Vita returned Indigo's hand squeeze as her gaze followed the creatures. She observed where in the room they were moving, how they were moving, what senses they might be using other than hearing. They didn't seem to know exactly where the students where, which was a good sign. Meant they had an advantage as long as they kept quiet. Also meant maybe they couldn't see so well. Did that mean movement was okay as long as it was quiet movement? That motion wouldn't set them off? They'd need to test that out and Vita was going to get her chance as a younger Gryffindor was doing a good job calling attention to himself nearby. It had to be a Gryffindor...

Gesturing to her wand, Vita gave Indigo a questioning look back. They could use magic, maybe? But first...

She tiptoed towards the Gryffindor, each foot fall tentative to ensure she didn't make a sound. She made sure the boy could see her coming so she wouldn't startle him, and held a finger to her lips. Shhh. She then raised both her hands and slowly lowered them, hopefully telling him to calm down. Then she beckoned him over to where Indigo was.

When Vita moved toward the Gryffindor boy Indigo moved over to the ball pit to grab one. He did it all very quietly, of course. This wasn't supposed to be the challenging part anyway. He moved back over quickly and saw her beckoning the boy over to them. The boy looked very frightened, which Indigo could understand. Those creatures were pretty scary. He wanted to be able to help the boy, but he didn't know how to do that silently. So he watched, trying to send him a sympathetic look and be as reassuring as he could.

Now that he had the ball in his hand he wasn't sure exactly to do with it. He held it up a bit, showing it to Vita and their new teammate. Then he held out his wand and sort of tapped it against the top of the ball. He wasn't actually doing anything yet, but he gave them a questioning look, trying to silently ask if they thought he should try doing magic on it. Specifically, should be try to levitate it nonverbally to try to get it into the basket?

Maeve might have visibly relaxed just a twinge at Missa's words. Even though she barely knew the younger girl, somehow she seemed about comparable to herself athletic-wise, which made things much better.

And then, she heard Missa... Right side thigh. Wait. Which was her right side?? Was it bad if she was nearly seventeen and got her left and right mixed up?? Also did it mean HER right or Missa's right?? Why did directions have to be so confusing? Why was she overthinking this? And why ... Ooph! A light collision of the ball to her thigh snapped Maeve back to reality, because she'd been of course, thinking about this too long. Raising her blindfold, she gave small smile.

Oh and they were moving onto .... putting the balls into a basket. But silently?? Ah well, of course and she gave a silent nod at the Ravenclaw, cause why not? And like if anyone else wanted to join up with them? How many teams did they have? Non-verbal levitation charm. Okayyy... she hadn't ever done a non-verbal before, but she HAD done a levitation charm so she could do this.

Was it time to start? Should they wait for others to join their team?

They DID hear that, the boy's (Lucas) whimper that almost seemed to pierce the silence for the creatures with acute hearing. Two turned their attention in the direction of the young boy immediately but by the time they got close enough, the noise was gone and they were once again left wandering dangerously close to the one group (Indigo, Vita, Lucas).

Was there prey here?

One sniffed by the Ravenclaw's tie. Another sniffed at little Lucas's shirt. They came up with nothing. It was sound that they needed.

The others continued to roam the padded room, ears perked up for the faintest of sounds. One moved by the older Gryffindor (Maeve), stopping a moment in the hope it would pick up on a noise. Another found itself right behind the Hufflepuff (Eni).

Where was everyone?

The one who walked by Austin didn't seem to think so.

Holly beamed at the Headmaster, nodding instantly. ”Half an hour. Amazing! Thank you!” How amazing was that??? Totally gave her plenty of time to grab something to eat AND get to her next class. Hehehehe. Gymnastics time!! ^__^ She wouldn’t disappoint him.

It sounded hard. It sounded like a lot of work. It sounded like something that she wanted to be able to do! … And it REALLY sounded like something she needed to start like… yesterday.


Oh. Look at that, she got mentioned. ^___^

… And she was right about it being a challenge and something that would make her proud. Yup, she wanted to work on that.

……… Woah. What were they??? She’d never seen creatures like them before….. They were hyper-sensitive? Oh… boy.

She couldn’t do non-verbals, had never even TRIED them… so… how was she… going.. Uh.

But before she had moved more than a step to the right, the creatures were unchained and she was stock still with wide eyes. Ohmerlin. She took a deep breath before looking around to see if she could find someone to work with - where was Cam when she needed him… He’d have helped her through this.

… but she was strong enough to do this herself, and definitely light enough on her feet. Maybe she could just walk over there… would that work? Hmm. Partner up first.

Austin glanced around, moving his head. He waved his arm at the mystery girl. He pointed to her and then himself. Partner? He was trying to silently say. He could not just walk over there. That would mean making a sound.

Uhhhhh... Right...

Silence.

That was NOT something she was very well known for. Rylee could be silent though when she choose to be. Like now. Silence was key. As was getting as many of the balls into her teams basket as possible.

The idea of it sounded simple. That is until whatever those things were appeared. Being able to see them didn't help to do anything for her. And for a very long time she kept a close eye on them, attempting to keep them all in her range of sight.

Without moving from her current spot, how could she get a ball into the team basket? Levitation. The answer was simple. They had already been told that. It was a spell she knew she could cast verbally without any trouble. However... casting it non-verbally might be an issue. Only one way to find out though.

Taking small quiet steps she went to get a ball and join her team.

Uh....

She saw the motion.. but really she didn't think she could help him or that he could help her. She certainly couldn't do anything non-verbal yet.. and he was just a first year so the likelihood was that he couldn't either... If they were to team up, they really needed to get some of the other, older students, to pair up with them. Like... really needed an older student or two.

Nibbling on her bottom lip, looking worried, she shrugged her shoulders slightly even as she eyed the moving creatures. Sure... It wasn't enthusiastic. Sorry, Austin. But it also wasn't personal... just just really didn't want to get hurt or die.

Moving slowly, softly on the balls of her feet, Holly crossed the room to the ball pit. Gently, she reached inside and lifted a ball, trying to keep her breathing steady so that those creatures wouldn't be alerted.

Next, she moved towards Austin - constantly trying to find an older student to join them.

She saw them and took a deep breath trying to be quiet. They were scary looking and she closed her eyes hoping not to see them anymore and not to move. She would rather just keep her eyes closed to try to visualize things like the balls moving, but she knew she'd have to look at them.

Giving the balls a look she moved her wand as little as possible and thought really hard about the spell. The ball she was working with raised just a little before it fell back down.

Did the creature notice? Oh she hoped not, it was scary and she didn't want to bring any atteniton to herself.

..............

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no.

PANIC.

Lucas's eyes widened even more, if possible. Why? Because two of the creatures were now looking DIRECTLY at him. No no no no NO. Please no. He was NOT the one dying this year at Hogwarts. He still stood stock still, just watching the creatures as much as possible. Because if he could see them, he wouldn't be so surprised by their actions.

Something he was surprised by? That his whimpering caught the attention of someone else: the Slytherin Prefect. Normally, he would've smiled or tried to say hi but, instead, he was trying to figure out what it was she was saying. Be quiet? Calm down? Sit down? He..... nodded as best as he could. Yeah. He could do that.

But that wasn't all: she was calling him over to where someone else (Indigo) was standing. Did he know them? No. But anything was better than standing there in front of the creatures. The only problem now, was that he didn't think his legs could move. His green eyes looked downwards and he slowly...... very slowly, started moving his toes, and then his foot, and then his leg. He lifted his leg up and sloooooowly set it down again one step forward.

Then there was another step. And another.

A series of soft steps followed, starting off slow but then his step quickening the more his legs got used to walking. Soon, he was close enough to the Prefect and the older guy who had a ball (Indigo) to focus on just them. His eyebrows furrowed slightly when the guy tapped his wand on the ball but...... nothing happened? Confusion? But his face said something else and so, Lucas nodded. He agreed. Whatever it was, it was probably the right decision.

And if it wasn't, that was o-

..........

.....................

It was a good thing it was quiet in here because if it wasn't, he probably wouldn't have heard the sound of sniffing so close to him. It was enough to make him turn his head and-

Panic? PANIC.

His eyes had widened again, this time looking between his two older teammates and the creature that was currently sniffing at his shirt. NO. What had he said about dying? NOT TODAY. Could he do anything about it? No, because he was Lucas Sebastian Dakest and he would rather scream and run away. Isn't that right, Headmaster Trent?

But right now, that wasn't an option so he just stood there, panicking internally.

Oh good, the younger boy could move. That was good news. He also seemed like he was on board for whatever Indigo was implying they should do, and that was also good. This might not be so difficult after all, especially if they could all be on the same pa-

O_o

No, no, no, no, no. She already knew the Gryffindor boy was scared and if he made another noise right now...well, they were really going to be in trouble. She glanced warily between the two and gestured for them to move backwards, away from the creatures. If they couldn't see them, they were safe for now, and putting some space between themselves and those things was definitely a good plan as far as she was concerned.

One step...two...three steps back.

Were they following?

Okay, game plan. What was the game plan?

Gesturing at Indigo and his wand, Vita tried to convey that maybe he could levitate the ball. Then, she pointed at Lucas, and then at herself, and tried to act out cradling the space under the ball with their hands, so that if it did fall, they could catch it before it hit the ground. She probably looked absolutely ridiculous, but she wanted to make sure they knew what she was suggesting, so she was putting a lot of effort into making her intentions clear. Were they getting it?

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

Popping into the classroom suddenly and without warning, as house elfsies do, Toddles' big eyes seemed even BIGGER than usual. And wetter. Much much much MUCH wetter. And his screams shrill and almost inaudible for humans. And his little chinny chin chin was wibbling and maybe wobbling too. But not as much as his slender bony frame was quivering and shaking from FEAR.

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

Knees buckling, Toddles crumbled to the floor in a SOBBING mess of floppy ears and potato sack.

A creature did hear the ball that was dropped by the young Ravenclaw (Chloe) and it quickly started toward the girl. The ball, as the Headmaster had warned, gave off a LOUD noise when it fell. A precaution he’d hoped they would have taken more seriously.

Another and another started in her direction but they all stopped dead in their tracks and made an immediate u-turn at the arrival of the House elf. Noise. Loud noise.

The swarm of creatures all rushed in his direction. He was prey, very easy prey and he’d successfully distracted all the creatures from the students.

Malachi watched, admittedly very confused as to why Tamesis and Spencer were trying to create a third group when he’d said there would be two teams. There were two baskets, two sets of balls, and no indication there was room for more. They were either on the one team or the other.

He may have pointed out as much but his attention was drawn by Dakest. Immediately the man’s wand was drawn in case he would need to take action. Surprisingly, the whimper aside, the boy managed to remain silent and was led away by Mallari. No one would be dying today. Good good.

Now all they needed was—

...

......

*Deadpan*

Reflex alone had the man vanishing the entire assortment of creatures, quite put off he’d had to when the students were still working. There were many routes they could take that didn’t involve trying and failing at non-verbals then drawing more attention to themselves. So far they seemed determined to try and fail a few times but he was hoping one or two would see the light. What he wasn't hoping for was the sudden appearance of the House Elf.

“What is it, Toddles?” As calmly as he could manage. Wasn’t it too early for the whole “the sky is falling” bit?

Toddles was DISTRAUGHT!

Sobbing and wailing and drawing all kinds of attention to his elfsie self, Toddles began rolling back and forth and sideways and upways and forthways some more while covering his large eyes with his sweaty palms.

"IT WAS HORRIBLE MISTER MASTER HEADMASTER!" Toddles wailed. "Toddles just does as Toddles tolds, sir. Toddles go into the forest like a good elfsies to collect the best of mushrooms for Argyle's soup for dinner, sir. Toddles have his basket almost filled all the way up he did, sir! Then Toddles sees...saws....sees...saws...HE SEES SOMETHING MOST FOUL TODDLES DOES SIR! TODDLES FEARS FOR TODDLES VERY LIFSIES HE DOES, SIR! RUNS AWAY TODDLES DOES!"

Austin jumped slightly at the ball dropping and then the house elf popped in. No. More like it popped in and CRIED.
Really?? What part of silence do these people not understand?? Austin pinched the bridge of his nose holding off on his non verbal levitating charm.

...

......”Okay.”

On the one hand, this was Toddles, an elf known for his...spirited personality. On the other hand, warning of a potential issue in the forest seemed a bit foolhardy to ignore even for a former Gryffindor. The Headmaster went silent for a moment before undoing all the charms on the room and revealing the door. He’d check it out...just in case. Dolly Dopple was all the reason he needed to do things just in case. Didn’t need more of her floating around the castle plaguing him with guilt.

“We’re gonna wrap this up a bit earlier than expected.” He informed, now addressing the students. He’d make a quick stop in the forest, make sure everything was a-okay. At the very least, he’d have to get to the bottom of whatever Toddles thought he saw.

“Homework, read the chapter of non-verbal spells. I want a 24 inch parchment on their usefulness and applicability—or lack thereof if that’s the direction you’re leaning. Gather your things. You’re dismissed.” He turned to Toddles. “You come with me.”

And with that the man began making long strides out of the room. If nothing else, dinner now sounded compromised.

OOC: Thanks for coming everyone! The lesson has officially ended. You can post your students reacting/leaving. I’ll close the thread when I get home most likely <3

Eniola really shouldn't be surprised when there's noise and the creatures started to attack but just then there was an even louder noise. A house elf had come in and started absolutely screaming. Eni winced at the loud noise, but dared not to speak in fear of them turning on her next.

Thankfully the Headmaster intervened and ended the assignment early!? NO! I'm just getting close! She thought to herself in misery. Sighing in disappointment she gathered her tie from the floor and abandoned the ball she had been SO close to levitating.

I'll find a place to keep practicing. She thought to herself. Eni had been working on this for quite a while.

Seriously? Austin hadn't even started yet. He sighed. Okay. Okay. Class dissmissed then.
He nodded at the headmaster and made a quiet exit.

Having made her way over to one of the groups, she was going to motion to them - silently ask if they could join in - but before anything else happened there was a horrible sound as one of the balls landed on the ground. Her breathing faltered, eyes wide as she saw the creatures turning and moving in the direction that the ball had dropped.

.............

Wider eyes and cold-laced fear wrapped around her heart at the sobbing Toddles and the noise and the look on the creatures faces and the ...................... they were gone. Unblinking, she looked around the room as she bit her lip, terrified to move.

..... She didn't know if she still wanted to stay and practice her gymnastics when they were being let out early... she could go and start on some of her homework. 24 inches was a lot, especially when she didn't know anything about non-verbals yet. Not really.

......... Decisions.

The Professor was already gone though, and as she watched her class mates leaving Holly made up her mind. The Professor had told her she could have half an hour so that she could still get food. Starting early, simply meant she had longer to get food and she definitely wouldn't be in a rush. So, she pushed her bag off to the side, pulled her hair into a messy bun and then started to stretch as her heart-rate slowly settled back down again.

Rylee froze right there in her tracks when Toddles popped into the room wailing and sobbing uncontrollably. The sight of the elfsie alone was rather surprising but the fact that he was in tears and shaking violently as he was, was cause for concern. Even more so when those creature things began to swarm around him! The teenagers eyes widened unsure what to do for several seconds. Thankfully nothing had to be done as the Professor banished the creatures away.

Letting out a small breath of relief, Rylee listened as Toddles explained through his tears what had happened. Something foul in the forest that made him fear for his life?! Not knowing what to think she remained quiet, even though what she really wanted to do was comfort Toddles in some way. But class was being dismissed early and they were told to leave.

Quietly collecting her things and heading towards the door to leave, she paused for a moment looking back over her shoulder. "Thank you for the lesson, Headmaster... and don't worry Toddles, Headmaster Trent will take care of it." Whatever it, happened to be.