William began to walk away. He was finished with the hippogriff but to his surprise, it was still there waiting for him as if he didn't want him to leave. William realized that he had some more bugs in his bag, so he walked back and offered the rest of them to the hippogriff. He was amazed at how much it could eat, it must have been really hungry. William bowed to the hippogriff once again, and made sure to keep eye contact the whole time. The hippogriff bowed and came forward once again as if it wanted to be petted once again. William reached out and stroked the hippogriff lightly on the head. He was surprised that it would allow him to touch it, but he was happy.

Harvey slowly walked forwards all the time showing the Hipppogriff the dead ferret he had in his hand. Once he had got to the Hippogriff Harvey slowly raised the ferret and shaked it a little so the Hippogriff would take it. The Hippogriff slowly came forwards and sniffed the ferret a couple of times before deciding that it was the real deal and snatching it from Harvey's hand. Soon the ferret was gone and it was just him and the Hippogriff. Harvey stretched out his arm and very slowly but cautiously stepped forward step-by-step. Soon he felt the Hippogriffs beak and he stroked this part. The Hippogriff suddenly moved away, and Harvey got scared that it might attack, but then the Hippogriff came to him and put his head in Harvey's hand. Harvey beamed he realised the Hippogriff wanted to be petted, so he did just that. He petted this Hippogriff that he had befriended today.

Kennedy almost did a victory dance when the hippogriff leaned its head against his hand. It was WICKED cool, man! He watched the creature in awe as it rubbed his beak against his head. Then he remembered the ferret in his other hand.

"Oh yeah, I have this for you," he said, dangling the ferret in front of him. The hippogriff turned its head up and snapped its beak on the small animal. Kennedy let it go and giggled.

IT WAS EATING A FERRET HE GAVE IT!

Where was a camera when he needed one. He would have to remember to ask the professor man if he could take a picture of the hippogriff after the lesson.

As Harvey was petting the Hippogriff it came closer and pushed Harvey towards its shoulder. Harvey looked at the shoulder and at the Hippogriff "You want me to.... here?" he asked petting and massaging the shoulder. As he did this the Hippogriff closed its eyes as if it was happy to be massaged there. Harvey continued to stroke the Hippogriff in this area, and then he moved to the neck and stroked it there also. The Hippogriff then grabbed a hold of Harvey's cloak and pulled him to the front of him "Hey what.....?" was all Harvey got out as he was pulled to the front, the Hippogriff then put his head in Harvey's hand, and Harvey smiled "Oh"" he mumbled as he petted the Hippogriffs head "You are not so bad, you are quite a cute one arent you? You are nice as well" he said to the Hippogriff as he continued to pet it. The Hippogriff seemed to love being petted.

...that one. Right there.

Sierra had successfully managed to pick out the one Hippogriff that actually looked halfway tame. Well, he...or she...wasn't exactly what one would call tame. It was just the lesser of all the evils roaming around out here on the grounds in Sierra's opinion. She stepped a little closer to it, causing it to buck wildly. She grew wide-eyed and took a step back.

Easy now. All I was doing was coming to do the whole bowing deal, so I can feed you this ferret and get my house points. No need to get all touchy.

So what exactly was she meant to be doing? Oh, yeah... She checked the distance between herself and the Hippogriff and determined that she was a safe distance away. Slowly, she lowered her body into a bow. She hated bowing. It made her feel as low down as a house elf.

...but she bowed, nonetheless. Her gaze remained fixed on the creature, and she never once blinked, just as she'd been taught. Only time would tell what the Hippogriff would do.

Tiffany looked up, trying not blink since she was taught not to do so. She was so excited and nervous. She waited. And then her hippogriffs bowed. It bowed to her slowly. She was so happy that she jumped up. She smiled, looking into its eyes. It was soft. "Hi,"she greeted the hippogriffs cheerfully.

Kurumi continued to play with the hippogriff's shoulders, being careful not to pull any of its feathers out because she assumed that he wouldn't like that. Her hippogriff seemed to...be falling asleep, so she knew she was doing something right. Reaching down a bit to pat the sides of his neck, Kurumi felt as though she had died and gone to heaven. Merlin, if she could get a job working with magical creatures all day long...she probably would never leave it. Baking cookies, pfft, they were nothing compared to the feeling she had right now sitting on the back of a hippogriff.

Suddenly, her hippogriff stood up, causing her tiny body to lunge forward a little bit. Her arms hugged his neck and her eyes widened, her hair probably turned bright yellow for a moment, but hopefully no one noticed. She certainly hadn't, but that was because she didn't have a mirror with her. Why was he standing? She rather like just sitting on his back with him lying down on the ground. That was safe...calm...friendly...NOT scary. Just ignore the fact that she had thought about riding and flying on him eariler.

Wait...what? Kurumi's eyes widened a bit more as the creature began to flapping its wings. Oh no...don't do that...no need to take off and fly around... They could just walk around and look at the scenery, all the trees, occasional flower, watch the other students, you know, a leisurely afternoon.

So...when the hippogriff suddenly took off into the air, she let out a loud scream and hugged herself to his neck tighter and shut her eyes tight. Oh Merlin...she was going to die. Death by hippogriff and not in the manner one usually associated with the creature. But then, she felt a soft thud and her eyes shot open. It was over already? Was she in heaven? It didn't look much different from the world she knew...

Oh...wait...nope...she was still alive and had simply flown across the paddock and was now in front of the display of food hearing very loud crunching noises. Oh Merlin! Her hippogriff was...eating bugs...

Sighing, but feeling relieved that the creature still had its feet planted firmly on the ground, Kurumi relaxed all the muscles in her body and lied down on its back. Guess it was really hungry considering that its face was now buried in the bucket of bugs.

In response, the creature bucked wildly. This would normally be the point and time when Sierra would get extremely annoyed, roll her eyes at the creature, and fix an intense glare on it. However, she did none of that. Why? Well, duh. Even she wouldn't roll her eyes and glare at a bucking Hippogriff.

She had to do something, though. She doubted seriously she'd get any class credit for turning around and walking off. So she went through the whole ordeal again. She first lowered her body into a bow. Her eyes looked straight ahead at the Hippogriff, and she never once blinked. Come on, creature--bow!

...and bow he...or she...did.

At first, Sierra just blinked. She was actually sort of shocked that the Hippogriff finally accepted her. Even so, she stepped cautiously forward, the ferret in hand. "Here, boy," she said, dangling the ferret. "...or girl." The Hippogriff took a step forward, as well, slowly closing in the gap between them.

Maddy fed her Hippogriff more flies, they seemed to be its favorite. It happily chewed away, and Maddy kept trying to gain its trust. She stroked the Hippogriffs feathers, and it bowed. That must mean I can fly Maddy thought, and she bowed back. Maddy got onto Its back and it started to run. Maddy was nervous, it was running so fast. She clung to its feathers, and it took off!Aahhhhh!. But as the Hippogriff got higher, Maddy found it fun Yaaay! haha. They flew arround the boundries and came back down when they were done.

Ride him?!

Hearing the ministry man's words, Gideon glanced between him and the hippogriff as the creature devoured its meal. As much as it would be quite fascinating, he wasn't sure it was in the cards for him and his partner. Feeling a pressure on his shoulder he moved his focus back on the hippogriff since he remembered he needed to stay attentive to him, only to find said pressure was from the hippogriff's beak nudging his arm. "Um...hello," he said having been taken completely by surprise by the fact that it had finished with the ferret and moved so much closer to him in so short a period of time.

Gideon tentatively reached his hand up to pet his head, the hippogriff staying still and allowing it, acting almost as if he was thankful he was back in the limelight and getting the Gryffindor's attention. "Ye like that?" he asked continuing to rub getting a soft sound that certainly sounded like a positive endorsement of his actions. "There's a nice hippogriff," he added with a smile.

A few seconds later, the gap between Sierra and the Hippogriff was as closed in as it could possibly get, while still being a normal distance away, of course. Sierra wasn't actually touching the Hippogriff, but she was close enough to it for it to eat out the palm of her hand. She started to slowly raise the ferret higher and higher, but before she could even hold it straight out, the creature had swooped down and snatched the ferret right out her hands.

"Merlin!" she exclaimed, taking a step back. The Hippogriff did nothing, though. He just stood there and stared at her as if he was waiting for another treat. "Just don't bite my hand off by accident, mmkay?" she responded. She reached over and grabbed a hold of another ferret. "Alright, ...easy going now." Don't bite my hand off...

Tori had waited super duper patiently to get to her hippogriff, a nice reddish brown one that seemed to match her hair. Oh lovely. The Slytherin slipped on her gloves and slowly approached the half-bird, half-horse....thingy.

When she was within eyesight of the creature, Tori stopped and stared at it, making eye contact and holding it as she bowed nice and low. Respectful. Yup.

The Hippogriff seemed a little more tame this go round. Maybe it was the fact that he'd already eaten a full ferret and wasn't as hungry? Or maybe he was just getting used to Sierra and wasn't as wild anymore? Or maybe...he'd actually listened to her and calmed down a little?

Either way, the Hippogriff waited until the ferret was danging right in front of its mouth before it opened it large beak. At first, Sierra was confused. Did he not want the ferret? After all that? ...but then she realized that he'd opened his mouth so Sierra could toss the ferret inside. This was a much better way of eating, if you asked Sierra. She feared for her hand the other way.

When ferret number two was gone, Sierra hesitantly reached up and pet the Hippogriff. He seemed to like it. At least, he didn't go crazy upon contact. She continued to pet him while she waited for the Ministry man to move the lesson along.

Tori seemed to be bowing forEVER. Her back was starting to hurt, she was convinced that she was going to end up like a hunchback before this bird thing bowed back, and worst of all, it was going to eat her when she was done bowing.

At last, AT LAST though, the creature blinked and sank to its scaly knees in front of her. Tori straightened back up, her back creaking like a rusty joint. Oi!

"Hi Miss Hippa," she greeted the hippogriff nervously, taking one slow step forward and picking up her dead ferret. "I brought you a.... snack?"

Did this mean Sierra could try riding the Hippogriff now? She wasn't keen on riding Hippogriffs. She'd much rather stick to brooms. She could at least give it a try, though, and see what happened. She moved her hand off the Hippogriff, much to the Hippogriff's dismay, and looked at it as she tried to figure out if it would allow her to ride it or not.

How were you supposed to tell that sort of thing anyway? It wasn't like the Hippogriff could talk. How she was supposed to tell whether it was hungry or wanted to go for a ride? She moved her hands to the Hippogriff's neck to see what would happen. When it bent it's head, possibly indicating she could hop on its back, she was taken by surprise.

She hadn't expected that...

All right! So far, so good. Tori dangled the dead ferret in front of the Hippogriff. She could tell that it was getting more and more excited by the sight of that thing just by how it was reacting, pawing at the ground and prancing around a bit. Tori giggled and came within about three feet of the creature and then she tossed it up in the air for the Hippogriff to catch.

It did, of course, and gobbled that dead ferret up faster than you could say, "Wow."

Hippogriffs were rather impressive up close.

A moment later, Sierra was surprised even further when the Hippogriff knelt down, a sure sign that he was going to allow her to ride him. Well, hmm. She hadn't exactly planned on riding the thing, but what else could she do with this huge creature before her, knelt down and ready to go for a ride?

She couldn't exactly tell him nevermind now. She'd probably insult him, and then he'd buck wildly again. "Okayyy," she said, drawing out the word just a little. She swung one leg over the side of the creature then wrapped her arms securely around his neck. "Off we go then..."

The hippogriff seemed to be looking at Tori as if she were dessert, or as if she were hiding dessert behind her back. Er.... since neither of those were the case, the redhead settled for just slowly approaching the creature and giving it a few gentle pats on the neck.

"Nice Hippa, you're a nice Hippogriff, right? I wish I had more ferrets for you to eat...."

Maybe she could go steal one from another student.

...and off they went!

Sierra's eyes grew wide as she and the Hippogriff took to the skies. Of course they didn't go far. The Hippogriff seemed to know where the boundary line was, and Sierra didn't pressure him to go any further. Nope. She was just fine going at the height, speed, and distance they were already at. Plus, she didn't want to ride for long. A few more minutes of this, and she'd be ready to land.

It was at least a smoother ride than the ones she'd experienced on brooms. Plus, there were no bludgers flying around, so that was less stress to worry about. She relaxed as the wind blew through her hair, but all too soon the Hippogriff was making its landing. She was sort of grateful, too. A few minutes of Hippogriff riding was really all she cared for.

Once back on the ground, she pet the Hippogriff, thanking it for the ride.

Tori was still looking around for more ferrets when her hippogriff started to sink to its knees again. Uhhhhhhh uhhhh what was this?

"What's wrong, Hippa?" she asked it worriedly, petting its neck some more. "You okay? You wanna... you wanna...."

Did it want her to ride it?! UH UH.

As Selina stayed with her head down and her body in a bow, her blue eyes looked up and locked with the runt of a Hippogriff. The smaller animal kept its eyes locked on Selina's. Both eyes searched her face and looked at her with curiosity. All the while her eyes stayed fixated on the Hippogriff's eyes. She did not want it to get defensive. That was the worst thing that could happen and with her luck it was bound to happen. Better to not tempt fate.

With eyes locked and posture bowed, she started to walk toward the Hippogriff slowly. At first the animal seemed fine, but as she moved closer its wings started to flap. She was terrified, but she did not want to show fear. Only respect. So she took a few steps backward and waited for a sign to continue to press forward.

Zhenya was feeding her Hippogriff, when she turned her attention to Atticus.

"Sir, do they have names at all?" she asked. It would be a shame if they hadn't been given names.

She didn't think her Hippogriff liked her attention wandering, so she nudged her lightly with the top of her beak. Zhenya fell over, being completely unaware. She smiled at the Hippogriff, stood back up and fed it with compliments.

"Sorry, you're very pretty," whilst patting her and smoothing her hand over her feathers. She snuck another beetle out of the tub for her and fed her, which she gobbled up!

She took a big step forward and petted her hippogriffs. It was so well-behaved. Well until now. Tiffany noticed that it was staring at the food in her hand and so she gave them some as little treats. "I nearly forgot those,"she replied."Are they great?"

Zhenya's Hippogriff looked like it could be named Queenie. She smiled. She thought that the way her Hippogriff wanted all Zhenya's attention, not unlike the nature of the creatures, and she wanted to be treated well, again not unlike their nature. She wanted attention and food! Maybe they didn't have names... that would be pretty good. She continued to pat the Hippogriff and let it nuzzle its head into her neck. Her feathers got a little tangled in her hair and Zhenya carefully straightened up. She heard Atticus explain that they could ride the creatures, but she wasn't quite ready yet. She would soon but just wanted to get to know her a little bit better first.

Giving the treats to her hippogriffs, Tiffany thought of giving it a name. "You are so gorgeous and lovely,"she said. Of course she didn't forget to give it some compliments as well. After a bit of thinking, she decided to name it Sarah. That was a beautiful name, she thought.

"Do you want more?"she pointed to the jar that contained all the food, she asked.