Now, why would you put a Disillusionment Charm on a creature such as Henry the Hippogriff? Hmm. “Is it because Hippogriffs doesn’t like over excited hoomans?” Ethan grinned with his hand raised. “Because if we knew it was there right away, some would be too enthused to approach it…aaaaaaand, I believe there are steps on how to approach Hippogriffs.” He added as he placed his hand down.


Soooo. Do they get to interact with it?

A Disillusionment Charm on the Hippogriff? The first thought that entered Leah's mind was that that was MEAN. Henry had a right to be seen. Though, after listening to the other students, she realized that she would be freaked out (whether because she was excited or scared she would not know) after seeing the creature and probably scare the poor thing too.

The second year simply shook her head. She waited to learn how to interact with Hippogriffs, eeeep!

She managed to get a smile from the creatures professor, and she took it as all was well between them. AJ noticed the wave from Adi, and she waved back to him. A smile was given to Angel once she sat down next to her. The lion was glad that more and more people were coming. The extra body heat was very much appreciated. The first year wasn't sure exactly what kind of creature it was but it sounded similar to what her friend Adi had described to her as his favorite creature.


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Then the professor confirmed that it was a Hippogriff. AJ looked over to where Adi was sitting and gave him a huge grin. She knew how much he loved them, and he just had to be stoked about this lesson. Heck, AJ was stoked about this lesson. They looked bloody brilliant. She thought about the question that was asked, and some people had brought up good points. It did seem like the charm was most likely put on so the muggles couldn't see, but what if it was for a different reason?

"It is because you have a really cool one, and you don't want trying to be like you and getting a Hippogriff exactly like yours?" Did they come in different colors? AJ knew that girls acted like this over shoes and purses. WHY they did this was beyond her, but what did she know about those girly things?

Ohh, well, this was a pretty easy question, Sophie thought. Hippogriffs were pretty commonly known creatures, so she knew a lot about them just from growing up in a magical household. She nodded along as a few others said just what she was thinking. Raising her hand, she said, "I agree that's it's so they won't be seen by Muggles. They're so large, and since they can fly, they can pretty much go anywhere on their own. They don't realize they're not supposed to be seen by Muggles, so we place the charm on them to hide them."

Sophie eyed the Hippogriff in the room. It seemed kind of odd to have one inside the castle, but she knew why it was here. It wouldn't just...start flying around, would it? Because that would be bad. Really bad. Maybe it sensed how cold it was outside and was just content to stay put. One could only hope, at least.

He saw the Hippogriff and it did look beautiful. It even looked adorable but maybe once it grew up it may change. But his name was Henry? Aww come on it could he could have been more original than that. He might have named him Clyde or Buckbeak. Yeahhh Buckbeak would have been better. Anyways moving on. He heard the professor ask the class the question. Kace give it a thought and raised his hand,

"Professor personally if I saw one in the muggle world I would think I would be crazy. I might need to check myself into a hospital or something. So I think it is for the creatures safety so it won't get shot by hunters if they see one." That is what he thought. I mean he never heard of something like this before if he lived in the muggle world.

Ah, it was a disillusionment charm on the Hippogriff. Pretty Awesome. Nigel did not understand why expect for the obvious against the law for muggles to see them. Other than that. Nope not one thing popped into his head. Though it would be a pretty hard challenge to have to take care of a disillusioned hippogrff. Especially if it does not like you.

"For the challenge"

The Seventh Year answer might not make any sense. but who said he had to make any sense. Riding a disillusioned hippogrff sounded awesomely awesome, though.

A hippogriff! This was guaranteed to be a good lesson now because Penelope knew loads about hippogriffs thanks to Atticus. She didn't have much to add to answer this question though since it seemed pretty straightforward. The Disillusionment Charm was used to comply with the Statute of Secrecy and all that stuff. Not much for her add right now. Maybe the next question though.

Ooooh, so the Hippogriff had been disillusioned. That made a lot more sense than there being a breed which could become invisible. Taking out her notebook, she jotted down a few things about the creatures.

Hippogriff were pretty, and she would love to be able to pet one so long as the end result didn't involve her riding on its back. There was no way she would ever fly on one of those things. Raising her hand, she guessed as to why the Hippogriff would be disillusioned. "Is it to make sure that muggles can't see it in case the Hippogriff flies off to areas where muggles live?"

Hmmm. Tag listened to everyone and nodded here and there at their answers. Which, by the way, seemed to be all along the same lines. Now, did Thompson want to hear Tag give an answer just like the previous answers? Probably not. He probably wanted some different answers. So for now, he'll just wait to see if there was another question that would allow for more variety of answers.

After all he didn't want to repeat the same thing everyone else said. But yes, there was listening going on here.

Oh look, notes...that she'd get from Cassia later. Sup?

For the benefit of the lesson she did read what it all said but her focus was on the hippogriff. Lex tried not to give it too much of a personality, because if things did come to the worse of it, every bite would remind her his name was Henry and he probably had a family back home in the Room of Requirements and you know, he'd probably have friends too--barbequed friends but you got the gist.

Just a Hippogriff, Lex, nothing more.

"I agree you have to hide 'em because it'd be really awkward trying to explain it to a Muggle, you know how they always think they've made new discoveries and all. They'd probably wanna take it home and feed it cereal." Strange folks, Muggles were, but then...."I do wonder though...with them being proud and stuff. If you can't see them and thus don't bow...won't they still be offended?" And like...attack?

Hippogriffs did that, you know. With SHARP claws and powerful legs.

Javy nodded curtly with each answer,"Yes, to help secure the line between Muggles and Wizards from discovering him." Chances are the amount of time everyone was kept indoors now helped with the students study habits. There were some quiet students as usual, the Professor assumed they were entranced by Henry currently getting up to fish another dead rat out of the bucket near his feet.

Now to continue, "Alright, so essentially you got the gist on the importance on keeping the Hippogriff out of sight from Muggles to keep up the Secrecy and for their own protection. But there's also some importance within our community with keeping their presence unknown for legal reasons." Such as, "Hippogriffs can sometimes be mistaken for the more ferocious Griffins at the first sight. Imagine the scenario on one mistaking a Hippogriff for a Griffin in your own backyard. The result can be quite devastating if one is not aware of their differences." Now that's one creature one would be a little more hesitant on running up to hug and pet.

Leading to next question, "Now what are some of the distinguishing features that make Griffins and Hippogriffs different from each other?"

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OOC: Try to mention only one fact/difference between them. =)

The perks of having a cousin who loves Magical Creatures? One gets the chance to know more about the unusual beings discussed in class. Hand up.

"The Griffin's got a leonine body, professor." Ethan wondered though if the two are cousins. This thought made him think about himself...and Cutty.

Heh.

It was time for the next question which involved the difference between a griffin and a hippogriff. Jasmine raised her hand to respond to the question. "A griffin has the front half of an eagle and the back half of a lion. A hippogriff has the head, font legs and wings of an eagle and the body tail and rear legs of a horse."

It made perfect sense that the Hippogriffs would be kept hidden from the muggles. And Cassia was actually glad because the last thing she would want for her favorite creatures was for them to be shot down or hunted by the muggles who would with no doubt freak out seeing the beautiful creature. And on a different note she made a mental note to excel the disillusionment spell. That one would be very handy.

As for the question, Cassia paused only for a little bit before raising her hand and speaking. She was going to mention the physical differneces but that had already been mentioned so she went for another thing, "It is believed that Hippogriffs are found friendlier and easier to deal with than Griffins" She probably could think of more but that was good for now she supposed.

Ooooohhhh....That...seemed kinda legit them being able to tell the difference between an actual offense and muggles that didn't know any better. That would explain the lack of reported incidents in which an 'invible force' went around hurting the muggle society. If such a thing did happen, Lex had the full confidence that it would be front page news everywhere so good on them for not being too proud that they couldn't overlook ignorance.

Her eyes shifted back to the Professor at his question. If he hadn't said anything, Alexa might have completely forgotten there were such things as Griffins. Honestly.

"Aren't Griffins used for guarding treasures in much the same way as sphinxes? You know, on account of how vicious they can get? I don't think Hippogriffs guard. Reckon they'd let anyway by if they were respectful enough."

Or could they sense intentions as well? That'd be rather problematic for the crook if you thought about it.

Ah. See. This was a question that could have different answers. Which Tag approved of. He listened to Thompson's words and then tried to formulate an answer of his own that he hoped didn't resemble anyone else's that was in class right now.

"Well, with hippogriffs if you want to take a ride or fly with one you have to bow your head towards it. If the hippogriff bows its head towards you, it thinks you're a friendly human and then you can take flight with it. I don't know as much about Griffins but I think you can't fly on them. Maybe. But I don't know that." An there was Tag's answer. Hopefully Thompson found it interesting or intriguing enough. So, obviously, there would be no need to bow towards the Griffin. It probably didn't care as much as the Hippogriff anyway.

Also, what were they going to do in class today? They didn't have much room to do an activity? Or did they? Tag would just wait on Thompson's word.

Adi noticed AJ grin at him and grinned back. Yep, his closest friends knew of his obsession with the creatures. Alrightey, class was moving on. Honestly, Adi had never thought about the similarities between a Griffin and Hippogriff. It would be baaad if someone got the two mixed up.

Adi's hand shot up in the air to answer the next question. ''Griffins have the body of a lion but Hippogriffs have the body a horse.'' A horse's and lion's body were pretty different, yes?

Curiously Lux listened as different answers were given to the question Professor Thompson had asked. A lot of people had thought along the same lines as her, but it was nice to see different opinions. Some of them she never would have been able to think of herself. There were so many smart students at Hogwarts and she loved it.

Not very familiar with Griffins, she raised her hand and offered a guess. "Griffins are a lot meaner than Hippogriffs I think. Hippogriffs can be very friendly and you can ride them. I don't think a Griffin would do the same." Nope. Hippogriffs were much better animals.

Apparently the creature professor was down with hippogriff sharing, which was pretty cool on her part. Maybe he would let her ride it. This time she would wait for his okay because weekly detention was threatened over the unicorn incident.

Now for his question. "Isn't a griffin a cross of a lion and eagle? If so, then the eagle appearance will be a major indicator that it isn't a hippogriff." Also, if the griffin always had a mean mug on you could be sure that it was a hippogriff. Hippogriffs were much nicer looking.

Pssshhhh, this one was EASY. Toby raised his hand, grinning.

"Griffins have claws, and Hippogriffs have talons and hooves," he said matter-of-factly. Whether that was a semantics things was totally irrelevant. To Toby, anyway. "I know that 'cause the core of my wand is a Griffin claw, and a Hippogriff's front legs a like bird legs, and they have talons instead of claws."

It was an important distinction, obviously. And one of the few Toby could think of from the top of his head, seeing as facts from the textbook wouldn't stay in his head for very long.

Why were they still TALKING about creatures instead of getting to interact with them? Mo crossed his arms to keep himself still, and he gave the hippogriff looooong, measured looks. They were gonna be best friends, really. It was obvious.

"The griffin is more dangerous than the hippogriff, at least according to the MoM classification system. The griffin is a XXXX, and the hippogriff is XXX."

Angel looked at the Professor and smiled, she then raised her hand. "Professor aren't Griffins more dangerous than a hippogriff, so that means that a hippogriff will let you ride it but I doubt a Griffin would let you." Angel hadn't tried to ride either but she doubted a Griffin would let her ride it.

Ah so they were learning about the differences about Griffins and Hippogriffs. What did he know about them? He looked a little bit in his book and saw something. He raised his hand and said, "Professor I know the Griffin has been used my their owners for treasure guarding. I know for Hippogriffs you need to treat them with respect." That is the gist he got from it. He knew not to disrespect Hippogriffs.

"Owning a invisible hippogriff or something like that." Because that would be a real challenge. But it seemed like they were moving onto more interesting creatures.

Interesting = Dangerous to Nigel.

The Prefect would pay money to witness that scenario of one mistaking a Hippogriff for a Griffin in your own backyard. Could be a horror show or awesome. Depends on how you view things.

"Griffins can be used as Guards"

Though Nigel guessed if you train the Hippogriff. It technically could do that. But he wont say that thought out loud.

Well, just about everything Sophie could think of had already been said by somebody else. She frowned. She had to be a lot quicker with her answers, so she could beat the others to the punch. She tried to come up with something new to say. Oh, yeah--she had something to say!

"They eat different things," she said, raising her hands. "Griffins eat mainly raw meat, while Hippogriffs eat insects, birds, and small creatures." It was a lame addition to the lesson, but since everybody else had already said all the good stuff, that was all there was left to say.