Care Of Magical Creatures (Lesson One-ALL YEARS)

Landry stood outside the painting with the pear on it. He had heard from a little birdie that this is where the kitchens where. And it was then he had a perfect Care of Magical Creatures lesson. He bet that since it was around lunch time, that his students would be drowsy and hungry. So he decided that they would study house elves for the first lesson. He stood there. He had posted in the boards of the common rooms on where and when the class would be meeting, so he hoped these students could read.

Landry smiled as he got weird looks from the Hufflepuff's that had walked by. They really where the luckiest house alive, and Landry didn't understand why the other houses gave them the most grief. If they missed breakfast, or any meal for that matter, they would just have to walk down one flight of steps, and BAM. there where the kitchens. Landry made up a question and answer sheet that he would give out at the end. He was lazy to do more than one class, so thought that he should do all the years together. It made the most since.

Landry smiled at his question and answer sheet. It wasn't too difficult, and not so easy all at the same time. A ten year old could've answered the questions he was positive. If the Brits got this wrong, he would forever give up hope. Landry waited bored out of his mind looking at his watch. He wasn't going to be lenient with points. He hadn't been apart of a house, so he didn't have a favorite. He leaned against the wall and waited for the students to arrive. This was going to be fun.

Matthew had mixed feelings about Care of Magical Creatures. Sometimes, it was pretty cool, because they got to go outside for class and it was normally pretty easy. But it was kind of dumb, because they didn't study too many cool animals. Matthew thought studying dragons would be the most useful thing, but apparently the professors never agreed, because they never got to see a dragon. Not even a baby one, which was probably harmless. Matthew still had mixed feelings about it now, but not for the same reasons. Because this time, Care of Magical Creatures was taking place in the kitchens, which was not outside and definitely didn't involve a dragon, but it most likely would involve food. So, he was reserving judgement for now. But if the professor was cruel enough to force them to have class in the kitchens but withhold food from them, he would drop the class instantly.

Matthew made sure to wait for Ari before heading to class, because when he hadn't woken her up for Defense, it was apparently all his fault. At least this was later in the day, and she was ready almost on time. Unfortunately it seemed that when girls got to be fifteen, they took way longer getting ready, and Matthew wasn't sure why because he never noticed the difference. "Merlin, what do you do that always takes you so long?" he asked her, grabbing her arm as soon as she was in sight and dragging her along. "Lucky we're just headed to the kitchens, or we'd definitely be late." Being a Slytherin had it's perks - like living a short walk from the kitchens so that whenever you got hungry you could just go and eat whatever you wanted.

They got there in no time, and Matthew tickled the pear so that it would let them inside. As soon as the portrait swung open, the amazing smell of food wafted out and Matthew grinned before ducking inside. When he made it all the way inside, he could see the professor leaning against the wall and a plate of freshly baked cookies on a counter across the room. Cookies first. Definitely. Matthew made a beeline for them before he could be told no, grabbing an extra for Ari. Only then did he return to where the professor was standing. "Hi professor!" he said through a mouthful of cookie, holding the other one out to Ari.

Ari was in her room getting ready for the day. She didn't know why, but she paid more attention to how she looked now a days. She braided her hair, looked in the mirror for another second, and nodded in approval. When she went down the stairs, Matthew was already complaining that his wait was too long. Ari said, "Oh shush you. We just have to go to the kitchens today. So quit complaining." And then he grabbed her arm and pulled her along when she was fully capable of doing it herself. But she allowed him too. He had the right to be excited. Maybe in the kitchens they would get to eat something! And she had skipped breakfast for some reason, so she was excited.

The only thing she didn't like was the fact that they were studying the house elves. They do so much for Hogwarts, like defending the castle in the last wizarding war, and yet here they are getting observed by a bunch of students for a grade. They were worth more. And Ari was going to take a stand. She didn't know what she was going to do, but it would be something. When they entered the portrait, the Professor was sitting there with a smirk on his face. Ari glared at him. Matthew took two cookies and tried to give one to her, and she said, "No, I'm not taking one. This is a bull shit lesson. House elves have feelings too." She looked Professor Simpson dead in the eye as she said that.

Ari said to Matthew, "I don't like this." She looked at him with pleading eyes. She didn't know what she wanted him to do, and it wasn't like she could walk out, she had to participate or she would loose points. And fifth year mattered most of all because of OWLs. So in the end, Ari decided to suck it up, but if they ended up having to write an essay about it, she would tell the professor EXACTLY how she felt about this whole situation. And she would be brutally honest.

Although Derek didn't much like animals and animals didn't much like Derek, he continued with COMC mainly because it was totally tolerable. And passable, because the theory stuff was simple enough. It was in the kitchens today too, which couldn't possibly be a bad thing. Even if the main point of the lesson wasn't to eat a lot, it wouldn't be at all difficult to ask the house elves for food. That was always a perk. So he was practically skipping as he perambulated down the stairs towards the kitchens, humming quietly to himself. Man, school was great. Really great. But Derek imagined he was the only Hogwarts student to think that. Then again, not all Hogwarts students had to spend time away from school in the same boring little village in a boring little flat above a boring little teashop.

Only when he arrived did he actually think about what the lesson could possibly entail - it was Care of Magical Creatures of course, and food was not a creature, so there had to be some reason for the change of location. Unless the new professor just preferred to be near a source of food while teaching. Unlikely, though. And it took it a good few moments before it sunk in that house elves were indeed creatures, and did indeed work in the kitchens at Hogwarts. Derek never really thought of them like animals, though. Just tiny humans. And he identified with them a lot - back in his tiny ginger childhood, on many occasions he'd been labelled house elf-like. Nonetheless, he imagined it would be interesting enough, providing the professor was okay, so he smiled as he walked in.

Seeing Matthew and Ari already there, he resisted the urge to mime vomiting out of pure resentment and bitterness, instead finding a spot on the wall and staring at it as though it were a particularly interesting sight. That was, until he heard Ariadne start with her usual melodramatic babbling, and just raised his eyebrows a little. She probably thought she was edgy, using words like bullshit. But that didn't make you edgy. Edgy was using much better words, like hamartia or perambulate. That was edgy. And he didn't know what she was using bullshit to describe either. The lesson? It hadn't even started yet. But that was just Ari, he guessed. He didn't miss her at all. Totally.