SnitchSeeker.com - View Single Post - Potions Lesson 1: Animal Whisperer Potion

Fireheart · 02-01-2021, 12:56 AM

SPOILER!!: Replies

Text Cut: Ashley

Text Cut: Quinn

Text Cut: Violet

Text Cut: Claudine

Text Cut: Nem

Text Cut: Mamie

Text Cut: Camryn

Text Cut: Aibhi

Text Cut: Devin

Text Cut: Kinsay

Text Cut: Irithel

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Text Cut: Heath

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Heath peered into the cage, studying Rey’s little face intently. Normally she’d be sticking her paw through the bars or meowing her head off to demand release, but now she was quietly curled up in her cage, looking through the bars at him with those big blue eyes. Heath was torn. Part of him was glad she was being quiet, as it gave the hood brood less reason to hurt her. Another part of him hated seeing her so unlike herself, so subdued, so scared. He couldn't blame her; he was scared too… especially when Professor Varma called the Neo-Alliance gracious. Those words should only be used in the same sentence if A) it was Opposite Day or B) the word "isn't" came between them! The mention of the Neo-Alliance sounded the alarm bells in Heath's mind, and once again, his thoughts turned to awful things he might be forced to do to Rey and ways to keep her alive. He didn't know how he'd get through this if anything happened to her! She'd been his best friend when he had nobody, and now that he was cut off from his family, he needed her more than ever.

He was so lost in thought that it took him a minute to register the first question. When he did, his thoughts, still focused on Rey, went to all the ways she communicated with him… meowing at him to say hello, flopping onto her back when she wanted to be petted, biting his nose as a sign of affection. But those things applied specifically to Rey, not all animals or even all cats. Not feeling confident in those answers, he kept quiet.

Heath considered the next question carefully. His first thoughts went to helping sick or threatened animals, but those things had been said a few times and Heath wasn't one to piggyback off of someone else's answer. Focusing on Rey again, he thought of the times when he wished he knew what she was thinking… mostly times when she behaved in a way that didn't make sense to him, like randomly running up and down the hall in the middle of the night or pawing at cabinet doors to make them go SLAM! Why did she do that? Was that a cat thing or just a Rey thing? Never mind.

His hand went up, and he said, "Our pets have quirks that may not make sense to us, so it would be useful to know what they're thinking when they do something odd. Knowing how their mind works would help us understand their seemingly strange behavior." There, still not an answer he was particularly confident about, but it was something!

"That is excellent, Heath," Shreya replied with a nod. "It would be intriguing to know why they partake in such odd behaviors. My cat used to always put her toys in her water dish. I always wondered why she did that!" Creatures could certainly be odd, but their little quirks only made them all the more endearing.

"Thank you for your thoughtfulness, everyone!" Shreya said encouragingly, making her way back to the front of the classroom. It was easy to have such great discussions when the students were contributing such wonderful answers. "There are certainly many reasons why we might want to know what an animal is thinking. Perhaps we want to help them if they are feeling ill, like Ms. Fox and Ms. Quincy mentioned. Maybe we want to ask them about their unique perspective on something, like Devin, Heath, and Aboli said. Or maybe we're just curious about if they like delivering mail," Shreya said, glancing back to Kinsay with a smirk. And certainly there were many other wonderful answers. She just didn't have time to repeat them all.

As she circled back to her desk, she realized that now was probably the time to throw in something anti-Muggle. Shreya would place bets that a member of the Neo-Alliance was somehow listening in on the lesson right now—be it a one-way mirror or some complex eavesdropping spell. As much as it bothered her to do so, Shreya had to play along with them. The sound of her voice changed slightly, her usual lilting, loud tone replaced by a quieter, more hesitant one. "And one great advantage that we have over Muggles is that we have the ability to actually hear what creatures are thinking. Which could be very beneficial if it came to recruiting powerful creatures for.....our own advantage." She spit the last part out very quickly, the words sounding foreign on her own tongue.

Merlin. She hoped the students would understand someday. For now, she felt like she was letting them all down.

"Anyway," she sighed, adjusting her robes in a slight moment of awkwardness, "It's time to put what we've been talking about to practice!" She waved her wand toward the cupboard at the side of the room. Many vials of potions floated out—several landing on each workstation. "You may recall earlier in the term when we brewed that mystery potion. The one with the lacewing flies, belladonna, and unicorn horn? At the time that we brewed the mystery potion, I was unsure if our furry friends would be able to join us. So I didn't tell you what the potion was." Normally not her preferred method of teaching, but she didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if her attempts to get permission to use the pets failed.

"Well, that mystery potion you brewed was something we call the animal whisperer potion. When taken, this potion allows you to understand what a creature is thinking. While effects can vary, the strength and clarity of the thoughts you hear depend on your bond and level of trustworthiness the creature has toward you." A notion that the students would hopefully come to understand throughout the lesson.

"Each of you has several vials of the potion, and each vial is ready to drink, save for the addition of your animal's essence. To start, you'll be trying the potion out with your own pet or school owl. First, take a few minutes to bond with the creature. There are treats and toys on the front table." Shreya gestured to the front workstation, which had a collection of items for each type of pet. Then, she pulled on a pair of dragonhide gloves and made her way over to a spare school owl, dozing peacefully in its cage. She hated to wake it, but it was time for the demonstration.

"You don't have to use gloves, but I recommend them if you are unfamiliar with your animal or if you simply don't want to get your hands dirty." Shreya didn't want any nips from any frightened creatures. "Simply wet your hands or gloves with a bit of water," she said as she ran her hands under the sink for just a moment, "and give your creatures a few good pets. You're bound to pick up a few stray hairs, feathers, or slime. You only need a small amount of them for the potion." Shreya stroked the owl carefully. The tiniest particle of a feather was left on her gloves. She took it and dropped it into a vial, where it bubbled furiously. "Wait one or two minutes for the bubbles to subside, and then it's ready to drink. Then, you can talk to your animal and see what you hear back."

Shreya took off the gloves and looked back enthusiastically at the class. "If you don't have any other questions, you're free to begin! You may remove the animals from their cages, but please keep a close eye on them." She was prepared for the classroom to get a bit rowdy, but she didn't want things getting out of control.

OOC: YAY so excited for this part! For the mini activity, you will RP for your character and the animal on their desk. To get all the points, please show your character 1) bonding with their animal, 2) collecting a specimen, 3) drinking the potion, and 4) attempting to hear your pet's thoughts. This can all be done in one post if you prefer! You should RP for the pet/school owl as well (just make it a different color to differentiate). Feel free to have your character be as successful or unsuccessful as you like with hearing the animal's thoughts. Shreya will be around periodically for questions & observations! You have approximately 48 hours (possibly a bit longer) to complete the mini activity.

02-01-2021, 12:56 AM	#62 (permalink)
Fireheart DMT & DMLE Firecrab Join Date: Mar 2019 Location: Naboo Posts: 774 Hogwarts RPG Name: Avalon Sinclair Graduated	phew this got long, skip to the OOC to avoid shreya's verbosity lol SPOILER!!: Replies Text Cut: Ashley Quote: Originally Posted by astrocat Yayyyy. She said a good answer. Ash, much like a pet, loved positive reinforcement. You'd think she didn't care, but she really did. One of the big things keeping her actions in check was the fact that she would hurt so many people if she accidentally got killed. They would be all sad. "If your pet isn't eating or is limping or sleeping too much or something, you know something is wrong, but you don't necessarily know the problem, especially if it's internal. So basic body language is helpful for knowing when something is wrong, but it would also be great if cats could actually tell you they broke something. It would save lots of time, money, and pain. Body language definitely helps you figure it out though." After that long answer, she went back to petting her owl. "I love you, and one day you'll be out of this cage." "Great point. Similar to babies, it can be difficult to know exactly what is wrong with an animal if they are injured or not feeling well. It would be extremely helpful to know what's going on if they were under the weather." Shreya gave the young Ravenclaw a nod, satisfied with the response and pleased with her participation. And that she was still being affectionate with her owl. Text Cut: Quinn Quote: Originally Posted by NiallNIP Quinn had heard about Parseltongue and Parselmouths, but he had never heard anyone actually speak the language before. He thought it would probably be pretty cool to meet someone like that. But also, kinda scary. Quinn let out a small *"Hmph."* at Eden's response to his answer. She just did that to pester him, didn't she. Well, he wouldn't be having any of it. Not one bit. He wouldn't even give her the satisfaction of looking in her direction. Quinn thought for a moment about the Professor's question, and then raised his hand. "Well, some animals can sense when the weather is changing, right? It would probably be good to know what they were thinking if a bad storm was coming so you could prepare." A very interesting answer, one Shreya had not even thought of herself. She nodded enthusiastically at Quinn. "Yes, Mr. Kingsley. That is very true. Some dogs are thought to detect electrical changes in the air before a lightning storm. It could certainly be useful if they could tell us when a change in the weather is coming." Again with the dog example, but she figured it was one that the students could relate to. Text Cut: Violet Quote: Originally Posted by MadAlice Violet's mind was preoccupied with threats lately. So when she raised her hand, she said, "If a strange animal was threatening you in some way, it would be useful to know what they were upset about, so you could maybe avoid provoking them." "Yes, good, Violet," Shreya responded. "Oftentimes the littlest and seemingly unsuspecting behaviors can rub a creature the wrong way. Wouldn't it be nice if they could tell us what bothered them?" Her mind drifted briefly to how frustrating it must be to be an animal and have humans continuously bother you...and have no linguistic ability to tell them to stop. Text Cut: Claudine Quote: Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 Apparently she did make sense. While it was not uncommon for some to build on others’ answers {in her mind this was pioneered by Rainwater. Merlin. She missed him}, it was uncommon for one Bernadette Grantham to be building on an answer given by the Slytherin. While surprised, she maintained a carefully blank face as she copied her notes. There were so many ways that animals communicate, a lot of which she knew already but there were some answers that made her gain perspective she had never focused on before. Needless to say the animal talked was incredibly fascinating. Claudine truly appreciated this aspect of the lesson. She didn’t get why Varma was apologising for the odors though. It was only natural with all the animals. She gazed around fondly at them all, even the tarantula though a shudder was suppressed. Anyway. The scented candles were okay. Claudine’s hand went up immediately after Violet gave her answer. “In addition to what Violet said, if an animal was threatening you, it would be helpful to know how the animal might want you to remedy the situation.” Another valuable perspective! Shreya was so pleased with how well her students were thinking today. "Wonderful, Claudine. Maybe they could tell you what kind of treats they liked or how they'd want you to apologize," she said with a chuckle. She could almost picture her own cat now begging for pieces of tunafish. Text Cut: Nem Quote: Originally Posted by Felixir That was what it always came down to, wasn't it? In most, if not all things, the best approach was to pay close attention - scrutinise, then analyse - be it communicating with an animal, or figuring out the way the wind was blowing during a hostile takeover of your school and/or the world. The little things, you know. Nem just nodded, glanced sideways at the Wavemaker for no particular reason, and waited for the next question. See, this? This was one of those times Nem tended to hold an answer back. They had some ideas, but one in particular, and they had no plans to share it with the class. Could be useful, depending on whether or not this class went in the direction they had been anticipating. A combination of Animalis Fidelis, a potion that aided communication with animals, and maybe another magical application thrown in there (which would have been a good answer for the last question, yet also ill-advised), and you had a ready-made spy. Intel on tap. As answers were provided around them, Nem sat in silence, exploring different mental avenues and idea backstreets which soon had little to do with the question at hand. The Slytherin remained quiet for this question, but their previous answer had been so excellent that Shreya was more than okay with them not participating. They did look quite pensive, though. Shreya did find herself wondering what their mind was considering. Text Cut: Mamie Quote: Originally Posted by Waddles Mamie wasn't sure why someone would need to know what an animal was feeling or thinking, outside of creatures class. And then they had to just learn how to tell. She tapped her feet around under the desk, nervously thinking while she listened to everyone's ideas. Self-preservation was an excellent reason to talk to wild animals. Unlike the others, Mamie didn't think that all wild animals would want to threaten her. But, wild animals were known for their wilderness skills. She raised her hand. "If you're lost in the forest and there's nobody around, it would be nice to ask the animals where to find water, or even for directions." She wondered if the animals in the Forbidden Forest could give them some good directions. "That is a great example, Ms. Turov," Shreya said, smiling warmly at the Hufflepuff. "Animals are quite knowledgeable of their habitats. They could be very helpful sources in the case of an emergency." She was very glad that her students were thinking outside the box. Text Cut: Camryn Quote: Originally Posted by Daydreamer11 Camryn was busy writing notes. Thankfully the professor put all of the important information on the board and that made it easy for her not to miss anything. She still wasn’t quite sure how all of this was going to connect with Potions, but surely they would find out soon. It was time for the next question and Cam listened carefully. She had an idea and raised her hand to share it. “Kind of like what my classmate said, it would be good to know what an animal was feeling if he was sick. That way you wouldn’t have to guess and you could know what to do to make him feel better.” Animals were like babies, if they were sick or upset, you had to figure out what was wrong with them. It wasn’t always easy to do. "Absolutely. It's tough to know that an animal is suffering but not know what the problem is." The Gryffindor got an approving nod both for her participation and her copious note-taking. Shreya simply loved when her students were paying attention. Text Cut: Aibhi Quote: Originally Posted by Imsosikk07 Sitting and taking in her professor's words and writing down her notes as quick as she can while the professor writes on the chalkboard. Multitasking! Go Aibhi! And what's this? Animals? Pets? This was something she was used considering communication within her household between other humans can be such a struggle, but to her reptilian pets? She felt a sense of comfort and ease to be with and even talk to them as if they could even understand her. Thinking of how to answer the question and then finally raised her hand and shifts in her seat. "My dad has had us around reptiles pretty much all of our lives. A- uh- I believe they are called a Herpetologist. We have a few pet lizards and snakes and he taught my brother and myself different ways to understand the different postures certain reptiles have when something is not wrong and understand their health." She lowers her hand as she speaks and shrugs. She always had a love for reptiles and she always treated them like they were her babies. Spoils them like crazy. A herpetologist, hmm? That was certainly unique. Shreya absolutely loved learning more about her students' home lives through their discussions. "How interesting! Yes, many creatures can be quite communicative through their postures. It's very neat that your father has learned to interpret them." She nodded happily at the Slytherin. Text Cut: Devin Quote: Originally Posted by griffin Yes, Devin had been carrying these owl treats around in his pockets all year just waiting for exactly this. There had been a few times he had been cleaning out his pockets and considered ditching the extra weight, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the treats behind lest he get into a situation such as this where he finally got to see Babs and then didn’t have any treats for her. Every day he had hoped that somehow Babs would come back to him. Not even the sad realization that his owl might have been killed could make him give up hope. But here Babs was, still alive, and Devin was glad he had held onto the treats all this time. See, carrying around owl treats everywhere was really paying off. Another treat was slipped into the cage for Babs. It would be useful to know what was wrong in situations that scared an animal, but many of his classmates had touched on topics similar to that. ”I think it would be interesting to have conversations with animals about the different ways in which they experience the world. Like having stronger senses of smell or better night vision or being smaller or larger and the perspective of that. Knowing the things animals can feel and sense could help us notice things that we couldn’t sense ourselves.” Or, you know, it would be useful to ask Babs where the neo-alliance was keeping her but that answer probably wouldn’t go down well with The Hoods. Shreya nearly bounced up and down at this answer. So insightful, these students! "Wonderful, Devin. How marvelous would it be to exchange perspectives with a creature that experiences the world in a different way than we do?" It really could be beneficial for humans. At least Shreya thought so. Text Cut: Kinsay Quote: Originally Posted by ArianaBlack Kinsay was back to slumping. It had nothing to do with the topic of the lesson though, hopefully Professor Varma knew as much. The thought alone made Kiz feel a little guilty and she tried her best to perk up a little bit as an afterthought. Unfortunately, she wasn't so great at hiding her feelings so, um, maybe it wasn't working to the extent that she wanted to. As for this next question, there were loads of answers that Kizzy could think of, so she immediately raised her hand into the air and ~~not-so~~ patiently waited her turn. By the time Devin offered up an answer, however, a new thought came to mind. It WOULD be really cool to know how animals experience the world. Kinsay agreed wholeheartedly. It essentially spurred an entire rabbit hole of related thoughts and by the time it was her turn to offer up an answer, Kizzy's mind was somewhere else entirely. "Do owls like delivering our mail?" That was it. That was the thought. It was related to the question... Tangentially. "Hmm, a good question, Ms. James!" Shreya said with a laugh. "Do me a favor and hold onto that one for a few minutes, okay?" She gave the Gryffindor a wink, knowing that waiting until today's activity to ask the question would be much more fun for Kinsay. Text Cut: Irithel Quote: Originally Posted by Sunflower The scented candles helped Irithel to calm down enough to take down some notes while listening to her classmates' answers. She did not try to copy everything, as some points could turn out to be irrelevant in this lesson. Her curiosity about the connection between animal communication and Potions heightened at the second question. She was never not wondering what creatures were thinking and feeling, so she had to narrow down her thoughts before she raised her hand to answer. "This is related to what they said," she nodded at the Slytherin girls Violet and Claudine, *"sometimes we think* an animal is threatening us, when it's actually just being playful. Like when a tarantula crawls up your leg. It would be useful for us to know if it's happy or upset." And if she were an expert in tarantula language, she would tell it to get away from her! Potato hissed at her, as if he knew that she was still thinking about another kid's pet and not him. "Excellent point, Ms. Rutherford." And a good distinction to make, so one didn't unnecessarily injure an animal if it meant no harm. "For example, sometimes cats like to pounce when they're playing. But their body language can appear threatening." Text Cut*: Eden* Quote: Originally Posted by Bryn Eden ignored Quinn's ignoring of her. Fine. He could keep on hating her for hating Emmerson and being good at the sardine spell. This was Potions, and she was going to have a good class so help her God. Her first thought was asking bugs not to bite her, but that seemed kinda lame. The first year raised her hand. "Maybe animals know things that we don't have access to? Including different ways of practicing magic. If we could talk to them and form a good relationship, maybe they would share their knowledge." "That is certainly a possibility," Sheya replied. "And unless we could talk to them frequently, we might never know." Unless animals had some sort of Statute of Secrecy like wizards did. It was an outlandish thought, but you could never know! Text Cut: Bernie Quote: Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl Positive reinforcement, hmm, alright, could Bernadette do that to the school owl? Use that technique to make it loyal to her, to do her bidding, to carry a message outside the castle? Could she--- could she COMMUNICATE with it here and now? Maybe through owl eye signals? She eyed the creature in the cage before her and began an intense one-sided staring contest with it, occasionally lifting her eyebrows as though she were bossing the owl around with a particularly demanding mental note, her concentration only breaking when the scented candles made her nose twitch. Hmm, those were nice. Were they doing something with candles now? She dismissed the question and went back to staring at her owl, nearly missing the professor's next comment about communicating with animals, and all the others' answers too. Her own answer was probably something along the lines of now, now it would be useful to know what the animals were thinking, but also... her mouth might've twitched a little at Kinsay's answer. Not because she liked the girl, not at all, they MAYBE had a truce AT BEST, but because she also would like to know if owls LIKED delivering the post. So, this owl, here? The one Bernie was staring at? DO YOU LIKE DELIVERING LETTERS, HARRY? Yeah, she'd named it Harry, after her mum who didn't ever want her to have a pet at home. DID HARRY MISS DELIVERING LETTERS? WOULD HARRY LIKE TO DELIVER A NEW LETTER? Also, were you supposed to talk to owls like how you talked to dogs? Because she wasn't sure how aggressive or baby-talk-ish her voice was supposed to be? Shreya raised her eyebrows slightly at the sight of Bernadette, who seemed to be having a staring contest with her owl. The professor was no expert on owl communication, but she figured that relentlessly staring at it could come across as slightly threatening. She hoped the owl didn't react aggressively. Text Cut: Ivy Quote: Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl The smell of all the animals didn't particularly bother Ivy - she was used to them being stinky sometimes, what with growing up around cats and her mum's two miniature horses - but she also didn't mind that the professor had lit some scented candles. It did make the room smell a little more pleasant. The Ravenclaw looked over her notes to be sure she'd accounted for all the ones Professor Varma had put on the board. They were all there, so it was time for the next question. After a bit of thought, Ivy raised her hand. "Sometimes creatures can sense whether a person is nice or not, and sometimes it makes them act differently, even if the person seems okay to us. So it might be useful to be able to talk to an animal in that situation, to see if they notice something we don't about someone." Another insightful point from another insightful Ravenclaw. "An interesting point, Ivy. Yes, both magical and mundane creatures have been noted to detect not-so-nice people." She thought of both kneazles and those mundane sniffing-dogs they had at the airports. Text Cut: Aboli Quote: Originally Posted by kayquilz Aboli had some experience with this, but nothing that she wanted to share at large with her peers. Plus, it was still very confusing. She thought about Jack at home, and how whenever he was sick, they lamented that they could not communicate to him that he was sick but would feel better if ONLY HE TOOK the potion they were offering him. On that same strain, she heard Ivy's answer and raised her hand. "To go off of what Ivy said, it would be helpful to communicate with animals when there's magic afoot. Like...you know, your pet knows you very well, but one day someone is pretending to be you via the polyjuice potion. The pet would be able to, I THINK, sense that the person is an imposter." Did the Trent's have a pet? Mighta' been useful. Imagine if Rosier had been taken down by a very intelligent dog or crup. Sigh. A girl could dream. "Very good, Aboli. Animals seem to be very perceptive of when things are amiss. It would be nice of them to let us know if they detect anything strange." And strange things were always happening when magic was involved. Shreya found herself wishing that Hogwarts had a free-roaming kneazle to warn them about Rosier before everything happened. Text Cut: Octavia Quote: Originally Posted by PatInTheHat Tavie was more or less unimpressed by her cat being caged for the purpose of education. Coral hadn't been in any type of kennel since she smuggled her across multiple boarders to get her England, but that was different. Coral had been smaller then and homeless. Tavie was saving her from becoming an ally cat. But this? She didn't like it. She didn't know how they even got ahold of her cat. Like, she knew why they couldn't get Poesy or Delphy, and she knew that Coral roamed the castle, but she didn't think she was the type of cat to be easily caught. "Right now." Tavie briefly raised her hand, her hazel green eyes lifting momentarily from the calico cat in the cage to the professor. "It would be useful now to know how our pets felt about this confinement." Clearly, Octavia was not a fan. Hmm, now this was a question Shreya would have to respond to carefully, in case anyone was eavesdropping. "I suppose so, yes," Shreya said. Though she feared she might already know the answer to that. The poor creatures must be miserable. "Wouldn't it be neat to ask our pets what they thought about random things?" She'd settle for changing the subject, not wanting to get too into the topic of confinement. "It'd be fun to learn what they think about certain foods or places." Octavia got an encouraging nod for her participation, though. Shreya hoped she wouldn't take her roundabout response as dismissive. Text Cut: Heath Quote: Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy Heath peered into the cage, studying Rey’s little face intently. Normally she’d be sticking her paw through the bars or meowing her head off to demand release, but now she was quietly curled up in her cage, looking through the bars at him with those big blue eyes. Heath was torn. Part of him was glad she was being quiet, as it gave the hood brood less reason to hurt her. Another part of him hated seeing her so unlike herself, so subdued, so scared. He couldn't blame her; he was scared too… especially when Professor Varma called the Neo-Alliance gracious. Those words should only be used in the same sentence if A) it was Opposite Day or B) the word "isn't" came between them! The mention of the Neo-Alliance sounded the alarm bells in Heath's mind, and once again, his thoughts turned to awful things he might be forced to do to Rey and ways to keep her alive. He didn't know how he'd get through this if anything happened to her! She'd been his best friend when he had nobody, and now that he was cut off from his family, he needed her more than ever. He was so lost in thought that it took him a minute to register the first question. When he did, his thoughts, still focused on Rey, went to all the ways she communicated with him… meowing at him to say hello, flopping onto her back when she wanted to be petted, biting his nose as a sign of affection. But those things applied specifically to Rey, not all animals or even all cats. Not feeling confident in those answers, he kept quiet. Heath considered the next question carefully. His first thoughts went to helping sick or threatened animals, but those things had been said a few times and Heath wasn't one to piggyback off of someone else's answer. Focusing on Rey again, he thought of the times when he wished he knew what she was thinking… mostly times when she behaved in a way that didn't make sense to him, like randomly running up and down the hall in the middle of the night or pawing at cabinet doors to make them go SLAM! Why did she do that? Was that a cat thing or just a Rey thing? Never mind. His hand went up, and he said, "Our pets have quirks that may not make sense to us, so it would be useful to know what they're thinking when they do something odd. Knowing how their mind works would help us understand their seemingly strange behavior." There, still not an answer he was particularly confident about, but it was something! "That is excellent, Heath," Shreya replied with a nod. "It would be intriguing to know why they partake in such odd behaviors. My cat used to always put her toys in her water dish. I always wondered why she did that!" Creatures could certainly be odd, but their little quirks only made them all the more endearing. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness, everyone!" Shreya said encouragingly, making her way back to the front of the classroom. It was easy to have such great discussions when the students were contributing such wonderful answers. "There are certainly many reasons why we might want to know what an animal is thinking. Perhaps we want to help them if they are feeling ill, like Ms. Fox and Ms. Quincy mentioned. Maybe we want to ask them about their unique perspective on something, like Devin, Heath, and Aboli said. Or maybe we're just curious about if they like delivering mail," Shreya said, glancing back to Kinsay with a smirk. And certainly there were many other wonderful answers. She just didn't have time to repeat them all. As she circled back to her desk, she realized that now was probably the time to throw in something anti-Muggle. Shreya would place bets that a member of the Neo-Alliance was somehow listening in on the lesson right now—be it a one-way mirror or some complex eavesdropping spell. As much as it bothered her to do so, Shreya had to play along with them. The sound of her voice changed slightly, her usual lilting, loud tone replaced by a quieter, more hesitant one. "And one great advantage that we have over Muggles is that we have the ability to actually hear what creatures are thinking. Which could be very beneficial if it came to recruiting powerful creatures for.....our own advantage." She spit the last part out very quickly, the words sounding foreign on her own tongue. Merlin. She hoped the students would understand someday. For now, she felt like she was letting them all down. "Anyway," she sighed, adjusting her robes in a slight moment of awkwardness, "It's time to put what we've been talking about to practice!" She waved her wand toward the cupboard at the side of the room. Many vials of potions floated out—several landing on each workstation. "You may recall earlier in the term when we brewed that mystery potion. The one with the lacewing flies, belladonna, and unicorn horn? At the time that we brewed the mystery potion, I was unsure if our furry friends would be able to join us. So I didn't tell you what the potion was." Normally not her preferred method of teaching, but she didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if her attempts to get permission to use the pets failed. "Well, that mystery potion you brewed was something we call the animal whisperer potion. When taken, this potion allows you to understand what a creature is thinking. While effects can vary, the strength and clarity of the thoughts you hear depend on your bond and level of trustworthiness the creature has toward you." A notion that the students would hopefully come to understand throughout the lesson. "Each of you has several vials of the potion, and each vial is ready to drink, save for the addition of your animal's essence. To start, you'll be trying the potion out with your own pet or school owl. First, take a few minutes to bond with the creature. There are treats and toys on the front table." Shreya gestured to the front workstation, which had a collection of items for each type of pet. Then, she pulled on a pair of dragonhide gloves and made her way over to a spare school owl, dozing peacefully in its cage. She hated to wake it, but it was time for the demonstration. "You don't have to use gloves, but I recommend them if you are unfamiliar with your animal or if you simply don't want to get your hands dirty." Shreya didn't want any nips from any frightened creatures. "Simply wet your hands or gloves with a bit of water," she said as she ran her hands under the sink for just a moment, "and give your creatures a few good pets. You're bound to pick up a few stray hairs, feathers, or slime. You only need a small amount of them for the potion." Shreya stroked the owl carefully. The tiniest particle of a feather was left on her gloves. She took it and dropped it into a vial, where it bubbled furiously. "Wait one or two minutes for the bubbles to subside, and then it's ready to drink. Then, you can talk to your animal and see what you hear back." Shreya took off the gloves and looked back enthusiastically at the class. "If you don't have any other questions, you're free to begin! You may remove the animals from their cages, but please keep a close eye on them." She was prepared for the classroom to get a bit rowdy, but she didn't want things getting out of control. OOC: YAY so excited for this part! For the mini activity, you will RP for your character and the animal on their desk. To get all the points, please show your character 1) bonding with their animal, 2) collecting a specimen, 3) drinking the potion, and 4) attempting to hear your pet's thoughts. This can all be done in one post if you prefer! You should RP for the pet/school owl as well (just make it a different color to differentiate). Feel free to have your character be as successful or unsuccessful as you like with hearing the animal's thoughts. Shreya will be around periodically for questions & observations! You have approximately 48 hours (possibly a bit longer) to complete the mini activity.