stick and spoke the spell used for carving, "Itaglio." She then made the appropriate sign from the parchment on the stick and then below it carved the appropriate Celtic alphabet letter. "I want you to do this for each stick and to not only do the symbol but the letter so that you can tell which is which since the symbols tend to look similar." She nodded as she placed the locket into her bag.

She looked at the students before her to see that some had more sticks than others and some didn't have any at all. "Now before we leave you all have a few more minutes to retrieve the remaining sticks you need and then you are dismissed. Homework will be posted after the lesson as usual." She waved a hand at them all and then walked back over to the Care of Magical Creatures Professor holding the still passed out Puff.

"William you may want to take her up to the Hospital Wing yourself, it seems Cece isn't coming." Maybe her Patronus got messed up somehow, or she was just busy? Oh well.

OCC: I am going to close the lesson at Noon (EST) so you have roughly 14 hours to finish collecting all of the sticks in at least three posts. Great work everyone despite all of our interruptions. :D

Nerida continued collecting the woods. It was very hard since she didn't have her wand hand working but it felt like it was stopping to hurt and she could finally move it without intense pain. Now what was next on the parchment...Hazel and Apple and Vine-no wait she already got Vine so it was Blackthorn next than. She went to each of the three trees and took off a branch. She had to use diffindo on one of them and it didn't even hurt her finger. Ha, that little bowtruckle probably thought it had hurt Nerida but it did not! One point for Nerida and zero for the bowtruckle...Well really the bowtruckle would have one point but whatever...

Now for the awesome tree, Elder. Not that nothing was wrong with the other trees its just this tree was famous. Well not this exact tree...Oh whatever she took out her wand and diffindoed a branch off. By far that one was the hardest one yet she couldn't even tear it out. It just wouldnt budge oh well at least her hand could handle being used now.

So the Professor was going to keep it in her bag. That provided some comfort to this Ravenclaw, she wouldnt have to be keeping it in her person all the time then, which avoids her exposure to whatever magic it may contain.

Aaaand they had a few more minutes to get their twig collecting completed before leaving the forest. Well the sooner the better.There was a reason why this forest was called forbidden.

As he turned his attention to the trees beside them he saw Elijah with perhaps the most disgruntled look he has yet to see on the Curly!Puff's face. It was his joke wasnt it? Greeaaaaat now he felt really guilty. He leaned in for a few seconds and murmured to his ear "Elijah.... forget what I said about the hook. You'll be fine. Really." he said as he clapped the other boy's shoulder assuredly before heading towards the trees.

Attention back to the parchment. He needed to get Alder. He scoured the ground at the foot of the Alder tree, selecting the best one of the fallen twigs before moving to the next tree on the list... Ash... then towards the large Oak tree then to Holly, taking a bit of time since he really didnt want to take anything from the tree itself. He had just found himself a small Apple twig when something occurred to him. He headed back towards where the Divinations Maven stood and asked "Uhm Professor, when we start doing the wood carviing, can we coat this in some kind of wood stain too? Just so that that wood pieces would last or wont crumble when we carve into them." specially for his set, since none of them were "fresh" twigs.

Kurumi sort of just ignored Ella's zombie theory for now, although that would be creepy if it were true and instead turned her attention to Alyssa. "You mean her as in her," Kurumi asked, clearly not making any sense as she pointed her finger at the locket in Professor Elwood's hand. "You mean the girl back then and the shopkeeper now...being the same person?" Now THAT was a perplexing thought. Maybe Ella wasn't too far off with her zombies? No, Kurumi was just letting her imagination get the better of her. "She would be over 300 years old now though...which isn't entirely unheard of I suppose when you consider people like Nicholas Flamel and Albus Dumbledore..." Kurumi trailed off and rubbed the back of her neck anxiously. "Your guess is as good as mine, Alyssa," she finished with a small shrug. Not like they would know if she attended Hogwarts. The records were gone.

And Elijah earned no reactions from Kurumi. In fact, one could even argue that she was somewhat ignoring him. So there.

Kurumi's attention moved to Professor Elwood when she sort of dismissed the lesson. Sticks, right, Kurumi still needed to gather several of those yet. Checking her parchment again, Kurumi noted that she needed six more sticks, but first she returned to her bag to drop off the ones she was already holding - but not before she gave Nessie one more concerned look.

Once she had dropped off her sticks, Kurumi wandered over to the other side of the area and began snapping off branches where she could. First finds were Fir and Yew, which made her pause for a moment to simple look at the Yew twig in her hand. Hardly any people had wands made from it, or so she had read, and the first wand ever bought with this wandwood was Voldemort. It was...sort of like holding a piece of history in her hand - even if there was no real historical connection to the twig she was holding.

All these thoughts aside, Kurumi moved down the row of trees and snapped off branches from the Oak, Holly, and Hazel trees before making her last stop at the Elder tree. Again, Kurumi was briefly overcome with historical references and for an even briefer moment found herself grateful for this activity. No thanks to you, Professor Elwood, so she shouldn't get any subconscious ideas.

All her sticks gathered now, Kurumi returned to her bag and bundled up all her sticks with a spare piece of ribbon. Since it seemed as though they were all going back together, Kurumi took the opportunity to just sit down on the ground and relax while taking in all the fresh air. Sure, the Forbidden Forest was sort of freaky...but the air was nice.

Someone mentioned ghosts? This locket and the girl was really fascinating Jory. And then Kurumi mentioned something about the girl would be over 300 years old. "This keeps getting better,'' he thought. But now he turned his attention back to the Professor as she began to address the class.

Jory paid close attention to what Professor Elwood was showing the class. It reminded him of what they did last year. It was very similar so he didn't think he needed to make any notes. All he had to do was make sure he had the parchment.

The talk that was going on was freaking her out but she kept her eye on task so she could do what the Professor had demonstrated to them minutes before. Only a couple more woods to collect. Time for the Fir and Gorse trees. How convenient they were right next to each other. This time she did not want to take them from the tree this time she took one branch from the bottom of the Fir tree and one form the bottom of the Gorse tree. She could tell they were definitively different and just to make sure she compared them with the ones on the trees.

Now the final three woods to complete the twenty. The last three were Heather, Poplar, and Yew. Hmm she had never heard of any of the woods well except for Yew but were they popular with wood wands? Where was the Heather tree? Was it named after a person? Seeing the tree she skipped on over and plucked one off pretty easily actually. Now for the Poplar tree, what an odd name for a tree. Walking over to the tree she snipped one off as this one was not as easy as the Heather tree. Now for the final tree, Yew. Again she diffindoed a branch off of the tree. Yes, she collected all twenty branches. So where they supposed to leave or no? Seeing Kurumi sitting down she decided no they werent supposed to leave. She sat down on the ground like Kurumi and awaited for further instruction.

Well, sooner or later the lesson was going to an end. Cassia thought hearing Professor Elwood urging them to finish collecting and showing them what to do with the sticks. The next year nodded, that can't be that hard she thought. Then she turned to get done with her sticks. Checking her parchment she headed to a quite far tree, considering she already collected twigs from the surrounding trees.

"Rowan.." She murmured as she crossed it out. And to another tree, "That'd be Birch.." She also crossed out from the list. Cassia took a general look trying to find trees she hadn't taken a stick out of them. She headed even further to a couple of trees she hadn't neared before. Holding out her wand, "Diffindo." She said as the twig dropped to the ground. She bent to collect it, "Alder wood." She confirmed editing her list. Before heading to a tree on her right she spotted a bunch of sticks on the ground, probably someone dropped them. She crouched to check them. Most of them she already collected but she was able to find Hazel and Apple. She crossed them out.

And to the last tree she headed, "Hawthor….And I'm done!" She grinned at herself checking the list.




The first year then, got closer to her classmates and sat down on the ground checking her sticks and counting them. She put the sticks to her right as she held her wand and took the first stick with was of Birch. She cleared her throat and "Itaglio" she said waving her wand according to the sign from the parchment and the letter B as well.

The next was Rowan. Again moving her wand according to the sign and not forgetting the letter R, she said firmly, "Itaglio" and a Celtic letter appeared. Well, she didn't really recognize them but Professor Elwood said so.

Moving on to the next which was Alder. Its sign wasn't hard it resembled the previous ones. Again she murmured" Itaglio" And drawing the sign and the letter another letter appeared.

Cece had to admit that she was none to happy with the patronus she had received from Professor Elwood. She had finally found a few moments to relax when she gets an urgent message about a student fainting... and of course it had to be a hufflepuff.

She was tempted to just stay put and not even bother with going out to the forest. After all, it wasn't her fault Elwood had decided to hold a class in a forest that was FORBIDDEN.

After relaxing a few more moments she finally decided to slowly make her way out to Elwood's class... before anyone had a chance to bring the wimpy puff to the infirmary.

Finally finding the clearing where this class was being held it didn't take long for Cece to find William holding the wimpy puff who couldn't handle a few bowtruckles. "You know, it would have been easier to just leave her on the ground levitate her." Really, what was the point in being a witch or wizard if you were just going to do things the hard way all the time?

Cece was really tempted to just slap the puff to wake her up but she wanted to keep her job... for now. So instead she waved a phial of smelling salts under her nose. Something she kept with her at all times. "That should wake her up." And if it didn't then just throw her behind a tree and leaver her there. That would just be one less annoying puff to deal with.