Remy gave the Professor a smile, moving around in his chair to get comfortable - his long legs spreading out towards the fire. As he waited for the Professor to start talking, he ended up entranced by the fire - staring at it he realised it was moving slightly different than he expected - but that wasn’t anything new… it was likely just magical. He shrugged off the thought and pulled his line of sight back to the Professor as he started the class.

…..

So there was something different about the fire. Heh.

Staring at the fire, he grinned as the reason the flames were so different came into view. Salamanders. Pretty. Putting his hand into the air, the Seventh year grinned. ”Salamanders are alive for as long as the flames that bore them are… and I believe they can survive for roughly six hours outside of that fire.” He grinned, watching the Salamanders within the fire. Pretty pretty creatures.

Sam had been watching the flames for a while after taking a seat, but hadn't noticed the creatures hidden within until Professor Wayland mentioned she should be looking for them. Yup, she could see the salamanders sat there in the flickering flames. How cool.

Except not cool at all. Hot enough to give very bad burns indeed.

Aaaanyways, Sam knew quite a few things about salamanders from her OWL studies, so she drew her eyes away from the fire and raised her hand. "Salamanders are lizards...which are reptiles, but the Muggle variety are amphibians." That was, not reptiles. Which was curious really, given they had the same name.

"I was just trynna give you some company," GEEEEEZ. "But it's okay... I get it," she STAGE!whispered, giving him a good ol' WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE before hopping off onto the ground. This was so fun! His midlife crisis was like they're little secret!!

Anywaaaaaays, SHE STUCK THE LANDING and made her way to one of the lawn chairs around the campfire. Zor wasn't even mad that he was threatening her with points and lashing out. Poor old man, it wasn't his fault. It was the midlife crisis getting the best of him.

As for the salamanders, Zoryn's immediate thought was Derf's. Did he have a MAGIC one? She'd have to ask. "Bet they're cuter than muggle ones." 'Cause Zoryn was WAY cuter than any muggle, so it probably had to do with the whole magic thing.

Also, everyone at Hogwarts was super attractive. Coincidence???????

HMMmmmmMMmmMmmmMMmMmmMmmmmm?

Probs not. It was def the magic.

Maddie was distracted. Completely distracted. There was a HUGE CAMP CHAIR made out of hay bales, and she wanted to sit on it! Too bad it wasn't for her. She frowned at her regular old camp chair. It didn't seem nearly as interested as that super huge hay bale chair. Her eyes flickered away from the hay bale chair, as she tried to steer her attention to the lesson. Ohhh, there was a hidden creature in the fire?! That sounded FUN! Maddie leaned forward and looked into the fire, but just as she was about to have fun trying to find the creature, the professor spoiled the surprise.

Salamanders.

Maddie waved her hand in the air. "Magical salamanders can survive in a fire, but if you put a Muggle salamander in a fire, it'd probably die," she said.

Patrick leaned in closer realizing that there were in fact salamanders in the fire. "woah, didn't realize they were in there. But I guess the magical properties of a salamander are similar to a chameleon? Where they change to adapt?" He looked further in, "But I agree with Maddie on the muggle salamanders, fire and salamander equals death."

He was enamored with the salamanders and the fact that they were what was creating a fire. He began to wonder if the fires in the common room were these Salamandars or if they were real fires. Although did they make good pets?

Oh, interesting. Katy leaned forward to get a good look at the individual flames that indicated specific salamanders, although the heat and smoke hurt her eyes so much that most of what she saw was watery blur. She blinked hard and sat back in her chair.

"Salamander blood is a good restorative in brewing potions. I suspect that's linked to their ability to regrow their tail if it gets pulled off." Of course the fact that Katy shared had to do with potions. Did he want some information on how their scales could be used too?

Magical Salamanders? Why did it matter what they did differently, weren't they just salamanders either way? He couldn't help but feel his eyes roll when things were compared to that gross muggle world. Nothing needed to be compared because they didn't need the muggles or their boring creatures. Eddie was already regretting coming to this lesson, he could have gotten the dorm to himself for awhile since all the other boys were here.

He watched and half listened his eyes scanning the area. Maybe with the salamanders around they would attract snakes so he could finally find a new one he liked. Finding a creature you actually liked and that you could actually get it to do your bidding was hard work, so it was no surprise he used this precious time to look for a snake instead of a salamander.

Flaming salamanders??? Emmeline's eyes immediately sought out Derf's, 'cause he was going to LOVE this lesson. She was super excited about it, too, to be honest. The second year perched on the edge of her camp chair and peered eagerly into the flames.

Now that Professor Wayland had pointed it out, it was super obvious that there were loads of smaller fires in the pit instead of one HUUUGE fire. The Gryffindor scanned the fires for any sign of movement; she was staring so intently into the flames that she had to blink several times and close her eyes briefly before she could go back to looking for the creatures. This was aweeeeessoooome!

She listened carefully to her classmates' answers to the professor's question before she raised her own hand and added, "These salamanders are born out of flames too, and we call those flames salamander fires 'cause of that." Another characteristic that had already been mentioned bothered Emmeline, though. If flaming salamanders couldn't survive for more than 6 hours outside of a fire....were THESE salamanders going to die??? She wasn't TOO upset about this, though, 'cause she figured that Professor Wayland had some cool solution to this problem, and that he'd probably tell them allll about it during the lesson.

Oh look, Zoryn! Jessa returned the girl's wave with an enthusiastic one of her own before the Professor's question drew her attention away. "Yes, undead." She clarified, punctuating the sentence with a firm nod of her head. "I'll be happy to let you have a look as I do think I may need to have another word with you regarding it." Here was to hoping he wouldn't completely lose it like he did last time. She didn't want to have to sit through another lecture just to tell him it was sanctioned and alright.

But that would have to wait. For now, there was a lesson to get through and by the sound of it, it'd be one that Derf would really like.

Jessa leaned over a bit, trying to get a better look at the salamander while the man began his lesson. What did she know about them? Hardly anything in truth. While the girl was a wide reader, she tended to focus on topics that interested her. Outside of the curiosity that lay in the fact they could be in fire, there wasn't much to keep her attentive.

"Curiosily enough, there's a a specie of magical salamander that's more closely related to ice, called frost salamanders."

Ooooh! Etta leaned forward to study the creatures closely. She watched as the professor asked questions, wondering what she knew about salamanders. Not much, really. She’d read about them of course.. but she only remembered a little bit. Finally, the girl hesitantly raised a hand to answer.

“Well, they are born out of flames? And they are either red or blue depending on the heat of the flames.. right?” At least, as far as she could recollect. UM. She paused for a moment before she continued, “So basically, there are two kinds of magical salamanders. Muggle salamanders are amphibians and.. they are not fire-based unlike the magical kind.” .. And that’s as far as she knew, anyway.

Salamanders were pretty interesting. Hattie wrote the creatures name at the top of her parchment, and then began jotting down what her class mates were saying. She wanted to make sure that she had a nice set of notes to revise from when it got closer to her OWLS. She was tried to be as prepared as she could be. She really did not want to fail, especially this subject since it was her mother's favourite. She liked it too, though it wasn't really her favourite. Now she had to think of a answer to the question. She doodled on her parchment as she thought about her answer.

Eventually she put her hand up into the air, to say her answer. "If they are fed on pepper they can survive out of the fire for up to six hours. But we need to remember the pepper." Otherwise they'd have a dead salamander and that would be no fun.

Daisy thought that salamanders were very awesome. She had accepted Derf's scarf and her hands were now nice and toasty. As she listened to her fellow students' answers, her mind was struggling to come up with a valid answer. Within seconds, her hands were getting too warm so she silently handed the scarf back to its owner with a smile and raised her hand to answer the question. "Salamander blood is used to make the potion known as The Strengthening Solution," she answered, biting her lip in uncertainty.

HOLY FLAMING SALAMANDERS!

Alright. In hindsight he knew that his inquiry about dragons had been a little too fantastical, but couldn't fault the Hufflepuff for hoping, you know? His eyes were still WIDE with wonder and excitement when his more practical guess had proven correct. SALAMANDERS!

BUT HE COULD ONLY SAY ONE THING?! Oh what cruel kind of punishment was this?!

Mind racing to think of his FAVORITE nugget of information regarding magical salamanders meant that his hand remained lowered for an unbearably long time. The fire element of it all was a given, hence the fire pit, so the Hufflepuff did not feel like stating the obvious. Comparing the differences in diet, where the magical counterparts they would be dealing with, should be fed pepper while out of the flames was interesting but not THE most interesting bit. Them representing the runic number six was INTERESTING, but it had little to do with the magical properties of the creature itself. That was simply a meaning that witches and wizards had given the creature. Mentioning their limb regeneration capabilities? That was a neat little link between both the muggle and magical. Sam had mentioned the NEAT thing about one being a reptile and the other being an amphibian, to that was out TOO.

Oh fudgesticks. WHAT TO SHARE?!

"....are we gonna treat scale rot?" he asked instead. Since thinking more on what to share about the creatures (JUST ONE THING?! FOR WHY?!)
was practically making steam come out of his ears.

Shay smiled when the professor asked about Coco. "Coco's doing great. I can't believe how big she's gotten. I'm going to see her after class." Yes she would be seeing her baby later, without a doubt. Before Shay knew it, class was starting. Surprise, surprise.......there were salamanders in the fire. She had totally missed that. Well this lesson was going to be fun.

And then questions........several. Shay went through her mental checklist of salamander knowledge. So many answers had already been given. Then she took note of what Derf had just said. Raising her hand, she added to his comment. "Magical salamanders can get scale rot, like Derf said. It's an illness that can affect dragons too. If the scale rot isn't treated, the salamander's tail can fall off. I believe that rubbing chilli peppers on the salamander is the cure."

So honestly? Skylar was distracted for several reasons, but she was going to TRY her hardest to pay attention because merlin only knew when this information was going to present itself again. And like, OWLs, which something that would never cease to be on the fifth year's mind until she received her scores next summer.

Salamanders though? They were reptiles and useful in potions, as was already mentioned... and they didn't die in fire? Was that why they were sitting around a fire pit? As long as they didn't have to retrieve the salamanders from the fire, she was good; using fire for warmth was the best use. Except that her eyes were watering from the smoke, but she would be okay...

"It is believed that fire salamanders," fire, because that was the kind they were talking about today, most likely, "Consume a diet of various insects, spiders, earthworms and slugs..."

The fire was nice in the chilly air and Cass had found herself starring at the flames and letting her mind wander. When Professor Wayland spoke up beginning the lesson, the sixth year had to shake her head to bring herself back to the current situation and not where she had been. Pay attention there, McNally, she scolded herself as she listened to what was being said. Not one fire but a bunch of smaller fires? You would have thought she had noticed that when she had been staring. Or maybe noticed what was hidden there that they would be working on today.

“Guess I was seeing movement…” she mused aloud. Besides the flickering flames of course. Cassie looked closer, half-expecting to spot an ashwinder but no. Just as the professor spoke again she spotted it, identifying it as the man spoke its name out loud.

Salamanders.

“The salamander is used in the runic alphabet to represent the number 6 since it’s the common number of legs they normally have and the number of hours they can live outside the flames of birth.”

Salamanders. Magical Salamanders.... Muggle Salamanders.... more than one kind of magical Salamanders....?

Tenacius couldnt help but snicker secretly in his seat. This class felt like a bizarre discussion about himself or his father, given how often they were both jokingly called Salamander. "Theres definitely more than one kind of magical Salamanders Sir...." he replied, trying to keep a straight face he failed and trying to fight the urge to do a look-at-me-pirouette to highlight his meaning.

Lets just look at the pretty flames and wonder if he had any marshmallows and graham crackers on him.

What did Char know about Salamanders? She let other answers wash over her and thought about it for a while before putting her hand up, eyes fixed on the flames.

"Professor, Salamander scale has been used as a wand core." She supposed it would be fitting for fiery individuals...?

Alright! Now they could move on! "Very good answers everyone. Now I am going to give you a little more information before we move on. It may be a good idea to take notes!" He paused allowing the students to ready their parchment and quills.

"Now then. Salamanders are, as so many of you stated, born out of fires that are called, you guessed it, Salamander Fires. They also feed off of these fires." He paused for those writing, "They are born either blue or red depending on the heat of the flames, and they live as long as the fire that produced them does." He paused again, "As many of you said they can live outside of their fire for six hours as long as you feed it Pepper, but please make sure you put it back in before that six hours is up or they will die." He really hoped they all remembered that because it was a very important fact. Didn't want any dead Salamanders. "As Jessa said, there is also a magical bread of Salamanders that are Frost related instead of Fire." But those weren't going to be touched on today.

"Many of you touched on the topic of Salamander blood being regenerative and curative so we wont go any further on that, as well as the runic symbol." He paused, moving about the circle, to an opening closer to the fire pit. "Now let's get to the main activity, shall we?" He smiled, and with a flick of his wand, a pair of dragon hide gloves appeared.

"Today we are going to check the Salamanders for scale rot. If you aren't sure what that is or what it looks like, when you pick up a Salamander and upon checking it's scales, you notice there are patches of dull and flaky scales...that is scale rot." He paused, kneeling down to the fire pit, and plucked a flaming salamander from the fire in front of him. He quickly discovered a patch of dull scales. "This little guy here has the beginnings of it on his back. All you have to do is grab a handful of chilli powder, and start rubbing. When you finish put them in the exact spot you found them in." With a wave of his wand a box of chilli powder floated up next to him, and he took a handful and began rubbing the Salamander.

When he was finished he placed the Salamander back in the exact spot he took it from. "That simple. There are many Salamanders in this fire pit and they all need to be checked and treated. So please grab a box of chilli powder from the deck," he pointed to the deck of his hut, "make sure you put your dragon hide gloves on, and have at it." He said with a smile, "Oh, just so you know I have put a spell on the fire itself to not burn you, but the Salamander's still can so be careful not to get them too close to your clothing." He didn't want to have any accidents.

"Oh and another thing, there will be some...refreshments closer to the end of the lesson, for those that asked or are wondering." He said with a wink and a smile. "If you need help just call for me! I will be walking around." And with that, he began to roam.


OOC: Sorry it took me so long to post! Had an unexpected family event to deal with!

SO! The main activity is for your characters to treat as many Salamanders as they can, though not all of the Salamanders will need treatments It is a pretty self explanatory activity. You can do this in as many posts as you want or one big giant one! Whatever you prefer! You will have 4 days (until Monday around 9:30pm EST) to complete this part of the lesson before we move on. Have fun!

As he waited for class to begin and got himself warmed up by the fire, Henry looked up, happy to see that Char took the seat next to him. He gave her a grin and a little finger wiggle in return, enjoying their secret sign. It also made him look forward to after class.

"We should get some hot chocolate after class," he whispered to her, leaning closer so she could hear. Their professor drinking his own kind of made him think about it. And they could sit in front of a fire then too. But it looked like class was starting now, so he sat up again to pay attention, eager to know what they'd be learning about today.

In fact, Henry had not noticed that the fire was actually several smaller fires, and he squinted a bit at them as the professor pointed that out. Huh. Anyway... salamanders were pretty cool, even the mundane ones, which he did not find boring at all, Professor! He knew a little bit about the amphibians, both magical and mundane, but it seemed others knew just as much. He couldn't really think of anything else too relevant, other than a story about when he was a kid catching salamanders, mundane ones, but he didn't think it would be all that helpful, and besides, class was moving on now.

An activity? Henry watched attentively as Professor Wayland demonstrated how to assist the salamanders with scale rot. He hadn't been aware of that condition before, and he thought it good that he learn it now. It could be something he needed to know, considering one of his career options. Maybe.

He wasn't worried about the fire or the salamanders at all. In fact, he was quite eager to get started. "I'll bring you back a box of chili powder, too," he mentioned to Char as he got up from his seat. He was heading over there anyway and he pulled on his own dragonhide gloves on the walk over. Grabbing two boxes, he gave one to his girlfriend once he got back to their seats, then headed over close to one of the fires. Now, which one of these little guys had some scale rot?

Salamanders! Aw, she liked the sound of As soon as Professor Wayland had mentioned that, a smile was brought to her lips as she remembered meeting Derf when he had called out, "Flying Salamanders!!" Heh. Today maybe it was more flaming salamanders!

She had listened to the other students present answers and then Professor Wayland presented the activity that they would be tackling today. Checking for scale rot? Now that sounded interesting. Patches of dull and flaky scales is scale rot. Okay. She was following. Okay they needed chili powder and needed to start rubbing it but first they needed to get a Salamander from the fire pit. Vi watched as Professor Wayland pick up a Salamander. Awww... the Salamanders were kinda cute. Before she began, she needed to go grab some chili powder from the hut.

She stood up and walked over to the the hut, slipping her dragonhide gloves to go pick up a box of chili powder.

Oooh. They got to pick up a Salamander. That was pretty cool. Also kind of exciting. She would not be falling asleep in this lesson. Or she hoped not, because she might end up setting her clothes on fire. That would not be good at all. Hattie paid attention, whilst the Professor explained what they had to do. She wanted to make sure she paid attention so that she would get it right. She did not need to get something wrong. This might come up in her exam and she wanted to make sure she knew exactly what to do. And now it was there turn.

She quickly tied her hair up, not wanting any of it to catch on fire. fifth year carefully pulled on her dragonhide gloves. She didn't want to get burnt. And now she could pick up the salamander. She carefully approached thef ire, and picked up her first salamander. She was careful to not hold it too close to her clothes, not wanting to get them burnt or on fire.

And then she began to check if it had any scale rot.

Daisy carefully slipped on her gloves and made her way to fetch a box of chilli powder. She then proceeded to fetch a salamander from the fire pit, making sure that her clothes didn't catch on fire. Daisy carefully inspected the creature looking for the tell-tale signs of scale rot. To her delight/relief, this particular one wasn't suffering from scale rot.

"Back you go, cutie," Daisy said to the salamander as she returned it to the fire pit.

Daisy slightly squinted at the fire pit searching for another salamander. After a few minutes, Daisy found another salamander. Sadly, this one was suffering from a little bit of scale rot on its back. Daisy grabbed some powder and carefully rubbed it on the salamander's back. The young witch then made sure the creature was returned to its original spot in the fire pit.

"Hope you get well soon," Daisy said softly to the salamander. Daisy was now back searching for salamanders in need of assistance. It took a few minutes but Daisy eventually found another salamander needing medical attention. This particular one's scale rot was a tad more prominent than the previous one Daisy had attended to.

Daisy had a sad look on her face as she rubbed the chilli powder into the salamander's scales and returned it to the fire pit. "Poor thing," she muttered under her breath.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

Derf was stoked and could hardly sit still in his seat in anticipation for the task.
Salamanders were the majority of the appeal, of course, but the fact that this required no magic made it loads better. No risk of blowing up feces in a litter box - although he and Natalie had discussed how they were kinda grateful for that since it had helped them become friends - and no scalding hot butter explosions. Basically...no explosions.

Minus the potential for a salamander maybe catching his robes on fire and then those going up in flames.

.........................

ANYWAY!

One thing that Derf always found interesting about scale rot was how something as simple as a spice could cure it. "What IS it about chili powder exactly that did the trick, professor?" he asked with big ol' eager eyes as he moved to retrieve his little bottle. "Could like...curry powder work too?" Spices that were, er, spicy.

Oh yes, and his gloves were slipping on now too.

Harriet had to admit that this was pretty cool. She could almost understand why people would love this subject, and want a career in it. Getting to hang out with cool creatures all the time was pretty fun. Though Hattie did think she would get a little bored some times. So she'd be sticking to her art. Though she was kind of inspired to do some art work of creatures. Maybe she'd ask the Professor at the end of the lesson if she could paint some of the creatures. That would be a nice collection to add to her Hogwarts Landscapes. It would also give her some new things to paint too, which was always good.

But back to the task at hand. She carefully looked at her Salamander. It looked pretty good, and she was content that it didn't have any scale rot. She bent down, carefully putting it back into the fire before she picked up another one. She hoped she wasn't going too fast, she didn't want any of the other students missing out because she was going fast.

So she tried to slow down a little. She looked at the Salamander, noticing that this one did have some scale rot. She carefully picked up some pepper, and then began to rub it onto the scales of the Salamander. Hopefully that would make it feel better!