Now that his life was back on track, Ary could fully appreciate the CoMC term long activity. He had been around dragons all his life so there was the confidence in him that the activity would be a breeze. The Slytherin arrived at the pasture positively bouncing on his feet. “Hi, Professor!’’ The grin in place would tell the woman just how much he was already loving this.

“Those are pretty accurate-looking dragon eggs,’’ he observed out loud as he took a seat on a regular chair. Still, the third year could not help but admire them all. Leave it to Aunty Hady to go all out to ensure things were as accurate as possible. That was top tier dedication.

Distractions were always welcome, and when they came in the form of a Creatures long term activity, Sable Ileana was all for it. Even if she ought to be more focused on studying for the eventual exams, she fully thought she’d be okay if she started that later rather than earlier. Plus, she did like Professor Paton, even if she was leaning away from the creatures route after graduation. Girls were allowed to have hobbies, right?

In respect to the weather, the blonde had donned her ‘captain’s’ jacket again over a jumper, and her gaze had clocked the tables long before she’d noticed the chairs and everything else. “Hey Professor Paton”, she greeted the woman upon finally perching on the seat of a rocking chair. Okay, the eggs were eerily accurate, and she agreed with the third year Slytherin who had said so, but she didn’t think dragon eggs usually were white. That was probably the mystery part of the whole activity. They wouldn’t know which dragon they were getting if the eggs were too accurate, after all.

If anyone knew anything about co-raising a creature, it was the bubbly pair who had just entered the paddocks arm in arm. They had been the proud parents of Merryweather the Pygmy Puff for three whole years now and in the blonde’s opinion they were doing a mighty fine job at it, hadn’t even lost her once.

Unfortunately Aurora’s knowledge was rather limited to the fluffy and feathery kind of creature rather than one with scales that breathed fire but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try her hardest. There couldn’t have been that much difference in baby dragon husbandry, they still needed feeding and exercising and mothering. Besides, with her best friend by her side what could possibly go wrong?

…..

Or maybe what could possibly go THAT wrong?

“Hi Professor Paton!” she beamed as she hopped, skipped and stepped towards the group likely dragging Anna who she had ‘collected’ on her journey down from the Ravenclaw tower along with her. Thank Merlin they were both quite petite and their stride was quite similar or else one of them might’ve ended up on the floor in their excitement. “Oooh they look like they’re made of white chocolate” she commented, gazing over at the identical white eggs laid out before them. “But how are we supposed to know what dragon they are from if they are all the same colour and size?” Wasn’t that one of the ways that they’d discussed identifying dragon species in class? Because she really didn’t fancy her chances being faced with a Hungarian Horntail.

Vera had been looking forward to the start of this assignment ALL WEEK. From the moment it had been mentioned by Professor Paton, she'd been beside herself with the anticipation. While Sia had found a new potential path, Vera was still very heavily leaning towards pursuing a career in this field. And even a specialized one, as her interests had always been with the sometimes lesser loved scaled creatures. True, she hadn't told anyone just how much she was leaning CoMC now, instead letting those around her believe she'd be going the Gobstones route, but everyone who knew her still would have known how much she loved this stuff.

Practically skipping her way to Professor P's hut, Vera gave everyone already there in attendance a giant grin and a "Hello, all!" before she hurried to the open seat beside Sia. "Aren't you SO excited?" Sia for sure already knew Vera was. In fact, she'd probably grown tired of hearing the girl mentioning it. Her eyes were glued to all of the eggs, and while it was maybe disappointing to not know immediately which egg was what dragon (because identification purposes and all that), Vera loved the idea of NOT knowing what was going to hatch.

Things just kept on getting better and better for the little Paton. Everything with Aryan was smoothed over and back to normal again, in fact things between them were even better than before. She was also back to talking with Drake too and they had worked through some stuff as well.. as best as teens their ages could. Honestly if anyone asked she thought she was doing fantastic given the situation.

Now there was this! They were being given a dragon egg to care for and hatch! Bryony couldn't be more excited if she tried. Really, she had hardly gotten any sleep at all this past week waiting for today. She was finally going to get her very own dragon! Sure, it wasn't a 'real' dragon but she was going to take what she could get right now.

The blonde skipped her way across the pastures to where everything was set up, big bright blue eyes landing on the tables of sparkling white dragon eggs first. "Soooooo pretty!" Internal flailing and not so internal squeals of pure delight. "Hi mama! Hi everyone!" Excited wiggle fingers were sent in all directions at those already seated.

Spotting Ary, Bry grabbed a rocking chair and dragged it over towards him cause she didn't want a regular chair today.. she was much to excited to sit still! Dropping down onto the rocking chair, she reached his closest hand hooking her pinkie around his. "I know we get to see dragons lots, especially you but aren't you excited?" Bry beamed brightly at Ary, shuffling herself back on the chair so she could rock back and forth a bit. "Turn around, Look at what you seeeeeee ... In her face, The mirror of your dreeeeeeeams..." And there she went already off singing a song that he should surely recognize right away since they've watched the movie a billion times and she loved this song.

Glad to be collected (and subsequently reminded that this was something she needed to do because Anna had been distracted for all the wrong reasons by a gossiping portrait) the sixth year hummed a combination of several tunes while Aurora lead them down to the pasture area. She had NOT done particularly well with her dragon bone puzzle (only finding one piece during the entire activity) thus making her feel a bit anxious a long term assignment based on magiarchaeozoology only to her absolute RELIEF learn that there was really no connection at all. Anna was not particularly good at finding things when she was actively looking for them and must better at finding things by pure unconscious coincidence. And besides, she already knew that her and Aurora worked well when it came to keeping an actual living creature alive and thriving so this ought to be a walk in St. James Park. Way easier than making ice cream sundaes together, apparently.

Beaming and offering the Seraphic Princess of Joy and Beauty a wave, Anna's attention turned to Professor Paton who received an equally enthusiastic smile. "Good day, professor!" Her eyes followed Aurora's description and wasn't TOO sure that she saw the white chocolate comparison but she also didn't not see the possibility either. "They look kind of heavy too," she nodded. "Good thing we've been working on our Featherlight and Levitation Charms!" Almost like they were Seers and not simply students preparing for final exams and regular coursework.

And speaking of being light on their feet, Anna was feeling a little too bouncy to want to sit down and instead began to sort of sloppily swing dance with Aurora where they stood. Or, rather, Anna likely looked a bit sloppy since Aurora was the elegant ice skater and had more graceful movements than herself when it came to such things.

The Slytherin wasn’t particularly trained to look after creatures, and given his track record with keeping his silly toad safe, it wasn’t sounding too promising. Probably for the best that they weren’t taking care of REAL dragons, but of course, that was slightly disappointing to Solomon. What better way to get away from reality than to jump on the back of a dragon? As for caring for an egg, he wasn’t sure how well he’d do with that. He wasn’t a clumsy person, really, but quite forgetful. Who knows - this might be a wonderful activity for promoting some concentration within this boy.

He was walking a short distance behind Anna and Aurora but didn’t have the energy to holler at them to wait up. Instead, with his hands stuffed into his pockets, he solemnly (though sometimes smiling at his friends’ apparent joy) made his way over to the chairs. He stacked three and took them over to his friends who were both still standing. He decided not to use any levitation charms to aid himself to acid attention brought upon himself, however saying that, NOT using magic in a magic school would likely gain him more attention. Oops.

The chairs were there if they wished. Solly, sat himself on a rocking chair and smiled at the professor. “Mornin’, Professor.” It was still morning, right? Would be embarrassing if not. Finally giving all of his attention to Aurora and Anna, Solomon said, “What dragon are you guys hoping to hatch?” he knew what he was hoping for! He found himself getting a bit excited, which seemed silly as it wasn’t even a real dragon they were getting.

Eggs, dragons, and fire! Oh my! Needless to say, Logan was quite excited with the long-term assignment his mother had come up with for Creatures class. While he knew the dragons wouldn't be real dragons, being able to at least experience the process from egg to inferno was still FUN. And that was what this boy needed right now when it came to his studies.

Spotting the girlfriend and Sia, the blond swaggered his way over to them. "What are you both hoping you'll get?" he asked the two of them as he scooted his chair even closer to Vera, his blue eyes landing on the several tables and the white eggs that had been placed on them. Of course real dragon eggs would have made identification easy, but the element of surprise here would be, well, surprising.

"I'm honestly hoping for a Chinese Fireball ... or a Peruvian Vipertooth," he added. He had the perfect names in mind for the little hatchling, which he probably spent too much time thinking about when he should have been doing revision for Potions.

Everything appeared to be in perfect order, exactly how she liked it. From the way each off the eggs scales sparkled in the sunlight, to how there was no sign at all which dragon was which... Because they currently were all the same. The sound of the students beginning to arrive, pulled Hadleigh away from the dragon eyes and onto the students. A warm cheerful smile brightening her face as she greeted Aryan. "Hello, Mister Atreyu-Rehman. Why thank you, that was my goal. To keep things as accurate as possible." That was a part of this assignment, for things to be as real as they could be.

For those in their seventh year, this assignment could very well help them along with their studies for their exam in her lesson at the end of the term. Professors always did things for a reason. "Hello there, Miss Armstrong." Another one who seemed to be checking out the eggs from their seat.

"Hello, Miss Ackerly. They do, don't they?" Hady replied with a quiet laugh, turning slightly to look over at the dragon eggs lining the tables once more. She hadn't thought about it before now but she could sort of see how the young lady thought so. "That would be an awfully lot of white chocolate though." Enough to last quite some time. "That is a fantastic question and once everyone arrives I will tell you all exactly how to do that." That was going to be the fun part!

The smile remained on Paton's face as she greeted another seventh year, there seemed to be several today! "Good day, Miss Thanatos. I know I'm excited!" So she hoped they all were too.

There was that very familiar face she knew oooh so well. The one that had looked so sad recently but finally appeared to be much more like herself. "Hi there, Miss Paton." Hady gently reminded her daughter... Again. She knew how excited Bry would be for this assignment.

"Hello, Miss Walles. They do have a bit of weight to them but they aren't extremely heavy." Hady told her, overhearing what she had said to Aurora. Watching the two young ladies 'dance' about made her smile to herself. This was what she enjoyed seeing, pure joy!

Now there was a very nice student, bringing chairs over for his friends. This got a nod of approval from her and a warm smile. "Good morning, Mister Duck."

There he was. Her only son joining the group and going to sit exactly where she expected him to. Without even so much as a hello. She could handle that. Ahem. "Hello to you too, Mister Paton," Hady smiled over at Logan keeping the playful tone from her voice.

After waiting a few more minutes to ensure there weren't anymore arrivals, Hady walked towards a lone rocking chair and sat down. "Good morning everyone. I won't be keeping you all too long today. What I would like for you all to do is go ahead and select a dragon egg and sit back down. Anyone that you like, or doesn't matter as they are all exactly the same." Here is where she stopped talking so that they could get up and go pick any egg they wanted and return with it to their seat.

Once everyone was back at their seats, Hady spoke again. "As you all can see, each one looks exactly the same. They all fell the same and weigh the same. There is no way to tell them apart." If they didn't believe her they were welcome to examine them more closely as well as their friends. "There's a very good for that. In order for you to hatch the dragon of your choosing you will have to work for it. Unless you don't mind then you can do anything on the list and get what you get, which is perfectly fine." Pulling her wand from a pocket, a gentle wave and a muttered word revealed a whiteboard that listed what the students would need to do to get their egg to hatch into the species of dragon they wanted.

Quote:

Antipodean Opaleye - Pearly scales and glittering eyes. So lots of shiny sparkly things used and kept around it. All the glam!
Chinese Fireball - Mushroom shaped flame. So practice fire spells around it.
Common Welsh Green - They have a musical roar. So play lots of music around it.
Hebridean Black - A bit more aggressive than some of the others and require more space. So make sure to keep these eggs comfortable and give them plenty of room.
Hungarian Horntail - Extremely fast fliers and have impressive flying skills. So hopefully you're a great flier too so you can take your egg flying with you. Just make sure not to drop it!
Norwegian Ridgeback - Is known to have a taste for aquatic animals. So maybe keeping it around or in water will help it hatch?
Peruvian Vipertooth - Smallest, fast and a craving for humans? Are you sure you want to hatch this one? So are you small, fast and human? At least two of those? Try taking this egg for runs around the grounds just don't drop it!
Romanian Longhorn - Its home is in the Carpathian mountains. So perhaps making it a safe place to ‘hatch’ that resembles its home will help.
Swedish Short-Snout - The scales are shimmery silver-blue and it is able to breath blue flames. So maybe surrounding this egg with lots of things that are blue will help it to hatch.
Ukrainian Ironbelly - The largest of all the dragons. So maybe everything you use for this egg should be larger than normal.

"For the next 7-10 days you will take care of your dragon egg. This list tells you the best way to hopefully help it to hatch into what you would prefer. They still are eggs though, keep that in mind. They need to be kept safe and with you. If you can't have it with you for whatever reason then you need to find someone else to tend for your egg." Someone they treated. If anything happened to their egg it would be known. "Does anyone have any questions so far?"

Ary was far happier to watch Aunty Hady and the pseudo dragon eggs while they waited for other students to join them.In fact, he only looked around at the sound of the voices of his friends, Vera {who received a cheeky grin} and Bry included. His girl bestie really had nothing to complain about regarding the dragon eggs and eventual dragons not being real; she could always come around to his place anytime and see the real things.

“I’m not sure your mama would encourage you addressing her that way,’’ Ary remarked, grinning and by way of a greeting. He playfully pulled on her pinky with his. “Course I am! It’s going to be extra fun because I know we’re going to ace this project easily.’’ When Bry broke into song, Ary chuckled because yes, he did recognise it easily. He even joined her in singing a few lines quietly.

But that had to be cut short sometime after when Aunty Hady got things started. Egg selection! “Let’s go!’’ Ary told Bry excitedly. He led the way to the dragon eggs where he took an entire minute to decide which would be his. Yes, Ary knew the eggs were all like but he needed to select the one that spoke to him. In the end, the Slytherin carefully picked up an egg from somewhere in the middle of the lot. Pleased with his choice, he headed back to his seat.

As for any questions, he had none.

Her mind was juuuuuuuuuuuust about to wander into ways and methods she could use to bring her egg to Drama Club and even include it in her scene work when another of the bestest people in the world appeared beside her and Aurora. "Solomon!" she chirped with excitement and, obviously, looped her free arm not engaged with Aurora's through Solomon's so they created a charming little three house chain - they were missing the Gryffindor in the chain but perhaps he would be along shortly? "I really want to hear this lyrical roar of the Common Welsh Green...so I think I want that one," she nodded with a bright smile. "But...if there are COMMON Welsh Greens...that begs the answer that there are also UNCOMMON Welsh Greens, right? I mean, if there aren't then why does it have to be called the COMMON Welsh Green and not just Welsh Green? Seems a bit odd to insist any of these majestic creatures are COMMON...I certainly don't see one everyday."

Questions, perhaps, for another day as Professor Paton was beginning class and kindly overestimating Anna's physical strength in the process. "Oooh, let's go pick out our eggs!" she whispered gleefully to her two besties while leading the skip ahead towards the potentials. "Let's help each other with this assignment!" she added while slipping her arms free and examining the eggs with her eyes only for now. "Aurora and I have loads of practice with Merryweather and our eggs can only benefit from having three sets of watchful eyes and affectionate arms, right?" Anna had, technically, three parents and if one of those weren't off saving the world like he was now...she imagined that she would feel that way. "Would that be okay?" she asked, turning towards the other two and accidentally hitting one of the eggs with her outstretched hand...which ended up being just the sign she needed because it rolled right onto her foot and settled in front of her. OBVIOUSLY this was a sign that this was the egg for her. "Got mine!" she proclaimed and waited for the other two to get theirs before heading back to where they had been before to listen to the rest of what Professor Paton had to say.

Question time? Of yes, Anna had a FEW!

"Professor? You say it will be seven to ten days...will some of our eggs take longer to hatch then others? What decides how long our eggs will hatch? Is that based on the type of dragon that will hatch? Is that how actual dragon eggs work too? Some eggs take longer than others to hatch? Why does that happen?" She was realizing that despite being tasked to take care of her own nondescript dragon egg that she knew NOTHING about them or really their care. "Also...um...like other creatures who lay eggs...there is usually the um...incumber period...no no no .... OH, incubation period! Keeping it all warm and everything...but on that list of dragon type guidelines the only kind of mention of heat is with the Chinese Fireball but that is only practicing fire spells around it. Do we need to keep our eggs warm too or do dragon eggs not need that sort of thing?" Maybe she was confusing things with ashwinders...but then again...you could use a Freezing Charm on those to handle them so they didn't always have to stay warm.

Hmmm... wow...LIFE was truly fascinating and she found herself growing every day more and more in awe with it.

No lesson would be complete without an appearance from what could only be dubbed the new golden trio, a friendship that had blossomed for almost 5 years now and looked like it was going nowhere. It didn’t really need questioning that Aurora would be more than happy for the sharing of responsibilities, she felt that she worked better with her peers anyway. Whether the Professors agreed with the sentiment was another question entirely but that was besides the point. “Of course!” she beamed at Anna bouncing over to eenie meenie miney mo over the eggs, picking up whichever one that her sing-song had landed on. “Three parents are better than one.” Well she assumed so, she didn’t have any experience of having more than her two.

Back to Solly’s question now that the different dragons had been explained further. “I don’t think I have a preference but I don’t think I’d be very good with one of the BIG big Dragons. So maybe an Opaleye, I like shiny things. But I also like the idea of singing to my egg so maybe I’ll just do BOTH and then whatever hatches will be a surprise!” And she sure did love surprises. Happy surprises. Not the shocking life changing ones so much.

Did Aurora have any questions? Well yes, Aurora had MANY questions but that didn’t mean they were necessarily relevant to the lesson but rather questions about life in general. Besides, Anna had her all covered on the question front although her mistake on the pronunciation of incubation had her thinking of cucumbers which swiftly moved on to Kappa’s and suddenly she had become all confused about the subject of the lesson but leaving her with even more questions like ‘why did cucumbers appease the Kappas?’ and ‘did other similar vegetables like courgettes work too?’

“OH! Don’t Mumma dragons use their hot fiery breath on their eggs to keep them warm? So maybe we’ll have to constantly breathe on them too” she bounced off her bestie’s questions with a (n admittedly rather ridiculous) suggestion of her own. “Will we have to bring our eggs with us everywhere? Just if we don’t know exactly when our eggs will hatch they might do so when we aren’t there and then our poor baby dragon will be on their own. So I suppose the other option is to take our eggs with us to lessons, only it might be a bit distracting when we are supposed to be learning other things and the other Professors might get a little annoyed if we concentrate on the dragon and not on what they are teaching.” Nevermind that this wasn’t even a real dragon but she was invested now and the guilt she’d feel that her dragon was left to enter this world by itself was overwhelming!

Daisy was nervous, she had no idea what she was going to do about this, seriously a dragon's egg, weren't they extremely dangerous, like how was she going to tell the dragon, she wasn't it's real parent... nope she didn't want to do this, could she just take a catapillar instead, that would be better to see that grow into a butterfly.

Logan's arrival got a wide smile from Vera as he joined her and Sia, and she reached out with one of her feet to gently nudge his leg when he'd settled in a silent greeting. As for his question however? She couldn't help the minor look of despair that crossed her features as she let out a small groan. "It's impossible to choose. I want one of all of them." But yes, she was well aware this assignment was for only one egg and she would have to content herself with that. Although... "I just kind of hope we all end up with a different one though. Because then we'd get to see bits and pieces of different dragon babies." Because they were doing playdates once they had their dragons, yes?

When Professor P was addressing the group to provide instruction, Vera's attention shifted from her people to the Professor as she listened intently. The reveal that they could in fact decide which type they were getting left her in a little bit of despair, because did that mean she DID have to choose? She'd deal with that crisis in a moment, as there was other far easier questions to handle. They'd need to work together at times it sounded like? Her attention shifted to her two companions. "You can sign me up as egg-sitter whenever you need." And she'd absolutely be asking them both too, especially given how often she was in the presence of both.

When they were released to pick their eggs, she bounced up but held back from excitedly rushing forward to wait for them. As for questions? She did in fact have some, but she waited for A-squared to finish theirs before she added any others. Once they were done (and she was listening for those answers too), Ve also raised her hand. "Professor, if we just... don't choose a certain type of dragon and just kind of go about life with them with us, is there a risk it WON'T hatch? Or if we do two things because we're stuck on two options, does it make a hybrid happen or does the egg just.... decide to be one?"

If she'd looked at the list, she probably would have seen that her normal day-to-day would have given her probably a Peruvian Vipertooth or a Romanian Longhorn, but she was avoiding those instructions for a moment.

Logan chuckled at Vera's groan and shook his head. "Well, whatever we end up with, I'm sure it'll be awesome," he said confidently. He leaned closer to Vera. "You are more than welcome to babysit mine. And who knows how rambunctious they'll be. We might have to take turns watching them."

What was that? "Oh. Hi, Mum," he responded to the woman he'd known his entire life. "Professor," he quickly corrected himself at the last second, since they were currently in student-professor mode.

His eyes lit up with excitement as he listened to his mother the details of the assignment she was giving out. He didn't need to be told twice about grabbing one of the eggs! He was certainly more interested in making a selection than reading all of those words on the whiteboard.

Before he approached one of the tables, however, his mind was soon captured by all of the questions that were being asked. Eyes glanced from Vera to Sable to his mum to whoever was speaking and back again. He wouldn't mind having to carry an egg around everywhere, and the idea of them hatching in the middle of lessons sounded hilarious to him. And hybrids? The possibility sounded wicked!

Maria sat near Logan and Vera and observed the dragon eggs up front. They were practically going to be tending for a dragon egg like they would a real baby for 7-10 days making sure that it was warm, comfortable, and so on. It was a big responsiblity. Maria felt ready to handle it, and she knew that Kion was going to help her tend to her chosen dragon egg as much and as often as he could. Her boyfriend was the best.

Maria scribbled down careful notes on how she was supposed to tend to her dragon egg from Professor Paton's instructions. All tips were welcome after all. Before she had even gotten up on her feet to choose an egg her peers started to ask lot's of valid questions. Raising her hand Maria asked a question of her own after glancing over the dragon eggs on selection. "If all the dragon eggs look the same how will we know what dragon is going to hatch from it? I bet many of my peers has a certain dragon species they hope for. So will it just be wait, and see and then surprise when the eggs hatch?"

Maria had her hopes too for two of the dragon species, but she was okay with any egg. Without waiting for an answer she went up, and picked out one of the dragon eggs from the right end of the table. She cradled it against her chest on the way back to sit down next to Logan and Vera.

Sure Bry could go see dragons anytime her young heart desired buuuuuuut this was different! This was HER very own dragon! Ary knew how much she wanted a dragon of her very own. It didn't matter that these weren't actual 'dragons', it was as close as she was getting for now. "Probably not.. but it's not my fault she's my mama and that's what I'm most used to calling her," Bry giggled, grinning at him cheekily. Oh, and that pinky of his she had grabbed onto.. she wasn't letting go of it just yet. Sorry not sorry. "Of course we will! There's no way we'll do badly on this." Squeeeeeeeeee! The smile on her face brightened all the more as he joined her in song for a few moments longer.

When her mama began speaking and all the explaining started to happen, this girl was all ears! She couldn't sit still and was rocking to and frow on the edge of her seat, lightly swinging Ary's hand along with her own.. at least until he made her let go. The blonde didn't need to be told twice about selecting her dragon egg! "Let's find our dragon babies!" Leaping to her feet, Bry was right at Ary's side as they made their way to one of the tables. The decision wasn't an easy. Each egg may look the same but she only wanted the one that she felt connected to.

Blue eyes scanned over each egg, slowly drawn to one furthest from her. Rather than reaching across the table for it and risking knocking over other eggs, she did the smart thing for once and walked around the table until she stood in front of it. "Hello there," she hummed softly, scooping up the dragon egg and cradling it in her arms. Smiling brightly at Ary, she followed him back to their seats, her dragon egg held protectively on her lap as she rocked gently in the rocker.

Questions? Nah, she was good right now.

***

It was quite interesting watching each student's process as they selected their 'dragon' egg. The way that some had to eye every single egg, others choose the first way they came close to. It reminded her of herself when she was young and anytime she had to select anything for a lesson. Always go with the one that 'spoke' to you.

Now that everyone was back at their seats, and their eggs had been chosen it was time to get to answering their questions. Hady was honestly looking forward to this part, seeing what they all were most curious about and where their concerns currently lay. Those curious minds already had a smile tugging at Paton's lips as the first round of questions was being asked. "Fabulous questions, Miss Walles! That is correct, it will take roughly 7 - 10 days for your eggs to hatch. How long it takes your egg to hatch is based upon its species as well how it's being cared for. Bigger, stronger, tougher dragons may take longer. Those that are looked after constantly, as well as cared for in a specific way in order to hatch them may take less time. These are magical eggs so it's not a direct connection to how a real dragon hatched, but I did try to keep it about the same. Some real dragon eggs take longer than others because it's like any other creature or even us as humans as we are growing to be born, we're all different and grow at our own rate." She hoped that answered her question but if not, Hady was happy to explain it more if Anna liked.

As for Miss Ackerly piggy backing off of her friends' questions, this was great. Hady could see how the questions fit together and couldn't help but give a very soft laugh as well as a nod of her head. "Yes, mama dragons do breathe on their eggs to help keep them warm and help them hatch. Don't worry though, you won't need to do that." Their breaths wouldn't be anywhere near hot enough to satisfy a dragon egg. As for keeping their eggs warm and carrying them around everywhere with them... "Some ways you can keep your egg warm are by wrapping it up in a blanket or something similar, keeping it in a basket or some other type of carrier with warm bedding inside, the use of a heating charm which would need to be repeated often. You may be as creative or as simple as you like in keeping your egg warm and cozy." This was their dragon egg to care for after all. "As for how you will tend to them during lessons is simple. You may either have some you trust look after them for you while you attend your lessons or you may take them with you. Now should you take them with you, I expect that you will keep them set aside in a safe spot where they can be seen but not in harms way AND also not a distraction to the class. If I hear from any of the professors that the eggs are being a distraction we will find another way to look after them during those lessons." While these eggs were important so was their studies and each Professor deserved the same level of respect in their classrooms. And yes, she did already have something in mind should the students need a safe space for the eggs to remain during a class.

Moving along now to the next hand raised, Hady smiled. "Another good question, Miss Thanatos. Should you decide that you don't want to choose and you would like to let nature takes its course or you are stuck between one or more dragons, the dragon will hatch into whichever is ranked highest on your daily activities. Maybe you wrapped it up in a glittery blanket, sang to it often, practiced many fire spells and went running daily. However it just so happens that you also wore a lot of blue without realizing it. Then you may get a Swedish Short-Snout. So in short, your daily activities would definitely play into what you would end up with.. and no, there will be no hybrids. Sorry to those hoping for any." Caring for these dragons was going to prove difficult enough for some of the students, all they needed was to add hybrids into the mix.

Hady smiled softly at Maria when her hand went up into the air. "That's what the list on the whiteboard is for. Should anyone be hoping for a specific species all they need to do is follow the guidelines on that list. It gives a hint on how to hatch the eggs into species." Now it should go without saying that some would certainly be a bit more difficult to hatch than others but that's just how things went. Not everything could be super easy all of the time.

Taking a quick look around for any more raised hands, Hady rose to her feet. "Now I do have some items here to her you all started should you want to use them. You may use whatever you like, you also don't have to use anything at all and can figure things out for yourselves, it's entirely up to you." A quick wave of her wand made several boxes appear near the tables. "There's baskets and blankets and wraps that you would wear when carrying a small creature in. You may also take these and modify them to your own needs." The reason she was supplying these items was simply, they were going to need all the help they could get soon enough.

The blond was doing his best to listen to all of the answers his mother-professor gave to those who asked questions. It was A LOT of information, and, well, his attention span was starting to run thin. Seven to ten days ... stronger dragons may take longer to hatch ... keep the egg warm in whatever creative or simple way they liked ... look after them during lessons, but don't let them be a distraction ... yes, okay, that was easy enough.

Unable to wait any longer, he stepped away and approached one of the tables. One of the white eggs was grabbed at random (since it seemed their actions would influence what kind of dragon it would be) and carefully (because it would just be awful if he accidentally dropped the baby dragon egg) returned to his place beside Vera and Sable. He arrived just in time to hear that there wouldn't be any hybrid species, which caused Logan to frown just a little as it sounded like a missed opportunity.

The mention of the whiteboard resulted in his eyes finally scanning the information. His head tilted to the side as he went down the list. Instantly the Chinese Fireball and Common Welsh Green stuck out to him ... Oh! And so did the Peruvian Vipertooth! The how-to-get-that-species-of-dragon guidelines were quite straightforward now that he was properly reading them over, and they easily aligned with things he did on a day-to-day basis anyway. The question was, which species did he want most? Or was he going to let fate decide?

Such questions would be answered in seven to ten days, he supposed. In the meantime, he needed to keep that baby dragon egg warm. The boxes of baskets, blankets, and wraps, when his mother revealed them, did register in his mind, but for whatever reason he opted right then and there to not use them. Within seconds, he slipped the egg under his shirt, the scales of the egg making contact with his skin.

So this was what it was like to be with child? Huh. The more you know.

Little did Bry know that someday soon she was going to be gifted a dragon, just as how she had been gifted a hippogriff. But that would be his little secret for now. Instead, he now playfully rolled his eyes at her; it wasn’t easy for him to not refer to Hady as ‘Aunty’, so both he and Bry had their respective struggles in that department. Anyway. He and Bry soon had their chosen eggs in their possession.

As Aryan hung onto each of Aunty Hady’s words, he absently petting his egg. All he knew was that he didn’t care what sort of dragon hatched. He would do nothing on purpose to influence the outcome. What was the fun in doing that?

“Let’s go grab the stuff, Bry.” To the egg, he added, “Be right back. Don’t go rolling away.” With that, the third year year was on his feet again.

Sydney Masters was not the nurturing, motherly type, but she was mildly intrigued by this assignment. It would've liked it better if it involved hatching an actual dragon - imagine the havoc she could wreak with one of those! - but who knew? It might be fun… or at least informative. Maybe there was a way to charm the dragon plush to breathe actual fire or bite people? Now that would be a useful plush! She supposed she’d find out when it hatched.

The blonde had been here all along, sitting quietly in the back. She had no questions so far. At Professor Paton’s instruction, she got up to retrieve her dragon egg, picking up the first one she saw. If they all looked alike, what was the point in being picky? She carried the egg back to her seat, glancing at the hints on the board. She had no aversion to any breed of dragon. Some of the actions required to hatch said breeds? Not so much. She wasn’t fond of flying, running, or sparkly things, so a Hungarian Horntail, Peruvian Vipertooth, or Antipodean Opaleye seemed unlikely.

Of the other breeds, Sydney was most drawn to the Swedish Short-snout or the Common Welsh Green. She liked the Swedish Short-snout because it matched her wand core; the Common Welsh Green mainly because she wanted to perform an experiment. It was nothing unethical. She just wanted to know if different types of music could affect the Common Welsh Green’s roar. She glanced at the egg in her arms. She supposed she needed to name it… shame she already named her prized venus flytrap Alastor. That would be an amazing dragon name! Suddenly an idea occurred to her. What about Vox? That name could work for a Swedish Short-snout or a Common Welsh Green… not so much for the other breeds. Oh well, she supposed she could always change the name after it hatched.

Now she needed supplies. Was she supposed to leave her egg or…? She decided to carry it - Vox - with her, just to be safe. Her grayish-blue eyes scanned the assortment of available items, searching for anything in blue. She found a blue blanket and a blue wrap, but she couldn’t find a blue basket. She did find a rather nice gray one that caught her eye. Maybe she could charm it to change color… or paint it if all else failed.

Cradling her egg against her chest for warmth Maria sat, and read over the notes on the whiteboard on what to do to hatch a specific dragon species. She would be happy with any breed of dragon for sure, but some of the requirements seemed hard to match. She didn't own lots of sparkly things, that was more Vee's style. So the Antipodean Opaleye was probably out of the question just like the Common Welsh Green that hatched better if you played or sang music to it. Maria couldn't sing a straight tune or play an instrument so unless listening to radio music sufficed then she wouldn't get such a dragon either.

The other species that wanted blues, flying on your broom, running or keeping the egg in or near water seemed more easy to accomodate. When there was a lull in the queue Maria got up and got her supplies from the blankets, wraps and baskets on hand. She was going to do her utmost to give her egg the best chance of hatching. Back in her seat the seventh year badgerette bundled her egg up in the blue blanket, and also added an heating charm. Now what?

Okay, but like she didn't know that so this was all she had right now. Let her live through this here dragon egg, Ary! But when she did get that dragon, let it be known now that if Ary thought he had to brace himself for the reaction that was Bry excitement when she got that hippogriff... he best be warned now that it was going to be a million times worse. That boy knew how badly she wanted a dragon of her very own.

The rocking of her chair didn't stop as she listened to every single word her mama spoke. And did that lovely woman happen to know that it had been a whole lot? Like a lot, a lot. So much that Bry was a little bit more than certain that she was going to have to go over it all with Ary at some point later on when they were back in their common room. As for now though, she was just going to nod along and laugh at her brother's way of carrying around his egg. Way to be protective of the dragon baby, Logan!

"Kay!" She didn't need telling twice. The blonde got to her feet much more carefully than she ever did, still holding onto her baby dragon egg. It was coming with her! Everywhere! "What all do we want to get? All the things?" That way they had a variety and could see what worked best for them over time?

*****

With the students all finding their items or most of them were, yes she saw that Logan, Hadleigh rose to her own feet now to walk around. The woman was curious to see which technique they would opt for. Who would take a basket. Were the wraps and slings more popular? Did any of them want to try coming up with something of their own?

"If there are any more questions, now would be the time to ask. If not and you have everything you would like for your dragon egg, you are free to go and get started. If at any time you need anything or have any issues at all, please don't hesitate to come and speak with me. Remember, this shouldn't become a chore it's meant to be fun as well as educational. It's okay to help one another, sometimes it takes a village to raise a child.. or in this case, all of Hogwarts to raise baby dragons!" Professor Paton laughed softly. She was so funny, was she not? Anyway, as she had been saying, "That is all for now, you're all free to go. I'll see you all soon in our next lesson." Or baby dragon group gather, whichever may come first if one was needed.


OOC:Oh, my goodness, I'm so so soooooo sorry everyone! It had been brought to my attention that I had never replied back here to dismiss you all or give further directions. I had honestly thought I had and for some unknown reason never even checked back to make sure of it and what might be going on. This is ALL completely on me. I will be altering the other part of this assignment just slightly since in my HUGE error there is so little time left. Nothing you all have to do will change at all! I hope this didn't ruin anyone's excitement in the assignment and you all can go ahead and continue to have fun hatching/raising the baby dragons!

They are all able to leave after taking their dragon egg and any items they may want to use to keep it safe, warm and comfortable (unless they don't want anything). You're free to post your student with their egg now trying to hatch them, helping a friend with theirs or whatever else may happen.

Should anyone still want to join in, you're always welcome to do so!

Emma was anxious when she heard about the assignment because while it sounded super duper exciting, was it safe? Surely though Professor Paton wouldn't put them in harms way but hatching dozens of dragons all over the castle.... ? Unless they were fake dragons which would would take some of the adventure out. Dragon replicas probably seemed more realistic than the actual thing.

As far as which dragon she was hoping for, the Antipodean Opaleye sounded cool, but so did the common welsh green with its musical roar. At first the peruvian vipertooth, cause it being the smallest with her being tiny was appealing but maybe not? "Professor ... did you mention how big these will get? Will they be full grown?"

Once several selected their eggs already, the third year made her way over to the eggs and decided it best to just close her eyes and select one randomly. Which is exactly what the small hufflepuff did. Holding out it up to inspect it, she figured she would decide on the naming after it hatched. For now she collected one of the baskets and wrapped it in one of the glittery blankets thinking it might grant her the wish of an Opaleye.

So, the day had come. Anna wasn't sure how exactly she felt about the end of the assignment, truth be told, and it was not because she hadn't enjoyed it, because she had enjoyed it immensely. By an ironic twist of fate, Anna hadn't been able to dive into her immersive imagination and suspend her reality enough to look at her egg and think of it as a real egg nor the actual dragon that hatched from it as an actual dragon. There was a disconnect...which made her think that she had done the Care of Magical Creatures assignment wrong.

It had been SOOOOOO much fun coming up with unique ways to set the stage for her eventual hatching and getting to use tools and gifts that were often left for decoration about her dorm room. She certainly had gotten plenty of kilometers out of her music box! It had also been great taking Sunny, as an egg, to drama rehearsals and surrounded them with theatrics and well spoken passions. Not to mention the singing practices too! Even Merryweather had taken to the egg and, when it was Anna's turn to care for the pygmy puff, snuggled up with the egg. She liked to think that this was to help keep the egg warm even though that wasn't a requirement for egg care ... unless the pygmy puff knew something she didn't!

Anna was reluctant to return Sunny now, truth be told, but she supposed that she had to do so so that Professor Paton could remove the enchantments placed upon her plushie body. As much fun as it would be to have lots of plushie dragons waddling around the castle, it would probably be a bit of a hazard with other's familiars and Peeves would most certainly have a hayday with all these animated creatures. No, Anna supposed that Headmaster Winterbottom wouldn't fancy that very much even if he resembled the muggle version of Santa Claus. Her mum and dad probably wouldn't be too keen on her coming home with an enchanted dragon plushie either - particularly dad with all of his finicky work items he had at home. Would just be Anna's luck that her baby dragon plushie would learn to breathe fire and completely torch his designs and records. Still, as much as she understood the need for such enchantments to be removed...she sure hoped the professor wouldn't do so right in front of the Hufflepuffle because she really didn't want to see the magic'k life taken from her body. Oh, look at that! She did view Sunny as a real flesh and blood dragon a little bit after all. That was certainly a nice revelation!

In any event, Anna was here now to temporarily return Sunny to the professor and...get her back today as well? Anna would be holding on to her dragon baby until summer break since she and Aurora had some big big BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG plans once their Creatures and Cwtches Sanctuary volunteering started up! "Don't fret, Sunny. You'll be seeing me again soon. I just need to hand you over to Professor Paton for a....a little check up," she assured the dragon in her arms and with its head resting on the little Hufflepuffle's shoulder. "I'll play the music box for you after."

She may be tearing up just a little.