Kale was feeling somewhat poorly when he flounced into History of Magic. He was still, y’know, a lil delight, if he did say so himself, but he was weighed down with too much breakfast. Apparently the limit DID exist.

The third year still flashed his Professor a toothy grin and some finger guns to boot. “Mornin’ Professor.

But his attention did not last. As he dropped into his seat, there was a flutter of something out of the corner of his eye. COOL. WHAT ARE YOU FLUTTER?

"Morning, Professor!" Morgan greeted her cheerfully on his way into the classroom. He did not particularly like History of Magic as it was normally one of those classes that left him zoning out and distracted - well, to be fair there were a number of classes in which he was distracted, so maybe that was more a Morgan thing than a class thing. But he was still a friendly kid and wasn't going to take it out the professor. It wasn't HER fault that she had to teach something boring. It was just one of those things you had to do when you were an adult, he guessed.

But she did make one mistake and it was that she opened the windows on such a nice day. Of course Morgan took a seat neat one of those windows and directed his attention outside. What a crime it was to have to be in class when it was this nice out! All the things they could do... "Professor, we should have class outside!" he very helpfully suggested from his seat. "Y'know, before the weather gets bad.." Which he was sure would be very soon. And certainly there were many relevant topics that they could study outside? Not that being outside would distract the Gryffindor any further... nope, not him.

And he was just about to get his things out to be prepared for class, when something else caught his eye. "What is that?" he asked out loud to no one as his eyes tried to follow the scurrying thing on the floor. Scurry over here so he could grab it.

Cole usually liked history class but this morning he wasn’t feeling very social or cheerful, just queasy. It probably had something to do with the multiple bertie botts beans he had eaten yesterday. His stomach and his cats too for that matter wasn’t very should we say balanced yet. Shuffling into the room Cole’s eyes landed on their professor first. "Good morning Professor Reacard. I had a good summer, and i hope you had that too?" He mumbled out before he walked over to slump down in an empty seat near Naya and Islay. Hoping that he didn’t look too green in the face. He had just sat down his backpack on the floor, when something brushed past his left robed leg, as quick as a mouse. What was that? Did the school have rats like Cece wondered? A little scared, he kept his feet up on the chair beside him until Professor Recard said that it was safe.

History of Magic, usually one of her favorites, but her mood for that first day was just still not the best when she got to class. Thankfully they would be learning about something historic and maybe she could just sit in the back and relax and learn something a little more light.

Headed in she gave a small smile, "Hello Professor" greeting the professor before turning and looking for a seat. She reached up and played with her golden snitch locket before finding the perfect seat next to a window where the warmth of the sun made her relax even more.

As she sat down she closed her eyes for a second and just took in the air coming in the window not noticing anything weird about the room or anything moving around. Turning her eyes on the class she gave waves to some of the friends that were already in there. Hearing her brother's voice she turned towards him, 'What was what?"

Was it just him or had the entire first week flown by like it hadn't even happened? Each day had brought about new exciting changes for the eleven year old. The sorting, lessons and meeting so many new people. It was a blur of all new things of the very best kind. He had taken it all in stride as best he could, which clearly meant it was all experienced in the purest form of excitement possible.

Lukas entered the classroom with a light spring in his step that he was trying to keep in control but failing at. He just couldn't help it. Life was great. "Good morning, Professor," he greeted happily. "My summer was amazing. How was yours?" His mum and dad would be super proud of him for being polite right then. Manners were very important when speaking to someone older than himself.

There was a quick glance about the room in which Lukas try to locate his sister. Not seeing her yet, he slipped down into an empty seat hoping she hurried up so she could sit near him. In all his glancing around something scurrying about the floor caught his attention and he furrowed his borrow trying his best to watch it.

Missa entered the class right when Nina shrieked.

What in the -

The girl stared, unable to figure what had caused the Slytherin to make the noise. She gave Professor Recard a look, before smiling awkwardly as a greeting. Surely, she knew what was going on.

Merlin, it was bright in the classroom too, wasn’t it?

Still trying to understand what had happened, she made her way over to the seat near Nina. “Are you okay?” Missa asked as she settled down in her seat.

The redhead made her way into the History of Magic classroom where she caught the Professor getting the students as they entered, although it appeared she wasn't the only one greeting the students. She blinked a bit confused as she thought she might've seen something scurry by. Faye spoke politely as she found a seat near the middle-front of the classroom, "Good morning Professor.."

It was when she was sitting that she felt something brush her leg causing her to feel a little jump in her chest, but not enough to make her show it outwardly. Her blue eyes immediately looking down to see what it was, but whatever seemed to be there was no longer there.

.....

Analiese entered the class quietly when something ran past her foot. She tried to look at what it was but it was running too fast. She shrugged and sat down after saying a polite "Good morning, Professor." to Professor Recard.

She noticed it was very bright in the classroom so she shaded her eyes with her hand. Now she could actually see the classroom from her seat. She pulled out book and quill as she waited for the class to start.

The weather was fantastic, he was in a great mood and he was in a lesson that he actually enjoyed (there wasn’t many he didn’t to be fair). Entering the classroom with a wide smile on his face, the tall curly haired Ravenclaw gave a polite ”Good morning professor. Lovely day, isn’t it?” and took a seat in the classroom, not really paying attention to who he was around.

What did capture his attention though was a small, scuttering little creature which was seemed to be scuttling around the classroom, in and out of people’s legs. Not at all what he had expected for a HoM lesson but not at all unwelcome.

With the weather being so nice, Lucas felt much better about this lesson. In fact, he didn't feel as awkward about facing Recard as he had about facing Trent. The possibility of seeing Trent - and then the news he gave them afterwards - only left him feeling worse and even more panicked than he would've liked. But this? This left him feeling........ fine. Just fi-

........

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

Uhhhhhhhh.

Ooooooookay. That was....... loud.

It didn't take long for him to come to a sudden stop and to shoot Nina a funny look at her, uh, whatever that was. Was she okay? Something didn't seem okay. Something seemed ~ wrong ~. Now this was what was making him feel awkward so he gave her a small smile and shuffled further into the room.

Breathe. B r e a t h e.

"Hello, Professor," he said, offering Recard a slightly wider smile as he went to sit on an empty seat that just so happened to be in the sunshine. Not a coincidence and not-

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

Uh, what was tHAT?!

Eiji was truly neither here nor there about the weather - other than it did help certain ingredients grow and he had just been out to check on a few of his projects before coming up here to class. Upon offering his typical greeting of a polite nod of the head towards Professor Recard, he moved to find a seat and tried not to show any sort of outward snark to the woman STILL asking them about their summers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunflower

Humming softly, Jina walked down the corridor and entered the History of Magic classroom. It was a lovely day! The day after next would be her eighteenth birthday and she hoped the weather would continue to be this pleasant.

"Hi, Professor Recard. Hope you had a good summer too," she greeted the professor. She took a seat as instructed, but jumped up again when she saw something scurrying around under the desks and chairs. The first thing that came to mind was: huge cockroach (ugh!), but after observing it again she realised that it had fur, only four legs and no antennae. And it was a toy. Okay yeah, she didn't think Recard would allow household pests in her classroom in the first place. Jina returned to her seat and took out her supplies to prepare for the lesson. She did not have any shiny object on her, so hopefully she could ignore the toy for the time being.

Silently, he pulled out the chair beside where Jina sat and only then noticed the creature at the front of the classroom. "Great...so this will turn into a zoo," he mumbled to himself and felt his pockets for the phials from Missa and their exquisite lids there as well as a certain pocket watch that he kept on his person as well.

Once everyone was settled in, Gabi raised her wand and slammed the door shut. That was the sign that class had officially started, and she wanted everyone's attention on her.

"Good morning everyone! I hope you're all having a good morning - it really is a lovely day outside. Shame we have to spend it in here," she chuckled a little. If she had had time to rework her lesson plans she might have tried to do an outdoor lesson, but it was imperitive that she went over the subject of this lesson earlier in the term.

"As you all may have noticed - we have a little visitor in our lesson today," Gabi grinned as the niffler ran up to her, scurried up the leg of the desk, and plopped itself next to her inkwell before the enchantment wore off, turning it into a normal plushie once again. "In truth, nifflers don't have TOO much of role in our lesson today. However, I thought it would be a fun segway into the main topic of our lesson - Newt Scamander," she explained. They all knew that Newt had notoriously kept nifflers as pets, yes? Perhaps Jacob - yes, that was the niffler's name - would make an appearance later, if they all behaved themselves and put forth their best effort in class.

"Newt Scamander had a very long, illustrious career that spanned decades. However, it can't be denied that he had the biggest impact on the study of magical creatures. Before Newt came along, studying magical creatures just wasn't something wizards prioritized - creatures were often misunderstood, or wizards simply had no desire or patience to learn more about them," she explained with a small frown. While she herself wasn't big on creatures or animals of any kind, she still enjoyed them and found them fascinating to read about. It was so strange to think at some point they didn't have any interest in it at all!

"Newt really helped shape our understanding of MANY species of creatures that had never really been studied before. So, let's name some of them! Pick a creature that Newt studied excessively, and if you can, elaborate a bit more about HOW he really helped us discover more about them," Gabi posed the question to them and then stood up, beginning her usual pacing of the room as she waited to call on them.

OOC: Hey everyone! I hope you had fun with the goofy niffler running around to start off class! Onto the main event - we're learning all about Newt today! You'll have at LEAST 24 hours (likely more like 36-40ish because let's be honest I'm probably gonna be exhausted after work tomorrow) to answer the question before we move on.

Oh good, class was already starting. Pulling out her notebook and her quills and setting them in front of her, K turned her attention to the Professor at the front of the class as she started her lecture for the morning. And hearing the proposed topic, she actually almost perked up a little bit. Magical Creatures were something that was at least of interest to her, so maybe the day was starting to pick up.

Hearing the first question, Kimmie raised her hand and waited to be called on. "One of the creatures Scamander studied was the Bowtruckle. He was able to give us insight that, like most other creatures and beasts, the Bowtruckle attacks when they feel that their home is being threatened. Otherwise they are a rather quiet creature." At least, she hoped she was remembering that correctly. From previous Care of Magical Creatures studies she thought she remembered that Scamander had also been particularly fond of Bowtruckles.

Ah, hair products would've been his next guess. Not that Kitt was much focused on the professor's golden locks anymore. Oh no, he was onto whatever was scurrying about the room and making girls scream. The Phoebe girl said it was a rat. If it was, the boy was now convinced magic rats grew way bigger than they had any business growing.

But then the Professor said it wasn't.

Kitt sunk into his seat, crooning his neck this way and that to get a look at it as it moved about the room. If Recard's introduction was anything to go off of, it was something called a ..."niffler"? Was that even a word?

He did his best to listen attentively, aware there was a lot he would need to catch up on--who was New Scamander? Why did someone name their kid after an amphibian? Was that normal among Wizards? His classmates had normal names, more or less. Definitely nothing out there like that. But the bigger problem became evident very quickly. He....had no idea what the professor was talking about and it was evident in the way his eyes glazed over and he just sorta....stared.

Great, more things he'd need to read up on after class. Just brilliant.

Ah, so that's what the little furry blob was! Avalon had heard all about nifflers, but she had never actually encountered a real one. It seemed like this one wasn't real either, as the enchantment wore off fairly quickly. She wasn't too disappointed, though, because she had a funny feeling that the niffler would be very interested in her shiny silver earrings. And she didn't really like the idea of a niffler crawling up her head.

Newt Scamander was one of Avalon's grandfather's idols. As a magizoologist himself, he was always talking about Newt and his "ingenious" (as Grandad Sinclair would say it) findings. She raised her hand, excited about today's lesson. "Newt did some work with the Swooping Evil." She wasn't sure exactly how much about the species he contributed to the field, but she remembered reading that he worked with them. "He found that their venom had memory-altering capabilities, so he diluted it in order to obliviate an entire city of Muggles. Or...No Majs, as I think they're called in America." And thank goodness he figured that out. It would have taken a looong time to manually obliviate all those people.

She smirked when she heard what Eiji said. Lessons at Hogwarts could be chaotic sometimes, but she hoped they would have more proper classes this term. Thankfully the toy niffler became motionless when the lesson began - the scurrying around was quite distracting. Oh, the lesson was about Newt Scamander! She had learned about him at Ilvermorny, because he had an impact on American history too even though he was a British wizard. He studied so many species of magical creatures that she had difficulty thinking of specific details. After organising her thoughts, she raised her hand to answer the question.

"He studied Thunderbirds too. Most notably, he saved an illegally imprisoned Thunderbird from Egypt ... I think that's the one he released in New York to spread the Swooping Evil venom," she said, adding on to Avalon's answer.

Fiona was at a loss and her face reflected her predicament. She drummed her fingers on the desk as she thought about an answer. Soon she did raise her hand. "I very vaguely remember something about an erumpet in New York Zoo but that's all I know, sorry." She looked rather disappointed with herself and folded her arms tightly against her chest.

Islay watched the littler niffler toy flitting about and grinned, it was neat to see really. While she listened to the topics creatures her fellow classmates brought up she couldn’t help but grin and nod at this and that. Raising her hand the rather inquisitive brunette couldn’t help but smile as she was called upon. ”Auguries, he is said to have studied the bird that has sometimes been called the irish phoenix” she spoke calmly. Her eyes still flicking over toward the toy Niffler every once in a while I wonder where she got that? the thought of getting one for her young cousin was almost too perfect.

At least Jina found his comment humorous...even if the intention had not been framed in that light. He supposed that her response was confirmation enough that he did not need to apologize to her as well for what had happened on the train. That was fine...because he did not particularly want to. Doing so to Nina had pushed him to be at capacity for that sort of empathy for a while and he would rather not waste the energy unnecessarily.

But when the lesson officially commenced and the professor stated that there was no need for the niffler...Eiji could practically feel the color drain from his face. So...then...why...you know. Never mind. NEVER MIND. He was just going to focus on dating his parchment and taking notes.

....notes that felt much better suited for Care of Magical Creatures class. Or at least...the answers everyone were providing were better suited for Care of Magical Creatures and literally none of them were providing HOW answers as much as WHAT - meaning sprouting off facts about the creatures. That was...not the point of the lesson and Eiji felt the NEED to answer just to prove this point. Professor Recard did mean how he learned...what he had, right? Maybe he was just being easily irritable, as always.

Truly, he did not feel like rambling off creature facts. But he did raise his hand regardless to, GASP, answer.

"Newt Scamander is known for a compassionate hands on approach when it came to creatures," he began with a slight roll of the shoulders as he settled into his recollection of his OWL studies on historically important witches and wizards. "One period of historical significance being during the Ministry of Magic's covert operation to wrangle Ukrainian Ironbellies during World War I and his particular technique with creatures resulted in them only responding to him and none of the others on operation...which then propelled him to work in the Ministry for a time where he rose quickly in the ranks and then which then propelled him in the role of a magizoologist which then assisted in gaining the attention of one Augustus Worme who commissioned him to write Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. So, one could perhaps argue that it all began with Ukrainian Ironbellies."

And there was his HOW answer, professor.

And, for the record, that was likely his speaking quota for the lesson as well.

Once Naya realized that the rambunctious creature was a toy, she took notice of the other students’ reaction to it. That was one way to entertain herself until class began. It didn’t take too long though for the professor to call the class to order. Naya’s question was answered right off the bat. They would be studying Newt Scamander, hence the niffler. Cool.

As for the creatures he studied, Naya had to think for a minute. Her first choice of an answer was taken by a classmate right away. Sooooo on to her second choice it seemed. Naya raised her hand to add her thoughts. “Newt Scamander studied the Demiguise. The Demiguise can become invisible and they have precognitive sight. That makes them very hard to catch because they pretty much know what’s coming. Newt Scamander knew that in order to catch a Demiguise, you have to hit them with something unexpected. You can’t go about catching them in the obvious way.”

Sure they had a history class last week, but did you know what they DIDN'T have? A timetable for the staircases. And do you know how many floors between Gryffindor tower and here? Enough to get lost and be late. And it didn't help that Michael slept late, really late, because he'd been reading Hogwarts: A History. He knew quite a lot about the castle now, and all without asking anyone, anything. So he was also aware of the points and how much it meant to people. He didn't care it, actually, and didn't see himself as caring ever, because it sounded silly, but... maybe he could just slip inside. He paused on the outside for a moment to catch his breath. Panting would draw too much attention. And when he felt the moment was right, he opened he door as slowly as he could, and slipped in and sat at the nearest desk. Hopefully no one saw him.

Jillian took out her notebook and placed it on the table. Usually with History of Magic there will be notes- even though there are times where she forgets to take them. When the topic is interesting she doesn't mind not jotting down too much notes but since she is dreading for this thing called N.E.W.Ts she needed all the notes she can get.

She sort of heard something but she can't quite make it... Her eyes began to wander around just to see. Her instincts told her to look on the floor and there it was... Is that a Niffler? she thought to herself. Those are adorable but before she could lower herself to touch it the niffler went away. Pout. Sad. Maybe later the little creature would come back to her.

Newt Scamander.

Why wasn't she surprised? He is a great wizard in history and as always Professor Recard knows which topics to choose for an interesting class. At the top of her head all she could think of was "Occamy, Professor" she said after raising her hand "Newt Scamander was wizard that had a soft spot for creatures." Going back to the occamy "occamies are aggressive and protective especially towards the eggs." which is only fair. "They're also Choranaptyxis, they can shrink or grow." She said that correctly right? She also read that these creatures are dangerous but Newt Scamander seemed to have a lot of them, so they must not be that dangerous at all.

Was it weird that History of Magic was bizarrely fascinating? Sure it wasn't top on Carsyn's list of favorite subjects, but over the last year she'd grown a little more interested in the subject and was grateful to see Professor Recard's return because the blond certainly played a role in a more enjoyable lesson.

What made it even more interesting was the thing scurrying around ....... which Carsyn was about to comment about when nevermind, lesson was beginning. Her knees pulled to her chest, the sixth year curiously listened as Professor Recard introduced today's topic. Maybe this helped keep her focus too - there was a no nonsense policy it seemed when it came introducing the topic. No guessing games. They could just launch right into discussion, which was about .... creatures? And the niffler had no role??? But didn't Newt have a pet niffler? Although she supposed there was no studying excessively of them by Newt Scamander ...

Before she could raise her hand with any viable answer, Eiji Rasting was talking and Carsyn was 90% sure she had never heard sooooo many words coming out of his mouth. So as quickly as her hand went up, it just as quickly lowered, as she opened and closed her mouth. Nothing. She had nothing more to say, even if she did know a few other creatures that Newt studied, there was nothing she could say at the moment.

Newt Scamander was today's topic .. seemed like a lot of lessons lately revolved around magical creatures, not just the actual class it's self. It was a fun topic though. "I know he spent a lot of time studying Bowtruckles as well." At least Blake was 95% sure that he did. "I think he kept several of them as 'pets' as well, he had many friendships with them. They are good a lock picking ... not that I would need to know that." Blake added, okay he didn't need a bowtruckle to pick a lock, he knew how to do it the muggle way, but bowtruckles were cool anyway.

”Yes Professor. A perfect day for a first lesson back” he replied with a smile on his face. That was, until something had latched itself onto his leg. With a little jump and a scream that was so manly and macho, he shot up a little in his chair. ”Wu-the…” looking down now, he noticed that the little toy had taken a liking to his leg!

”Uhh, Professor? Your little niffler today is uhh…it doesn’t have much understanding of personal space” laughing a little now as it scuttled a little further up his leg towards his knee before eventually hopping off. Curiously, he watched as it scurried off obviously looking for something it couldn’t find on his leg. Focusing a little now, he turned towards the professor, curious where this lesson was going.

It was clear within seconds that they were studying, mainly because the professor had told them that they were, but also because of the Niffler. In truth, he should have made the link earlier when the little plushie critter had latched itself to his leg but he had been a little pre-occupied with it. Having done extremely well on his OWL for this particular subject, partly to do with the fact that he also looked after muggle animals too, this was something that he particularly enjoyed so the professor wouldn’t have to work hard to keep his attention today.

Latching on to Eiji’s answer, he wanted to add to it a little, simply because he loved dragons and also because it had found its way into muggles myths with one of them even being on the flag of where he was born, although that dragon was in fact red and not green. ”Newt did a lot of research on Dragons Professor and the variety of types, Antipodean Opaleye and Peruvian Vipertooth to name just two” he answered, take a breath before continued, trying to answer the second part. [B]”During the muggle First World War, Newt worked served out on the Eastern front and worked with Ukrainian Ironbellys Professor, similar to what Eiji had said”[.B], not wanting to take the whole credit for the answer. ”Newt was the only one out there that could actually reason with the dragons” which must have been insane. He himself couldn’t imagine how cool it must have been to be able to interact with dragons closely.

”He also worked for the Drago Research and Restraint Bureau for a while and went on a load of research trips where he most likely gathered most of his research that we still use to this day. ”. Part of Ewan really wished he’d had a chance to go up to the dragon reservation, high up in the mountains of his homeland but somehow, it always seemed so far away from where he lived. Maybe one day.