COMC Class 3: Ashwinders

Armando stood nervously in the middle of the grounds waiting for his students to arrive.

He sighed. The first day of teaching. He was even more nervous then he was the first day of school when he was a boy.

Michael Blackwood made his way out onto the grounds dressed in his school uniform, the only deviances were his motorcycle boots and of course the ever-present earring and ear cuffs. The four cuffs were on his right ear, while the piercing stayed in his left. He only had one ear officially pierced, after all. Slung upon his right shoulder was his leather tote that contained all the books, parchment, quills, and ink he could possibly need for the day. Good thing it was charmed to magically expand as needed on the inside!

Oh, a new professor... Michael mused curiously, his expression mirroring his thoughts.

Bella yawned as she walked out to her Care of Magical Creatures class on the grounds. She had nothing against animals...just found learning about them dull, besides, she had slept terribly last night. Raven, the ever present thorn in her side, was chipper that day, having not only slept well but been the reason that Bella had not slept well. The fellow Slytherin's charmed alarm had gone off five times in the middle of the night without waking up the sleeping dead that Raven turned into once she fell asleep.

Raven grabbed her arm and pointed to the handsome man standing obviously waiting for them. "A new teacher, Merlin!"Raven practically squealed. Bella rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her chest.
"No, he is not Merlin, so shut up." she hissed, noticing Michael for the first time. Maybe COMC would be better than she thought...

((omg, I'm going to play three characters at once again.))

"Come on Diana," Nicolas said several paces in front of her. "Your the one always badgering about not being late for class."

"We aren't late," she said. "Class starts at half-past."

But Nicolas wasn't listening. "Hey look, new teacher."

Diana's eyes widened as she realized who it was. 'Tio Armando!?'

From the way Nicolas was not as surprised as she was, she figured he had not told Nicolas about his true identity.

----

"Buenas Dias," Armando said greeting the students as they came. He noted his sabrinos, but continued on. "I am Professor Salvador, I shall be teaching Care of Magical Creatures for the rest of this school year." He smiled at all of them.

"Oi," Nicolas whispered to Diana. "El es Espanol." Diana merely nodded, not wanting to give anything away.

----

"I believe you have gone over Salamanders and Thestrals?"

Some of the students nodded.

"Vale," Armando said. "Today we shall learn about Ashwinders."

There was a large box situated on the table in front of Armando, which, when Armando waved his wand over, opened.

A thin grey serpent with glowing red eyes slithered out into the open.

"This is an Ashwinder. They come out of magical fires and lives long enough to lay fiery hot eggs in a dark and secluded spot."

The Ashwinder hissed at the students.

"These eggs, while valued as potion ingredients, are very dangerous. If they are not found and frozen in time, they will set buildings on fire."

"And that brings us to our lesson." Armando said with a slight smile. "I have hidden a few of these eggs around the grounds. There are nueve, nine in total. You shall have the rest of the lesson to find them. When you find one, merely cast a simple freezing charm and put them in one of these baskets. The student who finds the most, shall get - " he pointed his wand and a box appeared. " - some Honeydukes chocolates."

--

Homework:
What will happen if the eggs are not found and frozen in time? (5 house points)
Where do Ashwinders come from? (5 house points)

Michael paid rapt attention to the professor: snakes rather intrigued him even though he'd been bitten by one. Not one to waste time after being set with a task, sometimes anyway, the Hufflepuff withdrew his wand and summoned a basket to him.

Now, if I were an Ashwinder egg, hidden by a professor... where would I be? Michael wondered, looking around. However, his train of thought was interrupted by a mop of blonde hair... a familiar one. Coming up with what he considered to be a clever proposition, Michael decided to approach and see if Bella Rosier was even open to the idea.

"Hey..." Michael offered a greeting to the Slytherin and her friend quietly, grinning. "Wanna make a friendly bet as to who - between the two or three of us - finds the most eggs?"

Bella smiled almost shyly. "Sounds lovely." she replied, ignoring how Raven's mouth dropped open. "Of course, I'd win." she stated, obviously toying with him. She had nothing against snakes, but had a healthy respect for them. Finding their eggs that had been hidden sounded fairly simple...

Michael laughed. "We'll see. Let's see... maybe the losing party treats the other, or others, to lunch at the Three Broomsticks next Hogsmeade weekend?" he suggested with a kind of wry smile on his face.

"Are you in, too?" the Hufflepuff asked Bella's acquaintance, whom he hadn't met yet.

"Why are you smiling?" Nicolas asked.

"Nothing," Diana said. Of course, this nothing was really Diana's amusement on how her uncle has taken the role of teacher quite well.

"You can count me in," Nicolas said overhearing the Hufflepuff's offer of a bet. It was not something Nicolas could resist.

--

Diana however could, she walked over to where the Professor was.

Armando smiled slightly at the competition between the students. He did not mind it at all, in fact, he'd rather encouraged it. He forgot to mention though, that simple summoning charms would not work. He made sure of that.

"Hello, Ms. Casillas." Armando said.

Diana shivered slightly at the greeting. "It's odd when you call me that."

Armando chuckled, "Yes, but I think calling you Dianita would be... blowing my cover."

Zabby ran down the hill from the castle. She was late! She was never late! She had gotten caught up in talking Haydon about his plans for christmas, when she realized the time. She saw Diana talking to the Professor. "Pro-Professor!" she called as she skidded to a stop in front of them. "I'm so sorry I'm late! I didn't realize the time! I'm never late! Ask Diana!"

Bella smiled. "Sounds great. I like being treated out." Raven rolled her eyes.

"No, I don't want to end up helping Bella treat you, Hufflepu..." an elbow to her ribs silenced the Slytherin.
"Of course, she's in." Bella answered for her.

Armando nodded at the new arrival. "It's quite alright Miss...?"

"Gallagher," Zabby breathed. "Zabby Gallagher." She stood up straight. "I got distracted...I'm sorry..."

"No problem," Armando said. "Just don't make being late for class a usual occurance Miss Gallagher."

She shook her head. "It isn't. Normally I'm about five minutes early for this class. I love animals." She turned about five shades of red in embarrassment. "I am sorry..."

"Not to worry," Armando said. "We are all entitled to off days."

He took a basket and gave it to her. "I have hidded nine Ashwinder eggs around the Grounds. The lesson today is finding them and freezing them before the lesson is up."

Zabby nodded and accepted the basket. "Is that a Spanish accent, sir? Por favor, Senor."

She ran off, wand out, looking for the eggs.

Michael nodded to the Gryffindor that had overheard, and returned his attention to Bella's friend. Dark caramel eyebrows rose in response to the hostility, but instead of looking mortified he actually appeared as though he thought it was funny. Pretending to not have seen the nudge, the teen grinned cheerily at the both of them.

"May the best and coolest egg-hunter win," he offered to the pair with a light-hearted laugh, then made his way to search for eggs. Drawing from what he knew of snakes, Michael had a few places in mind to search...

Nervously chuckling as Michael smiled, Bella nodded and dragged her friend off to find the eggs.

"You git!" Bella hissed, slapping Raven's arm. "What are you trying to do?" Raven just opened and closed her mouth. "Come on." And the two Slytherins began to look for the eggs.