History Of Magic - OWLS

[Professor Binns]

Binns sighed as he realized it was once again time for a class. This time he would be teaching OWLs Students though, and they weren't as restless as the younger beginners, but still had there moments. Hopefully, the history of werewolves would keep their interest some what at bay. He aimless floated about, coming through the wall as usual to wait patiently for class to start. The class would hopefully go fairly easy, as he mainly planned for the students to have to take notes. He would ask questions occasionally, and hopefully answer some as well, but this rarely happened for his students rarely paid any attention to what he was discussing.

Werewolves. Binns thought to himself, Always such a touchy subject, but one that these students need to learn about none the less. Binns had started believing that he was having a harder time picking out the lessons for each class after he decided to change up a bit from last year. Everyone had gotten so used to him droneing on about the same subject, that no one ever paid attention. This had gotten him to decide that it was time for a change in plans. Time for something a bit more interesting. That was why he had settled on histories of magical creatures and beings. It was something that hopefully would catch someone's attention. Binns let out another ghostly sigh as he sat and waited on the students to arrive and class to start.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy stopped keeping an eye on the younger students to reprimand them if they dropped rubbish ("Do you just expect someone else to pick that up? Pick it up yourself and put it in the bin. It really isn't that hard.") as soon as she saw the time. The History of Magic classroom wasn't exactly close to the Hufflepuff Common Room. Besides, she felt a bit guilty - she knew that she wouldn't have been harrassing them so persistently had it not been for her needing a place to vent some of her frustration and moodiness. She couldn't justify why she had been in a bad mood for the past few days; but those litterbugs had as little justification for spewing unattractive rubbish all over the place. It would actually have been quite possible to misinterpret Ivy's actions as becoming a little overzealous in her role as Prefect, but they had as little to do with that as Aidan Lynch had had to do with Ireland's victory in the 1994 Quidditch World Cup.

The idea of a History of Magic class hardly thrilled her, but Ivy gave Professor Binns a friendly smile as she sat down in her seat. She could hardly ignore the only other person in the room, even when they were an incorporeal person. She sighed slightly as she took out a wad of rough parchment and occupied herself making neat little holes in it with her wand through which she could tie a piece of string. She'd been economising recently and parchment was a lot cheaper when it didn't come in books. It was equally easy to make her own 'books' in this way, and she used them for making her rough notes on. Ivy took out a couple of textbooks as well, tracing the letters on the front of each of them with a finger as she wondered vaguely which one they'd be using. She'd carried both to class. But even though she wasn't of a restless disposition, that didn't keep her happy for long. She found herself staring at the empty rows of desks. Was she just making herself lonely and going to class ridiculously early? Was her watch just wrong? Whatever, then Ivy hoped a friend would make it to class sufficiently on time to see where she was sitting and come to join her. The drudgery of the History of Magic lesson could only become more acute when loneliness was added to it.

[carr]

"Ouch. Watch it Lex." Carr faked a Slytherin tone as the first year stepped on his foot. "Good McDuff. You could be a Slytherin" A first year girl said as she walked beside Lex. The first year boy gave little Nora Price a look. "Yea, but you're forgetting one thing." Carr said in a sly tone. "What?" Nora asked with a wide grin on her face. Lex rolled his eyes at Nora's chipper tone. "That I don't have a big human sign on me that reads 'Closed Minded and Utterly annoying to boot.'" Carr joked lightly. Nora smiled. "Yea, yea." She said running off to the other side of the Common Room. Lex looked over to Carr. "She's so annoying." He announced. Carr raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, he smiled. "Aww, you like her Lex. Aww first year love. I do remember it well." Carr said smiling while dazing off to a pretend dream land. Lex shook his head. "Nuh uh." Lex said teasingly. "Uh huh." Carr said in a fun tone. "Nuh...of whatever." Lex finished. Carr laughed. "Don't you have a History of Magic class to attend instead of annoying first years." Lex said slyly. "Oh bite your tongue Alexander." Carr joked in a grand-mother like tone. Carr looked down at his muggle watch on his wrist. "Oh geezums. Your right." Carr sighed. "Oh, yea. Another fun History of Magic lesson." He sighed. "I can hardly wait." He said all chipper as he raced up to his dorm. Lex shook his head at Carr knowing that was sarcasm and left the Common Room.

Carr walked towards the History of Magic classroom with a little bounce in his step. Okay, true. He hated History of Magic. It was boring usually and Carr hated most anything that was dull. History of Magic tended to last five hours in Carr's mind. It just went on and on and on and on and..Carr liked things to fast and speedy and AFAP, As Fun As Possible. Carr neared the History of Magic Classroom with a book in his hand only to find only one other student in there. Carr walked up to Professor Binns. "Professor Bins you look as ravishing as usual." Carr said in a happy go lucky tone. He then walked dover and took a seat near Ivy Tunstall, a fellow Hufflepuff fifth year, but a prefect. Carr could tell she was probably as innerly happy to be in the class as Carr was. Carr shook his head lightly. Well, he could make the class a bit fun, eh? "Ivy, Ivy." Carr started. "I don't want to say it I really don't, but.." He paused. "Oh, well. Turn that frown upside down." He said smiling brightly as usual. "C'mon Ivy an exciting day of History of Magic awaits. That deserves a smile." He said half sarcastically, half truthfully. True, History of Magic wasn't exactly a fun, crazy subject, but it had its moment like all subjects did. Carr paused and waiting for Ivy to answer or the class to begin. Which ever came first.

[Celia Richmond]

Celia sighed...History of Magic was her next lesson. There weren't many classes that she didn't like, but History of Magic was one of them. She found the teaching dull, and until recently the contact was also pretty dull, due to the constantness of Binns' lesson plans. did he never get bored himself? Maybe he did before he was a ghost, but now he'd decided to not get bored. Maybe he did get bored of the lesson plans, and that's why he changed them. At least they were half way durable nowadays, learning about stuff that could be interesting....rather than the dates and times of the many Goblin wars, or major wars in the Wizarding world. Well, whatever, it didn't change the teacher, and so the lessons were still dull, desite the attempts at livening them up a bit.

She left the common room, and made her way down to the classroom where the lesson was, telling some of the younger students to stop running in the corridors-they may have a fun lesson next, but that was no excuse-on her way. She opened the door, and entered the dusty, and musty, room, to find only 2 students there-one she knew as Ivy Tunstall, as they were both prefects in the same year, whom she nodded and said Hi to, and the other a boy she didn't really know, but she'd seen around. She didn't want to intrude on their converation, and as she didn't know either of them well, she decided to leave them, and found a table on the other side of the room to sit at, waiting for someone she knew well to arrive, and the class to start.

[Professor Binns]

Professor Binns sighed as he noticed that he was only going to have three students in this lesson today. His beginners class hadn't been very much bigger than this, but what was he to expect. He did know that he had a bit of a reputation for being the most boring professor at the school. Just wait. He thought to himself the first time he had heard this, they will eventually find out that the afterlife is no picnic, and that there's never anything to be excited about. Professor Binns never wished any of his students harm, but he did sometimes wish that they understood him a bit better. Maybe with a bit of understanding, they wouldn't consider him as boring as they thought he was.

Almost time for class and only three students had made their way into the classroom. "Shall we begin as it seems we will be a small class today? I would like to discuss with you the history of werewolves. I would like to hope that this will be a bit of an open discussion for a change, and not me doing all the talking as you take notes." Professor Binns said as he floated around the classroom a moment.

"Now we all know that a werewolf is a creature that was at one time human, and has been bitten by another werewolf. The process of the transformation takes place during the full moon, where the creature looses its' human like characteristics and transforms completely into wolf form. This is when they are at their most dangerous. A werewolf in wolf form will usually hunt until it is able to feed." Professor Binns paused a moment to see if the class was showing any signs of paying attention, and then continued, " The Werewolf is said to be immortal, although this is an unsure fact, as some werewolves have been killed in our time. Their history runs through almost every country in Europe, and were at one time believed to be berserkers as these were men who dressed in dressed in bear hides and said to channel the spirits of these animals, enhancing their own power and ferocity in battle; they were immune to pain and killed viciously in battle, like a wild animal. They are both closely associated with Odin."

Professor Binns decided to take a moments break to see if anyone had any questions yet about the subject of class today.

((As I have decided to be nice to everyone. If anyone is looking for the information I am using in class, it can be found here))

[Sophia Hallington H7]

Sophia looked at her watch as she saw some of the other students get up and leave the room. Argh, she was late! It was the same almost every day. She sat down, got absorbed in some book or other. So she finished the sentence, put her bookmark on the page, and closed it, hurriedly putting it back in her bag. She had History of Magic next, so she proceeded to pick up the big, heavy textbook from her trunk by her bed, and carry it to the classroom.

She sighed...she didn't particularly like History of Magic, but she found it...tolerable. She was thinking about taking it for NEWT when the time came, if she didn't get good enough results in other subjects. The content of the lessons was now somewhat interesting, which helped a lot in the lessons...Professor Binns had a habit of makign even the most interesting things sound extremely dull, but she tried to see beyond that. So she approached the classroom, wondering what this lesson would bring.

She entered the musty room, thinking she would be extremely late, but as it turned out, only three other students were there, as well as Binns. She recognised Ivy and Carr, as they were both Hufflepuffs, but she didn't know the other girl-a Ravenclaw that she supposed was in the year above her. She decided to sit near Ivy and Carr, on the table behind them, saying a friendly "Hey" to them with a smile, and sitting down.

Soon afterwards, the class started. It was about werewolves today...scary, yet interesting. She listened intently, making notes on what Binns was saying. It was making sense so far, and when he asked if there were any questions, she didn't need to put her hand up and ask anything, so she just sat and waited for him to continue.