Another step closer and then one more. With each step Hady had taken she made sure her eyes were fixed on those of her Hippogriff. His eyes were a beautiful amber color which drew her in more and more. Stopping a safe distance away she stood straight before him.

Everything had to be done correctly or he wouldn't like her and that just wasn't an option. Her green eyes meet the Hippogriff's amber ones in a firm but gentle gaze. Keeping eye contact Hady slowly bent into a bow her head tilted slightly up making sure that the eye contact wasn't broken at all. Not blinking was a bit harder honestly but she was fixated on not doing so. There was noway she'd disrespect her Hippogriff. If she did it could result in failure and failure could result in injury or worse...not being able to ride him.

So not blinking once, her eyes fixed on the creatures before her and stuck in a bow she waited for the creatures reply. Would he bow back to her?

You could add aching neck to the list of symptoms. Hippogriffs really seemed to like to play with her emotions. Didn't her new BFF hippogriff know how excited she was to be able to groom and ride him? Didn't he know that she was absolutely chomping at the bit? Not to mention that the riding was going to be inevitable so he might as well just get the bowing out of the way so they could all move on with their lives.

Maybe she picked out a rude hippogriff. Maybe she needed to scoot over to the next one? AJ did not want a rude hippogriff. She was actually thinking of scooting down when FINALLY the hippogriff bowed his head. Took you long enough!

AJ straightened herself up and walked over to him. She reached up and petted his head. "I don't know why you make things so difficult. I WILL love you and you WILL love me." she said in that baby talk voice that you reserve for your pets.

Ian listened to the professor's instructions and dreaded this. He was kinda sorta, a little bit, slightly nervous about walking up to a hippogryff. It was not exactly the 'safest' thing one could do. He watched the others. Good so far as no one had their head ripped from their shoulders. That must mean that everyone was being careful and the hippogryffs hadn't been spooked, yet.

Ian sucked in a deep breath and decided to take the plunge. He began to slowly, methodically and with great care inch his way up to the 'noble' completely dangerous and could kill him creature that was remaining. inch...inch....inch...shuffle...move...shuuffle... tiny steps...walk...shuffle everyday i'm shuffling move until he was was near enough to the beasty. He stared it, eyeball to crazy kid killing eyeball. No backing down. The words of a really old muggle song popped into his head. No I won't...back...down...no I won't back down.

The wait lasted forever! These Hippogriff's were some really stubborn animals. Okay so maybe it wasn't all that long only about a minute or two and okay he wasn't 'stubborn' only assessing her but it sure seemed longer.

Slowly her Hippogriff lowered his head into a bow. She'd done it! He liked her! With a grin taking form on her face Hady straightened up once more and began to walk slowly towards him. "Thank you for allowing me to come closer you're very handsome." Hady told him as she held a hand out in front of the creature. She knew to do that with dogs but did it work with Hippogriff's as well? She didn't know really but it was worth a shoot.

Feeling a nudge of the Hippogriff's beak on her hand Hady smiled laying her hand flat on the feathers just above his beak. She really wished she knew what his name was that would make talking to him much easier. As she waited for a reply from the Professor she gently stroked the feathers of his neck. Her Hippogriff was by far the best here he was gorgeous.

Last time there had almost been drama. Benny remembered that, having stepped on something and made a sound or something like that. The fourth year had been extra careful with his movements this time because of that and so far it had worked better for him in the long run. Waiting on the hippogriff to respond was the harder part this time around. Wait...keep eyes on the creature....wait.

But the attention wasn't for naught for he noticed when the majestic beast moved and echoed his bow to show approval. Or whatever it was supposed to mean that meant he could likely get closer to it. Benny answered by slowly straightening up from his own bow and slowly continuing to move closer to the hippogriff, smiling as he was within reach.

"Hi there," he greeted, tentatively reaching a hand out to touch him on the forehead. When no resistance was given, the Gryffindor gave in and politely rubbed the space above his beak and between his eyes. If he wasn't imagining things, Ben might have believed the hippogriff to be quite content with the action. "You're a nice hippogriff. And a handsome one," he remarked as he continued to gingerly rub and greet his newest companion.

So Eden and Zander were being very friendly.

Sure, Grayson had smiled at the two of them and even given Eden a wave in return but there was something about the way they were talking to each other that made the fifth year raise his eyebrows. NOW he was curious. If it was what he thought it was, this was gonna be GOOD. Uh huh! And he had a bunch of questions that had nothing to do with the hippogriff standing way over there.

Speaking of the hippogriff, he was meant to start approaching it, wasn't he? Because so many people had managed to bow down and were petting their hippogriffs and he was standing here smirking to himself because he was oh-so-smart with his ideas. Tearing his eyes away from the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, the Slytherin glanced over in the direction of the hippogriff. He needed to get its attention. Make sure that the hippogriff noticed him and only him. C'mon! He was standing right HERE.

The boy took a couple of steps forward, keeping his eyes on the hippogriff. He hadn't taken more than a couple of steps when the hippogriff turned its eyes towards him and gave him a look. Neutral expression, Whitty. Keep calm and cool and continue walking just a couple more steps...

Ian was now as close to the murderous beast as he was comfortable. His breathing was a little shallower and faster, but he was doing his best to show no fear. He stared the steely-eyed beasty down. NO BLINKING, he kept reminding himself.

As he stood there, he decided it was time. Slowly lowering his upper torso, much in the form of a martial artist, facing off against his foe, Ian bent at the waist, eyes remaining on the hippogryff and bowed. He didn't bow too low. He didn't want to start looking at the ground and taking his eyes off the creature. He just bowed. He waited...he paused and he watched for the slightest flinch from hoof or beak, prepared to run like a schoolgirl after her favorite wizarding boy-band. No death for Ian today. So far, so good.

This was kinda nerve-wracking, you know. There was something about the way that the hippogriff was looking at him, almost as if it was examining him and could tell every tiny little detail about him. Kinda freaky. There was also the matter of knowing when to stop and bow at the creature. It had to be a calculated distance away and he wanted to look at the ground to see just how far away he was but, of course, eye contact was demanded.

But MAN, did it demand respect in a cool way.

Soon enough, Grayson came to a stop, keeping his eyes on the winged creature over there. And........... bow. With his eyes still on the creature. This was kinda hard to do, especially when his eyes started stinging and the urge to blink was slowly becoming a strong one. C'mon, hippogriff, just bow your head already. Bow. DO IT. He didn't want to be standing here all day. Dude had other stuff to--

BOW! FREAKING YES!

Deep sigh of relief from the Slytherin as well as a wide smile.

Walking slowly towards the Hippogriff Cyprien was a little nervous and that was being generous. Would the creature bow back immediately or would he stare at Cyprien before bowing? What should Cyprien do if the creature didn't bow? So many questions...stopping a good distance away Cyprien locked eyes with the creature and making sure not to blink he bowed. Now to wait and see if the Hippogriff bowed back.

Ian saw that the foul beasty was acknowledging his presence. It just wasn't doing anything else. It was a like a cow on the other side of a barbed wire fence. It just stood there, eyeballing him. No gentle nudge of the head to say c'mon over dude. No tip of the beak to say he was alright. Not even a snap at him to say to Ian Back off dude. I got lunches bigger than you. You can scare me with your crazy blue eyes. It just stood, looking at Ian. Ian was doing everything he could to NOT BLINK. Then...the unthinkable happened.

Ian was standing there and felt the little tickle in his nose. It was a most innopportune moment for sneeze to be coming on. Ian started to brain panic. His mind started racing as he tried to figure out how to keep from sneezing. He started repeating the mantra in his head No sneezy, no sneezy, no sneezy He even began to plead with his traitorous nasal cavities and bronchial system. Dear Merlin, please don't let me sneeze. I don't want my wizarding card obituary to read, Killed by a startled hippogriff after sneezing at it in fourth year Care of Magical Creatures class. Is this the kind of stuff Harry Potter had to deal with. He could see it being something Ron Weasley would, but here Ian was staring down a stoic beasty and he felt the urge to sneeze. He was doing everything possible that he could. It just kept building. Ian began to slowly raise his hand to try and stifle it at his nose.

He was almost to his chin when it happened. Ian's head involuntarily jerked back, his mouth opened wide and he sneezed like he'd never sneezed before AAAAAAAAAHHHHHCCHHOOOOOOOOOO!

His eyes slammed shut, his mouth sprayed little bits of saliva out and Ian's face went down...he had no idea what was about to happen.

After the Hippogriff bowed to him, he nodded and walked over to pet the lovely creature. He smiled and held his hand out to let the hippogriff sniff it. But he didn't need to the creature nuzzled his hand and he pet it. He laughed and pet him softly. "You like the attention huh?" he asked and then went down to pet his neck and he was really liking it. His amber eyes were wide and he/she seemed happy. He was proud he could do this.

Kace was curious about this part and he raised his hand and asked the Professor, "Hey Professor will we be able to ride the Hippogriffs? I heard you can after you gained their trust..." He wouldn't mind going on a nice ride and to have a view of the castle.

And now it was time for the easiest part in all of this: petting the hippogriff.

Sure, the walk up to it wasn't that fantastic but the fact that the hippogriff had bowed down to him was a relief and somewhat of an ego boost. That had been twice that he had been bowed to by a hippogriff and this second time had happened faster than the first time. Something to be proud of. Not to mention the fact that he could blink now.

Grayson walked up to it slowly, so as not to scare the creature. Because the last thing he wanted was to be attacked by those giant talons it had. When he was close enough, the boy managed to gently touch the beast's nose and then move his hand around to stroke its side. "'Sup, hippogriff! The name's Grayson." Do well to remember it. Just saying.

"Loving the feathers, man. Thanks for letting me come and stroke you." Stroke stroke. Pat pat.

After waiting what seemed like a century of Cyprien and the hippogriff locking eyes and looking at one another the hippogriff finally bowed back. Now what? Oh, now Cyprien could go pet it. Slowly approaching the hippogriff Cyprien's mind started to wander. Could he ride it now or was there something more to it? What else might happen...?

Cinna took a few more slow quite steps closer to the hippogriff. Keeping her eyes on him. She stopped once she got close enough to the hippogriff. She didn't want to get too too close to it yet.

She kept her eyes on him for just a little longer. She wanted to make sure they had good vibes before bowing to him. Okay mr. hippogriff we good now? Yep. It felt like it. She slowly bowed down to the hippogriff still not taking her eyes off of him.

She waited for the hippogriff to bow back. It felt like it took forever for him to bow back. It was okay little guy. I'm cool. Keeping her eyes on him. And finally the hippogriff bowed. Major inner woohooing and flailing going on. She didn't show it outwardly as she took a small step close to the creature.

Angel was still nervous but she watched what Benny did. "Okay." Angel smiled as she looked as Benny did it all and he did it good, she was still very scared, but she decided that she would give it ago.

Angel sighed as she went towards where she was supposed to go... she stopped as far away as she could from the Hippogriff and then she stared at it hoping that everything would be already, she was inwardly shaking like crazy and she wanted Benny with her now.

Approaching the hippogriff Cyprien got right next to it and started to pet it. "Whoah" was all Cyprien could really say. The feathers were really soft and the hippogriff really seem to like it. Come to think of it Cyprien didn't even know if the hippogriff was male or female. It didn't matter because this was the coolest thing Cyprien had ever experienced.

Angel looked at the Hippogriff and tried her hardest not to show it how scared she was, she waited to see what the Hippogriff would do... She then looked at the Hippogriff as it stared at her... well that was sort of a good thing.

Angel knew the next thing she had to do was bow to it and see what it did... she was still inwardly shaking and wishing Benny was around to hold her hand but well he wasn't so she would have to do everything on her own and then she would go and hide behind him.

Angel bowed to the Hippogriff and waited to see what the hippogriff would do because well she didn't want the Hippogriff to assault her or anything but she was keeping eye contact and was bowing nicely.

Javier's head along with the other nearby hippogriffs turned toward the kid. Allergies? "...Salud, Mr. Tinker." The hippogriff he was attempting to befriend merely shook his head at him. Better try again, before that hippogriff decided to turn away from him.

Very good students, as the Professor curtly nodded approvingly at those already by a Hippogriff's side. Hm? A question. "Later on you will be able to, Mr. Lecium." Quite lovely to see others want to get to the fun part right away. "But first they'll need to be cleaned for us to sit on."

Now then, as Javier addressed all of the students "Alright everyone, once you have paired with a hippogriff, nearby you should see a bucket with the proper items. First take out the large brush." Which he did so, "Clean the brush first, before placing your hand on the feathers. Letting them know what you're about to do." Wordlessly tapping his wand on the bristles to get it clean. His hand rubbed the feathers of Henry before replacing with the brush. "Carefully stroke in one direction until you hear them squawk approvingly, then you can brush them a little faster." Now why was this important? "Sometimes dirt and dead bugs get in between their feathers and this helps remove them while serving as a comfort to them."

---
If you haven't paired with a hippogriff yet, now's your chance to before getting to brushing them first. You can share a hippogriff with another student if you so choose. =)

So, now Dec focused on the eyes of the Hippogriff he had selected. He noticed the beast fix its eyes back and Dec only hoped at this point his eyes wouldn't betray him and blink.

He slowly made himself bow, without tearing his gaze from the magnificent creature. It felt like ages were passing by. His back was beginning to hurt and his eyes began to burn. Was this hippogriff going to give him a break or what?

He was liking his Hippogriff, he on,y hoped his Hippogriff liked him too.

Standing to attention as Professor Thompson gave them more directions, Zeke listened and nodded his understanding. Brushing, comforting, dead bugs and stuff. He got it!

"So... you like being groomed?" he asked the Hippogriff casually as he checked the bucket just a step away from him. There was a big brush in there, GOOD! So he plucked it out and drew his wand. A quick, "Scourgify," had the brush nice and clean and ready to use. "I hate when people groom me, but I 'spose you don't have hands to do it yourself," he used as he stepped up to the beast again, placing a hand on its feathers.

The beast gave him a look, then the brush, then him again. The amber of its eyes didn't seem alarmed or anything, so it was go time?

Zeke placed the brush on its feathers and slowly and gently moved it down the length he was able to reach. It didn't lash out, but it didn't squawk either. He tried again, gently and slowly. This time the Hippogriff bobbed its head, did that mean he/she liked it? He continued, and there it was, it emitted a squawking sound - or at least a sound that sounded like a squawk to him - but he was no expert.

Grinning, Zeke stroked the Hippogriff and continued brushing away, a little more quickly now. A bird-like cooing rumble came from the beasts throat as he continued. Was this the beasts way of purring? Or was he doing it wrong and it was being too polite to bite him?

They were moving on to brushing now, and Lux was happy since she had never done this before. Watching Professor Thompson, it seemed pretty simple to her.

Taking the large brush out of the bucket, she cleaned it using Scougify. That was something she didn't even need to be told to do; Hippogriffs deserved clean brushes as much as she did. Smiling she put her hand on her new friend's feathers. "I am going to give you a nice brushing now," she told him before starting to brush his feathers.

Carefully going in one direction as the Professor instructed, as soon as she heard a squawk she went faster but not too fast. This was nice, but she was still worried. "Professor Thompson, do I have to ride my Hippogriff? I'm really scared of heights." She was slowly working on her fear, but she was nowhere near ready enough to fly on a Hippogriff.

Eeeep! Grey Feathers was giving Adi the eye...as if the boy had done something wrong. Why was this Hippogriff giving him a hard time? Meh. At least it trusted him enough to allow him to get close enough to pet it.

More petting for the Griff as Professor Thompson spoke. Right. Brushing the Griff was the next order of the day. Adi looked around, spotting the bucket closets to him and Grey Feathers with the necessary equipment inside.

Large brush...large brush. Oh! There you are.

Wand in hand, the Hufflepuff cast the Scouring Charm on it then he placed his left hand on Grey Feathers's shiny coat. After a few moments of rubbing the feathers, Adi swapped his hand with the brush. "I'm sure you're going to enjoy being groomed a lot more by me.'' Hehe. This was training for his future as a Hippogriff breeder. Yep, yep.

Slowly and carefully, the brush was moved in one direction. Adi thought he'd been doing that for hours until FINALLY Grey Feathers decided to give that squawk Thomson had talked about.

"Told you you would like it,'' Adi said with a relieved grin, then started brushing a bit faster.

Toby and his hippogriff were really connecting over here. At least, Toby thought so. His hippogriff seemed to be accepting the partly-inane, partly-serious chatter coming from him, and didn't seem at all bothered, so Toby just carried on with it.

But then Thompson was talking again and Tobias was forced to shut up and listen, which of course he made sure to do, and looked down at the bucket as the professor mentioned it. Large brush. Right. The Hufflepuff stooped to pick up said brush, but then made sure to just watch and listen for the rest of the demonstration and instructions.

When Thompson was eventually done talking to them all, Toby turned back to his hippogriff again. Monty was its name. They'd decided that together. After retrieving his wand from it's holster, Toby pointed it at the brush and quickly cleaned the bristles with a softly spoken "Scourgify." There, all ready now.

Just like Professor T had done, Toby ruffled Monty's feathers gently, just as a pre-warning of what was to come, before taking the brush and caaaaarefully brushing it through the feathers. Just as he looked up to see if there was any reaction from Monty, the hippogriff squawked just as Thompson had said should happen. With his free hand Toby stroked the creatures feathers before brushing faster, at a more normal sort of pace.

Monty seemed to love this, and so Toby went back to his chattering while he brushed. Occasionally he shook the brush in the air after stroking it through Monty's feathers, just to get rid of whatever it was he'd brushed out that was clinging to the bristles.

Suddenly, Monty's head just LOOMED out of nowhere, the hippogriff having turned its head back towards him. Any other day, and Toby might have squawked himself, out of alarm. As it was he just stood still and looked at creature while it... nuzzled the side of his head? And then faced away again. Huh. That was pretty... cute. Toby grinned, stroked Monty's feathers again, and went on brushing, switching over to the other side when he figured he'd paid enough attention to that first side.

Brushing was a good idea, if only for the fact that it got the Hippogriff more willing to fly you over the black lake. All you had to do was make it happy and in the absence of any raw meat that might have done the trick, brushing was just as effective.

Lex looked about for the equipment she would be using and of course spellwork would be necessary. Merlin's beard it was a good thing Professor Airey was still letting her use his wand because this was getting ridiculous. Thankfully when it came to the simpler spells like "Scourgify." The wand was cooperative but she could only imagine what things would come to if much else was needed. The bloody thing had a spiteful little mind of its own sometimes.

With the brush cleaned, Lex placed a hand on the Hippogriff--even showed him the brush for all the good that would do her then sloooowly began brushing at it's feathers in one continuous motion.

Dead bugs didn't bother her, but she'd rather none fall out while she happened to be brushing. It was just one of those things. Lex went on brushing until she got the idea the creature was starting to LIKE it. What else would be the reason for that contented look and the squawking the Professor was on about? Clearly she was a pro at this and was encouraged to brush just a little faster.

"You like that, don't you? Gonna take me aaaaall the way across the lake too, yeah?" This was happening.

Angel waited to see what happened was the Hippogriff nice or was it going to just stay standing up... she waited for what seemed like ages until the Hippogriff bowed back at her, she was so glad she chose the same Hippogriff as Benny.

Angel went over and petted it. "I know you were the one, the moment I saw you." Angel smiled at the Hippogriff, Benny had to know about these things right so it was the safest option.