Lesson Two: Water Demons

[Kaileena Lovegood]

Kaileena waited for her students to walk in, leaning against the edge of her desk. The edges of her robes were damp, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail to hide the fact that she had been in some sort of struggle. Strands of hair hung around the side of her face, framing it. She smiled and pushed off of the desk, walking forward. She stopped and scanned the students, her eyes shining with excitement. Next to her was a table that was holding a large, rectangular-shaped object. A blanket covered it, obscuring the contents. ”Good morning, class! Today’s going to be fun. But of course, it means that now that you all have had a chance to get familiar with the subject…” As she spoke, she grabbed the edge of the blanket and yanked it, revealing a tank full of weird, creepy little creatures that had bluish-green bodies and large, yellow eyes. “It’s time to get down to business.”

One of them slammed against the tank, making Leena jump in shock. She cleared her throat and forced a smile on her face.
“Can anyone tell me what these creatures are?” Her sapphire blue eyes searched the classroom, looking for someone who would answer her. Surely there had to be someone. Seconds passed, and no one raised their hands. Her spirits deflated a little, but she kept talking. “This is a Grindylow, or a water demon. They’re found in the bottom of lakes here in England, as well as in Ireland.” She began pacing around the room as she talked. “As you can tell, they have long fingers that will wrap around people if they get too close to the water, and pull them in. These creatures are extremely violent and aggressive towards muggles, which actually brings me to what the lesson today is going to be on.” She clapped her hands and the chalk on the chalkboard levitated, much like in the first lesson. It began writing the instructions of the class as she stated them.

“Today, you will be working with these creatures. You’ll partner up, and each group will get one of them in its own private tank. You are to study them and tell me what makes them Dark creatures. You’re to tell me about their diet, where they live, if they are partial to other water creatures or not, and eventually, you’ll give them a little treat.” She smiled and clapped her hands once then walked to her desk. A small fish tank full of goldfish materialized on the corner of her desk, and the tank that was holding the grindylows morphed, trapping each creature in individual containers. "Get to work!"

Assignment: Roleplay out your lesson and write down your observations in a small paragraph. This assignment is worth 30 points, 15 for RP, and 15 for the assignment. Keep in mind that most of you are first years, and this is your first encounter with something like this. Most of the students will not escape this class unscathed.

[Dastan Cross]

Dastan looked at the little demon before him with something akin to disgust. Their nasty little fingers and their unnaturally colored skin made them look like they were unhealthy little beasties. He almost wanted to poke his with a stick, just to see what made them so special that they had to be brought up in D.A.D.A. Were they really a threat?

Still, the lesson was lame. What was he supposed to do? Write about how the little thing swam around? It didn't seem to be doing much. And he needed a partner. God, he hated having partners.

Sighing dramatically, Dastan scanned the classroom. None of them looked particularly worthy of being his partner, so he decided to wait and see if someone asked him. Luckily, someone did. A boy in his house by the name of Vincent Crabbe.

"Wanna be my partner, Cross?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"I suppose," Dastan responded hesitantly, not sure yet whether or not he really did. The boy looked daft. Nevertheless, it didn't look like there were going to be any other offers any time soon. Note to self: stop being like a jerk at least part of the time, so that you can find suitable partners for classes like this.

He and Crabbe moved over to their tank and Dastan stared at the little gremlin inside. "Do you have your book out, Crabbe?" he said, eying the Grindylow.

"Uh...not yet. Lemme get that," the idiot boy grumbled, moving to get his book. Dastan rolled his eyes. Honestly. How was he supposed to succeed in his goals when he had house-mates like this?

Crabbe returned. "Go to the section about Grindylows. Tell me what it says while I try and get a reaction out of it," Dastan said, casting a summoning spell on a stool that stood not too far away from him. He propped it next to the tank and climbed on top of the stool. Looking down into the tank, he slowly began moving his hand towards the water.

Instantly, the little beastie latched onto him, grabbing his hand and pulling his entire upper body into the tank. Its grabby fingers were grabbing at his hair, trying to force his head under.

"Agh!" he moaned, trying to get his hair away from its grip.

"The book says that its strength is in its fingers, which grab people and pull them into the water," Crabbe read, not once looking up from his page to see what was going on.

Dastan felt fury well up in him. "I can tell!" he managed, still trying to grapple with the beast to avoid being dunked.

"And it also says that it likes to eat humans. Hehe...wouldn't it be funny if one of these things pulled a student into the water and started eating him?"

Dastan's eyes abruptly widened. No. No, absolutely not! He was not going to be eaten by a stupid Grindylow in his D.A.D.A. lesson. Using his other hand to grab at the fingers, he pried them away from him; luckily, they apparently had strong grips, but brittle fingers, so they were easy to break. Dastan stumbled back, falling off his stool and hitting the floor with a loud thump, which was completely lost to the class as each of the other students also had their first run-ins with the stupid creatures and the teacher attempted to do damage control.

"Oh, it also says that the trick to escaping them is the fact that their grips are strong, but they have really brittle fingers. It's relatively easy to break through their grips when you try. Hey, why are you wet?"

Dastan glared at his partner. He couldn't have read that part BEFORE he'd gotten dunked and almost killed by that stupid little demon? "No reason. Just thought I'd go for a little swim," Dastan said with cold sarcasm.

"Oh. Okay. But don't forget, we have to do a lesson here, too."

It took every ounce of will that Dastan possessed not to get up and strangle his partner to death, right then and there. But oh, was it tempting...

"I think I've got enough. I'm gonna write the paragraph now." Dastan turned and took his seat, then began to write:

Grindylows are water-demons. They are little and are a pale green color, with giant eyes and long, dangerous looking fingers. At first glance, they are not especially intimidating, though they are incredibly ugly. These demons are particularly aggressive. They don't often eat humans, but they have been known to do it every once and a while. Generally, they stick to eating algae and fish.

What makes Grindylows so dangerous is that they have these long fingers, which take the witch or wizard into their grip and drag them into the water, where they usually drown. The trick to beating them, however, is the brittleness of their fingers. The grips, while strong, aren't very hard and break off easily enough when the right amount of pressure is applied.

---

Excellent work, Mr. Cross! Aside from breaking the poor creature's fingers, you get full marks. 27/30

[Carter Yeardley]

Carter walked in and took his seat that he had seated in before. He look around a saw a box that was covered. All he could think of was that this lesson wasn’t going to be as ‘nice’ as the last one was. He look at the Professor, the end of her robes were wet and today her hair was up in a ponytail.
She announced today’s lesson and uncovered what she called. Grindylow’s, They didn’t look like anything he’s seen before. He got out his parchment and quill and started writing down:
Grindylow’s
Why are they dark creatures
Are they partial to other water creatures
What is there diet
Where they live

A girl walked up to him. She had curly blonde hair, blue eyes and wore light make-up.
“H.Hi” She said. “Want to partner up with me?”
He Shrugged sure why not” He said. He moved his bag and they brought to desk together and another chair.
“So what should we do first?” She asked sticking her fingers in the water.
“You don’t want to do that” He said looking up from his notes.” But before she got what he was saying, it had bitten her.
“Ow” she cried.
“Sigh.” He took here hand and examined it. “Just a small cut. I doubt that’s a poisonous creature”
“How do you know that?” She asked amazed.
“Well first of we are in fact still first years. I really don’t think our teacher will hand us a poisonous creature without warning us first even if we were in higher grade levels” Carter said in really going to asked that question voice.
He wrote down some more of what it looks like, for he own personal reasons. He like knowing what things looked like if he had to go back over it as notes later. He was good at remembering.
“If you want to get started on looking up the research you can” he said to the girl before she went pocking at the tank again. She went an got her book and started reading through the chapters as if she didn’t know what chapter were on.
“Its 10 pages from the page we started on yesterday” Carter said getting a little annoyed with the female. He hoped that not all girls were this way.
“Now how do you know that?”
“You should really learn to read you r material and listen to the teacher before pocking fingers into something you have no clue about.” Carter said trying to sound as nice as possible. The girl pouted for a good two minutes before turning to the correct page.
“Grin-”
“Please just write down the information we need. I’ve already read the chapter I don’t need someone reading it to me again.” He said in a bored tone.
“What information do we need again?” She asked sweetly. Carter sighed and handed her the paper with all the notes. She copied down all the notes and began writing down everything onto her paper. When she was done, He took the paper and ready scream.
“There dark because the send time in the water? That’s your answer? Really?” He said
“Well I couldn’t find The really reason it didn’t say” she said defensively.
“Did you try looking through the whole chapter?” He asked.
“We don’t have that much time” She complained “And I hate reading”
“Its called skimming not reading. Look for something that sounds like the question the read what it says.” handing back to her and watched her. This was a team work and he couldn’t do it all.
“Here! I Found it!” She exclaimed. And she did.
“There you go. Now was that hard?” he said patting her on the head. He went to look at the Grindylow some more while his partner was writing away on the parchment. The girl didn’t realized that her hair hand flown into the tank. The Grindylow gotten a hold of and tried pulling her in. It would have gotten her if Carter hadn’t been there to grab hold of the Grindylow. He twisted his fingers into the grip, it was really hard because the Grindylow kept swimming and his partner was in tear and was trying to pull away.The Grindylow as Carter was busy help his partners hair wasn't paying attention and the it sank its teeth into his arm, After about 5mins the grip loosened and the poor girl was free. He pulled the Grindylow off his arm and pushed it back into the water. He did feel sorry for the girl this time it was her fault this time.
“Oy that hurt After class I’ll walk to the nurses office to get you a ice pack.” He told her hold his hand. She nodded with a couple of last tears running down her face.

The paper-
Grindylows


A Grindylow is a pale green underwater creature that live in the weed beds at the bottom of lakes in Great Britain and Ireland. It has green teeth and pointy horns and long, strong fingers they use to pull prey into the water.
Merpeople have been known to domesticate them and keep them as pets.
They are not really a threat, but they do eat some humans, which makes them Dark Creatures.
They do not eat humans often because it is not the correct diet for them, they mostly eat Fish, Algae, and small sea creatures.
The two actually worked together to write the paper. She found all the information with the help of carter and Carter corrected to make sound like a paper. At first it was hard for Carter but once they both calmed down a little they both word together and got it done.
Were I found the info.
harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Grindylow

---

15/30.
The RP was good, but I'm going to have to dock you points, sorry. That was almost word for word what the article said. Please be more original next time.

[skylarroar]

((OOC: I have permission to use Roxanne AKA Roxie.))

Skye walked into class hoping that this time they'd be applying themselves instead of doing more bookwork. After all, this was a class for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Simply writing down spells wouldn't help them any. When he sat down, he smiled at the teacher and again at the nice classroom. When she said it was time to get down to business, he smiled. He was excited.

When she revealed the ugly creatures, he frowned. How... stereotypical for something evil to be hideous. He almost laughed when the teacher herself jumped at one of them slamming against the wall of the tank. Heck, he almost laughed at the thing hitting the tank. It looked like it had slipped or something. He listened as the teacher briefly explained the creature, then listened to the assignment.

To him, this was cleverly disguised book work, which made him, once again unhappy. How would they find out the things she wanted with just a tank of water and the ugly beast? Oh, right, by using the book. He wanted to chuck his book at her, like many of the people who noticed this probably did.

After everyone else in the room partnered up, he saw that a lone Slytherin girl was left. He walked up to her pleasantly and said, "Why hello there. Seems we're the last two without partners." She was quiet, looking at the beast in the cage. He tapped her shoulder and she jumped.

"Wait? Huh?" she said. Then she seemed to scan Skye with her eyes. "Wanna be my partner? Sure. I'm just going to look up the stuff in my book though." He shrugged and looked at the thing.

"Would you read it out loud then, please?" He asked. He wanted to find out about the little beasts, and circled the tank, holding the stare of it's ugly inhabitant. The girl looked sick and shrugged. "Oh, I'm Skylar," he added, as he circled the tank.

"Roxanne." She said her name as a statement. It made him arch an eyebrow at the creature out of habit. The grindylow seemed to arch an eyebrow back. It made him laugh. "Ugh. These are disgusting." She then made a face and read out the important parts about a Grindylow. "A Grindylow is a pale green underwater creature that live in the weed beds at the bottom of lakes in Great Britain and Ireland. It has green teeth and pointy horns and long, strong fingers they use to pull prey into the water. They are violent and aggressive towards wizards and witches and Muggles."

He was listening, but no longer glancing at the blonde girl, Roxanne. Instead, he reached his fingers into the tank, being curious and forgetting the teacher's warning about that. Then, suddenly, it latched unto his hand and tugged. Roxanne just kept reading. "Merpeople have been known to domesticate them and keep them as pets...."

She did keep going, however, he stopped paying attention. He was focusing on not being pulled under. The little devil had a grip! After struggling for awhile, it actually pulled him under. It even bit his arm when he felt another hand slide in and pull at the Grindylow's. The fingers seemed to break so easily! Oh, of course! The teacher even mentioned that! Then, yet another hand was gripping the back of his shirt and pulled him up.

Grateful, he gasped for air.

"You moron! Couldn't you wait until I finished reading at least? Or maybe pay attention to the teacher next time? Ugh, you made me get wet! And your arm's bleeding!" She muttered a spell under her breath, then the pain went away. "Geez!"

Angry, she stomped off. Oops, he thought. He was grateful to her for saving him though. He saw her write down her answer, then turn it in and storm out. He figured he should do the same. So, he finished reading the passage in the book, and wrote his answer.

Skylar Everson.

Grindylows are ugly little creatures. Through personal experience, I learned that they have an amazing little grip, although frail fingers. They also have sharp teeth. The book taught me that they are often pets for merpeople, that humans aren't the correct diet for them, and that they like eating fish, algae, and small sea creatures.

Looking at his work, he saw that it had various droplets of water on it. He also saw droplets of water all over his book. He shrugged. He was pulled under, after all. He turned in his work, then grabbed his stuff and left, dropping the goldfish into the grindylow tank on the way.

---

30/30, Mr. Everson. Excellent work.

[Astin Descartes]

Astin eyed the Grindylow somewhat fondly. It was kind of cute, in a twisted way. He wanted to hug it, but his instincts told him that probably wasn't the brightest idea that had ever come to mind. Instead, he simply placed his palm flat against the glass in front of one of them in a way of sort of saying hello. He jumped back when it flew at him like it was going to reach straight through the glass and rip off his head.

When Astin saw the predicament Dastan was in, he was glad he wasn't dumb enough to follow his initial idea. In fact, he was torn between laughing and pitching in to help the poor guy. The latter desire was thoroughly quashed when Dastan broke the creature's fingers; it wouldn't have attacked him if Dastan hadn't provoked it. Astin shot a dark look at his enemy before going over to look at the injured Grindylow with pity. It couldn't be blamed for attacking; it was only reacting on instinct.

"Um, everyone else is partnered up, so can I work with you?"

Astin didn't really pay her any mind, other than a nonchalant shrug and a mumbled, "Sure." He was wondering if someone should repair the Grindylow's broken fingers. It looked pathetic, sitting there nursing its hand all alone. Nevertheless, he eventually turned his attention toward the small Ravenclaw. She already had her book out and was flipping fervently through the pages. Well, it seemed like she wasn't going to be a very talkative partner. He took a seat and opened his own book. Might as well get started.

When provoked, Grindylows will use their long fingers to grab people and drag them underwater. However, although their grip is very strong, jerks like Dastan can and will break their brittle fingers to escape from the trap their own stupidity got them into. They are known to occasionally eat people, but they mostly subsist on fish, algae, and small sea creatures.

There. That was a paragraph, right? Astin shrugged. He really could care less about the bookwork part of this class. After all, he already hadn't gotten himself attacked, so he was doing better than Dastan at any rate.

Astin grabbed a goldfish and headed over to the large tank. Sorry little guy, but you're a treat. Astin dropped the fish into the tank above the injured Grindylow, watching as it grabbed the struggling goldfish with twisted fingers and promptly shoved it into its mouth.

It looked kind of happy. Well, it least the poor thing got over sulking about its broken hand quickly.

---

25/30
Awesome work, Mr. Descartes.

[Griffin Sosario]

Griffin Walked into the classroom and took his usual seat glancing nervously at the big box and the professor's desk. He didn't know what was in it, but this was defense against the DARK ARTS class, so it couldn't be anything good. When he found out that they would be working with these dangerous-looking beasts, he began to grow pale. He hated anything too dangerous.

When all of the students began to pair up, he found a rambunctious-looking gryffindore to be his partner.
"Okay," said Griffin, "So, how about I write the paragraph and you can feed it the goldfish."
"Fine by me, I hate writing," his partner said.
As Griffin began to read about the grindylow, he glanced up to see his partner with his face pressed against the glass of the tank. He was knocking on the tank with his fist, while the poor grindylow was floating in one corner with its little hands over its ears. Griffin ignored him for the most part, except for asking him to feed the grindylow the fish. When he tossed the fish into the tank, the little creature swam up, grabbed up the fish and shoved to whole into its mouth. Griffin proceeded to write the paragraph.

The grindylow lives in the weeds of lakes all over Great Britain and Ireland. It's a small, pale green creature with sharp horns and green teeth. They mainly eat fish and sea creatures but have been known to eat the occasional human. They have sharp, strong fingers that they use to grab the feet of humans to pull them into the water to drown them. But, their fingers are also very brittle and can break very easily. They are very dangerous, but some have been domesticated by merpeople.

Griffin read over his work quickly, then he got up and turned it in while ignoring his idiotic partner that was annoying the poor grindylow.

[Addison Bell]

(OOC: I have permission to use Rosemarie Willington.
Source: www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/bestiary_g.html )

Addison snuck into class just as Professor Lovegood was taking a blanket off a tank, inside were pale green things, Addison had no clue what to think of it. Professor Lovegood explained that they were Grindylows, and that they would partner up and examine one for the day.

As Addison looked around for someone to partner up with a tank came zooming to her table. She tapped the glass and the creature rammed against it. "You really shouldn't do that Ads." Addison turned, "Oh hey Rose! I didn't realize you were taking this class! You're right, i probably shouldn't tap it, the poor thing doesn't look too happy. Wanna be partners?" Addison looked up at Rose, waiting for a reply, "Oh no thank you, i just walked over here for no reason at all." Rose nudged Addison and laughed, "Of course i wanna be partners!."

The two girls laughed and looked at the creature, Addison turned her head to one side, "He's not so ugly, i mean the yellow eyes are kinda creepy, but he's a cute little thing." Rose laughed, "If you say so, he's pretty weird looking. Anyway, let's get cracking on this assignment." Addison dug in her bag until she found her DADA book, turning to the correct page, she begin reading,

"A grindylow is a pale green creature that lives in the weed beds on the bottom of lakes in Britain. It is also known as a water demon. Grindylows have long, brittle fingers which they use to grip their prey, sharp little horns, and green teeth."

Rose looked at the Grindylow with a disgusted face, "Do you think those tiny fingers are that strong?" Addison wondered the same, "I don't know, let me try something...." Peering over the tank, Addison slowly stuck her quill in the water, as soon as the tip touched the creature grabbed on to it, pulling in down wards, Addison struggled to pull it out, and just ended up with a couple of loose feathers. "Yeah, he's pretty strong, i wouldn't stick anything else in there. Uhmm...Do you have en extra quill i can use?" Rose laughed, "Yeah, here you go. Okay, let's start this report, the fingers, are obviously it's most useful weapon."

Addison took down a piece of parchment and began to write.

Grindylows are surprisingly strong creatures, their brittle little fingers are used to get their prey, despite their physical appearance, they're not kind, especially to muggles. Some of these creatures have been taught better by the merpeople and seem to be more well behaved.

Their diet consists of algae and fish, if you aren't careful, it could also consist of you. If you are to ever be found in the hands of a Grindylow the best thing to do is pry of their fingers, it's quite hard but can be done. The one way to avoid Gryndilows is simple, stay away from the bottom of lakes, as such in Hogwarts.

Addison handed the paper to Rose, "Whatcha think?" Rose scanned through it and looked up, "Perfect!" Laughing she handed it back to Addison, who walked up to Professor Lovegood's desk and set it down.

[Rosemarie Willington]

((OOC: I have permission to use Addison Bell. And since she already used Rose. I am just going to do Rose's POV. I'll redo it if you don't like me to doing it that way. ))


Rose sat down in her seat that she had sat in for the lesson, after a couple of minutes she spotted Addison sneaking in. She didn’t remember seeing her in the first lesson, of course she didn’t know anyone, yet, so she probably didn’t know to look for her.
When they were free to go pick out there partners Rose walked over to Addison to ask to be partners, but when she got there Addison was tapping on the glass.
“You really shouldn’t do that Ads” Rose said walking up next to her laughing.
“Hey Rose I didn’t realize you were taking this class! Your right I probably shouldn’t tap it, the poor thing doesn’t look to happy. Wanna be partners?” Rose being the smart-aleck, put on a straight face and said.
“Oh no thank you. I just walked over here for no reason at all” Rose nudge and couldn’t keep a straight face and started laughing. “Of course I wanna be partners."
They both laughed together, she was glad she didn’t offend Addison Rose knew plenty of people that would glare at her a walk off if she ever did that to them. They looked at the creature it was weird looking, but it came to no surprise to her, she had seen some pretty weird stuff throughout all of her life.
“He’s not so ugly, I mean his yellow eyes are a little creepy, but he’s a cute little thing” Addison said. Rose wasn’t really shocked to hear Addison say this, Addison was the type that would love anything no matter how gross or ugly. Which was a good trait to have, if there was a good trait about someone Addison would be sure to pick it out. Rose laughed at the thought.
“If you say so, he’s pretty weird looking. Anyway letting get cracking on this assignment” She wanted to say what she thought but wanted Addison to think that the thing was cute if that’s what she really thought, it was good she thought that. Addison took out her DADA book and laid it on the table and read the required page. Rose made a mental note to read the page later so she wouldn’t be behind, but she wanted to examine the Water demon a little more, she wouldn’t get another chance to see one up close. She watched the way it moved, the way it watched her and would try to attack her. Definite a mean creature.
She looked back at Addison as she read some of the page to her.
“A Grindylow is a pale green creature that lives in the weed beds on the bottom of lakes in Britain. It is also known as a water demon. Grindylows have long, brittle fingers which they use to grip their prey, sharp little horns, and green teeth.” Addison read out loud.
Rose looked at it kind of grossed out. She was use to gross ingredients but not creatures. She spotted the long skinny fingers.
“Do you think those fingers are really that strong?” Rose asking her thoughts out loud.
“I don’t know let me try something…” Rose didn’t mean to trigger an experiment, but she trust Addison to be safe about it. She watched as Addison look into the tank and stuck her quill into the tank. The creature wrapped it fingers around it and pulled it down, Rose watched in amusement as Addison tried to get her quill away from the Grinylow and only getting a few of the feather. Rose watched to see what the Grindylow would do with the quill. It tried to eat but decided it didn’t taste to good and let it skink to the bottom.
“Yeah, he's pretty strong, i wouldn't stick anything else in there. Uhmm...Do you have en extra quill I can use?” Rose laughed.
“Yeah here you go. Ok now lets start this report, the fingers are obviously its most useful weapon” She said trying to help with the report. She didn’t want Addison to do all the work.
Rose watched for a second as Addison went to town writing, but took one last look at the creature.
"Whatcha think?" Addison asked handing her the paper. She looked through it. I t had everything the teacher asked for and the spelling looked good.
Grindylows are surprisingly strong creatures, their brittle little fingers are used to get their prey, despite their physical appearance, they're not kind, especially to muggles. Some of these creatures have been taught better by the merpeople and seem to be more well behaved.
Their diet consists of algae and fish, if you aren't careful, it could also consist of you. If you are to ever be found in the hands of a Grindylow the best thing to do is pry of their fingers, it's quite hard but can be done. The one way to avoid Gryndilows is simple, stay away from the bottom of lakes, as such in Hogwarts.

"Perfect!" Rose said handing the paper back to Addison.