Tom listened to what the Professor was saying, but seriously he wasn't the boss of the cat, the cat had feeling and it might not want to do the obstacle course. He wouldn't want someone to force him to do it. So he would let the cat decided on it's own and the Professor could punish him for it, FREEDOM of SPEECH for cats, right. Hermione once did S.P.E.W maybe he should do S.P.C.W.

Tom turned back towards the kneazle and smiled politely at it. "If you want to do the course then we'll do it." He then waited to see what the Kneazle would do. He just watched and waited seriously why couldn't Kneazles or Cats speak?