After listening to the entire story, she felt more connected to the school. It was their history, her history, even if she hadn't been a direct part of it. But, how to reenact it? She wasn't sure what she would have done. It's far easier to guess how you would react to a situation than to really be in one.


She turned to Ronan "Why couldn't the younger students help? We can do more than hide."

Turning back to the front she put up her hand "Sir, I think that if it were to happen again, or something like it, we should all fight! We all have wands, and if we can't use those, we have fists." She clinched her fists as if she was about to punch someone. "First thing would to be to make sure your dorm mates were awake and armed. No one is any help if they are asleep. Then meet in the common room to see if the head of house has any information. No need running off on the attack if you don't have any idea what you are attacking."

She shook her head "I don't feel it's the professors responsibility to protect the entire student body by themselves, not when we are able to help out. Also, wouldn't the house elves help too?"

So much was running through her mind at once that she was having a hard time focusing her answers. She wanted to pull out a large piece of parchment to start making battle plans. It was always easier for her to see things when they were drawn out.

Skylar was listening... mostly. Except when Professor Curtains first question came about, the she-snake honestly tuned into a very inappropriate classroom landing. But hey, it wasn't her fault. She was a teenager and extraordinary things did happen in the dormitory. So she instead remained quiet, taking note as to what her peers were saying.

And then he delved deeper into one of the extraordinary events mentioned by none other than Hattie. Glancing over at the sister!bestie, she gave her an impressed look for thinking about that. She only knew about the events of 2069 from what she heard as a child from Harriet's mother when she rehashed her time at Hogwarts. Given that both her parents had graduated the year before. So once more, she just took some diligent notes, her mind running with thoughts.

UH..... no offense, Emmalyn, but you've only been here two years. You haven't had the opportunity to be rejected from participating in school activities due to age yet. So ... basically, she was on-board with Ronan. She'd been rejected for being too young and she was fully on-board with rejecting the younger students. They would have their time.

"You don't know as many spells as we do. You'd hold us back. We'd be trying to protect you as well as ourselves and really it's for everyone's safety." She said calmly to the younger Hufflepuff, before glancing back up at the Professor. "Vigilance, Professor. Above all else, we need to be aware and alert and know that this isn't just for practice. But this is real. This is now. And people could get hurt, or worse..." Another reason to keeping the younger students secured and not allowing them to fight. They simply weren't prepared for the casualities

When Professor Curtains mentioned his dad's name for the entire class to hear, Max's ears turned their trademark shade of pink. The Slytherin simply nodded and sunk further into his seat because ugghhhh embarrassing, much!?

And then it was time to listen to the story that he'd already heard a ton of times. He tried his hardest not to zone out completely, he really did, but the lack of sleep was definitely starting to catch up with him. While he was supposed to be listening and taking notes, instead he was trying super hard to try and hide all the yawns.

He didn't even notice when the other kids started piping up with answers. Tooooo busy daydreaming.

Whoa there information overload.

Jessa zoned in and out periodically, most of her attention still on her book, but the thing that astounded her was....each time she zoned back in.....the man was still talking. It was both remarkable and disorienting at the same time. Idly, she wondered how the others were managing to pay attention in all of it but rather than make any sort of fuss, the Ravenclaw simply flipped the page again and continued her reading.

This time, she was a bit more aware of the discussion taking place around her but it held very little interest to her. A battle in the castle was none of her business. Her lab was fortified and even if fighting became a must, she was confident enough in her skills to hold her own.

What the rest of the school decided was a good battle strategy was inconsequential. As with everything else in her life, she would simply fall in line and do as was expected.

Passive was perhaps the best way to describe her and even in the face of great danger, the chances of her remaining passive were very high.

That being the case, Jessa kept her nose firmly buried in her book.

Nettie perked up slightly. What would SHE want to do if this situation happened again? Hmmm. Her brain started to work in to overdrive as she played out the scenario in her overactive imagination - well, obviously, she would want to fight. Despite being a super tiny human first year. And even if they told her not to fight, she probably would push her way to the battle somehow. This was HER home too, after all!

Hmmm. She wondered for a second why they were bringing this all up. Perhaps the treasure resurfacing on the lake had made the professor think about it? That had to be it.

Raising her hand, she waited until it was her turn to be called on before she brought up what SHE thought was an excellent point. "I think before anything else happens, the professors should see if any of them - or any students - know how to speak Mermish. Or maybe contact the Ministry to see if they can get a translator. Talking it out rather than fighting would be much better," she pointed out.

And if that didn't work, Nettie was totally 100% ready to kick some mer-butt.

The story of the merpeople invasion was sort of sad, actually. It was about siblings feuding for their place in the world and losing each other in the process. And it was about the destruction of beautiful things. Chloe sighed over that, although the story itself was terribly interesting.

Not really something she wanted to reenact, but discussion and... strategizing... was probably a good use of their time. "I think we should build barriers against the water. If the merpeople are flooding our living spaces to make them hospitable for them, they're also making it less hospitable for us. And there are jobs for everyone, even the youngest among us. No one has to go and hide." They wouldn't be in the way. They'd be helping in whatever ways they could.

Charles listened to each student as they gave their opinions on what should happen if the castle were to be attacked again. For the most part, he remained silent and let the students debate among themselves. He'd only intervene if asked a direct question or if children started insulting each other.

He nodded thoughtfully as Maddie got the ball rolling with her statement on sending a Patronus to warn others. "That's a good idea, Maddie," he said, meaning it. He nodded thoughtfully at Ronan's idea that only the older students should be allowed to fight. The nod wasn't an endorsement over banning younger students from fighting, however, as he admired the courage of students like Emmalyn. But Skylar absolutely had a point. He nodded approvingly at Chloe's suggestion. "Smart thinking, Chloe. Just because the young ones aren't fighting doesn't mean they can't be helping."


He checked his watch. Was it really that late?? Okay, wow. "All right, good work, everyone," he said, standing and clapping his hands together to announce the end of class. "The hour is later than I thought, so I'm going to let you all go now. You all argued your points brilliantly. Thankfully I do not think we are in danger of being attacked anytime soon, but these are good things to think over. And I for one will always endorse trying to find a peaceful solution before fighting. Sometimes talking won't do much good, however, though diplomacy should always be exhausted first. Well said, Trinetta. Jessa, I expect an three paragraph essay by you by our next class on what you think of what we just discussed. Class dismissed!"


[B]OOC: Thank you all so much for coming! I'm wrapping this early because of plot stuff, but I'll leave the thread open for another five hours so you can RP leaving if you want. Loves you all.

She listened to and mostly agreed with most of the others and their ideas. She was in full agreement that the younger students were valuable and need not simply hide. Plus, if whatever it was had found its way into the castle, there probably wasn't much hope in hiding from them.

After packing up her things, she gave a smile to Professor Curtains "Thanks for another interesting class, sir. I really enjoyed learning about the flood that happened all those years ago." With that, she skipped out and headed back towards the Hufflepuff common room to have a little rest before her next task.