COMC Lesson 1

[Rubeus Hagrid]

Today was the big day. The day to begin the term with the first class. Hagrid knew that there were going to be quite a few students that he would already know but that didn't make him nervous. It was the students that he knew might make a ruckus out of his class. He still remembered the incident with Draco. He hoped that something like that wouldn't happen again.

Hagrid had decided to start with his traditional first lesson. He was going to show them all one of his oldest creature friends, Buckbeak. Thanks to Sirius, Buckbeak was healthy and happy. Buckbeak began to figget by behind the large tree. "Now se'le dow', Bu'beak," he said, stroking the large creature's neck. When it was time, Hagrid told the bird to stay where it was and walked to the group of students that had piled around the outside campus of Hogwarts.

"Welcome. Welcome," he began and he looked around to every student. There were some that he knew and some that he didn't. For those that he didn't, he needed to make some sort of good impression. "I'm Hagrid, yer professor," he cleared his throat. He should be used to this by now! "We' yeh all know the rules in a classroom, eh. Yeh mus' liste' teh my directions. No funny business now. The crea'ures 'ere ca' be dangerous an' I don' wan' anyone gettin' hurt." He wondered if anyone could understand him- sometimes the new students couldn't, he shrugged it off, finally comfortable with his surroundings. He leaned over and grabbed a large, furry book. It was making sleeping sounds as well as groaning.

"Now! Ge' ou' yer boo's. Yeh all been wonderin' 'ow te open it. Well its easy! Jus' rub the spine," he said, and he did just what he said. The book had opened its eyes and the latch that kept the book shut had opened. Pages and pages of information was within the book. "There won' be 'omeworks o' mi'term in this class. Bu' a final," he said, making sure people knew what to do with the books.

Hagrid was then excited and he didn't want to wait much longer. He wanted to show everyone his good friend. "I wan' yeh all teh mee' my frien'. Bu' I nee' yeh all teh stay back." He waited until some people were moving back. He had then motioned Buckbeak to come close to him and began to present with a big smile underneath his thick beard. "This is Bu'beak. He's a 'ippogriff, he is. Now 'ippogriff's aren' like any crea'ure. Yeh can' go up teh them bu' rather them up teh yeh. 'ow yeh as'? Yeh stan' 'ar away 'rom them and bow. I' he bows back, then yeh can pe' him!" He said with excitement in his voice. He looked around at the students, and gave a grin. "Any questions?" he asked.

[Mira Noth]

Good old Buckbeak, Mira thought, standing off in the wings of the class, sleeves rolled up in the cool September breeze. Despite being year six, Hagrid's words still would occasionally be slipped past her understanding, but she was nearly able to grasp every word now, though it slightly worried her if that really was a good thing. She glanced at the rest of the class, watching the innocent and ignorant pull out their Care of Magical Creatures books with disgust or fear as all the books purred here and there from a wary stroke by their masters, not at all surprised to note that she was the only Slytherin in her year there. Despite Hagrid being who he was, Mira still appreciated his finer tastes in magical creatures, compared to the usual syllabus, they where more... exotic.

Hagrid beamed down at the students as he showed of Buckbeak, who in turn also stared down at the other students with his sharp eyes, many who have shifted back carefully as they all knew the professor’s unique preference in dangerous creatures. This class was always amusing.

[Christopher Zhou]

Christopher would be lying if he said that this was one of the classes he enjoyed. It wasn't that he had a problem with Hagrid, he just felt that maybe the Headmistress could scrounge up somebody a little more qualified and probably less obsessed with dangerous and potentially death inducing creatures that he, from time to time, referred to as cuddly or harmless. Fortunately today was not one of the days where they'd be working with something that spat acid, emitted poisonous vapors, or exploded... That always was a good sign in this class. Still... It was either extremely dangerous to be in the class or incredibly boring. Hagrid had a problem with being one extreme or the other, but never in the middle. Today was boring... Hippogriffs were all right, but really not Christopher's thing.

He turned to look at Oliver who seemed immersed in what Hagrid was saying. Of course he was. Oliver was the consummate student... Always studying, always taking notes, hanging on every word. Christopher always wondered why. Perhaps it was to shirk the jock status that people seemed to have tacked onto him. Dumb jock was usually how they referred to Quidditch Players sometimes. It was one of Snape's favorite things to point out, granted at least Snape implied as much using much more eloquent words.

Now without a friend to chat away the lesson with, he just sighed miserably and shook his head when Hagrid asked the collective group of students if there were any questions.

[Bella Chimere]

Bella was holding the large textbook that growls every time you shift the weight from one arm to another. It was a heavy book, but nonetheless, alive. She had to keep it in her drawers in order to keep it from making noise or coming lose. A Slytherin in her dorm was playing around with the book that she didn't realize it cold attack. Now that was a trip to the hospital wing.

When Bella got to the COMC class which was outside, she leaned against a tree and waited for the class to start. A couple other people were waiting and immediately the large giant appeared from within the forest. Behind him was a large bird-like creature. Maybe this class wouldn't be so bad after all... she thought to herself and she immediately stroked the spine of her book as Hagrid had instructed while she was zoning out staring at the creature.

Bella had wanted to try and go up to the Hippogriff, but she felt that maybe not. It was definitely a big risk to take. Especially when rumors are going around that Draco Malfoy had gotten hurt by the same animal. Hagrid had asked if there were any questions and she didn't have any herself.

[Kaia Doyle]

Her favorite lesson! She had literally counted down the days to Care of Magic Creatures, and know, it was finally there. The growling book was an added bonus. She thought it was adorable.. in a slightly morbid way. But it was definetely more fun than her dreary old potions book. Her eyes lit up when she saw the object of interest for this lesson, a Hippogriff. It was a beautiful creature. She found Chris in the crowd and rushed over to him. "Hey. Isn't he magnificent?" she gushed, referring to the creature. She saw Chris' expression. He looked kind of... bored, to say the least. "You could do with looking a little more exuberant. Really, doesn't make you look the least bit attractive."

She brightened considerably when Hagrid asked if anyone had any questions. She sure did! Well... more of a request. "Ooh! Ooh! Professor? May I go and pet him?" She had heard about the bowing and the being careful bit, but she was incredibly excited. She was practically standing on her tip-toes in order to see him a little better.

[Rubeus Hagrid]

Hagrid looked around at some of the students. He knew that some of the older years would be old of seeing Buckbeak, but it was something that he loved to show off for his first lesson. He looked at a few of the students for a bit, waiting to see if anyone had a question. But he had one student shake his head as if he was tired of seeing Buckbeak and then other students that seemed bored. Hagrid looked at Buckbeak and looked down to the floor. Sort of thinking of an idea to try to get around. There was nothing else he brought for todays lesson. He was about to dismiss his class until a Ravenclaw girl had asked to pet the Hippogriff.

Hagrid looked up to her and smiled. "Sure thin'!" he said and he motioned her to come forward to where a tree was a couple feet away from him and Buckbeak. It was the perfect distance needed for someone knew. "Now remember, bow, an' he'll bow back," he said, and Hagrid walked backwards towards where the students were. He made sure that he had some closeness, but he wanted the experience for the girl to be her first. "Slowly go up teh 'em if he bows," he added, to make sure there was some security. "By teh way, ten points teh Ravenclaw," he said, looking at the others. He thought that maybe this would make people want to join in on some of the COMC experience.