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Atlas and Kinsay and Phoebe, oh my! Quote:
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And accio'ing the firewood? That was just showing off. "Well, then, in that case, maybe we should just transfigure the firewood. Focalia!" Violet added, sweeping her wand in an "X" over some loose grass and transfiguring them into a couple of smaller sticks. Okay, now she was just showing off, she thought to herself a second later. "But I don't think the point of this class is fire-kindling, so maybe we should just get on with it," she added, blushing slightly at herself and casting a quick fire charm (oh yes, she was quite good at those now) onto their pile when it was finished, smiling at Atlas for his skill in arranging the wood. And now she realized that while she was preoccupied with petty things, the class had gone on. Pests? "Cornish pixies can be dreadful pests, they get into everything and are very destructive," she offered when it was her turn. She remembered the summer when her Uncle Hamlet had brought a few home from a summer trip and then not fastened their cage carefully enough. |
Claudine was actually disappointed when Valentina mentioned that she wasn’t excited for the lesson should the topic indeed turn out to be Ashwinders. “I hope your mind changes.” Paszek drew the Slytherin’s attention again, this time with a question. Pests… well, Atlas’ explanation had basically covered how Claudine felt about the topic, though she wasn’t drawn to the robotics part.. Humans probably were the biggest pests. Not all of them but most… you know, because she was not so fond of ninety nine percent or more of the human race. “The Bundimun, professor,’’ Claudine volunteered, wiggling her fingers of her raised hand. “Nasty infestations they can cause to houses.” |
Text Cut: What wonderful answers!!! So many good answers. And, unfortunately, there were a lot of magical pests. “Thank you all, yes, we've got Bundimun, Cornish pixies, chizpurfles, nifflers, garden gnomes, doxies, and many others as more traditional magical household pests," she summarized. "Destruction, damage, and being annoying are all common traits of pets, and in certain circumstances, even wizards or normally gentle creatures can become pests if they distrub the environment and cause harm." She kicked a vine out of her way, heading back toward the front of the paddock. Kinsay James was right, these vines were pests. But, time to move on. "The magical pest we’ll be discussing today is the Ashwinder,” she announced. "Ashwinders are serpents that are born from magical fires, fires where Floo powder has been used, when they burn down, like we'll be letting our fires burn down today." She glanced around, making sure none of the fires had burned down yet. They all looked good. She pulled a jar of Floo powder from a pocket and tossed a pinch into her fire pit, causing the flames to turn bright green for just a moment. These fires couldn't take them anywhere as they weren't connected to the Floo network, but the Floo powder would still allow Ashwinders to be born. "Ashwinders wander off in magical houses, and lay their eggs. Unfortunately, their eggs are very hot, which is why they're considered a pest--many a housefire has been caused by Ashwinder eggs that nobody knew about." She began wandering again, tossing small pinches of Floo powder into each of the students' fires as she spoke. “Now, what are some times when creatures we call pests might be considered useful?” she asked. “The Ashwinder, or any other magical pest.” She paused, then added another question to tickle their brains. “Or, how can we prevent magical pests--whether the Ashwinder or something else--from causing problems in our homes?” Ooc: You’ll have about 24 hours to post your answers. |
Phoebe raised an eyebrow at Violet's emphatic show of magic. Like, was it a contest? They were seventh years, they did non-verbals, it was grand to be so ancient, blah blah blah. "Bravo, old girl. I didn't even know that was a spell." But they were talking about pests, right? Best not to identify Violet as one, since she did not appear to have a sense of humor. "Younger siblings can be terrible pests, but they're very good for blaming things on when you accidentally burn dinner or lose your keys or let the dog out. It is nearly always Kizzy's fault, and she's okay with that." |
Magical pests? Why did no one mention jarveys?? Weren't they pests in their obnoxious ways? Then again, maybe they were considered the 'other'. Although if Apollo was being honest, he definitely wouldn't have considered ashwinders to be a pest. Also, he totally was competent in the incendio spell. Joining Lisa and Evan Nam, along with Bella, he mostly was quiet and contemplative thus far throughout the lesson. "Pests might be useful if we need them for like potion ingredients. Like ashwinder eggs are a very common potion ingredient." He looked over at Phoebe with her answer about pests, blinking a few times when she mentioned younger siblings. He sadly wouldn't know about that, but she did appear to be joking. |
Phoebe's response earned the smallest of smiles from Cece and she looked down, thinking of Sammy when he was a tiny, curious little thing. Truthfully, she'd probably been more of a pest than he ever could be. "Pests are useful in that they give the pest control people a job," The blonde offered softly. Jobs were important. If anyone knew that, Cece did. Leaving this place meant finding herself one of those really soon. Sooner than she liked to think about. |
Hearing Phoebe's answer, Kinsay almost piped up to object. Except, Fi had a point. Kiz was totally okay with it. Maybe not at first, but she learned to live with it mhm. If she weren't so cute, it probably would've been a different story all together. But as it was, she could usually weasel her way out of getting into big trouble and if that meant taking one for the team... She did, however, raise her hand to jump in right after Phoebe because she could help with the second part of the question. The part about how to prevent pests from causing problems. "Sometimes I can be bribed with snacks." Only the good kind though. Kinsay had standards. |
Claudine too could agree with Kinsay: the vines were a pest. Anyway. Indeed there were a lot of pests out there, and if one were to combine them all both from the wizarding and muggle world, then the list would surely go on forever. Her face lit up once more when Paszek mentioned Ashwinders. Of course the Snakette had figured that out from the inception when ‘magical fire’ was mentioned. She also knew what the Floo powder would be very helpful in this process of Ashwinders being born. Claudine watched each fire as the powder was dropped into it. This was such a fascinating thing. “Since Ashwinders are usually born from fires that are born from magical fires that are left unsupervised, it’s best to have at least one person around to keep an eye on the fire while it’s burning.” |
Violet suppressed an eye-roll at Phoebe's comment. Bravo, old girl?? What was this, an Edwardian novel or something? And how casually she threw her sister,Kinsay under the bus; Violet was surprised the younger girl didn't object, but she seemed to just shrug it off. Maybe that was what it was like to have a sister. Oh well, enough amusing herself with these Gryffindors and back to class. "Ashwinders may be pests, but their eggs can be useful in a number of potions, like the antidote to ague." Also love potions, of course, but the less said about those, the better. "If you can harvest them in a regulated manner, that is, and freeze them so they don't catch on fire." |
Valentina was thinking about vines and how they were a pest like Kinsay had said - also, wondering when they were going to go away. It was getting to be a little tiresome to see them everywhere. Also. What did she know about ashwinders?? Nothing that her classmates hadn't already said. Oh, well. "I've heard their eyes are red, professor. Is that true??" |
Did some rearranging of the responses SPOILER!!: responses SPOILER!!: Violet And they were back to Ashwinder eggs being used in potions. It was a good note to end on, she thought. "Yes, very important point here, Miss Blackthorne," Mia said. "Ashwinder eggs can be used in potions, but they have to be frozen soon after they're laid," she said, looking around to make sure everyone was listening. "Very soon, some Ashwinders will be coming out of your fires, and looking for a nice corner in the maze to lay their eggs in," she said. "We'll be gathering the eggs to be used in potions, so you'll all need to find the eggs before they catch fire, and freeze them." She summoned a box of jars from the corner and pulled one out. "Glacius works well, and then they can go in these jars for safekeeping. Remember--the eggs are very hot, don't try to handle them before you've used the freezing charm." Mia looked around, the fires looked to be in about the right state. "Go ahead and collect some jars. You can share Ashwinders if you'd like, but please keep an eye out in case there's one unattended. Let's try not to burn down the paddock!" OOC: Okay! The main activity is here. Harvesting Ashwinder eggs. They'll need toEven before the professor stopped talking, the first Ashwinder slithered from the remnants of her fire and into the maze. While she finished giving instructions, more Ashwinders began emerging from the fires, winding with determination into the maze. It was egg-laying time and they all needed to find nice cozy corners.
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Misa stared at the fire. Confused. Waittttttt a second. "Professor, does that mean floo powder has ashwinder egg in it?" Or were these snake things spontaneous? Spontaneous and laying eggs sounded like the absolute worst thing possible. She eyed one of the snake things, brain still processing the chicken and egg situation that was just described. What were they supposed to be doing again? Because at this point Misa was just following one with no jar trying to figure out where snake babies come from. |
For some reason, ways that pests could be useful completely escaped Evan's mind which was why he had chosen to remain silent during the previous question. It only occurred to him later that he could have offered that pests could be useful for learning different magic techniques - such as the notable lesson in which Professor Lockhart had brought in Pixies for the purpose of teaching the class... something. He was fine with his silence however since he couldn't remember what the intention had been stated to be, as the man had not really taught anything as far as he could tell from history texts. But anyways. Ashwinder egg gathering time. Snakes were not something Evan had previously been fond of (or anything within their family), but after the previous summer he looked upon them far more favorably. So much so that he was thinking it was possible he'd quite enjoy this lesson. Once answers were gathered and instructions given, Evan followed his other peers to collect a jar before waiting for a few Ashwinders to take off for others to follow, before finally zeroing in on one himself. He followed along after it into the maze, careful for any others or his peers. |
Kindling and pretty girl smiles aside, Atlas was not a bit distracted by watching the fire and poking at it in places with bits of straw and waiting until the tips caught on fire. Straw burned down pretty quickly, so it was a speedy game of chicken with the flame before tossing it into the fire with his fingers only slightly licked by the flame. The sticks took a little longer and were more interesting. Interesting enough that he was sort of zoning out during the transition from identifying some pests to listing off their benefits and good qualities. He likely would have just answered with something pretty straightforward and obvious with them being useful in potions and that sort of thing. So, watching the fire and poking it with another stick it was...until people started moving around a bit and then he was all wide eyed and obviously lost in a wet paper bag. But...collecting a jar seemed to be the THING...so he went and did that. TWO, actually, because one he offered to Phoebe James while doing bright red cheeks and a sheepish but impish sort of smile. "...I probably shouldn't cast Glacius. I'll likely destroy the egg," he said somewhat bluntly. "I can't have unborn ashwinder deaths on my conscience." He still had jarvey death on it, among other things. |
SPOILER!!: Catching up Quote:
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That explained what the maze was about. Claudine was so, so excited to get started on this activity. As a bonus for her, they would be using the Freezing Charm which happened to be one of the Charms she excelled at. Practically beaming, the seventh year collected a cold jar. One would do for now. Her gaze went back to the pits, her gaze eventually settling on the pit she, Valentina and Heath had worked on. Any minute now, and there would be Ashwinders crawling about. Any minute… Off the girl would go the moment one was spotted. Then there was not a moment to waste for there the little creatures were. Claudine zoned in on one and began to follow it. |
Valentina really wasn't as excited to be following serpents around - but it was an activity and it had to be done. Unfortunately. She collected her cold jar and held it carefully as she looked at the firepit, her eyes widening as she watched one emerge and slither off into the maze. OKAY. She was going to follow that one. Jar held in one hand, wand in the other - she quickly walked, realising that they didn't seem as scary as she had assumed initially. |
did some rearranging SPOILER!!: Misa This was an excellent question, unsurprising that it came from a Ravenclaw. "No, not to my knowledge," Mia said, shrugging. Floo powder's exact ingredients were unknown. "It's from the magical nature of the fire..." Much like the chicken and the egg problem, in fact. Fires caused Ashwinders, who laid eggs, which caused fire...very hard to wrap one's mind around. "Best to just be careful about using too much floo powder." The ashwinder Misa had been following, meanwhile, settled in a dead end of the maze, coiling up to lay its eggs. One... two... three red hot ashwinder eggs, and then the serpent slowly disintegrated into ash, as they were wont to do. SPOILER!!: Evan It seemed to have chosen the longest path, not falling for any dead ends. The Ashwinder made its way to the far corner of the maze, at the very edge of the classroom paddock, before interlacing itself with some of the encroaching vines. A nest, one might say. And pretty soon it had laid its eggs, too, four of them, before turning to dust. Or, rather, ash. SPOILER!!: Atlas Distraction wasn't a good quality in a time like this...if the boy wanted to avoid freezing any eggs, he was in luck. Over in the maze, one of the earliest Ashwinder's eggs had gone unattended too long. Luckily it had rained recently, so there wasn't too many flammable sticks nearby, but in one of the maze's dead ends, the eggs had begun smoking. Well, the weeds they'd been laid on were smoking. Smoldering, if we were being specific. Maybe Atlas would be more comfortable putting out fire than freezing Ashwinder eggs. SPOILER!!: Bella and Claudine Hopefully the girls weren't too focused on their Ashwinders, for the paths these serpents had chosen met up in the middle of the maze. The two Ashwinders paused as they passed, beady red eye meeting beady red eye. And just like that, Claudine's Ashwinder went off the way Bella's had come from, and Bella's Ashwinder went toward where Claudine's Ashwinder had already passed. SPOILER!!: Valentina No drama from this Ashwinder. It curled up in the first maze alcove/dead end it reached, looking like it was ready lay its eggs...but not doing so. Not yet. Just a little curled Ashwinder, biding its time before laying any red-hot eggs and vanishing into the abyss. |
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The Ashwinders were fascinating creatures--Violet had never seen one live before, only in pictures. They were beautiful, fiery serpents, sort of like the mythical salamanders in legends. She hurried to follow a couple of them into the maze before she lost sight of them. |
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“Hi, Bella.” Claudine grinned. “Seems as though these two a stare off.” A short one, though, which was a good thing because the seventh year could hardly wait to collect the eggs. She followed slowly, continuing in the direction she and the Ashwinder were already headed, clutching the jar with both hands to her chest. |
He had to admit, he was very impressed with the Ashwinder's ability to avoid all dead ends and make it through nearly the entire maze. It had him momentarily wondering if this particular one had gotten lucky, or if they were a creature that had a higher IQ as a whole. He briefly considered asking Professor Paszek, but he figured it was also a question he could follow up on later. Especially considering his ashwinder was stopping and appeared to be ready to lay her eggs. Watching it turn to ash as it laid it's eggs... it felt rather sad to him. He watched the spot, also eying the vine nest warily before pointing his wand at the each egg. "Glacius!" Once that portion of the task was complete, he tentatively scooted closer to the vine nest in order to grab the eggs to put them in his jar. |
SPOILER!!: Violet The Ashwinder Violet followed took its time winding through the maze, cautiously checking around every third corner. Finally it came to a nice end in its path. Coiling itself and checking its surroundings, it laid two eggs. Then after a deliberate pause, laid a third egg and disintegrated, leaving the three eggs on a little pillow of ash. SPOILER!!: Claudine Not long after the stare off, Claudine's Ashwinder found a nice corner in the maze, curled up, and lay four whole eggs before disintegrating away. SPOILER!!: Evan The eggs froze, no longer threatening to start a fire in the paddock after his spell. |
... At least the eggs did seem sufficiently safe to grab onto now. Evan considered using diffindo on the vines around, but he didn't want to damage them, so instead he just thrust his hand in and quickly pulled each out to carefully place in his jar. Merlin's beard, they were cold. Getting all the eggs into his jar, he capped it off before heading back towards where the jars were kept to place his now full one there. He figured maybe he'd go around as well and see if he could help any of his classmates too. Or maybe he should just focus on walking the maze to make sure none of them last any other Ashwinders. Professor Paszek had warned that could happen.. |
SPOILER!!: professor Valentina slowly followed the ashwinder, watching it curl up - almost as if it was going to lay it's eggs but not quite. Why was it waiting?? She couldn't help but notice the other ashwinders already laying their eggs so why wasn't this one doing that yet? Maybe it didn't feel ready.. or.. or maybe not all ashwinders were the egg laying type.. anywaaay. She impatiently waited. "Come oooon." She muttered softly. |
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