oh oh is that how it was? She had been patiently waiting and frankly, Islay was doooooone with patience. “Come on Kasha, lets bounce.” She told the cat with a huff as she finally resorted to attaching a harness to Kasha and walking dragging the cat through the course.

THE HUMAN WAS BEING RUDE, Kasha hissed at first before looking around and seeing the other humans doing the same thing. Giving her human a sniff she just decided to move a bit, not for her but for the treats. She could get nonsoggy teats this way.

"come on Kash, I'll get you all the treats," Islay spoke smiling at her and she began to move - BOOK it really as she HOPPED onto the first obstacle - Islay was quietly running alongside the golden-haired kneazel as she glided through the course. HA we can do this without you Mark Gunter.

They were running out of time and Team Benjie/Naya had barely cleared the first obstacles. It was time to reevaluate the situation. Naya had a plan. It involved convincing Benjie to wear the harness and leash. That was probably the only way she could move things along. Maybe if that worked, she could walk or run alongside the kneazle like those handlers in the muggle dog shows. Maybe then they could complete the rest of the tasks. Convincing him was going to be the challenge.

Naya pulled the harness and a couple of treats out of her pocket. Then she got down on her knees and addressed her partner. “Ok Benjie, here’s the deal. We need to finish things up. See this? I’m going to put it on you and we can do this together. You’ll get some treats if you work with me. What do you say?” Not waiting for an answer, Naya tried to distract him with a treat. While Benjie was eating, she slipped the harness on and clipped on the leash.

Benjie was quite happy sitting on the grass, eating treats and feeling the breeze. He was so into his treat that he hardly noticed the harness being placed on him. When he did, he was not particularly pleased. But treats though. Treats!

Naya put the leash around her wrist with a treat in one hand and the toy mouse in the other hand. Giving the leash a slight tug, she tried to get Benjie on his feet. She led him along to the seesaw and when it seemed like he was going to cooperate, she walked from one end to the other. When he reached the end, it was treat time. “You are really awesome Benjie. I knew you could do it!“ They were on a roll and Naya didn’t want to stop now. She kept going through more obstacles, giving the kneazle a treat each time he completed one.

What was this thing that the girl had put around his body? If Benjie hadn’t been so greedy for treats, he might have protested more. As long as she kept the treats coming, he guessed he could put up with a few minutes of unnecessary exercise. She was walking with him and taking him over and under and around some interesting things. If he followed her, he got more treats. That much he understood.

After what seemed like an eternity, Naya led Benjie back and forth through the slalom poles. She was afraid that he would be full of treats or lose interest before they finished the course. Fortunately, they made it and she had one treat to spare. Thank Merlin. Sitting down and letting Benjie crawl into her lap, she gave him a big hug and stroked his fur. She gave him the last treat and watched him enjoy it. “We did it Benjie! You were amazing!” Naya was so proud of her kneazle. She had her doubts at first, but he had really done a good job. And now that they had bonded, she wondered if she would be able to visit him sometime during the school year.

Finally they were finished with whatever this was that the girl had him doing. When she sat down, he curled up in her lap and soaked up all the love that she was offering him........not to mention another treat. A kneazle could get used to this. He kind of hoped this girl would continue to bring him treats, minus the crazy exercises.

Isla returned the little ball back to where it came from, which was the ground, all thanks to WWW and his organizational skills. She tossed the harness back into the pile, as well. Isla picked up her kneazle and gave her extra special hugs, seeing as she had no idea where she was going to have to leave her tonight. This was horrible. This was terribly unfair. Maleficent had lived under her bed in the dorm since the night of the feast, and so far, nothing bad had happened.

With a sigh, she looked up at WWW. She could easily detail what she did step by step, but she'd seen him eyeing her and taking notes. Merlin only knew what they said, though. "I think the treat approach went well for now, although I couldn't really tell if it was my training methods, or if Maleficent was just hungry," she explained. "It'd have to be a trial and error thing. Also, I need more treats if I'm going to do this the right way."

Maleficent snuggled happily into her owners arms. She was full of treats, and now she was being petted to sleep. Can life get any better than this? She couldn't wait to get back to her home under the bed and snuggle in for a real night's rest.

Avalon waited near the end of the course for Shadow to return. The cat usually gave up on his hunting pursuits after he realized that it was relatively impossible to catch a bird that high up in the sky. As soon as she spotted him slinking back across the grass, Avalon jogged over to him. She scooped the feline up and trudged back across the grounds. No use in finishing the course now. At least Professor Williamson didn't expect them to make every single obstacle.

"Well, Shadow didn't have much internal motivation to complete the course, but at least he was pretty cooperative when I offered him some treats," she said, contemplating what went well and what was difficult. "I've seen some Muggles run their dogs through courses like these, and the dogs don't even need any treats or toys to get them through. They just run it on their own!" Maybe that was just a cat versus dog thing. But it would be cool if Shadow could do that. "And the distractions were a struggle. Shadow bolted as soon as he saw that bird!"

Ooooh, an OBSTACLE COURSE? How exciting. Louise wasn't sure how well Lucy would do in the course since cats were so aloof all the time, but as soon as she saw a toy being spilled out of the box that was a little wand with a dangly fish at the end of it, Louise dove for it (almost like a cat would) because she knew Lucy LOVED those. If she could chase one of those, she would do fairly well at the obstacle course.

"Come on Lucy, let's do this." Once they were set free to do the activity, Louise set Lucy on the ground and dangled the toy in front of her so she would follow her towards the course. First she went to the teeter-totter thing and dangled the toy uuuuuppp to the middle...

FISHY, FISHY, FISHY. As soon as the fish was released, Lucy green eyes were LOCKED onto it, ignoring all other animals around her, hunting the fish down as it moved onto the course. Lucy's paws brought her up the first obstacle and she was SO focused on the fishy that her AGILE reflexes caught her balance on the way down when the teeter-totter caught her weight and brought her back down to the grass. THE FISH IS MINE.

"Ooooh, good girl!" Louise cheered, impressed by Lucy's ability to stay on the beam even though her eyes were on the fish.

She didn't let her catch the fishy yet, though. She still had some tasks to perform first. Louise brought her cat to a hoop next. She dangled the fish on the other side of the hoop.

She had been so CLOSE, but the fishy was on the move again. Her big green eyes still locked on it, Lucy followed the fish as it dangled behind a strange wheel. Lucy hunkered to the ground and wiggled her butt..... aaaaaaand POUNCE. THROUGH THE HOOP. FANGS IN FISH. REAR KICKERS ENGAGE. MISSION COMPLETE.

Heath smiled a little in reply to the professor, but he nearly laughed out loud when the subject turned to cats' behavior around other felines. Not so much that the subject itself was funny, but knowing Rey, she'd probably annoy the other cats by following them everywhere or something! Unlike her shy owner, Rey never met a stranger, human or feline, that she couldn't befriend! As such, Heath waited until after he'd retrieved a leash and harness - blue, like the other Rey's lightsaber, of course - to let her out of her carrier. He didn't want her running off and getting into trouble!

FREEDOM!!! Rey shot out of her carrier like a rocket the second the door opened. Her eyes darted back and forth, taking in the strange sights around her. Yaaaay, new friends! Look at all the other kittehs! Hiiii, other kittehs! I'm a kitteh too! There sure were lots of smol hoomans. Ooh, and a big hooman too! Hey, hoomans! Who wants to pet me? She flopped onto her back with a cheerful meep as an invitation. I iz cute fluffeh Jedi cat!

What a Jedi was, Rey had no idea, but her hooman said she got her name from one so it must be good!

Heath waited until Rey was distracted to slip the harness on her. Now they just needed toys and treats, and they'd be good to go. Which toy would Rey like best, though? He decided to let her pick for herself. He led her to the toys, watching as she made a beeline straight for a feather wand. Looks like they had a winner! He gave Rey a moment to two to play with the toy as he gathered a few treats before grabbing the end of the stick and jiggling it in the direction of the first obstacle. "We've got this, Rey!" Or they did as long as he could keep her focused on the course and not the other cats and people around!

Hey, what are you doing, smol hooman? Get this thing off - BIRB!!!! Must get birb! Rey rolled on the ground, wrapping her front paws around the feathery thing while kicking it with her back ones. Then the birb moved. Hey, where do you think you're going? I'm not done with you, birb! Rey dashed after the birb alongside her hooman, stopping in front of a giant ring thingy.

"Come on, Rey! Get the bird," Heath said. wigging the feather wand in the middle of the first hoop. He watched with a smile as the little gray cat cleared the first hoop, but his expression changed at the sight of the next one. The second hoop was a lot higher than the first, and Rey was small for her age. Maybe it was too high for her? Oh, well, only one way to find out, he supposed.

"Good job!" he said, giving Rey a treat for her efforts so far. "Want to go again?" He jiggled the toy in the center of the second hoop, waiting to see what Rey would do next.

Silly hooman, of course she was going to get the birb! What else do you do with a birb? Rey leapt after the clump of feathers, sailing gracefully through the hoop and landing on her feet. She blinked, looking around. Hey, where's the -?

TREAT!!!!! She greedily gobbled up the morsel her hooman gave her. Mmm… yummy fish! Can I haz more plz?

Look, there's the birb again! Gonna get you this time! Rey jumped again, but she felt herself losing air before she reached the hole in the round thingy. Noooooo! She tried to claw the bottom of the hoop, but it was too late to stop herself from falling. You're not getting away that easily, birb! She tried again, and again she fell short of the hoop.

After several tries, Rey plopped down defiantly in front of the hoop. Nope, too high! You win this round, birb.

Heath frowned. It looked like the second hoop was too high for his hyper little Jedi cat after all! "It's okay, Rey. Try again," he encouraged, wiggling the feather wand, but he knew his cat well enough to know she was done. So now what? Should he keep trying to coax her through the hoop or move on to the next obstacle?

Aslan could tell that the young human was upset. If he could have frowned, he would have so instead he just let out a sigh. Well at least his new human's stopped sweating as much after what the Professor told him. He brushed himself up against Noah's leg and let out a purr, trying to inform the kid that everything would be alright. Aslan would still be his friend. And because he felt bad- he may even offer to play dead, y'know? Maybe just once for the two humans. Now... Sparky had been awfully quiet? He watched the other boy (Kitt) plop Sparky Spark Boom Boom (he was living for this kneazle's new nickname btw) and then saw him make a beeline for Williamson. Uh oh.... Sparky wasn't impressed.

Noah felt his heart racing as the Professor called out to them. OH MERLIN. He glanced down, looking a little disappointed himself for a moment, before one of the phrases Williamson said resonated with him. RIGHT. They had wasted four minutes already. He leaned over to Kitt. "I'm just going to start leaving the wand in the dorm before coming to this class," he nodded. Yep. Didn't want to make a whole scene again.

Treats! Yep. Noah was on it. He headed to a different area of the obstacle course, following Kitt's lead. Once said treats were laid out, he checked his watch as he walked back to Kitt. Right- they had time. "Hey Aslan. You ready?" he called out to the kneazle that had practically been following him around the entire time he was laying treats. Noah had to distract him by giving him treats so he wouldn't go gobble up the obstacle course. Huh? Sparky was gone? Noah turned to Kitt after he asked the question and then glanced around the course. "I don't...." Eyes still scanning. AHA! "He's by Williamson. He doesn't look too impressed with us. Should we try to coax him back?" he asked, not knowing if the kneazle would even consider coming back to them. He turned to Aslan. "Aslan?"

Aslan had indeed been following this human around the obstacle course happily trying to figure out what he was doing. Part of him followed because he found the human intriguing and the other part followed him cause he wanted to make sure he was fine after the interaction with the Professor. He followed the trail of treats and was even rewarded with more treats for not eating them so he really liked this human. When they returned back to the other human, Aslan was ready for whatever task they had against them now except he wasn't looking forward to the whole persuading Sparky Spark over there. So when Noah looked at him with those pleading eyes, he huffed. Okay... Fine... Maybe he'd go talk to Sparky for them. But if he did so, he wasn't playing dead?

"Yeah mine doesn't want to seem to move either." He flashed his Kneazle a filthy look. Not only was it being lazy on purpose but now they were being chastised by the Professor. "The name is Drew by the way." Introductions should probably need to be made seeing how they were about to work together.

Berlioz was a smart Kneazle and he WAS being lazy on purpose. It was amusing to watch the humans try and get him to do something that he clearly was not in the mood for. Although his ears did prick up when he heard the word treat from the other human. Maybe they were onto something?

Drew had to admit that the Ravenclaw had a very good idea. Probably why he was in Ravenclaw. "Yeah let's do that." Anything was better than nothing besides he had a feeling this was going to work. "Oh and we should..." he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the treat that the Professor had given him before. He broke it in half and then tied a piece to each of the toy mice..."give them a little more incentive." He grinned at the other boy. "Okay cast the spell."

Now they were talking, Berlioz immediately sprang to his feet the moment he smelled the treat. He was ready!

With his wand out ready, he was about to cast the locomotive spell when a small little cat decided to stroll over in between his legs. He knew that cat having seen it many times before and sure enough, the blonde head of his friend Chloe wasn’t far behind. ”Heeey teacup”, an amused grin crossed his features for a moment. He was about to say that he didn’t mind the interruption at all when Chloe gave him a weird look. ”Uhh…Drew, this is Chloe. Chloe, this is Drew. And I’m Ewan” he couldn’t help but laugh a little at the fact that he was in fact Drew’s partner but was the last to be introduced. His own fault obviously. ”How’s Teacup doing?” he replied with a friendly smile, although, he got his answer as the cat maneuvered away towards the professor.

Focusing on the lesson at hand now, Ewan turned towards Drew and the two kneazles near them. He’d have more than enough time to think about Chloe and whatever that look was outside of the lesson. ”That’s a great idea man. The cats will love it” he replied as Drew tied the piece of treat to the little mouse.

Oh? Another cat here now? Well, wasn’t that just lovely. Well it could just leave. This mouse is mine. Can’t you see? The Kneazle moved closer to the mouse, curious to see where it was about to make its escape. It was no match for it

Eyes on the Kneazle, Ewan raised his wand ”Locomotor” and with that, the mouse started to move towards the obstacle course and to his surprise, so did his Kneazle! Up and down the ramp the mouse and treat went and with it, the jet black Kneazle that had once been lazy!

You are no match for me little mouse! This school is my house and you will be mine! Oh I can’t wait to taste you, I’m sure you’ll taste fine. The mouse and treat had clearly offended the large Kneazle because he was now moving at an alarming pace around the track. Through the ring, up and down the various ramps and balance beams until finally…VICTORY!


With a small fist pump, Ewan just turned towards Drew with a grin as the Kneazle crossed the finish line and had finally caught up to the mouse, happy that they’d somehow both managed to come up with an idea that worked! Now, to wait and see if Drew’s cat would do the same, although, he looked as though he was more than ready. He really wasn't sure how quick his kneazle had done it in but it looked fairly quick. Either way, he was more happy that it had moved.

Hmm a locomotive spell. This was new. Chloe was nothing different.

Vivienne started to pay attention to the professor. Social life came after academics. Was she gonna be an Auror like her parents or not? Cats were something else.

Vivienne drew her wand, closed her eyes and said "Locomotor!" And off it went! and ZOOM!

Hopefully this idea was going to work because if it didn't he really had no idea what else he was going to do to get his Kneazle going and apparently the Professor was relying on the two seventh years to show everyone else how it was done. Drew didn't even notice the tiny cat but he did notice the cat's owner, how could he not when she was totally gorgeous. He momentarily forgot about what he was supposed to be doing, pretty girls always seemed to have that effected on him especially ones that were clearly showing an interest in him.

It wasn't until the Ravenclaw boy spoke again that Drew remembered where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. "Nice to meet you Ewan and Chloe." He gave the girl a smile and a wink. "We're having the same trouble with our Kneazles." As much as he would like to help her out their Kneazles were just as stubborn.

Tearing his eyes off of Chloe, Drew turned just in time to see Ewan's Kneazle streak off after the mouse. Oh man, he really needed to getting distracted by girls. He pointed his wand at the toy mouse seconds after Ewan, "Locomotor."

The moment the mouse took off with that yummy cat treat , Berlioz sprang into action, he ran up one end of the see-saw and then down the other, he jumped over the hurdles and through the hoops, dodging through the poles and then up and over the beam before landing on top of the mouse and ripping off the cat treat. Yum.

Drew turned to Ewan and laughed. "Food is always the motivator." Thankfully that was over and was reasonably successful.

Aslan was an ace model of what a kneazle should be. He followed you around, responded when spoken to, and was all around a decent bloke—for a kneazle. Could they both coax Aslan through the course? They didn’t have much time left and Sparky had pulled a Houdini—by the Professor? What was he doing over there?

“Thanks, mate!”

Kitt moved over to where the professor stood, paying very little attention to his surroundings beyond the cat...er....kneazle. “Silly goose, it’s not nap time. Come on, we’ve got a course to run.” The Gryffindor reached down to grab the ball of fur but was met with more resistance than he anticipated.

“Come on, Spark. Don’t be like this.”

He....was not a goose. And for the millionth time, his name was not Sparky. The kneazle struggled against the boy, displeased with the attempts at dislodging him. He gave a plaintive meow, wishing Williamson would get this monster off him so he could return to his sleep.

When the boy began tugging harder, he latched onto Williamson’s leg instead and continued to meow his discontent. What abominable act had he done to deserve this? Surely there were better ways to atone.

Kitt turned to Noah again, at a loss of what else to do. “He’s stuck pretty tight. Now what?”

Blake had discovered that treat seems to be the way to go with this little guy. It was interesting to watch, really Blake wasn't so different than a kneazle a pumpkin pasty could get him today just about anything. Blake pulled a few more treats out of his pocket and began to lead the kneazle further down the obstacle course.

This boy was fun ... he head treats ... even if it mean running around a maze of sorts, I love treats ... treat treat treats ...

Beans was ALL about that sock. It smelled like the warm spot under the bed where she slept, and it was waving around with little fringy bits and a hole she'd bitten there herself during some other playing session. It was a pleasure to hunt that sock through a swinging tire and over a ramp and arouuuuuuuuund some flags.

C'mere, sock. Lemme eat you.

"You are the very best kitty that I have ever met," Phoebe crooned at Beans as they made their way through the course. Ironic that the kitty preferred playing with worn socks over pretty much any other toy. The feathers and the toys and the fuzzy mice were fine, but nothing held her attention like that sock.

Over the last little hurdle, and they made it to the finish line. "That's how you do it, best cat ever. Good work. Lemme at that belly for scritchy scratches." Phoebe dropped to her knees and gave Beans all the love she could handle.

Noah paused, watching the interaction between Kitt and Sparky with genuine interest. It was interesting to see that the kneazle was not pleased with Kitt. Huh... Was it something with how the boy was addressing him? He paused. No that didn't seem right... Tone of voice? No... He ran threw a series of ideas before pausing on one. It was a long shot. "Maybe you offended him somehow?" he proposed. Maybe it was the name or the being picked up and down constantly? Or them-- well him causing a kerfuffle.... Maybe this kneazle was FELINE ROYALTY? But then maybe they were wasting time thinking through how to get the kneazle off of the Professor. The struggle was real.

Aslan was watching the situation with keen eyes. It was interesting to see the human desperately try coax his fellow feline from being wrapped around Professor Williamson's legs. He huffed, glancing at Sparky. If Sparky was going to have a fit, then Aslan was going to help out this young boys. Yep. He was taking one for the team. "Hey... You know.. they're kids right... Basically kittens and all... He probably doesn't know how to treat true royalty like you or I..." he tried, meowing at the other cat. "If we work together, we could show every other kneazle that they don't stand a chance." He doubted Sparky here would even budge with that so he turned around and headed to the front of the obstacle course. Then he meowed at the two boys letting him know that he was ready.

"Should we get another kneazle to replace his royal grumpiness?" he said motioning to grumpy cat over here.

FISH fish fish sniiiiiiifffff meat meat those smells tantalized Kasha's whiskered nose as she followed the human along the path.

Islay was standing the by the jump, moving her arms in an arch - as if indicating to jump. "C'mon jump kasha" she coaxed, speaking softly, trying to see if it would work. It didn't.

Taking a treat she tossed it through the ring.

Kasha sat, watched the treat fall and simply stood, flicked her tail walked over to where it had landed. I HAVE TREAT NOW ?

Islay had quickly swiped it off the ground eliciting a hiss from Kasha as she took the treat she made a circle around the hoop - Kasha slowly followed it with her head not moving her body and inch....then in a brilliant moment she placed the treat on the inside of the ring and watched as Kasha lept up and ate it and proceeded to just perch there - all content.

Carwyn was sure that time was moving slower in his animagus form than it would have done had he been able to talk to William, but that was okay. The kids and their respective animals were, he was sorry to admit, giving him plenty of entertainment while he sat up on his perch watching them all with their Professor. It wasn’t his class, so he didn’t need to comment or help in any major way… though if any of the kneazles or kittens looked like they were getting out of hand he wouldn’t hesitate to drop in and help out.

Unless he was running that course… which, was it his turn yet??

He counted the students that were still to attempt the course and huffed slightly as he waited. Although he wanted to go now, it truly was interesting getting to watch his own students in a class that wasn’t his own. Fascinating. Silently, he wondered how they fared across the subjects and pondered if a cross-communication type strategy would help some students to flourish… or if they would simply feel the pressure too much. Hmm. Curious.

Looking over at the queue and the small number of students left to run the course, Carwyn moved lazily onto all four black greying socked paws and stretched his back. He curved and arched and flicked his tail lazily as he yawned and looked up to the sky. Hmm, he always stretched better as a fox. Not as much cracking joints.

When the last student finished, William gave the Transfiguration Professor the cue he had been waiting for. Jumping down from the hay bale, the artic fox landed easily on four paws and leaped over to the starting point, before quickly checking over his back to William to make sure that he was ready. 3, 2, 1- GO!

AND he was off!

He followed a route around the course he had seen a few students take, jumping through the hoop first. The white and black-turning-silver fox darted through the poles, weaving this way and that as he moved before finishing the run with a quick leap over the jump at the end . How fun was this!! Circling back on himself, he jumped over the second and third jumps (that were higher and therefore so much more fun) before it was time to run over the thin beam. This was fine! It reminded him of walking around the fences around their garden when he had been out running at night.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure what the next platform was for so he simply jumped over it and turned around to jump through the tall hoop that he had watched a lot of the students use with their toy mice and treats to tempt their creatures. Finally, he was almost there! He could see the finish line! The see-saw was the last thing to use and it was one of the best things here! With perfect balance, the fox jumped and landed 1/4 of the way up the beam and walked closer to the middle before jumping up the beam to tip it downwards again.

Heh. That had been fun. He pounce!leaped a few times over the grass towards Professor Williamson again and when he got there, skidded to a simple stop to the man's right. Moving around in a circle on the spot, the fox faced everyone and then quick-as-a-flash- turned back into their Transfiguration Professor.

Surprise! Heh. A few of the older students had seen him in his form last year, however other than going for runs around the lake it wasn’t something he usually made a priority… but a summer of playing with his young great-grand daughters had made him realise just how much fun he could have as a fox. Mmmhmmm. Grinning widely, Carwyn waved at the students before he rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows and picked up the bottle of water William had so kindly provided for him.

Then he simply leant against the hay bales and let Professor Williamson continue.

Nina normally would have jumped away from the title kneazle, but…. She had to admit…. He was kind of cute? Okay fine. He could paw at her. As long as he didn’t SCRATCH because these robes had to last for the rest of the term. ”Bless you,” she looked over at Missa, tilting her head for a moment. Was she allergic?

Either way, there wasn’t a lot of time to waste. Nina followed Missa (who was doing a phenomenal job with their gray kneazle, by the way). Once they reached the obstacle course, Nina took the lead (seeing as she had let Missa do all the work in getting the cat to follow them there in the first place). The Slytherin dangled the toy over his wittle head and then picked up speed! The first obstacle was a hoop.

UP AND DOWN. Feathers are miiiiiiiiiine. Give me the feaaaaaaaathers!!! UP UP UP. Through the hoop and back onto feetsies! GIVE ME THE FEATHERS. I wants them. Pweaaaaaseeeeeeeeeeee.

Nina looked up at her partner, quite pleased! That worked! ... Was that a fox.....? Professor Eris? She blinked a few times motioning her head in that direction as if asking Missa. But she immediately drew her attention back to their cat who was LEAPING for the feathers. No. Not yet. There was still more of the course to run. With a quick nod to Missa, Nina began bobbing the toy up and down through the next obstacle. Zig-zags.

Almost hads. I wants. Gimme gimme gimmeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Imagine brazenly using magic in a no magic activity, and a prefect too? Tsk tsk. Nem would never. Not in blatant sight of a professor, at least. And yet, that worked out nicely; good opportunity to see how he dealt with all that, without Nem getting their own hands dirty.

For the record, Nem was in no rush to do this, regardless of if it was being timed. They just ambled alongside the obstacle course, setting down treats along the way for the kneazle (who had been set down at the very start and was now inching through the course, one treat at a time). The slalom was entertaining; waving a treat around and baiting the creature through the poles as though it was hypnotised.

Food as motivation. You could apply to to practically every creature, including humans, and excluding (for example) knarls. Maybe even knarls could be bribed, once used to the owner. Nem didn't know. They'd never checked. And weren't interested in looking it up.

They'd reached a hoop, which was a little more difficult to bribe the kneazle through. If it had any brains, just setting the treat on the floor might make it circumvent the hoop entirely. Refusing to jump through hoops; Nem could relate. But as it was sort of necessary, they stood on the other side and held up the treat. And waited.

This kneazle was getting fuller and fuller, and also slightly nauseous, but was also still hungry. Treats. Who could say no to TREATS? No feline with sense, that's who. And this feline had sense.

So it POUNCED through the hoop to get that next one... and missed... because it was yanked out of the way at the last moment. Before he could make his displeasure known, however, a treat was dropped right in front of his paws, and he gobbled that one up too.

That was easily the hardest part, and it was a cinch. The rest was a breeze, completed in exactly the same way. Sure, Nem hadn't managed the course very quickly at all, but they didn't care about that. Got the kneazle through, didn't they? Hadn't been hissed at and scratched and fled from, had they? It was easily a win.

"Slow and steady." Might not exactly win the race, but got the job done.

As for moving on....

"Take a bit to rest and give your cat or kneazle some love, because you'll want them on your side for our next portion of class." Williamson threw back the covering on the crate to reveal the REAL COOL kittens of this class. Would anyone know what they were at just a glance? Possibly not. They were pretty young still, and their brightly colored harnesses were barely hanging on them.

He cleared his throat. "This is Rufus and Fiona, two wampus kittens from the country where I used to work. They're here as our special guests, and we're going to try to allow them to run the obstacle course. But before we get there... let's go over the wampus. There's a lot of myths that surround this animal... so what do YOU think is true about them? What do you expect Rufus and Fiona to do? And why, and how, should we care for such a dangerous feline?"

Obviously he wasn't opening the cage yet until he was sure the kids could handle themselves around a XXXXX-rated animal with certain powers. Oh how the days had changed when he would just hatch a baby dragon in front of the class....

This closed cage wasn't pleasing to Rufus OR Fiona, but for now they stared out at the audience of cats and h00mans with their large, yellow-ish eyes, almost daaaaaaring the students (or their kneazles) to come cloooooooooooooooser.......

OOC: We'll move on in idk how many hours. 16? Please, continue to RP for your cat or kneazle BUT I will play Rufus/Fiona. :3 The wampus kittens' powers DEFINITELY work on housecats and weak-minded younger students, although kneazles and older students might try to resist them....

Islay looked at the creatures in their cages, and it was clear in that one glance that they were strong. Strong, and powerful…and impossibly small it seemed? She had always thought that they would be bigger or who know speckled like the cougar and mountain lion cubs she had seen while visiting an animal sanctuary with her family so many years before.

Raising her hand, Islay tried to answer “I believe they are said to have power over both hypnosis and legitimacy? But that may just be myth.” She smiled sheepishly.

Truly, she would have LOVED to see a dragon hatch.

He was certain that some were just living it UP hearing Professor Williamson call him by his first name. Know who was not one of those people? If you guessed anyone other than one EIJI Rasting then...well...anyway.

Cheeks flaring red and feeling almost as though steam were going to come out of his ears, he managed a TIGHT lipped smile at the professor and then the cat...on the ground...that had now rolled on to its back acting as though it were expecting a rub and was utterly ignoring the feathered toy in his hand. That wasn't even the worst of it...both Nina AND Missa were...NOT CHOOSING HIM?!

......what was this rubbish?!

The look on his face was surely one both girls would relish in and, frankly, he did deserve it for being a pompous jerk in the heat of the moment but he had never in his WILDEST dreams imagined this scenario. And then of course the man himself had to point out that they were working together and could move to the course. Know were Eiji was? Still here with his stupid overweight kneazle that had now rolled over again and was nuzzling his shoe like it was its long lost lover.

"....come oooooooooooooooon," he pleaded with the thing, waving the toy more and more frantically in its face...but it still cared not. In fact...it just wanted to purr and drool all over his shoe now. "....bloody hell." He was even frustrated enough to mutter a few CHOICE words of Japanese under his breath. His mother would not have approved.

Then Eiji was struck with a thought...though it was a little TOO late as he had been focusing on only the obvious bribing points of various cat toys...and slowly began side stepping his way towards the course. As he had hypothesized, the dumb thing flopped like a seal on land until its chin was perched on his shoe again. Another couple of steps...more flopping.

Eiji had quite LITERALLY just reached the course when Professor Williamson said they were done. Great. Just GREAT. He hadn't even STARTED and it was all this black kneazle's doing. He looked down to glare at it...but it didn't care. It was still with its head flopped on to his shoe, drooling, and now the paws were clawing at his pant leg. Or...well...doing that thing that cats do when their being affectionate and kind of massaging.

Guess he had THAT going for him, his kneazle was obsessed with him.

And why was there a fox here? Also...why weren't any of the kneazles flipping out by the fact that there was a fox here? Didn't like...predators get some sort of way about other predators?

....whatever. His focus was a little elsewhere as his kneazle's claws sunk into his shin while it was showing him all the love and adoration in the world. Maybe he ought to use this time to collect a bit of kneazle drool - he certainly did not feel like answering the question being posed. He WOULD like to get a closer look at those wampus cat, however.

...maybe he could collect a wampus cat whisker by the end of this? They would be great additions to any speed or strength potion...along with help provide some interesting additions to some of his alchemy processes.

Were the really suggesting he give up on old Sparky? Just like that? A little opposition and suddenly it was time to throw in the towel? No no no, he was sticking by his kneazle. They had a bond. A shaky....uncertain....il-advised bond, but it was there.

"Sorry we couldn't finish the course." Kitt told Noah. The boy flopped to the ground by his defiant feline partner. He waited til an unexpected moment then yanked Sparky off the Professor. It only took a lot little screeching and hissing and clawing but the kneazle soon settled in his lap, satisfied he wasn't trying to take him around the block again. See? This wasn't so bad, minus the minor scrapes. They were fine and he was taking a rest as instructed.

Kitt looked to the cage. All he saw were cats. Possibly a different breed, but they still looked like cats.

The fact that Islay was talking about powers and the Professor said there were myths made him think there was a lot more to this story. Unfortunately, he knew nothing about this story, or them, so....

"The crawl into your bed and suck your soul through your nose at night then bring it back to their litter and you get reincarnated--'cause, see, the babies are born without a soul, yeah? And and and so they have to go find souls to give to their babies. Those two are here because they're parents are good hunters."

Someone once told him, if you spoke confidently enough, people would not only think you knew what you were talking about, they would also believe you. So there, his version of whatever those things were. He was as likely to be right as he was to be wrong.

Reginald--yes, he had a name and it wasn't Sparky--purred softly when Williamson gave him a scratch behind the ear. That's all he wanted. Comfort and pampering, none of that manual labour business the boy was pushi--

Hey hey heeeeeyyyy.

The kneazle struggled against the sudden pull but he wasn't quick enough and soon found himself in this Kitt boy's lap. Startled, he'd retaliated immediately but upon realizing that sitting was all they were doing, he finally calmed down enough. Let that be the last time they tried forcing him into hard work.

No magic? He figured that hardly counted as magic but just shrugged his shoulder, not really at all perturbed and just shot a small smile at Drew ”Oops. My bad. I thought it was a good idea” shrugging briefly before turning back to the Kneazle who had proudly wandered back over to him, mouse in mouth. Laughing a little, he just bent down and gave the feline some extra love. He really was a dog person but maybe, just maybe, there might be room for a Kneazle of this sort in his life.

At the sound of the word Wampus, Ewan turned, his eyes being drawn to the two kittens as the professor explained that they were special guests? Huh. America was pretty far to come for two little cats. He wasn’t exactly sure where the Professor had taught but he guessed it must have been Ilvermorny if he had access to cats like these. After all, they were native to America but did that really make them special guests?

If the Kneazle had taken offence to teacup being there, it was nothing compared to what it did when it saw the two wampus cats. Staring daggers at both the kittens, its fur stood up on end as it circled Ewan, small, quiet hisses escaping its mouth. It did not like those things and would appreciate it if they would just vanish again, thank you very much!

Ewan took a step closer, a little drawn to the cats, his eyes on their beaming yellow ones. ”Yeaaaah…hypnosis” he replied, repeating Islay’s answer. ”They uhhh…apparently can walk on their back legs too. It’s even used in wands!. How had he got so close to the cage?

After a brief moment, the Ravenclaw prefect blinked several times, his eyes no longer looking all glassy and vacant. Turning, he walked back towards Drew and Chloe. In truth, he’d only taken a few tentative steps towards the Wampus cats but the feeling had been weird. It was like he was in a trance. He didn’t like it one bit. Not at all.

Chloe couldn't help but smile at Drew, "It's very nice to meet you. I hope you are enjoying Hogwarts." She felt her cheeks warm a little with the wink he gave and she found herself almost forgetting Teacup, that was until Ewan started talking about the lesson at hand. Her cat had left them and headed to the professor so she turned on her heel, but looked back, "If you ever need any help around here Drew don't be afraid to come find me." Biting her lip a little she glanced at Ewan and then back at Drew before heading towards her cat.

Just as she grabbed Teacup and took her towards their seats Williamson started talking again. She grabbed a few treats and handed them to her cat as the crate was revealed and Chloe started to grin, those were gorgeous and she had never seen a wampus in person. She was intrigued to hear what he said, but at the same time she was wanting to go over and see them closer. "They grow to be pretty large. " Which was so interesting and scary at the same time. With her focus on the wampus now she had left Teacup unattended long enough the cat had left her side again.

She spotted her humans other human (Morgan) and knew the boy would have food. So Teacup left the side of her furless mum and headed towards him, but something caught her eye. She was just about to jump on Morgan so he knew she was hungry when eyes drew her in. What were these things. Crouching down and sneaking like the hunter she felt she was Teacup went up towards the cage and swatted at the bars looking at the eyes that were staring out.