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Old 01-15-2020, 07:20 AM   #58 (permalink)
Mathys de Nostredame
Dementor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2019
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the sky is always there for me ☀ ☁ heavy hearts like heavy clouds

SPOILER!!: étudiants

SPOILER!!: ENERGY levels

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Originally Posted by Felixir View Post
Was it not still slightly early for 'bonsoir'? Filed under: things Kaiser thought but did not say. Even if he had been up for making conversation, he wasn't about to question people on their word choices. He was very much living in a glass house, in that regard.

For the remainder of the time before the lesson started, Kaiser had taken to messing with his own school tie, perhaps subconsciously mirroring Kodee. He wasn't trying to retie it or anything though, just fiddling with the ends of it. When Nostredame spoke to address the entire class, Kaiser dragged his gaze that way.

... So. Care of Magical Creatures could sometimes be a bit tricky for Kaiser, on account of how he had spent a long time keeping his distance from even mundane animals. Not that he didn't like them - he'd wanted a dog for the longest time, for all kinds of reasons - but, even as a child, had been so scared of getting attached and then losing his animal companion in some way or another that he had avoided any such attachment in the first place. Not to mention... certain practical obstacles. The point was... he was woefully lacking in general creature knowledge, and only had what he knew from classes and homework.

In the end, he decided to go for a general answer, rather than identify a specific creature. Eyeing the bird in Nostredame's hands, he let go of his tie with one hand and half raised it. "Most-" All? He didn't know. "-creatures have a lot less energy when they grow old. They might become tired, or weak."
Quote:
Originally Posted by love-for-HP View Post
Blake wasn't 100% certain what the creature in front of him was, seeing as he had very little experience with the creatures of a magical kind. But he was happy to hear that it wasn't sick... and from the sounds of it .. just old.

He searched his brain for an answer, what did he know about aging in animals either young or old. And the thought about his dog growing up. "Well, I know some animals get grey around the muzzle area when they age, and the start to move slower, or are unable to jump like they used to." Even though he has referencing his very non magical dog, he assumed it worked from magical crups and other animals to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hjhm View Post
A smile formed on her lips when the professor thanked her for the greeting. She sat quietly on her seat and casually gives a glance at the students entering one by one until the professor started his lesson. Ahh yes, that dreamy accent. Jillian enjoys listening to that.

Descriptive qualities to identify the age of another creature.
Hmmm...

One thing she knows about are cats since they've had cats for as long as she can remember but qualities in aging on any type creature seems to be the same, this includes them. Not all of the creatures but certainly most, right? Humans age faster (or shorter) than witches but they all still age. Clearing her throat she raised her hand to answer "Physical changes are always present such as the skin becoming all wrinkly and saggy. Also there is a reduce in activity because their muscles and bones aren't strong as it used to be" she uttered. Isn't sad though? She doesn't want her cats to age but that's nature.

Both Monsieur Ryan and Mademosielle Kim raised points that he would address later (the change in color and elasticity of skin), but he chose to focus on the lattermost of their response. The one that resonated the most with with the one from Monsieur Kaiser.

"Oui. Zis is somezing zat we see across species."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimothy View Post
Drewett understood, Nina. Of course he did, and he wasn't going to prod her to speak up in class if she didn't. Verbal participation wasn't always necessary, he believed, as long as they took notes in class. That's how this Ravenclaw usually learned, to listen quietly and jot down notes. He responded to her look with a smile and a gentle nudge of his elbow. All good, though he wasn't sure it applied to the professor.

Speaking of, Drewett gave the question some thought. He tried to reflect on his own pets at home, and he briefly considered owl behaviour as they aged—a lot of which have been mentioned by other students. He felt he must deviate from winged creatures. Then that was when he thought of Bertha, the family dog. Well, who was their family dog. The house still felt empty without her.

The seventh year then raised his hand. "From experience, Professor, dogs start losing their appetite as they age," Drewett shared while simultaneously filing away his sad feels about Bertha.
"Indeed, Monsieur Gunter. Zis decrease in ze appetite is often associated weeth ze decrease in energy some of your othair classmates have discussed. Somezing zat is not exclusive to canines."

SPOILER!!: SAGGY SKIN

Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 View Post
Claudine didn’t know what that look was about but she didn’t dwell on it. In fact, she hadn’t paid de Nostredame any more attention after greeting him. Instead, her gaze moved from student to student, most often lingering on Bernie. Her friend? seemed to be getting along just fine without having her, Claudine, around. Then again, that was Bernie; popular and fun and the opposite of Claudine. She was just surprised that Blake wasn’t tagging along with her.

Claudine finally drew her attention away from Bernie. The lesson was about to begin. Aging? Ailment? Yes, those little creatures certainly looked both. Though her expression remained stoic, Claudine was a little sad for the birds. They looked just a bit helpless and it hurt her. She was drawn to creatures a lot more than she was to humans. The Snakette was more interested on the one not on de Nostredame’s extended arm.

When the first question came, Claudine raised her hand. When her turn came, she volunteered, “Their skin might sag.’’
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charely Potter View Post
Curtis wondered what the Professor would say and if he caught how exaggerated his compliment was. Well, looks like he took it well. Professors always loved being complimented. It made him grin. He waited with the others until the lesson began with the first question.

First question, how to distinguish the age of a creature or person. Curtis thought about it for... about a few seconds. "They usually look really ugly the older they get, with all the skin dragging and pieces of their fur or hair thinning. When they're born they look ugly too but that's cause they haven't grown into their looks yet." Curtis said, when it was his turn to speak. There, that was his answer.


....was it Monsieur Fuller-Thompson's aim in life to be insulting? If so, he was doing a fine job of it and Mathys was disinclined to respond to his answer at all. He felt the frail Jobberknoll quiver in his hand a bit and the professor gently stroked it's back with one of his strong fingers as a response.

He simply lay his eyes on the Slytherin youth before moving on to the other Slytherin youth, Mademoiselle Blaze. "Oui, saggy skin can be a sign of aging in certain species. Zough some creatures, and I am sure you all can zink of more zan a handful of options on your own, already have saggy skeen because of eets evolutionary advantages."

The elephant, as an example. Mathys assumed their previous studies would bring them all to this conclusion at the bare minimum.

He also offered Mademoiselle Kim a quick wink. She had addressed the change in skin's elasticity as well.

SPOILER!!: HAIR raising responses

Quote:
Originally Posted by littledhampir View Post
Alexandre was there of course. Had been there the whole time of course of course. He had been watching the birds in front of them. One of them looked a bit sad, and he was feeling sorry for it. Was it okay? When the lesson started and the professor started talking about age and things like that it occurred to him that it was probably just old and not as energetic as the young ones. He thought about how to answer the question, what other signs of aging there were. He knew what that would look like in people of course, but not many animals. But he thought that he knew enough and raised his hand. "Professor, some creatures, like people, start getting gray hair when they get older."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daydreamer11 View Post
It was time for class to begin and the professor began to speak. Naya had been in such a hurry to make it to class, she hadn’t even taken a moment to notice the birds. Astute observational skills. Well apparently Naya did not deserve that complement today. How could she have missed the cages full of blue birds? When they flew out and landed on the professor’s arm, it reminded her of a bird that her grandmother had once. Naya then watched as the professor gently and carefully removed one bird from its cage. Was it sick? Old? She would have to wait to find out the answer to that question.

In the meantime, there was a question to think about. How to identify the age of a creature. Did he mean specifically or generally? It would be rather hard to guess or figure out a creature’s actual age. Getting the general neighborhood of the age might be a little easier. Too bad that animals were not like trees. You could look at their rings and figure out exactly how old they were.

Coming up with an answer that she hoped was good, Naya raised her hand. “Some people may start to lose their hair when they get older.” Although some people with thinning or balding hair chose to hide it with wigs, hairpieces and weaves......so you may not get that clue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireheart View Post

Avalon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Nostredame's odd response to her arrival. Had he mistaken her for another student? As far as she was aware, her attendance was still perfect. Sure, she had considered missing Potions last week when she woke up with a nasty head cold, but she forged her way down the Dungeons anyway. And she hadn't missed a CoMC class yet. Perhaps he was confused with her introduction to the Gryffindor next to her? She had seen the girl in lessons before, but she hadn't yet made a formal introduction. And as far as Avalon remembered, they hadn't learned about whatever birds were in the cage yet. The Ravenclaw simply asked Charlie if she had ever heard of them.

"Just kidding around, Professor," Avalon answered with a nervous laugh. She didn't really feel like explaining herself, and Nostredame definitely wasn't one she wanted to cross.

When the professor asked about signs of aging, she immediately thought of one of her favorite magical creatures - unicorns. Avalon raised her hand. "Unicorns are born gold. They turn silver when they're about two or three years old. And they don't turn white until they're fully grown." She couldn't remember at exactly what year they were fully grown, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow View Post
Waaaaaait. Wasn't astute a type of triangle or something? Cecelia wasn't sure what that had to do with HER, but the professor seemed pretty pleased about it, so she simply grinned and gave him a thumbs-up for good measure.

The fact that Bernie WASN'T actually drawing an octopus was news, but the blonde mouthed an 'OHHHHHH' and nodded her head in acknowledgement of the correction. She knew if SHE was drawing not an octopus and someone thought it was, she'd want to correct them, too. She got it.

The birds REALLY seemed to like their professor and she didn't blame them, really. He was nice to look at and she BET he took good care of them. You could tell that sort of thing about a person, you could. Her eyes remained fixed on his hands as he carefully picked up the saddest looking bird of the bunch, and Cece wondered if it was sick. It made her kind of sad, but she tried not to dwell on it too much, 'specially now that she had a question to answer.

"A phoenix starts looking sort of worn out when it gets older and closer to its burning day. Their feathers fall out and everything. I suppose that could be true of LOTS of older creatures, as well as people. They could lose feathers or hair or fur when they get old."

By now the jobberknoll had relaxed in his palm again, eyes closed and breathing slowing if the gently rustle of its breast feathers on his palm were any indication.

"Oui oui," he nodded. "Graying muzzles as Monsieur Ryan addressed and ze general graying as Monsieur Pascal mentioned are anothair common physical change across species. The shedding of fur, skin, scales as Mademosielle Lindsay brought up anothair good visual cue of aging and not just in the case of old age. Same goes for Mademoiselle Sinclair with her mention of ze golden coats of unicorn foals to silver and zen white by ze age of seven. Anothair being ze appearance of zeir horn at age four." As for Mademoiselle Summers, he offered her a knowing grin. "We will address specifics with phoenixes latair in a more intimate setting."

SPOILER!!: answers you can sink your TEETH into
Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl View Post

"It's NOT an octopus," Bernie declared first of all, but second of all, was pretty happy to have people sitting by her. Pheebz and Cece weren't her usual companions in this class (that honor still belonged to Claudine), but she felt happy, and like she had friends, to have them sit beside her.

Anyway, she didn't tell them what she WAS drawing Kodee Chosen wearing a tophat. Instead, she flipped her notebook to a new page, so that she could write stuff down as de Nostredame talked.



"Of course!" she'd responded brightly to the professor. She had to see what was new in the stables this term. And she'd quite liked visiting the horsies. :3

Class was starting now, and of course Bernie was admiring the professor's robes like everyone else. She wondered if he was fishing for compliments or guiding them toward the right answer here?

Hmm. He was being very... delicate with that bird.

"I've read that you can tell the age of horses by looking at their teeth," she answered, hand raised. "I bet this is also true for abraxans? And aethonans? And granians?" It was probably true of all the horsies they had in the stables here.
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Originally Posted by Nordic Witch View Post
Signs of aging in creatures? Cole was at first super stumped for an answer but then thought of his favourite creature; kneazles. Thinking he put up his hand to answer tentatively "Um very old kneazles can get greying whiskers, loose fur and also get problem with their teeth. My mum said that sometimes teeth not just on kneazles can rot or even grow backwards, is that true?" It had sounded pretty painful when Cole had first heard about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermionesclone View Post
Nostredame has a nice smile, did he know? It was enough to cause a red tinge to creep up on his cheeks as he continued smiling at the man. Not that he was LOOKING but he was certainly paying more attention to him than the cage and the birds inside of them.

Yeaaaaaaaaah, how was he going to pass this class?

But then it was time to start and Lucas sat up a little straighter. It was only now, when Nostredame started moving, that his green eyes shifted to the birds and the one bird who was not acting like the others. Oh. Was this going to be a sad lesson? Talking about ageing and death? Because that’s almost what his question - and the way he was holding that one bird - implied.

His eyes were stuck on that one bird but his mind was already thinking of what he could say in response to that question. Something that wouldn’t embarrass him and wasn’t something some of the other people had mentioned. Some people had brought up some good points, but it was only Carsyn’s response that got a reaction out of him - and not the good kind.

Study faeces?????? No thank you.

The Gryffindor shook his head slightly and raised his hand in the air. "With some creatures, you can tell from their teeth. Especially creatures that have a similar genetic structure as humans, you know?" Was this the same for others? He didn’t know. "As you get older, your teeth start to get worn down. Some even lose them. And if it didn’t have a link to diet, it could have a link to ageing." Shrug.

"Tu as raison," he nodded towards Mademoiselle Grantham and Monsieurs Vance and Dakest, showing his own teeth contained within a soft grin that showed no signs of aging what so ever. "Ze age of all equine, ze magical and mundane, 'ave very distinct indicators when it comes to zeir teeth." Something they would practice later in the term on the very winged horses in the barns. The OWL level and above students, that is. Mathys could not afford having the younger students at risk of losing fingers. "It is true, Monsieur Vance. Teeth are teeth. Zhough I will say zat for felines, including ze kneazle, zat zese sorts of matters are rare due to zeir relatively low-sugar diets, differences in oral bacteria, and ze shape of ze teeth zemselves."
SPOILER!!: VISIONary responses

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Originally Posted by sarahlooo View Post
Innnnteresting, they were talking about the AGE of creatures. Was the age of this bird deceiving? GASP. Was it a phoenix? Because technically phoenix's could be VERY old, but they were so often reborn that they could LOOK like a baby. Ooooh, she hoped she was right.

Louise raised her hand. "Baby kittens are born with their eyes closed. And they stay closed for, like, a week. So you know a kitten is less than a week or so old if their eyes are still shut." She knew this because her mum's cat had babies a while ago, and she got to take one of her kittens and keep her after she was born. It had been quite fascinating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anna Banana View Post
So the Jobberknoll wasn't sick? "Oh, well, that's good! That the Jobberknoll isn't sick, I mean," she answered. She really had no idea what else to think. Maybe it was going to be a mother bird or something? Whatever it was would be revealed soon, so Isla didn't say another word as she waiting for things to begin.

She was really distracted by the professor's robes. She hadn't noticed them before, but now that he was wandering around the circle while flipping them around, they were all she could focus on. That is, until the cages were opened, and the birds landed along the man's arm. This was starting to look like something out of a professional ballet dance or something. Or maybe that was just Isla's overactive imagination. She was having a super hard time focusing...

She did catch on to the fact that maybe the Jobberknoll she thought was sick was probably just aging. That kind of made sense, too. Hopefully it wouldn't start screaming out every sound it had ever heard backwards right here in front of them! When a question was asked, it distracted her from possible dying birds for the time-being. She finally managed to come up with a response and raised her hand. "In young birds, their eye colors are really dark, and they supposedly lighten up as they age," she said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaya View Post
SPOILER!!: Jillian and Profesor



Nora grinned as Jillian joined and sat next to her. "Hey, Jil." She replied with a smile as she took her notebook out of her school bag. Soon enough, the class started, Nora's eyes still focused on the birds as she lightly sketched them on the pad, of course listening to the Professor. His question was rather particular, as she had only seen only a few animals and creatures age back in her home, and only had seen one slowly die...

She raised her hand after thinking of some signs that are always observed. "Some lose their senses, eyesight, smell, taste, and their strength. As an example, birds may slowly lose sight of the brightness, dimness and position of places they're even used to be at all the time, even not recognize them...and even their emotional state, as they can't do the things they used to when young..." Which was terribly sad to see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo View Post
”Early?” The boy pulled a face, feeling that to be even worse than having class cancelled. What did he look like, a Ravenclaw? Merlin, he needed to do better. Next thing you know, they’d be expecting him to turn in his homework on time. Couldn’t have that. Couldn’t have .... this whole situation. He’d work harder at it in future. This would likely not happen again.

Kodee straightened some from his position of looking at the dying bird when Kaiser walked over, giving him a bro nod. Bernie got a hello and a request to see her fungus octopus after class because that’s what Phoebe said she was drawing and depending on how it turned out, the 7th year figured it could’ve been cool looking. Worth a laugh, if nothing else.

“What Kaiser said, we don’t mind.” Chloe could sit there if she wanted, he was neither here nor there about it and being Gunnar’s little sister, he was more inclined to be nice—inviting even.

As the class began, Kodee gave up on his tie, allowing it to simply hang loose and untied about his neck. He’d get to it later. It would likely only distract him and Merlin knew how easily distracted he was on his OWN.

A hand jutted up at the question. “On the same note of sight Louise mentioned, you can tell something’s getting on in age when it starts losing sight. Eyes stop being what they used to be and the next thing you know, you’re waltzing right onto the dinner plate of the next creature that thinks you’re delicious.”

Was he the only one who wished the man had adapted to castle culture? Back in France, he was fancy but this was Hogwarts. They had cobwebs coming out of coffee cups. Dude was trying waaaay too hard.

Mademoiselle Barrie seemed a bit all over in her response, perhaps due to an emotional reaction to something going on externally to the lesson. So Mathys offered her an additional nod of the head as she brought up a creature's eyesight along with others. Though, if he were to nitpick a bit, not all of them were explicitly addressing external tell-tale signs for magizoologists to identify with.

Particularly the words from Monsieur Chosen in which the only physical descriptor would be one creature being devoured by another. Which was to say, no real descriptor at all.

"Zhose is a fine observations, Mademoiselles Bones and Bellchant. Along with zese, often oldair creatures will be seen with a cloudiness in ze eyes zat is more typical among oldair creatures zan younger ones."
SPOILER!!: if MEMORY serves me right…

Quote:
Originally Posted by Weasley174 View Post
Tom was really confused about the animal, was there a problem with it. He watched as the Professor took it out of it's cage very carefully, he had listened to the question and was now trying to rattle his brain for an answer, there was a few he could give.

Tom after deciding to settle on one answer, raised his hand and sighed. "Professor when my Grandpa, got older, he started to forget things, like he would have made a cup of tea, but then would forget about it seconds later and make another one." Tom hoped that didn't happened to him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tegz View Post
Signs of aging? Flynn thought about it and put his hand up. "Professor, sometimes people lose their marbles. Some animals must too? Like forget things. I can't remember what its called when that happens though, But its something to do with the brain degenerating somehow."

He was determined not to get distracted in this lesson and kept his eyes on the professor, just to make SURE of it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson View Post
Charlie turned her head at the sound of someone sitting beside her. She was kind of surprised but that was mostly because she felt like she hadn't made any friends yet. What was she supposed to do just force people to be her friend by tying them up. No that wouldn't do.But she could make her face more friendly by smiling she supposed.

Feeling her cheeks grow tight with a smile she watched as the girl stuck her hand out. Charlie felt like maybe she should talk to her. Grasping her hand she smiled, "Nice to meet you Avalon. I'm Charlotte. You can call me Charlie." she turned her head to look at the bird in the cage, not even slightly sure of what it was, "I have absolutely no idea what kind of bird that is. But i'm really hoping that its not dying or dead." She shivered a bit because that would hurt her soul.



Charlie turned her attention back to Professor Nostredame as he spoke, not trying to be rude to Avalon, but she absolutely did not need to feel the wrath of the pretty professor. Raising her hand, using the manners she tried to have, she was ready to answer, "Memory can go. Your pets or animals might not recognize you any more." Her voice grew softer, "or people will start to forget who you are when they get old." She had heard it was a terrible thing and had seen it a time or two.

A behavioral observation, yes. And one that was not always a clear indicator unless you had a very personal relationship with the creature. But it was nonetheless a valid response.

"Dementia, Monsieur Whitlock, which is ze collective term for several degenerative brain diseases," he addressed the young Hufflepuf directly. "A truly a tragic affair to witness a creature's behavior change and something no species is exempt from."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginevra View Post
Fiona had heard answers regarding mammals and decided on a different approach when it came to her answer. She deliberated for a few moments, running her mind through any snippets of information she might have before raising her hand. "If my memory is doing me justice, I believe you can tell the age of a clam by the number of rings it has. A bit like a tree, really."
Mathys was quite pleased, if not surprised, by this answer. "Oui," he nodded with a smile. "Exactly like a tree."

Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixRising View Post
Ohhh he was confused by her thank you. Well it wasn't ordinary for one to thank someone but it was a memorable greeting and Carsyn was always down for being memorable. She smiled at Nostredame before explaining briefly, "Yes, thank you. For the afternoon lesson." It wasn't their first lesson and creatures lessons seemed to be in the afternoon thus far this year, but she wanted to express her gratitude irregardless in case he decided to spring them a loop next week with an early morning lesson.

As far as the lesson went, the fifth year had to strain to decipher within his accent. One would think after a year of listening to it she would be able to easily identify what he was talking about, yet Carsyn found herself concentrating intensely on his words. How to identify age of another living creature?

Chewing her lip, a lot of her peers seemed to offer up answers she knew but there had to be more, didn't they? Creature didn't have rings like trees like that one Slytherin girl was suggesting ... did they??

"Could you perhaps use their fecal samples? I know, for instance that fresh droppings are darker in color compared to when they've been sitting awhile... but maybe frequency of creatures pooping?" Opportunity to talk about poo without it being inappropriate - Carsyn was definitely taking that chance!
This...was a bit of a stretch for the question being prescribed. No, NO. He was being far too generous with his optimism and it had nothing to do with his inquiry. Yes, there was a change in bowel habits that came with age but...

Deciding he would rather not dignify her offering with any form of verbal answer, the French man simply wrinkled his nose and took pity on the girl's dormmates. May she keep no fecal samples tucked under her bed nor anywhere else.

Next.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin View Post
Oh. The professor had such a charming smile, and Phoebe grinned happily at him and his peacock preening. This class was always so interesting AND there were baby animals, so it was basically like the best place in the castle. And no spell casting, which made Phoebe very very happy.

"I heard that erumpents know when they're about to die, and they have like this HOMING signal in their brains that tells them to go to a specific place. Like salmon, right? Except they aren't going home, they're going to a erumpent graveyard. But it's probably not true, because if anyone ever found that place, they would know where all the dead erumpent horns were and they would be so rich." True story, bro.
Mathys gave a light chuckle to Mademoiselle James' answer. "Ze idea of an erumpents' graveyard, or elephants' graveyard as the non–magique will say, is a zing of legend. Salmon, since you mentioned zem, do not follow a homing signal to die...but to mate. Zeir salmon run, as it is called. It....just so 'appens zat when zey mate zey also die."

And he would not comment on the implications of wealth. Politely pass over that.

SPOILER!!: the sound of SILENCE

Quote:
Originally Posted by ArianaBlack View Post
A very peculiar mademoiselle, indeed!!!!! Let the record show that she did not want to be here right now, or ever. It was her least favorite class and the overgrown grass only made matters so much worse. Despite all of this, however, she gave a small smile to Drewett when he chose the next crate over. She didn’t mind sitting alone (she minded a lot), but fortunately she wouldn’t have to. Drewett’s company was always a delight.

A few things happened next that made Nina want to disengage entirely. The first being that their Professor had asked ‘who would like to share’ and? Nina? Would not like to share. So with all due respect, she chose not to offer up an answer to his question. He had asked if she would like to, and the answer was no. So. The second strange thing to happen was that Professor Nostredame almost put his mouth on the bird, which was GROSS! And the third thing was the whispering. Which all things considering? Was very strange.

Of course she kept all of these thoughts to herself, though she did turn to look at Drewett with concern. Surely he would understand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey Ju View Post
By now, Catherine had been feeling more confident about sitting a little farther away from those she knew, and she was happy to simply take notes and listen to the lecture on her own. Of course, she didn't mind if her brother, best friend or any of the others she knew decided to sit near her, but if they started chatting away then they would have to move. Or she would.

This time, she was sitting nearby another Ravenclaw (Avalon) and Charlie. She was close enough to overhear their short conversation about the blue spekled birds. "They're Jobberknolls." She told them matter-of-factly. And regarding whether it was dying or not... "If it's about to die it'll make a very loud noise." She added, never taking her eyes off the professor and the cute little birds that were on him. It would be sad if it did die, but that was life.

Now, regarding the professor's question, Catherine jotted down all of the things she could think of and that her classmates were saying out loud. See, back home they could tell the age of their llamas and alpacas by looking at their teeth. Daddy knew how old the owls were not only because they owned they since their birth, but also because of their eye colour. Catherine could tell which of her fish were older or younger by the number of growth rings they had. And she was sure one figured out the age of a dragon by the length from their head to their tail. Unless their tail had been chopped off, then Catherine wouldn't know how to figure that out. She reckoned specific sizes of dragons would differ by species, but she didn't know enough about that - nor was she that interested.

The first year didn't fancy speaking up in front of the entire class, so she kept quiet as she sat up straight, holding her notes carefully on her lap. She was more comfortable about being at Hogwarts by now, but that did not mean she was going to talk out loud in a lesson and call attention to herself. No, thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazinga View Post
It was a success, her reaching out and actually going over to them, it had worked! She asked if she could sit by them and they said yes. Kaiser even had moved things to have a seat next to him. She felt even more nervous as she beamed at them both and took a seat. "Thank you" was all she got out before the professor started.

Sitting down she did try to concentrate, she really did, but her eyes and her mind kept going to the fact that she was sitting right next to Kaiser and Kodee was so close to. Maybe they would work in pairs of three, maybe they would let her work with them. They had seen her in class before so she didn't know what she was feeling like such an immature girl over this, but here she was being a third year with a crush.

Shaking her head she tried to focus and even pulled out parchment for notes, but she realized that people were answering a question, they even were answering the question, and she didn't know what that question even was.

His cool stare rested on Mademoiselles Castillo, McCarthy, and Mordaunt in turn as if coaxing them to speak. Though when none offered responses, he moved on under the assumption that at the very least they were being attentive listeners.


Mathys was just about to wave his wand to conjure a list for students to jot down were they not doing so already (just the essential highlights) when the bird in his hand gave an unsettled shudder and straightened it's neck. The Care of Magical Creatures professor knew what was coming.

"...I suggest you all covair your ears," he warned while his eyes remained fixated on the blue feathered creature in his palm. It would merely help muffle the noise and by no means cancel it out. "...quickly now," he added with a hiss.

Bowing his head once again, he whispered once more to the tiny creature in his mother tongue to be at peace before he closed his eyes and braced for what was to come.

...and come it did.

In the next instant (and hopefully by the time students had covered their ears), the bird elongated its neck further and opened its beak. What transpired next was indescribable. Beginning with the professor's gentle words (though they did not sound so gentle now) in reverse, the jobberknoll screamed with such volume and passion that bones could rattle and tears brought to the eyes. Both horrifying and beautiful all the same, it was a melody that would never be heard again.
OOC: this is a "reaction question". You are encouraged describe/speculate what sounds your character is able to pick out during the jobberknoll's final cry among other possible reactions. We will continue in approximately 24 hours.
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