Third Years, Lesson Four

The classroom was like usual again with the chairs and desk on their usual place. Noel stood in front of his desk, leaning a bit towards it and waited for his third years to join him. Today there was something different in the classroom though. This week there was a large fish tank on the table next to his desk. A sickly green creature with sharp little horns swam inside the tank, and at the moment it was doing everything in its power to escape the tank. It was not happy at all, not that Noel could blame it now. Noel had made sure to put a couple of charms on the fish tank so that the grindylow inside couldn't get out unless he allowed it to get out. He didn't want some incidents happening. Noel was not the biggest fan of the creatures and stayed far away from them.While mostly there was dislike to the fiendish little creatures, another part found them interesting. Interesting enough to travel to Great Britain and obtain one of them to use in class. He could only hope that his third years could see the interesting side of them as well, for they had likely never encountered these creatures before.

He smiled towards the third years as they all came in and closed the door afterwards, walking back to the front he started ''As you can see, these small pale-green water creatures are aggressive. This one's been scratching the glass ever since I put it in the fish tank,'' Noel began once the students had settled in. ''But don't worry it's not getting out of this fish tank. So you can sit tight.'' He than made them sure. Some would perhaps want to see it from very close, but others seemed to be very ok with where they sat.'' Now, before you say to me on about how wrong it is of me to lock it up in a tank, you should know that, given the opportunity, grindylows will eat humans. So this is quite literally the safest way to talk about and observe these creatures without getting eaten by them. It's for this reason that grindylows are considered dark creatures by the Ministry of Magic. But don't worry, I've given this one plenty of fish to eat while it's here.'' He paused a moment to give the students time to process this information and write it down and smiled. ''Thankfully, humans are not a common part of the grindylow's diet. It mostly survives on fish, algae, and other small sea creatures found in their natural habitat. However, you won't find these creatures between the weed beds at the bottom of lakes here in New Zealand or in Australia, as they're only found in the British Isles. Interestingly enough, while humans have failed to domesticate grindylows, merpeople have successfully tamed them in the past.''

Noel tapped on the outside of the tank and watched as the grindylow responded by aggressively pressing its face against the glass and trying to grab the Professor's finger with its long, spindly fingers. ''Watch the fingers for a moment. See how long and brittle they are? Well, you'd do well to avoid getting grabbed by them as looks are quite deceiving in this case. They might look frail but they are the exact opposite. If a grindylow has a person in its grasp, an person can be drowned easily. The trick to escaping a grindylow is to break its grip. The Revulsion Jinx is one way to escape their grasp.'' He straightened up and walked towards the students. ''You may stay and observe the grindylow for as long as you like. Your assignment is to read about the grindylow and figure out other ways one could break the grindylow’s grip.'' He than told them. Noel stayed close to the grindylow, so no one would try to be brave, but actually stupid and touch it. If they would he had fast reflexes.

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Roleplay the lesson. As always, feel free to tag @Professor Noel Waldgrave if you want me to interact with your character! I will try my best to respond.

 

[Kyousuke Kurosawa]

Kyousuke came to the classroom, eyeing the creatures in the tank. They didn't look friendly, but he did think he recognised them from some illustrations in his textbooks. Grindylows. This was confirmed when the lesson began, and Professor Waldgrave began to lecture about them. Kyousuke took notes, not quite understanding why he'd have to know about something that didn't even live in New Zealand, but maybe that was just some leftovers from when the British came here. He knew a bit about New Zealand history, though not magical New Zealand history, but it didn't take much to join the dots that the British side of things still held an influence even after all these generations. He made especial note of the revulsion jinx, just in case. It might actually be useful to know for other things too. Kyousuke had already read about the creature, but guessed some extra reading wouldn't hurt so he made note of it.

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline walked into the the defence against the dark arts classroom and took her usual spot in the room. Her gaze moved to the professor at the front of the classroom as the man then told them about the creature which he had in a fisk tank behind him. She knew what this was, having seen one at least once before. She liked them enough, but this didn't seem particularly safe. It was though. She took her notes and began writing down what the professor was telling them about grindylows, and in listening to the professor talk she realised she hadn't know much about it at all. The girl just continued to get down what it ate, where it was in the world and the various other things that the professor was saying about it. She watched the fingers when the professor told them to, and then the professor told them how best to escape one, which she made sure that she had written down, that seemed like an important thing to be able to do. With that the lesson was over and Apolline was able to pack up her things and leave the room.

 

[Ever Delaney]

Ever did not want to have to deal with a boggart today. She had not made up her mind completely but since she had not acted, she did plan to face her fear in front of everyone, no matter what it turned out to be. Yet as the Slytherin entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, she noticed the wardrobe was not there. She let out a sigh of relief without realizing it as she walked to the front of the room to take her seat.

The professor explained the creature that was on his desk. It was a grindylow. It was rather ugly and something about the long fingers really freaked Ever out. She kept just a look of disgust on her face though. She could hide the fear for now. Its not like it was a boggart. The grindylow still wasn't pleasant though. Ever spent most of the class taking notes and ignoring the creature. It wasn't until the lecture was over that Ever got little closer to the creature.

She kept a safe distance, but did walk around the tank to observe. The fingers were worse up close, but at least the professor had told them how to survive and not be drown terribly from this creature. That was useful actually. Once Ever was sure she saw the grindylow enough, she went back to her seat to collect her things before leaving the classroom.