It might have been simply because the professor said he had charmed the fire, but Henry really wanted to just put his hand in it to see what it would be like. Pulling off one of his gloves, he gingerly stuck his hand into the fire and watched curiously as the warm, red flames danced over his fingers. Interesting sensation and not unlike the flame freezing charm, he thought.

But he soon spotted a salamander in the fire so he first withdrew his hand to put his glove back on, then reached back in to carefully pick up the creature. "Hey, little guy," Henry smiled at the salamander as he looked him over, inspecting his body for any sign of scale rot. There seemed to be some rough patches on its underbelly, so Henry got a handful of his chili powder and began rubbing that gently into the salamander's skin. That seemed easy enough. "Good as new!" He carefully set the creature back into the flames and looked around for another one.

Soooooo...Derf was having thoughts. Fire related thoughts. You see...he still had fire seeds under his bed in case he should happen himself upon a dragon egg and then he could keep that safe for a bit...but now there were salamanders who also,
you know, like fire and warmth and well...he had a means of keeping one or several safe.
Could just take part of this magical fire and keep it warm there under his bed with the fire seeds and some charms he had been practicing....

IT WAS TOTALLY DOABLE!

"Professor...what about salamanders and fire seeds?" he asked nonchalantly as he poked and picked through the flames and ash in search for salamander number two. "Like...salamanders only live as long as the fire they were born from burns so like...could you magically keep that fire going and help fuel it with fire seeds? Like...eeeeeer...take SOME of their fire and then keep it elsewhere?" You know, just asking because curious and all. For science, as Jessa would say.

OH LOOK! There was one!

Being ever so careful, Derf scooped his hands under the salamander that...er...was really not keen on moving and looked really REALLY terrible.
Or maybe it was just covered in ash? That dull color flaky stuff sure looked like it. But as Derf TRIED to rub and brush it all off...he realized that it was not ash from the fire but the poor creature's own scales. In fact, Derf's gloves were now covered in scales that had fallen off the creature.

And it broke his little 12-year-old heart.

Using his teeth to get the chili powder ready, Derf began sprinkling it over the creature starting at the head and working his way down..."Where is your...." And then the Hufflepuff's eyes fell on the ash just behind the TAILLESS salamander.


Yup...there was its tail...detached and in the fire pit still.

Working quickly to rub in the chili powder as efficiently and gently as he could manage - because MORE scales were coming OFF - his eyes flickered back to the professor once more. "It's tail came off..." he whimpered. "Is...is it too late for it?"

Jessa had, as usual, asked a realllly interesting question. Emmeline always found the older girl's questions in lessons interesting (when she understood them, anyway), and she was super glad to hear Professor Wayland say that scale rot didn't hurt the salamanders until it got realllly bad and their tails fell off. Which was a terrible thing to think about, really, so Emmeline tried to shove that thought into a box and move on. Surely none of these salamanders would get that bad since they were helping them and all...

Until she overheard Derf's question and peered over at the salamander in his hand -- the TAILLESS salamander!! Emmeline clapped a hand over her mouth 'cause the poor thing looked...bad. Her eyes went wider than those fancy gold plates they used in the Great Hall as she stared and stared at the salamander. But, finally, she shook her head a little bit to clear it from allll gloomy thoughts. Hopefully Professor Wayland would know a cure or something -- he'd had a cure for Sirius's chizpurfles and stuff. Obviously Derf's salamander was waaaayy more hurt than a cruppy with chizpurfles, but STILL. Professor Wayland knew things, mhm.

There was nothing that she could do for the salamander in Derf's hand, but there was something she could do for the salamanders still waiting to be helped in the fire. So, the second year took a deeeep breath and reached into the flames once again.

Emmeline had a bit more trouble pulling her third salamander out of its fire; it reallllly wanted to stay where it was, mhm. She bent closer to the flames, briefly setting her chili powder thingy on the ground so that she could use both hands to scoop him up and out. She had initially thought that he was so hard to get out 'cause he was probably mostly healthy and stuff, but she was shocked to see that this was NOT the case as she slowly stood back up and examined him more closely.

This salamander had awful, flaky scales alllll down his WHOLE back!! Thank Merlin it hadn't reached his tail yet, but Emmeline still muttered, "Merlin's socks!" under her breath as she studied the extent of the damage. None of his scales were coming off or anything, so he obviously wasn't in as bad a shape as Derf's salamander, but the condition looked bad enough to Emmeline.

It took her a few minutes to get the salamander situated and laying on only ONE arm so that she could get LOADS of chili powder out of its container thingy with her free hand. As she started applying the powder to the salamander's neck area, he started wriggling wayyy worse than the other two. Professor Wayland had said that scale rot didn't hurt them at this point, so Emmeline figured that the salamander was just getting used to the sensation and stuff. She kept up a steady flow of chatter as she gently massaged loads and loads of chili powder over every single dry scale that she could find on the salamander's back; she was saying stuff like, "It's okay" and "You're doing soooo good, buddy". You know, comforting things like that. The salamander was definitely squirming less and less as she kept going with the chili powder and the soft, soothing baby-voice tones.

Finally, after fifteen whole minutes, her third salamander was thoroughly covered in chili powder -- 'cause he'd had loads of scale rot. Emmeline gave him a biiig, reassuring smile before she gently lowered him back onto his spot in the flames. With that salamander being okay now, though, Emmeline tried to keep an eye on the one that Derf had AND keep her other eye out for another salamander that she and her classmates hadn't gotten to yet.

Kyle had a tingling feeling beneath the cold water as he took the towel, then it slowly started burning. Somehow he hadn't noticed it until the water had started to warm up against his skin. Maybe it was the panic and adrenaline. He moved his robes a bit to peer through the hole to see a small burn there. He frowned. It did hurt, but it didn't look too bad. Yet. "I think I can continue with class, Professor. I can see Healer Reed after." Though he did kind of want to excuse himself to get new robes. Yes, maybe he was a strange boy for thinking more of his clothing than the fact he was hurting. He got that from his father, he supposed. Then, it really started to sting as his heart stopped racing and he calmed down. He bit his lip, becoming more unsure of himself. "Actually, I think I will go see Healer Reed." He excused himself and made his way back, heading for the medical wing.

Well, this was alright to Kirk since it was familiar territory. Maybe creatures wasn't one of his top favorite subjects, but it did have it's unpredictable benefits. So today was Salamander fun.. as fun as fixing rotting scales could be.

Kirk fetched out his gloves to place on before getting some chili powder to make use of it. He had to choose a salamander now then. He actually wanted to get a blue one, but with these flames it was difficult to find one so he gave up that pursuit and scooped one out.

Kirk eyed it curiously as he held it in his hand at a firm yet gentle grip. He wasn't going to squeeze the flames out of this one. Did he have to talk to it? Hey.." Salamanders weren't exactly good conversationalists if he were to think about it. So instead, he gave it a glance before spotting some discolored scales. Yep, rotten. "It's cool.." He murmured, not caring about the irony in his statement as he began rubbing some of the chili powder over it.

The feel of the scales was almost like holding a snake, but rougher, even when not touching the rotten part. Starting out gently, he applied more pressure onto the scrubbing for some time before it was fully off. "There. Not bad." He last said, before setting it back to his little habitat. Surely there was time for more Salamander healing.

Hmm, well, how could she have gotten that mixed up between muggle versus magical salamanders? Jotting down notes about what Professor Wayland mentioned, and then they were starting with the activity? Scale rot? So wait, did they have to reach into the fire? Maybe she could get one at the edge so she wouldn't have to reach into the fire...Oh, the fire wouldn't burn them? THANK YOU PROFESSOR WAYLAND. Could you teach Professor Myers that spell?

Kneeling down by the fire pit, she slipped some gloves on and waited for one to crawl close to the edge and there was one... plucking it carefully, she smiled as she held it in her palm, inspecting it carefully. Yes, some of the scales were a little flakey which meant what? Oh, scale rot.

Taking a pinch of chili powder, she sprinkled it on its back, rubbing its back. "There, there," she beamed at the little guy, noticing how warm it felt even with the gloves. Setting it down carefully back into its habitat where she got it from, she then searched for another salamander to maybe inspect as well?

Everyone had been picking people to work with but he was way too intrigued with the little critters too much to have to hover over someone's shoulder. He walked over toward the area that had the chili powder and grabbed some. He watched all of the other students and figured it couldn't be that hard to do, well putting them right back where they came from might be.

Setting the chili powder down on the ground, Patrick pulled on his dragon hide gloves and leaned into the fire. He saw a little one and grabbed it out of the fire. "Hello my friend, hope you don't mind." Shrugging, he began to inspect the little one. The heat radiated through the gloves making his palms a little sweaty, but not really a burning hot sensation. He saw a little discoloration on it's back by its head.

Opening the chili powder, Patrick rubbed it along the area that looked discolored. The discolored scales began to come out, "Look at that my friend, we're getting you all better and ready to go home." The Salamander wiggled a bit as if it were enjoying the rub down of chili. Once the salamander was up to Patricks standards he set it back into the fire.

A bit curious, Patrick looked at the professor "Professor, do they really enjoy the rubbing of chili on the scales? Or is it painful like when you need to clean out a cut?" It seemed like a silly question to ask, but really if it was hurting them he might feel terrible.

Maddie stared into the fire, realizing time wasn't up, and she should probably start working on another salamander. This one would be her...third? Fourth? She was pretty sure she'd worked on three separate salamanders already, and that this next one would be her fourth. That seemed like a lot of scale rot, which still kind of disgusted her. She just bet it disgusted the salamanders even more, though. They'd been the ones living with it plastered to their bodies. Eww...

She blinked and reached into the fire, coming out with another salamander which looked to be in pretty good condition. "I'm going to get that taken care of," she said, giving the creature a reassuring smile. She held it close to her with a gloved hand, and then she reached for the chili powder with her other gloved hand. She got to work scrubbing hard on the salamander's back, the same place she started on the salamander before. She watched as the scale rot rubbed away, creating a nice, new skin underneath. She worked on the creatures tail and legs, doing her best to make sure she got any and all scale rot she saw.

"All new again," she said, leaning over and releasing the salamander back into its firey home.

They were studying salamanders, and Stasya felt a moment of triumph that she’d guessed it before they’d been told. It wasn’t as if there were too many fire-related creatures, or at least ones that involved giant fire pits. But, in all her excitement and glances at Derf and Emmeline and all her other friends, she’d neglected to actually offer any of her own knowledge about the creatures. By now, though, she figured that Professor Wayland understood how much she knew about creatures. She spent enough time in the barns, anyway, and she was going to believe that he’d forgive her for not having said anything. Besides, they’d been instructed to actually care for the salamanders in the fire, and that was way more important than answering questions, although she did make sure to write down all the information they were being given on the subject.

Following that, she slipped her dragonhide gloves on and immediately got to work. She had salamanders to treat, and she’d hurried to collect her container of chili powder before the ickle little creatures had to wait too long. In case there were some who really needed help, after all. She didn’t want any rotting away in there. Like the poor salamander Derf had found, which broke her heart. But it also made her that much more determined. She didn’t want any salamanders suffering on her watch.

Peering into the flames again, she darted her hand in once she spotted a tiny little salamander. Maybe it was even a baby, and she cradled it in her hand as she examined it for any signs of scale rot. There was a tiny bit on one of its back legs and a spot on its tail, so she got a bit of chili powder and rubbed it into the areas carefully before she gently returned it to the spot in the flames where she’d found it. Only to notice a second one not far away, so she claimed it next.

The second one had a giant flaky patch on its back, so she treated it with chili powder like she had the first one, wondering if they were related somehow. Maybe this one was even the first one’s mama, or a sibling or something. Salamanders had to have families, right? She felt like it was possible, and stroked the salamander’s back once more before she returned it to the fire too. Hoping that the other salamanders that Derf and Emmeline had treated would be okay.

Now off to find a third, if she had time left. Or maybe Professor Wayland would let her check for more hurt salamanders after the lesson.

Shay was determined to save as many salamanders as possible, but she knew that time was growing short. Into the fire she looked once more. It took a few seconds, but Shay did spot another salamander in need of healing. Tightening her gloves, she reached in and pulled him out. A quick glance was all she needed. This one had some serious scale rot. She took a quick moment to reassure the salamander. "Hey there little guy. I'm going to fix you right up."

With not a moment to spare, Shay went for the chilli powder. She was going to need quite a bit for this fellow. She began to rub the powder into the salamander's scales, starting on his back. After making sure that she had taken care of that area, Shay moved down toward the tail. She rubbed and rubbed until she was sure that it had been blended in well. Keeping her eye on the time, the Gryffindor made sure that she had covered everything. When at last she was finished, Shay placed the salamander back in his fiery home. She hoped that she had done enough and that the creature would be cured. For now, it was time to move on to another salamander.

It was a slippery slope from her earlier concern of leaving even a little scale rot still on the salamanders. So slippery that at some point in her imagination there was a massive outbreak that quickly mutated and started affecting the students. Being possibly never seen in humans before it'd likely take time to heal and though they didn't have tails that could fall off, the Ravenclaw could see other limbs falling left and right.

So yes, a very slippery slope she had to pull herself back from.

This was more easily achieved once she scooped another salamander from the flames to attend to. Only thing was....this little guy seemed perfectly healthy to her. Jessa turned him this way and that, trying to search everything crevice of his body in case she was missing something but...there was nothing?

Welp, here came the thoughts of missing a spot and a massive outbreak around the castle being on her hands.

Although....would she be allowed to observe the effects of it afterwards? Would she have to be quarantined or could she help with the study? What were the odds something like this could be deadly to humans if left untreated and how would one even go about treating it in them? Huh. Maybe the outbreak wouldn't have been so bad afteral.

Not having seen anything, Jessa reluctantly replaced the salamander in the flames. Best to go in search of one that actually needed her help.

Tristan raised an eyebrow at young Derfael's question. This was too close to something Jessa or Zoryn would do, and that didn't bode well with him. "Fire Seeds work for a while, yes, but only for the whole Salamander fire. If you separate their fire, it will make them die faster and Fire Seeds wont maintain it." He really hoped Derfael wasn't getting any ideas. He knew last term that Derf was sneaking Picketta out of the infant creatures barn and he should have done something about it then but didn't because he was a new Professor and didn't want to seem mean. This term he wasn't going to let things go. Hopefully his warning would deter the young man from any thoughts he may have of separating the Salamander fire.

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

A few minutes later he heard Derfael say something about a tail being missing. He quickly went over to the young boy and knelt next to him. "Not to worry, Derfael. Just because his tail has been lost, does not mean he will die. I have seen many Salamanders live happily with out them." He gave the young man a gentle smile, hoping to calm him down. "Now, rub him down good with that chili powder use as much as you can. I promise he will be okay. The painful part is over. The tail is gone. So as long as we treat him, and we treat him once a day, he should be back to normal within two to four weeks. He wont die until his fire does. Remember that." Tristan said with a wink, patting the young man on the shoulder.

Before Tristan could ask if he needed assistance back to the castle, Kyle was out of site. He hoped the young man was okay. He would be checking in on him after the lesson was over. He was sure River could heal him before Tristan even made it there, but the worry always made it's way in. He really cared about his students well being, which was the majority of the reason he got so worked up when they did things he knew could get them hurt. It made him slightly regret everything he did at this school to get detention. Kinda.

Apparently someone hadn't been listening. To engaged in his work to hear what the profeessor had said earlier. Which was of course okay in his book. He didn't mind repeating himself....well, not more than once. Anyway. "As I said before, their scales are rougher than that powder, and they actually enjoy it being rubbed on them. If you notice as your rubbing, they tend to relax a bit. It's more like getting a good back scratch or back rub by someone for them. So it doesn't hurt them at all." He said with a small smile.


They need to move on to the next phase of the lesson, but he would allow them to grab one more salamander before they completely moved on. "Alright, grab one last salamander and give it a good look over, and while you are doing so, I want you to answer this question." He paused, and walked slowly back towards his standing spot. "Now we all know that Salamander Fires need to be maintained, and kept burning or the salamanders born from it will die. What kind of materials are good to use to maintain not only a normal fire, but a Salamander fire?" By the time he finished the question, he was standing in his spot looking at all the faces around the fire pit. Had anyone else noticed it had gotten a bit darker since class had started?



OOC: Alright you all are doing fantastic! As you answer the question, please be wrapping up your Salamander treatments! You have 24 hours to answer the question before we move on to the last part of the lesson!

Kirk had about reached into the flames, that seemingly darkened a tad allowing easier access to a Salamander. Picking one up, he held it just as before to give it a check and.. aha. He used the chili powder once again to rub away some of the rot. All done. Now he picked up another Salamander just as the Professor continued the lesson.

Materials used to keeping the flames going? Kirk was curious about this question, as he went about rubbing the rot away on the Salamander, "I know muggles use wood to keep flames brewing, but wouldn't the spell Incendio work?" Unless it had some adverse affect on the Salamanders.

Materials to use to maintain fire.... The first thing that the Curly Top thought of were charcoal or really good wood chips like Hickory or Cherry. But those are Muggly ways of grilling and imparting flavors, not necessarily the sort that would maintain the kind of fire magical Salamanders needed. But there was something he heard about "Professor, theres something called Everlasting Flames, its an advanced spell of generating fire but apparently when its created the fire wont die out, at least not in the usual sense."

Etta moved to the pit and picked another Salamander before gently lifting the creature up, checking to see if it had flaky scales.. no, it seemed clean enough. Sorry about that, little one. She set it back on the ground before raising a hand to answer the question.

WAIT. Materials? She wasn’t sure. She’d assumed it would be magic but.. obviously, the girl was wrong. “So Professor, are you saying that spells wouldn’t work?” Well, that wasn’t an answer but she had no idea and she didn’t want to pretend like she did. Ahem.

Grabbing one last Salamander was exactly what Felicity was doing, picking up a creature close to the edge of the fire and inspecting the scales on its back. She held it in one hand and started to rub the chili powder onto the areas that were damaged, giggling as it seemed to fidget on her palm. Putting it back gently, she listened to other students answer the question Professor Wayland put to them, thinking.

Like Etta, she was also surprised by the idea of 'materials', but nevertheless her hand went up. Of course, wood had already been mentioned, but, "There are fuels like gas and coal, right?" So they were mainly used by Muggles, and even then their use was limited, but they fit the criteria of materials good to maintain a fire.

Selecting another salamander from the edge of the fire, Skylar was about to start with the process of rubbing its back, when Professor Wayland asked them another question. About maintaining normal fires, but also Salamander fires, with certain materials. Huh, Etta brought up a good point; apparently in NEWT level, it was all about that level of critical thinking, because he had mentioned what materials, implying that spells might not be effective.

Gas and coal? Skylar glanced curiously at her dormie, because wasn't coal like an outdated method that while effective at fuel-burning, was super bad for the environment? Also, was it just her or was the fire dwindling since the start of class? Gas, coal, various spell mentions, wood, but surely there had to be something more. "It might seem kind of obvious, but if one were to be attempting spells to keep a fire ablaze, then a wand would be necessary." Really, Skylar? A wand? May as well prepare to be repeating fifth year now. Except a wand was a material, something that incendio was not.

Back to her salamander, she absently began rubbing the chili powder into its back, as scales flaked off. It was actually somewhat calm-inducing.

Time for one more salamander? Okay, then. Maddie secured her gloves onto her hands then reached back into the fire. She came out with a salamander that looked like someone had already worked on it. Whoever it was had done a really good job. The salamander looked really nice and rot-less. Maddie put it gently back into the fire then reached for one that hopefully still needed her help.

The next salamander definitely did need her help. "It's okay. I got this," she assured it, even though she knew it couldn't understand her. She scooped a bit of the chili powder into her hand as she listened to the professor's question. Maddie really didn't have a good answer for that. She definitely didn't know how to keep a salamander fire going... She stayed quiet as she scrubbed down the salamander, removing as much of the scale rot as she could.

Not exactly able to raise her hand at the moment, Maddie just looked up at the professor. "Sometimes you just can just poke the fire with a stick, and it turns over some of the wood, so the fire doesn't smother," she said. She moved on to scrubbing the salamander's legs, and when she was done, she gave the creature a good look-over. It looked good, so she released it back into the fire. All done.

Well it seemed that they had time to treat one more salamander. Shay immediately had her hand back in the fire. As she was reaching for another patient, the professor presented one more question. The seventh year had her salamander in hand and while she checked him over, she thought about the question. Then she figured that she should focus on what she was doing and deal with the question when she was finished.

Shay was getting pretty good at checking for scale rot because she noticed it right away on her new salamander. This one was not too bad when compared with the one she had treated before. This time, there was a tiny bit of flakiness on the tail area. Not needing too much chilli powder, she scooped some up on her gloved finger. Then she began to rub the hot powder into the salamander's tail scales. Shay was glad to hear that this whole process was a positive one for the salamanders. She certainly wouldn't want to hurt them or make them uncomfortable in any way. When she finished her treatment, Shay placed the salamander carefully back into the fire.

Now it was time to address the question. Shay raised her hand and began to speak. "The first thing I would think of would be wood, but it would need to be dry wood." Damp or completely wet would would not be a good thing to use. Shay smiled when she heard wand listed as a necessary material. Of course it was. Why didn't she think of that? You couldn't perform any fire making or prolonging spells without a wand.

Materials for a fire? She was kinda with Skylar on the needing a wand thing.....

Because these salamanders were magic and would likely require a magical fire.....which...while it didn't provide much of an answer for the Ravenclaw, gave her a whole other question in itself.

Jessa lowered her last salamander back into the flames before turning to the Professor with her hand raised. No she didn't have an answer but now she'd found a whole new question to ponder over and would naturally need an answer if she didn't wanna be pouring over it for the rest of the day.

"Is it possible for salamander fires to produce Ashwinders, Professor? Given the assumed magical properties of them and all? Or...does a salamander being in it change its status from being untended....?--Or is that not how the concept of an untended magical fire works?"

She was confusing herself but hoped it made sense because Merlin now she really needed to know.

Oh they weren't done yet?

Eddie sighed to himself before just sitting back and listening to everyone else talk.
He really didn't care what went into the fires and the only reason he would care would be to take one with him.


So instead of answering he decided to stay quiet and just half pay attention.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suziella

Tristan raised an eyebrow at young Derfael's question. This was too close to something Jessa or Zoryn would do, and that didn't bode well with him. "Fire Seeds work for a while, yes, but only for the whole Salamander fire. If you separate their fire, it will make them die faster and Fire Seeds wont maintain it." He really hoped Derfael wasn't getting any ideas. He knew last term that Derf was sneaking Picketta out of the infant creatures barn and he should have done something about it then but didn't because he was a new Professor and didn't want to seem mean. This term he wasn't going to let things go. Hopefully his warning would deter the young man from any thoughts he may have of separating the Salamander fire.

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

A few minutes later he heard Derfael say something about a tail being missing. He quickly went over to the young boy and knelt next to him. "Not to worry, Derfael. Just because his tail has been lost, does not mean he will die. I have seen many Salamanders live happily with out them." He gave the young man a gentle smile, hoping to calm him down. "Now, rub him down good with that chili powder use as much as you can. I promise he will be okay. The painful part is over. The tail is gone. So as long as we treat him, and we treat him once a day, he should be back to normal within two to four weeks. He wont die until his fire does. Remember that." Tristan said with a wink, patting the young man on the shoulder.

Oh.
Well then. No the only way for him to take one of the salamanders would be to take the entire fire and, well, the third year certainly did not have the means of doing that and therefore could NOT transport any of them safely back to his dorm. Scratch that plan. He clearly would need to work a plan B: making his own magical fire and birthing from it salamanders.

"Gotcha," he nodded to the professor as he returned his attention to the salamander in his hand...who just looked so sickly that it was breaking the 13-year-old's heart. Which was why he basically pour the entire contents of his little jar of chili powder all over the creature and began rubbing it methodically all about while trying not to sniffle each time more scales flaked off. "If...if it's alright, professor...could I take care of Agni?" Because yes, he had already named the salamander, thank you very much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suziella

They need to move on to the next phase of the lesson, but he would allow them to grab one more salamander before they completely moved on. "Alright, grab one last salamander and give it a good look over, and while you are doing so, I want you to answer this question." He paused, and walked slowly back towards his standing spot. "Now we all know that Salamander Fires need to be maintained, and kept burning or the salamanders born from it will die. What kind of materials are good to use to maintain not only a normal fire, but a Salamander fire?" By the time he finished the question, he was standing in his spot looking at all the faces around the fire pit. Had anyone else noticed it had gotten a bit darker since class had started?

Derf continued rubbing the powered all over Agni, who seemed to come to life just a tiiiiiiiiny bit more while he did...at least his legs were twitching some, as the professor somewhat moved things along.

Well...the professor had already confirmed with him about something...and for a moment he wondered if a Flame-Freezing Charm could help too...before he remember that all that charm did was make the fire not hurt and burn when you touched it. Just a warm spring breeze...but nothing about prolonging things.

"Fire seeds," he offered, mostly just repeating what they had spoken about in private not too long ago. "And the Forbidden Forest has an entire CAVE of them. Thereos could show us the way!"

Yup.

With her dragon hide gloves on and a box of chili powder in her possession, Cassie went to work on checking out the salamanders. The fifth year was listening to the discussion going on around her, but for the most part she chose to remain quiet as she worked. Checking the scales and rubbing the occasional salamander with the chili powder. Even before Professor Wayland confirmed that they enjoyed the process Cass could see it was true. The creatures seemed to calm in her grasp when she rubbed them with it, rather than squirming in her hands.

Which meant way less chance of accidentally having it touch her clothes.

As she reached for the last salamander as per the Professor moving them on, the Ravenclaw thought on the latest question posed to them. Incendio…everlasting flames…coal…gas…wood…a wand. They all seemed good answers given by her classmates…both muggle and more wizarding options. “Maybe a dried powder like the pepper that keeps fire salamanders alive outside the flames or the chili powder that helps with rot.” Maybe a little outside the box but it made some sense in the connection.

Emmeline BEAMED at Professor Wayland when he said that Derf's salamander -- and yes, his naming it sort of made it his in the Gryffindor's mind, even if it wasn't official (yet) -- would be okay. It even sounded like the poor little guy wouldn't have annnny more pain from his remaining scale rot either. She had complete faith in her friend's ability to take care of the salamander properly and nurse him back to health, too. Hopefully Professor Wayland would let Derf do that, mhm.

As she thought about the professor's new question, Emmeline reached into the fire once again and carefully pulled out another salamander. This one actually seemed okay, though. The second year listened to alll of her classmates' answers as she sort of petted him for a bit and tried to think of materials that hadn't already been mentioned. She didn't really know of any others, but she decided to at least TRY; this was CoMC after all -- the single most important class for someone who wanted to take care of creatures when they grew up like her, mhm. So Emmeline raised her salamander-free hand and asked tentatively, "Ummm, others have said wood but like, does a certain kind of wood work better for salamander fires than others, maybe?" Not that she had any idea what kind of wood would be best at first, but then she found herself adding a few seconds later: "My wand is made of laurel wood, sir, and the wand lady at Ollivander's said that it's particularly good at fire spells. Soo is that maybe 'cause laurel wood itself is super sensitive to or good for fire magic tooo?" She was totally just thinking out loud here, mhm.

Patrick nodded his head at the professor, his cheeks growing a bit red at the mention of already telling them the salamanders enjoyed the rubbing. He often got so lost in the task at hand he would forget unless written down, easily distracted his mother always told him. "Sorry Professor, just got caught up in helping the little guys." He stated while grabbing one last salamander to help clean up.

He looked over the salamander and saw some discoloration on the back of this one. He began to massage in the chili powder this time he noticed that the Salamander began to relax in his hands. With a final look over he carefully sat the creature back into the fire and listened to what the other students were saying for keeping the fire going. He had no idea who they were kept alive. One thing his parents hadn't spoken much of were the different types of creates around the magical world. Maybe all along there have been creatures like this in the muggle world and no one ever noticed. It might also be that he never noticed because he was in a muggle school growing up.