Elizabeth's laughter and words made Nia relax further. If the older girls with NEWTs coming up could take that attitude, then so could Nia. She shrugged. "A broken nose is easily enough sorted. Though, perhaps I would prefer Willow shouting to hitting bludgers at me." Nia knew that their captain could hit bludgers very hard. Great in a match. Not so good if that were headed towards her. "Yeah, okay...I'd rather the yelling in reality. Or neither. That'd be better." She laughed, knowing full well that Willow wouldn't stop shouting at the team until they had retained the cup.

Nia nodded. "I guess so. Though my guess would be its due to Theo's problems with wandwork more than the flood." She rolled her eyes. How could they be so opposite? As Elizabeth replied about there species being similar, Nia nodded with a smile. "I'd like to be able to soar up in the sky like the merlin or eagle," she said, "and have their vision to be able to properly enjoy the view. What strikes you as a good characteristic?"

"yea foxes have alot of good traits" Lyra said watching Kiri as she counted on her fingers. "but they also have some bad traits, which" she continued in a low voice "i have too but i'm not going to write those down" said Lyra grinning a bit.

Lyra listened to what Kiri was saying, her head slightly bending towards her because she was talking in a low voice and nodded her head afterwards. "yea i think we are turning ourselfs in to part animal. how cool!!" she said excitedly and now got why younger students had to partner up with older students. "hmm i think i want to have....uh...." Lyra scratched her forehead. Wow this was hard, she loved the tail but not the nose. She bit her lip thinking what part she wanted to have and then she got it. "i want the ears!" she said excitedly and used her hands as ears and held them on her head. "i like the tail too but i think i'm going crazy with that thing.....cause i just know i will just try to catch it and run around in circles when i have it." she laughed, demostrating it by spinning around in circles trying to catch a invisible tail. "so i want the ears if that is ok?" she decided, the room spinning a bit but quickly stood still and she focused on Kiri again. "what part do you want?"

Around her everybody was pairing up with somebody and Nancy once again was too slow to find a friend to partner up or at least find somebody whom she had already once paired up with. Why was she so slow lately? Just as she was about to walk up to Professor Svensson to ask for a partner Nancy heard a boy state that he as well did not yet have a partner for this assignment, so with a grin she quickly strode up to where he was standing and said, "...now you do."

Then, hearing what the professor told him to do which was quickly followed by an invitation from Anna to join their group she added, "Unless you want to work with them." It was quite obvious by the look she gave him that this actually was not an option for him to choose. "So, what's your animal?" She asked while slowly walking back to her desk beckoning for the boy to follow her.

She had to smile at the young girl's enthusiasm. "I... think I'd love to try the ears, too," she said. "Aren't they really sensitive? Being able to hear so much more would be interesting, I think." Kiri held her hands behind her own ears.
"Ooor... the tail, maybe. Although only to see what it would look and feel like." She barely refrained from wagging her hips about to demonstrate. "I bet it'd be weird. I don't think that there's any other advantage to it. At least not for us. Do you know why foxes have it? Is it for balance or something?"

Harpy wings? Clifford continued to stare blankly at his partner. He vaguely recognised her from the Common Room, but her name had poofed from his brain. Most things had poofed from his brain actually..

"Uh... a sloth." He mumbled with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. Oh, how he wished he was all snugly and asleep like a sloth right this very second. "I dunno what characteristic I'd like though.." he finished with a bored shrug.

"yea i think they are sensitve...the ears i mean" Lyra hadn't thought about that part before "but i really love the ears so i am sticking with them" she said resolutely, giggled and her giggles started to transform into a small laughter when she saw Kiri trying to force herself from moving her hips as though she had a tail. "well i read somewhere that foxes use their tails for helping with running, jumping and, like you said, keeping balance." she said looking at nothing in particular, her eyes narrowing slightly ,trying to remember what she had read. "And also for emotions, like, when the tail is puffed up it is angry-scared and when its waving its happy. They're kind of like cats and dogs traits" yup those where the things she could remember and looked at Kiri again. "so you want to have the tail?" she asked and couldn't help but grab her wand already from her wristholster spinning it around with her fingers, something she had perfected over the few weeks.

Dem listened to Anna and her animal. "Oh thats awesome. It would be so cool to fly without a broom!" she smiled. "So how ahmazing would it be to be able to fly without a broom at the speed a rabbit can run?" she suggested. Dem wasn't entirely sure of what they were suppossed to be doing. Something about combining the elements of animals. Demetria was too busy writing about rabbits, whoops.

"Oh yes, you're right. I completely forgot about the emotions. "You know..." she said thoughtfully, "I think I would like to try out the tail. Especially for that, too. I wonder how that works... Would I have get angry or scared? I think that if I were a fox, I would, but... what about just, you know, deciding to have it puff up? For example." She had a momentary image in her mind of herself, red-faced from effort, trying to puff up a fox's tail that was protruding from her robes. She giggled.

Lyra kept spinning her wand with her fingers while listening to her. 'wow i'm getting good at this' she thought, forgetting for a moment to listen and was impressed by herself. 'i don't drop my wand anym.......ugh' she groaned when her wand had shot out of her hand and fell to the floor, she stooped down to pick it up. "eh hehe sorry about that" she said getting up again. "but what do you mean with 'puff it up?' you mean you want a puffed tail? i don't know if thats possible, it is a emotion right? so maybe i should just scare the living day lights out of you after you got the tail?!" Lyra said excitedly and couldn't help but give a slyly teasing grin at her.

Kiri stepped aside to let the girl pick up her wand. She didn't mind, of course, but that was exactly why she never toyed around with it. It was practically a certainty that she was going to drop it.
"Yes, that's why I asked. It is an emotion, but foxes don't, you know, think much. I'd say. But we do, so it'd be interesting to see if I could sort of will the tail into puffing up. Maybe we can try that. If that's what we're doing in this lesson," she amended.

The grin on Lyra's face was just right. Kiri rose to it. "I'm not sure you could scare me," she said with a smirk, eyes twinkling. "But you're on."

Grace was again partner-less. She unhappily wrote her animal down:
She approached to the professor and shyly muttered. "I don't have a partner sir."

'I was dreaming when you told everyone to find one.' she tought. She watched the others talk about the animals. Sigh, she should be more attentive.

"oh yea i get it now!" Lyra said truthfully and smiled a bit. "i hope we are going to do that when the professor gives us further instructions... so your staying with the tail?" she asked just to make sure. Lyra then looked curiously at Kiri, she wanted a bet? "you think i can not scare you? she asked and truth to be told she thought Kiri was right but still loved a challenge so she grinned some more. "alright the bet is on" she said her eyes twinkling too.

Sam jumped in her seat. Crap! She had dozed off. Looking sheepishly toward the Professor, hoping he hadn't seen. Catching the last part of his instructions, the Seventh year stood up with a yawn. On hearing that somebody didn't have a partner...Oh crap they were supposed to partner up.

"Oi! I'll be your partner." Sam called to the Slytherin. Stopping next to her, she looked at her waiting for her to say something. "I guess I'll start. Um. So I chose an iguana as my favorite animal. I guess the characteristic I would choose is, err, the eyes that can move in every direction." she said. Ugh! That was so lame. Why did she choose an iguana as her favorite pet again?

Grace looked at her, gosh she was so older than her! But Grace really wanted to do this, so she just came over her shyness and listened to the girl's animal. Iguana. Why couldn't Grace come up with such interesting animals?! Realising she should tell her animal too, she summarized very quickly. "Um... I chose an eagle for its wings, strenght and for its eyes 'cos you know... It can spot a tiny mouse even from 150 meters up." Now, which animal to choose?

Hearing the girl's choice...Wait, what was her name? "Dang, sorry. My name is Sam by the way." she chuckled. Back to the matter at hand. Eagles sounded like a way better animal than eagles. Plus they could fly! "So we are supposed to choose an animal right?" Right? She hadn't been really paying much attention. "I think we should choose yours. Iguanas can't really do much. Plus eagles are just way cooler."

So now they were supposed to both decide on a characteristic from that animal right? Ok. So the only thing she could come up with was they could fly! But then the girl named a few more characteristic. "They could spot a mouse from 150 meters up?" her mouth dropped. Dude, eagles beat iguanas hands down.

"Oh, the broken nose is easily sorted," Elizabeth agreed with Nia, still remembering tryouts. "It's the possible concussion, brain damage, that part that's more problematic." To an extent, that was why she preferred playing beater over chaser in the first place. At least as beater she had the bat to defend herself, even though her size made it easy to dodge as well. She grinned, though, as the younger girl admitted she'd prefer the yelling, if she had to choose. "Most people would. Sticks and stones, you know." They had the championship match coming, which actually, in addition to her nervousness about if they were going to make it four in a row for winning the cup, gave her pangs of sadness since she knew it was the last Quidditch match she was going to play at Hogwarts. And possibly the last she'd play ever, since unlike Robert, she wasn't going professional.

She laughed slightly at Nia's theory for why her brother hadn't made an appearance in class, before speaking. "Some people just don't quite grasp the skills needed for wandwork," she said almost flippantly, shrugging a shoulder. It wasn't that she thought it was funny that some people, apparently including Theo and Robert, weren't very skilled with a wand. But she wasn't that unlucky. As the discussion turned toward characteristics, she smiled. "Indirectly, we can almost soar like a bird when we're on our broomsticks. Not as freely, but at least we can fly. The vision of an eagle, or a merlin, or any of those type of birds, would be interesting, though. The most fascinating thing, to me, though, is just their . . . majesty, I guess. People seem to be in awe of them, and to have that kind of respect?"

Cam nodded wildly when she mentioned it was a cool animal. It was, way cooler than cool that they had to make a new word! "Their eyes... are crazily awesome," he said and just pictured of having those eyes. His eyes would shine and then he'd have night vision! HOW AWESOME WAS THAT?? He wouldn't even be afraid of the dark--not like he was or anything. Going back to reality, he stared at the girl who implied her favorite animal was a butterfly.

Butterflies? He didn't have any problem with them... but he was scared if they were close. From afar, they look real cool, but close-up, they're like some sort of a centipede with wings! "Hmmm okay!" He had a lot of pros for lemurs... but cons? CONS?! WAS THERE SUCH A THING IN LEMURS??

"One, they have awesome tails which signals their danger and also helps with their balance, ya know, like when they do yoga and all. Two, they have Spiderman fingahss that could let them hold onto things. Three, they're green animals--AS IN THEY'RE VEGETARIAN as in awesome much!" He was no vegetarian... but the lemurs--they were an INSPIRATION! "Cons... hmm. Well there's female dominance in lemurs. I find that very, very bad," he wasn't so sure if it was a sexist comment but eh, "aaaaaand I can't think up of anything else."

He really didn't know.

"Too true, concussion wouldn't be pleasant," Nia replied. It kind of reaffirmed how dangerous a bludger could be, if in the wrong hands. She'd been all too glad of the good beaters in the Ravenclaw team when she chased last term, keeping her from any real danger and allowing her to concentrate on scoring. "I must say it would be real good if someone could invent a cream to remove bruises too. I was covered last year from, ahem, bites and teeth marks, and they just don't go with a skirt, ya know?" Nia added, giving Elizabeth a knowing look. It was a well known fact Mariel and Nia had been just a tad competitive at practice last year. She smiled as Elizabeth commented on her prefering the yelling. "Yep. At least you can get used to that, and sort of, er, block it out." Of course Nia listened to every word Willow said. Totally.

And some twin brothers just don't have a clue full stop, Nia added mentally. Though apparently Theo had managed some first year spells now. "Everyone has their field," Nia agreed, "..and I guess you don't have to be good with a wand to excel in the magical world." She wondered if now Theo had mastered something if he still wanted to be an astronaut. Something told her he would.

Nia nodded as Elizabeth spoke about the characteristics. "I guess you're right. We don't need wings to fly - and although it can be tiring flying a broom, I doubt its not nearly as bad as the energy needed for wings. I'll love to try it sometime." She scribbled that down on the parchment, so she wouldn't forget if questioned about something later. "The vision is probably wasted unless you're in the air, but yeah...their majesty is pretty intriging. Like it can't be just because they fly, because the majority of birds do that. So what sets those sort of birds apart? What makes them look so elegant and effortless in the sky?" She frowned slightly. "Do you reckon we could use that as a characteristic? Or do you think it needs to be physical?"

"What an interesting choice," Diane said, but her eyes had already rolled up in ponder. "There's no point in bothering with favorite animals if what we want is its natural abilities. Between leaping like a cat and climbing like a monkey, I think it would profit us more something more exotic. Of course, if you don't want that particular kind of wings, we can change. A firefly's instead. I don't suppose you would like butterfly wings."

After stating his case to the Professor, he was then approached by Nancy. Daniel don't know her too well but he had heard of her in the Common Room. And because they share the same one.

Run away! this thought was on Daniel's mind but it was no use. She was scary and a psycho? But what the heck, he was used to be dragged along and was a good psycho handler. Daniel was laughing inside from the joke he made in his mind. He stands still for a moment and concentrated not to show the giggling he have.

He then smiled at Anna and gestured his thanks for her concern. He then walked and followed Nancy. When they reached her desk. He took his parchment from his pocket and showed it to her.

"Well, I chose an eagle. I love the way they float in air and their keen sense of sight." he said looking at her. He was now wondering what animal Nancy took. "What was your animal?"

Cedric frowned as he noticed that others already had partners and look at him,Jerk!No partners.He need to search for someone he thinks that's available but its quite embarrassing for him to go around the class and search for a partner.He then walk towards Professor Ssvenson."Professor,I don't have any Partners as of now."He pleaded,he hope that Professor Ssvenson will ask someone to be partnered for him.

Dem actually had a pretty good idea on how to combine her animal, a rabbit, with Anna's animal, an owl. Anna nodded, considering what that, too, would be like. "You know, Dem, that's actually a pretty good idea. Flying without a broom at the speed a rabbit can run. Rabbits are really fast animals, too," she remarked. Being able to fly without a broom at top speed would be such an amazing quality to have, too! It'd surely be helpful, too! Nothing or no one would be able to easily harm a person that could do that! Anna scribbled a few notes on her parchment about combining the owl's ability to fly with the rabbit's ability to run really fast.

Seeing that Cedric stiil hasn't got a partner, Sabrina turned to where he and Professor Ssvenson are.
"Hey, Ced! You still hasn't got a partner, right? Do you think it would be alright if you become my partner?" she asked Cedric, feeling herself flush.
She keeps hoping Cedric would notice her. and now she's hoping that Cedric would agree to be her partner.

Elizabeth's head tilted in curiosity as Nia expressed the desire for something to remove bruises, a bit confused by the younger girl for once. "Isn't there already a cream, or something like that to remove bruises?," she asked, blinking. "But yeah, Mariel's pretty vicious sometimes, isn't she?," she finally said, completely understanding where she was going with the comment and remembering her own battle with the little Seeker during tryouts this term. And that was almost scarier than the idea of Willow retaliating against her for fictional distractions. Even if, as things had turned out, the imaginary distractions that the captain had seen between her and Robert may have actually been there, just they had been in denial. Either way, Mariel was scarier. "I'd kind of be amazed if you, or anyone, could actually block Willow's yelling out. Sometimes it's actually important," she mused at the final comment from the other girl on the topic. Not to mention the fact that their captain would probably just get more irritated if she knew they were blocking her out.

She shrugged at the comment about everyone having their field. "Sure. Look at Potions masters. Or Quidditch players. Both valid careers in the magical world, and both don't really require exceptional wandwork." Or the fact she wanted to be a writer. She just had to hope she could actually be successful. But then the discussion veered toward actual class topics again, and she grinned. "Steering or flapping? Interesting conundrum. And you'd have to figure there would be some sort of steering involved in flying like a bird too." She had a hard time really thinking of a negative side to flying on a broom, since she loved it. She grinned, before shrugging at the hypothetical question about why birds of prey were so different than other birds. "No idea. Maybe it's their size. Or because they're predators. Either way, it's still pretty cool." She glanced around at the other groups discussing the assignment at the question over what exactly established a characteristic, before shrugging again. "I'm not sure if it has to be a physical characteristic or if it can be conceptual. I mean, it is transfiguration, so maybe it has to be physical, but that brings us back to either wings or really cool eagle eyes complete with the amazing eyesight. But conceptual aspects would be more subtle." Maybe they should ask Professor Svensson.

Demetria smiled at her idea. "Yea, thanks, Anna." she began writing down the ideas on her parchment. "Could you imagine how great a quidditch player you could be with that ability. Especially if you were a seeker! You could fly faster then the snitch could!" she told her. This idea was getting better and better. Dem wondered how the class would be applying their abbilities. It was transfiguration, so maybe they would get to have their abilities. She gasped and squealed, "So cool!" at her own thought.