Hagrid had taken his NEWT students out for a field trip and for a test, at one of Luna Lovegood's and Newt Scamander's wildlife reserves. Students were stationed around large cubicles, guarded by two-way magical mirrors, and each cubicle contained a desk, tools, a bed, or other necessary tools along with various infant magical creatures with their eyes barely open or eggs that were barely shaking.

The caretakers gave the students a lot of freedom in what the kids' chose to stand by, Hagrid was quite happy about that, and once all the students were ready he gave a short nod and calmed them all down. "Now, tha' test today is to care and nurse little ones today--these are mostly rescued creatures, so take care. If you're havin' particular trouble on your own or with a classmate[1] then a caretaker will come 'round and give you a hand, but you should have everything you need at yer station," he raised one of his massive fingers to the room, "But keep in mind some of these guys aren't textbook creatures, and might be hybrids, so adapt to their needs when necessary."

"So go ahead an start," the half giant happily rubbed his hands together as he walked around and curiously hovered over the shoulder of one of the students, "Right then, who have ye got there?"[2]

1.	project can be done in groups
2.	What creatures the students are taking care of or hatching are up to you players. But if it's something particular volatile send me a pm and double check with me first! Feel free to make up creatures as well!

It took Taryn a long time to settle on a place to work. With so many fantastic critters around, she just couldn’t make up her mind. There was a tiny Nue, barely larger than a koala, and a Mongolian Death Worm the length of her hand, and something that looked like a wolf pup but that she suspected to be an Ijiraq, due to its red eyes. All of them amazing in their own ways and so darn cute at this age!

Finally, after much deliberation, Taryn decided on...something completely different.[1]

When she sat down, the creature was rolled into a tight little ball the size of a housecat. Slipping on her (personal, tailor-made) dragonhide gloves, Taryn gently coaxed the numerous spiny limbs to unfold, confirming her suspicions about the animal’s nature and bringing a wide smile to her face.

“D’ya know what this is?” she said excitedly to the person next to her.  Professor Hagrid came round the other side and she turned her grin on him as well. “This, it’s a genuine bunyip pup. A bunyip! They never wander into this hemisphere!”

The bunyip, apparently unhappy with being woken from its nap, gave a sputtering hiss and tried to bite her. Rubbery jaws latched onto the fleshy part beneath her thumb, a ring of sharp teeth diving in like a buzzsaw. Foul-smelling saliva stained the dragonhide, but the gloves held firm. A full-grown bunyip could have gotten through, but the baby didn't stand a chance.

Taryn beamed. “Ain't he gorgeous? Australian critters are the best.”

1.	In spite of valiant attempts, our intrepid narrator finds herself unable to properly describe the thing. So here’s a picture.

Although Zel was missing class for a few days, Care of Magical Creatures was always a subject taht he never liked missing out on. He had a pass to be gone from other classes, but still showed up. The thought of taking care of a little creature was comforting to him, and he hoped that it would take his mind off of some of the more stressful events that had happened not two days ago. The werewolf wanted to have a career working with dragons one day, or maybe as some sort of magical creature healer-- but one thing he knew for sure was he wanted to work with animals for a living. They were so much like people in some ways, but unlike people they were comfortable for him to be around. Some were a bit wary of him if they could sense that he was a werewolf-- some didn’t mind, and others almost seemed to feel more comfortable around him because, like them, he was classified as a magical creature. In this form, many knew that he was harmless.

Zel looked around for any creatures that seemed reptilian, though there was one small creature that had it’s heart set on gnawing on the Hufflepuff’s shoes. he bent down to pick it up-- it was a small thing, about the size of a fully grown ferret. It’s torso was long, giving it a stretched-out appearance, though it’s tail made up about 60% of it’s body and head length. The fur was short and fine, but soft. Zel assumed as it got older, the coat would be a bit more wirey.

Upon first inspection, he felt like the creature looked much like a Jarvey, one of those oversized ferrets that hunted gnomes and always had rude things to say to people, as well as the occasional snappy comeback. However, the fur had a teal tint to it, and jarveys were rarely that kind of color. Perhaps it was one of the hybrid creatures that Hagrid had mentioned? Being a bit of a magical creatures nerd, Zel went through the possibilities in his head. A small rodent-like creature with green or blue fur and a long tail.

He held the creature up and examined his (or her?) face. Instead of the typical ferret nose,. the nose was vaguely pig like, it’s eyes were yellow and catlike. The only thing that fit that description was a Ramidreju. His eyes lit up in excitement. He had forgotten all about Figaro outing him as a werewolf. Hell, he probably wasn’t even thinking about the fact that he was a werewolf.

Zelig turned to face Taryn, “Do you see what I have here?” he exclaimed, not a single sign of hesitation or nervousness in his voice, which was very uncharacteristic of him. “I think, I think this is a mix between a jarvey and a ramidreju!” He looked at the baby creature fondly, “Ramidrejus are from Spain, their fur heals and they like to burrow and sniff for gold. And a jarvey-- well, you probably know what a jarvey is.” 

The hybrid twisted it’s body around to chew and drool on Zel’s robes.

He took a look at the bunyip, and he nodded approvingly. "I've never seen one of those before!" He said, "They look so fragile when they're babies." He chuckled a little when it hissed and tried to bite the half-giant. "He's feisty."

Care of Magical Creatures was probably Cain's favourite class, partly because he felt that, even if he did say something stupid (unlikely, because he liked Care of Magical Creatures) Professor Hagrid wouldn't mind. That they were going on a field trip was even better, because while Hogwarts was fascinating, he also wanted to escape being heckled by the portraits, and field trips generally promised something exciting.

Professor Hagrid didn't disappoint, looking after an animal was a daunting responsibility, but it was one Cain was confident he could handle. Animals were a lot easier to handle than having to memorise information for tests, after all- provided you knew what you were doing and stayed calm. Well, if you chose something like a cockatrice, caring for it would be a harrying experience, but creatures like Hippogriffs were a lot nicer than stories about them eating fingers suggested.

Cain wandered over to the cubicles, identifying what he was pretty sure was a roc egg before moving on past a small griffin- or maybe a hippogriff, he could only see the wings shielding the animal from the students' eyes. Shrugging, he paused in confusion at an empty cubicle before realising that it was probably a thestral if the raw meat was anything to go on, before peering into another and seeing something he couldn't identify.[1] Leaning closer to the glass, he could see it had strange, cat-like paws and- was that an elephant's trunk? It looked bizarre, with almost white horizontal stripes breaking the dark brown of its skin.

Cain frowned, pulling out a text book and flicking through it for some information on the creature in front of him. After searching fruitlessly, he gave up and turned to Tracy, who was inspecting the cubicle next to his. "Sorry to bother you, but do you know what this it?" he asked, indicating the small animal, which looked at them with what Cain was convinced was an  expression of disapproval. Considering it had a face not unlike an elephant's, that wasn't especially difficult to pull off, but it was still somewhat embarrassing to be disapproved of by an animal that couldn't be more than a few months old.

1.

Cain will be adopting a Baku, a creature from Chinese/Japanese mythology (correct me if I'm wrong) that eats bad dreams. Following the description I'm using, it will be 3 feet high and 4 and 1/2 feet long when fully grown. It has the body of a Tapir, the paws of a lion, the tail of an ox, and the trunk of an elephant.

---

Hagrid smiled as Zel and Taryn became excited and motherly towards the bunyip and part-jarvey ramidjiru; the half giant was happy that his students shared his love towards creatures of all kinds, "Yeah, tha' sanctuary likes to take in plenty of creatures, they have ways of easily and quickly movin' 'em here and there--so easier to give them the best care they can have--yeah?" Of course Hagrid also watched how the students were taking care of their creatures, but he doubted he would need to watch Taryn or Zel all that much--he was told that he shouldn't expect the Hufflepuff to even be present in class, but here he was.

"So if they develop well they'll go back to their natural habitat--right?" the professor smoothed his shirt as she stood up again and moved to another station as he gently called back to the two students, "And remember, yer nursin' them now, once you calm them down properly then[/] ya' can play."

Rubeus quietly carried his large form over towards another batch of Salem students, one of which seemed to be having trouble identifying a Baku. The professor then patter a large hand on the boy's shoulder as he bent down and his rusky voice started, "'Ey, sometimes it's easier to figure out what somethin' is when you can give it somethin' ta' do, yeah?" He then stood up and looked around the room, but remained standing where he was, wondering how the Salem students would approach this problem or if one would provide the answer.

For my own reference, this class occurs just a day after the fight and Figaro telling Zel's secret.  So Figaro has been punitiveily silenced.

Figaro was not his usual self, but he was still looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures.  He always did lately.  Professor Hagrid was not a bad teacher and he always had something interesting and hands-on to do which was right up Figaro's ally.  And this time they were far from home at the incredible Lovegood Sanctuary.  He'd never seen anything like it, nor had he ever seen so many different kinds of animals in one place before. 

Everyone seemed very excited to have a chance to touch and interact with the baby animals, but Figaro had to just keep his mouth shut and wait his turn and pay attention - certainly took the fun out of things and the wind out of his sails.  He didn't so much choose his animal as it was one of the only ones left. 


Figaro's enclosure had hay covering the ground and a plain over-turned wooden crate in the corner.  On a small table were the things Professor Hagrid said would be provided, whatever they'd need.  Figaro turned the jar to have a better look and then nodded approvingly - it was filled with writhing bugs, worms and other slimy things.  Food for the animal? It wasn't a very helpful clue.  There was also a little tiny tube of what looked like red paint. 

He had his dragonhide gloves on, and goggles for good measure, ready for whatever strange thing he'd have to take care of.  He knelt by the box.  He could hear rustling but not much else.  Slowly he lifted the box and saw...

...nothing!  Immediately, he started looking around.  Had he lost it?  Merlin, already?  He stood up and looked around again.  He was utterly alone in his little glass box.  Not really able to speak his mind and hollar for the Professor, he made another try, kneeling back down and looking into the box.  As he reached to move around some hay, they appeared!

With a noise like a cross between an oink and a tiny sneeze, three tiny black piglets appeared out of thin air!  At least they looked like piglets.  At the sight of Figaro though, they ran off in three directions and disappeared again!

He'd forgotten what they were called, but he vaguely remembered the giant, nasty African boars who could turn invisible.  These were cute and small, but where the hell did they go?

Field trips were opportunities to do things you normally couldn't do while at school. Most would believe that being away from school meant they were supposed to be on their best behaviour, that they were setting examples, that if they misbehaved they wouldn't be invited back. Xavier believed this was all bile that was fed to them in elementary lessons. However the most he was looking forward to getting away with was enjoying a smoke while heading off to the little wizards room. Thankfully the Sanctuary was interesting enough to keep Xavier from wanting to do anything more drastic or disruptive.

He stalked the cubicles while the rest of the class picked their babies. He briefly noticed his brother stepping into a cubicle with something curled up in a pair of big wings before something horrible caught his eye. Xavier stopped dead in his tracks staring at a baby horse, or what you could call a horse. The small skeletal creature with hollow white eyes, thick leathery skin and bat like wings had the general appearance of a horse but Xavier knew damn well what it was. They had studied Thestrals in the previous years of Care of Magical Creatures but up until now he had never seen one.

Which meant that Xavier had seen someone die.

He stared at the small horse that was stalking it's cubicle. His mind was racing and without really thinking about it he entered the small room and moved towards the creature. From everything he knew someone had the ability to see a Thestral when they'd seen and accepted death. Xavier had believed that it had only referred to human deaths, where most may have seen a family pet die but not see a Thestral afterwards. The only thing Xavier had seen die, as he had killed it himself, had been a werewolf. He knew that every other day of the month a werewolf was a human but everyone he knew, even the self righteous idiots in SAWS tried to tell everyone, convince themselves that during the full moon they were a beast. Looked like Thestral believed differently.

Xavier knelt down in front of the small creature staring at it transfixed and pulled the slab of raw meat towards himself to coax it towards him.

Figaro stood frozen in the hay-filled enclosure, looking down around his feet.  He looked quite a sight with the large goggles and thick, black and green dragon-hide gloves.  The three piglet-like critters had been there one second, and the next they'd disappeared!  He could hear rustling but it'd stopped, and he was worried he'd step on one if he moved.

He twisted round and grabbed the jar of bugs and grubs and took off the cap.  Not at all averse to the creepy-crawliles, he got a few in his hand and slowly knelt down.  They weren't much appetizing to him, but they had to be the kind of thing these little guys would like...

He held out his hand and waited.  The bugs wiggled in his gloved palm.  And then he heard some rustling and he saw the hay move.  And then he felt a nibble!  Before his eyes, the three critters appeared again! Quick as a wink they gobbled up what he had in his hand and before Figaro could do anything, they disappeared again!

Fig stood up quickly and looked around at the other students, looking for confirmation or someone to celebrate with, but everyone had their heads down in their own business.  He shrugged and got back to his own.

How was he supposed to keep track of them when they kept disappearing all the time?  And then the paint made sense!

For the next time, Figaro undid the paint tube and held it in one hand.  While he filled the other hand full of bugs.  Again, he crouched down and held out the tasty treat for the tricky little pigs.  And soon enough they appeared again.  But Figaro was ready this time:  fast as he could he squirted a line of paint to their hairy backs. As soon as he did, they disappeared again, one by one, but the paint stayed visible.

The pigs were clever - they didn't move around once they thought they were invisible.  He saw a cluster of three red smears all crowded into a corner. 

Then he remembered.  Tebo!  African magical pig monsters that could turn invisible and would maul you with their nasty tusks.  But apparently the babies were harmless bundles of hairy pig-love who liked to eat bugs.

"Auw..." With her left hand occupied, Taryn freed the right to scratch Zel's hybrid behind the ears. She had a bit of a soft spot for hybrids, technically being one herself. "He's a cute wittle guy, in'it he? And he likes you."

Taryn had not been present at yesterday's fight, but she'd heard all about it in the aftermath. After everything the poor guy'd gone through, she figured that this was exactly what Zel needed -- a cute, adoring baby animal who'd shower love on anyone kind enough to give it food. She rubbed the hybrid's head and gave the newly-outted werewolf a grin. "Careful, or it might take to you so much it tries followin' yeh home."

Hagrid passed them by with a smile and the reminder that they needed to nurse first and play later, so Taryn turned her attention back to her charge. The bunyip continued its attempt to chew her left thumb off, its teeth buzzing like a hacksaw and its saliva steaming on the cubical floor. "That's enough of that," Taryn said, gently sliding her right pointer finger into the creature's spinning jaw. If it hadn't been for her gloves, she would have lost the first phalanx, nail and all. The bunyip came away, squirming and twisting for another bite as she lay it on its back. With three fingers, she rubbed its bloated and uneven stomach, tickling its rubbery exoskeleton. After a moment, the bunyip made a noise somewhere between a fan backfiring and purr and relaxed, its tongue lolling between its buzzing teeth.

"There we go little guy. Come on, let's get some dinner in yeh. What've we got here?" She brought a bottle of some strange red-pink mess up to her nose and sniffed its contents. If they'd been served to her, it would have made her stomach turn. "Mmm, pureed fish. Yum-yum. Open up now."

She held the bottle far enough that the bunyip couldn't close its teeth around the rubbed and squeezed, sending a thick stream of liquidated meat straight into its mouth. The bunyip gulped, its body bulging slightly under her hand as it pressed the meat into its stomach like a snake swallowing an egg. It made satisfied half-purring noise against and wriggled its stringy limbs with a sigh.

"You know," she said to Zel off-hand, glancing his way. "When this little guy grows up, he'll do the pureeing himself. That's what the jaws are for, he'll grow three more sets before he's done. They'll eat practically anything with meat on it." Including people, but they weren't aggressive about it. You practically had to fall into their mouths. Taryn figured that anybody stupid enough to do that deserved to get eaten. "How's your baby doing? Hybrid diets can be awful tricky, yeah?"

When he had been looking around the little care stations set up for each creature, Mace was surprised by what he was seeing at one of them.

It was just smaller than a human baby but it was clearly a young version of that winged monkey critter that had attacked some students down by the lake in the first month of school.[1] Only this one had not been turned into a cappuccino machine.

Curiosity piqued, Mace ended up manning this station. As a baby monkey the winged variant looked ridiculously cute as it woke up from a nap, eyes that suggested No! It wasn't going to throw rocks or beehives at you at all!

"So how dangerous are you at this age?" Mace tickled the baby winged monkey with a finger, encouraging a series of chirping giggles. Down the belly, across the legs, a playful tug of the tail...

The monkey screeched harshly and flew up out of his hands. However it was too young to have wings strong enough for a long flight or hover so it landed onto the canopy stretched over the station of that albino chick that was whiter than the other albino dude.

"Sorry about that," Mace removed the escapee 'mobat' or 'clakar,' alternative names mentioned on memos posted at the station, from the canopy. It caused a rip from the sharp fingernails on its hands. Note to self: do not pull their tails.

A bit of finagling with the noisy midget mobat (or would that be childish clakar?) in his hands later and Mace was trying to calm it down with a banana. The primate babe was not interested until the peeled banana was wrapped in bacon, finally settling still. There was enough kinds of food about to feed the young critters Mace might be able to put together a BLT for himself later.

"Right," Mace said as he fed the creature ripped chunks of banana and bacon small enough that it could eat. "If you try flying over the cubicles again you may not be that lucky. Taryn's critter over there has a mouth like a garbage disposal."

1.	Minding one's own business can be dangerous

The canopy stretched over Ligeia's station cast a shadow so dark it seemed a patch of night had been transplanted into the preserve. This was an important shade for the four little creatures still in the nursing stage, being nocturnal. Once someone joined her under the canopy and his or her eyes adjusted to the darkness they would see four pink little bats hanging upside down. Not just regular bats but ones with exaggerated ears and noses. Young Fumos Bat Flamers.

Ligeia was feeding them through a pipette filled with neon yellow liquid. Then the one second from the end sneezed a chilly stream of air that froze the moisture into ice crystals.

Fumos Bats were called Flamers because they could breathe fire but when they were very young they were prone to sickness that affected the element of their breath. This little one had a very bad cold, hence the freezing breath. Gently removing the sick Fumos Bat from the perch she laid it on a table and wrapped it in a thermal blanket.

"Sorry about that," said the American student, Steinbeck, as whatever he removed left a gash in the canopy that let the light in. It was a bright enough beam that Ligeia's photosensitive eyes watered, her vision blurred. The light would also be bad for the Fumos Bats at this age so she quickly found her wand to repair the rip.

Had this trip occurred any other day Ligeia would have been in and out from under the canopy whilst wearing dark glasses, gushing over the other odd creatures about like the half giant Taryn's bunyip or the thestral colt or similar. But yesterday had been the fight when Zel's secret of being a werewolf had been announced to the whole castle. Ligeia had clung to the darkness of the nocturnal Fumos Bat station not only for love of bats but so she couldn't be seen.

She was feeling like an utter failure as a prefect. She had failed being a good friend for Zel, if there had been anything she could of done. And she was having very un-prefect-thoughts about invisible pig chaser and silenced blabbermouth Figaro, who she thought got off easy for ruining the life of someone else in his house.

Lost in her gloom, she didn't hear the coughing yip of the baby Fumos Bat getting too warm under the blanket.

---

Hagrid gave a nod towards Taryn and Zel, who seemed to have fallen into maternal role quite nicely. He couldn't help the proud smile that nipped at the corner of his lips or the excited glint in his eyes as he left the two alone and moved over to see how successful his other students were doing, even despite the fight that transpired two days before.

The half-giant made his way over to Xavier, where Hagrid could clearly see the small raggedy horse, a tiny dark thestral, that the young Slytherin chose to care for--though he seemed to be all too quiet about it; Hagrid always knew Xavier Tawse had something to say, even if it was only in the form of a confident smile.

"He'll probably be a bit curious about you, after you treat him right," Hagrid growled matter-of-factly over Xavier's shoulder, "So careful what he nips at," once he was sure the boy had heard him he moved onto Figgy's area, where he was cleverly caring for some Tebos.

"Ah lookit you," Hagrid chuckled behind the Hufflepuff, "Got it down, boy? Your whacky sense of humor might come in handy if you want their attention." The professor scratched his beard and waited to see if any of the small creatures decided to move before moving onto the next two booths belonging to Mace and Ligeia.

First, at Mace, Hagrid decided that his advice from earlier probably didn't apply with the winged monkey (he had sent a few young ones to Luna himself to get them away from the students and to a better environment,) and so he rubbed his beard as he looked down at the Salem student, "Eh, this one would probably do better with a bit of playfulness..."

He watched it as it scratched at the canopy over the Fumos Bats took the moment to step behind Ligeia while placing a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder, "That one's gettin' a bit warm, lass." And he pointed a finger at the bat under the blanket, "Just worry about the bats fer now, don't worry 'bout nothin' else," then he gave her another pat as he pointed at the ecstatic Zel. Boys would be boys.

Peyton stood a bit outside of the cubicles for a moment. His cool grey blue eyes had flitted over to Mace watching him duck into a cubicle of his own to find a little one to care for. His stomach did an uncomfortable flip flop and he turned away intent on finding a creature of his own. His crush on the older student was still as present as ever but he had been silent about expressing it still not sure how Mace would take it despite his previous 'flirtacious' actions.

He let his eyes fall upon on a bundle of what seemed to be nothing more than a pair of tawny wings. Curious as to what may be inside he walked into the cubicle and knelt down in front of the bundle. Making sure to put his dragon hide gloves on Peyton gently prodded the wings.

He fell back from his kneeling position as the bundle unfurled revealing huge golden eyes inside a small downy head, the large beak adding to the effect that the creatures facial features were too big for it's head. Peyton took a quick look at the rest of the body that was now visible confirming that the creature in front of him was a baby Hippogriff. The Ravenclaw took a deep breath and lowered his head as much as he could in his current half crouched tumbled position.

His attempt seemed to have paid off as the small creature (just bigger than a newborn colt but definitely smaller than a grown Hippogriff) got up on his mix of hooves and talons and bowed it's head in return. Peyton let out the breath he wasn't aware he was holding and sat down more comfortably as the colt/bird came up to him eager to get some attention now that it had been given respect. Peyton wondered at what age the eagerness disappeared.

He stroked the creature's soft feathery head while glancing at the table of food available to them. He chewed on his lower lip, "I really hope you don't feed like other baby birds."

Jay watched as his classmates walked off to their charges. He paced the cubicles a little hesitant about taking care of a baby creature. He had never had pets at home and while he was good at the class in general he had never been responsible for something so young, not to mention the creatures here weren't exactly like taking care of the neighbours puppy. By now most of the others had settled down to a creature and he felt he better get a move on.

Near the end of the row Jay found what looked like an over sized kitten playing with a ball. For a long moment he watched the young cub and determined it was a lion, or at least what looked like a lion from his vantage point. There didn't seem to be anything special or magical about the creature, it simply looked like a lion cub. Narrowing his eyes he stepped into the cubicle. Instantly the cub stopped playing and looked up at him.

Jay let out a little gasp and took a tentative step forward. The small creature in front of him was definitely special even if he hadn't caught it right away. He tilted his head to the side to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Where the cub should have had dark muddy brown or golden eyes, with no white showing, a pair of stunningly brilliant violet eyes shone out, with plenty of white showing giving the impression that the cub had human eyes. On top of the shocking eyes the outer rim of the eyes and the markings in the cubs fur gave the impression that the tiny lion was wearing makeup.

"What are you?" Jay mused out loud the small creature in front of him sat back on it's hind legs and tilted it's head slightly to the side as if contemplating him. A chill ran down his spine as he was given the impression the baby had a surprising amount of intelligence to it.