John felt a fool, it seemed like he was one of the only one's who hadn't caught a frog. He looked around for one and caught it.

Kayla raised her hand again. "Professor, I hope you don't mind but I would like to address Varius for a moment" she turned and looked at the Hufflepuff. "Although I agree with what your saying the way she went about standing up for what she believed in is to be commended. But do you believe that she was right in wanting muggles knowing about our existence?"

Lyra raised her hand, knowing this would make her unpopular. "I think Salazar Slytherin is most deserving. Even though he did dome bad things and had some, well, backwards beliefs, he did help found this school. Surely it would be a different place today of all of the Slytherins had to try to conform to a different house."

Truebridge added more names to the list as students caught their frogs, nodding as he listened to what they all had to say.
Truebridge nodded at Anna and Barry, "You two both have some brilliant points; its certainly interesting to speculate about such things isn't it?


"Certainly, it puts another spin on it when you think about what was occurring in the Wizarding world in her lifetime." Ethan noted, pleased at the points the girl had given.

"Ah yes. Everyone is special." Ethan shook his head, "They are on the cards to be remembered and of course they are all deserving, but some are more inspiring than others and we all have different ideas of what might be inspirational, don't we?"

"It is!" Ethan agreed, "I maintain that Bertie Bott's beans are a reflection of life. Sometimes it doesn't taste so good."

"You illustrate my point brilliantly, thank you. Are intentions enough of a reason to be recognised? If nothing else I suppose she might have changed a few minds and as a result saved a few muggles from harm."

"You seem to have a knack for thinking outside the box." Truebridge noted, "And that is what I encourage. And yes it was an accident to add a sock. But I for one am glad that he did. And Yes! I believe that events in her lifetime certainly would have been a contributing factor."

"Maybe he was! Maybe he was part muggle, or perhaps he liked the idea of slipping a few bertie bott's beans amongst the jelly beans so that a muggle consumer would get upset and complain to the jelly bean company!"

"I agree with you completely." Ethan responded gravely, "If only we were all so honourable!"

"Good theory, and that is true, there isn't every flavour; but perhaps one day there might be and old Bertie wanted to leave room for movement."

"Emotions can be very powerful; perhaps you are on to something there?" Ethan noted.

"Alrght, everyone can continue discussing these five cards, but also feel free to talk about your own cards, in groups and as a class; I'd like to hear your opinions on things such as..." Ethan tapped the board and some questions appeared next to the list of names.

ooc: I'll be back in a few hours, feel free to continue RPing and discussing your cards, if you don't have one yet, PM me and in the meantime add to the discussion about the other cards.

Rian looked over to a younger-looking girl who said that Salazar Slytherin deserved it. As much as it seemed weird, Rian agreed. "You know what?" she asked, turning to the girl. "I agree with you. I mean, if it weren't for him...who knows what Hogwarts would be like today?" she smiled at the girl, who she saw was in Ravenclaw. Hmm, must be a first year. "I'm Rian, by the way," she said, sticking out a hand.

"Yes, everyone does." she agreed with the Professor. "Well...in that case..I can't pick...I find them all equally inspirational, I guess." she shrugged.

He hadn't really expected any of his classmates to be paying attention to what he was saying, the Professor had to of course, but he was paid for it. But the question his house prefect asked was rather a good one, "You're right. I failed to mention what I thought of what she was fighting for."

"Well, I believe muggles knowing our existence is good and bad. Like someone mentioned previously, our magic could help a lot of muggles with our highly developed potions and so on, however, I do think it is best we are kept secret. If we were to expose ourselves we would be stopping the human race from growing and developing, instead they would be relying if not trying to torch us all to death. Their technologies, which is basically their own form of magic, would not be as highly advanced as they are now if our secret was out. But that is not to say I don't agree with Pinkstone fighting for what she believes, I am just one of those who does not agree with what she was fighting for."

He smiled warmly at his older peer, "Thank you for showing interest in my opinion though. Very kind of you."

Copernicus was prepared to listen for a while, but one of the sunshine yellow girls caught his attention. He raised his hand to address her. "Muggles as they are now are now, with their current biases and beliefs about magic and those who wield it, are very dangerous to us and our way of life. But perhaps if we hadn't cut ourselves off so completely from Muggles, it never would have gotten this bad. I imagine that someone with far-reaching vision that marched to a different sort of drum altogether might have thought that rejoining the two worlds would bring more peace in the long run."

Quote:

Originally Posted by potterhead23

Lyra raised her hand, knowing this would make her unpopular. "I think Salazar Slytherin is most deserving. Even though he did dome bad things and had some, well, backwards beliefs, he did help found this school. Surely it would be a different place today of all of the Slytherins had to try to conform to a different house."

Copernicus honestly didn't know enough about the other houses to be a good judge of this opinion, but he added a quiet, "But surely I've met some Slytherins clever enough to be in the Ravenclaw house quite easily."

John looked at his card Daisy Dodderidge who was she. He was sure than he had read the name somewhere, then he remembered there was some info on the back of the card, should he read it. He decided that he should.

"I think Bertie Bott was neither here nor there about Muggles," said Tobi, voicing his opinion, "But he certainly changed the world. And he was born in the Middle of the Muggle Economic Crisis known as the Great Depression, just prior to the rise and fall of Grindlewald. And then he lived though Voldemort too, people tend to look to food for happiness, it's a basic pleasure. I think he wanted to use his creations to make people happy, in his childhood, penny candy was very popular among Muggle children, it stands to reason candy at knut-value would have been too."

When did he get so interested in history? Or maybe it was merely the history of food...

Qaz returned to her seat in a hurry. She felt much more secure in the back of the classroom.

"My brother would have been a good Ravenclaw." Cela agreed quietly before looking down at her card, "I have Beatrice Bloxam." She held up her card after noting the list on the board, smiling at Copernicus and turning to look at Becca who she didn't really know that well apart from that she was in the same year and house.

Jake looked over at Lyra. "Whilst I agree that Salazar Slytherin deserves to be on a card, it is for a different reason. I think that he does because many Slytherins probably hated the stigma around the House and wroked hard to be rid of it. But I don't think that saying he had backwards beliefs is very fair, you know?" Jake tried harder to explain his point. "Anyone can be accused of having backwards beliefs, based purely on the accusers views."

Jake looked down at his card and read the caption. Founded Hogsmeade... fleeing from muggles... stayed in the Three Broomsticks... Woah, backtrack.

"I have Hengist of Woodcroft," Jake repeated. "And as for Pro-muggle or Anti-muggle, he could seem as though he was Anti-muggle, because he created the wizarding village, Hogsmeade, and we know that no muggles reside there. Well, they shouldn't. But anyway, I think he is pro-muggle, by creating a seperate existance and not cursing the muggles like he could have done, he fleed. And then, the man goes and creates a village just for wizards, which can be seen as instilling a sense of peace. It means the wizards aren't forced into confrontations, endagering muggles, especially muggle haters."

Jake finished up. He hadn't addressed anyone in particular, and wondered who would respond. He'd get to the next question later.

"That's what I think," Copernicus agreed before raising his own card. "I have Bloxam as well, and..." He wrinkled his nose. "What are your thoughts? Pro-muggle or anti-muggle? Have you ever encountered the insidious Toadstool Tales yourself?"

Kayla nodded her head pleased with the younger boy's answer. "I don't think they should know of our existence either. But yes Pinkstone, was right in fighting for what she believed in, whether we're muggles or magic folk no-one should take our right of freedom of speech and opinions."

She smiled back at Varius. "No problems, it's nice to see someone who knows what they're talking about."

"I totally agree with you Copernicus" she replied. "Don't get me wrong I like muggles, my father is one. Which is one of the main factors I believe we shouldn't tell muggles about the magical world. If they don't understand you, then they want to destroy you. But if they do accept you, then they want you to do everything for them. My father being a prime example, if something goes wrong he just expects my mother to fix it." Kayla shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps, but society has gotten lazier over the years and a lot more temperamental. I personally don't think we can co-exist."

"If they are good enough intentions,then yes,at times they are." Whitney answered Professor Truebridge happily. She was doing fairly well so far. 'Keep it up Whit.' "If the person has the right intentions,and it can possibly make things better,that is."

Then she turned back to the boy she'd been talking to before,she never caught his name. "Hey,at least no tapdancing right? Sorry about leaving earlier." she told him why a shy smile,referring to the moment before when she went off into her own world. "Do you think Xavier was deserving?"

Becca was continuing her letter to Lainey, explaining how unfair the new guy was, when she heard her person's name spoken. She glanced up to see who said it and her eyes fell on a girl she recognized from her own house, with... a boy. Wasn't he with Plymouth that day at the ice cream parlor? Ah... of course, it was his step-brother.

As it all came back to her, Becca reluctantly folded up her note and pocketed it in her robes. "I think she was anti-muggle. I mean, she wasn't going around writing Muggle storybooks. We obviously can't be for sure... but writing wizarding tales? We know she at least appreciated the wizarding world, right? So maybe since she liked this world so much... she was anti-Muggle." She shoved her hands into her robe pockets casually and simply shrugged. She didn't have much else to contribute.

All this discussion and talk made Varius feel and seem almost... normal and intelligent opposed to his strange and rather coo-coo self, he had even refrained from rubbing his prefects head! There was something about these lessons that made Varius think and think hard and bring out his bluebird side. "On the topic of Salazar... technically he would not be a sole infinite deserver of the card, you would have to include the other three founders - all of whom helped build the castle and integrate their own unique traits, so it's more of a four-way nomination as opposed to just him... or so I believe."

Qaz busied herself taking notes. For the purebloods, this was probably all old news, but there were a few names that she hadn't heard before....

Copernicus heard his name and piped back in. "I don't suppose it's something that we can choose at this point, to be honest. The two are so separate. But I do think we have to respect someone who has the vision to work towards unity, rather than viewing it through the lens of how it could hurt us. Muggles aren't lazy. Which is lazier? Doing a spell to wash clothes or inventing a machine-y thing to do it? We're just like them." Copernicus had a rather soft spot for Muggles, inherited from his mother.

"I agree with you, but I think we CAN know for sure. Look at how she rewrote the Tales of Beedle the Bard. I mean, yes, she made them all sickly disgusting and cute, but she also took out every Muggle-positive note the Bard ever included. The tales that were intended to teach us to treat Muggles well were turned into sick little fluffy toadstool tales with no moral compass. Even if she didn't actively hate Muggles, she didn't want them anywhere in literature."

Kayla turned back to copernicus and nodded. "Oh believe me I respect Pinkstone and her beliefs but it doesn't mean that I have to agree with them." She shifted in her seat so that she could look at the Ravenclaw boy fully. "Unfortunately we have to look at it that way. Wouldn't you protect your family at all costs? This is basically the same thing, we're protecting the magical family from outside threats. I'm not saying that all muggles would treat us differently or try to harm us but those of them in power probably would and they're the ones who have the most say."

She had to chuckle at him. "Touche Copernicus, but we've always been like that, we don't know any different. It's like Varius said before, if muggles turned to us for all their problems then we would be stopping them from growing and developing. They would stop inventing stuff to help make their lives easier. I don't mean to sound egotistical or anything but we were fortunate enough to be born with magic and they weren't."

Lyra listened to the crowd of students talk and this was one of the most interesting classes she had ever been in but she had one question. She looked at the card that was in her hand and really had no idea about Claudius Ptolemy except he was a Geographer and Astronomer. Well there was one person that might be able to help her if this professor couldn't. She raised her hand to see if there might be someone else who know something about the man.

"Umm, excuse me but does anyone know anything else about Claudius Ptolemy besides and Astronomer?" and Geographer. Was there anything special? Maybe the library had something on the man.

Jake looked over at the older girl who asked about Ptolemy. Ooh, harsh card to get.

"I only know he was also an Astrologer..." Jake tried. It wasn't much, but it was something. "Or I think so... hold on..." Jake sat for a moment, racking his brains. "And a mathematician..."

Jake sighed. "There must be a book... I can't remember reading anything else... he was a... man?"

Kayla looked at Lyra and gave her friend a smile. "Nope I think that;s it hun. Trust you to get the boring dude. The only known accomplishments are, he has a Mars and Lunar craters named for him" she shrugged. "That's all I've got."

Robert looked next to him and found Lyra sitting there. Turning toward her he held his hands up almost as if in surrender, "Claudius Ptolemy...he's not just any astronomer he's a very famous one who's most famous work is the Almagest where he explains the position of the earth, moon, and sun, constellations, and what the universal planets are made of. He also created an almost precise map of the Geco-Roman 'world' using Latitude and Longitudial lines and changed the way cartography was done...or at least had a major impact. There...is some other stuff I can't remember...if that's what you wanted to know..." he asked haltingly. He smiled and shrugged, "I read a lot."