Lesson One: Nifflers

by Guest Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:17 pm

Freya had been extremely nervous. It was her first day of teaching. She was a model, not a teacher. But, as she told herself, she could do this. She was a former Ravenclaw after all, the Sorting hat didn't put her in that house for nothing after all.

The former model had been sitting on a stool on the Hogwarts' grounds that were right outside her house for a while with her dog and cat sitting right in front of her, both waiting patiently for the students to arrive.

Once it seemed the whole lot had arrived, she put on a smile and stood up. "Hello, I am Professor Freya Littlefield, to be called Professor Littlefield and this is Rupert," she said pointing to her cat, "and this is Oliver," pointing to her dog. "Wands are to be kept in the pockets in your robes or in your backpacks at all times. This is not a class we will be performing magic. We will, perhaps, need to on rare occasions, but I will let you know when. That being said, here are the basic rules. I do not tolerate bullying nor do I tolerate a student trying to speak when I am. Oliver and Rupert are to be respected. Any profanities that are slipped will be excused, I will be the judge to whether I think it's slipped or not. Any rule breaking will be punished by reduction of House points or a detention, depending on the severity of the action."

She took a deep breath in before continuing. "Now, before we start the lesson, we'll go from right to left, state your first and last name as well as your house." Pointing to the student on the right, she smiled, "go on, deary. What's your name?"

by **Charlotte Smith** Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:25 pm

Charlotte had arrived somewhat early to this lesson, she was excited for this one especially because she hoped that shew ould get a chance to glimpse the dragon that she knew the Professor had acquired for her lessons, she had never seen one before and was desperate to.

But as she walked down she didn't see anything that even looked like a dragon and so was a little bit diassppointed since she didn't get to see it.

Listening intently to what the Professor said Charlotte nodded when she thought it was appropriate and when she was asked to introduce herself, she smiled shyly and stopped playing with her lip peircing to say:

"Hello, I'm Charlotte Smith, Slytherin House."

by **Airen Auditoren** Mon Dec 12, 2011 11:33 pm

Airen walked out to the lesson. He stood by Charlotte, and waited until the professor was finished before he introduced himself.

"I'm Airen Auditoren, Gryffindor house," he said. His Italian accent showing through somewhat.

by **Lucian Ciero** Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:35 am

Valentina had stayed quiet while the professor and the other students had spoken but there was a certain reluctance to speak on her part, if she wanted her classmates to know about her she would converse with them.

At least there was a fellow Slytherin here.

"Hello everybody, my name is Valentina Clarke. Slytherin house."

She wondered for a moment what they would be learning about today, hopefully something of consequence because she had been looking forward to the lesson today.

by Guest Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:00 am

Freya had nodded at every single one of them who introduced themselves, acknowledging her students. She reminded herself not to be disappointed that there weren't any of her own students in her class. She came up with the excuse that it was only their first year. You're the Head of their house, the new professor thought, they'll take your class eventually.

"Thank you, everybody. I'll do my best to remember your names, forgive me if I get it wrong a couple of times." She smiled before leaning over and grabbing a small cage from behind her stool and placing it on the same stool it was behind. "Now," she said, pointing to the Niffler in the cage, "can anyone tell me what this is? If anyone can tell me, they will receive five House Points. but do not feel bad if you do not know, it's only our first lesson, you'll all have plenty of time to earn house points." The caged Niffler was about two feet long and very slender as it's body wasn't very wide at all. It sort of looked like a small, long dragon that the Muggle Chinese had drew sometimes. It had a long and narrow snout, black tufts of hair on its head, the red eyes looking over at all the students and the surroundings. The tip of the long snout could be seen moving as it were trying to sniff out something shiny.

by **Charlotte Smith** Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:11 pm

Charlotte thought that the Professor was very nice, and she seemed to be a little nervous, maybe this was her first experiance of teaching, so, as she produced the cage with the creature in in Charlotte tried hard to remember what it was.

She had looked over the course text before she had come, so she thought she might know what it is. Raising her hand she waited politely to be called on.

"Is it a niffler Professor Littlefield?"

by Guest Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:45 am

"Is it a niffler, Professor Littlefield?" asked Charlotte, sounding a little unsure.

"Five points to Slytherin. Very good, Miss Smith." Freya smiled even more, she was a little worried that no one would know and she wouldn't be able to give out House Points for the correct answer as she remembered how good it felt to earn some Points.

"Now, nifflers are quite friendly. They are extremely attracted to metallic and shimmery objects and will not hesitate to destroy your house in order to find one. Though, they are not allowed to kept as a pet according to the Ministry. Also, they will sometimes bite at a person who is wearing jewellery. They normally burrow about twenty-feet under the ground and live in lairs."

She kept the cage on the stool before walking around to a crate that was on the side of her house. "Ollie, help me out." The blue merle Australian Shepherd came quickly over to her, taking a hold of the rope in his mouth that was attached to the crate. Together, the two brought the bulky crate in front of the class. She patted the top of her dog's head, smiling down at him before looking back at the class.

"I thought for this lesson, I'd recreate a lesson that the old Care of Magical Creatures did when I was still in Hogwarts. I enjoyed it very much and thought you all would enjoy is the same. Before we start, any jewellery you are wearing needs to be put away in your bag, that goes for anything that sparkles or shimmers or anything metallic. I don't want a problem with the nifflers.

"I've planted gold all round the area, each person will get a niffler and a leash. You are to make sure your niffler is on a leash at all times. And the person to end up with the most gold at the end of the class will win a prize. Now line up, please."

by **Lucian Ciero** Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:06 pm

Valentina was glad that the other girl had managed to get house points for their house, and she wanted a chance to do so herself in some of the other lessons, hopefully she would do, and she smiled softly as Professor Littlefield explained all about nifflers to her, it looked kind of cute, in a weird way and she was glad that she wasn't wearing anything metal.

Casting a look at the other students she winced a little as she saw that Charlotte had numerous peircings in and these would have to be taken out for this activity.

With a swift check to her pockets Valentina made sure there was nothing metal in there and lined up in front of Professor Littlefield all ready to begin the task, and eager to see if she would win the activity that she had planned.

by **Charlotte Smith** Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:13 pm

Charlotte smiled happily as she got the first question right, she was glad that she had managed to win some points for her house, however, as the Professor went on she pouted a little bit, she could always keep the holes for the peircings but she looked weird without them now.

Oh well, she thought, it was better than getting your face mauled off by a niffler.

Moving over to the Professor she took out her peircings and placed them in her bag along with her rings and bracelets.

Lining up behind Valentina she gave Air a friendly smile.

by Guest Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:43 pm

Freya watched patiently as the students took off any items that the nifflers would bite them for. Her eyes wandered over to Charlotte seeing as she had multiple jewellery to take off. Shaking her head to herself, she looked down at Valentina who was already standing right in front of her, looking eager.

"Here you are, Miss Clarke," she said as she picked up the niffler gently and put it on the ground, giving the Slytherin the leash. "And here you are, Miss Smith. Don't worry, this is our only lesson that will include you having to take off your piercings," Freya nodded at her after putting the second niffler on the ground and handing the leash to Charlotte. The professor did this with Airen and the rest of the students.

Once everyone was lined up with a leash in their hand and their nifflers attached to the leashes, she spoke once more. "Alright. You all have forty minutes to look follow your nifflers and hold onto the gold they find. I have small pouches for you to take with you to put the gold in. They're on the trunk right over there," she pointed to it. "And there's no point in trying to steal the gold. It's leprechaun gold, it'll vanish. Now... begin!"

by **Lucian Ciero** Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:14 pm

Valentina took the niffler and began searching the grounds for some gold. It pulled hard on her lead and eventually it found a large coin around the professors hut. Watching the niffler dig was amusing and soon she had found three mounds of gold. Returning them to the professor with a smile Valentina picked up her bag ready to go.

by **Charlotte Smith** Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:17 pm

Charlotte took the niffler glad that this would be the only lesson where shed have to remove her peircings, and began searching the grounds for some gold. It pulled hard on her lead and eventually it found a large coin in a suspicious clump of grass. Watching the niffler dig was strange and soon she had found five mounds of gold. Returning them to the professor with a smile Charlotte picked up her bag ready to go and had put all of her peircings in.

by Guest Wed Dec 28, 2011 2:08 am

Professor Littlefield took back the bags filled with the Leprechaun gold back from the students and put the nifflers back into the crate and made sure that each one of them was comfortable and secure. Once that was done, she looked into each bag and found the one with the most gold inside.

Freya walked over to the stool that she had been sitting on at the beginning of class and picked up a bag that was filled with various sweets from Honeydukes and held it in front of her. "And the winner of today's lesson is Miss Smith! I hope you enjoy Honeydukes! Now that is all for the lesson today, good work everyone. I'm very pleased with our first lesson!"

(ooc: a total of five points for Slytherin.)