V saw his face and heard his “ouch” and felt a little guilty. A LITTLE. Her stomach turned over in discomfort at her confusing mix of emotions, but she sighed as she looked down at her hands. She didn’t want to apologize to Jasper, but he was so nice usually. And maybe he had no clue Lisa liked him? Even if V thought it was obvious, boys could be really really dumb. “….talk after class,” she said to Jasper after the brief berating from Holden.

And did she feel like doing this activity? No. “Can I work alone?” She asked Holden with a small pout. Really, the only person she might want to work with now in this mood was Remy. Or Serena. Or Lisa. But mehhh.

A taker!

Excellent!

“Hello, hello, Violet! Yes, I am! You happen to be the first to volunteer to work with me.” Looking at, and listening to, her fellows in the classroom, Aria determined that many of them were still chattering unnecessarily. To each his own, yes? Her keen ears perked up. There was someone asking to be included. A firstie. Aria’s eyes brightened. FRESH MEAT {Maxine} “Hey, you! Midget!’’ Her gaze flashed to Professor Eye Candy then back to the little girl. “I mean, you! Firstie! You can work with us Snakes. Don’t worry, Violet doesn’t bite nor hiss.” Ari smirked.

“Right then, ladies. Any ideas for our Houses? Three should be enough since it's three of us. Shall we go about being silly with our creativity? Being straight forward all the time is simply boring.’’ Aria poised her quill over her notebook. “How about a House of members who adore outrageous stuff. Like mix and match fashion, unique socks, cereal with chocolate milk, that sort of thing. We could call it... UniqueMix. Thought?

Evan was unsurprised to find his answers correct, but he was surprised by the main activity. They were creating their own school? Playing the roles of founders? Well, as a potential founder he certainly had his ideas of what he would first establish when creating a school but it didn't necessarily fit with the assignment. Did that matter?

He glanced around at the rest of the room, noticing who was paired and which groups still needed some partners. He could see V off to the side near Val and Jasper and... looking none too pleased. He didn't know the problem, and he still only knew the third year minimally but she was Lisa's friend, so on his way to join a group he swung by. "I spot a group needing a couple more members. Want to go join with me?" He offered a small half smile, before making his way to a seat closer to Rosa and Cailyn, hearing the tail end of the conversation. "It could probably be whatever language you wanted. The joy of getting to be your own founder." He gave a small smile, gesturing to one of the seats. "Mind if I join you?" Or we, if V had opted to follow.

Hopefully they did not mind the intrusion, because he found he was already sitting and twirling his pen in his hands. "How would you guys feel about thinking outside the box for this assignment? Holden said we're supposed to create houses but... I don't think students should be classified and sorted based on their personalities. I think for rooming purposes it should be by year only." But he could see how they needed to each bring a trait to the table. "Maybe instead we could each pick a characteristic that's important to the school as a whole? Like, I'd say acceptance should be a strong ideal." All would be welcome. Though if they didn't want to go after the whole outside the assignment parameters, he'd just keep acceptance as his house characteristics.

Just call him Helga Hufflepuff.

Summer had been listening to the Professor and daydreaming about her own wizarding school, like what would the motto be and what would the houses be, she suddenly heard what the Professor said about Partnering up, okay so she wasn't doing this on her own.

"Professor can I partner with you?" Summer asked, surely the Professor would be available, and with someone so knowlegable as a Partner, she couldn't go wrong right.

'It can be in whatever language you wanted.' Rosa heard a familiar voice as she looked up from her parchment with a small smile pursing her lips "Hi Evan, of course we don't mind. Join us..." she said with a quick glance over at Cailyn hoping she wouldn't object, before saying to both of them. "So our motto could be like; We accept all who wishes to study at our school regardles of bloodline, skin color or something more? thoughts?" If they were three they'd need for three houses but if they got a fourth member than they'd need four houses.

Jotting down her motto thoughts Rosa listened as Evan suggested some interesting ideas. "If we go with Evan's idea for sorting and not have houses then we wouldn't have a house cup competition and I want their to be a house cup rivalry." Rosa said with firmness. "Rooming via year though could be good since it'd broaden the students friendpool."

Before she turned her attention to Cailyn hoping for her thoughts Rosa said "I think another characteristic of our school should be bravery and daring of all kinds big or small." Looking down at her notes she hoped she wouldn't be teased later for thinking like Godric gryffindor.

Cooper opened his mouth to point out that that was not just some spare bit of parchment, but ultimately refrained from saying anything since it ultimately did not matter since things were moving on and they weren't turning in their answers anyway. So...you doodle you, Mercer.

"You should draw Celyn and me too," he mused while giving his little brother an affectionate nudge before looking back to Celyn and her question. "I don't think the system is innately bad...it helps divide up the student body and makes certain things more manageable for the faculty, for example. I think a lot of the other things, people placing pride and the status that some traits are more desirable than others says more about human nature than the system itself...I think we can agree that the house system does help eliminate some of that little of the little-fish-in-big-pond feeling too, especially for muggleborns and those that enter knowing nothing about the wizarding world or the culture of Hogwarts. The House Cup itself is something meant to unify and create a sense of community within each of our houses...and its the members of the houses, the participants, that can turn it into something a little...you know..." he trailed off with a couple of vague hand gestures. He found the house traits less of a stereotypical thing and more something meant to highlight the positive personality traits of each individual that entered the castle, and that meant putting them with people who would hopefully help foster and nurture those traits. But, there was no accounting for free will and choice. "I guess it doesn't feel so rigid to me...more provides a little bit of structure." He paused to consider a bit. "If our school, Branxburry, did not have a house system...how do we implement interactions between all the school years? What does the dorm situation look like? First year tower? First through fourth year tower? Randomly assign a third of our student population into one tower? If that were to happen...wouldn't that innately cause students to form a sort of house of their own anyway?" When you looked at things logistically speaking...Cooper found the house system to be very practical and provided a bit of a blueprint to things, though he was very curious as to what Celyn (and Mercer) considered to be alternatives.

Group work.

Why were those two of the most terrifying words a professor could say? Delilah figured group work would be easier starting in her third year, but as a firstie who knew something like three people, it was hard to find a group. She roamed awkwardly around the area she'd been sitting in until she came up to a group of just two people sitting together. Without another word, she slid into the seat next to them. BAM. Instant group.

Apparently, they had already separated the new houses into four colors: red, blue, yellow, and green. How original. Delilah hadn't been in the group when that had been decided on, though, so she just went with the flow. When she was all caught up on what they'd already done, she chimed in. "I don't like the idea of separating people based on blood status, and I kind of don't like that the other founders just assumed the Hufflepuffs were what's left over," she said. She hadn't been at actual school for too long, but from what she saw, people seemed to fit into one of four basic groups.

People who loved school, people who loved adventure, people who loved physical activities such as sports, and people who were born leaders. She made a list of those on her parchment.

Violet inwardly rolled her eyes--or did she do it for real? It was hard for her to tell sometimes. She was thinking that what Ari was saying to the first year Gryffindor was probably not best suited to put the other girl at ease. She was beginning to remember why she usually didn't pair up with this particular Slytherin. "Sure, come join us, please," she added, putting on her best social smile and trying to look inviting. Because now she was a sixth year, and that what you did.

Violet was not at all enthused about being frivolous with the assignment, but was willing to go along with anything to get it over and done with. Anything, that is, as long as it served her best interests. Her fellow snake would find that Violet could only be pushed so far if she decided she didn't want to go along with something.

"All right...then...how about the House ContriWise, where everyone does the opposite of what they're supposed to, just on principle. Like, they have breakfast for dinner and lunch for breakfast, and if you ask them to be quiet, they start talking all the louder." Violet almost wished she had the nerve to do that for real, she was tired of playing by the rules to get along all the time.

Delilah dipped her quill in her ink and jotted down notes as her group brainstormed.

Delilah's Notes
House Colors: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow
House Traits:

Red: People who love physical activities, such as sports
Green: The born leaders
Blue: People who love school
Yellow: People who love adventure

A few of them were a little too close to what Hogwarts already had in place, but she jotted down the notes anyway. "What about using Latin names for the houses? That's what we use for a lot of our spells," she pointed out. "The Latin word for leader is Princeps, so maybe we can use that word for the born leaders." She rummaged through her book bag and pulled out her Charms textbook. Maybe there were a few more Latin words in there that she could add. As she looked through the book, she added on to her notes.

Delilah's Notes
House Colors: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow
House Traits:

Red: People who love physical activities, such as sports
Green: The born leaders
Blue: People who love school
Yellow: People who love adventure

House Names:

Red: Ludis (meaning sports)
Green: Princeps (meaning leader)
Blue: Schola (meaning school)
Yellow: Casus (meaning adventure)

Catching Violet’s expression, Aria winked. How she loved to mess with people. It was soooo entertaining. But that would have to be set aside for now since they needed to put their presentation together. This was going to be such a HUGE amount of fun!

As she jotted down her notes, one of Ari’s perfectly tweezed eyebrows went up in realisation. Violet was actually going down this path with her! As in the fun path, not the usual uptight and serious manner. Surprise, surprise. Ms. McLeod chuckled heartily. “Oh, Violet. I LOVE it! Who knew you could be just as silly as the next individual!’’ This was meant as a compliment.

Aria chewed on the feathery end of her quill thoughtfully. “That could be nicknamed ‘The Opposite House’.’’ Cue her jotting down more notes. “Ladies, should we have a House where we include the miscellaneous persons? Those who don’t fall into our categories? It would be a shame if we left out anyone.” Everyone needed to be included! “Any ideas on a name or a location of the School? I personally would love to have ours to be in South America! The tropics are so wonderful. Since we also want our School to sound GRAND, I propose the name Schola Regium. It loosely translates to ‘School of Royalty’. Thoughts?’’ Aria said all of this in one breath. She really did, and now she shifted her gaze between her group members expectantly.

Yes, the students seemed to be doing well. “You can work solo or in a group.” he spoke as he walked around the class, observing the students at work. Some of them had fascinating ideas already and he couldn’t wait to hear them present.

A first year grabbed his attention.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weasley174

Summer had been listening to the Professor and daydreaming about her own wizarding school, like what would the motto be and what would the houses be, she suddenly heard what the Professor said about Partnering up, okay so she wasn't doing this on her own.

"Professor can I partner with you?" Summer asked, surely the Professor would be available, and with someone so knowlegable as a Partner, she couldn't go wrong right.

Simon chuckled. “Sure, we can Miss Valentine…what should our school be like?”


OOC: 2 days left

Jasper offered Professor Holden an apologetic smile, he wasn't trying to be distracting on purpose. It just happened. "On it, sir." Then, briefly, he turned his attention to V again. "Sure." So now he had to talk to both V and Valentina again after class. Cool, cool. Being turned down twice in a row was bad enough, but now they were going to pull him aside to each do it a second time? He'd prefer it if they could all forget any of this happened.

"Yeah, I'm down," he answered Valetina, looking over to V again. "You in?" Though now she had an offer from Lisa's brother too, so the chances were pretty slim. "Our school needs a cool name."

Mercer nodded along gamely and sketched founder portraits for Cooper and Celyn. Cooper got a hat with a feather, and Celyn needed a big poofy hairdo. And then their frames, which he wished he could paint with some of the pretty gold ink he'd bought over the summer. Both Cooper and Celyn had interesting points about houses and how they were divided, but he had only been a student for a month. Houses didn't seem that bad to him, but he liked having roommates to get to know instead of an entire school at once.

"What if you sort them by year, and you put two years per house. So first years go into Cooper's house, and second years in Celyn's, thirds in mine, fourth in Coop's with the firsties, fifths with the second years, sixths with ME and the third years... and the seventh years get to have a grown up suite to prepare them for real life, right? And then the sixth years graduate into the suite, and the new firsties will go into my house, which now has room!" Clear as mud, okay? "And house colors are like... I don't know. If you use any colors at Hogwarts, it's just copying. So purple, orange, and rainbow."

Was that older Slytherin girl talking to her? Merlin's beard, it's true what they say about Slytherins .... Maxine thought it was best not say that out loud though, and at least she had a partner. "Thanks for letting me join" She added and then listening carefully to everything that unfolded there after.

An opposite house? That kind of fun! "I like the opposite house, and South America is fine." Maxine added as for the location. "If we are on going to have an opposite house though, shouldn't we have like a "perfect house" Maxine said that with the air quotations. "Like they do ever single thing by the book, all their i's dotted and t's crossed. And then a third house for those who kind of fall in the middle?" That was 3 houses, they didn't have to have 4 did they??

"That names sounds cool to." Maxine added about the name situation.

All they needed now was a name, location, and motto, right? Deliliah flipped around in her book until she found a map of the known wizarding schools. "We need a location away from the other wizarding schools, but...there's so many of them," she commented. She turned her textbook around to face the others. "Umm, okay, so...according to this map, this area just has a possible wizarding school, so maybe we should put our school there. You know, just in case there isn't really another wizarding school there." Her finger tapped India on the map.

The group seemed to agree on that, and someone else suggested the Latin phrase for "Better Together" as their motto. Delilah added all of this to her notes. So what did they need now? A school name? This seemed to be the hardest part. "I don't suppose any of you speak Hindi?" she asked, a hopeful look spreading across her face. "Somebody? Anybody? ... No?" As luck would have it, someone in a nearby group overheard her, and they were able to give them the Hindi word for 'being together', which apparently was Ekajutata.

Delilah's Notes
School Name: Ekajutata
Location: India
Motto: "Simul Melius" (meaning "Better Together")
House Colors: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow
House Traits:

Red: People who love physical activities, such as sports
Green: The born leaders
Blue: People who love school
Yellow: People who love adventure

House Names:

Red: Ludis (meaning sports)
Green: Princeps (meaning leader)
Blue: Schola (meaning school)
Yellow: Casus (meaning adventure)

Ash appreciated the creativity required in this lesson. She did not appreciate the group work required. Despite her newfound ability to make friends, she was still very very insecure about how she was perceived. And these were groups of three to four... that was so many people. Too many people.

Also, everyone seemed to be in groups already! How was she to... sigh. She wished she could just be in a group of one and not need to deal with social situations. "Does anyone have space left in their group?"

Summer's eyes lit up as the Professor said they could partner up, in fact she did a little jig as she tried to come up with ideas for their school. "Professor, how about a massive massion, where they have three kitchens, a swimming pool, a massive quidditch pitch and a huge garden with loads of trees." Summer stopped to get her breath back before she continued. "Oh and how about a huge kitchen, and dinning room." Summer then added. "Oh and we can have four houses like here, but we use Water, Air, Fire and Wind house!" Summer couldn't think of a fourth.

Summer again stopped to get her breath back and she looked at the Professor to see what he thought about the idea so far. "What do you think" She asked a little bit breathless.

The students were deep into the discussion and working against the task at hand. This was good. Very good. And there were some interesting ideas being talked about. A school without houses…. Intriguing. He did like the rainbow house colour… That sounded pretty fun. If colours of houses were reasons enough for opting to be in any house, he’d sign up for that one.

He glanced about the classroom, taking note that some groups were still forming. “You can join Miss Valentine and me, Miss Fox? Or you two could be a group?” he offered her looking at the firstie who had so excitedly asked to be partners.

Speaking of said firstie, he turned his attention back to her. O.o. Oh. Oh! OH! Those were a lot of words there. He felt breathless just listening to her. So before he spoke he took a deep breath. Okay. He had air. “i like it… How are the students placed in each of the houses?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

OOC: loving the ideas!!! One more day folks!. Then we’ll start to wrap up the lesson.

If you’re ready, feel free to start presenting. If not, continue brainstorming. You can work in a group or work separately!!

Summer looked at the Professor as he said about a fifth year joining them or them working together... nope... wasn't going to happen... "She can join us if she wants." But there was no chance she wasn't partnering with the professor after the jig she just did.

"Professor, when we present ours to the class, I think you should do the talking, whilst I do some singing, you know I can sing the school song." Summer thought that would be awesome. "Oh and how about you spin the wheel to get sorted, our maybe some sort of trial." Summer was still trying to figure that out whilst she got a quill and quickly wrote a song for the school and handed it to the professor.



Summer looked towards the Professor and waited to see what he thought of the song.

"Um..." Ash had no idea they were allowed to work solo. And after hearing the school song(she could bet the firstie was named Summer)... "I... can work by myself." Ash would let her express all her very interesting ideas... without her... So she politely headed in the opposite direction. She didn't think Summer would like her very much. And the professor... he was very nice to offer to work with her, but it did make her feel left out to be stuck working with an adult. Sorry professor Holden. She did feel bad to decline his offer.

SPOILER!!: Ash's ideas

Name: The Australian School of Magic (to the point)
Location: Australia
Founder: Ashley Calder Fox
Motto: Ash is not the ending. (see? it's mysterious and open for interpretation!)

Houses: I would not separate the school into houses, because I think houses are a flawed concept. I would just put people into different dorms, where they could sometimes request who they wanted their dormmates to be. The dorms could have the names of native Australian animals(too dumb?) or maybe different famous magical people(too tacky?) cool plants. Because I like plants a lot and I don't know anybody who would hate being in a dorm named after a plant.

Classes: I would make people take magic classes, but I would also require people to learn about Math, Science, Tech, and other stuff like that. We can learn a lot from muggle ideas. Also, I'd add a literature class because I don't really think we have that at Hogwarts. We'd have more sports teams as well, and everyone would need to take swimming lessons.

School symbols: a phoenix

uniforms: dark purple and light gray, but no robes and no weird hats.

She was actually sort of invested in this... when she checked the time, it was already time to present. And everyone who had gone was so good and... well, it is what it is. "Um, my school would be called The Australian School of Magic, because it's in Australia, because I'm from Australia-" She was rambling. Since when had she been this afraid of public speaking? Deep breaths... "And the motto would be 'Ash is not the ending-'" no she would not elaborate. "I wouldn't sort anybody into houses, because I don't like the concept of houses. Instead I would put people into different dorms named after plants. You could be sorted randomly or choose a dorm. There would be magic classes of course, but there would also be muggle classes because learning from muggle discoveries is important. Swimming classes and literature classes would also be required, and there would be lots of sports teams. The school symbol would be a phoenix, and the uniforms would be purple and gray, but they wouldn't need robes or hats because I don't see a point to them." That went faster than she expected. And by the end there, she was a lot more confident. She thought it went pretty good. Probably.

Aria checked over her notes. “So far, we’ve got two Houses: The Mix and Match House, which I dub MnM. Violet’s ContriWise House - the members love doing the opposite of what they’re told there. We can have a perfect House, that makes sense. Those who fall in none would be our fourth House.” This activity was all kinds of chaotic because they were brainstorming so quickly. Aria LOVED it even though she could hardly keep up with making notes. “If we don’t want a fourth House, we can simply eliminate the ‘perfect’ House. I’ll leave that to you guys because I don’t mind either way.” She glanced at her watch. “We better start putting the presentation together. We could do the respective Houses we brainstormed since we know what we brainstormed best.”

Aria quickly began to flesh out House MnM. “Shall we say our School is in Peru? OH I KNOW!’’ She stared at her group members excitedly. “The School could be hidden beneath the Huantsán mountains!” How did she know of this place? Peru happened to be a country Ari wanted to visit and so she had done extensive research on it. “We can call it Peruvian School of Magic unless someone has a better name?”

Oh, would Mercer draw herself and Cooper as well? She hoped so and gave the younger Ravenclaw an encouraging smile. Cooper had a whole lot to say in favor of the current house system and she listened patiently, waiting till he finished before clarifying her point.

"I didn't necessarily mean no houses at all," she began, though she would find something less structured to be favorable. "But maybe students could be assigned arbitrarily, rather than saying you have these qualities so you go here. Or, let students decide where they want to be." She still thought telling students what qualities were most desirable in them potentially had a harmful effect, but didn't want to argue the point.

She paused to listen to Mercer's idea and gave him a little smile. "I actually really like that. I think yearmates naturally gravitate to one another anyway, maybe even more so without being divided by a house. And I like that there is an older year set grouped in with a younger year set, so they will have mentors." The grownup suite was a pretty good idea as well, something that would prepare the seventh years for graduated life perhaps.

Celyn didn't want to just... decide, but she looked over at Cooper to see what he thought too. They still had time to discuss, she thought. Then she looked back at Mercer. "Could I have rainbow?"

They'd literally finished just in time, too, because now it was time to do the presentations. Public speaking wasn't exactly Delilah's kind of thing. She'd rather have the credit taken off the assignment than get up and tell about it in front of the whole class. She'd been in a group, though, and therefore it wasn't exactly her decision. She followed her group members to the front of the room, parchment in hand.

Ahem.

"So, uhh...we decided on our house colors first, which are red, green, blue, and yellow. Don't worry, though. They're not duplicates of the Hogwarts houses," she began. She felt her hands squeezing her parchment into a little ball out of nervousness. She unraveled it and looked down at it. "The red is called Ludis, and they're good at sports. The green is called Princeps, and they're the born leaders. The blue...Schola, because they really enjoy school, and then finally the yellow is Casus. They're the adventurous ones."

She really hoped nobody would have any questions or comments. She was ready to make a mad dash to her seat at this point. "And, uhh...we decided to have our magical school in India, because it's only rumored that there's a magical school there. So just in case there's not, we'll have our school there. It's called Ekajutata, which means togetherness in Hindi," she explained. Was that all? "Oh, and our motto is Simul Melius, because it means Better Together."

A few of the other group members had chimed in from time to time, one even explaining how the house names had been taken from Latin translations. Once they'd wrapped everything up, a very nervous Delilah just nodded at the professor and headed back to her seat. She was braver there, Gryffindor or not.


Delilah's Notes
School Name: Ekajutata
Location: India
Motto: "Simul Melius" (meaning "Better Together")
House Colors: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow
House Traits:

Red: People who love physical activities, such as sports
Green: The born leaders
Blue: People who love school
Yellow: People who love adventure

House Names:

Red: Ludis (meaning sports)
Green: Princeps (meaning leader)
Blue: Schola (meaning school)
Yellow: Casus (meaning adventure)

"Perfect" Maxine, was glad it had all come together. They need to put it all together, so far the one girl (Aria) had put all the notes together, that was nice it was easier.

"Do we have school colors? Or house colors? Or a school crest?" Max didn't know much about Peru, but they had to have a famous bird or big cat right? Seemed like something the jungle would have. "Makaw's and Parrots are cool." Those were the right kind of birds right?

"It should be Escuela Peruana de Magia, then, since it's in Peru. And I don't have a problem with four Houses. But if we have three, I think we should keep the perfect one, because a house just for the leftovers doesn't sound as interesting," Violet chimed in.

"Oh, the third can be the Tunki--that's the national bird of Peru! They're...they're really strange looking," Violet went on, starting to laugh just thinking about them. "They look like red sledgehammers or something." Violet continued laughing, so much that she couldn't finish what she was saying. She had no idea why the thought of those birds had set her off like this, it wasn't like her at all.