Abby entered the classroom and said "Good morning Professor Finch" Abby took a seat close to the front so she could pay attention to what was going to be taught in this lesson

History of Magic certainly wasn’t close to being one of Brooklyn’s favorite lessons, but then she hadn’t tried dropping the subject as of yet. She still showed up to lessons, even if she still preferred not having to do work she wouldn’t do on her own. It was a conundrum, for sure, and yet she had walked up to the classroom with plenty of time before the lesson was due to start. She had nearly smiled when she saw that she still had a choice as to where to sit, seeing as no one she was currently annoyed with seemed to have arrived yet. It made her mood rise the tiniest bit.

Making her way to an empty table, she set her bag down before taking her seat quietly. It was only then that she looked over at the front of the classroom, and the professor sitting there waiting. “Good morning, Professor Finch,” she said with a nod, reaching in her bag for something to occupy herself with while she waited for the lesson to begin. Shortly afterward, she had pulled a book out and settled in to read. It wasn’t as if she was planning on taking notes or anything.

Kitty walked into the History of Magic classroom, humming a merry tune as she usually did. "Good morning Professor Finch," she greeted him cheerfully. Her usual spot wassomewhere in the third row, but since the nametags were gone she went to sit down in the front row next to Abby.

Miranda entered the classroom and greeted the professor, " hello, Professor..." And away she skipped to her seat near the back of the class.. She looked around and saw a few other students she knew.. It was nearing the end of term and classes would soon be at an end...

Azura walked into the History of Magic class with a smile on her face, she was determined to do well in this class today. History of Magic wasn't exactly her forte, but she liked the Professor and she wanted to put in a good effort in all of her classes.

"Hello Professor Finch, how are you today?" The purple eyed teen asked kindly as she waved at him before heading to her seat only to find..

No name tag!!

Ack!

She looked around in a panic before she realized that no desk had a name tag.. Phew! She hadn't been kicked out of anything! Azura settled into her normal desk though..Why confuse people?

Janelle arrived for History of Magic class and entered the classroom. The first thing that she noticed was that the usual nametags were missing from the desks. She wondered why, but began to walk toward her regular seat anyway. "Hello Professor", she said, as she passed his desk.

When Janelle reached her seat, she sat down and placed her bookbag on the floor. Then she took out everything she needed for the day and placed it all on her desk. She was ready to roll. All she needed was for Professor Finch to start things off. In the meantime, she glanced in her textbook. That would keep her busy until class officially started.

Melbourne Johanson was failing at her little challenge to keep her points at least CLOSE to those of Tenacius Salander…it was killing her well, no it wasn’t. She was just slightly upset with the subpar performance she was giving in classes…stupid hormones were distracting and well her whole not being the best rule follower.

She’d just have to make the points back as soon as possible…maybe go and work with the house elves for a bit? Walking down to the History of Magic classroom she glanced around and felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. WHERE WERE THE NAME TAGS?...dear god…wait did this mean she could sit next to her friends? And not next to that guy with the dreadful breath. Seriously it was like a dentist’s breath…which was saying something really seeing that all of the dental hygienists she’d ever met had the worst breathe ever.

Plopping down in an open spot she looked over to Professor Finch and smiled. “Hello Professor Finch…having a nice day I hope?” she asked and curled her arms around her stomach.

Tenacius strolled into the class, still thinking about the proposition they were asked to create a few months ago. He had wondered if that was possible, or perhaps his suggestion didn’t fly too well with the Professor. His grade for it didn’t look too good. Well at least he gave something he believed in and seemingly quite plausible to implement.

"'Eya Professor Finch." he greeted the man warmly nonetheless. He did sorta notice the missing name tags though, so naturally he sat himself where he pleased, which was within arms reach of Azura and Mel. Tenacius-ly happy grins for you both.

And Kitty, he sees you too. But he isnt going to sit that far up front. Finch may be a good looking man he would acknowledge that, but he isnt his Senpai Auror Camebridge. So just chillin here in the middle of it all.

Time to learn about... history. Needless to say Esme wasn't exactly enthusiastic but it wasn't as if she was ever excited about the subject. At least she liked Professor Finch.

Entering the classroom she said, "hello, Professor!" and waved to her friends. Interesting to see that there were no name tags. Seemed that they were being allowed more freedom since term was coming to and end soon. Esme was so not complaining. Nope. Instead she took a seat beside Kitty. "Hello," she said to her friend with a smile.

Fiyero walked into the History of Magic classroom, giving a friendly wave to Professor Finch. "Hello, Professor," he greeted him politely. He wondered what they were going to be learning about today. Maybe they'd be able to do something fun, since it was almost the end of the term.

He made his way to his usual desk only to notice that the name tag was gone. Okay, that was weird... Did that mean he could just sit anywhere? He assumed so and took a different seat close to the door, just for a change of pace. He set his bag down and pulled out his textbook, quill, and parchment. After arranging huis supplies in front of him, he looked intently up at Professor Finch to show he was ready to pay attention.

Ansley arranged a few papers and other things on his desk as he waited for the first of the students to arrive. He gave them each a nod, smile, and a hello in return, noting that some of them were slightly confused by the lack of name tags. "Yes, you can sit where you want today," he chuckled. And that meant sit with friends or sit in normal spot, either way was fine for today. It was mildly amusing that some chose routine while others chose a different seat.

It was time to start class, though his classroom seemed a little bare today. He hoped the nicer weather wasn't encouraging students to skip class. Turning to the students present, he addressed the class as he got up from his desk. "Good morning, everyone! Let's get started."

"Today we are going to talk some specific groups. Some might still be around today, some might have disbanded long ago, but all are important for different reasons. For example - the Puddlemere United Quidditch club, the Committee on Experimental Charms, the Society for Reformation of Hags... What do you know about these groups, or what might they have in common? What other similar groups might you know? As per usual, you may use your books as needed." He gave them a few minutes to look through the chapter before he would begin calling on anyone.

Skylar was there and present; history of magic was one of those subjects that Sky had this love-hate relationship with. It was definitely a fascinating subject and she liked how the Professor liked to make things interesting.

And he was talking about different groups ; Sky didn't know much about the ones mentioned but she did know about a different set of groups that existed at Hogwarts many moons ago from her parents' generation.

"Many years ago, four separate orders existed at Hogwarts, their goal to ensure unity among the four houses. Order of the Fang, the Talon, the Stripe, and the Mane. I don't know much on the groups you mentioned but I would imagine they existed for much of the same reasons the orders existed, which is to promote their cause because that's really the reason behind forming a group is for support." Sky said after raising her hand.

Azura bit her lip a little as Professor Finch spoke and she looked through her book for a moment before raising her hand to give an answer, it might not be right, but it was the only think she could think of right now.

"Well, I do know the Puddlemere United is the oldest Quidditch team in the league.." she paused for a moment, "But also, these groups all have once thing in common, they all are coming together with a certain goal in mind. For Puddlemere United, it's to win the Quidditch game, for the charms committee, it's to over see the new charms out there, for the Hag society, it's to help Hags learn to be better in society.. " She smiled a bit..

"So many people, coming together and working towards one goal. "

Let's hope that answer worked.

Miranda was about to say something when it totally slipped her mind and so she opened her text book and began to quickly reread the chapter they were studying... Merlin.. this was not her strong suit at all... Having to remember facts and dates and So much information being poured into her little head... It hurt but she knew it was all necessary... Wasn't it? And that in and of itself resolved her to the task...

The ability to choose where they sat was kind of nice. Of course Olly didn't mind having assigned seats but sometimes it was nice to sit by friends. So he did, even though it wasn't much different. He still had to listen to Professor Finch talk and pay attention to the lesson. Where he sat really didn't matter at all.

Olly flipped open his book. He knew a few things about the Committee on Experimental Charms, even more about Puddlemere United, and barely anything about the hag thing. He found the right pages and skimmed a bit before raising his hand. "The Committee on Experimental Charms is pretty much what it sounds like. They test experimental charms to make sure they're safe and stuff before other people can use them."

Harriet wasn't the best at histoy of magic. Not really. But that was why she was at school right? So that she could learn. So she was going to pay attention, even if she didn't really like the subject that much. That was more because she wasn't very good at it. So she was sure that the more she learnt about the subject the more she would like it. Or so she hoped anyway. Maybe she needed to ask her mother to go over it a little with her.

She looked over the chapter, trying to find something to say. She had heard of those clubs, but didn't really want to repeat what her class mates were saying. There was no point in doing that really. " Well there are lots of groups similar to Puddlemere United Quidditch club, since there are lots of quidditch teams" Which made sense. "But Puddlemere were the first, which makes them pretty special"

Oh groups! Tenacius looked at the Slytherin youngsters, Skylar, that was a great story, and something he may have heard told to him by tutors. So what does he say about these groups. Up goes the hand "Well, I guess groups form because people have shared interests, like a club, or maybe they have something they want to change and that unified them. My dad told me about the Cult of Walpurgis, which was a thing when he was going to school here. Seems like they wanted to remove the Statute of Secrecy." as to which side his dad sympathized with, he wasn’t going to say, given the history of what happened to the Cult afterwards.

Before she knew it, class was starting and Janelle closed her book and gave her attention to the professor. It turns out, she would need to open it again. The professor's first question had her stumped. What did those organizations have in common? Janelle was drawing a blank. They were all very different, but they had some common thread. She was just not seeing it. Clearly this was not an obvious answer and required some thought.

Janelle flipped through her textbook, hoping to find some clue as to the connection. Annnnd she was coming up empty. So, Janelle decided to tell what she knew about one of the groups instead Raising her hand, she began to speak. "The Society for Reformation of Hags was created to help hags adapt to life in the wizarding world and live a more civilized life." . As she said this, Janelle thought about the very creepy hag who "taught" Divination last term. Maybe she wasn't a member of the Society.......

"Hey Esme," Kitty smiled vaguely at her Hufflepuff friend as she sat next to her.

Kitty's hand shot into the air. "There are different reasons for forming and joining groups and societies. It could be a fan club where people with common interests come together and become friends. Like for example, a Quidditch fan club for people like that kind of thing or a reading club." She was never interested in sports (beyond reading about them) but she could imagine joining a book club. Professor Kitridge had had one last year, it was too bad they didn't have it this year, "Also, another reason to form a society could be to tackle injustice or to help people. The Society for Reformation of Hags which you mention is an example. Both are god reasons to join a group, and besides, that's another way you can make friends."

"One secret society that I know a lot about from history was Dumbledore's Army, created by Harry Potter in his fifth year. Dumbledore's Army consisted of students from Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw banding together to study Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was an especially important subject at the time since Voldemort had just returned and was on the verge of starting the second great Wizarding War. Sadly, the Ministry had forbidden defensive spells to be taught because they refused to believe Voldemort was back and believed current headmaster Dumbledore to be the real danger. So Harry started the club and they met in the Room of Requirement every week to study. Eventually the club was betrayed and disbanded, and but its purpose was a success because now all those students knew how to defend themselves - which many did later in the war."

She was going to leave it at that, but then Tenacius mentioned the Cult of Walpurgis, which was someone that coincidentally she had only just started reading about. "Another society that I've started reading about recently is the Cult of Walpurgis, though I only started last night. It's purpose was to eradicate the Statute but I can't say much else because I'm only on page two." Personally, Kitty thought getting rid of the Statute of Secrecy would be awesome. She lived in a Muggle town and hated the fact that she could be punished just for telling them what she was. Secretely she found herself admiring the Cultists, but she knew she was in the minority for that opinion and so she stayed silent.

Those were...all very different groups, and Mr. Pretty Professor was asking them a very BROAD question in Scarlett's opinion. Pretty much anything could be considered a group, yes? She tried to think of some examples that had not been said yet before raising her hand to answer the question.

"While it never took off, Hermione Granger tried to create a group called SPEW, because she believed house elves deserved to be free and she tried to trick some house elves into freedom by hiding knit hats around the common room," she explained. That was kind of mean in her opinion, but it WAS kind of terrible that they thought that was all they could do in life...

Despite being able to sit wherever they wanted, Jaemin had opted to sit in his regular seat. It was a good spot and he could see everything from there, and they were in class, so he had no reason to choose where he sat based on other people. The small teen sat back in his seat and listened to Professor Finch talk, nose wrinkling a bit in confusion. The group's he had listed didn't really have much in common at all... He raised his hand anyway though, to offer the closest thing he could to an answer.

"They all have a central focus?" he murmured, not sure if that was what Finch wanted to hear. "They all have a very specific thing they work on or towards."

Cause really... Hags had nothing in common with quidditch except for the fact that Jaemin enjoyed neither of them.

Opening her textbook, Esme listened to Professor Finch as he started what would hopefully be a painless lesson.

Eyebrow raise because that was an interesting selection of groups to talk about. Raising her hand she said, "the most obvious similarity is that they all have a goal in mind - but that can be said about all groups." Just saying because it WAS a similarity. "Also groups are a good way to meet people who are like-minded and make friends." Community and connection were big things and people generally felt better when they were around others who shared passions and wanted to accomplish the same thing - be it having fun or working towards a common cause.

As far as other groups that she knew of... "There was the Order of the Phoenix! Albus Dumbledore founded it to oppose Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters." That was pretty awesome in Esme's books.

Carl was there in his usual seat, listening to Professor Finch. The weather was nice, but he was definitely not planning on skipping class. He liked History of Magic and the Professor always made the topics interesting.

For now though, they were having a discussion - about groups. The Hufflepuff had heard about the examples the Professor mentioned, but did not know them in detail. Therefore, he opened his book and turned to the correct chapter. Here was a description about the Committee on Experimental Charms! As he read, he thought about the questions and formulated his answer.

"The Committee on Experimental Charms is important because it ensures that spells can be safely used by the Wizarding public. A similar group is the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, which ... executes magical creatures that are considered a threat to people." Carl said, his hand raised. He didn't think killing creatures was nice, even if it might protect them.

Angel has been sat there in silence, she decided that she would attempt an answer. She raised her hand "Professor, all those people in the group want to be involved in the club."