Care of Magical Creatures - Phoenix

[Eleanor]

Eleanor remained as silent as ever when the phoenix's cage was uncovered. The first unvoiced thought that traveled through her mind was the question of why the bird was in a cage to begin with. As far as she knew, if they were content where they were, there would be no need to restrain them - and they had other methods of escaping anyhow, so wouldn't it be fairly pointless? Unless it was just for show, she reminded herself, listening to the other students' questions and the answers that they received raptly. She had no relevant questions about the creature presented to them, but one could never tell if something interesting would come up or not. Still taking in the beauty of the phoenix after several minutes, the Hufflepuff smiled happily.

[Aeri]

Aeri stared in amazement. She had seen this creature only once before. Hell didn't have too many... just that one in captivity... she hated to see such beautiful cretaures domesticated for the sheer pleasure of other beings. Just because they can openly speak and what not they think they're gods... Aeri slammed her fist onto her notebook and then lowered her eyes. "Ignorant fools... that's what they were..." She sighed and then went back to listening to the class discussion, intent on learning more about these magnificent birds.

[vixen]

Vixen had rushed to Care of Magical Creatures. It had to be the subject that she was most interested in. She had been interested in it before she even knew it was a subject that could be taught.

When Professor Barches had pulled the cloth away from the cage, revealing a phoenix, Vixen had gasped, as had most of the class, but not only in awe of its beauty.

Vixen listened raptly as knowledge of the magical bird in front of them was shared. Her hand moved almost automatically, writing down in her own shorthand almost exactly what was being said.

I just knew I belonged in this class. Vixen thought to herself. There's just so much I want to know, and I can learn here!

Vixen's bright blue eyes caressed the phoenix, awed. Her other hand swiped furiously at a peice of her white hair when it fell into her face, obscuring her view. Then she smiled to herself.

I hope I'll have time to talk to the Professor after class. There were so many things that she wanted to know.

[Professor Barches]

The Professor nodded and smiled at the students. "So! You English folk do know a wee bit about magical creatures."

Flicking her wand, she began to write across the board with the tip. The words were brilliant orange. "Phoenixs do nest in high mountain peaks, commonly in Egypt, India, and China, although they've now spread to the Middle East. Their tears have healing properties. Their is reputed to enhance the courage in the heart of the pure, and strike fear into the unpure. And they burst into flame when it is time for them to die, and then are reborn as a chick from the ashes."

Turning back to the class, her eyebrow raised at the sassembled students. "And some seem to know a bit about the Phoenixs orgins, and their representation to Muggles.

"So," she continued with a sparkle in her eye, "you seem to know an awful lot. What would you like to learn?"

[vixen]

So many questions raced through Vixen's head;

What do they eat? How fast do they grow? How often do they lay? Who takes care of the chick when it is reborn from ashes (for surely it isn't with it's parent's any more)? What are their mating habits? How do you care for a tame one? Is it true that they can lift many times their own weight?

Vixen wanted to know so much, but she was too shy to ask all the questions that bubbled up inside her. Vixen sighed with longing, her pale hand still scribbling down everything.

[Mary]

Mary wrote down all the things that Professor said, she searched threw her notes "umm Professor?" she called
"how often do the Phoenixs busrt into flames? and how do they reborn?"

[Rozlynn]

Rozlynn's eyes were still wide with the fact that a phoenix sat before her very eyes. She reached up a single hand to make sure her mouth was closed. She raised a hand shyly.

"Professor, exactly how does a phoenix court another and how often does one have chicks?"

[Kara]

Kara was daydreaming when she saw something that looked like fire, she was very suprised as she saw the most beautiful pheonix she has ever seen as she saw what the professor wrote on the board she quickly wrote it down because she has always wanted to learn more about them. she listened to all the other students questions and wrote them down also and waited for the professor's answers.

[Ribbon Valedrawn]

Ribbon smiled happily at the thought of getting to learn more from the point of veiw of actually having the creature to study instead of just books.

[Rose Arcana]

Rose began to recite something she had read years ago:




The Phoenix Bird
by
Hans Christian Andersen
(1850)

IN the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, in the first rose, a bird was born. His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was beauteous, and his song ravishing. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one—the one solitary Phoenix bird. The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years, he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg.

The bird flutters round us, swift as light, beauteous in color, charming in song. When a mother sits by her infant’s cradle, he stands on the pillow, and, with his wings, forms a glory around the infant’s head. He flies through the chamber of content, and brings sunshine into it, and the violets on the humble table smell doubly sweet.

But the Phoenix is not the bird of Arabia alone. He wings his way in the glimmer of the Northern Lights over the plains of Lapland, and hops among the yellow flowers in the short Greenland summer. Beneath the copper mountains of Fablun, and England’s coal mines, he flies, in the shape of a dusty moth, over the hymnbook that rests on the knees of the pious miner. On a lotus leaf he floats down the sacred waters of the Ganges, and the eye of the Hindoo maid gleams bright when she beholds him.

The Phoenix bird, dost thou not know him? The Bird of Paradise, the holy swan of song! On the car of Thespis he sat in the guise of a chattering raven, and flapped his black wings, smeared with the lees of wine; over the sounding harp of Iceland swept the swan’s red beak; on Shakspeare’s shoulder he sat in the guise of Odin’s raven, and whispered in the poet’s ear “Immortality!” and at the minstrels’ feast he fluttered through the halls of the Wartburg.

The Phoenix bird, dost thou not know him? He sang to thee the Marseillaise, and thou kissedst the pen that fell from his wing; he came in the radiance of Paradise, and perchance thou didst turn away from him towards the sparrow who sat with tinsel on his wings.

The Bird of Paradise—renewed each century—born in flame, ending in flame! Thy picture, in a golden frame, hangs in the halls of the rich, but thou thyself often fliest around, lonely and disregarded, a myth—“The Phoenix of Arabia.”<br>
In Paradise, when thou wert born in the first rose, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, thou receivedst a kiss, and thy right name was given thee—thy name, Poetry.

She sat down with her head aching from remembering so much...

[Silver]

Silver's heart sank at the Care of Magical Creatures class. She had been looking forward to it (as she had looked forward to almost all her lessons), but had not expected that it would not be a practical or assessed class.

Silver was a quiet girl by nature, and was very unlikely to actually speak up in this class, especially not in the presence of what seemed like thirty-odd super-intelligent classmates. Her old school had not even had this class, how was she supposed to compete with the others who had probably taken it dozens of times before?

Shooting a wistful glance at Talon and Prairie Rose, she sat down cross-legged on the grass and continued to watch everybody else.

[Ribbon Valedrawn]

Ribbon noticed a shy girl who looked slightly downcast sitting on the grass almost dejectedly. She carefully skooted closer without drawing attention to herself. "Hi, I'm Ribbon." She whispered, "You looked worried, what's wrong?" She kept one eye on the teacher to make sure she wasn't outright inturrupting the teacher and waited for any response.

[Imlosiel]

Immy, obviously late, peeked into the classroom. She wondered if she was too late for this class and would have to wait for the next one. Her blue eyes widened when she saw the glorious Phoenix in the cage. Wow, a real Phoenix! A Phoenix was one of the few magical creatures she had heard of around her house. Her mother, not liking animals, would not premit much talk of them at home. The topic on Phoenixes was a different story in their household. Immy glanced at the board and tried to read it all before she got in trouble for standing out in the hall. Oh, I hope it's okay if I go ahead and come in...

[Silver]

Silver smiled at the soft-spoken girl who approached her, and was vaguely surprised when she saw a Slytherin badge on her robes. She sighed slightly.

"Oh, nothing, really... I'm just... I don't know much about magical creatures, and I wasn't expecting this to be a discussion lesson," she explained in a whisper, flicking her gaze to the front where the elegant phoenix was ruffling it's feathers in it's gilded cage. She hoped that this girl wouldn't think she was stupid.

She saw Immy walk in, and gave her a small wave.

[Genevieve(Ginny)]

Ginny edged slowly around the outside of the crowd of students standing on tip-ties to look at the amazing bird while she listened to the students around her describe it.