So Vickers was a little distracted with obsessing observing the model train they had running between desks, poking at it a bit and making it move with his fingers along the tracks. By the time he looked up half the class gave practically every answer he knew about the Hogwarts Express and its illustrious and slightly controversial history. What else can he say? He felt like he should say something. Trains and Vanderbilts-- an unspoken expectation see?

Well there was a little detail that hasnt been mentioned. Up goes the hand."Professor, the Hogwarts Express is operated by the Hogwarts Railways. They own the locomotive that makes the trip between Kings Cross to Hogsmeade Station and back." And he could guess they were probably involved in the investigation of the train grinding to a halt at the start of term.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

"Well, I'm not maintenance man, so unfortonately, I don't know exactly what happened. " He had his guesses.

***

"So give me some historic facts about the Hogwarts Express."

"That's no excuse." PERIOD. So, you could read a couple books, or talk to those who know, and you could ALMOST be close enough to deciphering this on your own. "Do you just stick to History, Professor? It's quite a wide subject." Therefore, something about trains, battles, creatures, accidents, potions, people, deaths, births, places, he must know.

BUT...right. Facts on the Hogwarts Express. Lottie raised her hand. "Magical maintenance men take good care of it." He'd just pointed out what he wasn't. Also, considering what just happened this September..., "Or at least they should." Mmmhmm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

"It only stops working when there are more adults on board than normal." He pointed out.

He'd obviously found the cause.

OH! You! Slytherin boy, something else could be added her hand just got down. "Or when the Headmistress in on board." That. Or both. Together. Whatever. She didn't know, all she knew was that she arrived by portkey.

Discussing about what had caused the little bump on the way to Hogwarts was probably the job of the Governers who had come recently, wasn't it? But it was nice too, to have views of students taken in account. Because Ira herself had some suspicions. No, not some, many suspicions in fact!

Anyways, she focused back on the lesson at hand, and began thinking. Historic facts of Hogwarts Express huh?? Well, so many others and answered before her, there wasn't anything to add now, was there? At least no, according to Ira. Especially after haring West's answer, well, because it was HISTORY now, wasn't it? Heh!

But thinking it was better to at least answer something instead of nothing, she raised her hand up and answered, "Hogwarts Express is probably the first BIG muggle-invented equipment used by wizards." It was , wasn't it? Somehow diminishing the so-called superiority of wizards over muggles. Ha! Yes, that was a good point!

At least someone was going to touch upon the topic of the Hogwarts Express incident. Unlike many other classes, where she was content to just listen rather than jot down information, this time Ariadne prepared her quill and parchment. She had been intrigued when it came to the reasons for which the train broke down a few weeks before. Maybe they were going to reach some conclusion by the end of the class?

Still, it was them who were going to provide answers rather than Professor Scabior. What did she know about the Hogwarts Express? Beyond the obvious things that it was a train and it had broken down...'Because the train had been built by Muggles, Pureblood families were initially opposed to the idea that their children were going to travel to Hogwarts on it, but they were left with no choice after the Ministry introduced a decree.' Saying this, Ari wondered if some parents were going to raise objections now, after the fiasco in September.

Annabelle wondered what she knew about the hogwarts express. She raised her hand and replied, "Professor isn't the hogwarts express only a steam powered engine? It was also a first muggle invention in use by wizards to transport their children and themselves to Hogwarts." Belle thought that sounded right. I mean some children are not old enough to use brooms to go all the way to hogwarts, it is a long journey.

The Hogwarts Express???? Hmmmmmm, something smells fishy here, and it's not because I had fish for lunch. Nate thought to himself. Maybe, just maybe it was HIM that made the train go off the tracks, and almost breaking his arm causing him to no play Quidditch!!!!!!!!!!!! Nate would be so mad if he found out that it was his favorite Professor, well one of them, that made him almost not play Quidditch!! Very fish Scabior! Very fishy indeed!

Nate raised his hand and said "The Hogwarts Express was built for one of the only ways to get in or out of Hogwarts. Also like some of my fellow classmates mentioned that it was originally a steam train, but now it runs on magic." Nate was pretty confident about his answer. Because he knew for a fact that you can't get into Hogwarts without going through the Forbidden Forest, broom, a flying car, or boats. The Hogwarts Express was the main way to get in and out of Hogwarts. You couldn't apparate in, and you can't use a portkey to get INSIDE of Hogwarts.

Helen knew quite a lot about the Hogwarts Express so she put her hand up and said
" The Hogwarts Express was originally built by muggle engineers in 1936. In the late 1930's Ottaline Gambol she came up with the idea to use a muggle invention, solving the ages-old problem of how to transport young wizards and witches to Hogwarts without attracting the Muggles attention. "

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magical Soul

Nonononononononononononooooooooo... Louisa groaned, rubbed her forehead and sighed. THIS was neither studious nor class snoring Reem, it was WORSE. The fake vampiro Odessa chick. The undesirable. The biggest creepy crawlie in the shop.

But Louisa believed she didn't have to be... on edge. They haven't really disagreed on anything this term to make the vampiro go all jinxy on her. Besides, this was Scabior's class.... actually this just makes it WORSE. Yep, she was doomed today unless she completely ignored the girl if she went all weird and Odessa-like. Was she staring at Louisa, by the way? The Head Girl didn't dare to turn her head and find out. She was fine by just staring at the empty parchment in front of her.

....

Finally, the class started. She let out a feeble sigh and looked up, claiming the confident nonchalant face mask.

Haha. Hahaaaa. The Head Girl was afraaaaaaaaaaaaaid. Aspen continued to stare at her, only blinking when she absolutely HAD to.

Note to self: find charm for eyes that will aide in NOT blinking for just such occasions.

Aspen raised her hand to deliver a fact. "Trains break down everyday. Nothing is perfect." So that was hardly something to get knickers wadded up over. "But a dementor once boarded the train, looking for a convicted felon. Now that's extraordinary history."

Aspen SO WANTED A DEMENTOR to board the train next time she was on it.

Bet the Head Girl would pass out first. Aspen's GRIN at the girl said as much.

Theo listened to a few of the other answers and he felt he had learned something already. Muggles built the Hogwarts Express? The exact train? Wow, that was pretty cool. Though, he really didn't have many facts about the train stored up in his head. Other than it being a red steam train.

What history could a train have?

"Oh, it has had famous butts all over it. Like Harry Potter's butt." Famous butts were the best kind of butts.

Ariana looked over at Minerva who she was sitting next too.. Facts about the hogwarts express.. it's just a stupid train and everyone else already gave the basic knows about the train so why even bother
Ariana looked over at min and smirked as she poked their train

then she heard theo talking about famous butts.. Ariana couldnt help but let out a very slight chuckle on this matter

"Well, that's not the first time it's been stopped on the way to Hogwarts," Sierra said, raising her hand. "Back in 1993, it was stopped and invaded by dementors." Yeah. That'd sort of been the reason Sierra had thought it'd been stopped this go round. Well, at first. Then when they took off without any sign of the creepy creatures, she'd abandoned the thought. "Then back in 2048..." (OOC: Term two here on SS) "...it started snowing on the way to school, and the train ran into a snow bank."

This class could actually be interesting. The train thingy and all, the fact she was sitting next to the Odessa boy - even though they didn't know each other yet and all -, and now talking about the Hogwarts Express. Not baad!

Sophie didn't know many details about the train that took them to Hogwarts, but still; she was there to learn, right? And there went Odessa kid always giving nice answers. Heh! The badger chuckled at his words and then raised her own hand. Her answer was going to be like everyone else's, but she felt the need to emphasise what her classmates were saying for a very special reason. "Yes, the Hogwarts Express was built by Muggle engineers. And very clever ones!" Saying that, Sophie looked around, trying to spot either Elliot or Hannah.

TAKE THAT, MUGGLE HATERS!

Hmph.

Trains? Juliette knew nothing about the train. Well she knew one thing, but it was pretty much a copy of what her cousin just said. However something was bothering her greatly. The crash. She knew this wasn't her place as there where probaly men sitting in a room together at the ministry discussing this matter right now, but she had her own theory, and if nothing else, she wanted to share it with the class.

"Trains don't crash every day, right professor?" She asked. "Something has to go wrong within the system?" So it was a little off topic, but he brought it up and she was now interested. Maybe she should say a train fact so it wouldn't seem like she just was all hung up on something that didn't matter right now. "Also it's one of the only ways to get into Hogwarts, and the most used." She finished off her statement and then looked at the stationary train on her desk, prodding it with her index finger.

Vivi cast sideways glances at Aspen, who was being awfully cozy with the Head Girl. She'd spent plenty of time in both their company and yet was completely unaware that they were friendly. How strange.

As for the train... Vivi raised her hand. "Professor, the Hogwarts Express is the only way that students may get to Hogwarts. It was decided rather early on, when people were being complete babies about touching Muggle inventions, that if students didn't arrive via the Express, they couldn't arrive at all."

Pause. That was the curious thing though. "That's really irrational on the part of the Ministry, isn't it? I mean... I live closer to the school than to London, I have a Floo in my home, and I can apparate as of this summer, but I have to travel to London to get on a train. And some students live in Hogsmeade, but they have to travel to London to catch the train back to Hogsmeade... It's not logical, sir."

Kai was a little worried about History of Magic, he'd heard the professor was pretty strict and he certainly didn't want to get on his bad side. Luckily for him, he had a good answer to the first question at hand.

"It was stolen from Crewe and adopted as the only allowed form of transportation to Hogwarts - if you didn't use the Hogwarts Express then you didn't study for the year. I can't remember who came up with the idea, but it was seen as the solution to the mass muggle sightings of witches and wizards carrying hefty trunks on broomsticks each September. Originally portkeys were used as a solution, but many students missed their portkey slots as they couldn't find the objects they were meant to be using to transport - probably because they were small muggle objects that were intentionally bland to pass unnoticed."

Hopefully that was a good enough answer to please his professor, being on his good side would make lessons much more enjoyable this year.

Ummm...was that one of those trick questions that she was supposed to know the answer to? Merlin, she hadn't come prepared for a test!!! Uhhh, quick, the most likely answer. "You're right professor I should have known better!" She said, grabbing up the leaves and dumping them on her desk again. They were obviously apart of the lesson or they wouldn't have been there in the first place. Duh. "Forget I asked." She said as she patted the leaves. Hopefully they were nice and comfy...maybe they talked...


Wow...who knew that everything earlier than the present day was considered history...?

Didn't you have to be like ancient for you to be considered a part of history??? That was the case right? Because all the men in her old history text book had gray hair and sagging faces.

Hmmmmmmm....

Meh, he was the Professor so he had to know what he was talking about. With this thought firmly planted in her mind she took her seat, shifted the leaves to one side and propped her elbows up. Ooooo, he wanted some historic facts too? Weeeeeeellllllll seeing as he said that it was anything that happened in the past...

"Ummmm adding to what West said Professor." Because the boy had a good point. She bet the adults did something to the train...she just couldn't prove it yet. " On that day there were also three brave heroes that risked their lives climbing the Hogwarts express to save a frightened bird from being eaten by Felix." Nod. Yup, she still thought they were pretty brave even if everyone else said they were stupid. "And those brave heroes were punished unfairly afterwards too! Can you believe they wanted me to hand out flyers???" Even now the idea was pretty outrageous. She was being brave!!!

Sigh.

Elliot, sitting next to Hannah with a blank expression on her face, usually liked History of Magic.

But the train.

Really? Elliot didn't think it was that important. Plus, she didn't know about the said train. Was it really made by muggles? Elliot didn't believe it...but if Hannah said it, it was probably true...she sighed, trying to say something.

UUH.

Oh. "Well, it's red." She stated obviously, smirking a bit. Yep. It was red. But if you wanted to be super specific...scarlet. WHATEVER.

If there was an insult derived from donkeys then Elijah may have used it to describe the History of Magic professor. Needless to say, Elijah wasn't too fond of Scabior after he MANhandled him. At the time of the assault, Elijah thought that it was because he had been angry at the Puff, but upon reflection it was obvious Scabior had only wanted to TOUCH Elijah and make sure that such a handsome being ACTUALLY physically existed.

Elijah was ALSO positive that Scabior had gone to his quarters AFTER that confrontation and cried into his pillow at his LACK of handsomeness. It's okay Scabior, if you are nicer this term perhaps Elijah will share a few tricks...

ANYWAYZ.

Lesson, yes? History? Trains? Boring? Yes. Hand raisedddd, "The Hogwarts Express used to actually be painted purple, but was changed to a red as red represents the idea of compassion and how people see Hogwarts as their home away from home." If made up answers were good enough for Burbage to give him points, perhaps Scabior had the same philosophy.

Was he being serious? Little bump? She looked at Edmund with an incredulous look on her face. That was the understatement of the year. Rolling her eyes, Nell re-focused on the Professor and the question he had posed. She had read Hogwart's A History in her first year so she was able to recall some things.

"The Express was originally built by muggles in Crewe in 1936. Sometime in the late 1930's Minister Ottaline Gambol bought the Express as a solution to the problem of getting kids to the school without muggle's knowing."

Cassia actually had frgotten that a month ago the train broke down and they had to use portkeys. Well, nice of Professor Scabior to remind them. And it's good to know about what happened though Cassia didn't care much. She only cared that it shouldn't happen again and she just wanted to have fun.

Listening to the answers given by her classmates. Cassia had an idea about some like the station is in Hogsmeade....obviously.

Though she knew only one thing about the train's history. She raised her hand and spoke, "In 1993 Dementors got into the train." Actually she didn't know why. She hadn't heard the whole story, "I guess they wanted a ride or something," She shrugged. She couldn't possibly memorize the story and the date ,could she?

Sitting next to a girl who also looked to be a first year, Alexa - she thought she’d heard, Eliza listened her professor, Scabior he said, started class. She had never been all that great at remembering specific dates and times, but she was always interested to learn more about things that had happened in the past, so she thought she’d enjoy History of Magic well enough. She had wondered if anyone was going to talk to them about what happened on the train at the beginning of the school year, so when she saw the train sets, she figured this must be the time it was going to happen.

Professor Scabior indicated that he wanted them to share facts they knew about the Hogwarts Express. The girl next to her mentioned something about a bird and someone that she assumed was a cat, named Felix. “I must’ve missed a few things on the train…” she thought to herself. She racked her brain for any scrap of information at all about the Hogwarts Express that someone hadn’t already said.

She raised her hand and when called on offered her answer, “Professor, I know that the Hogwarts Express has several cars attached to it. One is for Prefects only and there’s also a sweets trolley on board. I think it's been that way since Hogwarts started using it.” The Ravenclaw put her hand back down and listened to the chug-chug-chug of the miniature train on Professor Scabior’s desk.

Well...yes West...that...Scabior shook his head, amused and almost impressed. He HAD said that anything in the past was history.

"One hundred and sixty seven." Scabior corrected. Specifics weren't needed but that correction was. He probably sounded like a Ravenclaw because of it.

"Good point about the Muggles." And the station, but the Muggles mostly, since no one had noted that. "Two points for you."

Yeah. Scabior was actually giving points.

And no. He hadn't hit his head.

Um. What? "No." Scabior said dryly. "I also stick to babysitting children as you can clearly see. And you know what's also not an excuse? Your attitude." ANYTHING that he said was an excuse. His word was almost law. He said it. They listened, and they wrote it down. That was how things worked. "So five points from Hufflepuff."

Famous butts? "Famous smells as well then due to these famous butts." Hopefully the train got aired out frequently.

Oh. Scabior nodded his head slowly. Good point. "The snow was not what caused the train to stop though, when it did go off track the snow bank actually helped it." She had to make sure she was clear of that.

"Not the Hogwarts express." Probably because it didn't run everyday but still. "And you are right. Something had to have gone wrong with the system."

Irrational? Well, he shrugged. "Remember, the idea came from the Ministry. The Ministry isn't exactly filled with the most rational people out there." Noooot that he was bashing the Ministry.

Much.

Painted purple? And the train was red. Honestly? "Come up here Miss Morganzo, Mister Wilde." Up to the front, beside him.

As students spoke out, Scabior drew his wand and every time a answer was right, it was written on the board. "Most of you seem to be right on track, which is excellent since all of this information is in your textbooks."... There were a few who...were off. But he expected it. Not everyone in the room was a O student. Probably only one actually....or none. Yeah. None. "The express was made by Muggles and they never knew about it and...everything that was basically said." He didn't need to repeat it. Everything was now on the board.

1. Relatively “new” (a hundred + years old)
2. Built by Muggle engineers
3. Pureblood families initially against it
4. Stopped on September first 1993 (because Dementor interference)
5. Ultimately the Ministry’s (Ottaline Gambol) idea
6. Created for a more discrete way of getting in and out of Hogwarts
7. One of the biggest Concealment charms ever was involved in its creation
8. One hundred and sixty seven memory charms used
9. Run by magic
10. Muggles can’t ride
11. Famous butts
12. Stopped/crashed on September first 2048
13. Stopped again on September first 2078

"Anyways, just by looking on the list we can see that the train has stopped three times since it was created." Maybe there was nothing strange at all and it was completely normal. Maybe. "The first time was probably because the invading Dementors cause the conductor to faint." Or something. That didn't matter. "Any guesses toward why the second crash happened?"

OOC:The lesson will continue in approximately 24 hours.

O___O Elliot was NOT AMUSED. What she said totally wasn't wrong...how rude of him. And to think that Elliot had been somewhat a fan of Scabior before this time...

Whatever.

She grudgingly...stood up, shooting a glare at that weird puff boy(the one who had been shirtless in Transfiguration...great.) and tried her veeeerrrryberry best not to roll her eyes. Nope. No trouble for 'Miss Morganzo.'

She brought her notebook along with her...since, you know, she was a Ravenclaw and had to take notes. Perhaps Professor Scabier though he was embarrassing her...well, he wasn't. He was just making sure everyone now knew exactly who she was...thank Merlin she was good looking...

Hmph.

She copied down all of those little bullet points, making a mental note to fiiiind the stupid train section in her textbook...

Argh.

And when could she sit again, Professor? Hmmm?

And then he asked another question...Elliot thought for a minute...guesses..."Well, Professor, perhaps the charms set on it backfired or something..." Or something. Because she really didn't know...

Why did the train stop that one time?

Hmmmmmmmmmm.........

Aidan slouched back in his seat, stretching his legs out so he could reach the floor and tap his feet on it. The noise helped him think. Maybe. It wasn't proven yet. But he liked the noise. "Someone didn't want to go to school?" Which sounded horrible because who wouldn't want to come to Hogwarts?

But Aidan could think of at least one person. So maybe the person who stopped the train was just more desperate and capable than his sister.

"Or, you said it was snowing? So maybe they wanted to play in it." That would be fun. Who could blame them?

Why did the train stop the second time.. heck if she knew.. wasnt HE suppose to teach her, it wasnt like ariana went through her book to learn about the train, thats a BORING thing to read about.. Ariana prefered the wars and harry potter and you know all that good stuff.. not the train. her put her head in in hand and kept her attention forward, every once in a while pushing the little train around the track some more.. ' what caused the train to stop in a snow storm' right.. it was in a snow storm.. er maybe she should write these points down.. And so she did