[Y1] Lesson II-Merpeople

Once again, Gretchen placed small colored pieces of paper on each of the student’s desks. Selene looked up from her desk and smiled at her.
“Thank you.” she said to the female elf with big glossy eyes, motioning for her to come closer. Gretchen smiled back and approached the professor’s desk. Selene put up a chair next to her desk and nicely ordered Gretchen to take a seat, then headed to the center of the room to magically dim the lights.

The lights dimmed, and some candles and buckets flew in from her supply closet. The candles placed themselves around the room, bringing a soft aquatic kind of light. The buckets, filled with seashells and whatnot, scattered its contents around the floor. On the corners and on the walls, fake aquatic plants grew along with a wave of her golden-toned wand, and a light layer of sand ran along the edges of the walls, far away from the students’ desk. After the room was ready, they both waited patiently for students to arrive.

As students entered the classroom, she asked for them to seat where the piece of paper with their name was. Once the classroom was full, she announced, “Welcome everyone. This second lesson is all about Merpeople.” She began, pacing silently in front of the room. “A piece of paper has been placed on your desk; these will be your permanent seats. The color of the paper signifies what group you have been placed in for today’s lesson, which includes what I would call a Warm Up Game.” Stopping in front of the board, she looked at the kids.
“Find your team, now.”

Aylee left the common room to find her way to the classroom fifteen minutes early just to make sure that she wasn't late. It was hard because she wasn't yet used to her surroundings so it was very easy to get lost. After finally getting directions, she rushed towards the classroom.
When she entered the classroom and sat down at where she was supposed to sit, Aylee couldn't help stare at the decorations.
It's almost like I'm underwater! she thought.
When the teacher was done explaining, Aylee looked around to see who else had the same colour as hers. She had no idea who Taison was but she was sure she could find him by looking at the coloured paper on their desks.
Shouldn't be hard, right? was her thought.

Time for the second Care of Magical Creatures lesson, and honestly, Emmalynne hardly minded the fact they were inside. The homework assignment had reminded her of the first lesson she’d attended the previous year, even if technically those lesson hadn’t happened for her, so she was excited about the possibility of being able to collect more seashells. Therefore, she’d been a bit early for the lesson, and a giant grin had appeared on her face as soon as she’d stepped inside the classroom and seen the décor. She had totally been right, and sent the grin over to Professor Vega and the little house elf at the front as she’d found her assigned seat toward the back. That could be dangerous, but at least now she wouldn’t be distracted by wondering if they’d be able to keep any of the shells. She could just ask later on.

Instead, she’d stood back up as soon as the introductions had been finished and they’d been told to look for their groups. At least she recognized two of her group members, since Spencer was on the paper wither and she’d talked to Riley after the first lesson when she’d been wandering in the clock tower courtyard. She wasn’t entirely certain who Lily was, but that was what the papers were for. She could just look for the matching color of paper, and conveniently it seemed like they all were sort of nearby. That should make things easier, and all they’d have to do was wait for the warm-up game to start.

OOC: So, Emmalynne, apparently I've been paired up with you



As Ryland walked into the Care of Magical Creatures classroom, his mouth fell as he saw the decorations. It was very...watery. It resembled the bottom of a lake or an ocean, and much as he disliked water he had to give his professor some credit.

On the front of the room, there was a small creature that looked to wrinkly to be a child and its ears were too pointy to be a human. Unsure of what it was, Ryland picked a spot near the end of the classroom, just in case.

After hearing he'd be working with a girl named Emmalynne, he glanced around to see who it might be.

Taison had to take a step back as he came in. He was sure he was underwater but he really wasn't. Of course, he thought, merpeople. He looked around for the girl that was supposed to be in his group. Spotting a lone Ravenclaw girl, he extended his hand and sai, "You must be Aylee? I'm Taison." he smiled the same charming smile that had captured Daisee Dursley a few months ago.

Daisee looked around for Aurelia and the other girl she was paired with. She was pretty sure Ily was a Puff. As she was looking around however, Daisee noticed Taison flirting with some Ravenclaw nobody. Daisee saw red as she stalked up to them. She tapped Taison on the shoulder.


"Hey, babe. Daisee said sarcastically, putting emphasis on the sentimental nickname. "Having fun over here?" She glared pointedly at the Ravenclaw girl. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't seem to help herself. She cared about Taison too much to pretend to be unaffected by this.

Aylee looked up as Taison introduced himself.
"Yes, I'm Aylee," she replied, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you."
Then she noticed a Gryffindor girl walking up to him.
"Hey, babe. Having fun over here?" Aylee heard her say.
She must be his girlfriend, was the first thing that popped in her head. There was clearly going to be an argument. She saw the Gryffindor girl glare at her. Aylee stood up.
"Sorry," she muttered to both of them before walking a few tables away from them. That way she didn't need to be part of the conversation.

OOC: Working the teammates change into my post, just to continue from Emmalynne's last post in here pre:group edits

As she’d continued looking around for her teammates, Emmalynne started wondering if maybe things weren’t exactly going as she’d thought. At least, she hadn’t found either of the boys she’d been looking for, and she hadn’t found the girl she’d thought she’d been supposed to be looking for. Either she’d started seeing things, or she’d just gotten her hopes up. In any case, as she’d spun around again just to make sure, she saw another boy holding a paper that was the same color as hers, oddly enough not far from her own seat, where she would have been if she hadn’t’ve already started her search. At least it was someone, and it was someone she hadn’t already met. That made it even better, and she walked over to him with a grin. “Hi. I’m Emmalynne,” she said, glancing up at the board again as well as the rest of the classroom just to make sure nothing else had changed.

Still all watery and mer-people world-like, so she was good. “I guess we’re going to be working together,” she added, turning back to the boy and noting the Gryffindor robes. It paid to be observant, after all, in her line of work. She might have still been wondering what had happened to her other acquaintances, but for now, she’d just be herself and meet someone new. Along with hopefully prove to Professor Vega that she really could pay attention to the lesson much more this time around, although she was still wondering if she could take some shells once the lesson was over to add to her pygmy puff’s collection.

Ryland's green eyes observed the classroom, trying to look for someone who looked as if they could be the girl he was supposed to work with. In other words, he was looking for someone who didn't have a partner yet. When he saw a dark haired, Hufflepuff girl approach him, he guessed it must be her.

Awkwardly sitting up, he greeted the girl.
"Hi. Ryland." He said, glancing at the board, just like she had done only a few seconds ago only to discover that she was indeed his partner for this activity.
"Do you have any idea of what we're going to do?" he asked her.

“There are ten ‘treasures’ hidden around the room,” she said, putting air quotes on the word treasures, “your group will try to find them, and the one group that finds the most will gain FIFTEEN points for their house, and FIVE free extra credit points for this lesson’s homework. On the board, there is a list of the hidden objects,” she waved her wand and a written list appeared on the blackboard, “You are to find the objects, and you must record your answers for each item that requires it. Go!” she said to them.


1. Pearl Necklace Check the charm, what do you think it represent?
2. Glass Bottle
3. Trident-What does it represent? Do you know who it belongs to?
4. Coin- Are you familiar with a mermaid legends? If so, does this remind you of one?
5. Seaweed- Do you know what plant it is?
6. Rock- Describe it, feel it
7. Ship
8. Picture of Zeus,Hades, and Poseidon-Can you tell which one is God of the Seas?
9. Seashells
10. Tiara



OOC: Okay, so for this part, every group must have at least TWO items. The way it will work is, the first person of whatever group will role-play as having found ONE, and then I will check that item off the board, then that group will continue to ‘search’ and another group will find another item, and so on, then the last two items will go to however role-plays as having found them (the last two are at a first come first serve basis!). Before you post, check to see which items are left! You can make up where it is that you found the items, but if you click on the item, it will link you to the respective picture. Also, just don’t say you found anything on my desk, the supply closet or anywhere near Gretchen…that’s getting way into our personal space. Feel free to create objects around my room to help in your role-playing. :OOC

Aylee nodded slowly and looked around, wondering where to begin the search. Since Taison was probably still talking to the other Gryffindor girl, Aylee started to move around the classroom, looking for one of the things listed. She walked around the room, staring at a random spot for at least ten seconds before staring at another one. After a few minutes, something caught her eye and she ran over to the spot. Under a few seashells was a picture. Aylee quickly dug it out and realized that it was the picture of Zeus, Hades and Poseidon!
"Professor, I found one!" she exclaimed happily.
Hurriedly, she walked over to her desk and grabbed her notebook, ready to answer the question. Aylee remembered once in school they studied the Greek gods in History so this was a bit easy. Slowly, she wrote:

Quote :

Poseidon is the god of the seas. I can tell because Hades is the one with his three-headed dog, Cerberus, and Zeus is the one with the eagle whereas Poseidon is the one with the trident. Zeus is known as the king of gods and Hades is known as the god of the underworld.

Quietly, Aylee put her pen down and walked over to Taison.
"I found one," she said slowly.

Even after the Professor announced the task for the day, Aurelia still couldn't get over the aquatic-themed decorations--the sight of the fake aquatic plants along with seashells caused a wide smile to cross her features and she couldn't help but let out an appreciative sigh at the sight. Shaking her head to clear her mind of such thoughts, she wandered over to the Gryffindor girl that she had been paired up with--Daisee Dursley, and peered quickly around the room for the Hufflepuff girl that was also in their group, though she was nowhere in sight. Shrugging lightly, she decided that Lily might have been late for the class and turned towards Daisee, absentmindedly twirling a strand of her auburn hair. "So..let's split up to find the treasures, alright? Hopefully we'll be able to find as many as possible. stated the girl as she flashed her partner a smile.

With that, she began to glance around the room, furrowing a brow in concentration as she attempted to think of where she would hide the treasures if she were Professor Vega. Noticing that one of the girls had managed to find an object, Aurelia flashed her an encouraging smile, before turning towards a pit of sand located near the back of the room that had caught her attention. Striding over, Aurelia immediately began to dig through the sand, disappointed at first, as nothing seemed to be in it. As she continued sifting through the sand, her fingers hit a hard object and she immediately winced, though she continued digging through the sand in order to extract the object. Holding it under the light, she realized that it was #2 on the list--the glass bottle. A small smile curled across her lips and she raced over to Daisee, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. "Found one!' exclaimed the girl with excitement, before making her way over to Professor Vega. "I've found #2 on the list," she murmured softly, offering the woman a smile.

Seeing as Professor Vega had spoken almost as soon as Ryland’s question had been asked, Emmalynne merely grinned. So far the class was still as she’d remembered from the last time. At least, the activity didn’t seem any different, although this time she was actually going to participate instead of just being distracted by her surroundings and wondering if they’d get to keep anything this time around. It was still possible, after all. Either way, people had started searching the room, so she nodded toward Ryland. “Guess we’d better start looking, huh?,” she said, already on the move. Her first idea had been to look near the walls after all, so she was going to stick with that until it proved to be a bad idea.

Either way, her head had come up as she heard first Aylee and then Aurelia call out that they’d found an item. That only spurred her on even more, and she started peeking behind curtains and such on the wall, even the conjured water foliage and she bounced a little as she caught a glimpse of a large blue-green trident mixed with the plants. “I found the trident!,” she called out, both for her partner and for the professor’s benefits, reaching forward and grasping the handle to pull it from its hiding place and returning to her desk. There was a question attached to the trident on the board, so she had to answer it.

Quote :

The trident represents power over the seas and water as well as maybe the triad of the three brothers in Greek mythology (Zeus, Hades and Poseidon), and belonged to Poseidon. He could use it to create water sources, and cause earthquakes, tidal waves, tsunamis and storms at sea.

And once that was finished, she turned to see if Ryland had found anything yet. She wanted to get the most items in the activity after all, just to prove that she wasn’t letting herself be distracted anymore.

"Daisee, not now." Taison retorted before finding Aylee. This was class and he needed to graduate into his second year. he wasn't going to get into an argument with her now. When Aylee walked over to her with one of the items, he smiled. "Great, lets keep looking," he replied as they continued to walk around the room.

Smiling at Emmalynne, he headed the other way to search for whatever he could find. His first thought was to look on the floor as it was covered with shells and sand, so he bent his knees and inspected a section of it which was close to some flowing plants that crawled along the walls.
Hmm, Ryland whispered as his fingers moved rapidly through the sand and shells. He couldn't help but wonder how the professor had done something like this, but he pushed the thought away and continued looking. By the time was almost reaching the plants he so didn't want to touch, he heard Emmalynne call out that she had found one. Turning his green gaze on her, he smiled and gave her a thumbs up as he saw her approaching her desk.

"Now it's my turn," he said as he turned back to the sandy floor. His frustration was growing as he failed to find something, however, his eyes caught a sparkle in between the to his left. Curious, he reached in and felt the other side of the greenery. It was slimy and wet, although there was no water in the room, giving Ryland a strange feeling of danger.

FInally his fingers felt something cold, the kind of cold only metal can give off, and he quickly grasped it and took his hand out. It was a coin.
A coin? Really?
As he stood up, he felt the object and inspected it closely. There was a mermaid, one of those that he used to hear about in the orphanage when the older boys talked about myths and the likes. Turning it to the other side, he read the word WISH, and he immediately thought of what he wanted the most. A family. He felt the tears coming to his eyes and rubbed a hand against them to clear them away.

"I got one, Emm." He said, before realizing he hadn't said her whole name, he apologized. "I'm sorry. Emmalynne."
When he looked at the board, he saw there was something he had to answer for that object, so after reading the question he remembered what the older boys had studied at the orphanage. "It means they can grant you one wish..." he whispered and wrote it down on his paper.

Aylee nodded as Taison said that they should keep looking. She followed him, then stopped. She looked at the board and decided to focus on just one item. The tiara, she thought. Aylee started to look around, checking under desks and on window ledges. Finally, after a few minutes, she spotted something just as she was about the pull a curtain.
"Taison, look!" she called over to her team-mate as she pulled the curtain.
Right there on the window ledge, was a tiara.

Daisee nodded distractedly at Aurelia's suggestion before turning back to Taison, a move she regretted almost immediately. Daisee's mouth dropped open in shock and hurt as Taison snapped at her. Before long though, the anger swept over her, obliviating every other emotion.

Was graduating the class more important than her feelings? And why is flirting with the Ravenclaw girl necessary for that? Well, she knew one thing for sure: if he was going to act like this, she was going to hold her own. He wasn't the only one who was able to flirt with other people.

After giving Taison a glare darker than she's ever looked at him before, she got down on her hands and knees next to a Gryffindor boy she's seen around the castle and her common room. Perfect. As she sifted through the sand on the floor, she gave him a flirty smile and flipped her golden locks over her shoulder.

"Hey." She greeted him warmly. "I've seen you around the castle, but I've never had a chance to introduce myself. I'm Daisee." She let her eyes wander appreciatively over the guy, before her hand hit a slimy, stringy plant-like thing, which was gritty from the sand clinging to it.

"Sweet!" She squealed cutely. She turned to tell Aurelia, but her partner was already there, holding the glass bottle triumphantly.

"Great! I found the seaweed!" Daisee grinned as she realized this gave her team one more item than Taison's team. Served him right. Then she heard the Ravenclaw jerk seem to find another one. Scribbling the answer for seaweed fiercely in her notebook*, grateful for her childhood interest in the sea, Daisee continued looking for more. She HAD to beat Taison and the Ravenclaw Princess, who she did NOT like. At all.

*

Quote :

Daisee's Notebook:
Seaweed-Contrary to popular belief, seaweed is not really a plant per se, but a type of algae.

Emmalynne had looked up as she’d heard Ryland speak, for the time being ignoring whatever was going on between Daisee, Taison and Aylee. It wasn’t entirely important, anyway, not when she wanted to focus on finding more items. Points were important, and she still wanted to prove to Professor Vega that she could actually pay attention during this lesson. After the first time around. Of course, she’d paid attention in the first lesson this term, but that didn’t count in her head. Besides, scavenger hunts were like investigations, so she was having fun with the searching now that she wasn’t distracted. Even more when her partner had found another of the items, and she sent him a grin. “Awesome. And it’s okay to call me Emm if it’s easier,” she said, swiveling around at her desk to try to get a look at the coin in his hand.

Of course, it was a coin, so it wasn’t exactly like the trident she’d found. She’d have to move if she wanted a closer look, and as she’d started to take a step, she suddenly tripped. “Oh!,” she said, righting herself before she actually fell and turning to see what it was she’d hit with her foot. “I found the ship!,” she continued, scooping it up and setting it on her desk by the trident. That probably wasn’t really safe sticking out the way it was, so she picked it up and leaned it against her desk and then shifted to move the ship right up against the handle. That was three down, and she wasn’t sure what else was left. Either way, she’d done pretty well for her team, even if the second thing had sort of been by accident. It still counted, and she hadn’t even damaged the ship when she’d tripped. That was even better.

Aurelia couldn't help but let out a small squeal of delight, as she wrapped her arms around the girl tightly, in a sudden display of excitement. As she realized what she was doing, she released Daisee from her hug and took a step backwards, brushing a stray strand of her dark mahogany hair from her face. "Oops, sorry. I just got a bit excited," she explained, laughing lightly before continuing, "Anyways, good job! Let's keep looking."

With that, she turned to face the classroom once more, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly as her gaze swept over the room once more, taking in her surroundings. Now where would I hide something if I were Professor Vega? Humming quietly, her gaze fell upon the aquatic plants that grew along the wall; they resembled seaweed, though she was almost certain that they weren't seaweed. After all, seaweed was one of the items listed on the items they were to find, and that would be far too obvious. Aurelia headed over towards the aquatic plants, gently running a hand over its slippery surface. She let out a small giggle at the texture of the plant, for it seemed to slip right past her fingers. As she continued to run her fingers along the length of the wall, an object suddenly pricked her and she winced instinctively. "Ow! What was that?" mumbled the girl to herself, wrapping her arm around the unidentified object and pulling it out from underneath the aquatic plant. Glancing at the list on the board, she realized that this was the first item on the list--the charm necklace.

Smiling to herself, she wandered over to Daisee and showed her the necklace, "I found the charm necklace!" Once she'd informed her partner, she hurriedly strode towards her desk and began to answer the questions listed on the board for her item.

Quote :

The charm on the necklace depicts a series of sea creatures, ranging from a dolphin to a mermaid and a sea of fish. In my opinion, it portrays the interconnected lives that the creatures of the sea live; each one of them depend on the other for their own survival, and consequently, they are connected in a way that is difficult for humans to fathom.

When Emm approved of Ryland's nickname for her, he gave her a warm smile. One of the few real ones he'd managed to give in his short time at Hogwarts.

With a quick look around, he realized that the most easier objects to find were the seashells and the rocks so he walked over to the same sandy part of the floor where he had been before and scooped some up. "Here." he said as he placed the objects on his desk and looked over at the board. Soon after reading the sentence after the Rocks, he scrawled his answer on the paper.
"These rocks are smooth and round; clearly they are river rocks." he said as he wrote his answer down. "Are we done?" he said as he looked around and inspected the other groups, wondering how many things they had found.

Seeing as everyone had at least something in their desks, Selene called the end of the quest. "Time's up! Collect your items and sit with your group." Selene announced as her students gathered their objects and crowded around in their own teams.

"Team A. Taison and Aylee." she said quietly as she counted the items. "You have the Tiara and Poseidon and his brothers. Very nice." She smiled at the two students and wrote down the number 2 next to their names on her rooster.
She then headed to the next team. "Team B. Daisee and Aurelia. You have the Pearl necklace, Seaweed, and..." she looked at the last object in the desk. "A Tiara." Confused, she glanced at the first team and then back at the girls. "It seems I have placed two of the same objects by accident. They will still count either way as it was my mistake." she smiled at them and wrote down the number 3 next to their names.
"Team C. Emmalynne and Ryland. The Rock, Seashells, the Ship and the Coin." She smiled. "Excellent." Writing down the number 4 next to their names, she announced the winner.

"Ryland and Emmalynne, you have won FIFTEEN points for tyour house, and FIVE free extra credit points for today's homework. Congratulations." She said with a smile as she clapped for them and then headed to the board and erasing the writing from the game. With her own hand, she wrote,

What are merpeople?

"Does anyone know what the actual definition of merpeople is?" she asked, turning to look at her students.

Aylee watched as Professor Vega wrote down what they have found. She felt like giggling when Team B had found the tiara too, it was a bit funny. When Professor Vega announced the winner, Aylee then found a seat, embarrased that she had to sit next to Taison. She knew that the Gryffindor girl hated her now.
I didn't ask from him to flirt with me... she thought.
She was too deep in thought to hear Professor Vega's question. She glanced up and saw the question on the board. Aylee was about to raise her hand but decided to keep it to herself. She knew the answer was going to be wrong.

As the activity ended and Professor Vega had begun counting up how many items each team had found, Emmalynne had practically found herself holding her breath. She knew she’d done her part, but then somewhere she’d lost track of what the counts were for the other teams. She thought she’d remembered Aurelia finding something else at the last minute, so maybe that team had caught up. Therefore, she was a bit nervous during the counting, especially as it somehow came out that both other teams had somehow found copies of the same item. Does that mean they’ll end up winning?, she wondered, even as the professor had gotten over to her and Ryland’s stash. At which point two things had confused her, as she hadn’t heard her discovery of the trident being counted, but somehow they got credit for finding the seashells. Either way, it was another point for them, plus she realized that Ryland had found a second item as well that she’d not realized until now. Then, it had gotten even better as she’d heard that they’d won, and got points both for their houses and homework points.

Going back to thinking about the last time she’d sat in this lesson, she found herself raising her hand again as another question had been posed. “Merpeople are creatures who live in water, who are only classified as beasts by the Ministry because they chose to be classified as beasts instead of as beings. Also, they sometimes are called Sirens, Selkies or Merrows, depending on where they are located,” she said. She wasn’t sure if that was what the professor had meant by a definition, and she probably could have been more specific, but she didn’t want to say too much and seem like she was just repeating what she’d already known from before. More accurately, she didn’t want people to think she was acting like a know-it-all.