Lesson Two - 1st Years

Marietta swiftly walked over to the open field where they would be teaching Care of Magical Creatures, she took in a deep breath and inhaled the fresh morning air, Marietta loved animals and loved the outdoors

Marietta looked up at the sky, then called out "SABRINA" she then held out her arm. Soon a fire red Phoenix emerged from the forest tree tops and circled the sky, before swooping down and landing on Marietta's hand. Marietta smiled at the bird

"Good girl Sabrina, now you must behave yourself for the students today ok" Marietta said as she slowly stroked the side of the phoenix while waiting for her first years

Nancy was proud of herself, being the first student to the class today. She gave a soft smile, while she waited for class to start. She loved COMC, and couldn't wait to learn about animals.

Cecile was relieved that she actually wasn't late today, especially for this class. She loved working with animals. They fascinated her to no end. She saw the phoenix resting on the arm of her professor, and it nearly took her breath away. The feathers glimmering in the sunlight, the regal way it held itself, the presence of it that simply emanated magic. She smiled at it, wishing she had a pencil, and joined the only other student there.

"My name's Cecile," she said, holding out her hand, to the girl, "You're in Slytherin, right?"

Nancy nodded, being quiet. Last thing she needed was another person not liking her before of who she was related to. "I'm Nancy."

Azrali walked calmly to the feild where COMC was held. She was pretty excited for this class so she made sure she was on time.

"Morning professor. I'm Azrali."

Three students entered the field and all introduced themselves to Marietta, she smiled at them all " Hello and welcome lovelys"

Marietta noticed the Gryffindor girl looked a lot like her daughter " Oh Azrali you remind me a lot of my daughter, but my daughter is of course some what older then you but theres still a resemlence"

Sabrina then let out a loud cry, " Oh yes alright go say hello then" Marietta said to the Phoenix perched on her hand, the Phoenix quickly swopped over to the first years and sat on each of their shoulders then moved onto the next person

Kirsten could barely contain her excitement for COMC. She'd been eagerly awaiting this class, so she rushed through the grounds quickly, and skidded to a halt before her fellow classmates and proffessor, unsure if she was late or not.

She offered a breathless, "Hello, professor, how are you?" and smiled brightly at the other girls who were already gathered there.

Azrali grinned as the Phoenix landed on her shoulder, "Good morning, love." She murmured to it, happy to see the bird. "Aren't you a sweetheart."

He hadn't been running for long as he monitored his breathing heading for the COMC class, he slowed to a walk as he saw the rest of the class.
Vincent spotted Kirsten instantly, then flashed his eyes up to the teacher, he placed his books next to Kirsten smiled at her then came up to the teacher
"I apologise miss for missing the first lesson I have been away, for family reasons and do sincerely hope you can accept it " he bowed lowly and returned to sitting closely next to Kirsten.

He nodded toward his fellow class members "I'm Vincent, lovely to meet you"
He focused closely on the teacher, he had to make up for lost time

Olivia ran to her CoMC class, hoping she wasn't too late. "Sorry Professor for my lateness," she apologized as she saw most of the students had already arrived. She just stood amongst the crowd, since she didn't know anyone.

More students joined the class, Marietta looked around at her class of first years she decided that she may as well start seeming most of them were here, she then called Sabrina back the phoenix swopped into the air before landing on a stump near Marietta

" Ok class, as you can see here this is Sabrina and she's a Phoenix, she a majestic bird. Now you see Phoenix's often will get dead feathers and if left there they can irritate the skin and cause infection" Marietta then reached into her bag and pulled out a pile of gloves

She put a pair on and walked over to Sabrina " So today we will be learning how to remove these dead feathers, im wearing gloves because their feathers are quite hot to touch. What you do is push back some of the feathers and your looking for very faded red feathers"

Marietta ruffled through Sabrina's wing she quickly found a dead feather " Ah! here we are, a feather like this" She gestured the class to come closer to get a better look " So now all you have to do is take a firm hold of the feather and quickly pull"

Marietta pulled out the feather quickly, the phoenix didn't even flinch " So the trick is to pull the feather out quite quickly so the phoenix can't feel it" Marietta then looked around the class " Mr Furtell, Miss Cresswell do you want to put some gloves on and finish the rest of this wing, and Miss Dancescu and Miss Maddison would you like to do the other wing"

Marietta took a step to the side and watched the students begin with the task

He stood in a flash and quickly grabbed some gloves, he put them on and after stroking the phoenix's head grabbed and gently extended it and searched for the dull feathers, he found one and whispered to sabrina "sorry if this hurts" he gripped the feather and pulled as quickly as he could... it came out easily and sabrina didn't flinch he stood back for kirsten, with a smile

Kirsten gulped, her mouth suddenly dry. She could hardly believe she'd been called up to the front of the class - she was excited, pleased and nervous all at once.

Calmed by the ever-friendly presence of Vincent, Kirsten watched as he expertly did as Professor Edgecomb had instructed, and fiddling with her gloves nervously, smiled at Vincent before stepping up to the majestic Phoenix.

"Hey ... hey Sabrina," she said in the soothingest voice she could manage. She almost had to pinch herself: she couldn't believe she was about to touch a Phoenix! What an honour!

With tender gentleness, she caressed Sabrina's feathers, searching for one like the professor had described. Locating a faded red feather a few moments later, she took a deep breath and pulled it as quickly as she could.

Sabrina handled the ordeal with an excellent temprament, and Kirsten beamed as she successfully completed the task, offering Professor Edgecomb a grateful smile for this opportunity.

Marietta watched the two students perform the task, they did it quite well without harming Sabrina " Well done you two, you both recieve an O grade for the attempt, as well as 10 points to Ravenclaw" Marietta then pulled out her wand and flicked it at her bag

A large narrow book leviatated from her bag and into her hands, she then quickly flipped through the pages briefly reading them trying to find the page she was looking for, it wasn't long before she found it she then looked up at her class " Ah so class if you just turn to page 78 in your Birds of a Feather textbook, and just copy down all the information the green boxes that would be great"

Marietta then glanced down at her watch realizing that the lesson was about to end in 5mins " And after you've done that you can head off to your next class thank you" Marietta said with a warm smile, she stood there patting Sabrina as she waited for the students to copy down the information

Vincent congratulated kirsten returned his gloves and marked the page, standing next to kirsten ready to leave

Kirsten flushed with happiness as Professor Edgecomb awarded her and Vincent points to Ravenclaw. She murmured a shy, "Thank you!" and returned to her seat, trailing behind Vincent.

Picking up her quil, she speedily scrawled the information they had been instructed to copy. It wasn't her neatest work, but it was readable. Surprised that the lesson was ending so soon, she rushed the last few sentences and closed her book with a flourish. The saying time flies when you're having fun rang true in the case of COMC: the lesson had absolutely flown by!

Smiling up at Vincent as she gathered her things into a haphazard pile and prepared to head off to her next class.