The Stolen Child [open for all! :)]

[Dimitri Mikhail Zolnerowich]

"Faeries." Dimitri looked at the class before him, a mixture of higher years following advanced defense. He could tell they were going to laugh at what he was going to say - and that was exactly the point. This was no laughing matter. "I assume you've all heard of faeries?" he asked again, allowing a brief silence to fall before turning to the black board. Usually when treating magical creatures in class he had a specimen or at least a schematic drawing of them in chalk - not this time. It was just a list, this time, and some muggle images of what they believed to be faeries, or fairies, or whatever they called them.
"Most of you will be familiar with them from so-called fairy tales or folklore, especially Irish mythology," he explained, tapping the black board with his wand to enlarge the script so all could read it. It was a list of characteristics.
"There is a difference to the brownies and pixies we're familiar with and actual faeries. We can't be sure about what they look like, for example. Even though faeries are often depicted as young, sometimes winged, humanoids of small stature, they originally were depicted much differently: taller and in some way radiant. The diminutive faeries we are familiar with have been recorded for centuries and occur alongside the human-sized ones. In short, really, they seem to be able to assume any size and perhaps their small innocent image is magically assumed rather than constant. The difficulty is that most of what we know comes from folklore, a field in which it is notoriously difficult to distinguish fact from fiction, so their origins and natures remain vastly unclear."
Putting down his wand, he glanced at his students, wondering if they still took him seriously. After all - it were 'only faeries' they were talking about. "We cannot even be sure if faeries are actually living things, as some sources document them as dead or undead beings, some even as some form of demon or angel or something in between, making them completely independent from any earthly species. Muggle folklorists suggest that their actual origin lies in a conquered probably mythical race living in hiding, or in religious beliefs that lost ground as more and more people were converted to Christianity, such as in the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Sometimes there are even sources that tell of faeries stealing human children, making them faeries in the process, or leaving a changeling child instead - as documented in the 1889 poem 'The Stolen Child' by William Butler Yeats." Dimitri looked into the class again. "I admit distilling the truth from such inaccurate and obscure sources is very tricky, even with more reliable sources such as Reverend Robert Kirk's 'The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies' dated 1691."

Dim smiled a little. "You might think all this information does not tell us much, but it does tell us one very important thing - faeries are not something to joke about. If faeries are not alive - then how to kill them? If faeries are something out of this world, do you think our earth-bound spells and charms can really repel them? They might be a people in hiding, I don't know," he admitted, "but it is not likely that they are 'hiding' because they fear us, my personal belief is that they do not care. If compiling all information from sources together, it seems most likely that faeries are some sort of immortal, timeless race and that mortality and death is but a joke to them, hence why their 'misschief' is often so dangerous to us."

Turning towards the blackboard again, he tapped at the second point, the one under 'obscurity' (the point he had just addressed). It read 'dangerous'.
"I would not be teaching you a class on faeries if you needn't protect yourself against them. Although muggles do not generally believe in fairy tales anymore, there is consistent proof from their older sources that faeries are a cruel folk. Much of the muggle folklore revolves around protection from their malice and avoiding places or even people that the faery-kind have claimed as theirs." Clearing his throat, he turned to the black board again.
"There are, however, a few things we do know." Pointing them out on the board, Dimitri read them out. "Although they can confuse you with their words and riddles, faeries cannot lie. Also, they hate being told 'thank you', which they see as a sign of forgetting the good deed done. They are elementals, meaning they control the four known elements, yet it is told they have a strange fear or iron." He looked around the classroom. "There are tons of other documented things that are said to repel Faeries - can any of you name one?"


[Will give your House ten points if you can lol :3]

[severus snape]

"Faeries." Severus' eyes widen slightly and one black eyebrow raised itself almost an inch. Surely not. THis was supposed to be a proper class, and they had a Dark Arts specialist teaching them. Surely they were not going to have a lesson on fairies.
Or maybe they were. What a joke.
Severus leant back in his chair and put down his quill, splaying his long nicotine stained fingers on the desk over his barely touched parchment. Whatever notes he might have made were hardly going to be of worth to him now. Fairies...honestly. Of all the dangerous beasts and beings and all the deadly curses, they were going to have a lesson on small flying insects. Ridiculous.

While he hadn't been paying attention at first, Severus found himself paying closer attention as Professor Zolnerowich went on. Clearly he had misjudged this slightly. They were not discussing pixies here, which any third year could deal with. This was something altogether different. His right hand twitched back towards his quill.

"...Reverend Robert Kirk's 'The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies' dated 1691."
He made a quick note in the margin to check that book out of the library tonight in case it was required for an essay. He did not want to be using an unreliable source for research. Especially when Professor Zolnerowich was the teacher he most wanted to impress.

Like most of the room, Severus was now listening very very attently to what the Professor was saying. An Immortal enemy was not something one wanted to face. And Severus started to see how very real a danger such a being could pose. And how fantastically powerful an ingredient Fae blood would be. He started to take notes.

cannot lie - truth serums/ trick veritaserum?
elementals
fear of iron - poison that uses haemoglobin?


As usual, when Severus knew an answer, he couldn't sit there and not answer. After all, if he didn't, he wouldn't be credited with any knowledge. Slowly he raised his pale hand.

"Salt." One word said in the slytherin's usual low voice, neither delivered confidently nor uncertainly. Just an answer to a question. HE knewof a few herbs that were reputed to repel them but since he was supposed to be good at potions, he darent get a question very directly related to that subject wrong.
"In a line across windows or in a circle around a child's crib is, I believe, the preferred method, Professor."

Please be right. Don't make him think you a fool and dont give them another bout of ammunition.

[[GUESS WHO'S BACK?!!! (it's me, btw)]]

[chaos]

..

I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind

Not late, not late, I swear I am not late sliding into class she ducked into the middle row. Granted she was not exactly on time, but nor was she exactly late. She perceived herself to be in the middle span. The almost late, yet almost on time intermediate period. Taking a deep breath, she settled into her seat before looked up at the professor. She batted her big blue eyes, and flashed him a smile. It was a look she wore all too well. It was the type of look that said, sorry but i am here now. Placing her stuff down, she realized that she never sat on this side of the classroom before. Curiously she peered at the kid next to her.

Discrete was not her middle name. She stared blatantly at the boy, trying to decided if she had ever meet him before. He had long dark hair and hardly seemed to notice her. She only stopped her blatant staring when the professor started to speak. Though he said the one word she would not expect to hear in a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Faeries she could not help but roll her eyes. I mean how dangerous could the be? I assume you've all heard of faeries? Yea we all know about the mighty Tinkerbell she said under her breath. Though when she realized those words actually came out of her mouth, and did not stay in mind like they were supposed to she bite down on her bottom lip. She had no filter between her thoughts and her words. She liked this class too much to get in trouble here, so instead of testing her luck with more sarcastic remarks she pulled out her quill.

defense against the dark fairies. she scribbled down into her notebook. She was still skeptical as the teacher continued to lecture, though strangely she was drawn in. The faeries he spoke of were no Tinkerbell. They held mystery and danger, things that called to Adel more than anything else he could have said. Diligently she notes and drew sketches of little faeries on her paper. At the end, the teacher posed the question, leaving time for thoughts, but it almost seemed too soon that the boy next to her spoke. Her competitive nature kicked in and she squirmed in her seat, trying to remember anything to say. Though despite her the only thing she could think of was Pirates, Jars, butterfly catchers and the stupid saying I don’t believe in Faeries all where equally ridicules. Pouting slightly she stuck out her bottom lip and glared at the boy. Though she was more angry with herself for not knowing the answers, than the fact that he seemed to be a know it all.

I left my body laying somewhere in the sands of time

^{sorry if your not in the middle row lol
first post ever, not my best but I should get better
word count: 465
lyrics: 3 Doors Down -Kryptonite}

[Dimitri Mikhail Zolnerowich]

He couldn't deny that he caught some sceptical looks from around the room - Severus was not the only student whose eyebrow rose in disbelief. That was fine, he had been expecting those. Dim looked around the class briefly, in time to see Adel sneak into a seat into the middle row and he shot her a smile. She was a bit late, but she was there now and that was what counted, so he cut her some slack.
Yes, his students were sceptical. Thing was, though, there was a very important difference between these Faeries and the pixes, brownies, and garden gnomes which were familiar to them from fairy tales as well, but were mere pests, fairly easy to overcome (like the ice pixies he'd sidetracked on some time ago, and which had technically been (or should have been) part of the care of magical creatures curriculum - no thanks to Silvanus 'Lazy Arse' Kettleburn). Muggles simply didn't always look very carefully once they encountered something that seemed to come out of a fairy tale, mixing up the simpler pests with altogether more dangerous species just because the looked a little alike (and sometimes when they didn't look alike at all!). Not that muggles could be blamed, of course, they had trouble cataloguing the normal creatures, so they couldn't really be expected to also see all the different species of a subbranch of creatures that didn't even belong to their world.

Dimitri was glad to find that throughout his monologue, the attitude of most students in the classroom appeared to change. Good, because this was more serious than they perhaps wanted to believe. In Dim's opinion, Faeries were best avoided. But they were stubborn and strong-willed creatures, so if they wanted you, or your child, or your cat, or whatever, you'd better be prepared. Thinking of Faeries as possible potions ingredients hadn't even come up in his mind and sounded, to him, as a notoriously bad idea, as it involved catching and perhaps killing one - but then again, he would love to have a specimen to investigate. Preferably alive. But then again.. preferably dead. Although Dimitri wasn't easily intimidated and had seen a lot, Faeries creeped him out, they were something he couldn't quite grasp, out of this world, in a way.
Yea we all know about the mighty Tinkerbell. Some students laughed - and Dim with them. "As much as I like Barrie's work and although I have to admit that Tinkerbell's trick to kill Wendy is an example of Faerie ruthlessness, I'm afraid I cannot quite believe that Faeries are created by babies' laughs," he commented with a bit of a lopsided grin, amused. At least he had the class's attention.

When he asked his question, the room remained absolutely silent for a minute or so, and then..
"Salt. In a line across windows or in a circle around a child's crib is, I believe, the preferred method, Professor." Smiling, he nodded. Somehow, he always felt relieved when someone spoke up when he asked a question, part of his silly teacher insecurities. He hoped it would fade with time. "Very good, Severus." He was probably one of the few professors to speak to his pupils by first name. He just thought it was more personal and, as there were quite a few students with similar last names, it avoided a lot of trouble and mixups. "The use of salt as a magical barrier has been in use for ages, especially the circular form being a specifically powerful one." Pausing briefly, he added: "It's interesting to note that many of the known protections from Faeries are household items. For example something as mundane as bread." He smiled a little - because how amusing is it that a creature so extraordinary would be repelled by bread? "It is believed that, in essence, any kind of home-made bread will do, the underlying theory being that bread is a symbol of the home as well as proof of mankind taming nature, in a way. There is a slight controversy over the question whether Faeries actually dislike bread, or that they'll accept it as an offering in exchange for leaving you alone - either way, it is a manner of protection."

Walking back to his desk, he tapped on a pile of papers, which began to spread themselves among the students. "These are copies of several statements and stories about Faeries, both muggle and magical. As the trouble about this subject is distinguishing fact from fiction, I'd like you to give it a try - in pairs, please."
The sources were all written, though Dim has taken the liberty of livening them up with a few illustrations (by John Bauer, for example, and a picture of the famous Cottingley Fairies, even if those were a hoax), and they varied from known fairy tales and Renaissance or Victorian pseudo-spiritualist-scientists to known Wizard authors (though some very dated). Truth was, though - there wasn't really a good or wrong answer, as much of it hadn't been proven yet. Studies in Faeries were rare, academics seemed reluctant to explore the subject.



[Sevvv! *glomps* Also, this topic is inspired by Torchwood - Yay! Torchwood inspires me mucho's. Also for gay smoothchings - though Dim says he disapproves of those. (Little liar! xD)
Adel - your post is fiiiine! :3 Don't worry - and don't forget to claim your points for word count here! (:]