James copied the professor's movements, rather falling over in the process. He found it hard to balance.
"What about the Basilik? How do you kill one anyway?" he asked.

A CURSE!

Louisa's triangle pose was all messed up at this piece of VERY important information. So Aspen technically CURSED her last term! The dark intentions were absolute now. If the head girl knew where that Odessa was sitting, she'd shoot a death glare at her, Louisa did hear her voice though... just never paid attention to where she was Now she just shot the glare at her sugar-high jogging brother. He can deliver the message... even if he was most likely to not see Louisa looking at his moving direction.

Moving on.

Louisa moved slowly for this position, bringing her feet closer together. Then more slowly she lifted her left foot and tried to get it as high as possible without her losing her balance, all the while clasping her hands together in front of her chest. Her left foot was positioned on the middle of her right leg. Accurate enough.

"The Inferi. The brought-back-from-the-dead. They're usually reanimated by a Dark Wizard who controls them for his own usually dark purposes." She had a lot more information about those things, her last term's final speech was about them. "They dislike light and heat, the most effective spell against them is a fire-summoning spell. They cannot feel pain, and thus are unaffected by many spells whose main effect is pain." Enough? Hopefully.

Tree pose?

Yeah he could do that pose. How hard it could be? Surely its not as hard as the boat pose, right? First he need to bend his left knee and put it front of his right knee. But unfortunately his left foot decided not to cooperate with him, he only managed to hold that pose for a few second before his left foot touched the ground again. Ugh. Its more difficult than he thought. Maybe he should answer the question first then do the pose later.

Hand up. "I think Grindylows classified as a dark creature, Professor. They have been known to eat humans." Now, onto the tree pose.

Ariadne was struggling with the tree position much more than she was struggling to come up with an answer to the question. How would she be able to raise her hand, anyway? If she did, all balance would be lost. In a compromise, the girl put her leg down just as she raised her hand, resuming the position afterwards.

'Hinkypunks can be considered dark creatures, because they trick travellers and get them stuck into bogs.' Even their appearance betrayed their dark nature. One legged creatures which appeared to be made of smoke. Not very pleasant to the eye, surely.

Cassia stood straight appreciating that the triangle position was over. Only because she didn't like bending down for some reason. It made her look shorter than she already was. Not that anyone was mocking her but the second-year hated her shortness...it made her look vulnerable which she didn't like.

Anyway, She squared her shoulders and brought her hands together. Not that the hands move was the problem. Now the trickier part. Cassia lifted her right foot off the floor and rose it slowly in order not to lose her balance. Which would cause her falling on a student near her. And better not to repeat the incident of the two Ravenclaws in which the head girl cast a protecting charm. Cassia fought the urge to not look to see who was sitting near her. Because that would definitely make her lose her balance.

And done. Cassia grinned at herself. She can only hope now that no one would accidently nudge her. Pretty please?

Now what was the question? Something about dark creatures. Cassia heard some answers before speaking up. Just to make sure that she had caught the question correctly while concentrating on her position. "Sna..."Cassia trailed off. Was she really going to say Snakes? This Yoga thing is disturbing. It makes one's tongue slip anything. Actually that was Cassia's tongue but might as well blame Yoga.

Clearing her throat ,Cassia spoke again" Dementors maybe.." You know they are creepy. Though Cassia wasn't sure if they are even considered as creatures. They looked like ghosts or spirits.

Tree pose. Oh, that was EASY compared to the boat. Sophie stood up straight and balanced on her right foot, lifting her left leg and bending her knee and... tadah! Tree pose! Simple enough!

Sophie listened as some of her classmates gave their answers and wondered whether to say Boggart again or not. She had read so much about them last term and all, they would probably be the first things that came to her mind for a while when asked about Dark Crea-

O_____________________________________O

Her thoughts were cut off when Harvey replied to professor Romanos. "YES!" She said rather loudly, her finger shooting out to point in Harvey's direction, making her lose balance and almost fall down.

Woops. Sorry about that. "Yes, professor. Banshees are terrible, terrible creatures." SO terrible and horrible and DARK and EVIL! "We can even say they're the worst kind of creatures there is!" That was definitely not true, since 'all' you needed to do was break their neck and they would die, and there were worse creatures like the basiliks and yada yada, but BANSHEES were HORRIBLE!

So banshees would be her answer also. "Banshees are awful, professor, yes." She said again, just to... emphasise their horribleness. Pout.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magical Soul

A CURSE!

Louisa's triangle pose was all messed up at this piece of VERY important information. So Aspen technically CURSED her last term! The dark intentions were absolute now. If the head girl knew where that Odessa was sitting, she'd shoot a death glare at her, Louisa did hear her voice though... just never paid attention to where she was Now she just shot the glare at her sugar-high jogging brother. He can deliver the message... even if he was most likely to not see Louisa looking at his moving direction.



Moving on.

Louisa moved slowly for this position, bringing her feet closer together. Then more slowly she lifted her left foot and tried to get it as high as possible without her losing her balance, all the while clasping her hands together in front of her chest. Her left foot was positioned on the middle of her right leg. Accurate enough.

"The Inferi. The brought-back-from-the-dead. They're usually reanimated by a Dark Wizard who controls them for his own usually dark purposes." She had a lot more information about those things, her last term's final speech was about them. "They dislike light and heat, the most effective spell against them is a fire-summoning spell. They cannot feel pain, and thus are unaffected by many spells whose main effect is pain." Enough? Hopefully.

Huh.

Hehe. Aspen thought ... the whole curse thing? HILARIOUS.

But she didn't find the glare at baby brother all that funny. Low light or not, Aspen's SENSES picked up on the DARK intentions towards her brother.

She would literally slay the Head Girl. Literally.

So, with a WHOLE OTHER type of "Dark Creature" in mind (YOU, Louisa!), Aspen got her wand out, pointed it silently at the Head Girl from within the sleeve of her robe, and ... might have set the Head Girls shoelaces on fire a little.

Just a little.

Just the foot she had on the ground. Aspen didn't want to burn her leg off or anything.

Nothing to squawk at. Just a little fire on her shoe. The Head Girl WAS talking about Inferi. It was a practical lesson, see? And now? Now she'd know Aspen was WATCHING HER.

Hopefully not the Professor though. Aspen pulled her hood tighter and her wand and hand deeper into her robes.

Ok this may look relatively simple for most people, but for Vickers trying to stand on one leg is just as bad if not worse than the Boat position they did earlier. Bad ear equals bad balance see? So there he was trying to make like a Tree but clearly he was having trouble as his folded leg kept jutting out to keep himself from falling flat on his face. "Uh Professor... uhm Red Caps." the creatures he covered for his finals last term "Even if they are rather low on the danger scale they are still considered dark creatures since their technique is to attack their victims when the least expect it before bludgeoning them to death. " Ok so that didnt require much lateral thinking but he is TRYING to keep upright.

It was in the nth time that his other leg braced against the ground this Ravenclaw's gaze shifted towards the floor-- AND then saw the Louisa's shoelaces were on fire.

"You're on fire!" he yelled as he rushed on both legs towards the Head Girl and nearly tackled her to the ground. He reached for his wand in his pocket but realized it wasnt there (it was in his bag where it wont get smashed around by the graceful yoga-ing). Quickly he took off his sweater and started smacking it against the flames that has started to spread across the surface of the shoe.

Switching positions, Dylan balanced himself easily, lifting one foot and forming this thing Professor Hot-Pants was calling the Tree Pose. No one needed to look at him funny for it, either. He played Quidditch and had to maintain balance at extremely high altitudes...on a skinny broom...One didn't do that and not walk away with something...

This Yoga business was quite relaxing, though...

Anyway...examples of Dark Creatures...

"Vampires, ma'am?" Dylan offered. He'd portrayed one last year for his Final...Quite a proud moment for the Captain, too. He had received top marks for it.

...

Suddenly someone had yelled out...and the next thing he'd known, Vicky was speeding across the room at a break-neck speed. Whaaat was he doing? Silly Ravenclaw...The Slytherin wondered why they were even friends...

And why was he assaulting the Head Girl?! Well, she was a Ravenclaw female...Had Vickers somehow realized what he had? That all Ravenclaw girls were trouble and crazy?

"...!"

Cool points for you, Vicky-poo. You remain "Friended".

....

...

..

.

Funny.

Louisa would swear that something furry was perched up on her foot making it extremely warm by the minute. She looked down, in the dim light only a flicker of something moving caught her attention... then a faint smell. "Do yo-" she started to say to Vivi next to her when the entirely unexpected MINDBLOWING fact dawned upon her..

.. and Vickers, from the row behind them, voiced it out. Louisa SQUEAKed again, her eyes widening in both shock AND fear. HER SHOE WAS ON FIRE! In an instant though, Vickers was at her foot patting it with a piece of his clothes. Speechless Louisa all too shocked to speak or do any kind of reaction. HOW did it happen?!! Why?! Who--

GRRRRRR. Of cooooooourse! Her shock faltered to rage as she placed one hand on the boy's shoulder, "Th-thank you. It's gone now, Vick." BREATH BREATH BREATH. She turned and started looking around, frantically, trying to locate the future-to-be Bellatrix Lestrange. Because WHO, in their rightful and sane mind, would set someone's shoe on fire? HMM? Aspen bloody Odessa.

So his sweater probably had burn holes in them that would need repairing but he wasnt really caring much about that. Still stooped on the ground when Louisa said the fire was gone and gave her thanks, he looked up and murmured "Are you sure you're alright?" He was more concerned if the fire burned through the shoe material and got to Louisa's foot.

Minerva stood straight up and looked at tree pose. Hmmm she put her leg up and placed her foot on her other leg, but lost her balance and fell to the ground. Standing up again she tried to get her balance before lifting her leg. Slipping again she put her foot down before falling this time. This was harder then she first thought it was. Was her balance that bad. Trying one more time Minerva finally found some balance to stay standing up in tree pose. Then it was time to actually think about the question.. A dark creature well her first thought was always the boggarts, but if she had to think of something other then her first answer.. hmmm, "Professor vampires are considered dark creatures."

Okay....The mushy stuff was making his stomach turn. Didn't Vicky see he was trying to learn something here? Dylan was seriously wondering about the 'Claw's taste-level.

And NO, the fact that he was just as nuts over his own Ravenclaw would not be mentioned or thought about. Not at all.

AHEM!

Sccccooffffff! "She's obviously fine." The Captain stated in a low voice.

Had the fire-thing escaped him? No...but really...It wasn't that serious.

Penelope didn't particularly like this Tree Pose, but at least the question wasn't TOO hard. As she tried to keep her balance, the first thing that came to her mind was a dementor, but since they weren't supposed to say that, she tried to think of another. She was sure there had to be another that she'd read about in her grandparents' library when she'd gotten bored there over the summer. Finally, she raised her hand. "What about werewolves?" Those were considered dark creatures, weren't they? At least in their wolf form. Plus, they turned into wolves at night which was dark even with a full moon. So yeah.

The chaos going on with Louisa - Merlin, why was she attracting so much trouble in one lesson? - caused Penelope to lose her balance for a moment, but she quickly regained it, eyeing that group of older students and wondering what, if anything, would happen next.

Haha.

See? Just a little fire. And now the Head Girl wasn't looking OR thinking about West. Everyone was fine, even Vickers who... Hmm. Verdict not in on him yet.

Aspen pulled her hood again. Nothing to see here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by THE Govoni

Okay....The mushy stuff was making his stomach turn. Didn't Vicky see he was trying to learn something here? Dylan was seriously wondering about the 'Claw's taste-level.

And NO, the fact that he was just as nuts over his own Ravenclaw would not be mentioned or thought about. Not at all.

AHEM!

Sccccooffffff! "She's obviously fine." The Captain stated in a low voice.

Had the fire-thing escaped him? No...but really...It wasn't that serious.

...snort.

FINE was questionable, but Aspen was seriously wondering if the Slytherin Captain wasn't her new BFF.

"Are banshees considered Dark, Professor?"

Ahem.

Why did he jog? "Its better than yoga." Obviously. He had an agreement with the professor that jogging or star jumps was a good alternative. It made perfect sense to West who was a bundle of energy anyways.

Because he was so nicely answering THIS question, he didn't see Head girl!glares or Head girl!foot flames.

And to be honest West wouldn't have found it unusual if he had. What he WOULD have done would be to try to learn the spell from Aspen, maybe to try it out on the Head Girl's other shoe? Because she was obviously wearing flammable shoes, and already had one singed. He'd just be making it even for her.

What he WAS noticing was how many people were totally wrong about which creatures were dark. He shot a disbelieving look in the direction of his sister, like reaaaally, what was up with that? He put his hand up.

"If a creature is bred by a wizard with dark intentions it doesn't make it a dark creature, just a dangerous creature used for dark purposes, because of that whole breeding bit, right professor?" Or hatching. Or whatever.

"Okay, people, back it up," Vivi put out her arms and made a perimeter. Everyone needed to be thiiiiiiis far away from her or else suffer from having tiny Ravenclaws falling over on them. It wasn't that she had no sense of balance... it was just that this answering and yogaing was harder than it seemed and she'd already fallen on someone once.

And she'd been SITTING at the time. No lies.

Her shoeless foot tucked up against her thigh, Vivi wobbled briefly before finding her balance. THISISHOWYOUYOGAPEOPLE. And now what was that question? Oh, yes. Something about dark creatures, which were pretty well rounded out by all her peers while Vivi had been trying to balance.

She was about to retell a charming story on Red Caps that her mother had once told her when someone was shouting about a fire (well, DUH... candles!) and there was more commotion as Vickers rushed past and attempted to smother the Head Girl. Vivi's already precarious balance was upset, and she toppled.

Hello, floor. I've missed you so. She smacked her mat a couple of times rather sulkily before adding to the growing clamor. "Do you MIND? Some of us are trying to learn. Please wait to put out future fires until class has ended." There would be future fires, right?

So far so good with the answers. When a question came up, Medea spoke. "A basilisk, despite it's more deadly characteristics, is just like any other snake. There is no one way to kill one." There were several ways in fact.



...

That happened.

The flicker of the light had caught her attention just as someone had yelled out it's existence. The same someone who had extinguished it. Having taken out her wand already, Medea turned it away from the students and instead gave a way around the room. The drapes opened, letting in natural sunlight while little streams of smoke floated away from the put out candles. It was going to smell like a birthday cake in here soon enough.

"Thank you, Mister Vanderbilt, for your quick action."

Medea stood silently for a moment, eyeing the class. She did not see how it was created, but shoelaces did not just set themselves on fire. Her theories did not ease her mind either. "I do hope this was just an act of a poltergeist. You all are too smart to cause such atrocity of setting someone on fire." Well, something, but that something was on someone.

West's question came just before she was going to announce the end of the lesson. "An interesting question. In all honesty, it would depend on what creature was bred." She eyed the students once again before turning her gaze to the young Slytherin. "It is difficult to create such a creature that would fit the description of a true dark creature, but...not impossible. Not by our very hands at least. It is a fact that if one adds magic into the mix, it can change the outcome entirely, but if one adds dark magic, then, you may be in for more than you'd expect. Magic is something we can't quite explain, Mister Odessa, especially with so many different variations. It's alive. Much like magical fires, if left long enough, it can create a ripple effect of danger." She was, of course, describing an ashwinder. "Leave it for too long... it can twist itself into something unnatural."

She paused for a moment. "Though I think this is topic for another time. Next lesson perhaps. I believe now is a good time as ever to end the lesson. A few bumps and bruises along the way, but nevertheless, this was a nice refresher for everyone." A little reviewing never hurt...anyone...

There were a couple glances to certain students. All of them Ravenclaws. "Class is dismissed. There will be no homework."

So...the whole Head Girl's shoe spontaneously catching fire thing? It was pretty ridiculous. Ella was glad that that Vickers character was so quick on his feet. Sheesh. Homeboy was like a superhero or something! Hogwarts student by day...Fire extinguisher by night. He was VICKERS...the flame finisher! Dun Dun Dunnnnnn.

Oh...and they could put their legs down now, yeah? Ella had had enough yoga for a lifetime one day. EEP! And what the heck was that? SHE WAS BLIND! Blink.Blink. Okay...dramatic. It was just the sunlight. Romanos had to give them a little warning next time though, pretty please!

No homework? Score. Though Ella really enjoyed this class so she'd probably do a little extra reading anyway...just for fun. After packing up her things, the third year stood near her mat, waiting for her friends to grab their stuff. She figured they could walk back to the common room together since most of them were Hufflepuffs. Maybe they could grab a snack before their next class or something.

On the way out of the room, Ella stopped to say goodbye to the professor, a small smile on her face. "See you next time, Professor!"

NO HOMEWORK!

Elliot was in shock. She scribbled her FAAAAASTEST to catch everything Professor Romanos said...and such. And the little fire distraction..on the dear Head girl made Elliot smirk a little...

She didn't forget the whole candy incident last term...when she found Louisa and some little claw THROWING around candy...in the dormitory...

Elliot had not been a happy camper...and neither had Louisa when Elliot voiced herself.

HMPH.

So trying to hide her chuckles, she wrote don a few mores things before packing up.

West stopped jogging, and took a few moments to get his breath back before whipping over to where the professor was, more questions in his eyes. You know, innocent curiosity.

"Professor, like, a Basilisk or a Cockatrice aren't Dark Creatures, but they're creatures that could be bred with dark intentions right? Couldn't almost any creature be bred with dark intentions, but it wouldn't be a Dark Creature?" He paaaaused and then added, "And that's part of why the ban of experimental breeding was passed in 1965 to try to regulate that sort of thing and maybe even stop more or new Dark Creatures, or not dark but dangerous creatures bred with dark intent from being made?" He had a MILLION more questions and thoughts zooming about, but the second year left it at that, waiting for answers.

She found her. The MURDERER. But Louisa had to look back at Vickers, not only looked but crouched next to him. "I'm really fine." She even forced a strained smile for him, IGNORING the mumble slash grumble from someone somewhere.



Louisa stood up, taking Vick's hand into hers so that he stood up with her. "Sorry for hassling over my burning shoe." Should've just let it spread over to her. HMPH. But the girl did look like having some balance issues today so Louisa didn't snap that at her. She just used her best sarcastic tone.



Louisa wanted to LAUGH. Yeah, she knew who did this alright but she didn't look at the direction of that Odessa though. This was getting personal and no professor slash authorative figure could help. Just something between the two Ravenclaws.

So the head girl waited.... and waited... and waited... until they were allowed to leave. "See you later," she addressed Vivi and Vickers (if he was still around) before quickly moving toward the row that had Aspen's mat in. As she passed the girl she pointed a finger at her, "I know it's you." Pause. "Stay away from me. I don't have time to play your wicked games." She got to study for her NEWTs, i.e. the FUTURE of her life. So yeah... back off Odessa chick.

Without turning around, Louisa started backing toward the exit.

Sierra stood in the tree pose, just about ready to call out the name of a dark creature, when the class suddenly came to a close. She didn't know whether to be shocked or excited. Oh, wait. No homework? Excitement it was.

She lowered herself back to a proper standing position and began getting everything together. Odessa was rattling off question after question, and she found herself grinning at his enthusiasm. "The creature might not be dark, but the wizard would be. Or, at least he used dark magic," she said, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "...and I think the ban is definitely in place for those reasons. I mean, when you experiment, you never know what you're going to get, and it could be dangerous to let some random creature loose and just wait and see what it does."

...and no, he hadn't asked for her opinion, but this was West. He'd probably be cool with it.

Read minds...that had been what this lesson had been about, right? Ironically, it seemed like the house that was supposed to be the one with the most ready of minds was the one that, erm, didn't seem to have it all together today. A thought that rather amused the Gryffindor as she lowered her leg back down to the mat and took a seat as the smell of burning shoe finally reached her nose. Gross...

But before her thoughts could linger too long on whatever was going on behind her, class had been dismissed and Kurumi began to put her things back in her bag. Well, not exactly. First she flopped down on her mat and took out some parchment and a quill so that she could NOW write some class notes. It was rather impossible to do so while performing various yoga positions after all.

Not to mention the creature talk going on between West and the professor was fascinating her. With what he was implying...dragons could also be bred to be dark creatures, perhaps, and that thought made Kurumi sick to her stomach. Of course, their natural life cycle would have to be removed in order to be considered fully dark...right? Did that mean like...turning a dragon into an Inferius?

...........creepy thoughts that were now going to keep her up at night.

While Cora didn't necessarily agree, she found this a totally acceptable answer. Shrugging, she returned her attention back to the professor.



Relieved that class was ending for now, Cora started gathering her things. She was not as pleased that there was no homework as some of the others. Shouldn't she want to learn more anyway? That's how Cora saw it. It didn't matter to her either way really.



Cora glanced at Elliot who was packing up her things. "See you later, Elliot," Cora said with a smile. She grabbed her books and prepared to leave.

Waving to Eliza as she passed, Cora made her way to the door. While class wasn't as bad as she was expecting, she did not quite look forward to the next lesson.