There's something happening in the stables, although it isn't obvious to the average observer what it is. The creatures are restless, shifting within their respective pens, and some of the smaller creatures (the nifflers! the augureys!) are downright unsettled.

For those who have witnessed death firsthand, they might see wild thestrals (rather than the carefully groomed ones that belong to the school) packed into stalls where they don't belong. For those who can't see the thestrals, isn't it straaaaange how the creatures are all bunched up to one side in their stalls?

Ellie entered the barn with her brown hair pulled back into pig tails and her red and gold robes we’re freshly picked up from the laundry. She wanted to look nice for the creatures she was going to visit today and hopefully if they let her feed and rub them affectionately. Ellie had a strong love for creatures which she had inherited from her mother and told Professor Cornish about but there was one creature she ran away from. She hated dragons with every bone in her young body. Luckily the pastures held no dragons or she would have not have come at all.

Picking up food for the fairies and winged horses and birds Ellie made her way out into the pastures in a cheery good mood. It was a lovely sunday afternoon. Passing the fences she got the feeling that something was up. Pushing the thought away as folly she headed over to the beautiful augrey’s first. She furrowed her brows at the very unsettled looking birds. What could be the cause? Hmmm? Tossing in the food she had brought in to them she murmured quietly to Romeo and Loralei as she didn’t want to unsettle them even more. "What’s wrong Romeo and Loralei? Are you sick?" There couldn’t be anything here that scared them, could it?

Kaiser didn't have any pets. He never had, but that wasn't to say he didn't appreciate the presence of animals. If he could afford a pet, and knew for sure that he could keep it alive and well fed and comfortable, then he would have one. As it was, he could barely manage that for himself, so, for the time being, he made do with his friends' pets and visiting the Hogwarts animals during his many, many walks around the castle and grounds.

He hadn't been in the barn for very long before it occurred to Kaiser that something was up, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what. There was another student, a girl, already here and tending to the birds, and Kaiser made sure to give her some space. He wandered around, hands in pockets, and approached the stalls, only stop stop dead in his tracks and give a sudden gasp.

Thestrals, more thestrals than he was ever used to seeing in here, were packed inside. Kaiser stood stock still and stared back at them, fairly certain that what he was looking at was... not... entirely normal, even for Hogwarts. "What...?"

On one of his many sets of making his rounds around the grounds, Piers had two of his dogs with him as he came around Grant Cornish's dominion of the outdoors. He was sure the man had everything under control, but Lucy and Winnie, his black lab and his Australian shepherd had an exceptional amount of energy today that he was attempting to get out of them.

As the dogs bounded around, Piers kept his eyes around the barns and the animals, marveling at the beauty of the grounds. But he was soon distracted by the barking coming from his two dogs. Turning his attention to them, Piers noticed they were barking at the pastures.

"What is it, girls? Calm down," he whispered to his dogs. His dogs were rather well trained and weren't much bothered by other creatures, especially barn animals, so he wasn't sure what was going on. Once Piers followed his dogs, he saw one of his own Slytherins inside (Kaiser) and a younger girl further in.

Kaiser, seemed to be... frozen. Piers followed his gaze, but saw nothing other than all the barn animals pressed to the sides of their stalls, clearly disturbed by something. "Did something happen..?" Something had the animals spooked. As for Piers' dogs, they were now behind him, whining. Did he miss something?

Indigo liked visiting the creatures. Sometimes when he was feeling anxious, spending time around the animals helped calm him down. The crups were always friendly and nice to visit. Actually, some of his favorite animals to visit were the thestrals. It might be a bit morbid, but thestrals were some of his favorite animals. They always seemed so peaceful, never bothering anybody and just wandering the forest and helping pull the carriages when needed. He also thought it was kind of cool that not everybody could see them, though he wasn't going to claim to be super excited about why he could see them. Still, he was actually on his way to visit the thestrals that lived in the creatures barn when he came upon the strange situation inside the barn.

There were more thestrals than he had thought lived there. And... they didn't seem to be in the right place. They were packed into the stalls of the other creatures. The third problem that he noticed was that these ones were pretty unkempt. They didn't look like the nice, well taken care of ones that lived in the barns. Clearly, there was something not right about this situation. Indigo glanced around, taking in who else was there. Two students, one who seemed as if he could see the strange situation as clearly as he could. Indigo couldn't claim to know every other student in the school, but he was pretty positive that this boy was named Kaiser. The other girl, though, he vaguely recognized but didn't know her name. The third person was one of the new professors. Not the Care of Magical Creatures professor, but a professor nonetheless, so hopefully he might know what was going on. "Uh, why are there so many thestrals?"

Ellie hadn’t been trying to sooth the unsettled augerys for very long until she was joined in the pastures by an older boy, noting his slytherin robes. If she recalled right from lessons then his name was Kaiser, but she wasn’t totally certain. What she heard though was Kaiser’s sudden gasp. With a last look at the augery’s Ellie straightened up and walked towards Kaiser wandering what he was staring at when she saw all the thestrals bunched up together in the back of the stalls and there we’re unsually many of them. Walking up to stand beside the elder boy Ellie asked him "Are there supposed to be so many thestrals in the pastures and huddled together like that? You’re Kaiser right? I’m Ellie, third year."

Some moment’s later they we’re joined by Professor Fuller. Thank merlin for a professor even if Ellie would have hoped for Professor Cornish. Turning to Professor Fuller she shook her shoulders in response "I don’t know professor Fuller, but all the creatures in the pastures even the augurey’s seem unsettled and spooked. I don’t know why though..." Gesturing forward to the thestrals she asked "Is it common for Professor Cornish to let wild thestrals stay in the pastures too?"

Another elder boy in eagle robes that Ellie thought her twin had pointed out as being called Indigo and he repeated her question. She remained quiet, looking forward at the thestral’s studying them as she didn’t have an answer.

Within moments, the girl had come across to join him, Kaiser could hear her even though his eyes were fixed on the skeletal horses. "I do not think so," he said, sounding vaguely distracted. Well, naturally the sight of all those thestrals in one place was a relatively distracting one. And he was only guessing here, but Kaiser was relatively sure they weren't supposed to be packed into the stalls so tightly. To the query about his name, he nodded. "Uh-huh."

Hearing barking coming from nearby, followed by the sound of someone else entering, Kaiser finally tore his gaze away and towards the entrance of the barn to see his own head of house, accompanied by two dogs. Given the general state the animals around them were getting themselves into and the fact that something felt distinctly Wrong in here, Kaiser had to bite back the impulse to blurt out something along the lines of 'it was like this when I got here.'

As it was, he merely shrugged and looked back into the stalls again, as an older Ravenclaw boy by the name of Indigo entered too. Kaiser opened his mouth to explain what he was seeing, not sure if Professor Fuller-Thompson was able to see for himself, but the words of both Indigo and Ellie sort of summed up the situation.

Kaiser closed his mouth again and remained quiet, still watching the thestrals, and silently drumming his fingers against the side of his leg. "Perhaps they are hiding," he said after a long pause, keeping his voice low and soft for the benefit of the spooked animals around them.

...... Oh, bugger.

Thestrals? And the children could see them. Yes, that was what his first month back needed: emotionally tormented children seeing Thestrals in broad daylight. Though, they all seemed to be handling it alright, just a bit confused, perhaps with a small dose of shock. Piers couldn't see them, but he didn't fancy hanging about the creatures - especially the wild ones that one of the students mentioned - for much longer.

"Not sure," he answered plainly to the older Ravenclaw boy (Indigo) that had just arrived. And he was not the only one wondering.

The young Gryffindor mentioned that the rest of the animals were spooked, but Piers could SEE those ones and could tell quite easily. They didn't seem to be fans of the new thestrals. Piers glanced at the young Gryffindor (Ellie) when she asked about Professor Cornish. "Errrr, you know what?" Pause.

...... "I don't know." Truly.

Piers' eyes were on the stalls, even though the spaces he was looking in were empty in his eyes. Kaiser brought up a good point - perhaps they were hiding. "Perhaps," Piers responded thoughtfully, his two dogs still cowering behind him. "Err, why don't you lot run along. I'll go notify Cornish of his new barn animals." Just in case they WEREN'T supposed to be there. "If they are wild, I don't want anyone getting to close, alright?" He liked creatures, but thestrals? He didn't know much about them and he'd rather the students were safer than sorry.

Ellie didn’t know if she should see it as reassuring or not that Kaiser seemed to be seeing the skeletal horses too, but not Professor Fuller. It meant that Kaiser like her had seen death. Death was a topic she avoided talking about as much as she could. It hurt thinking about her deasead mother too much so she didn’t say anything more she remained silent. She could bet her pack of bubblegums on that Professor Fuller was wondering if she was emotionally tormented though because of her being able to see the thestrals. Ellie wasn’t going to blabber out her life story to a prof in the barns around two guys she didn’t know, nope wasn’t going to happen. There was more pressing matters to attend to here, like the distressed creatures around them.

Looking up at Professor Fuller as he told them to run along as he’d go notify Professor Cornish. Before she knew she had opened her mouth Ellie protested with a sideways glance to Kaiser and Indigo hoping for support. "But professor Fuller shouldn’t someone stay to try and calm the creatures until Professor Cornish comes? What if the creatures hurt each other when nobody is here? The nifflers and augurey’s look really spooked..." She was genuinely worried. Her mum had told her that sort of thing could happen if many creatures we’re in pastures/stalls together and in distress.