Hehe. The girl had been chased by ducks before? How unfortunate.

"Yes very good." Elwood nodded as she took a mental note of the ones she said to be added to a list later. "The ability to swim is what tipped you off to it being a water fowl, more specifically a duck, and the reason that we found these tracks here rather than in, say, a field." Good use of context clues.

"Yes, very good. It is a water fowl and in this sense I think that the bird was protective." Of it's self rather than any young or fellows since there was no other set of prints.

Yes, yes. "Very good Miss Bishop, birds can be all of those things." The latter of her suggestions probably fit this particular bird best though.

Huzzah!

Who would have known that the boy who had just been talking about a made up form of Divination called 'Westomancy' or some other crack-pot idea would have more or less stumbled across a good point. "I'm glad you pointed that out West, something that is very important to this reading." She would be talking about that point in more detail with the rest of the class.

Despite the Hufflepuff's obvious dislike of having to stand in the mud without shoes, Elwood appreciated her effort in trying to red the footprints without much real instruction yet. "Good job. Although these prints do not belong to a swan, they do belong to a duck another water fowl. And the characteristics of stress and evading danger are both excellent deductions!"

.........

The toilet?

There was, unfortunately, a method of Divination that studied and interpreted the symbols seen in animal....droppings. They were NOT going to be studying it today though. She looked at the young Hufflepuff. "Miss Hyde, yes those are some common physical characteristics that birds have in common with people but unfortunately they won't have much help in our reading."

Crystal Ball boy was stepping on the sand...with SHOES ON!

"Dear, please remove your shoes and socks, you may disturb the tracks we will be looking at today." She tried to remain calm. HUUGE crisis averted.

Despite his not hearing the instructions fully, the boy had mentioned a characteristic of the print that could lead him to a bigger point. "They do have only three toes compared to our five, you would say that makes them perhaps less stable on their feet than we are, since they are usually flying, or that they are more frail?" She gave him a little nudge in his thinking.

Ducks weren't exactly stupid but like the Gryffindor said they weren't really considered intelligent.

"Yes Miss Cambridge, it does seem confused and I think there is a good chance it was scared by something because of the shortness of the tracks." The usually hyper and all over the place girl from last term seemed to be working some actual work into her routine, at least so far. Good.

Chickens, where?

Calista looked at the girl and then to some of the others who mentioned chickens? Why in Merlin's beard would there be chickens running loose on the Grounds and so close to the Lake. Professor Vanora may have some in the barn by her cottage but surely they weren't free-ranged. "That's an...interesting point Alice."

The characteristic of intelligence that Alyssa had mentioned didn't seem to fit quite as well as she hoped with this particular set of prints but a few of the other ones she mentioned were quite intuitive. "I agree with you on the fact that perhaps the bird's keen eye allowed it to see the danger early enough to get away, hence the short tracks? Or the confused-looking path of the prints might seem like a search for food."

The Ravenclaw boy also mentioned intelligence, which is common for birds like Eagles, hawks, owls, and ravens but not usually water-fowl. "This bird was probably very observant Harvey, I think that is why it's tracks are very short because it probably took flight before whatever it was fleeing from got ahold of it." His answer had started off shaky but definitely ended on a good note.

This one, although mistaken on the type of bird because of the faintness of the webs on the bird's feet, did have some pretty good characteristics often associated with birds. She tried to remember his name from the roll sheet and remembered that he was the son of the President of the Board of Governors. Huh.

"Yes, very good Mr.." What was that woman's name again? *flail* "Branxton. Although the bird is actually a duck as you can see from the faint webbing between the toes, just there." she pointed, leaning closer to the ground to show him. "your suggestions of intuition, spontaneity, and that they are quick to fly away at the first sign of hardship or danger are excellent and definitely relevant to this particular reading." She grinned and nodded at the Ravenclaw. She would talk more about that when she addressed the rest of the students as a whole.

Oh there was Sierra, Callie must have missed her when she had arrived back in the classroom. And she was talking about Bigfoot. Siigh. The girl was able to at least match her attitude and random comments with hard work and success in her lessons. She was happy to see that she was continuing with her NEWT studies in Divination.

"The prints are a duck, Miss Greingoth." She said brightly as she pointed to the frequently missed webbing in the prints, and then allowed her to finish her thoughts. "Confusion is a very good characteristic to notice because it is most likely exactly what had happened."

"Very good Prefect Gunter. It is in fact a duck, and according to these prints the duck was rather confused before it's sudden take off." She pointed to the tracks as she spoke, glad that he had picked up on those things.

"Agile..." Professor Elwood thought that word over in her head. Yes, many birds were agile in the air when they flew but ducks were usually more clumsy and just flew in a straight line, not really being known for their dive-bombs and loops in the air. But the water! "Agile would work, these tracks are for a duck and they are quite good in the water."

"Agression could work, it is a characteristic given to many birds." Elwood paused and pointed back to the tracks. "However, as you can see there are no other tracks or prints of an animal for this bird to be aggressive towards." Good answer though.

The other Odessa was here and must have been hiding earlier, maybe even she didn't approve of her younger brother's answer earlier?

And yet again she answered or did something that caused the blonde professor to become a little, tiny bit scared of the Ravenclaw. There was something....different with that girl, she was extremely smart and good at her lessons, according to the other professors but there was just something Callie couldn't shake--especially with answers like that.

"Prey? Yes, that actually is probably why the bird didn't have a longer set of prints and is no longer here." Alive....or dead.

Yes, the Slytherin Captain had noticed they were bird prints, a good start.

As he went on he started to refer to the prints with words like patience. "Patience is good, they are fully formed and not muddled by rushing. Good Mr. Montmorency."

"Selina." Callie had NOT expected that answer from the Head Girl and as a student who had visited her office regularly and knew that she owned a blue and yellow parrot.

Stupid and disease-ridden?! "Some birds are not very smart and there are certain diseases that are carried by birds but so is the same with many animal species, but let's just try to focus on things we can see from these prints." She smiled smally, perhaps she just needed to spend more time with Galileo.

Not very smart, medium sized. Yes.

As for the not webbed bit. "Miss Wheatborn, if you look a tad bit closer you can see the outline, although faint, of the bird's webbed feet. Easy to miss so don't fell bad. But I do agree one hundred percent with you on the bird's intelligence and size."

The next student to speak up was one she recognized from the small group of older students who had been sorted during the Feast. This one was related to Max.

As he spoke Callie nodded along with a grin. He seemed to know what he was talking about or he was at least very good at making things up. "Very good Mr. Vindictus, I especially like your notice of where the bird landed starting out prints." A details person.

Calista was a little confused by the Gryffidor's answer and was wondering if he saw the same prints she did. "I wouldn't go as far as to say all of that, dear. Good guess though." Those prints couldn't be that old they were in sand and would have been washed away within the next hour or so and that would be a stretch. They would have to be fossilized to last as long as this boy had mentioned.

Nerinda seemed very interested in the way the bird walked too, which was good. "It did waddle funny, some of your classmates have given the reason to that." She smiled, and made note to talk more on that to the class.

"Very good!" Professor Elwood was pleased with the new student's answer. "I would agree that this bird was skitterish and easy to flee. I believe that is exactly what happened."

Not a reptile...good. Oh and she had it, it was a duck!

"Very good deductive work. The prints are from a duck and they do waddle." She had smiled a bit when she mentioned her uncle and firewhiskey but the girl was definitely on the right track.

"Yes, tedious is a good characteristic to guess after looking at these prints. The confused looking tracks could either be that or a search for food." Both good options after looking at them.

A skinny dinosaur. Callie couldn't help but giggled again, dropping her head as to hide it. That Anya girl cracked her up, did she try to do that?

"Freedom is a very common trait associated with birds Miss Phillips, and I think that freedom is what this bird was searching for in the respect that it was trying to get away from something." She pointed to the shortness of the tracts.

"That's a different way to look at it." She actually hadn't even thought of that when she first saw the prints. Interesting. "Thank you Prefect Keller."

"Very good Jory, I think that is what happened to this bird. It was frightened by something else and took flight quickly after it landed." The blonde smiled at him and went to answer the next raised hand.

Bird...anything else? Elwood looked at the Ravenclaw who had fallen asleep in one of her lessons last term, waiting to see if he had other things to add to his answer.

Guess not.

The Ravenclaw was on the right track. "Very good Prefect Castell, I think this bird was anxious and scared and that theory goes along with the shortness of the tracks."

Lots of good information. "Yes, excellent. Birds have a very wide variety of traits that can be associated with them depending on the species."

"It is a bird Miss Hudson and I too believe that it was confused before it took off from the banks of the Lake." Hopefully she would see why when she explained to the rest of the class her own interpretation of the prints.

"This bird isn't like a stork or a crane but it is a water bird. Even though it is a duck and usually is with a flock, it seems for some reason this one was on its own." Callie nodded graciously to the young Ravenclaw for giving her answer.

Dancing? Calista really liked that answer despite it's very unlikely nature. She smiled brightly when she spoke the Hufflepuff Prefect. "Unfortunately I don't think his duck was dancing. Although that would be an interesting sight."

Woah. O____O

Calista had figured the kids would be a bit wired up from the chocolate and getting to go outside but she hadn't thought it would get this bad. She looked at the Slytherin Prefect as she shouted about the duck and all it's awesomeness with raised eyebrows. "Uhh, yes very good Mr. Katheros they are duck prints." She was kind of glad the bird wasn't there...you know, for it's safety.

"It is definitely a water bird, a duck to be exact." She started with a smile since the girl seemed to be on the right track. "And excitement is a good way to describe it. Another thing to look at would be another type of excitement or anxiousness, the bird being scared."

"Very good. I think that the bird was taking it's time too, using it's patience until it was disturbed by whatever it was that caused it to fly away." The Hufflepuff prefect was definitely on the right track.

A more literal characteristic match but still good nonetheless. "Very good, I think that those attributes are good ones to be given to this bird."