Tag gave her an odd smile, sort of a little snarl, but it was directed at the worms not Kat, she seemed like a nice girl. "I guess its ok. I mean, at least you didn't eat one by accident,right? That's a bright side." Because he glanced over at Blue's friend, Theo, who was freaking out about eating a worm, Tag shivered at the thought. "No problem."

"I..don't think the Professor said "exactly" to pick them but just stand next to them." So he hestitantly scanned the cages. Some of them were big others medium sized and others rather small. He slowly walked towards a small one. The smaller it was the less fire it could blow out, right? Either way, they were all dangerous. "This one." He said standing next to a table with the brush and towel in hand.

Finally!

Peeves was gone. Theodore wasn't eating anymore worms. And with a quick look around the pasture, it seemed everyone had all the things they needed to wash the Fire Crabs. It was probably about time they start.

Making her way over to the long table, Vanora grabbed herself a bucket, brush and washcloth before moving back to the middle of the pasture. She did smile and shake her head as she passed Kendall, though. There was really no need for the girl to help collect the worms. Because she was going to do it all the easy way after the lesson.

She plopped herself back down on the grass, and once again opened her Fire Crab's cage. "By now everyone should have their things and a partner if you wanted one." Which, she was just slightly disappointed over the fact that most of them chose to work with someone else. But she had said they could, so no worries, really. "And if you still want a partner and can't find one, you can come up here and work with me." Grin! But she doubted anyone would want that. Anyway. Moving on..

"Today is all about taking care of the Fire Crab." Hence the emphasis on the 'Care' part from earlier. "And one of the most important ways to take care of them is to bathe them. Which you will all be doing right now." As if they didn't know. She glanced around once more to make sure they were paying attention, and satisfied that they were, she picked up the Fire Crab and placed him into the bucket. "You can all open your cages now, but before you pick them up, just know that they are going to be hot to the touch. Not scorching hot, and you won't get burned, but if you don't believe me, I trust you all have gloves on you." They read the rules, right? "You'll have to take them off after, though. It's difficult to wash while wearing them."

"You're going to want to move slow, so you don't scare them, and once you place them into the bucket, fill it with water until their rears are covered. Once you do that, the Fire Crab can no longer shoot its flame and washing will be easy." And that sort of, kind of answered Cassia's question from earlier, right? Right.

Pulling out her wand, she cast a silent 'Aguamenti' into her bucket, and once it was full enough, she gave it a flick behind her and a set of instructions appeared, hovering low enough so everyone could see.



"If there are no questions, you may begin! But please, just because the Fire Crab can not shoot its flame while in the water, they can still become scared and annoyed." All that would really happen is some smoke appears and the water would get a little hotter. But they were her babies! "So be careful and take your time. I'll be around to help if you need it!"

OOC: You will have.. probably a little over 48 hours to complete this activity. To receive full credit, you'll need to post at least 5 times, completing each of the steps. And if there are any questions, Professor Newlin will be around or you can shoot me a PM. Also, have fuuuuuuun!!! =D

Sarah listened carefully to the professor and wrote down the instructions in her notebook. She then took out her gloves and nervously opned the cage. She felt the shel.. it was hot, as the teacher said it would be, yet Sarah did not care.

She lifted it up and placed it in the bucket. She did it so quickly that the creature did not have time to shoot even if it wanted to., She decided to call him Canon. As he did what canons did - right?

She then took out her wand. 'Aguamenti' she casted and the water jetted out from her wand and bag to steadily climb the bucket. Soon the rear was covered and Sarah breathed a sigh of relief and casted "finite". She did not have to worry about being blasted by Canon anymore.

While Canon soak in the tub (it looked like a jacuzzi to Sarah, after all it was square shaped) Sarah rubbed the shell lightly with her tiny finger tips. No thankfully no soft spots or cracks... for now.

Theo really wanted a glass of water, and was slightly annoyed that NOBODY had offered him one by this point. Oh, it's okay - only swallowed a disgusting wormy here!

Once Peeves had vanished, Theo relaxed a little bit and they were back to the actual task of the class. Not that he wanted to do this dangerous task. He was just generally in a foul mood after this whole ordeal, however he waddled back over to his stuff that he'd collected and stared at the empty bucket..

HE KNEW THIS. Aurora had taught him the water-filling spell. "Aqua... no... Agua... Menti?" That was it! Theodore pulled out his wand and popped the tip into the bucket. "Aguamenti." He cast, with one eye shut.

Nothing happened.

"AGUAMENTI!" Wooooooah, okay. Too much water this time? It had overflowed the bucket a little bit, but nonetheless, it was filled. Theo gave himself a pat on the back for his spell-achievement. It was always such groundbreaking news when he cast a spell correctly.

OH, didn't he have a partner?

"OI, Terry?!" Where you at, boy? Or was he gonna be working lonesomely today?

After getting at least a proper introduction done with her fire crab, Kurumi looked up when Professor Newlin gave the rest of the instructions and told them to get to work. Grabbing her bucket, Kurumi removed her wand from her robes and cast Aguamenti to fill it just a little. Just enough for the rear of the fire crab to be covered, right?

Squeeing internally that she finally got to touch a creature that wasn't Walnut, Kurumi slipped on her dragohhide gloves just to be safe and opened the cage where...her fire crab was still sleeping. Erm... should she poke him awake or something?

Slowly, and nervously, she reached in and removed the fire crab. Pleeeeeeeeease don't get startled and shoot flames.... One of the creature's six legs twitched when it was no longer touching the metal bottom of the cage, but little else actually happened. Probably...a bad idea to just...drop him in water, right?

Removing one glove with her teeth, Kurumi dropped it to the ground and used her index finger to gently stroke its head. "Wake up...please..." she whispered. One of it's eyes opened, making its face look a little lopsided, but it HAD woken up. Yay?

Very slowly, Kurumi set the fire crab in the water, introducing it to the moisture little by little so as not to frighten it...only that didn't really seem to to work.

*FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Startled by the water, Kurumi's fire crab, erm, farted fire out of its butt and into the water, causing it to shoot up into the air and splash Kurumi in the face. Coughing a few times, Kurumi eyed the level of the water and refilled it a bit using her wand. "See...this isn't so ba---" *SPLASH*

Water in the face....again....

At least the fire crab was in the water...soaking...yeah?

And so the poltergeist left. Good thing started to calm down after people plucked worms out of their hair ,others were back to life and some done swallowing worms. Everything is alright! Cassia put the two cages near her and Blue and waited till Professor Newlin told them what to do. And so she did.

Cassia read the instructions fast just to get a general idea about what they are supposed to do. Well, they are going to bathe it obviously. Though it was mostly the shell ,legs and under body. They weren't cleaning any rears. Good news. Cassia elbowed Blue, "We're not cleaning any rears, good, huh?" Because the Ravenclaw was worried about that earlier.


And so Cassia sat on the ground leg-crossed knowing that her robes need to be cleaned afterwards but she needed to get comfy while cleaning the creature. Digging in her bag she fished out her wand then put the bag aside. No need to wet it or dirty it. Then she reached for the cage and removed the cloth. She squinted her eyes at the creature, "Ok we're gonna bathe you now. No need to get cranky or shoot any flames. If you want anything just raise one of your…….limbs." She spoke to the creature, "You have six legs might as well use them." Yup she should connect with the creature in order to make sure not to get burnt. Her work strategy for now. Now she reached for the gloves and put them on.

She opened the cage and put the creature down into the bucket. She wondered if it might run away but she was far away from the Professor and didn't feel like standing and going to her then asking then coming back…..ehh long trip. She is just going to wish that Fire Crubs aren't good runaways. Cassia glanced at the instructions. Water now.

Holding her wand in her right hand after removing the glove and keeping her other hand on the crub just in case it flee, the snake flicked her wand and uttered, "Aguamenti," And water started to pour into the bucket. Cassia kept close attention to the water level. Professor Newlin said to make sure the rear is covered. Cassia thought about filling all the bucket and then push the creature down to get it rinsed but what if it died. Newlin wouldn't be happy about it and Cassia liked the woman so no need to make her flip. Not from the first lesson at least.

Eekk. The worms made the lesson less interesting now. SPECIAL THANKS TO PEEEEEVES! "Hmm, yeah," Kat agreed, then took a glance at poor Theo who ate a frickin' worm. Kat would've squirmed if she ate a worm. Lucky her for no worms inside her mouth.

Watching as Tag picked a not-so innocent fire crab, Kat had her eyes on her fire crab. Please don't spit those flames on me, please no, she said in her mind. Well, who would want fire on their hair and watch it sizzle? Nope. No one in the right mind would. After Tag had chosen a one that looked fit for his age, Kat nodded. "Alright, let's just wait for further instructions."



Right. The thought of bathing those crabs was much safer when Professor Newlin had said they don't shoot flames when they're on the water. Kat sighed in relief. At least she wouldn't have to freak out trying to wash the fire crab without getting her fingers or hands burned. No no no.

----

OOC: For Tag nowww!

Facing the younger lion, Kat made a small smile. "Well at least you don't have to worry about burning your hair." Yep, his hair was an eye-catching part of him and I don't think he'd want his hair burnt now, would he? "C'mon," Kat said. "Let's go start washing our crabs."

After preparing her bucket, the Snake opened the cage of her fire crab and slowly took it out. Before burning her fingers, she placed it inside the bucket. She massaged her fingertips before proceeding to the following steps. Man, why did those crabs have to be so hot?

"Oh, and the spell to conjure water is 'Aguamenti'," Kat told her Lion partner in case he'd forget or something. Kat took her wand out. Now, here time to conjure some water. Yeyeyeyeyey. Wand at the ready, Kat began her spell. "Aguamenti," and a jet of water came out her wand. She filled the bucket until the rears of her crab and then started to rub it lightly. Nope, no cracks or anything. Now, it was safe to wash this buddy. WHEN IT DOESN'T START SHOOTING THOSE FIRES!!!!

Dylan had turned his attention to the Fire Crab cages once the Professor denied she needed his help. Bleh, it was an obvious denial. Anyone could have seen that she needed help...Perhaps Professional help, though...and the Slytherin Captain couldn't assist her there...

Hearing Bee's comment, though, had him smirking and grinning from ear to ear...at the same time. It was an odd expression, pulling them off at the same time, but as many knew, Dylan was pro-status with his face.

"You aren't cute." Of course, it was said in such a way that suggested that she WAS, in fact, very cute. Adorable, even...and when she tugged her hand away from his, the Slytherin immediately felt the loss. It wouldn't show, though. Not on his face. "Yes, of course."

Random selection...chooses you...Fire Crab with odd snake-like patterned jewels on your shell.


...Yes, there was a possibility that he could be losing a finger this lesson...but this thought didn't deter Dylan's excitement. Perhaps he could sneak one out and put it in Rich's bed...Now, THAT would be funny.

Devious plans for later...

Washcloth, brush, and bucket in hand, the Slytherin decided to be smart about this and fill the bucket with water first before stirring the Fire Crab. If he had everything ready for the little guy, there would be less chance for accidents, right? Right. Removing his wand from it's usual place in his sleeve, Dylan leveled it on the mock-bathtub, whispering "Aguamenti." It filled up quickly and with a 'Finite', the Slytherin was ready for his Crab...Gloves? Check.

Merlin help him if this thing burned him...Eyeballing the Professor for a moment, Dylan idly wondered how much trouble he'd get into for tossing the crab across the clearing...You know, just in case. "Stay back a bit...I don't want you to get hurt." Yes, no getting singed for you, Honey Bee. Of course, he hadn't really noticed what he'd said. More offhanded, really.

Opening the cage with caution, he moved in, slowly picking up the jeweled animal and moving it towards the bucket...it's butt facing out. "Watch out...Fiery butt coming through....." Yep, in case someone didn't know.

Once he'd eased it into the water, he turned his head to eye his partner. HIS partner. Smirks for you, Spook.

Now with that done, Sarah reached for the brush, which was nearby. It was soft bristled -it reminded her of a horse brush. She bent down lower and began torub n small circular motions.

Run, Dub, Dub... It was funny how the creature did not feel a thing... His shell was so hard. She moved on further along the shell, in varying sized circular motions. Soon the shell was complete of its first scrub, the vague scrub. Then Sarah went over to the area where sapphire, ruby and emerald gems glistened. There seemed to be a lot of buildup there. Scrub scrub, each area as scrubbed around the gems.

Then it was time to attack the under rim of the shell. Here too there was build up. The professor said its from the fire, yet how did the fire only effect here? Sarah was so busy thinking that she did not realized that she had moved the area and was now brushing an area covered in scales... then the smoke came and the water began feeing hotter.. strange... Sarah did not know what happened.

She looked down at her brush and to her horror she realized where it was... Oh Merlin. Thankfully it was in water.

Peeves had departed. At long last.

Beezus let out a small chuckle from the back of her throat as she eyed the poltergeist zoomin away because obviously, his tricks weren't ideal enough to disrupt their class. Better luck next time Peevesy.

The Ravenclaw's dark brown eyes drifted to the Slytherin Captain when he said she wasn't cute. Pfft. Half-smirking, she shrugged and said, "Wasn't trying to.. " Heh. "..If I'd be cute, it won't be with you anyway." Beezus added, quickly shifting her attention back to her fire crab. Just as she did, Professor Newlin had announced that they were to start cleaning the gem-embellished creatures now. For a few minutes, she listened attentively to the woman as they were given instructions.

Nod. Nod.

Afterwards, she dashed to get the needed supplies and when she came back Dylan had already filled his bucket with water and was on the process of transferring his assigned fire crab to the the bucket. Why, he was being a bit too adorable handling the fire crab, no? Beezus couldn't help but giggle when she was asked to move away. "Yes Captain.." the Ravenclaw responded, walking over to open her cage.

She was about to pull the creature out when she heard another proclamation yet coming from her partner. Really Dy? There was a need to announce that? Beezus took a quick glance at his direction and saw him doing the same. Immediately, she diverted her eyes back to the fire crab and bit her lip.

He was supposed to be watching his fire crab. Hmpf.

Ditching the senseless thoughts for the time being, she finally pulled out her fire crab from its cage. It wasn't too heavy..the only problem was...she forgot to wear her gloves! "Argh.." T'was a bit hot! Despite this, she slowly and carefully placed the creature on the bucket, then she rubbed her arms.

At least the fire crab was kind enough not to shoot flames off her face.

Elliot't heart was still a bit fast since the worm incident...ah well, she needed to get over it. She raised her eyebrows...giving the firecrabs...baths. How fun. Joy. Elliot shot a glance at the little guy in the cage...

He was kinda' cute. In a weird...firecrab...way.

Ahem.

She stood took her supplies from Hannah...and prayed that her hand or arms didn't get barbecued today....she liked having hands. Make it easier to curse people...with her wand and stuff. UH huh. She sighed, opened the cage...and picked it up.

Eh. It waaaaas hot, wasn't it? But not too bad. She put it into her bucket, and watched it for a second. It was a really weird animal. Creature. Whatever. She turned to Hannah. "I want one. You think my father will buy me one?" Maybe...she probably had a better chance if she got her sisters on her side. And she had almost said 'daddy.' Merlin, she never said daddy. What was getting into her?!?

She then pointed her wand at the bucket..."Aquamenti!" and the bucket began filling with water...she stopped with the water reached its...behind.

Butt was such a yucky word.

That being done, or at least Sarah did not want to mess with the brush and the animal anymore Sarah went onto the next step. She held the washcloth in her left hand, while with her right hand she casted the water spell. This wet the wash cloth. Sarah went over to canon again and began to massage the washcloth on him. Bits of soil came off.. that was great! Yet so did small bits of scale... she was about to fret when she saw the notes that it was expected to happen, it was just shedding that was it.

Then she went for the legs, doing each leg carefully. With the legs there was mor soil coming off then there was with the tail.. that was rather obvious, being that the legs were closer to the dirt then the shell. The under body was next, more soily bits and all. She was quite getting the hang of this. Meanwhile Canon watched warily.

Then it was the tail. Sarah was scared that Canon will have a reaction similar to a dog when his tail was touched. She moved around to his rear end, confident that the bucket would stop her from being hit by the fire. Then she did the tail. The tail was smaller and therefore easier.

Now she needed to rinse the animal before heading to step four. She again cast Aguamenti with her wand, showering the animal with water. This way the flakes were rinsed off.

Terry had been completely confused as a Poltergeist came running or floating in and started shouting about the fire crabs. From that moment on, the twelve year old had just stared and zoned out and decided not to get involved with it at all. He instead watched the crabs intently, they were far more interesting anyway. All creatures were fascinating.

It was then he heard a shout and he spun to see Theo with an overflowing bucket of water and he raised his brow. Well at least he had done it for them and Terry didn't have to have a go. He started walking back towards their work space and the Crab that he had chosen to give a bath to.

"To answer your questions, I have got experience with Fire Crabs" Which he was sure to Theo's ear was a relief. He placed his gloves on his hands and took the crab gently out of its cage. It didn't move much in protest and Terry grinned, satisfied that it was comfortable.

"Aren't we supposed to put the crab in first?" he asked, looking at the full bucket and the poor crab in his hands. It stared back at him, wandering what on Earth was going to happen to him. The poor thing was very dirty and practically begging for a wash.

It took a little while, but eventually the fire crab stopped causing water to come shooting out of the bucket and had calmed down enough that Kurumi could actually run her fingertips over its shell. Everything seemed fine until...

"Hmmm," Kurumi murmured as she ceased her fingers' movements and peered into the bucket to get a better look at the fire crab. That...was definitely a crack. Not a big one...but a crack.

Kurumi grabbed her brush and began to lightly scrub its shell, running over the crack extra softly and noticed that the creature seemed to squirm a little uncomfortably under the bristle. Yep. It was a crack. "Professor, what should we do if there is a crack and....um...the fire crab seems uncomfortable because of it?" It had been hard to see the crack because of some of the build up, but since she had removed all that now...it was obvious that, yep, this little guy had a cracked shell. Nothing wrong with the rim of its shell or around the jewels at least. Just....right there on the left hand side of its shell.

Even though Sarah was sure that she did not need to rinse it again, as the instructions said so she cast Aguamenti again and gave the fire-crab an even more thorough rinse. Hopefuly that would do. So a satified Sarah said finite and the water stopped. She wondered what the shower pressure was like

Then she began to inspect the shell. She felt if there was softening... no thankfully not. She had not seen too much flaking either when she had massaged it earlier, so that was a no as well. Irregular discharge? Sarah checked all the places that... um discharge comes out of and found none. She examined the shell closely, both with her eyes and feeling with her hands... thankfully no cracks. Maybe that was because Sarah had not held him yet. Yet Canon seemed like healthy fellow. Just the jewels needed to be checked for discolouration now. She examined each stone, yet everything looked alright. Yes... Canon had passed his medical check up with flying colours. He was a healthy chap!

Well it just wasn't a good day at Hogwarts unless you were giving a fire crab a bath. There really was never a dull class. Well there was, but that wasn't really the point.

Atleast the fire crabs were nice to look at. Still they shot fire from their behind...that was scary. So many things could go wrong and there were puffers around handling these creatures. That just spelled disaster. She looked around just to make sure that they were free and clear of puffers. Good...none within an arms length.

Here goes nothing! Hannah opened the cage and picked up her fire crab. Wow! He was pretty hot, but nothing that Hannah couldn't handle and she did have her gloves. She placed the crab in the bucket. Whew! No getting burned today. She turned to Elliot "Of course your father will get you one." Hannah thought that their fathers were pretty much the same and she knew that if Hannah asked for something she would get it.

Time to fill up the bucket. Hannah flicked her wand at the bucket. "Aquamenti!" and let the water fill until in covered the crabs rear perfectly.

It was a good thing that Peeves decided to leave them alone because Daichi wasn't sure how much longer he could hold his worries inside. He watched as the troublesome ghost vanished and came back to reality when he still felt Juliet's hands on his arm.

"The worms are gone" he whispered but loud enough for Juliet to hear and smiled but the worries were still visible in his eyes as he looked at the crabs in the cages. It felt really good to help someone instead of being helped. He shrugged his shoulders when she said a sorry and looked at the Professor when she continued the class.

From time to time, Daichi looked at the fire crabs while listening to the Professor's instructions. He felt slightly relieved that they were going to be using that technic at the beginning. "I-i think we should both get a f-fire crab" he answered Juliet's question and sloooooowly , to stretch some time, walked to one of the cages.

With a loud pounding heart, Daichi stood beside his own fire crab that was still in its cage and he grabbed his wand. The aguamenti charm wasn't so difficult for him, one of the only spells he could perform without problem! Just asked Kurumi, hehe.

"Aguamenti!" he shouted and pointing his phoenix feather wand to the bucket. Immediately, there was a rather hard stream of water as it filled a quarter of the bucket. Sigh, even when he COULD do a spell, it was too much. He used the Finite to cut off the stream and looked at Juliet. "You know this spell right?" he asked because she had been in another school previously and maybe they hand't taught them this yet...

The Slytherin bent down to grab his gloves out of his bag and put them on. He tucked his shirt uniform under the gloves so that no air could get in and took a deep breath.

He could do this! He had dealt with Dragons last term! sorta...

With shaking hands, and tears forming in his eyes, Daichi opened up his cage. "I-I'm taking y-you out of the c-cage now" he said the the fire crab because he thought that if he talked to it, the crab wouldn't be surprised when it was suddenly lifted up. Witth soft whimpers of fear he pulled the fire crab out of it. It didn't shoot any fire at this moment and it seemed that his theory had been right.

He didn't let out a laugh of relief though but still had the seem look of terror on his face as he placed it in his bucket of water, rear inside. Daichi then began to search for an soft spots or cracks with his finger.

When the creature wasn't shooting fire...it was actually pretty cool and cute.

Ugh Ari did not want to work with cardigan any more this seemed easy enough for her.
With her fire crab and all her supplies she sat down in a clearing near no one else. Fire crabs needed a calm environment far away from cardigan right?

pulling out her wand she casted "Agumenti" into her bucket until it was full enough to cover the back end of her dumb crab. After putting on her gloves she opened the cage to her fire crab and reached for it slowly 'ew ew ew ew ew ew ewwww' she thought to herself.. they were so gross and now for the next hour she had to caress this thing Ughhhh

She submerged the crab into the water letting it soak for 5 minutes as she felt around it's shell with her index finger feel for any soft spots or crack and her good little ugly crab has none. "good crabby" she said to the thing. Step one down four more to go

Cassia watched the water level closely until the fire crab's rear was covered in water. And so she stopped ,murmuring, "Finite." She glanced at the instructions and nodded at no one. Now let it soak. Taking the remaining glove off, Cassia started rubbing the shell lightly. The creature is warm to the touch Cassia thought, but it was bearable so far. The snake kept moving her fingertips along the shell and the creature started to move and resist, Cassia frowned at it, "What you think I'm enjoying this. Stay still or else I might break your shell." Well, she wasn't sure if that was possible but she needed to show the creature who was the boss here, she was!

Did the creature stop fidgeting? Hehe the threatening actually worked? Or the creature just knew that she wasn't hurting it. Cassia hoped for the later because she didn't like being the bad guy. However if she was threatened by any shooting flames or burning water oh she was going to do something about it.

Though she hoped for befriending the creature. And if it didn't want human friends they shouldn't be enemies at least, no? Cassia glanced at the bucket with the soaked crab in it. Is this enough soaking and rubbing? She will leave it for a minute while she prepared the brush.

Cassia reached for the brush and practiced the circular motion in the air. Weird? Well, she wanted to give more time to the creature to soak. But the time was up now. The second-year ,with the brush in her hand ,started scrubbing the shell . she decided that first she was going to scrub the whole thing then pay more attention to the buildup areas…..Eww.

Scrub..scrub..scrub.

Meanwhile ,Cassia looked around her while scrubbing to see how the other students were doing. And she glanced for Blue to see how was the claw doing as she seemed not to be keen on the idea of touching the creature.

Dylan rolled his eyes as the Ravenclaw's words reached his ears. Wasn't she in a mood...Meh, not that he was too put off by it. He knew the deal. "Whatever you say, Castell." He might have eyed her a little bit longer than necessary...but so what? The Slytherin was well within his rights as a....erm...partner...in class. Yep, sure was.

Removing ze gloves...

After his 'ickle fire crab had soaked a bit, Dylan picked the brush up and dunked it down into the bucket. The professor had instructed to scrub in circular motions...That was easy enough. That was how he washed himself, so...Nothing too difficult about it. She'd also said something about buildup...Leaning his face down a bit, he eyed the top of the animal's shell. Nothing looked out of the ordinary to him, but what did he know?

"You know, I really like it when you call me that." Oh, yes. Captain. Merlin, it made him melt a little inside.

Anyway...Onward with the scrubbing...

It took about twenty minutes to fully scrub the fire crab's shell. What his eyes couldn't see, his fingers felt. There was quite a bit crusted around the crab's jewels and under the edges. Poor thing...When was the last time someone had done this for him? Assuming that the ickle crab was a him...How did one go about telling...?

And he'd been wary of the scales. No need to put him...in unnecessary pain.

Peeves was gone? FINALLY!

Messer was listening to the Professor as she explained to them the do's and don'ts about bathing a fore crabs. He already had his gloves on, so he just need to open the cage and picked up the fire crabs, no? But before that he need to fill his bucket with water. The third year took out his wand and cast Aguamenti and his bucket was filled with water. He used Finite once the water was enough.

"Now let's get you out." Carefully the third year removed the creature from its cage. "I just want to bath you so don't shoot your fire to me, yeah?" Seriously don't! He set his fire crabs in the water. Professor said they need to make sure that the rear was covered so it won't shoot fire, so he did that.

Messer removed one of his glove and proceed rubbing the shell with his fingertips.

Surya carefully took out the fire crab from the cage with his gloves. It was so thrilling for him as he was catching a fire crab for the first time in his life. He carefully placed the crab in the bucket and started filling it with water according to the instructions that is the fire crab's rear gets covered. While it was soaking, he tried to rub it's shells with his fingertips to fell if there are any cracks on it. No cracks! That is a good thing. He gave it a few minutes to soak.

The worms are gone... Juliet nodded. She hated worms. Anything slimey and crawling is just gross, and putting them on her head for a sad attempt of a joke doesn't make it really something you could laugh about. "Thanks" she said as she placed both her hands onto her hips.

Sigh. Glad that's over. Now they can finally proceed to what they're suppose to do in the first place. Of course, she nodded to Daichi when he suggested about getting fire crabs. However, Juliet saw the hesitation in his eyes even though he's the one walking to it and readying himself to get it. "yes, we need two... One for you and one for me" Juliet said. Juliet can take hers if this is making Daichi uncomfortable. Well, Juliet can't be sure but he looks really REALLY uncomfortable working with fire crabs.

The professor continued to explain in detail what they're going to do. She even said the specific instructions. Juliet quickly took her small notebook and muggle pencil to jot down what the professor wants them to do for this activity.

SPOILER!!: Juliet's notes

Step One:
Fill the bucket up with enough water to make sure the rear of the Fire Crab is completely covered. While letting soak for several minutes, lightly rub the shell with your fingertips to feel for any soft spots or cracks. (Soaking will allow any buildup, caused by its flames, to loosen)

Step Two:
With a soft bristled brush, gently scrub the entire shell using a light, circular motion. Pay special attention to any areas with buildup, mostly around their colored jewels and under the rim of the shell. Be careful not to brush areas covered in scales. They tend to be sensitive.

Step Three:
Gently massage the Fire Crab shell, under body, legs and tail with a soft, wet washcloth. This will loosen most soil. Don't worry if small flakes are released from the shell! This is just normal shedding. Rinse the Fire Crab to remove flakes.

Step Four:
Rinse the Fire Crab thoroughly. Closely inspect the shell for any irregularities, such as softening, excessive flaking, cracks, unusual discharge, or discolorations. Discoloration would occur on the jewels.

Step Five:
While still wet, place the Fire Crab back in the cage and cover with the cage with a dark colored cloth (the ones that covered it earlier). Rinse out supplies.

Just when Juliet is about to take her wand to cast the Aguamenti spell, Daichi beat her to it. She smiled as she saw him doing most of the first instructions. CHECK. Juliet crossed out the first 2 sentences of the instructions that she copied. Adding a nod when Daichi asked her about the aguamenti spell. "Yes. It's one of the first spells that was taught to me" other than Alohamora that is. Easy spells used on a daily basis. It's fun.

Like Daichi, Juliet also grabbed her own gloves and wore them... safety first! However when Juliet turned to Daichi, he looked a bit worried taking the fire crab out of it's cage. What made her smile was when she heard him talking to it. That's a nice strategy, that way he wouldn't feel much fear. Bending next to him, Juliet stared at Daichi for awhile. Before taking her own crab out of the cage she wanted to ask him this somehow. But she wouldn't want to offend him or anything. "Out of curiosity...." she started as her eyes followed the crab in his hands as he began to feel it "... are you a-afraid of uhmmm..... the fire?" her eyes followed his. Earlier Daichi has been acting a bit different after knowing they'll be interacting with fire crabs and it's not like she was eavesdropping but she heard Kurumi mentioning about the fire as she held his hand.

Juliet gave a faint smile to Daichi. Hopefully she can help him with whatever it is that is bothering him, they're partners in this activity after all but it's not like she's forcing him to tell her about it. Juliet moved her hands towards one fire crab and let it out of the cage. Adorable and expensive. Then she placed the crab into the bucket of water. Leaving it there for awhile.

Elise picked up her supplies and made her way towards a Fire Crab, squatting next to it and trying to remember the one she'd drawn last term. They were both pretty, but this one had emeralds and the other had sapphires. She didn't know which she liked better. Nope.

Stroking the Fire crab, she closed her eyes before putting her gloves on and carrying it gently towards the tiny bucket-bathtub. "Please don't fart fire in my face," she whispered, sending out a prayer to whoever could hear her.

Oh, and look. Now the Ravenclaw was trying to make nice with Sierra. It was slightly nauseating until Sierra realized--wait! This girl owes her! She was trying to use this, a mere partnership, as her way of owing Sierra. Nope. Sierra would ask for something much more valuable than a partnership.

Besides, she had kind of wanted to do this one on her own anyway.

"Thanks, but you have a partner, and I'm cool with doing this on my own," she said. She gave the other girl, the Ravenclaw's partner, a small smile of acknowledgment before turning away from both of them.

Now. Time to get started.