"Alfie, you are NOT a very good friend - " she hissed as he sold her OUT. Telling Schmoe she said that DANIEL YOON was the worst person ever?! What a TATTLE. And V was not a tattle. If her parents had taught her anything, it was about never being a snitch. You go to the GRAVE for your loyalties. And since Aflie was a fellow Slytherin, she would have paid him that due just for the sole reason of being housemates.

He just lost that, though.

Traitor.

AND Schmoe wanted to see her and Daniel after class?!?!?!?!!? WHY. Victoria made a face of disbelief but soon the lesson was going on, and she just seeeeethed silently. THE INJUSTICE OF IT. SHE WAS TOTALLY NOT IN THE WRONG AT ALL. Daniel Yoon WAS the worst person ever AND SHE COULD EITHER BE A MEANIE HEAD OR A LIAR SO.....pick your poison!

Victoria read the list and felt very little. She saw HER assumption up there, and squirmed a little uncomfortably but otherwise she didn't really know how she was supposed to feel. She knew she didn't feel bad....she wondered what Lisa had put, or even Daniel. OoOOOOooh that would be a fun game. Guess who put what.

Let's see...

She squinted at Noah Mordaunt, the fifth year Gryffie, and quickly glanced at the board. He felt annoyed and frustrated...by HIS assumption or by his peers? V tapped her head curiously. HmmMMmmm. His was probably the arrogant and condescending one. If she had to guess. That Hufflepuff girl, Gemma, seemed really irritatingly nice so V thought her assumption she had written miiiiight be the quiet and content one. Yep, that checked out. Making snap judgments about people was ALWAYS fun. It reminded her of when she and her dad went out somewhere, whether on jobs for him or to eat or to the movies or whatever and they tried to guess what people were talking about or just generally talking about people. Her dad was such a fun gossiper.

The older Slytherin bloke, Nem, V thought was like that scary kind of quiet. His assumption was probably the loner one. Nodding to herself, she inwardly agreed with herself about her assumption. She was SO clever when she applied herself.

She raised her hand. "I think there's some truth in assumptions. So some of these assumptions are probably true," she said with a shrug. She hadn't answered the question, really, but who cared?! She was TALKING. CONTRIBUTING.

Claudine quickly read through the words on the whiteboard and was not appalled at all the assumptions made. It was typical human behaviour, was it not, to judge someone before really getting to know them? No, strike that. Even when someone knew another person well, the second person was judged for various reasons. Claudine’s face went light pink when she reminded herself that she often judged others. It was perhaps her greatest flaw.

Silent reflection it was for this sixth year. One: she didn’t care what anyone thought of her; no one’s opinion of her will ever get the best of her. Two: Claudine didn’t know how she felt upon reading those assumptions. Having usually expected the worst in humans, nothing they did or said really surprised her. But like Victoria said: some of those assumptions up there could be true. Take Blake for instance. A few years ago, Claudine had judged him to be a baby {i.e not brave} and she had let him know it. She still thought of him as a baby but didn't hold it against him even though she'd been right to a degree.

This was a whole new level of get in your feels for Charlie. Like come on every where they turned they were supposed to talk about their feelings. While a bit of that was okay with her it was really starting to weigh her down. Okay maybe it wasn't the lets discuss our feelings that was making her uncomfortable, rather it was the fact that letting the whole room see her assumption felt shallow.

Sighing and grabbing her pen she did what everyone else did and wrote it down.

SPOILER!!: her assumption

Because I'm pretty I'm not smart

Ugh that hurt her soul. She felt that feeling more now at 15 than she did when she was 11 or 12 soaking up all the information that was being given around here. Instead now she felt stifled and judged all the time.

Glancing at the board, woof, other people's assumptions were way worse than hers. Traitor? Oh boy. She tried to take even breathes watching until she saw a young girl (Victoria) scold her friend sitting beside her. She smiled because she had a friendship like that with a few of her classmates. She remembered having to wrestle Heathcliff once.... In mud.

Hahaha.

What a bunch of looosers. Except V.

Serena drew her attention away from the first years and on to the board. Suddenly, class got interesting again. But only the list of assumptions. Everything else was still pretty blah for her. She was OVER talking about things that involved emotions.

Eyes skimming the list, she coughed into her hand to shut herself up. Not potty trained. There HAD to be a reason THAT was an assumption. Cough, cough.

Baby blue eyes landed on hers: EVIL SPAWN. Serena stared at it for a while. Solemn. Unfeeling. That’s what she told herself. She raised her hand. “I embrace it, my assumption,” she said nonchalantly. What? If people assumed she was an evil spawn, then she’ll show them one.

As for assumptions about her friends, she couldn’t tell what Lisa wrote. She’d ask her later and trade with her.

It was sort of interesting to see what others had written down, and it was also interesting how obvious a few of them were.

Like "traitor." Wonder who could have possibly written that one.

Ivy's eyes found Nemesis when he answered Professor Schmoe's question. Curious, she was, about that statement. And him in general really. Was last term's actions something he regretted, and that was the point of adding that statement and that assumption, or was he proud of it? Or something in between? She obviously had no way of knowing, but it didn't stop her from wondering.

And it wasn't lost on her that her initial thoughts played right into the lesson by assuming, but that first year (Victoria) was kinda right. Some assumptions did hold a little bit of truth. Not all, but definitely a few. And for another few, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I feel like your feelings on some of them might depend on your perspective," she said, her attention finally returning to Professor Schmoe, her hand raised. "Like being considered weird doesn't have to always be bad. One person might assume someone's weird in a bad way, but then someone else views that someone positively and sees them as normal. So you could ignore the first person and focus on the one not making bad assumptions about you." Easier said than done, of course.

It was definitely not the point of this exercise, but Phoebe found herself mentally trying to figure out what assumptions matched which of her classmates. Was she just super angelic (and never made assumptions about people) or just naive? She didn't recognize a lot of them, or else they were so vague that they could apply to lots of people.

She thoughtfully raised her hand, giving Schmoesy a wave. Heeey, Professor. "Maybe these sort of things become like an echo chamber in our head. Someone says something or makes us feel a certain way, and we just keep sending it round and round until it's the loudest voice in our head. And we think everyone feels that way and we wonder if it's true, because if everyone else sees it, then they must be right..." She made a face. "If it wasn't our own head saying it, I'd like to punch it right in the mouth."

Lisa’s eyebrows raised when she heard Schmoe put a stop to the Daniel and V antics. Part of her was very relieved because all of this fighting was EXHAUSTING and the other part of her was disappointed because she was sure that this was going to get very, very interesting. But the great Daniel and V battle would have to continue another day. Lisa was very concerned about the two of them being sent to Schmoe’s office together. Something was bound to break... she was sure of it.

.....Then again seeing each other in a Professor’s office was a much better alternative to say ... a detention with both of them in it?

But anyway- DUH. Lisa rolled her eyes. Of course it was going to get them in trouble.

She cast her gaze to her two friends, curious to see what their reactions would be. Honestly she wasn’t surprised that they had gotten into trouble.

An older Gryffindor mentioned that he was annoyed and frustrated. Merlin! The older kids all must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed permanently for the past year, she wagered. She huffed and folded her arms to listen to other responses. She wasn’t ... entirely inclined to give her perspective right now as she was a little preoccupied with worry over which one of her friends would survive Schmoe’s office. V or Daniel? Then again... maybe they could gather intel on Schmoe’s dark wizard ... activities, yes?

Gemma? That was her name... right? Lisa nodded at Gemma’s comment. She agreed very much so.

Then an older Snake (Nem) offered his perspective which... had some insight but Lisa was bamboozled about what exactly he meant. She felt like he was kinda a magical eight ball with some of his answers cause it either got her imagination going or it simply made her wonder what ‘Perhaps’ meant.

As V mentioned that there may have been some truth in the assumptions, Lisa’s hand shot up. She didn’t think she was crazy! She was weird, yes, but crazy? Not entirely. She immediately went on the defensive but then saw that someone had written crybaby up there so she slowed her ‘excitement’. She didn’t want to perceived as a crybaby too. Wait. Hold up. What was worse. Crybaby or traitor? She decided in the moment that she, like the older Gryffindor, was mostly annoyed. Lisa huffed.

“Annoyed because those assumptions could be a first impression or it could be someone assuming that you act a certain way because you remind them of someone you’ve already met. Then again... Eomma said that it’s human nature to form certain opinions about others... something about unconscious biases?” She looked to her older brother to see if she had gotten that correct. The word stuck out to her.

Don’t ask her what it meant though. She had only memorized the word to make her sound super smart.

Misa looked at the board, sadly. How did it make her feel reading those things? She raised her hand. "Some of those are sad." she said. "Which makes me sad which makes me think those people need a hug."

Not from her though. She didn't hug people she didn't know.

Violet was feeling more and more nervous about all these assignments related to 'feelings.' After the events of the past year, emotions were high, and she was not sure the professors were up to handling everything that might be stirred up.

But still--she couldn't resist speaking up (when had she become so bold?) "It's like people come to a snap decision based on just a very few superficial things. Things that they maybe misinterpret, don't understand the reasons for, even though they think they do. And once you get a certain reputation, it's really hard to change and grow, because if you try to be different, people just try to hold you down and keep you in the image they already have of you."

The first thing Val noticed when she looked at the assumptions on the board was that.. most of them were negative. And mean. Some of those assumptions COULD be true, she supposed.

The gryffindor felt slightly uncomfortable as she looked at her feet, wondering if people had made any more assumptions about her that she didn't know about. What if her friends did it too?? She should ask them later.. just for her peace of mind but also.. probably not. She didn't want to know. The third year simply stayed silent, eyes still on the board.

Oh...there it was. Right there for everyone to see. Atlas thought he would feel betrayed by his words being RIGHT THERE or mad at himself for not guessing that that was the next step to this activity...but he didn't. In fact, he found it kind of funny that it was right there in all caps. It was sort of like...armor...in a weird way. Sort of like...if it OWNED this assumption about himself and, figuratively, blew it up...then no one could hurt or humiliate him about it ever again.

There was another kind of irony about this...and that was in reading the list...Atlas was pretty sure he could guess at least a handful of the people attached to them. Or, well, who he ASSUMED they were about.

But then there was the thought about HIDING behind the assumption...and rather than it feeling like something empowering it was something to hide behind. Kind of like a mask rather than a shield. A mask to hide your real self unless people proved they could see beyond the assumptions...so then it was also like a test that people didn't know they were taking. A built in defense.

Many thoughts...none which he felt like sharing at the moment. Plus...he was also busy glancing back and forth between those two first years who now had to go see Professor Schmoe. Though, to be fair, if there was a professor to get in trouble with it would be their Muggle Studies professor. Another safety net of sorts.

Being send to Schmoe’s office after class with HER was not something he was happy about. Why was he being picked out when all he did was stand up for himself?! Alfred was right , SHE started it by telling him he was ‘the worst’ . The Hufflepuff shot Victoria a glare from across the fire before crossing his arms and looked away pointedly. ”Fine”

Alfred taking a seat next to him was something that he had not expected but still appreciated it. It meant that at least someone had taken his side on this . But he was still too upset to acknowledge him.

As class continued, Daniel was still seething but quietly this time but even though he was quiet at the moment his expression definitely said that if anyone said one negative word against him he would leave the 'classroom'

It would be worth the point loss.

He looked over as the assumptions were appearing for everyone to see and although it was anonymously he was still glad he had written down an assumption of his House rather than of his own. He couldn’t believe that a lot of them had chosen to write something personal.

As he read the list, nothing exactly came up. Expect for curiosity. He was 100% sure that Victoria had written the ‘people assume i’m a crybaby’ assumption which was not even an assumptions, she cried about EVERYTHING. It was a fact. A couple of others were interesting though. Like ‘NOT POTTY TRAINED” He REALLY wanted to find out who this was cause it was funny and TRAITOR had caught his attention as well. Why did people assume that person was a traitor? That sounded a bit harsh to him. He was 100% sure yet again that this person had a lover’s quarrel!

Daniel agreed with the older Slytherin (Nemesis) that people were unwilling to look further and he begrudgingly agreed with Victoria as well that some assumptions were probably true.

As for answering the question, Daniel decided not to cause he was still FUMING. In silence.

"Annoyed, honestly." While she didn't care so much about what assumptions other people had of her classmates, and knew she had her own as well--that potty trained one? She knew who and for a while DID think so. The traitor one? She bet was Nem and she didn't agree. Point was, she was neither here nor there about those but the assumption about her? It was proper annoying and inconvenient.

"When they think that way, they try making you act according to how they think you are and try guilting you and doing more of that not empathising thing, Professor."

Last term was especially horrible with that.

"People should mind their own business and worry more about how they're portraying themselves to other people."

Dahlia sat up a little straighter when all of the 'assumptions' were transferred from the papers onto the board. For a long time the second year quietly sat there on the log taking in each 'assumption' one by one. Some of them weren't really all that bad.. others.. well, those were kinda sad and made her heart hurt a little.

Deep down she couldn't help but wonder sometimes if the assumptions about herself were true of not. A few were and that was okay. It was the ones that had to do with the war and how she was handling it that upset her. Annnnnyhow that was a topic for another day..

Raising her hand, Lia let out a small breath she didn't realize she had been holding. "Uhh, well I think it really depends on what the assumption is and how it's being focused on.. was it being said in a harsh manner or can it be looked at from a lighter point of view?" Not everything had be bad.

Ash considered the list. She was pretty sure she could recognize Upstead's and Cambridge's, maybe even Claudine's. Pretty sure, anyway. "People get assumed very different stuff. Some people get seen as cowards, or stupid reckless idiots. Some people get seen as too caring, or not caring enough. And, I dunno, some of them may have some basis in reality, that someone is shy or bold or extroverted or whatever else. But it's not really fair to judge someone like that if you don't know abut what they're going to. I don't like being assumed about. If someone thinks there's something wrong with me I'd rather they say it out loud so that their assumption can get corrected." *corrected*... maybe like, corrected through fighting. If they were so fixed in their assumptions, then they should fight for them. People should fight for the things they believe in. If they weren't going to fight, then it couldn't be something they believed in very much... like all of the people working at the ministry that Ash didn't trust.

Heath sat silently, staring at the list that appeared on the board. He thought he recognized a few of the assumptions as belonging to his friends, but for the most part, he wasn't going to venture a guess as to which assumption belonged to whom. That seemed a bit hypocritical to him, like making assumptions about an assumption.

The list brought up an uncomfortable surge of mixed emotions. Some made him feel shocked and appalled, like "That I care what they think or what happens to them." Given that most of the assumptions on the list were probably not true, that would imply that whoever wrote that cared only about themself. Others, like "That I'm the happy cheerful one and I shouldn't feel any other way besides that." and "People assume that I'm quiet and content." made him sad. He hated to think that some among them might truly be unhappy, but he understood. Sometimes it was hard to stay happy, especially given what happened last term.

The assumptions that struck a chord with him most, however, were the ones that sounded similar to his own: *Unfeeling, Detached + Arrogant, Uncaring towards humans, Loner. No friends, Unfriendly… He knew how hurtful it felt when people made similar assumptions about him, so he couldn't help but feel a sort of kinship with those people, whoever they were. Part of him wished he knew who'd written those things. If he did, maybe they could be friends.

The thought crossed his mind to speak up, if for no other reason than to make it more difficult for others to guess which assumption was his, but he decided against it. It was too many emotions for him to try to put into words!

Avalon found herself fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist as she scanned the board of assumptions. Reading them made her uncomfortable–and not just because it made her sad that her classmates felt this way. Deep down, she knew she had judged people too. How many times had she herself internally labeled someone as weird or annoying, or as something else on that board? Too many to count. The Ravenclaw was quick to jump to conclusions about people...and that wasn't always a good thing.

Her head lowered slightly as she reflected. She didn't have much to add.

Pax...... was embodying her assumption in this moment, because her eyes were practically glazing over before the entire list had even appeared. Was this a Board-directed waste of her learning time or was it all Schmoe? He was a strange, awkward man that she typically had very little time for, but usually the lessons had some merit and relevance, even if they didn't particularly challenge her.

Well, if Schmoe wasn't going to teach anything useful, Pax would have to teach herself. She got her textbook out of her bag and began reading the exam-based curriculum.

About Muggle Studies.

You know, the subject she had assumed would actually be taught today.

And no, she wasn't going to give an answer, though she did let the responses wash over her incase anyone let anything interesting slip.

"Thank you all for sharing," he bobbed his head, looking around the circle. With his whiteboard eraser, he went and erased all of the assumptions off the board. "I, er, I know this was an unconventional way to begin our lesson and I appreciate that you all participated despite this. Thank you for your vulnerability and for your empathy." Even with the blips. He was so very grateful. "As we know, amongst wizard-kind, there are a great deal of assumptions and stereotypes pointed at Muggles. Last term, these harmful beliefs were taught at Hogwarts... And were part of our Muggle Studies lessons." He paused to take a breath in order to steady himself.

"Needless to say, what was taught was not only untrue, but it was also harmful. Thinking about how we felt about assumptions that others make about ourselves and our friends... Why might it be harmful to make assumptions and believe stereotypes about muggles?" He paused for a moment to allow the question to sink in. "How can we move forward and beyond buying into these assumptions?"

OOC: Hello, hello! Thanks for staying with us, friends <3 I'll be posting in roughly 24 hours to move us to our FINAL ACTIVITY~

"Making assumptions about anyone muggle or not is not allowing yourself to get to know someone and really finding what they are about. People are more than stereotypes and we as people should always give chances to show that. If you just think about the assumptions you could really loose out on a friendship that could have been or finding someone that could have really helped you or you help them in some way." She had been always taught to respect and be kind to everyone, to always give chances before judging.

Thinking about the rest and how they get past that Gemma was at a loss. How did you get past everything that happened last term, but she put her hand up again and talked a little softer. "I think getting past that is going to be hard. I mean there was so much hurt and loss, but in time healing can happen and hopefully people will have learned from history so it doesn't happen again, it can't happen again." She bit her lip and tried to focus on something else, anything else.

Claudine dully watched Schmoe erase all those assumptions. If there was one good thing about this lesson, it was that she already wanted to work hard to stop judging others. It was easier said than done, given the fact she’d been judging for as long as she could remember. Right now, Claudine could draw the link between the curriculum of last term and Rosier who was probably the most judgemental of all. Woops. There she went, judging again.

“Well, for starters, any negative assumptions could bring on another war,’’ the sixth year volunteered, lowering her hand after she began to speak. “Those assumptions could be avoided by we, ourselves getting to know Muggles rather than relying on the hearsay of others.”

Hearing Lisa's response to the previous question, and the mention of their mum, Evan did glanced her way. He smiled encouragingly when she looked his way, as if confirming that she'd said it all right - which she had so he gave her a subtle nod and a small thumbs up. Eomma would be pleased that she had remembered all of that.

Moving onto the next question, this was one Evan was willing to offer a response too. He raised his hand and waited to be called on. "It's important to not make assumptions, especially on an entire specific group of people, because then you miss out on learning opportunities. There are so many things that are different between the muggle world and the wizarding world, and I think it's important that we know both because knowledge is power. When we make assumptions we close ourselves off to people and what they can teach us." And what others could teach you could prove to be valuable, something he was learning more and more.

He took a brief pause before offering an answer to the second question as well. "I think... in terms of moving forward, one of the most important things is remembering. We have to remember it happened so that we know warning signs for the future, and prevent ourselves from joining in mass assumptions, like against an entire group like the muggles, or even to stop ourselves from making assumptions about individuals."

"I would think nobody would have to." Misa said shifting uncomfortably. "People should know enough of a variety of people where they know that any judgments and predispositions are wrong."

Violet listened to the replies of her fellow students, thinking about what they all said. Of course, the main emphasis was on negative assumptions, but you could make wrong assumptions the other way, too.

"You can make false positive assumptions as well, and those can be equally dangerous. When I was growing up, my family would never talk about or have anything to do with anything Muggle, and that made me develop a kind of fascination with them. I thought my family was just prejudiced and that Muggles were all wonderful.

Then I met some...rather unpleasant Muggles, which got me in a lot of trouble. And for a while I thought that my family was right and I didn't want anything to do with Muggles. But now I realize--Muggles are just people, like Wizards. They can be good, or bad, or anywhere in between. You just have to judge everyone by what they say and, most importantly, what they do, and make your own evaluations."

Violet sat back, a little startled at herself for uncharacteristically revealing so much personal information.

Phoebe really wished they were spending time learning about the many crazy ways that Muggles used spoons. Or maybe how Muggle bathrooms worked. That seemed like a super fun and harmless way to spend the term, rather than this emotional trauma. Schmoe obviously meant well, but Phoebe wasn't sure why he felt like he had to absolve their misdeeds singlehandedly. Wait, not their misdeeds. The students hadn't done anything wrong.

"Uh... professor? Maybe it's bad to go in with assumptions because it keeps you from really understanding Muggles or getting to know them. And then all that exists between us and them is misunderstanding and distrust, and then people do things that are crazy."