For her own sake, Stasya let Emmeline pretend that she was okay. She’d just ask why she had looked so upset about something later, in the common room or somewhere else private. Because she was a good friend, and if her bestie didn’t want to talk now, she wouldn’t force her to. And besides, she had understandably gotten a bit distracted by the older woman who had come in to observe. Henry’s mama, and she’d had to stop herself from giving her an excited wave as the lesson had begun. As the discussion had made her a bit uncomfortable with the talk about Death Eaters and battles and everything. Not to mention the fact Derf had brought up the bloody painting on the wall. It all led to a quiet Stasya, up until the mention of picking sides.

She did not want to pick the evil side, and she had given Cameron a look when he did. Dark magic was definitely a sore subject with her, as at least a couple professors knew. Professor Hirsch and the other Professor Marchand, anyway, and she thought maybe Henry’s mama knew too. At least Emmeline picked the good side, but that didn’t change how uncomfortable she was with it. It was a grateful thirteen year old who had looked over at Katy when she had protested, getting permission to sit out from the war games. And Derf and Char had followed, which led to her choice.

”I want to be a Healer too,” she said, going over to where Katy and Derf were with a little apologetic look at Emmeline. Solidarity. And not picking a side or fighting. Lots of creatures had died in that war too, after all. And others had stayed out of it, so therefore, that was what she was choosing to be. Team KatyandDerfandChar.

Well. Now this was surprising.

When Kitty had chosen the white bands, she'd made a bet in her head that Katy would take a black armband. Using the same logic, she'd assumed that if she (Kitty) had taken a black band, then Katy would have taken a white. (She probably thought about what the Slytherin girl would do or say in every class more than was healthy.)

But then instead she'd given a speech on why she felt it was wrong to play this game - opting to stay out. And much as it surprised Kitty to admit, her reasons were admirable. People had died in the Battle of Hogwarts, after all - including children and lots of other innocents. Were they disrespecting those deaths?

At the same time, if they all agreed with Katy's position, then wouldn't that be disrespectful to Professor Newton - no, Professor Marchand? Kitty loved Rosalyn, she didn't want to hurt her feelings!

Conflicted, Kitty shifted back and forth on her feet and gazed uncomfortably forward, hoping they'd just get on with it.

Randa pulled the white arm band onto her arm as she joined her chosen group. Said quiet subdued hellos and how are ya's to her team members... Her anxiety building as to how they'd play out this little game of war with their peers...

Rosalyn bit her lip as a couple more people said things. "Well, I certainly didn't mean to imply anything bad by this... I assure you all that I understand the significance of this event. I'm a half-blood and my husband is a muggleborn." Just to get that out there. "And I admire everyone who fought for the Order and Hogwarts." But she felt pleased with her students who were sticking to their guts and beliefs. "Alright, since this is making people uneasy, how about we change things up... Instead of playing a balloon fight game, I can have you write an essay instead." She already had an idea for what they could write about.

Thoughts?

Katy dropped an arm around little Derfy when he crept up next to her. She wasn't sure what to do with her hands... was she comforting? At all? He got a pat pat pat and she pulled him in for a sort of half hug. If he wanted to join the sitter-outer-ers, then he was welcome in the club. Not everyone wanted to play war games, apparently.

And when Char joined her, Katy was totally gratified. It made her teary, actually, and she used Derf's sleeve to dry her eyes. "You don't have to, but I appreciate the effort. It might be really fun, and I don't... it's just... a personal thing. I'm okay." But she wasn't going to fight THAT hard if Char wanted to sit out with her.

Or not sit out, since the Professor was willing to deal. It was NICE the woman wasn't forcing them to participate. "An essay would be fine, Professor."

Seeing as her question went unanswered, Zoryn was just gonna BE Lord Voldemort anyways. 'Cause if they were gonna have war, there had to be one right? Not that she approved of the guy 'cause he was a total idiot sandwich, BUT Zoryn wanted to have a leading roll. All of which was shattered by the most horrible word to ever exist on the face of this entire planet and that word was 'ESSAY'.

"NOOOOooooOOOOooooOOOOO," um like, no offense or anything, but SOMEONE GET THIS OLDER GIRL (Katy) TO SHUT IT!!!!!!

History of Magic was already AWFUL. Why would Professor Newton WANT to make it worse for them???

Like come on!!!! This was SO not fair!!!

Here's the thing: Emmeline realllllly admired Miss Katy, Miss Char, Derf, and now Stasya for standing up for what they believe in and all that stuff. In fact, now that BOTH of her best friends were sitting the activity out, she'd started to get some second thoughts about it too. Was it morally wrong to play a game about a REAL war? Honestly, she hadn't really taken it that way -- more of a game with a war-type theme 'cause there were two sides or something, mhm.

But then Professor Marchand said the oooonly thing she could've said that put the Gryffindor firmly on the side of definitely playing the game: if they didn't, they'd have to write an ESSAY??? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Essays were definitely the WORST part of school EVER.

Zoryn voiced Emmeline's thoughts like perfectly, so she tried to give a more grown up type answer as she addressed their professor: "I don't really wanna write an essay either, Professor. Balloon fights sound wayy more fun and, uh, educational and stuff." Yup, totally and completely educational. As long as Professor Marchand didn't ask her how the game was educational, that argument should totalllly work.

He smiled brightly as he saw the other Prefects choose the white armband just like he did. Student leaders to the very end huh? Never been prouder to belong to this group.

He had to do a double take when Vi took the black armband though. They'll be playing opposite sides in this game? Ace gave her a look and grinned. This is gonna be funnnn....


.... Or maybe not.

Did the Professor just say ESSAY? After building this all up they're just gonna chuck out the fun and settle for the boring? Whatever happened to sticking up for their beliefs, or even just sticking with the lesson plan? Its like the World saying 'You're on your own Europe, Switzerland wants to sit it out.'

Exasperated the Curly Top was.

She saw the look that Ace had given her. The pursed lips that broke into a smile. She smirked back at him, glancing down before looking up at him again. Yeah, she wasn't going to go easy on him. Heh. This would be an adventure.

And then there was talk of an essay? "Seriously?" she blurted out before covering her mouth with her hand. Whoops. That had slipped out as easily as many things had when she had been on Merlin's Pride that evening. "Umm... Professor... Those of us that still want to play the balloon game, can... can we still play?" she asked. She'd prefer that to writing an essay honestly. She had already written too many essays over the past week. However, she really respected the fact that some people didn't want to participate and that was perfectly fine with her.

You know what Charlotte hadn't expected? Things to... you know, escalate. And she sure didn't want to spoil ANYONE's fun. And...... the professor saying about being half-blooded and Marchand being muggleborn didn't help her own thoughts about things. Nor did saying admiring specifically those who fought for the Order and Hogwarts. Char's family were mostly purebloods.

Also? She didn't wanna do an essay either! What was she, a Ravenclaw? Her eyes went wide and she looked at Stasya and Derf and then at her cousin and then around at those classmates (aka fellow Gryffindors) who were protesting this essay thing. She patted Katy's hair again, as if to reassure her it was fine and also they could talk about it later, but addressed the professor hurriedly. She was doing this to support her cousin, but at the end of the day she was still just as Gryffindor as her housemates.

"I think that would disappoint too many people, professor, can't we just pretend to be healing people and stuff? Not everyone that participated in the battle actually fought, right?"

He had been on his way to pick out an armband when this talk of sitting out and essays had come about. Really? Really? Really.

"But I want to play." He'd already been slightly bummed when the professor had mentioned that the balloons were full of confetti instead of water, now they might not get to play? Just because a few (and it was a few) were going to be ridiculous about it? It wasn't fair to those who did actually want to play. Ronan let his disappointment show on his face.

Don't you feel bad for disappointing baby Batman?

Then one of those sitting out made an excellent point. "Yeah, there had to have been healers there. Let them be healers." This idea had his full support.

Etta watched as her best friend picked up the black arm-band, a small grin lifting up the corners of her mouth. Well, this was going to be an exciting activity.. yeah? Honestly, she always looked forward to the practical part in lessons. Theory did get rather boring after a point..

But then the professor was suddenly suggesting that they write an essay. An ESSAY. No! It was only going to be a fun game, right? But.. the girl eyed a few of her classmates and decided to not voice her opinion. If people weren’t comfortable participating, she was cool with that too. Although, writing an essay would be too routine though. They did write essays regularly so something different would be great. Since the professor looked rather hesitant, the girl waited hopefully while she decided on an activity.

Derf was trying not to cling to Katherine's side tooooo much because, well, he didn't know her quite as well as he knew people like Althea (who was an excellent hugger, for anyone who wished to know) but he was hugging her soon enough when she started patting his back and giving him side hugs. Hugging...clinging...it could be such a fine line sometimes, you know?

Derf quite liked Charlotte's idea as well and it was the sort of participation that he could likely do. He wouldn't feel helpless and, well, it was sorta all he wanted to do when it came to Abey and Simon's PTSD after their capture. It was hard hearing Simon wake up from nightmares in the middle of the night - although the third year was never too far off with his friend's inhaler and offering hugs - or seeing Abey's meltdowns.


If nothing else, visually and kinetically, he could get into the mindset with this...........

...........or not. Since now the professor was seeming to want to scrape her entire game (along with making sure they all knew her blood status for some reason) and make everyone write an essay. Which he had no problem doing really...but it seemed...kinda unfair. And Zoryn's exclamation was a clear illustration of - he didn't want to disappoint her since she LIVED for this sort of thing, you know? Acting out history was probably one of the only ways the Gryffindor would be able to learn and retain anything.

Catching Stasya's eye, he reached out and offered a hand to her and took hers in his for support. Just something about that LOOK in her eye was unsettling to the 13-year-old...so he wanted her to know that he was here for her, you know? Maybe she could tell him later or something.

And then, like all History of Magic lessons it seemed, debate struck between people. Only at least this time it was not particularly a heated one and all students seemed to be in agreement....so he silently nodded along.

OMG what???

Kitty stared at Rosalyn in surprise as she asked if they wanted to do an essay instead. Now she felt really bad, though it wasn't her fault what was happening. Sure, deep down she felt Katy had a point (much as she might hate to admit it) but guilt tripping Professor Marchand into cancelling her planned activity just seemed WRONG in every way imaginable. In no other lesson she'd attended had anything similar happened, and it wasn't fair that it would be happening to Rosalyn.

Not to mention it wouldn't be fair to all those who clearly wanted to participate in the game. Zoryn for one, but there were many others too.

"Professor Marchand, I think whatever you decide will be good," Kitty said loyally. "I understand what Katy is saying, it's a good point" - and she looked briefly at the Slytherin girl - "But I don't think we should cancel your activity, because obviously many of us want to play it. But if you want to cancel it I'm good with that too."

#Loyalty

So when Olivia went over to stand by her, honestly, Skylar was stunned?! And it took a moment to register the older lion's presence, because of the fact that Tenacius and Etta were on the opposite sides. Unless, it was to make it even more fun and games by going against your closest friends?

"I've been ready," she grinned at the older girl.



Only....

What?! Now don't get one wrong, but Skylar Natasha Diggory was NOT opposed to essays, in the least. But when given the choice between reenactment or an essay, well, you could bet what she was going to choose. Yes she could empathized with Katy and Derf and Char; she had monster drool on her two years ago. But this was different and it was literally just confetti-balloons though she thought water balloons might have been more fun, but that was just her opinion.

So yes, she was with team-i-want-play, like everyone else.

Well things definitely took a quick turn. Professor Marchand was about to change her entire lesson plan out of sympathy for some of her students. While that was certainly commendable, Shay was not sure that she agreed with the idea. She certainly understood where her classmates were coming from. No one should be forced to participate in a pseudo war, if it was disturbing to them.........but still.......couldn't they be given conscientious objector status for the day?

Prepared to add to the debate, Shay raised her hand. "I think we should still go on with the game. If anyone is uncomfortable with playing, they can be a healer. If that's not okay, then they could be allowed to refuse participation in the activity......without being penalized." If anyone felt that strongly about they shouldn't have to participate.

Babies that is what everyone was! Seriously IT WAS HISTORY!! You couldn't just pretend it didn't happen because you didn't like it. Why was everyone so up in arms about playing this out. They weren't doing an actual war, Eddie rolled his eyes at the losers. Something FINALLY interesting and now they couldn't do it at all.


He leaned back in his chair more annoyed than usual with the idiots around this school, especially a pureblood like that snake causing the problems. Purebloods should act better than that. The professor got a look at the work muggleborn too, he forced himself to not roll his eyes at the word. Why couldn't the war have gone differently, that would have been for the best.


"It's crap that we have to not do something because a minority is upset over. " He mumbled under his breath about favorites and catering to crybabies.

The Battle of Hogwarts…

Now that was a big deal and an important event that hadn’t happened too far back in Wizarding world history. Cassie listened intently to what was being said by both Professor Marchand (it still took getting used to) and her fellow classmates, taking notes upon her parchments for later reference. When they were told to pick a side, the Ravenclaw chose the white arm band representing the Order of the Phoenix. It wasn’t a good or evil, just a preference since it reminded her of her own father’s fight against the Cult of Walpurgis.

And her fellow students followed through picking their own choices. Some white as well…some black. Nothing seemed wrong until Katy from Slytherin spoke her objection, the professor responding with a safe answer. Was it really an issue? It was a way of learning about their past and no one was being harmed this time around. Then Charlotte and Derf seemed to support Katy’s protest and Cassie wondered as she glanced around the room who else was debating.

Say what?! They were going to have to right an essay instead!?

She may be a Ravenclaw but an essay was just research and thoughts on a subject. Sometimes Cassie wanted to something a bit more fun in their learning process. ”Can we each chose what to do? Because while I don’t take the Battle of Hogwarts and the sacrifices lightly and respect the right of my classmates choosing not to participate in the balloon fight, I think the other side, including myself, should also have a choice.”

To be fair.

Now Maddie didn't know what to do. On one hand, she had actually been pretty excited about a water balloon fight or confetti fight or whatever it is they were about to do. She hadn't thought anybody wouldn't want to play, but there were a few who didn't. Not being one to debate or argue, she just sat there and watched the discussion like her head was a ping pong ball. It bounced back and forth based on who was sharing their thoughts at the moment. For now, it was the professor, who had decided they might be doing an essay now.

AN ESSAY?! Maddie hated essays, but she didn't want to force anybody to participate in a game they didn't want to do. Especially since Katy and Derf were so awesome! She didn't know the older Gryffindor girl that well. Maddie slumped down in her seat, content that as just an ickle firstie, she'd wait and see what everybody else decided. If she had to do the essay, though, would somebody be there to show her what to write about? Or how to write it? She wasn't sure about writing a whole essay!

In the meantime, people were getting really upset over this game versus essay debate. The first year turned back to the professor, her blank face saying that until an executive decision was made, she'd just sit here.

Several more students seemed to be joining the few who asked to be exempt from the war game, which Eloise could understand. It was quite the serious and impacting event, and she had already been rather surprised with the lighthearted methods it would be taught. Or at least it seemed that way. She supposed she should wait to see the actual activity before judging. But she also thought that those sitting out should be provided some sort of alternate activity, not that she would suggest it during class. It was Professor Marchand's domain after all and she wasn't about to undermine her authority here.

She thought Charlotte had a rather insightful suggestion, smart girl that she was. And she noticed that young Anastasiya was now among those opting out. Eloise gave her a warm smile as she caught her eye. She must have missed her when she first arrived, but it was somewhat dark in here after all.

An essay? Eloise was again quite surprised with the turn of events. Essays certainly had their place in class. She thought that had the potential to be more educational and critical thought inspiring than a balloon fight, depending on how it was presented and constructed. But... to present the class with a "fun" activity and then take it away to do something more structured, because a few didn't want to participate, would likely cause quite a bit of protest. Which, unsurprisingly, it did.

She supposed what surprised her most is that the professor would change her whole lesson plan rather than have an alternative activity for just those who didn't want to participate with good reason. She had hoped the instructors here would have more confidence in their own teaching abilities. Eloise jotted down a few more thoughts in her notes, but she was interested in how Rosalyn would handle the rest of the lesson before she could comment fully.

Patrick watched what was unfolding in the classroom in silence. He was further detached from the situation than most of the students it seemed. He understood that it was a sensitive topic and that often times people didn't want to take talking about it lightly. The older students seemed to be the most involved in the discussion of sitting out on this. He just couldn't understand all things considered, this was a class for a grade and it could hurt them in the long run. He'd just shut up and follow along.

He heard the professor speak up and mention an essay, an essay, oh goblins no. Essays were terrible to Patrick. Typically essays were long, boring, and absolutely worse than ever participating in class. How was he supposed to know what to write about, let alone make sure that he had enough of a topic to write about. He stayed in the area that had been predetermined as the Death Eater side, trying to shrink in among the crowd and wait to see what the professor would decide.

Riiiiiight, so the essay idea was being met with quite a bit of disagreement. Honestly Rosalyn preferred the idea of sticking with her activity as well, since it gave them a game to play instead of writing to do. "Okay. I just wanted to give another option in case most people would prefer doing something different. I had an idea for an essay to be completed originally, and it was on the back burner..." Since she had come up with the idea before deciding to do a game. "I just thought that we could play a game today, and we shall be sticking with that plan then!" So everything seemed to be sorted then. "The last thing I ever want to do is have students who aren't comfortable in my lessons." Something that she always strove for.

That out of the way, they could move on. "The idea for Healers can certainly be used." She didn't know much about Healing, but this was just for fun and Rosalyn was very confident that everyone would enjoy themselves - or at least she hoped they would! "Alright, so the game is pretty simple. It's basically a balloon fight, but instead of being filled with water, they are filled with confetti. I did that so you wouldn't get soaked through." Yes, there were drying spells, but that could still make a mess and some people might not like to get wet. "Basically just throw balloons at people on the opposite team from you! Only shots that land in the chest area will cause balloons to burst. This is because the truck is the biggest area on a person's body. When someone is hit in that area and causes a balloon to burst, they are out and can see the lovely Healers, who will treat them." Yes, there would be no deaths in this battle, obviously. "Healers can go about giving fake potions and pretending to heal people as they would at any point when there are injuries - but when people are out, they stay out." Because otherwise this game would be going on forever. "The team with the most amount of people left at the end of the lesson wins!" Seemed simple enough to her.

Using her wand, she caused a box of balloons to appear in the middle of the grass. "These will keep refilling, so don't worry about running out. You can fill up with as many balloons as you want and keep grabbing more as you run out." Or they could just grab one at a time, though that wasn't as efficient... "Most of all I want you guys to have FUN." Because yes, that was important too.

"You may begin!"

OOC: Okay, so it's pretty simple! Just like a normal balloon fight, throw balloons at anyone on the other team from you. ONLY shots that hit someone in the chest will cause them to be out. When that happens the balloon will burst and there will be confetti. The person who is out can go to one of the Healers.
A few things:
1. PLEASE title your posts with which team you are on (black/white). Healers can label their posts saying that they are a Healer.
2. You CAN aim for more than one person in a post if you choose to, but as always it is up to the other person to decide if they are hit or not, and where they have been hit (whether or not they are out or can still play).
3. Once you are out, please label the post saying that you are out of the game. When that happens you can go off to the side and be seen by a Healer.
4. Healers are there to treat the injured, so they are to go about to anyone who is out and take care of them. Obviously this is all pretend, so it's acting out things like giving potions etc (leaving the creativity up to you guys!).
5. There is no need to label your posts with post numbers, but you CAN do that if you choose to.

If there are any questions, you can contact me via Skype/VM/PM. You have until September 30th at 11:59 pm EST.

Vi winked at Skylar when she informed her that she was ready. Oh good because this battle was going to be intense...

And they were ready for the battle.... *AHEM* ... the balloon fight. Kind of like a balloon fight meets dodgeball. Grabbing a few balloons, she readied herself to strike. She eyed Etta, Kitty, and Ace as potentials to throw a balloon at. Heh. She smirked, knowing exactly who she would throw this balloon at. Hah. Hello there, Parole Officer.

Taking aim, she hurled a balloon towards her boyfriend before going to grab a couple more to ready herself for the oncoming repercussions. She had to be ready... Now where was a good place to hide...?

Ooooh, a balloon fight! Well, this was going to be a lot of fun.. she was so glad that the professor hadn’t given them an essay to write, after all. That would have been boring, honestly. She preferred fun activities during lessons, eh. The girl eyed most of her classmates as she quickly grabbed a couple of balloons, making sure she was right against the wall. She didn’t want a random balloon hitting her unexpectedly.

The girl aimed and threw a balloon towards Olivia, grinning widely. Heheheh. Hi there, bestie. She turned to look at others, eyeing people she wanted to hurl the balloon at.. but at the same time, making sure there weren’t any balloons coming her way. Hmmm.

Well that had gone really really badly and Katy felt awful that the whole class had almost been ruined. Because of her. Ugh. Consciences were terribly ugly beasts and she wasn't interested in feeling bad all the time.

But all was well, because some people could play, but Katy, Char, Derf, and whoever was joining them, could be Healers. Playing but not, so to speak. "Here, we'll make ourselves stand out," Katy grabbed a few of the remaining white bands and charmed them red. Not on either team, so no one should throw anything at them.

"Let's set up over there, and we can figure out a way to make bandages. I feel like everyone who gets injured should be fully wrapped like a mummy, don't you, Derf?"