Spike folded him arms again and frowned, clearly not impressed with the Professor's answer. Didn't she know that snapping of a small branch was as bad for the tree as cutting off a big dead old bit? Small branches were usually the new growth, and 'snapping' would promote site for infection.

He shook his head with a sigh.

He wouldn't say anything, for fear of Ravenclaw of losing points when they were so close to Slytherin in the House Cup. But he hoped anyone with any sense would collect dead branches or twigs from the floor.

...and that's what he proceeded to do, starting with the birch at the top of the list.

...he raised an eyebrow at the noise.

Bowtruckles?

An ironic smile threatened to flicker across his face.

See, miss-divination-professor...this is what happens if you stumble into the forest. Sure he would really prefer acromantulas, but bowtruckles would suffice in the short term.

He would have just simply watched, bemused, if it wasn't his classmates in danger. But they were, so he needed to do something - before idiots started firing spells left, right and centre.
"Good shout," Spike agreed with Kurumi from the other side of the clearing. They really didn't want to get on the bad side of the bowtruckle - where there was one, there was probably plenty more. "Woodlice are usually found in dark damp places: under stones and fallen trees, for example."

"Fairy eggs are found on the underside of leaves" Sarah tried to put in helpfully. "A fairy lays about 60 at once". They needed to keep the bowtruckle occupied so that she can get the rest of the woods she needed.

Ella listened carefully, interested to hear that the wood from her own wand wasn't actually used in this process. Shrug. Oh well, it wasn't a wild guess or anything at least. And then there was parchment in her hands, listing the types of trees and symbols that represented them. Right. So now she had the job of identifying twenty types of trees. The second year did feel a little uneasy about breaking off perfectly good branches and couldn't help but think of Bentley. What might she say about this? But if they were careful it wouldn't really harm the trees, would it? Ella was a bit conflicted.

The small blonde had just approached a willow tree, thinking it looked a lot like the one in her back yard, when she heard Kurumi call out. She stopped, hands up, as if she'd been caught doing something wrong. Turning around, she noted that the class had some visitors...or well, they were actually the visitors in this situation. Bowtruckles lived here all year round, yeah? The second year listened to the prefect, wand out just in case, and wondered what she should do. Professor Elwood would give them instructions, yeah?

Nigel was busy collecting more pieces of wood when he hears a weird scream. He had no idea who made it, so he finished crossing off the wood pieces he just got and turned around to see that it was a bowtruckle. They were basically harmless unless provoked which it appears that it was.

But that was not all it even tried to hurt Kurumi. Nigel hoped that she did not get harmed. So he walked over to see what he could do and of course see what Professor Elwood wanted the class to do.

Alyssa had already finished collecting her twigs and was waiting back where the Professor was, when she noticed something swing down from the trees. There were two of them. One headed for Kurumi, while the other one headed for another student. She immediately recognized them.

BOWTRUCKLES!! She turned to the Professor and yelled,"BOWTRUCKES!! PROFESSOR ELWOOD, THEY ARE HERE!!".

She had been thinking about them earlier and was wondering where they were and why they hadn't made an appearance yet, especially since they were considered the tree guardians. 'O_o I jinxed the group just by thinking about that.' Alyssa thought to herself.

She quickly dropped her bag and unholstered her wand. Her first instinct was to run to join the students that were 'under attack' to help them but she stayed where she was keeping a look out for more of them, because if there were two of them, there were sure to be others around hiding in the trees surrounding them. There might be more making an appearance any time now.

Dream on man? Exxxcccuseee me? What on Earth was that supposed to mean? Did Vickers seriously think that Elijah didn't stand a chance with Kurumi? Elijah was starting to think that Vickers' glasses must be SERIOUSLY broken if he hadn't taken the time just to have a look at his face and how GORGEOUS it was. No girl turned this down. Nu-uh. But there had been a bit of tension and hostility behind the words as well? Was their something deeper going on here? Elijah had been about to question him on it when the Professor had decided that NOW, during class, was an appropriate time to TEACH. GUH. Oh, but wait... she was... speaking to him?

He flashed her his best smile as back up and said, "Apologies, Professor Elwood, Vickers had just been telling me some interesting facts and I was just telling him... ya know... that PROFESSOR ELWOOD... that's you, right? haha... well, I was saying how she.. you... the Professor... probably knew all that Divinationy stuff. Is. All. Yep."

What. On. Earth.

Either way, the lesson continued onward and Elijah felt as if he had pretty successfully got himself out of that scenario. OooooooOoOo yeahhhhh.



Elijah could actually physically FEEL the stare Vickers was giving him as a result of the Professor having overheard Elijah scream her name. He responded with a small shrug off his shoulders and a nervous smile as if to say 'hey, it could've gone a whole lot worse'.

He had intended to ask him about his previous hostility in response to him winning over Kurumi when the Professor decided to ask ANOTHER question. Man, did she everrrr stop talking? Was she NEVER tired of teaching? Time and place, Elwood. Time and place.

He listened on as his fellow students gave their answers, including Vickers, to which Professor Elwood gave him wonderous praise. He grinned, unable to control himself. "Yesssss, verrrryyy good job Mr. Vanderbilt," he whispered so only Vickers could hear and even began fluttering his eyelashes for good measure.



"Oh hazel wood?" Elijah repeated, "Wooooooow, Vickers. What a GREAT answer! Wouldn't you agree, Professor Elwood? Vickers' brain is just one of his finest assets."

Snicker. Giggle. GUFFAW.

When did Elijah get so gawsh, darned funny?



The Professor sent them off to do some wood collecting and Vickers had mentioned something about collecting some types or something. YAWN. "I'll help you out, Vee," Elijah insisted, following after the 'Claw. He wanted to get down to the previous hostility as well. "Hey, ya know back at the start before Professor Elwood started asking all her questions about trees, what did you mean by 'dream on'? Do you reckon I don't stand a chance? Or is it that I am way out of her league? I've heard that before, but surely I should be the one to decide who is in my league?"

Just then some bowtruckles began appearing, causing trouble. Elijah saw as one of the pests made as if to try and hurt Kurumi and he reached for his wand out of instinct, determined to start burning some bowtruckles. But, before he could actually react Kurumi had instructed everyone to stop and was asking if they had eggs and stuff on them.

First of all, Gryffie Prefect, breakfast was hours ago. Second of all, THIS WAS NOT THE TIME TO BE THINKING ABOUT FOOD. And thirdly, if she wanted eggs she would need a FIRE to cook them on, and he was certain bowtruckles would make the PERFECT campfire.

He turned to his 'Claw friend hoping that he maybe had a more appropriate idea of what to do in this situation and so far the Professor, who was supposed to be protecting them, was proving to be more than useless... Elijah was starting to question Vickers' taste in women.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

He took his parchment and neared the Professor again, smiling shyly as he hovered near the tins for the Ivy, Reed and Vine "Uh... I'll start collecting these Professor." he mumbled as he collected one of each, slipping them gently into his robes pocket.

He turned towards the closest set of trees and matched the label to the list on the parchment. Ok so there was Birch, and Rowan wasnt too far away. He neared the foot of the Birch tree and eyed the ground, bending over and eyeing the fallen twigs and branches until he found something still good enough for their use.

He did the same when he neared the Rowan tree, picking up and discarding the pieces on the forest floor until he was left with one. Then he heard someone-- Kurumi?-- calling out for everyone to stop.

As she was beginning to make her rounds, watching each student go about with their task, she looked up to see the Ravenclaw boy, Vickers, letting her know that he was going to start with the tinned woods first.

"Good choice. I had to dry these ones out for days so you guys could use them, you know." She nodded with a smile. The boy had seemed very interested in the lesson so far, despite the presence of his co-hort. Speaking of the Puff...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leeness

Dream on man? Exxxcccuseee me? What on Earth was that supposed to mean? Did Vickers seriously think that Elijah didn't stand a chance with Kurumi? Elijah was starting to think that Vickers' glasses must be SERIOUSLY broken if he hadn't taken the time just to have a look at his face and how GORGEOUS it was. No girl turned this down. Nu-uh. But there had been a bit of tension and hostility behind the words as well? Was their something deeper going on here? Elijah had been about to question him on it when the Professor had decided that NOW, during class, was an appropriate time to TEACH. GUH. Oh, but wait... she was... speaking to him?

He flashed her his best smile as back up and said, "Apologies, Professor Elwood, Vickers had just been telling me some interesting facts and I was just telling him... ya know... that PROFESSOR ELWOOD... that's you, right? haha... well, I was saying how she.. you... the Professor... probably knew all that Divinationy stuff. Is. All. Yep."

What. On. Earth.

Either way, the lesson continued onward and Elijah felt as if he had pretty successfully got himself out of that scenario. OooooooOoOo yeahhhhh.

"That is...quite nice of you Mr. Wilde but please try to pay attention, lest you miss something important." Or a beast comes out and deflates your large head. She held back a grin at the thought just in time to hear a shout and some odd noises.

----------------------

What on Earth?

"Miss Hollingberry?" Callie had heard the Gryffindor Prefect before she had even turned from Elijah telling her classmates to stop what they were doing. The girl started the lesson practically mute and now she was trying to lead it? "Honestly, on what authority do you have the right to instruct MY students to stop what I've told them to--."

O_____O

"What in Merlin's beard are those things doing here?!" Callie took a step back from the nearest Bowtruckle that had landed near Kurumi and another young student. Gahhhh why did things like this have to happen during her lesson. The nearest kid to her was Vickers and she quickly and subtley took another step behind him and then spoke to the class, as they began to chirp up about wood lice and fairy egss.

"My appologies, Prefect Hollingberry, I didn't know you were warning us of danger but I don't have either of those things with me. I didn't expect us to be attacked by sticks." Which was ironic since that was basically the topic of the day's lesson.

What were they going to do?! She didn't know what spells, if any, to cast on the creatures and she certainly couldn't have kids getting hurt. She looked around and then pointed at those who had spoken up. "Sarah, Kurumi, and...you!" she said jabbing a finger in the air at the Ravenclaw Prefect (Spike). "You all fan out and help the other students search for woodlice and fairy eggs while I call for help. Everyone do NOT go near the Bowtruckles and stopp collecting sticks. We can continue once the situation is under control." The Groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures Professors would do nicely, seeing as they sent her in here without any warning.

She pulled out her wand and swished it through the air sending two pure white and wispy artic foxes into the direction of the Castle and Grounds. Now back to focussing all her energy on hiding watching out for the kids and Bowtruckles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

Alyssa had already finished collecting her twigs and was waiting back where the Professor was, when she noticed something swing down from the trees. There were two of them. One headed for Kurumi, while the other one headed for another student. She immediately recognized them.

BOWTRUCKLES!! She turned to the Professor and yelled,"BOWTRUCKLES, PROFESSOR ELWOOD!! THEY ARE HERE!!"

She had been thinking about them earlier and was wondering where they were and why they hadn't made an appearance yet, especially since they were considered the tree guardians. 'O_o I jinxed the group just by thinking about that.' Alyssa thought to herself.

She quickly dropped her bag and unholstered her wand. Her first instinct was to run to join the students that were 'under attack' to help them but she stayed where she was keeping a look out for more of them, because if there were two of them, there were sure to be others around hiding in the trees surrounding them. There might be more making an appearance any time now.

But after the other students had already called her attention to the situation there was one student who was still shouting most unecessarily. "Miss Potter! Please stop shouting, I've already been notified of the situation and you continuing to raise your voice is only going to make the creatures even more uneasy. Ten points for putting yourself and the rest of the class in possible danger." She said to the Hufflepuff, a tad exhasperated for having to deal with taking points amidst a crisis such as this.

"Please help your classmates search for the lice and eggs to placate the things." She added after a few steadying breaths.

Alyssa was totally embarassed when the Professor not only admonished for yelling but also deducted house points from her. "I'm sorry for yelling, Professor. My judgement hasn't been really good lately. I'll go look for wood lice right now." Alyssa told the Professor before walking away really fast to look for the only food that would appease the Bowtruckles.

Ohhh..

Waylon KNEW he forgot to give Callie something! How he forgot, though, he had no idea. He was out all that morning collecting them. He even woke up early and everything! Labeled the buckets, too!

He could just put all the blame on Cece. If she hadn't barged into his hut the way she had, rearranging his pictures, he would have never been distracted. And it wasn't like the Healer would ever know anyway. Hehe. So, leaving her back at his hut once the Patronus arrived, Waylon made his way into the Forbidden Forest, his two lidded and labeled buckets in his hands. It took him nearly no time at all to find where the class was and.. what do you know? There really were Bowtruckles.

Staring at the little creatures for a moment, he popped open one of the buckets full of wood lice and held it out for Callie to take. Was she mad!? "I forgot to give these to you. Sorry."

Was he forgiven!?

The soft ones may have thought that the two Bowtruckles in the clearing now were the worst of it--far from true. Not far away a whole horde of them were beginning to assemble, ready to protect their trees.
As a Ravenclaw girl had been picking branches from the strong willow where a small nest of Bowtruckles had been a baby one leapt from a low hanging branch and snapped right onto the girl's finger.

"Ra! Ra!" It squeaked as it bit and hung on.

Bowtruckles didn't understand soft one's language so more snapping at and scratching to this one's leg.

Not like bark at all, nope.
This one had Nettles on it's head. Almost a tree himself.

"Raa raaaaa!" A Bowtruble began to climb up the boy, and sat on his shoulders. Oddly calmer than his fellows.
Two more Bowtruckles jumped from the tree canopy above and landed right infront of the lady soft one and one of the little boy ones with circles on his face--the harder to poke.

"Ra!" Said the fat one, as he poked two of his sharp fingers into the hem of the lady's skirt.

The smaller one ran at the boy screeching for lice and for the love of his trees.
ONE OF MY STICKS?!

A rather tall bowtruckle glared at the boy before running and jumping through the air and grabbing ahold of the wand firmly in his hand and scratching at the flesh to free it.
The smell of wood lice hadn't gotten the attention of the Bowtruckles just yet because of the lids but more and more seemed to be arriving in the clearing by the minute.

Dylan had been so busy writing things down that he'd missed most of the things his classmates had said. Ugh, this school stuff was difficult business. How one stayed on top of everything really baffled him. The Slytherin must have been missing some of the tricks of something...

That had to be what was going on.

Feeling something hit his hand, his blue eyes darted up, seeing a piece of parchment hovering there. Taking it, Dylan scanned it quickly. Of course what he seen had his eye narrowing...

WHY was he writing stuff down when there was a HAND OUT?!

Trying not to be too irritated, he tucked the now full parchments in his notebook and then in his bag before eyeing the Professor's handout again.

They were to collect a little of each one?

Well, that wasn't too difficult. That was something Dylan could definitely do.

Remembering his severing charm...Diffindo...He set off to collect his sticks...But...first...

Stooping down to his bag, he dug around in the bottom until he felt the smaller bag that housed his extra guitar picks. Dumping them out, he stood. Obviously he'd need something to collect these pieces of wood in.

Obviously...

Anyway...

Naturally, the Slytherin was going to start with the three special woods Professor Elwood had already prepared for them. You know, because they were just sitting there...all ready and easy.

Making his way over to the labeled containers, he knelt down, noting the differences in the woods. These were plant-like, definitely. Had the Professor mentioned that? Dylan couldn't remember...Taking a few pieces of each for his bag, he stood...



Dylan was making his way towards a tree designated as...Alder, wand raised and bag in hand...when something strange jumped out...

Whaa...*blinking*

"Er...Professor....?" Where they suppose to...um...take care of the creatures?



First, Kurumi was telling them to freeze...and upon hearing her request, Dylan offered her a very nasty glare. Really, Gryffindor Prefect? Are YOU a Professor? *glare, glare, glare*

But then the Professor's voice reached his ears...They were getting attacked by...STICKS?

Are. You. Kidding. Me?

Not understanding how they were in such a completely stupid situation, Dylan lowered his wand, not wanting the creatures to feel like he was threatening them. Raised wands could put anyone on edge, he understood...That had to also include creatures, right? Right.

Stay away from the Bowtruckles and find woodlice and eggs...Right.

Just WHERE was he suppose to find these wonderful things to offer to the irate creatures? "Could someone point me in the right direction?"



Oh, wasn't that rich?

What an irresponsible guy this one was...NOW the Professor was getting her woodlice. Pfft. AFTER THE FACT that these psychotic creatures were basically attacking his classmates.

How was this guy employed?

Of course, Dylan couldn't be bothered to make an sudden movements. He did NOT want to be scratched up or whatever the things were doing. No, he'd rather kick them in the face than have that happen.

o.O

They were coming from everywhere...

*MASSIVE GLARING AT TEH GROUND'S KEEPER*

Seriously if only it was possible to smack Elijah’s shoulder from this sitting position he would have. Instead he bit his lip and looked away as the Curly!Puff kept ribbing him on, not even looking at the Puff but knew full well how the he was teasing him. If he had a bit more daring he might’ve turned and given those pretty peepers a double poke. But he didn’t. After all he was a good Ravenclaw. not a mean Slytherin

And yes Mr Wilde, Vickers does happen to take pride in his intellect. He has to. He thinks its the only thing he’s got going for him.

Oh for Merlin’s sake the Badger brought up his last retort. That’s what happens when the brain filter slips Vanderbilt “I mean… yeah… Yeah! She IS out of your…I mean don’t bother with her. She’s not interested.” he grumbled as he evaded the Badger, and the subject matter, and tried to focus collecting the twigs. There were truths in those half-hearted lies. Certainly this Ravenclaw thinks he wasn’t appealing enough to the Gryffindor brunette so he thought HE wasn’t in her league, and the more he looks at Elijah, the more he realizes how different he was from the Puff, the more he starts to think that Kurumi may actually be interested with guys like him. A great smile, a head full of hair and those yellow robes… he didn’t know why he didn’t realize it sooner.



Professor Elwood was getting upset. And Vickers gets upset when she gets upset. Although there was a part of him that wanted to butt in and say they weren’t STICKS they were legit CREATURES but she gave the next instructions about looking for wood lice.

He winced unconsciously. Its LICE. He’s semiOC. No other explanations necessary.

He tried to inch his way towards her when the Bowtruckles started to get aggressive. That fat one scratched Professor Elwood! Hastily he rushed forward only to be stopped by a smaller one screeching in front of him. ”I didn’t break any of the tree branches! I picked these up from the grass.” he said showing the sticks and dropping it in front of the creature as if returning them to it.

Wait why is he reasoning with the woody creature?

Just then he saw the Groundskeeper come in with buckets of creepy crawly teeny tiny lice. He has to get to the Professor. "Groundskeeper Murdoch, if you don’t mind?..." he called out as he decided to bring out his wand—a risk he knows, given what he saw of one creature going after Elijah’s HAND—and levitated that one open bucket towards the edge of the forest AWAY from ALL of them, and purposely smacking that fat bowtruckle harassing the Professor to get its attention "YOU! Look, theres your lunch right there...." he called out as he hovered the bucket enticingly before dropping it at the foot of that far tree. Leave the Professor alone yeah? He looked down at his own smaller, screeching creature. "Look lunch! Right there! See?" he said point POINTING at the bucket, whilst iiiiinching his way to where the Professor was standing.

"She's not interested?!" Elijah said aghast. Had Vickers known something and NOT told him about it? That wasn't a very bro-like thing to do, unless of course he had been trying to protect him... yeah, that was the likely explanation. "Has she said something to you, Vee? What!?"

As the bowtruckles emerged, and Elijah continued to threaten to set them on fire over and over in his head, he watched on as the Professor took ACTION! Yeah! She was totally ready to fight back and... oh wait, no... she wasn't. She was too busy using his BEST friend as a shield! Yeah, he said it! BEST friend. How dare she endanger him just to save her own old behind. Elijah was going to have to tell Vickers he definitely needed better taste in women. Although perhaps he enjoyed being the knight and shining armor and protector for the Professor? In fact, come to think of it Vickers was probably LOVING it.

Things took a bad turn, however, when more of the bowtruckles started attacking, one of which (a rather LARGE one at that) decided to get jiggy with this here hawt 'Puff. The damn creature latched itself to the end of his wand and began scratching at his hand.

"ARGGHHHHHHH! YOU LITTLE-"

Elijah began flailing his arms around, giving the bowtruckle a sort of rollercoaster ride which he continued to hold on to despite having no harness. "LET GO!" he warned. The more this damn stick scratched, the more he ruined Elijah's skin and the more Elijah's skin was ruined, the less attractive he became and that was NOT an option!

The Groundskeeper eventually turned up with the woodlice that were supposed to help this situation... but it didn't LOOK like it was helping as his bowtruckle CONTINUED to scratch at his bloody hands! "STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!" he whined at the HORRID little BEAST, "FLIPENDO!!!!"

He said automatically out of sheer frustration more than anything. Latching on the end of a wand may not have been the bowtruckles smartest idea, but trying to jinx a horrifically aggressive creature when it had so many horrifically aggressive brothers and sisters probably wasn't Elijah's best idea either...

Uh oh.

Looking around at the other students as each slowly but surely began to stop removing branches from the trees, Kurumi's head shot around so quickly it was a wonder she didn't get whiplash. Excuse me?

Kurumi's eyes narrowed for a moment as the bowtruckle on her leg continued to scratch at it in annoyance and Kurumi just stood there and winced as she tried to take it. Thankfully, the glare that she was giving the woman could easily be passed off as her trying to deal with all the scratching. Soon enough the woman was apologizing as she should and Kurumi gently shook her leg in hopes of knocking the little creature off.

For a Seer this woman had awfully poor vision.

Okay...the glare was back. These were NOT sticks...they were bowtruckles. Just how many magical creatures was this woman going to insult before the day was out?!

Nodding when the woman wisely agreed to her suggestion, Kurumi gave Spike a nodding look before literally waddling over towards one of the trees with the bowtruckle still latched on to her leg and scratching it. She better find some woodlice or fairy eggs soon or else...

But then the Groundskeeper arrived and Kurumi spun around on the spot while the bowtruckle scratched a little more fiercely at her leg. "Mr. Murdoch." *wince* "Could I..." *wince* "Have some now...please..." she said as she pointed to her leg. Sure, she could have kicked the creature off or something...but that would be disrespectfu---


o__________________________O

Kurumi's jaw dropped when she heard Elijah shout and *GASP* cast a spell at one of the creatures. She was going to strangle him. Yep. That was what she was going to do. First she was going to silence him with a Silencing Charm and then she was going to strangle him.

"ELIJAH! Calm down! You are NOT helping!" she said, flailing her arms and GLARING at the Hufflepuff with admittedly nice hair as she not noted that there were more bowtruckles arriving. Merlin! They were literally coming out of the woodwork!

And she was going to strangle Elijah.

It was chaos! Cassia was glued to her ground. She was watching what was going on without having a thought of what was she supposed to do. Well, she knows that they stopped collecting sticks! The first year thought of going and hide behind Professor Elwood, she's the professor, she must know what to do! And being small has great advantage of being able to move smoothly and without being noticed by the creatures that appeared out of the blue.

Before getting to hide behind Professor Elwood, some of the creatures landed before her. Turning around and getting AWAY because obviously their Professor is a target, now. The Slytherin darted her eyes around the surrounding area and found it best for herself to hide!

Again while everyone was busy doing whatever they were doing, and discussing the issue. Cassia headed to a far bush but she made sure that she could watch what was going on in case they had to flee! Checking around her for no creatures. She crouched placing her tiny body among the branches.

She noticed that the ground keepers came but she couldn't know what did he do or want. Well, she was staying until the matter is solved for she isn't fond of little jumping creatures.

O___o

So....this class wasn't exactly going as planned, yeah? Ella stood rooted to her spot, watching as more and more of the little bowtruckles arrived and started scratching...AND BITING the students. EEP! She was a little frightened, knowing that the bowtruckles probably felt threatened now that humans were in their home and breaking branches off of their trees. Professor Elwood wasn't really helping the situation either by hiding behind that boy, who actually didn't seem to mind having her there either. ICK. And OH and look, Mr. Murdog-Murdoch had arrived with the wood lice. Little late Murdog, eh? Ella simply shook her head at the man in disappointment. Shouldn't grown-ups be more prepared than that?

Glare.Glare.Glare. That Elijah boy was impossible! And did he SERIOUSLY just cast a spell at one of the creatures! O__o What was he DOING! Now they were going to go all war faced on everybody because of Mr. Fabio and his itchy wand finger. GLARE. At least Kurmui seemed to have a level head, even if she was being scratched by a crazy stick man. And Oh! It seemed like the boy who seemed in love with Professor Elwood who stood in front of Elwood had a good idea to lure the bowtruckles away. Deciding she wanted to help too, Ella put her hands in the air to show she had no sticks and slowly backed away from the trees she was near. "Okay, we mean no harm you little...bowtruckles. How about you go get some lunch...see the wood lice? That's all for you...go get it, yeah?" And they would right, RIGHT?

This was just TOO much!

There were more and more bowtruckles coming and they were all so wild. All Renesmee could do was stare as her state of shock began to grow on her more than before. She could barely blink now and her senses started to slowly switch off too.At first it was only her hearing that switched off. She hadn't heard a thing Kurumi nor the Professor had said, and their information seemed sort of vital at a time like this. It would have surely calmed her down, yet the panic inside her was still growing.

Her head wasn't much of a help either, it felt heavy and it was hard for her to concentrate on any sort of logical thinking. Soon another one of her senses started switching off. It was her eye sight now. Everything around her became a blurred visson and Nessie could barely make out any of the figures beside her. She could barely even recognise what figures were the bowtruckles and what figures were her fellow students. It just kept worsening.

THUD!

A few moments after the blurry-ness that's when almost everthing shut off. One second Renesmee was up standing and the next she fell to the forest's ground with a small bang. Unconciousness had over come her and so she could not move.

His head snapped round to the Gryffindor Prefect as she shouted his name, momentarily distracted by the assault from the stupid little beast that had attached itself to him.

"OH, GREAT advice, Kurumi, REALLY! Because staying calm seems to be working perfectly and making them all buggar off," he responded, raising his voice at her. Between the pain the bowtruckle was inflicting and the frustration of the whole scenario in whole, he hadn't quite registered that it had been Kurumi he had just spoken to like that. But, gawsh, useless advice was most certainly USELESS.

Spike rolled his eyes at the Professor. Didn't she know such creatures lived in the forest? Even if she did, shouldn't she have foretold the events of the lesson, and been better prepared? He shook his head from where he stood by the birch tree, his curls bouncing. She even managed to insult them along the way, calling them sticks. She'd better hope the bowtruckles hadn't caught on to that...

And then, she jabbed her finger in his direction, not even calling him by name, to tell him to find woodlice. Oh, he didn't need telling, Professor. "It's Spike," he mumbled, however, "for future reference." She should know the names of the Prefects, right?

Grumbling, he headed over to a log, and peered inside. Any woodlice to be found here?

[spoiler="Woodlice bringer!"] [spoiler]
Spike reached his hand into the damp log, and giggled as critters tickled it. So...maybe divination had improved a little bit, but no thanks to the Professor.

He pulled out his hand, and carefully pulled away a spiderweb that had gotten caught on his wrist. No spider though. Pout. However, there were three wriggling woodlice in his palm. Result! Not exactly many, but it was a start...

Not that it'd matter, as it seemed the groundskeeper had appeared with supplies.



Spike was distracted from the groundskeeper's supplies by a movement on his trousers. It seemed he had a friend, and he gave the bowtruckle a crooked grin.

"Hello fella," he greeted friendily, as the bowtruckle seemed to make himself comfortable on his shoulder. "Are you hungry?" he said, holding out the three woodlice he'd just discovered. They wriggled in his palm. "Freshly caught too. I can go find some more if you'd like."

Yep, Spike was quite happy trying to befriend a bowtruckle. More than happy, actually. It was Spike's nature to want to get on with all creatures, and he rarely saw bad in them. One only had to look at his collection of pets. It'd been a while since he'd gotten himself a new friend, and this bowtruckle seemed quite happy up there perched on his shoulder. Spike often had a tarantula in his hair...why would he find a friendly bowtruckle on his shoulder any different?


Spike was just about to find his new mate - well he hoped the bowtruckle was a new friend - some more snacks, when he heard shouting.

What the...?

He GLARED at the Huffie. GLARED.

"That's not good, not good at all," he muttered to his bowtruckle, hoping that the lil' fella would see Spike was a NICE human, and not start pulling on his hair or scratching him to pieces.

"Don't!" he cried to the Huffie, wincing as the poor bowtruckle clung on. "Listen to Kurumi, and take a deep breath. They don't understand that we mean no harm to their territory." He glanced up at the bowtruckle on his shoulders. "We need to show them that we respect them. And thank them for they do in the forest... They're only protecting their homes."

Sarah was already engorssed in her search for fairy's eggs, lookiong under leaves when Mordoch arrived. She had already raided two fairies nests and therefore had hundred eggs in her hands. She went up to the teacher with her loot. "I hope this will do for now, there are many more leaves with eggs there" she said, pointing to a cluster of trees on the right hand side. "Should I look for me or will the supplies Mr. Murdoch has be enough?" she asked sweetly. There were many more casulties from the trees by now, the girl Nessie had been knocked unconsious while many more students were being attacked. Sarah knew she had to stay calm. She took took some more fairy eggs from under a leaf and made sure to show the bowtruckle it by swinging it in front of its face. She then started to walk away urging the bowtruckles to follow her if they want more.

Alyssa kept looking under rocks and logs until she found a swarm of wood lice hiding under a log among the rotted leaves. She found a bottle in her bag and scooped up as many as she could, before quickly walking back to the clearing....where she saw that Mr. Murdoch had already arrived with them.

But for some reason, the Bowtruckles didn't seem to be interested in them at all. She could see that they were more interested in clinging onto the legs of those who happened to be holding the twigs from the branches they had collected.

She walked up to the Professor ahd said,"Professor here are the lice I found. Maybe it would be better if I lay them near a tree, nearby instead of dropping them where they would only get trampled by everyone. Maybe the Bowtruckles will hopefully see that food has arrived and leave everyone alone."

One thing Alyssa knew that there was too much screaming and moving going on. So she whispered out to everybody in the clearing. "Could everybody, like...try to stop yelling at each other and panicking and try to stay still. I know its hard to do, but it seems the more you react to the Bowtruckles, the more they react back....and if you are holding onto any twigs right now. Drop them. Drop them all!!"

Belatedly remembering what Professor Williamson said about not panicking and working together as a group, which in this instance no one seemed to be observing either, Alyssa wondered what she could do to help, especially now like that it seemed that more Bowtruckles were arriving.

Then she thought of an idea. Chances are that it wouldn't work, but it still was worth a try. She gathered up a stack of twigs and poured some of the lice on it. Then taking out her wand, she cast the levitating charm on it, saying,"Wingardium Leviosa" sending the stack of wood covered with lice up floating into the air.

Concentrating hard on the spell, she floated the stack of wood over to the angry mob of Bowtruckles and brought it down to their eye level. Now all she had to do was hope and pray that the Bowtruckles would see the wood stack AND the wood lice and follow it.

She was hoping to float the twigs up to a tree and leave it on a branch and hopefully they would climb up and forget about the 'stupid' humans taking their twigs without their permission.

Callie's patronus had certainly gotten William up and out of his hut, worried as he was about the little creatures. He was more concerned about what the students were going to do to the bowtruckles than what the bowtruckles were doing to the students. They were just bowtruckles, after all; innocent little tree guardians. More bark than bite.

Heh.

Still, William came jogging into the forest with a sense of urgency in his step. "Callie! Waylon!" he called out as he neared the LOUD group of Hogwartians freaking out. "What's goin----" OOOF! The tall man TRIPPED and FELL over what he thought was a log. Scrambling to get off the ground before any bowtruckles attacked him, William got to his feet and glanced down at the thing he'd tripped on.

A Hufflepuff! ACK! "Callie, one of your kids is out cold..." William didn't like to shout, but now uh... seemed like the perfect time. Frowning and glancing around at the group, Willy noted that Waylon had at least brought a bucket of food for the bowtruckles, even if the creatures hadn't noticed it. William shook his head and whipped his wand out, casting 'Sonorous' on his voice so that it was magically magnified. Some of the students were doing a good job of remaining calm while the others were just... not. Maybe they needed some direction.

"EVERYONE... FREEZE," the Care of Magical Creatures professor's voice came floating into the clearing. "Drop any sticks you have and gather in the center of the clearing, near the professors. Levitate some of the groundskeeper's wood lice OUT of the bucket and TOWARD the treeline, away from your peers. If you have a bowtruckle on you, try to remain calm and get some woodlice to distract it."

He glanced down at the little girl he'd tripped over too. "And we might need the Healer, Professor Elwood." William removed the charm from his throat and bent down to scoop up Nessie, carrying her over toward his professor friends. "I think this one fainted, though I dunno why..."

She was out cold before he'd tripped on her, he might add.

Finally some diretion. Sarah was surprised at some of the older students. And at herself. She was so used to not practising magic at home that she did things the manuel way automatically. Wingardium Leviosa was so basic really! "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA" she said said upon moving away from the outskirts. She levitated the fairy eggs that she had collected and moved them towards the tree-line. Hopefully the bowtruckles would take the bait.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the someone else besides her had noticed Nessie's forlorn figure on the ground the CoMC teacher had tripped over her. If only she could do something to protect the others.

Dylan remained in place, not trying to get any closer to the dangerous creatures wrecking havoc on his classmates. And naturally when one is standing stationary like he was, one started to notice things...

Like his the Hufflepuff nuisance falling to the forest floor...

Well, that was terrible. She wasn't dead, was she?

Everyone was panicking, though. So, they'd most likely missed her falling out. Chaos had broken out...This wasn't going to end well...Especially not for those trying to actually fight the creatures. Sweet Merlin, they were going to get in trouble...probably.

Hopefully.



He blinked stupidly as the Care of Magical Creatures Professor who'd just barged into the clearing. HE WAS ALREADY FREEZING! He couldn't freeze any farther...

Levitate the...lice? Right! The Slytherin could totally do that. In fact, if he didn't have to actually touch them, Dylan was cool. He had a thing about touching things like this...that were, you know, ALIVE...and wigging.

Turning around to face the buckets that other guy had set down, he said "Wingardium Leviosa!", directing his wand towards the creepy, crawling...lice-things. Allowing a moment for the magic to catch a few of the insects, he carefully maneuvered them over towards the Bowtruckles. They looked ready to do whatever it took to defend the trees...and Dylan was SO GLAD he wasn't standing too near to them.

Dangling the lice, he accidently hit one bowtruckle in the face with a few. Oops..."Erm...Sorry about that..."

Come on, you vicious things. DINNER!!

Alyssa heaved a sigh of relief that Professor Williamson had arrived. In fact she was really glad, because she had been doing exactly what the Professor was telling everyone to do, even before he arrived.

She had told everyone to drop whatever twigs they were holding...not that anyone was able to hear her since SHE wasn't allowed to yell. And before his arrival she had been concentrating on levitating the twigs covered with wood lice to the trees farthest away from them.

But now that the Professor was here, she just dropped the twigs as far away from the rest of the students, and just then concentrated on levitating just the wood lice concentrating on leaving a trail of them towards the farthest treeline like the Professor had told everyone to do.