NEWT Class One

It was still brisk outside, but Remy could feel the first hint of Spring in the air. The snow which had blanketed the terrain for the last few months was finally beginning to melt. The grass beneath the sludge was not a pretty sight to look at, but in a few months it would return to its former glory.

This morning, Remy found herself in an unfamiliar place: the Hogwarts Grounds. She hadn’t been here in years, not since she graduated, and she hadn’t expected to return. She likely never would have come back to Hogwarts if it weren’t a specific assignment, but now that she was here she did not hesitate to adapt the appropriate nostalgia for the school she had once attended. Remy was more than capable of playing any role she chose, including that of a soft-hearted female longing for her school girl days.

Just recently, Remy had been appointed to the Position of Care of Magical Creatures professor. It was somewhat amusing, really, that Remy should be teaching and influencing the young minds of today – she wasn’t exactly a role model, but she could fake it well enough. Sandra had given Remy a special assignment, and with Vincent’s help she had been given just the right placement in order to accomplish her task.

Reaching the a slope near the forbidden forest where she had told the students to meet, Remy placed the contents of her arms on the ground. The things she had been carrying were covered with a black sheet so the creatures inside were not visible, though a faint buzzing could be heard. Brushing off her hands on her jeans – yes she had worn jeans to her first day of work. Remy had grown up on a farm, and she knew better than anyone that when it came to working with creatures, jeans were your best bet – Remy pushed her dark locks away from her face and awaited the arrival of the students.

((Just so you are aware: in my classes, you are far more likely to be awarded house points for creativity or especially good (good does not always equal long, though the two can go hand in hand) posts than you are for answering questions correctly. You are still expected to answer questions, for which you may or may not earn house points. I just want to clarify this early, both to encourage strong posting and to avoid anyone's feelings being hurt if they answer a question and do not earn house points.))

Elizabeth made her way towards the entrance of the Forbidden Forest. She was intrigued that the professor had asked for them to meet there. The Forbidden Forest had a certain aura to it one which lured her towards it though she knew that was mainly due to the fact that it was taboo for a student to enter it alone. Wasn't that always what drew a human towards something? One always had the irresistible desire to have that which they could not have. But for today, the Forbidden Forest was within her reach. Though there was the possibility they wouldn't actually get to go into the forest but Elizabeth brushed that thought off. For once she was choosing to be optimistic.

The creatures within the forest were things she had mainly only heard of, either in books or conversations, but had never been able to see up close. Of course she had seen some of the more basic creatures such as unicorns or other tings which they had learned about in Care of Magical Creatures. Hopefully they would be studying something less mundane than a unicorn; something which was actually dangerous.

Elizabeth still couldn't pinpoint the exact reasoning behind her desire to take this course. She was wretched with animals - she seemed to lack that sort of maternal care that seemed required. She was even unable to keep a goldfish alive for longer than a couple of days. It was a bit pathetic really. There was a part of her that yearned to be better at this sort of thing but sometimes people were just naturally bad at something and there was no way around it. Thankfully animals weren't something she would have to deal with in her future because she knew she would never choose a career which revolved around them.

As she neared the entrance her eyes fell upon their new professor. She was attractive to say the least, something which conflicted with her opinion of most professors at Hogwarts. There was something harsh about her features though Elizabeth couldn't put her finger on what was giving her that impression. Her blue eyes fell on the woman's jeans, something which was quite out of the ordinary for a professor though she only let them linger there for a moment. Bringing her gaze back up to the professor's face she smiled, "Morning professor."

Remy was pleased when she saw a student walking toward her over the sloping lawn, mostly silhouetted by the morning sun until she was about 30 meters away. The girl was tall and had her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, as she should for the class she was about to experience. Remy’s own dark locks still hung around her face, but she would pull them back before beginning any of the real work.

The girls eyes were wandering, Remy could tell, and she was not blind to the fact that this student’s eyes lingered on her choice of attire. Remy’s lips curved up in a hint of a smirk at the thought this look provoked: if this girl thought Remy’s attire was going to be the thing that set her apart from the other professors, she was in for a surprise. Remy was different in more ways than the blue eyed beauty could have possibly imagined, and most of that was beneath the surface.

“Morning,” Remy responded easily, nodding in the direction of the newcomer, “Feel free to make yourself comfortable until your peers arrive. We’ll save the formal introductions for later. I’m not really one to repeat myself,” she added, gesturing toward the open space that was available for students to set their things. The ground was damp, yes, but most of these students would likely be more than capable of protecting their belongings from the dirt and wet of the ground; probably more capable than Remy herself, though they wouldn’t know that. No one did.

Mariana was short in time as always because she liked doing everything at the last moment so she grabbed her school bag and hurried upstairs then outside.As she got outside she could feel the wind blowing her long red streight hair.It felt kind of pleasant. She started hading down the paddock for the classroom when something popped on her mind. Oh the class is at the entrance of the forbidden forest.. she thought having a big wish to slap herself. Her mind was doing pretty slow these days.

She turned around and started to go even faster towards the forest detaining just in time not to hit Elizabeth from the back. That was close.. she thought as she turned her head towards the Professor or what seemed to be the Professor. "Morning Professor..." she started finishing the last couple of letters with a little stop when seing who was the Professor. She just thought of Jess for a moment without changing her expression then she got over it deciding to question herself later.

Never liked this class much though she passed it only with studying some things on memory though Care of Magical Creatures themselves was an impossible mission anless she would sit by herself somewhere and take care of them. Her diplomatic skills with centaurs definetly needed imporoving because her last attempt made her loose her final exams while she was lying in the hospital wing,Her hair was still blowing on the wind though she ignored it. "Hi Elizabeth..." she muttered under her breath knowing others called her Libby though she prefered Elizabeth better.

Belle stepped out into the morning and took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she did so. The morning was beautiful and she loved that you could even smell the hints of spring that were starting to come to chase away winter finally. She stepped off and headed towards the Forbidden Forsest for her Care of Magical Creatures class, it was after all her favorite class.

She loved learning in general, but animals were her strong point. As she walked her long braid swung behind her with her movements until she grabbed it and pulled it over her shoulder. Under her school robes, she wore a pair of black leather pants tucked into her usaul knee-high boots. Belle did not wish to wear a skirt while out doors and working with animals, that could lead to problems.

As she started heading towards the group, she noticed the new professor. She was beautiful and wearing jeans, Belle smiled. Obviously someone else had the same ideas about wearing the proper clothes outside and around creatures. She saw a Ravenclaw she did not reconize and Mariana.

She walked up and smiled at Mariana. "Morning Mariana." She then looked at the Professor. "Good morning Professor." Belle said.

Elizabeth wasn't completely sure what her first impression of this woman was. If Libby had been the sort of person who admitted to feeling intimidated by someone...she might have thought she was a little intimidated. Her comment about not liking to repeat herself was something Elizabeth could sympathize with though she wasn't sure if that was something a professor should say. Patience seemed to be a quality which most of the teaching staff seemed to be lacking lately.

The ground was still somewhat damp from the morning dew but the Ravenclaw wasn't exactly awake enough to care. After carelessly tossing her bag onto the grass, she was about to sit down when she heard someone behind her. She didn't know Mariana all that well but they were always capable of having pleasant conversation. "Morning," she replied with a smile before sitting down on her bag.

Another student made their way to the clearing. As she neared Elizabeth saw that it was a member of her own house, an older member at that. She recognized the girl as Belle though anything past her name was a mystery to the sixth year. She found her gaze wandering back to the professor who both repelled and intrigued her - though she wasn't sure how that was entirely possible. She was pretty, that was obvious, but she looked like she was well aware of that.

Belle leaned against a near by rock and smiled politely at the Ravenclaw, she had never met her which was strange really. Normally Belle made a point to know the people in her house, so why hadn't she done so this time. She shurggeed to herself, she was doing quite well at forgetting things as of late. Belle decided that she would so a little later.

Remy nodded in response to each of the girls as they approached the forest and greeted her, each with their own individual sense of style and manner of speaking. Remy was particularly interested in the way these girls would conduct themselves when faced with the lesson she had prepared for today; she had been hoping for more students, for the reaction to this lesson would greatly influence the way the rest of the semester would be carried out, but she would settle for now. She couldn’t wait all day, and patience was never one of Remy’s specialties.

But I make up for it with other specialties, Remy thought with a smirk, which she quickly wiped from her face as she cleared her throat and clapped her hands together to call the attention of the meager group of students back onto herself.

“Let’s begin, shall we?” She began, the question obviously rhetorical. “For those of you with whom I am not acquainted – which would seem to be all of you, “I am your new Care of Magical Creatures professor. My name is Remy and you may address me as such. Don’t bother with the “professor” business – I certainly won’t.”

“Seeing as we are short on students today,” Remy continued, focusing on playing the role of teacher, with which she did not have much experience but she could fake it well enough, “I will expect all of you to participate. We haven’t the time for individual introductions, but if you provide an answer, please state your name first so I know to whom I am speaking.”

That said, Remy gestured toward the crates on the ground near her feet, from which the faint buzzing noise could still be heard, growing distinctly more agitated the longer she kept the sheet over the crate.

“Would anyone like to venture as a guess as to what lies in these crates?” Remy asked, surveyed the girls who stood before her. “I know it is likely not in your nature to conjecture, I have found it to be a rare trait, but I encourage you to try. There will be many times in life when you do not have all the necessary information to make a decision, but still a decision must be made.”

Yes, like when you are deciding whether to pursue a man in a fine tailored coat. You don’t know whether he is really well off or just pretending to be. Do you risk wasting your time on a pretender for the chance to steal (or earn) a considerable sum?

This is likely not the line of thought her students would take, but Remy’s mind was hardly equivalent to that of her students. It was decidedly and irreversibly different, which allowed her the same description.

Belle was unsure as to what was in there, but she decided to give a guess would be better then to sit there and say nothing so she raised her hand, "I am Belle miss, and I am going to say Glumbumble perhaps?"

If she was wrong so be it, but she felt better having spoken up now. At least she had given it a shot and of course wasn't that what had been asked of them? To guess what the class was about, and not read minds and know.

"You're on the right track," Remy encouraged, surprised at the adequacy of the answer. As a student, it would not have been likely that she would have known enough to guess at the identity of a creature she could not see. Remy likely would have hung at the back of the class, waiting for someone else to supply the answer, and then immediately make sure she got paired with that person for whatever the task might be.

"It is an insect, but the creatures in these crates will produce just the opposite effect of a glumbumble," Remy hinted, hoping the hint would hurry the class along. She had to produce some preface of a lesson, even if her only real purpose in being here was to complete a task for Sandra and to perhaps gain a few things of her own along the way. Remy wasn't so concerned with the "filling the minds of the next generation" nonsense.

But that is why she had designed the lesson today the way she had. Though many of the students may already have seen the creatures which lay beneath the sheet, they would likely not have encountered them under the same circumstances as they would today, which would be all too revealing of their thought process and ability to respond to changing situations.

((Just so you all know, I plan to award points at the end of the class for each individual. That way, it is easier for me to keep track, and to award someone who kept a cohesive storyline throughout the class.))