June 1st - June 19th
It's almost summer! The last few weeks of school have come, and students will need to study hard for their final exams! Don't let up yet, or your grades won't be what you want them to. Of course, the weather is almost perfect and pristine, in attempts to lure students away from their studies.
Or so it felt. Slytherin stood in front of the empty classroom, staring idly at the clock, watching as the hand ticked, moving closer and closer to when students would be starting to walk into his class. Into Defense Against the Dark Arts. Salazar was somewhat glad that it was this class he was expected to teach, for he knew a lot about the Dark Arts. Perhaps not exactly how to defend oneself against it, but it was close enough. And the teaching part wouldn't be all that difficult either. Slytherin had been one of the founders of the school after all, and he'd taught his share of classes before he'd gotten into that argument with Godric and left the school for good.
Slytherin also liked to make things interesting as well, which was why as the students walked in, the lights were out and, showing on a screen at the front of the room, was an old, black-and-white Muggle movie. The music was somewhat cheesy, yet supposedly haunting all those years back. The movie continued to play as the students walked in sat down and soon enough, the subject of today's dicussion was clear. A man showed up on the screen, his hair slicked back, his skin pale, and upon opening his mouth, it was easy to see that he had fangs. Vampires, of course. And so the movie continued to play as the third and fourth years took their seats and took out their parchment and quills. Salazar watched them from the shadows, grinning as their beady little eyes focused on the screen. A movie was always a good way to catch the attention of twitchy little students.
The bell rang, signalling the beginning of class, and Salazar finally stood up. He pointed his wands and the movie suddenly turned off. The lights took a moment to turn on, but did as well and he watched, amused, as some of the students blinked like owls in the light.
"Welcome back," Slytherin said, grinning. He moved to the front of his desk and leaned against it, folding his arms. "I hope your holidays were at least midly intriguing. If not, I sincerely apologize. But unfortunately, even if your holidays were rubbish, I still have to give a lesson today. The subject, as I'm sure most of you have guessed, is vampires." He smiled, showing a bit of his teeth as though he himself had fangs. "Which means we're finished with our unit on common creatures and moving into the uncommon creatures, consisting of things like vampires, werewolves, zombies, things like that."
"Now, vampires may appear like humans and, due to their sentient state, are still considered beings, but because of the fact they are indeed dangerous and can be considered animalistic, they are categorized as Dark Creatures," Slytherin continued, hazel eyes watching his students. He dearly hoped some of them were taking notes, or else they would be surprised when he handed out a test in the next few lessons. Who knows? Perhaps he would even throw a pop quiz at them if he felt like it. "Vampires have been categorized as a level five dangerous creature by the Ministry of Magic. They also appear quite frequently in Muggle novels. As well-written as those stories may be, unfortunately they do tend to exaggerate on the traits of vampires. So, it is my duty to dispell the myths and give you the facts."
Slytherin paused for a moment. "And on that note, let's start listing things we often hear about vampires, both true and false. We'll sort out the myths from the facts once we have a good-sized list. Would anyone like to start us off?"
sophielynette
Meghan Spire
1st Year Ravenclaw Where's the proof?
Jade Howe
4th Year Gryffindor
Reserve Beater And Howe!
Jade could think of worse things to be doing at the moment. She could be getting a root canal. She could be listening to her mother tell her what a dissapointment she was. She could be trimming a dragon's toenails. It wasn't a long list, but it was a list nonetheless. On the other hand, it wasn't as if Defense Against the Dark Arts was the worst class she could be stuck in at the moment. She could be sitting in History of Magic.
The first day of returning back to class was always the worst. Not that, say, going to class in the middle of March was much better, but the first day was the hardest, at least mentally. It had taken all Jade had to get up that morning, and it showed. She was in even more disarray than usual. One shoe was unlaced, her shirt was buttoned unevenly, so that one side stuck up higher than the other, and her hair was an even worse mass of frizz than usual. She was fully prepared to take a seat at the back behind someone tall and nap until the end of class, but as saw what the Professor had in store for them, her spirits rose significantly.
"Aw right! Movies!"
Pumping a triumphant fist into the air, Jade scurried to a desk at the front then sat with her gaze glued on the screen. Excitement was evident in her wide green eyes as the star graced the screen. What could be better than an old monster flick? Maybe class wasn't going to be so bad afterall.
Jade had barely noticed the bell, and gave an audible groan as the movie was switched off. Reluctantly she turned her attention to the Professor, resigning herself to another typical class. With a sigh she shifted a quill and parchment from her bag, but rather than taking notes she began to doodle a vampire bat. It wasn't really such a bad class though-- really, who could be bored by vampires? Jade and her brothers had rented all the great movies: From Dawn Til Dusk; Dracula 2000; Blade; and, mistakenly Interview with the Vampire, which turned to be way too sappy and dramatic for Jade's tastes. Really, who ever heard of a vampire with compassion?
"And on that note, let's start listing things we often hear about vampires, both true and false. We'll sort out the myths from the facts once we have a good-sized list. Would anyone like to start us off?"
Oh, this was just right up Jade's alley. Eyes gleaming, the Gryffindor thrust her hand into the air, then began babbling before she'd even been acknowledged.
"Well, in most of the movies, vampires are made when a human is bitten by another vampire. Although in some they could actually, y'know, have kids, and sometimes a vampire could hook up with a human and make half-vampire kids. They're afraid of sunlight, holy water, crosses and garlic. You kill them by ramming a stake through their heart, and in some of the old books you had to chop off their head and stuff it with garlic."
Jade lowered her hand again, feeling rather pleased with herself. Her mother had always said watching horror movies would rot her brains. Showed what she knew.
Re: Intermediate Class [A Day]
Binx was surprised to find his Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom in complete and utter darkness. Everything was dark, except for the single glowing screen. Upon it played a movie that Binx clearly recognized as something having to do with vampires. He blinked a few moments, letting his eyes adjust before walking in. Binx was somewhat impressed, and surprised by the lesson. Professor Mitchell was new, and he was shaking things up a bit. His older student friends hadn't covered vampires for ages, and now Binx and his year were looking at them already. Needless to say, Binx had read his fair share of muggle books on vampires. Everything from Dracula to Lestat. He liked to think himself pretty knowledgeable about the subject, but it was going to be difficult sorting fact from fiction.
The Hufflepuff took his seat and set his book bag down, taking the opportunity to pull out his parchment and quill, placing them neatly beside each other before unearthing his text book from his book bag. He hoped that they'd be watching a movie all class, but Professor Mitchell didn't seem like the type to let his students off that easy. So far, he hadn't failed to impress his students. At least, the girls were in constant state of 'esteeming' him, as they liked to put it. If you said one bad thing about him or one of your lessons, you were either subject to nasty female hissing or a hex to the head. Binx didn't really feel inclined to subject himself to either of these two things, but he didn't really have a problem with the Professor anyway.
The bell had rung for class to start, and Mitchell immediately flipped the lights on and the movie off with the flick of a wand. Binx closed his eyes quickly, before rubbing his eyes. He always preferred the dark to the light, supposing that it had something to do with his 'Black Cat' persona. "Welcome back," Binx smiled and leaned back into his seat. "I hope your holidays were at least mildly intriguing. If not, I sincerely apologize. But unfortunately, even if your holidays were rubbish, I still have to give a lesson today. The subject, as I'm sure most of you have guessed, is vampires." Hearing the word 'vampires' out loud and the immediate affirmation of what Binx had suspected made him extremely eager to begin class. "Which means we're finished with our unit on common creatures and moving into the uncommon creatures, consisting of things like vampires, werewolves, zombies, things like that."
Binx glanced around to see some of the students were taking notes, and he realized he probably should jot down a few too. Ministry voted Vampires Class Five... Stars of muggle fiction. Anne Rice <3
"And on that note, let's start listing things we often hear about vampires, both true and false. We'll sort out the myths from the facts once we have a good-sized list. Would anyone like to start us off?"
Lord this would be a useful list for Binx. It would certainly help him sort the novels that he read from the real thing. Binx's hand shot up, though he was positive he'd be wrong on a few. When someone else spoke up, his heart fell a little. Darn.
"Well, in most of the movies, vampires are made when a human is bitten by another vampire. Although in some they could actually, y'know, have kids, and sometimes a vampire could hook up with a human and make half-vampire kids. They're afraid of sunlight, holy water, crosses and garlic. You kill them by ramming a stake through their heart, and in some of the old books you had to chop off their head and stuff it with garlic."
Binx frowned, disagreeing with some of the things she said, "Well yeah, Garlic sure... But I was under the impression that.. Some vampires are 'rather fond of crucifixes'." He doubted anyone would recognize the quote, and he pursed his lips in thought, before he realizing his hand was still in the air. "But Professor I have a question, muggle books often feature vampires. But how do they know about vampires? A lot of the stuff they have is true, so does that mean vampires reveal themselves to muggles sometimes?"
checkyourpockets
Edward "Ed" Tate
4th Year Ravenclaw Resident Wallflower
Re: Intermediate Class [A Day]
Defense Against the Dark Arts – not Ed’s favorite class, but interesting enough when taught by Professor Mitchell. He was almost positive they would be doing something somewhat odd today. As if by pure intuition, Ed was right; inside of the large classroom the lights did not glow and an old muggle movie flickered on as a projector pasted it onto the wall. Ed laughed, noticing an actor that stuck in his head from movies his father had shown him as a child. Bela Lugosi, Ed laughed as the campy music filled his ears. He remembered when he used to ask to sleep in his parents’ bed when he was younger because he was so afraid of this movie. Now it all seemed so cheesy and slightly humorous.
Immediately after watching a bit of the nostalgic movie, Ed averted his eyes and zoned in on Binx. Inward smile. Butterflies - swarms of them. He thought that perhaps after being in so many of Binx’s classes this year, he would have stopped feeling like his legs were made of jelly when he saw him but the feeling was consistent.
Half tiptoeing, Ed made his way to the desk closest and to the left of Binx and plopped down loudly. A big smile grew on his face and he was about to inquire about what Binx thought the lesson was on sarcastically with a, “Vampires?” but as soon as his lips parted all of the lights shone. Ed mock-hissed and buried his face in his eyes but quickly recovered from his momentary blindness. The movie was not on anymore and Ed sighed, getting ready for actual work. He listened intently to Prof. Mitchell apologize for those who had a slummy holiday – Thanks for apologizing, Ed thought, musing – and what they were going to go over today. Somehow Ed knew the subject already. He also knew now that this class was going to be interesting.
Without interrupting the professor, Ed nudged Binx and smiled at him, letting him know of his presence. The teacher kept on with asking us to list the ideas behind vampires that we know of. Immediately a Hufflepuff girl answered with some obvious answers and some slightly odd answers. Ed was hysterical by the point of, “and sometimes a vampire could hook up with a human and make half-vampire kids.” Perhaps his guffaw had been too loud. All well, it was funny to hear lingo from years passed used to describe sex between a vampire and a human. Yeah… like, vampires are totally gnarly and rad, d kept playing inside Ed’s head, and making him laugh more and more.
"Well yeah, Garlic sure... But I was under the impression that.. Some vampires are 'rather fond of crucifixes'."
“Why don’t you interview a vampire and find out,” Ed said, mocking the boy for his nerdy knowledge of literature. By this time, Ed was gaining back his usual spot as the mumbling person mocking everyone in a quiet tone. Binx, however, continued his thoughts with a question for Mr. Mitchell:
"But Professor I have a question, muggle books often feature vampires. But how do they know about vampires? A lot of the stuff they have is true, so does that mean vampires reveal themselves to muggles sometimes?"
Again Ed spoke under his breath with a witty, “Probably – they have to eat sometimes,” and giggled. He decided that was enough remarks for the first five or so minutes of class and zipped his lips.
Unlike Binx’s, Ed’s desk was void of everything. It had been a while since he had taken notes in any class because he was always good at attaining information. His weekend, however, seemed to change something in him and this new interesting class got him motivated to jot down a few things. He took out his large textbook and quill accompanied by ink. Taking some parchment from his bag, Ed dipped his quill into the small jar of dark liquid and began to write down things like, “Five stars = dangerous = vampires”, “Muggle novels and movies misconceive”, and “Binx, Binx, Binx”. He did, however, scratch that last note out as much as possible to hide it from view. He waited eagerly to find out the real answer to Binx’s question to then put it down in his notes.
Re: Intermediate Class [A Day]
Slytherin was mildly intrigued at how the students seemed to get into their seats much faster with a movie playing in front of them. It was as if they had magnets connected to their butts -- magnets that seemed especially attracted to the wood on their chairs. But it was a nice change from the usual dragging of the feet both Slytherin and Draco had experienced during the experiences teaching. Well, Slytherin supposed that Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn't the most popular of feet-dragging classes, which was always good. Students tended to enjoy this class, especially the younger students who were able to do much more hands on activities than the older students. They dealt more with theory and whatnot while the younger students needed to be taught what to do and the best way was by experience. Or, in this case, taking what they thought they knew, making them feel good about themselves by proving that some of their ideas were right, and then fixing the things that were off.
When a hand shot up, Salazar nodded at the Gryffindor girl and listened as she stated her case. He flicked his wrist and the screen that the movie had been showing on shot up, revealing the black board. With another flick of his wrist, words began to scrawl themselves on the board in Draco's slightly messy, yet somehow elegant handwritting. But, despite it's somewhat mismatched traits, the words were legible, and that was what mattered. The words continued to scrawl themselves as Jade spoke, creating a list of the points she hit.
"Very good," Slytherin said, giving the girl a nod. He gave a Ravenclaw boy, who had snorted at what Jade had been saying a brief glance before pointing at the next raised hand he saw. "Mr. Binx."
"Well yeah, Garlic sure... But I was under the impression that.. Some vampires are 'rather fond of crucifixes'."
“Why don’t you interview a vampire and find out.”
"But Professor I have a question, muggle books often feature vampires. But how do they know about vampires? A lot of the stuff they have is true, so does that mean vampires reveal themselves to muggles sometimes?"
“Probably – they have to eat sometimes."
Slytherin noted briefly to himself that Edward Tate seemed to have a bit of a problem on commenting on things, but he decided not to address it at that moment. There was nothing wrong with a few harmless comments unless things got out of hand. "Thank you, Mr. Tate," Salazar said, giving the Ravenclaw an amused yet somewhat cautious grin. His eyes then went back to Binx. "Very good question, Binx. Like many creatures mentioned in Muggle myths, vampires have been seen by Muggles, which is where all of these stories come from. By the time the Ministry was formed and able to control magical exposure to the Muggle world, these myths were already wide-spread. But luckily, we were able to keep them as that way: myths.
"As for whether a vampire has ever exposed themselves to Muggles, I'm sure there are a few who have. But vampires as a whole are rather secretive, not to mention they value their survival, like many of us," he said with a grin. "Exposure to the Muggle world could cause mass chaos, not to mention the Ministry would hardly allow it. There have been various occasions of vampires feeding on Muggles, but those instances hardly cause much of an uproar, for the myth that vampires have the ability to mesmerize their prey is very true. Just by looking in a vampire's eyes, anyone can fall under their spell, with exception to other vampires, which is mostly how vampires manage to ensnare their prey. Most of the time, the human, Muggle or wizard, will hardly remember anything of their encounter, leaving them simply with a curious mark on their neck that will heal soon enough."
Salazar grinned as his eyes swept across his class. "So that's lesson number one: never look a vampire in the eyes. As for weaknesses, let's start with garlic, shall we? Although vampires are susceptible to harm by garlic, simply waving a clove of garlic around or wearing one of those ridiculous necklaces around your neck will not help you one bit." The image of a person throwing garlic at a vampire seriously amused Slytherin at that moment. "For garlic to be of any use again a vampire, it must either be ingested by said vampire, or injected into its bloodstream. And still, that most likely will not kill a vampire, simply put it out of commission for a few weaks.
"Holy water and crucifixes. Just as Mr. Binx cleverly quoted, some vampires are indeed rather fond of looking at crucifixes. Holy items have no effect on a vampire and, from what we know, this myth was created and encouraged by the vampires themselves. Which is a clue to us that vampires do, indeed, have a sense of humor." Glancing at the board, the piece of chalk moved up to cross 'holy water' and 'crucifixes' out. "Now, sunlight. Sunlight is probably your best defense against a vampire. If put in strong, direct sunlight, a vampire will die. But I want to make sure you know that filtered or magic-made light will not. It will repell a vampire and will hurt them, but not kill. If your desire is to destroy a vampire, I recommend fire. Burning a vampire and scattering its ashes, preferably in running water, is the best way to destroy a vampire for good. As for ramming a stake in the heart, another myth. But I'll get into that once we begin talking about how a human is made into a vampire."
Sunlight and fire were circled by the piece of chalk while stake crossed out, leaving, 'turning into a vampire' and 'offspring' the two things that had yet to be discussed.
"Anyone else have anything to add before we continue further?"
checkyourpockets
Edward "Ed" Tate
4th Year Ravenclaw Resident Wallflower
Jason Cromwell
5th Year Slytherin
Prefect/Seeker Strictly Slytherin
Re: Intermediate Class [A Day]"Thank you, Mr. Tate"
The young wit knew his end and accepted the fact that Professor Mitchell wished him to stop. His facial expression portrayed no anger and Ed was glad. It was almost as if he were interested in him, and Ed took that to mind – knowing that the teacher just wished him to stop interrupting. That was fine with Ed. With a slouch and a smile, Ed remembered a few notes he took mentally from Interview With The Vampire about such creatures. Eagerly, Ed raised his hand about an inch above his head in a way that made his action seem nonchalant; Ed liked being a know-it-all, but not showing it.
“Sorry, Professor. But I think I know something about vampire offspring. Isn’t it true that there’s no way a vampire pair could mate and give life to something if they’re both dead? Spontaneous generation was a theory disproved a really long time ago, and it stated that a non-living organism couldn’t give life to a living one. Also, if the two undeads were to give birth, the offspring would forever be an infant, seeing as how vampires never age.
“A vampire only produces another when and exchange of blood or bodily fluids, such as saliva and blood, between a human and vampire occurs. This isn’t always true, though, ‘cause sometimes the human dies of loss of blood if the human is anemic or infection. Plus, vampires avoid biting children and aim at a group closer to the early twenties. If talking about wizards, they aim higher, around the mid-thirties, simply because wizards have a longer lifespan.”
Ed’s monologue was finished, but Ed had much more to say, including books he had read and manuscripts he had studied on the subject; as said before, Ed didn’t like to show he knew so much. It was almost a weakness to him; it deterred people. He had spoken enough already. A bite of the lip and he sat back half content with his articulations and half annoyed with himself.
Tibiana "Tibbs" Chiflet
3rd Year Hufflepuff
Keeper I need a friend...
Posts: 20
(1/22/06 10:34 pm) Reply
Re: Intermediate Class [A Day]
It was the first class of the new year and Tibbs was dreading it. Certainly winter break had been just as unexciting as usual—for her anyways—but leisure time was always more welcome than work. It’d taken nearly half an hour before Tibbs had remembered that there classes were resuming today, and after hastily getting ready, she’d bolted down to the Great Hall to stuff a piece of toast in her mouth before darting down the corridors to the Defense against the Dark Arts class. Her mouth dry from the exertion of running and the dry, crispy toast, Tibbs suddenly wished that she’d had enough foresight to take at least a sip of orange juice.
Nevertheless she was here now, carefully taking her seat in a back corner where her presence would not be imposed upon anyone. As per her New Year’s resolution, Tibbs planned to keep her head down and try to show that she was a dependable person so that others might think of becoming her friend. It would be a challenge true, but Tibbs was desperate for more positive human contact like the taste she had gotten at the return feast. After pulling out her required subject materials, Tibbs allowed herself to glance around the dark room. At the front, an old movie was playing and in the shadowy corner, the professor simply waited.
Before Tibbs could register the subject of the movie, the bell abruptly rang and hardly a moment later, the lights flickered on. Tibbs’s eyes squinted against the brightness as the dark silhouette of Professor Mitchell walked before them, his voice resounding within the classroom as he spoke. Still blinking, Tibbs frantically searched for her quill to write down the information he threw at them. Well he wasn’t subtle at all! Despite the past few months she’d spent working to improve her penmanship, the notes she hastily scribbled were quite nearly illegible.
How her peers managed to give their personal remembrances of vampires while still managing to copy all this down was amazing to Tibbs. She wrinkled her nose in annoyance as Professor Mitchell discounted some of their comments, crossing them out with a blur of ink. Already her hand was becoming cramped and they’d not even been in here for half an hour! For a second, it seemed she had caught up. But then one of the Ravenclaws had to speak up, spilling out loads of information that likely had been memorized from the book that Tibbs had only previously glanced over. Well, obviously one of the first steps into becoming a better student would be to look at the information beforehand. Tibbs sighed, her quill hovering over the mostly filled paper as she fished out another piece of parchment, hastily blowing on the ink to urge it to dry quicker.
However, there was something that didn’t quite make sense to Tibbs and before she got lost in a whole whirlwind of information, she decided to ask a question. The third-year raised a hand almost hesitantly—it was perhaps the first time she had done so. Most of the time she made random snide comments purely for her own enjoyment. But this time, she was determined to get it right, to prove to others that she could be intelligent and responsible and…well a worthwhile friend. When called upon, Tibbs had to take a moment to gather her thoughts properly. Unfortunately, it felt as if she had hardly succeeded before she spoke up,
“Professor, if vampires can only, um procreate, by exchanging blood with their victims like he” she paused to gesture briefly at Edward, “said, well, how does that work? I mean, sure there’s the entire eye contact thing, but while biting it’s kinda hard to maintain eye-contact. Is there something in their elongated canines that makes humans want to bite them back or what? I can’t really see a reason why their victim would want to finish the exchange.”
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