Care of Magical Creatures (Hufflepuff/Gryffindor)

[Professor Rubeus Hagrid]

Rubeus Hagrid had a note sent out to every Care of Magical Creatures student that morning, telling them to meet him by the Forbidden Forest not too far away from his cabin for a special surprise. He was in an elated mood as he strolled towards the dragonkeepers. His every step more and more like a bounce off the scabrous ground. Near the Cimmerian trees were four dragons, a Common Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, Swedish Shortsnout, and a Hungarian Horntail. In fact, they were the exact same ones the Champions had faced off against two years ago. Hagrid could still feel the euphria he had felt the first time he had gone to see these four dragons. However, this time, Charle Weasley was not at Hogwarts and instead, Dragon handlers grom the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures were there to assist Hagrid with his class.

The gargantuan Keeper of Grounds and Keys at Hogwarts looked up towards the starry, night sky, smelling the multitudinous scents that drifted from the forest. He looked out onto the lake and watched as the moon was slowly revealed when the phantasmal clouds passed over. Penumbrae fanned out in all directions as the moon shown. Hagrid could not wait for the class to begin as he headed back towards his cabin. He walked up the stone steps and opened the collosal door before entering the brightly lit room. He had pounds of liver prepared in large buckets next to the fire and quickly heaved them up before exiting his cabin and walking back towards the Dragon handlers. "Here's some food for 'em dragons!" Hagrid said enthusiastically as he looked towards the cages and placed the buckets next to a bench.

One of the Dragon trainers thanked Hagrid with a large grin, "Thanks! We'll be needing these to calm them down once the class begins. Mind you, this is an once in a lifetime opportunity for the students here.... I still remember my days at Hogwarts.."

Hagrid sat down and awaited the arrival of the class, which started at about 8:00 that night.

[kaitlynrobbins]

Katie took one last glance in the mirror before grabbing her shoulder bag and heading down the stairs from her dorm. She was off to her second favorite class, Care of Magical Creatures, her first favorite being Charms. The lesson was to begin at eight o'clock that evening and at the moment it was seven fourty five. Katie walked outside into the cool March air and made her way towards Professor Hagrid's cabin. She wasn't exactly sure where she was supposed to be, but Katie was sure that she could congregate with the other arriving students. She made her way across the grounds and not noticing any other students around, decided to go straight back from Hagrid's cabin to where she was just a few feet from the entrance to the forbidden forest. It really did look spooky at night and she anxiously awaited for the others to join her.

[Chelle]

Kari wrapped her cloak around her tightly, the class was being held at night. Kari tried to think of what they might be learning in COMC class, maybe unicorns? Nah, they were alright, but she had seen enough of them. Kari ran out of her Dormitory and out to Hagrid's Hut, and then out to the Forest.

Kari smiled at Hagrid in greeting.

"Hello, Hagrid. How are you, tonight?" she asked as she swung her bag over her shoulder. "What will we be learning about today?"

Kari saw a licking of flame in the night sky bursting through the trees.

"Wow, say we aren't learning about dragons. Please. Oh, somebody pinch me, I've always wanted to be up close to a dragon! My dad told me about them, and I got to see a bit of the Triwizard Tournament two years ago, it was absolutely amazing! The welsh green, Chinese Fireball, Hungarian Horntail, and a Swedish.... Swedish.... What's the last one? Oh yeah, Swedish Snortsnout!" Kari smiled with happiness at the prospect of the lesson.

"My favourite one is the Welsh Green, but out of all the dragon types I know my favourite is the Norwegian Ridgeback." Kari went and sat down on a large rock near the edge of the Forest to wait for her friends.

[liz]

Liz had been surprised to receive a note from Hagrid announcing the time and place of the next Care Of Magical Creatures class. They weren’t usually taken into the Forbidden Forest and Liz was a little wary. None the less, Liz had made sure she wouldn’t be cold and was walking towards the looming Forest gripping her wand tightly in her pocket.
Hearing something growling in the Forest didn’t help Liz’s confidence at all, but she still continued, telling herself that nothing could happen to her so close to the castle and with a professor and other students around. Right? The two recent kidnappings came to mind, but Liz pushed the thought back determinedly and moved on, gasping in awe as she reached Hagrid and two other students and saw the four dragons.

Liz was a muggle so naturally she had been curious as to what mythological creatures actually existed and which didn’t, so she had looked up dragons as well, as they fascinated her. She would certainly get some awesome pictures here, Liz decided watching the red dragon – a Chinese Fireball or something like that if she recalled correctly and the one from the tri-wizard competition… what was it again? Hungarian Horntail.

Still being a bit wary about the dragons, Liz still moved over to Hagrid and the two other students, greeting them all with a shy smile.
“Good evening, professor, how are you doing?” Liz greeted Hagrid shyly – she had always liked the half-giant and felt at ease around him, even though they had never really talked much. Maybe because of Liz’s shyness once again, which didn’t let her approach people very freely.
Smiling at Hagrid once again and a bit more broadly, Liz turned her eyes towards the dragons to watch them until Hagrid would start the class.

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass stared up at the sky in amazement as a flame licked the sky. What in the hell is that? she thought to herself.

Still a bit from the clearing, she hurried to her next class. As she came closer, it dawned on her. Dragons! She hurried to class as fast as she could. She always wanted to see a dragon!

She hurried to the clearing and tapped Kari on the shoulder as she sat down on the rock next to her. "I thought this was going to be boring!"

[Mia]

Maria was making her way down to Care of Magical
Creatures Class. Her long hair was up in a pony tail and her shoulder bag truging at her shoulder. A smile laid on her face as her mind wondered to what tonights class would be about. There must be a reason for having a class almost in the ded of the night. Maybe they were working with night animals. Maria did not know but was still excited about class. She couldn't stop thinking about it all day. Even when writing her poetry her mind was on today's class.

Sighing Maria made her way towards the end of the dark forrest and heard a loud noise towards the distance. Turning around swiftly her shoulder bag almost fell off her shoulder. Before stood four dragons breathing fire into the air. Her brown eyes sparkled and excitment rushed through her. Maria always wanted to see a dragon up close, and it was a change from the other animals they would have to see. Even know unicorn were quite cool. Walking a little closer, Maria noticed a good friend also staring at the dragons with an awe look on her face. Making her way over towards her Maria smile and said, "I never seen dragons up close before. This seems to be my frist time. Wow!" Turning back to her friend she smiled and continued on, "Hey Katie how have you been? Are you looking forward todays class?"

[aislinnfindlow]

Aislinn silently made her way down towards the Forbidden Forest wondering whether or not the class would be that safe. Professor Hagrid never really had a good sense of what was dangerous, but she refused to not attend - it would ruin her perfect record. She felt the frozen grass crunch beneath her feet as she entered the forest, the cracking sound of a twig made her jump slightly but she laughed at herself after she realized she had stepped on it. When she reached the other students and noted that there were four large dragons near by, her jaw dropped.

"Dragons," she muttered a little startled to say the least but she had always been particularily fond of the Swedish Shortsnout. As for the Hungarian Horntail, well, she had decided to try to stay as far away as possible. Its size was frightening enough but put together with its horned tail, thus giving it its name, it was downright horrifying.

[keirramcdonnell]

Keirra could hardly sit still in any of her classes after she recieved a note from Professor Hagrid about the class meeting in the Forbidden Forest. Her mind danced around what they could be learning about today and something told her it was going to be grand. She had been sitting on her four post bed checking her watch every few minutes for at least the past hour, and finally the time had come for her to head down. Quickly checking herself in the mirror, tightening her tie a bit, she grabbed her satchel and exited into the common room. Without even glancing at any of her fellow Gryffindors, she slipped through the portrait hole and ignored a comment made by the Fat Lady.

She practically hopped down each of the vast stone steps that led to Professor Hagrid's hut and darted past into the forest at a half-run. Her dark eyes lit up with excitement when they fell upon four large dragons and she nearly walked straight into one of her classmates. Staring in awe, she immediately decided that the Hungarian Horntail was the best out of the four due to its dark eyes, excellent protection with its horned tail and such as well as its overall larger size. "Wonderful, aren't they?"

[kaitlynrobbins]

Katie let out a very relieved sigh as Mia arrived. She felt extremely awkward being here all by herself. "I've been great Mia, and you? You know I have never seen dragons up close before either. This should certainly be an interesting lesson. Of course I'm looking forward to it! This is my favorite class next to charms! The thought of dragons is a tad bit scary I admit, but it is still so cool!" Katie said trying hard to keep her voice down through all of her excitement. Her eyes absolutely shone and her heart was beating a million miles an hour. Katie was so anxious for her favorite lesson to begin that she could hardly keep still waiting for Hagrid start them off.

[Professor Rubeus Hagrid]

Hagrid greeted the class and looked back towards the dragons with great enthusiasm.

"All righty then..... Today, we'll be' studyin' the behavior these dragons..... I'm sure everyone knows the four dragons by name. But what else do you know about these four fine dragons? Let's have Kaitlyn and Maria answer this. Now, Elizabeth and Keirra, tell me why dragons are especially difficult to restrain and why they're 'untrainable'. Everyone else has seen and already read lot's 'bout these dragons an' you've seen 'em at the Triwizard Tournament two years ago, right? Can anyone else tell me what these dragons might like ter' eat?"

[KelseyMattie]

Kelsey's eyes widened as she approached the group. She had just recieved the letter from Hagrid and rushed outside to get there. She loved Care of Magical Creatures. It was her favorite class! and Hagrid was her favorite teacher. She saw the dragons and stummbled back several steps.

They were huge. She thought she had seen the last of them in the Tri-Wizard tournament!

[Mia]

Maria smiled as Katie started to talk, "Well I've been good also. I am getting ready for Easter Break. Going to my dads in Ireland with two other friends. I love this class also. Well I want to have a job in the Ministry for Magical creatures. I read so many books about so many creatures. All are so fascinating I must say." she said with a smile and looked back towards the four dragons with a dazed grin. They looked so strong and such a fiery temper. Maria was always atomized by all magical creatures. Each one had their unique talents and defends impact on the wizarding world.

Just as Maria was about to get closer, Professor Hagrid was starting the class with a series of questions. Standing her spot next to Katie, Maria thought about the question. The four breeds of dragon all were different in their own way. "Well Professor Hagrid there are at least ten breeds of dragons in the wizarding world and have all unique talents. But the four that are standing right in front of us are the only ones I well focus on today. The Common Welsh Green is native to Wales; its habit is nests in higher mountains. The appearance is green colored, and its flame is a narrow jest. The Common Welsh Green prey is sheep and their eggs are earthy brown colored speckled with green." Maria said thinking hard and trying to remember all about the dragons. Smiling as she thought it was right she moved on to the next dragon. "The Chinese Fireball is native to China and they are normally found in mountains, I think. There looks as we can tell are scarlet colored with a fringe of golden spikes around its face, with protruding eyes. Their flame is mushroom shaped and they normally eat pigs and humans. The Chinese Fireball eggs are vivid crimson speckled with gold." Maria said looking off into space and letting her mind work. She decried to stop where she was and leave the next two dragons to Katie.

[kaitlynrobbins]

Katie was glad to see that Mia shared her same enthusiam for Care of Magical Creatures. She was just about to say something else when Professor Hagrid started to speak and she immediatley closed her mouth and listened carefully. When she and Mia were asked their question she waited respectfully for Mia to finish and started right where she left off. "The other two breeds of dragons are the Swedish Shortsnout and the Hungarian Horntail. The Swedish Shortsnout is native to Sweden, hence the name, and it lives mainly in wild, uninhabited mountain areas. It has a silvery blue appearance and emits a blue flame.

"Since the Short-Snout prefers uninhabited mountain areas, it mainly inhabits the mountains of northern Sweden. Although this region takes up perhaps 2/3 of the country, most of the Muggle population lives in the remaining third, the southern lowlands. The Shortsnout's hide is particularly sought after for boots, gloves, jackets, and shields. "The Hungarian Horntail is native to Hungary, hence the name. This dragon has black scales, bronze horns, an a spiked tail. I however find their eyes to be quite interesting.

"A horntail's eyes are yellow with vertical pupils. This particular breed can have flame up to 50 feet in length, I believe. Their eggs have very hard shells, which are good for protection." Katie had an immense knowledge of dragons as she found them so fascinating. She had read quite a few books on them over the years she had been at Hogwarts. "And if you don't mind my answering your other question sir, the Hungarian Horntail is particular to feeding on goats, sheep, and humans. The Chinese Fireball also feeds on humans but prefers pigs to goats and sheep. And the Common Welsh Green feeds on only sheep. If my memory serves me correctly that is."

[liz]

Liz almost jumped when Hagrid asked her nad Keirra – a Gryffindor Liz didn’t really know a question about why dragons were almost impossible to train.
Listening to Marias and Kaitlyn’s answeres Liz blushed and answered a bit shyly: “I think it’s maybe because dragons are almost impossible to defeat. Very few things penetrate their skins and as for magic – there only a number of spells that can be used on them. In order for a spell to work on a dragon many people must be present however – that is why there are always so many tamers around and why the job is so difficult.”<br>
Liz examined the dragons curiously not knowing much more as to what to add: “Did knights in medieval times really kill dragons by themselves as the stories go? As a lot of muggle myths have some truth in them. How did they manage – the dragons are so strong and can burst fire – in reality one single human shouldn’t stand a chance! What did the knights do – shot an arrow through their eyes?”<br>The last part was almost thinking out loud and not wanting to sound stupid, Liz blushed almost crimson at noticing what she was doing and looked down shyly.

[keirramcdonnell]

Keirra's attention had been waning away from Professor Hagrid and more towards the dragons that seemed unhappy to be restrained. She snapped her head to attention when she heard her name then her mind began to race as she began to search for the answer. Elizabeth, who seemed to be a bit older and also a Gryffindor, answered the question first and Kierra had to agree, but a part of her wished she had been the one to speak up. Nodding her head in agreement she also added, "besides, not many people have an opportunity to deal with dragons let alone attempt to train them. I believe their rating is XXXXX and the breeding of dragons was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709."

[Kim Sullivan H4]

Super ultra fast lightning warp hyper speed! Kim ran out of the Hufflepuff common room as fast as her little legs would take her! She had heard from someone who had heard from someone else who had talked to someone who had overheard someone else talking about unicorns! Kim loved unicorns! She even had some toy ones on her desk in her room! In very short time she was outside the castle and racing down to where the rest of the class was gathering. As she ran up to them she squeezed her tiny body through many of the students and went to the front of the group and looked for the unicorns. Instead she saw dragons! “That’s not a unicorn!” Kim said loudly as she took a few more steps to one of the cages. “How come we don’t have unicorns?” Kim asked another Hufflepuff girl nearby.

Just then the class began and Professor Hagid started asking questions about dragons, Kim listened to the first word or two before her mind went into a little daydream about dragons and movies. Without thinking, her hand was up in no time and was waving wildly about to get the professor’s attention, even though he was well over twice her height.

[Nasser Salah G6]

Care of Magical Creatures was always fun, at least for Nasser. He didn’t mind Hagrid's rather unconventional teaching methods, and knew that despite what some people said he was always in control of the creatures he brought to class, even though some of them required great skill and expertise to be taken care of. Nasser trusted the big friendly man and always tried to see the 'interesting' side of the creatures he sometimes chose to bring to class. Learning about magical creatures didn’t just entail studying unicorns and diricawls; you had to learn how to deal with all kinds of creatures, boring as they might be in the case of flobberworms and repulsive in the case of Blast-Ended Skwerts.

The full moon shone down on the grounds as Nasser made his way to the edge of the Forbidden forest as instructed. He wondered whether Hagrid was going to take them in there, he wouldn't put it past him. As soon as he reached there and stood with the rest of the students he could smell the strong smell of liver. He moved closer with everyone else and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight before him. They were going to be working with dragons! Of all the things Hagrid had brought to class, they had to be the most uncontrollable creatures yet. Nasser wondered how exactly Hagrid was going to conduct the class. He wasn't afraid of the dragons, well not very, but still, they were creatures that were only supposed to be approached by wizards and witches who had had a vast experience with magical creatures.

Nasser listened to what all the girls were saying in answer to Hagrid's questions, he already knew most of it from Alexa whose parents both worked with dragons. It was her dream herself to do so one day and hence she talked about them a lot. His words only made it even more clear what a difficult task they would be doing today. None of the dragon looked very peaceful and the Hungarian Horntail was looking ferocious, just as it had during the Triwizard Tournament. Nasser stood net to the other younger Gryffindors in his house watching interestedly as the trainers calmed down the dragons and stopped them from hurting anyone. He was completely blown away by their evident immense strength and size. On closer inspection he noticed there were several eggs with multi-coloured shells beside each dragon. Even the eggs were really big in comparison to normal eggs. He couldn’t take his eyes off the dragons though he didn’t know if he was ready to deal with them yet.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Charles was happy to be out in the fresh air, it was a starry night and the moonlight was creating all sorts of funny patterns on the ground as he walked to the place Hagrid was waiting for him and all the other students to meet him. Care of Magical Creatures was a class Charles usually liked because you didn’t have to sit at your desk and try and convince something to change shape or repeat an incantation so many times you almost forgot what you were trying to do in the first place. You just worked with real life creatures, and when Hagrid had brought something to class that wasn't too scary he usually participated in this class quite happily. Hagrid was a kind man and wasn't as strict as McGonagall or as uptight and unfair as Snape. You could away with anything in his class, not that Charles was much of a troublemaker. He just liked to daydream sometimes and that got him into trouble with his other professors. But he didn’t daydream in this class, it was impossible to do that with your hands full with whatever creature you were working with.

Charles stood next to the only Gryffindor he knew, Elizabeth Connely, or as he and all her other friends called her, Liz. Ivy didn’t take this class nor did anyone else he knew. Liz was a nice person from what he knew of her though, she was talented at drawing and sketching and understood a lot about Charles love of photography because of that. It was nice to meet a person who understood why you liked something so much and appreciated your work. He was just about to greet her when the sight before him rendered him speechless.

Dragons. Huge winged creatures that produced fire out of their nostrils and that made him feel his knees had turned to water. What was Hagrid thinking? Didn’t he know that such creatures were only supposed to be approached by wizards and witches with great skill and certainly much older than any of Hagrid's students? Why was he doing this to them? Certainly dragons were very important creatures and there was a lot to be learnt about them, but first-hand experience with them should be out of the question for someone of Charles' age. Charles eyes moved from one dragon to the other, and he felt himself shiver involuntarily as he took them in. Maybe they weren't going to be getting any closer to them and he was just going to be answering his questions and watch them from a distance. "Yeah, that's what's probably going to happen," thought Charles, and he felt his pulse go back to normal. The assistants seemed to be pretty much in control of the situation anyway.

[Professor Rubeus Hagrid]

Hagrid clapped his hands together with a jolly smile and said, "Excellent explanation, Kaitlyn! You will receive 15 points for your house. He turned towards Elizabeth and nodded in approval. Thas' right! These dragons can be very dangerous, but most of it is all a misunderstandin'. Good, 15 points to Gryffindor. Kierra, excellent explanation! So.. er... that'll be another 15 points ter Gryffindor. Dragons might be dangerous to you, but, we are just as dangerous to dragons as they are to us. You gotta remember that, 'specially if your going to be working with any magical creatures in the future... Now, it's time for these Dragon Handlers to show ust what they know..."

The Dragon handler wearing dark green robes stepped up next to the gargantuan form of Hagrid and explained, "So, today, we will be witnessing the hatching of baby dragons and we'll be caring for them because of the level of restraint that is required to be put upon the mothers... Especially because we are on school grounds. Now remember, careful handling is vital and I suggest that all of you put on your dragon hide gloves and I have dragon hide vests for everyone over here-He directed his arm towards a rack next to a particularly large tree- That way nobody will be hurt if the dragon offspring do breath fire. Here comes the first few!" The Dragon handler pointed towards several earth-brown eggs with green specks cracking, as miniscule Welsh Green dragons began clambering out of their egg shells. In a short time, all the eggs had cracked open and there were four baby dragons from each sleeping specimen. "Now what you want to do is find a baby dragon and try feeding it. Experiment with different types of meat and try combining some to find its optimum diet...."

[keirramcdonnell]

Keirra glanced around excitedly only to realize that no one else seemed to want to be the first to try it, so with a smile she reached into her satchel and after several moments pulled out her dragon-hide gloves. She hummed slightly to herself as she slid the gloves over her long fingers and pulled a dragon-hide vest; After she pulled off her robes, she replaced them with the vest and shoved her robes, or at least as much as she could, into her satchel. She looked at Professor Hagrid before going to pick up a Hungarian Horntail and cradled it gently in her arms.

"The meat, Professor Hagrid?"