Maddie had been the one to MENTION Stump so that sort of gave her an out where this discussion was concerned, yes? Contribution already made and all, the brunette flipped to a new page in her notes and scribbled down a few things, like the point Dot had made about spirits. She agreed with that.

She also began a small sketch of Professor Crystal Ball, discreetly, in true caricature style. WHY was she here, again?

Human nature. It really was, wasn't it? You kinda had to have everything in your own order or whatever. Unless you were a hippie, in which case you just do whatever you wanted and didn't care about what the law or other humans were trying to tell you. Yeah. Human nature. He agreed with her there. And kinda wanted to know what she meant by the complex comment but..... he'd wait. Wait and ask later.

The question? He'd mentioned one already, hadn't he? About merpeople and hags. Grayson wanted to know WHY exactly merpeople hated hags so much but that would prooooooooobably go off track so, he tried to think of something else.

"Didn't they have a huge meeting in a courtroom but it all turned to dung? Like Eden," 'Sup, Eden. "mentioned, Beings were classified as creatures that can walk on two legs and they held a meeting that included all these creatures and..... " Lulz. "It didn't work out well. The trolls smashed things and everything turned into chaos."

Kace was glad his question was answered so Boggarts were neither. Hmmm he wondered what they could be but he was glad he was on the right track. As he listened in on the lesson the professor lost him on this topic. He really had NO idea what she was talking about. He just stood there and listened to the other students answers. He kept his nose in his notebook and continued to doodle.

It seemed that those were all the answers that she would be getting to that line of questioning, which was probably fine. They had gone through much of the main points anyway and Nessa found need to fill in just a bit more. "Thank you for your contributions, everyone," she began, addressing the class once more. And since several of them seemed to need it.. "As a summary, there were once two classifications created by the Ministry, or Council as it was then, Being and Beast. The definition of Being was anything that could walk on two feet. By that definition, ghosts were not included as they glided, not walked. To prove that this definition was not feasible, some goblins brought every creature that walked on two feet that they could find to a meeting for creating Wizarding law. These creatures included Trolls, Augureys, Fwoopers, Cornish pixies, and fairies among others." She paused a moment to let this mental image and its corresponding thoughts sink in. "None of them have the intelligence to help with laws and the Trolls smashed things with their clubs."

"A few years later, an attempt to redefine Beings was made to include those that could speak a human language. Again this included Trolls and also Jarveys.. neither of which could successfully help with laws yet again. Centaurs were unhappy that Merpeople could not be included under this definition. Ghosts felt that the council focused on living matters rather than some of their issues."

"Our current definition was created in 1811 by Minister Grogan Stump to include those with the intelligence required to shape laws. However, Centaurs and Merpeople refused to be categorized alongside Hags and Vampires, creatures they consider to be dark. And ghosts still felt they needed their own category to address their own set of needs, so Spirit was created for them." She made sure to add all of the newer information to the board as well.

"So, as you can see, regulations and laws and classifications.. those kinds of things can evolve and change over the years due to what those in charge feel works best. Sometimes it is what is easiest for them, sometimes it is what is most beneficial for those involved. What I want you to do - and this will also be extended into your homework - is to choose one of the Beings, Spirits, or Beasts and create an argument either supporting its current place within the classification system or creating a case for why its not where it should be. Remember some of the advantages and disadvantages we talked about including rights and protections and possible discrimination."

"I want you to first identify with your character, become the one you choose in a sense. Of course you can do this through prop or costume if you'd like." She pointed to the prop and costume boxes that were always at the back of the classroom. "Then I want you to interact with the other Beings, Beasts, and Spirits of the classroom.. how do they see you? Are they discriminatory or accepting? Do they or you need protection? Perhaps Banshees like me should to be in the Beings category." She did a flourishy bow-curtsy thing before continuing. "Or what about Dementors or Boggarts.. should they be in an actual category? Explore your Beast, Being, or Spirit today, thinking about these things.. and you will write your findings and argument in your homework." Yes, lots to think about... but it could really be fun if approached the right way.



OOC - Ok, activity time.. I know that was a lot, but basically have your character choose one of the creatures listed under Being, Beast, or Spirit (or non-being). They will then "become" that character through costume or just mindset, then interact with others, thinking about how they are perceived, their rights, advantages/disadvantages to being classified as they are. Homework will reference this experience and thoughts about the issues. Please complete any/all of it in four posts by 11:59 pm EST Monday. Let me know if you have any questions.

There was lots of talking, and lots of things he didn't particularly care for. But then he heard it. The words. The LINK, the thing that gave this PURPOSE. Laws and stuff changed over time, TIME being HISTORY. Well this was progress. As for the whole pick a thing from the list and become it... he didn't... like that. WHICH ONE SHOULD HE PICK?! And a Banshee, THAT'S what she was. Righto.

...

Zeke looked over his notes, adding where he needed to.

Picking was going to be SO hard.

In the end he closed his eyes, dangled a finger above his parchment, made little circles in the air, and let his finger DROP.

Once he had a point on his page, Zeke opened his eyes to find....

WEREWOLF! (during transformation)... fascinating.

But he was NOT playing dress ups again. That was LAME, so no. He would just pretend to be a Werewolf. How was he going to do that?

The Gryffindor FINALLY scribbled down the last of what he could recall. It was hard enough trying to take note of what was written on the board, but even harder trying to get down every word that Professor Glendower was saying. How come this lesson involved so much talking!? Normally, Zander wasn't extremely adamant on the acting portion, always wanting to take the more subtle roles. But this time, he wanted the practical bit more than anything! Just something to get this over with really.

AND THANK MERLIN!!

He could possibly jump for joy!! And wait, they got to choose ANYTHING? from the list? ANYTHING!?! Even a.... CRUPPIE!?!?! YESSSS!!!

And before anyone could say anything at all, Zander jumped out of his seat. "I'm going to be a crup!" It was possibly the most vocal he had ever been about anything in the class. Ahem. But it was because crups. Ahem. Right. Anyways, he was going to be one of those.

As much as Lux like Professor Glendower (which was a lot), she was not enjoying this lesson. It was way too convoluted and sooooo much note taking was involved.

After shaking her wrist out, she continued to write everything down as things were further elaborated on. Didn't help to make things simpler either. At least they were FINALLY getting to the activity which involved playing a part - like always. She would be a mermaid again. She had loved playing one of Ariel's sisters during Professor Botros' class... even though she should have been Ariel.

This was so exciting!

"I going to be a mermaid!" Juuuuust putting that out there. Jumping up from her seat, Lux gave a big stretch. She needed it after taking a million notes.

She really needed to figure out how to make her pen take notes for her. Brooklyn was tired of dealing with hand cramps in practically every lesson lately, and she’d though the last Herbology lesson would have been the end of it. Except she’d obviously been wrong, as practically this whole lesson had been note-taking. She’d had the moment of pride in getting the first question right when so many of the others had given the answers that Professor Glendower hadn’t wanted, but after that she’d been more focused on the taking notes and trying to avoid her hand c ramping up to have offered any other suggestions. Plus, she hadn’t particularly had anything to say in regards to the questions. It was all a bunch of old people making decisions for creatures that couldn’t determine their own fate. She didn’t see why she needed to care about that when she wasn’t any of the creatures. She was a witch, and therefore she actually did have rights. Not to mention she was a princess, which meant she had even more.

Now they were being released to do another activity that involved pretending to be things. She was beginning to expect that, but this time it was different because their character wasn’t chosen for them. They got to choose for themselves, and she tilted her head as she examined the list again. Dragons were cool, but she didn’t want to be one. She wasn’t a Targaryen. That meant picking something else, and she wasn’t worried about what had apparently already been chosen. Nope. She wanted something cooler, and as her blue eyes got to the bottom of the list, she saw it. Banshees. Yep. That was what she was going to portray, and it meant she’d get to scream. That was going to be fun. Maybe she could be the professor’s mini-me.

So.......... now that he was a Werewolf in transformation - meaning, not the human mild form... he just had to, act like it? Is that what they were doing? Acting like their beast/being/spirit counterpart?

Figuring he had to get started somehow, he focused on the transforming part. Which was painful and creepy right? So... "RAAAWWWWRRRAAARRRRARARARARAAAAROOOOAAARRRR!" he yelled/shrieked/roared. Ahem. It was a throaty sound. Arms outstretched like the were CHANGING, Zeke then huddled into himself still standing on two feet but hunched low enough for his arms to reach the ground.

Was he Werewolf enough for this now?

And, he had to interact with someone elses 'character', right?

Ian listened to the professor, since he didn't really have anything useful to contribute to the previous question, he had just listened and scribbled notes. This was very much like the potions class and he hoped they got involved in the activity soon. His hopes came true as the professor went on to describe what they should do. Ian looked at the list and he didn't want to really deal with creatures without much intellect. It might be more fun to act like he had no sense, but he thought he could make his best argument as centaur. Centaurs really seemed to stand up to the ministry in this whole categorization deal and it seemed like the ministry tried marginalize them while centaurs mostly dealt with things among themselves.

He walked over to the prop box and looked for something to dress with. He found some woolly looking trousers. He thought about being shirtless, but that might be too much. He slipped into his trousers and then tried to frame his discussion.

Flexing her fingers Hadleigh finally laid down her quill beside her parchment. There was so so so many notes! Seriously was that all she'd done during this lesson so far? Cause to her it sure seemed so. Stretching a little in her seat, basically her just moving around a bit to get comfortable again she looked to the front of the room where the Professor was speaking.

They were supposed to pick something off the lists they had made and then "become" whatever they had chosen? Alright this could go two ways really. Either good where she could fit her part well enough or really really badly. Letting her eyes wander over the list on the board she grinned seeing one no one had chosen. The vampire!

Having her pick she got to her feet and headed for the box in the back of room. Now to find some props to help her fit the part.

Angel had no idea what she was going to do but then suddenly decided on one she was going to be a Poltergeist, she thought that it would be funny if she could actually have some fun with a few different people and she could make a great Poltergeist if she wanted to.

"Oh this is going to be fun." Angel whispered to herself half-heartedly, she was going to show her sister exactly what she looks like and how she got away with things and seriously her sister could easily become a Poltergeist when she died because they got away with everything as well just like her sister always did, just like with her hair... her sister had cut it and she had got away with it and Angel didn't like how her sister could do anything.

Well, Toby knew EXACTLY what he was going to choose for this activity. FAIRIES. They weren't actually listed on the board but they totally came under the 'etc' thing, so Toby was gonna go with that and hope that Glendower would be alright with it. Because fairies were COOL and stuff and he totally had a CONNECTION with them, especially after that Care of Magical Creatures assignment, so it didn't seem RIGHT to not pick them. And he was PREPARED TOO. All term Toby had been encountering situations in which one of his prized possessions would come in useful, so he'd taken to carrying said possession around in his bag with him. He KNEW that if there was any class he'd get to use them, it would be this one.

The Hufflepuff reached down into his bag that was always so filled up with textbooks and parchment and quills, and very carefully extracted the fairy wings that Wade had gotten him for his thirteenth birthday. Toby slipped them on and smiled to himself; he'd been feeling a little off recently, mood-wise, and was determined to use this activity to try to kick-start those high spirits of his again.

Now wearing the wings, Toby moved off to the back of the classroom (leaving a trail of glitter as he went, part of the magic of his wings) and dug through the box. Eventually, the fifth year found a cool looking flower crown and shoved that on his head too. Not technically what a fairy wore but he thought it might help out the LOOK a bit, yknow? Shame he didn't have some Fizzing Whizbees on him too; they'd have been dead handy for flying around (or at least floating).

Okay then... time to get interacting. Toby stopped off at his desk again to pick up his class notes and quill and looked around for someone who looked willing to this fairy prince over here.

That was a lot of information and AJ took the time to scribble it all down because not only was she not fully concentrating, but she was confused. Maybe she could look at the notes at a later time and make sense of them them.

Yeah right, she would most likely never look at them again. Time to move on and pick somebody to transform into. AJ was still hung up on the ghosts, and decided to go with that.

Costumes sounded fun. The lion went over to the box and picked up a while sheet. She made two holes for eyes and threw it over her head. BooooOOOoooo she was a ghost.

Okay so her sister had chosen to be a ghost... well that was okay unless they had to communicate together because she'd rather die then communicate with her sister/ the ghost at all. She thought that her sister choosing to be a ghost was really funny actually because she should have chosen something that stabbed people in the back like a Vampire or werewolf but she wasn't going to say anything to her sister about that.

Angel had to make her own costume but how did one make themselves transparent? Well that was going to be hard but in the end she decided to use a few different things and she made sure that she looked like a prankster because that is what Poltergeists did right, they were pranksters. Maybe she should start acting like one but who would her first victim be? She needed a willing volunteer.

Ohhh. They were going to play dress up again. Adi usually hated that but with the History of Magic lessons it was different. They got to dress up as cool things here. Annnnd students were already picking their identities.

Adi eyed the list and one creature instantly jumped out at him: House Elf!

He loved those little, always busy elves. Now he just had to go find props and stuff that would make him all elfy. To the boxes we go!

Norah shook the cramping from her fingers and set her quill to the parchment one last time to scribble the rest of what Professor Glendower had said. Phew. She was done writing yeah? Could they move on to an activity now pleeeeeeease? Hey, they were! The second year sat up straighter in her seat to hear all the details of the activity. Being a beast? COOOL!

The Hufflepuff scanned the list of creatures on the board and began to smile when she spotted trolls. She knew how to be a troll, she had seen one before (unfortunately), but more importantly, she got to be BIG and TALL. Skipping over to the boxes of costumes, Norah got on her knees and began to rummage.

Admittedly, Alexa was almost so wrapped in the conversation she'd forgotten they needed to do an activity part right after. It kinda made her pause for a moment in an attempt to remember what the original discussion was. Right, classifications and laws and rights and the like. Now that she was all caught up again, her eyes scanned the list on the board. Don't get her wrong, she was very tempted to just be a witch and be done with it, walk around and all and mighty like 'I MAKE ALL THE RULES EVER' but it was a little bland too and besides, the Sphinx had caught her attention.

It was settled, she'd be a Sphinx and she'd find something that mattered to someone then guard it. Of course she'd need a riddle for 'em too but she could just as a 'Claw; they saw riddles everyday, surely they were experts on the topic by now.

Before sphinxing around the place though...Lex walked over to get some costume. It occurred to her while she did that were it not for the fact Sphinxes could be so vicious, they could have been beings too on account of the fact they were intelligent and cable of human speech--which apparently didn't count for much anymore.

Something to add to her act.

Yes he had been paying avid attention to all the talk about magical creatures, though admittedly Benny was rather quiet himself. Maybe it was for making the awkward mistake when he had answered or he was just too busy taking everything in and adding notes to his parchment on what he caught. Oh...so the professor had dressed up as a banshee. Probably not the best idea given the dress up of the more crazy professors but it had gotten people's attention at least.

Now as they moved onto the activity portion of the lesson, it wasn't difficult for Benny to pick what he was going to be. His nickname kind of said it all for his affinity for dragons. Granted he wouldn't be able to speak but they should still be represented, both in the classroom and for the homework. So after finishing up his notes, he moved to where Professor Glendower had pointed out props and supplies and went in search of assistance to make his persona more real.

Funny, that this would be the second class this term when he was dealing with this sort of thing. Even if it had been a wizard associated with dragons or rather dragon pox, the last History Of Magic lesson.

So Flobberworms were up there, and Eden definitely thought that would be SUCH an easy one. But seeing as Eden was partial to kneazles, she picked..KNEAZLES. Heh. She wanted to eventually have her own sanctuary for them--and she was well acquainted with them and their....little personalities. Hmm. So that was a no brainer.

She felt rather good about this class, too, because she could follow what they were doing. Which was very nice, heh. She made her way to the costume and props trunks and tried to figure out...well..she quickly found some cat ears. Those would do! Now to find a little bushy tail of some sort...maybe she'd draw whiskers on herself--maybe. She wished someone could do it FOR her. Did ink come off skin---OF COURSE IT DID, duh. hehehe. This would be fun. Kneazles were AWESOME.

After finding a tail she could stick on the back of her skirt, she made her way back to her desk and took out MARKERS. Yes. Eden was part muggle--so OF COURSE SHE HAD MARKERS. She took the black one and drew a triangle on her nose--to represent a cat's nose--and then haphazardly drew the whiskers! MEOW. So maybe she looked like a...messy kneazle, but hey--this was IMPROV, all right? Eden just wanted to lick her hand and MEOW now. To find people to iNTERACT WITH, now. And also to think about...how kneazles felt about all of this...though Eden thought the creatures were very intelligent...hmm. She still didn't think they should be in the 'beings' category.

Of course she'd be needing the fancy Egyptian looking hat thing. It was a must for all sphinxes but as luck would have it, she wasn't born that way with one of them. Good thing too, this thing had to potential to get heavy at times....at least til the muscles in her neck adjusted....

Anyway, a tail would be in order next. The Gryffindor found and attached one then animated it some with a swish of Airey's wand. It didn't do much (because she hadn't attempted fancy magic with the wand that didn't like her half the time) but you could tell it was a tail and she could now successfully go about sphinxing like all the great Sphinxes of Egypt did. All she needed was a victim.

Toby worked well!--Not because he was victim material but because he looked like he already had something of value.

With all the grace Lex didn't possess, she sauntered over to him, noting the parchment and quill. Was he taking notes? Could he take notes for them both because she'd left her own parchment. Maybe she'd duplicate his.

The Gryffindor grinned widely as she nicked the crown from his head. "I'm a Sphinx and this is guarded treasure now. Are you prepared to answer my riddle to get it back?" Did she have to warn him she'd get violent if he got it wrong? He knew that part, right? Unless he was all into the fairy act with their limited intelligence thing. Whoops.

Dot really wanted to be a banshee. She'd just stand in the corner and SCREAM and then write an essay about how no one wanted to or tried to communicate with someone who communicated like that. It would be a double O essay for SURE. But the professor was a banshee, and Dot wasn't a copycat.

So something else. She sorted through the props for inspiration, but it seemed her classmates were much faster than she was. ALL THE GOOD ONES WERE TAKEN. Siiigh. Finally, Dot grabbed up a stuffed horse. She could be a centaur... maybe. If she just Diffindo'd the horse in half, and then used a sticking charm (easy peasy) to stick the back half to her bum.

"Neigh."

Nooooooooooooo, his crowwwwwwwwn.

Toby made pathetic grabby hands as Lex took his flower crown away, though he didn't really make any real attempt to get it back. Seemed that Lex took it for a reason, and that reason was something to do with her character? AH! Sphinx. Treasure. GOT IT.

The Hufflepuff grinned, despite the loss of his treasured crown, and gave a nod.

"Sure, hit me with it!" he replied, before a thought struck him. Fairies couldn't speak, but as they needed to speak for this activity, he supposed it didn't matter that he wasn't getting THAT into the character, right? 'Cause... Toby liked to talk. A lot. When the mood struck. "I'll use my fairy smarts." Which was totally a thing.

He stood there, bouncing slightly on his toes in an 'I'M READY' stance. Riddle. Let's do thiiiiiiis.

Wait. Hold on a minute.

Just HOLD THE FREAKING PHONE.

They had to dress up as a creature? Really? And they had to ACT out that creature and interact with other people as that creature. Grayson wasn't sure how he felt about that. Why? Simple: acting. It wasn't his thing. His previous attempts had been disastrous, to say the least and now he had to be a creature at the same time?

This felt like Halloween.

Now the question was WHICH creature should he dress up as? He had half a mind to go with a Troll, only so that he could go around saying 'TROLLOLOLOL' but someone else had already dressed up as one. What about......... a Basilisk? WELL. He wanted to use a particular word for that but it wasn't appropriate for the classroom so he had to go with yet another one. Something....... like.........

........... MANTICORE!

He was gonna dress up as a Manticore. A beast. It had been decided.

Lex moved the crown just a little further away but put no real effort into it knowing that Toby wasn't actually gonna snatch it back. It could have been a part of the act too if you thought about it because a fairy would have gone after its crown for sure, only maybe the Sphinx would have crushed it. No crushing Toby though, he was good people.

Seeing him bouncing like that, she figured she had to make it a good one otherwise it'd be a complete disappointment, see?

"Alright, here goes, just know I'm gonna fake!attack you if it's wrong because I have my reputation to live up to and can't have my buddies along the Nile thinking I've gone soft." Because Sphinxes totally cared about that sort of thing. They had to, being intelligent and all. They knew what a good name meant around certain places.

Hmmmm...let's see.....ah! She had one.

"So, I am in the beginning of the earth.
I am at the end of the time.
I appear two times in a week.
I appear once in a year.

What Am I ?"

Go for it while she looked all solemn and regal and stuff in character. Ahem.