Sana grinned at the young Gryffindor. "Thanks..but anyone can do that, if they have some guts..".
She carefully placed on the sand again, let it settle again. The shiny metal greyish skin shined in sunlight. She noted down it's gender and trying to figure out the moving methods. But got distracted by the new girl's question and introduction.

She laughed, "I didnt learn, it's only an intution, an urge and all.." and now she had urge to touch the snake with bare hands.
"Nice to meet you Sam, I'm Sana.." she smiled at her, simultaneously watching the snake.

Clifford blinked. Snakes, snakes, snakes. That's all he could see, which ever way he turned.

And he had to go work with one of these creatures? But he had no idea how! Was Professor Clark insane? Clifford would up most likely end up killing the snake rather than analyse it.

He looked around nervously. Everyone looked like they knew what they were doing. Maybe an older student could help ... or maybe noone would notice if he ran away.

Emily looked horrified as the professor explained what they were going to be going. 'S-s-s-snakes?!' She was terrified of the things. She looked over at Dan.

“Can I work with you, Dan?” she asked and gave his a sweet smile, meaning, 'you’re the parcelmouth. You can do the work… and I’ll just sit here on the edge of my seat, ready to run if necessary.' She pointed a shaking finger at a tiny grass snake. “Look. That one looks friendly enough.” But gulped nervously as she eyed it. "You get the snake. I'll get the mice."

Amelia smiled excitedly when he said he would help her. But wait; he had to realize that it wasn't really the snakes that bothered her. Oh no, she wasn't scared of them - not in the least. The thing that terrified her was being wrong because well, frankly this was not her best subject.
"Oh no, I'm not afraid of getting it," she said defiantly as she scanned the available snakes. She pointed to a yellowish-black one, "That one looks like fun." The sixth year smiled at the small snake before her eyes, wondering what it was called.


ooc: yellow tree snake - Mia just doesn't know =)

Willow followed the rest of her classmates to the Park sixty one, to make the practical part of the Care of Magical Creatures class. She had to admit, she was not thrilled by the fact of having to work with snakes. Dangerous, deadly snakes. Urgh Great..Why would the teacher wanted them to work with dangerous animals? she didn't know. Maybe Professor Clark was losing his mind; that was a shame considering that he was a very good Quidditch player and cool professor.

There were snakes everywhere, and to Willow's suprise, people actually looked excited about working with them! Crazy people. As she was completely distracted and in awe of the quantity of serpents around the place, she didn't even realize that she was standing right in front of medium sized snake. It was red and black. She gulped. It wasn't very large and to be honest, it didn't looked entirely dangerous but her common sense told her not to touch the animal. Help--please

Austin entered the park for the Care of Magical Creatures practical. Snakes were not his favorite creatures and he was not very excited about having to work on them. He was looking around at all the snakes, and realized that he ws standing next to Willow who looked equally unenthusiastic about this part of the class.

"Do you want to work together?" Austin muttered, he really needed someone to work with.

Willow had been staring at the snake in front of her, having an internal debate, of wether she should stay there and do the assignment, or merely run away from the creauture as fast as she could, like the chicken she was. Her father might have been a brave Gryffindor, but she certainly was not one.

She was about to sneak to her common room, hoping that no one would notice her leaving, when she realized that Austin was right beside her talking to her. Mentally saying Good-Bye to her chances of escaping, she turned to face Austin "I was planning to escape, but yeah I'll partner up with you" She said with a shrug. "Soo..are you scared of snakes?" I know I am

Austin was trying to get rid of the awkwardness between Willow and himself, and he thought that this woulld be the perfect opportunity. "Well, I was kind of thinking the same thing but, Ravenclaw really needs the house points. Austin said. "Im a bit scared of scared of snakes, but whats the worst that can happen here?" Austin added jokingly. I hope that we cant be really hurt here its only park #61

Austin was right; Ravenclaw needed points. Slytherin was on first place again, and she wanted to win the house cup so badly..Oh well. If I die here, then it'll be for a good reason at least "I guess so, I really want to win the house cup you know" The house cup was going to be of Ravenclaw this term, and the terms to come. It was one of her mail goals. "I been doing homework like crazy" Except for Arithmancy of course. It was soooo long.

Willow raised both of her eyebrows at Austin's comment, and then chuckled, "Are you serious?" She said with grin, "The worst thing that can happen is to get bitten by a snake" Willow added, as she shot a glance at the red and black snake in front of her. "But I don't think that could happen. I don't think Professor Clark would put very dangerous snakes in here" I hope so at least.

"Yeah, it would be great to have the house cup again." Austin said, "Some of the homework is so hard but i've tried to do most of it." Austin was refering to the transfiguration homework that he couldnt seem to finish. "I'm sure that Professor Clark would be fully ready if someone got bitten," Austin added hopefully. Austin noticed that Willow was glancing at the snake in front of them worryingly, "What snake is that?", Austin asked hoping that Willow would know.

Willow was relieved that she wasn not the only one, trying to make points, by doing all the homework. Ravenclaw needed points. A LOT of them "Yes, and I t would help a lot if we win the Quidditch cup as well" This reminded her of the tryouts, that same afternoon. Her stomach left her body for a second and then returned; she was slighlty nervous about the upcoming tryouts.

Willow was still thinking about the Quidditch when Austin asked her about the snake she was looking at. There were two snakes there; a red and black one, and a yellowish with black. Both of them looked dangerous and scary, but she decided to pick the yellow one; for some reason it looked more friendly than the other one, "I think it is a Rat Snake" she said as she flipped the pages of her textbook, comparing the snake in front of her, with the one in the picture of her book "Rat snakes are a large, polyphyletic, group of snakes from the Colubrid subfamily Colubrinae" Willow said, reading the definition of a rat snake, from her book "Many species tend to be very skittish and sometimes aggressive but the genus is nonvenomous and bites are usually superficial" She looked at the snake and then back to Austin. "At leas it is nonvenomous" Nonvenomous or not, the animal was still a snake, and it Willow's opinion it was still dangerous.

Quidditch tryouts were very important to her, and hopefully, she'll make the team again. Her eyes went from the snakes, to Tag, the Quidditch captain that was working with Amelia not too far away from were she and Austin were. Trying to take the Quidditch tyrouts out of her mind, Willow asked Austin a question that she had been meaning to ask for some time now "Austin, you don't hate me do you?" It was a simple question, and honestly, if someone had insulted her the way she insulted him, last term in Ancient Runes, she would probably hate that person.

When Willow mentioned Quidditch his stomach lurched, tryouts were later, and he was trying not to think about it cause he was so nervous. But he nodded the Quidditch Cup would help.

Austin looked over at the red and black snake, flipping throught his textbook, he discovered it was a Red-bellied Black Snake. Reading from the book Austin said "The Red-bellied Black Snake, native to eastern Australia, usually reach a length of 1.5 to 2.5m. These snakes are venemous but do not bite unless provoked, even so, seek imidmedical care if bitten. If threatened it will try to escape." Looking back at the snake he was glad he had not picked it up.

Austin noticed Willow's eyes look toward Tag, he just knew she was thinking about tryouts, just like he was. He turned and heard Willow's question. The manner in which she had asked was quite odd, but never the less there is no good way to ask about hate. "I dont hate you at all, do you think that I would want to be working with you if I hated you? Austin said. "I know it has been a little strange between us, but thats just awkwardness between us cause we picked at each others weak points last year. Pausing between he continued he looked at Willow, "Do you hate me?

Anna approached the area where she could select her snake and looked around at all her choices. The first snake she came to was clearly a Brown Water Snake. "Hmmm, too boring," she thought, moving on to the next choice. "A Banded Water Snake," she observed, passing by the snake with disinterest. After passing up a few selections of Mud Snakes and Eastern Indigo Snakes, Anna finally saw a snake that caught her eye.

For no other reason than the snake had the beautiful (Gryffindor, if you will) colors of scarlet and yellow, Anna smiled to herself and selected the Scarlet Kingsnake.

Making her way back to her workarea, Anna shifted her snake into a more viewable position and then set to work.

Willow listened Austin's explanation about the red and black snake. Her stomach lurched at this; that snake, unlike the yellowish one, was venemous. "You don't mind if we work with the yellowish one do you?" She asked tentatively, taking a large step back to make more distance between her and the red dangerous snake. She had not picked on it, but there was nothing wrong on being cautious. Since Austin didn't looked scared of the red snake anymore, she took another step back (not as large as the first one) and hide behind him just in case the snake tried to attack her for some strange reason; Animals never seemed to like her for some reason. She couldn't be more pleased about this though, she was not a big fan of animals herself.

Still eyeing the snake carefully, as though she was just waiting for being attacked by it, she listened to her house mate's reply about her question. That was a good point; why would he be working with her if he hated her? Well, unless Austin was a big hypocrite (which she doubted because he didn't looked like one) he was telling the truth. "Um--well yes, things have been a little akward" She said quietly, still hiding behind him, without taking her eyes from the snake, Is a good thing I'm not in Gryffindor..I'm a coward "Still I'd like to apologise for what I said last term" It was weird to apologise with him, while hiding behind his back from the Red-bellied Black Snake, but she was too scared to get any closer to the dangerous snake. He would probably understand that..or maybe not, but she didn't wanted to get any closer to the animal. "I didn't meant any of those stuff, I was just trying to follow the instructions that De Luca gave us" Even if they were the most ridiculous and strange instructions ever.


"I don't hate you by the way" She answered in reply to his question. Truth be told, Austin was nice and she had no reason to hate him..well, she did, but she didn't counted the insults that he told her back in that awful Acient Runes class.

Shel half wished Sarah was here, and that he had partnered up with her. Or Vannah. Or Samantha. Or even Juke. He smiled a little - smiled inwardly, that is - at the last of those names, and began to examine, one by one, the different species of snakes around him. There was no dearth of them, anyway.

An Adder. A Kingsnake, or two. Shel shook his head at just about every new specie, moving on. Then there was a flurry of movement - slight, very slight, but a flurry nevertheless - and a flash of deep, deep green, one of the most beautiful shades of green he had ever seen. At once, his snake was chosen, all by itself.

- A Speckled Racer.

He made his way over to the snake, handling it with gentle care as he positioned it in a way that made it easy for him to work on it. Now, what was next? He racked his brains, which seemed to be going through a momentary phase of forgetfulness.

Ah, yes! Gender! He shuffled his feet, getting back to work.

"Yes, the yellow and black one seems better to work with" Austin replied. Willow seemed much more scared of the snakes then he did, she he allowed himself to be the shield between Willow and the snake.

"There is no need to apologise," Austin said, "I know that what you said was because of that crazy assignment, and I hope that you know what I said was not true either. Let's also hope we dont have another ancient runes class like that again."

Austin grabed his book and slowly shifted away from the red-bellied black snake, hoping to concentrate and finish the assigment that they were supposed to be working on.

Marco had found the perfect snake. It was almost see-through. But it didn't seem to be moving. Carefully he hunted for a stick, just to check it was moving. But thought against poking it, just incase it bit him. He carefully picked it up, but it seemed to crumble in his hands. Had he just broken a snake? He quickly pick it back on a branch. Nobody would ever know. He smiled and looked for another one. There was one that seem to be lying upside down, warming its underbelly. That would be a good snake. He picked it up and it didn't recoil or anything. It was asleep that's all. He stroked it's head. Right what did he have to do? Feed it, see if it is a girl or a boy, and see if it will kill him. Ok that should be easy.

He held onto the small snake, and took it over to the mouse bucket. Ewww that was disgusting. He pulled one out and attempted to feed his snake.

"Erm Professor my snake isn't hungry. Or it doesn't want to eat. I think it is asleep," Marco said walking over to Fabian.

Fabian made his way to the Practical area of Park 61 after closing the classroom door. He wore his dragon hide gloves as he peered behind the fence, merely making sure everyone had everything, and whether they had questions.

His right brow shot straight up at Marco's question, "You didn't kill it did you?" he mused eying the snake with such curiosity. "Sing to it? Have you tried that?"

"Kill it? What do you mean? I found it sleeping on its back on a tree," Marco frowned, "It was sun bathing. Tanning its belly." He peered at the snake again, "I can't sing. That would probably kill it." Was it really dead? Was he stupid enough to not realise this? No...he couldn't be. It was sleeping for sure.

Fabian chuckled, shaking his head. "Here give it to me" he carefully held the snake from both ends; head and tail. He then stroked its head with his index finger, when its tongue flicked in and out, Fabian glanced at Marco. "Seems alive to me" he murmured, "here try convincing it to feed. And you won't kill it by singing... glad we don't have glass around here" he trailed off with an amused smile. This he was going to watch.

"Right force it to eat. And then sing to it. But it doesn't have ears. It can just feel vibrations," Marco sighed. He didn't like singing. He just mouthed the words when they had to sing the school song. He took a deep breath and begin to sing quietly, and very out of tune. "In the jungle the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight..."

"Thatta boy!" Fabian mused, "just go right ahead and make it feel homesick" he shook his head and walked around the fence to check on water snakes.

Marco frowned. He didn't want to make it feel homesick. He poked the mouse at the snake's mouth, hoping it would do something. Possibly take a bite. And he did, right over Marco's right hand, sinking it's fangs deep into his hand. He hadn't worn his gloves cos it looked small and friendly. He realised that was a silly idea now. At least it wasn't poisonous. It looked like a baby smooth snake to him, but who could tell.

Agie finally pick a snake, it was a bright one with different colours. She picked it up and moved somewhere else, away from her sister. After grabbing the textbook she realised that the snake was called a rainbow snake. Go figure, you could never guess that name.

She began to flick through the textbook and found that that is was not venomous. It was pretty big too...she backed away a little and looked at what the others were doing.

At the sound of hissing, Fabian turned around to watch Marco and his snake. "I have to agree with the snake, you can't sing" he frowned and walked back towards Marco. Hurriedly pressing his fingers around the back of the snake's jaw, pressing his fingers harder on both ends of its jaw to freeze the snake in its pose.

"Why aren't you wearing your gloves?" Fabian asked, annoyance definite in his voice as he fiddled with the snake to pull its fangs out of Marco's skin. "Serves you right" he added once he dropped the smooth snake a few feet away from Marco. "You know that most snake bites occur from non venomous snakes?"