Theresa would’ve loved this. They were no strangers to survival and look at him using that experience for class...

”Camouflage, Professor. Creatures can take advantage of their environment by using it to blend into the background.” He was a fan of blending, had anyone noticed?

Eyes to the front? Jude’s already were since they kept shifting to and from the maze. It sort of reminded him of one of the CoMC lessons last term, the one with the Ashwinders. But… survival of the fittest. Indeed that phrase was self explanatory. For some humans, he knew, it applied since some struggled in their day to day lives for whatever reasons.

Jude considered the question then raised his hand. “Some animals can use the environment to adjust their temperature, like chameleons. They change their colour to do so, going dark to absorb heat if they’re cold.”

Maxine smiled at Victoria, after working together in History of Magic, maybe the Slytherin's weren't so bad .. wait ... was that Victoria? Now Max felt silly because she couldn't really remember, maybe that was Violet... all those V names ...... "Morning" She added, "Look at that Maze!! I want to go in so bad."

And then Maxine's eye's snapped to attention at the Professor's next question, it was really hard not to focus on the maze .. really it was. Surely the Professor had to know that he was torturing all the students, by not letting them in right this second. Raising her hand to answer the question. "They camouflage to blend into their environments." Not that Maxine was an expert by any means .. but this was Transfiguration right .. that seems more like a charm to her..... Best keep her opinion to herself for now.

Summer thought that this Professor seemed nice and friendly, but then she knew a few and they were all friendly so far, not at all as scary as her mother had told her.

Summer then heard the question and she quickly raised her hands. "Professor we could hide in the grass and just crawl around in the long grass." Now that would be funny.

Her eyes travelled from the front of the class to her friends quite frequently, but once class had started, Remy decided to ignore everyone else. This was her best class, after all. Survival of the fittest. Her life was feeling like that at the moment.

“Some smaller animals know to burrow deeply underground to hide from specific predators.” That was just one example, of course. Other animals used different, more elevated ways to hide. Hiding from predators seemed the most plausible answer to this question.

'Eyes to the front!' She heard Professor Carton call out probably knowing that everyone including Bella that stood next to Jude was fascinated by the maze nearby. Doing as instructed the fourth year snakette turned her full attention to the front as she pulled on a pair of mittens. It sadly wasn't summer anymore.

The first question had most of the peers around her chime out answers about camouflage, but nobody had mentioned any creatures. Raising her hand Bella said "Professor Marchand, I've read somewhere that muggle penguins is black on their backs, and white on their tummies to guard them/shield them from predators both from above the waters edge and below water, like a sort of camouflage." It was nifty how nature had given penguins a skin camouflage from when they were born.

The maze that they had in front of them reminded Aiden of a corn maze he had once gone into with his mother. It had been really fun! Aiden looked at Luca, another first-year Hufflepuff boy. He gave the other a small wave. He was starting to know the names of his house-mates but he had been too shy to talk to them TOO much. Maybe this time they'd work with partners and maybe Luca would be on his team and then they could talk.

The other kids began to arrive. SO MANY KIDS. Why was there always sooo many kids? They were all so BIG too

"Ooh ooh ooh!" Aiden said, waving his hand in the air and standing on his tippy-toes so he could be seen over the taller students (Aiden was barely over four feet). This question was about ANIMALS. He knew about THAT! It was the first question at Hogwarts he had ever known the answer to. "Butterflies!!!"

Then Aiden would freeze for a moment like a deer in headlights, because he had never ever spoked in front of all these people before and a grown-up too.

"U-um," Aiden said, holding up his teddy to hide behind before squeaking out an explanation. "Butterflies colors look like the environment so's birds and stuff won't see 'em. Um different butterflies in different places look different."

Hearing Professor Carton question Tadhg waited his turn before he raised his hand. " Lions use grass to camouflage and hide them when their hunting their prey for food." Did that count? He thought it did maybe he shouldn't of said thaf but who knows maybe it was a good answer. Returning to his notes he wrote down what he said along with the other students.

Before turning to stand somewhere, Daniel nodded and thanked the Professor for allowing him to come over to this office later.

"Hi Remy" The Hufflepuff greeted the Gryffindor, and his gaze was drawn to Atlas and Lisa again as she gestured her head towards the pair. "Don't know, don't care" he replied curtly before turning his attention to the Professor as he started the lesson.

"Camouflage" he answered as he raised his hand. "Turtles for example hide from predators by tucking their head and feet in their shell to look like a normal rock" he said, wondering what this question had to do with the maze.

Delilah tore her eyes away from the maze. Yeah...she was still not going in there. What was that story she'd heard about Harry Potter in his third or fourth year? She distinctly remembered a maze being involved in that story. Regardless, the professor had her attention now.

He'd already thrown out the first question by the time she'd looked up. Why were all the good answers already taken?! Now she had to come up with something super unique. Oh, OHHH. She had one! No, she wasn't that excited about the lesson. She was just happy she no longer had to come up with anything to say.

She raised to her hand. "There's this spider called the trap-door spider. It uses the ground to build some kind of trap door, and then when it sees a prey--BAM! It pops out and attacks," she explained. Which is why she was NOT going in that hedge. What did he have in there anyway?

"Oh. Hi professor," Alfie said a bit sheepishly. When Professor Carton greeted him Alfie realized that he had gotten distracted upon arrival and forgotten to greet him. But better late than never, right? Professor Carton didn't seem to upset about it so Alfie wasn't worried. And he turned his attention to the question at hand. Survival of the fittest sounded a little bit scary. The thought of any animals not surviving made him sad. But he did have some ideas for an answer, so he raised his hand. "Some animals, like...monekeys, are good at climbing and stuff so they can maybe get away from any other animals that might be chasing them."

Ash did NOT want to go inside the creepy vine maze(possibly with creepy creatures inside?), and she did NOT want to see how transfiguration was involved. No no no no no. No thanks. No. "Um, sometimes when an environment is lacking something, like if there's not enough oxygen or water or sunlight... or if it's really cold or hot, or if there aren't many minerals in in the soil, or- um, you get the point- species adapt to require less of that resource or find a way to store it up. For example, seals store up fat to protect them from the cold, and camels store a LOT of water in their bloodstream so that they don't have to drink for a long time if they use the water efficiently..." Ash trailed off, embarrassed. She wasn't trying to be a know-it-all... she wasn't even trying to express interest in the lesson. In fact, she did not like where this lesson was going and didn't want to be a part of it. And stuff. She'd just like... stay over here with Siri and stare at the ground. Except for she waved at Devin first. You always waved at your best friends, no matter what mood you were in.

"Some animals--weasels, for example--change the color of their fur depending on the season. They're brown during the warm months, so they can more easily hide among the dirt and leaves, but in winter, they grow a white coat of warmer fur to blend in with the snow."

All the time she was giving her answer, Violet kept glancing over at the maze behind Professor Carton with misgiving. This was starting to remind her of one of Professor Trent's classes, and from what she could recall, none of her experiences dealing with mazes had ever turned out well.

Weeks into the term, and Milo had finally grown used to being called Evans, or Mr Evans, though he tended to ignore it as much as he responded to it. This time, however, he turned to Mr Carton upon hearing his whisper. "I'll be careful," he said. "Very careful."

He didn't take much notice of the maze until the very quiet words of an older(?) student(?) just managed to reach his ears, something about things they could die doing. Milo turned, looked directly at the speaker, and then ahead at what commanded most of the attention around here.

It was true that labyrinths and mazes were often notably, throughout myth and lore and history, dangerous and deadly. Milo could see the appeal of it, when he shifted his perspective just so. In a maze, you could hide all sorts of traps and enemies and tricks that could make the person running it go slowly or quickly insane or dead. Take the Triwizard maze. Take Holmes' Murder Castle. Take Daedalus. But most mazes and labyrinths were just harmless mazes and labyrinths, and though it was always wise to be on guard, this one felt harmless too, and people could die doing anything also. But before he could point out as much to the Gryffindor(?) - beacon of reassurance that he was - the lesson had begun, and Milo decided not to bother.

He redirected his focus to the question instead, unable to ignore the one word and concept that kept cropping up in other answers. Camouflagecamouflagecamouflage. Camouflagecamouflagesabotage. From plenty of Hufflepuffs too, he couldn't ignore that either, and did not try to.

"They eat it." The environment. Animals ate it, or adapted to be able to eat it and not be poisoned by it where another creature might die from ingesting the very same thing. And they survived, unless something else killed them, like a predator, but not hunger, unless they had to compete for food or weren't able to get to it. Always more variables to consider.

He replied to the professor's greeting with a small smile, just to be polite. Sirius felt relief when Ash came up next to him. He felt...safer...knowing she was here or at least someone he knew. "Hey." The third year whispered to Ash, moving in closer to her as more students arrived.

Siri's attention was called to the front, slightly jumping at the professor's voice above the crowd. He had an urge to answer, the words stuck in his throat. He turned to look at Ash as she answered the proposed question and felt a little courage. "Umm." He squeezed out. "Demiguise use invisibility to hide..." It wasn't as eventful as the rest of the students' replies, but maybe he contributed enough?

“Alfie! Hi!” she smiled at her Hufflepuff friend and his enthusiasm. It was just… so infectious and he was fun. It was nice to have him stand near her.. Maybe if the lesson had breakout groups, they could form a group with Atlas? Aaand she then noticed the maze. Her cheeks flushed because Lisa (a year ago) would have been so excited by the maze. But third year Lisa had been a little too distracted by a pretty person to focus on the maze.. SADLY.

But before she could say anything else or wave to Remy and Daniel, the lesson had begun. She fat little bit odd at Daniel and Remy glancing at her and Atlas. She folded her arms, glancing down, as she listened to Professor Carton speak.

“—-” Jude had mentioned the chameleon fact which THAT WAS HER FACT!! She love chameleons. “In colder areas, animals have learned how to adapt to the harsh cold weather by storing more food in their bodies.”

Hmm, so they were talking about animals and how they used their environments? Truthfully, camouflage was the best that was coming to him as he stood in the semi-circle with his peers, but they had already been well covered. Lisa brought up a good point too though, with animals adapting to colder climates by eating more. Which led him to another thought, and while he wasn't particularly sure it answered what Professor Carton was asking, he figured it was worth an answer.

He raised his hand and waited to be called on. "Similarly to what Lisa said, some animals very coat's can change based on climate in the area. Even with a house cat, they're fur is thicker in winter months but when it starts to warm up you can notice they start to shed more." Because they were adapting in order to not overheat themselves.

Chameleons and various similar feature had been mentioned by others, but Cailyn could think of a few other little features on some creatures. Not that she had raised her hand quite at first. There had been some pause before she’d bothered to interject any thoughts, just making sure it wasn’t going to sound entirely odd. Sometimes she felt like she did sound odd, or maybe it was just deep seated insecurities over her attachment to books. Either way, even more people had answered by the time she had raised a hand.

“It isn’t really using the environment, but a lot of wild cats have ocelli on the backs of their ears, so any larger predators or flying predators think they’re a much bigger creature than they really are.” Eye spots were kind of fascinating, really. Anything that disguised something without too much complication, yet it somehow worked.

An interesting opening question. There was surely a reason for it, and Ivy was already sorting through spells in her mind, trying to guess which one this could be leading them towards. It seemed like there were a lot of possibilities though, so she couldn't quite narrow it down to just one. But she'd find out soon, so that was fine.

She couldn't help but smile at that one first year Hufflepuff's mention of butterflies. Partly because of his enthusiasm and the adorable little teddy he had with him, but also because butterflies had become quite special to her, since her Patronus had taken the form of one. It had felt like such an accomplishment, finally casting a corporeal one last term, and she couldn't help the fondness she had for them now.

But enough thinking. She ought to contribute with her own answer to the discussion. "There are different types of mimicry that a lot of creatures have developed," she said, raising her hand. "One of them is where a non-venomous or non-poisonous creature develops features similar to another one that is toxic to eat, like the red-spotted purple butterflies mimicking the pipevine swallowtails. It's more difficult to tell the difference between them, so it can ward off predators who don't want to be poisoned."

Mercer was casually tracking the little pucker called 'absolute distrust' that happened to Milo's eyebrows whenever a Hufflepuff spoke up. There was definitely something suspicious about them, wasn't there? What was it again? They were sneaky? Milo could remind him later.

"Oh." Wait, he knew this one. "Birds have like... a crystal in their brains or whatever that's like 'AH-HA ZIS WAY IS NORTH, OUI OUI'," Mercer had a really good French accent, because all birds were French. Everyone knew that. "And so their brains just know how to get where they are going. All together. And eat ze croissant, oui oui!"

Name one way that animals use their environment to their advantage... Darius considered the thought. Quite a few people mentioned the obvious, camouflage. It came down to hiding, one even mentioned eating their prey which is something. Overall, it came towards defending and standing their ground.

"When creatures feel threatened they will usually fight back if hiding is not an option." Darius answered, "I imagine they would try to lure them into their territory or into a specific spot before taking advantage." Most of the other classmates had interesting examples.

Kinsay was busy glaring at the maze when Devin came to join her in the semicircle. Eventually she turned to offer him a polite smile in acknowledgment. He was friendly, but she didn’t necessarily count him as a friend. ”Thanks, Devin.” The compliment was, however, much appreciated. Not wanting to give the maze any more of her attention, she kept herself occupied by looking around the slowly-forming semicircle. It was no surprise that many of her classmates opted to take ‘dress comfortably’ to an extreme and, for whatever reason, there was some strange drama unfolding between the third years.

Nothing Kinsay cared to pay attention to, so Ivy’s arrival was a welcome change. ”Hey,” she smiled in return only to look towards her professor when he called their attention. His question, while an easy one, wasn’t anything Kinsay wanted to answer.

But there was something she wanted to ask. (Surprise!) ”Are we going into the maze, Professor?” Because dress comfortably or not, Kinsay James did not want to be doing that. ”Hogwarts doesn’t have a good history with them.” It was twice now that a maze ended with the use of a killing curse.

One, not too long ago.

And she wasn't even trying to be incessant (mostly).

WELL, Daniel Yoon, one might say that great minds think alike...though others may say that that was not applicable to this situation. Though their ways of thinking DID tend to overlap a fair bit, much to both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff's despair...truly.

His attention was, temporarily, on Lisa while half of it was still spinning off in other directions too - namely with the words of one Maya Nam echoing in the back of his mind - but he managed to stay in orbit to at least answer her question. "Little bit of both," he replied coyly. "They don't always have to be exclusive to one another." What DID catch his attention was Remy moving to LITERALLY the other side of the semicircle, a plot twist that had his arm slipping off Lisa's shoulder as he sort of unabashedly stared at where precisely she was standing. Next to pseudo arch nemesis, Daniel Yoon, to be precise. She had smiled at him...so why was she not staying over here too? His gaze did shift a little as another Hufflepuff joined his immediate vicinity...but gave zero acknowledgement to the Gryffindor and solely focused on Lisa. Sure. No problem. Not irritating at all Alfie Ramsey.

Arms crossing his chest, his balance shifting between his feet, Atlas' attention wavered between whatever it was the professor was saying and the duo across from him. Eyes up front should be simple enough instructions to follow, one would think, but apparently today was just not a straightforward kind of day.

Survival of the fittest though...were really not the words he wanted to hear at the top of a lesson. He was hardly fit at all!

But...well...as to the question...Atlas was mostly mumbling to himself about differences between evolutionary adaption versus individual adaptation and internal adaptation versus physical adaptation - all things he knew the very baseline off but were things he could delve into all that deeply - despite the amount of muttering he was doing that, well, honestly only those directly next to him would be able to hear. To those across the semicircle or even the professor...he was basically just flapping his lips to himself.

He did catch a lot of his peers mentioning camouflage, which was the first thing that came to his mind as well, though as people spoke on he found himself pointing (literally, as he do) at Alfie once again when he mentioned climbing. "Best if you have a grasping tail for that." The climbing. "It like to learn out to transfigure one of those." Imagine how high one could get in the climbing tree on the grounds with that? "Transfiguration sort of enables us to cheat evolution, when you think about it."

Bonnie was glad this lesson was outdoors, even if it was a little chilly. She pulled her hat down and snuggled in to her cloak. Bonnie had always loved being outside, playing, camping, you name it she loved it.

How do animals use the environment to their advantage? Hmm Remembering something she had learned at her muggle school, Bonnie raised her hand, ’Professor, would this be like how lions are a tan colour, allowing them to hide easily in their environment and pounce on their prey?’ Bonnie smiled, of course she would use a lion as her example..typical Gryffindor pride

The mood just wasn’t there. Serena would rather be up in the sky, riding her broom and forgetting about everything. She spent most of last evening flying and practicing, which wasn’t anything new, except for staying out a little later than usual. It was probably not the smartest thing to do in just a hoodie on a cold night.

The slight tickle in her throat she woke up with didn’t help the situation.

She was here to earn house points, though. She raised her hand. ”A way flying creatures use their environment is by scouting the ground for either prey or danger from the sky.”