Luin thought on the topic for a bit, finishing off a s'more she had just made. She licked the chocolate and marshmallow off of her fingers then raised her hand, "I've heard that Muggles portray ghosts to be something to be afraid of. Like they are out to get everyone else who is alive. They also have their superstitions that ghosts always represent something bad." she wasn't sure how he meant the question to be answered but gave her best guess.

"There are muggles who can see ghosts but think of their ability to see them as a curse of some sort. Many muggles believe they don't exist, and those who believe they do are classified as weird people." Cedric answered, upon raising his hand.

Harper immediately began to munch on a marshmallow (YAYAYAYAYAYYY MARSHMALLOWSWOOOHOOOYEAHBABYYY!!). She swallowed hurriedly when she thought of an answer to this question.

"Well, some muggles believe that ghosts are humans that come back in a transparent, invisible or spirit-like form, to get revenge or closure on something from their lives. Sometimes they even believe that they can possess people. It's what some people blame mysterious things on, too, the paranormally suspicious ones. Like, if something happens, say, all their books fall out of their bookcase, and there was no other solution to it, they could blame it on "ghosts". Or strange noises at night. I think maybe it's things that wizards cause accidentally, and they just assume it's ghosts trying to rid them out of their houses or something." Harper shrugged. She didn't need to talk so much. "Muggles are usually afraid of them, anyway, and for good reason, given all their own stories of them. I would be too, if I didn't know better."

Yep yep.

"Oh, and sometimes muggles who feel guilty about something they did claim they have ghosts haunting them or their houses - but I think they're just letting their imagination getting the best of them because they feel bad." she rolled off another shrug. "And usually the muggles believe that the 'ghosts' want something. From them, or otherwise. And, also, ghosts are seen as scary scary VERY scary things in the muggle world. It's a popular Halloween costume, even. They associate ghosts with fear and horrific occurances."

Okay, Harp, shut your trap now. NOW I SAY!

"Thanks Professor." She said as she moved over to the basket and picked out a couple of chocolates. "And if it doesn't help...?" What then Professor? Mia made her way back to her seat also with a smile playing on her lips.

Mia listened as some of the students gave the answers and then she raised her hand. "That is true for most muggles. But not all of them see spirits or ghosts that way. A lot of muggles are fascinated by the paranormal. They even go and stay at places that are said to be haunted. They take their camera's and video equipment hoping to catch a glimpse of a spectre. There are also people who call themselves mediums who converse with spirits to help the people they left behind."

Ellie listened to the conversation. And was there a reason that they were doing this at night? Because Ellie had grown up with muggles and ghost stories and they all came out and attacked people at night...

"Well... I read somewhere that people-wizards- that are afraid of death come back as ghosts. Or maybe they don't even really leave at all, they just... transform once they die." ERM. Off topic. Time to go back to the subject. "Growing up in a muggle neighborhood, I learned from other kids that ghosts are seen as the supernatural. Some people believe that if they do someone wrong and they die, their spirit will come and haunt them as torture or karma for what they did. Or, some people believe that if someone died before they finished a task, their spirit will linger until that task has been accomplished." She said with a shrug. Just her two sense.

And then there were those ridiculous TV shows. Facepaaalm.

Patroclus was less shocked by the subject matter, than he was by the shock that was Kurumi pouncing into his lap like a scared little kitty.

"Oh Kurumi, it's OK!" he smiled his heart swell at how cute the little second year was, "Nothing's going to harm you, not while I am around," he whispered, softly patting her on the back.

"Professor, Muggles are often taught that Ghosts are things to be feared, due mainly to informed muggles they often appear in books, movies or TV shows, where they are able to ralt chains or carry knifes......but we all know that poltergists are the only spectres that are able to hold physical objects."

The Lion Prefect remembered a comic book he had seen as a young one, where a group of 60's teenagers pulled the heads off ghost to reveal Muggles inside......Shooby Roo....or something like that!

Eirian bit her lip as she thought, pushing her thick-rimmed glasses up in hope that the non-prescription lenses would reflect the minimal light enough to hide her puffy, swollen eyes. The transformation from rebellious Brasileira to quiet, studious Hogwartian had been instantaneous after she broke up with Thiago. Maybe paying attention to her studies would make her a better person? And that was why she broke it off... Because he deserved someone better than her.

For the first time in her life, Eiri then rose her hand and offered her best thoughts. "Different cultures have different beliefs," she said, voice small and warped by her thick accent, "which reflect their beliefs and values. Because muggles do not know ghosts really exist or what they are like, they depend on old myths to tell them what they are like. In Brazil, people believe less in ghosts and more in demons... and some ghosts are said to protect the forests, because the country is does not have such a history of being industrial like England or America and they still have a severe attachment to nature."

This was the first time Eirian had ever referred to the Brazilian people as "they" instead of "we," also. So many changes... Something inside of her wondered if, when Jayce came back, whether he'd still know her.

Selina thought about the posed question. Being raised in the magical world her knowledge on Muggle behavior was soley comprised of Muggle studies and her Muggle grandfather. When she answered she said, "Well sir, when I was younger my grandfather used to watch all of these movies like moving pictures in our newspapers. It was weird because in these movies they had ghost depicted as paranormal and evil things. They are also usually back from the dead for revenge."

Ellie watched as the marshmallow went black and wrinkley and fell to the bottom of the fire. Hah!

"Basically," she said, fixing another marshmallow onto her stick.

She put it back into the fire, and stared at it, watching it.

As for muggles' perception of ghosts, she wasn't really sure. She never talked about them with her cousins so....yeah.

No. He didn't take any marshmallow or anything, but don't feel bad Mr. Charms, he didn't do that in Divination either.

And they were now speaking of ghosts?

The Fat Friar should come and join them in the discussion as well. His eyes were turned to Kurumi as she spoke, yes, pretty scary stuff. Muggles were the creative type, certainly. The boy raised his hand, "Well, those who don't fear ghosts...," Muggles, that is, "...they often blame them for whatever they can't explain, like, things going missing, something moving, and so on." Yeah, the Bloody Baron would like to be blamed for something, no? Especially moving things around, haha. Which will be...something he cannot do, like all ghosts.

Jared smiled slightly. "Then help yourself to some more."

Though if chocolate - something most students seemed to adore - did not help, he didn't see much he could do to brighten up her mood, at least not right now, a lesson being at hand. Unless she preferred s'mores over simple chocolate.

"Kurumi..." Jared blinked as she actually huddled into the Gryffindor Prefect. "It's alright. No mean ghost is going to show up." No mean ghost. "I'm here to ensure everyone's safety."

He might have said something else to comfort her, but the imagery of her next few sentences did not give him a chance to. He resisted the urge to half-smile. Dangling hands? Invisible legs? He had to give those muggles credit for knowing how to pitch a good yarn.

Jared considered her answer.

"I suppose you know it's not a good idea to use a phrase if you don't know its meaning?" Just saying.


"You've all provided some good insight into how the muggle view of ghosts differs from ours," Jared said, nodding at each answer. Some of them had been quite excellent. "Take two points each."

"It seems that, as opposed to the average witch or wizard's take on ghosts, the average muggle fears or does not believe in them. There are exceptions, of course but, speaking on a general basis, fear of the unknown and uncertain is dominant. I believe that is one reason the muggle world has a larger market for ghost stories. But, all that aside, is it always ghosts that muggles are dealing with? Like Harper and Treyen have said, a large number of muggles tend to think 'ghost!' in the face of strange occurrences - such as items moving on their own - that a witch or wizard could find perfectly reasonable explanations for. For example --"

He cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and, now invisible, picked up one of the boxes of chocolates on the ground and moved it from one spot to another. Then he cast the counter-charm, so that he could be seen again. "Now, all of you just saw the box of chocolates moving 'on its own.' But that was definitely not the work of a ghost. Can anyone explain what I'm getting at?"


OOC: There are no right or wrong answers. Not really.

Hmmm, since she had no idea how a muggle's mind worked or pretty much what they thought about the wizarding world (but she HAD her THEORIES!), Evelyn kept silent as she listened to others explain what muggles thought of ghosts? Scared of them? It wasn't the ghosts they should be scared of. It was the poltergeists they should look out for. It was almost amusing they couldn't distinguish the two.

Her gaze lingered on the professor as he disillusioned himself. Well tried to anyway. Now it was on the box of chocolates which should be thrown into the fire. MEH! "So you're saying...wizards and witches like to mess around with the muggles?"

HMMM!? 'Cause that's what she got out of that. And a few others, but that was the first thing that came to mind.

OOOH marshmallows! Alex had been so distracted by the bag of marshmallows making it's way through the group towards his greedy hands he had completely missed the first two questions. Whoops. Once he happily had a marshmallow in his hand, he passed along the bag and then raised his hand.

"I think that means that some wizards like to be mean to the muggles and scare them. Cause why would someone go invisible and move something around in front of a muggle if they didn't want to scare them?" he answered. It was silly, really. Someone going invisible just to move a box of chocolates from one room to another was just absurd on it's own.

Harper tilted her head to the side and watched as the professor turned invisible and did some would-be-freaky-muggle stuff before their eyes. As long as he didn't take off with the chocolate, then Harper was alright with it.

"Are you suggesting that witches and wizards are being creepazoids?" Really, any wizarding person who's sneaking around invisible where he has no business just to fool around with someone is just plain creepazoid-ish. "what the muggles presume is 'paranormal' is generally just because of something we do on purpose, or something stupid we flub up with. That stuff is what the ministry is trying to prevent, right?"

Munchy munchy marshmallow yum yum.

Well, now, why did he turn invisible? Show-off.

Were they even going to learn how to make themselves invisible or was he just annoying Treyen by letting him know that was something Mr. Charms could do and he couldn't? We have Demiguise in our wand, you hear? Well, not the creature, but its hair, some of it.

Er, what was he getting at? Treyen had no idea.

"What? Playing with people's minds?" he said, after raising his hand, because that's what he was doing, "I think that's great practice for our senses, really, to try and focus on what can't be seen...or what isn't really there." Or, yeah, that, whatever, if Mr. Charms wasn't cool enough to let them practice on the Disillusionment Charm, then he was sooo asking Mr. Stryker for it.

Ohhhh Merlin!

Not only was Destiny sitting in between TWO Hufflepuff's, she was also listening to all these HORRIFYING ghost stories! Especially the story that little Gryffindor girl told. The same Gryffindor that was practically sitting on Patroclus'.

Glare!

And just for the fun of it, Destiny sent a glare to Arya because she didn't miss that glare she was giving her earlier. And it was one of those up in your face glares, too, since they were sitting next to eachother.

With her Arya glare quota filled for the moment, she turned back to the Professor when he spoke and suddenly disappeared, moving a box of chocolates all spooky like. She wanted to tell him to give HER that chocolate, but he had reappeared and already asked a question.

"Ugh..you're saying that things are not always what they seem to be?"

The third year pursed her lips together. "No, well, I kind of know what it means. I just can't explain it. It's like the sky...you know that it's the thing up there that goes blue in the daytime and black at night, but you don't really know what it is."

Ghosts scarey? Hah. Hahahahaha. Why would a ghost be scary? They can't do anything to you. Muggles were just oh-so silly sometimes.

Ellie easily became distracted when Little Professor went invisible and was insanely jealous. Ellie wanted to go invisible tooo!

She thought he might move around an appear somewhere else, but she didn't feel him move (and she was RIGHT there). But she saw him move the chocolates.

GASP.

Whyy was he messing with the chocolates?!

Oh. No. Nevermind. He'd reappeared and the chocolates were no different. All was right in the world.

Blink. "But they weren't moving on their own. You moved them. I saw you...ish." Because she saw him go invisible, then the chocolates moved, so she kinda saw him move them, yeah?

Sighing, she turned her attention back to the marshmallow on the end of her stick... Only to find that it wasn't there. That it had fallen while she watched the Amazing Invisible Man. Thanks a lot, Professor Deshdadhd.

POUT.

Nika watched as her professor became invisible. If she hadn't seen him earlier she might have shouted 'ghost!' like muggles would. Being a muggle born she didn't know any better."That sometimes people are to ignorant to find the real cause of things?" Nika tried answering.

"Wizards and witches freak out muggles on purpose, to which they think it is a ghost or something?" K-Lee suggested. She was unsure exactly.

Maybe magical peeps freak out muggles because muggles think witches have warts and stuff, that made sense.

"Well, do you mean that you could use the disillusionment charm and - say move something as a way to scare off muggles from finding out the truth that magic and the wizarding world was actually real." Kyle asked.

Furrowing her brow - slightly confused. But what about the stupid no magic in front of muggles - law...she thought biting her lip. And then taking another bite of the chocolate. Yummy.

Savannah frowned slightly. How would she know what the muggles think about ghosts? She has never met one, and she's definetly not one.

Nevermind about that. Savannah's thinking about the answer to Professor-What-So-Ever's question. Uhhh....Savannah's mind went blank. *POOF*

The light flickered back in as she choked back a laugh. Silly muggles! "Sometimes the muggles claim they see ghosts, but it's actually us-wizards and witches in invisibility cloaks or Disillusionment Charm!" She said in one breath.

Eirian ran her tongue over her teeth and managed a smile. She had been right. Not acknowledged or singularly addressed, but right all the same. It almost felt... nice. As nice as school lessons to get. They were all a sham, naturally. But Eiri could play the good girl for now and settle into a more English role... that was what her grandmother had wanted, right? Raising her hand again, she answered with more resonance, "People are prone to making assumptions, whether they are muggle or not... If we see something we cannot explain, we try to give reason to it anyway. A muggle would see nothing and say it was a ghost, while it might be the effect of a charm, a hidden magical being, or even a magical creature, since some of them are not visible to muggles. Sometimes it can even be the wind, as silly as it sounds, or invisible strings that muggle magicians use to fool people. Something does not have to be visible to exist, so there are infinite ways to explain a simple illusion such as this."

Patroclus could help but feel like someone was looking at him, he had an idea at who it was, and why it was happening, but all that did was make his heart swell.....cause you know, it meant that that person care enough to be jealous.....

Turning his mind back to the lesson, Patroclus nodded in a agreement with the other students answers

"I think what you are getting at is the possibility that the ghost Muggles refer to, are either careless wizards or witches that have allowed themselves to have their there actions seen by muggles whilst disillusioned, or on the flipside Wizards doing it deliberately"

Naughty people, flouting the Statutue like that!

Emily smiled as the handsome Professor became invisible and then started shifting boxes around. It did look a bit strange and she could understand why muggles would freak out so much.
"Professor are you suggesting that some witches and wizards like to mess around with the muggles and make them believe that something paranormal is happening, try to scare them off or something?"

Emily continued thinking along this line for a few seconds, then added, "Or, did it to scare them away from frinding out about our secrets? about our world?" she asked.

Kurumi sat on Patroclus' lap in the same manner a young child meeting Santa Clause for the first time would. Well, at least how it was the first time she had ever seen him. She had found the man frightening and had cried and cried and cried as she sat on his lap for no other reason than she was sitting on some stranger with a white beard that laughed strangely - not that the Prefect was any of these things.

Kurumi whimpered and nodded her head as he spoke and then felt a familiar burning sensation on the back of her head. It was Cookie!Hater...it had to be.

Turning her head around, she saw someone completely different glaring at her.

Did she hate cookies too?
"N-N-N-No mean ghosts?" she repeated in a soft whimper. Well, that was a relief. She wouldn't mind seeing Sir Nicholas again. They had had a rather pleasant conversation at the Opening Feast.

Kurumi listened to a few of her classmates as they spoke and was immediately reminded of her brothers and all the pranks they tended to play. It was part of the reason why their mother had taken away their wands - or so she had been told. Perhaps there was something in the statement of witches and wizards playing tricks on non-magical people.

"Perhaps, Professor, non-magical people saw a witch or wizard performing some sort of magic, perhaps even the magic you did just now, and they came to the conclusion that that person must be a ghost. We have talked about how non-magical people deny the existence of magic, but they are willing to accept that idea of ghosts." She sniffled a little and thought about the story she had told. "Also, ghosts seemed to serve the purpose of explaining something or putting a label on who did it when there is no obvious answer. So...perhaps with the story I mentioned, perhaps the samurai used ghosts as an excuse for him doing the deed himself?"