..."and we're walking...or bouncing..." Sander waited to see whether Odin would follow after him. He watched Odin look at his other bouncing friends, and then back at him, and Sander was afraid that Odin didn't trust him enough and was going to bounce back to join his friends.

Feeling almost deflated, Sander was totally surprised when, with one last look at his friends, he bounced over to join Sander.

Grinning from ear to ear, Sander knelt down to pet Odin. "Good boy. I'll make sure to go slow for you, Odin. So on we go," Sander told the Puffskein as he slowly stood up and began walking itty bitty steps instead of his regular walking stride. Sander didn't want to tire the little guy out too much. After all it was his first venture out and he had to take it easy. Itty bitty steps would make it easier for Odin since he had to do a lot of bouncing to catch up with Sander.

Sander walked an inch, waited for Odin to catch up, and then moved again. When he realized that Odin was bouncing ahead faster than he was, Sander opened up his strides. It was nice that the charm worked so well.

Wait a minute!! It suddenly dawned on him that they were way past the 2 minute mark. The charm's effects had already worn off. Odin was following him on his own free will. That meant that the Puffskein trusted him.

Happy, Sander smiled down at Odin.

....and we're walking...we're walking all around the playpen.

Did Odin want to rest? Nope he sure didn't because he kept bouncing on the spot waiting for Sander to continue walking beside him.

...and so they walked...bounced on again.

Sophie tried to stay tuned in as the professors went about demonstrating the charm and then giving out instructions. Sophie hoped this whole Puffskein thing was just for class. She didn't want to take one home. On top of all the family owls, they had a new cruppy and a new kneazle, as well. She'd bet her mom would have a fit if she and Caleb BOTH brought something else home. Even if it was just a minor pet.

So..., on to that activity they were meant to be doing.

Sophie glanced around and browsed through the collection of Puffskeins before her. She caught site of one that just randomly caught her eye, and she knelt down before it. "Hey, you," she said. No. You. Capitalized. That would be the name of her new Puffskein. That way, she could always say, 'Hey, You' to it. "Okay, You. You're my new pet, I guess. Hi...and stuff."

Thank goodness. the spell could not make the COMC professor or any of the puffskiens do anything ridiculous or harmful, just make them more trusting of you, that's not so bad, right? Well, in the wrong hands, there could still be problems, but we are in a classroom setting, things will be fine, gulp... Oichi then heard Lex name her puffskiem vicious and chuckled shakily, she was certainly one of the people she was afraid to have power like this. Still she turned the other cheek and focused her attention on her own puffskein, "Okay, I'll name you Filius, after my Grandad Filius on my mothers side, he's an awesome funny guy who became a general in the military by whit and a bit of smarts, he knows who to turn the tables. You are lucky to be dawned with such a name. Now I hope you obey me, "Animalis Fidelis", with a flick she saw the pupils of the puffskien dart toward her and she was pretty sure it was gonna follow her commands, but only time would tell.

What had Professor Thompson meant by they'd be getting even closer with their puffskeins? Cutty would've liked to interpret this as they were going to eat them later. M'mmm-M'mmmmmm! De-licious! For now, though, he supposed the Professors would've liked to have witnessed him and the other students building trust with the creatures. Taking Desiree over to a clear spot he looked down at her, raised his index finger and began digging for something to eat for her...him...it. His eyes cast downward at the creature. Was she watching? Cause this was going to be a big one.

As the boy's finger drew out, a long, gooping strand of snot followed and he flopped it down with a wet sounding noise before the puffskein, who approached, appeared to inspect it and then stick it's elongated tongue out to lap up the mess.

Cutty liked animals. He probably wouldn't admit it, but he did.

He continued to practice his charm Animalis Fidelis, Animalis Fidelis while the others complained and whined like little babies about it being wrong. No way was it wrong. It was cool an the fact that Professor Fuller controlled Professor Lame was even better. This class was shaping up to be epic and he was eager to learn.


Looking at the animals Bart's nose turned up a bit. Couldn't they practice on something cooler? These were so fluffy and girly, but he wasn't going to question it in fear they wouldn't let him learn the spell at all. He'd learn it and then use it on something much cooler.


He moved towards the puffskien, "Alright you.. you are going to be controlled." He laughed at his own words. This was way to awesome and he was going to have way to much fun with it. Pulling out his wand and doing the wand movement. "Animalis Fidelis," He watched did it work? Did it? The puffskien really didn't move, but maybe he had to say something. "Come here.. Come here" Did he really have to name it. "You.. come here."

Yep it's name was now you.

First on the agenda was to choose a puffskein. This was already proving difficult, because Toby wanted them all. He wanted them for this class and he wanted to forever. Wanted to take them home. Surely his grandmother wouldn't mind, right?

Bludger, though? Bludger would probably mind.

Students all around had already gotten started, but Tobias stayed where he was and surveyed the sea of puff balls before him. Best thing to do, really, was to wait until most were already chosen, and then pick from the last ones. That would make it easier, right?

Of course, that plan was soon scuppered, but in the best possible way, when one of the puffskeins (one that Toby thought he could remember as being the first one he'd said hello to earlier) bounded right up to him, tongue trailing in the breeze behind him.

Tobias grinned. Well, looks like the decision making had been done for him. He carefully leaned down and pet the puffskein, watching as its tongue retracted back into its mouth.

"Hey buddy," the Hufflepuff said brightly to the canary yellow creature before him. "Guess we're working together, huh?"

Hmmkay, now to choose a name. Well it was super bright and happy, like the sun, right?

"I think I'll name you Apollo." Petpetpet.

Wand in hand, Adi gave it an upward flick and said, "Animalis Fidelis!'' Time to see if this worked! "Let's go for a short walk, Homer,'' he thought. But Homer remained where he was. "Animalis Fidelis!'' Another upwards flick and a repeat of his thought.

Adi took off slowly, hoping Homer would follow. He glanced back. Nope. The Puffskein was still there and still looking at Adi with what the boy was sure was mistrust. Hmmm. Either the Puffskein was really, very stubborn or he hadn't done the charm right. The latter seemed more likely.

The Badger jogged back to Homer. "Animalis Fidelis!'' He did the wand movement once more.

Challenging. Learning how to make the Puffskein be more friendly towards you was going to be challenging.

Alec wearily glanced over at the Puffskeins nearby. He wasn't familiar with these creatures at all. Or even Pygmy Puffs, which were similar to Puffskeins, right? A dog person, that's what he was. Befriending puppies was easy work to this eighteen year old. Befriending Puffskeins was... well... what if they didn't want to befriend him?

Frown.

Try. No harm in trying.

First thing's first: he had to choose one, yeah? Slowly, the Hufflepuff bent down, still glancing around at the creatures. Choosing the right one was important; the last thing he wanted to do was choose a creature that hated tall, dorky, and generally awkward seventh years. Maybe one that was friendly.

Spotting the perfect little peach-coloured Puffskein looking over at him, the boy grinned nervously at it and observed it carefully. Pretend it's a puppy... a small, bouncing puppy he was meeting for the first time. "Hey there! The name's Alec and we're going to be working together today." And because he had been told that he had a nice smile, the creature got big grins instead of nervous ones. "And I'm going to name you..."

... Uh oh. Was it a girl? Was it a boy? Should he go for a random name or...?

... "... Arietty. You're Arietty now, yeah?"

"Atta girl, Desiree. Tuck into that bogey." He encouraged the little yellow-green critter. He sort of wanted to teach her a trick if he could and looking up at the clock he could see that it had not yet been two minutes.

Desiree's tongue whipped all about as if searching for more once she'd finished the glop of snot Cutty had handpicked for her. Cutty bent over, his back giving a crack, and picked up Desiree. He tossed and caught her several times not unlike a small ball whilst thinking of something he thought she might be smart enough to actually do. Should it involve fire? Water maybe? Too messy.

So the puffskien didn't seem to get the control thing Bart was looking for. He huffed a bit and walked closer to it. "Hey you.. You.. want to be my friend for this activity?" Wow did he feel dumb talking to puffskien asking to be it's friend Ugh this was weird and he was weird enough on a normal basis with this old and stuff.

Looking around and seeing people already walking their animals he glared back at his a bit. "Alright this is how it's going to work. I'm going to do this spell again and you are going to be controlled by me, got it?" He nodded like the creature actually understood. Doing the wand movement again, "Animalis Fidelis"

The puffskien moved and came to him. The twelve year old smiled and reached his hand out. "Cool it worked." So now what was he suppose to do? Did he need to walk it around the pen or just in a certain area? He looked around, "alright You, lets head that way."

The spell was starting to wear off and Cutty was more and more absent-mindedly tossing Desiree into the air with each toss. With the last toss, he held out his robes and caught her, then let her small, soft, round little body slide to the floor and Desiree began to make her way back to her sleeping spot. The experience probably had plumb tuckered her out.

"Animalis Fidelis." Cutty flicked his wand toward Desiree not letting her get away that easy, he had plans for her. He lifted the little animal into his arms and went over to his bag. Opening it up, he drew out a sheet of parchment and curled it like a scroll before casting a hardening charm upon it. He placed Desiree upon the ground beside it so that it acted as a tunnel just her size. Next he took out that phial that he kept for worm gathering and put one of the worms toward the middle of the now hardened scroll-tube. Then he hung back to see what the little puffskein would do.


At first she did nothing. Just sat there like a little chartruesean ball of fluff humming away. But when it became apparent that not only was she away from the boy, but that there was a grub to be had she began mobilizing toward the tube that led to both. That was when the tube was shrunk by the boy and Desiree was stuck and happy about it, apparently as she was humming right along. She knew she wasn't in any real harm.

Cutty picked up the Puffskein cannoli and blew into what he thought might've been the face. The creature seemed not the least bit annoyed, which mellowed his mood a bit. Ridding Desiree of the shrunken tunnel wrapped around her form Cutty ignored her until the spell wore off, which to him seemed to take entirely too long.

Merlin! What was it like to have actual people do this to you? How did one survive this kind of wearisome bother?

Talk of limitations was reassuring and Ella was glad that the spell didn't last very long at all. It meant she wouldn't have to deal with any of her classmates making her other classmates do suspect things while she was on duty. Relieved Head Girl was relieved. Definitely. And hey, they could get started now? Brilliant.

Ella moved closer to the puffskeins and crouched down, a small smile playing on her lips despite the fact that her knees were screaming at her to stand up straight. Hold up, knees, we've got work to do. "Hey, c'mere," She cooed to a smaller puffskein she'd spotted just a few steps in front of her. It really was quite cute and the urge to cuddle it was growing stronger the more she stared. Too bad they had to walk around and such. SIGH. Cuddling would have to wait. And so she kept eye contact and beckoned the little creature with her fingers. Come one over, come on over... ... ... ... "I think I'll call you Alfredo." Yup. "Come on over Alfredo." And now she wanted pasta. Cool.

Bay was so happy with Gryff… he wondered what he was though… picking up the little thing he checked and yup it was a boy.. "hey little dude" smiling at it.. giving it more pets.. "don't tell any one okay?" he said while taking a treat out of his pocket to give to him. seeing it sniff it carefully and then take a nibble.. "see its good right" laughing he placed his Puffskein down and bent down with it..

"how about you and I go for a walk yeah?" he said while giving it another pet on his head.. standing he wiped his hands on his knees and started to move forward… "you coming?" he tried to sound sweet to it..

Bay moved another step to see if it would follow...

So You was looking at him waiting to see what Bart was going to tell him to do. He looked around, "Why don't we walk a little bit You, you probably need exercise." That's why they were doing this, right? So he started to walk, "Alright you let's walk." It was going to walk with him wasn't it? It had to since he ha control over it. So as he walked he peaked to the side and grinned as you walked with him.

"Good ummm boy?" He kind of bent down looking to see, but then decided he would just take a guess. It was going to be a boy. He kept walking a straight line of the pen and watched as the puffskien followed. Wanting to see if it would follow him if he did anything else, Bart moved in more of a zig zag path and grinned as the puffskien did the same. "This is kind of cool You." So he wasn't thinking the creature was as lame as he did before. He wasn't going to admit that to anyone though.

Assuming that the little Puffskein was okay with the name Arietty -- it was bouncing around a lot -- Alec reached into his robes and pulled out his wand. It was time for the spell, yeah? Taking a deep breath, he glanced down at the creature and...

... hesitated.

... No. He had two minutes once he cast the spell to... make the creature come to him and take it for a walk. Two whole minutes. Still smiling at the Puffskein, the boy rolled up his sleeves and cleared his throat. There was no need to feel bad, right? No need. They were going to be friends, after all. And the spell? "Animalis Fidelis... Animalis Fidelis... Animalis Fidelis..." he muttered under his breath, trying not to move his lips so much. It gave him the impression of looking a bit... mad but he brushed that off.

Spell. Deep breaths... "Animalis Fidelis!" he cried, flicking his wand towards little Arietty. ... He... felt a little bad already.

Apollo seemed to like his (or her?) new name, or at least they weren't complaining about it. Tobias grinned down at the critter and gave it a couple of final pets before straightening up again. Soooooo... now time for the spell? Toby and Apollo seemed to have forged some kind of bond already, so maybe the spell wouldn't be all that difficult. And it was good that it was totally not illegal, too.

First though, a little walk.

"C'mon Apollo, let's move about a bit," Toby said to his newest friend, starting by shuffling off towards an empty part of the pen. He glanced behind him only to see that the puffskein was merely staring at him, confused, and maybe... hurt? Did Apollo think Toby was ABANDONING HIM?!

"Apollo, buddy, c'mere!" the Hufflepuff called, putting as much enthusiasm into his voice as possible. After a moment of thought, the puffskein seemed to suddenly perk up and bounded along towards him. Puffskeins, Toby decided, were adorable. He wanted five.

Bouncy, too. Bouncy perfection.

"That's not food, Alfredo!"

The little puffskein had eventually made its way closer to Ella and was currently trying to nom her shoe, a shoe that was currently covering a sore foot that was connected to a sore leg and you see where that was going. And so Ella wrinkled her nose and very gently nudged the puffskein back, frowning slightly as she did. "We've got some work to do okay, buddy? That means snacks have to come later." Sad days for Alfredo but you had to do what you had to do. "Now I'm going to take you on a little walk but you have to follow me, okay?" PAUSE. "Okay." She was going to try without the spell for a couple of minutes just to see, yeah? Because Alfredo seemed pretty cool and maybe he-

...

Distracted puffskein was distracted. Was there food around? ...But puffskeins ate pretty much everything so of course there was. Ella wandered along behind it and then gently picked it up, turning it in hopes that she'd be speaking into his face. "I know exercise can be tough, Alfredo, but we can get through this together. I'll be your coach, okay? And maybe at the end we can find you something to snack on." Yeah! "Like a reward, okay? Come on."

Bounce. Bounce. SQUEAK. Bounce.

Alfredo was actually listening for a bit and Ella thought she might not need the charm at all, y'know? But eventually the adorable little ball of fluff got distracted again and Ella really couldn't compete with food. Who DIDN'T like food, yeah? If they had to get around without stopping so much, she'd need to give the spell a try.

"Okay, c'mere Alfredo."

Now it was time to see whether the spell worked, yeah?

But first, Alec glanced down at his watch. Two minutes... started... NOW. Nodding to himself, he shuffled backwards a little before... staring at the creature. Picking a Puffskein and picking out a name for it and casting the spell was simple enough but... what was he meant to do now? Should he... think about his instructions? Or say them out loud?

... Out loud.

Deep breaths, Summers, deep breaths. The animal might be able to sense fear or nervousness. ... Maybe. That was something he might ask Thompson about later. Rubbing his hands together, the boy grinned over at Arietty. Pretend it was a puppy. He was just making Chip come over towards him. ... They did have the same colour hair.

"Come here, Arietty! Come here, girl!" he called, bent over a little and patting his thighs. He could feel himself getting less and less nervous as he continued patting his thighs and calling the Puffskein over. "Come on, Ari! Cooooome to Alec!" ... What if this didn't wor--

GRIN. "Atta girl!" he said once the peach-coloured Puffskein bounced all the over towards his feet. He reached over and ruffled the--

... ... Oh. Puffskein. Not puppy. Right.

Wow, Toby wished he could still bounce around like that too. He'd be a perfect puffskein companion, 'cause he liked bright colours and liked to bounce (well... used to) AND he was totally adorable. Although... the bogey thing? That was kinda gross. If Toby and Apollo teamed up, the little puff ball could have ALL the bogeys. Teamwork, see?

But Tobias was getting distracted, and he still had much to do. Like the spell, for instance. They'd seemed to have forged a good bond, so maybe the spell would work well now.

Retrieving his wand from his pocket, Tobias pointed his spell at the canary yellow creature and flicked it. "Animalis Fidelis!"

Had it... worked? Maybe? The puffskein was staring at Toby in just the same way. Maybe it was time to test out the spell.

Instead of turning away and walking, this time Tobias faced Apollo and started shuffling backwards. As he went, the Hufflepuff patted his knees and called the puffskein closer, cajoling the creature along as much as he could. Apollo bounced along, following him. At first the movements were uncertain, like Apollo thought that Toby was playing some sort of trick, but the pair soon picked up speed. Soon enough, Apollo was bounding along in what Toby assumed was some sort of puffskein joy, tongue hanging out and trailing behind in the breeze again. But was that because the spell had worked, or because Toby just had a friendly puffskein.

Still, it was actually kind of adorable, and Tobias was distracted momentarily by the sight of the bounding creature. As he shuffled backwards, the fourteen year old somehow managed to trip right over his own foot, and ended up sprawling backwards on the floor with with a loud THUMP!

"OOFT!"

Wow, that really... hurt. And sort of knocked the air out of him. Tobias lay, slightly winded, waiting to catch his breath so he could get up again.

After a few moments, Tobias suddenly felt something. Something... in his NOSE?! WHAT. NO.

"Apollo!" the Hufflepuff groaned, grimacing as he gently bat the puffskein's tongue away. He turned his head and looked as its tongue steadily retracted back into its mouth again, and it gave him the most innocent of looks.

Hmm. Maybe time to try the spell again?

Alright, time to give this charm a try. Ella smiled as Alfredo bounced and squeaked in front of her, thinking she'd clearly done something right because the little guy seemed to be in quite a good mood despite his unsuccessful attempts to find a meal. This was good news and made her feel a little less guilty about using a spell on him. ...Only a little. Not enough for him to go digging in her nose or anything. She'd seen the looks he was giving her and just NO, Alfredo. Find you treasure in someone else's nostrils, thanks.

"Alright, Alfredo. This charm won't hurt a bit, okay? You'll be just fine and I'm going to take good care of you." The best care. And pointing her wand at the little bouncing furball, the eighteen year old said clearly, "Animalis Fidelis."

...

Did that work? Ella bent down a bit, ignoring the pain, and smiled at Alfredo. He seemed okay and all, still bouncing. "Okay, let's do this thing. Follow me, buddy. We're going on a brisk walk." Ella then turned on her heel and started power walking as best she could, arms a-swinging. She glanced over her shoulder and was relieved to see that Alfredo was right on her heels. Seemed the charm worked, yeah? Now if she could just last two full minutes at this pace.

...Merlin!

Adi watched eagerly for any signs of movement from Homer...and hey! The Puffskein made its way towards him! Finally! Grinning, Adi backed away but the more he did that, the faster Homer came towards him until Homer had caught up with the boy.

Happily, Adi patted the Puffskein in its head. "Good boy, Homer!'' he said. "Come, let's go for a walk.'' Adi did a weird sort of skip that hurt his knees while his new Puffskein friend bounced close by to him.

Around the pen they went, one time, two times, three times! Homer seemed to be enjoying itself and Adi was too but honestly, his feet were starting to get tired. Maybe they should take a rest now.

Bay was excited when he saw little Gryff move closer and closer to him.. YES!! he's taking a walk with me he said very loudly in his head.. he smiled so big anyone could see it across the play pens..

Bay took another step and waited.. and Gryff followed him.. "thats it little dude" he said while picking up the pace a little bit.. watching him bounce his way towards him they were half way around the play pen… Bay stopped and gave him another treat…. "thats for doing such a good job" *pat, pat, pat* more touching to increase the bond.. yup.. Bay loved little fluffy creatures.

okay now to finish the lap around the play pen.. "were almost there" he said with both of his hands waving for him to follow as Bay moved backwards, occasionally looking behind him to make sure a. there wasn't another Puffskein near his boots or a log or branch he could trip on…. and c. another student he could bump into.

Finally making it around one time Bay scooped Gryff up and nuzzled him to his face.. being careful not to let him like up his nose.. placing him back down he wondered if his new little friend would be up for another walk..

Spike the puffskein wasn't particularly amenable to walking, not when he was so pleased to be lolling about in his little corner of the pen, and it was VERY painful for Mo to get down on his hands and knees and give the little guy a nudge.

Not emotionally painful. Physically painful. Basically joint murder.

"Let's roll that way, ok? It's so nice over there. Sun is out and there's grass. You like grass, remember?" Spike did not care at ALL about grass, apparently, and Mo was forced to roll the puffskein along the ground (gently) just to get him started.

There now. They were walking. It was great.

You?! Wait...YOU?!

Sophie jerked her head toward a nearby Gryffindor boy (Bazinga). He'd named his Puffskein You, too? But...but... Meh. So much for uniqueness. Oh, well. At least she'd been the first to name her Puffskein You, anyway.

So with that thought in mind, Sophie decided to continue working with her new Puffskein. She glanced down at You. "Well, sorry for this, bud. I kind of have to do it for points, so if you'll cooperate, that'd be cool," she said. The Puffskein was sort of squirming, like it might run away soon, so this was a 'hurry up and go now' sort of thing.

"Animalis Fidelis!" Sophie said, flicking her wand toward the Puffskein. It immediately stopped squirming and stared at her as if waiting for a command.

Oh gosh, okay, they were doing this. Ella was moving quickly too, wanting to give Alfredo a proper workout even if it meant she'd need a long nap after. She could probably benefit from a workout too. Last Quidditch match coming up and all. Why not push herself a little further this week? It'd be worth it.

"Good job boy, keep it moving." Was two minutes up yet? Ella tried to remember where she was at with her counting but she was sort of past that with everything swirling around in her head. So instead she opted to test Alfredo's obedience, see if the charm was still working that way.

"Alfredo, stop bouncing." Her voice was kind but firm and she watched curiously as the little puffskein continued bouncing and squeaking, ignoring her command. He hadn't run off which was nice but she was guessing the charm had warn off by now. Best to try again so they could make it back to where they started.

"One more time, okay? We're nearly there." Grin! They were doing good. "Animalis Fidelis." No harm done, yeah? Alfredo was still doing his thing and seemed just as happy as ever so Ella took that as a good sign. The eighteen year old took a deep breath and then turned again, starting to walk once again.

"Alfredo, you're going to be in such good shape. Those other lady puffskeins won't be able to look away." Maybe. Did Alfredo have a gilfriend? Was he even old enough? Questions, Ella had them. She also had a bouncy puffskein following her as she continued on. "Almost done!"