.... What the heck was up with all of these mystery boxes?

Zander didn't really see the appeal, as it meant having to WAIT to find out the contents within them. And he wasn't all that good at waiting. See, curious Gryffindor things didn't really mix with patience and waiting.

Anyways, he was gonna try not to think about it as he approached his CoMC Professor. "Hi Professor, what's in the box?" Okay. Too late. He thought about it. Ahem. Welp, there was always next time. Maybe Professor Culloden would show up with a mystery box too.

Where to sit though? This was always the hardest part. He noticed plenty of familiar faces, very tempted to go sit near Lux and Cinna. But instead... He was gonna go sit on a blanket thing next to Noel. Hi Hufflepuff friend. Sup.

"Good day, everyone." Now that the silence had unfolded with the exception of the crackling fire, "Hope you all have enough room in your stomachs for some snacks as Mr. Nicolei and Mr. Rehman will be passing around the marshmallows and Graham crackers." As for what today's class entailed, "Today will be somewhat a relaxing day, as exams are approaching closer." How relaxing? "As you all know of the recent circumstances, you'll be satisfied to know our little Griffin friends have been returned to their sanctuary safely." Well, he didn't say happy since he could tell a number had grown attached to them already. "We will begin with a little discussion before getting to practice care on a favoured creature."

While some of the items were going around, Professor Thompson then revealed the remaining items from another bag. The large box still occasionally shaking. "Do not worry, you will find out what is in that one... after we fix our snack." Revealing out of the bag: Chocolate and Strawberry syrup and a sprinkle shaker. With perfectly shaped sticks, plates and juice boxes being summoned to everyone after. "Gather round everyone and get what you need, since we'll be on the floor for the duration just as last class." Now to finally start off. "So, while we prepare our little feast meals let's begin with the higher classified magical creatures. Something that will likely show up on your exams." Hint, hint as that large box still occasionally shook. "Now what do you know of XXXX and XXXXX ranked creatures?"

---
OOC: As mentioned, what do your characters know on XXXX & XXXXX-ranked creatures? Try to share only one idea/fact on them, so others can have a chance. =) Lesson will continue sometime tomorrow.

Oooo class was beginning and he could focus on it for the moment rather than any awkwardness that lingered among the group of four friends. Benny was glad for that, even more than news of the likeliness of them creating smores since Adi and Henric were to be passing out marshmellows and graham crackers. He couldn't help but make a small face at the fact that they were grabbed together. Adi he could see as prefect....by why did the other boy have to be the other one.

Sigh.

There was mixed feelings about the news on the griffins since they wouldn't be caring for them anymore, but Benny supposed it was all for the best. They were probably best with trained professionals. Soon...soon he hoped to be one of them. Or at least on the way to be one of them. As the first question was put for the class, the Gryffindor was back being distracted away from thoughts of food and he raised his hand to answer.

"They are highly dangerous , the XXXXX creatures having instances of killing witches and wizards." And muggles too he supposed.

This class was fun all by itself, but today they were getting snacks. That was an extra bonus. What more could Janelle ask for? Animals and snacks. Nothing better. Professor Thompson was still being mysterious though. They still didn't know what was in the box. The curiosity was killing her, but Janelle just had to wait for the answer like everyone else.

Then it was question time and Janelle was ready to share what she knew about magical creature classifications. Raising her hand. she began to speak. "XXXXX creatures can't be trained." They were the baddest of the bad. Those were the ones who should not be messed with.

Cinna smiled at Lux it was nice to at least be on speaking terms. Baby steps maybe one day there friendship really be a thing again. They could sit together in lessons that was cool. She also seen Zander who looked like he was going to join them or not. He did get a little friendly wave.

Yeah. There were getting marshmallows. She always. always had room for food. Always. Toasted marshmallows made her happy. And what a relief relaxing day? What did that really mean?

Awww Jean was gone? But it was nice to know that she was in a safe sanctuary. What exactly were they going to be studying? Dragons? No probably not dragons but that would be cool wouldn't it? She had no idea but listened and tried to figure out what was in the box.

Snack time? That had her full attention. She moved closer with the others. She decided on both chocolate and strawberry syrup. Why not? Chocolate covered strawberries were her favorite. She raised her "They are some of the most dangerous creatures." Obviously. But still it was a true fact.

Wait. Wait wait wait wait. What was this that the professor was saying? The griffins were gone, but it was somehow okay because he was giving them crackers? Merlin's long beard, did he really think that was a good trade? Her eyes welled up immediately and Dot put a hand in the air.

Then she put the other one in the air, because she had TWO questions.

"Professor, can we visit them? Our griffins? 'Cause mine thinks that I'm his best friend and momma, and I would hate for him to get abandonment issues. And also..." She waved her second arm. "Can you guarantee these snacks will not turn us into werepeople? Or any other animal? Or are entirely mundane and not magical?" You wouldn't lie to a teary fourth year, WOULD YOU?

Food. Curiosity. Distractions.

Beverly's gaze kept flickering from the food, the box and the professor. Her priorities shifted. Good and creatures, it was like putting her between a wall and sword. As the food came around, she raised her hand. At least she didn't have to choose.

"XXXXX creatures can't be domesticated...like dragons." Beautifully majestic and wild at heart. "Can't be domesticated."

Until one day...when Beverly Wayne conquered dragons.

DID PROFESSOR THOMPSON JUST MENTION MARSHMALLOWS AND GRAHAM CRACKERS????

If s'mores were involved this lesson, she was going to DIE. Lux was going to die because she loved s'mores. Could they be a part of every lesson? Well, maybe not Potions...but still. They needed to be a part of lessons from now on.

She beamed at Cinna, because she knew that she loved food too. Food was amazing and everyone should love it. Bay loved it; too bad he couldn't enjoy it with her. Since she was an amazing girlfriend, she could eat another snack for him. Yeah, Professor Thompson should totally allow that because he was an awesome teacher.

Food in hand, Lux was sooo tempted to start eating, but figured that it would be a good idea to answer the question first. She raised her hand. "Only trained wizards and those with specialist knowledge can deal with creatures rated XXXX." Finished speaking, her eyes drifted to the box that occasionally shook. She wondered what was inside.

"Aights, Professor Thompson! No problem,"Henric nodded, grinning at the prospect of handing out the deliciousness to the class with Adi!! BRILLIANT! He took the bag of Graham Crackers from the professor and started giving out to the first row of students. Hopefully there were still more left for him to steal back. Narh, he was only joking. He would probably eat them along the way though. Hehe. "Here you go, mate...for you...and you.."he said while handing out the goodies. After he was done, he walked to Benny,"Hey, you wanna help handing these out too?"he asked as he pulled a bunch of graham crackers in his hands, it was totally fine if he didn't want to, he would recruit llia to help him. There were plenty of hungry and eager looking students left to give around them.

Henric still left a few more Graham packets in his bag and everyone else seemed to have a fair share....huhu...He went back to his seat beside llia and passed the leftovers to her."Here...llia,you can have the rest,"he smiled. And ohhh chocolates and strawberry jam!!Whuut!Weee~

Too distracted with the snack in hand....he opted to just listen to his classmates answers while popping a marshmallows into his mouth. He couldn't talk anyway with his mouth full.

Food. Sweet treats. This was happening. Throw in a mystery box that was currently housing a mystery creature and you had a party. Inner screaming was happening because outer screaming was frowned upon. It was a good way to get points taken away from you too. AJ was almost fifteen years old and she was totally mature now. Yeah... right.

Ohhh... Henric and Adi were going to be handing out the goodies to everybody. D-R-A-M-A. Either the professor had no idea about the issues with the three boys and it was a mere coincidence orrrr he liked stirring the pot. Either way AJ couldn't help but to look in the direction of Benny. Awkward.

She took the food given to her by the pair, and shoved a graham cracker down her throat before she could stop herself. Whoops. Slow down, AJ. Nobody was going to take it from you.

As far as the question was concerned, AJ knew those creatures were bad news. "I think they are just misunderstood..."

Ohhh, Thompson had a job for him? Nooooo problemo! Mr Helpful was on the way! "Sure, I can do that, Professor.'' He gave the man a grin and padded off. Did Thompson do the right thing by giving him the marshmallows? Maybeee, maybe not, because even before Adi arrived at his first classmate, one of the treats was in his mouth. Woopsie. Hehe.

Adi moved about holding out the marshmallows so that the others could take how many they wanted. "None for you,'' he told AJ when he reached her and playfully pulled the sweets away. LOl! He kidded! The girlfriend was likely to beat him up if she didn't get any. After AJ had gotten hers, he moved on to the rest of the class before flopping down by his group, holding out what was left for Benny, Henric and Ilia.

His hand was up, ready to answer the question. "XXXX requires specialist knowledge, Professor.'' The sixth year snagged two crackers to sandwich a marshmallow between. Oh and yep. He was pleased for the baby Griffins but he would miss biter Henry. :/

SPOILER!!: Before Class

Ilia was happy to see both of her older classmates / friends return her greeting. Benny still seemed to hold an air of tension around her best friend, but it didn't seem as though he would transfer it to her. She wished that there had been no tension though, it was a start. She recalled their teamwork in transfiguration class with a small smile. They made an effective group, two pairs of best friends. She found it slightly odd when Henric over emphasized his greeting for her and scooted closer. What was this all about? A show for Benny possibly? She didn't know if it would make him feel better , but she was okay with it and simply accepted.

She missed the baby griffin's and she worried about Sindri. Did anyone sing to her now? She knew that they would be well off, but she would always love her dearly. She accepted the food that Henric gave her with a small smile, but she didn't have any interest in eating it right now. After the joint P.A.D. lesson she was wary about anything given to them by a professor.....and she was too excited about creatures to want to eat. It was hands down the class she really loved and no food could take her attention, even if it was yummy.

What did she know about level xxxx and xxxxx creatures? She listened to her classmates , but on her turn answered. "Level XXXX creatures may be classified as such, not necessarily for their danger level, but also if they are endangered or hard to keep in captivity." Ah level xxxx creatures, phoenixes and thestrals were what came to mind for her and she loved them.

Marshmallows and graham crackers?!? WOAH. How was Dima meant to focus now?

He tried to keep his attention on the professor and off the food, though. An attempt was what counted, right? And the Ravenclaw would try ANSWERING, too, just to prove he wasn't totally lost in daydreams of s'mores large enough to hug.

Hand up. "I know that Merpeople are one of the creatures rated XXXX, sir." Dima was sure because he had researched them this year, when he'd decided to take up learning Mermish. It was rather fun. "D'you think they could be one of the species that are endangered or hard to captivate rather than being too dangerous, like that other girl said?"

Er... he didn't know her name....... awkward.

Marshmallows and graham crackers. Penelope didn't like marshmallows very much, but she did like graham crackers. She would just have graham crackers. What would they be doing today? XXXXX creatures? Those were the really dangerous ones, right? "They're dangerous." She didn't really know much about XXXXX creatures other than that. This wasn't one of her best subjects. Maybe she should spend more time studying for this class.

Food? FOOOOD? Man, this was the best day EVER. Norah beamed at Professor Thompson as she sat down and reached for a marshmallow. She held it up to her nose and took a deep inhale. Perfect. She looked up from her potential feast as he started the lesson. That was a whole lot of X's. Were there any creatures that were XXXXXXXXXX? Or XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX? Who got to decide how many X's one of them got, anyways? The other students had already mentioned the dangerous bit and really that was the only thing she knew, so she put her hand up instead to ask, "How do they decide how many X's it gets?" Professor Thompson had to know, he was a professor.

Angel was totally happy and she gave the Professor a nod when he asked if she was well, now though she had to try and figure out what xxxx or xxxxx meant. In clothing wasn't the x like an extra so that would be some big clothing there.

Angel was shocked when the Professor said they were going to have a snack, most Professor didn't like you snacking in class and she wondered what was going on first it was very dusty and now the Professors were letting you eat in class, okay who has kidnapped the real professor and replaced them with robots?

Angel was still trying to figure out everything else. She thought for awhile but couldn't figure out anything so she decided that she would just guess. "Professor it means they are the most dangerous creature around which means you can't have them as pets right."

Noel smiled when Zander joined him. "Hey Blondie" the boy greeted with a grin. The lint roller incident still fresh in his mind.

The grin only widened when snacks and a relaxing day was mentioned. Yes. They needed a break. Especially fifth years because OWLs. Yeah. Noel didn't wait around and got himself a juice box. Sipping on it, he waited his turn and then put his hand up to answer.

"the creatures in five Xs has to be much more dangerous than the ones classified in 4 Xs." It seemed like a 'duh' thing, yeah? "I think the 4 Xs mean there is hope to train these creatures and maybe not get killed but 5 Xs is like 'abandon all hope'"

Marsha looked up as someone sat next to her, her happy grin still plastered over her face. OH! It was Roo. Awesome. ”How are you, Roo?” She asked as he got comfortable. Actually, how comfortable were these blankets? Hehehe.

Ohh, food! She smiled at Adi and the other Hufflepuff who were handing out food and grinned at the Professor as he handed out MORE food. This was awesome - but what. Marsha’s heart sunk and her face fell as he mentioned that the Griffins - THEIR BABIES - had been sent to a proper Griffin reserve. She bit on her lip to keep from crying at the thought of never getting to see Cadfael again but tried to hold it together as he moved on to the subject of XXXX and XXXXX creatures.

Sniff. Distracting them with food and awesome creatures. Low move Thompson.

But really… Marsha couldn’t blame him. I mean the Griffin’s were going to be far too big for the housing here and they didn’t have NEARLY enough space… so she knew it was better, but she would have liked to have said goodbye. BUT - Dot asked an excellent question. COULD they see their Griffins again? Yes? Yes needed to be the answer.

As she settled down again, she picked at her smore and then nodded her head at the Professor and listened to the others in her class. Dangerous? Pfft, they said that like it was a bad thing. You just had to be careful and know what you were doing. ”Misunderstood creatures…” She muttered as everyone kept pointing out their worst character flaws. Niave, creature loving girl over here.

”Sir, fiveX is the category assigned by the ministry to animals such as Dragons, Basilisks, Acromantula’s and Manticore’s. Generally, they are in that category for how hard they can be to calm down once they are shocked or scared and that can often lead to accidents and death… but it’s just a shame we can’t communicate with them properly… I’m sure they don’t really deserve that category listing.” Sighsigh.

Toby kinda did notice the blanket get a little easier to pull around him and therefore better suited as a sort of blanket burrito cave thing, but was not observant enough to realise how it had happened. Just one of those things. He sat huddled in the blanket and watched the fire for a little while until they got started.

And... ooooooooh... FOOD. Toby had absolutely not learnt his lesson about accepting food from professors, no questions asked, after that P.A.D. lesson, because 1. he'd not actually eaten the cookies that day, and 2. he'd pushed most of the memories from that class out of his brain. Also, he absolutely trusted that Thompson wouldn't trick them all with sneaky potions in food, for reasons.

Ohhh, but were those marshmallows vegetarian? Huh... that was the question. Toby had no idea, and even though he figured they probably WERE on account of Prof T always being prepared, he still only nibbled on one of the graham crackers (though he took both s'more components). Anyway, yeah. FOOD ASIDE FOR THE MOMENT (shock horror), he should probably give an answer to the question.

"Those're the ones that are less likely to let you cuddle them," Toby put in, his arm in the air and making the blanket draped around him look even bigger for a moment. Technically, he wasn't wrong, but most of the obvious answers had been said and Toby was thinking OUTSIDE THE BOX. Plus, Thompson knew that Toby knew his stuff when it came to creatures. The Hufflepuff dropped his hand again and picked up another cracker to nibble at. "I'd cuddle them though, if they wanted, or I'd at least try, and I'd ask first to see if they wanted a cuddle. Or I'd try to be their friend, 'cause it must be lonely at the top, everyone's probably scared of you with all those Xs, an-"

WAS THAT JUICE? Toby broke of suddenly, mid-sentence, and abandoned his answer and train of thought entirely to focus on leaning on over and grabbing himself a juice box.

... Could he maybe drink some chocolate syrup too? Maybe? Would anyone notice? No? Toby eyed the bottle, all shifty like.

Class started, and Kate was suddenly really happy about two things. Number one, their griffin friends were alright, and they'd been returned to their sanctuary. That was good. Kate would have been heartbroken to learn that something had happened to Chad. The second was that their was food, which was good, because Kate was hungry thinking about all those snacks.

Okay, so Ministry rating and what they mean...

Raising her hand, Kate said, "My mom is a Senior Dragon Researcher at the Ministry of Magic, and she sometimes works with dragons that have that classification," she said. "I know that she and the team she works with is sometimes called in to give their research on the dragons, so that people know how to handle them properly. So I'd say that creatures in this category need to handled by people with a lot of knowledge about them."

OOOOH were they gonna learn about dragons? PLEASE LET THEM LEARN ABOUT DRAGONS! Caleb already loved this class and he would SO love it more if they got a chance to learn about some awesome, deadly stuff. Just not lethifolds.

He raised his hand to contribute to the conversation. "Sometimes, like with merpeople and centaurs, they are rated XXXX because they have human like intelligence and therefore can be manipulative and dangerous, just like any other human," he explained. Personally, if he were a merperson he'd be very insulted at the term 'human like intelligence' but eh, what can you do, that's how it was...

Groaaaaaan. Did Thompson HAVE to mention exams? DID HE?

Grayson scrunched up his face as he started munching on the marshmallow and Graham cracker combo he'd managed to grab. They sucked the fun out of everything, those freaking exams. And he was MORE than ready to be done with them already. Who wanted to be sitting there studying for hours on end when they could be doing something FAR more interesting?

Exa--

WOAH WAIT HOLD THE FREAKING PHONE.

His eyes widened at the question as he looked over at the box near Thompson. No. Way. Did this mean that they were gonna learn about an interesting, and hence dangerous, creature? Oh MAN. THIS was what he was talking about! Bring 'em the dangerous creratures

Gulping down the last of the snack, the boy proceeded to raise his hand up in the air. "If you value your life, you shouldn't willingly go near these creatures unless you know what you're doing. There's a fine line between bravery and just plain stupidity."

Benny was simply listening as some of the others gave answers to the question posed to them, not paying attention to the progression of the snack helpers. Hearing Henric speak again near him, the Gryffindor looked up, confused at his question. "No..." he said finally, perhaps a little firmer than he meant it as he motioned for the Huffie to keep the graham crackers. "Thompson asked you to do it." He wasn't about to question one of his favorite staffers.

Even if it wasn't the best.

He was just sit here, listening to stuff and answering what he could. And awaiting the truth about what they actually would be learning on. That had to be interesting given the opening bit of information being shared. Could he finally get his wish?

Could he? Could he?

Hugh was, SHOCKINGLY (not so much), hardly paying any mind to what was happening at the front of the class. He had been in deep thought the past two months about the universe and was too engrossed in THAT to pay attention to much of anything. Not that he really thought he was missing much, yo.

AFTER ALL, none of this mattered. None of them existed. Everything was uncertain save his own thoughts. He thought them, therefore, he knew he existed. Perhaps not in the platform he saw everyday via the mirror but he knew he existed in one way. Everyone else? Eh. Yet to be decided.

So paying attention was not at the top of his list of things worth doing.

Though he did manage to hear something about a ton of X's.

What class was he in again? No idea.

Great they would be on their behinds the whole lesson. Well one thing was for sure Dante's legs would be dead by the time the class ends. You could bet even galleons on that. You know if you wanted easy money and who doesn't.

Those were a lot of X's for a classification. They should make it easier like just make it a skull and cross bones. That would get the message across that students or anyone should be seeking out these creatures.

Time to move and try and get comfortable again.

It was a losing battle but why not.