Dalton's gaze kept dropping back to his chest, where the pesky sticker wouldn't stay stuck to his chest pocket. Smoothing it down with one hand, he almost wished he'd refused to comply, as his hand brushed across the words.

Dalton Fletcher - Dalt/Fletch
Year 7 First Year, Slytherin.

He really needed to get into the habit of not calling himself a year seven, but a first year, because that was what the non magical people said. Non magical people being Muggles. Being the lesson he was in right now. He honestly still felt like one, not that he had anyone to tell, and couldn't understand why he was in this lesson. Maybe some part of the first year thought that it might be a subject he was good at?

Clearly not, though - he was stumped by the beginning discussion. Something about there being less Wiz-people? Eh, he'd just listen.

Quote:

Spotting a familiar face, Amur moisied over to Hady and half-sat-half-stood in the empty seat next to her. "Hey Hady. Is it okay if I sit here?"

Because she would totally move if it wasn't. Which was why she wasn't fully sitting yet. She did take the opportunity of her advantageous hunched-over position to fill out the name tag on the desk though (something which she could also replace if she moved).

At the small amount of movement from right beside her Hady shifted her gaze over to see who it was. Seeing it was Amur she gave a light smile and a simple nod of her head to the girls question to sit beside her. She didn't mind it at all having someone beside her for she knew someone was bound to sit there anyhow.

Her attention quickly shifted when the Professor spoke, the women tugging on the zipper of her vest. Hady instinctively ducked slightly as the zipper piece popped off and went flying through the air towards the front row where she was. Seeing as she hadn't been hit by it or anything she gave a small amused grin sitting up straighter.

Why do they have muggle studies? Uh because it was good to know about muggles and their rules, customs and how they did things. Especially when there were muggles in the castle now! Raising her hand she answered the question. "I think we study them for many reasons really, like to learn more about how they do even the simplest things like wash clothes or cook when we use magic to do those, or to learn how their customs and traditions may be different from ours. Possibly even for the fact that it's just the right thing since many muggles come to Hogwarts." Hady didn't know how some of her fellow classmates would feel about this but really she didn't care.

Dot was pleased as a vibrating pygmy puff that the professor might want to work with her on glitterfying things, and she was grinning broadly as the professor started class. This made them almost best friends or something, right? Merlin, Dot was friends with a professor.

At the first question, her hand shot up and she wiggled those little fingers again. "If you don't know anything about Muggles, then you might make really dumb mistakes just out of ignorance and blow everything for everyone. Muggles will probably get real suspicious if you don't know something that everyone of them knows. We'd get suspicious if someone pointed at a wand and was like 'Oh hey, a stick. What you got that stick for?'"

Evie quickly wrote the proper information on her name tag.

Evangeline
Evie
Ravenclaw
Fifth year

Then she put the nametag on her shirt (very glad to be wearing comfortable clothing and not her uniform) and paid attention to the professor as she asked the first question. Why did they study muggles? Evie always thought that was a silly question, and hearing some of the answers (the Slytherin prefect's answer, mainly; living without magic wasn't THAT hard) made her realize how ignorant some people were. But maybe that was because Evie grew up around a lot of muggles. It just made sense.

She raised her hand. "Professor, I think it's important because they surround us. It's true, we have everything we need in this wizarding part of the world, but we can't avoid muggles even if we wanted to." And she knew some people did, for some reason. "So we should learn about them and get to know their ways because we're really not that different. And those of us that think we are, are probably those who have grown up in a wizarding cave and raised with ignorance towards these other people." Evie cleared her throat. "No offense." She was just making a point.

This professor was going to be loads of fun, she could just tell. AJ had first met the woman at the lion party and she was one of the few people that was down for the bungee jumping experience and that gave her some high marks in AJ's book. That was the only book that mattered by the way.

They were starting off slow and easy, and the lion appreciated that especially since she hadn't been herself recently. Muggle studies should be cake for her because she was only a muggle a few years ago. Still, that proved to not always be helpful in the subject.

AJ had to bite on her bottom lip to keep from laughing as the zipper flew off of the professor's vest and was zooming for the people closest to the front. It was so good to see a professor that took things lightly. She was going to like her.

Her hand was raised as she waited on her turn to answer the question. "Because muggles are awesome." She was one, remember? "Also, it's fun for me to see it from a witches point of view." It was entertaining.

Hugh was into causal clothing. So track suit, like those old school athletic ones from a hundred years ago, it was for him, yo. He was looking fresh. Or as fresh as a potato face could look. He owned his curves, thanks.

As to the question, Hugh wasn't so sure how to answer that. It was far more complex conceptually then she was letting on. This was a BROAD question. A why do we do something question. And those picked at inwardly human things. The pursuit of learning was unique to human kind.

Hmmm.

He instead decided to write down his name while he mulled it over. Well, his name-ish.

Quote:

W. Hughbert
Sixth Year
Slythern

He threw his hand up in the air to ask a QUESTION about her question, "Do you mean why in the broooooad sense or why in the why sense?"

Me, myself and I would like to know.

Why do we study muggles? Why? Domino was a pureblood. Acording to her pare ts, m uggles were inferior to wizards and witches. She couldn't answwer this question. At least not truthfully. Sb e tried though.
"I guess Professor, because sense we can't avoid muggles, we might as well try and joon them?"
Is that how the saying goes? If you can't beat em join em?

As the answers came pouring in, Meredith turned her back to the kids and began making a list on the white board. She was actually kind of pleased with the responses and while they varied in how they were worded, overall, they fit into a few basic categories which made her job MUCH easier. Who didn’t like that?



”Several of you mentioned that learning about muggles is a good way for witches and wizards to ensure that they are able to blend in when in a muggle environment.” This was true, and necessary, if the wizarding world was to be kept secret. ”A good point to consider, though many wizarding families do have muggles in their lines somewhere, meaning more and more young witches and wizards will grow up knowing at least a bit about muggles. Knowledge is power and it can be a precautionary measure when trying to keep magic a secret.”



”Our next category has to do with muggles being inventive and the way in which they’ve created items to solve problems that we, as witches and wizards, are able to use magic to solve. I think it is important to remember that it is the items, and the thinking behind their creations, that is most fascinating. The muggles themselves are actually not that different from us. As Ms. Banner mentioned, studying muggle life can truly be an inspiration to those in the wizarding world looking to invent new spells, potions, and products that make our lives better.” She gave the brunette a smile and then her gaze swept across the room, hoping to see the students taking notes. This stuff was important, yes?



Those being quiet were being observed by the Moxinator but she understood the fact that it could be hard to put your thoughts on such a broad topic into words. She also understood some students just weren’t interested and that was fair too. As long as they weren’t being disruptive, she was okay with the silence.



Mr. Newell’s answer earned a raised eyebrows but Meredith Moxley was glad that students were being vocal about their views. She wanted the classroom to be a place where everyone could be open and honest about their opinions and she’d do her best to keep an open mind as long as they did. ”Moving on, some of you mentioned tolerance and understanding between muggles and wizarding kind. This is important when we consider what has happened in the past.” Violence and misunderstanding and superiority complexes and other things which made Meredith’s stomach turn. ”Sometimes we fear what we don’t understand. In many cases, ignorance can create a cycle of fear and hate between two groups of people who, in all honestly, aren’t so different after all. If we take the time to learn and try to understand muggle life, we’ll be able to better understand the similarities that could bring people together, rather than just the difference that drive people apart. That’s how friendships can form, from understanding and a genuine interest in another way of life.”


Uhhhhhhh…

Meredith just sort of fixed the boy with an amused smile for a moment or two before giving him the best answer she could. ”Your choice, Mr. Hughbert. I’m interested in any and all takes on the study of muggle life and why it might be beneficial to us.”


And last but not least, Mr. Adair’s answer. This was a good way to lead into the next part of their discussion and she gave the blonde a smile before addressing the group as the whole.

”Mr. Adair has touched on precisely what we’ll be focusing on this term. When looking at the day to day lives of muggles, we’ll find countless similarities. Muggles go to school, care for themselves and their families, provide food and shelter for their families, and earn money to support themselves just like witches and wizards do, though the activities they do to accomplish these things may be performed differently.”

Placing the marker she was using down, Meredith walked to the front of her desk and leaned against it. ”Let’s focus on muggle professions. There are all kinds of fields that muggles can go into to make a living but for today, we’ll be talking about the importance of communication and the way in which muggles get letters and parcels from one place to another. If anyone was paying attention to Mr. Tempus earlier, he noticed that I was wearing a post-person’s vest.” Meredith did a little turn, showcasing the item of clothing with a smile. ”Can anyone tell the class something they know about muggle mail and how it works?

Abby raised her hand and said "Muggle mail works by the person posting a letter that is picked up by a postman or woman and is taken to a sorting office to get sorted then delivered the person that it is addressed to" Abby was proud that she at least knew a bit about muggle mail

Ooh, Hayden definitely knew the answer to that question. She raised her hand. "They don't get their mail by owl. They have mailboxes." Their mail was delivered by an actual person. That seemed like so much work for one person to do. Owls were much easier. Muggles should start using owls, it would be a better system for them. In
Hayden's opinion, at least. But muggles didn't seem to like owls as much.

Cinna knew just a few things about muggle mailing systems. She would send her cousin Mercedes letters by mail all the time. She raised her hand, "Stamps are used as a proof of purchase. You actually have to pay to send letters." She nodded. That's what she had to say really.

Uh... Muggle mail? Dima peeked at Dot. Did SHE know anything about that?

But when there were first years giving answers, he felt pretty stupid staying quiet. Muggle mail... um... what was something he could ASSUME? That was a given no matter what you mailed anywhere, anytime? Think, Toussaint, think. This was EASY.

Okay. Hand up.

"They also use envelopes for letters. Like us. We're not so different after all!" Pause pause pause. "I.... think."

Did that count as an answer?

Mail sounded like it should be a very boring topic, but it was actually quite interesting. More than interesting, because Dot's mouth was dropping farther and farther as she heard people talking. Muggles were crazy weird, and she sort of found it delightful. Like, really, why wouldn't you just use OWLS? WHY?

"Wait, the mail is delivered by people? And it doesn't go from person to owl to person? That's so... inefficient. It probably takes so much LONGER to get a letter by Muggle post." But they did get boss vests to wear, so.

Yes that was a hair flip from Ruby in response to being mentioned in a positive, non-detentiony way by a professor, and it gave her the confidence to have a go at the next question too, hand appropriately raised.

"It takes a lot longer to be delivered than owl post, muggle mail has to be sorted first and it has to be delivered to a real registered address or a special post office box. " Not cupboards under stairs for instance.

Margo smiled. She knew this! She sent letters and parcels to her grandparents all the time through muggle mail. "You have to place a stamp on the letters, and the cost of stamps keeps rising." Margo added thinking of her father's rant about how the price of EVERYTHING kept rising. "Some parcels are weighed and the cost of sending them is based on how much they weigh."

There Margo for once at least felt like she had the right answer for once.

Hugh blinked a few times at her.

She was acknowledging his bigger question and asking him to extrapolate. Yooooo, this Professor was dope.

Oh no. Wait. She was confused as to what he had meant by his question. He would explain. Never fear. "Nah, man. I meant..." How to explain large universal concept of existence? "I was asking if you wanted us to answer about why we learn in general. Our humanness...ness. What have you. THOUGH, I understand, now, you only, like, wanted stuff pertaining strictly to muggles."

He would allow her to carry on now.

And they were talking about muggle mail now? So inefficient. He knew they were supposed to be tolerant of muggles or whatever, but sometimes it was hard when they put their post in a box...waited for someone to pick it out of the box...have it sorted...then have it shipped...and SOMETIMES it never even got there.

Owls were so much more logical. Saved time, energy, resources. Was ecologically friendly.

Eden had been here the whole time. Mhmm. She was just feeling very...quiet today, and she didn't quite have a reason why. Hm. Maybe she was just having a quiet day. Those happened sometimes.

She wrote her name and all the appropriate information on the little tag and bit her lip nervously. It was....another new professor. So many this term. For some reason it made her nervous. Eden wasn't a huuuuge fan of change...hmm.

And then Eden had a THOUGHT. She was fairly certainly she had been writing FIFTH year on everything lately--WELL CRUD! It was like--the date! Once you FINALLY got used to writing the current year, New Year's came along and screwed it up! Well...she had JUST been getting used to writing fifth year and now it was CHANGED. YET AGAIN.

WHY WAS LIFE ABOUT CHANGE?

Ugh.

Anyways. Muggle Studies class. One of Eden's favorites--and the humming from the new Professor calmed her a little. She had a nice face! She did. Eden didn't mind when professor's had calming faces. Professor Bellaire did not have a nice face.

Nor the headmistress.

And it looked like they weren't supposed to wear robes. Eden really should have read the notice board--well, paid attention to the notice board. She should do that. Yep. But at least she wasn't the only one in her robes? She felt way less embarrassed. Good job, fellow students. We're all in this together, eh? Eden winced slightly as the woman's zipper FLEW off--right. She was lucky it hadn't hit anyone's eye. Lawsuits? Lawsuits would happen. Not from Eden's family--PFFT--but maybe others' families were a bit more prominent in that sense.

Plus, Eden thought some of her fellows might look better with one eye. It was certainly an interesting trait to have. Like really--how many people did she know with ONE eye? Zero. So there.

Why did they study muggles? Eden furrowed her brows and raised her hand. "We study muggles because some people are really biased against them--and learning more about them will help us to not be so biased." Eden was half muggle but she still took this class. It was easy >_>

MUGGLE MAAAAAIL! Eden LOVED MAIL. SHE NEVER GOT MAIL SO WHEN SHE DID IT WAS THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER. And coming fro the muggle post--it was the BEST. Wizard post was, too but--yeah! "Well." She raised her hand. "You have to use stamps!" she knew that wasn't the most IMPORTANT part, but it was the COOLEST part.

STAMPS WERE FUN!

Angel looked at the Professor and smiled as she raised her hand. "They have different class of mail, so like first class is supposed to get there faster than second class, though sometimes things don't work like that." Angel wondered what happened when things went wrong.

As Professor Moxley spoke, Lux began taking notes. Look at Zander giving good answers and making excellent points. Her friend was rather clever.

The similarities between the two cultures were rather striking, and she definitely was around muggles a fair bit. Muggles were pretty awesome really. As the focus turned to mail, Lux raised her hand to answer the next question. "Muggle mail moves a lot slower than ours. In fact, it's often referred to as snail mail for that very reason." Because snails were very slow creatures. "Their mail needs to be sorted for delivery and is either delivered to an address, or left at a place called a post office where the person the mail is for goes to pick it up. It also costs money to send mail, and packages are weighed to see how much they cost. Fragile items can be insured for in case they break enroute." Hopefully she was correct in all this because she wasn't too familiar with muggle mail, mostly using owls.

Noel liked Muggle Studies. He was GOOD at it. His father was a muggle - so yeah, he had the best of both worlds. What a girly way to think. Noel was still fiddling with his tag that read: NOEL WALLACE, HUFFLEPUFF, 4TH, AND NO THANK YOU (because no, Noel was fine. And Sunny calling him Noey was fine enough). So yes, the tag - Noel was trying to get it to stay STUCK on his robes. The sticky thing was apparently not working.

When the Professor asked her second question, Noel raised his hand and while answering, tried to keep the tag in place on his robes: "I think it's brilliant Professor. It requires lots of manual work by the muggles - While we just simply give our letters to the owls, the muggles take their letters to the post, and then it gets sorted by other muggles, and then another muggle takes it to the desired address." Muggles were pretty hardworking in his opinion.

Was he talking too much? He probably was. Stupid tag.

Muggle mail. Of course. Adi knew a whole lot about that for obvious reasons. But he would only volunteer a little bit of information because others needed to answer too, right? Raising his hand, he began his answer.

"Mail can be delivered to all countries of the world but it can take ages to get there." Muggle mail could be so slow.

Kace knew the professor didn't like his greeting but he thought he would try it out. Maybe he wouldn't next time in front of certain teachers. As he heard the Professor move on he realized he missed the first question but what did he know about Muggle Studies? He knew that it was used to connect muggles and wizards and to get them to understand each other. That was the best way to put it.

Now onto the next question what did he know about muggle mail? Snort what didn't he know. He heard others answers and thought they all seemed legit. "Professor I think muggle mail is really expensive depending on where you are sending it? I know if you send it overseas you have to pay a lot for shipping costs." He wondered if the Professor knew what he was talking about.

HA! That was probably the MOST intelligent answer he had ever given in his entire life. Merlin, fifth year wasn't just having an effect on his height. It was doing wonderful things to his brain tooooo. Or maybe it's just 'cause he knew a lot about muggle studies. Ahem. ANYWAYS though. Post. He knew a lot about that.

But a lot of people were talking about the packaging and all of that... So uh, he'd have to talk about the other aspect yeah? So that they got a bit of everything. Hm. And what else was there to say really other than-- OH! "No post on Sundays!" That came out a lot more enthusiastically than expected. Oops. "A lot of services don't do Sunday deliveries." And that's what he meant. YUP. Owls did Sundays though, so that wasn't really a universally followed mail rule or whatever.

Todays lesson was about mail? Muggle mail to be exact. She knew a far deal about muggle mail and muggles in general. There wasn't much that hadn't already been said by the time the young Slytherin got her hand in the air and gave her answer. "Muggle post doesn't deliver anything on major holidays, like Christmas."

She knew this was true cause her mom always got super nervous if anything was sent through muggle mail around the holidays. So it was a good answer.

Mail! That was something he understood! And it was simple and necessary... good good good.. so far this lady got a tick of approval, SO FAR.

But alas, most people took his answers... boo... it was a good thing he was a bottomless pit of knowledge where this was concerned - more or less.

Hand raised, Zeke waited his turn to talk. "Sometimes they deliver mail to the wrong people, so if you get one that doesn't belong to you, you write 'return to sender' or 'not at this address' on it... and put it back in the post so they can figure out where it SHOULD go." Yeah. Yeah. Cause that happened sometimes.