Relaxing in her sombrero, Jasmine listened as the Professor began to talk about Cinco de Mayo and the Battle of Puebla. She wrote down some notes as the information was being given and then it was question time. What was significant about the battle?

Jasmine raised her hand to share her thoughts. "No one expected the Mexicans to win the battle. It was very inspirational to the Mexican people when they did win." They always celebrated Cinco de Mayo when Jasmine lived in California, but many people really didn't know what the holiday was all about.

"Me? Lose my way?" The woman clicked her tongue and shook her head. She knew that her friend would understand that was almost exactly what had happened. It was good of Fina to play along with her comment on fashion, since it was not as much a passion of hers. "And such lovely boots they are," she replied, glancing down. Lolita merely nodded her assent to starting the lesson.

Part of the reason she had been looking forward to this class was to see how the students behaved with other professors. Jasmine and Grayson being the two to answer the question did not leave her surprised. So far nothing was different, but their time had barely begun.

Simon didn't have time to tell Ethan to stop with the maracas for Cutty. He'd been to busy staring in awe at him, trying to register what was actually happening before him. By the time he opened his mouth, Professor Hadley and Domingo had started the lesson.

Oh they were learning about Cinco de Mayo? He'd heard about that. Maybe it was good of Ethan to keep playing with those maracas and singing to celebrate Mexico's unlikely win over the French army. He listened to Hadley's question about the Battle of Puebla and then raised his answer. "Well the battle was a huge boost in popularity for both Benito Juarez and his government. During this time of upheaval and chaos, it was very likely for people to overthrow their government."

The best friend had finally landed. "Hey, Dragon. I should make Angel drag you to class seeing as you take so long to reach them.'' Hehe. The boy enjoyed teasing his bestie. Benny should be used to that by now. Oh, look. Lux! And Jasmine! Heeeey, guys!
.................................

And Professor Domingo had made her arrival so now the lesson was on its way. Cinco de Mayo. Adi knew a bit about that. But he didn't know the second reason as to why the battle was significant. Nope. So, he just sat there quietly.

Ah, Cinco de Mayo. That explained the Sombreros and everything.

And two reasons why this battle was important. Okay. Everyone seemed to be focused on the one, Mexico being outnumbered. But it looked like her status as an American was going to help her out here, as she knew of one that no one had mentioned yet. "It prevented the French from moving any further north and providing aid to the Confederate Army in the American Civil War and without their help, the Confederates eventually lost. Which kept the U.S. together." Stupid meddling Frenchies.

Leah straightened her hat as she listened. Cinco what? What about mayonnaise? Oh a festival commemorating Mexico's victory over French. History all over again. And again, the kitchen. Were they going to cook? Because cooking was getting boring. Eating though, Mexican food.. yum.

If you told Leah the date of that festival, she could figure out the significance of that date. But history aargh nope. She listened to the older students speaking instead.

Angel looked at the Professor and raised her hand. "Professor is it because no one gave the Mexican's a chance to win the battle and they showed everyone how good they were?" Angel had no idea what else to say so she decided just to go with it.

Lucy thought a lot and she said:" I know that there was a torrential rain that transformed the land in mud blocking the French troops"
Bad weather can be a good ally!!!

Adi was sitting beside her in a lesson. It seemed like ages since this had taken place. She was beaming from ear to ear, and tipped her hat back to him. "Sup Adi." Not long after Benny joined them. It had been quite some time since she had spoken to him, and she couldn't help but to be curious as to how he was doing. "Hey Ben." For some reason AJ still didn't call him Benny. Then she noticed that the other professor arrived. The lion only hoped that this lesson wasn't going to be hard since muggle studies was attached to it.

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Erm... she didn't really have a clue as to why it was important, but she was going to venture a guess anyways. AJ wasn't one to just sit back and be quiet especially since she was in an exceptional mood now that all was well again between her and Adi. "Maybe because once they won they were able to celebrate with food, and who doesn't get happy about that?" No seriously, she wanted to know. Plus, a confirmation that they would be making something delicious this lesson would be nice.


OOC: HAHA...I promise I knew that. My mind was reading pancho for some reason.

Ohh, hi, Professor Domingo! Sophie really looked up to the Arithmancy professor. She kind of hoped the woman would stick around and wouldn't be one of those guest professors that came and went within a year. She grinned her way as sort of a silent way of saying hello, then turned her attention to Hadley, who was asking a question.

Sophie raised her hand. "I think it's significant, because it reminds of us that we shouldn't sell ourselves short," she said. "We should always keep trying no matter how other people see us or how we see ourselves. Nobody expected the Mexicans to win, but they did anyway."

That's really all Sophie had to offer on the battle.

Kace was hearing what the professor was going over today. He heard the Arthimancy professor was here. He wondered why? But he heard they were learning about Cinco De Mayo and it made sense. Professor Hadley wanted to know what he knew about it? Hmm...what did he know? He looked through his book and raised his hand,

" Professor the 8,000-strong French army attacked the much smaller and poorly equipped Mexican army of 4,500 but yet the the Mexicans managed to decisively crush the French army." It seemed even though the Mexican army was smaller they managed to kick butt.

Battle of what? And...what was Simon talking about?! Ethan was pretty clueless as to what is exactly being celebrated, but based on his classmates' answer, this battle can be classified as epic. 8,000 men against 4,000?! Wowzers.

Hand up.

"It's the perfect example for teamwork and unity, professor." And upon reaching the goal, you go celebrate. With nothing more to add, Ethan wrote down his notes and waited for the 'celebration' part of the joint class.

Hold the snitch.

For a moment Lex just sat there staring. Could this day get any stranger? They....were in the kitchen to focus on muggles and numbers....but had slipped into a History lesson.....? History of all things. What battle were they on about and why did no one think Mexico would win? You'd think any place with spicy food could whip up a good army, what were the French thinking??

"Maybe it's important to teach you not to pick on the little guys because the little guys have more fire power?" Had no one else ever SEEN a firstie rant about something? They went on and on like no other. She didn't even KNOW where they got that energy when half of them promised they hadn't had candy in a few hours.

The NEWTs studying must have been getting to Benjy. He could have sworn that he was in the kitchen for a combined Muggle Studies and Arithmancy lesson, not a lesson on the history of...Mexico?! And for that matter, why would he confuse Cinco de Mayo (surely, the fifth of May?) with some day in September?

A frown flickered across his face, and he glanced across to Lex, clearly bewildered. He was pretty sure he'd eaten today, and he'd gone skateboarding in the corridors too. And yet his brain still seemed completely mangled. Huh.

"Because there was an awesome feast afterwards?" Benjy answered Professor Hadley hopefully. There had to be a link to the kitchens in the lesson somewhere, right?

You can certainly have fun on Cinco De Mayo. Not sure about the Independence Day though. That was Nigel's knowledge on the subject. He had no knowledge in this battle. He knew about The Alamo. But that was a different country and war.

Right?

Well, he would just listened to everyone's answer. The Mexicans are pretty cool for winning a battle which appeared that they were out numbered.

Not Bad

Oooh! Cinco de Mayo. Beverly was fairly familiar with that date because of Kennedy and his heritage. She still has that picture of him dressed up as a mariachi in his fourth year at Hogwarts. It's the most silly thing.

The Slytherin wrinkled her nose when the thing she was going to say was mentioned.

Boo, you guys, boo.

She raised her hand either way. "Could it be because Mexico over came the incredible odds that were stacked against them?" she said. Maybe some Arithmancy stuff had to do with it?

Cinco de Mayo. That was a lot of fives already. A number for rebellion if Cutty had ever seen one.



That was worth it. Definitely worth calculating the numerical odds via Arithmancy. Merlin would you look at Beverly Wayne. She was..."Joost full of good ideas today, Wayne!". He was proud of her.

Hand in the air to address their Professor now, Cutty offered this, "Building off of Beverly's point, Professor, could the other reason the battle is significant to our class be due to the numerical values achieved by evaluating the dates of the event. I mean, the fifth day of the fifth moonth. That's sort of asking for it, isn't it?"

Heh, Sophie Newell at it again. Seriously, that Whitlock boy ought to just get ON with things and ask her out. It was so painfully obvious that he had a thing for the girl with the gorgeous hair. And of course Lolita took all the credit for that bit. Ay ay ay, too bad knocking boys upside the head was frowned upon, or that Slytherin would have a burrito-sized red spot on the back of his head already.

But on a more academic note, she was pleasantly surprised at how many students were so knowledgeable about Latin history, and Muggle Latin history at that. Her friend had done well with this bunch, that much was clear. And then there was Cutty Mordaunt, who seemed to have some sixth sense about Arithmancy. She nodded in approval toward the boy, though refrained from speaking. This was Fina's part of the lesson, not hers.

Well duh, of course they were lovely. And she was donning them quite well, thank you very much. But no need to continue that conversation, unless it would lead into conversation about the weather because that was something she wanted to discuss with Lolita. Once the kiddos started on some assignment anyway. For now though, her attention was on the young ones.


"Ah yes, the French had more men and better equipment." Hadley restated, confirming Grayson's ideas.

"Inspirational yes. Exactly that. Who could ever expect the underdogs to win?" Much like the house cup race. Even though her badgers weren't in the lead this term, they had still snatched the cup for seven straight terms which was a remarkable and unexpected feat, if you asked her.

"Ah yes, funny how unexpected wins, even if its nothing to do with politics, it becomes something to do with politics."

"AH there's the other reason I was looking for! The last time any European nation had control over an American territory. Or subsequently been invaded." Someone had been reading.

"Yes, true points." Hadley nodded. Not the main significance to the battle, but definitely true points.

"Not that no one gave the Mexicans a chance... and they weren't really that good. But it was just unexpected, their win. They were vastly outnumbered in both soldiers and equipment."

"History says nothing in regards to bad weather, but not that it wasn't a deterrent...." Hadley said thoughtfully, "But there's nothing noted that there was bad weather affecting the outcome." Nor is anything noted in regards to magic influences. This battle was pure muggle studies.

"Ah yes they did celebrate or at least commemorate the holiday with food, but I'm not sure back in 1862 when the battle took place, the soldiers were thinking about the celebrations. They were probably more focused on staying alive." At least that's what she would be thinking about in battle. Even if food was good.

Ooh very good and original way to state things! "Excellent, Sophie! Very good take home message there for not just referring to this particular topic but life in general. Don't sell yourself short because you never know."

"Yes very factual statements, but true enough." Even if the counts were off slightly, it was the emphasis that the French army was like double the size of the Mexican army.

"Yes, it kind of is like Quidditch, or any sporting game for that matter. When someone wins who is the underdog. Some might even call it 'sheer dumb luck', which I reckon could be attributed to some scenarios in history." Yes she did just call the Mexicans out for being lucky. Because in a sense it was just that, wasn't it? OR was there more to it?

"Ah yes, teamwork and unity and actually pride too. Good." Because had the Mexican army not been united and prideful of their land, they wouldn't have fought for the win in the first place.

Uh what? OH was Alexa trying to imply that her five foot four self had more fire power than the students who outgrew her (which was usually by fourth or fifth year)? Because that was actually true. She had plenty of fire power, when she chose to execute it.

"Not necessarily, but yes, the little guys may or may not have more fire power."

Another one with the food. Honestly and they said all Hufflepuffs thought about was food; yet neither of these students was in Hufflepuff. "They didn't know that there would be a feast after they won. The feast was because they won." See. Difference.

"Ah yes. Odds. Predictability. They're a funny thing, aren't they?" Or sheer dumb luck as aforementioned to Penelope.

And look at these Slytherin kiddos jumping ahead of the game!!! First Sophie and her not selling yourself short, now Beverly and Cutty looking ahead to odds and predictability and dates! But that was all Lolita's portion of the lesson. Before they got to reviewing any of that, she had a couple more things to go over. "Yes, the battle could very well be significant due to the numerical values of the date of the event. We'll look at those numbers later though...." For now though, she had other stuff to go over.


"So the Battle of Puebla which took place in 1862, was significant because - as many of you mentioned - the outnumbered Mexican army defeated a better equipped French Army. And because, as Caleb mentioned, it was the last time any European nation would invade an American nation." Hadley reiterated, in case anyone missed what their classmates had said. "After the battle, however, a year later, the French troops did invade and capture Mexico City. The French victory too was short lived, only lasting three years as the United States provided more political and military assistance to Mexico to drive the French out. Which was successful starting 1866 and the Mexicans then recaptured Mexico City. June 5, 1867, Benito Juarez entered Mexico City and implemented a legitimate government and administration. That is a very short explanation of the events taking place post-battle." She paused. "The main take home messages that you need to know though is that the Battle took place in 1862, that you should never underestimate yourself because you never know, and that the victory symbolized unity and pride."

"So now that you have some brief background knowledge of the events, lets talk briefly on festivities. What celebration activities are tied with the holiday? We know food is one, but if you're going to discuss that, then what types of food are associated with the festivities?"