Pets, Pus, and Bad Decisions
After a punishment called "Baby Animal Costume Photo Session", session number two. Yes, the name was long and quite explicit, more than enough to make clear the embarrassment the four of them went through because of their little competition, one that ended up becoming a very real and serious incident. Even the usually calm and cheerful Professor Flitwick had ended up genuinely furious after the scare he got, thinking that one of his students had died in his own common room.
The four of them were calmer now, not wanting to talk too much about what had happened, especially in front of all their classmates. They had really gotten a bit out of hand with their competition, and they should probably work on that. But knowing them, it was unlikely they would change. Since they were kids, they had always had those stupid competitions that inevitably ended in trouble.
Taking that away from them would be taking away their personality.
Well, that had been Daphne's answer while her mother looked at her before asking Wanda to turn her into a baby as well, followed by Draco and Hermione. Of course, Harry had been turned immediately, and he was so used to it by now that it honestly did not seem to bother him much anymore. He had even ended up in a tiny hand-slapping match, which he had won.
"I don't know if I like our mothers being at the school," Daphne said with a mildly annoyed expression as she let herself drop onto the table.
"I'm a little worried about my mother," Hermione said.
"Well, I wouldn't worry that much about her. Besides, my mother is here. Your mother could easily deal with any idiot who tries to cause trouble," Harry said calmly, while casting a quick glance toward the Slytherin tables.
They were still trying to cause problems, whispering their stupid plans to each other. But now, without Juliette leading them, it was unlikely they would be as effective as when they had almost caused him trouble. Especially since Carrow, as a leader, was no longer as well regarded as before, thanks to his family abandoning everything just to save themselves. Even if, in the end, many of them had managed to walk free. Still, it was easy to see that most students were now avoiding him, even if a few continued to support him.
For a moment, Harry noticed Pansy Parkinson. She shot a glance toward their table, or rather, toward Draco. Then one filled with hatred toward Hermione, and another toward Carrow.
Harry could not help but look at Draco, sitting right beside him, calmly cutting his bacon with his usual neat manners. Draco seemed to feel the stare and paused, looking back at him.
"They call me a playboy, but I don't think I've ever driven someone crazy like you have," Harry said with a faint, mocking, sarcastic smile.
Draco looked confused for a moment before glancing around, until his eyes met Parkinson's. She immediately looked away and started eating as if nothing had happened.
"Tsk," Draco clicked his tongue, briefly losing his appetite. "You weren't the one losing control of your powers because of puberty-driven hormones," he said irritably, trying to strike back.
"When you know the reason, it's easier to control them. Well… more or less," Harry said, though he did not sound particularly convinced himself. He quickly shifted his attention away, not wanting to think about it.
That was when he noticed the Weasley twins, who seemed to be plotting something while discussing how they could enter the Triwizard Tournament on their own and win those thousand Galleons. For some reason, Tommy had joined them. Since he could not compete, he seemed to be cheering them on instead, as they were all from the same house.
Every student around them was talking about the tournament and nothing else. Having a new Headmaster did not seem to interest anyone, as if that change had not affected their lives at all.
Billy approached them carrying what looked like everyone's class schedules. Sometimes Billy liked being Professor Flitwick's assistant, since it earned him a few points and also let him stay close to the staff room, where his mother now was.
"Here," Billy said, handing the schedules to the group before moving on to the others.
Harry glanced at his younger brother and smiled before looking down at his own schedule. Herbology with Hufflepuff, Care of Magical Creatures with Slytherin, and after that, two hours of Divination.
Harry could not help letting out a sigh when he read the last class of the day.
Daphne seemed amused by his reaction and immediately mocked him. "Looks like you'll get another prophecy about your death, Harry," she said in that teasing tone, knowing that Professor Trelawney almost always had something to say about him. To the point where Harry was honestly starting to hate the subject.
"You should have dropped that class like I did," Hermione said firmly while spreading butter on her toast. "You could use that time to study something actually useful, like Arithmancy," she added.
"You think I wouldn't like that?" Harry replied with a mildly sarcastic tone, but he did not explain further, while the others looked at him in confusion.
…
After breakfast, they headed to their first class, Herbology, where they had to extract pus from a plant called a Bubotuber. Something that made more than one student seriously regret having eaten breakfast. They filled large bottles with the substance, which apparently, once processed, could be used to treat acne. Everything would be taken to the infirmary so Madam Pomfrey could give it to the students who needed it.
After that, they all left the classroom as the end-of-class bell rang, grateful to leave behind the smell and the sticky feeling on their hands.
As expected, the two houses split up immediately, with the Ravenclaws heading outside the castle, straight toward Hagrid's hut. He was already there waiting for them, standing beside a large wooden crate and Fang, who seemed very interested in whatever was inside.
A sudden movement within the box made it clear that whatever it was, it was alive.
Hagrid, cheerful as always when it came to teaching and showing off his little pets, said,
"We've got to wait for the Slytherins, so we can introduce you to these little Blast-Ended Skrewts," he said proudly.
"Those what?" Daphne asked, confused, having never heard that name before. Judging by the rest of the students, none of them had.
That made everyone lean in slightly to get a look at what those things were, before some of the girls quickly backed away with looks of disgust.
Inside the crate were what looked like a kind of deformed lobster-like creatures, about fifteen centimeters long, without shells, horribly pale and slimy in appearance. They had little legs sticking out from very strange places and no visible heads at all. On top of the awful smell of rotten fish, sparks suddenly shot out from their tails, and with each small explosion they were flung around inside the box.
"Just hatched," Hagrid said proudly. "So you can raise them yourselves. I thought of it as a little project for you," he added.
"And why should we raise any disgusting, smelly thing you bring?" a voice said as the Slytherins approached. It was Carrow, wearing his usual look of contempt, one that seemed impossible to erase. "Hm? What are they even good for?" he asked again, as if he could not see any value in a creature that did not have a clear purpose or worth.
Hagrid frowned at the slightly aggressive way he was being addressed.
"You'll find that out next class. Today, all you need to do is feed them," Hagrid said, regaining his composure as the professor in charge.
"But you'll have to try different things, since I don't know what they eat. So you'll have to figure it out yourselves. I brought ant eggs, frog livers, and bits of snake," Hagrid added, pointing toward several lumps that were already starting to attract flies.
"First pus, and now this," Terry Boot said with disgust, clearly not wanting to get anywhere near those things.
"Oh, you're alive," Daphne said, glancing at him with clearly fake surprise.
"I was never dead. You dragged me into your game," Terry replied, wounded. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to clean the red stains off my clothes?" he complained.
"Alright, fine, it's true, it was our fault. As an apology, we'll let you be the first to feed… those things," Daphne said, pointing at the Skrewts.
"That's not an apology at all," Terry said. Even so, he walked over to one of the foul-smelling bags and grabbed some of the disgusting food. After all, it was class, and as a Ravenclaw, he had to complete the assignment.
The others approached with tense movements and twisted expressions, clearly not eager to touch those horrible creatures, but they froze when they realized they could not see any heads where the food could go.
Even Harry looked slightly confused, wondering what the next step should be. For a moment, he considered lifting them with telekinesis, but Hagrid would probably get upset. To him, that would be like mistreating the poor, strange, aggressive creature, which kept exploding every time someone tried to get close enough to feed it.
"Ow!" was heard as Terry pulled his hand back, slightly burned. "That thing hurt me," he said, pointing at the creature, clearly annoyed.
"Well, yeah, that can happen," Hagrid nodded, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Soon after, another student suffered a burn and quickly pulled their hand away.
"Hagrid, why are we doing this?" Harry could not help asking, even he not knowing what to do with these things.
"Well, some of them have stingers," Hagrid suggested enthusiastically, while Daphne, who seemed determined to bother one of the creatures, immediately pulled her hand back.
"Probably the males. The females have some sort of suction mouth on their bellies. I think it's for sucking blood."
"Now I see why you want to raise them. Who wouldn't want these disgusting things that sting, suck blood, or burn as pets?" Carrow said sarcastically.
"Just because they aren't pleasant doesn't mean they aren't useful," Hermione snapped back. "Dragon blood is incredibly useful because of its magical properties, even though no one would want a dragon as a pet, right?" she finished.
Harry cast a dry look before turning his gaze toward the forest. There, very close to them, behind a terribly badly hidden bush, was Red, Harry's small chaotic dragon. He was peeking out, staring fixedly at the Skrewts.
When Red felt Harry's gaze on him, he got so excited that he started shaking and rustling the entire bush where he was hiding, clumsily destroying any attempt at concealment. Though, from the beginning, it had been pretty useless anyway.
After spotting Harry, Red retreated back into the forest.
That made Harry feel a strong urge to find out what his stupid, crazy dragon was doing there. But he also knew that finding out would probably get him into even more trouble, so maybe it was better not to know.
At the same time, though, maybe he needed to know, before it all blew up in his face.
It was a very difficult line to draw. And from experience, Harry knew that ignoring it had never been a good idea.
So he let out a sigh and decided it would be better to go after finishing Hagrid's class.