YAY! SOMEONE! FINALLY!

Cam turned around to face the Ravenclaw girl who needed a partner too. He didn't know her but he'd seen her in classes and such. "Haiiiiiii." A hand-shake?...he wasn't sure. Maybe she'd been infested with dozens and dozens of cooties inside of her. But he didn't want her to think he was scared of girls right?? He shook her hand for a second and immediately stopped with zee shaking. "I'm Cam!" He looked at the professor and then back at Satine.

"Mmmm my favorite animal's the lemur!" He still felt sad he couldn't pick other animals. It was a hard choice but... sniff, the lemurs were his favorite, yes. Now which part of the lemur would he want to have? The tail...? But he didn't want to have it... yeah. So, nope, no tail. "Oooh I'd want their eyes! Their eyes look AWESOME." All owl-like and big. Yup!

Fyo half-wanted to reply to that first comment of Tor's but, since that would only have lengthened their icky-bicky have-a-go-at-each-other chatty-watty, the third year decided to let it pass, instead focusing his attention on the more pressing matter at hand: THE! characteristic.

Toughness? Hmm, that sounded right. "I like that," Fyo said, with a nod. "Not sure about the aggression, though - I don't think I want to be aggressive. But I like the fact that they're so tough, that they can take care of themselves and survive under really harsh conditions, when the need arises."

Toughness - - The knowledge of survival, the fight for survival - - Yes, that impressed him, impressed him a lot.

He nodded, glad that Fyo seemed to be going along with things here. "True. But sometimes I want to seem aggressive. To scare people or whatever off." He wouldn't mind doing that to Reese right about now. "Okay, what about the characteristic? You want the pedipalawhatsits?" Both animals had claws.

Scare people off? ReeseReeseReese. Fyo shrugged that thought off, listening intently to what Torin was saying. "It's pedipalps," he corrected, rolling his eyes. "Second pair of appendages -" he stopped, deciding it would be of no use, telling Tor all this.

"Um, as I was saying - great idea, the claws," Fyo said, nodding to show his approval. "Now we just need to decided if we like their toughness - their knowledge, their fight for, survival - better, or the pedi - err - claws." Wolves didn't have pedipalps anyway, right?

He ignored Fyo's correction, thinking that that was for the best really. "I'd say their toughness and fighting for survival," he said after a moment. "'cause claws are awesome and all, but they don't do too much when you lack the strength and will to use them."

Fyo nodded. "You're right. I mean, what use are wings if the birdie doesn't want to use them?" Waiiit -- what in the name of Merlin's best Dairy Milk was he saying? Umm.... Oh, forget it. "Is it decided that we're going with toughness and the whole survival thing, then?" he asked Torin. "Because I think we need to write that down." He wasn't too sure of that, though.

Should have listened to the professor, more attentively.

He nodded at Fyo. "Exactly? What's the point of wings when you would rather walk?" He then grabbed his parchment and quill and wrote everything they decided so far down. "Righto. If he wants it or not, it's written down."It wasn't like the Prof would get mad at him for jotting things down, right?"

Lucy chuckled a little. The boy sure had a love for dolphins. "Wow, you must really love them. Maybe your patronus is a dolphin. Mines I tiger, hence my love for them." She said smiling a little. Ok now it was her turn to talk about why she loved tigers. "Well I love the tiger because of how magnificent they are." Lucy said. "At night their vision is six times better than ours. But a trait I'd probably want that a tiger has is what you mentioned. How fast they run! 49-65 KPH (35-40 MPH)." Lucy said. "I bet I can run .5 miles per hour..."

"Well, I might as well write it down, too." And, pulling up a fresh parchment towards himself, Fyo dipped his quill in his favourite, deep blue ink and began to scribble anew.

Quote:

{ Characteristic }
Toughness - the knowledge of survival, the fight for survival.

{ Borrowed from }
Both wolf and scorpion.

"This look okay?" he asked Torin cheerfully, showing his friend the gleaming parchment - gleaming because of the pwetty, blue ink which had yet to dry - once he was done writing.

He looked at his friend's parchment and gave the thumbs up. "Awesome, mate. So what next?" He was a little lost as to what the next step was. Hopefully they would be told soon.

"I guess we have to wait for further instructions from Professor Svensson, now," Fyo said, in response to Torin's sorta-lost question. He looked around the classroom again, noting that most of the students were still in discussion about the characteristic they wanted to borrow.

Oh my, he and Tor had sure been quick. Pretty, pretty quick, yup. But, then again, that's what you get when you pair up with someone you know a little too well - someone who knows you a little too well.

"OOOO a lemur....that's a pretty cool animal! And those eyes are crazy... so now we just need to figure out which one we want to settle on and fight for....so a lemur or a butterfly...." she thought for a minute...."maybe we should pro and con each of animals and then decide...let's come up with three pros and cons for our animal and then share." she thought that sounded like a diplomatic idea.

Bah, trust his luck for there to be an uneven number of students on the day he planned a partner activity. Still, the boy could not do the activity by himself, so... "See if you can join a pair and form a group of three, then," Professor Svensson said. The students did not seem to be quite finished, so he decided to give them some more time to discuss and decide.

"Professor," Anna said, raising her hand into the air. From her spot in the center of the room, she'd heard Daniel mention not being able to find a partner. Daniel had always been a really nice guy, so she of course wouldn't mind having him join she and Dem. "Daniel can come work with Demetria and I, if he'd like. We'd be happy to work in a group of three." She glanced towards Daniel and motioned for him to come and join them if he hadn't managed to find another group by now.

"Sure!" Celandine sat down with her feet tucked under herself. "Ohhh a Koala! Well, how about the cuddly characteristic? Even though they are actually feisty, people want to cuddle them, especially girls. Hugs are nice, wouldn't you want to be huggable? Or are you already?" Celandine laughed a bit and offered a friendly wink.

"I think the claws are cool because it helps them climb trees really well and I totally loooooooooooooooooove climbing trees." or she had until it had started getting mildly awkward.

"I chose a scorpion!" Celandine informed Jack. "Best thing about them is they can control exactly how much venom they inject into their prey. Also they dance. The promenade à deux. I mean, I can dance already but it's pretty cool that they have a special name for their dancing." A particularly special kind of dance, but Cela saw no reason to go into particulars.

Did that mean Cela wanted to be venomous and to dance with boys?

Um...

Jack laughed. "Oh sure, everyone wants that--even though I don't think koalas are very nice. Especially with those claws," he added with a small chuckle. Those claws could very easily guage someone's eyes out if they got to close. YIKES! "How would one attain the cuddly characteristic, though?" he wondered aloud. "Would I sprout fur or something?" he asked.

Already huggable? Hmmm, he wasn't quite sure on that one. "Well, maybe to some people I am," he told her in response, blushing a bit as he spoke. Girls + Jack = still a little bit awkward. Did Reese find him huggable? Hmmm...he'd have to investigate later.

"A scorpion? Cool!" Jack said in excitement, sitting up a little straighter. Scorpions were only the COOLEST bugs in the entire bug kingdom, cause they could totally hold their own against bigger things. Sure, they were absolutely terrifying to be in the same room with, as were all bugs, but could a spider sting people if it got a little mad? Pssh, NO. Therefore, scorpions won. Hands down.

"What would you be able to take from a scorpion, though? Their stingers?" he asked. That might be a little scary--he pictured Cela with a scorpion tail for a split second and immediately tried to erase the image.

Because having claws and ears of a marsupial wasn't incredibly weird and unnatural. Not to mention that being a wizard and carrying a magical wand wasn't incredibly weird and unnatural as well. Daphne Hopton was left with no other choice to blink.

He was really pretty; and so was his voice. Except she was distracted from Jack's pretty by Celandine's wink. What was that about? Blinking at her friend as she sat cross legged over her own robes, elbow on her knees, chin on her hand. She refused to comment on Cela's love for the scorpion. Instead she focused on erasing the thoughts from her mind.

"I like cats," she commented in a half-bored tone. "They're self-cleaning."

"Snuggly arms." Celandine answered at once, quite certain of it. "Strong arms that make you feel safe and warm when they hold you."

Sigh.

Ooooh! Jack with fur! Cela pretended to give him a very serious once over. "I think you could pull of fur! You'd be totally nuzzleable!"

Oh he liked scorpions? That was a brownie point for sure.

"I have a pet scorpion." Celandine told him, "You could take their exoskeleton, that's super strong AND fluouresence under UV light. If you like... combined it? With the Koala fur? You'd be huggable and snuggly AND super tough and strong and you'd glow so you'd look totally awesome."

Celandine shuffled on her butt over to Daphne and leaned her head on her friend's shoulder for a brief moment. "Cats are great. Like Rai-Rai's kitty. You are working with us okay?" Yes? Good.

Celandine Toussaint had spoken.

"So, erm...you'd want a cat's tongue?" Jack asked Daphne in confusion. There was nothing really appealing about cats, in his opinion, especially HIS cat, Biscuit. Fat lazy bum just sat around all day scratching at his best sweaters and putting holes in them. "Maybe your favorite part of a cat is the, erm...tail? The tail is pretty cool," he said, offering up a suggestion for her. They were, after all, supposed to pick their favorite physical trait about their animals.

Daphne looked bored. Maybe if Jack ended up coming out of this lesson as a giant snuggly Koala-Man, as Cela seemed to be imagining, he could give her a huggggg?

"Hmmmm, koala arms...I kind of like that," Jack said with a grin. "That's got both cuddly fur AND super claws in one!" He tapped his chin as Cela suggested combining everything all in one--it sounded cool, but with his luck, it also sounded like a guaranteed trip to the Hospital Wing. "Maybe something simplier instead of all of it combined," he suggested with a laugh. "We don't want to scare every one, right?" he asked.

"Oh!" exclaimed Daphne suddenly intrigued at the mention of arms. She loved arms. Especially big strong arms. Quidditch arms. Blushing, she tried to hide her giggling behind her hand as she pretended to scratch her nose. "I think the snuggly arms should be a huge part of this...assignment." And such.

When Cela placed her head on her should she tipped her head to slightly, nuzzling her friend. Head-to-Head! EEP.

Daphne wrinkled her nose. "I like my tongue just fine thank you," she replied and nearly stuck out her tongue to prove that her tongue was superior than any most other cat's tongue. "Cats are very flexible aren't they? The way their spine bends and such. I want to be flexible!"

Ooh! Wouldn't that be useful, especially for dancing.

Daphne blinked at Jack before tapping her chin with her index finger. "I doubt you could scare anyone, Jack." That was a compliment. Was it? Of course it was.

"Oh, I like that idea, Dem. Rabbits are interesting creatures, and it's true...they really do run really fast," she agreed. She imagined for a moment what it would be like to be able to run as fast as a rabbit. She could travel from class to class in record speed, providing her professors didn't catch her and dock house points or issue a detention. She could run through forests...and away from enemies...in record speed, too. "Being able to run as fast as a rabbit would be really awesome, Dem."

"Let's see...I went with an owl," she said, showing her friend her own parchment. "The trait from an owl I'd most like to have is its ability to fly without the help of a broomstick. I think it'd be fun to just take to the skies anytime I please and not have to worry about sitting on a broomstick. I could just flap my wings and fly far, far away." Not only that, being able to fly anytime she pleased would help her in dangerous situations. If she sensed danger, she could just flap her wings and take off to safety.

"Well if you had koala arms you'd have to practice koala hugs." Celandine mused matter-of-factly, adding a cheeky little wink. "I like hugs you could practice on me for sure as long as I could practice my koala hugs on you. Ooooh we could all practice koala hugs on each otherrrrr!" LULZ. Celandine giggled a bit, finding the idea a bit absurd but funny at the same time.


"Scare everyone, oh how could soft snuggly arms be scary?" And simpler? "Well, Jack. I'm SUPER good with my wand so it doesn't REALLY need to be simple. I could probably help you if you think you might have trouble. I have to help Daphne all the time." And Cela loved her Daff-daff soooo much she didn't mind that it sometimes held her back a little bit. And why not help two Gryffies at once? Share the love? Be a good friend? Work for house unity?

Celandine beamed.

"Snuggly arms." Celandine agreed and it was no great feat to guess whose arms Cela liked to snuggle.

Teehee.

Daphne was getting well trained, returning nuzzles and what not. Cel looked for Daphne's tongue in interest. "I've noticed before that your tongue? It's quite long, Daffy. Can you touch your nose with it? Or do this?" Cela poked her own pink tongue out and made it into a clover shape, then a tube. "My hung hih hehh heee heckhihoo." Celandine informed them that her tongue was very flexible. "But I can't touch my nose."

Oh wait.

"Cats are flexible." Celandine brightened, "Daphne, that would come in handy... for you."

Well, everyone seemed to be in agreement about the koala arms. Jack mentally tried to picture himself with koala arms and instead got a picture of him looking like some disporportionate gorilla with gray, furry arms. Oh Merlin. This was going to be a longggg lesson. "Ok, snuggly arms it is...with claws too," he added, blushing a little. "To make them a bit more, uh...manly. And intimidating, since apparently I don't scare anyone," he said with a smile at Daphne, clearly joking.

Jack was the furthest thing from scary and he knew it. He only wanted to be scary on the Quidditch pitch and even that was proving near impossible for him.

"Flexible? Yeah, I suppose so--they also have that cool little thing where they can always land on their feet, right?" he asked. Throw that in the mix, and Daphe could be the best muggle-cheerleader in the world. Not that she really struck him as the cheerleader type...that was why he kept his opinions on that one to himself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celandine

"Well if you had koala arms you'd have to practice koala hugs." Celandine mused matter-of-factly, adding a cheeky little wink. "I like hugs you could practice on me for sure as long as I could practice my koala hugs on you. Ooooh we could all practice koala hugs on each otherrrrr!" LULZ. Celandine giggled a bit, finding the idea a bit absurd but funny at the same time.


"Scare everyone, oh how could soft snuggly arms be scary?" And simpler? "Well, Jack. I'm SUPER good with my wand so it doesn't REALLY need to be simple. I could probably help you if you think you might have trouble. I have to help Daphne all the time." And Cela loved her Daff-daff soooo much she didn't mind that it sometimes held her back a little bit. And why not help two Gryffies at once? Share the love? Be a good friend? Work for house unity?

Celandine beamed.



"Snuggly arms." Celandine agreed and it was no great feat to guess whose arms Cela liked to snuggle.

Teehee.

Daphne was getting well trained, returning nuzzles and what not. Cel looked for Daphne's tongue in interest. "I've noticed before that your tongue? It's quite long, Daffy. Can you touch your nose with it? Or do this?" Cela poked her own pink tongue out and made it into a clover shape, then a tube. "My hung hih hehh heee heckhihoo." Celandine informed them that her tongue was very flexible. "But I can't touch my nose."

Oh wait.

"Cats are flexible." Celandine brightened, "Daphne, that would come in handy... for you."

Jack was starting to feel rather awkward and uncomfortable again, as usual, when Cela brought up practicing hugs on other people. Koala hugs, to be exact. "Hugs need, um...practicing?" Jack asked in confusion. Was there more than one way to give someone a friendly hug? Or could you possibly be BAD at giving hugs?

He stopped talking and watching in a sort of daze as Cela started doing weird things with her tongue. He had seen people do that before, but he himself couldn't get his tongue to do anything cool looking. Apparently it was genetic--he didn't have cool genes, that was for sure. As she went on and on about tongues, Jack stared at her, wide eyed.

Good Merlin, she had gone loony on them. Or maybe he just needed to get used to her a bit more?

"Someone would need a really long tongue for that..." Jack wondered aloud, and before he knew what he was doing, he himself was trying to touch his tongue to his nose. He had a wide tongue, that was certain, but no matter what angle he tried to work with, he couldn't touch his nose.

Wait. Wait. Why did Cela want to hug Jack?! Would Jack hug her back? The corner of her lips turned downwards and she momentarily gazed at Fritzera through her lashes. "I want to practice hugs," she whispered. "You should practice with me."

That wasn't a suggestion either. It had. Been. Spoken.

Blushing at Cela's remark about helping her, Daphne coughed into her fit while twirling a piece of blond hair on a finger of her free hand. She'd just pretend she never heard that. With any luck Jack was thinking she was completely useless at wand work.

Which wasn't truly too far from the truth. She was a Gryffindor, not a Ravenclaw! What did the world want form her? HMPH. In her thoughts she didn't notice what Cela was doing and blinked a few times at her before puffing out a bit of air. "I never thought of it like that," she contemplated sticking out her tongue and tapping her index finger against it twice. "I think I can do it."

So she streeeetched out her tongue as it could go and only with a bit of struggle touched the tip of her nose.

About to mumble something along the lines of: 'So you were right after all!' to Cela, the blond Gryffindor was deadly distracted by the workings of a certain Quidditch player.

.......


OGLE.

And Daphne's tongue sort of just hung there, half in her mouth and half exposed to the magical world of Hogwarts. Wow. What was it that they were saying about flexibility?

Ah, she was no seer, but it was just as she had foreseen. Diane made a crump of papers out of her parchment and, threw it away. Let us see... since it was about borrowing a characteristic, she had already known about cat's and a bird's wings would be an interesting thing to have.

She turned to her bigger partner, "What say you? I don't know your favorite animal, but I'm thinking harpy wings."