"We're not going to touch them, right?" Brandon worried about such small and delicate birds. They were endangered AND easily broken, which automatically made him worry. So many things could go wrong with this!

He stepped into the bubble carefully, looking around at all the birds. "How do they change direction like that?" He walked over to some plants, observing the plants themselves and a snidget nest. He didn't tell anyone it was there, not wanting to disturb it.

So many questions! They were all good ones too, in Jude’s opinion so naturally he was paying keen attention to all the responses Hady gave. Yes, his gaze was continuously flitting from one Snidget to the other. After a while, he honed in on the flower plants. Did Snidgets usually choose flower plants over other types to build their nests? This would certainly be an interesting observation. Jude supposed that Desiree’s question would bring him closer to having an answer.

Overall though? The Snidgets were quite fascinating and entertaining to watch. They reminded him of hummingbirds flitting from flower to flower with much speed. Yeah, if any part of the CoMC NEWT brought up Snidgets, Jude would make sure to include in his response that they were the hummingbirds of the wizarding world.

The Ravenclaw knew that it went without actually her saying anything that Professor Paton felt just as bad as he about the rough treatment of the golden snidgets. He doubted most if not all of his classmates felt the same way. Which was why Rajesh understood why they were mostly just observing the creatures which he was more than willing to do and limit himself to. The seventh year certainly didn’t want to risk harming the creatures even if he was gentle with them.

With no mat in his possession, he simply moved into the dome with the rest of the class, slipping through the mesh curtain when they were all in and it was safe to do so. Here the golden snidgets were clearly in their glory…almost their element seeing as they didn’t normally reside in a darkened dome. The poofy birds flittering and fluttering around the dome without a real care in the world. Raj heard his classmates’ questions and had to admit he was curious about the responses, though there was one thing he already knew as he wandered off to one side, his gaze taking in one or two of the creatures more closely.

The makers of snitches certainly got the duplication of their inspiration’s movements down to a t.

Hadleigh held the door to the dome open partway, ushering the students inside quickly put careful. Closing the door firmly behind herself once everyone was inside. And then following them all through the mesh opening into the dome itself, she moved back and forth between where the students where wandering to keep an eye on them all as well as keep track of the snidgets.

Almost right away there was a question and honestly, she loved it. It was a wonderful feeling whenever she was teaching a lesson and questions were being asked. It told her that they were curious, they wanted to know more about the creatures. "Snidgets that have just hatched are actually quite round and very puffy. Their newborn feathers however are more downy and soft until they get a little in which they will grow into their roundness a bit more." Hady smiled at Jude.

Bella had Hady's attention with her question next. "They are born with yellow downy feathers that fall out and these gorgeous bright sleek golden ones grown in their place. So in a sense yes and no, they are golden when born but not as bright and shiny as they are when adults." So there wasn't a huge change in their appearance at all as they aged.

"That's a very good question! They actually do have certain flowers that they will go to if that option is available to them. Due to the shape and length of their beaks and their diets, they enjoy tubular flowers such as daylilies, foxgloves, petunias and bee balms." Paton replied warmly to Desiree's question. "They also like bright colors such as reds and oranges."

Hearing what sounded like concern from one of her students, Hady's smile softened as she walked closer towards Brandon before answering him. "Not right this very minute we won't be, no. I will be teaching everyone here how to safely touch one if you like but you do not have to do so if you choose not to." It will be completely up to them and very much so under her watchful eye. No harm will come to any of these Snidgets. "Unlike most other flying creatures their wings can fully rotate three hundred and sixty degrees. This makes it incredibly easy for them to change directions in which they are flying in a split second making them very difficult to catch." Not impossible.. just difficult.

With ever the watchful eye, Hady walked around as the students continued to observe the Snidgets for a few more minutes. "Aright everyone, listen up please. It's time to move on with our lesson. As I mentioned a little earlier in response to Mister Fox's question about getting to touch the Snidget's this will be your chance to do if you like. We will not be capturing them or holding them. So please don't go bouncing around, climbing on things or jumping off of anything to try to reach any of them. I will not allow anything to happen to our visiting creatures." She looked pointedly at each of their faces to make sure they all understood what she was saying and that she was very serious before moving on.

"Now with that being said, I'm sure you're all wondering just how you are going to get to touch them with how fast they are. Well that's what all of these plants and flowers around us are for." There was a brief wave of her arms around them at all the different flowers and plants they had all already had the chance to see. "What you all will be doing in a few moments is selecting a flower or two of your choice OR if you see a snidget near a flower already you can use that one. Go ahead and gently pluck the flower, stem and all so you have something to hold onto. Don't worry we aren't harming anything these are simply decoys to look, feel, and smell like the real kind for our visits while they are here since they aren't staying very long and for this activity." Yes, she knew how some of them felt about harming a flower.

As she explained this, Hady went over to a bright pink tubular shaped flower and gently plucked the stem from the dirt it was growing in. "When you have a flower you can walk around, stand in place or even sit down if you like. Whatever you feel will bring a Snidget to you. You can be quiet, sing softly to them, talk to them, whatever you choose.. see what works best for you, what they choose to come to." Once again she took a brief pause to let all of that sink it. "When a Snidget does come over to enjoy the nectar from a flower you may touch them if you feel comfortable with doing so. Only one or two fingers and start at the top of their heads down their backs. Please do not touch their wings. Do not be frightened if they land on you for a moment or two to take a short rest."

"Go ahead and find a flower or two and wait for a Snidget to come to you. Or bring a flower to a Snidget. Be creative. See what they prefer, what flowers they like best, what colors. Do they like singing, silence or soft spoken words? Are they all different? You may work together in small groups of you like as long as everyone remains calm and careful." She smiled and watched to see what everyone went first.


OOC: Main Activity Time! Select a flower or two, walk around/sit/stand and wait or go to a Snidget and let them drink the nectar from the flower. Students can carefully touch the Snidgets if they like. They may also work alone or in pairs.

Round and puffy!

Baby Snidgets sounded SO adorable! Not that they weren’t as adults but it was just that he had a fondness for babies and this did not extend to just humans. He returned Hady’s smile, added a nod in acknowledgement then focused on the other answers. Hang on! Snidgets liked bright colours?? His face lit up in excitement. Jude clearly was thrilled to have something in common with them!

The seventh year got himself a long stem of foxgloves flowers; why not give the Snidgets multiple flowers to choose nectar from, right? He opted to stand quite still as opposed to walking around. And so, Jude waited for one of the creatures to come to him. But when it did, what would he do? Talk to it? Sing?

Uh huh.

Singing was his thing.

Desiree listened intently as Professor Paton answered her question. Ooh, snidgets liked daylilies, foxgloves, petunias, and bee balms… they had nice taste in flowers! She continued watching the snidget she saw hovering near the pink flower until the professor said it was time to move on. She listened, fighting the urge to giggle at the mention of bouncing around or jumping off of things. Seriously, who would do that?! This wasn’t a playground!

Her mood brightened as she heard what the next activity involved. Flowers and the possibility of petting a cute little snidget? Yes, please! Oh, the flowers were decoys? She had sooo many questions! Which spells did the professor use to create the decoy flowers? Would the snidgets figure out that they weren’t real? Only one way to find out the latter, she supposed.

She picked a couple of flowers - a red daylily and a purple foxglove - and held them out for the snidgets. She waited and waited, and… nothing happened. Hmm, maybe she should try singing to the snidgets, but what song? Maybe they’d like Disney songs as much as she did! Inspired by her outfit, a song popped into her mind - one with lots of flower names that the snidgets might like - and she began to sing, “I grow rows and rows of rose, flor de mayo by the mile…”

Her voice trailed off as a snidget flittered toward the red flower. Ooh, so cute! “Hello, pretty bird,” she whispered. She’d give it a few minutes to get used to her before she tried petting it.

It took a minute or two but a particularly round {or maybe it was just Jude’s imagination} planted tiny feet on the wrist of his right hand. Its face was, of course, busy in the direction of the foxgloves; no doubt it was attempting to size up how much nectar it could milk from the flowers. Jude was completely still, afraid to breathe too deeply lest he scare the Snidget away. He was also in awe, the sort of awe he felt when he had first encountered Ned and realised that the cat had chosen him to be its human.

The Snidget eventually pattered a few steps along his hand and this caused Jude to chuckle because he was actually tickled. Immediately he was afraid the bird would take flight. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised when the bird hopped around to face him. “Hi!’’ the Hufflepuff said enthusiastically. “You’re quite gorgeous.” He liked to think that the Snidget already knew this. Perhaps it was the way in which it cocked its head that told him. The look seemed to read ‘tell me something I don’t know!’

Brandon was nervous about touching snidgets. But at least they wouldn't be holding them or snatching them out of the air and killing them by accident. That relieved him. He scanned the room of flowers, before heading over to a specific red petunia. Was it really not real? It seemed so legitimate to him, though it was maybe overly perfect. He had to be careful about not falling for magical illusions, he thought. But how did he do that? Lost in thought, he sat down with his flower, and was very still. He was very, very still. Stillness and not-threateningness was something he'd practically been trained at his whole life.

Eventually, a snidget came over to his petunia and started to drink the nectar. Wow... they were so beautiful up close. He could see every detail of his snidget, including the wings. They did remind him of hummingbirds. Carefully, he reached out a finger to touch it... then withdrew his hand, because the snidget moved away and he didn't want it to. It just kept drinking from his flower, and he just kept sitting very still. At some point, the snidget landed on him, and he froze completely, not even daring to breathe. It was hard. He was surprised by the snidget's behavior.

He waited until the snidget flew off again to breathe. "So beautiful," he whispered, wondering if he'd ever have another bird land on him.

Jude grinned, suppressing his urge to laugh at his own thought lest he scare the Snidget off. Speaking of which… the Snidget apparently hadn’t quite gotten its fill of sizing him up. That was fine; Jude was used to being in the spotlight. He could just pretend the Snidget was his audience for the solo he was about to give.

The Hufflepuff cleared his throat and began to sing softly, an original. Yep, it was a song he had been working on, a song that was only half down. And YOU, Snidget friend, were the first to hear it! The bird seemed to like the melody and lyrics. After all, the intensity at which its red gaze focused on Jude told him it just might be hypnotised in a good way.

Even more round and fluffy?! What an image of cute little snidgets and even more proof that people had been stupid in risking them harm. But that was then and this was now when they were protected so they could enjoy the creatures. And getting friendly with the snidgets…that he could do. Rajesh listened to Professor Paton’s instructions, noting the information on preferences of colors and flowers to help him out. Spotting a few orangey daylily blooms, the Ravenclaw decided to use them as his lure. They certainly fit the tubular shape and bright color.

He moved over to pick them, the facsimile of the real thing and found himself an open space on the floor of the dome. The seventh year wanted them to get closer to him naturally and to him that meant where the flowers they were looking for normally were…closer to the ground. Folding his long legs Indian style, he sat down and casually held out his lilies, quietly and patiently awaiting a reaction from one of the nearby snidgets.

Here pretty bird!

This was what she liked best about being a professor. Watching the students get to interact with the creatures they were just learning and asking questions about. Hady also felt that getting to experience something completely hands on made it easier to learn what to do or not do much more effectively than just listening to someone telling you how it should or shouldn't be done. Not always did it work the same way twice either. All creatures, even the very same species were different just like people.

Hady took a moment here and there to stop near each student as they each worked their own little 'magic' on their new 'friends'. She like how each of them were trying their own methods and not doing what everyone else was doing, some were sitting and others standing. Some were being completely silent and others were singing softly. Yet somehow each and every single one of them had managed to get a Snidget to come to them!

"You are all doing fantastic. Keep up the amazing work everyone, all of our Snidget friends here look very comfortable with all of you. We still have about fifteen minutes or so left if want to try other flowers or continuing doing exactly what you are doing now." There was no real need to change anything up if what they were doing already was working for them! Most of them probably weren't paying attention to the time but she would purposely be stopping the lesson a few minutes early this afternoon so that they all could see a nest of newly hatched babies and their mama on their way out. "If anyone has anymore questions or needs any assistance with anything as always I'm right here."


OOC: Heeeeeey! You're all amazing! The students can keep doing what they are doing or try other ways to get the Snidgets to come to them if they like. There's still about 36 hours left until the end of the lesson! xD

Aurora had remained fairly quiet over the majority of the questions that the Professor was asking, mostly because she was only a first year and hadn’t read up a lot on magical creatures yet and therefore didn’t actually know the answer to most of the questions. She was more interested in hearing what the other students were saying and only semi taking in all the information whilst she tried to imagine what these little birds looked like.

But then they were suddenly getting up and putting their mats back on the pile to head into the dome. Her eyes lit up as she spotted the flitting around of these tiny golden birds who supposedly used to be used as golden snitches before the invention of the balls. The poor things! Humans were such poopy-heads sometimes. They were however ridiculously fast and it made Aurora think about how they could be caught before the Professor explained the purpose of the flowers and the main activity began.

Of course Aurora picked the brightest pink flower because that was HER colour and if she really loved it that meant that the birds would too clearly! She plucked the flower off, retaining as much of the stem as she could to give as much distance between herself and the Snidget. It wasn’t that she was scared, in fact the birds were so petite and rotund and shiny that she instantly wanted to pet them, it was more a concern for not scaring the Snidget. She approached one near to the entrance of the dome who was minding its own business and with a bright giggle held the flower out for her new friend.

“Hi little cutie!” She spoke, waiting for the Snidget to approach which it did so after a couple of seconds.

Hope couldn't wait to get through the door of the dome, and once there, she carefully opened the mesh door and entered the habitat of the Snidgets. Once there, she stood transfixed. Dozens--it seemed like hundreds of the tiny birds whizzed about through the air, looking like a sky full of fireflies in summer. She really, really wanted to touch one, but she restrained herself, knowing that this might hurt them. "How wonderful they are!" she exclaimed softly.

Jude was only too pleased to continue exactly what he was doing: the singing seemed to benefit both him and the Snidget. At least this was a prediction that the song was going to be well liked? And that it would score Koen a hit? Fingers crossed! But then all too soon the song was over. “That’s all I got, bud. I sort of had writer’s block after that verse.” But Jude was quite determined to finish the song during the course of the week! It would be his last written song before he tackled NEWTs.

With no more singing to capture the Snidget’s attention, it gave a chirp {“I’ll take that as a ‘thank you’,” the Hufflepuff had remarked}, hopped around on Jude’s wrist then proceeded to suck the nectar out of a foxglove. It was quite a fascinating thing to watch as he had never seen anything quite like it up this close. He was careful to continue staying as still as possible so as to not disturb his feathered friend.

Desiree smiled, quietly humming the next part of What Else Can I Do as she watched the cute little snidget flutter over the red flower. It didn’t seem scared, so after a couple of minutes, she gently reached out a finger - only a single finger because she didn’t want to accidentally hurt it - and pet the snidget’s head. It blinked, and for a minute, she worried she’d scared it. Then it started making happy snidget noises. Asdfjkl!!!! So cute!!! It was all she could do not to squeal at the sheer adorableness!

“Oh, you’re a cute little birdie!” she whispered. The snidget puffed itself up and made more happy noises, as if to say it agreed. She resumed petting, and as she did so, another snidget flew up to the purple foxglove. Ohh, two cute little snidgets! She wondered if this snidget was the first one’s friend? Maybe they were siblings? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Ooh, she hoped it was that one! How romantic would that be?!

“Hello there,” she softly greeted the second snidget. “Would you like some pets too?” Cue the happy snidget noises. She petted the second snidget for a few minutes, just a few so the other one wouldn’t get jealous, then gave the first one another turn. These two need names, she thought as she alternated petting each snidget. She was going to call the first one LIly because the flower that attracted it was a daylily, and the second one… It liked foxglove, but that wasn’t a good name! She thought of names that meant shades of purple. Violet? No. Lavender? Nope!

Then an idea came to her! She remembered that purple was associated with royalty, so what about a royal-themed name, like Queenie or Majesty? Ohh, she liked that one! Majesty it was!

It took him a few more minutes of staying still and patient on the ground before Rajesh had his first customer…and not the bird that he had been originally focused on. All of a sudden he found a snidget coming in from the side of him and landing on his arm like it was a branch, an action that almost caused him to start. Until he caught himself from doing any sudden movement that might frighten the creature away. The Ravenclaw certainly didn’t want to do that…or have to start all over.

“Hello…” he said quietly once he found his voice, the snidget focused on the flowers in his grasp and hopping slightly towards them. Raj bit his lip to keep from chuckling at the feel. It’s little feet ticklish against the hair and skin of his arm.

Hady couldn't help but smile as she walked back and forth for the remaining amount of time left. Each and every student was doing so well! She was amazed at how quickly they had all gotten Snidgets to come over to them. Even those that weren't the greatest with this subject or weren't the most of creatures were making progress. This is what she loved to see. Unfortunately their time was coming to a close. The lesson was nearly over.

"Alright everyone, you are all doing spectacular but I'm sad to say that we are out of time this afternoon. I'm so pleased with how well everyone did and how you all followed the rules that I asked that I will NOT be assigning homework tonight." She smiled and waiting for the cheering she was sure to come whenever assignments weren't given. "The Snidgets will be here until tomorrow morning if anyone would like to stop by later on this afternoon to visit them again I will be here." Yes, they could come back and visit as long as she was here as well before the Snidgets left in the morning.

"Now please follow me back out the way we all came in and on our way out.. there is a nest that was disillusioned to not be seen or bothered. It contained several newly hatched Snidgets and their mama. You may take a look but do not touch these one please." With that said, Professor Paton used her wand to wordlessly remove the charm making the nest visible. It was on the ground surrounded by plants and flowers not too far from where they all would be exiting the dome.

"This way everyone." She led the way back out giving each student time to stop and see the nest if they liked. As well as time for all the students to gather inside the small room first and then back outside of the dome into the fresh air.


OOC: Hi everyone! That concludes our lesson! Thank you all for joining us! I'll be leaving this open for another 24/36 hours for another that wants to catch up or leave.

With all the nectar collected as the Snidget possibly could, it flew off. Jude watched it go, his gaze followed it until it settled into its nest. In any case, Hady was bringing the lesson to an end now. He mentally cheered for there being no homework. The pressure of NEWTs was intensifying since the exams were around the corner and this was enough without the added pressure of homework. Jude decided he just might stop by later in the evening but for now, he followed Hady and the others.

He took a moment to fawn over the now Disillusioned nest and eggs. The Hufflepuff thought that the eggs were some of the prettiest, the prettiest eggs that he ever did see! Once he’d had gazed to his heart’s content, Jude said his farewell to Hady then began making his way back to the Castle for his next lesson.

Aurora was having far too much fun trying to get a singular Snidget to perch itself on her bright pink flower that she hadn’t noticed how quickly the time had gone. Concentrating on gently patting the birds head in an effort to befriend the Snidget before they had to leave, the Professor announced the end of the lesson. The blonde pouted a little as she started walking away and towards the exit of the dome.

That was until the Snidget nest was disillusioned and the eleven year old was thrilled about the prospect of seeing a baby Snidget for the first time. It didn’t matter what type of animal it was, it was always very exciting seeing a cute little baby. Except maybe a spider? Or a cockroach? Okay there were plenty of baby animals that weren’t that cute but THIS baby was going to be adorable. Peering into the nest, Aurora was not disappointed in the slightest and couldn’t help the excitable squeak that came out her lips.

“They’re so CUTE!” she exclaimed before covering her mouth with her hand realising that her excitement might be disturbing for the poor creatures. “Thanks for the lesson.” she grinned at Professor Paton before skipping her way out of the dome and back towards the castle.

She had no idea what her Ma was talking about, Hogwarts was SO MUCH FUN!