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Declan had just finished his new seating chart earlier in the day- hoping that by preparing it, he could increase productivity in his class. The professor had misgivings about seating Blake with Flickwick, but they were the only two out of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor who had managed to impress him. (Well, Kit Branwell was pretty impressive too, but he hadn't yet made up his mind about her.)

"Good afternoon, everyone!" he called out. "Please find your new seats- place cards have been set out. From this point forth we will have assigned seats during joint-year lessons. Please be quick about finding your seats. And- as a forewarning- if you have any food on your person, dispose of it in the wastebin by the door."

With that, Declan leaned against his desk, hoping the students would pay little mind to the cages in the room. The table at the front was missing, and in its place were two very large cages covered with tarps, and then three smaller cages (also covered) on three empty desks in the row by the windows. "Hurry up everybody! We've a lot to cover and not much time to cover it in!"


((If you are a new member to AO and just signing up for CoMC, feel free to PM me and I can let you know where to seat your character.))

Fauna glanced at the cages when she entered the classroom, glad about a practical lesson, whatever it would entail. When the professor told them to discard any food on them, Fauna remembered the brownie she'd wrapped in a napkin and tucked away in her backpack for later. One of Akiva's brownies, too!

She ducked out of the classroom for a moment, popped it in her mouth and ate it (setting a new record for brownie consumption), and then came back in, wiping any stray crumbs from her shirt and sending a sheepish glance at the professor in case he'd noticed.

Fauna found her seat far from the door and the windows and smiled when she saw Sophie was assigned to sit next to her. After sitting, she craned her neck and looked around, curious to see where the other students would be.

Baxter had no problems when he heard the professor mentioned assigned seats. He was glad to be up front so that he could better see demonstrations and pay attention. Even when classes weren't combined, he would sit up front. The Fox boy was an overachiever, just like his father. (As demonstrated in his decision to take all offered elective classes.)

Imogen was not Ayla at least, and although the two were not close friends- they got along well enough (at least Baxter thought that they did). She was a bit spoiled, but in his experience most pureblooded children were. He settled into his seat, casting curious glances at the cages in front of him, and the rustling within those cages. What on earth had the professor brought into the classroom? And why had the professor thought it a good idea to bring in whatever was big enough to warrant such a huge cage? Baxter was unsure, and quickly decided it to be none of his business anyway.

"Ugh, right up in front." Nikolas flopped into his seat with barely irritation. "Why do I feel like the sacrifical lamb today?" He glanced over to the empty seat next to him, "Ah yes. Hopefully whatever is bugging Ayla is done and over with. I'd rather not have my head bitten of just for existing."

He eyed the cages up front as he pulled out his supplies. Nothing seemed to be moving inside them and there was nothing on the class board to give any hints as to what today was going to be about. Seeing as most of the class had yet to settle in, Niko pulled out a piece of parchment and began folding it. Niko couldn't draw to save his life but at least he could do something to stave off his boredom until class started. "Heh, Headcrab."

Erin saw the seating arrangements, and was not inordinately pleased by it.  It was so rare that she got into a class with both of her sisters, she would have liked to work with them (aka - let them do all the work).  It was not as terrible as she thought though.  One of the overachieving Ravenclaws in her year was sitting catty corner from her, and her dorm-mate was sitting right in front of her.  Her cousin was behind her, as was another of her housemates.

Though she had never met the person sitting right next to her, she figured that it would not matter one way or the other.  At least it was a practical lesson.  That meant that a insomnia-curing lecture was unlikely, though in this school no one really knew. 

Xavier rolled his eyes at the sight of the fifth years being merged with the third and sevenths. With all the time spent in joint classes it made him wonder if the Professors were just lazy. Then again looking at the large cages at the front of the class perhaps O Morain was just hoping one of his creatures would kill them all in one fell swoop and be done with it. In a way he couldn't really blame him. He didn't think there was anything more angst ridden than a Hogwarts student after Valentines. He certainly wasn't doing all that well. He had managed to screw up every romantic relationship he had set his sights on with no foreseeable way to fix it. At least it made studying for his OWLs easier.

He quickly found his seat next to Callum and was thankful that he wasn't being seated with anyone of the opposite regardless of whether he had been involved with them previously or not. At this point every girl was just one big hassle and there weren't many left on his list that he was still willing to hang out with. Except maybe Strellie but she didn't take this class.

He glanced behind him to where Belltrix was assigned and let out a barely audible sigh before turning back to face the front of the class. He knew he had screwed up when it came to her. He wished he had just told her he hadn't meant any of it the moment he had walked back into Hogwarts but he was stupid and now he had no idea how to fix any of it.

For once Ayla was happy to see that she wasn't sitting with Blake. They had sort of made up during Valentine's but things were still weird between them and she figured it was best to just leave things be. She was starting to get sick of chasing after him and while she definitely missed their friendship she had plenty of other friends that could keep her occupied. She quickly found her seat and smiled at Nik showing her desk partner she was ready for class and willing to focus on what was important.

She stared at the large cages at the front of the class tilting her head to the side as if that would help remove the tarps or at least let her see past them. Professor O Morain had proved he was serious about his subject and judging by the rustling cages he had brought in live subjects today. It was killing her to not know what was inside them but she supposed they would know soon enough, unless O Morain was planning on keeping them in suspense.

"What do you think's in the cages?" She asked Nik.

Folding the final creases of his creation, Nikolas watched as Ayla sat down, the sour mood that had surrounded her that week after Valentines Day was completely gone. "All right."

 "What do you think's in the cages?"

He grinned at her, putting the finished headcrab at the corner of their desk, and then looked over at the cages. "No idea. Since it's Ó Móráin," he shrugged, "Probably nothing that can be categorized under the fun happy times category."

"Though," he smiled at her, "I'm glad that whatever's been eating at you is done. It's nice to have you back to normal. Well..." He smirked around at their classmates and then turned back to her, "normal as far as this school is concerned."

Bellatrix raced up the flight of steps to the classroom, paused outside the door to fix her tie, and entered with a satisfied smile. She had a lot to be smiling about these days: she had finally started to get her old self back. Well, part of it; she was leaving out the whole 'jinxing everyone she meets' nowadays and she was absolutely certain that she was progressing in her studies for her O.W.L. exams! Despite the major screw-up at the Valentine's Day ball, the try-outs at Quidditch had been an excellent way for her to relax, not to mention one or two secret activities that she was scheming. All in all, her moping and sulking days were over!

Her blue eyes, once upon a time threatening and cold, recently lifeless and saddened, and now brilliantly confident and warm, flicked from desk to desk to find her name tag as she strolled along the aisle. Once she found her seat, she dropped her bag down and sat obediently. Of course, the first thing to capture her attention were indeed the cages that framed the room, but it was diverted quickly to the name tags around her. Beside her, Julian St. James, a fellow Slytherin and Vincent's best friend. If Pennyapple was going to date her beloved twin, she would need to get more familiar with his friends. In front of her was (gasp!) Trent Travis, the attractive jerk that had "ruined" their cake, and her mouth formed a very wide grin at the sight of who was sitting next to him: Peyton! Bella positively beamed.

One desk over and one desk up, catty-cornered from herself, was Xavier. Her smile faded at the sight of him, but she didn't feel the urge to cry. She could look at him now without bursting into tears or feeling some sort of depressed emotion. This was, hopefully, progress yet she also felt like it was a step backwards: she instead felt...uncertain about their relationship now. He had once expected her to jinx him and release all sorts of furious rage upon him for breaking up with her, but how had he felt when she'd been avoiding him? Did he feel relieved that she had been ignoring him? She quickly turned her gaze away from him back to the front and waited for Professor O' Morain to start the lesson. The curiosity about the cages had to be forced to the front of her mind, but the attempt had little to no success. Still, if she wanted to continue this class next year, she would have to get the same grades on her O.W.L.s as she did on her mid-term with Peyton. She'd gotten O's on both parts! Bellatrix definitely wanted to aim for this class next year.

Assigned seats? Imogen was all right with that, so long as she didn't get stuck with someone boring and horrible. Like Ayla Collins. Mudblood slags-in-training were not worthy of her company, please and thank you. Baxter Fox, on the other hand, was all right. He was always well behaved, at least. The way halfbloods should be.

After shooting a winning smile in Professor Ó Móráin (who was so handsome, and the only professor who treaded Slytherins properly), Imogen made her way over to her new, assigned seat and sat down next to Baxter. "Hello, Mr. Fox! It looks like you're my sitting buddy for the rest of the year." Lucky, lucky him. She hoped he realized what a privilege this was.

Peyton entered the classroom with a flock of fellow Ravenclaws and realized he was a little later than he had been expecting. Half of the class had already made it to their new seats. Peyton hurried over to where his name card had been placed. As he walked past Bella he gently graced her arm and gave her a smile. While his night with her at the Valentine's Ball hadn't exactly gone the way they had been hoping he had to admit he had a great time and if it hadn't been for her getting distracted by Xavier, Razzy never would have swooped in and helped him . . . find himself.

He settled into his seat checking to see who he was sitting next to. He honestly didn't recognize the name. He was sure if he saw the boy he'd recognize him but he was obviously one of the other years. If he had been in the fifth year there would have been no way that Peyton wouldn't have known who he was. Which begged the question, was he one of the third years or one of the seventh years?

Deciding just to wait until this Trent guy showed up he leaned back in his chair and looked over his shoulder at Bella, nodding to the cages at the front of the class, "Think O Morain's going to try and knock us off like all the other Professors?"

Naomi slinked into her assigned chair next to Blake’s seat, hair pulled back into a long tight braid, and hazel eyes regarding the cages at the front of the class curiously. Her mind however, wandered to that of the assigned seating, and what could have encouraged Ó Móráin to do something like that, other than him being a natural hardass. Well, even though he made assigned seating, at least she was paired with someone she got along with, and she assumed the same had been done with others.

She tiptoed the tips of each of her fingers across those of her other hands, eventually pressing them all together and bending them back as she finally regarded the cages, “Beeg an’ silent,” she spoke with a cautious calm and a tight twist of curiosity, as Blake took his seat next to her, “not a lot of large patient creatures wit’ a liking to sit in cages.” But then, birds with tarps over their cages were usually calmed, but she couldn’t think of a winged creature big enough to need such large cages—maybe they got lucky and there were some adolescent dragons in the cages.

But, for some reason, she doubted dragons would be so calm or Declan would be so haphazard.

Erin saw a number of people still flowing into the classroom and was surprised that there were this many students.  Except for a few of the feasts, sometimes she forgot that there were other families besides hers and other years besides thirds.  Though there seemed to be a conspicuous lack of fourth and sixth year students.  Erin wondered why that was. 

Still, professor OMorain had yet to speak up, and she wandered if there was something that she could do to entertain herself.  Seeing her dormmate introduce herself, she wondered if Mister Fox knew what he was in for.  Fortunately, he was a half-blood so it was better to get him used to that treatment earlier rather than later in life.  Erin was then distracted by something.  Unfortunately she wasn't quick enough to get a good glance at it, so she sat there, fidgeting in her seat.

Declan eyed the Gryffindor in the front row who seemed particularly chatty. "Keep that up, Mr. Falkenrath, and I'll seat you with somebody far less interesting. This class is not the place for socializing- whatever has been eating Miss Collins' is not the subject of discussion this class period. Unless, of course, whatever is eating her happens to have come out of one the large cages in the front of the room. At that point, you are all quite free to discuss the problem."

"That warning goes for the rest of you as well," he said, giving them all a level gaze. "Assigned seats for joint classes seems to be a necessity. If you happen to like your partner, then I would suggest refraining from the chatter. If you don't like your partner- then learn to make it work. It's a part of life, sometimes we have to work with people we greatly dislike." Like Professor Trishna, for example.

With that, Declan approached the board, and flicked his wand, large letters scrawled out "INVSIBILITY". "Todays lesson will be about invisibility! That should give somebody a clue about what is found in the cages. Would anyone care to venture a guess?"

Billie entered the classroom, her chocolate eyes drawn instantly to the large cages that were lined along the front of the class. Billie loved Care of Magical Creatures and Professor Ó Móráin was gorgeous which definitely helped to keep her attention on him. Although the course did include a fair amount of wand work it was more about the creatures and she really enjoyed that.

When he mentioned that they should toss any food they happened to have on them Billie opened her bag and pouted. There was a fair amount of candy at the bottom of her book bag, enough to fill a hole shelf at Honeydukes to be honest and she wasn't really keen on having to throw it out. Instead Billie turned tail and stepped out of the classroom. She emptied her candy stash into a small velvet satchel she usually kept her quills in and hid it behind a suit of armour outside. Content with her hiding spot and the fact that she didn't have to toss her sweets she came back into classroom in time to realize that she couldn't find her name anywhere.

She was about to ask the Professor about it when he started class with her still standing at the back of the classroom, "Sorry to interrupt Professor Ó Móráin but I don't see my name anywhere." The Professor looked surprised for a split second before motioning for her to take a seat at the back. Billie smiled nodded and took a seat behind Neely and Evie. Her eyes lit up at when Declan posed his question and she raised her hand, "Thestrels. They're invisible to anyone that hasn't personally witnessed death."