....


Cutty paused considering this. Maybe the candy hustle was the reason he both had friends and didn't. It was all about food.

He was only slightly distracted by the girl who'd made the point.

Ravenclaw. Why were they always Ravenclaw?



Dot's answer made Cutty think about his own as well. It wasn't a bad strategy. And the fact the he'd call it a strategy at all was impressive to him as it didn't seem as obvious a course of action as the others. He liked that. Sneaky AND fighting fire with fire.

It was so Wojack. Or Wojack-Goosey? Why'd she change her last name anyway?



Of all the answers given, Cutty found Agatha's to be the most interesting. Putting himself in the place of another wasn't something he did routinely. Or ever. So the fact that Agatha not only thought to do this, but actually COULD he found interesting. Could she do that with other things? Human beings for example?

It sort of creeped him out.

So he concentrated on her hair and forming his answer. Raising his hand and going with the pre-established motiff of Slytherins using stealth, he gave this unconventional idea, "Yer get 'im to come to yew by makin' him angry. Do something that yer know he doesn't like. Strategically replace the grass with succulents and flirt with his gehl or his moom if yer can by leaving them gifts and not him. Yew'll do his head in! And then he'll come lookin' fer yer." He also considered setting traps and 'rescuing' the poor scared little porlocks. Mostly, because he was a horrible human being.

Toby wondered vaguely how many times there had been a Porlock nearby when he'd visited the stables or barnyard in the past. As he was pondering on this, Toby caught snippets of Cutty's answer to the next question, and he looked up and over at the Slytherin boy, halfway between alarmed and the nature of the answer and amused by the delivery of it. But he said nothing, and just ended up casually staring instead as he mulled over an answer of his own to give.

Tricky question, this was, because Toby had never been in a situation where he didn't trust someone else. With him, his trust was earned instantly with no work, and he'd never seen fit to stop trusting anything. Probably wasn't wise. In any case, that made it hard to answer this question from experience, but luckily Toby was good with animals, and he had a weird level of empathy at times. He thought for a while, before finally looking back towards Professor Thompson and raising his hand.

"The best way would be to leave them alone," he said simply. The sixth year paused for a moment, as if he was going to leave it at that, but decided it might be best to elaborate. "When you're trying to build trust with someone or something that doesn't trust others, and prefers to hide away, the best way you can show them that you're safe and trustworthy is to leave them alone. You're accommodating them, and they'll notice, especially if you're nearby but not prodding them into interacting with you. And eventually they might trust you enough to come closer, but sometimes they won't, and for them to still see you as trustworthy, it's best to respect that."

Another pause.

"... But I don't think that's the answer you want, because that probably won't help us see them today. It's a way more gradual method."

When he was done talking, Toby went back to subconsciously chewing at the edge of his school scarf.

This class was interesting, and Lux was wanting to see Porlocks because they seemed nice enough even if they didn't generally trust humans. Clearly it was possible to gain their trust given the next question they were asked. Quite a few people mentioned food, but Lux wasn't sure about that despite how amazing food was.

Raising her hand, she said, "I think you can gain their trust by looking after your horses well and treating them nicely. Porlocks are horse guardians and clearly take their job seriously, so I feel that they are more inclined to trust someone who is nice to their horses and makes sure they are healthy, well fed, groomed, and living in a clean stable." Hopefully her guess was plausible, but it just seemed to make sense to her.

Answers, so many answers. Interesting ones too. Janelle smiled when she heard the Slytherin boy's (Cutty)answer. Well now that was one way to go about it. It would either earn the animal's trust or get you a porlock beat down, Janelle wasnt sure which. She did admire his creativity though.

Janelle's answer was not nearly as good, but it was the only thing she could come up with. She raised her hand and waited for her turn. "You could have a treat for the porlock........something he really likes. Then you find a spot near him and sit very still.........and you wait. Hopefully the porlock will finally trust you and come to you."

Hearing Kevin, Zander nodded "Yeah". Though he didn't quite understand... Some humans were mistrustful, so maybe that's what he meant? Though... It probably had to do with the fact that Kevin wasn't willing to trust just anyone, to which Zander didn't quite feel the exact same way. This Gryffindor did things the other way around. Easily trusted, but his trust was also easily lost.

As for the next question though...Well huh. He was stumped. Which in his defense may happen a lot, but generally not in Care of Magical creatures, okay? So the Gryffindor listened in to a couple of answers given by others, making sure to nod along the way... Before he finally could come up with something of his own. "Well, I reckon Hippogriffs are kind of the same way with all that trust and permission stuff.... So maybe.... Maybe we have to bow to the Porlocks and uh- approach slowly and with caution?" He was trying to make connections here. At least give him that much?

Trust. Well, that wasn't the easiest. Beverly was familiar with that considering she didn't trust easily or at all in some occasions. But when it came to her horse, she only trust Kennedy and her personal elf. No way outsiders would land a hand on her most precious possession.

"Patience," Beverly said, raising her hand. "If you want to gain trust then it requires a lot of it. You have to keep in mind that you are working by their standards and not yours." Can't push someone to trust you right away; takes time. "And to gain said trust you'll probably have to do research and find out what pleases them and what doesn't because, like humans, they are not all the same. Some could be more pleasant than others."

So basically, don't just kiss butt, actually work for the trust.

Kace heard the Porlocks were shy and didn't trust humans. Huh...well note to himself that he won't be approaching those creatures. But now how can they gain their trust. Hmm....well usually creatures love food right? But he heard a ravenclaw mention that answer. He wanted to think of something else. He thought about it and said...

"Professor maybe we can get them into their familiar surroundings. We can put a piece of food in their nests we can make in a stable?" I mean it sounded logical right?

Marigold thought for a second about suggesting that charm that was on the OWL - the trust one - but was already embarrassed enough about it. Instead, she raised her hand and said, "The same way you gain trust from a dog, right? You can let it sniff around you while you don't move suddenly, or offer it food or something like that."

AJ didn't even bother with the first question because she had never heard of a porlocks before. It sounded like the professor was saying pot luck and that just made her hungry. Her mind went off thinking about tacos and all of the toppings you could put on them when she realized that questions were being asked. Snap out of it.

The next question was up, and AJ was going to show that she could participate and stuff. She raised her hand. "Eye contact, professor." She had a point, she did. "If you keep looking away or having a hard time keeping eye contact it can be viewed as you not being trustworthy." Apparently that was a thing, and you could tell when someone was lying by that technique and that was a pretty untrustworthy trait.

"Alright. We will be using food to lure out the Porlocks, who happen to be with the Winged Horses out by the Playpen walkway." Which food? Grass? "Since it's quite nice out to them, they'll have plenty access to grass, so we'll be feeding them certain fruits.. with a little change in the taste." If that tomato the Professor had eaten earlier gave any hint on what they would be doing. "We're going to make it taste sweet. As sweet as a regular sugar cube." Now why exactly? "The Porlock's nature is to allow the Winged horses first access to the snacks, unless it's sweet. Knowing full well that too much sweets can do more harm than good they're more than willing to help out with the diet."

With a simple wand motion the huge basket right by Professor Thompson appeared. Filled with a large number of tomatos, apples, and lemons. "Now taking a fruit from the basket we're going to perform a spell that will make it the desirable taste. Extra Sweet." And? "Not only will it taste sweet, but if done proper the fruit should sparkle and shiny enough to garner attention in the light to attract the Porlocks."

"So we don't accidentally offer a bunch of salty and bitter treats, we will be practicing and tasting them until it is sweet enough." Hopefully these kids didn't eat alot right before the lesson just in case. "The incantation is "Magimus. Maa-Gee-Mus.." This time the Professor took out a lemon. "Drawing a circle around its circumference," Holding it in his palm so it just sat there, he drew an invisible circle around it with his wand before saying, "Magimus." Continuing the circle sparks started forming in the circle before he lowered his wand. Not bothering to peel the skin off, he gave it a little bite for a taste.. smiling a little from the extra sweet taste. "Now it is no longer sour.. Now you all can try."

---
OOC: We will be giving them extra sweet fruits. Using the spell, Magimus you will first practice and taste the sample fruit of your choice; tomato, apple, lemon. In no less than three labeled posts the following must be done;
- Picking the desired fruit.
- Practice the incantation "Magimus" and the wand movement (draw an invisible circle around) alone and then on the fruit.
- Tasting the sample, retrying if the attempt fails/tastes bad.

You will have until February 2nd 11:59 pm EST to complete this part before we continue. Feel free to poke, pm, vm for any questions you have and I'll get to them.

Yay, her answer had been right. She did kind of steal it from the hippogriff lesson, but it just so happened to work for this creature as well. It was like the professor said, that could be true with anyone. AJ's answer was totally deep. Anywho, it looked like they were moving on to an activity.

Oh, so the professor was eating a sweet tomato? That actually sounded kind of gross to her. This lion loved sweets more than a normal person, but she was having a hard time picturing what a sweet tomato would taste like. She was going to have to wait even longer to find out because she wasn't going to pick that fruit. Nope.

Lemons were the furthest from being sweet, and AJ immediately decided to try that one out. Considering how she was with her spell work that may have not been the best idea, but she was going for it. AJ picked up a lemon and pictured biting into its skin. Hmm. That may not be a good idea, but she wasn't backing out now.

Adi grinned broadly. See, thinking of food during class time wasn't so bad after all. It led to his answer being correct though he had not known that the creatures fancied sweet stuff too. Well, now he did and he had a feeling he and Porlocks would get along well since they had the mutual love of sweets.

Fruits? That's what they'd be feeding the creatures? Why not Chocolate Froggies? Let them enjoy the choclatey goodness, I tells ya! Ahem. Professor Thompson was in charge so whatever he said was to be followed. Yep.

Anyway... Porlocks were so nice, weren't they? Kinda like Hufflepuffs. No, not 'kinda'. EXACTLY like Puffers. Adi eyed the set of fruits. Lemons, huh? He had already made his choice. A lemon it was! Hopefully he would do the spell right so it wouldn't be sour... or maybe he wouldn't have to taste it in the first place. "Hey, Benny,'' the Puffer whispered to his bestie. "I'll have you try the lemon after I try the spell on it since you like sour stuff.'' Hehe.

Nah. Adi wouldn't do that. He preferred to do his work on his own unless it was necessary to work with someone. Following AJ, he headed over to the basket where he selected one of the lemons.

The apple sounded appealing but it didn't seem like a challenge. Now, a tomato or lemon would be a challenge. Cilla's mind was trying to decide between those two pieces of fruit before she settled on a tomato. She walked up to the basket and chose a large tomato.

Janelle was happy that her answer had been right. Then she heard what the Professor was planning for them to do. A spell to make food sweet? Oh this could be very useful.......for someone with a sweet tooth. Janelle wrote the spell information in her notebook, making sure to include all the details.

Janelle was anxious to meet the Porlocks. She really wanted to see if she could gain their trust. First though, she had to work her sweet magic. Pondering the fruit choices, Janelle decided to go with an apple. She thought that she would have the best chance with something that already might be a little sweet. Walking over to the basket, Janelle eyed her choices. Then she reached down and selected a large red apple. Now she had to practice the spell.

Cilla wanted to pronounce the incantation correctly before doing any wand movements. She muttered under her breath, "Maa-Gee-Mus, Maa-Gee-Mus, Maa-Gee-Mus." Cilla then said the incantation as a whole word, "Magimus, Magimus, Magimus."

Cilla then grabbed her wand and pointed it away from the tomato. She drew an invisible circle and said the incantation as practice.

After a couple of attempts, it was time to perform the spell on the piece of fruit.

Now that he had the fruit, it was time for Adi to practice the incantation and wand movement. "Magimus... Magimus... Magimus... Maa-Gee-Mus... Maa-Gee-Mus...'' Right. He got that exactly as Thompson had pronounced it. Now for the wand movement which was pretty much one of the easiest. The Hufflepuff practiced a few circles without the use of the lemon.

Awesome! He felt he had the hang of things. Time to actually use it.

Adi held the lemon in the palm of his right hand. "Magimus!'' Annnnd trace the wand around the sour fruit. Sparks happened. Yep, they did, just as they had when the spell was demonstrated earlier.

Okaaaay. Taste testing time!

Well, all of this seemed easy enough, right? Right. As long as Finn did exactly what Professor Thompson did, then he should be able to do it. Just a simple incantation and that would be it.

They needed to make any of the provided fruits taste more sweet. Finn glanced at his options and decided that apple could probably be his best bet. It wasn't so sour, and sometimes they could be sweet, so, if his spell didn't work the first try, he figured he would only have to give it one more go before moving onto the next task they needed to complete. So, he grabbed his apple, and went back to his original spot where he had decided to stand for class.

Now that she had selected her fruit, Janelle was ready to practice her spell. Knowing that concentration was key, she took a moment to get her mind into the swing of things. Thinking sweet thoughts, Janelle started with the incantation. "Maa-Gee-Mus, Maa-Gee-Mus, Maa-Gee-Mus." She repeated it several times, until she felt comfortable with the pronunciation.

Then it was wand movement time. Janelle visualized a imaginary apple and drew a circle around it with her wand. OK, that part seemed easy enough. Just for good measure, she tried the movement several times. Felling that she had the separate parts down, Janelle worked on her focus and tried to picture the desired result in her mind. When she felt ready, she picked up the apple and held it in front of her.

Janelle took a deep breath and pointed her wand at the apple. Then she made a circular movement around the apple and said, "Magimus". She didn't see any sparks like those that appeared when the Professor demonstrated the spell. Soooo, Janelle kept circling her wand around the apple and saying, "Magimus". Finally, she saw a bit of sparkle in her circle. Now the question was.....was the apple sweet enough for the Porlocks. There was only one way to find out.

See? It was worth a shot! They were on the same level, the professor and she, they were. However, as she watched the professor bite into the lemon in his hand, she'd be lying if it didn't make her wince a bit. "Hardcore..." The girl mumbled softly.

When coming to choosing a fruit, she didn't want to go for a lemon. What if it didn't turn out right??? It would totally ruin her taste buds for life! So, she settled for a green apple. Good? Good.

Cilla pointed her wand at the tomato which was in her hand and drew a circle around it, while saying, "Magimus." She was pleased to see sparkles surround the piece of fruit.

Now, it was time to taste the tomato which Cilla was not too keen on doing as tomatoes were not a favourite food of hers. Cilla took a bite and slowly chewed her mouthful. It was much sweeter but she could still taste some acidity.

Cilla decided to try the spell one more time.

So, the parlocks were to expose themselves, taking in knowledge that they were to protect...winged horses? EEP! Paloma was really excited to see them again, even taking some of her attention to glance around in case she saw them. Though once Professor Thompson started to explain why they had to be sweet, and what had they had to do, and which distinct fruits they were going to use to lure them out.

Mah-Gee-Mus...Mah-Gee-Mus...Mah-Gee-Mus. She repeated herself a few times in a mutter, too many times in her head, then she headed to take a fruit.

An apple? Too easy to make it sweet.
A tomato? A good challenge.
A lemon? Too much of it.

Since she wasn't sure if she could perform it correctly, she took the tomato and went back to her place and looked at it.

So, looking at it wasn't going to solve anything, not even turn the tomato as sweet as a double honey cinnamon roll. Magic involved action, and she put her hands on it, well...her face in front of the tomato, and her wand on top of it, slowly making circles around it, waiting for the right moment to cast the spell verbally.

"Magimus...Magimus...Magimus..." She did so, without twirling the wand around the tomato circumference. "Magimus..." She felt ready, that tomato would turn into a cotton candy madness!

So she was right. Gain trust by giving food. Except she did not know that they preferred extra sweet fruits and her mind actually wondered momentarily to a certain Charms professor. Apples? Did he like them extra sweet? She had seen someone give him candied apples at their first lesson but from speaking to him out on the grounds she wasn't convinced he liked the sweetness so much.

And it made sense why Professor Thompson had been eating a tomato earlier; but she did have two concerns. A tomato, she was certain, was NOT a fruit. Did that matter? And two, did he make his tomato extra sweet? Did he, did he?

Everyone seemed to be selecting lemons they probably wanted lemonade so Tia perused the basket carefully before taking a shiny red apple. In Quigley's honour, obviously. But as she was about to turn back to head back to her bag, she hesitated and then opened her mouth, "Professor Thompson?" She addressed cautiously. "I was just thinking, wondering, does it matter that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit?" Yes, she went there in starting that debate.

Huh. They were going to offer it some food? Well... That was actually brilliant. Loads better than his Hippogriff thing. Huh. It was a lot less complicated than what he had in mind. Maybe he was just over thinking it now? Everyone loved food. Especially sweet food... So that uh, well it just uh made sense? Merlin, Adair get it together! Was he losing his touch!?

O_____O

Anyways. Task. They had one of those. The Gryffindor lingered behind the group for a moment, letting everyone else take a fruit before he went up to the pile himself. Didn't want to get it too crowded over there, y'know? He was being considerate.

Not really paying attention to what he grabbed, the Gryffindor walked back to his area from before with a Lemon in hand. O__O A lemon!? Oh. Well this would provide an um, adequate challenge...

Cilla drew a circle around the tomato as she said, "Magimus." Again, there were sparks around the fruit. She tentatively took a small bite and slowly chewed. The tomato was now deliciously sweet without any trace of acidity.