Lucas didn't have a cat with him, unfortunately. Emma was the one who had a pet cat and he often played with him when he had the chance. But bringing Davies along to a lesson when the cat had already left Hogwarts alongside Emma was impossible. Sigh.

So, empty handed - apart from the school bag he was carrying, of course - the sixth year approached the fenced-in area where class was supposed to be. And the obstacle course? For someone who didn't like the idea of exercising, it was weird to see him smiling at the sight of the obstacle course but that was exactly what he was doing right now.

Why? Because hey, the obstacle course wasn't for him, by the looks of it.

"Good afternoon, Professor," he said, quietly. He missed Nostredame. A lot. The man had a very pretty face. But that was something he couldn't talk about now, so he simply flashed Williamson a small smile before shuffling off to find a kneazle. Any kneazle that would have him. Did they have to choose wisely? He hoped not. Something told him he couldn't pick and choose with something like-

Oh?

Bending down, Lucas wasted little time in picking up the brown and grey spotted kneazle. He immediately noticed the different colours spots around its eyes, and that its eyes were almost as green as his own. Huh. Could he keep this one? For this class but, well, if they were allowed to keep them after class was over..........

Still holding onto the kneazle, he turned around and went to sit in the closest empty spot he could find. Did it matter where? Not exactly. He had bigger things to worry about.

Alexia found herself with a bounce in her step after lunch. Not only was her stomach full of food (always a plus) she just liked afternoon classes more. People were more awake and more loose. She was definitely feeling more awake than she was this morning. Although, that might have been the coffee she drank.

She also might have been excited because they were working with cats and kneazles today! She had just learned what a kneazle was on the train, and they seemed harmless, enough. Cute, if nothing else. But Alexia was definitely a cat person. While she was slightly bummed they weren't starting off with something huge and ferocious, cats were also something she could work with. That most likely wouldn't bite off her hand or anything like that.

Problem was, she didn't have a cat. At least there were lots of kneazles around. They looked cute, and mostly approachable. She really should have figured out how dangerous these things were or not. Wait, her Professor wouldn't let them learn while holding dangerous animals, right? They had to be safe!

Speaking of Professors....

"Good afternoon, Sir!" She had on a warm smile that seemed to reach her brown eyes. She was very excited for this class. Although that might, again, be the coffee she drank.

First Care of Magical Creatures lesson! Yay!

The third year was very excited about today's lesson because she'd noticed that it listed to bring your pet cat or kneazle, so she was the MOST excited to be able to bring her feline cuddle buddy, Astrid, (formerly known as Princess temporarily) with her. She had no idea why, but Faye was definitely not questioning it. Any excuse to spend more time with her, she would definitely take it.

Soon arriving at where today's location was being held was when she was able to look at the fenced-in area, raising an eyebrow very curiously as she examined the...obstacle course? Huh, interes-OH WERE THOSE KNEAZLES?! She contained her excitement as she carried Astrid to find an available seat that wasn't taken yet. In doing so, she gave a polite acknowledgement to the Professor waiting for everyone to arrive, "Hello Professor, hope you enjoyed your summer..." Making sure not to fall over or drop Astrid, the redhead settled down waiting for the beginning of today's lesson.

Yay.... Care of magical creatures. One of the few things Dylan hated was animals. Well, it wasn't that he hated them it was just that they always seemed to hate him. Even his pet owl, which his family has had for years mind you, didn't care much for him. But of course his mother insisted that he take this old creature. It had gone to Hogwarts with every one of his older siblings. Dylan had told her a thousand times over that it was too old to deliver letters, but of course he was too young and didn't know what he was talking about.

Which all of that basically boils down to Dylan not having a cat to bring to class today. Thankfully there were little Kneazles roaming around.

He nodded to the professor, curious as to what was under that blanket, and wondered over to the area of kneazles. He knelt down and tried to get any of them to come up to him, but none were biting. They all took one glance at him and turned away, as if he smelled like a dog.




Getting up after a few minutes he looked around, suddenly feeling very nervous. There were a lot of different kids, many of whom were not from his house. It wasn't until his eyes landed on the pink haired girl he met earlier did his nerves calm down a little bit. At least she was a friendly face. He walked over to her and smiled, not feeling up for talking.

Large crowds made Dylan nervous. There were many times he would get lost when out with his family. There were six kids in total and he was the smallest at the time. Which was a recipe for disaster every time. Once they were at the zoo in London and they had forgotten about him in the bathroom, and he'd spent 45 minutes crying by the tigers. Now that he thought about it, maybe that's why animals hated him. He had one instance where he cried and it was like every animal afterwards could sense his fear.

Ick to being outside with the animals, but her mother insisted. She kept saying that she needed to branch out and try to get a bit dirty every now and again. She had learned after last term wear the older worn out robes so if they get dirty it's not ruining them or your favorite shoes.

Carrying her black cat Sir Snuggles (thanks seven nine year old self) she kept looking at all of the other students... and their professor. What exactly were they doing today? Moving closer into the circle she saw her housemate (Alexia) and a slytherin boy (Dylan) talking to her. She nodded her head before swerving off to the side so she can find an empty hay bale... ick.... to sit on.

Smiling she turned toward their professor, "Hello Professor." Seriously were they about to have cat races or something? Sir Snuggles would not like that. She also really needed to give Sir a new name.

Islay fixed some of the cats with a hard stare as she came closer to them. ”H-“ she began to speak but her eyes just widened at the Professors face, hadn’t she seen his face in that yearbook her aunt had shown her when she’d met her that summer? she wondered for a minute before shaking her head ”good afternoon Professor Williamson” Naya and Cole got kind smiles as she made her way ato find a seat.

Oh, the kneazels were cute. Reaching her hand down she pet one as it brushed against her leg.

“hey cutie,” she said the words to the cat as she took a seat near Noah.

Okay so Magical Creatures was not exactly Drew's thing but neither were the other elective classes so he had put all the names in a hat and this was the class that he had extracted. So here he was and without a cat.

"Afternoon Professor." He said in greeting as he made his way into the group. He may not know a whole lot about animals but the one thing that Drew did know was that it was better if the animal picked you and not the other way around. So he stood still amongst the wandering Kneazles until a grey and white one rubbed against his leg before lying down at his feet. Apparently this was the one then.

This was the first time that Phoebe was allowed to bring Beans to class, and she was delighted by the opportunity. Beans was going to show everyone what a good little kitty she was, even in a room full of rogue kneazles with their magical abilities. Y'know what Beans could do that none of them could do? Throw up entire socks, that's what.

"Hi, Professor. This is Beans," Phoebe waved Beans' little paw at the man to show him those picture perfect toe beans. That's where she got her name. Perfect little Beans. "And she is perfectly legal." Ahem.

To say the Slytherin was having a miserable start of term would be an understatement. There was a dark rain cloud of salt pouring down over him everywhere he went and no class was a firmer reminder of this than Care of Magical Creatures. It had nothing to do with the professor's personality (okay...maybe a little) nor did Eiji find the man inadequate at his job. It simply was the 17-year-old perpetual state of being and aesthetic, as some would describe it. Professor Williamson also was a reminder of the seventh year's failure to his bloodline, not that he was thinking about THAT as he stepped into the area with his jaw already set and offered the man a curt nod before moving over to collect himself a creature of the day.

He could only imagine how love struck Rebecca was looking right now too.

Eiji's choice of pet was a hairless rat, so of course he did not own a cat or a kneazle and he gave his selection very little thought as he scooped up the nearest one to him. Which just so happened to be a rather large black cat who purred immediately, was essentially an affectionate potato, and drooled. Well...at least the cat matched the color of his soul: black.

Yes. James Eiji Rasting was being dramatic.

Lugging his furry burden over towards Missa and Nina, Eiji sighed. "Hi."

It wasn’t usual for Gwydion to be allowed at lessons, but Carys was certainly not against bringing the Abyssinian along as she’d headed to CoMC after lunch. She’d just had to make a quick stop at the common room to collect him, and for once he’d let her carry him as they’d headed outside.

Not only that, but she had been entertaining herself with imagining what Eron’s expression would be as he saw the sheer number of felines gathered. Plus, there was a moment of wondering if her sister had Cleo with her, but she knew Carsyn would keep her gerbil safe. Just as she knew she’d make sure Gwydion was on his best behavior during the lesson. Her little warrior ought to know better by now anyway.

“Good afternoon, Professor Williamson,” she had said as she’d settled onto an open haybale, settling Gwydion on her lap.

Mark knew only a little bit about this Professor from his Father's time at Hogwarts....something about a Baby Dragon, or a Dragon Lady. That didn't matter. What mattered now was the lesson at hand.

Mark came into the area looking around at all the other students holding cats or kneazles or some cross-breed of the two maybe? He didn't have any of those. If he could of he'd have transfigured Tank to be a cat but his Big Beetle was being oddly uncooperative this morning worrying him a bit. So so the Teenage Ravenclaw moved toward a hay-bale and took a seat sitting beside Carys nodding toward the Care of Magical Creatures Professor. "Afternoon, Professor Williamson" he spoke as one cat suddenly hopped up beside him and began to paw at him as if he wasn't fed. If Mark knew one thing about Cats it's that they were in fact fed.

He gently lifted the cat up and looked at it. It was a Fluffy Golden Orange colored cat...."Uh hello Roger?" Sounded like a good enough name to him. Was this cat even male?

So, now that everyone appeared to be settled and bonding with a cat (or kneazle), it was time to officially start the lesson. William picked up a bag of kneazle treats, rattled it noisily to get all the animals and their humans' attention, and then stepped forward into the center of the area to begin.

"Right, so as you've all seen, we have some cats and some kneazles here today, and maybe some other animals as well." William didn't glance at the covered crate but he WAS thinking about it. "On the topic of cats of all shapes and sizes, please tell me what you already know about magical or mundane cats? What kind of care (and CAUTION) is required of these animals? If you brought a cat to class today, how do you care for it? Do some breeds require special care? As you answer, please, uh, tell me your name, and your pet's name, and don't be afraid to build onto each others' answers. If I like your answer, I'll toss you and your feline a treat." Just a little incentive to get them going and to keep the cats settled (for now).

OOC: ONE answer per person though, as the options here are pretty limitless! =D we'll move on in ~18 hours idk.

Oh look.

There was a kneazle brushing on her leg. Claudine was royally startled to feel the furry thing rubbing against her and nearly kicked out her foot in a panic. Thank Merlin she was able to get a grip on herself as her brain had put two and two together quite quickly. If she hadn’t… well, the poor kneazle might have been injured. The girl leaned down to scratch it behind the ear. Yes, most of her attention was on this fur baby right now but some was still reserved for Nem.

But now that it was time for the lesson to start, the girl still didn’t straighten up. She was still showering the kneazle with affection. Who said she also couldn’t pay attention to the lesson? Which was why she raised her hand after a moment. Yes, Claudine did straighten now.

“Claudine Blaze.’’ Surely by now it was obvious she was in no possession of her own kneazle or cat? “When cats have an upset stomach, it can be remedied by feeding it small strips of bland boiled chicken; so I’ve heard.”

Maybe Drew did know a bit more about cats than he thought because he found himself raising his hand to answer the Professor's question. "I know that if a cat's tail is flicking around, it means it's annoyed and unless you want your eyes scratched out it is best to leave it alone." And yes he was speaking from experience.

"Oh and the name's Drew." He looked down at the Kneazle still lying by his feet. "Don't know his name though, he belongs to you." But if he had to name it, Smoky seemed like an appropriate one.

Okay, so this was it. This was the moment she'd been dreading. He had to find out about it sooner or later, and...well, she guessed this was now. But then she chickened out. In her head, she went over every possible scenario that could happen next.

• She could pretend she didn't speak English. 'No entiendo.'
  
• She could pretend she needed to suddenly go to the bathroom.
  
• She could just let Maleficent loose and pretend she had no idea what Williamson was on about.
  
• She could...

UGH. "I don't know. I mean, I do. But... No entiendo," she said, all her thoughts accidentally coming together at once. Oops. She hadn't meant to toss in that last one. Her name...her name was. "Isla Bellchant. It's nice to meet you, Sir. Welcome to Hogwarts!" Literally none of that had gone as planned. None of it. She was the worst fibber in the history of fibbers.

When the focus turned off her and Maleficent, Isla turned to her kneazle. I'm so sorry, Maleficent. If the kneazle got taken away, it'd be all Isla's fault. It had to happen sooner or later, though. She just hoped she'd be allowed to take her home at the end of the year...

She sighed and raised her hand. "If you own a cat, you can buy it a scratching post. It helps the cats remove unwanted things from their claws. It also gives them somewhere to scratch besides furniture and other things in your house," she said. Also... "I'm Isla, and this...this is Maleficent. She didn't even look at her new professor as she said that last line.

Hopefully Cleo would behave herself in her pocket and the professor would never need to know about her contraband pet. He seemed nice enough and it wasn't as if the Gryffindor Prefect often brought her gerbil to class with her, but seeing how he had said for them to bring their cats with them and her only pet was a gerbil, why not? As he started the lesson, we have some cats and some kneazles here today, and maybe some other animals as well, Carsyn was almost positive that it was okay too because like he said maybe some other animals. So that was code for other animals besides cats are cool. Right? Of course right.

Moving on though, what did she know about cats? She really ought to know something consider her sister and Gwydion and yet.... Carsyn found herself glancing over at her sister and her cat, trying to think of something she'd learned over the years. Scratching, yes, of course. It needed to be fed, but that was obvious. Actually, she could build upon the feeding thing since it tied into care.

Raising her hand, "Cats know how to ration their food. You could give a cat their whole bag of food for a week and they will ration it out instead of eating it all at once." Unlike dogs who would eat themselves into oblivion if given the opportunity. "Oh and I'm Carsyn. Carsyn Rose." She almost pulled the gerbil out to introduce it, but decided against it.

Something inside Curtis gave him a pleasant stroke of ego at making Chloe blush. "As long as he behaves.." Curtis couldn't make such promises incase he got attacked. But he wasn't worried. She must really like me. She even said she didn't do old... older? which meant that he had a high chance for being younger. Only a high chance though. Why? Because the one who was dimming those chances sat by her other side.

Of course they were together.. for now. Curtis' expression went blank at their pet names.. Ew. It took alot of effort for him to not visibly cringe. If it wasn't for Ewan actually helping him get out of trouble from nearly destroying the library last term, Curtis would be singing a different tune. He had to pretend to be nice. "Hello." He forced a smile at him... "So, Spidey, huh?" Curtis couldn't help asking. Though he wasn't expecting a reply right away once the lesson began.

Least this Professor is acting alright for now. Curtis still didn't trust adults knowing how they act towards younger ones. "Curtis Fuller..... The cats don't like getting wet usually." Curtis added. There, he was behaving. Maybe that ought to impress Chloe seeing him act this way.

Even though they hadn't had that many lessons yet, this was already by far Tavie's FAVORITE one. Why? Because she could bring Coral! Technically, Coral had started off as illegal. But now that she was older and properly belonged to Tavie, she was a legal Australian born cat that was all hers and here for this lesson.

It was great!

"Cat's like to hunt! They're natural predators and will sometimes leave you little presents." That's what she liked to call them at least. The dead rodents Coral would sometimes bring her. It was sad, but she understood that her cat didn't know any better. "I'm Octavia and this," She stroked her cat's back while she sat up alert in her lap. "Is Coral."

What kind of treats was he offering? And was it a treat for her and Coral, or each of them separately?

Gently holding the Hogwarts kneazle that she picked, Jina looked up when the professor signalled that the lesson was about to begin. Hmmm, she did not know much about how to care for cats, magical or mundane. She tried to remember the things she read in her Care of Magical Creatures textbook while revised for NEWT exams over the summer. But for some reason, most of her revision was focused on large creatures (and owls, because of her part time job at the post office). She knew some basic things about kneazles though, so she carefully put down the one that she was holding and raised her hand to speak.

"Kneazles are very clever and can identify untrustworthy individuals. And my name is Jina Morin," she said. The way the school kneazle was brushing up against her legs showed that she is a trustworthy human. She wondered if her answer was good enough to get her new feline friend a treat.

This...this wasn't a cat?? Forget everything else the Professor said, this was serious. This was--wait....wait wait wait, was this a kneazle then? Kitt looked about the group. The more felines he looked at was the more apparent the differences became.

He scooped the kneazle up, cradling it in his arms because he'd just found his soulmate. It was right there in the look of those shiny eyes.

"I will shovel dung for 3 months, if you let me keep him. Final offer. Take it while it lasts." Or, well, he could offer more, but it was important to pretend you had some sort of upperhand when negotiating, clearly. "Kitt Lazarus, Sir." He pulled the now meowing kneazle to his face--they were cheek to cheek and a match made in Care of Magical Creatures class. "And this is Sparky. He likes long walks on the beach and cross word puzzles by the window when it rains. He...uh...also really likes boys named Kitt Lazarus. Let him adopt me, let me take me home. I looove hiiiimmmm." He ended, jingling the kneazle about while using his best kneazle voice.

"And uuuuummm, uuuhhh....cats....don't have tails like this. See?" He held the kneazle higher for the Professor and others to get a good look. In his mind, he was really contributing to this conversation. "These kneeeeazuuuls have lion tails but I don't think they appreciate you yankin' 'em anymore than a cat would so that's my care tip. Don't do it."

It wasn’t often that Carwyn wasn’t holding a class of his own, when one of the other Professors had an interesting class going that he was curious about seeing… and the students were in for a treeeeeat today with Professor Williamson’s plans. Not that Carwyn would actually be partaking, he would just… be there. Mmhmmm.

He’d gotten used to going for a run over summer in his animagus form. He didn’t like to say he wasn’t as fit as he once was, but four paws made running much easier. Surely that was just arithmancy or math? Four was better than two! Slipping along the edge of the hay bales, Carwyn jumped up onto one of the taller hay bales that was further back, behind Professor Williamson instead of within the students space with the kneazles.

Though, he saw them. And that jungle gym, course looking thing… It looked fun. He would bet himself it was fun. However, that wasn’t the point. He sat quietly in his animagus form, looking over them all like the Sphinx looked over Giza, as the Professor asked his first question and the class moved on. Were they excited??

Charlie smiled as their Professor had asked her cats name. She felt the heat rising into her cheeks, “It’s Sir.” There that wasn’t so bad. She didn’t have to die of embarrassment after all. She listened to the few other students who had already given an answer and raised her own hand, “Charlotte Rivers. Or Charlie.” Reign it in Charlie. “Cats show their trust of you if they lay on their back and expose their belly.” At least Sir had done exactly that after a few months with her.

"Blake Ryan, Professor" Blake added with a smile again. And then a bluish, grey looking kneazle rubbed on his legs. Blake jumping slightly at the touch looked down. His first instinct was to shoo it away, he's rather not have it rubbing up all over his legs.

"Regular cats sit in boxes all the time." Blake remembered his neighbor's cat doing that when he was a small child. "Professor ... I'm not really a cat person." Blake added as he scooted himself away from the kneazle rubbing on him.

With the lesson starting, Ewan ignored his class mates for the moment and listened to some of the answers that his class mates had given, not really feeling the need to repeat what they were saying unless he could really add something to it further. ”My names Ewan Professor” getting that part out of the way before he launched into his answer. Although, if he was being honest, he didn’t really know too much about cats. Sure, he’d worked on a farm but cats? They weren’t farm animals and he didn’t have a pet cat, only a dog.

”Well, I’ve read somewhere that cats spend a lot of their lives sleeping. Like around 70%? Which is a bit insane although when you think that we sleep around eight hours a day, it’s not really a surprise” a small smile on his face now as he continued to waffle on a bit. ”As for Kneazles, they’re generally native to Britain and are classified as XXX by the Ministry of Magic. Competent wizards shouldn’t have too much trouble caring for them”. Competent being the key word there. Some of the children in the class might struggle a little but he would be more than happy to help them.

Bending down now, he gave the jet black Kneazle more scrunches for a moment before turning back to Curtis and Chloe again. ”Yup, Spidey” he replied simply, not offering more than that. He didn’t really feel the need to explain himself to the boy who he’d helped last year.

Yes, getting on swimmingly with her kneazle, she was. She listened carefully as Professor W started prattling on and asked what all they knew about cats. Well. Aboli glanced down at her kneazle's collar to check his name. "Sparticus," she read simply. "And Sparticus here isn't a cat but a kneazle - but they share many behaviors." The first answer that popped into her head was a little dark...and there was always the question...to share it, or no.

Well.

Life is risky, isn't it.

"I'm Aboli...and this here is Sparticus...and cats are quite resourceful. As she said - " She nodded at a girl (Tavie), "They'll often go hunt for themselves and leave presents..." she smirked. "But what I think is interesting about cats is that if an owner dies, it wouldn't take them too long to turn their owner into food." HA! It was a bit hilarious if you thought about it. But Aboli merely stroked Sparticus' head. "Whereas dogs would probably starve to death first. See? Resourceful animals."