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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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?

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."

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.

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.

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!

"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.

Exactly. Varma got where Claudine was coming from yet again and the girl couldn’t be more pleased. That, coupled with the fact that she had Samm again and there were no Hoods in sight, meant that her anxiety levels were at the low.

The girl sat there listening to Varma go on, though her eyebrow arched at the way the woman said ‘our own advantage’. Maybe the Hoods had ears in the classroom so Varma had to make it seem as though she was on their side. Anyway. The good thing was that they were moving on. Yes, the fifth year indeed remembered the said potion they had made earlier.

Oh.

So that’s what it had been! Colour Claudine intrigued and excited. Just think! She’d be able to hear Samm’s thoughts! Level of bond and trustworthiness? Claudine and Samm had plenty of that going on between them.

She got right down to work by petting Samm on the nosey. The rat had always liked that and he still did. See how he squeaked and sniffed at her finger? His front paws grabbed said finger which made Claudine giggle. Animals always made her so happy. “You hungry, buddy? Here. I’ve got some treats for you.” She always kept a packet of treats for him in her bag which she retrieved. It was a packet of dead flies which Samm loved to eat. The proof was that he was currently gobbling up a few.

SOooooo the mystery potion they had brewed earlier in term? It was THIS. And how come Aboli had never even tried this potion before because it sounded SO coooooool! She squinted at the owl in her cage. "Please don't bite me, all right? I like owls." More so than cats. She picked up a treat gingerly from the table and offered it through the bars of the little cage. The owl gobbled it up quickly.

Yay.

Aboli smiled in a pleased manner. "Good girl. Awesome. Let's have another, shall we?" and she made another offering to her overload and savior, this beautiful tawny owl. "Do you have a name?" Was there a name plague anywhere?

Yayyyy. More positive reinforcement. They were talking to their pets apparently. Ash carefully took Maggie out of her cage and started to coo and pet her. Her normally deep-ish, sharp voice was much smoother and higher. It didn't do that a lot. Ash didn't smile a lot either. But when Maggie hooted back at her, she couldn't help but grin. "Aw yes, you are definitely the best eagle-owl ever. Totally cool and smart and pretty and strong and kind and loyal..." It went on like that for a while. "... and it's so good to see you because I love you so much." She gave the owl one last treat, before wetting her hand and petting her. Ash let out an audible aww as she did it, that was completely unplanned and also embarrassingly high-pitched. She looked around. Did anyone hear that?


Maggie was excited to see Ash. HELLO ASH! HENLO. NICE TO SEE YOU. Yes, yes. All the cuddles. Personally, she found Ash's weird squeaking to be endearing. Maggie had never seen her be this affectionate to anyone other than her best friend and the cat. Was she okay? WAS HUMAN OK? IMPORTANT QUESTION. SMALL HUMAN MUST BE DOING BAD. Because why else would she be like this? Maggie had never shown interest in cuddles, unlike the cat. And Ash had never particularly shown interest in cuddling an owl before. Maggie hooted at the girl and ruffled her feathers. She was heaping praise on her now? Something must be seriously bad. SHE MUST COMFORT THE SMALL CHILD.

Ash picked up a few impressive feathers. One of them went into her pocket as a keepsake. She would keep it in the special box with her letters from home, her bracelets from Serena, and her drawings. The other went into the potion. While it bubbled, Ash busied herself with other things, like petting her owl. She finally drank the potion when it was ready. Hello Maggie. What are your thoughts?

Maggie NEEDED to know if Ash was alright! ASH!!!! ARE YOU OKAY??? SHe hooted questioningly. WHY ARE YOU SO WEIRD AND CUDDLY? WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU WHILE I WAS GONE? She needed to get a read on this kid.

Well this was cool. Ash could hear Maggie's thoughts now. Sadly, they were all worried thoughts. "Awwww, don't worry, I'm fine. Totally okay. That was actually a lie, sorry. Everything is sad for me. But it'll all be okay, right? One day, we'll see each other again, and everything will be great and there will be nothing to worry about. What about you though?" Her owl's safety was more important. Was MAGGIE okay? After all, she was the one in a cage, not Ash. Although Ash was the one under psychological duress. So maybe it was even.


Ash was a BIG FAT LIAR. Maggie could just tell. You're lying, Ash. I know it. I'm fine, and you aren't. You don't have to lie. The child was dumb enough to think she could trick an owl, huh? Well she was wrong.

Ash had nothing to say to THAT thought. She was going to protest, but she had already been caught in a lie. So instead she just fell silent and continued to pet her owl. "I love you so so much Maggie."

And with that, Ash started sobbing. Embarrassing, but there was nothing she could do. Those tears had been building up for a long time. Whoops.

It had been weird for Morgan to see Schnitzel all locked up in a cage like he was. And the cat clearly didn't like being cramped inside. But he supposed it was smart for class so that animals weren't all running amok all over the classroom. There were a lot of animals in one space, after all. But smart didn't mean this Gryffindor liked it.

He poked his fingers into the cage to give his kitty some head scratches as he idly listened to the discussion questions and the class answers. The way he communicated with Schnitzel was as straightforward as simply talking to him, though he did give plenty of treats when he was trying to teach him tricks. Still, others had already said both of those things as well as other stuff, so he didn't have more to add.

It might not have looked like he was paying much attention when the next question was asked, but he was listening sort of. "I'd just like to know what he was thinking sometimes," he casually mentioned aloud, forgetting to raise his hand. "Like what do cats think about all day? Is it boring stuff like wondering where they can take their next nap or do they make complex plans for stalking mice?"

Oh oops, was class moving on without him? Morgan glanced up as the professor spoke again. Aw sweet, they were actually going to hear their pets' thoughts? That sounded awesome! And he could finally free his cat from his prison. "Come on, Schnitzel!" he said as he opened the cage door and pulled the orange tabby out from inside. "Let's go get some of that potion! Oh and some treats too!" The kitty's ears perked up at that word, having heard it enough from the boy to know exactly what that meant. And, carrying the cat in one arm, Morgan headed up towards the workstation for a potion vial and some kitty treats.

Violet wished very much she could be doing this exercise with Machiavelli, but since he wasn't here, she prepared to try to bond with the school owl before her. She sat there for what seemed a long time, staring into the owl's eyes, with the owl staring back.
Then she hesitantly stretched two fingers through the bars and stroked the owl's back. The owl turned its head all the way around, as owls do, and nudged her hand with its beak--okay, it seemed to like that. Violet continued petting it, using three fingers now, and suddenly felt the owl give her a soft nip--oh, she had forgotten to put on the gloves! But it hadn't really hurt (and she knew an owl could really bit hard it if wanted to). It was more to get her attention. Violet looked down and saw that a few small underfeathers were sticking to the rough places around her nails and withdrew her hand.

She added a feather to one of her vials of potion and watched excitedly as the liquid began to bubble furiously. When it slowed down, she picked up the vial and looked closely at the potion. Well, she always claimed her potions were safe and well-brewed, so she ought to be able to trust them on herself now. "Skoal!" she said, remembering the toast her governess used to use, and raising her vial at the owl, she drank it all in one gulp.

She swallowed, not sure what she thought it tasted like, whether good or bad, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, the owl had moved a bit closer to her on its perch and was still staring intently into her eyes.

"Uh, hello there, owl," she said, feeling a bit foolish.

'Hello there, human girl.' Violet was startled to hear the words, not sure if they were coming from the owl or if they were in her own head.

"Ah...are you all right?" Violet had been worried about all the school animals all term, so this was the next thing she could think of to say. She was usually full of words in her head, but trying to speak to an owl was so strange that she was having trouble thinking.

'Terrible, can't leave cages, stuffy room, no windows, terrible smell, all animals together, noisy all the time.'

"I'm so sorry!" Violet exclaimed. "It's not our idea--it's those hooded people" (if they were people) "they took you all away from us and won't let us see you. I think they don't want any messages getting out of Hogwarts." She picked up one of the treats and slipped it into the cage, holding it out to the owl.

The owl delicately pecked up the treat and sat crunching it for a minute or two. 'Thank you, that was kind. I would take your message if I could.'

"That's nice of you to offer. By the way---in that room, you haven't seen a magpie, have you? A black and white bird? Kind of rude and likes to steal things? But, I mean--he's really nice when you get to know him."

The owl sat for a few moments like it was thinking. 'No, no black and white birds, only cats, toads, and owls,' it replied eventually.

"Oh. Okay, thanks anyway." Violet sat a few minutes, wondering again what happened to Mack. Before she could focus her thoughts, she felt a tear or two welling up in her eyes. "Oh, owl, things are really terrible here. But I expect the school owls will be okay, they might need you. But if you get a chance, fly away from here as fast as you can, and don't come back."

The owl just looked back at her and hooted softly. Violet wasn't sure if that was because the potion was wearing off, or if it just didn't have anything else useful to say.

If only her dad could see this right now. Maybe if Aibhi gets this right, she can use this to speak to Khan and Izzy. Looking at the owl before her, she takes a glance at the posture of the owl to see if its giving off a comfortable vibe, a defensive vibe, or any other vibe. Examining the posture of the owl see that it bobs its head a couple of times seeming to be alert but Aibhi tries to keep a peaceful relationship between the both of them. Opening the cage carefully, she pulls her hands back and keeps her focus on the owl.

"It's alright. Come on out. I won't hurt you..."Aibhi spoke softly to the owl watching its body language.

Reaching for her one glove, she uses her non-gloved hand to reach out to pet the owl gently with just two fingers. Carefully she gently pets the owl seeing what it will do and surprisingly, the owl seems to like it. She gives a little smile as she sees a few feathers about in the cage and grabs a couple as she sees the owl move in a little closer to her. Who would have thought I would actually enjoy this?! After collecting her things for the potion, she carefully places the ingredients into her little vial and watched to see it begin to work its magic (so to speak). After seeing the bubbling in her vial seem to dissipate and stop bubbling, Aibhi grabs the vial and looks at her little owl companion for a moment before exhaling out softly and lifting the vial to her lips and swallows it quickly and distracts her own mind on the taste of the potion itself. Exhaling out softly and smacking her lips together she takes a moment before looking back at the owl and clears her throat.

"Uh- Uh...hello...? Ca- Can you understand me?" She asks the owl unsure of herself.

the owl blinks, bobbing its head up and down for a moment. Curious. Curious to the words coming out of this one's mouth. Watching her carefully, the owl steps a little closer and simply replies with "Well, hello."

Aibhi's eyes flutter. She gasps softly. IT WORKED?! Did it just bloody work?! Mum's never going to believe this! Smiling, Aibhi, hears the voice of the owl speak through to her as she puts on her other glove and sits there watching the owl carefully. "Hello. You- don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of you, girl. It's the others that concern me." the owl starts.

Aibhi tilts her head to the side. "Others? Oh...oh you mean-" She trails off looking around her for a moment before nodding and speaks a little softer to the owl, "Yes, I would have to agree with you on that. I worry for mine and my brother's safety every single day here. Can't talk to my parents, can't really go to anyone for help..." She lets out a heavy sigh and shrugs, "But we have to go through the motions, yeah? Not really much we can do as students. "

The owl bobs its head to her. "Bad people. Bad, bad people. Don't step out of line, Miss Draven."

Aibhi looks around the classroom for a moment before back at the owl as the owl is now perched onto her gloved hand. "No one's ever called me by that last name before. Usually only by my father's last name." The owl begins to hoot softly to her. The potion was beginning to fade away. Aibhi sighs softly and nods.

There was a very good reason why Emmerson did not have an actual animal for a pet. It had a lot to do with the little girl's general disinterest in their furrier counterparts. They were cute, sure, and you could cuddle with them after a long day but she didn't wanna be bothered with feedings, cleanings and the like.

No thanks.

Similarly, she was not particularly interested in their thoughts. Don't get her wrong, she'd been SUPER curious about the mystery potion when they'd first brewed it.

Just...now that she knew what it did, the Gryffindor was less impressed. Not an animal person was probably.....a very fair way to describe her.

With a scowl in place, Emm looked to the owl. She didn't want to bond with it and had no warm feelings towards it. Stiffly, she ran two fingers along its neck and down to its back, stroking in repetitive manner. "There there...." Or whatever. This owl would probably have preferred to be outside soaring, not down in the dungeons figuring which way is up.

Luckily a feather DID come loose through her forced bonding moment. Emm dropped it into her potion and waited for the bubbles to subside.

"Bottoms up, I guess." She said, a vain toast offered to the bird before downing the contents of the cup.

Blech!

When would they make potions that tasted like chocolate?

That didn't look very good.

What was that? Huh? Oh, the owl. Right. "It wasn't. I'd let you try if I was a little more sure you wouldn't drop dead after." The 12 year old offered...er...half offered. Couldn't really go offering semi-strange potions to animals when you didn't know their dietary limits.

"That's...perfectly fine. Rats do the trick just fine. Say, could you tell me how to get out of here?

"Fam, if I knew the answer to that, you'd have a different partner and I'd be sipping a diet coke light ice with a mini umbrella on a beach in Madrid."

While little Samm ate the flies {five of them. Claudine was always careful not to overfeed him}, she continued to pet him. Gloves were a no-no for this activity since she was quite used to Samm, and working with creatures on a whole. Yes, her fingers were slightly wet to help scoop any loose hair up. Sure enough when Claudine checked her finger, there were hairs there. Perfect.

Into the vial a strand went. Like Varma’s, the contents bubbled happily. When all had popped, she drank. The vial was immediately set down and Claudine fixed her gaze on her little friend.

“Hi, Samm. How are you feeling? Not stressed, are you?” Being away from her for such a long time might have taken a toll on him. To her delight, she heard his thoughts and was super excited of the fact.

“I would be better if I had more flies.”

“Um… sorry. You’d overeat and that wouldn’t be good for your health.’’

“I’m fit as a fiddle, Blaze.’’

“Excuse me. Are you sassing me, Samm?’’

“I might be.’’ Cue Samm sitting on his hind legs and staring at her with beady eyes.

Claudine’s attention was only disturbed when she noticed Ashley crying. Um… was she okay?

There was a name plate. The owl's name was apparently Grace! Sweet Grace! "Okay Miss Gracie..." she smiled and offered her another treat. "Such a sweet girl..." she eventually opened the cage to offer the treat right from her hand, and she was pleased to find the tawny owl was more than accepting. It wasn't hard to bond with the school owls, though. They were used to the students!

Now...what specimen did she want? Plucking her feather might hurt, so she searched the bottom of the cage for any. Unfortunately, there weren't any. Uuugghhhh. Could she get some owl spit???? Did owls spit? Question for Professor Williams. "I need a feather, but I don't really want to pluck one...." she whispered, stroking the back of Grace's head. "Because then you might stop trusting me." She tugged on one of the feathers veeeeery gently, just to see how Grace would take it, and the owl seemed not at all concerned. Aboli get a hold of the feather, then offered Grace another treat. She was getting FED TODAY. She plucked the feather, quickly, and winced slightly at the hoot Grace gave off, and the sliiiiiight flap of the owl's wings. Ah. Ah AH. But Grace was content on her perch, and Aboli grinned. "Thank you, girl."

The feather was added to the potion, and Aboli waited for it to stop its bubbling. She was ready to converse with this owl!!

As the students got started bonding and conversing with their pets, Shreya made her way around the room, her purple robes swishing behind her. "Well done, Ms. Blaze," she said as she passed the Slytherin, who was happily feeding her rat some treats. "Bonding with your pet first should increase the effectiveness of the potion. I commend your patience." Shreya had half expected the students to be so excited to talk to their pets that they skipped over the bonding portion. Those who took the time to praise and socialize with the pets should certainly have more success. And sure enough—from the look on Claudine's face once she started communicating with the rat—it had worked. Shreya gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up before moving on to the next workstation.

It was strange indeed to observe the children during this part of the lesson, as Shreya was unable to hear what exactly they were picking up on from their pets. Though, as they had previously discussed, body language could communicate a lot. And by the looks of it, Ashley had either failed miserably at communicating with her owl or heard something extremely upsetting from the bird. Whatever the case, Shreya offered her a comforting pat on the back as the Ravenclaw cried. These poor children. Merlin knew what was going through their heads these days.

Morgan and Aboli got encouraging nods as well, as they both seemed to be following the bonding protocol. They would surely hear some interesting thoughts from their pets soon enough. And it seemed like Violet had succeeded as well, as she looked to be deep in thought after talking to her owl—though Shreya had only overheard the last part of Violet's seemingly one-sided conversation.

Aibihi seemed to be overjoyed that the potion had worked. Not at all surprising, as she had taken ample time to pet her owl first. Shreya gave her a warm smile. Emmerson, on the other hand...Shreya would be interested to see if her potion worked well. The young Gryffindor was acting rather coolly toward her owl. "You may hear some more interesting thoughts if you take a bit of time to become friends. Try these," Shreya said gently, placing a small pile of owl treats on Emmerson's workstation.

"It seems as if you are all on the right track!" Er, well, mostly. "Take a few more minutes to see what you can hear. The potions will be wearing off shortly."

OOC: Ahh your animal RPs are so much fun to read! You have about 24 hours for the mini activity. And remember, catching up is always allowed!

Yes, the staring was, as that Italian greyhound liked to say, TOO MUCH. The school owl (now named Harry) let out a loud YIP YIP YAP squawk of disapproval at Bernie's intense gaze.

What, now they were supposed to touch it? Touch THAT? Bernie exhaled through her flared nostrils. She was not a fan of birds, had she said that yet? Also, she was just... supposed to let it out of the cage? Er? What if it took off? Did she haaaaaaaaaave to? Would be more dangerous to pet it through the bars...? Or?

Regardless, all Bernie accomplished in this post was putting her gloves on and dithering at the owl staring back at her.

Great. The professor was patting her on the back now. And several others, including Claudine and her own owl, were looking at her with various faces of concern. Ew. EMBARRASSING ALERT. She somehow managed to stop crying, and instead just looked like she was about to cry and petted her owl some more.

Awwww, the poor human child. Maggie hooted comfortingly. She had never seen Ash exhibit THAT behavior before, not even when she was possessed for a while. She hooted comfortingly. shhhh, Ash. Don't cry. It's okay, not-so-small human.

Ah yes, thank goodness for the comforting owl. Where was scar/luna/any name really cat? They were getting extra snuggles later today. So that Ash could do some late-night secret crying instead of middle-of-the-day embarrassing crying.

Hey. At least the professor was patting her back comfortingly instead of poking a wand in her back threateningly. It's the little things that count.

It would be amazing! They could all use a lesson right now on empathy and understanding other perspectives. Perhaps he would discuss that more with the professor later. Now wasn’t really the time to draw more attention to his thoughts on the great importance of empathy when The Hoods were probably listening. Rosier probably wouldn’t be too keen on students showing empathy.

Ooh, he was going to get to TALK TO BABS! How cool was that? That was about as good as he could hope for, given the fact he was unlikely to be permitted to take Babs back to his dorm with him. Devin opened the cage and gently stroked Babs. ”What a good girl. I’ve missed spending time with you after class. I’m just going to get a few feathers off you for this potion so we can talk to each other, okay?” He wet his right hand in the sink and used his other hand to feed Babs another treat while he ran his wet hand across her back a few times. A few feathers stuck to his hand. ”Good girl. You’re doing great, Babs.” Devin dropped a feather into one of the potion vials in front of him. Now all he had to do was wait a couple minutes.