She should bring it up with Professor Magnus? Which one was she? Or he? Well whoever he/she was, Seri had no idea which one it was. "Well things that look scary, or thins that are attacking you... Or innocent other people." Seri joked. She didn't know the answer exactly, but she was still going to guess.. Even if it was a bit of a joke. WHATEVER.

His first reaction is to totally go deep thinking about this, be real profound and complete... but the Professor had them going about this the other way. "Uhm-- Trolls." he blurted out. Yeah absolutely no deep thinking there, problem is now he has to justify why he said so "We have to defend ourselves from them because...... they're quite offensive--to the senses." They're smelly, they're ugly, they're loud and stupid... good enough reasons right?

How do you know what to defend yourself from? Ella frowned slightly. You would want to defend yourself from something or someone who aimed to harm you, yeah? Or anything that was known to be aggressive towards people? Like blast-ended skrewts *cough* meanies *cough* "Professor, you know to protect yourself from certain things based on the information you learn about them. For instance, we learn certain magical creatures can be dangerous so you'd know to be wary of them. One creature you might defend yourself from would be a grindylow." Which Ella had done a project on last term. Yup. She knew all about those little guys. Meep.

How do you know? How do you know what to defend yourself from? Hmmm. Well, if someone was trying to hurt or harm you in any way, shape, or form, that would be an obvious answer. Or scary animals, for that matter. "Certain curses, spells, hexes, and dangerous creatures and people." That pretty much summed it all up. She wouldn't have to, probably, protect herself from those anytime soon though. I mean, she's only in her third year! But there are probably some people who would, ahem, potentially try to hurt her. Nothing serious though. Hopefully.

Silvia had sat out the first question, but she thought she should give this one, and the whole not-your-first-thought rule, a try. The first, and most obvious answer that came to her, was dark creatures. So, something other than that. Hmm, this really didn't seem like such an easy question once you really thought about it...

"You should defend yourself against anything or anyone who intentionally tries to harm you or others around you. It can't only be when you feel threatened, unless you know for sure that your opponent is or could be dangerous, because it may turn out that they were not a threat at all and it only seemed like it." She paused for a moment to think before adding, "So, with a few exceptions such as dark creatures, it really depends on the situation and a being's intent and actions towards you. It can be difficult to determine someone's or something's intentions, so you really need to be able to analyze the situation quickly."

Answering the question and smooshing Louisa
 

Vivi was having trouble clearing out the cobwebby thoughts from her mind and finding an answer that wasn't pretty much exactly what she would have answered first. Some people were willing to offer secondary silly answers, but Vivi wanted a real answer that wasn't a first answer and... Merlin, it made her head hurt.

Beside her in the half-darkened room, Vivi listened as Louisa tensed up for her answer. They weren't friends, not really, but there was something very alone in her voice. It sucked more than anything to be alone in a group. Vivi un-ohhhhhhmed her hand and reached out in the dark to give Louisa's hand a comforting squeeze.

"We don't know, Professor. We don't always know what to guard from, so I think the answer is everything. We should always be on guard." She couldn't find Louisa without looking, though, and Vivi made a blind grab, unsettled her precarious balance, and fell sideways out of her lotus and into the Head Girl.

Nigel did know about some dark creatures and they were really scary. They could not be reasoned with and would kill you just because they can. He was working up a sweat with all the jogging he was doing. But it was more fun than the yoga Professor Romanos wanted them to do.

"You have defend yourself from Nundus, Dementors and Lethifolds. They really deadly and can kill you very quickly."

He wondered if it was possibly to really defend yourself against a Nundu. They seem invincible from what he read.

She paid attention to the answers, and especially to the president's daughter's answer who was positioned right next to her. Was it getting slightly breezy, by the way? Coz Louisa could swear it felt like someone was fanning her. No matter, she could just go back to closing her eyes and-- SQUEAK! something toppled over her, jabbing her in the waist.

If this wasn't a dim-lit classroom with a creepy music and conversation about defense against something, Louisa's reaction might've been lighter. But since this was the case, the head girl yelped and started kicking with all her strength, her hand going for her wand and "PROTEGO!" You could actually hear the shield forming! "LUMOS!" She needed to see what kind of threat she was defending herself from, and thanks to everybody's answers, there seemed to be too many to count!

Vivi. It was the president's daughter.

Lulz Louisa and Vivi
 

One minute Vickers was painfully sitting in the semi-darkness trying to deconstruct his normal thinking process, and the next there was scuffling right in front of him and this BRIGHT LIGHT that flashed right in his face.

It was almost like he was hit himself, squeezing his eyes shut and reeling back from the sudden brightness. As he suddenly jerked away he may have hit somebody beside him-- he didnt know who of course-- and he cowered on his elbows and knees trying to shake off the stars that suddenly appeared in his vision.

Grumble mumble "What was that all about?"

Vivi and Louisa. ^_^ And answering the question.
 

Louisa and Jake
 

She was stabbed in the eye with a wand. She was blinded by a Lumos right in her face. And all because she was just trying to be helpful. Lesson learned... everyone in this blasted school was nutters.

Vivi shoved off Louisa and tried to scramble back onto her mat and into her lotus position. It was a good thing the room was so dark, to hide the burning of her cheeks and the ugly glares being thrown in the general direction of the Head Girl and anyone who dared make a peep about this incident. Not actual glares at Louisa, considering Vivi was blind and all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syd (Post 11205281) What was there to defend against? Why were these questions so broad. What were dark arts. What did you need to defend against. Why couldn't they be straight forward like "What do you do to fend off an attacker?" To which Jake might answer, "Poke them in the eye." And that would be so much easier than thinking of a profound, thought-out answer. So, he was about to answer, when a commotion to his side caught his attention. From what he could guess, that blonde girl had jumped the Head Girl, who had resorted to magic to get the blonde girl away from her. There was Jake's answer, then. "Women." He said loudly, pointing his arm straight out to point at the two girls. Yes. You needed to protect yourself from women. The reasoning behind his answer should have been obvious.

OH REALLY? Irrational anger bubbled up to cover the mortification, and Vivi glared now in the direction of the voice. Women? WOMEN?

Of all the sexist, rude, idiotic things to say when a girl was just trying to ohm her way to self actualization and stuff... Vivi un-lotused again, whipped off the tennis shoe that was making the position so uncomfortable anyway, and chucked it at the boy in question.

"Merlin defend me from... from Gryffindors!"

"So we’re meant to be stretching our minds?" She thought on that for a moment. “Yes, being able to change up how you thought could be useful,” she figured. “It would be especially useful if you were ever attacked.” She shuddered at the thought. “Hopefully that never happens, but it’s always good to be on your toes…”

She really didn’t like this Lotus position. She wasn’t doing it right anyway, but just sitting on these mats was uncomfortable in itself. The professor asked what they already knew about the dark arts, and she realized she knew very little. Her first reaction was to say, “Not much” but she doubted that would be sufficient. She thought on it and said, “Well…I know that they are usually bad. Or used to do negative things.” That seemed right.


She heard a lot of similar answers to her own so she must’ve been on the right track. Several students seemed a little conflicted about the dark arts. Some even sounded like they didn’t necessarily think they were bad; She wondered why they felt that way. “I don’t see what good can really come from anything related to dark magic,” she thought to herself.

Eliza shifted her weight a bit and rolled her head from side to side. Now her neck was starting to get sore. She hoped they would be able to change positions soon. “How do we know what to defend against?” She was puzzled. It seemed obvious, wasn’t it? A vivid picture of another wizard coming at her with their wand pointed came to mind. She shook it from her mind and tried to think outside of the box. She raised her hand and said her next idea a bit sheepishly, but curious to hear if she was right or not, “Things that are clearly going to cause you harm of course, like a dementor or…or a monster that’s chasing you…” she cleared her throat. “But there could be things you don’t even know are dark until it’s too late,” she said - thinking particularly of some of the cursed items she’d heard existed in Knockturn Alley. “But I guess those would be hard to defend against. I mean…there must be a way though. Isn’t there?”

Catching up
 

A lot of these answers she agree with herself. Some were obvious, others a little more thought out, but whatever the case, each were correct in some way. There truly wasn't just one single list indicating what they should and shouldn't protect themselves from.

"You are to focus on answering the questions, Miss Somerland." she smiled. "But, as I've requested, instead of giving me your first answer you think of, I want you to think of a second answer instead. So yes, focus on not saying what you're thinking of."

Medea stared for a moment. Yup, it definitely looked as though she were laying down. "Miss Dixon, please sit up. Do not make me have you jog in place like Mister Odessa is doing." Because she wasn't against the idea of doing so.

Oh dear...

"Miss Cambridge, there will be no name calling in my class. The Headmistress should and will be respected." Not insulted. Though Medea said nothing about the suggestions of the charms professor. For all she knew, they definitely should defend themselves against Sophia.

Psychotic woman.



Just as a few answers before her, this was mostly what Medea was looking for. One should always be on their guard, especially in times when uncertainty was at it's greatest. It was tough luck for those who were too trusting. Herself included sometimes. "Yes, Miss Branxton-"

She saw movement, and then heard a squeak and shield charm, but nothing prepared her for the blinding light shining in the room. Raising her hand to semi-shield her eyes, Medea squinted, trying to see who had created the eye burning substance of doom in this darkly lit setting.

"Miss...Carter, please put out the light and lower your wand."



She had white spots in her vision now.

Rubbing her eyes, she blinked as her gaze adjusted once again to the setting. Her ears were working just fine however. While the simple answer was actually funny in her opinion and true, others may not have found as so. One in particular.

"Miss Branxton! I do not know vot the rules were at your previous school, but we do not throw belongings at one another here. Two points vill be taken from Ravenclaw." Merlin, her normal accent was slipping. They could yell at each-other all they wanted, but Medea was putting her foot down when belongings were being thrown.

Now...where were they again?

Lex watched the little mishap unfold with the wand raising and flashing lights and all that jazz but what she didn't expect was for it to get so out of hand.

O__O

There were both overreacting if you asked her. Then she heard someone mention needing protection against women? Really? Vivi didn't seem to agree with that which showed quite obviously when she lashed out and of course Lex agreed fully--until she said that last part. "Heeyy! Gryffindors are not bad! You should be more gender specific like he was!" If she was going to try getting back at him she might as well had played the same card.


"But...but..." The woman really was psychotic, in fact they both were!!!! It wasn't name calling if it was true...right? It couldn't be because in that case it would be stating a fact; a very true fact that the professor seemed willing to overlook in the name of respect. Ugh. Why did everyone seem to love throwing that word around anyway?

Wait a minute...wasn't she going to correct her about the Charms Professor...? Alexa did say that they were BOTH psychotic so why only get scolded for one? See, this was why she thought adults were weird.

---

Such a shame...Vivi had cost her house two points. This Professor meant business; though it was just a shoe...it couldn't have done that much damage...

Jogjogjogjogjog.

And what was wrong with jogging? Jogging was good for you. It was. It kept you fit. It wasn't a punishment at all.

Yoga was.

Jogging not so much.

And he might even mix it up with star jumps.

West looked over at Vivi when she lost points and he wanted to say 'ha ha' not because it was funny, but because it sort of felt like the sort of thing you were supposed to say when someone that wasn't in your house lost points.

And naturally, like the Odessa that he was, he started wondering; If we don't throw belongings, what about things that DIDN'T belong? Non-belongings? Lost things? Could you, in theory, go get the lost and found box, and bring that in here, and start chucking the contents at whichever Gryffindor happened to bother you most? West was fairly sure that, as a Slytherin, he was supposed to be more bothered by what Sierra called 'puffers', and as a Quidditch player, he was supposed to be up in arms about Ravenclaws.

Really, he'd have to figure out which of the three other houses he should throw non-belongings at before experimenting.

Jogjogjogjogjog.

Because really, we do need to comment on the boyfriend getting a shoe to the face. XD
 

Holy Harry Potter!

For the first time, Sutton was truly beginning to understand how stupid brave it was of these professors to keep a bunch of teenagers with wands cooped up in this one school for several months at a time.

In a matter of moments, it seemed, there had been magic used against a student who had launched herself at a one of her peers, though Sutton was fairly certain that the magic hadn't actually served its intended purpose. And then a girl was throwing a shoe at a boy who had made some remark about needing to defend himself against women.

With a bit of a smirk, Sutton couldn't help but think to herself that this boy was probably the smartest in the whole class. Obviously, he did need to defend himself against women... seeing as how one had just chucked a shoe at his head. Sutton had a feeling that perhaps this boy had his fair sure of problems with women.

Raising her hand with a smile on her face, Sutton said, "Professor, I'd like to amend my answer and add that I think we should also defend ourselves against our own negative impulses." Which was clearly evident in this classroom right now.

WELP. Can you say awkward?

Louisa nox'ed her wand, feeling her cheeks slightly warm, "Yes. Sorry." That was to the professor and to Vivi's silhouette. Was she looking at her? Louisa couldn't tell, and it wasn't her fault that she was jumpy! Romanos HAD to set such a perfect creepy atmosphere for them, it was all the professor's fault. Right. That felt much better. Now the Ravenclaw just fumbled on her spot and tried to re-assume her lotus position. Merlin she was still a little shaken, see her paranoia was taking the best of her. She should see professor Lafay about that again.

When someone answered with "women",the Ravenclaw frowned and opened her mouth to say something but Vivi beat her and threw something at him. That... was a very impulsive act. Louisa grinned in the dark and was about to voice out her support but Romanos' voice shut her up. She stayed still until the two points were taken from them.

Should she say something? Instead of... just sitting in awkward silence? Louisa made sure the students started answering again when she cleared her throat and whispered, "Good cause, though." Pause. "Two points are nothing." Ya know, in case Vivi felt bad for it, which was unlikely, Louisa thought but getting addressed in the middle of your first DADA class was ...uncomfortable?

Kurumi had, er, somewhat dozed off during the initial flailing that had gone on, but the sudden burst of light had snapped her back to an upright position and one of her hands went to rub her eyes. What was going on?

Only then there was a shoe flying in front of her face and SMACKing into one of her fellow Gryffindors followed by Vivi's voice saying that she needed to be protected from Gryffindors.

.....huh?

For once, which shocked Kurumi, she was agreeing with the first year troublemaker and was even nodding her head.

Actually...if they were voicing what houses they needed protecting from, Kurumi could use it from... "Ravenclaw females," she muttered under her breath.

It always seemed to be them that had something against her - minus Sierra who wasn't a Ravenclaw by any stretch of the imagination. At least Ellie had graduated now, so her daggers for eyes were one less thing she had to look out for.

Cassia nodded at the Professor answering the question. In her mind she told herself NOT to relax too much in order not to fall asleep! Because they had to answer questions not shut their brain off like Cassia thought they were doing. Well, it was good she had asked. Falling asleep would have so embarrassing. And she actually wondered how other students didn't feel like her. You know except for West who was jogging. Cassia wondered how long will he last jogging like that. He is a Chaser after all so he surely had strength but still.

HOWEVER! Cassia was jerked awake when a light went on and two Ravenclaws fall into each other or something!? Oh did that Eagle just throw a shoe at that Lion. Wow! What happened to concentration and stuff? And minus two points for Ravenclaw. Hehe.

Cassia was actually grateful for the couple minutes of light. Thanks to Loza the Ravenclaw Head Girl. It reminded Cassia that they were still at the classroom. The uneasiness she was feeling because of the dark was going away. Thank you daughter's of governor for falling on the HG.

And Back to the Lotus position.

Elliot had been silently watching(obviously, don't people usually watch silently???) the whole commotion while still listening to professor....she even had to stifle a chuckle when that new old 'Claw girl threw a shoe at some Gryffindor...pfffft. That was pretty funny.

But her attention snapped back to Professor as she took two points away. Oh yeah, two points, sooo bad. Honestly, was that going to make a difference? Maybe in the long run, but Elliot was so thankful it wasn't more.

She shot a glance at Cora..."This doesn't normally happen..." which was somewhat a lie, because weird things often did happen...in class.

Merlin's beard. What on earth was going on in this class, anyway? Ella had enough trouble trying to concentrate when she was also focusing on being a human pretzel doing yoga! How was she meant to do those things AND ignore the craziness that was her classmates. Meep.

...Oh, and the women comment? Ella frowned for a second before really considering this. It wasn't entirely false. Women could definitely be scary...and powerful...and just as strong and smart as men. Heh. Yeah! Guys should totally fear women. Grin.