DADA Lesson Two - Peek-a-boo!

[hermionesclone]

On a late-April morning, you might find yourself heading towards the first floor for another Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson to learn about another form of the dark arts. Expecting the unexpected might have become the norm but what you might not have expected is how dark the room is.

As you step inside, you notice that the room has a gloomy look to it. No normal lighting can be seen and any natural daylight has been obstructed by large black drapes. Instead, small lanterns can be seen floating around the room, only giving you the slightest indication as to what's there. What you might see might confuse you more than the lanterns do: the classroom looks less like a normal classroom and more like a long stretch of corridor.

The weirdest part of this entire scene is what stands directly opposite you. Various doors line the 'wall' opposite, similar to the kind you'd find around the castle. The only difference is that above the doors, illuminating brighter than any light in the room, are names of the students themselves.

Confused? Hirsch would be surprised if you weren't.

Speaking of Hirsch, where is he? Those who are observant enough might notice that there's no sign of the Defence Professor anywhere and no direct indication as to what you're meant to do. Where was the man and why wasn't he here yet? And did that mean that this was the right room or not?

While you're left pondering, come in and try and make yourselves as comfortable as possible. Or, you could go into the room marked with your name and discover what lies beyond...

Just remember: constant vigilance.

class progression:

- MINI ACTIVITY:
_____- Narrator post
_____- Narrator post
_____- Narrator post
_____- Narrator post
- What went well in that activity? What would you do differently? What would you improve on?
- What do you know about the Hidebehind?
- MAIN ACTIVITY: WATER FIGHT!
- That's all folks!

OOC: Please make sure you're familiar with Hirsch's rules as well as the SS site rules before posting. Class will continue tomorrow (eveningtime GMT+1). Class has already begun but you're more than welcome to jump in if you haven't done so already. Just pretend as though your charrie has been there the entire time. Hope you have fun! ^^

[Ginevra]

Daisy had to admit that she wasn't into such childish games but it was better than standing around doing nothing. She struggled to not roll her eyes underneath her goggles as she started to fire her water pistol at random areas of the classroom. She constantly moved softly as she fired.

[Birchwoodmom]

Trying to keep as silent as possible, she stepped around the room, waiting to fire upon any movement she heard. Her ears were becoming better at picking up the slight sounds of movement the longer she had the goggles on and she felt like she might be tracking someone.

That was until she got hit, from two different directions (Maddie and Daisy). "Awe. Whoever those were from, they got me." She tried to return fire from where the two blasts came from, hoping to land a hit on her targets. Then, realizing her statement only clued in all around her of her location, she quickly dashed across the room with her arms out to hopefully not ram into any other students.

The stress and panic of the earlier challenge was melting away with the fun water fight. Her laughter kept coming, even though she was trying to not make any sound. She knew that the lesson would soon be over and they would have to return to reality, so she was going to enjoy ever moment of the game.

[DuckyLinJi]

After splashing the wall with water from his water gun, an act he was not aware of doing as he was blind at the moment, Dorian heard something that sounded like a ruffle of a robe and he turned to face the source.

Water gun at the ready, the Ravenclaw aimed in the direction he had heard the sound and then began to spray. Surely he would hit someone right? He did not stay still for too long however and began to walk around carefully in order to find more students to splash.

He was so focused on listening for sounds while he walked that he did not even realize that he was walking straight to the wall opposite of the one he had splashed earlier

[PhoenixRising]

Apparently she was supposed to enter her door, given the fact that she hadn't entered her room just yet. But see, unlike some of her peers, she just stood in the doorway... figuring it safer to just stand there, watching. Unable to see anything, because it was dark. And if she didn't move, that was good, right? The shuffling sound wouldn't even know of her existence.

Except her heartrate beating like a million miles per hour.

It was when the room became more well lit that honestly, Skylar felt the shock of the brightness and was just trying to recollect her thoughts and listen to Hirsch for the last time. What did she learn from that activity? Standing still was safe. Not doing anything, was safe. But not doing anything was also not learning.

The hidebehind? Was it too juvenile of an answer for her to say something about it 'hiding behind'? Because she was certain she wanted to hide behind a stronger dueler. Ah well it made sense for it to be a hybrid creature, since it was a hybrid word and all.

Water gun fight. How would they know how many people they hit? And if they got hit, were they automatically out?

Slipping on the goggles, it felt almost as when her door had opened for at the start of the lesson. Things were hazy. Thank goodness she didn't have to play quidditch with these.

And took aim. And by taking aim, Skylar literally squirted her gun in a 360 degrees around the room.

[hermionesclone]

This wasn't exactly chaos but something about it was still entertaining to watch, especially from the perspective of someone who could see every action and direction of the water guns. It was because of this that the man had a highly amused look on his face as he leant against his desk.

Did Mr Katharos have a vendetta against the wall? Because he seemed a little too happy to be shooting water at it.

Green eyes swept the room and he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at Miss Diggory's 360 degree aim. That wasn't exactly the point of the activity, and was probably considered cheating. But there was also a part of him that thought it was too clever to just stop her altogether.

Still very amused, the man glanced down at his watch before calling out, "Just to remind all of you, you've got five minutes left until the end of the lesson! Just the five minutes!" So if they really wanted to hit someone with water, now was probably the time to do it.

To make things a little bit harder, Hirsch also whipped out his wand and gave it a complicated wave. At once, another sound joined the midst of the water shooting and the hurried steps: the sound of chirping. There were no birds in the room but it might make the activity a little bit more challenging.

Just a little.


OOC: Juuuust a nudge to let you know that in OOC times, you've got roughly 24 hours until the end of the lesson ^^

[Anna Banana]

Five minutes?! But Maddie hadn't hit enough people yet! She hadn't even been hit enough either! That wasn't exactly the objective, but water gun fights were really cool! Objective or not, she liked getting hit with the water! Although, if they only had five minutes left, she should probably start focusing more on hitting other people.

She started to just randomly take off, but then she remembered that she was basically blinded to other people. She didn't think Hirsch would like it too much if she mowed down two, three, or ten people. Maddie just paused where she was and blasted a few squirts of water in front of her. She'd thought she'd heard some footsteps passing by and was hoping she could hit a few people.

Just as the water left her water gun, Maddie felt several blasts of water hit her all across her chest. It was almost as if somebody was just squirting water in all angles at once! Ahem, Skylar.

[Birchwoodmom]

Just as she prepared to go all Rambo style and blast her gun, she started hearing strange chirping sounds moving all about the room. It suddenly hit her that birds must be making the sound. Creepy, hollow boned creatures of flight moving all around her. In fear of being struck by one of the birds, or pooped on, she flung her body on the floor and started shooting her water gun up towards the ceiling in an effort to keep them away.

Cool game just gone wrong. She hated birds almost as much as she hated being in the water. "Professor? I'm ready to be done. May I take off my goggles and get away from the birds?" She was wet, she was tired, and she wanted to be away from the birds. She also wanted to get up off the floor before she was stepped on.

[hermionesclone]

....

What?

Hirsch glanced around until his eyes landed on Emmalyn who.... was asking to take off her goggles? Already? He was slightly confused, if he was completely honest with himself, but considering the fact that the girl couldn't really see much of her surroundings... "We're finishing very shortly but if you want to, yeah, you can." Maybe the lack of birds would make her feel better. Hopefully.

It didn't take long for the five minutes to be up but even so, the man was checking his watch every now and then. When the last minute came to a close, he placed a thumb and index finger in his mouth and let out a small whistle. "Everyone take off your goggles, put down your water guns, that's it for the day. Excellent attempt at using your sense of hearing to direct your aim. I hope this has helped you learn to trust your other senses a bit better." And taught them that just because they couldn't see something, it didn't mean that they couldn't defeat it.

"That's all we have time for today so once you've placed your goggles and water gun back in the boxes, you're welcome to go. If you need to dry yourself and don't know the spell, you can come to me or get an older student to do it for you." Pause. "And feel free to help yourself to the rest of the chocolate: I can't finish all of this on my own." Cue a cheeky grin.

"Class dismissed!"


OOC: !!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for coming! Whether it was for one post or 937983479, I appreciate the effort Hope you guys enjoyed the lesson!

I'll leave the thread open for 24 hours if you want to post your charrie leaving.

Thanks, once again ^^

[Birchwoodmom]

Once Professor Hirsch gave her the okay to remove her goggles, she had them off and was looking around to find the birds. After scanning the room and not finding any, she felt rather silly. She should have known that it wasn't really chirping from birds, but another distraction from a very tricky professor.

Either way, class was over, so she took her goggles and water gun back to the table. Not knowing the drying spell, she looked to one of the other students for help. Once dry, she went to the pile of chocolate and took several pieces. No need to leave Professor Hirsch with a pile of uneaten chocolate to deal with.

On her way out, she turned to the professor "I'd like to thank you for the class, but I'm still a bit upset with you over the whole dummy thing. I understand why you thought it was a good idea, but...well...I would rather not have had the terrifying experience." Realizing she was getting herself all worked up again over the dark room events, she huffed, abruptly turned, and walked out.