Toby wondered vaguely how many times there had been a Porlock nearby when he'd visited the stables or barnyard in the past. As he was pondering on this, Toby caught snippets of Cutty's answer to the next question, and he looked up and over at the Slytherin boy, halfway between alarmed and the nature of the answer and amused by the delivery of it. But he said nothing, and just ended up casually staring instead as he mulled over an answer of his own to give.

Tricky question, this was, because Toby had never been in a situation where he didn't trust someone else. With him, his trust was earned instantly with no work, and he'd never seen fit to stop trusting anything. Probably wasn't wise. In any case, that made it hard to answer this question from experience, but luckily Toby was good with animals, and he had a weird level of empathy at times. He thought for a while, before finally looking back towards Professor Thompson and raising his hand.

"The best way would be to leave them alone," he said simply. The sixth year paused for a moment, as if he was going to leave it at that, but decided it might be best to elaborate. "When you're trying to build trust with someone or something that doesn't trust others, and prefers to hide away, the best way you can show them that you're safe and trustworthy is to leave them alone. You're accommodating them, and they'll notice, especially if you're nearby but not prodding them into interacting with you. And eventually they might trust you enough to come closer, but sometimes they won't, and for them to still see you as trustworthy, it's best to respect that."

Another pause.

"... But I don't think that's the answer you want, because that probably won't help us see them today. It's a way more gradual method."

When he was done talking, Toby went back to subconsciously chewing at the edge of his school scarf.