Abnormal did not even begin to describe the behavior Thereos was witnessing among the bowtruckles and made the centaur all too eager to return to his home to consult the sage.

"I do not know, Mr. McCarthy," he replied with an airy graveness while looking over both of his broad shoulders to check that his students were all accounted for and to evaluate the positions of the bowtruckles. "It is clear that our presence has brought forth great trepidation and that we shall not be able to perform readings as predicted. We must not fight the forces before us. All is a sign. An acorn at the threshold will keep lightning out."

Pausing a moment here, Thereos glanced around the groove just as the cloudless sky was no more and the sun eclipsed. Even if they were to have successfully began their readings, all had turned to bad omens now on the scent of an approaching downpour. A most unsettling of circumstances. The path of Jupiter had assured him there was to be no rain for another two weeks.

"Back to the castle, younglings. Stay close to me and do not fear. We will survive this tempest of uncertainty."

His eyes then gazed upon the bowtruckles and a particular part of their perimeter in fervent hope that, as a fellow dweller of the Forbidden Forest, they would permit him escort all back to the safety of the castle.

Rylee very nearly shrieked when something landed on her head. Not something, someone. Several. There was BOWTRUCKLES on her hair! Remaining as calm as she could she lifted her hands from the ground where they had been in order to try to get them off. Whether it was more them or her own efforts in trying to remove them, they were becoming tangled in her hair! This was definitely not the time to have very long hair that wasn't tied up!

She could fell them getting more and stuck in her ginger locks. "Yes, please," she whispered softly barely nodding her head when Samuil walked over towards her. "Careful, their getting themselves rather tangled and we don't want to harm them." Even if they were trying to harm her she would do her very best to show them she wasn't going to do them same.

As gently as possible she worked to untangle one without coming into contact with his claws. See? She really meant them no harm at all. "Did we get them all?" she asked Sammy unable to see the back of her own head but not feeling anything she she thought they did.

"Thanks," she gave Sammy a light smile for his help as she got to her feet making her way very slowly and carefully over to Thereos, not wanting to harm any Bowtruckles that might be close. She was ready to head back now but something about this didn't feel right. There had to be something happening around here that the creatures didn't like.

The little bugger from his shirt has scratched him pretty good. Blood was dribbling down his fingers a little. Sammy had bled more in the past 2 months then he had in his 13 years of life. If this was a preview of how the rest of his years here at Hogwarts were going to go, he was going to have to talk to his parents about transferring him somewhere, anywhere else. Even the threat of more perkiness was better than bleeding to death slowly.

He pulled a few of the bowtruckles out of the girl’s hair, hoping he didn’t dribble blood on her, and more importantly that if he did, she wans’t going to pass out. Some girls did that – or so he was told – at the sight of blood. He got about 3 of them untangled and put them back on the ground (keeping an eye out to make sure they didn’t start attacking him again) and then helped the girl to her feet.

Together with the girl, he walked back over to Professor Thereos. It appeared the class was over today. He was fine with that, so long as the next class didn’t include him hugging a tree again. He looked around the grove and then back down at the ring of bowtruckles around them. Should they…ah… just carefully step over them? There really wasn’t a way around them. If the professor wasn't with them, he might have just done that. But he didn't want to offend the centaur. The action might be considered disrespectful.

Sammy promised himself that if they made it back to the castle, he was never going into a forest again without a pocket full of wood lice on him. Or fairy eggs. That gave him an idea. Maybe one of his classmates did have some. People carried weirder things around with them all the time. ”Anyone got any wood lice or fairy eggs on them? Anything edible?” Maybe the professor still had that bowl of edible flowers on him too. Bowtruckles were omnivores after all.

Dark brown beady eyes fixated on the humans and their centaur guide, the bowtruckles waited. The tension in the air so palatable that one flick of their slender sharp fingers could cut it. And then they took a few steps in, encroaching on the intruders only to then scatter in the front and move around to the back. Now in a semi circle formation behind the class, the bowtruckles began clicking and chattering their teeth almost as though chanting.

But the class was free to leave...and they best do so soon before something else set the unsettled creatures off and they changed their minds.

Austin followed e everyone back to the school. He hadn't gotten much done due to the botruckles but the fact that he didn't have to speak made him happy. He shuffled into the crowd blending in.

Curious. Very curious.

Holding his tongue, the centaur merely bowed his head in appreciation to the bowtruckles as they parted to allow he and his pupils safe passage. "Let us return," he spoke softly before his great hooves tread lightly on the ground and continued to be mindful of the saplings sprouting forth from it.

The sage would be consulted this night and, perhaps, on the next cloudless day he would find a place on the Hogwarts grounds to return to the subject of dendromancy to perform a reading himself. The answers to the bowtruckles peculiar behavior was in the trees and the whispers of the leaves, of this he was certain.

Slowly, cautiously, Thereos retraced their tracks back out of the forest and back to his stump.

"Class dismissed. Partake in more floral offerings if you wish," he spoke distractedly with strong arms crossed over his chest. "While not our intent this day, your homework is to familiarize yourself with Theriomancy or the practice of divining the past, present, and future by the movements of beasts. You may deliver your assignment to this stump and I am available for counsel should it be sought." He glances upwards briefly at the darkening sky. "Beware the perched owl that hoots upon your arrival and turn not your back to it... or risk disastrous circumstances befall you."

OOC: Class dismissed! Thank you for coming ❤ This thread will remain open for an additional 8 hours or so from the time of this post to allow for any wrapping up or catching up posts.

.....and maybe your character should avoid the Owlery for a while.