First Years, Lesson One

“Good morning, everyone,” Gabrielle greeted as the first years finally settled into their seats after a couple of minutes of rabble at the start of the lesson. She looked around the room, taking in the faces of the students. Gabrielle was determined to keep a sharp eye out, wanting to make sure the law was laid down early enough. Some of the other teachers were perhaps a little bit too lenient, although no doubt warmer and easier to get along with for the students. “Welcome to History of Magic. I'm Professor Moncrieffe, I was born in Bermuda, and I’ll be your teacher until fifth year. So, I’m going to go through the roll. When I call your name, if you could please just raise your hand, tell me if you have something you’d prefer me to call you, like a nickname or if you go by your middle name or something like that, and tell me where you’re from." She paused for a second. "Yes, I know you all hate these exercises, I do too, but it’ll help me put faces to names.”

She went through the list, making a couple of notes as she went before finally reaching the end. “Thank heavens that won’t take nearly as long next time. Alright, so this year we’ll go over some beginner topics - Merlin, witch trials, and so on. For some of you, this will all be completely new, for others, don’t discount it, you may actually still learn something if you bother to listen.” She gave a wry smirk, knowing some students from wizarding families would probably think they knew everything already. “Sure, we may not be doing any spells, but you won’t be doing yourself any favours if you tune out just because of that. If you come into any of your classes expecting to be bored from the outset, you're setting yourself up for failure. Besides, there’s more to magic than just wand waving and incantations, or huddling over cauldrons. You may find that understanding where we come from and knowing more about the world around you is far more useful than being able to turn a beetle into a button, just quietly.”

"But for now, since we've got a bit of time left...why don't you take the opportunity to chat amongst yourselves for a bit? Talk to people not in your house, make friends if you've just been hiding out in your own house all year so far, reintroduce yourselves, talk about your holidays. You know, socialize and what not." With that, she left the students to it, wandering around the classroom to keep an eye on things and talk to any students who had any questions or asking them a little more about themselves, before they were eventually dismissed.

Homework
RP the lesson. Feel free to tag me if you want me to interact being nosy about your character! You are also welcome to godmod Gabrielle asking more about where you’re from. Don't forget to read over the Classroom Policy!

 

[Christa Langley]

History of Magic seemed like it would be an interesting class, especially for someone like Christa who had never learned anything about magic. She knew a bit about history, because she spent most of her time with her parents and they were kind of environmentalists, but even that wasn’t super about history. She wasn’t an expert, basically so it wouldn’t be a bad thing to learn more, right? She listened to the Professor’s lecture, taking as many notes as she could. She wasn’t great at doing things from memory after all, so it would be good to have the notes to go back on if she needed them - and she had a feeling she probably would. She raised her hand. “Uh, hi - I’m Christa… Langley. I don’t have a nickname or anything.” She said, looking around nervously. “I um, was born outside of Melbourne, in Australia.” She wasn’t sure why she was nervous really. Maybe she was worried she was going to discover more terrible things about the world like when she found about about the terrible unforgivable curses and Azkaban. So much for wanting to believe in civility. Was Merlin real? Did the Witch trials involve actual witches? It was all still sinking in, the fact that this world that was a fantasy to her only months ago had a living and breathing history - that’s nutts!​

 

[Huw Carew]

Huw was quite looking forward to History of Magic class, he had always loved History and was interested to learn all about magical history. He arrived for class and took a seat near the front. After the introduction, he waited until it was his turn to speak which he was a little nervous doing, "I'm Huw Carew, I am from Aotearoa although my parents emigrated from Wales." He told Professor Moncrieffe, unsure if he needed to provide any other information than that. He spent the rest of the lesson making small talk with the person he was sat next to until they were dismissed and free to leave. It had been a nice and easy introduction to the subject he thought.

 

[Finley Mackintosh Baros]

The lesson was almost in full swing by the time Finley got to the History of Magic classroom. He was getting slightly better with his tardiness but it still wasn’t to the level it probably should be given they were now in the second half of the year and he was still working on it. He sat up a little straighter when it got to him introducing himself and he rolled his shoulders. “Hey, I’m Finley Baros, Finley is fine though some of my friends call me FinFin,” his dad had argued against nick names, apparently preferring to use only Finley - he wasn’t sure why his dad was against it when he knew for a fact he had many nicknames himself (mostly from Aunt Sapphire) but still. “And I’m from here!” he didn’t know how much he was supposed to say but figured he could follow others lead. The professor moved on quickly and he calmed his slightly racing nerves by leaning back in his chair. Just before the class was over the professor mentioned them talking amongst themselves, so he turned to the person closest to him and starting striking up a bit of a conversation. This late in the year he knew most of his classmates by sight, even if not strictly by name, and it made this whole process somewhat easier.​

 

[Miles Flynn]

Miles had a nice break away from school, but now he was back and ready to hopefully learn something fascinating. Unfortunately, he had History of Magic on his schedule that semester, and he couldn't say it was a subject he was the least bit interested in. Still, he made sure to arrive on time, huffing as he sat down in one of the available seats near the back of the classroom. Swinging his legs under the table, Miles raised his hand once he heard his name off the class rota. "I'm Miles. Just Miles, I don't really have any nicknames or anything. And I'm from Christchurch." Nothing too interesting and he was sure some other people would have way more interesting stories about where they were from. The first lesson was an easy one, and Miles was pleased they weren't given any annoying homework for him to try and slave his way through.

 

[Aaron Dela Cruz]

History class was a pretty standard kind of class back home, but it was usually about National Hero Jose Rizal and the 333 years of Spanish colonisation of the Phillipines, not whatever this class was about. Of course they mentioned it all the time, just to make sure they remembered. He sat in his chair trying to be neutral about the whole thing, but honestly he wanted to learn about the history of magic specifically in New Zealand, or even in the Phillipines not in the whole world, that just seemed like a waste, although there were like six more years. He raised his hand when he heard his name, “I’m Aaron, Dela Cruz - I was born in Batangas City, Philippines and my friends tend to call me Nonoy,” he said, putting his hand back down again and then preparing to head out of the class once it was all finished up.​

 

[Julian Nightray]

Julian sat quietly beside @Rhys Chamberlin as Professor Moncrieffe took attendance waiting for his name to be called. He wasn't particularly fond of introductions but at the very least this one seemed to be quick and done rather easily. When he was finally called, he raised his hand and calmly responded, "Julian Nightray, and Julian is fine. I'm from England," and quickly dropped his hand right after. Thankfully, it didn't take much longer for the whole thing to be done and over with. As the professor explained the topics they would need to cover, he was getting more and more... tired. He wasn't really one for lectures such as these preferring to be relaxing outdoors. When they were given time to socialize, he hesitated, he wasn't really one that particularly liked to strike up conversations as he was more used to being on the sidelines and listening. So he just stuck to what he was comfortable with. "How's your brother? He has NEWTs this year doesn't he?" he asked Rhys beside him. Maybe he'd learn more about Mikael if Rhys talks about his brother.​

 

[Mania Athanasiou]

Mania had no particular interest for History of Magic, but it wasn't the worst lesson either so she sat down in the room and waited for it to begin. It was probably more interesting than Potions had been after all. As the lesson begun she gave an involuntary groan about having to listen to everyone's introductions. It wasn't that she didn't care there was just quite a bit of them. As her name was called out Mania raised her hand and began speaking. "Hi, I'm Mania Athanasiou but you can call me Mania or just Nia either or is fine. I was born in Greece but my parents are a bit well they don't like to stay in one place for too long so I have lived all over the US and Europe mostly, but you know nothing was really out of the question. I thought it was quite annoying really, constantly moving around and not being able to have any friends for a longer period of time." As she finally stopped talking Nia returned to her seat before jumping up again to ask a question this time. "Oh! Professor Moncrieffe, did you attend to Hogwarts? If so what house were you in, oh or perhaps you were in Ilvermorny? My sister is there, well one of them anyways." She hoped the professor would answer her question, if not for anything else then just because she was nosy and wanted to know.

(@Professor Gabrielle Moncrieffe Nia wants to ask a question and apologies for her tendency to talk a lot...)

 

[Professor Gabrielle Moncrieffe]

Gabrielle always found the varied personalities interesting and amusing, and this group was no exception. "Finley, you aren't in any trouble today however I would appreciate if you made a bit more of an effort to make it to class on time in the future," she said, reproachfully. It was understandable to get lost and be late early on, but after a semester the students had less of an excuse.

Nia was quite lively, and Gabrielle wondered if she'd have to work to curtail it just a little bit. Certainly not the spirit, but perhaps the behaviour. Still, it was sweet of her to ask. "I went to Hogwarts in Scotland," she explained. "I was in Ravenclaw. My mother went to Ilvermorny, it is a very good school as well." There was no point in playing favourites, though of course Gabrielle had an affinity for Hogwarts. But students would have relatives at other schools, as Nia did.

@Finley Mackintosh Baros @Mania Athanasiou