Lesson 1, Bowtruckles and Billywigs

[Isobel Faracy]

Isobel grinned at Konrad when he agreed to have her sit beside him, and she did. As she calmed down a little from running and set up her quills and her ink so she could take down notes when necessary, she listened to what Konrad was saying as well. "I'm glad you signed up for it too," she replied to him as soon as she finished setting up her things. "Yeah, I guess it will be fun," she added grinning up at him. Finding out she had CoMC class scheduled at the last minute and running towards the stables like an idiot so she wouldn't be late was kind of fun in a way, she thought to herself just before the professor started talking. The latter introduced herself first as their new CoMC professor before moving towards the cage with twigs and branches inside, and began her lesson. Isobel tilted her head to the side Miss Tatiana raised a question for anyone in the class to answer. She shrugged and decided to take down notes as Sophia began to answer the question brought up. To be honest, bowtruckles wasn't something very new to her, since she read a few CoMC referrences occasionally. But if she needed to deal with the curriculum, then she would.

[Professor Tatiana Verdante]

|OOC|| Sorry... didn't mean to type that... Boredom was what was goign through my mind when I typed that. I meant to say that she was a little bit nervous.||


Sophia was the first to answer her and she realized, by the thoroughness of the answer, that they already studied this. She blushed a little and nodded.
"Thats exactly right. There is also the fact that they tend to poke your eyes with their long skinny fingers if they feel threatened." She clasped her hands together and looked around, now realizing that half of her lesson had gone down the drain.
"I see that all of you already know this and I apologize for boring you. I do expect some notes taken down so if we have a test later, you have something to refer to." She moved down tot he other end of the table to the box covered with a cloth to muffle the buzzing sound coming form inside.
"Moving on, does anyone know what a Billywig is? I just recently learned about it myself and I find them rather fascinating."

[Paige Morgan]

The instructor's remark about boring them caught Paige a bit by surprise but she didn't show it. Instead, when the professor asked the next question, she answered that one easily enough. One thing her dad made sure was that they had learned about native creatures before they had moved to their new home. "A Billiwig is native Australian insect that its speed is so great that most Muggles or wizards won't recognise it, until they are stung. Usually they grow up to a half inch long. They have wings that are attached to the top of their head and rotate very fast so that it spins as it flies. At the bottom of the body is a long sting and if you are stung by a Billywig, you will suffer giddiness followed by levitation"

[Adam Brooke]

As Miss Tatiana concluded the lesson concerning bowtruckles, Adam was relieved to have taken down sufficient notes as it was being discussed. When she moved on to the next topic, she raised another question, one which Paige answered and he jotted down key words again. But he got rather confused at her latter words... Even though he hadn't paid much attention to his CoMC lessons back at Hogwarts, it seemed a little unbelievable to hear that Miss Tatiana had just learned of them recently. "Erm, Professor," Adam started to say. "I apologize if this should come out rude, but are Billywigs that hard to find? Why is it that you say you'd just learned about them?" He questioned, keeping the tone in his voice a respectful one, considering that he was talking to a teacher.

[Professor Tatiana Verdante]

"Right you are," Tatiana said with a grin. It was clear some of this was trivial stuff, but she had to start somewhere so she bit her lip, wondering where to go next. Adam spoke now and she realized what she had done that made her feel so uneasy.
"Ah, an excellent question to get some conversation going. First of, I only just learned about them because I am not form this country if you haven't already guessed."
Although her command of the English language was excellent for someone born and raised in Portugal, the accent still remained.
"Since my lessons for the day are pretty much over, and I failed horribly at keeping my class entertained with new animals, I think we should spend a little time getting to know each other."
She took in a deep breath and walked around the table, tapping the top of the terrarium that held the Billywigs and then sat on the edge of the table.
"As I said before, my name is Tatiana Verdante and I was born in Lisbon Portugal. My birth parents couldn't afford to have a child at that point in their life so the people who raised me paid for their trip to Lisbon so I could be born. So I grew up in a pureblood family under the impression that I wasn't anything less than that. I attended a magical primary school where I took to a liking of animals. I studied at a magical university outside of the country where I perused my education in the care of magical creatures and herbology. I eventually ended up here teaching my favorite class."
She looked around after her little speech and then looked at Adam. "We briefly touched on Australian wildlife so I find all the animals here fascinating, to answer your question. Now I think you should be the first of my students to tell me about themselves."

[Adam Brooke]

Adam raised an eyebrow in surprise. It was a bit odd that Miss Tatiana had thought he'd wanted to start a conversation... He kept the same eyebrow raised as she spoke about herself. It was hugely unlikely how the class had turned out this way, he hadn't quite anticipated it at all. When he was asked to tell about himself, Adam was rather reluctant at first. He glanced at Paige, casting her a somewhat puzzled look, before he stood up to face Miss Tatiana. It felt awkward really, because it wasn't like he hadn't been acquainted to most of the students in the class already. "Adam Brooke. Sturt, Seventh Year." was all he told her before he took his seat again.

[Paige Morgan]

Paige was a bit surprised at the direction the class now took and when Adam gave her a puzzled look, she returned it with an equally puzzled one. However, when he finished, she stood, and as he had, gave, "Paige Morgan, Flinders and Fifth year." Quickly she took her seat and saw Sophia begin to stand as she did. However, she was not expecting what happened next as she heard Sophia cry out painfully.

[Sophia Xylander]

Sophia groaned silently and made up her mind she'd just give her name house and year. As Adam began and Paige followed, it seemed they had felt the same too. Deciding to get it over with, Sophia stood but had not realized she had set her injured leg in such a way that it had kind of hooked on the leg of the table and was tangled as she stood, causing Sophia to lose her balance. Falling, Sophia felt her leg twist and felt the wrenching of it as she went down, crying out in pain as she did, finding Vladimir at her side immediately, concerned.

[Paige Morgan]

Paige had known about the injuries Sophia and Vladimir had sustained as she had been doing what she could to help Sophia in the common room. Knowing that Vladimir could not lift Sophia, Paige explained quickly to Adam and asked him to help Vladimir with Sophia while she gathered up their books as well as the other couples to take Sophia back to the common room. Immediately, Paige had her things packed up as well as Adam's and set to getting Sophia and Vladimir's things together as well.

[Adam Brooke]

Hearing Paige's explanation, Adam stood up immediately and headed towards Vladimir and Sophia. She cried out in pain, and Adam looked to Vladimir to tell him he would help before lifting Sophia to head out of the classroom and walk hastily towards Kookynie Halls where her common room was, with the rest of the group close behind.

[Isobel Faracy]

Isobel found it a bit weird that the class had come from discussions of creatures most of them had already been rather familiar with to the teacher suggesting and initiating that they get to know each other. She wasn't really one who shared a lot about herself unless she felt she trusted whoever was asking, so she decided on doing what everyone else would do.

As soon as Adam finished and Paige spoke her piece, she settled on doing just that too. But she gasped at what happened next as Sophia fell to the floor; the rest happened quite fast. Isobel found herself standing up, her hands covering her mouth in shock as she watched Adam lift Sophia up, since Vladimir wasn't able to at the moment. Seeing Paige gather her things as well as Adam's, she turned to face Konrad and gave him a look that said that they should probably go and see that Sophia made it back to the common room safe as well. She gathered her things as Adam and Vladimir headed out of the classroom with Sophia, and as soon as she had all her things in her pack, she made sure Konrad finished gathering his things also before she tugged on his arm and held onto it as she followed Paige to the common room.

[Professor Tatiana Verdante]

It was clear that it would take a while for these students to open up. They gave her the traditional name, year and house and she frowned slightly. When one girl stood up though, the events unfolded quite rapidly. Her first reaction was to rush forward but her students were quicker.
"You should take her to the hospital!" She said quickly, preparing to take over. Everyone seemed to be on top of things.
She began to panic. This was her first class, people weren't supposed to get hurt.
She watched as they all rushed off, Sophia being carried by the boys and the girls fussing over her.
"What a way to start the year," she whispered to herself and shook her head.