Dallas led the large class of NEWT students towards a clearing in the Forbidden forest. He'd finally succeeded in locating a Unicorn and placing it under his spell for this lesson. The ground was still hard and his breath still fogged up the air around him, but Locksley was excited, his clipboard was tucked under his arm and his hat snug as ever on his head. This class had been fairly easy to handle, and since this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, Dallas decided that it was best not to split up the class, but go in shifts to observe the creatures he'd prepared for them.

"Watch your footing kids, we're almost there!" Dallas stated, stepping over a large root and pulling back a beech tree limb, revealing the soft, mossy, well-lit clearing. The young unicorn, with a bit of gold still in it's coat, lay in a patch of clover, nibbling at a leaf here and there. The large Re'em was lightly tethered to an oak, grazing. It rubbed it's nose in the dirt, searching for just the right type of grass among the moss.

Long logs were placed along the edges of the clearing, for students to sit and observe while others got up close. Dallas hushed the parade of teenagers. "Alright everyone. Take a seat and I'll explain how this is going to work."

Dreary weather did not disappoint Ligeia. Neither did warranted walks into the Forbidden Forest, that nearly made her ecstatic. No, what did lower her expectations after the short trek within the forest was the resulting creature being a baby unicorn.

She had outgrown unicorns, which is to say Ligeia had no interest in unicorns at all as a younger girl except for a specific question to their anatomy, mainly how the horn was attached to the skull. Beyond that all of the various facts (unicorns only cared to be approached by the fairer sex) and myths (unicorns could also be approached by virgins regardless of sex) about unicorns failed to impress her interests.

Now the Re'em, on the other hand...was a magnificently oxen creature with golden hide stronger in hue than the young unicorn. The Re'em had more muscles in its neck alone than most other creatures had at all.[1] Truly no beast was greater.

A pale eyebrow raised in mirth to the question of where in the forest they would find seats. That patch of moss looked inviting. But rather, Ligeia always had a means of seating when she traveled. Once her parasol was flipped open and downwards, and se reached past the case for her dark glasses and the slot to store her wand and other attachments along the shaft--

TWANG!

--folding out that rod for a brace, then pulling out a seat flushing wide impossibly from the thinness of the parasol's shaft, then twist it flat...in no time at all Ligeia was sitting gracefully on her parasol-turned-stool with her notes and quill eagerly in the direction of the clearing.

1.	You ever seen super-cows? Belgian Blues? Enough said

Annie could feel a prickling in her spine – the sort of prickling that the superstitious might have associated with the thought that someone was walking over their grave. She wasn't convinced it was that, however. The forest was still the dank and frightening place it had been a few weeks back, and Annie had found herself traversing through there far too recently to feel perfectly comfortable as she followed the group through the trees. Upon acknowledging her fear, however, the feeling persisted and, upon closer inspection, she decided that the tingling wasn't entirely uncomfortable. It was odd, though. Annie Enright was on edge so often that she usually didn't notice most of the passive symptoms of anxiety, which lead her to believe that the tingling was something else. The chill? She didn't think so. She was dressed for the frigid weather. Maybe she was just crazy? That was actually a very real possibility, all things considered, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Thus, Annie walked on, accompanied by her presumably psychosomatic jitters.

That sensation was nothing -nothing!- compared to what overcame her the moment she caught the barest glimpse of what she knew to be a young unicorn's pale golden flank. She recognized it almost instinctively, like her brain had been programmed to do just that. Suddenly her heart was pounding nearly out of her chest because now she knew, she just knew, she was the closest she'd ever been to her favorite thing on the entire planet – a creature she'd been waiting sixteen years to see in person.

Was this real life?

Annie started crying. She actually started crying. Unicorns were like... like... like, everything good in the world, and there was a little one right there, and she didn't know what to do, because what did you do when all of your hopes and dreams were laying right there, nibbling on leaves and being adorable? WHAT DID YOU DO? You cried. They weren't loud tears, or even distracting ones, but there they were, rolling down her face. How was nobody else freaking out? Didn't they see it? Didn't they know what it meant? Didn't they have a bedroom covered with unicorn posters and unicorn knick knacks and a shelf covered in unicorn books?

She sat down hard on a log at the end of the clearing, openly sniffling as she waited for her reeling senses to catch up with her. She was going to faint. She was going to die. This was SO COOL!

Grey and overcast as it might have been, it was hard not to appreciate the Magical Creatures classes that found them outside.  The fresh, open air of the forest was a welcome contrast to the warm, stuffy and overly-fragrant potions dungeon.  With bag slung over his shoulder, Sasha followed the group as Professor Locksley led them to a clearing.  He paused, just at the edge of the clearing and stared at the two creatures awaiting them.

This was not their first experience with unicorns, of course.  Most Care of Magical Creatures students were introduced to them by the end of their fourth year and their inclusion was a given in OWL examinations.  He remembered their first exposure to the creatures well: the excitement and fascination followed by the disbelief and abject disappointment that the creature would want nothing to do with him.  He'd be lying if he said the fascination was gone. 

Seeing the other creature in person, though, was an entirely novel experience.  They'd covered it academically, of course, along Karkadann, Ki'lin and Cartazon during the unicorn unit.  But, the moving photo in their fourth year textbook hadn't done the creature justice. 

After regarding the animal for a few moments, Sasha turned to find a seat on the log next to one of the Salem students.  He didn't notice the tears until he looked up to speak to hear.  "Do you mind if I sit - I'm sorry..." his voice trailed off.  Following the girl's line of sight, it was easy to develop a hypothesis as to what had prompted the tears though the reason was still unclear.  Was she amazed?  Frightened?  Worried?  More importantly, what exactly did one do with a crying girl?  It was to late to pretend he hadn't noticed.  He knew enough to know running away (even in a controlled, dignified manner) was not the correct answer either. 

He'd have to wing it.  As was the case with most instances of spontaneity, this meant falling back on what he'd been taught.  "Are you alright?" he asked, pulling a clean, neatly folded handkerchief from his pocket and handing it to the girl.  "I ... I don't think it's going to hurt you," he said, taking a wild guess and assuming (hoping?) the Re'em's massive appearance was the cause of the girl's unnerving.

Now this? This was more like it. This was exactly what CoMC should be. No crowded classroom, no nibbly little bugs in boxes, no stuck-up fop of a teacher screwing with kids for the hell of it. Just the woods and the trees and the critters -- and what critters they were!

Taryn didn't so much sit as she did crouch in the woody underbrush, her legs protected by her boots and the thick black jeans she got away with using for her uniform. Even curled down with her elbows on her knees she was nearly as tall as the professor standing up. She kept as close to the clearing as she could manage without blocking anyone else out, eager for as close a glimpse as she could catch until the instructions were out on the table.

Man, she hoped the girls wouldn't get stuck with the unicorn because of the whole gender thing. There weren't nothing wrong with a unicorn, but equines weren't exactly her bag. Bovines, on the other hand, were fun. Her wandless bout with the Cretan Bull at last year's Wizard Open Special Events still made the top five highlights of her rodeo career, right after the First Task, if that counted. Just watching the Re'em watch their crowd with those big, wary bovine eyes left Taryn itching for a shot at it, even if cattle-roping events weren't on the agenda.

Behind her and to the right she heard someone sniffling, and turned to find Sasha of the Unpronounceable Last Name trying to pass a handkerchief off on a tear-stained Annie Enright. Taryn snickered a bit, because Sasha just seemed so damn awkward in his attempts at comfort. "Buck up, Annie. This here's gonna be fun."

Cadance trudged through the forest without a word of complaint. The knee high boots she was wearing were both fashionable and practical for the class as was her lightly fur lined house robe that lay gracefully over her uniform - which in itself had been modified to her tastes, the vest being corseted and the skirt of a pencil design over the standard A line. Her flowing blonde hair was pulled back with a halo braid and ran gently down her back where the clawed branches of the trees were unable to pull at it. As always Cadance carried an air of confidence and an angelic smile while her mind was elsewhere. Today it was pondering how much of a shame it was that Locksley was a halfblood cause he certainly had a nice looking behind.

As the class was led into the clearing she let out a trilling giggle of girlish delight only because it was expected. She was really starting to hate unicorns and the other beast, while gorgeous in colour, looked horrible and smelled even worse. Cadance secretly hoped she wouldn't have to get closer than was necessary to the creature. If she was lucky the class would end up gender biased and she'd be allowed to focus on the unicorn instead.

She situated herself on a log with a few other Slytherins, her crystal blue eyes watching the ridiculous display Canterbury was putting on. It may have been unladylike to sit on a mossy log like a common savage but it was even worse to make a show of being better than everyone else, it wasn't even as if she were wearing an expensive gown that she didn't want to ruin the fabric of. It took almost all of her willpower not to roll her eyes at the Ravenclaw and she found herself wishing one of the Slytherin boys would kick the ludicrous thing out from under her.

Cadance was swiftly joined by her favourite cousin to whom she gave a charming smile. Ever since he had come back to the family the year before Cadance had latched onto the darker Slytherin if only to save herself from the rest of the Wentworth clan. Her eyes momentarily crossed Briar's - who gave her a snotty look - and was glad Cavanaugh's younger brother Kyson wasn't in the class.

“It won't!”she told Sasha insistently, her eyes shining from both the tears and the excitement. “Unicorns never attack unless provoked, and I would never, ever provoke a unicorn,” she squeaked, accepting his hanky with a grateful sigh of  “Thank you.” At this rate she was going to end up borrowing a handkerchief from every single person at Hogwarts, foreign or otherwise. She dabbed at her cheeks, which were turning a bit pink due to the attention that was being paid to her overly emotional reaction to this miracle, but for once she wasn't ashamed. So what if nobody else seemed to understand the gravity of the unicorn's presence? This was an opportunity of a lifetime and she was going to be happy about it or so help her! Sure, the Re'em was quite fascinating and rare, too, but....hello, unicorn!

”Buck up, Annie. This here's gonna be fun.”

Annie looked to Taryn, and managed to smile through her tears at her notorious schoolmate. “It is! It is so much fun!” she gushed as her excited jitters had her bouncing a bit on the log, unable to keep perfectly still. The bouncing was really more like a constant vibrating as she jiggled her arms and bounced her legs on the balls of her feet. She wasn't doing much to make herself an accommodating log-mate, but a little bit of excited turbulence wouldn't do any real harm. “I've always wanted to see a unicorn up close? And it's just... it's right there!” she exclaimed brightly, ending her excited little outburst with a squeaky but ecstatic sigh and a long sniffle. She turned back to Sasha, addressing both students. “I'm just... they're, um... my favorite thing? That's kind of weird. I know, but it's true.” She might not make any friends today, but meeting a unicorn was good enough for her! 

Xavier moved deftly through the forest, keeping his eyes ahead of him. Despite the numerous times he had been through the place he could still feel a bit of anxiety rise up in him. As a younger year he had been excited to go through the forest, the excitement eventually turned to boredom as he spent two more years in the Care of Magical Creatures class. After the incident in the forest outside his grandfather's manor though that boredom had twisted into a chest tightening anxiety brought on by the post traumatic stress he was still experiencing. Most of the nightmares had faded and he had been able to get most of his personality back but it was moments like this that brought it all back. He was hoping Professor Locksley didn't have anything 'dangerous' in mind that might send him over the edge.

Thankfully the only thing in the clearing once they arrived was a young Unicorn and a Re'em. Unicorns had been done over and over in the three years he had been attending the class but he wasn't about to object. At least Locksley hadn't brought them to a tribe of Thestrals. Xavier was still unnerved by the fact that he could see the hairless leathery beasts. The Re'em caught most of his attention as he took a seat next to his cousin amoungst the other Slytherins.  He gave the other Slytherin Princess a quirk of his lips. He had known Cadance his entire life but when his father had disappeared and Xavier when to Montross to be raised by the Tawse' he had lost contact with most of the extended Wentworth clan. It wasn't until Arathorn's intervention that he started accepting the rest of his family back into his life, and Cadance had latched onto him almost instantly.

With his cold grey blue eyes on the giant golden oxen Xavier tried to push things from his mind to focus on the lesson. He placed his hand on his knee but it didn't stop the nervous bouncing of his leg. He suddenly felt someone take hold of his hand and glanced over as Cadance nonchalantly held it in her lap. He gave her a silent grin. He knew that she was doing it as much to comfort him as she was to make sure his weaknesses weren't showing. She had always been all about appearances even when they were kids.

Peyton took a seat near Sasha and the Salem students. He had followed them into the clearing with the other students and was now waiting for the class to begin. He was interested more so in the Re'em than the unicorn, after all the former had been covered several times now in the class over the past three years but it was possible Professor Locksley had something new to teach them. Of the Professor they recently had Locksley was the one Peyton liked the most (and it had nothing to do with how attractive he was) he was friendlier than O'Morain had been and he wasn't as blinded by dangerous animals as Professor Hagrid had been.

The brick of a Ravenclaw looked to the crying Salem girl and offered her a smile. She was almost cute n a pathetic kind of way. It just went to show how different things were at the other schools. It was clear from their faces that the Hogwarts students were getting used to the awe that unicorn's often elicited but to someone like Annie who hadn't been able to see one before it was a whole new experience.

"I take it there aren't a whole lot of Unicorns where you're from?"

Jay was wide eyed as he settled into the clearing with the rest of the NEWT class students. It was his final year in school and it was only his second time seeing a Unicorn. The first time he didn't get to do much about since the magical horses took more kindly to the fairer sex but he was still delighted to see them. They were gentle and majestic, not to mention one of the few magical creatures that had become prominent enough to make it into muggle culture. He still found it amusing how much his muggle friends loved the creatures without a second thought to them actually existing.

The Re'em was something completely new to him however and after his initial interest in the unicorn he found himself drawn to the oxen. He was eager for the class to start to find out what they were going to be learning. Almost as second nature he took out his notepad over his quills and parchment. He flipped the pages of the blueprint paper till he found a new one and started sketching out a building that drew inspiration from the bone structure of the oxen.

He stopped in his deft strokes when he heard the Salem girl crying. Thankfully they seemed to be happy tears but Jay was drawn to her all the same. It was good to see a bunch of the Ravenclaw boys were taking to her. He would have offered a handkerchief of his own if Schlagenweit hadn't beat him to it, "They seem to be prefer the ladies, so you might be able to do more than just look at them." He offered to the awe struck teen.

Dallas stood in between the two creatures and watched the many different reactions from his students, some looked bored when they firs caught sight of the unicorn, but seemed to drift towards the massive Re’em, others were in shock, mostly from the other schools, and one Salem began to cry. He understood completely, when he’d first laid his hand on the unicorn’s flank, he could barely contain the emotion associated with the beautiful beast himself. They all seemed eager for today’s lesson either way. Dal tipped his hat back and cleared his throat.

“Alright, so today, you’ll get a once in a lifetime to observe these beasts, not to overwhelm the creatures, we’ll go in shifts, each shift will get just under ten minutes to not only observe, but touch and feel them, see what makes the creature tick, the rest of you will work on sketching the beasts. If you’re rubbish at drawing, just focus on a part of the animal in detail, this will be your class credit for today, as well as a few questions I’ll be asking near the end of class. I’d ask that you don’t try to mount the creatures for today. Foreign Schools first, followed by Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, then Gryffindor and Slytherin. Any questions?” Dallas asked, rubbing his finger behind the unicorn’s ear.

Hopefully the class would run smoothly, and since he didn’t choose to bring any creatures with a bad reputation, no one would be bitten, or clawed, or injured. They’d all have enough respect for the creatures not to do anything stupid.

"Oh sh..." 

Figaro wasn't the only one to be totally taken aback and struck silent by the surprise 'guest speaker' for today's Care of Magical Creatures class.  In the lush, wet clearing, even in the middle of winter, there was exposed green foliage an a unicorn.  Just chilling.  Blinking at them.  Also, a giant...shiny...cow.  Both were pretty amazing.

A girl from Salem was openly weeping.  Annie, he thought, one of the Champions.  Taryn and Sasha were helping her, but Figaro figured it was just ... a big deal to see a unicorn.

Figaro crossed his arms and tucked his fingers in his armpits to keep them warm as Professor Locksley explained how things were going to go.  He could only imagine how their last teacher, Professor O'Moron, might've handled it. Death threats, probably.  But this one seemed to guess that no one here would dare mess this up.

Hearing that Hufflepuff was third in the queue, Fig wandered slowly over to the professor and asked, "So... where did you get them.  What's the big one, again?"

Annie had a dream like this once. There was a gorgeous golden unicorn there, just like now, and she had been surrounded by a gaggle of attractive boys with accents. This was no dream, however. Whenever Annie dreamed about school it involved showing up at class without her shoes on, or arriving to take a final exam in a class she hadn't realized she was enrolled in. This was real – really real – realer than the realest reality – and she didn't know whether to cry more ferociously or melt into the log she was seated upon. Her tears were already slowing down, though, and if there was a spell for turning herself into a human puddle then she definitely hadn't learned it yet, so she settled for grinning like a sugar-high lunatic as she responded to her coterie of delicious foreign boys in her typical, semi-manic way.

”I take it there aren't a whole lot of Unicorns where you're from?”

“The forests in the United States are much more spread out, so you have to be really, really lucky to spot one randomly. My house is like... like, basically in the woods, and I've never seen one before,” she explained enthusiastically, containing the high pitched squeal she wanted to let out. Not every forest in America was unicorn inhabited, and up where the Enright's dwelled you were much more likely to catch a glimpse of a shy and reclusive moose. If you wanted horses, they had plenty, but unicorns were another story entirely.

”They seem to be prefer the ladies, so you might be able to do more than just look at them.”

“I want to touch it,” Annie whispered, her eyes going wide at the prospect, bouncing a little bit in place as her feet jiggled madly beneath her. That was a major understatement. She wanted to make it love her, take it home, groom it, and keep it in her bedroom forever. When the professor confirmed that she'd be allowed to touch the gentle creature, her eyes welled up once again and she bit down so hard on her lip that it turned white. Not only that, but the time that she didn't get to spend hands on with the unicorn she could spend drawing the unicorn – which was already one of her hobbies, and probably the second best thing. Was this the best day ever or what?!

When the professor made it clear that it was her turn to go her stomach twisted all the way around, and she had to swallow hard as she rose to her feet. Her knees shook as she slowly and carefully made her way straight for the unicorn, pausing a few paces away. She wanted nothing more than to say hello, but  getting what she wanted was always bittersweet, and it was that knowledge that pinned her to the spot, where she trembled in awe, converted this moment into a memory.

Gigi had had to check that she hadn't swapped classes with the fourth years. That's who unicorns were for, 14-year-olds who oohed and aahed over that stuff. Sort of junk she was two years past, and despite her grumbling she wasn't completely unaware of the fact that she needed to learn new (dull) stuff.

She resorted to just shrugging as she tapped her fingers against her leg. Maybe it was all some sort of pre-sex ed conspiracy.

But for now all she had to do was draw, so she couldn't qq too much. She shrugged again, and sent a smirk over at some of the other Slytherins nearby (Tawse and Bulstrode, so far). "Guess we get to watch the fun." So she pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil and started on sketching. Time to watch the waterworks.

Foreign schools up first. Taryn's grin grew ever wider at the prospect, rising out of her crouch and patting the mud off her jeans. Off to one side, somebody quizzed Annie on the rarity of unicorns across the pond. Seeing as this was the only class she had any genuine skill in, Taryn couldn't resist adding some extra tidbits of her own.

"Ain't just that," she tacked on to the end of Annie's spiel. "Equines ain't native to our half'a the world, least not in the least ten-thousand-odd years. Technically speakin', unicorns 'n' their ilk are non-native -- an invasive species brought over on boats. Yeh can keep unicorns with a permit, but they ain't big on domesticity. And lord help you if you let any of 'em run wild. Government'll hand you your ass."

With that, she left the unicorn to Annie and the other girls, making a slow but steady bee-line right to the golden bull. No rushing, that'd only startle it, especially since she was the only creature in the general area to rival the beast in size.

"What's the big one, again?"

Another grin tugged at Taryn's lips. "This here, Fig, is a re'em. Native to America as well as the Far East. Its blood gives anyone who drinks it more strength than most fools know what to do with. And he is a beauty."

She was nearly at the re'em now. Her voice grew warm, the way Mama's did when she talked to Minnie, or most folks when they babbled at their cats. The bull stared at her with wary, watery brown eyes, its steady gnaw of grass and cud.

"Yeah. You are a gorgeous critter. A real heartthrob." Slowly, Taryn's left hand closed around the re'em's single horn, holding steady right at the base where keratin met golden skin. The re'em pushed against her with a snort. She let it, judging the power of the thrust as it rolled up her arm. "And strong, oh yes, real strong. You're a tough guy, ain'tcha? Pure muscle, pure power."

Like most animals, the re'em probably had no idea what she was saying, but the low tone was soothing enough that it didn't try to buck back. Keeping her hand on the horn to maintain control, Taryn moved close enough that she could've hugged the massive bull and ran her hand up its shoulder and down the golden spine. "Oh yeah, just feel that. What I wouldn't give for a round in the ring with you. We'd have ourselves a real good time."