Mythology Lesson One: NEWT Level

[hermionemalfoy]

having added more subjects to the school curriculum, it had only increased the teacher shortage. in an attempt to solve that problem, she had decided to bring in a substitute teacher system, allowing the current teachers to take one another subject if they wished or had time to do so. to try and encourage this, she had also taken up another subject, hoping that they would follow by her example. having been a big fan of mythology since she was a small child, she had chosen to teach it alongside arithmancy.

there was also the new report system, and so the students needed to have a test to predict their grade. sure, they wouldn't take kindly to it, but it would give them something to work towards, which she felt would be better for them in the long run. for now, she'd give the students a quick introduction to mythology, and then give them a test to complete for homework. so maybe they'd cheat, but she was trusting them not to. what good would it do them if they did, they wouldn't learn anything from it.

she'd grabbed a copy of several books on greek mythology from the library to refresh her memory, and set it down on the desk of the new mythology classroom. she waved her wand at the chalk and it poised itself in front of the blackboard. hermione bit her lip as she thought of what starter exercise to give them, and decided to start off simply. 'write down a greek god or goddess and an attribute associated with them. for example, dionysus is the god of wine.'

tagged: mythology students words: 263
wearing: click credit: vicky !?
comments: first hermione post in a long time.

[monkeybread]

Yea, Vincent was going to class early, but there was a good reason, he actually liked this class. He thought maybe it was one thing he might be able to get through without murdering himself with a number two pencil. He opened the door to the classroom and slipped into a desk close to the front, his book and paper already splayed on his desk, he read the assignment silently to himself and dropped his eyes to his paper.god, god, god, what,god will i choose, ah hades., Vincent went to work without even an acknowledgment he was there.

He knew that the dear Hermione didn't like him that much, he could understand well why she didn't so he would try his best to be a good little student, sense she taught his best subject. Which in all do respect as a Ravenclaw he did get good grades, no matter how much trouble he got in with social affairs.

Hades - god of the underworld

He wrote down in his neat hand writing. Then sat back softly waiting for others to arrive, this was one class he didn't plan on failing.

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[victoriabennett]

victoria had't seen the headmistress much at all since their first charms lesson of the year, and it had been so short and pointless that she had barely seen her then. apparently she was going to be teaching one of the new subjects until a permanent teacher was found, which she wasn't quite sure what she thought of yet. hermione should have had a lot to offer as a teacher, but the lesson she'd had with her earlier in the year hadn't really left a good impression. she just hoped that either the rumours weren't true, or else that hermione had a decent lesson prepared. so long as the lesson was worthwile, she didn't mind.

stepping into the new mythology classroom on the fourth floor, she wasn't really surprised to see professor malfoy sitting at the front of the classroom looking as stunning as ever. did she realise this wasn't one of her grand balls? vicky shrugged it off and walked over to a desk on the second row at the side of the room. she took note of vincent sitting near the front, and the rumours about him seemed to have died down a bit as of late. 'you're here to learn victoria, not to analyse everyone.' she told herself, dipping her quill into the ink well and writing her name at the top, before looking up at the board.
Aphrodite - Goddess of love

tagged: mythology class words: 236
wearing: click credit: vicky !?
comments: nothing to say really

[userx]

It seemed Jaslene would never be able to go more than a few days without seeing her mother at some point. Sure, she loved her mother, but there had been a small sense of relief generated when she was told that Theodore Lupin would be replacing her as the new Charms professor. But that evidently wasn’t enough. Then, Hermione had to introduce new subjects, something that the girl was initially quite excited about, but then gradually came to realise that it would more than likely result in having the majority of teachers for more than one designated lesson. This could be perceived as either a very positive thing or a very bad idea, according to which teachers she had to listen to during these extra lessons. Overall, she had nothing against her mother, who was an excellent professor (as she had gathered from multiple other student sources), but she always felt slightly uneasy in those lessons, as though the Headmistress would be more disappointed if she was to get anything wrong. Being a self-conscious girl deep down, Jaslene hated to disappoint those who meant something to her. Although she was already a reasonable student, she figured she’d try harder in some of these extra lessons. They might even come in useful.

When Jas had first seen the first copy of the new lessons, she had immediately been drawn to the title of the lesson she was making her way towards. Mythology was a subject that fascinated many a student, her included. Approaching the classroom where she had been told that the lessons would be taking place, she let out a small sigh. Noticing that the door was already open, she gave a fleeting look to the classroom. It wasn’t that bad, she decided, walking into the midst of the room. Having noticed the door, she’d presumed that she would be the first student and that her mother was the one who had left the door open. She was a little bit more than surprised when she saw the other student sitting down. A noise of slight contempt escaped her lips, followed by a bout of confusion. Why was this boy here? His very presence disturbed a few memories of their last chance meeting, one that had not ended as she had initially intended. Pushing these to the back of her mind, she overlooked the boy, with the smallest glance in his direction. She wasn’t that bothered. It wasn’t like she had to talk to him, right?

Taking a seat in the middle of the room, she dropped the bag she had been carrying onto the floor beside her chosen desk. Placing her hand inside the bag, she shortly retrieved writing materials and a few pieces of parchment, before placing them onto the desk in front of her. A mere glance at the blackboard told her all she needed to know. Picking up the quill, she began to write an answer to the question on the board, without a single look at the boy sitting nearby. It was strange that she didn’t even need to think about the starter task, her little knowledge of Greek mythology seemed to hit an answer into her head as soon as she read the words. Perhaps even weirder was the god/goddess she chose to write down. Especially considering her stance on such ideas. She couldn’t explain why this goddess had automatically invaded her head. She was certain that it was simply random and that her thoughts in no way represented the goddess or her attributes - written on the parchment in front of the girl were the five perfectly formed words:

Aphrodite: goddess of love/beauty.

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[dan]

Chris had always been a fan of sci-fi and fantasy stories so Mythology sounded right up his street. He smirked as he walked through the hallways im going to ace this class he thought to himself considering himself fairly knowledgeable of Mythology, he may not look like it but he was a bit of a nerd when it came to mythological things. Part of it was because to muggle's witches and wizards were myths so maybe some myths were true. A thought that had stayed with him scince he as younger.

Before entering the class he poked his head in. The headmistress and a few other students were already there. Well.. i guess it'll prove to her im not just a pretty face he smirked although he was pretty sure she knew that already. Walking in he sat down on the back row, his usual place in class then began to read the task. Simple Chris thought with a smirk.

Zeus - Ruler of Mount Olympus

[hermionemalfoy]

hermione was glad to see all of the students turning up punctually, and getting straight down to the task on hand. she walked around the room slowly, looking down at the answers people had put. it was interesting to see what kind of gods and goddesses they wrote down, as they tended to have some relevance, no matter how small, to their own personality. even so, she was rather surprised to see her own daughter write down aphrodite. jaslene never had shown much interest for love, and hermione began to wonder whether it had just been a façade. unlike victoria, she had also mentioned that aphrodite was the goddess of beauty, and that was much more obvious. she always looked fantastic.

she returned to the blackboard and wrote the gods that had been selected by vincent and chris. beneath, she wrote poseidon, and put a } bracket at the side, writing 'the big three' beside it. "zeus, hades, and poseidon were all children of the titan kronos. they are the most powerful of the gods, and they each own seperate parts of the earth. can anybody tell which god owns which part?" she asked, perching on the front of the desk and looking at the students. she'd have moved them all to the front, but they seemed to be working well where they were sitting. since they would have a test to do, which she doubted they'd appreciate, they might as well be allowed to sit where they want.

tagged: mythology students words: 248
wearing: click credit: vicky !?
comments: nothing to say really

[dan]

Chris sat there looking around at the class, it wasnt that bad of a class. He waited for everyone to write down there gods then the Headmistress began writing on the board. e wasnt sure who the titan kronos was but he knew the answer to the question. Chris paused a moment looking around unsure whether to put his hand up or not. After about one second he decided to put his hand up in the most casual way he could.

Yawning slightly he let one hand rise into the air naturally but used the other to scratch his head. That way if people reacted to a Slytherin putting there hand up he could just say he was yawning... then stretching.. for quiet some time. Usually chris wold just let other people answer questions and just sit back and watch but he knew the answer and kind of wanted to show off a bit.

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[n]

"Poseidon ruled the seas, Hades was guardian of the underworld, and Zeus... he was pretty much in charge of everything. He ruled Olympus."

AJ grinned. Her muggle grandmother had told her the myths as a child, and when AJ was old enough, she began researching them. It turned out a lot of the muggle lore overlapped with wizard lore, and her fascination for the subject continued from there. Only when things like Cerebus and Polyphemus came up did she get a bit squeamish, but overall she loved myth, fairytales, and folklore. On her paper was an entire list of gods and goddesses she could think of off the top of her head.

Hera
bitter wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage
Eros/Cupid
god of sexual love, beauty, son of Aphrodite
Ares
god of war
Athena
goddess of wisdom, born from Zeus's skull

She was sitting in front of Chris, and couldn't see his casual attempt of answering the teacher's question. Even if she had, she probably would have spoken up. After all, Gryffindor could use the house points, and she wouldn't've let some lazy Slytherin snatch them up. She might get docked marks for speaking without her hand up, but she hoped that Hermione Malfoy valued the knowledge more than protocol. AJ didn't want to be scolded, not by her favourite professor.

notes + I took a Mythology course in college You will never know how excited I am that this is here!

[monkeybread]

Vincent blinked and sat back farther in his chair, watching his teacher write up the, three big ones, he chuckled to himself about that, and then found he would answer for the great god Hades himself. He shared a common theme with the god after all, the god of death, and ruler over the underworld, he was truly one of the most. Thus was the reason Vincent picked him, Shia would have picked Eros, or perhaps Ares, but Vincent stood by Hades.

His hand lazily went into the air as he looked around the room, seeing good ole' Chris raising his hand as well. He wondered about this class, he wasn't big on impressing people, but then again, he enjoyed his grades, and didn't intend on losing them. So he would of course be just as participant as anyone else.

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[hermionemalfoy]

hermione spotted two students raising their hands, though one of them was being more subtle about it than the others, christopher weasley specifically. as soon as she had been about to select between the said slytherin and the demonic ravenclaw, or at least formerly demonic, an enthusiastic gryffindor fired the answers at her. 'i now appreciate how the teachers felt when i knew the answer.' she thought with an inwards chuckle, before turning her attention to the girl. annabelle abercrombie, she always had been a good student. completing her work on time and to an excellent standard, and never once had she needed to deduct house points from gryffindor for the girl's behaviour. "very good miss abercrombie, though if you could raise your hand next time you know the answer please." she said to the sixth year. beside the names on the board, she wrote their 'realms'. "i'm sorry that this has to happen on your first lesson, but you all need to complete a test paper. it's only six questions long and should take you up until the end of the lesson." hermione told them, grabbing a pile of papers from the front desk and putting one on each table that had a student sitting at it. "we haven't covered everything yet, but it's not too complicated. this will be used to predict your grades, so try your best. you may begin."

tagged: mythology students words: 233
wearing: click it credit: vicky !?
comments: pm me the tests if you haven't
already, they're in the main mythology board

[userx]

The sixth year girl had never witnessed such a quiet classroom. She’d been expecting something entirely different. She supposed that the fact that the Headmistress herself was teaching this first lesson might have had something to do with it. Still, her first predictions had been for a classroom, both filled with more students and noise. It was particularly weird when you considered the people who were present. Not many of them were known for their quiet or reserved natures. In fact, she often found herself wanting to punch some of the other students in the face for talking too much. Most of them seemed unable to shut up. And yet, in an optional subject, they were choosing to remain in this peaceful manner. She couldn’t help but speculate as to what would happen if one were to replace the current professor with another. Was it simply her that was preventing all of the usual behaviour and incessant speech? Then, slowly, another thought occurred to her.

There was always the possibility that they weren’t talking as much, about random topics, because they were more interested in this subject than the others they were taking. She personally found this lesson to be more exciting than most of her others. She also found that the quieter atmosphere was much more agreeable than in other subjects. It gave her chance to concentrate properly and think about relevant things to the lesson itself, rather than being forced to listen to some shallow conversation about some stupid girl’s life problems. Really, she knew that History of Magic wasn’t the most exciting lesson ever, but when she had to tolerate this, it took a lot of self-control to prevent herself from turning around and hitting them. Either with a wand or without. She wasn’t fussy. She’d take whatever methods were necessary in order to shut them up, rambling on about the latest gossip, so that she was actually able to hear and learn from the lesson. It might not be important to them, but she required as many passing grades as possible. Not that she could ever match her mother’s achievements, she dully noted, whilst glancing back at the teacher standing at the front of the room.

It took some more self-control to stop herself laughing out loud at Chris’s attempts to look disinterested. Wasn’t he aware that this was one of the most obvious moves in the book? Either way, it wasn’t very successful. She knew as soon as she saw him slowly raise his arm, that he was actually quite eager to give the answer. A sound of almost inaudible contempt escaped her lips when she saw another student raise their hand. In comparison to Christopher Weasley, this girl was giving the impression that she might faint, if she wasn’t permitted to answer the question first. Knowing this girl all too well, she rolled her eyes. ‘Desperate, much?’

[/color] she hissed towards the girl, loud enough for only the Gryffindor to hear. It wasn’t even as if her answer was that impressive. She was certain that most, if not all, of the other students knew this much already. Picking up her quill again, she copied the writing from the board onto her sheet of parchment.

A test? She couldn’t hide her disappointment. This wasn’t the exciting start to the subject that she had been imagining. Still, she thought, better to get it done and over with. At least until the next set of exams which sadly were not that far away. Surveying the paper, by turning it in almost every direction known to man, she read every inch of the test paper, still not that thrilled by the prospects. Shrugging, she picked up the quill and started to scribble her answers. She was pleased to find that she knew a considerable amount already. That was always good. [/size][/blockquote]