Kurumi froze in her seat when Professor Romanos called her name and her eyes widened. Honestly, this couldn't be any worse than when she had had to give speeches for her OWLs. This was just in front of her classmates and the professor, not Ministry officials. The Gryffindor took a deeeeeeeeep breath and then stood up promptly as she made her way over to the metal kappa statue and levitate it to follow her to the center where she stood nice and tall with her feet together and shoulders rolled back but relaxed with the metal figure by her side as she bowed deeply to her audience.

One more deep breath and Kurumi began her speech, but not by speaking. Instead Kurumi turned around and wrote two large Japanese characters on the blackboard and then turned around to face her audience. "The kappa, or as it's name translates 'river child,'" Kurumi began as her index finger pointed to the character on left first and then the right. "Is a Japanese water demon that resembles a scaled monkey with webbed hands and a water-filled depression on top of its head that serves as the source of its strength." She paused here to gesture to the metal kappa standing beside her, still unmoving. "They are known by many other names, including Kawatarō, Komahiki, and Kawako. But these seemingly benevolent sounding names should not fool you. They are one of the many dark creatures that inhabit the world and when one does not know how to handle them appropriately will most definitely be the last thing you ever do."

Kurumi then left her position in front of the blackboard and went to stand beside the metal kappa, gesturing to each part of the creature as she described its appearance. "Kappa are about the size of a child, which is where that aspect of their name comes from, and have been reported to come in shades of green to yellow or blue - although green seems to be the most common. They also have a strong fish smell." Which thankfully they could not smell right now, although the Gryffindor had thought VERY briefly about bringing raw fish at one point to illustrate. "Other features include a carapace," she said pointing to its beak mouth. "...and the sara." Now pointing to the bowl-like indentation on top of the figure's head. "Some will wear a turtle shell. The sara MUST be full when they are away from water or else the creature will not be able to move and, as some witches and wizards have recorded, may even die." Which was very useful information for anyone who had to face a kappa, but she would be getting to that later in her speech.

Kurumi took another deep breath and her body trembled a little less than it had been up until that point. Not as bad as OWLs...not as bad as OWLs...not as bad as OWLs... "Kappa dwell in rivers and lakes, typically in shallow waters. When someone has wandered into their home, or is simply close by, the kappa with strangle its victims by means of wrestling, especially sumo wrestling, and they have a very firm grip." Kurumi then tapped her wand on top of the metal kappa's head and it instantly sprung to life, latching on to her arm with both of its. Kurumi winced at this, despite knowing that it was coming, and even squeaked loudly. Just because she knew it would react this way didn't mean it didn't hurt just a little. "Kappa have a love for blood sucking and devouring human organs, especially the liver, and do not need to do this to survive. They simply do so because they enjoy it, which is one of the reasons they are classified as a dark creature."

Tugging on her arm now just to prove that the kappa's grip was in fact very strong, Kurumi took the time to scan her audience before continuing. "There are a few things one can do to defend yourself against a kappa. For example, at this close range I can perform a multitude of spells." Kurumi pointed her wand at the depression in the creature's head. "I can use Tergeo or Siccus Aerous to remove the water from this depression, therefore rendering the kappa helpless." For this particular moment, Kurumi decided to demonstrate Tergeo and pointed her wand at the water. "Tergeo," she commanded, moving her wand over the water until it had all gone. The kappa's grip around her arm loosened noticeably and she easily pulled her arm away from it. "You can also use Incendio to produce fire or transfigure an object into metal. Both fire and metal are things that kappa have a strong dislike for and will not approach you."

Stepping away from the metal kappa now, and after giving it a tap on the head again so that it would no longer be animated, Kurumi returned to the center and looked back at her audience. "You can also appease the kappa by conjuring something that looks and feels like a cucumber." Kurumi's wand was out again and she traced an long oval shape in the air. "Cucurbita Intaglio!" Within seconds, Kurumi was holding a 'cucumber' in her hands with her name engraved on it. "The important thing to remember with this spell, besides the wand movement and incantation, is that the name you envision engraved on the cucumber is the name you identify with. It is that name that will have enough 'power' to work against the Kappa, even if it is a nickname." Something for everyone to chew on for future reference. And no, Sierra, a cucumber with Dictionary Eater on it would not protect Kurumi from a kappa.

"While kappa fit the definition of a dark creature, they are magical in nature, they do not have a complete life cycle the way a typical animal would but exist simply as a physical extension of an evil intention, and they seek actively to harm for no other reason than that's what they do, kappa can almost dance a fine line between dark and not dark due to their genuine curiosity for the human world and ways they can actually help humans." Which probably earned Kurumi a few confused looks from her audience, but she pressed on. Not too much more to talk about in her speech now and Kurumi could feel her heartbeat increasing in anticipation of being back in her seat and NOT standing up here in front of everyone. "Kappas are highly knowledgeable of medicine, especially in the art of bone setting. They may also assist humans with plumbing, irrigating crops and helping with other small errands if befriended." Which was a surprising fact when one considered that these creatures were dark. "In Japan, there are shrines dedicated to these benevolent kappa and there are even food dishes named after them - all of which involve cucumber."

Kurumi took one last deep breath and faced forwards again, hands folded one over the other on her stomach. "The fact that kappa can be befriended makes it difficult to want to completely label these creatures as dark, but one simply cannot ignore the XXXX rating by the Ministry of Magic or the fact that they are killers and devour human flesh and blood NOT to survive but simply because they enjoy it. Kappa may have a benevolent side, this is only triggered because of their selfish desires and not because they want to be. There is no guarantee that a befriended kappa will always stay loyal. They are called water demons for a reason, and we best never forget that. Thank you." And with that, Kurumi bowed again and then erased the board with a flick of her wand and then levitated the metal kappa back to where she had taken it from before beginning her speech.

DONE! Now she could just sit and relax and listen to everyone else give their speeches.

Jonathan looked calm and ready for his very own speech today. This was his finals and it will be part of his grade, he can not afford to just blow this out of proportion. He has to try his very best to be calm and present well. If he has learned anything from Professor Romanos is the peace and serenity she gives out during her lectures by letting them sit in her purple mats and do some yoga poses while asking some hard hitting questions.

Of course, Jonathan's head felt light weighted when he heard his name mentioned. Standing in front of the whole class and do a 3 minute speech about werewolves is not something easy, well, at least not to him. Jonathan has always been part of the crowd so in this activity he just have to step it up. Moving his way into the center, he saw everyone waiting for him to start. He then readied a bunch of large scrolls and placed them on top of the blackboard. It's mostly pictures, nothing more. Then he wrote in large letters on the board WEREWOLVES. In his hands were a couple of small index card where he wrote his notes. You know, just in case he froze in the middle or forgets what else to talk about.

Better safe than sorry.

He took a deep breath as he looked at everyone in the audience sitting silently. Jonathan doesn't want to dwell too much on their faces, it might freak him out. So he glanced over to Professor Romanos, signaling her that he will start. "Werewolves" he started as he looked back on the blackboard. "I know most of us pretty much have the knowledge on our beastly friend." he said waving his wand over to the board and the first scroll dropped down. The first picture is now shown to everyone in the room. Smiling at everyone, he opened his mouth to start with his speech "Let's start with the basics, shall we? The word werewolf came from the Old English word ‘wer’ meaning man, and ‘wulf’ which generally means beast." he then started glancing to the right "Another term is lycanthropy which means the ability to transform of oneself into a wolf. That is why, for those who do not know yet, the other term for werewolves are lycanthropes." grinning at his audience. This is a great start. "Werewolves or Lycanthropes are a human being that can fully transform into a deadly wolf at a sight of a full moon. One can always distinguish the differences between a lycanthrope and regular wolves. For a lycanthrope has dilated pupils, ready and hungry. Its tail is tufted and werewolves has a distinguished snout shape." he paused as his hand gestured over to the picture. Yeah, people in this room can get the physical characteristics by now. "As their human forms, they appear normal both mentally and physically." he added as he once again flicked his wand towards the blackboard. The next picture dropped down. "Upon the arriving of the full moon, they however begin to feel sickly and dull which is a common trait of most werewolves. As for some characteristics, such as sight, hearing and smelling, both a regular wolf and a werewolf are somehow the same. However, such characteristics are more heighten in werewolves thus leading them to hunt faster than a regular werewolf. "

See? It is better with pictures. At least the audience have some visuals to see rather than him walking left to right blabbing about some half human half beast. Moving his way to the center this time, he continued "they will kill anyone that they can spot, hear or smell." he nodded at the audience. "Another thing, they must not be mistaken to an animagus. For an animagus can control himself whenever he wants to transform or rather, he can control whether or not he wants to transform. While a werewolf has no control." which he finds as the most disadvantage part of being a werewolf.

Right now, he thinks he didn't seem to need his tiny notes. He can actually handle it on his own..... for now. His heart beat is not even that fast like earlier. Giving himself another big deep breath, he then once more gave out a smile at his classmates. Time to continue further "Under the Ministry of Magic, according to the Department of Magical Creatures, werewolves are classified as XXXXX creatures which mean that these creatures are dangerous and are notorious for killing wizards. They are simply impossible to train because of the lycanthropy infection, nor domesticated. Well, if anyone is brave enough to domesticate one... let me know?" making a simple joke on that last part just to calm his nerves.

Then with another flick of his wand another picture dropped down on the blackboard. "Question: How does one transform into werewolf?" that's what the question mark picture was for. Obviously, he had a lot of free time for the past few weeks. "It is known that lycanthropy is an infection spread by saliva-blood contact, meaning, when a werewolf bites a human, he or she will become a werewolf in the next full-moon." he added.

Now for the next picture to drop down. Again, he waved his wand at the blackboard. "The full moon is always a symbol to all werewolves. And although they are mean and deadly creatures, I’m pretty much sure that most of them do not wish of becoming one." the ones bitten anyway. "As for treatment..." he glanced at his classmates with a small grin on his face "... there is no cure" swallowing before he continued "However, a Wolfsbane potion is known to make/allow a werewolf still sane as he goes through his transformation. So do think twice before going around the Forbidden forest." and with a last quick glance to his classmates and to Professor Romanos "Thank you" he is done.

He gave a small bow to everyone and then walked over to the board and took his scrolls down, and then erased the board for the next person to use. That was it. He is happy and contented with his speech, hopefully he didn't make too many mistakes. Professor Romanos is after all an expert on such creatures. He's just happy it is over.

He went back to his seat and his breathing finally started to relax.

When it was heer chance to speak, Sarah took it in stride. She was not the type to be fazed by speaking in public. She walked up front and faced the crowd and scanned the audience for familiar faces of which there were.

She wrotre on the board behind her- saying it would ruin the effect.
She tooka deep breath in and began in a deep haunting voice: "I sit here all day. I find the dark comforting and cozy. Apparently, others are afraid of the dark – yet I crave it from the deepest essence of my being. You may ask what I look like –yet I cannot say –for I do not know nor do I want to know. I like masquerading as the fears of others, frightening out of their wits, if they knew what I look like. I am hungry - very hungry and bored. I shift in my wardrobe hide out, unknowingly giving my hideout away by making the wardrobe move."

Sarah paused for effect, noticing the eyes of the audience, who were listening in rapt attention. ]“Mummy, the cupboard shaked”, [B]a little voice outside the door said, its voice quivering in fear. Ah... humans... victims at last... Katie, I don’t know, it may be a boggart“, said an older voice, probably the girl’s mother. Ahh....thats what my name is. Yet wait they know what I am! I prepare to act.[/ "What is a boggart mummy?” ]Katie asked. “A dark creature... you will learn about it at Hogwarts, now Katie, there is work to be done here. Daddy will deal with whatever it is when he comes home.” ]said the mother rather wearily. Then she added “Katie do not open the cupboard” as her voice retreated, probably moving on in the house.

Whether Katie heard or not I don’t know, yet the next thing I knew, I felt the girl coming closer and her fingers feeling for the handle. I instinctively sense her feel and as the door flings open I turn into..... a mouse. I scurry out, my now little feet moving as quickly as possible. “AHHHHHHHH.... ” the girl shrieks, terror on her face. “MOOOUUUSSSSSEE. MUMMYYYY. HELP.” She said incoherently. I relish this. I feed to my hearts content on this thing called fear. Terror.

The mother rushes in with a broom ready to hit me with it, lik a comman city-mouse. I feel her fear too, automatically I turn into a spider – I usually do that for arachnophobias like her. She drew her wand “rrrRiddikulus",I stumbled and spun upside down ]“Relax, Katie, it is a boggart. A dark creature, that turns into things that people fear most. It is dark as it does not need fear for survival”. Then the game is up – she knows, yet I am NOT a dark creature. I cannot live without torturing others, their fear feeds me. Invigorates me.

Katie begins to giggle. A giggle that tortures me... I feel myself evaporating... going... going... gone. Sarah finished off, dropping her tone with the last three words.

Nigel did not like going in front of the class and doing anything. But it was the final so Nigel would have to do it. Nigel walked to the front of the room and grabbed some chalk. He wrote Werewolves on the board so everybody would know what he was doing his speech on.

"Werewolves." He looked down at the notes he brought with him up to the board. He took a breath and continued. from memory. "A werewolf is a human being infected with a illness known to be spread by saliva or blood contact. The illness is called lycanthropy." He pauses there for a moment to let it sink in that he defines it as a illness. " Lycanthropy causes the infected to turn into a deadly wolf when a full moon is out. But only when a full moon is out. Werewolves are very different from normal wolves. Some defining features of werewolves that make them different from normal wolves are the pupils of the eyes, the snout shape, and the tufted tail."

"Werewolves are feared and prejudiced by the wizarding society." Even in human form they are feared for potential danger." But sometimes with good reason. Nobody wants the likes of Fenrir Greyback to be free on the streets" He paused again to see if anybody recognized the name of one of histories most infamous werewolf. "It is very difficult for a werewolf to get a job in the human or wizarding world. It was especially hard after the passing of restrictive anti-werewolf legislation. Which was passed by the werewolf hating Dolores Umbridge in the 1990s."

Nigel knew he had to do some history of werewolves now but did not really feel like going into the old English words. so he would do some dates and such that were important to werewolves.

" Now the Ministry of Magic has attempted to regulate werewolves. Around 1637, there was a Werewolf Code of Conduct. But the code caused more problems then solutions." He looks down at his notes to remember what he has to say next. He looks up again after a couple second and continues. "Werewolves have been shunted between the Beast and Being division for years. At one point, the Werewolf Registry and Werewolf Capture Unit were both in the Beast Division, and the office for Werewolf Support Services was in the Being Division. "It seemed that long ago they did not know what to classify werewolve as Nigel thought as he continued his speech.

"Werewolves have been given a classification of XXXXX by the Ministry of Magic for valid reasons. They no longer remembers who he or she is, and would kill even their best friend while in wolf form. They are just a deadly wolf when they transform with no human attachments" Now Nigel had to give the sad part of his speech. "The sad part is that there is no cure of lycanthropy. The only thing that helps them deal with it is the Wolfsbane potion. It allows the victim to keep their human mind during transformation.". Nigel looked back down at his notes and saw he only had his conclusion left. Now he had to end.

"While there are infamous werewolves in history such as Fenrir Greyback. There are some famous werewolves too. Such as Remus Lupin. Who taught and helped the famous Harry Potter during his life.The one thing to remember is a werewolf is mostly harmless in human form. The only danger is crossing a werewolf when it is in wolf form." Nigel was now happy he was done with this speech.

He walked back to his seat to watch other people do their speeches. Now all he had to do was watch, since he was already done with his.

When it was Alyssa’s turn to make her presentation, she stood up and shuffled the pages in her hand nervously. This was her Defense Against the Arts Finals and she had never done one in front of a class full of students, let alone read it out aloud.

Taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, Alyssa tried calm the ‘butterflies’ in her tummy and ignore her head that was beginning to pound again. She stood straight up and began reading.

“My speech is going to be about the Kelpie. A Kelpie is a water demon about 6 feet tall and weighs about 170 pounds. It is sometimes described as a black horse with a mane that looks like bulrushes or water weeds. Its skin looks like that of a seal but when touched, feels as cold as death. Of course you don’t want to touch the Kelpie because it has a Ministry of Magic rating of XXXX which means dangerous/requires specialist knowledge and only a skilled wizard can handle them."

"The reason why it is so dangerous is because the Kelpie is able to shape shift into various forms. But that is not the dangerous part. The dangerous part is that it uses its shape shifting abilities to trick its victims to get close to it and once they touch it, they find out that they can’t remove their hands because it is stuck to the Kelpie’s skin which is sticky. The Kelpie then changes back into its true form which is actually an ugly mix of a skinny horse and a sick humanoid, with slimy, transparent skin and long stringy hair. Its face looks like a horse and it has jagged teeth.” Alyssa shuddered. Her description of the Kelpie reminded her of that creature from the old muggle movie “Alien”.

“Anyway, back to how the Kelpie is dangerous. The Kelpie drags their victims into the water and then drowns them before eating them. They eat everything, except for the liver and the heart, I guess because it tastes horrible or something. The two most known forms that a Kelpie transforms is that of a horse or a beautiful woman, like Professor Romanos over there.” Alyssa said pointing to Professor Romanos and grinning.

“No matter what creature a Kelpie shape shifts into, it will always be found near a body of water. When a Kelpie is hunting, it will submerge itself underwater with just its eyes remaining above the surface, just like how a crocodile does it.”

“Anyway, the Kelpie is known by different names in the various folklores around the world, but the most well known Kelpie is Nessie, the Loss Ness monster who lives in the Scottish Highlands. There have been many muggle sightings of Nessie but she has been able to elude capture so far because once she realizes that she has been seen, she quickly transforms into a harmless otter or some other harmless water creature.”

“The only way that a Kelpie can be defeated and tamed is by placing a bridle over its head using the Placement Charm, like the one I have in my hand here.” Alyssa lifted up the bridle that she was holding in her hand, before continuing with her speech.

“I guess the bridle drains its powers and makes it docile. Although all this sound easy, it actually isn’t. First you would have to get into the water. Then you would have to get close enough to the Kelpie, which is not an easy thing to do because the Kelpie is always constantly transforming and moving. And of course don’t forget, once you get into the water, you are putting yourself in danger of getting dragged down and drowned by it.”

“In order to catch a Kelpie, you have to first find it. Once you suspect you have found it, you take out your wand and cast the Reverting spell by saying “Reverto”. The spell changes the Kelpie back into its natural self. It will of course try to transform again but now that you know what it really is, you can allow it to do so. The next thing you do is levitate the bridle up over its head by using the Levitating spell which is, “Wingardium Leviosa”. Then you have to find a way to stop the Kelpie moving long enough and then cast the Placement Spell by tapping the bridle with your wand, or if you’re more experienced, just point the wand at the bridle and say,”Fixate”. Either way, this will cause the bridle to drop over the Kelpie’s head.”

"Here let me demonstrate how it’s done.”

Alyssa then looked around for the mechanical Kelpie, sorting out the various dark creatures until she saw one that didn’t fit in…a Niffler. Alyssa unholstered her wand, flourished it and said,”Reverto”. Once the Kelpie realized that it had been discovered, it quickly turned its gaze on her before transforming back into a horse. Alyssa held up the bridle and with a swish and flick of her wand, said,”Wingardium Leviosa” and the bridle immediately rose up into the air. Keeping one eye on the Kelpie, Alyssa concentrated on moving the bridle constantly over the Kelpie as it started to close in on her. ‘Which version will I use?’ Alyssa thought to herself.

Once she made her decision, Alyssa let the Kelpie approach her. "Aren't you a nice horsie. Are you lost?" Alyssa said to it letting the Kelpie think that she believed that it was a horse. She could see the Kelpie letting its guard down. Alyssa kneeled down and held out her hand to the Kelpie. "Nice horsie" Alyssa spoke to it while continuing to concentrate on levitating the bridle over its head but now slowly lowering it a little with each step it took. Alyssa could see Professor Romanos from the corner of her eye. 'I bet she must be thinking I'm crazy right now to let the Kelpie get this close. I'm wondering the same myself.' Alyssa thought to herself.

Just as the Kelpie reached within a few inches of her hand, Alyssa faked a scared look and switched her glance from the Kelpie to something behind it. She called out,"Basilisk!!" before falling over faking being petrified. The Kelpie turned around alarmed and at that precise moment, Alyssa pointed her wand at the Bridle and said,"FIXATE". The bridle immediately dropped and landed over the Kelpie's head. It turned around surprised but it didn't...or rather couldn't attack her now. Alyssa had tamed it.

Alyssa quickly stood up standing next to her 'defeated' Kelpie and said,"...and that is one example how you can defeat a Kelpie, but please don't try this on your own."Alyssa reminded everyone before taking bow.

"And that is the end of my speech about the Kelpie."

Speech time. Yay. Indiana smiled as she made her way towards the front of the classroom. She was pretty excited. She felt a cause towards her creatures, and wanted everyone to understand that werewovles really were not that bad. Smiling, she began speaking. "I'm going to be talking about werewolves. You probably already know about them, and know of them as supposedly scary creatures that bite each other, cause danger and are very mean. That could happen. But it wasn't true. In reality a werewolf is only a creature for one day a month, during the full moon. The rest of the time they reside as a normal human being. This means you probably wont even be aware that someone is a werewolf. Anyone in this room could be one. And you would never know That was quite a scary thought really.

"When transformed the werewolf can be easily told apart from a normalw ofl by some little features, such as a difference in pupil size, their snout, and a tufted tail. This shouldn't mean that we should come look at the werewolves though. As they are still dangerous creatures. Unless the person takes the wolfsbane potion they will forget all their human memories, basically turning into an animal. This is what I feel makes them very dangerous. It causes them to be able to turn onto anybody" That was pretty scary. It was no wonder these pour creatures had some prejudice.

"Over the years werewolves have been through a lot of prejudice. People are scared of them. It's no surprise really. Why wouldn't you be scared of someone that loses all control, could change you into what they are with just one bite." Scary thought. "The thing is....they are only this dangerous creature for one day of the month. Why are are they put through so much prejudice, and poverty, not being able to get jobs for what happens only in one day of the month

That was what Indiana didn't like. "I leave you with that thought. I believe that werewolves are only a creature for one day of the month. At all other times they are human. What makes them dangerous for the rest of the month is more down to how they choose to live their lives."

Soon enough it was his turn to get up and walk to the front of the classroom to do his speech. To say Gideon was a bit nervous was an understatement, yet the sixth year was doing his best not to show it. He just kept reminding himself that acting out a scene would have been an even more bothersome and nerve-wracking choice for him, not to mention having to work with someone else so the speech was indeed the lesser of two evils. Turning to face the class once he was at the front, the prefect took a soft deep breath before beginning with what he was going to stay.

“The boggart is just one of a collection of dark creatures and the one I selected for my project,” he began, having decided to start out simple. “Part of the reason they are considered dark is the fact that they are seen as having no real purpose other than hiding out and scaring those which come upon them. As such they do nothing productive other than causing harm which is one of the very definitions of a dark creature as has been discussed in class.”

“They are non-descript beings that take the form of a person’s greatest fear and to everyone’s knowledge there is no other known shape of boggarts outside of that.” It was one of the reasons people could be taken surprise by them for it wasn’t like you could keep your eye out for them and their appearance. It was like open some cupboard and such casually and BAM they could be there. It also meant he had no visible aids like his classmates other than the pseudo-boggart/dummy that Professor Romanos had created."It was the creature shown to those older students like myself in one of Professor Carlton's charms class my first year and during the prefect event three to four terms ago." Hopefully that would allow those students who had been there at the time to remember something to compare his speech to.“The creatures as a whole have the unique aspect of being one of the rare if not only magical creature with no distinct classification as their danger level is based solely on how controlled by their fears the witch or wizard that confronts it is. They be effected in a large range from highly bothered to complete paralyzed in terror and everything in between.”

“My bog—the shape that I face when dealing with a boggart is a man whose had a profound effect on my family.” It was something he hadn’t ever really thought about revealing to those outside his family who likely already knew. However it seemed fitting to mention along with the report and there was only one person in the audience who might know to who he was referring to…two if Kacie was around. They would understand and be supportive of his revelation. It just seemed to fit. “Though thankfully as ye see here, these examples are in the form of Professor Lafay.” As much as he hadn’t been a fan of her usage in the beginning, it surely was better than seeing Grant. And more students could surely relate to being afraid of Professor Lafay at times even if he personally wasn’t one of them.

“To deal with boggarts should ye find yerself facing one is to try and keep calm and concentrate on imaging a funny scene. This is usually picturing a way to make yer fear into something less scary. With that in mind, the Riddikulus charm is used in correlation with the imagery to do just that…take away the scariness of the boggart’s form.” To demonstrate, Gideon slipped his wand from his pocket and went through the motions. “Riddikulus!” he cast, using the solid point towards the dummy which then changed into Lafay into an un-Lafay type appearance, a toned down version of his first transformation…the professor in her normal clothes with a Hufflepuff scarf and a stuffed cat.

“And there ye have it.” Gideon said those final words as he returned his wand to his side and went back to his seat, the boggart-dummy slowly returning back to normal.

Vickers fidgeted nervously with his parchment as he waited his turn to deliver his 'speech'. He had never been comfortable with public speaking, even when they've had a go at this for their OWLs last term. Whoever said this gets easier the second time around must've been joking...

When it was his turn he stood in front of all those assembled, his hands gripping the parchment so tightly to keep them from shaking, which didnt really help much to conceal his nerves as the parchment started quivering in turn.

Right, just open your mouth, read and get this over with.

"Good morning---"

No that wasnt good at all. His voice wheezed out like a five year old girl suffering from asthma....

He cleared his throat and tried again "Good Morning.... " yes much better "Today my report is about creatures called Red Caps." he started, then turned to gesture feebly at the small, sullen effigy standing at the corner. Yes the garden gnome folks. No laughing. "Certain creatures in the magical world may not exhibit a kind of dreaded reputation the scale of Dementors, Werewolves or even Zombies, but the creature I will be discussing today has earned their reputation enough to have permeated Muggle folklore, most specially in the areas bordering England and Scotland."

"Red Caps earn their name due to the distinctive red cap, or a hat, on their heads, which is said that they must always keep soaked with the color of the blood of their prey. But blood fades over time, hence the creatures’ need to regularly seek out new victims. Common descriptions for Red Caps are that they are goblin-like creatures, averaging about 3-4 feet tall with red eyes and long talon-like nails. Other descriptions are said that Red Caps resemble wrinkled old men with grey beards, wear iron shod boots on their feet and sometimes carry a weapon such as pikes and scythes which they all use to bludgeon their victims with."

"Red Caps are commonly found in places where bloodshed has occurred, stealthily preying battlefields or in dungeons and/or castles where blood has been spilled. Perhaps it is the reason why their presence have permeated Muggle folklore since their sightings have often been in areas where Muggles often clash over territory and property, and in the case of England and Scotland, various political and economic issues."

"The Ministry of Magic has rated Red Caps as a XXX creature, despite their apparent danger to Muggles. Capable Wizards can easily thwart Red Caps with the use of various spells and simple strategies as they do not have any protective gear or hide which can deflect magic. Therefore it can be said that their “dark” reputation springs more from their danger to Muggles, who has no way to defend themselves magically, or even the prospect of distancing themselves from them would be very difficult as its been known that Red Caps are impossible to outrun."

"So one has to wonder why we should even consider these creatures as dark when it poses such a low level threat to the Magical Community. But perhaps that isnt what makes policing them important. Given our abilities and the creature's nature as a magical being it is our responsibility to make sure they are kept away from defenseless Muggles, whether or not they would be appreciative of our efforts to protect them."

And that was really all he could say about that. And all the strength his legs can muster to support his weight. Hastily he snuck back to his seat. At least that was done.