9:00 am Wednesday, September 3, 2008 First Floor, History of Magic Classroom Professor Jacqueline Lumpkin

Oliver Ainsworth [P] Charles Harcroft [P] Adley Rothwell [ ] Mairead ó Fearghail [P-3] Keegan Kearney [P-3] Pax Wintergreen [P+4] Eirene Antonopoulos [P+2] Fiana Flynn [P] Euphemia Grissom-Dolohov[P]

House Points Gryffindor 14 Hufflepuff 9 Ravenclaw 12 Slytherin 5

*An 'X' indicates that the character has posted in the Member's Coming and Going thread and isn't required to attend until their return.

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Early morning grogginess paired with pre-pubescent brats all riled up for their first lessons of the new school year made for a very grouchy professor. Her first lesson of the day (third years) wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, but that didn’t mean much. The younger the child, the more obnoxious they seemed to be, and Jacqueline simply couldn’t stand obnoxious people. She could get along a little easier with the timid ones, the ones intimidated by her. At least they listened, and were much better behaved than their rowdy comrades.

The master schedule was royally screwed up in Jacqueline’s honest opinion. Her first class was from eight to nine, and then, without a break, her second class started from nine to ten. Was there no time for rest? Not even enough time for Jacqueline to put away items from the previous lecture and prepare for the next.

Sure, the class in question, her current class, was full of first years, who couldn't possibly know that Jacqueline wasn't prepared, even if she didn't have much time to get ready. Waving her wand, Jacqueline watched as books fluttered to their rightful place in the bookshelf to the right of her large oak desk. Clad in a rather conservative black velvet robe, the History of Magic professor felt ready to face her class.

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NOTE:
Please post your character’s entrance, once a fair amount of students post, class will start.

Charles had come straight from his previous lesson, managing to turn up first. It was practically a tradition now that every Harcroft would always be the first into class.
"Hello professor" Charles said, as he walked to a seat, pulled out the textbook, parchment, and inkpot and a quill and arranged everything on his desk. He then dropped his bag on the floor.

Eirene did the fastest power-walk in the history of power-walks, trying to get to History of Magic without running in the corridors. She kept her eye on the bobbing head of the first year in front of her, hoping he would trip or lose his way or something, because she wanted to be the first one to get to class!

“No!” She whispered in frustration as the boy reached the door before her and swung it open. Eirene sighed heavily and tried to catch her breath before following him in. Oh, how annoying! Harcroft sure had long legs.

Eirene entered the classroom and headed straight for the professor’s desk. The woman looked very polished and impressive, she thought, with her black robes and short white hair. Eirene gave her a bright, slightly nervous smile and put an apple on the professor’s desk.

“Hello, Professor Lumpkin!” She chirped, remembering her name from the Welcome Feast. “I’m Eirene Antonopoulos. I started reading your textbook this summer. I'm nearly to chapter three!” she announced proudly, flouncing over to claim a seat in the front row.

She frowned at Charles, who had somehow managed to set up everything on his desk already. Scrambling to do the same, she pretended like it didn’t bother her.

“Hello, Charles,” she greeted him primly, pleased to see that at least her quill was fluffier and much nicer looking than his.

The ceremonial feast the night before had left Oliver feeling full and satisfied.  Breakfast was just as delectable; flapjacks, bacon, eggs, sausage, and orange juice had definitely tied his hunger over.  Now, feeling stuffed and content once more, he made his way into the History of Magic classroom - only getting lost twice in the huge expanse of the castle - and took a look around.  At the head of the room stood a woman with close-cropped white hair and a pointed chin.  Garbed in a professional-looking robe, he assumed that she was Jacqueline Lumpkin, the History of Magic professor.

Oliver was wearing the traditional apparel of a Hogwarts student; a set of dark charcoal gray robes over a white dress shirt and black slacks.  He was wearing a red and gold striped tie underneath the robe but over the shirt.  Having been fitted for the outfit at Reach-Me-Down Robes, everything fit according to his size and measurement.

Great...

He spotted Eirene Antonopoulos sitting in the front-most row.  She was in the midst of organizing her desk, so he slunk past her and sat down at the table next to Charles Harcroft’s.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, but she had pointedly insulted Mairead’s dog back on the Hogwarts Express.  She didn’t outright disgrace his friend, but still, it was rude of her.

“Hello, Charles,” he greeted him, then turned to her.  “Hi, Eirene.” 

Charles’ desk was already neatly arranged with his class supplies.  Eirene seemed to be in a hurry to do the same, looking flustered and annoyed as she went. 

Oliver set about to organize his desk as well, all the while hoping that he hadn’t forgotten anything...

 Charms had been absolutely wonderful! Fiana had a feeling it was going to be her favorite class ever. However, she hadn't been to any others yet, so who knew what the day would bring? Now she was skipping along the corridor, on her way to History of Magic. That would certainly be interesting! She wondered what they would learn about, and how magical history differed from regular history. Hogwarts was the best school ever, she could tell already!

 Bouncing merrily into the class room, she took the nearest available seat and looked around at her classmates and the teacher. There were only three of her fellow first years there so far, and she smiled brightly at them, giving them a wave.

 "Hullo!" Fi greeted them cheerfully as she pulled some parchment and a quill out, arranging it on her desk. Writing with a feather, she thought, was going to take some getting used to. It would be worth it, however, because it was the wizard way, and everything she'd learned about wizards so far indicated that the wizard way was infinitely more fun and interesting than the regular way of doing things.

School Wear

Entering the History classroom, Keegan yawned widely, his uncovered mouth showing a hint of black ink at the corner where he had chewed on his quill in Charms. He just couldn't get used to the whole "dipping the quill in an ink pot instead of clicking the tip" thing. His hands and lips were covered with ink by the time class was over and he knew he would be forced to buy a new inkpot soon. Not because he was taking so many notes... he had unintentionally ingested most of it! Thank god... no it was thank Merlin here... Thank Merlin for Adley, whose writing and note taking was far superior to either Keegans or Mai's, as much as he refused to acknowledge it.

Speaking of which, when Keegan stopped yawning long enough to survey his surroundings, he noted that neither of them were there! Seriously? He was the first one there?? Furthermore, the only people that were there were the more 'eager' (AKA brownnosers) students. He sure as hell didn't want to be seen as one of those. That would mean being lumped in with Spitz and Ewwwfie. Luckily the back of the room was blessedly clear. Without greeting the teacher, who looked like she could probably chomp through even his thick skull without getting a drop of blood on her perfect namebrand clothes, Keegan started towards the back of the room, his abode, his comfort zone... his lot in life.

As he passed the nearest desk, his dusty bag caught a piece of parchment sticking out the top and accidentally pulled it free, sending all of the neatly placed supplies tumbling to the floor. Among them, as his luck would have it, was a bottle of ink. It shattered and splatter his already dirty sneakers and the frayed edges of his pants with ink. "Oi Bloody fecking 'ell..." He groaned loudly, forgetting that Professor Sharkface was watching, as he surveyed the newly designed edges of his pants. This just wasn't his day.

((Sorry Fiana... I hope I didn't godmod what she had on there too much. If I did, let me know and I will rewrite ))

School Attire

Euphemia was displeased at having to occupy the same place day in and day out with the likes of Adley, Turkey, and Keegan. She disliked breathing the same air as them but since she was bound to get her education some how she was destined to breath their air, as vile and musky as it was. Why could her parents not decide it was in her best interest to attend Durmstrang like her grandfather so wished she would, even if he had attended Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the best education, or so it was said, but Effie would be the judge of that.

After ditching Eirene for a quick trip to the bathroom she was headed towards the classroom. Effie saw little point in Eirene hanging around the bathroom listening to her pee; otherwise she would have directed her to wait. A bathroom break was not a group activity. Plus she had even taken a moment to breath the icky trio free air, and it had been glorious. After straightening her tie and making sure her locket was tuck under her shirt she headed from the bathroom.

Euphemia finally found her way to the classroom of History of Magic, walking in with the plain sneer upon her face. She spotted Eirene near the front of the classroom and rolled her eyes; next time she would bring her along to the bathroom because sitting at the front of the class really was over eager. She noticed Keegan had taken refuge in the back so the front was not so bad with that in consideration.

Her arms folded across her chest she walked past the professors desk merely nodding in acknowledgement but no bit of emotion creeping over her face. She didn’t see the point in getting into the face of the professors. She walked to take a seat next to Eirene looking at her with a stern stare. She left an annoyed air around her but no words as she settled into her seat and didn’t speak to Eirene. She got out her parchment, textbook and quill, which she placed in an organized placement upon her desk. She sat stiffly straight as she started to read her textbook with lack of interesting in socializing.

Pax trotted into the classroom, glancing anxiously at the clock; there was already a fair gathering of first years, and he hoped he wasn't late. Satisfied that class hadn't started yet, and grinning and waving to the teacher at the front of the classroom as if hoping to prove he was one of the good ones, he unhooked his backpack from his shoulder and started to look around for a good seat.

As he glanced about the room, however, his attention was caught by a flurry of motion; one of the boys had just knocked one of the girl's class supplies to the floor, presumably by accident. Not registering who either party was but knowing how embarrassed he would be on either side of that situation, Pax scooted over, dropping his bag by the girl's table on the way. 'Let me give you a hand,' he murmured, then bent down and started gathering up the parchment.

No, the shrill prepubescent voices of the first year class weren’t nearly as bad as she remembered it; it was ten thousand times worse. She cringed slightly as student after student piled themselves clumsily into the classroom. One was even brave enough to venture to Jacqueline’s desk and perch an apple atop its wooden surface. Since when did people actually do that? Jacqueline had never known anyone in the history of forever to actually place an apple on the teacher’s desk. What if Jacqueline didn’t like fruit? It was hard not to smile at the little girl, not out of happiness, but out of pity. She managed to keep her face blank.

She barely inclined her head as students addressed her personally. She didn’t want anyone to think that she was their ‘friend’ just because she said hello to them, so she just didn’t. Then, in a flash of movement, a young Gryffindor knocked all of another student’s supplies in the floor, smashing a bottle of ink and cursing loudly. Before Jacqueline had time to react, another kid ran over to help. Why not leave the big stuff for the big boys?

“Get back to your seats!” Jacqueline snarled, rising from her place behind the desk. Her heavy French accent seemed to be magnified with her anger, and those that didn’t know she was of French descent before, sure would now. “Scourgify!” she said, raising her wand to the pile of ink smeared possessions laying pell-mell on the floor. Another muttered incantation and the possessions found themselves in an organized pile back atop the little girl’s desk.

“You’ll do well to remember, young sir, that cursing is not permitted in this classroom. For your misbehavior, three points will be taken from Gryffindor.” This time, she couldn’t help but smirk. This class was turning out to be exactly what she thought; snotty, annoying and accident-prone. “Looks like everyone’s pretty much here, so let’s get started, Oui?”

“As you should know by now, my name is Professor Lumpkin. I was born and raised in Bordeaux, France, and have only recently come to live here at Hogwarts. This will be both of our first years, so let’s make the best of it,” Funnily enough, when she was saying ‘let’s make the best of it’ her intent was pretty clear: ‘don’t do anything stupid’. The disgust was evident. “Right, so this year we’ll be studying Hogwarts, everything in it, around it, between it. By the end of the year you’ll be able to tell me who Professor Fortescue was and exactly what it was that Ogg brought to the school. You’ll know a roundabout history of the beings within the school and a fair knowledge of the enchantments on the building. Therefore, today I’d like to cover the Founders of Hogwarts, who here can name them?”

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* Students can still enter after this post, if you want your character to be late, that’s fine, if not, just post that they came in before the class started.
** Five points for the first person to answer the question!

Pax jumped away from the parchment at Professor Lumpkin's instruction and darted right into the closest seat; next to the long-haired girl whose school supplies were now magically arranged on the table in front of her once more. He shot her a brief, apologetic smile before rummaging through his backpack for his own quill, parchment and history book.

He had just put Hogwarts: A History on the table and was about to open it when Professor Lumpkin asked for the names of the four founders of Hogwarts. 'Oh!' he gasped under his breath, and shot his arm up into the air. He knew this one! He had asked his dad why the houses were called what they were, and was told that they were named after the four founders. And Pax distinctly remembered that each founder had an alliterative name; what were the odds of that, after all?

'Helga Hufflepuff,' he said, starting with the founder of his own house, 'um, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, and um... um... Gryffindor...' Bother! What was Gryffindor's first name? Godsomething... 'Um, Godfrey Gryffindor?' Realising his arm was still extended, he lowered it uncertainly.



[OOC: I guessed we didn't need to wait to be called on, but if I'm mistaken please let me know and I'll edit appropriately.]

Once Eirene had every single thing on her desk organized, she greeted the nice people as they came in and stuck her nose up at the mean people. To her, the nice ones included Oliver (mostly), Fiana, Effie (of course!), and Pax. Seconds after Keegan had walked in he’d caused a disaster, which didn’t surprise Eirene at all, but she was grateful that he’d knocked over someone else’s belongings for once!

She turned her head around and hissed at him, “Keegan! Be careful!” Eirene shot a smile at Fiana, but made no move to help her. The only thing she cared about at the moment was showing the teacher she was a good student, so she resumed staring at poor Professor Lumpkin, her hands clasped together on the desk and a slight smile on her face.

Eirene glanced at Effie, happy that she chose to sit next to her, but was very confused by the stern look she received from her friend. Effie stuck her nose in the textbook, like she usually did when she wasn’t in a talkative mood.

“What?” Eirene whispered at her worriedly, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong.

She had little time to think about it because the professor suddenly snarled at everyone to get back to their seats. Eirene glanced down, a bit frightened: yes, she was still in her seat. It was people like Keegan who couldn’t seem to attach his bum to a chair!

Three points from Gryffindor! Ha! Her smile turned into a smirk, though she didn’t dare turn around to sneer at Keegan. The woman in the front of the classroom was extremely intimidating, with her aloof expression, cold voice, and an air around her that said she didn’t much like children. Eirene remained perfectly still in her seat, looking at her with wide eyes and hanging onto every word. This only meant, of course, that Eirene had to try harder to gain her approval, which she thought she could do so much better than any of the other students here. Save, perhaps, Effie.

However, when the professor asked someone to name the four founders of Hogwarts, Eirene found that she’d lost her voice! She knew the answers! She knew them! It was no exaggeration when she’d said that she had read the first three chapters in the textbook already. Yet, Eirene was afraid to speak up in front of Professor Lumpkin. Being in a classroom setting with a teacher like her was very different from her private lessons with tutors, who at least pretended to like her.

So Pax Wintergreen answered first and jealousy bubbled up inside her. Eirene gave him a frustrated look, listening to his answer very carefully in case he made a mistake. Sure enough, at the very end he did make a mistake! Eirene seized her opportunity and threw her hand in the air with gusto.

“Godric Gryffindor!” She breathed. “His name was Godric,” she told the professor, hoping this might gain her a point for Ravenclaw.

 Fiana had everything arranged just how she liked it on her desk - her text book, her parchment, her ink, her quills, all nice and neat. She might not keep her room tidy and her hair may be a bit wild most of the time (but it was so long - it was hard to keep tame!), but one thing that could be counted upon was the neatness of her school supplies. So when a boy walked by and accidentally knocked her tidy pile onto the floor, shattering her bottle of ink, Fiana was of course a little dismayed.

 "My ink!" the petite brunette exclaimed, sliding out of her chair and onto the floor, not sure what to do about the mess. She didn't want to get ink on her hands. Picking up a piece of parchment by a clean corner, she watched as a few drops of the black liquid dripped to the floor. Oh, this was a disaster! "Can't you be more careful?!" She lamented. She wasn't particularly angry, just upset that her new things were all ruined.

 She couldn't believe the language that was coming out of the boy's mouth, either! Her cheeks turned red and she gasped. Her parents were pretty laid back and she didn't have many rules, but if she'd said words like...like...she couldn't even bring herself to repeat them! But if she'd said what he'd said, her mum would have washed her mouth out with soap, that was for certain.

 Then, however, Professor Lumpkin stepped in. Her stern tone had Fiana snapping to attention, hopping up and into her seat as quickly as was possible. If there was one thing she wished to avoid, it was making the teacher angry. Maybe she would have to bring Professor Lumpkin an apple next time. That's what they always did in books, when they wanted to get on their teacher's good side. Yes, she would try that.

 She found the way the mere wave of her professor's wand and an uttered incantation caused her things to fly back into a neat pile on her desk, clean as can be, to be exceedingly impressive. Eyes shining with admiration, she viewed her now ink-free parchment in wonder. "Thank you, Professor!" she said, breathlessly. Wow. Hogwarts was going to be fantastic.

 And now class, it seemed, had officially begun. Fiana didn't know the answer to Professor Lumpkin's question, but she was eager to find out what it was. Whoever had founded Hogwarts was obviously very interesting and amazing, and she wanted to know everything there was to know about them. This was going to be an interesting class!

Not even a whole day into the school year, and already, Keegan Kearney had formulated a head-turning catastrophe.  What he said in response to his self-wrought foolhardiness didn’t help the girl’s predicament, either.  Not a student in the class seemed the slightest bit perturbed by his choice of words, though Lumpkin deducted five points from their house.  Having learned about house points the night before, Oliver fought back a groan.  Instead, he listened to the rest of the professor’s introduction in respectable silence.  As much as she seemed to hate first years, he still didn’t want to get on her bad side.  Either more points would be taken from Gryffindor, or his mark for the class would suffer.

…Or maybe both.

So far, the class wasn’t shaping up to be what he’d hoped it would.  Stifling a sigh, he listened as one of the other boys, a Hufflepuff, attempted to answer Lumpkin’s question.  Oliver hadn’t the slightest idea who Hogwarts’ founders were, and decided against writing the names down in his notebook.  He assumed that if the time for note taking ever arose, they would be informed ahead of time.  Or so he figured.

He asphyxiated another groan.  Eirene piped up for what seemed like the billionth time that day.  She answered with the name “Godric” instead of “Godfrey”.  Either name could have been right as far as he was concerned, but he didn’t know for certain.

He looked at the leather-bound book that rested in front of him.  Magic, A History, by James Greylure.  It was thick – it contained over four hundred pages.  He needed it for the class, but he doubted that Lumpkin would cover everything in it.  Unless, of course, she assigned them extra pages and/or chapters to read just out of spite of herself.

What was a good excuse for being tardy?  Of course, the quality of an excuse was all in the eye of the beholder.  Was an excessive need to dawdle considered a decent excuse for being late to class?  Judging by the far too prim and proper appearance of the old woman at the front of the class, it wasn't. 

But, Mairead had found few reasons to hurry herself to this class.  This was, no doubt, the class she looked forward to the least.  One just had to take a look at the book which seemed thick enough to flatten a mouse and the supply list which consisted of nothing more than writing implements to realize this was not a class custom made for Mairead.  In fact, Mairead was uncharacteristically intimidated by this class. 

Mairead slipped into the closest seat to the door, hoping that her tardiness would go unnoticed.  As quietly as she could, Mairead tugged some parchment from her ragged, well-patched bag along with a thick-barreled ballpoint pen.  Her confidence and skill didn't allow for the fine-tuned fastidiousness of a quill.  Hopefully, in time it would come, but for the time being, the easily clutchable pen would have to do.  Her carved, painted wand she set on the desk next to her pen. 

They were talking about something - or rather someone.  But, who or what, Mairead had missed.  Mairead's gaze flickered around those seated closest to her before begrudgingly looking down at her paper. 

Apparently the little snot-nosed brats did know a little bit about their famed school. Quite a shock since Jacqueline didn’t expect anyone of dirty blood to know anything about the great witches and wizards that founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A sneer formed upon the witch’s mouth when the little Hufflepuff boy started rattling off answers. The sneer quickly turned into a slight smile when the boy didn’t know as much as he thought he did. Quick of the tongue, Jacqueline opened her mouth to correct the boy and by doing so, publicly humiliate him, when the smart mouth Ravenclaw opened her mouth and snatched the answer from Professor Lumpkin’s tongue.

“Right you are, as you didn’t answer the question completely correctly, you’ll have four house points, boy. And you’ll have two for your quick correction, girl.” Jacqueline didn’t yet know the names of her students, and she wasn’t the kind of teacher to have the children play those silly little name games. She’d learn the names when she felt she needed to. Until then she’d call them ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ and if they didn’t like it, well… they could try and say something if they wanted to.

“The four founders of Hogwarts were known as the greatest of their age. They were known for their profound personalities, as well as their magical abilities. They didn’t have any problem opening a magical school, and the school flourished for quite a long time. Even people that aren’t from Hogwarts know that the Founding Four didn’t live harmoniously forever though, and a fight ensued, causing one of the quartet to leave the school. Who can tell me the two parties involved in this epic battle?” She was, of course, referring to the time of discord when Salazar Slytherin chose to leave Hogwarts for good. Perhaps one of the students would know, but if they didn’t she would have a chance to rub in their faces just how much more she knew than they did. One of the few perks of being a teacher was that you really could be a know-it-all.

“You, Gryffindor. That’ll be five points from your house. Three for tardiness, two for coming unprepared. We are a wizarding school, not a muggle counterpart, I expect you to use proper wizarding utensils. A quill, perhaps?” She pursed her lips as she spoke, nothing peeved the French woman like tardiness, it was one thing she simply wouldn’t stand for.