Aderyn was glad to hear a bit of a perk up in Magnus' voice a moment later as Sam and Gaia both took notice of the baby acromantula and appeared to adore it. She shuddered as she heard its voice, feeling a prickling of hairs standing up on the back of her neck, and tried desperately not to think about it and its kind tearing into centaurs and other creatures. She felt a little bit bad at being so repulsed by the creature - it couldn't help what it was and it wasn't trying to be gross, but she still could not bring herself to poke her head in around the doorway. Instead, she just sat there, taking slow, deep breaths and clutching Emmy's hand.

"Maybe if I don't think too much about it, I can get another look at it," she said dubiously. "Take my mind off it - what's cute and the farthest thing from an acromantula?"

Emmy accepted the chocolate frog Aderyn handed her, grabbing it skillfully as it tried to leap away, and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Yes! Got Newt again!" she said thickly through the chocolate, showing it to her.

They sat in silence for a while, listening to Magnus and the girls in the room behind them. emmy looked up as Aderyn spoke, asking what was cute and far from a great creepy spider.

"Me!" she said, grinning. With a faint popping noise, she turned into her animagus form of a fluffy Norwegian forest cat. She sat down in front of Aderyn and meowed, trying to look as cute as possible.

Paddy froze as the adult Acromantula spoke. Fur and skin? Taking a steadying breath, she asked the giant spider, "what do you think of werewolves?" hoping the answer wouldn't be 'tasty'.

( )

Millie stood paralyzed in fear as the adult Acromantula spoke about the types of food he enjoys. She thought about how badly she wanted to leave and go back to the comforts of the common room. She hoped one of her classmates found Cleo and let her in. Cleo had a habit of running off only to show up outside the the common room whining to be let in. Her legs started to grow tired, so she allowed herself to sink to the ground.

Aderyn chuckled as Emmy stuffed the chocolate frog into her mouth and pondered what she could possibly think on that wasn't a big, fuzzy spider. She shuddered involuntarily and turned to Emmy, waiting for the girl's input. When Emmy exclaimed and, with a popping noise, turned into her cat form, Aderyn smiled and reached out to pet her. Emmy's cat form was absolutely adorable and definitely a true polar opposite to the acromantula in the room behind her.

"That works!"

She glanced over as a movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she watched Millie sink to the floor in the room. She wanted to go over and comfort the girl, but she couldn't bring herself to go into the room yet. It was then, however, that she remembered the calming draught Magnus hand handed her.

Reaching into her pocket, Aderyn uncapped the vial, shrugged, and drank the potion, her face puckering a little at the vaguely bitter, floral sort of taste of it. She recapped the vial, slipping it back into her pocket, and looked down at Emmy.

"D'you want to go cuddle up to Millie for a moment? I'll be right over, just going to let the potion work a bit..."

The spider gave Sam a quizzical look. "Hu-mans are strange. Meat tastes better raw. We are fast and smart too. Slink down from webs as they are staring at the sky. Before they know what happened, they are spun in webs." Magnus had a sinking feeling that the large spider might send Sam a dead centaur to sample, it sounded like the spider was giving her hunting instructions. The spider gave a raspy laugh, "Yes, fluffy critters are good too. But you are safe, child, I would not eat a young one at least not now. I agreed to behave with the adult wizard. My son and I have been promised rare meats and choice land to live on." Jurig kept still enjoying his scratching and petting from both girls. Magnus went over to Millie and handed her one of the calming potions. He leaned in and said, "You can leave if you want, its okay."

The giant spider looked at Paddy and said, "Werewolves are very fast, strong and violent-- to hunt one is foolish, unless it is wounded. They are unpredictable, we do not bother them and they do not bother us."

Magnus stole a glance at Aderyn and Emmy who hand shifted to a cat. He had a sudden desire to pet the cat but kept himself in check. He had other things to do... maybe later Emmy would let him pet her fur? He didn't really know her as well as he did Aderyn and felt bad about that.

Gaia was mesmerized by the giant spider "soooooooo" Gaia was measuring her words "If a human was a friend to you would you let them ride on you?" Gaia took a deep breath and added "I mean you seem like an awesome friend to have to be honest." Gaia grinned and petted the baby spider. "Magnus, did you feed Jurig? He seems kind of hungry." Gaia said while looking at Jurig making sniffing type movements. Do spiders smell stuff? That would be wicked! Gaia giggled at her thoughts.

()

Emmy purred as Aderyn patted her, glad she had made the girl feel a bit better. She watched, ear twitching a little, as Aderyn popped open the vial of calming potion and drank it. Before she could cap it, Emmy leapt lightly forward, put her front paws on Aderyn's leg and lifted herself towards the bottle, licking off what was left around the lip, only needing a little bit of the potion in this form to make her feel better.

She sat again as Aderyn spoke and nodded as her friend suggested she go comfort Millie. She let out a comforting purr-meow at Aderyn and then crept cautiously back into the room. The sight of the giant spider and the sound of its eerie voice made her fur puff up a bit in alarm and she edge along the wall until she was at Millie's side.

Emmy let out a meow at let Millie know she was there, putting a paw on the girl's arm. She figured Millie would recognize her animagus form, since they were both Hufflepuffs and she often wandered around the common room as a cat.

((OOC - Magnus can pet Emmy when she's a cat anytime if he wants haha... just dont bring the spiders any closer lol))

Aderyn watched Emmy dive for the vial in her hand after she'd drained the potion and the other girl managed to get a lick in before she could recap the vial. She wanted to remind Emmy that sometimes potions affected animals differently than people, but she figured a drop of a calming draught couldn't possibly be that bad for the girl.

As Emmy crept back into the room to comfort Millie, Aderyn let the potion do its thing. It didn't take very long, and soon she was overcome with a peaceful feeling. She was still wary of the acromantulas in the room, but she didn't want to flee at the thought of them anymore. Once she was sure she was calm, she took a deep breath and got to her feet. She put a hand up to her face to block the periphery of her view so she didn't see the spiders and made her way toward Millie.

Sitting down quickly with her back to the acromantulas, Aderyn faced Millie and looked down at Emmy, who was puffier than usual and a strange shade of lilac. She giggled a little, figuring she must have been right about the potion having a strange effect, and reached out to pluck a loose hair off of Emmy, holding it up to the light.

"Why are you purple?"

Looking to Millie instead, she tried to be a reassuring presence.

"Are you alright?"

The giant spider looked at Gaia considering her words carefully, "Are you wishing to be my friend, little girl? We are not the playthings of hu-mans... perhaps I would agree to being ridden. My son climbs upon my back when he tires. Tell me, why would I make a good friend?"
Gaia asked about having feed the infant and he made a "eep" and scrambled off to grab a slab of cut up meat that was wrapped in paper. He placed the meat in the large box and Jurig skittered off to it. The spider began picking the cubes up and eating them.

Magnus left the baby spider to its food and slipped over towards Millie, Areryn and Emmy. "'Ow you lot doin?" He asked smiling at the purple cat. He put his hand out to Emmy, asking for permission. His thoughts jellous of Emmy's ability to transform whenever she liked and with a lot less pain than he did.
((OOC: lol He loves cats so totally wants to pet her :D))

Millie was sitting against the wall when she felt a little paw on her arm. She half expected Cleo but when she looked, she saw it was Emmy in cat form. "Hi Emmy" Millie said, reaching up and rubbing the soft spots behind both of Emmy's ears. She started feeling better when Aderyn asked how she was doing. "Better than I was a few moments ago" she said as she switched to scratching under Emmy's chin. "I didn't realize I was this afraid of spiders. I knew I was scared of clowns but not spiders."

(ooc - I won't be around as much this weekend. I'm working the nascar races.)

Gaia looked at the spider "Well I wouldn't mind us being friends. We have enough room in our forest and there are some big caves in the far mountains where humans don't really go to. You could live there and my family could help care for you, but you wouldn't be able to eat the unicorns or owls there." Gaia nodded as if to assert her thoughts.

()

Sam nodded, Gaia's thoughts mirrored her own regarding the gigantic spider. "Why would we want to be friends? 'Cause you're awesome, and friends don't eat each other. Your webs are strong enough to hold a centaur? Wow! My folks say I should respect centaurs, but to tell the truth they scare me. I've never seen one that didn't hate wizards for some reason. I mean Dragons and Manticores and Acromantulas like you, kill people 'cause they're hungry, not 'cause you hate 'em for being who they are. I get that." She nodded at Gaia's offer of the caves in her family's forest. "Yeah, you don't want to be killing unicorns, that'll get you cursed. But I'm afraid an owl's not gonna have a chance if it flies into a web strong enough to hold a centaur, even if the spider doesn't eat it."

() Gaia starred at her friend "we raise owls I can't have him eat our guys!" Gaia nodded she knew her owls didn't go that far in, but still she loves her owls... all owls... even the mean ones.

Sam sighed. "Problem is, to an acromantula an owl is less than a gnat would be to a normal spider. An owl'd be baby food to them, if they even noticed it. Plus, 's no way they can make their webs selective, anything that flies into it...." Sam shrugged expressively. "Good thing is, owls are generally smart enough to avoid the areas where the webs are. They have good eyesight too, so that helps as well."

Magnus nodded. "I learnt I was scared of griffins at the pet shop during Christmas time last term. Working on getting on wif them better.

The large spider sounded a little angry when it said, "Hu-mans do not tell me what to eat." Then his voice returned to normal. "The male child," it said point one of its legs at Magnus, "its father and I have an agrrrreement. He offered us choice lands and a large stock of meat." Nodding at Sam he said, "Centuars are foolish, spending their time looking at the future and not living. But yes, owls are not very filling, unless we eat them by the dozens. Or feed them to our young." Then he did laugh as Sam said owls had no chance. "Yes, we cannot help what comes into our webs and eat what we do. A unicorn though, has never been caught in our webs. To waste fresh meat is not wise."

( ) Gaia scoffed at Sam. She loves owls and any harm to them is inconceivable for her. Then she heard what the giant spider said and started fuming. "There is nothing wrong with seeing the future. I gave you a chance to find a happy home. Good luck." With one last pat on Jurig's head Gaia left the session muttering to herself something about seeing the future and spiders being eaten.

Aderyn was glad to see that Millie was feeling better and she focused on talking with the girl and petting Emmy, trying to ignore the spidery voices behind her. The potion was helping to keep her mostly calm, but she could still feel a small undercurrent of anxiety, what with being in the room with the object of her greatest fears.

"I haven't been around many clowns, but I can see how they'd be scary," Aderyn reasoned. "Spiders, though..."

She shuddered for effect.

((OOC: Clowns. T_T))

In her cat form, Emmy let out a small mew as Millie obviously recognized her and began petting her head. She hoped her fluffy appearance was comforting, and tried to keep looking cute to comfort those who were scared, one of her ears turned towards the giant spiders so she would always know where they were in comparison to her.

Her feline head swiveled as Aderyn crept back into the room and sat beside them. She cocked her head to the side curiously and looked down at herself as Aderyn asked why she was purple, and her cat eyes widened in surprise. She had no idea why she was a faint shade of purple instead of her normal brown, grey and white. She shot a perplexed glance at Aderyn and then meowed as if to say "Who knows?"

She purred as Millie scratched behind her ears, quite enjoying the sensation. She stiffened a moment later though as the other two girls began to talk about things that scared them. She didn't like spiders OR clowns and she shuddered a bit.

"Being able to see the future is one thing, being so focused on possible futures that you get yourself eaten by an acromantula in the here and now, is something else again." Sam said, still focused on the giant spider, but Gaia had already turned to leave the room. Confused, Sam watched her leave, then fished around the box for pieces of meat that Jurig had missed. She stroked the baby spider's fuzzy abdomen as she fed the bits of meat to him and asked the large spider. "Are your fangs venomous? or is your bite so powerful you don't need venom?... I'm sorry, do you have a name you like to be called?"