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Professor Eric Knid
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Professor Eric Knid's classroom is on the ground floor, in a wing of Hogsnorts castle that sticks out a little from the main building. The windows look onto vegetable gardens on one side and some overgrown brambles on the other.

You walk into the class with Aaron and sit down. For this lesson Lionpaw House first years have combined with Hedgehog House first years. Kensley Potato - a first year Hogger - sits down on your other side and starts fiddling with her pencil case.

Professor Knid stands at the front patiently while the children settle. His long arms and legs poke out of his wizard's gown. A strange shimmery cloak dangles from his shoulders. Dressed all in black he looks rather like an overgrown spider.

When there is silence he raises his hands. His odd looking cloak flutters around him while he speaks:

"Today you will learn about the care of magical creatures.

"But before we do that let me take this opportunity to remind you of Slumblebore's warning at the house sorting dinner." Professor Knid looks out at the class with a piercing gaze and it appears to you that his eyes are focused directly on you.

"No-one must go into the dungeons this term. There is something mysterious and very probably dangerous down there this term, and no-one is allowed to interrupt. Is that clear?"

Nods all round from the class. You exchange raised eyebrows with Aaron. What could be going on down there? And why was Professor Knid staring straight at you?

"Right!" Knid claps his hands."Can anyone tell me the most common type of magical creature?"

"Unicorns?" shouts out one boy.

"Witches cats!" shouts a girl at the back.

"Flying monkeys!" shouts someone else.

"These are all good answers. But not correct. The most common type of magical creature is the insect, or, more generally: the arthropod. Spiders, snails, flies, ants, beetles, woodlice, these are all infinitely more common than the unicorn. And many of them have been enchanted by a magician or witch at some point in the past making them effectively immortal until trodden on.

"For example, look closely at my cloak children." Eric Knid walks up and down the class so the children can see better.

You realise that the professor's cloak is not merely shimmering, it is moving. It seems to be made up of lots of tiny moving things. Then you realise what they are and your eyes widen in hideous fascination.

Eric Knid's cloak is made up of thousands upon thousands of flies, each fly grasping the flies next to it with their tiny hairy legs. As they flutter their wings or move their black and iridescent green bodies, the cloak appears to undulate as if in a breeze.

To you and the rest of the class it seems revolting, but Professor Knid is oblivious.

"Until you look closely my cloak is just an ordinary magician's cape. But it is actually made up of thousands of enchanted and specially trained flies. And each one can fly off at my command to do my bidding - to deliver a message perhaps, or sit on someone's dinner, or to distract a powerful wizard in the act of casting a spell.

"Yes the insect world is a vast and overlooked wonder and in this lesson I am going to teach you about a tiny portion of it.

"But before we learn any magic, does anyone doubt me that the arthropods - the insects - are the true marvels of the animal world?"

Professor Knid looks round expectantly, his eyebrows raised.