Cora eagerly switched to the other side like the professor showed. She wanted to make a good impression.

But then, Cora's eyes widened. Animals were NOT dark. They weren't. There were NO dark creatures. Even the ones some had mentioned. They had not had a choice about what to become, they did not CHOOSE to hurt people. That was not dark. You had to mean it. You had to want people to get hurt.

Being a werewolf did not mean that you actually WANTED to hurt anyone.

A boggart is not a dark creature. Scary things don't count. Almost anything could be scary. Cora knew firsthand.

Dementors only do what they are told. If they are told to harm someone, they will.

"Professor," Cora started politely. She didn't want this to sound like she was being disrespectful. "With all due respect, I do not believe that ANY creatures are dark. They do not make the CHOICE to kill or harm. Even if being aggressive is in their nature, they mostly react on the defensive." Not like people. People could be mean for no reason. Cora's small body shuddered as she thought about what it had done to her family.

That was the most Cora had spoken the whole lesson, so she stopped herself, even though she could argue this all day.

Switching to the other side...right...

Slowly and precisely so as not to end up like Beezus Kurumi shifted her body's position a little and took a few moments to just allow her limbs to stretch and get used to this before she really got down to thinking about what had been asked next. Which had been sort of a bad idea as her classmates had been quick to answer with everything she had thought of. Then again, she wasn't supposed to use what first came to mind anyway, so they were sort of doing her a favor in that regard.

"Well...they have to be magical in nature," she said after a bit of streeeeeeeeeetching and hand raising. "Otherwise you could perhaps make a weak argument than any mundane animal that went rabid could be considered dark." Or something like that. All the blood was rushing to Kurumi's head at the moment and making her rather lightheaded and dizzy.

West was mid jog and he paused, head swiveling to look at the older Ravenclaw.

"You're wrong." Probably didn't know much about magical things then? Strange for a Ravenclaw. "Dark creatures aren't even properly alive. They're like created from the manifestation of bad stuff. Bad intent and juju and dark magic. They don't have feelings, and they aren't defensive, they eat people and kill people and steal your good feelings and they're daaaaaark. That's the whole point. Maybe you're like, thinking of animals and regular creatures that are predators, that's different. A dark creature isn't a predator, its a destroyer. It doesn't live and die like magical creatures or mundane animals do."

And because that Ravenclaw had said it, West tacked on, "With all due respect." Which wasn't much cos she didn't know stuff. Strange 'claw. He went back to jogging.

Gideon understood what the professor was getting at as she commented on his response as well as others on all spells being dark in some way. Didn't mean he still didn't feel that way against her opinion. To each their own. He just knew from personal experience how a dark wizard could effect even the mudanest of spells.

Another unconscious shiver ...nearly toppling him over this time as he straightened up at Romanos' instruction.

Sighs.

He was not doing well this class. At least now they had moved onto the subject of dark creatures. Those Gideon was more comfortable, as long as they weren't boggarts. Boggarts brought up he who shall not be named just as well as the mention of dark wizards and had learned after his work with them last term that it was too much.The prefect stayed quiet however, letting his fellow classmates answer the woman's question. He was trying to relax himself as he switched the triangle position to the other side.

Cassia switched to the other side just like Professor Romanos did. She listened to all the answers about dark creatures and discussions. Agreements and disagreements though she was too bored to think whether she agreed or not.

Creatures weren't really her thing, dark or light . However she answered anyway, "Dark creatures are evil ones." Yup that about summed it up.

Hmm...

How many positions are left? You know a certain Snake was starting to feel a bit sore. She wasn't an athlete you know.

Sutton stood up to follow the Professor's instructions and then switched to the other side. Ooooh it felt good to stretch the other side of her torso after having to be crunched over for so long in the other direction. As she slowly breathed in and out, trying to ignore the aches in her muscles, Sutton's mind whirred around trying to come up with an answer. She had sort of asked a question related to this earlier... about if some dark creatures just existed, and the professor had said no... that they didn't just exist, but obviously they DID exist because they were talking about them now.

How can they exist, but not JUST exist.

Trying to put that into a different context, one that made more sense to her, Sutton reasoned that evil weapons like nuclear bombs existed, but...

They didn't JUST exist as part of nature...

They were MADE!

Forgetting about her yoga position, her hand shot straight up in the air, and she even gave a little bounce as she answered. "Ooh! Professor! Professor, earlier when I asked... I asked if some dark things just existed, and you told me no, that they don't just exist, and I didn't understand because I thought you meant they didn't exist... that dark creatures didn't exist, but that's not what you meant because that wasn't what I asked. I asked if they JUST existed, like if they were part of nature... and THAT is what you meant when you said no," she said excitedly, beaming. She was proud that she had understood something about magic without being told word for word. "So, since you said that... I think that dark creatures are something that have to be CREATED... by dark magic... magic that is intended to alter something natural for an evil and unnatural purpose!"

Jory listened intently as the Professor spoke. Then as she changed her position, he followed her along with the rest of the class. While adjusting himself, he thought of the question.

"Dark creatures are like dark wizards,'' he said. "They will harm humans and even other creatures. They won't care about anything else but attacking.''

''Like dementors,'' the boy thought remembering what he had read about them.

Cora was startled by a boy that confronted her. He was a bit rude, which Cora was not happy about, but she listened politely to the boy's opinions nonetheless.

Sighing, Cora DID realize she had somewhat misspoke. She had not meant that there were no dark CREATURES, but that there were no dark ANIMALS. She had meant to say she did not believe "any of THOSE creatures are dark". She meant to point out that most of the other students' answers mentioned things that Cora did not believe to be dark. Cora did not believe that anything that really and truly "lived" could be dark.

As a Ravenclaw, she hated to have made this mistake, however it did NOT make her ignorant or foolish. Her shy words were simply jumbled. Replying somewhat shyly to the young boy, she said, "I'm afraid I misspoke. I only meant to say that in my opinion nothing truly LIVING could be dark. I was merely pointing to some of the other suggested dark beings and stating my belief." Everything was good until proven otherwise.

Despite being slightly hurt by the boy's tone and embarrassed about being corrected, Cora continued sweetly. "Thank you for correcting me." She smiled sweetly, although maybe not entirely genuinely for once.

"Yeah, lots of them are wrong too." West answered cheerfully. Maybe then, him saying what he did, just clarified what this Ravenclaw had said? Or she'd changed her tack. Whichever. They were now totally on the same --jogjogjjogjogjog-- page.

The point was that animals that were predators, magical or otherwise, weren't dark creatures.

joggjogjogjogjog.

Other side it is.

Taking a rather deep breath, Beezus straightened up with difficulty and bent to her left, hand over head, trying but not really exerting too much effort to reach her ankle. Professor Romanos was going to consider her right?

Pondering on the question, Beezus began to frown for she had to let go of her first answer and think of an entirely new one. But when she had ermm...rephrased. Someone from her classmates had already laid down the idea and she was stuck with brain cells not wanting to think of a new answer anymore. Hence, she kept her mouth shut, merely listening.

"Unfortunately, yes." she nodded. Unless, of course, they take wolfsbane to help keep their mind during the rough moments.

Who would win in a fight? Well that was a random and slightly amusing question. "It's hard to say..." They both had dangerous qualities. "My bet would be on the nundu though."



"Essentially, yes." That was a very stretched definition of a dark creature, but she figured he was going for the same meaning. And a rather interesting question as well. "The imperius curse can indeed be placed on animals, though it does not define whether it is dark or not. Putting the spell upon, say, a rabbit, isn't going to place the creature in next term's defense school book."



Hmmmm...

"You are right, a lot of creatures do not understand human language, but...if it were as easy as training them, the definition of a dark creature would be a lot different than what it is now." Every creature, except perhaps three or four species, would be considered dark by this definition.



Medea smiled a little. "A dark creature isn't quite 'dark' because of your experiences with them or what you may think is evil. They can use your emotions to their advantage though, if that is what you're trying to say."



Medea nodded slowly. "What they symbolize would no doubt make someone believe they are dark creatures, despite the fact that yes, they aren't bad at all. It's a common misconception when it comes to thestrals or vultures...or any creature linked to death. However, there is a great line between a creature that is considered dark because of their environment and what they symbolize in our society, and an actual dark creature."



...

"Thank you, Mister Odessa. That was very well put."

That last part he could've done without though. He got a raised eyebrow. Mmhmmm.



Did she?

Aw yes, it was coming back to her now.

"Now you're getting on the right track." she smiled.


With a quick glance to her watch, having to twist and turn her wrist a little to get the light shining just right on it, Medea frowned a little and stood up. Where did the time go? This was supposed to be a short lesson. "Alright, one more question and pose, and then you'll be able to leave."

Easy question. Harder pose.

"We're going to move in what is called The Tree pose." Balancing on her right foot, her left leg was parallel to the ground, bent at the knee so her foot rested just in front of her right knee. Once most of the class went into the pose, or tried to, she continued on.

"So, final question. What are some examples of dark creatures?"

OOC: Oh gosh, this lesson went on longer than I had intended lol. The lesson will end around 6pm EST tonight and the thread will close around the same time tomorrow. Great lesson everyone!

Tree Pose

"Oh you're welcome professor." West said and jogged on the spot.

Yes, he'd kept it up the whole lesson. The kid had ENERGY.

Oh a dark creature. There were sooo many. Dementor was the first thought but instead West put his hand up and said, "Pogrebins. And they mess with your emotions and make you depressed and stuff until you just give up and DIE. Unless you kick them." Pretty much.

The lioness tried to finish her tree pose as she stumbled once again. Yoga is hard but she likes doing it while they were having lessons. It makes her feel a lot more relaxing. People may think that it is weird, but that's the way they and the professor always do and she likes it a lot.

So now, examples of dark creatures.

"Erm...there are Grindylow and Vampire,"she answered as she tried to think of more creatures that came up to her mind. Dark creatures were just too scary for her. They terrified her. "Grindylow are violent and aggressive whereas the vampire...they just suck up your blood." She shivered as she finished her line.

Okay, now Kendall wasn't sure if she'd been right or wrong. The little argument between West and the other 'Claw had gotten her a bit confused, and she'd found herself having to focus more on her balance than any of the thoughts in her head. But then, at least that meant she wasn't thinking about other stuff anymore, at least temporarily, so there was a positive side to it all. That and she hadn't noticed any more winces from Beezus, as her friend had moved into the opposite triangle pose slowly. Even better, she thought. She had to quickly put her attention back on the lesson, though, as it seemed they were, well, almost finished. Although she eyed the pose they were supposed to be getting into. That doesn 't look anything like a tree.

She somehow managed to replicate it, though, even though she kind of refused to fold her arms like they were supposed to and instead held them out to her sides a little to keep her balance on one foot. Hopefully that was close enough, and she thought she looked more like a tree anyway. "What about lethifolds? They just exist to suffocate people smothering them in their sleep or something. Plus, the only way to get away is by using the Patronus charm," she suggested. Didn't that automatically mean it was a dark creature, if it took extreme happiness to get rid of it? Of course, she didn't know if it fit into certain Slytherins' definitions of dark creatures, since she didn't know if it was made or born. She didn't particularly want to find a lethifold to ask.

Tree pose! Kurumi actually rather liked this one because it meant there was no blood rushing to her head and she was standing up. Shifting positions right away, Kurumi rolled her shoulders a bit to open up her chest and she took several deeeeeeep breaths as her body actually relaxed into this position. SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE BOAT POSITION.

Which is why her hand was able to go up much quicker than it had previously. "There are also kappas," she offered. "They will drown you and prey on human blood unless you appease them with a cucumber or are able to remove the water from the bowl impression on top of their head either by outsmarting it and making it bow or with various spells."

Dylan was now quite sore from all the yoga positions, he was kinda hoping the class would be nearly over now cause he wanted to go back to the common room and rest his sore limbs. This was not what he had signed up for when he had come to the DADA class, he was hoping for something more cool! But this was boring!!!!! just some yoga positions and answering questions no practical work like wand movements like the other classes. Here he was thinking that this would be a cool lesson where they would be doing what the name of the class was, learning to defend themselves against the dark arts!

Maybe he wouldn't turn up to the next class if all the classes were like this! He again did the next yoga position by balancing on on one leg he slowly put his other foot in front of the knee of his balancing leg parallel to the ground. He then thought of a dark creature "How about the Dementors? They are dark creatures arent they? I mean I have heard of them" and they kind of sounded cool, though he didnt say that out loud cause he knew how people felt about Dementors. He had experienced the horrified family members wondering what was up with him talking about Dementors. So he stayed quiet on this occasion "So I guess they could be called dark creatures." just as he answered this he lost his balance and landed on the ground on his bottom "Ow!! that hurt!" he then looked around at everyone "No it didn't I was just joking guys, it didnt hurt I am a strong boy so how can a small fall like that hurt,, ppffttt" he chuckled. Truth was he was in pain after having fallen, he was hoping he hadn't broken anything

Stand up? Is it activity time? Kat stood up immediately when Professor said they should all stretch those legs. What the firebolt?

What makes dark creatures dark? Cause they're dark creatures, their names are screaming it already, Kat thought to herself and managed to smirk a bit. "Most of the dark creatures are carnivorous, which means they eat meat or the such. They could even eat people." Kat said. "Maybe that's why they're called dark creatures..."

You know, like the Lethifold.

Spike didn't understand how this position looked like a tree. Especially when he was wobbling around and hopping round his mat. Staying still for very long never had been his strong point...

"Lethifolds, Professor," Spike answered, rejecting his first answer of dementors. "It looks like a weird black cloak." Which was strange, because how did it move? Like a flying carpet or a backflipping duvet, or a flying squirrel or what?

...and where HAD that rat gone? He didn't want to leave it on it's own somewhere if it was hurt.

Oh Merlin. Why did the last pose have to be a hard one? It wasn't that Ella wasn't good at balancing that made her frown, it was the fact that she was rubbish at trying to balance and think of a proper answer. Meep. It was seriously hard.

Moving into the tree pose as best she could, the third year tried not to fall over. Was anyone else feeling like an oversized flamingo right now? Heh. Flamingos! Messy was probably loving this right now...as his favorite things in the world were pink. Grin. Anywhoo...back to dark creatures. "Professor, a Basilisk is a dark creature. They're bread by dark wizards and they are huge, strong, and their eyes can kill whoever looks into them." Like poor Moaning Myrtle. Homegirl never had a chance. Frown.

what makes dark creatures dark? she wasn't really sure how to explain it without seeming like she is just repeating herself. It seemed simple enough to her though. "Professor there are creatures that are just evil...it's like it is bred in them." Did that make sense? To her it did! "Creatures are considered dark when it's in their nature to kill or harm others." There that cleared it up...she hoped!



The tree pose! Who comes up with the names of these poses? Hannah had no desire to be a tree. It wasn't like she was trying to become one with nature or anything. Still she attempted the pose and to her amazement it wasn't that bad. Maybe she had balance afterall. "Theres a grindylow." Of course the first thing that came to her mind was a dementor.

Sarah moved into the new position. She was going to say demonter, yet she then thought of something else "Boggarts Professor," she had done her final on it last year.

Harvey listened with interest as he always did at the subject of these dark creatures cause it was better to know this information than not now it at all. He was now getting tired after all the yoga positions all he wanted to do after this was go and sit in his common room OR hang out with someone he knew, but all that after right now he had to concentrate on this class. But how? she was right there in the same room, but no they had to concentrate here first. He then put his hand up "Professor what about a Banshee?" he had heard of them but didnt know if they counted as dark or not. But it was better to ask a Dark Arts professor rather than assume yourself. He then went into an easier pose, bringing his right foot up across his left knee he balanced on his left leg. But he then started to lose his balance and had to put his right leg back down to stop himself from falling. But soon went back into the same pose and tried to hold it for as long as he could.

The boy received a slightly relieved smile from Cora. She was glad that her reply had left no reason for him to still be rude. They both agreed on most of it, anyway.

She wondered vaguely why he kept jogging. Curiosity always got the best of her, so while she had been planning on remaining quiet for the rest of the lesson, she responded. "I'm glad we agree now." And then, "Why do you constantly jog?" She asked politely, not finding it weird or anything, just curious.



Cora was glad that he had received a look from the professor. It was rather rude at first, but now that they agreed it was all fine.

Cora struggled to get into the Tree Pose. Balance was not her forte really, so she wobbled quite a bit. However, having studied ballet for many years, she was actually very good at this pose after she got into position. Her limbs remained still, in perfect angles. That's how she liked things. Perfect.

She didn't like talking about dark things though. Yes, she knew it was DADA and she would have to get used to it. She just didn't want to. She refused to answer at first, yet didn't want to get marks off for lack of participation. After a moment's debate, she added, "I do believe that a Lethifold is a dark creature. At night it attacks and consumes its prey when they're sleeping." Cora shuddered. She had read entire books about Lethifold in a moment of extreme boredom, but she had no desire to learn more about any of these creatures.

Annabelle thought the professor read her mind, she responded, "Yeah that is what i was trying to say." When she heard the professor ask them now to do a tree pose, she got out of her pose and stretched her arms and legs before attempting. After she was all stretched she balanced on her right foot, her left leg was parallel to the ground, bent at the knee so her foot rested just in front of her right knee. Belle got the hang of it. She did it!

Then she heard the professor ask what are some examples of dark creatures. Belle thought about that for a moment and wondered which ones she knew. She knew plenty but which one stuck out in her head. "Professor isn't Inferi dark creatures? Their purpose is to serve a Dark Wizard, the wizard is almost the puppeteer on the inferi. The Wizard controls them to do their bidding."

A Nundu would win. Well Nigel did agree that a Nundu would win. He always thought it would be a close fight.

Well, It looked like he answered the question already and gave an example of three dark creatures. So he would just say one.

" The Nundu is a dark creature. It's breath is toxic and filled with disease. It can kill a whole village in a day. Plus it takes more than hundred wizards to subdue it. It's awesome. But really deadly"

Plus like Professor Romanos just said it could take a Lethifold in a fight. and that would make it up there with a Basilisk as king of dark creatures.