Sure, Alec was only a little shaky about the idea of this being his last lesson with Hadley. Graduation prospects weren't great. The coffin hadn't made things easier so... the boy was secretly very glad that it had been disillusioned. He took a couple more deep breaths before nodding over at the Muggle Studies professor and shooting her another small smile. Relax. Sure. It will be okay, right?

Feeling someone sitting down next to him, the eighteen year old turned his grey eyes to see... ... oh. Uh oh. This was going to be hard for her, wasn't it? Because... reasons. Alec shot the Head Girl what he hoped would be a reassuring smile. Hugs later?

Right. Attention back to Hadley and the disillusioned coffin.

Senescence... to grow old. An uncomfortable feeling started settling in as the boy cast an eye around at his classmates, who were already answering the question. Ageing. Yeah. "Professor?" he started, turning his attention back towards the front and raising his hand in the air, "Erm... there's cellular senescence where... your cells don't divide and grow and... there's senescence of the whole organism."

Caelen listened to the lesson and bit her lip. Wow harsh. Accepting a "fate" is something, but this seemed like a rather harsh lesson. Ouch. The redhead quickly looked over at Nate and then back at the Professor, thankful for a second that HE wasn't old. The idiot -he could be one once in a while- was kind of like her second brother. He was her brother who actually HAD a future after Hogwarts.

Opening her journal, the redhead with the braid wrote down everything the students said and listened to the answers. She wasn't mad that this lesson had no effect on her. This time the Ravenclaw was happy. Because this time this was a good thing. A really good thing. It meant that she wasn't dying soon. What? The firstie supposed that everyone accepted their fate. She was trying to accept the fact that Hogwarts was going to feel empty next year.

And this lesson miiiight just help her. Which was another reason she was currently hunched over the journal. Because whatever she could do, she would. At least to make the students comfortable. Because if they were... dying, they should try and make it like a nursing home of comfortableness, riiiight? She might suggest this to someone later. Finishing the notes, the blue-eyed girl wrote this idea in the margins of her paper. Because This was something that might ACTUALLY be a good idea. Not like that inflatable pants idea she had when she was eight. Shoving balloons up your pants legs was an awful idea. They all popped when she sat down and the adventurous girl STILL had marks on her legs from when that happened.

"Exactly right" Hadley nodded at Nate's answer.

"Precisely. So being kissed by a dementor, for instance, would be unnatural. As is the aging that is seen among many of you is unnatural." Hence why she was sure they would not meet an untimely death.

"Not necessarily to solely humans as it applies to any animal which undergoes the natural deterioration of cells and biological aging process."

"Growing old. Yes. In simple terms, senescence does refer to that."

"Funny how that works out... Senescence. Senile. And old people get senile. Irony with these terms." Or maybe not such a coincidence afterall.

"Growing old, yes. And eventually dying from biological aging."

Again with another student thinking they were going to die. "No, not necessarily. Because none of you lot are going to die despite your ... situations. However, I think not being afraid to speak about death or aging is a good thing"

"Yes. Natural aging though. It doesn't refer to those who die of external hazards...." Which in a way was what was affecting them. External hazards. Unnatural aging.

"Yes. like old people. And falling down stairs is something that might affect one with the biological aging process. Or just falling in general." General forgetfulness. And clumsiness.


"I thought it would be appropriate, yes, to discuss death because of the epidemic around Hogwarts, but not to accept your fate. Because it hopefully shouldn't be your fate for many decades to come." Hadley nodded at the Lioness. "However, I don't think its something to fear."

"In a sense though, they're kind of one and the same... Cellular where it just affects your cells would affect the whole organism." You know. Just saying and all. "It can also be applied to fruit, which is basically the ripening of the fruit"

"Physiological death is a process, rather than event. Hence why senescence is a popular term used to discuss it. Conditions which were once indicative of death are now reversible. Working heart and lungs, but brain dead such as those who received the dementor's kiss are in theory, considered dead." She paused a moment to remember the past groundskeeper who they recently lost. "So death, is when the biological functions that sustain a living organism cease to exist. What are some signs that might be present in a deceased organism? Some physical attributes that might exist?"

Ian listened to the professor and felt she was protesting their early demise a little too much. I mean, if they were going to die early wouldn't it be kinder to let them know? Anyways, he felt like she kind of brushed his answer off. Nevermind that it doesn't matter or is untrue. It's how he felt and so that's what he thought.

She asked about physical attributes of a deceased organism. He thought for a few minutes and realized he'd probably eaten too little for lunch. He raised his hand again. Deceased organisms no longer take in and process nourishment.

Deep breath. Nate had this. Before raising his hands he had to crack his knuckles. They were stiff. Probably from talking about old people. That was a common thing to happen amongst many groups of people. One person would say I feel ill, then others would psychologically think that they might be ill as well, and then they start to feel ill. So possibly talking about old people made his knuckles stiff.

Nate raised his hand, then stated "Some of the many signs of a deceased organism is they will feel cold to the touch. Depending on the time of death they might start to stink of rot and decay. Sometimes the body will become pail due to the heart not pumping blood through the body. Also they wouldn't have a pulse." Sigh of huge relief. Nate was glad he got that answer out quick. He couldn't stand being this one-of-the-first-few-people-to-raise-his-hand thing. That was unlike Nate's biological nature. He was more street smart and sporty. Not book smart and nerdy...that was his friend's job, Caelyn.

What was this lesson?

Vesper turned her attention from her elderly classmates to give Professor Hadley a curious look. Was she teaching them how to recognize when their classmates finally............passed away? That was morbid.

When people were dead, they just looked like they were sleeping to Vesper. Or...her aunt had, anyway...when they'd visited her in the funeral home. So...maybe she hadn't understood the question fully? How did someone look dead? "They won't breath anymore...Meaning their chests won't rise and fall..."...That was something physical, right?

Meh.

...and back to sketching.

Some signs? Hmmm. Adi had an idea and so he raised his hand yet again. "Erm...bloating, Professor.'' Yeah, you know. When the body does it's thing with the gasses causing the organism to swell and look all puffy.

That was kinda cool, to be honest.

Nigel was just listening. This was morbidly interesting with learning what scientist considered actual death and all. Like what was the dictionary definition of death. Just things Nigel thinks about when the topic of class is a coffin and senescence.

Some signs?

Well that was pretty easy. "Maggots are around, since Maggots only eat dead tissue."

Everything else is a hit or miss because they could be buried alive and who is not slightly afraid of that happening.

Hmmm...what were some signs that might be present in a deceased organism? Sander recalled that medical examiner show again. Sander listened as the other students shared their answers and when there was a pause, Sander raised his hand and gave his answer.

"Professor when an organism is deceased, there are chemical changes in the muscles, and the limbs and body start to stiffen and are hard to manipulate. They call this state rigor mortis."

How do you tell if someone's dead? Well, at least in Adrienne's experience (mainly through reading books about it, of course), it was pretty darn obvious. "Well, they'll likely smell absolutely terrible. Either 'cause the flesh is rotting and being eaten by maggots," she said, relishing the grossness of it, "or because when people- er, creatures die they tend to lose control of some organs, namely bowels and bladders and... yeah," she finished lamely. After a moment of fidgeting, she quickly barrelled onwards.

"Also, dead things like... don't breathe, or have heartbeats, or move, or have any brain activity." There was plenty more, like rigor mortis and stuff, but the rest of the class seemed to have that down, so Adrienne smiled brightly and finished there.

While Hadley was talking, Alec started pulling out his journal and writing supplies from his bag. Notes, you know. Though, the boy did hope that something like this didn't turn up in the Muggle Studies NEWT. Imagine having to write about death and the signs in the exam? Just... yeah. No. He'd rather not.

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

... And then Hadley went on to mention the Dementor's kiss. Poor Kilt Man. It was a good thing that the Dementors weren't still floating around anymore. They weren't right? He didn't think he'd be able to help fend them off in his current state.

Some signs? Were they looking for physical ones or...? He placed his quill down and raised his hand in the air. "Erm... well, if you try and take a pulse, there usually wouldn't be one on someone... who's been dead for a while." Shrug.

Eww. This was disgusting. Yes, people died. Animals died. Organisms...whatever they were being called. Sophie had never really focused on how they looked when they died, though. Somebody had even mentioned maggots, which made things even more stomach-churning to think about.

Did the professor think they were dying or something? They weren't, were they?

Sophie gulped then tried to come up with something nobody else had said. "They eventually feel cold instead of warm," she said, raising her hand. She shivered to herself. She hated thinking about this.

Cheery lesson.

..

...

....

Ella sat uncomfortably, listening to her classmates answer the question Hadley had posed. Physical characteristics of dead organisms. She'd only seen one dead person in her life and that was her Granddad. The people...the ones who worked on dead bodies had already worked on him so she didn't exactly have an accurate picture of what his lifeless body had looked like in the minutes after his death but she knew enough about science to have a general idea and she was thankful she didn't have to see it. Her thoughts were broken by the mention of maggots and the Head Girl glanced at Nigel, wishing she could be as equally passive about this discussion. Must be nice.

"They pale. Dead people look really pale."

Yup, that was her big contribution to this discussion. Could they be done now?

Benjy gulped, the colour draining from his face. He was beginning to wish he hadn't come to this lesson. Tiredness aside, this whole topic was making his stomach churn...and not just Nigel's mention of maggots, or Adrienne mention of smells or... EURGH. Even without the reality of his own mortality from this whole ageing thing (and Hadley's attempt at reassurance), it would have been a difficult topic for Benjy.

He frowned, and bit his lip. He needed to not think of dead humans. Maybe something more like potion ingredients, or meat or something. "They'll be still," he offered hesitantly. Maybe he should ask to be excused? Except, well, he was intrigued where this was going. What if Hadley really did have good intentions?

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaetha

How do you tell if someone's dead? Well, at least in Adrienne's experience (mainly through reading books about it, of course), it was pretty darn obvious. "Well, they'll likely smell absolutely terrible. Either 'cause the flesh is rotting and being eaten by maggots," she said, relishing the grossness of it, "or because when people- er, creatures die they tend to lose control of some organs, namely bowels and bladders and... yeah," she finished lamely. After a moment of fidgeting, she quickly barrelled onwards.

"Also, dead things like... don't breathe, or have heartbeats, or move, or have any brain activity." There was plenty more, like rigor mortis and stuff, but the rest of the class seemed to have that down, so Adrienne smiled brightly and finished there.

"Wait...." Was Zahra the only one actually listening? HAHAHAH She was STARING at THIS CLAW. "Did that Claw just say dead people poop their pants?" AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

No really... that's what... HAHAHAHA Zahra was going TO DIE HERSELF NOW HAHAHA.

"I mean it's not bad enough to be DEAD, you gotta POOP YOUR pants on top of that? Oh man. Mikey... we are NEVER gonna die. If you poop your pants when you die, then I'm going to DIE too laughing at you."

HAHAHAHA WHAT WAS THIS CLASS?!? Zahra was here 'cause Mikey was, but man.. she'd been MISSING out if this was what Muggle Studies was ABOUT.

KJSSDKHSKDMDSKJGDKGJGSD!

"Whawazzat?!"

All Tobias had seen was a sudden BLUR before being unceremoniously BLAPPED on the forehead. He blinked and flailed suddenly and squinted about. Did someone THROW something at him? Nope, felt suspiciously like a hand.

People clearly just wanted to high five his face. Toby was taking that as a compliment, as though people were telling him he had a good face. Gee whizz, thanks guys!

If anything, the face!highfive had properly bought Toby's focus back to the room, and the lesson and...

...

... oh.

Death.

That... wasn't fun. No. Toby didn't like that. He didn't want to talk about sad things. But rather than voice this concern he decided to just go with it. Because he was Toby Tempus, happiest kid on earth.

He raised his hand.

"Lack of life."

Uh, yeah.

Okay he had to admit that when he first walked into the classroom and saw the coffin, he had actually thought that Professor Hadley was going to tell them how muggle's made them. He didn't think she was actually going to talk about death.

That was just kinda rubbing it in to those of them that had the ageing disease happening.

He was considering having a snooze when his GIRLFRIEND came in and sat beside him and he kinda missed the question that was asked and some of the responses but he couldn't miss what Zahra was going on about and despite how he was feeling, he burst out laughing.

"And then you'll POOP your pants and my ghost will be laughing at you." He gave her a nudge with his elbow. "Don't worry, I'll get you some of those adult diapers so that you don't ruin your clothes." Hahahahaha.

... was Hadley trying to teach them how to identify which of their classmates had kicked the bucket? That was rather macabre. Alice gave a few curious looks to the professor, but she didn't hesitate to participate in the discussion. It was a fascinating one, after all.

"Hypostasis. Blood stops when the heart does, settles due to gravity, and makes the skin look dark blue or purple in areas." This particular sign of death went by multiple names, actually, but that one was among the most common and easy to pronounce. Plus she wasn't a Ravenclaw and took no pleasure in the bragging rights obtained from memorizing long and painfully irritating scientific names. Mhm.

Yep, this lesson was going exactly the way she had expected. Not at all cheery and full of stuff she really rather not think about.

She'd stayed silent through the first question because, quite honestly, she'd been trying to get over the shock of seeing a COFFIN when walking into class. Well that, and she hadn’t known the answer. But now, she felt over it enough to try answering. "They start decomposing."

But know Layla had a question of her own, hearing all her classmates answers. "Does that mean that vampires and zombies and the like aren't really dead? Because they don't really show any of those signs, aside from cold skin and no pulse....?"

Bay raised his hand totally unsure if it was right or not.. "muscles and stuff start to loosen up and like the skin will start to stretch?" ughhh was this what he had to look forward too.. IT WAS TOO SOON!!! Bay did not want to talk about this what so ever!! could he just hide under his desk and cry.. please oh please!!

...

.....

Lex glanced from one person to the other, opting not to give an answer but instead to listen to the responses of others and pretend she wasn't sitting through a lesson on death. For the life of her she couldn't understand what significance or amusement pooping pants could be but she put nothing pass Zahra and consequently Mikey.

Her stomach needed to start working again. As put off as she was by her snack, there was still a part of her that wanted something to munch on, just for munching, no other reason.

For the sake of keeping her sanity, Lex told herself they were getting through the theory aspect before beginning the lesson, she could do that just like she did with all her other classes. It got her wondering what the practical would be. The Professor said that no one was inside the coffin....could they maybe make it something else and send people off in it? Like a rocket? It would only need some power behind it and some half willing volunteers.

It could happen and she was waiting patiently with the hope it would.

Yeah, this was the worst class Lux had been to all Term, because it was absolutely frightening and creepy. She did not want to listen to this, or talk about it. There was no real urge to even write notes. Lux really liked her Head of House, and respected her... but that did not mean she had to enjoy what the woman was teaching. Sighing, she started to slide down in her chair a little. Maybe she could hide under her desk until the lesson was over and pretend that this never happened.

Even if her friends weren't going to die, it was still scary.

Ugh. Ugh. UGH.

She wasn't liking this lesson. The subject she's been trying to avoid for years has finally come and smacked her right in her face. It was worse than talking to her shrink about stuff. This was for a grade, so she felt forced to participate or take notes.

As it was, she couldn't bring herself to answer the question. She'd been there when it happened. She'd been holding her hand and...

BREATH, WAYNE.

Letting her hair fall over her face and pretending to be jotting down notes, Beverly counted to ten to keep herself together. It was the past. Nothing more to it. She had to move on, that's what Grandmother said. Reaching ten, she breathed in and out slowly. Okay, she was good...not really, but her mind was starting to numb itself.

Getting a good grip on her quill, she wrote down some notes; not even a smidgen of energy to glare at the Poop-head Ravenclaw.

"Very true, yes. They can not be nourished."

"Algor mortis, yes. The steady decline of body temperature, making the skin feel cold and clammy." Fina agreed.

"Breathing ceases to exist, yes."

"Bloating ... not really. Maybe when first met with death, but other than that...." No, generally the body didn't swell.

"Maggots yes. But mostly for dead animals, not dead humans, since humans are placed into a box which would protect them from being eaten by maggots..." You know, just so they knew the purpose of the box. It wasn't for decor, so much as to keep the bugs away.

"Rigor mortis. Yes. Good." And even nice use of the Latin terminology.

"The smell is terrible because of decomposition, mostly," Hadley explained. "But that's also another reason for the box. It protects against the unpleasant smells. Buries the odors six feet under."

"Yes. No pulse. Good."

"Yes. Body temperature is reduced, making the skin feel colder..."

"Otherwise known as Pallor mortis, a certain paleness with is inflicted within 15 to 20 minutes after death."

"Yes. They are very still. Not to be confused with the stillness associated with sleeping, as when you are sleeping there is still slight movement at least." OR sometimes a lot of movement if your initials were AXN, but that was besides the point.

Uh what.... leave it to a Gryffindor to pick up on the fact that lose control of bowels equated to pooping in pants? LIKE WHAT EVEN!??!

"Losing control of your bowels when your dead, well it doesn't happen like that. Not the same way as when you're alive."

Fina nodded. "Yes. Lack of life. That's one simple way of putting it..."

Uh what? Was he talking to her or to his friend over there? Frown. Making jokes about bowel movements when the class was about death. Honestly. Stern look for you, Mister Toussaint.

"Yes. Precisely right! I'm impressed!" So Miss Fischer DID know stuff besides Quidditch.

"Yes. Decomposition." And hmm, what was that? "Vampires and zombies are ... an entirely different classification. In theory, no they're not dead, but the cold skin and no pulse kind of makes them dead. Though the definition of death is sort of vague. The key is ... distinguishing death from life ..."


"Actually quite the opposite. When you're dead, your muscles and such become tight. and stiff."


And it seemed as though between all the mentions, in someway or another all the symptoms of death were mentioned. Good. Now they could move on .......

"Alright, now that we've discussed some important distinguishing features of death, we're going to read a short muggle story together, which I believe to be very relevant. We shall discuss the relevance afterward...." Walking behind her desk, Fina pulled out a medium sized box and removed some copies of books to pass around. "We'll be reading the short story of Sleeping Beauty together."

"Long long ago...... a king and a queen ... wished with all their might and soul that they could have a child. But sadly, nothing happened." Fina then gestured to the student in the front row to continue the reading....

ooc: so some interactive storytelling for the next 20-ish (or so) hours. Use this site for reference to the story, please only have your character read one or two lines at a time to give everyone a chance. Also, don't necessarily copy the line directly from that site, but try and add your own interesting spin to it. Ready. Set. Go.

Sander almost laughed out loud. They were now going to read a fairy tale. Sleeping Beauty? Okay this was Muggle Studies...and they should have expected that but still reading a story?

Sander looked down at the story book had put down in front of him and still hiding a smile, he opened up to the front page and read to himself the line that Professor Hadley had just read off. Who was next to read?

Since there wasn't anyone, Sander began to read the next few lines, "But then one day while the queen was um...bath..um I mean swimming in the lake....uh... a frog crept out of the water on to a lily pad, and said to her, "Your wish shall be fulfilled, before a year has gone by, you shall have a daughter...or maybe a boy...who cares...as long as you have one right?....you will have a child," Sander tried to use a squeaky voice to make it seem like he was now the frog.