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Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed

Preparing to meet up with @Henry Knight


Session #1: Cellphones and Werewolves.

Upon entering the Library that afternoon, Simon looked around for the best location to hold their little study session on different topics of the wizarding world and the muggle world, as one boy knew much about one and next to nothing about the other. It wasn't difficult to find an open spot after the holidays. Classes were beginning slowly so there weren't a lot of big assignments coming due and that meant hardly anyone within the walls of books.

The sun was filtering in through the windows over to the one side of the Library so Simon decided to turn and head the other way. He placed down his things at a square table near the Potions section that could seat four but that would give them enough room to spread out.

He then took to looking in the Muggle Studies for some additional information on his topic. Being more than prepared, he didn't need the extra content but figured it didn't hurt looking. What he discovered was quite interesting. It was information about the world he had grown up in and yet...sometimes the information in some of the books seemed a bit off. He wondered if this is what Henry had been talking about. He was to teach him in this study session about werewolves and said lots of the books were skewed.

It seemed that this was exactly why such study sessions needed to be conducted, so that an 'expert' in the muggle world could teach a wizard about all that was nonmagical ways of life and an 'expert' in the wizarding world could teach a muggle about all that was magical ways of life.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Meeting with @Simon Kincaid
A distraction. Something to take your mind off of your troubled and worries. The thought sounded poor a paradise to Henry and was more than glad to meet Simon in the library for their first study session, he had his messager type bag over his shoulder and besides from the regular school supplies it was also crammed with books of all kinds on every magical creature you could think of which overall was making the bag a bit heavy on his shoulder as he stepped into the large library that feel him with a sense comfort.

A orange cat with amber like eyes sat next to him and was almost watching every movement around them. Henry knew that he should have left Loki in his dormitory but the young cat wanted to come with him. As the pair wandered down the library, Henry looked for Simon and it took awhile but finally found the boy as he approached him at the table seated for four before taking of his messager type bag and placing it on the floor next to him, Loki then jumped onto the chair next to his and stared at Simon from across the table before giving his small approval meow.

Henry smiled a bit at the sight before taking a seat opposite of Simon and saying " hey, it's great to see you again and this is Loki. He's pretty friendly to a extent," as he looked over at his cat before pulling out two or so books and stacking them in front of himself as he then laid his arms on the covers to rest them.
"There's no such thing as strange creatures, only blinked people" - Newt Scamander
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Talking wayyyyyyy too much with @Henry Knight


"Pretty friendly to an extent," he repeated as he looked to the cat and gave it a small smile before glancing down. He had learned from one of his friends back in London that you didn't stare at a cat or they took it as a threat. His friend Caleb had a cat name Chorizo and that thing did NOT like Simon. He would glare at him and stalk after him anywhere he went in Caleb's house. They had a sleepover once, and the cat tried to use his arm as a scratching post. "One of my friends had this cat that was pure evil," Simon laughed. "He didn't like me AT all. I used to laugh that he needed to watch out because I had claws of my own. You see, I always need to trim my nails. They grow so quickly. ...Not that I'd ever really harm the cat. But don't worry Loki," he now looked just to the cat, "I've met plenty of cats that DO like me." Hopefully he'd be one.

Simon didn't mind Henry bringing along his pet to the study session and thought that if he had a pet, he would want to bring it everywhere as well. He watched as Henry seemed to get everything situated and decided it was time to begin.

"Alright, so...get comfortable and let me welcome you to the most used device in muggle technology...the cellphone," and he handed out a rectangular piece of cardboard to Henry with rounded edges. Of course this piece of cardboard could do absolutely nothing. "That is about the size of one. Some are smaller, some larger. They've evolved over time. Right now I think the aim is to have a big enough screen to watch a movie on but still be able to fit into your pocket."

Simon continued, "you name it, the cellphone can probably do it...first and foremost it's a phone. You use it to make voice calls to another. You can communicate in other ways as well, doing a video visual call, send a picture, send a voice message, send a quick written message. You can send longer electronic letters through email. You can use it as a compass, a navigation system to tell you where to get from one point to another and it'll tell you step by step instructions, use it as a map, share your location with others, discover the location of others. It can be your bookshelf as you can read books on it or listen to audio books. You can also use it to write your own novel or just any notes you may have. You can watch movies on it."

"It is your calendar and you can share that with others, you can add reminders. It is your clock, your alarm clock, it is the clock you use to see what time it is anywhere else in the world. It is your weather indicator for current temperature, when it will start raining, what the forecast will look like, and show the weather radar of storms approaching."

"You can use it to know when the sun will rise, what time the sun will set. You can use it to locate the constellations in the sky and the locations of the planets."

"You can take photographs with it. You can take video with it. You can easily store all those photos and videos. You can make videos with it by adding other videos together and editing them. You can edit photos with it. "

"It is your bank account, your calculator, your address book. You can use it to help you solve math problems for school. Guardians can use it to check your grades. Sports schedules can be shared on it. You can use it to sell items you've made or don't want anymore. You can use it to purchase items you want or need. You can play games..." he started out strong and specific, sounding mildly intelligent but now he felt like he was just rambling. Still, these were all things a cellphone could actually do.

"You can track your health - what you've been eating, your weight. You can use it as a translator, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a spellcheck. You can book airplane flights and trips on the train. You can order Chinese or Pizza from it." What else, what else... "It can be a flashlight. It can be your music player. A research tool. Honestly, it's just about anything you could want. It's like magic...even if it's not."

Simon cleared his throat. [color=#404080"And that was Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity: Cellphone Edition, brought to you by Simon Ezra Kincaid."[/color]
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Asking questions with @Simon Kincaid
Henry was glad that Simon didn't mind cats and smiled as he talked about them, that's what he preferred anyway to listen whole someone else did the talking whichever was probably why he loved being the boy's friend so much. However he did have to say a thing or two so when Simon finished, Henry nodded with a reply " that cat sounds interesting instead of evil and you have claws that's wicked Simon," Loki then jumped on the table and gave Simon a sniff before watching him ruth observant eyes until he gave a soft approval meow and sat between the two boy still watching both of them.

"Loki likes you, you can touch him if you like just stay away from his belly and legs unless you want to get starched," Henry spoke with a smile before nodding to Simon as he begun his lecture on cellphones one that Henry paid attention to as he first examined the piece of cardboard before handing it back to Simon and continuing listening to him.

When he finished, Henry smiled a bit before speaking " that was amazing and bloody interesting. Your a bloody great professor Simon just a few questions," taking a deep breath before speaking again " what exactly makes a cellphone work or turn on? How do they remember to do all those things you said? How can it predict the weather, does it know astronomy? How can you watch a movie on it? Where do you insert the dvd or tape? How do make a call on it, where's the dial? What's a text message and how does that work? How can a photography camera fit in this? Who created the phone and when? How did it go from the uh land line to this? Uh sorry with the questions-"
"There's no such thing as strange creatures, only blinked people" - Newt Scamander
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Hoping to explain better with @Henry Knight


He didn't mind the questions at all! Questions showed that someone was not only politely listening but actually trying to pay attention. Henry had said he wanted to learn about this stuff but it was nice to see he actually was attempting to follow along Simon and his trying-to-be professional spiel.

"So, I don't really know all the technical aspects," he admitted. "But cellphones run off electricity. You have to charge them with a cord, plugged into the wall. They receive their phone signal by large metal towers that are set up different places that emit a signal."

"They don't really receive other signals. That's more the magic of the internet for everything else. The weather service puts out what the weather is and the cellphone can do a quick search of that so when you open up a certain place, it shows what the weather is. It can't read the weather itself, only shows what information has been already placed. Same goes for a movie. You go to the place for movies, click a button, and then you can see all that they have uploaded on there for you to watch, search one, find one you want, and watch. No additional tape or dvd needed."

It really was brilliant for nonmagic yet Simon wondered if somehow magic wasn't invovled a little bit. Why didn't wizards use this stuff???

"Making a call is just another tap on the touchscreen. You open it up, click in the numbers to call someone or find their name if you've stored it in your contacts like an address book and voila, it rings to them." He then explained how the text messages were sent similar, but you typed in what you wanted to say instead of saying it...although there was that fancy wonderful voice feature to help save time or...when you're eleven and aren't sure how to spell a certain word.

Simon then went to explain the camera function and talk about how there was a camera at the front of the phone for photos and one on the other side for selfies. Oy, that was something. He never thought he'd have to try to explain what a selfie was to someone and probably failed miserably but he tried his best.

"As for the history behind it all, I dunno but it's a brilliant question. Maybe the inventor was secretly a wizard, you know? I mean, how else could someone really invent this sort of thing?" It was amazing to think about and he was actually glad that Henry had all those additional questions. It led him to a future search of his own, about if muggle technology came from wizards.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Listening to @Simon Kincaid
Henry nodded toward the boy as he answered his questions and a part of him felt like he should be writing them tell since he was curious or interested in these topics that Simon was answering to him about.

As Simon answered his first question, Henry felt probably 10 more enter his mind but he ignored than not wanting to frighten the first year off as he asked "so a cellphone runs on electricity but how does it emit a signal to the uh metal tower and how does that know where to send that signal from?"

Henry gave the boy a small smiled at he listened to him explain how you can watch a movie on it and find out about the weather one he understood a bit but the other well let's just say more questions swam in the tween's mind as he then asked " how do they predict the weather then? Do they use astronomy and something like divination? Almost guessing it but almost completely sure?"

Before moving on to calls and text messages, Henry listened and found that he understood that part the best since he made a call before on a landline but still had questions as he spoke " a text message is like a letter just without owls basically? How does it send through or known where to go? Does that work with the metal towers as well?"

"Cellphones have two cameras? Why,
why not make it reversible or something so it can have one? Selfies is a picture of one self then, do muggles take them a lot? Why?" Henry asked since he loved photography and had his own camera but never understood why someone liked to taking pictures of themselves.

"Maybe they were? Maybe they invented the cellphone as a way to connect the two worlds," Henry replied before smiling at the first year as he spoke " your explained it bloody amazing! Really, I know so much now. Uh should I start on werewolves then?"
"There's no such thing as strange creatures, only blinked people" - Newt Scamander
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Ready to learn from @Henry Knight


He tried to explain answers to the additional questions that Henry had to the best of his abilities. It involved tracking weather patterns and cellphone signals. It was about now that he wished he maybe paid a bit more attention in science class back at his muggle school in London but he answered them as well as he could and openly admitted to not being an expert on the subject. Still, he was pretty confident that Henry would come out of this with a slightly higher knowledge than when he came in.

Not so bad for his first lesson. Next time, with whatever subject Henry chose, he would try to be slightly more prepared but this was just coming back from the holidays. "So before we leave here today we both have to come up with the next subject for the other to go over in our next meeting."

That way, in case he already didn't have ideas, Henry had time to think on it. Simon had actually been making a list of things that perplexed him in the wizarding world, but he'd have to choose just one.

"I think we're ready to move on to werewolves," he said, placing his cardboard little cut out back into his bag and now taking out a different notebook than the one he had his notes in. That one was for instructing, this other one was for note-taking. He also pulled out a quick-ink quill and was ready, showing Henry by offering him up a small smile. "Instruct away, Professor Knight."
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Talking about Werewolves with @Simon Kincaid
Henry offered the other a smile and nod occasionally saying 'okay' as be listened to Simon answer his questions on cellphones which only happened to give birth to more questions that started swimming around in the boy's mind.

"Absolutely mate, we can discuss after I tell you about werewolves if you like?" Henry asked not really worrying when he used the word 'mate' since Simon was from London and he noticed used it a lot to.

As Henry pulled out three or so books from his bag before pulling out another book on advanced potions and flipping to a certain page, Henry gave Simon a smile and laughed a little as he spoke " professor Knight, I kind of like the ring of that but no need really Simon. Just Henry anyway moving on to: Werewolves."

Henry cleared his throat before starting to speak " during most days and nights they are normal human beings like your and me. Only on the night of the full moon do they transform into a wolf, so overall experience can be describe as a curse or sickness. The proper name for is Lycanthropy which can be traced back to ancient Greek I believe uh... anyway the only signs that those with this condition give is around a week or five day's before the night of a full moon werewolves can appear pale like, sickly, tried looking, and in some cases their eye colors even change."

Henry then slid the potions book toward Simon which on the page was the potion for Wolfbane before continuing " when they transform werewolves lose all sense of who they are and can kill their best friend even if given the chance and not remember a thing the next morning when their human again. However Wolfbane is a potion that werewolves can take, it must be taken the full week before a full moon, and when taken it let's a werewolf keep their mind during the transformation so they remember who they are as a wolf and sleep off the night to ensure they don't hurt anyone. There's only one problem with the potion, even when taken werewolves still can't remember what they did the night before."

Henry quickly scanned a few pages in the books in front of him before nodding as he looked up at Simon before speaking " that would be a lesson about werewolves with professor Knight. Uh any questions?"
"There's no such thing as strange creatures, only blinked people" - Newt Scamander
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
Still questions with @Henry Knight


"Sounds like a pretty bad hangover," he smiled, making light of the situation. He still looked at the book though, finding it hard to believe that the words before him weren't fiction but in fact truth. "I wonder who came up with the Wolfbane potion. That's incredibly smart, you know? I mean, it has to be really powerful to be able to combat something like that. And who was the first werewolves? Was it a curse long ago that somehow stuck genetically?" he wondered out loud.

"And do they have that sort of potion with other things? Hags? Vampires?" He knew there were some other non-gentle creatures when it came to the magical world but those were the only two off the top of his head.

These were maybe not questions that Henry knew the answers to or maybe ones he wasn't prepared to discuss on that particular time. They were just ones that popped into Simon's mind as he allowed his mind to wander.

He was now quite well into his First Year. In fact, his First Year was beginning to decline and dwindle toward the end of this term and before he knew it Summer would be upon him again. Simon felt just as fascinated as ever with magical creatures despite the many many books he had read on them in the school library.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
Study Sessions of Cultural Diversity PV Henry K. Closed
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@Simon Kincaid
Henry smiled at his comment and comparing it before replying, " yeah, in a way it is," the twelve year old kept his information to things that you would find in a book and naturally left out the shirking shack since the second year really didn't tell many any Hogwarts that he was a werewolf and usually left it out only revealing it to a few close friends since the boy was still rather worried about judgement or prejudice against him for it seeing werewolves aren't completely at of prejudice yet.

Henry's smile grew when he heard Simon's spew of questions because that was like him and his questions so Henry was more than happy as he started answering them, " Wolfbane was created by a potioneer and it's so advanced that not many can brew it not to mention the ingredients are kind of expensive," taking a slight break before the boy continued speaking, " there are no records on werewolves so no one knows the first however their is a registry for werewolves but that's mainly to strike prejudice among them. Werewolves are highly discriminated against and still many have prejudices against them but a werewolf uh Remus Lupin won the order of merlin second class which is brilliant in my opinion."

Shutting his mouth after that and hoping Simon didn't find that odd or accuse him of being a werewolf as the twelve year old took a moment before continuing, " werewolves can't spread genetically, the only was to become one is to get bitten or starched when a werewolf is in wolf form during a full moon," Henry would give him a small smile before bearing his next class and giving a slight nod before speaking "they have other potions or remedies concerning them but not the same compared to wolfbane. From what I know, there's nothing for Hags to take and really they can't be changed unless you count a freezing or fire spell. Vampire's and Dihampir which have a percentage of vampire can take blood pops as well as certain potion to fulfill their need for blood and guarantee the safety for others around them."
"There's no such thing as strange creatures, only blinked people" - Newt Scamander
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