No killing. So what were the pets for? Communication, apparently. "Body language, professor. Even when we can't speak to a pet directly we can still understand their wants, needs, and general emotions. And they can tell ours sometimes too." She could tell her pets were unhappy, and they could tell that she was unhappy. It was a pity party. Yay. THe best party about body language though, was that muggles could use it too. And it could be used to tell what animals or humans wanted.

Camryn was having a good time bonding quietly with the owl, well as much as one could bond through a cage. She was totally tuned in to the creature in front of her when the professor announced that class was beginning.

She turned her attention to the professor and listened as she explained how fortunate they were to be able to use the creatures for class. When a question was asked, Cam raised her hand. “We can communicate with animals by touch. We can let them know how much we love them by petting them or snuggling with them. I mean that’s one way, but of course it would depend on the type of animal.” You wouldn’t want to pet a dragon or something dangerous like that.

Devin looked up from Babs’ cage when the professor started talking about communication with animals. Were they going to make potions that would let Babs talk to him? That would be exciting - no, painful because Babs was clearly going to be sad about whatever The Hoods had done to her. But it would be nice to hear what Babs thought about him. He really did try to be a gentle, loving friend to Babs. ”I use treats to communicate to my owl Babs how much I love her, or if she did something good.” Like delivering a letter for him, but he wasn’t going to talk about that when The Hoods were probably listening. Wouldn’t want to remind them of why they had taken the owls in the first place. Speaking of owl treats, Devin slipped another one from his pocket into the cage. Who knew when Babs might next be able to see him? Realistically he knew that there was no way the neo-alliance would let him keep Babs with him after the lesson, but that didn’t stop him from hoping that he could take Babs back to the Gryffindor dorms with him. He wouldn’t even dare to try using her to send for help, he just wanted to know that she was safe and didn’t want her to be scared and alone. He could read her stories, tell her all about the part of the year that she missed, feed her treats, and maybe even let her out to stretch her wings inside his dorm if his roommates were okay with it. Letting Babs go again was going to be sad. At least this time he was better prepared for it.

There was Heath and Rey, with the boy having no time for her. Claudine wasn’t offended; in fact, she understood perfectly how Heath was feeling. Her own gaze kept drifting back to the little rat in the cage. Wasn’t it amazing how pets could cheer most persons up? She honestly felt as though the room housed happy students now more than any other time of the school year so far. The Snakette could hardly believe that the Neo Alliance gave Varma permission to use the animals. She was suspicious and couldn’t wait to see how the lesson would progress.

She was inclined to strongly agree with Ashley. Body language, in her opinion, was the strongest method of communication. Claudine raised her hand. “Actions on humans’ part, Professor. For instance, we can train an animal to do something in particular using an action, the animals can respond to that action.’’ Was she making sense? If not, here was an example. “Like tapping on a chair to motion a kneazle or crup to hop on to it.” Or bed, if one wanted snuggles.

Animal communication? Violet felt pretty confident that she could communicate with Machiavelli, at least on the receiving end. He was very good at getting his point across, but if he understood Violet (and she was pretty sure he did), he usually ignored her and did as he pleased.

Raising her hand, she said, "Well, my pet magpie will pull on my hair when he wants something or wants to get my attention." And he would get it, because to ignore him was a bit painful.

Mamie wasn't super sure about animal communication, other than body language like Ashley had mentioned. She thought about any animals her family had met. She remembered her cousin's cat liked to bring dead mice to her cousin. Maybe that was communicating something?

She raised her hand. "Animals might bring you something, like errrr...food or something they value, to show they care maybe?" Maybe. She wasn't sure if cats valued dead rodents.

Quinn thought about it for a second. How did humans and animals communicate? It seemed like his classmates had already covered a majority of the normal ways, so... "Uh, well, I'd venture to guess there's some sort of spell that lets us understand animals? Like, what their noises mean..? Th-that could be completely wrong though, I haven't really heard of a spell that does that, but, uh, I wouldn't be... surprised..." Quinn trailed off—he thought it was plausible, but he didn't want to seem like a dolt if he was wrong.

Communication? A rather poor choice of topic if you asked her. Animals were not the ones Emmerson was interested in talking to. The Gryffindor would sacrifice more than half her schoolmates and and roughly half the school staff for just 10 minutes over mirror with her mother.

Too many things had happened since the school's takeover. She was not coping well. There wasn't any other way to say that.

Reluctantly, Emm raised a hand--more as proof she was participating than because she was particularly interested in giving a response. "Biting. They use biting to communicate displeasure so you'll know if you scared them or are annoying them. Biting's also the surest sign they think you're lunch."

Artemis bit sometimes. He liked gnawing on things.

Okay, no crying over a little cuddle. Phoebe let Beans chew on her fingers while she settled into her seat and gave the professor 74% of her attention. Maybe more, but at least a good chunk of her attention was taken up by her furry friend. Comforting beasty.

Phoebe considered how she and Beans communicated with each other. "I can tell a lot of what Beans wants from me by how she meows. Sometimes she chirps a little. Sometimes she hisses, and that is very clear."

At first Atlas had been overjoyed to see his Gooty sapphire ornamental nestled in a cage a top one of the desks. So much so that he had entirely neglected to greet the professor and had made a quick dash straight for his assigned spot. The benefit of having Araneus was that they were a solitary creature and the prolonged separations between himself and the tarantula were not thing that would impact their dynamic much nor influence things negatively. As long as Araneus was getting fed on the regular, which Atlas had been able to do even WITH the pseudo dementors' supervision, then things could continue as normal. Whatever normal was these days. He really did just want to take Araneus out from the cage and allow her to crawl up and down his arms or just perch on top of his mop of blonde hair.

Alas. Instead the first year had to setting for poking his finger at the sides of the container and give finger high fives to the tarantula through the glass.

His ears perked up a bit as class began - right, this was a lesson. Totally remembered that - and as the first question rolled around he found himself answering with the first thing that came to mind.

"...I just talk to Araneus..." he explained with wide eager eyes and an actual smile across his features. "Just...as straightforward as that. I talk. She listens. Well...LISTENS since she doesn't have ears but feels the sound vibrations over the hairs on her legs. She gets used to my voice, er, vibrations and associations some of the words I say, the sounds, with certain actions sometimes. Like when I say hi..." He paused and looked at his beautiful blue beauty. "Usually that means I'm about to hold her or give her something so she gets all up close to the front of the container she is in and wiggles her legs around. Finger high fives."

While they waited for things to get underway, Nem whiled away the minutes in silence, studying the owl in the cage, which still did not move other than to breathe. When Grantham joined them at their desk, Nem looked over and met her with a, "Hey." They went back to watching the owl, but occasionally glanced back at Grantham's fidgeting fingers.

During such a moment, they noticed the note placed down in front of her, and looked up to see who'd delivered it. Song. Huh. Hadn't really spoken to her since that portrait mess (though, they hadn't spoken directly to each other then either) which it had turned out they'd been wise to avoid.

The note got a lingering look, before Nem turned attention to the front of the room again and murmured to Grantham, "Trouble?" That one word could have multiple meanings, really, but they didn't elaborate.

It wasn't totally unheard of for Nem to opt out of giving an answer in class - actually, there was probably about a fifty/fifty chance, depending on the variables - and once the professor posed her first question, they considered just sitting back and waiting for things to keep moving. And then abruptly decided against it.

They raised a hand. "Sound. Voice. Some animals can pick up human languages, yes, but not necessarily understand the words, though you can train most creatures to associate certain words or sounds with actions. But it's possible for a human to learn what an animal is saying, like Phoebe just said." Nem nodded in the Gryffindor's direction. "A cat has a different purr when it's content, as opposed to when it's trying to get someone to feed it. You can tell the difference between all their vocalisations if you pay attention to the situation, and the same goes for other creatures."

Sure, it was nothing to do with Potions, but it was an answer nonetheless.

So so so they were going to talk to animals. Great. That COULD be useful, like, if you came across a bear while hiking (something she'd said recently in Divination. See? Useful class.).

She listened to the others' answers, specifically to Phoebe's (hi Beans) and Nem's answers. She hadn't really known that Nem knew that much about Creatures, because why would she? She was not ever in that class with him. But she was impressed by the knowledge. Could she even add anything to this discussion, honestly?

Well a lack of knowledge never really stopped a Gryffindor, did it. After some thought, Bernie raised her hand, her chosen answer more along the lines of a different Slytherin (which she would now reluctantly acknowledge out loud). "Building on Claudine's answer, and Nem's, I think you can use repetitive, uh, food-related actions to communicate to them? Like you can ding a bell to let them know it's dinnertime, or shake the bag of treats when you want them to do a trick? And vice-versa, can't some dogs like hit a bell by the door to let you know when they wanna go out?"

She didn't know, did that make sense? She had seen many, many videos of animals doing tricks on the YouTube back home, on account of how she didn't have one and very much wanted one.

Aboli received a smile from Ivy when she sat next to her, and then the lesson began. No chance for a quick chat before the class then, but that was okay. She was already cautiously intrigued by the presence of all the animals, and the first question to discuss was off to an interesting start.

How did they communicate with animals?

There were a lot of ways, like all the ones her classmates had already talked about, and it sometimes depended on the animal, like...

Ivy blinked.

Was that a tarantula in a cage on Atlas' workstation?

Huh. Interesting. She knew some people did have them as pets, but she'd never actually encountered someone who did.

But... Er... She'd gotten so distracted listening to his answer and watching curiously as he interacted with the arachnid that she'd lost her train of thought.

How to...communicate with animals... Hm...

Most of the ideas that came into her head had been covered pretty well by others already. She kept thinking about how her family hadn't technically trained their cats at home, but in a way, it just sort of happened. Just by living with each other day-to-day, they picked up on each other's habits, and so they learned when they were going to be fed just from the time of day when her mum went to the kitchen. Or how they always seemed to know when she needed cheering up after a bad day.

...Merlin, she missed them.

Ivy remained quiet for now, jotting down a few notes so she had something to occupy herself with as she continued to listen.

Kinsay sat sadly with her head on her desk, waiting for the lesson to begin. In any other circumstance, she would have been elated to be working with creatures. Potions wasn't something she was very good at, but objectively, this was very exciting. Not that she felt all that excited in the moment. She just felt tired. Like she needed seventeen naps.

She only lifted her head when she heard her name and turned to see who was speaking to her. She did appreciate the concern, but there was too much that wasn't alright and Kizzy didn't want to delve into it. Especially not right now. So instead, she just returned Dahlia's question with a deep shrug. She felt a little guilty for not saying anything else though.

As for Professor Varma's question, Kizzy didn't shoot her hand up into the air as enthusiastically as she usually did. But she did quietly raise her hand. No incessantry from this one today. "Beans likes it when I talk to her in baby voice." Actually, she didn't know this for sure, but she always did it anyway. Kiz turned to give Beans a lil finger wiggle. Phoebe and Beans were so far away. She was starting to regret not paying more attention when choosing a workstation to sit at. Not that this one was bad. Dahlia seemed super nice.

Eden listened to her classmates' answers, expression souring a bit when it came time for a certain few people to answer the question. She let her eyes wander the room while she thought of her own answer, her gaze finally landing back onto the strange owl in front of her.

The longer she waited, the more answers were already taken. So she went ahead and raised her hand. "I think Quinn's idea is pretty neat," Eden said, tone perfectly polite. Can't ignore me forever, Kingsley.

That didn't really answer the question, though, so Eden decided to elaborate. "I know it's probably not the kind of spell that Quinn is talking about, but I read that animagi can communicate with other animals while in their animal form. So that's one way magical folk can communicate with animals. It's not very accessible, though."

Lia wasn't at all sure what to think when the only reply she got from Kinsay was a shrug. While she didn't know the slightly older girl all that well, she did know that almost a hundred percent of the time the other girl was much more excitable. Whatever this was... the first year didn't know but it was just sad. A tiny nod of her head was given in return, she knew better than to push a subject that didn't want to be talked about. Perhaps once they could hold their companions, she could let Kinsay hold Sir Frederik for a bit. Maybe that would help cheer her up.

The lesson was moving on already and she had to turn her attention onto Professor Varma so she could take notes. How did creatures communication with us. There were so many ways and really it all depended on the creature as well. Animagi could communicate with them really well both in and out of their creature form. There was also a potion or spell or something that helped you communicate with creatures like Quinn had mentioned... but she couldn't remember which it was. Hady had told her about it sometime ago when she had gone to work with her for the day.

Raising her hand, Lia waited for her turn. "My older sister had a cat that used to jump up onto my lap and headbutt me in the face when he wanted me to cuddle him. It never lasted long though cause my little nephew would always try to grab at him which made Hagan angry and he would try to run away... or hiss, bite or scratch at Logan." Yet, Logan never ever learned from it. That kid was always getting into trouble for bothering the creatures.

Irithel thought the words "Neo-Alliance" and "graciously" should never be used together, and hoped Professor Varma was just faking allegiance to the bad guys so that this lesson could happen. She thought about the first question about animal communication as she continued to stroke her cat. Just when she was about to raise her other hand to provide an answer, a first year spoke about talking to his pet that did not have ears. This piqued her interest and she glanced at the boy and his ... tarantula ...

She froze at the sight of the creepy-crawly named Araneus. Potato meowed at her annoyedly, demanding that she continue petting him, but she withdrew her hand from the cage and shuddered: she imagined that she had been touching the hairy body of a spider instead of her cat's soft fur. She tried to stop looking at the creature, but her green eyes darted back at it every few seconds as its owner talked about the tarantula feeling his speech over its hairs and wiggling its legs around for a high five. No offence but ugh!! Now she hoped all the pets would stay locked in their cages. Too distracted to answer the question, she resorted to staring straight ahead and tried to remove the terrifying image of Araneus from her memory.

Aboli was glad Bernie didn't throw away her note. She read it, and she didn't look angry...maybe that meant Bernie would forgive her. She hoped so. And Ivy would hopefully be a good table partner. Since she did not have a pet, the owl in front of her would do. It was quite a pretty owl....red and white. She wondered what her OR HIS name was.

She raised her hand. "Well...some animals use blinking and eye movements are communication with not only other animals but with us. Can't you slow blink to get a cat to be nice? Or something?" Aboli was still unsure of cats. She knew there was something about blinking wit them. They either liked or didn't. Also, didn't hippogriffs hate blinking?!

As Shreya listened to her students' responses, she noticed that the room was becoming a bit....well, stinky. With all the animal cages, the potions classroom was starting to smell more like the creatures barn. "I do apologize for the smell. Perhaps we could brighten things up in here a bit," she said excitedly. Brighten things up—both literally and figuratively. Shreya flicked her wand toward her desk. A collection of scented candles emerged, floating to various spots around the room. With another flick of her wand, the candles lit up. Hopefully scents like vanilla, jasmine, and lavender would help to mask the rancid hay smell being emitted from the cages.

"Excellent answers, everyone. You touched on some very important elements of animal communication." She almost couldn't contain her excitement at the wonderful answers her students were giving. They certainly knew a fair amount about animal communication. She'd have to commend Professor Williamson for teaching them well.

Shreya briefly turned back to the chalkboard to make sure the enchanted chalk had copied down all the notes. Not that it was absolutely necessary for the students to remember all of these. This wasn't Care of Magical Creatures, after all. But she figured they may want to jot them down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chalkboard

Ways we communicate with animals:
-Body language
-Touch
-Giving treats
-Physical actions
-Magic (animagi, Parselmouth, etc.)
-Talking to them
-Positive reinforcement
-Vocal cues and pitches
-Blinking

Ways animals communicate with us:
-Body language
-Touch
-Bringing us "gifts"
-Biting
-Vocal cues
-Scratching, hissing, or growling
-Blinking

"If you've ever spoken to anyone who does not share your language, you may understand how difficult it can be. And for creatures that don't speak with words at all, it can be even trickier." At least with languages you could use context clues and similar-sounding words to piece things together. "Creatures do want to communicate with us. That much is clear from observing their behaviors. But how they go about it can greatly vary depending on the species. For example, cats purr to show their contentment, while dogs are more prone to wagging their tails." She kept using the cat and dog example, but she felt they were the most relatable. Plus, she was no expert in magical creatures. She'd leave that discussion to Professor Williamson.

"Each type of animal has their own 'language' that they use to communicate with us. But this makes trying to understand many different animals a difficult feat. You'd need to become an expert in each type of animal language." Which was where today's lesson came in. But before they got to that point, Shreya had another question to ask.

"One more question. Can you describe a situation where it might it be useful for us to know what a creature is thinking or feeling? Feel free to be as specific or broad as you like!"

OOC: Such good answers, guys! Y'all are making this so much fun! Q2 is now up. You have another 24-30ish hours for this one before we move on to the mini-activity!

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."

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."

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."

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.”

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.

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.