SnitchSeeker.com - The CoMC Hut

SnitchSeeker.com (https://www.snitchseeker.com/forum.php)

- Term 52: May - August 2019 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-52-may-august-2019/)

- - The CoMC Hut (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-52-may-august-2019/the-comc-hut-112521/)

https://i.postimg.cc/8PBr8yzH/comc2.jpg

Perhaps other Care of Magical Creature professors have lived and worked out of this tidy hut tucked in beside the barn, but the structure is currently serving only as a very cluttered office space. The desk is a surfboard propped over two overturned feed buckets (or maybe that’s just where Cornish left it for waxing), and you’d be lucky to find a quill anywhere in the building.

The rest of the hut is crammed with equipment for Cornish’s research. More surfboards are stacked by the door, crates and nets are piled under the stairs, and there’s diving equipment hanging on the wall by the window. As much as possible, the rest of the space is filled with fish tanks, some half full of dirty water, some with collections of plant life and snails, and a few with the sort of creatures found in the lake – plimpies and grindylows and what looks like a large soft-shelled eggs submerged in water.

Take a seat on one of the tubs by the door, and the professor will be with you shortly.

The hut. He had been instructed to come here, right? Not the silver twinkie or eclair or whatever that other location was, correct? Scrutenizing the latter as he approached the door, Eiji let out a bit of a heavy sigh before knocking. Whatever the professor had called him here for he was certain was not based upon 'practicing his sarcasm'. The fourth year may be young but he was not naive and certainly not stupid.

Knocking three times and taking a step back, the Slytherin waited.

And yes, actually, he was curious how the tadfoal was doing. Genuinely so and harvesting potential aside.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 12415898)

"Ah, Rasting," Cornish kicked open the door before returning to sit in the wobbling chair behind his make-shift desk. He didn't need much of an office, but he certainly wasn't living in the lap of luxury here. Did the just shove all their mismatched, damaged, moldering furniture to the professor's stuck teaching outside the castle?

"Leave the door open. It's like a pit of hell in here, all sweaty and smells like mildew and the dark..." Too much information? Way too much information.

"I suppose if you just apologize for sassing back in class, we can be done here." Not that he believed that Rasting was capable of apologies.

That had been a bit much, hadn't it? The whole kicking the door open like that? Or was the professor trying to prove a point in the gesture? Eiji had twigs for arms and legs, so he supposed he was impressed by the whole...thing. But brute force was for Gryffindors, the likes of which he was not.

Cautiously stepping inside, the smell hit him like a brick and his face was helpless in showing it.

"I could," he shrugged lightly. For everything Eiji was, you could at least count on him for being honest. "...but I don't really feel any remorse so it would be a hollow one leaving everyone involved dissatisfied."

"That's the spirit, lad," Cornish toasted the boy with a cup of coffee. What fun was it if the kid just rolled over? Merlin knew it meant he was a proper good human, but it was so much less interesting. He'd been here for months and hadn't been able to give a detention like a professor should.

So this could be that proper detention. "So if you won't apologize, what do you suppose a suitable punishment should be?"

Eiji tilted his head, confused at those words because why would a professor be praising him for being difficult. Maybe the fourth year didn't mind this one so much after all. Actually, the brunette had no real qualms against the Creatures professor, it was more his subject and the fact that the Slytherin was more interested in creatures for what they could do for him rather than their well being or how cute they were.

"Write lines," he offered with a slight shrug. "With all due respect, professor, the Wizengamot don't ask those on trial what they feel their sentence should be. I'd rather we not beat around the bush and just get on with it."

"Ew, no. Writing lines is what the unimaginative give out for detention." Cornish sipped his bottle of juice and considered the boy. Honestly, he just needed time and sweat from him. He didn't require pain and anguish. And if possible, perhaps he could convince Rasting to invest in the subject rather than be so dismissive.

"The tadfoal you found is coming along nicely. See that one in the near tank? That's yours. The one in the back tank is mine. What we need to do is keep the water temperature steady and the pH balanced... while we move it to a bigger tank so it can hatch. How about you clean out that tank in the corner, then fill it with lake water?"

Maxie had not been keen to head out out the warmth of his Hufflepuff Common Room- or even the relative comfort of the castle itself, but he'd been biting on a question for some time now, a question only Professor Cornish could answer.

So, it was with a great bundling up that Maxie had undertaken the course. Passing through humming hallways, comfortable corridors, cozy classrooms and the Hall of Greatness (which always smells a bit like hot cocoa this time of year) did nothing to quell the 13-year-old's reproach, and he might very well have been relishing it as he walked out the Entrance Hall-

Except-

Except, it was quite mild for a January day. It was almost nice by English standards. With a frown, Maxie pulled off his Burberry and walked the rest of the way to the Professor's hurt with a bewildered expression on his pale face. The ground even had the audacity to feel fertile beneath his feet, not hard or crunchy as he had expected- His shoes, he realized, were going to be muddy even. Stuffing his scarf into his cloak pocket, Maxie walked up the steps of the hut and briskly knocked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin (Post 12416538)

Well, at least this detention may be something worth his time then. The wasted parchment writing lines required was absurd. Almost as absurd as the stench that this hut was assaulting his senses with.

Yours? Meaning...was that tadfoal in Eiji's care officially? The Slytherin was hesitant to ask, to show interest, and merely nodded his head. "What could cause a tadfoal to wash up on shore like that?" he found himself asking instead. "....is it a result of the disturbances in the Black Lake? Ripple effect from the inferi?" Since that had been the topic he had brought up in class and it seemed uncharacteristic of a hippocampus to loose sight of her tadfoal like that.

His eyes soon drifted to the tank in question, covered in dirt and grime and looking as though it had not been in use for a century. Was the professor a hoarder? It seemed plausible.

"Sure." Not like protesting the instruction would get him anywhere anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole black (Post 12416661)

So these students didn't mind dropping by in the middle of FREEZING winter. Or potential freezing winter, although the thought was the same. And it was way too cold for flipflops, and Cornish resented the shoes he had to wear.

He swung the door open and glowered at the boy. "What are the nature of your creature related problems?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 12416671)

Great. Super. The kid was willing to play the game. Cornish kicked his feet up on the surfboard desk and watched Rasting hesitantly approach the dirty tank in the corner. It would take some clever magic and elbow grease to clean it up, and he was looking forward to watching that.

"It's hard to say what caused it. Another creature may have disturbed the nesting site, or the inferi... so maybe natural, maybe not. But if we can protect them, I'm game for going against nature a little." He wondered about the hippocampus that had laid that egg. Hippocampi were native to the Black Lake, but the population was waning. Perhaps these two tadfoals could start a whole new colony.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin (Post 12416740)

Erm. Maxie wanted to wriggle but since turning thirteen had sworn it off, so instead he fidgeted, his fingers tugging at the inner lining of his cloak pockets. "I- er-" He wanted to get the point across quickly, for Professor Cornish didn't seem very pleased to see him. "I-I w-want to w-work with Auguries." the teenager blurted out, his words like a rush of cold air. "... I- I- don't know w-where to begin." If the Hufflepuff did, he wouldn't be here.

Eiji was listening, but he was also multitasking in looking around for cleaning supplies to start with. Surely the professor wouldn't make is so easy as to allow for magical means? The fourth year was rather proficient in cleaning spells for his age.

"....are they like squirrels and some birds? Meaning once a human has handled them that the mother will smell human stench and reject their own kin because they think they are ill?" He could remember the first time Rebecca had unknowingly done just this when climbing trees in the backyard and finding a bird nest or some sort.

...but for real. Where were these cleaning supplies?