Oh, a food.  There's a food over there, and it's already determined that homefoods are boring enough that eating them doesn't make much of a difference so this food is getting nibbled on.  Also there's an Unpleasantness which for some reason is also getting nibbled on, and that makes less sense because nibbling on Unpleasantnesses makes a lot of difference.  It stops nibbling on the Unpleasantness.  Nom nom nom nom the safe food.  - Also it's not in the box anymore, which is very nice.  The box was even more boring than everything else about home, by SO MUCH.

The Unpleasantess is herding it and some others in a direction.

Normally doing what Unpleasantnesses and other its are doing is the most boring option, but this time they're all going away from home, which has never happened before, which is interesting.  It'll go along with the herd.

They go quite far from home! Here is a long series of rooms and doors. They are to look for a stolen food. Obviously there are lots of foods on the train but they are looking for the one that was stolen from them so they can bring it back home.

It's probably way better than all the other its at telling foods apart!!  And especially at telling homefoods from non-homefoods.  It's getting pretty hungry again but it still doesn't nibble any of the interesting little foods, even though the other its are extending no such courtesy.  It has long since given up on trying to get them to stop that.

Food food stolen food, where are you . . .

Stolen food does not appear to be anywhere on the long series of rooms and doors.

So many other foods, though!  And almost all of them small; that's unusual.  Are any of them being interesting?

They are all reacting to being nibbled on in the usual range of ways. Though one of them is being especially loud about it.

Hmmmm.

Are there parts of the long series of rooms and doors that don't have any other its in them?

Yup, there are only so many its and there are lots of rooms and doors!

If it focuses on areas with no other its, can it find interesting foods?

There are a couple foods huddling behind unpleasantnesses?

That's a normal thing for foods to do :(. 

Yup. All the foods are being so normal about everything. Probably because of all the other its getting their eat on.

It really wishes it had a way to make them stop that.  - Oh huh, that food is kind of two foods.  It's seen a food that was kind of two foods before, but that food had its twoness around its middle and this one has it around its top.  That's kind of interesting but not really.

Maybe instead of all of the other its going on an exciting adventure they've just moved and this is the new home now.  It'll give a potential exciting thing a few minutes to produce itself but if nothing happens it's going to float off and away.

Hey, hey now, instead of floating away, suppose it goes that way toward that large edifice of many windows. It's in a water, like home, but a much smaller water.

It will float off and away in . . . hmmmmm . . . that direction!  Is there anything interesting inside the windows?  (Hhhhhooooh - oooooohiii - wwwwwwwihhhhn, it practices on the way over.)

It's actually not supposed to get close to the windows like that nope nope it is supposed to patrol around and around, beyond the water.

But it wants - well maybe there are interesting things over here.  It will check.

It's supposed to keep going round and round looking for the stolen food, and making sure no foods trying to go in or out of the round area are the stolen food.

Okay, it will do that.

It's done!  What's in the windows?

No no it's supposed to keep staying away from the windows and not go near them even later.

It doesn't want to, though!  That's SO long.  Ughhhh.

Is there ANYTHING interesting over here?

There are trees - a couple foods that have four legs, but they run away real fast before it can get a good look - and... that's about as interesting as it gets.

It is ALSO really quite - okay, not that fast apparently.

It's getting hungry and kind of frustrated.  Are there boring foods around?  It wants to nibble.

Whenever it gets close to a food, the food runs away! It can do that here!

. . . More foods with fun games attached?  Yes, it will absolutely play follow the leader with them!!  Munch munch; swoop zooooom.

No! It is supposed to let these foods run away. Unless the stolen food shows up.

:( :( :( :( :(

Will any of the other its zoom with it?  No?  Well, it can zoom by itself.

As long as it's zooming the designated perimeter.

Time passes. The sun goes up and comes down. The giant squid occasionally surfaces a tentacle for this reason or that. The four-legged foods are giving its designated perimeter a wide berth but if it flies high enough and gets a good angle it can sometimes see one between the trees. The small foods stay close to the water and the building, too far to nibble most of the time.

It takes Cleo a while to break away from her new friends, who are all telling her so emphatically that those things are BAD MONSTERS even if they're responsibly looking for escaped criminals right now. It's true that it was rough when there were a bunch of them on the train, but if she can just find the right one - or maybe meet a new one, but, like, by itself, so it's manageable - she's sure she can make friends again.

Cleo slips out on a Saturday afternoon, shortly after lunch, all by herself, to go see the "dementors".

Here's one!  It drifts down to her, leisurely-like.

Ah. She sees what they meant about the - yeah. Hm. Hers didn't do that.

Wave wave?

It doesn't really react, aside from continuing to come closer.

Another one appears, off over there.  It swoops down faster than the first one.

"It's me Cleo," she says.

There's quite a lot of them, actually.  Patrolling out here is hungry work and this is the first easy food there's been out here.

Oh huh what are all the other its doing.  Something interesting?  - No, it's just a food.  Well, it's pretty hungry too; it'll join the rest of them.  No sense in turning down a free lunch, especially in this economy.

She had some idea of trying to reconstruct the clapping game but she can't quite call to mind exactly how it went at the moment. She can manage... one clap?

. . . Huh.  Is that - no it can't be, it remembers the Cleo being smaller and it has never seen a food suddenly change size.  It's still interesting though, and even a food that's only like the Cleo is still the most interesting thing that's happened since the most recent time it went home.  It stops nibbling her, obviously, and it REALLY WISHES it could make the other its do that too.  Why do they have to ruin everythinnnnnnnng.  It attempts a k-k-kh-kh-kh-khh-khhhhh in frustrated communication.  . . . And, belatedly, copies the clap.

One of the other its looks even more inclined to ruin everything than the rest of them.  It sweeps the closest, and is - definitely not going in for a full meal, but is maybe doing something stronger than nibbling.

- Normally that would be kind of interesting but now that is the WORST thing possible to do.  It'll yell at that one.

That one yells back!

Normally it would not want to do anything this likely to be the bad kind of interesting, but it's so fed up with being stuck in this one spot when there are interesting things right over there, and - it doesn't take the time to coalesce this into thoughts, and it's not sure it could even if it did take the time, but there's something about - it wants the bad interestingness even if it is bad because of the thing the maybe-badness will get it.  It really really does not want the Cleo-ish food to get boringified more than it already is.

So: it will become the onk.  It flies back a little ways and then zooms right into the worst it, whipping around to slam its legs into its torso.  And then it zooms for the Cleo-ish food and picks it - well.  A food is much heavier than a sponge, it turns out.  Hmm.

The Cleo-ish food is not very heavy but is, yeah, heavier than a sponge. It squirms.

The idea of things being heavy as opposed to stuck is a new and somewhat difficult concept, but conveniently it is very smart and can figure things out very fast.  It drags the Cleo-ish food along the ground a little before readjusting its grip (its arms going under the food's and wrapping around the food's middle from behind), and beginning a proper zoom.

The worst it is reeling from being onked but the rest of the group is not so easily left behind.

Zoom zoom zoom zoom - they're still following it???  It will have to be cleverer.

Maybe it will go in a direction it shouldn't go.  It didn't see where the food came from but it's much more curious about the window place so it'll head that way.  Swoop zoom.

This indeed causes the other its to stop following!

"Is it you?" she wonders.

. . . It drops the Cleo-ish food (only a few centimeters above the ground, but definitely not a set) and zooms around to its front.

Clap clap.

She sits down.

Clap clap.

Clap clap!!!!

"It's me, Cleo, d'you remember me?" she asks, holding out her hands like she's pressing them to a window.

Which is when the castle doors burst open and a silver cat charges at the pair of them.

Unpleasantnesses are nothing to worry about for very smart beings who have learned how to not nibble, although it's a little weird that one is zooming.  Handspress?

Handspress! "Wow, I'm glad you're not, like, wet and squishy, you're actually kinda dry. - hello?" she adds to the silver cat, which is hissing and spitting at the very smart being.

It is also experiencing pleasant surprises about the experience of touching a food!  This isn't an onk at all.  It was not really expecting it to be onkful, because it touched the Cleo-ish food to carry it and that wasn't, but it still could have been bad in some other way.

Hhhhhhhehhhhhllllllllllohhhhhhhhhh.  (It's so good at that one; all of the mediocresounds in it are very easy.)

"Hello! Good job!" she squeaks deliciously.

The silver cat is so agitated! It hisses more and bats at robe-hems.

Tchtchchhhhhhhhh, it hisses back.   . . . Can it onk the unpleasantne - OW that's still very unpleasant EVEN THOUGH it is not nibbling.  It floats up and hopefully out of reach, but still pretty near the - hm, so this food did make the Cleo noise.  Maybe Cleos are a type of food, and now it's met two of them - near the Cleo.

"MISS CORNISH!" calls a voice from the building. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT SORT OF EXPLANATION YOU HAVE IN MIND FOR THIS BUT I WILL HEAR IT IN MY OFFICE, NOW!"

Cleo sighs and gets up and dusts herself off. "Professor McGonagall is mad," she tells the dementor. "I have to go talk to her. I'm glad I found you again though!"

Oh good, now that the Cleo's stood up the two of them are closer to each other again.  Rehandspress?

Handpress. Clap clap. Wave. And then she turns and goes toward the voice, herded by the unpleasantness.

Clap clap wave follow!

The unpleasantness does not like that! Hiss hiss pounce!

"Professor can you call off the cat thing? This one's friendly!"

"Miss Cornish, come back inside at once!"

This is by far the WORST Unpleasantness it's ever met.  It can follow follow the Cleo from higher up >:(.

The cat thing does not have to obey gravity EITHER. Hiss hiss swat!

Terrible! :'(

It tries to onk the Unpleasantness some more, not very effectively.  Slap slap ouch slap.

The unpleasantness does not seem deterred by onks.

It doesn't understand why this is happening to it. :(  It wishes the Unpleasantness would stop but it really has no idea how to make that happen.  Is there anything around that looks like it maybe un-eats Unpleasantnesses and makes them less boring (meaning WORSE)?

There is nothing that looks obviously unpleasantnessunnivorous.

And nothing it does gets the Unpleasantness to stop??

No, it's very insistent! The Cleo is nearly all the way to the building now, trudge trudge.

What - ow, ack - is the building - ouch - like?

The building is ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS INCREDIBLY AGGRESSIVE CAT

It will go YET HIGHER.

The cat will just keep chasing it until it goes back where it belongs.

By this point the spell that tells it where it belongs is acting up, too.

But it - what if - okay, it'll go back over there, where everything is boring forever.

:(

The cat leaves it alone once it's back where it belongs.

Boringness ensues for a period of time.

:/

When the large bright thing is more down but not very down, out comes the Cleo, with a larger food which has an unpleasantness sitting on it. Clap clap clap?

Oh wow that was not forever at all.

Clap clap!  (After a pause on the way over to yell at the worst it.  Luckily all of the other its are not smart beings, and keep their distances.)

Yay! She will go right up to it, though slowly in case any other its attempt to join the party.

They don't.

Rehandspress?

Yeah! "Hi! Sorry I had to go inside for a bit, that must've been confusing!"

Ssssssssssahhhhhhh - rhhhhhhiiiii.  Hhhhhhhhiiiilllllllllohhhh.

"Mmhm!" She points at herself. "Cleo! Remember?"

Khhhhhhhhlio!

"Yeah! Good job! Do you have a name?" She points at it.

Iiiiiiiiiiiii - iiiieea - yyyyyyeahhhhhhhh.

"Do you have a name or are you just repeating? Um -" Point at self. "Cleo!" Point at accompanying larger food. "Professor Dumbledore!" Point at dementorfriend.

Khhliohhhhr?  Rhhhhopf - pohhhfehh - phhhhhhhhhrhhhhhhhohhfessiiiohhr.  Hhhhhhum.  Hhello, iieahh.

"You need some practice! And a name. If you don't have a name, I could name you. Hmmmmmm I think you're a girl. Cleo," point, "Professor Dumbledore," point, "Cora!" point.

Khhlio, fffffessorhhhhha, dhhhhhumbhhorhhha, khorhhhhha.

"Yeah! Your name can be Cora. My name is Cleo."

Iieah, nehhhhmm?  Iiiiio - iiio - yyyyy.  Yyyyyorhhhh?

"Nayyyym," she says slowly and clearly. "Mmmyyy nayyyym izzz Cleeeoooo. Yoooour nayyyym izzz Coooraaaa."

Oh it loves it when the Cleo makes more it-like sounds.  Mmmmaaaaaaii nnnnnnn - hhhnn.  Nnnnnnehhhhhhhiiiiim.  Nnehhi - nayyyyym.  Nammmme.  Nnnnnnnname.

"Good job!" she squeaks. "Can you say: 'my name is Cora'?"

Ghhhhh.  Ghhhhhhhhh - ghhooood chhhhhhhahhhhhp?

"Mm-hm! You did a good job. You're learning to talk."

Ghhhhood tch - tchtchtchtchtch.  Tchahhh - zhhh - djhhhh!  Jjjjjjjjjjjop!  Jjjjjob.

"Yeah! Goooood joooob."

Ghhoodt jahhhb.

Cleo continues to attempt to teach Cora English. It isn't going too great till she ropes in Professor Dumbledore, who will obligingly say things like "My name is Professor Dumbledore" and "your name is Cleo".

!!!

!!!!!!!!!!

It has heard a lot of mediocresounds, and it very smartly understood a lot about them, like "Cleo" and "thewindow" and "sponge", that these were noises that corresponded to things.  That was already pretty neat of the foods.

This is MUCH more interesting.

It can tell there's something important about noises that sound like 'or', it's in "your" and "Professor" and "Dumbledore" and "Cora", but it can't really tell what those have in common.  It actually thought that "Professor" and "Dumbledore" were separate names (isn't it so exciting, now, that it knows that the name for names is names) for the bigger food and the Unpleasantness but now that it understands so very much it's clear that it's just the food.

Hm.

Mhhhaaaaai nayyymz Khhhhhhhhohhhra.  It points at the Unpleasantness.  Whhhhhhat's iiohhhhhr nnnnames?

"- Professor, she wants your Patronus's name!!" gasps Cleo.

"...I confess, I have not had occasion to provide one." He considers for a moment. "I'll call it Willow."

"Professor Dumbledore's patronus is named Willow!"

Actually apparently it has never understood anything even once.  That was not the pattern of noises it expected.  Iieah, ghhood tchahb, it says anyways, higher-pitched than it normally talks, because it's pretty sure that's the right pattern.  Or at least might be.

Well, they can keep working on it. Cleo will try demonstrating stuff, like "Cleo is standing! I am standing!" and "Cleo is sitting!"

It doesn't do either of those things, but it can float higher and lower!  Khhlio ihhzzzzdand ihhhhn, aaaai ammm sssssssihhh-ihhn.

"Huh, maybe you don't bend like that. I am clapping!" Clap clap. "Professor Dumbledore is not clapping. Willow is not clapping."

Clap clap clap clap.  Oooouuu - ouuu - wwwwwilllohhhh, thhhhhwwwinnnndohhhh?  Thhhhe wwihhhhhhllohhhhh?

"Willow's not a the. Willow is a Patronus. Willow is sitting on Professor Dumbledore." And so on in this vein.

It (Cora? Cora!) learns the names for so many things.  It does not learn for sure whether Willows and windows sound the same because both of them stop touching from happening, but probably they do.  Most things that sound the same are related, it thinks.

After it learns the word 'touching' it makes a happy noise without any name pieces, its best impression of a goodsound.  - And then it occurs to it that maybe it can get the Cleo (or just Cleo, it seems like?) to tell it the name for goodsounds if it tries hard enough??  It attempts EVEN HARDER.

"Are you trying to sing? Is Cora singing, Cora?"

Aiiiiiii - wait, can it make (or, well, attempt) good- and mediocresounds at the same time‽‽  Foods do . . .  Iiiiiiiiammss sssssssssingggginnggg?  Cleohh sss - ssssinggingg Cleeeeo ssingginggggg?

"Sure, I can sing! Um... Mary had a little lamb, little lamb..."

Cleeeo ihhsssssinggginggggggg!!  Ghhhuuuut sh - ghhut jjjab!!

Cleo giggles and finishes the song and takes a little bow.

Cleoooosssinging?  - It copies the bow in case that's important.

Sure, she can do London Bridge.

Cora will keep trying to say 'good job' and 'Cleo singing' until this no longer produces the result of Cleo singing.  And will then switch to Brhhhhuhfffesssssohhhr Duhhhmuhhhldhhhhhhor Whhhhhhillohsssssinging?

"Willow can't sing, silly. Professor Dumbledore can you?"

Professor Dumbledore will oblige with a rendition of the school song to the tune of a randomly chosen Schubert.

Can Professor Dumbledore be persuaded to sing more times as well?

After the second time he's going to Accio a radio and put that on.

!!!!!!

Ghhoodt gooohhhd goood ghhoood shab tchtchtchtchab jab jahhb jahb.

"When there's no words in it, it's music! Singing is a kind of music," says Cleo.

Ssssssssinnnnnnginnnnnnnng.  It points at the radio.  Wwwwwww iiiorhhh nnname?

"That's a radio! It's bringing us music from far away."

Thhatsereeeeidio, hhhhhelllohhhh.  Hhhhhhhelllo, iiiiiohhhhrnnaaame ihhhs thhatssseradiohhhh?  Hhhhhhellohhhhgggg uhhhhhdj - jahhhb.

"Radio," says Cleo. "The radio can't hear. It can make music but it doesn't know you're talking to it."

Cora keeps pointing at the radio and trying to think of names that foods use when they are the tastiest.  It's a difficult task, though, and it doesn't know what Cleo is trying to say, so that's not helpful either.  Iiiornamis rhhhhadio, it tries while it thinks.  - Can it touch the radio?  Maybe even hold it?  Is the radio in any way spongelike?

Cora is not impeded in picking up the radio, though if it nudges the wrong dial it will switch from chamber music to the Daily Prophet Channel and then to the Weird Sisters. The radio is not much like a sponge: it is heavier, smoother, drier, harder, and shaped completely differently.

It's interesting how these goodsounds are much more good than the ones Cleo and Professor Dumbledore produced, and yet there is also something less good about them!  Cora can't really tell what, though.

However, this is much more like the goodsounds that dancing is for!  And so it dances, with flailing arms and spinning floats.

Cleo thinks this is HILARIOUS and will dance too.

Yessssss does Cleo have any new moves it can copy?

Yes, though more of them involve the fact that she supports her weight on the ground than its ideal dance routine probably does.

Hmmm but some of the jumping is interesting.  What if . . . it onks the ground . . . very gently?  :D  That works great!!!  Onk bounce, onk bounce, onk - ow.  Okay, it should concentrate on being more gentle than that if it is going to be ground-onking.

Cleo holds out her hands to it.

Handspress, yes!

Handclasp? Tandem dancing?

- Hm that's slightly onkful; Cora floats backwards a ways in surprise and breaks contact.  But after a moment: rehandspress?  Very tentative and slow reclasp?

Slow gentle dancing together! Cleo does her best to mirror Cora's movements.

Bob, bob, sway, sway.  . . . Can Cleo be lifted like this?  And perhaps be convinced to float?

Cora can pick Cleo up a little bit and make her giggle but she's heavy! She does not seem to want to float. Actually, do foods ever float?

Sometimes!!  It has seen them.  They do it kind of weirdly, though, and Cleo has none of the weirdnesses with it.  But since Cleo is the best food Cora thought maybe floating could happen anyways.

Some of the goodsounds sound very similar to other goodsounds which have recently gooded!  It tries to sing along to them, with a very usual amount of success.

Cleo will try to sing along too when she knows the words or close enough, though she's breathless enough to have some trouble with it.

Oh right there are names in these goodsounds.  Does it recognize any?  It'll try to incorporate those too.

Ooh, come on
Mmm, you gotta move it
Like a groovy creature
Creature of the night
In a flight
Ah, a creature of the night
Well, do ya' feel alright?
Do ya' feel alright?

Cora is much too slow at names to both sing and produce mediocresounds!  However it can still understand!!  - In theory; in practice it catches the "you" and not much else.  Oooooohhhhhhhh-hhh.

"Oooooh!" agrees Cleo.

Hmmm, is Cleo in any way spongelike?  Cora has touched it before but mostly not very investigatively.  Squish and, dare it wonder, squoosh?

Cleo is squishy and ticklish and will laugh if squoze investigatively.

Deliciously?

Yup!

Squish squish poke poke!  Cora tries to copy the giggles.

Cleo is not delicious about every possible poke but with occasional confirmatory licking it's possible to keep her very tasty.

Of course it is constantly licking her!  - It hasn't been licking Professor Dumbledore much though, really, what's that one like?

Professor Dumbledore is not quite as delicious as Cleo but still fairly tasty.

That figures.

. . . Cora thinks very hard for a bit, while dancing, and then declares over the singing, Khhhhhhleo ss - Cleeeeo ssssbundging?  Ghhhoodjab sbunnnnge Cleoo?

"- are you saying sponge? I'm not a sponge! You're squishing me though, and sponges are squishy too. Professor can you accio a sponge -"

Sure, Professor Dumbledore can appropriate a sponge from the kitchens.

!!!!! !!! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

squish squish squish squish squish squish

"You're so cute."

(squish squish squish squish)  Ahhhhiiim sssokhhhuuuhht?

"Yeah! Most people are scared of you but you're friendly, you're not doing the scary thing and you dance and sing and like sponges."

Iiiiiiimsokhhhhhuuuute.  Iiii sssohhcuuute?  Iiiiiiii sokhhhhutihhhhhng?  (squish squish squish)

"No, silly, cute-ing isn't a thing. You're squeezing the sponge though."

Hm, 'no' is a word Cora's heard an awful lot of from normal foods.  It thinks very hard again (squish squish squish squish squish).

Whhhhhhat's ior - whhhhhat's nnnnnohhhh nnnnnnnaaaaame?

"What's - no name? Do you mean, uh... what it means? Like, my name is Cleo, so Cleo means me, but also sponge means that -?" Point.

Think think squish squish squish squish.  Thinking is very hard because it wants to pay some attention to the goodsounds even though it also wants to know this, and it's getting kind of hungry again.  But conveniently it is so so smart.

Rhhhhadiiiiossmmmmeeeeensihhnng - radio point - ssssingihhhhngin?

"The radio is the thing that sings, yes. Radio means that thing, and singing means the sounds that come out of it."

Whhhhatssss nnnaammmmmme mmeeeannnns thhhethhhinnnng thhatthinnnng thhhhaaaat nnnnaaame mmeeeanss mmmmmmmeans??  Whhhats innnng neiiimmeans?

"...sorry, I don't understand."

This is so confusing.  Iiiiiiiu dhhhhuntersssdohhhhrd?  Prhhhhoffesssorhhh duhhnterdornd?

"I'm not sure what you're trying to say to us either," apologizes Dumbledore.

This is so confusing and so frustrating and Cora kind of wants to onk about it but the misunderstanding is not around enough to be onked.  >:( squish squish squish squish squish >:(

Nnneeiiiiiimms, it tries melancholicly.

Cleo will teach it more words, sure. Up and down! Castle and lake! Sun, setting now, and moon!

That's not at all the thing Cora meant, but the thing it meant was onkworthily frustrating and this thing is instead something it can be so smart at, so it lets itself be distracted.  But also distracted by the radio's goodsounds and by turning points into delicious pokes after a pretty short while.

When the sun is most of the way down Cleo catches the deliciously-poking hands. "I need to go back inside and eat dinner. Professor, can she keep the radio?"

"By all means; I expect that I would get far less use out of it," says Dumbledore agreeably.

The catching is kind of onkful because Cora wasn't expecting that at all.  It floats backwards and makes an unhappy trilling sound, once it's done freezing up.

"Sorry, Cora, I'm just done being tickled."

Iiiiorhhh tchustuhhhhn?

"Yeah, I have to go back in the castle," point, "and eat dinner?"

Khhhahhhss - Khhhlio kahhhhsssuhhlinnng?  Iiiiiii'm kahhhsuhlinnnnnnh?  Cora floats a ways in that direction, waiting for the foods to follow.

"- Cleo's castling and Cora's not castling. Cora's staying here and - radioing."

Oh, right.  Cora picks up the radio and returns to the castleward spot.  Ihhhhhm rhhhadyoinnnn.

"You're radioing here. The castle is for humans and you are a Dementor not a human."

Whhhatsssnnname meeeans hhhhhhheeeeeerruhhh mmmeanss?

"Here is - this place." She points at the ground.

It floats down to put its face near the ground and look for interesting things this might be referring to!

"Can you be here with the radio, and me and Professor Dumbledore will go to the castle, and you will not go to the castle?"

Cora picks up a small rock.  Hhhhhhheeeeeeeere?

"Not the rock. The place. The castle is over there, it's not here. You stay where you are now, and don't go to the castle, and me and Professor Dumbledore do go to the castle."

Cora definitely doesn't understand all this, but what it might understand is something it is not happy about.  Khhhhhliohhhh.  It presses the rock into the sponge for Advanced Squishing.

"You wanna hang out more, that makes sense. I'll come back tomorrow, okay? When the sun is up again."

Iiuuuuul khhombakhhhhh tuuuuuuum?

"When the sun," point, "comes up, over there," point, "it will be tomorrow! And I'll come over in the morning. While the sun is... about... there."

Cora thinks VERY hard.  For a fair while, if not interrupted.

Cleo will start shuffling back toward the castle after a bit. Maybe Cora understood!

No no no no wait wait -

Khhhhliiohhhh - kh . . .  Ssssuhn uhhhpinnng, suhhn dhh.  Sunnnn dahhhiininnng, suhhhhhn uhhhhpinnng, Khhhhhh - Khliohhhh?

"The sun is down-ing now. It'll be down and dark for a while. Then it will come up. And then when it's up that high," point, "then we can hang out again, okay? Then Cleo will come out of the castle."

Sssuhhhhn.  It points about where Cleo is pointing.  Khkhkhliohhh?

"Right! When the sun is there, then Cleo."

Khhhliohkhhohhhra khlio corhhha.

"Yup. Cleo and Cora can hang out tomorrow, when the sun is there."

Cora's kind of afraid of this, because the last time this happened it lost Cleo for such a long time, so . . . handspress?  In case that happens again?

Handspress!

Cora is certainly not going to be the one to break away!

Eventually Professor Dumbledore puts a hand on Cleo's shoulder and she turns to go with him into the castle.

Cora doesn't try to follow, this time.  It takes the sponge out of its sleeve to squish squish squish squish and dumps the ?here? back out onto the ground.  The goodsounds get louder and softer as it moves closer and farther from the radio; that's interesting enough to occupy it for a short while, and of course the sings themselves are nice and not boring to listen to.

If it didn't know Cleo was coming back, it would think when-the-sun-is-over-there was sooner than it expected, but because it thinks it does know that it instead feels like a VERY long time.  It decides to go look for the sun and see if it can carry it to the right spot, but the sun isn't in the area where the spell that tells it where it belongs is telling Cora that it belongs.  . . . Hm, last it knew, the sun was down, but sometimes things move around when it's not looking at them.  Could the sun be hiding Very Up?  Also does Cora belong Very Up or is that not allowed.

Cora is allowed to go quite Up.